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Trump Arrives in Tokyo; Cardiff Garcia is Interviewed about the U.S.-China Deal; Shutdown Stalls Key Economy Data; Two Suspects Arrested in Louvre Theft; Mamdani Rallies with Sanders and AOC. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 27, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:31:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

No food aid will be handed out on November 1st unless a deal is reached to reopen the government. According to the USDA, the Trump administration said it will not tap around $5 billion in contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits funded. Nearly 40 million Americans could lose access to groceries.

And a ground stop now lifted at LAX. Departing flights were grounded for about two hours yesterday due to staffing shortages. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warns flight disruptions could increase as air traffic controllers will miss their first full paycheck tomorrow.

And later today, a judge in Provo, Utah, will weigh defense motions ahead of a hearing for the man charged in the murder of Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson will appear before a judge in person later this week. He faces several charges, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

And President Trump is in Tokyo this morning. Any moment now we're going to see him with Japan's emperor. And then later he'll meet with the newly elected prime minister. She's the first woman to hold the office. And the president had high praise for her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I look forward to meeting the new prime minister. I hear phenomenal things. She was a great ally and friend of Shinzo Abe, who was my friend, the former prime minister. And he was -- he was great. I know they were very close. And I think philosophically they were close, which is good. It's going to be very good. That really helps Japan and the United States. I think she's going to be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: On the agenda, tariffs, which the U.S. just reduced on Japan by 10 percent. And defense, amid rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.

Joining us now, CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. She's been traveling with the president in Tokyo.

Kristen, good morning.

And for you, what are you hearing about what the White House wants kind of accomplished, at least in this leg of the trip?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHTIE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, in this leg of the trip, if you ask President Trump or White House officials, they are talking about showcasing the alliance between Japan and the United States. President Trump himself said it was all about this great friendship that the U.S. had with Japan.

Now, on the other side, Japanese officials, they're going to have a lot they want to hash out. They want to talk through this $550 billion investment that they have made in the United States because there are still no details when it comes to that. They're going to want to talk trade and tariffs.

But really the big meeting is between the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, and President Trump. This is a big test for her. I mean President Trump has been on the world stage. He does things the way he wants to do. But this is her first big diplomatic meeting. And it's with the president, who is, obviously, known to be inconsistent. So, there will be a lot of eyes, particularly here in Japan, on how she handles this meeting.

But, obviously, from, you know, what you just heard from President Trump on Air Force One, he's going into this incredibly positively. He has nothing but great respect for Shinzo Abe, one of the only people and world leaders during his first term that he referred to as a friend. So, the fact that that is her mentor is likely to bode well for her.

But really, Audie, all of this is setting the stage for one of the most serious things that we anticipate is going to happen on this trip, which is this meeting with Chinese President Xi, which is going to happen at the end of his trip to Korea. I mean we've been hearing from these various trade negotiating teams in the U.S. and China about this framework that they have ironed out for the two leaders to look at.

[06:35:04]

And if those things actually come to fruition, this would be a big deal for the United States and China. Particularly one of the things I want to point out is the secretary of treasury, Scott Bessent, talking about China agreeing to buy soybeans. That would be huge for those farmers.

CORNISH: OK, that's CNN's Kristen Holmes. She's going to be following the president for -- throughout the day. So, we're going to hear more about that. Thank you.

And in the meantime, we're actually learning more about a potential deal between U.S. and Chinese trade officials that could avoid another massive tariff on Chinese goods. Now, it includes a plan for China to resume soybean purchases from the U.S. and a pause on China's tightened rare earth minerals control, which is sort of what caused the president to previously threaten that 100 percent tariff. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that's now off the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: I would expect that the threat of the 100 percent has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime.

I can tell you that the soybean farmers are going to be extremely happy with this deal for this year and for the coming years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: U.S. stock futures are all up on that news this morning.

Joining the group chat to discuss, Cardiff Garcia, editorial director of the Economic Innovation Group.

Always good to have you here.

CARDIFF GARCIA, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, ECONOMIC INNOVATION GROUP: A pleasure.

CORNISH: Because the stock market is not the economy. The stock market is just where people are moving their money.

GARCIA: It's not the economy. It's not -- not the economy either. It's really a temperature.

