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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Doubles Down On War With China, Raises Tariffs To 125 Percent; Trump Preparing To Deport More Immigrants To Brutal Prison; Michelle Obama On Divorce Rumors. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired April 09, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:26]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, China not backing down. Trump slapping more tariffs on the country, 125 percent, as the president caves massively on a majority of other tariffs. Analysts say though it may be too little and too late.
And breaking news, Trump about to send more migrants to that brutal supermax prison in El Salvador. Our David Culver is there tonight, returning exclusively to that prison to see what's happening. The inmates, tattoos, telling chilling stories.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And Michelle Obama opening up about divorce rumors. Let's go.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Trump seeing red. It is 7:00 a.m. in Beijing and all eyes are on Chinese President Xi Jinping and how he will respond to Trump after Trump unexpectedly caved on tariffs, announcing a 90-day pause of steep tariffs for 75 countries.
But just be careful here. It's not the tariffs going away. It's 10 percent tariffs now across the board for everybody except for China.
And in the case of China, it's a lot more than that exponentially more. Trump hitting China with another 21 percent tariff, which brings total tariffs on China to 125 percent right now.
And Trump writing, based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world markets, I am hereby raising the tariff charge to China by the United States of America to 125 percent. That's obviously anything that you buy would be more than double the price of what you would have paid for it a year ago.
China, obviously, showing no sign of backing down, responding in kind and responding with defiance and pride. Pride coming from a surge of people, nationalism, calling out for blood. American blood in some senses.
Here's the messages we found flooding Chinese websites tonight. We must fight to the end. If we don't fight this war, our descendants would have to fight it. So, let's finish it off. Resolutely counter and fight the U.S. to the end.
And then some going so far, actually, a whole bunch of them talking about Taiwan, specifically saying that they have the momentum and, quote, now is the best time to take back Taiwan. As I said, a lot of those.
Strict Chinese censors letting all of those insults against the U.S. go through on social media, including this. This is an A.I. generated video mocking overweight Americans working in a sweatshop.
Now, Trump keeps claiming that China wants to make a deal. He keeps saying that, but so far, Xi Jinping has not called. And meanwhile, the markets around Trump have been collapsing.
Here's what he told Jeff Zeleny when he asked if he was implementing a 90-day pause in tariffs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy. A little bit afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A little yippy a little afraid. There was no little about it. A crisis was unfolding. And that is why Trump folded.
Before Trump's announcement, the steep ten-year U.S. treasury bond sell off was a shock wave. It was an absolute shock wave around the world.
If you are on social media last night, you would have had trouble sleeping. It was terrifying. What was happening was the world falling apart?
Longtime bond market analyst Jim Bianco said the situation was, quote, "tell your grandchildren I was there" moment in the bond market. It was a collapse. It was something that's not been really ever seen before.
So, Trump suddenly saying that tariffs of between 40 and 90 percent would be going to ten. Yeah. The markets did stabilize for a bit. I mean, they were in crisis mode. The Dow soared nearly 2,000 points when Trump said that.
It sounds impressive. It is impressive. These are incredible numbers by any account. But we're only reason were in this situation is because the context which you cannot be taken away. The markets are still down. The Dow down still 1,600 points, 1,600 points since what Trump has called "Liberation Day" just a week ago.
And Trump has done things. He has done things to the world's sense of stability, whether it be 10 percent tariffs or 125 percent tariffs now, whatever it is, it cannot be undone.
And here's how the chief economist of KPMG put it, saying: This is nuts. Damage done. Market relief is a head fake. Unless the administration makes a major course correction. Uncertainty is its own tax on the economy.
And longtime analyst Dan Ives, who is going to be with me in just a moment, saying that the situation all in is a, quote, epic debacle.
And then the gritty details of who benefited from today's incredible market turnaround and surge, I want to show this because it could really be important.
[19:05:03]
At 9:37 a.m., minutes after the market opened, Trump posted, quote, this is a great time to buy. And then he adds the words, the letters DJT.
Yes, those are his initials. He very rarely puts them on any kind of tweet. They also happen to be the ticker, the ticker for his own company, a company that had plunged along with everything else.
Fast forward 13-1/2 hours, Trump pauses those sweeping tariffs. His stock soars 21 percent.
So, anybody who actually bought DJT made a lot of money. Everyone should have a problem with this.
Former Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter posted: Market manipulation, misleading statements made with intent to affect securities prices and other fraudulent acts in connection with securities markets are federal crimes. These are serious things that should be looked into.
