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CNN This Morning

Trump Says He Will Double Steel Tariffs To 50 Percent; Massive Wildfires In Canada Force Thousands To Evacuate; Two Escaped Inmates Caught In Texas, Returned To Louisiana Custody; Ex-Aide Challenged Over Sexual Assault Claims In Tense Cross; Karen Read's Defense Calls First Witness In Retrial; Elon Musk Leaves White House Position After Overseeing Slashing Of Jobs And Agencies. Elon Musk Officially Exits White House After DOGE Tenure; Former President Biden Discusses Cancer Diagnosis; Russian Strikes in Ukraine Leave At Least 9 People Dead. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired May 31, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:27]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning. It's Saturday, May 31st already. We're closing out the first five months of the year. I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to have you along. Here's what we're working on for you this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to bring it from 25 percent to 50 percent the tariffs on steel into the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: President Trump says he's doubling tariffs on steel imported to the U.S. next week. He made this announcement while celebrating a deal that would allow Japan's Nippon Steel to buy a controlling stake in U.S. steel. But there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the deal would work when it's finally finished.

New data shows more Americans reigned in their spending and put away more money as concerns over tariffs rose. Good news here. Inflation is moving in the right direction.

One of Sean Combs former employees was on the stand this week in his sex trafficking trial. What she had to say when she was pressed about why she kept in contact with Sean "Diddy" Combs even after he allegedly threatened her.

Also, President Biden spoke to reporters for the first time since announcing his cancer diagnosis. And he's hitting back at those who have questioned his mental fitness. We'll play it for you. That's coming up.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And millions under air quality alerts as smoke from the Canadian wildfires begins to spread farther and farther into the US. We'll detail exactly how far south that smoke is going to spread.

BLACKWELL: All right. This morning we're starting with the tariffs. And President Trump says that he will double the current tariffs on foreign steel to 50 percent. The tariff is set to take effect on Wednesday. The president made the surprise announcement in front of a crowd of steelworkers at a facility in Pennsylvania. He was there to celebrate the Japanese steelmaker Nippon's plans to buy the iconic American steel maker U.S. Steel.

This was a deal that Trump once vowed to oppose, but then announced that he would approve last week. He described it as a partnership and not an outright purchase of U.S. Steel by Japan. Despite celebrating the deal with workers. Trump later told reporters it has not yet been finalized.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have to approve the final deal with Nippon, and we haven't seen that final deal yet. But they've made a very big commitment and it's a very big investment. It's the largest investment in the history of the state of Pennsylvania in any deal, not just steel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Camila DeChalus joins us now from Washington. Camila, this tariffs announcement, as I said, it was a surprise. What can you tell us?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Victor. Trump really went to outside of Pittsburgh to really tout this deal between Nippon and U.S. Steel, but it was overshadowed, as you mentioned, by this major announcement that he's going to raise tariffs on imported U.S. Steel.

Now, what's pretty significant about this is that you really had a glimpse into his mindset when it comes to how he's deciding whether to raise these tariffs or not. He told the crowd that he was debating raising it from 25 percent to 40 percent, but then initially decided on 50 percent, but really didn't give his rationale to why he landed on that number.

Now, the main reason why he went there, as initially mentioned, is to really tout this major deal between Nippon and U.S. Steel. And as you remembered on the campaign trail, he really touted and really wanted to make these promises to the American people that if he was reelected into office that he would create more U.S. jobs and that he would revitalize the U.S. manufacturing industry. And he feels that this deal is really making good on that promise.

BLACKWELL: So tell us more about the deal. Again, it's not finalized. What gets from here to there?

DECHALUS: Well, at this point, all that we really know is that he has said that Japan, this Japanese company wants to do a major investment into the U.S. company, into US investments, and they're willing to invest, he said, around $14 billion.

But as you mentioned, a lot he doesn't -- he hasn't really seen the final details of this deal. And lawmakers and other unions expressed concern that they also want to see the details that within this agreement. But take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: -- investment. It's controlled by the United States and more importantly, they're spending the money on brick and mortar. You can't take it. What are you going to do, pick it up and move it to Japan?

