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Appeals Court Temporarily Restores Trump's Tariffs; MAHA Report on Children's Health Contains Numerous Citation Issues and Misrepresentations. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2025 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAIZAN ZAKI, SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMPION: E-C-L-A-I-R-C-I- S-S-E-M-E-N-T. Eclaircissement.

[06:00:13]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know about you, but I use the word all the time, every day. Faizan wins $52,000 and a trophy. By the way, the word means "an enlightening clarification, a clearing up of something obscure."

All right. That will do it for us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. Have a great weekend. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, May 30. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so hard to keep up while you're trying to keep a business afloat.

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HILL: President Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs appear to be back on. And everybody's feeling the whiplash.

Plus, the president and Elon Musk appearing before cameras today. Will he get a warm Washington sendoff? Or could criticism of the "big, beautiful bill" come back to bite him?

Then later, will A.I. trigger mass unemployment? The warning from an industry CEO.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Faizan Zaki, you are the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Last year's runner-up, this year's champion. We've got the final word that won him the trophy and the glory.

Six a.m. here on the East Coast. That's the view that I'm used to: New York City there in the morning. I'm Erica Hill in D.C. today, in for Audie Cornish. Thank you so much for walk [SIC] -- waking up with me.

In less than the span of 24 hours, President Trump's tariff agenda was put on hold and thrown a lifeline after a federal appeals court paused Wednesday's ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade, blocking most of his tariffs, as administration officials, though, vowed those tariffs are here to stay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP TRADE ADVISOR: So, you can assume that even if we lose, we will do it another way.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We already filed an emergency appeal. We expect to fight this battle all the way to the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade ruling the president overstepped his authority with those tariffs.

His reaction, quote, "Where do these initial three Judges come from?" For one of them, at least, that judge came from Donald Trump.

Judge Timothy Reif was appointed during the Trump administration, and he ruled against him here.

So, what happens now? Well, in terms of the tariff whiplash, it's just adding to the chaos for small businesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LEVI, TOY MAKER: These last two months, they felt much longer than two months. We've seen the tariffs go up, down, sideways. I've been petrified. I haven't been able to plan my business.

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HILL: Joining me now in the group chat: Sara Fischer, CNN media analyst; Rob Bluey, president and executive director of "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and "New York Times" journalist.

Good morning. Happy Friday to everybody. Nice to be with you this morning. So, when we look at where things stand, there are the impacts on small

businesses. And I want to get into that in a moment. But if we look at the broader impact, this was the conversation I was having a lot yesterday, especially with the international community. It was what happens now, right, now that the tariffs are back in terms of negotiation.

Lulu, there's a real discussion about whether this has further weakened the negotiating stance of the United States.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It is, actually, because what ends up happening is that right now, countries don't know what is going to happen.

Is this -- are these tariffs actually going to stick? Are they going to be overruled? What is the Supreme Court going to say?

And so, if you're just a regular person, right, and you're going into a negotiation; and you don't know if that person actually has anything to negotiate with, this isn't rocket science. You're going to say, I'm not going to actually, you know, put my best bid forward. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out. And so, it does weaken the president.

I also just want to say one more thing. When you've lost "The New York Post."

HILL: "The New York Post."

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is the headline today: "Tariffying." You know, you've got to be -- you're going to be in trouble if you're the president.

HILL: It does say something. What we've also seen, actually, on more than one occasion. And with this, as well, we've seen "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board being pretty outspoken, perhaps, in ways that maybe would not always be expected. Pushing back on this administration.

This morning, the editorial board noting that this shows that Donald Trump is not a king, but also saying that these tariffs have created enormous costs and uncertainty. But now we know they're illegal.

What does that actually do? How is that received in this moment by the administration?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Sure. Well, I think that, as you heard from Karoline Leavitt yesterday, they want a resolution at the Supreme Court, so there's a definitive answer as to what's going on, to Lulu's point.

But I think it also speaks to the importance of getting these bilateral trade deals in place as quickly as possible. As we already saw with -- with the United Kingdom.