But Trump's comments right now doing little to restore the trust, despite the fact that Treasury Secretary Bessent told reporters today that everything that we've seen is don't worry, you don't need to undo it. The market meltdown, the sudden reversal on tariffs, all of it, all of it was part of a grand plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: This was driven by the presidents strategy. He and I had a long talk on Sunday. And this was his strategy all along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That does not add up because you just have to listen to Trump. Shortly after, Bessent said what you just heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it probably came together early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up. I didn't -- we didn't have the use of -- we didn't have access to lawyers or we just wrote it up. We wrote it up from our hearts, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Wrote it up from our hearts. Came together this morning. Just to be clear, today is Wednesday. And Bessent said this happened Sunday.
Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT, live outside the White House.
Jeff, you are the one the reporter who had that exchange that I just played a few moments ago with the president today, when he told you that people were yippy. And you asked him if this was hurting his credibility with world leaders and business leaders. What did he tell you?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, the president said that you have to be flexible. Weve heard this from him before. He said you have to be able to show a little bit of flexibility. So never mind credibility. That is a question that, of course, we are seeing play out and we will in the future.
But the bottom line to all of this, Erin, this felt to me like the first Trump administration, where there were officials and aides and advisers scrambling to sort of put pieces of the puzzle in place after something was already announced, you heard the treasury secretary saying, oh, we talked about it on Sunday. Well, the president said, no, we talked about it this morning. There were so many different explanations, as we've seen really all week long.
But standing on the South Lawn of the White House, the president was greeting some of NASCAR drivers and others, and we were out there. We asked him a question, but it's been exactly a week since he stood in the very same place, announced this -- the sweeping policy here. But they did not flinch throughout until last night.
And the president acknowledged it was the bond market. That was one of the deep concerns. But there was more than that. We're also learning that a variety of his supporters, donors, people who want him to do well, have been calling the White House, urging him to consider the markets.
We've talked about this a lot here that he says, oh, I don't look at the markets. He acknowledged -- he told me today, yes, the markets, people were queasy about them, of course. Why wouldn't they be? But he took credit near the end of the day here, sort of a victory lap for the historic rise in markets, never mentioning the fact that it was his policies that caused the historic fall.
So, one question we don't have answered tonight was the cost of all of this worth it? Theres no doubt it did hurt his credibility. We'll see going forward. But the trade war, we should point out it still exists with China, more so than ever.
BURNETT: Yeah, absolutely. More so than ever. And 10 percent on everyone else in the world, which, you know, if you said a week ago that's what was going to happen, that would have caused a real problem. Ten percent only looks good when it's compared to, you know, 40 to 90 percent or whatever that bizarre equation yielded.
Thanks so much, Jeff Zeleny.
An OUTFRONT now, longtime tech stocks analyst, Dan Ives, as I promised. Peter Tuchman, one of the most recognizable traders on Wall Street.
You're seeing his reaction today as the markets moved. I think that's a fair encapsulation of the moment.
And noted economic analyst Jim Bianco is also here with me.
So, Dan, you call all of this an epic debacle, which is far from over.
DAN IVES, GLOBAL HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: Welcome to the twilight zone. I think if you if you actually think about how this is playing out is, look, China continues to be front and center because the reality is, when it comes to Apple, tech food chain, most consumers, electronics, that's --
BURNETT: Amazon.com.
IVES: I mean, that's coming to the shores, that's coming to the U.S. consumer.
But ultimately, there's one thing and there's one, you know, ultimately financial instrument you can't bully. It's the bond market, as Jim knew as well.
And once that 10-year, 4, 4 or 5, it became really shown. This is a dark cloud that Trump couldn't talk his way out of. Need to back off the cliff.
Definitely huge, good news -- what I say good news today.
[19:10:04]
But the China -- that's really going to be the issue front and center in terms of what this plays out.
BURNETT: We showed your reaction today and here we are.
PETER TUCHMAN, TRADER AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE: You know, I mean, it was an odd day. You know, I mean let's look back for a couple of days. We did see what I'm calling a little bit of a test run when they released that news two days ago about what Bill Ackman had said, that what is it going to take for people to start buying stocks again? We talked about it.
BURNETT: Would there be a 90-day pause? White House called it fake news, but you had a temporary rally.
TUCHMAN: And -- but you saw the market react. And that was -- that was the -- you know, the test run for what happened today. Can you imagine if he had actually done that and the market did not react that way? So, he needed to know that if he in fact did that, that the market would react the way it did and it was with the band -- I mean, you know, the rally that was trillions of dollars, right? We saw that there was the initial little note that that Bessent had -- had changed his decision to go meet with some congress people and was called to the White House.
The next thing you see is Trump on Truth Social, announcing the 90-day pause in the exact same words that had happened two days ago. And the market's reaction was incredible.
