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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Trump Imposes Sweeping New Tariffs on Trading Partners; Consumers in China Brace for Reciprocal U.S. Tariffs; Russia Steps Up Offensive Across the Front Line in Ukraine; Bezos' Blue Origin to Launch All-Female Crew Monday. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 09, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon. And here are some of the stories we are watching today.
Trump is now leveling new tariffs of up to 50 percent on dozens of countries. China has been hit the hardest with a 104 percent tariff on all of its exports. Beijing promising to take what it calls resolute and effective measures to counter the United States' quote, domineering and bullying behavior.
Sheriff's deputies are searching for one or more suspects in a mass shooting that killed three people and wounded three others. This happened in northeastern Virginia on Tuesday evening. The Spotsylvania Sheriff's Office says that dozens of officers are currently looking for suspects.
The Associated Press reports that the death toll has now climbed to at least 98 in the Dominican Republic. That's where the roof of an iconic nightclub collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday. It happened as a popular merengue artist was performing to a huge crowd. More than 220 people were hurt.
President Trump addressing a group of Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, just hours before the latest round of tariffs were set to take hold. He described foreign leaders essentially groveling to avoid his administration's tariffs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know what the hell I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. These countries are calling us up kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make it here. Please, please, sir, make a deal. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: All right let's take a look at how his global trade wars affecting the markets. Asian Pacific markets actually closed mixed.
Taking a look at live -- taking a look live this morning at U.S. futures at 4:30. U.S. futures are solidly lower. The Nasdaq actually had been positive in pre-market trading but looks solidly lower at this point. Watch this space.
Meantime, consumers in China are now bracing for the impact on their wallets, with the trade war expected to drive up the cost of everyday items. CNN's Marc Stewart has the latest now from Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this Apple store in Beijing, it's all business as usual despite the growing trade tension between the United States and China. This young woman named Lucy didn't hesitate to drop big bucks for one of the latest iPhones.
LUCY, CHINESE CONSUMER (through translator): I bought an iPhone 16. The staff are still helping me install a new system in there.
STEWART: 16?
LUCY: Yes.
STEWART (voice-over): But as the trade war between the world's two biggest economies escalates further, there's a shared concern between the two nations, rising prices and a slowing economy on both sides of the Pacific.
LUCY (through translator): For businesses, the cost will be higher for them to make stuff and we will end up paying more for their products. It's a vicious cycle.
STEWART (voice-over): Some people say they have faith in China's strength.
STEWART: Do you worry that these trade issues will hurt the lives of everyday people living in China?
PAUL, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): No, no, no. Those American goods that have been tariffed, we can always replace them with Chinese made goods.
STEWART: This is all happening as China deals with economic struggles of its own. A trade war with the U.S. could be another big blow.
STEWART (voice-over): But China is not backing down from its defiant stance.
[04:35:00]
LIN JIAN, SPOKESPERSON, CHINA MINISTRY AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS (through translator): Pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right ways to engage with China. If the U.S. insists on launching a tariff or trade war, China will fight to the end.
STEWART (voice-over): As President Trump adds another 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods, China's Commerce Ministry calls the move a mistake on top of a mistake.
On Chinese social media, users rally around the government's reactions. One person posting: Fight to the end, never compromise. Another saying: We do not fear any unreasonable threats.
But some others have a more sober view.
MR. WU, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): Whether for the U.S. or China, once the tariffs get raised, it will be the people of both countries who end up paying.
STEWART (voice-over): Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the U.S. President fought over trade during Trump's first term. And this time around, Beijing again hitting back at Washington where it will sting, vowing to turn pressure into motivation as officials here try to rewire China's economy and trade ties.
Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: And the tariff war has caused fear and chaos on Wall Street and among investors and CEOs around the world. And it's been causing a break in Trump's own team. Billionaire adviser Elon Musk is now all in on a public fight with Trump's top trade adviser, Peter Navarro. That's after Navarro said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SENIOR TRADE ADVISER: We all understand in the White House and the American people understand that Elon's a car manufacturer, but he's not a car manufacturer. He's a car assembler in many cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: But Musk responded by writing in part, quote: Navarro is truly a moron and dumber than a sack of bricks. Then he went even further, posting that he'd like to apologize to bricks for calling Navarro dumber than a sack of bricks. That was so unfair to bricks, unquote.
But the White House is downplaying the public spat. Here's the press secretary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Meantime, the strained relations between the U.S. and China over tariffs is turning into a war of words after the U.S. vice president's comments about, quote, Chinese peasants. Now, Beijing is slamming J.D. Vance for his comments and CNN's Will Ripley has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VANCE: Well, good morning, everybody.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The American hillbilly versus China's so-called peasants. It all started with this.
VANCE: And to make it a little bit more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture from Chinese peasants.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Vance's Chinese peasants comment reaching Beijing within hours. The government's response was swift and scathing.
