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Trump Holds "Very Productive" Call with Canadian PM Carney; Greenlanders Reject Trump Talk of Annexation; Trump says he will Meet with Canadian PM after Canada's Election; VP Vance, Wife Usha Vance Arrive in Greenland for Provocative Visit; Musk Promises More Social Security Benefits After DOGE Changes. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 28, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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MANU RAJU, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to "Inside Politics". I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's start with Vice President J.D. Vance. He's just landed at a U.S. Space Force Outpost in Greenland near the Arctic Circle. The trip is provocative, to say the least. It comes as President Trump and Vice President Vance are rushing up their talk of annexation.

With him, Second Lady Usha Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Republican Senator Mike Lee. The government in Greenland wants no part in this visit, so it's taking place at the military base 1000 miles from the Capital of Nuuk.

Meanwhile, back here in Washington, President Trump spoke with new Canadian Leader, Mark Carney this morning, a day after Carney declared his relationship with the U.S. broken. President Trump characterized the call, however, as quote, extremely productive. CNN's Jim Sciutto joins me live from the Pentagon. So, Jim, let's focus on the vice president. What are you hearing about this trip and how it's being viewed around the world?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Manu, I speak to officials and members of parliament in Greenland, but also in Denmark, and they make a number of things clear. For one, they say there is no public support whatsoever for Greenland to be acquired by the U.S., and this is backed up by the public polling.

Two, they say, and I spoke yesterday to a Danish lawmaker who is the Chairman of their National Security Committee, they say that Denmark will not allow this to happen. There's no negotiation here. They will not allow 40,000 Danish citizens to be forcibly absorbed into the U.S.

The third piece that I hear Manu, and this is arguably more concerning, and that is that you hear from Denmark, as I did last night that they consider this pressure from the U.S. President, from the leader of a treaty ally. Remember the U.S. and Denmark are both members of NATO. They hear this as something that will not just damage but could break that alliance. Have a listen to how it was described to me last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Can you envision a scenario where U.S. and Danish forces somehow come face to face over Greenland?

RASMUS JARLOV, MEMBER, DANISH PARLIAMENT: I certainly hope not, but that's up to the American government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas. You are not going to use military or economic coercion.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No. You're talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can't assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So, there you -- there you have it, Manu. You have the Leader of the United States not taking military action against a treaty ally off the table. And you have that treaty ally, Denmark, not taking military action in its own right to respond to this sort of pressure, or ultimately, the possibility of military pressure to take Greenland.

It is quite a remarkable set of circumstances, and I will tell you, from speaking to people in Denmark and in Greenland, they take this very seriously. They're not just saying this for public effect. They're saying this to communicate that they're that they will stand in the way of this.

RAJU: We'll see how this ultimately plays out, and what J.D. Vance says as he arrives? We'll take that if he does speak to cameras. Jim Sciutto from outside the Pentagon, thank you for that. And as the Vances do arrive in Greenland, Greenlanders have a clear message for the Trump Administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUNGUNTAQ LARSEN, RESIDENT OF NUUK: Humans are not for sale. We are not for sale.

KAJ SANGREN, RESIDENT OF NUUK: We don't want you here. Just a clear message we don't want you here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters to break this all down. CNN's David Chalian, Laura Barron-Lopez at "PBS Newshour", and Olivia Beavers of "The Wall Street Journal". Nice to see you all. So, you know, when Trump first said this, it could be viewed as, you know, one of the pies in the sky things that Trump sort of throws out there and is easily dismissed.

But now they're taking real action here. Where does this go? Is this simply more theatrics, or is -- should this be taken real seriously? The United States is seriously considering trying to somehow annex Greenland?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I don't rule out the fact that it could be both, like it could be great theatrics and Donald Trump could be pursuing an expansionist agenda here, which I think he's been pretty clear about.

[12:05:00]

I thought it was interesting to hear Putin's take on this, just because it clearly is pleasing Putin to see the American President take on a NATO ally, Denmark, a founding member, right with this notion of overtaking their land. I mean that seems to play right in to Putin's desire to create intra NATO friction that Donald Trump is playing into.

RAJU: Yeah, that's fascinating, because using similar language in which Putin has used to expand into Ukraine. You know, with this visit in Greenland, initially was supposed to be this cultural exchange. They promoted Usha Vance the Second Lady was going to go there, go to a dog sled race, meet with the mushers.

It was all this pushback. But now J.D. Vance and along with his wife and other top officials, are going to this U.S. Defense Post. It has a much more militaristic message in sending?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It does it fits more, I guess, with the message that the president may want to send, which is that he wants to potentially annex Greenland, regardless of the implications with NATO. But in terms of how this trip changed, I think it's so striking.