CORNISH: Yes, it's the temperature of the economy.

GARCIA: Yes, that's right.

CORNISH: So, we've been focused on what the U.S. could get. Do we have a sense of what the U.S. had to give?

GARCIA: Not yet, but I would imagine that relative to a world in which you have increased escalation, we're not going to put 100 percent tariffs on China.

In terms of whether or not we actually lower the tariffs that we already implemented on China, which are actually quite high on average right now, I just don't know. And as the panel said earlier, we have the framework for a deal. We don't have a deal just yet.

But I would say that this is relatively benign news relative to a world in which this actually gets worse and American consumers end up paying a lot more money for the hundreds of billions of dollars of goods that we import from China. And China does not cut off rare earth's exports, which are used in just about any kind of manufacturing in the U.S. that involves cutting edge technology.

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA: So, this is -- this is relatively good news, for now.

CORNISH: We've been talking about soybeans, I think in part because in political circles we associate it with like farmers, Iowa and constituencies that have, you know, a lot of resonance in Washington and with the party. Are there other areas where we are finally seeing the prices really be affected by tariffs?

GARCIA: I mean, yes, we just got the September inflation report yesterday, or, excuse me, last week. And what we saw was that things like beef, coffee, apparel, furniture, heavily tariffed items that we also import a lot of, those were some of the items that were climbing the fastest, right? So, that inflation report essentially shows that inflation had not gone up as much as feared, but it is still elevated relative to what everybody is comfortable with, including American policy makers, like the Federal Reserve.

CORNISH: But hasn't China been working on this forever? I mean, I feel like China is, in a way, they have been dealing with U.S. tariffs for a long time. They've been ready for U.S. tariffs for a long time and have countered them. And meanwhile, you have people who are saying, actually, the tariff war, as people thought it would be, didn't really pan out.

GARCIA: Yes, this is interesting because I think it's important to understand that China can't go tit for tat with the U.S. on tariffs, right? The U.S. imports so much more from China than China imports from the U.S.

So, what it's been doing over the course of the last six or seven years, ever since the first Trump term, is developing a suite of legal tools that it can use for precisely a negotiation like this. The rare earth's export controls are one of them. These tools are more targeted and flexible than they used to be. This is not an outright ban. This is something where you can delay it for a year, which apparently, according to the reports, the Chinese government has agreed to do. There can be exemptions granted in the same way that the U.S. can grant exemptions to tariffs.

And so, if there's a silver lining in this kind of trade war right now, it's that at least some of these tools have been developed precisely to help a de-escalation when it's called for. And that's what I'm hoping for.

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA: It's what I think everybody should be hoping for if you're an American consumer or a company.

CORNISH: And it's hard to know where these things intersect with like the shutdown economy, right? Because, at the end of the day, we, as consumers, are paying for all the different things. So, we've got some paychecks that have been missed at this point. Airport, short staffed, food resources at risk. And there's no resolution in sight, at least as far as I know. I mean Isaac will tell me differently. But with each day it's really harder to see actually what's happening in the economy because the shutdown has hit pause on a bunch of indicators.

So, monthly jobs report, GDP data, and one exception, as Cardiff mentioned, inflation, right, the inflation report. That's not offering a lot of comfort.

So, you've got consumer prices that have ticked up 3 percent from 2.9 last month, the highest level since January.

[06:40:06]

Group chat is back.

It's the economy, stupid, as people say. And when can we admit that people are feeling this? And when will we be talking about it the way people spoke about it during the Biden administration?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, the second part of it I think is a political thing. Part of it is that Joe Biden didn't talk about a lot of things. And so that left room for more people to talk about what was going on with prices. Donald Trump talks about a lot of things all the time, all sorts of different things, and that leaves less time for us and everybody else to talk about the prices.

But, look, Cardiff, you're the expert here. I -- there's a lot of numbers going around. What's it going to -- inflation, tariffs, they change every day. I think the truth is that most people know that when you go to the grocery store it's costing more money. When you see your electric bill, it's costing --

CORNISH: But do they blame Trump for that?

DOVERE: Well, that's -- that's the -- that's the question.

CORNISH: You think that's all messaging.