So, as these countries come to the United States, as they come to Washington and talk to Donald Trump, I think that they probably want that certainty that, certainly, the courts have thrown into a little bit of chaos right now.

[06:05:08]

HILL: The certainty that really hasn't existed for months now, we have to be honest. Sara, when we look at the landscape that is before them, it was striking to me. Not surprising, but interesting. Not surprising at all to hear the administration say, We are moving forward. This is going to happen no matter what.

But acknowledging that there are other ways to do this. Those other ways, of course, involve a little bit more work.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: A lot more work. That's why they wanted to go this route the first way, right, unilaterally, so that you don't have to go through an entire court process and legal process.

The thing I'm watching, though, is there's a cost benefit analysis here, analysis here to be done with these tariffs.

So, let's say you're going to calculate the amount of dollars coming into the U.S. from these tariffs. You also need to calculate the amount of dollars lost from the economic uncertainty.

The markets are way down. Every company I cover has forecasted weaker projections for sales in Q2 and Q3. Some have said that we won't even put forecasts out, which also creates a lot of uncertainty and causes stock prices to crater.

So, you might be getting a calculation in on how much you're going to make from these tariffs. What I want to see the administration address is all of the money lost from the uncertainty around implementing them.

And I think if you were to take that cost benefit analysis into play, you would see that you're not net-net bringing as much money into the economy as you think.

HILL: There's also a question, as we look at the markets, right, the market's sort of recovering because a lot of the uncertainty is somewhat priced in, in some ways, when you speak with different economists.

But it's also the small businesses. Right? So, the ruling on Wednesday was in reaction, in part, to cases brought by a number of states, but also a number of small businesses who are saying, Hey, we're feeling the pain here. We're looking at futures now, all down slightly for the -- for the major U.S. indices.

But the small businesses saying they're feeling the pain. What you're hearing from the administration is this is an administration that gets you. This is a president who understands business, who understands small businesses. That message is not what's being received by a number of small businesses.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, I am less interested in the stock market. This actually feels a little bit like there's a stock market, you know -- kind of a rodeo going on where it's up, it's down, and people are making money anyway.

What really interests me is what is the effect on small businesses and regular people. And it is pretty severe. I mean, you are hearing this over and over again.

And just -- I just know from my friend group, you know, my own group chat, that people don't want to buy things at the moment, because they are worried about where the economy is headed. They don't know where, you know, if there might be -- unemployment, might spike.

And so, you're seeing that in conversations with Donald Trump. And he had it with the chairman of the Federal Reserve yesterday where, you know, he obviously wants those interest rates down. And Jerome Powell is not budging because of the economic uncertainty.

So, there's a lot happening here with the economy. And none of it is very clear.

BLUEY: I will say this, though. I acknowledge that there -- there is some of that uncertainty. At the same time, if you compare the direction of the country now, at least according to public polls, Americans are more optimistic about the future under Donald Trump than they were under Joe Biden.

So, that is -- that is one thing that Trump has going for him in his favor. And if you look at that metric about how people are feeling about their personal finances, well, it tends to fluctuate.

They -- they seem to be more confident that Trump has a plan for the long term. There will be some turmoil here in the short term, which is why I think you're seeing that uncertainty that Sara talked about. But hopefully, long term, we can get this resolved.

FISCHER: I think -- I agree with you. I do think that people like the fact that Donald Trump is coming in and doing something, because what happened during the Biden administration is people lost faith that anything new was being done to inject, you know, optimism into the economy.

So, Donald Trump comes in. Think what you will of what he has created, and he's at least making moves.

If you're the average American, yes, you're feeling the pain from this. But there are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump thinking -- I think about his trade war with China. It's a perfect example of this -- thinking short-term pain might mean long-term gain. And I think there is still a sense of that amongst a lot of Trump voters.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think -- I mean, I think the big question is how long is this going to last, right? What is the grace period that Donald Trump is going to have?

Because they do see him as a businessman. They do have a lot of trust in him. We've seen that poll after poll.