[06:05:00]

That's not going to happen. And you know, I rejected this about four times now. And when they finally got it right, I liked it a lot. And you could see how happy the steelworkers were. More importantly, you could see from the union standpoint, the union loved it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: Now, Victor, President Trump has really touted and really tried to cast this image of himself as a deal broker and really cast himself as making major investments into the U.S. and the being the person that can get this done. But it will be very important to see what actually happens and what are the final deals in this agreement.

BLACKWELL: Camila DeChalus from Washington for us. Thank you very much. Now to stripe -- despite the latest surprise Trump tariff, the markets closed out Friday relative unchanged. Dow is up a bit. Both the S&P 500 and tech heavy. Nasdaq closed slightly lower. It followed a host of mixed economic news and spending and inflation sent CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich has more for us. Vanessa, good morning to you.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. Americans reined in their spending in April. Consumer spending rose by 0.2 percent last month, weaker than expected and a steep drop compared to the 0.7 percent in spending we saw in March, according to new data from the Commerce Department. But some context there.

In March, consumers front loaded on products to beat tariffs that were set to take effect in April, spending on things like clothing, footwear, cars and recreational goods. Those buying trends actually reversed in April with drops in spending in all of those categories.

But Americans also saw their incomes grow by 0.8 percent in April, largely because of increased Social Security payments and a very resilient labor market. And more good news around inflation. The personal consumption expenditure price index, that's the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, was up by 2.1 percent on annual basis, just a hair above the Fed's 2 percent inflation target rate. And inflation ticked up by 0.1 percent on a monthly basis.

So despite the good news on inflation, though, the Federal Reserve will likely not be declaring victory just yet as the uncertainty around the trade war is currently playing out. According to the CME Fed Watch Tool, which is a survey of investors, they believe the Fed will leave rates unchanged in their next meeting in June. Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Vanessa, thank you very much. Here with me now professor of finance at Emory University, Tom Smith. Welcome back.

TOM SMITH, PROFESSOR OF FINANCE, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Hey, thank you very much for having me.

BLACKWELL: So let's start here with the expectation we saw in April, the pullback of spending. March, the surge in anticipation. So maybe more spending. Is that what you would have expected?

SMITH: Yes, I think people are frontloading some of their spending in anticipation that prices are going to go up. I think that was fairly anticipated. And the fact that people are now pulling back a little bit and I think there's actually some news that some savings rate went up a little bit which would be consistent with that.

BLACKWELL: People are trying to hoard some cash because they don't know what's coming.

SMITH: They don't know what's coming. I don't know what's coming. Nobody knows what's coming.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it's true. Because things change pretty quickly here. As a surprise announcement of a 50 percent tariff on imported steel. When the White House, the president announced a 25 percent tariff on steel in March that was pre so called Liberation Day, Canada retaliated, the E.U. retaliated, E.U. later pulled back.

Does this appear to be a negotiating tool from the President or is this one that's probably going to stick?

SMITH: Yes, it's really hard to know. Like every time he announces a new tariff, something happens in the market. He responds to it pretty quickly and then he backs off and says we'll have a 45 waiting -- day waiting period or 90-day waiting period. It's hard to know if this is going to stick. I think it depends on how the market reacts to this news.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And so I've been watching some of the Canadian union responses to this announcement and they've said that this will essentially shut them out of the U.S. market if that happens, you know, since the 25 percent increase steel prices went up. I mean should people expect that there will be an increase in the price of US Steel even after this?

SMITH: No, absolutely. When you have a tariff on foreign companies coming in and dropping their steel in the United States, then there will be upward pressure in prices even from U.S. domestic companies. And so the companies that need that steel, so like their Ford Auto and Coca Cola. Right. Gillette Razors, what have you, they're going to have to pay more even if it's coming from a domestic plant. BLACKWEL: Let's talk about the U.S. and China. There was this

agreement about three weeks ago in Geneva, the pullback from the one 145, 125 percent tariffs.

[06:10:00]

And the President posted on social media essentially that China is violating the terms of the agreement. Is it so much for Mr. Nice Guy. What do you make of the relatively muted response from the market? As I said, things were essentially flat.

SMITH: Yes, I think a lot of people are in this wait and see environment. And so the President says, oh, China's not doing what they said they were going to do. Are we clear that they're not doing what they said they're going to do? What are they supposed to be doing? What are -- how are they like violating the agreements that they made?

It's so fuzzy to begin with that who knows what's going to happen next. And I think that's why we're seeing such a holding pattern.