I mean, you're talking, you know, 500 points in the S&P, never seen before. You know, 2,000 points up. We closed up on the Dow -- I mean, the amount of money that came into that market, it was -- it was a number of things.
BURNETT: Stunning.
TUCHMAN: It was probably a major short cover. It was a lot of buying, real buying, allocation of dollars into the marketplace.
BURNETT: So, you know, but -- but an incredibly unprecedented moment, Jim, that you say all of this -- that is still unfolding, right, still unfolding. But as you're watching that terrifying moment with what we saw in the bond market, it was terrifying. It was sort of at the precipice of, oh, my, you know, I don't know.
You said it was a "tell your grandchildren I was there" moment and I just want to play for you what Trump said today about the bond market.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it's -- it's beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful. But yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Queasy, Jim?
JIM BIANCO, ECONOMIC ANALYST, BIANCO RESEARCH PRESIDENT: Yeah. I mean, it was -- it was that. You know, we got to remember now, the foundation of our financial system is the cost of money. It's interest rates. I mean, some people think it's a boring investment, but it is a critically important thing.
And when we saw that mass liquidation that was going on last night, everybody was selling everything they had. That meant the price of bonds were going down, and interest rates were going up. If that had held for anything more than a few hours, we would have seen, you know, much higher mortgage rates, much higher borrowing costs for companies. It would have really had a negative impact on the economy in ways that we couldn't for fathom.
But fortunately, we come into today and the bond market backed off a little bit. And then we got the reversal of the policy. But it was still, you know, one of the craziest days I've ever seen. I don't want to say the craziest day because we had COVID five years ago, but it's definitely up there with COVID as far as what we saw.
BURNETT: And just the unprecedented nature, Dan, of where we are. All right. And we emphasize, okay, this happened today. It came from my heart this morning. Who knows. 10 percent tariffs are still out there, 125 percent on China, 125 percent on China.
You know, it's -- Tesla with its business there. Apple with, what, 100-plus factories. You know, you're talking to all these CEOs.
Do we have -- are we still in the great unknown? I mean, this China- U.S. situation is kind of undescribable in history.
IVES: We've talked it's a tariff Armageddon for U.S. tech. And that doesn't change. And Jim hit on it in terms of does this even push into more darker times potential recession.
But fundamentally for Silicon Valley, for Apple, for others, this today you ship an iPhone in, you're paying that price. Consumers are paying that price. So, the reality is, is that this is a game of highs --
BURNETT: Just to be clear, 125 percent means something that costs $1,000, would cost $2,225. So, my math, I mean, just, you know --
IVES: Exactly.
TUCHMAN: Again, it said an iPhone would probably be selling at about $3,500.
IVES: If you make them in the U.S., $3,500. So, we should make them in New Jersey, if you like, $3,500 iPhones, if you like them in China, $1,000.
BURNETT: Take a bunch of years to build a plant and then pay and then pay $3,000.
IVES: And that's why the reality is for -- for tech companies, they can't call Smith semi fab company in the Midwest because they don't exist.
BURNETT: And you know, Jim, I just want to put -- I got my board out today and I got my board out because, you know, before all this happened I wanted to make a point. And I know Jim and I talked through this earlier.
Okay, Jim, you call it the conveyor belt, I call it the boomerang. And I think this is just so crucial for people to understand what's at stake now, like where we are tonight. Okay?
So, if I have a guy named Joe, Joe D., he wants to buy an umbrella. He's got a big meeting. He wants to buy a big golf umbrella. He's a big guy. He buys his umbrella on Amazon. He goes to Amazon. He pays -- I just looked it up, $21.98. Okay? So,
he gets his umbrella, comes in a couple days. I mean, it's a big golf umbrella.
Here is Joe. He is happy.
TUCHMAN: It's nice.
BURNETT: It's a good -- I mean, it's one of those big ones you cant blow away on the streets of New York.
But then what does China do with the $21.98? I mean, it's dollars. It's not yuan. So that they do. Right, Jim? They send it back, they send it back and they buy U.S. treasuries.
And in fact, you were saying to me, if you take China and you add in Luxembourg and Belgium, other countries where Chinas been doing apparently a lot of buying through, the number one buyer outside the U.S. in the world of those treasuries is China.
That's where we are, right? I mean, they -- they -- we can kill them. They can kill us.
BIANCO: Yes, they can. Although, you know, it is kind of a mutually assured destruction type of thing. They don't hold a card over us that they could pull that would not affect them. And that whole conveyor belt works.
