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Inside Politics

Trump Announces New Auto Tariffs In Trade War Escalation; Tufts University Student From Turkey Detained By Federal Agents; Outraged Democrats Go On Offense After Trump Signal Leak Scandal. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired March 27, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:17]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Today, President Trump's latest tariff, 25 percent on all cars shipped to the United States. Forbes calls it the perfect storm on the auto industry. Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the E.U. have a number of other phrases, including, quote, "a direct attack". But one thing is clear. Economists predict tariffs will mean higher prices.

CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. So, Matt, how much of an increase are we talking about?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Manu, these tariffs could cause real sticker shock for Americans. We're talking about import taxes on foreign cars. But keep in mind that almost half of all cars sold in the United States come in from overseas, many of them from Canada, from Mexico, from Europe, and Asia. They all now face this 25 percent tariff.

But even cars that are made in American factories contain foreign parts. There really is no such thing as an all-American car, and those foreign parts now also face tariffs. So that's why Wolfe Research estimates that the cost of a car sold in the United States could increase by $4,000 due to these tariffs.

And they say likely much more. That's just the cost of a typical car. Goldman Sachs estimates that the cost of a foreign car could spike by between $5,000 and $15,000. And keep in mind, car prices are already flirting with all-time highs.

It's not clear that Americans can really afford to pay that much more for cars. So what you could see is people just start buying fewer new cars. Bank of America says that these auto tariffs could hurt sales of U.S. cars, cars -- U.S. auto sales, rather, by between 2.5 million and 3 million units.

Now, the problem, of course, is that we're talking about very intricate supply chains that have been built up for years, if not decades. The auto industry has long treated North America like it is three -- not three countries, but just one country.

And so that's the problem here. It's not going to be easy to undo these supply chains, even if the auto industry wanted to do it.

One last point here, Manu, is that economists are saying that these auto tariffs are going to cause higher prices and likely fewer jobs if other countries retaliate by putting tariffs on goods that are made in America.

RAJU: Yes. All right, Matt Egan on the latest on the escalating trade war. Thank you for that report.

And my panel is back with me here. This is what Donald Trump posted today about these tariffs on Truth Social. He said, "If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large-scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!"

So people always want to know, is Trump actually going to do this? Is this just a ploy? Is this a threat, negotiating tactic? What are you hearing?

TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: It's always hard to know with Trump, particularly on this issue. And I think that is what is causing the most concern among not just Wall Street and investors, but also small businesses as they try to figure out exactly what they should expect when it comes to tariffs.

But the thing to remember is that Trump has been very consistent on this issue, is that he is committed to this. No matter what the prices say, what the stock market says, usually those guardrails we've seen in the past that have tried to hem him in on some of these issues, particularly the stock market, when it's tanked in the past, he's sort of redirected and changed course.

He is fully committed to this. He ran on this. He feels emboldened to carry it out to the full extent that he's able to. And so I think people need to start taking, especially on the tariff issue, his threats a little bit more seriously than they may have in the past.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And to that point, I've been watching very closely Mexico and the way that they respond to all of the tariff threats over the last several weeks, because this is not new territory for Mexico.

During the first administration, they caught a lot of his air and they've clearly learned from it in some ways, because the Mexican president has been walking a very fine line and basically saying, we'll respond when they happen. And when they happen, that's where we'll take our next steps.

Now, she did say today, the Mexican president, that behind the scenes, they're trying to find some relief because Mexico is one of the largest exporters in the world for cars. But it has been interesting to your point, they do take Trump seriously, but they're going to wait until the moment they hit to really respond in full force.

RAJU: And I talked to a bunch of Republicans this morning, including Congressman Rich McCormick and Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina. And listen to how they discuss the impact on their constituents.

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RAJU: The President moving ahead with automotive tariffs as well. Are you worried about the impact this could have on your constituents?

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R), GEORGIA: Yes, of course. I got people in my district that have built automobile dealerships based on current law, not something that changes on a dime basis. And so I want to see what's kicking (ph).

RAJU: The impact on tariffs on your constituents, are you concerned about it?

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Oh, it's painful. But reciprocal trade, fair trade is what the President's trying to do. He wants the manufacturers in America. That makes sense to me. So --

RAJU: Are your constituents willing to stomach this kind of pain?

NORMAN: Yes. Once it's -- I'm in the construction business. We get lumber from Canada. It's hurting a lot of construction. I don't think it'll last forever.

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RAJU: I don't think it will last forever. That's the unease. The Republicans, they don't like this. The party does not like this, but they're willing to give Trump some room to maneuver, but how much is the question?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Can I just point out, we're only two months into this. We're not even through the first 100 days and we're starting to see signals that Republicans are getting very, very uncomfortable.

