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Trump Adviser on President's Mood: "He Just Loves This S --"; Blackrock CEO: Market Downturn Hurts Ordinary Americans, Not Just Wall Street; Judge Refuses to Cancel Hearing About Deported Maryland Man After DOJ Requests More Time; Lower Court to Hold Hearing on Return of Deported Maryland Man. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 11, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on "Inside Politics", a super power standoff. The world's two largest economies are locked in a spiraling trade war as China unleashes a crippling counter attack on the United States. Global markets and the American consumer are in the line of fire as we wait to see who will flinch first.

Plus, we're standing by for a key court hearing on the Maryland man accidentally deported to an El Salvador prison. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled the Trump Administration must try to bring him home. So, what's their plan? And President Trump says he's never felt better, but the oldest president ever sworn into office is about to head to Walter Reed Medical Center for a physical.

We are going to talk to a doctor who has treated a lot of high-profile politicians. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and "Inside Politics". We start with another grim economic report. This is on consumer sentiment, which just plunged 11 percent to its second lowest level on record, even lower than anything seen during the Great Recession in 2008.

It comes as China defiantly pushes back on the U.S. economy, hiking tariffs to American goods to a whopping 125 percent. Chinese President Xi Jinping released his first public comments on President Trump's new tariffs today. Xi Jinping said his country is, quote, not afraid. Now, as we've been reporting, it's the American consumer who will bear the brunt of this escalating trade war, but President Trump is trying to brand it in his own way.

He posted on Truth Social this morning, quote, we are doing really well on our tariff policy. Very exciting for America and the world. It is moving along quickly. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House. How are they feeling inside the White House, sort of beneath the bravado hearing from the president?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, there is always significant bravado. But the reality is, the metrics by which this administration will be judged will be measured, are coming from reports, of course, like the stock market, the bond market, but that consumer sentiment number, that feeling, is something that every administration, every presidency, really stops and takes a look at, because it captures how people are feeling, how people are spending.

And talking to one official this morning, this is coming before these tariffs are really even kicking in, before these high prices for goods or even kicking in, but the sentiment is something that is hard to turn around. The president, of course, is largely a salesman of his policies, of his plans.

He said the tariff plans are working, but there's very little evidence to show for that with the weakening dollar. China is holding firm in this tit for tat in the trade war that is very much still alive is a central worry for this president and for this White House, Dana.

BASH: And Jeff, you and our colleagues at the White House have been doing, of course, another day, another round of really great reporting. And in this new story, you talk about speaking to senior White House advisers about how Trump is feeling right now. One in particular said the following, said, quote, he just loves this shit.

That's a quote talking deals with the most powerful people in the world when he's got all the cards and leverage is like air for him. I mean air for him, but certainly I'm not sure if air is or maybe it's more the gasping for oxygen that a lot of consumers are feeling and Americans are feeling right now.

ZELENY: Without a doubt, and that is one of the challenges and one of the things that if you talk to economists, you talk to Republicans who really want this administration to succeed, they wonder at the end of this week, what is the president thinking? What is he doing? What are his self-inflicted wounds actually leading to?

But that story, as you mentioned, really indicates the team of economic rivals that are guiding the president on this we've seen it play out in real time all week long. I think when we look back at this week, we will see that the book end of the people you see on your screen there, Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary.

He clearly was warning the president to find an off ramp on this. Peter Navarro clearly was wanting the president to hold firm. But we are not at the end of the trade negotiations or tariff negotiations.

[12:05:00]

We are at the beginning of a brand-new chapter that 90-day pause means until July 8. So, circle that date on your calendar. All the advice from these advisors and others who the president listens to between now and then will certainly play a key role are going forward and how this all works out, Dana.

BASH: Yeah, absolutely some terrific reporting. I encourage people to check it out on cnn.com. Thanks for bringing some of it to us. Jeff, on this very rainy Friday here in Washington. Inside here at the table, are some terrific reporters. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, Eli Stokols of Politico and CNN's Eva McKend. We made it to Friday. I'm not sure that that is a day with a distinction anymore, but let's just go with it right now. You cover the White House every day. You have been covering Donald Trump for a long time, in particular on issues of foreign policy. And you know that's what tariffs are.

Even though it's economic policy, it is also very much foreign policy. What are you hearing from your sources about where things stand right now and whether he's going to stick with the current tariffs as he has them?