LI JIAN, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): It's both astonishing and lamentable to hear this vice president make such ignorant and disrespectful remarks.
RIPLEY (voice-over): On China's tightly controlled Internet, government censors are allowing Vance's interview to go viral, amplifying the outrage, igniting anger and sarcasm.
Have you said thank you for the money we lent you? A reference to China being the second largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, and that infamous Oval Office exchange with Ukraine's president.
VANCE: You should be thanking the president.
RIPLEY (voice-over): One hashtag about the Chinese peasants remark shot to the top of China's Twitter like platform Weibo, with millions of views and counting. Many comments boasting of China's modern achievements.
Look, this is their true face. Arrogant and rude as always. We may be peasants, but we have the world's best high-speed rail, the most powerful logistics and leading AI and drone technologies. Aren't such peasants quite impressive?
Former "Global Times" editor Hu Xijin posted on Weibo: This true peasant who came out of rural America seems to lack perspective. Many people are urging him to visit China and see reality with his own eyes.
Many in China are interpreting Vance's comments as describing all Chinese people, some even referencing Vance's memoir and movie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many times have you seen this?
RIPLEY (voice-over): As one social media post put it, the author of "Hillbilly Elegy" is calling Chinese peasants, really?
RIPLEY: Incidentally, Hillbilly Elegy was translated into Mandarin. It's actually a bestseller in China. But the vice president soundbite has spiraled into yet another war of words between the U.S. and China. Many Chinese are calling his remark proof of what they call American arrogance. As if U.S. China tensions weren't bad enough over things like tariffs, technology, Taiwan. CNN has reached out to J.D. Vance's office for comment and so far
nothing.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:40:00]
SOLOMON: A federal judge says that it is unconstitutional for the White House to punish the Associated Press just because President Trump doesn't like its viewpoint. Earlier this year, Trump blocked the AP's access to his events, the Oval Office and Air Force One, simply because the organization continued to use the name Gulf of Mexico after Trump renamed it Gulf of America. The Trump appointed judge ordered the government to restore the AP's access, but he did delay his order for one week to allow the White House to appeal.
U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will be at a U.S.-Iran meeting in Oman on Saturday. Witkoff will leave what the U.S. State Department insists is only a meeting and not a negotiation. On Monday, President Trump said that direct talks are underway between the two countries on Tehran's nuclear program.
But Iranian officials say that discussion will be indirect and mediated by Oman. Whatever the case may be, the White House press secretary had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: When it comes to Iran, the president has reimposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime, and he's made it very clear to Iran they have a choice to make. You can strike a deal with the president. You can negotiate or there will be hell to pay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that two Chinese nationals fighting in the Russian army have been captured. He said that it happened in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Now, Zelenskyy is looking to international allies, as well as Beijing, for their response to the matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We really hope that after this situation, the Americans will talk more with the Ukrainians and then the Russians. We really hope that the Chinese side will also react. I have instructed the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of defense to contact the Chinese counterparts so that they can give us an explanation for those actions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: OK, let's get to Nic Robertson, who joins us live from London. Nic, Russia appears to be increasing its offensive on the front lines, obviously not what the president, U.S. president, wants to see. What's going on here?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is what the picture that is emerging from Ukrainian military officials, fighters along the front line that they're seeing in certain areas that they believe that Russia is building up its forces, that it is putting additional pressure, particularly along the front line in certain areas where they feel that they can make gains.
Western officials are saying they're not seeing a massive Russian buildup. And interestingly, those Western officials also commented on the capture of those two Chinese citizens by the Ukrainian military, saying they don't see evidence so far that this is state sponsored by China to send citizens to go and fight for Russia against Ukraine inside of Ukraine.
Of course, that would be a very, very big and in the words of the -- very, very big development if that were to be the case. The State Department has said the fact that these Chinese nationals were picked up by Ukrainian military is disturbing. And they point to the fact that, look, China already provides 80 percent of the dual use military equipment that Russia uses to fight the war in Ukraine.
We're talking here about motors for drones, all sorts of high tech equipment. China has said that it's staying out of the fight in Ukraine, but it is in fact providing Russia with not only the military hardware but also supporting it financially by buying products that are being sanctioned like oil by other parts of the world. So China does appear to play and does play a major role in the war in Ukraine, supporting Russia.
So if it was sending civilians or fighters even to go and join the Russian forces, that would be a very significant move. In the context of what President Zelenskyy is saying. He is saying that they are more of these Chinese fighters involved. He is not saying that it's state sponsored, but he did have his foreign minister call in China's charge d'affaires in Kyiv for an explanation.
And Chinese officials are saying they are working with Ukrainian authorities to to to get more into the facts of this. The Chinese government also is saying that it states very clearly that its citizens should stay away from areas of conflict and indeed beyond that should not get involved in joining parties to a conflict and getting involved in that fight.