Because there was a Danish TV Outlet that essentially said that there were so many Greenlanders that Usha Vance was supposed to meet with. They were supposed to potentially go to a business, ended up not being able to go to that business because the business backed out of it. There were all these elements that that they had assigned to this trip, and then realized that no one really wanted to meet with them.

No one wanted to welcome the United States to Greenland, which is just stunning considering all these parts of Europe now that are feeling as though they're left alone and don't really have an ally in the United States anymore.

RAJU: Yeah. And speaking of which, J.D. Vance, expressing his views about Europe has been -- he went to Europe, had a very provocative comments that he made just a couple months ago in Europe. And also, of course, in that Signal group chat. Now, infamous Signal group chat, talking about how he views Europe.

That was came out, of course, in the aftermath of "The Atlantic" Reporter Jeffrey Goldberg reporting about these messages saying that I just hate bailing out Europe -- bailing Europe out again, making very clear how he views Europe and how this is changing the Americans posture towards traditional allies?

OLIVIA BEAVERS, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, I think even if you zoom out of what this Greenland trip is, it's a broader data point in the Trump Administration, sort of antagonistic approach to Europe, to some of our traditional allies. And most Republicans are very you know, they want to push the Europeans and allies to pay more money in different sort of regards, but they do like that these are our allies.

Don Bacon is one of those Republicans who is out there being outspoken. He said that this was embarrassing, basically seeing how much Vance and other Trump Administration officials loathe Europe, but for the most part, some of them are just --

RAJU: -- sort of jump in here, Olivia. But there's J.D. Vance that appears walking down Air Force Two in Greenland right now, arriving about 1000 miles away from the Capital of Nuuk. This is at the American Defense Outpost, U.S. Space Force Outpost, and you can see him there greeting officials there on the ground.

We'll see if they actually say anything here. David, what is your reaction to seeing J.D.? Look, this is the highest level American official ever to visit Greenland, and they're making this a priority so early in this administration.

CHALIAN: Well, as you said, the change in -- here, the fact that this trip is now restricted to just a U.S. base and not actually outreach into the country in any way or unwelcome, doesn't look like he's going to speak. But we should also note, it's a day trip. I don't have any people to take a quick day trip to Greenland. I think he's going to be on the ground for just a couple of hours before they turn around and come back home.

RAJU: Yeah, and that was it. They see him going to his vehicle. J.D. Vance and the rest of the delegation there, that include the Energy Secretary, the Senator from Utah, also Mike Lee there, as well as his wife Usha Vance. We'll see if they decide to say anything later about in this day trip.

What do they actually accomplish in this day trip? Meantime, there's also other news in the past hour, Donald Trump speaking for the first time with the new Prime Minister, Mark Carney. This is what Mark Carney said just yesterday about the Canadian relationship with the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperations is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The relationship is over. Wow. OK, so then today, Trump had this conversation with Carney for the first time since Carney became the Prime Minister. He said in that post that they had a productive call. But this is the interesting thing here, he actually called him Prime Minister, Mark Carney.

[12:10:00]

He had been calling Justin Trudeau his predecessor the governor 51st state, as in 51st state. I don't want to read too much into that, because who knows what Trump will say in the next post or when he speaks publicly. But what is your reaction to that?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, again, I don't know how much I'd read into that, given that almost every single time the president talks about Canada now he says it only makes sense as the 51st state. He repeatedly calls it the 51st state. I mean, maybe he's deciding to be a little bit more careful, since Carney is the new PM.

But look, Carney, I think, is coming out aggressively, whether it's in that statement that you played, or previously -- you know he -- they ran ads in Canada. They're running, actually, billboard ads, I believe, in the United States saying tariffs are attacks trying to appeal to the American public.

The Canadian government is saying Americans, this is not a good thing to be doing, which is to be antagonizing an ally with tariffs, and to just continually be antagonizing us also by calling us the 51st state. So, I think you're seeing this new playbook from someone like Carney, who is saying, we're not going to take this line --

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: -- sorry. Just to Carney's domestic politics here, right? He's called for an election. The entire landscape in this election -- he became prime minister by getting elected leader of his party, obviously after Trudeau's departure, but he's now running to have his party maintain a majority status and maintain his Premiership.

And right now, the context of the election has totally changed because of everything you just went through that Donald Trump has done antagonistically towards Canada. It has made sort of running against Trump a more popular position and a central theme in this election. So, Carney is -- you know what you heard yesterday that's not just about setting up U.S. Canada relations or the Trump relationship. That's also playing to the home crowd.