ELI STOKOLS, WHITE HOUSE & FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT OF POLITICO: Well, no one knows that right because we've seen so many fluctuations, and I think the uncertainty and the awareness now that the rest of the world has that the global economy sort of hinges on the minute-to- minute fluctuations of what Donald Trump wants to do. That is creating the uncertainty that has a lot of these markets dipping.

Certainly, the quote that you read, I think, is a great summation of why we're in this place that we are. This is a president who likes deals. And as economists have been scratching their heads trying to find the rationale for doing this. It's not an economic rationale. It's a power rational.

It's the same cycle of threaten, leverage, extract a concession that we see him employing against Greenland and Denmark, against Canada, against universities and law firms. And now he's trying to do it with every other country in the world. We already saw him walk back from most of that, and the sort of influence of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who, I think is our reporting and reporting from other outlets, has shown this week.

He is now, sort of, as one person put it, in the driver's seat. But can he really impress upon Trump that, you know, the situation with China escalating with China is also freaking a lot of people out. That's why we're seeing the bond market continue to be squishy.

BASH: Yeah.

STOKOLS: That's why the dollar is getting weaker and euro is getting stronger. Can he have more success? We don't know, but the situation with China is a real concern.

BASH: Yeah.

STOKOLS: And he's kind of, you know, whether he has the cards, he thinks he has, right? He loves having these cards. I'm not sure with China that he has the cards --

BASH: Yeah, and we have some great new reporting coming on China. But I just want to underscore one thing you said, because I think it's important for our viewers to really digest it. That for Donald Trump, this tariff war isn't so much about economic policy, it's about power.

And that is, I just want that to sink in, because you are so right. Obviously, you're getting that from your sources, from your observations, and we all are too --

STOKOLS: -- Main Street messages, one thing.

BASH: Right.

STOKOLS: But the message is different than going to the grocery store and paying 10 bucks for --

BASH: Yeah, and then --

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And adding to that, actually.

BASH: Yeah.

ALVAREZ: This is a zero-sum game for the president. This isn't a negotiation for a win-win. He wants all of the cards for his victory, especially now with China having backed off what he did with the other tariffs.

BASH: OK, so let's right one, China is really the game right now. The whole question is, let's just go with it that he is going to be able to make deals. How is that going to work? Let's listen to some of his top advisers on that issue.

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PETER NAVARRO, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING: We're going to run 90 deals in 90 days is possible. The boss is going to be the chief negotiator.

JAMIESON GREER, TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: Right after I'm done with this TV spot, I'm going to be speaking with my counterpart in Israel. Over the last two days, I had a long discussion with the Vietnamese. We're speaking with the Taiwanese later today as well. I have a full dance card.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: As we go through the queue and settle with these countries who are going to bring us their best offers, we will end up in a place of great certainty over the next 90 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: 90 days, 90 deals.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, this has been the consistent message, wait and see. Trust us. We've got this handled. It is, I think, surprising to as our colleagues get the behind the scenes here, how much is predicated on a leadership call potentially happening and that changing the trajectory here.

But I think what is going to be most instructive is how Americans respond to this. Do Americans have the appetite to wait and see when the cost of electronics, food, consumer goods or clothing goes up, and do they ride this roller coaster with this administration? BASH: Yeah. No, that's such a good point. You mentioned China. I want you to stand by because I do want to bring in CNN's Kylie Atwood, she has some new reporting on how President Trump, the U.S., the Chinese President Xi Jinping, have interacted.

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I guess the best way to say it, have not interacted Kylie since this trade war began, and you have some great new reporting on why that is.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Dana, just hours before these new retaliatory tariffs came out from China this morning, the Trump Administration had privately warned Chinese officials of two things. First of all, not to retaliate, which we heard from Trump time and time again over the last few weeks, but also that China should be requesting a phone call between President Trump and President Xi.

China has not done that so far. They have been telling China do this for months now, according to a source familiar with that working level dialogue between the two sides, we know that Xi and Trump spoke before inauguration. They haven't had a conversation as this trade war has escalated.

And senior White House officials tell Alayna Treene that Trump is waiting for Xi to make the first move here. He thinks the onus is on the Chinese leader to do so. But when you talk to folks, there's a fundamental disagreement about how this could all come together, and that is one of the challenges, as there is this remaining question, an urgent question, really, as to how they're going to create an off ramp for this escalating trade war.