BLACKWELL: We don't know what the so much for Mr. Nice Guy means. If there's going to be some fluctuation of the tariffs on Chinese imports. But the White House promised that they could do 90 deals in 90 days.

SMITH: Right.

BLACKWELL: And we're now beyond day 50 of that and the best they have so far, I mean, there's talk about what happens next with India, but so far it's the framework with the UK. What happened to that? Is there any urgency after the back and forth in the courts? I mean, other countries must be watching the legal situation.

SMITH: I think they are. I think the urgency has been sort of pushed back a little bit as these policies keep getting pushed back. And so if he said this policy is going to be put in place and we're going to implement it right away, then countries might be coming to the White House and saying, OK, let's do a deal.

But as you see a pattern, oh, we're going to put it in place now. We're going to pull it back. Oh, we're going to put something else in place. We're going to pull it back. Well, that doesn't spell urgency for any country that I can see.

BLACKWELL: Yes, the Commerce Department's estimate of the first quarter that it shrank by point 2 percent. Now again, that's pre- Liberation Day so called and reciprocal tariffs in April. But is that a surprise? Point two percent. That is better than the previous estimate but still a contraction of it.

SMITH: Yes. No, I think that what we're seeing a lot is even though we saw a surge in consumer spending, other kind of business investments were down and government expenditures were down. So it's not surprising to me that even though they revised it, the GDP still shrank. I think a lot of economists are anxious about potential additional

shrink in the U.S. GDP coming in quarter two. I think if we're seeing an increase in savings, then we're going to see a decrease in consumer spending. And remember, consumer spending makes up 70 percent of GDP. So if consumer spending goes down, we're going to see GDP shrink again.

BLACKWELL: All right, Tom Smith, good to have you as always.

SMITH: Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: Thank you. Massive wildfires burning out of control in Canada are sending hazardous smoke toward major U.S. cities. The fires raging across western and central Canada have forced thousands to evacuate.

Officials warn this could be one of the country's worst fire seasons on record. Here with me now, CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Alison, we've seen these plumes of smoke tell us what's behind them?

CHINCHAR: Right. So, yes, so you've got all of these wildfires here across portions of Canada, and there's nearly 200 of them. Now, a lot of them are focused across portions of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But again, you can see they're pretty widespread.

The concern here is of that smoke is now starting to infiltrate down into the U.S., thanks to a cold front that's really starting to spread it much farther southward than it has been the last few days. So where you see the yellow, the orange color, this is where it starts to become a concern. Now you're starting to get into moderate and even sensitive groups that can be impacted by a lot of that smoke.

So areas like North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin. But even notice you're starting to see some of that color spread into states like Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. And that's going to be the case even as we head into the afternoon and evening hours today.

Now, the light green to yellowish color, those are going to be much higher into the atmosphere. You're probably not going to necessarily notice it when you look, but it's still going to be there. May get some pretty sunrises and sunsets. It's the orange and red color.

This is where it's really start going to start to be very thick smoke in the atmosphere. And you're not only going to be able to see it, but also probably smell it, too. It's going to start to irritate a lot of your sinuses and things like that, especially if you were in those sensitive groups. But notice as we go through the day Saturday, it really starts to spread farther south, but also starts to shift back.

So again, the focus today is really going to be the Dakotas by the time we get to Sunday notice it starts to spread back into portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, even into Michigan. And that's where we have a lot of those air quality alerts in effect not only for today. But keep in mind, a lot of these alerts, Victor, actually last all the way until late Monday. BLACKWELL: Not just a nuisance. It's dangerous when that smoke comes

through. Allison, thanks so much. It's been two weeks now since 10 inmates were caught on camera running out of a jail in New Orleans.

[06:15:00]

Most of them have been captured. Two are freshly back in Louisiana, two still on the run. The new reward in the case. That's ahead.

Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs spent hours grilling his former personal assistant who accused him of sexual assault, while she says she made positive posts about him on social media even though he allegedly threatened her life.

Plus, first buddy Elon Musk is getting out of DOGE, his Oval Office send off from President Trump. That's coming up.

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[06:20:12]

BLACKWELL: This morning, two escaped inmates are back in Louisiana after they were captured in Texas. Leo Tate, Jermaine Donald, they were caught Monday after escaping a New Orleans jail more than two weeks ago. They were found nearly 330 miles away.