There's going to be so many downstream effects of all these things. We just talked about the HHS cuts. But I think it's also, must be underscored, Europe has been divided since Brexit. And they are now uniting as -- against, and I can't even believe I'm saying this, a common enemy of the United States.

Maybe that's a little strong. But I also think this is going to feel a shock, not just the tariffs, but when Americans start traveling overseas and start realizing we're not going to be welcomed in the way we've traditionally been.

RAJU: Yes. I mean, but, you know, the -- it's interesting. On the Republican point, Trump has just changed how the party views on the issue of trade. This used to be a party of free trade.

PAGER: But that's just the case for everything, right. The party -- the Republican Party is what Trump says it is. And we have seen over the last decade through his political rise that he has full control of what the party does, and they are very quick to fall in line.

Even the -- as you talked about at the top of your show, the signal chain. That would, in any other administration, be a full-blown crisis, and we would have already seen multiple resignations. Most people are just blowing up.

Obviously, now what the interesting thing is, is when a Republican stands up and criticizes even slightly the president. That is what we're looking for. And I think that is a remarkable just revelation about where the party stands. And we've seen that over the last decade, that Trump has just an incredible power over the rest of the party.

RAJU: Yes. What a shift from the Bush years, for sure. This is now very much the Trump years, as we all know.

All right, up next, why was a tough student from Turkey arrested by masked agents and sent to Louisiana? We have new details on that very controversial case after a quick break.

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[12:42:11]

RAJU: On Tuesday night, a PhD student at Tufts University, Rumeysa Ozturk, was on her way to break her Ramadan fast when this happened. Surveillance video appears to show the moment a plane's closed officer approaches Ozturk on the sidewalk.

And after a brief conversation, and it appears without ever showing a badge, the officer begins to restrain her. Several additional officers approach and surround her. About a minute after the initial confrontation, Ozturk's hands are restrained behind her back, and she is led into an SUV and driven away.

The Department of Homeland Security says Ozturk, quote, "engaged in activities in support of Hamas", but did not specify what those alleged activities were. Now, Ozturk's attorney says she is in the United States on a valid student visa and tells CNN no charges have yet been filed.

Priscilla Alvarez is back with me. You covered these issues very closely. What are the implications of this pretty stunning case?

ALVAREZ: Well, we're starting to see a trend here clearly because she is one of a long list of students who have been targeted because they participated in pro-Palestinian protests, they distributed flyers, or in this case, her family believes because she wrote an op-ed last year.

Now, what is difficult about all of these cases, including hers, is that the administration has not provided the evidence. So they are saying that there is a tie here, but they're not always providing a clear sense of what exactly they're using to justify their detainment. In fact, we just got a statement from her brother where she calls that, or he calls this rather, a, quote, "witch hunt" and says, quote, "in a country known as the land of the free, freedom of expression and freedom of belief, which are considered to be among the most fundamental rights, have been targeted".

And that is something that we have been hearing from immigration advocates, from immigration attorneys who are just scratching their heads as to why some of these people are being detained when there is no evidence to support it. For example, her attorney saying that there are no charges against her.

We've also seen some lawsuits to this effect, particularly with students in Columbia University. But all the same, some of these folks that we have covered are detained. They are detained in Louisiana, another trend that we have seen over time. There is an ICE facility there.

But what this is all indicative of, Manu, is the sweeping authority that the executive has when it comes to matters of immigration. And this administration is using obscure parts of the law to justify this.

In this case, for example, a part of the law that essentially gives the power to the secretary of state to say that these immigrants are here and they could have adverse foreign policy consequences because of their stances. That is very vague, intentionally so, because it is giving the authority to the secretary of state to make a decision.

But it is remarkable to see the ways that they are using these legal tools to make these decisions, to target these people, and really pushing the bounds of the law, which we are still waiting to see how courts continue to weigh in on.

[12:45:08]

RAJU: And there's -- this is one of several cases --

ALVAREZ: Yes.

RAJU: -- you can see on your screen, the Trump administration, deportation targets. What is the overriding theme of this? Because these people are here legally, are they not?

ALVAREZ: They are here on visas. Of course, the United States has visas for students to come here, to be in these universities, to partake in these practices. In fact, universities have used -- I mean, have also welcomed a lot of these students to do this work. These are PhD students.

But, again, the administration is baking on these sweeping authorities, not only on this, but we've also seen this with the Alien Enemies Act, to essentially decide who gets to stay here and who doesn't. This was a campaign theme for President Donald Trump, and it is now coming to fruition.

RAJU: Yes. ALVAREZ: But it is -- there's still so many questions as to whether or not they can remain detained, and there are lawsuits that are going to really leave it up to the judges to decide how this moves forward.