But, you know, at the end of the day, we -- we saw this in the last election. When your pocketbook is hurting, you can't put food on the table, and your job is under threat, I wonder how long that loyalty is going to last.

HILL: I think, in fact, the question is how long is the short-term pain, right?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes.

HILL: For the long-term gain?

FISCHER: And typically, we get that barometer in the midterms, right? That's when we know.

HILL: We'll see. Is it -- It's also only been four months, which is kind of amazing, just in case anybody was keeping track. Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.

All right, group chat, stick around. Much more to come ahead this hour, including the Trump administration pushing a DEI rollback for companies, of course, at the start of the year.

So, what do shoppers have to say about that? Turns out they're not all on board.

Plus, a convicted murderer and an experienced fugitive on the run for two weeks now, as investigators warn they could be anywhere at this point.

[06:10:02]

And it's being called the largest evacuation in living memory for one area. A closer look at the wildfires scorching Canada.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The important thing is that I got out. Same with my family. And to be honest, I was, like, terrified.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Fourteen minutes past the hour. Now, here's your morning roundup.

It's been two weeks since two [SIC] men busted out of that New Orleans jail. And two of them are still on the run: a convicted double murderer and an experienced fugitive.

[06:15:07]

Authorities are now offering a $50,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of either escapee. And they're also warning by now, they could be anywhere in the U.S.

More than 17,000 people in the Canadian province of Manitoba, forced to leave their homes as raging wildfires spread there in what's being called the largest evacuation in living memory in that area.

There are more than 160 fires burning right now across Canada, and that's prompting multiple states of emergency.

A surveillance camera capturing an accused theft [SIC] -- thief, rather, breaking into a candy store. Check this out. All to get to the jewelry shop next door.

Police in California say he dragged himself, as you see there, across the floor, eventually drilling a hole in the wall to sneak in. About $2 million worth of jewelry was stolen.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eclaircissement.

ZAKI: Eclaircissement. E-C-L-A-I-R-C-I-S-S-E-M-E-N-T. Eclaircissement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: This is the greatest event every year. Let's call it here. And we have a new champ now in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Faizan Zaki taking home the title along with a $50,000 cash prize and some other goodies.

The 13-year-old from Allen, Texas -- it's his fourth appearance -- was the runner-up last year. Champion this year, thanks to that final word, which means enlightenment.

Now you've been enlightened.

Just ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, emotional testimony from Sean Combs's former personal assistant, as she described a chaotic, toxic workplace and her responsibility to, quote, "protect him at all times."

Plus, the Make America Healthy Again report on children's health cited studies that don't even exist.

And a little good morning shout-out to St. Louis. Some beautiful pink skies there under the arch on this Friday morning.

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[06:21:20]

HILL: Some pretty big problems with a sweeping report on children's health from the Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again Commission. Among the issues, flawed references and even citing studies that don't exist.

The report, which was released last week, has been touted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a, quote, "milestone."

It lays out the government's priorities for addressing chronic health problems in children: focusing on poor diet, lack of exercise, stress, the overprescription of drugs, and also, exposure to environmental chemicals.

Some of the people named, though, as authors of studies cited in the report say they didn't write those reports. Others were attributed to the wrong journal.

An updated version of the report was posted yesterday. Here's the White House response.

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LEAVITT: I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated.

But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government, is -- and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now to discuss, Dr. Dhruv Khullar. He's an associate professor of health policy at the Weill Cornell Medical College.

As we just heard there from -- from Karoline Leavitt, Doctor, she says this doesn't negate the substance, that this is based on good science. Some of it we haven't seen before, because I guess some of it did not exist.

How troubling is it to you that a report of this importance, as we have been told, made its way out there with these clearly major issues and mistakes?

DR. DHRUV KHULLAR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HEALTH POLICY, WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE: Well, Erica, it's unfortunate, because this report does contain some elements of things that we should be talking about.

We need to be focused on the root causes of chronic disease in children, whether it's ultra-processed food, or lack of exercise, or social isolation.