BEAVERS: Republicans were for a while saying Trump is doing this for leverage. He's being unpredictable. But now you have someone who's not just at the table saying we're going to work for better sort of deal agreements, they're saying we're done with you, and that is not a position that Republicans want to be.

And that's where you're also seeing them shift. They have been expressing more doubts, and privately, that's something that I hear a lot more, that they have concerns about, what it will mean for certain constituents and businesses that they're starting to hear from.

RAJU: Yeah, and meantime, while this is all happening abroad and now everything that we're seeing here next hour, we will see Donald Trump is actually going to be swearing in the Interim U.S. Attorney from New Jersey. That's Alina Habba, who is his personal attorney, and usually don't see a president swearing in the U.S. Attorney. But we'll see that. This all comes as Donald Trump's Justice

Department and is going after the perceived critics also, he is going after his critics too with his executive orders, including law firms. And this is something that gotten a lot of attention. These law firms who have represented some Democrats, represented who have been democratic law firms or had people employed by them who Donald Trump doesn't like.

Namely WilmerHale, which of course, employed Robert Mueller, the Former Special Counsel, investigated Donald Trump in the first administration, a new executive order that came out just last night targeting WilmerHale going after suspending active security clearances, requiring government contractors to disclose any business with WilmerHale.

And it really goes down as this is a part of just now, there are five different firms that have been targeted by Trump. Three of them are fighting this in court. Two of them, one of them cut a deal. One of them is considering cutting a deal. What are the impacts of this effort by Trump a pretty remarkable effort?

BARRON-LOPEZ: It is I mean, it could have a large chilling effect across big law, across legal firms -- you know they provide resources to other lawyers in terms of being able to then challenge if they decide or they think that the administration is taking an unconstitutional or illegal act.

And you know, some of these firms were ones that helped the first time around, when Trump instituted the Muslim ban, and they fought that. And there's all these potential legal challenges across the board, that maybe, because of the actions the president is taking, these law firms are end up deciding we don't want to take the -- take up those lawsuits anymore. Also, one of the --

RAJU: But it seems to be the goal.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Right. And one of the firms he was targeting, Paul Weiss, is also known as one of the top firms across the country that recruits African American talent. So, there's also fears among -- you know individual lawyers about whether or not they'll have futures in this industry?

RAJU: Yeah, we'll see --

CHALIAN: And the clients, about whether or not to hire those firms, impacting some businesses and their strategic decisions.

RAJU: A real effort to try to go after those critics. People may come after him, go after the justice system as well. All right, a lot more to discuss. And also, when we come back, Elon Musk and the Seven DOGE- RS, they sat down for an interview with Fox, and they say the massive cuts they're making will mean better government services. So how does that work we'll discuss.

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[12:15:00]

RAJU: Right now, Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance just arrived at the U.S. Space Force Base in Greenland. Let's listen in.

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Please at ease. At ease. Good Lord, sit down and eat. Don't let the vice president stop you guys, how we doing? It's cold as shit here. Well, thank you all for everything you do, and thanks for having us. So please sit down, guys, please, please.

I wish you need your food. Usha and I are thrilled to be here. It's a really beautiful flight. Actually, you fly with some pretty cool spots. I've never been to Greenland, apparently, I'm the first Vice President to ever visit Greenland. So that's a pretty cool thing. But we're looking forward to hanging out and getting to know you guys and understand what you do.

[12:20:00]

So, I think, what do we have? So, we're going to Mike -- we're going to talk to the -- to the command and some of the guardians about what exactly the base does and all the important ways it contributes to national security. We're going to get a briefing, of course, about, you know, what you guys' do every day, and then we're going to talk just about, as you've heard.

We have some interest in Greenland from the Trump Administration, so we're going to talk a little bit about that with our friends in the media. But I just want to say thank you all. Thanks for having us and thanks for being here. Thanks for doing what you do.

The Colonel told me that this is a one-year unaccompanied duty station. When we were flying in, and we were wondering whether you guys were allowed to build your -- allowed to bring your families here. So, I know it's a lot of sacrifice to spend a year away from your families, but the mission is really important.

The Trump Administration, the president is really interested in Arctic security. As you all know, that's a big issue, and it's only going to get bigger over the coming decades. So, thanks for doing what you do. What's the plan here? So, I thought it was serving food. What's -- what's the plan from here, guys?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

VANCE: I'm sorry. OK, we're going to get some food here too good. OK. All right; we're sitting right there. Fantastic. Great. Thank you all for having us.