RAJU: And what was her alleged crime? We'll have to learn about that.

ALVAREZ: Right. Exactly.

RAJU: They have not yet said so yet. Was it just writing this op-ed, was there something more? They -- and have to detail that in court.

All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you.

And Democrats for us, they're aggressively taking their anger to Fox in the wake of the Signal leak. Is their message working? David Axelrod will join me next to discuss.

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[12:50:44]

RAJU: Enraged and on offense. Democrats have taken their outrage over the Trump administration's signal chat all over the airwaves, including Trump-friendly waters on Fox. The scandal itself emerged in the middle of a major PR crisis for Democrats, who are experiencing historically low approvals in fighting over their strategy and calls for new leadership. Are they now getting back on their front foot and can it actually last?

Joining me now to discuss all of this is David Axelrod. He's a Senior CNN Political Commentator and of course, former Obama chief strategist.

David, great to see you. When the Atlantic story broke, this was the headline on the satirical website, The Onion. It said, "Democrats huddled to decide how best to let massive Republican F-up slip through fingers".

That sort of speaks to the perception here. Democrats have not been winning fights, but this scandal has unifying them. So how do they keep this going in the weeks ahead?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, you know, we got to separate out issues here. This was a major F-up. Anybody who served in the White House or anybody who served in the national security realm would recognize it as such.

President drafted a guy off the couch at Fox and Friends to be the defense secretary, though he had no management experience, a very negligible management experience and really was unqualified for the position.

And there are consequences to that and we're seeing it. And it is a canary in the coal mine when you hire people because they're loyal to you personally and because they're good on TV. It doesn't necessarily make them experts in the area that they're taking on. And this is the most sensitive in the government. So it's a legitimate concern. Thank God nothing happened and that those troops were able to complete their mission without incident. But it was dangerous what happened.

That said, Manu, my guess is that a story that got less attention yesterday and is probably more important to people, which is the sort of breakdown of the Social Security Administration. There was a story the other day that didn't get much attention about the kind of strangling of the Affordable Care Act, you know, of subsidies and the dates by which you can sign up for it and the -- you know, all of these things, things that touch people's lives.

So, you know, this idea that, you know, this -- that this somehow is a magic bullet, as it were, is I think overblown. And I think --

RAJU: Yes.

AXELROD: -- one of the things the public doesn't want is to see Democrats, you know, cravenly exploit stuff for political purposes. They want to see them, you know, stick up for them and their interests and so on. And there's plenty of fodder for Democrats to pick up on.

RAJU: Yes. And I spoke to Senator Mark Kelly about this. I asked him that same similar question, how do they keep this going forward. Talking about specifically politically. This is Inside Politics, talk about the politics of this.

AXELROD: Yes.

RAJU: This is what Senator Mark Kelly said.

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REP. MARK KELLY (D), ARIZONA: I think this is a big deal. And I think there needs to be accountability. I think the Secretary of Defense should resign. If he doesn't resign, I think the President should fire him.

RAJU: And then --

KELLY: And then we'll be on something else next week.

RAJU: Yes, exactly. So I'm wondering...

KELLY: And then we're going to be back to what are we going to do? And we need to have a good plan on how we explain to the American people what is going on here.

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RAJU: And that seems to be the predicament, right? How to discuss the other issues that are central to the American public that --

AXELROD: Right.

RAJU: -- this may not translate as much, say, come next November --

AXELROD: Right.

RAJU: -- 2026.

AXELROD: I think that's right. And, you know, the thing that Trump has done is he's lighting so many trees on fire, you don't know where to put your hose, and you don't have a time to step back and kind of take account of what's happening to the entire forest.

And, you know, that is, of course, a strategy. But there are things that are going on. You know, when you just take a chainsaw to programs, Washington needs reform.

[12:55:05]

But when you take a chainsaw to programs that touch people's lives, like Social Security, like health care, they're going to feel it. And if the Democratic Party is, as it says, the party of working people, then fight for them around those kinds of issues.

It's important to hold Trump accountable. We can't have a defense secretary doing what this defense secretary just did, you know, despite what he says, it was an incredible breach and an amateurish breach in a place you can't afford it.

Yes, you have to stand up to that. But you also have to speak up for people in their lives. And those are being affected dramatically by some of the things that are going on right now as well.

RAJU: And David, fellow Cubs fan, opening day today, yes or no, is this the Cubs year?

AXELROD: Well, you know, I always start off every year, Manu, by saying yes. And, you know, once in a century, I'm proven right.

RAJU: Well, hopefully, it'll be quite sooner than that.

David Axelrod, fellow Cubs fan, thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. And thank you for watching.

AXELROD: Good to be with you.

RAJU: CNN News Central starts after a quick break.