BASH: Really, really fascinating. Again, another story. I encourage our viewers to go look at its entirety on cnn.com. Eli, so you started to mention China. I'm assuming that this is something that comports with what you're hearing about why they're not talking. Particularly, I think it's interesting, given how high the stakes are for both, but even and especially China, and the internal politics for the Chinese President, and how that affects, how he wants to be seen or not be seen vis a vis Donald Trump?

STOKOLS: Right. And Donald Trump wants to be on the global stage making deals with the Chinese leader, even he's ratcheting up tariffs. He was basically saying, well, they're going to find a way back to negotiating table kind of coaxing Xi.

BASH: Right.

STOKOLS: And you're not getting that signal from the Chinese. They're talking to people in Europe about setting up other trade deals. And at the same time, you know, they're holding out the TikTok deal as leverage. And they're basically they killed the TikTok deal. They said, we're not going to give you that. So, Trump likes to think that he has all the cards here, but Xi has some pretty big cards too.

MCKEND: They're talking about getting soy beans and agricultural products now from other countries, they do have leverage.

STOKOLS: Right.

BASH: Yeah, there are. Yeah. I mean, there are other countries for them to go to, and they're clearly not afraid to do that. It is Friday, and I want to, in case you missed it, play a moment from inside the oval office this week, because you just kind of have to see it to believe it. Watch this.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- It's not just -- he may --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: -- if you couldn't fully comprehend that, because it was short. He was talking to Charles Schwab, the person, and kind of joking about how much money he made as the stocks rallied, after he put a pause on the majority of the tariffs.

ALVAREZ: Well, this, he also came under fire.

BASH: Yeah.

ALVAREZ: Before that, for a Truth Social post where he basically told people to hang tight. Things are going to get better. And then he later announced the pause which stocks --

BASH: Yeah.

ALVAREZ: The stock market obviously responded to.

BASH: Right. Let's play the imagine if a Democrat did this, or even another Republican.

ALVAREZ: Yeah.

MCKEND: I mean, he's one of the few politicians that seems to routinely get away with this, but this is why you see Bernie Sanders leaning into this message. Listen, people like President Trump are for the oligarchs, for the extreme wealthy in this country, and you know, we are here to fight on your behalf, at least it allows him an opening to make that argument.

I don't know how much to what end, but certainly that's why you hear that message coming from Democrats.

STOKOLS: I mean, I just think that on the messaging that is one area where polls show that this White House has been successful at saying we are for the middle class, and Trump continues to say that that's what this trade war is all about. So, Democrats are saying, a lot of them, oh, well, the rich are getting richer. Well, the crux of this is really not about the rich getting richer.

BASH: Yeah. STOKOLS: It's about everyone in this country, including the middle class, losing out and having goods get more expensive. And we'll see if the message coheres --

BASH: And I want to go to break, but as we do, I just want to pick right up on that point, Eli. Larry Fink, who runs BlackRock, manages a lot of money for people around the country. Here's what he said. This isn't Wall Street versus Main Street. The market downturn impacts millions of ordinary people's retirement savings, their investments for a child's college education and tuition or steps they are taking to have more financial stability.

Everybody standby, coming up new developments in the legal battle to get a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador back to the United States.

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The government now says it needs more time after the Supreme Court decision. We'll explain after a break.

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BASH: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is spending his 27th day in a notorious Salvadoran super max prison after he was deported there because of an administrative error.

[12:20:00]

Today, Abrego Garcia's legal limbo continues to play out in court. Just moments ago, a federal judge refused to cancel a hearing about the case that happened after the Justice Department tried to postpone a deadline to detail what steps it is going to take to get him back. The Justice Department said it needs days to review yesterday's Supreme Court decision.

That decision said that the federal judge who ordered Trump officials to facilitate his return were correct. Now this morning, that judge said no and gave the department just two additional hours to meet the court's deadline. My smart panelists are back here, Priscilla, so just bottom line this for us, the Supreme Court says Trump Administration, this is wrong. Get him back, and now we are where.

ALVAREZ: Here's the key word, and what the Supreme Court did, facilitate, facilitate the return. They stopped short of saying or requiring that the administration return, and they also made another important emphasis, and said that there should be due deference to foreign affairs. What does that mean?

Essentially, that you can't infringe on the executive's ability to conduct foreign affairs and foreign policy. We have heard this from the administration, but that alone gives the administration a good amount of wiggle room in how these proceeds. Now the hearing that we anticipating today is where the federal judge wants to know what steps are being taken to, again, facilitate the return of this Salvadoran national. And the judge was pretty sharp in the order that she gave to the Justice Department because she said, there, how could you essentially, this is me paraphrasing. Need more time to read a four page order the Supreme Court brought down. So, we'll see what happens at 01:00 p.m. when she questions them.

