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Zelenskyy: Ukraine, U.S. To Discuss New Sanctions on Russia; Trump Signs Executive Order To Ease Some Auto Tariffs; U.S.-China Trade War Stokes Fears Of Shortages. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 30, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump administration has warned that it will walk away from mediating an end to the war if progress is not made.

Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian who joins us now from London. And Clare, Trump himself, in a Truth Social post, recently floated the idea of additional sanctions. So what more do we know about another U.S.-Ukraine meeting?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's nothing firm on the calendar as of yet, Rahel, as far as we know at least. But certainly President Zelenskyy, who called that Vatican meeting that you're showing pictures of right now -- potentially historic -- is clearly trying to seize on that potential.

He said in his nightly address on Tuesday that Ukraine is identifying the pressure points, essentially sanctions that will push Moscow towards diplomacy and will sort of bring those to the U.S. So I think he is trying to seize on that momentum here.

I think the really big question though is what will the U.S. do about it? Are they willing to translate this talk about sanctions into actual action?

I think it's fair to say in that ABC interview President Trump sort of softened his rhetoric a little bit from that Truth Social post where he -- it was a rare insult towards President Putin. He said on the issue of whether or not he's being tapped along by the Russian president -- he said maybe, you know -- it's possible. He then went on to say that President Putin respects him and that's why he hasn't taken the whole of Ukraine.

And, of course, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, said over the weekend that they haven't put more sanctions on Russia as of yet because essentially, they want to keep them at the table.

And Russia, meanwhile, as well, is ramping up hostilities on the front line, according to Ukraine's commander in chief, and continues to launch these nightly barrages of drones, sometimes also including missiles. And is using its offer of direct talks with Kyiv now essentially as another pretext not to sign on to the U.S.-proposed 30- day ceasefire proposed about a month and a half ago that Ukraine has already agreed to.

Take a listen to the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Our proposal, which was voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is the start of direct negotiations without preconditions. A ceasefire in this situation is seen as a precondition that will be used to further support the Kyiv regime and strengthen its military capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So this sets up an impasse essentially. Russia says that talks must come first. Ukraine says that Russia must make the next move and agree to a ceasefire.

So I think what the U.S. does next, whether its frustration boils over and it pulls out or whether it gets tougher on Russia, or perhaps even tough on Zelenskyy again, I think all of that is up in the air at the moment. And this again a critical week, as the Secretary of State said.

SOLOMON: Yeah. OK.

Clare Sebastian reporting for us there in London. Clare, thank you.

Police in Sweden, meantime, have detained a 16-year-old suspect in the shooting deaths of three people north of Stockholm on Tuesday. Prosecutors say that the teen is one of several people being questioned about the attack. Witnesses told local media they heard what sounded like gunshots at a hair salon. The motive this morning is unclear, but authorities say that there is no indication that it was terrorism or a hate crime.

The European Parliament says that Sweden is "currently battling a wave of gang violence."

Still ahead for us, President Trump reversing course and easing up on some auto tariffs. We'll break down the numbers after this break.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:37:55]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Automaker Stellantis says that it is suspending its forecast for profitable growth this year. The company appointed to uncertainties about the impacts of "evolving tariff policies."

It comes as President Trump appears to have made another concession on tariffs, signing an executive order with exemptions for U.S. automakers. It allows reimbursements for duties on imported car parts if the vehicles are assembled in the U.S., and it prevents manufacturers from facing multiple auto-related tariffs. Sherrell Hubbard has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): President Donald Trump choosing Michigan for his day 100 rally. The state was key to his victory last fall and is key to the U.S. auto industry with one in five jobs there linked to the auto industry.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of auto jobs coming. Watch what's happening.

HUBBARD (voiceover): His new executive order and proclamation to ease auto tariffs would continue the 25 percent tariff on imported cars and put a new 25 percent tariff on auto parts into effect this weekend as previously announced. They also allow reimbursements for domestic car producers importing car parts, and they consolidate auto-related tariffs.

TRUMP: They all want to come back to Michigan and build cars again. You know why? Because of our tax and tariff policy.

HUBBARD (voiceover): While the three large U.S. automakers -- General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) -- thanked Trump for the softer stance on auto tariffs, not everyone is thrilled about the president's policies.

On his 100th day of the Trump administration, various surveys and polls show growing pessimism amongst U.S. consumers, with much of the consumer sentiment hinged on Trump's volatile tariff policy.

REP. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): In these 100 days, what has gone up? The cost of groceries, up. Energy costs, up. Cost of clothes, of homes, of cars, up.