So today, amazon made an announcement that they're going to buy less inventory from China because of the tariffs okay. That's less money we send to China. That's less money that comes back and buys our bond market.
So, if that continues to over time because of these tariffs, that whole conveyor belt is going to start slowing down. We're going to get less stuff from them. We're going to send less money to them. They're going to have less money to recycle back into the bond market.
The hope of the administration is, well, we'd have less bonds to sell because we'd bring down the deficit. But that's not coming down this year. But the tariffs are here right now.
BURNETT: Right. And I will say very quick final word to you, Dan. Another idea Jim -- and Jim was talking about earlier was -- I mean, not -- not saying this would happen today, but things could change.
You know, Amazon could say, hey, well let you pay the here's the tariff price. Here's the price in yuan. Thats going to be a lot less. I mean, things could start to shift in terms of just the power of the dollar.
IVES: It's coming in the coming days, weeks to the U.S. consumer.
BURNETT: Yep.
IVES: Right. This is not just a stock market. Were talking about what's coming to the U.S. consumer.
TUCHMAN: You know what? Look, we saw today that apparently Apple had commissioned four major planes stuffed with billions of dollars of iPhones to be flown into the United States to arrive before the tariffs taken take effect. Can you imagine the -- when the biggest company in the world? Actually, it -- the effect it's going to have, as we talked about on them with this going through to the point where they felt it was worthwhile to actually commit --
BURNETT: Charter extra plane.
TUCHMAN: Charter extra planes, packed with iPhones to arrive here to save a few billion dollars. That should -- that should be like a flashing red light going, you know what? We don't even know how the ramifications of what this is going to have on Apple and all the other companies.
IVES: Welcome to the twilight zone.
TUCHMAN: The twilight zone.
BURNETT: And so we begin and --
TUCHMAN: Sterling --
IVES: And we begin.
BURNETT: Jim, Tuchman and Ives, you, of course, have -- have your YouTube show. Thanks so much to all.
And next, we're going to take you to ground zero of what's now going on, the trade war with China, the biggest port in the United States. Nearly half of the imports coming in there every day are from China. So what's happening live right now because of the trade war?
Plus, a CNN exclusive tonight, the Trump administration this evening gearing up to send more migrants to that notorious prison in El Salvador.
Tonight, our David Culver returns to that prison where some inmates are boasting about how many people they've killed.
And Michelle Obama just opening up about the rumors that she and her husband, Barack Obama, are headed for divorce.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:22:49]
BURNETT: Breaking news, China expected to retaliate tonight, possibly against the U.S., as it faces a 125 percent tariff from Trump. And ground zero in Trump's trade war right now is the center of all of it, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These are the ports that handle a third of all imports and exports for the entire country, and 40 percent of what comes through there comes from China.
So, tonight, this is ground zero.
Nick Watt is OUTFRONT at the port of Los Angeles.
Nick, you know, we were just hearing about, you know, multiple flights full of iPhones coming into the U.S., this incredibly unprecedented moment.
What is happening there tonight where you are.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, anxiety and confusion. I was just speaking to one of the guys who runs this port about an hour ago, and he said to me, Nick, I hope what I'm telling you now still holds by the time you go on TV to talk about it, they just don't really know what's happening. And in this business, that is bad.
Now, in terms of jobs, that's the big worry. More than a million jobs just in this part of California are tied to the trade that comes through these ports. Nationwide, we're talking 2.7 million jobs.
And what you're seeing right now, Erin, a lot of people were bringing in goods. Obviously, as you've just been talking about bringing in goods before the tariffs hit.
So, they have been posting some record numbers here at the ports. But if these tariffs hold on China, if the other ones are introduced, expect to see that mountain of 40,000 containers be severely depleted and maybe 4 to 6 weeks from here. They're going to go from boom, not to bust, but from boom to a dramatic fall off in trade.
And, you know, it's not just going to be felt here. Consumers across this country are going to be hit by price rises.
And also, don't forget, it's not just stuff coming in from China. It's stuff going out. Think of all those midwestern farmers who are not going to be sending as much to China as they have in past years.
And listen, I mentioned the uncertainty in a business like global trade and shipping, uncertainty is a terrible thing because there are such long lead times.
[19:25:02]
You know, if you're going to order something from a factory in Asia, you're going to place that order 3 or 4 months before it ever gets on a boat.
So, they have to plan, and they can't plan right now. Here, they're hoping no job losses. If this doesn't go on too long, they're just going to make longshoremen go into maintenance. But if it goes on too long, jobs will be lost -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Nick Watt.