I was at the hearing last week on Friday. This has been a dizzying few days as the Supreme Court weighed in, as the family awaits an answer, and as the attorneys continue to push the government on this front.

BASH: Yeah.

ALVAREZ: To again, bring him back, they said in a filing today that this man's life, quote, life and safety, is at risk, and that any extension here is, quote, a stunning display of arrogance and cruelty.

BASH: And let's hear a little bit more from what one of his attorneys said this morning.

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SIMON SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA: Last night, the Supreme Court ruled nine to zero with no dissent, that they need to bring him back. I had hoped that after that, the government would finally start acting in good faith, but it seems that they're determined to try to kick the can and play games with this.

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MCKEND: I mean, it will be remarkable if he has ultimately returned to hear his first-hand account. So much of what has gone on seems to be shrouded in secrecy. We're told that everyone that was deported were gang members. But then, when we asked for evidence of this, we're told, just trust the administration.

They have the intelligence. And so, I think that they operated so aggressively because they think that the public is on their side. But there are -- we've even seen some conservatives push back prominent conservatives push back on the process here. And then I'll say last night at our CNN Town Hall, Congresswoman Hayes, a front-line member in a swing district, she said that she had regret for supporting the Laken Riley Act, which I think is really telling that chipped away at due process rights for undocumented immigrants.

And this was always the concern that when you start playing fast and loose with people's rights, that all bets are off.

BASH: And Priscilla, you have some reporting this week that the administration is preparing to send more migrants to this facility, to this super max prison in El Salvador.

ALVAREZ: Yeah. I mean, look, amid all of this, the administration is preparing to send more. Now, what the Supreme Court did in a separate decision is try to inject some level of due process when it comes to the use of the Alien Enemies Act, which is what they use to get these migrants there to begin with. But El Salvador is so key to what the administration is trying to do here, that is what comes up in my reporting every single time. It wasn't just that they're preparing to send more people to this prison. It's that also, amid the legal back and forth, they were talking to contractors, notorious private security contractors, to see what else they could accomplish in El Salvador. When it comes to immigrant detention.

BASH: Why is it OK?

ALVAREZ: Because El Salvador is who they see in the Americas as leading the way for them, so that they can do more of these types of removals with other Latin American countries. And El Salvador has a Trump friendly president that has shown a willingness to do it. And it plays into what the administration wants to do here, which is a level of fear within the immigrant community that if you don't leave the country on your own, that you could potentially be sent to this type of prison.

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BASH: And this is supposed to be people who are undocumented. And then, of course, there's an entire very fiery conversation about the administration's actions on people who are here with student visas, who they believe are abusing those student visas with their actions, and even in some cases, what they have been saying. Let's listen to what Marco Rubio said on this in the cabinet meeting.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: If you come to this country as a student, we expect you to go to class and study and get a degree. If you come here to, like, vandalize a library, take over a campus and do all kinds of crazy things. You know, we're going to get rid of these people, and we're going to continue to do it. So, when we identify lunatics like these, we take away their student visa.

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STOKOLS: He's essentially saying, if you get a student visa, you don't actually have the rights you think you have when you come into this country. I mean, he's performing in that cabinet meeting as all the cabinet secretaries did for Donald Trump. Secretary Rubio spoke at the very end, and that was what he chose to highlight.

And obviously the politics of this are right in line with what Donald Trump ran on, what the MAGA base wants to see. I mean, we've had a cabinet secretary go down to that prison in El Salvador, basically for a photo op. They do want to highlight this and hold it up. But again, the bigger questions about the process, whether it's messy, whether the wrong people are getting thrown in with people who you know should be deported, and the questions about due process.

I don't know. This could be broadly popular, I think, or would be broadly popular if they were prosecuting it, maybe in a more judicious way. But taking away people's due process is something that, when those cases get highlighted politically, that may not play as well with those sorts of middle of the road independent vote --

BASH: Yeah, and that really is the key. We just have to sneak it a quick break even. But that really is the key. It's the process, OK. Or it's the substance of what they're doing, which, if you kind of look broadly, there are a lot of Americans who might agree with it, on its face, how they're doing it, and whether that can be applied later on to those who have different circumstances, that is the whole point of due process in a democracy.

Standby everybody. President Trump is about to go to Walter Reed for his annual checkup. Stay with us.

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