DOVERE: I -- I'm not sure it's messaging. I know that -- I know that I get a weekly update from my utilities company that says, here's how much more you spent on electricity this past week. And it's not because I've been actually using more electricity.

I know that the grocery bills that I'm paying for are higher than they were. And that is hitting every American whatever way it's hitting. To some people it matters more and to some people it matters less. How it plays out politically I think has a lot to do with what happens over the course of the next year.

CORNISH: So here is how Democrats are trying to talk about this. I want to play -- I think it's a clip from Hakeem Jeffries. And you may have heard something similar to this before, but I wanted to play it because -- just to kind of underscore what they're trying to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): No, our focus continues to be on driving down the high cost of living for everyday Americans. Donald Trump and Republicans promised that they would lower costs on day one. We know costs haven't gone down. They're going up. Inflation is moving in the wrong direction.

The Democratic position, Margaret, has been clear, cancel the cuts, lower the costs, save health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And then I have one more. And this is from Scott Bessent, OK. He's, obviously, the Treasury secretary. He was asked about prices as well. And here is how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: When we came in, it was egg- flation, egg-flation, egg-flation. You know, egg prices are down. Gasoline prices are down. Overall, the inflation since President Trump has come in, the -- it has come down. We inherited this terrible affordability crisis from the Biden administration.

It's a global embarrassment what these Democratic senators are doing, keep -- keeping the government shut down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I think it was interesting talking about, like, look, you were complaining about eggs for a while and gas. Well, actually, these things are fine. Like it's having people pick and choose what parts of the prices --

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": Yes, some of it's cherry picking. You've heard this from White House officials a lot. They do cite the fact that egg prices are down. But to Isaac's point, grocery bills overall are maybe not being felt in the same way. And I think a key issue that Biden struggled with and potentially Trump and Republicans are going to struggle with in the midterms is how people feel about the economy and how they feel about prices and telling people that prices have gone down if they don't feel that way is not typically an effective strategy.

But one of the interesting things is, so far, nothing about this economic moment seems to be motivating anyone to end the shutdown.

CORNISH: Yes.

LUCEY: So, you're -- the president is continuing on business as usual.

CORNISH: I feel like there's a perception somehow that the shutdown is a federal worker problem, even though lots of people -- maybe the end of SNAP benefits would change that.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Well, also, federal workers are not just in Washington, D.C. They're all over the country. And they work on things that are just so far from just some of the things that we focus on here.

One weird timing thing, as it comes to feeling some of this inflation, is earnings. A lot of times when companies are responsible for transporting goods or rely on imports, I think about companies like Amazon and like Walmart. We need to feel that in order for that to be reflected in earnings.

Well, earnings are coming up basically now. They're not going to feel it quite yet. So, expect optimism from Wall Street that is going to eventually lag, Audie, if this continues. But it's not lagging yet.

CORNISH: Meanwhile, political reporting, 25 states set to cut off food aid stamps -- sorry, food aid benefits in November, otherwise is known as SNAP, which I had no idea this figure, 42 million people with families getting $187 per month on average.

Cardiff, I want to just leave it with you because the Federal Reserve is expected to meet this week. And even though people have dubious ideas about what the Federal Reserve actually does, there's a sense that somehow they will help. What would be help? But what is the reality of what we're going to see?

GARCIA: Well, right now it seems likely that they're going to continue lowering interest rates, right? That's helpful, OK. But the Federal Reserve has a really tricky job right now because inflation is still uncomfortably high for them. It's running about 3 percent year over year. That's higher than the 2 percent that they aim for. It's higher, frankly, than most American households want as well. And lowering interest rates, yes, it can boost the economy, but it threatens to raise inflation even more.

[06:45:05]

And a big problem that you mentioned earlier is that we are going to be flying blind the longer this shutdown continues. That --

CORNISH: Meaning no data.

GARCIA: Meaning no data on unemployment, no data on inflation past the report that we just got. So, the next time the Fed meets after this week is in December. And if the last inflation report we have goes all the way back to September, it means that they're going to be in a really dicey spot when it comes to making their next decision.

CORNISH: And we will be feeling it, it sounds like.

Cardiff, thank you, as always, for being here. Appreciate your time.