And of course, right now, it is a more than doubling of the cost of goods coming from China. I mean, you talk about how long that can be sustained and a 10 percent tariff on everything else from around the world, which again, a week ago would have been seen as epic. It's only in the context of what we are now relatively comparing it to that were even suggesting it as anything less than that.
OUTFRONT now, Margaret Hoover, who is the host of PBS's "Firing Line", along with David Axelrod, now our chief political analyst.
David, can I just start with you? You hear Nick Watt saying -- he's talking to people at the port, and they're saying an hour ago saying, well, I don't know if what I tell you now is going to be even accurate an hour from now. Have you ever seen a moment like this?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No, plainly not.
Listen, Erin, I've said more than once you know, when I was in the White House, the thing that I learned very, very quickly was that the words I spoke just as an aide to the president, much less the words the president spoke, could, you know, you had to be very careful because you could send armies marching and markets crashing. And we've seen this in spectacular fashion in the last couple of days, not just through his words, but through these days.
Look, Donald Trump, got to where he got by being an improvisational, impulsive, instinctive person. Today, he said, even after all of this, he said, well, I might take away the 10 percent from some countries and said -- and when he was asked how he would make that judgment, he said, on instinct. And that's how he operates, and that's how he got to where he got.
But there is a real cost to it. We just saw it. And the question is, the other thing nick talked about was costs. He was elected for a specific reason. Americans thought things cost too much. He promised to get the costs down.
The things he's doing now are going to raise costs dramatically on some products, that people count on in this country. So, you know, I think this is not just a problem for the country. It's a political problem for him.
BURNETT: And, Margaret, you know, there's also at the premise of all of this, if you take a step back, some might say, okay, look, there is a debt problem in America. There is an imbalance between the U.S. and China. People would agree with that. Okay.
Then there's what are you going to do about it? And enter into that promise. Is America a great nation? Is it a great economy?
The answer to both of those questions is yes. It is the biggest, most powerful economy in the world. These are facts. Which is why I want to ask you why the agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins, while defending Trump's tariffs today, 15 minutes before he announced the pause -- so she was not in on the change of heart -- she said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE ROLLINS, U.S. SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: This idea, this president's realignment of the American economy, frankly, the world economy to allow us to put America first, it's not new. It goes back to Alexander Hamilton in 1791. He was writing about America should never be a neutral arbiter. We should always be a fervent promoter of all things American.
And you know what? We went from a frontier republic of the late 1700s to the world's greatest economic power until about 100 years ago, at the dawn of the progressive era when that ended.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I'm just going to say factually, I don't know what the heck she's talking about. America's reign as the world's greatest economy did not begin -- end 100 years ago. It's true now.
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. We -- so we eclipsed the United Kingdom in 1903, and then have remained the worlds greatest economic power since then. So, I -- it's a fact check, is just like fundamentally ahistorical.
And the challenging part is like Brooke Rollins knows better. Brooke Rollins had worked at a free market think tank in Texas for many years before she went to run the America First Policy Institute. She is essentially a conservative free marketer who has, like many of the people at the cabinet level in the Trump administration, chameleon into a defender of ideas that she never believed of before and the rest of her.
And so to say, sit there and just complain -- forget about being ahistorical and alternative facts. That is just not true. It is fundamentally not true. And I guess in Fox News, they didn't fact check her, but here you will.
You know, every single cabinet level official seems to be working on a rationale to reverse engineer and explain the erratic behavior. That is what David said. It is simply a gut instinct by the president to not be told what to do by people who pretend to know better than him, or actually maybe just understand what macroeconomics means in a post- depression era, we have learned about free trade and why we do it. That is -- there's a reason it is a consensus view amongst economists.
[19:30:00]
There's a reason we don't have 125 percent tariffs on all of our trading with friends and allies.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Right, and they're not a great thing, right? They're not a great thing. It's just -- these are facts.
Can I ask you, David, I put up a tweet a moment ago when Trump said, this is a great time to buy, DJT. Okay, he signed it, or he put his stock ticker, whichever we were, we were discussing about that.
I was just thinking back to February of 2020. He posted something about the coronavirus, and he said the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We're in contact with everyone in all relevant countries. Stock markets starting to look very good to me.
And it wasn't about the stock market that I point that out. It was this simple thing. The coronavirus is very much under control when it was anything but. And now he has unleashed something that we truly do not know what he -- what he has unleashed and what the ramifications will be.
AXELROD: Yeah. You know, here's the thing. He believes, and I've heard Alyssa Farah Griffin, who worked for him, talk about this. He believes that if you say it that people will believe it.
You know, Donald Trump is not a great businessman, but he is a brilliant, historically talented brander and marketer. And he markets the truth as he wants it to be seen. But sometimes the facts don't cooperate.