The two were part of a group of 10 inmates who broke out of the New Orleans Justice Center. You remember this video? Eight of them have been caught. Authorities also have arrested more than a dozen people for allegedly helping the prisoners escape or evade capture.

Two other escapees, Derrick Groves and Antoine Massey, are still on the run, and there's a $50,000 reward for each.

A federal appeals court ruled that President Trump's plans to fire workers at multiple federal agencies will stay on hold. The court said that the president overstepped his supervisory powers under the Constitution. A White House spokesman called the judge's move unconstitutional.

President Trump had already asked the Supreme Court to step in once, but that initially went nowhere. And still the case will likely end up back there again.

PBS is suing President Trump over his push to cut public media funding. A lawsuit filed yesterday says that Trump's executive order to defund PBS violates the First Amendment. It argues the president is punishing PBS for its content. NPR filed a similar lawsuit earlier this week.

Now both say Trump's order threatens the future of public broadcasting, especially smaller stations that rely on federal support.

There was a tense back and forth between the defense and the second woman to accuse Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexual abuse. Yesterday we heard from the former assistant known to the public only as Mia.

As she recounted more instances of abuse and blackmail, she said she feared not just losing her job, but her life. Under cross examination, the defense suggested she made up her claims of sexual abuse. CNN's Kara Scannell has details. Kara, good morning to you.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. Sean Combs, former personal assistant testifying under the pseudonym Mia, was on the witness stand for most of the day. On Friday, she was under cross examination and confronted with about three dozen social media posts. On these post were photos of her smiling with Combs captions that called him a legend and inspiration, a mentor. And also certain times she wrote I love you with multiple exclamation points.

Now she also posted several happy birthday messages to Combs, including photo montages. And Combs lawyer Brian Steel asked her why she was doing that because she had testified the day before that it was on Combs' birthday that she was first sexually assaulted by him and Mia testified that she was still working this out in therapy and she said part of her job was to promote him on social media.

Mia was also confronted about a scrapbook that she made for Combs 45th birthday. The scrapbook was a collection of stories about his rise in hip hop in the early 90s. It also included a long handwritten note from Mia to Combs. Combs' lawyer asking her why she would make a scrapbook for him if he sexually assaulted her and physically abused her best friend Cassie Ventura. She said it's a lot more complicated than the way you phrase that. It's abuse on many levels.

She was also asked pointedly if she had made up her allegation that Combs had sexually assaulted her. She said no. Everything she testified about was true. Earlier in the day she was still questioned by prosecutors and on that direct examination she was asked about contact that she had received from Combs and his security guard D Rock that came just two weeks after Cassie Ventura filed her civil lawsuit bringing all of these details to light.

Mia testified that both of them had reached out to her on texts and calls. She said Puff wanted D Rock to get to me and make sure I wasn't a threat. She said this was all a front. She didn't speak to them either time. She will be back on the stand for more cross examination on Monday. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Kara, thank you very much and you can stay up to date on Sean Combs trial with CNN's new podcast "Trial by Jury: Diddy" hosted by CNN's Laura Coates.

Let's turn to the Karen Read trial now. And her defense called its first witness in her retrial and the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend John o' Keefe. An accident reconstruction expert testified that o' Keefe's phone was likely locked after Read's vehicle stopped and that challenged the prosecution's timeline.

Prosecutors allege that Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV after a night out in January 2022. O' Keefe's body was found buried in the snow outside his home in Canton, Massachusetts. Now her defense claims that she was framed by other off duty officers at the scene. It's unclear if Read will testify in her own defense. She did not in the first trial.

[06:25:01]

Testimony set to resume on Monday. Former President Joe Biden made his first on camera comments about his aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis, what he has to say about his treatment and people questioning his mental fitness. That's ahead.

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BLACKWELL: Elon Musk is out of the White House in an official capacity, but he's not gone for good. Musk is heading back to the private sector, but the president made it clear that he's welcome back at any time. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more for us on his last day and the future plans.

[06:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The world's richest man Elon Musk takes his leave from President Trump's orbit on Friday at the White House, in a very funfair well in the Oval Office. It was really quite something. These two men have been essentially joined at the hip for most of this administration, and even before going back to the election last Summer when Elon Musk invested some $275 million with the help of electing Donald Trump as President once again.