What has dropped? Your retirement and 401ks down.

HUBBARD (voiceover): I'm Sherrell Hubbard reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:40:00]

SOLOMON: Amazon is denying that it ever planned to display the added cost of tariffs for certain imported items on its website. Reports started circulating early on Tuesday about the e-commerce giant prompting this response from the White House press secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: A source tells CNN that the president was extremely angry about a multibillion-dollar company passing off costs to consumers, so Trump called Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos directly.

The company later issued a statement saying, "The team that runs our ultra-low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and is not going to happen."

Still to come, experts fear the trade war between the U.S. and China will translate to shortages in U.S. stores. I will discuss the effects of the tariff standoff with an expert after this break.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:45:20]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon, and here are some of the stories we are watching this morning.

At least one person is dead after severe thunderstorms struck through parts of the northeastern U.S. Powerful winds and rain ripped trees from the ground and roofs of off several buildings. The storm has left more than half a million customers without power.

President Trump celebrated the first 100 days of his second term with a rally in the battleground state of Michigan. He says that the economy is booming and while consumer spending has held up stocks, consumer confidence and job openings have been on the decline.

And brand new CNN polling shows support for Trump's deportation policies slipping. Fifty-two percent say they go too far. That is up seven points since February. Thirty-three percent say they're about right. When asked if Trump's immigration policies make the U.S. safer, 52 percent said no, 47 percent said yes.

Financial experts are sounding the alarm of the potential impacts of the global trade war sparked by President Trump's tariffs. They say that it could trigger a slump in shipments to the U.S. and empty shelves in stores.

Supply chain logistics group Vision reports a drastic drop in shipping container bookings from China to the U.S. in recent weeks as we see here in this chart. And data from the Port of Los Angeles shows a decline in volume of imports as well.

Let's welcome into the conversation Craig Fuller. He is the founder and CEO of FreightWaves. That's an organization that provides data and analytics on the freight and logistics market. And he joins us this morning from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Great to have you this morning, sir.

Let me just ask your response to that chart you see. We also have these warnings about pandemic-like shortages on store shelves.

How concerned are you?

CRAIG FULLER, CEO AND FOUNDER, FREIGHTWAVES: Yeah, I think it's a real issue. It's a real concern. I mean, it's going to bring people's memory back to COVID when we had all sorts of shortages. This could happen again.

So really what's happening is companies have paused shipments into the United States and in doing so it means that a number of products will not be readily available and won't be in inventory when consumers go to purchase those things.

SOLOMON: Hmm.

I want to play for you something that the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday when asked whether he had any concerns about shortages. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: Are you worried about empty shelves?

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Not at present. We have some great retailers. I assume they preordered. I think we'll see some elasticities and I think we'll see replacements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Craig, is that a fair assessment that retailers would have already preordered for this? That they would have been able to get in front of this?

FULLER: Yeah. I think for some of the larger big box retailers they've been planning it for the past year. But when you look at a number of small businesses and a lot of medium-sized businesses they didn't take precautions. I think people expected in supply chain -- expected that tariffs would happen. But I don't think anyone foresaw 145 percent tariffs.

And let's not forget that we're not just talking about retailers but things like your air conditioner could go out. So a lot of the appliance and parts for machinery and air condition units are actually sourced from China. So you could be in a situation in July and -- because people have not -- these companies have not imported these products -- have not imported these parts.

It could be a situation that your air conditioner goes out in the middle of July, and you call your technician, and he can't get his hands on parts anytime soon. So you could be without.

So these are the concerns. When you actually disrupt a supply chain to the degree that we are currently doing there are going to be things that you normally would expect to receive, and you would normally expect to be able to purchase, and normally expect to be enjoyed, just not -- are not going to be there.

SOLOMON: And how soon before consumers start to see that or feel that? And where do you see it first? What products?

FULLER: Yeah. So I think it will be intermittent. It probably won't even be something that you notice at first, and that could happen as early as June. So about a month out. When you start -- you're really going to start to feel the pain

probably and it's going to be noticeable by most consumers is in the back-to-school period. So this is really early August when parents and moms are going out to buy their kids things like backpacks, school supplies, batteries -- even batteries, nutritional supplements, over- the-counter medicine. These are the types of items that you potentially will not be able to find in the stores.

The good news is food. Shouldn't worry about food. We source most of our food here domestically so none of that concern.

But it's those low-end manufactured items -- the stuff that we consume a lot of -- that's manufactured at the ones that are of the biggest concern.

SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, I've even seen like on platforms for women who are expecting -- you know, warnings about getting car seats in advance and warnings about getting strollers in advance because so many of those products come from China.

[05:50:10]

Craig, what about the impact to jobs and potential layoffs? You have nine million people who work in trucking. You have 19 million people who work in retail.

What would you say, as someone who follows this space really closely, to someone who works in one of these industries and is hearing this interview and wondering should I be concerned about my job?

FULLER: Yeah, it's a -- it's a real concern. There are nine million people who work in logistics nationwide across the United States that move products through our supply chain.

If you think about the fact that we had a 35 percent drop off in imports into the United States that likely will stay persistent for some period of time, when we look at what it will impact domestically -- so we still source a lot of products in the U.S. About 20 percent of the trucking volume across the United States is actually imports.

So we're thinking that we could see a five to six percent drop of total freight across the U.S. and that could mean anywhere from 400,000 to 500,000 potential job losses in logistics alone.

You mentioned retail. One of the things that retailers need is inventory and if they don't have inventory they're not going to have as many sales. And if you don't have as many sales, you don't have the need for as many people.

So these are --

SOLOMON: Yeah.

FULLER: -- sort of these secondary impacts. And that's assuming that it doesn't actually go much further into things really across the whole economy. SOLOMON: And then what about -- I mean, one thing that we've obviously seen is an announcement on the tariff and then maybe a deal, or an announcement about a deal coming. And so a little bit of a sort of a walk back of that.

I mean, when we get these deals ultimately or when we get a concession of some sort, how much does that undoing undo any potential damage at the ports, undo any potential damage on store shelves? Or as I've also seen being reported, some of the damage is already done, whether you undo it or not.

FULLER: Well, it's going to sound ridiculous, but supply chains have an enormously long lead time. So I'm going to say something that is absolutely going to seem absurd but there is a potential -- what's happening right now -- even if we get a deal in the next three months -- I'm specifically talking about China. Even if we get a deal, you could have problems getting your hands on holiday goods. And so things about Christmas -- those Christmas gifts.

It sounds absurd but you might want to start doing your Christmas shopping right now because when you go to shop in the stores in October, November, and December, the items that you would expect to normally see may not be there, or the selection may not be there.

SOLOMON: Yeah.

FULLER: So that sounds insane but because of the long lead time --

SOLOMON: Yeah.

FULLER: -- because companies order there products six to nine months in advance. It just takes a long time to move the supply chains, so go ahead and prepare now.

SOLOMON: Yeah. I mean, that is a wild thought. And the procrastinator in me, Craig, that doesn't do a lot of my Christmas shopping until December 23 is sort of having a little meltdown. But I appreciate the heads up. Thank you.

FULLER: Yeah.

SOLOMON: That's our Craig Fuller.

FULLER: Thanks for having me.

SOLOMON: Good to have you.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:57:32]

SOLOMON: Welcome back.

Thousands of people turned out to celebrate 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. Crowds lined the streets of Ho Chi Minh City for a military parade and air show as people danced, sang, and waved flags. The country's Communist Party leader hailed the end of the war as "victory of justice over tyranny."

The anniversary commemorates the beginning of Vietnam's reunification on April 30, 1975. Communist-run North Vietnam seized a city known at the time as Saigon, the capital of the U.S.-backed south. The former reunification was completed the following year.

The conflict killed some three million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 Americans.

The world's largest solar telescope is shedding new light on our understanding of the sun. A newly released image shows the surface of our nearest star in unprecedented detail. The close-up reveals a cluster of continent-sized dark sun spots that are areas of intense magnetic activity. Detailed images like this allow scientists to learn and predict potentially dangerous solar weather. Incredible.

The European Space Agency has successfully launched its Biomass satellite into space. The satellite will collect data on the carbon content of the Earth's forests and measure the effects of deforestation and climate change for the next five years.

The mission manager says that the satellite's radar is able to see through layers of ice and sand, which could tell researchers more about the structure of ice in Antarctica and what the world looked like thousands of years ago.

All right, before we go, very important here. A kangaroo on the lam led to a highway being shut down in Alabama. The runaway kangaroo, or the hop-away kangaroo named Shelia escaped from her home about 40 miles east of Montgomery on Tuesday. Police say her trip down the busy road caused two cars to crash. Unclear right now if the drivers were hurt. But state troopers and the kangaroo's owners were able to capture her after using a tranquilizer.

Quite the show there. Sheila is now back home and is doing fine.

All right, that's going to do it for us here. Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. Stick with us. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now. I'll see you tomorrow.