I thought it was incredible at the end of the day, that he was boasting -- the White House, was boasting about the rally in the stock market. Reminded me of that story Lincoln used to tell about the guy who -- the kid who murdered his parents and then, went to court and pleaded for mercy because he was an orphan.
I mean, he created the crisis and then tried to take credit for the rally at the end of the day. But this is what he -- he believes that you can sell when, when -- when they talked about alternative facts, he believes that you can sell your own narrative. Well, the world isn't like that. And we could pay a terrible price for it.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, Margaret, that's the thing. The moment that we are in is incredibly somber.
HOOVER: Yeah. I mean, and yet we all feel relieved today because we have a 90-day pause and we actually think perhaps, perhaps, you know, glass half full, you know, the right thing happened at least temporarily in the -- in the moment. And, I mean, it's shocking that we're all relieved after this dramatic ten, you know, double -- double-digit trillion dollar loss in the markets or erasure of wealth in the last four days.
And we're all relieved that he's going to pause for 90 days. And we're just hoping that the better angels will guide the next steps in the economy.
BURNETT: Hoping on better angels. Not -- not a place anybody wants to be.
HOOVER: That a place anyone wants to be.
BURNETT: No.
Thank you very much both. I appreciate it.
And next, a CNN exclusive. Our David Culver tonight is returning to one of the world's most dangerous prisons. So, he's there in El Salvador on the ground, a prison where Trump tonight is about to send more migrants.
Plus, former First Lady Michelle Obama breaking her silence for the first time on the divorce rumors.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:37:22]
BURNETT: Breaking news the Trump administration is preparing tonight to send more migrants with criminal records to the notorious mega prison in El Salvador that we're showing you right now. Tonight, we are learning that the administration is also considering a proposal from a Trump ally to build a separate -- so a new facility in El Salvador, new prison run by Americans.
Our David Culver knows more, and he has this unprecedented access to this prison again tonight in CECOT. And he has seen the chilling stories told by the tattoos you've been hearing so much about in these legal battles now in the U.S.
David is OUTFRONT with this CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see the Santa Muerte. This is something that was actually adopted from Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and has been used by gangs across Latin America, including, as the director points out, 18th Street Gang.
(voice-over): Inside CECOT, El Salvador's notorious terrorism confinement center, tattoos aren't just art. Officials say they're messages, warnings, a visual record of where someone's been and what they've done.
The saint of death.
Prison director Belarmino Garcia says many of these markings are steeped in ritual loyalty and violence, but officials insist they don't rely on tattoos alone.
Each inmate here, they say, has a file with a criminal history that goes back years.
He said MS-13 active. And I said, what do you mean by active? He said, still a gang member.
Prison officials selected one inmate for us to speak with, Hector Hernandez. Under close watch by guards, he proudly showed off his tattoos.
Why are you here in this prison?
For homicide. Cincuenta personas. More than 50 people.
Critics question the lack of due process. Officials insist they've done their due diligence, though they acknowledge not all inmates here have been convicted. But El Salvador's justice and public security ministry insists they can back up each case, in part thanks to this.
GUSTAVO VILLATORO, EL SALVADOR'S SECURITY AND JUSTICE MINISTER: They have one eight, means Barrio Dieciocho.
CULVER: Public Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro shows us his personal gang intelligence book, 20 years in the making. It's now shared with law enforcement around the world, he says.
VILLATORO: We are giving support the police in Italy, Spain, in the U.S.
CULVER: He says their focus is global and includes deportees. If someone in U.S. custody has ties to El Salvador, officials here say they're watching.
VILLATORO: Even in the book, you have separate.
CULVER: While they won't comment on specific cases, Villatoro says they have extensive criminal records on alleged gang members who have yet to be caught.
[19:40:07]
VILLATORO: This information allowed us to catch them when U.S. and a deportation flight. We checked all of them. And if we found someone who we are very sure that he is a member of any gangs in El Salvador, we capture them and put in jail.
CULVER: You know exactly who's coming in on those deportation flights.
VILLATORO: Yes.
CULVER: So, did you specifically want those individuals to come back?
VILLATORO: Of course. Of course.
CULVER: The minister continuously updates his findings and says he shares those records and other gang intel with U.S. law enforcement. The tactics used to track gang symbols here in El Salvador started outside prison walls, where ink can mean art or accusation.
What are you covering up? Thats what they say.
Cover tattoo artist Alejandra Angel says she once worried her ink might draw suspicion, especially after President Nayib Bukele launched a state of emergency in 2022 to dismantle gangs. She says her decision to cover an old design that she no longer liked raised questions, but nothing ever came of it.