He played a key role in shaping the cabinet and other agencies. And of course, he led the Department of Government Efficiency. There are many questions about the actual fallout in the after-effect of Elon Musk's role in government. He pledged at one point to trim some $2 trillion from the government coffers.

That did not happen. He scaled that back to $1 trillion, and then much less than that. Of course, there was significant fallout in terms of tens and tens and thousands of government employees decided to leave on their own or their agencies were closed. But on Friday in the Oval Office, the President and Elon Musk had nothing but kind words to say for one another.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste. Elon is really not leaving. He's going to be back-and- forth, I think, I have a feeling. It's his baby.

ELON MUSK, FOUNDER & CEO, TESLA & SPACEX: I expect to continue to provide advice at whatever the President would like advice --

TRUMP: I hope so --

MUSK: If he -- I mean, I'm -- yes, it's -- expect to remain a friend and an adviser, and certainly, if there's anything the President wants me to do, I'm at the President's service.

ZELENY: Now, in recent weeks, there's no doubt that Elon Musk's influence has been waning here at the White House. He was less visible than he was before. That's largely because his own private enterprises were punishing him, essentially, the stock on Tesla, for example, SpaceX as well, they wanted him to make a choice between serving in the government and working in the private sector.

So, he did make that choice. And on the way out the door, he was somewhat critical of the President's administration and the agenda as well, saying the Big Budget Bill passed by the House, pending in the Senate would not do enough to reduce government spending. But again, on Friday, all smiles in the Oval Office, the President saying Elon Musk will be welcomed back as an adviser at any point. Of course, he is still the world's richest man. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: In his first public remarks about his cancer diagnosis, former President Joe Biden says that the prognosis is good. About two weeks ago, the Bidens announced that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones.

He made a speech Friday at a Memorial Day event in Delaware, and he told reporters that the treatment is underway, and he and his family are staying optimistic about the diagnosis. When he was asked about new reporting about his health in office, he made light of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there's also been a lot of discussion recently about your mental and physical capabilities while you were in office.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You can see that I'm mentally incompetent and I can't walk, and I can beat the hell out of both of them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to reply to any of those reports, and also to the fact that there are some Democrats who are now questioning whether you should have run for re-election in the first place?

BIDEN: Why didn't they run against me then? Because I'd have beaten them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any regrets?

BIDEN: No, I don't have any regrets --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Former President added that he's proud of his record as President. Joining me now, "Associated Press" national politics reporter Meg Kinnard. Meg, good to have you on. So, let's start here. The President used to say when people were concerned about his age or his health, watch me. Well, the country did watch. He's now changed that answer. Do Democrats want to hear from Joe Biden as they're looking ahead to 2026?

MEG KINNARD, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Hey, Victor, it's really good to be with you as always. I think that is a question that many in the party are still wrestling with. I'm here in South Carolina where last night, we heard from Representative Jim Clyburn, who's always been one of Biden's big supporters, his big backers in Congress, a long time associate and friend.

And he was asked that question by reporters. What do you make of these comments from Joe Biden? And you know, kind of taking a look back to 2024. And Jim Clyburn was very quick to say, when can we move forward? When can we start casting forward to these midterms that we're going to be having?

And clearly, another presidential cycle beyond that. He's one Democrat, but I think that if you talk to many others within the party, they respect Joe Biden, they will have nice things to say about him. But they're also trying to find those ways to move forward, to look for these new races where the party is going to have a lot of tough contests, particularly in the Senate moving forward in 2026.

[06:35:00]

And then also with 2028, always on the horizon, that next presidential battle. So, with the news of Joe Biden's health, clearly, that has had many news cycles and a lot of attention. But I think politically- speaking, there are many Democrats who are kind of hoping that they will have that moment where they can thank him for his service and then move forward to these next contests that are coming up quickly.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the current administration. President Trump dropping a lot of guidance as it relates to immigration and visas, specifically the Secretary of State this week says that the State Department will be aggressively revoking student visas of Chinese nationals. The President says it will be OK, and they're just kind of looking into this.

The administration has suffered some losses as it relates to the student visas and revoking legal status for international students. What do we expect here? It will -- they take the example of what has happened over the last several months and some of the losses they faced in court?

KINNARD: That's a good question. If you know the answer, I'm all ears. But I think that the administration, as we see in this battle that's playing out with Harvard and over the student visas writ-large, I think that the administration is trying a bunch of different things. Clearly, there is legal action that's moving through the courts in a variety of ways, but also with the State Department now revoking these student visas, that is something administratively that they're trying to accomplish.