But the number and the type of errors in this report demonstrate, I think, a concerning lack of care.

You know, in some cases, as you mentioned, the studies are -- that are cited are misrepresented. In other cases, the studies don't even actually exist. And these nonexistent studies, they seem to be -- have -- generated by

artificial intelligence. And they're being used, I think, in some cases, to bolster the narratives that the report is trying to advance, whether it's things like pharmaceutical advertising or overuse of ADHD drugs.

Now, it's important to note that, typically, reports like this go through layers of internal review to ensure that they're accurate. But in this case, it doesn't seem like anyone bothered to check whether the studies being cited were actually real studies.

And Secretary Kennedy has called for radical transparency. He's called for gold-standard science. This report is certainly not that.

HILL: So, then what do you think the future is? Right? Because as you point out, there are some important nuggets in this report. There are things that should be discussed. Does this, though, undermine anything that could come out of it moving forward?

KHULLAR: It does. I mean, there's a lot that's in this report that I think is important to talk about. There are other things that are more controversial.

But when you use studies that don't exist, or when you misrepresent studies that do exist, that undercuts the validity of what you're trying to get out there. It becomes a distraction.

And in some cases, the studies that are being cited are being manipulated in ways that don't actually support the narrative that the report is trying to advance.

And so, this is something that should have been picked up. It's something that we needed more transparency about.

The other thing that I'll note is that these errors are -- they're obvious. They are public errors. But it doesn't provide a lot of reassurance for what's happening behind the scenes.

We know that other government scientists have said that they feel like their work has been manipulated, that their findings have been censored if they don't fit into a preconceived narrative. And that is not how science is supposed to work.

And so, you know, what's most concerning here is that health policy, public health, these things affect us all. And the stakes couldn't be higher for children. And so, the report kind of is demonstrating a level of sloppiness that I think should, unfortunately, concern us all.

[06:25:14]

HILL: I also want to get your take on the announcement that HHS is canceling this nearly $600 million contract with Moderna for the bird flu.

And they note that this is because of the mRNA, right? MRNA vaccines. Putting out in a statement saying that it was not scientifically or ethically justifiable, and that the technology is under tested here, going on to criticize the Biden administration.

As you see here, this is the statement from the communications director at HHS as to why they decided to get rid of this contract.

It is important to note, Operation Warp Speed under President Trump in his first term, actually gave us these mRNA vaccines for COVID, of course. And they are vaccines that have been widely used globally, widely tested.

So, what do you make of this move?

KHULLAR: You know, as you say, Secretary Kennedy has expressed some serious concerns about the safety of mRNA vaccines. But we know that, in general, mRNA vaccines have been incredibly safe and effective. They've been demonstrated -- they've been administered billions of times around the globe since the pandemic started.

And we have an enormous amount of safety data on this vaccine platform that's all very reassuring.

And so, you know, this contract was announced in the final days of the Biden administration. There have been questions about whether it would be continued, pretty much since the new administration took office.

And now we have this announcement of a cancellation of a $600 million contract. And that money was being used to develop vaccines that could really protect us, if there is an influenza epidemic or an influenza pandemic. And in this case, we're really concerned about bird flu.

And so, people should know that mRNA technology, it's a vaccine platform. And one of the real advantages is that you can modify the vaccine very quickly, based on the genetic sequence of the virus.

And time is critical when you are facing an infectious disease threat that is emerging.

And so, you know, I think we're going to regret this decision, if bird flu mutates in a way that makes human-to-human transmission possible, and we need vaccines in a hurry.

HILL: Dr. Dhruv Khullar, I appreciate your insight and your expertise this morning. Thank you.

KHULLAR: Pleasure. Thank you.

HILL: After the break here on CNN THIS MORNING, it has been described as a court that lawyers don't even know exist when they graduate law school. So just what is the Court of International Trade? The one at the center of the president's -- President Trump's tariff fight?

Elliot Williams is here to explain when we lawyer up.

Plus, United says it will be the cheapest summer to fly, with one caveat. We'll tell you what that is. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)