Camilo Rodriguez, another tattoo artist, says police stopped him twice early on in the crackdown, asking what his tattoos meant.
He said no longer are people fearing police when they have tattoos. He's actually seen more and more professionals, doctors, lawyers come and want to get tattoos done. Camilo says officers here are now more informed, better trained, more
precise. Inside CECOT, the country's violent past is etched into skin. Yet for those being sent back across borders, tattoos may not just hint at who they are, they can help decide where they end up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER (on camera): Now, Erin, you mentioned that the U.S. is now planning to send more deportees from the U.S. to here in El Salvador and eventually into CECOT. And one thing that stood out to me is when we were visiting, the prison director told me that they're nearing capacity and that some 40,000, by the way. So that suggests that they maybe are running out of space.
When I took that question to the public security minister, he told me just a few hours ago that they've got backup plans for added capacity, including potentially building a second CECOT.
BURNETT: Wow, that is incredible. A second CECOT, and as you said, maybe, perhaps even managed by Americans. It is incredible to watch all of this happen. And thank goodness we have you there to show exactly so everyone can see.
David Culver, thank you so much. This incredible reporting in El Salvador.
Next, a case of measles now confirmed in Hawaii, which is where the state's governor has been sounding the alarm on RFK Jr.'s handling of the deadly measles outbreak. And Governor Josh Green is next.
Plus, Michelle Obama taking on those divorce rumors. You'll hear what she's saying tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:21]
BURNETT: Tonight, measles reaching a new state as the deadly outbreak surpasses 650 cases nationwide. Thats just what's reported. A child in Hawaii under the age of five contracting the highly infectious disease during an international trip.
And now, more than two months after the outbreak started, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. for the first time -- so, this is two months after the outbreak, all the coverage it's gotten -- for the first time, he is actually directly recommending the vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We encourage people to get the measles vaccine. The federal government's position, my position is, people should get the measles vaccine, but if -- the government should not be mandating it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: People should get the measles vaccine. Now, of course, that should have been said loud and clear for the past two months. And even if it was finally, finally going to be said two months into this, just say that and end it there. But seconds later, RFK Jr. changed what he said a little bit, making it a little bit muddy. He said there are risks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: And we are doing that science today so that we know the risks of that product, and we also know what the benefits are. And right now, we don't know the risks of many of these products because they're not safety tests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the governor of Hawaii, Josh Green, also an E.R. physician who responded to the deadly measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019, where he said Kennedy was responsible for helping spread misinformation before the outbreak that affected vaccination rates and illness and death.
Governor Green, I want to ask you about RFK Jr. in just a moment. But obviously, we're starting here with your state now. You know, it has reached your state. The deadly disease is there, highly contagious.
What are you able to tell us? And how concerned are you?
GOV. JOSH GREEN (D), HAWAII: We're very concerned. We have one case confirmed right now. We expect a second case to be confirmed, which is in the family.
And this -- this is a very, very infectious disease. We, like many other states, don't have enough vaccination in people already to prevent spread. So, if people went through the airport at the same time as the child, there could be infection. We're tracking all the cases. We're doing good public health in spite of the cuts that that came from the federal government. So, we're doing what we can.
But, you know, we are among 14 other states where less than 90 percent of our kindergartners are vaccinated. That means it will spread if it gets into the wrong population. And we're now one out of the 675 confirmed cases.
But there are thousands and thousands of additional cases of measles out there, which are not confirmed because people are laying low.
[19:50:01]
So, it's a very, very big concern. And there have already been two deaths, which is horrific.
So, I want Kennedy to call for a national vaccination move, and I want him to restore all of the public health dollars that fight the spread of disease. BURNETT: So, you know, he -- he -- the past two months, he has not
called for people to use to get the vaccine right. He has not been direct about that. He was today in that interview with CBS, he said, quote, people should get the measles vaccine. So, he said that.
But then seconds later, he didn't. He said -- he's referencing risks of that product. And we know what the benefits are. We don't know the risks of many of these products because they're not safety tested. Unclear the vaccines to which he was referring.
But -- but how do you respond to that? You're asking for him to go for a national campaign to deal with the fact that we have a crisis in terms of two low vaccination rates on things like measles? But that's what he said.
GREEN: Yeah. He -- he always equivocates. And that's the problem.
The secretary of health cannot equivocate. This vaccine has been tested for decades. It's safe. And we should just be doing it because otherwise what happens is one out of 20 people who catch the measles end up with pneumonia. One out of five end up hospitalized.