And that for the administration, really kinds of -- kind of goes at two things. One, it continues in a different pathway to take on Harvard, which clearly the Trump administration has in its sights as a target on funding, and also now in this arena. And then, similarly, it also is a move that the Trump administration can take directly against China, which clearly, there have been many warnings from them coming -- and other Republicans, too, about potential threats and conflict with China as it relates to U.S. foreign relations and geopolitics.

So, this move kind of accomplishes two things in two different directions. But it is -- I think what we see from the administration of taking big, broad actions, and then some of that filtering down into more specific ways here with the student visa debate. This is something that Harvard clearly is taking seriously. And with the funding restrictions and their own legal action moving in that pathway, I think we're just going to continue to see a lot of this confrontation playing out between Harvard and potentially some other educational institutions with the Trump administration moving forward.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and Stephen Miller at the White House, he put this in the context of trade and some of the back-and-forth between the U.S. and China as it relates to the agreement made in Geneva a few weeks ago, not in a national security context, but of those tariffs that they are fighting over.

Let me talk about the Democrats trying to work toward not just 2026, but 2028. I want to play something here. This is from Maryland Governor Wes Moore, what he had to say about President Trump and about Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): Donald Trump doesn't need a study to dismantle democracy. Donald Trump doesn't need a study to use the constitution like it's a suggestion box. Donald Trump doesn't need a white paper to start arbitrary trade wars that will raise the cost on virtually everything in our lives. And so, we must think about it this way. If he can do so much bad in such a small amount of time, why can't we do such good?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And of course, he's been talked about as a potential primary candidate in 2028. He said that he's not running, but of course, that's present tense, that doesn't mean that he won't run. South Carolina at the front of the line for choosing the Democratic nominee. Is he in line with what we're hearing from other Democrats on that short list of possibilities?

KINNARD: I think that, that sense of urgency that Governor Moore was talking about last night here in South Carolina is something that we are going to continue to hear from others in that potential Democratic field for 2028. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, who clearly was the party's vice presidential nominee last go-around, he's also here in South Carolina, and he had a similar message that he delivered to Democrats at that gathering last night.

He's going to be headlining the state Democratic convention here on Saturday today. And I would imagine that we're going to continue to hear that call to action to Democrats to -- look, Donald Trump has been in office for just a few months now, and he's done all of these things, these big actions. We as a party need to be moving quickly too, not just in reaction to what he's doing, but in putting forth our own priorities and showing that we don't have to be as deliberative and slow as Wes Moore said flat-out last night.

[06:40:00]

And can be moving quickly to show voters that we also can act on their behalf and really quickly improve things for them in the way that we as Democrats think that they should be. So, I think that is going to be a theme that we're seeing emerge. Again, this is 2025. We're --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

KINNARD: Talking about 2028. But as you and I both know and everybody out there, presidential cycles, particularly in states here like South Carolina start many years before the actual votes. And as we see from these visits here this weekend, it has already begun here.

BLACKWELL: The next one start where the last one ends. Meg Kinnard from Columbia there, thanks so much. A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as direct peace talks with Russia, they're up in the air. The latest ahead in a live report.

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[06:45:00]

BLACKWELL: At least, nine people have been killed in a Russian drone strikes across Ukraine over the last 24 hours. That's according to regional officials. Two dozen others have been injured as Russia intensifies its attacks. It happened just hours after a bipartisan pair of senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

They pledged to move next week on a proposal to slap 500 percent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and other products. President Trump said that he would take a look at the bill and double- down on his disappointment with Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you look at this and see Putin as the good guy or the bad guy?

TRUMP: So, I've known him very well. We were going to solve a problem, and then all of a sudden rockets got shot into a couple of cities and people died. So, I'm very disappointed in that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The next round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, those are still up in the air. Ukraine says Russia is still withholding its blueprint for a possible ceasefire. CNN's Nic Robertson has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on camera): What Ukraine is saying is that Russia should really hand over that memorandum right now. That was their understanding. The Russian memorandum that lays out their view of what peace talks could look like. The Ukrainians say that the understanding was that both the U.S. and Ukraine would get this document from Russia.