Next on CNN THIS MORNING, down to the final stretch in New York City's mayoral election. We're going to discuss how it is a local election is having a big impact on national politics.

Plus, key Democrats could be hinting towards a run for president in 2028. We'll talk about this and more with our panel after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:03]

CORNISH: Two suspects now behind bars in connection with the Louvre museum jewel heist. Prosecutors say one of the men arrested was trying to leave the country. At least two more suspects are still on the run. France's crown jewels, worth tens of millions of dollars, are still missing.

CNN's senior correspondent Melissa Bell joins us live from Paris with the latest in the investigation.

What have you learned about who's been arrested?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Audie, what we're hearing from sources close to the investigation is that the hope had been to get the four men arrested at the same time. These were the four suspects actually involved in that breaking on Sunday morning just over a week ago. It was the fact that one of them tried to leave the country on Saturday night and head to Algeria that led the police to get their hands on two of them. We expect another couple of arrests to be made. We understand that the police are watching them. But the idea had been to try and catch them all at once.

These two suspects that they have in their hands right now, Audie, they can hold until Wednesday as they try and see what kind of evidence they can gather to prove that they have the right men. Remember that there were 150 different traces of DNA left on the scene of the crime. And again, from specialists working closely with this investigation and who know about these things, analysts say that what's surprising about this is that it was so well planned, and in the end, executed fairly shoddily. And that's why they think more and more that this may have been a theft that was organized on commission by well-trained professional thieves, but not necessarily the masterminds that were behind this brazen heist.

Audie.

CORNISH: OK, Melissa Bell is going to be following that in Paris for us. Thanks so much.

And here in the U.S., we want to talk about the race for New York City mayor. It's entering its final stretch. Early voting now underway. The stakes are growing far beyond the five boroughs of the city.

So, last night, Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani held a rally with thousands of supporters alongside Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Both eager to turn the race into a national movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally, both in authoritarian, criminal presidency fueled by corruption and bigotry., and an ascendant right wing extremist movement.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): A victory here in New York will give hope and inspiration to people throughout our country and throughout the world. That is what this election is about. And that is why Donald Trump is paying attention to this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, during his own speech, Mamdani said New York was not for sale and talked about the amount of attention being put on the race from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D) NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: While Donald Trump's billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election. We have a movement of the masses. And we are a movement that is not afraid of what we believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

You guys, I wanted to talk about this moment because after all these years we're not looking at a generation of candidates coming up with Hillary Clinton's OK, you know what I mean, or Kamala Harris' OK, or even Barack Obama's OK. I think there's a few out there who are sort of part of his legacy. It's Bernie Sanders there. And what did you make, Sara, of that moment of them arm in arm?

FISCHER: Well, it's the same thing on the right, too, by the way. It's not like this is the party where Senator Thune is the person who's advocating for up and coming Republicans, right? You need Donald Trump or even Marjorie Taylor Greene or some more fringe member of the party. But the key thing here is that when I look at Bernie Sanders and I look at AOC coming out swinging, endorsing him, what they're trying to send is a signal ahead of the midterms next year and ahead of 2028 that, hi, the most progressive parts of this party cannot lose faith in the Democratic Party. They need to be galvanized by what's happening in New York so that we can continue to win elections. That's why that they're coming out here right now.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: Because I also think for someone like Bernie Sanders, Mamdani's a weird person for him to be adjacent to.

CORNISH: Yes. Say more.

FISCHER: They're not aligned -- they're not aligned on all issues. You know, Bernie Sanders, a lot of the constituency that he -- that supports him feels one certain way about Israel, for example, that is not aligned with Mamdani. But the fact that he can put that aside and still go out there and vouch for Mamdani is a signal that he understands that he, Mamdani, has the zeitgeist, and the zeitgeist is what matters for the progressive party right now. [06:55:01]

CORNISH: So, meanwhile, Democrats, let's just say, reluctant. Here's New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer, who was asked to talk about this, this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Mamdani is a job-killing socialist, and he's not a Democrat, right? He shouldn't be in the Democratic Party. He's an admitted socialist. He should be in the socialist party. And as good of a campaign he's run, I have very strong disagreements with his views.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: He is a socialist. It's not admitted. I think it's like saying it that way. This was his upbringing -- political upbringing, so to speak. Can you talk about how Democrats are trying to hold him at arm's length and what that looks like?