RAJU: All right, that was Vice President Vance with his wife, Usha Vance, as well as you saw Mike Waltz there, the National Security Adviser, someone who's been unloaded a lot of scrutiny over this past week, involvement in that Signal chat, but saying, quote, we have some interest in the Trump Administration in Greenland. Of course, that's why this is such a provocative visit. We'll continue to monitor Vance and see what else he has to say and bring it to your line if he continues to speak. But meanwhile, for us, a revolution. That's how Elon Musk framed DOGE's radical reshaping and gutting of the federal government at a breakneck pace. Musk defended his push as he was flanked by seven of the department of government efficiency staffers in a Fox Interview last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like it's pretty disruptive.

ELON MUSK, ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT: Well, this is a revolution, and I think it might be the -- might be the biggest revolution government since the original revolution. But at the end of the day, America is going to be in much better shape. Are we going to get a lot of complaints along the way? Absolutely.

There -- PayPal was the -- you know who complains the loudest and what the most amount of fake righteous indignation the fraudsters that's it's a tell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, my panel is back. Now as part of that interview too, he also said that almost no one has gotten fired, but you look at the numbers, they're really trying to dismantle large parts of the federal government, decimate a number of agencies, education department being one of them, the Health and Human Services Department being another.

He's sort of maybe putting it on the Cabinet Secretaries themselves that are doing that, maybe more so than DOGE. But that's 113,000 jobs that at the moment, workers who have been fired. What are you hearing from your sources, Republicans, about everything that's happening with DOGE right now?

BEAVERS: It's funny, because it seems to be more district to district. Some Republicans argue that Musk is doing exactly what they want. And they are cheering them on behind the scenes, saying you need to go, go, go before the election starts. But then it starts impacting them back home.

It might be certain group of workers who are fired, and then they start having these town halls that become livelier and livelier. And then you see messages that they think that Elon should be approaching it more with compassion. So, we're still sort of seeing the impact rippling through, but it's just it happens to be when it touches the Republicans district versus actually broader.

RAJU: Yeah, I'm sure a lot of these impacts will be going to be yet to be felt across the country. People, of course, may lose their jobs. They'll feel that right away, and that happens across the country, not just in Washington, but also their federal jobs all over conservative districts, liberal districts as well. But Musk defended his efforts last night in talking about how he says government services will get more efficient. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSK: The government is not efficient, and there's a lot of waste and fraud. So, we feel confident that 15 percent reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to talk to --

MUSK: -- making it better. As a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of social security will receive more money, not less money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, how can he say that, without affecting any of the critical government services and social security beneficiaries get more money not less money?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, the facts don't back up what Musk is claiming. Because already, I mean, there was a story out of Seattle where one man lost his social security benefits because DOGE considered him dead, said that he was one of the dead recipients. He wasn't he had to, took him a while to get his social security back.

We're already seeing that social security phone services are not working as well, that people are having a harder time reaching who they need to in order to receive that? There's a story out just today from Reuters saying that FDA is having trouble verifying the safety of medical devices and tobacco products because of the fact that the layoffs occurred.

[12:25:00]

So, there's all these elements across the government where you're starting to see that things are not getting done, whether it's checking the efficacy of vaccines and safety -- and safety and products or goods and services like social security.

CHALIAN: Another thing that Musk has admitted to early on you'll recall when he was standing in the Oval Office with Trump that he makes -- he's made mistakes, and they work quickly correct them. You cite the social security lines. Did you see how quickly the administration sort of pulled back on the deadline for that and rethinking it?

Because they get instant blowback when it does touch people's lives in districts across the country, irrespective of party. So, it's an -- it's a bold claim that has no reality behind it, that services will be better and more efficient, because what we're seeing time and again, and Musk has admitted sometimes services are impacted in such a way, and there's real blowback from Americans. And they reverse course.

RAJU: Yeah. He said they reverse course when Republicans complaint --

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah.

BEAVERS: Yeah. RAJU: When Democrats are complaining, it's not so much. This is why Elon Musk even cell phone number out to Republican Senators.

BEAVERS: Well, it also does help that Republicans are probably the ones who have the contacts in the White House to say, hey, you're hurting me back home. And the Republicans I talked to say they have been pretty effective, but even like breaking down the polls, right?

Republicans tend to really like what Elon Musk is doing, and Democrats don't. It breaks down a very much along partisan divides, and I have no doubt that that will continue. But this interview seemed like a little bit of a charm offensive approach of -- you know trying to say, hey, we're here to help you. We're going to streamline and make the government better, versus this sort of chainsaw that we saw a month ago at CPAC.

RAJU: Yeah.

BEAVERS: It's a very different message than receiving.

RAJU: Yeah, we'll see if the message actually means reality. All right, next, a bad day on Wall Street stocks is plunging after another day of bad economic news.

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