And they say the fact that Russia -- and we've just heard from the Russian Foreign Ministry saying that they won't be handing over this document before their team arrives in Istanbul for those talks on the 2nd of June, Monday next. This document will be coming with them. So, you know, Ukraine's position is that they think that Russia is playing for time.

They think that they are not really wanting to push with speed as President Trump wants, as they want, as Ukraine's European allies want towards a ceasefire and a -- and a -- and a -- and a lasting peace deal. The Russian Foreign Ministry says their team is committed. They're sending this team, it's the second round of talks, the memorandum will come with them.

But what Russia has done, these strikes, 90 drones, two more big missiles fired into Ukraine does fly in the face of what President Trump's representative at the U.N. Security Council was talking about, that Russia should stop attacking Ukrainians if it is committed to peace, and if -- and if it doesn't stop attacking Ukrainians, then the United States would consider its position and pull back.

The representative also said that, you know, if Ukraine and Russia can work together to get a -- peace, the United States is ready to help them, ready to work with the U.N., ready to work with the European partners as well over it. And I think it's worth noting here that what President Zelenskyy says, particularly on reflecting on those comments we've heard from the U.S. representative at the United Nations Security Council, is that Ukraine wants the United States to remain diplomatically-engaged in this process.

But it really seems as if the scene is set for these talks on Monday. Ukraine yet to say whether or not they will go, that both sides are at odds already, Ukraine's handed its memorandum to Russia, and the -- and the very real sense from Ukrainian side and its European supporters that Russia is playing for time and an increasing sense there from the White House, that Russia is not committed to a peace process.

But where will it all stand at the end of Monday? I don't think anyone is expecting it to have advanced very far.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Nic, thank you. You know how you see those videos of like the milk truck will toss over and -- oh, it's funny, the money truck dumps over -- this one not as much fun. A quarter of a billion bees escaped after a big rig overturned and shut down a busy road in Washington state. We'll talk about what happened here and when it could reopen. That's coming up next.

Also, Octavia Spencer finds comfort in New Orleans on a new episode of the CNN original series, "MY HAPPY PLACE", this Sunday, 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about those bees. About 250 million honey bees are loose near Seattle, just 3 miles south of the Canadian border. This happened yesterday after a semi-truck holding the bees flipped over on a tight turn. You've got to watch those tight turns when you've got a quarter of billion bees in the back.

The driver was OK, some of the deputies had to stay in their patrol cars for obvious reasons. It goes for up to two days to get the bees some time to find their queen and go back to their hives. OK, I get it. Right now, millions across parts of the west are under heat advisories from some southern California areas to Montana.

Some areas possibly with breaking records here.

[06:55:00]

Let's bring in now CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar -- record breaking.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, for almost two dozen cities, not just today, but also tomorrow, then we'll finally start to see some relief. But it certainly feels a lot like Summer, probably more like mid-Summer in some of these areas out there. So, let's take a look, when we take a look at where we're talking about, all of these areas you see both in the orange color and that pink color down towards the bottom, this is where we have those extreme heat alerts.

Now, it could be heat advisory, could be excessive heat warning, but a lot of these areas are looking at temperatures 10 to even 20 degrees above where they normally would be. Look at this, Las Vegas, the normal high would only be about 94. So, again, it's still pretty hot there even this time of year.

Digits for Fresno, Sacramento, even Salt Lake and Boise also looking at temperatures well above where they normally would be. So, yes, there's potential there for some records, not just today, but also into tomorrow. But I'm sure you noticed on that third day of those three days, that things do start to come back down.

And that's because the heat that's out west is gradually going to start to shift off towards the east. So, it ends up in the central U.S., by the time we get to Monday, and then eventually over into the eastern half of the country, by the time we get to the middle portion of the upcoming week. So, you're going to see some ups and downs here. Take Sacramento, for example, still triple-digit highs for today. But then notice, we really start to see those temperatures drop. Here's the thing though. We're dropping, but we're still going to be above average. The average in Sacramento is still only about 80 for this time of year. We're still going to be above that every single day, just maybe not near the record-breaking numbers that we are going to expect for today.

And the same thing for a lot of those other western cities where you can expect a lot of that heat out into portions of the country.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, thank you. There's much more ahead on the next hour of CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND, President Trump ups the ante in the global trade war. New tariffs on imported steel, that's ahead in a live report from Washington.

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