So, if you have a big outbreak in a rural community, it will completely overwhelm your critical access hospital. I'm not sure he's really calculating those other impacts, but he should not be equivocating. He certainly shouldn't be talking about alternate treatments. He should not be celebrating the two health care providers that aren't using standard of care to care for the patients that are in their midst.
It's all bad, and I am glad that he finally said get vaccinated. Of course, that's every normal public health official. So, it's -- like I said, it's horrible. Public health malpractice to equivocate. And Kennedy needs to get it straight because people's lives are on the line.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Governor Green, I appreciate your time, and thank you very much. As we continue to monitor it now in your state. Thank you.
GREEN: Yeah. Please, get vaccinated, everybody.
BURNETT: Yeah, you can certainly second that.
And also tonight, the former first lady, Michelle Obama speaking out, shutting down the rumors that have been out there that have been hard to squelch, that she and her husband of 32 years, former President Obama, are getting divorced.
And those rumors took off after former president Obama attended Jimmy Carter's funeral by himself, and then days later, attended Trump's inauguration, also alone. So, she has now speaking out -- she is now speaking out, I'm sorry, on actress Sophia Bush's podcast.
Hear for yourself.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: We as women, I think we struggle with, like, disappointing people.
SOPHIA BUSH, PODCAST HOST: Yeah.
OBAMA: You know? I mean, so much so that this year, people were -- you know, they couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing. You know, that this couldn't -- this couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself, right?
BUSH: Right.
OBAMA: But that's what -- that's what society does to us.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: The former first lady appearing to reference her decision to skip these high profile events, saying, quote, I chose to do what was best for me, not what I thought other people wanted me to do.
Well, OUTFRONT next, a chilling purge inside China tonight. In the midst of this whole trade war crisis, senior military leaders are disappearing in China without a trace. A special report for what's going on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:40]
BURNETT: Breaking news, it's almost 8:00 a.m. in Beijing. And all eyes right now are on Chinese President Xi, and what he will do now that Trump has yet again escalated the trade war. It comes as she is facing a growing internal conflict that is sparking massive speculation in China, where is one of his top military generals? Has he been purged?
Will Ripley is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every spring in Beijing, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping and his powerful inner circle plant trees, a carefully choreographed ritual to mark National Arbor Day. More importantly, it signals unity and strength at the top.
But this year, there's an unsettling omission one of China's most powerful military men is missing. General He Weidong, seen here taking part last year, but not this year. The general seems to be missing in action.
Speculation is swirling. He may be the latest and highest-ranking disappearance in Xi's deepening purge of the 2 million strong People's Liberation Army. Since the summer of 2023, more than a dozen top military officials have vanished or been ousted, including two defense ministers and leaders of China's nuclear capable rocket force.
General He is not just any officer. He's one of two vice chairmen of the central military commission, the PLA's top authority, led by Xi himself. Their connection runs deep going back decades. He once led China's western theater command near India. Later, the eastern theater command, which would spearhead any invasion of Taiwan. He oversaw troops simulating Taiwan blockades and warplanes flying near the island almost daily.
And when someone that powerful just disappears from public view without even a word from China's defense ministry, it could have huge implications well beyond the Chinese mainland, from here in Taipei to Washington.
The latest mystery echoes the case of Qin Gang, China's former foreign minister, who vanished in 2023. Here he is with then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, weeks before disappearing, then losing his job amid rumors about his personal life.
General Li Shangfu, seen here with Vladimir Putin, was China's face at global security summits as defense minister. Here he is in Singapore, meeting top U.S. officials. Two months later, he was gone.
At the heart of the current purge, China's missile command and military procurement, closely watched by the Pentagon. With U.S.-China tensions rising and an all out trade war unfolding, Xi Jinping, has made one thing clear, loyalty is non-negotiable. But as these disappearances mount, so do the questions. Why is China's military still plagued by corruption after more than a decade of Xi's anti- graft campaign? If even his most trusted generals are not safe, who could be next to disappear?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RIPLEY (on camera): This is extremely sensitive, and we can tell because we're watching the China feed. Even though you talked about the trade wars for like half of your show and they didn't censor that, they're censoring this report now because people are asking here in Taipei and around the world, why is Xi cracking down? Is he worried that his military might crumble if there was a conflict over Taiwan, just like Russians did in Ukraine?
You know, corruption, we know, runs deep, commanders selling promotions, taking bribes, even running side hustles. Aaron, the weapon systems may be compromised. His loyalty to the party actually matter more than actual skill. These are the serious questions China does not want to be asked.
BURNETT: Oh, incredible. And there we are in bars and tone, as you said. Everything else they let go.
Thank you very much, Will.
Thanks to all of you.
It's time now for "AC360".