[04:45:00]
But this is an indication that Zelenskyy is saying very clearly that if Russia is dipping into and using, as we know, North Korean troops, but if it's using Chinese citizens to fight in the war, this Zelenskyy said is every indication that the United States, President Trump should need to see that Putin is not committed to working towards this ceasefire, that President Trump is pushing.
And indeed, that was also the analysis of Western officials yesterday speaking about this. They said they see several reasons why Putin is not working towards a ceasefire right now. In fact, they think that their assessment is that he believes that he can still win this militarily on the ground in Ukraine.
SOLOMON: Well, really, really interesting development there. Nic Robertson reporting live for us in London, Nic. Thank you.
The countdown is on just ahead. A look at Blue Origin's star-studded all-female crew that could make history when it launches next week.
And Charles and Camilla do a little sightseeing on their first state visit of the year.
We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Blue Origin is set to launch a new mission in just a matter of days that they hope will be one giant leap for womankind. CNN's Isabel Rosales takes a look at the historic mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time in more than 60 years, an all-female crew is set to blast off into space. Blue Origin's star-studded NS31 mission is scheduled to launch from West Texas on April 14th on board the New Shepard vehicle.
Among the six-person crew are singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez, pilot and fiancee of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
The crew is set to travel just past the Karman Line, the point widely recognized as where outer space begins and will experience a few minutes of microgravity before descending back to Earth.
Crew member and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe spoke to CNN about her hope that this landmark voyage will inspire more women to shoot for the stars.
AISHA BOWE, BLUE ORIGIN CREW MEMBER: To see six women who are all incredibly unique, who are very inspiring in their own right, come together and globally on a campaign, I think what you're going to see is not only more women, but more people know that they can too become one of us and that they also can reach and work in these fields.
ROSALES (voice-over): This will mark the first all-female space mission since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission back in 1963.
But the historic mission has also faced criticism, including from actress Olivia Munn. While co-hosting on NBC's "Today" show with Jenna Bush Hager, Munn questioned the purpose of the mission and its cost.
OLIVIA MUNN, ACTRESS: What are they doing? Like, why? You know what I mean? Like, I'm just saying this. OK, I know this is probably not the cool thing to say, but like there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.
Like, they aren't asked. I mean, there's one astronaut.
JENNA BUSH HAGER, HOST, "TODAY WITH JENNA AND FRIENDS": One astronaut.
MUNN: But like, what are you guys going to do up in space? What are you doing up there?
ROSALES (voice-over): One crew member, researcher and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, will conduct experiments about women's health during the 11-minute flight. Nguyen will make history becoming the first woman of Vietnamese or Southeast Asian descent in space.
Since their first successful crewed spaceflight in 2021, Blue Origin has had 10 crewed missions, bringing more than 50 people to the edge of space, including Star Trek actor William Shatner, who was brought to tears by the experience.
WILLIAM SHATNER, ACTOR: I hope I never recover from this.
ROSALES (voice-over): Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Since Harry made a rare appearance in the U.K. amid a legal battle with the British government. The Duke of Sussex has been fighting a decision to downgrade the level of taxpayer funded security that he and his family receives when in the U.K. It's needed a hearing Tuesday to appeal an earlier ruling that upheld the government's decision as lawful. Harry's protection was downgraded after he and his wife announced that they would step down as working royals in 2020. He has often voiced his fears for his family's safety. They currently reside in California.
Britain's King Charles and Queen Camilla made a visit to Rome, their first stop on a four day trip to Italy, which coincides with their 20th wedding anniversary.
CNN's Ben Wiedemann has more on the royal visit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In his first visit to Italy as king, Charles, accompanied by Queen Camilla, has come here to the Coliseum, part of a four day state visit coinciding with their 20th wedding anniversary. Tuesday, the royal couple was supposed to meet with Pope Francis, but that meeting had to be postponed as the 88 year old pontiff recovers from double pneumonia.
King Charles has had health problems of his own. Last month, he was briefly hospitalized due to the side effects of cancer treatment. He was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer in February last year.
King Charles is also scheduled to be the first British monarch to address both houses of the Italian parliament. Wednesday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella will host a black tie state banquet for the royal couple. At the request of the British monarch, the fair will be vegetarian.
Italy has rolled out a very big red carpet for the royal couple. But with the U.S. led world trade war in full swing, markets in disarray and war raging in Gaza, Ukraine and elsewhere, this state visit seems like a quaint vestige of a world fast disappearing.
[04:55:04]
I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: And former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was seen ruffling some feathers at a drive thru safari park in Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, FORM BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Bollocks, right!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: The video of the feisty interaction shows an ostrich poking its head into Johnson's car and pecking him on the arm. The viral moment was caught on camera by his wife and has since been picked up by numerous British media outlets. Very up close experience there.
Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. I'll be back with more news after this quick break.
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