LUCEY: And this is like the tension that we're seeing playing out in the Democratic Party right now, right, is how do they run in the midterms and in '28, and what -- what is the message that they want to carry forward. And there's a lot of anxiety among more sort of main -- I guess, you know, middle of the road Democrats about Mamdani about this moment in New York.

I do think, though, that one thing that he is talking about a lot, that is something that Bernie has talked about a lot, and we've seen successful in places that are not New York is talking about prices and affordability and cost of living. I mean, Bernie, when he ran in '16 and '20 talked a lot about the affordability of child care, of college, of these things. Mamdani talks about free busses, about grocery prices, about child care. And I think those potentially are messages that could translate in different locations.

CORNISH: Yes. We're also -- we're going to hear in coming days just how much of a mobilization there is against this candidate, right, nationally from various constituencies. But I wanted to try and make sense of the disconnect in the party between the crowd and the pushback.

DOVERE: Yes, look, I do think it's worth, and I'm a born and bred New Yorker and I buy into as much New York provincialism as you want to about being the most important place in the world. It is New York City. And Zohran Mamdani is running against a very flawed candidate in Andrew Cuomo, and that is a big part of what is going on here.

CORNISH: OK, hold on one second, because flawed -- speaking of flawed candidates, I want to talk about some of the people who are -- haven't closed the door on potentially running again.

DOVERE: Quite a segue, Audie.

CORNISH: One is Kamala Harris, who was sort of asked about this just about closing the door on politics in general.

DOVERE: Yes.

CORNISH: And then just a few minutes ago, I think, we heard President Trump also being asked about his political future and what that might be like, and he did not shut the door.

Here's that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we have one of them standing right here. We have J.D., obviously, the vice president is great. I think Marco's great. I think -- I'm not sure if anybody would run against those. I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable. I really do. I believe that. I would -- I would -- I would love to do it. It -- I have the best numbers ever. It's very terrible. I have my best numbers. You read -- you read it --

REPORTER: So you're not ruling out a third term?

TRUMP: Am I not ruling it out? You'll have to tell me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, that little bit about, if you read it, sort of reminded me of this moment where Steve Bannon was also talking about what he thinks Trump's political future is. And I have to play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON: Well, he's going to get a third term. So, Trump '28. Trump is going to be president in '28, and people just ought to get accommodated with that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what about the 22nd Amendment?

BANNON: There's many different alternatives. At the appropriate time we'll lay out what the plan is. But there's a plan, and President Trump will be the president in '28.

We had longer odds in '16 and longer odds in '24 than we got in '28. And President Trump will be the president of the United states, and the country needs him to be president of the United States. We have to finish what we started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: In the past maybe I would have done the, like well, literally, figuratively, what does it mean when the Trump folks say x? But we now know from the election interference efforts that when someone says there's a plan somewhere, there is someone writing something down.

DOVERE: Yes, and we also know that Donald Trump denied that he lost the 2020 election, was at least supportive of the riot that happened in the Capitol to try to stop the certification of that election, that he said starting from 2016 he only believes in elections when he wins, and that for the last bunch of months he's been handing out Trump 2028 hats and other things and talking about this. This is -- there's no reason that he or the people around him have given to not take this seriously, that this is their intention.

FISCHER: Well, with the exception of his age, because I think the whole country just went through this situation with Joe Biden. He's going to be 83 in the next election.

CORNISH: And people are already talking about his age online.

FISCHER: People are already talking about his age and his health. And you have to remember, four years out from 83, 87. I mean, that is such a jarring number for an American public that just went through a very jarring old president.

DOVERE: But that's thinking about it in terms of democratic elections, small "d" democratic elections and how the voting populace will respond to it.

[07:00:07]

That does not seem to be the kind of thinking that is in Steve Bannon's mind, at least here.

CORNISH: Yes. It's also a good reminder the stakes of this New York election. Your -- people are talking about it because it's like, who is this proxy for the coming (AUDIO GAP) what it means to be a Democrat and the stakes feel very high because no one quite knows who that is.

I want to thank you guys for waking up with us. We talked about a lot. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.