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Inside Politics

The Latest on Trump's Presidency as He Marks 100 Days in Office; Arizona Voters Reflect on Trump's First 100 Days. Aired 12:30- 1 pm ET

Aired April 29, 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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[12:32:36]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: CNN asked you, our audience, to send us your most pressing questions about President Trump's whirlwind first 100 days back in office. We got questions submitted online from all over the world on a lot of topics.

My panel and I are going to try to tackle a few of them now. OK, here's the first question. This is from Gia in Cleveland as an Ohio boy. I'll give this to you, Phil.

She asks, where is all the money from the federal jobs and program cuts? What is that money going towards now that all these jobs programs are gone?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I'm honored as a fellow Buckeye that Gia and I have been pursuing apparently the same question for the better part of 100 days. Look, it's difficult to quantify, and I won't go down the budget rabbit hole for Dana's sake of time.

BASH: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: What I will say is the truth is the U.S. government spent more money in the first three and a half months of Donald Trump's first year in office than they did in 2024 when Joe Biden was in office. That is because much of the federal spending is mandatory. It's payments for the debt, servicing of the debt. It's Medicare. It's Medicaid. It's Social Security.

We know that according to Democrats, about $430 billion have been frozen, canceled, or impounded up to this point. But in terms of what money is actually out there, where that's actually going right now, Elon Musk says savings of $150 billion. The reality is, this kind of winds its way through, it will take a while for it to compound. And we don't have a good sense of where it is, how much it is, and certainly how it's being used.

BASH: OK, so while we're on this topic, really quickly, Elon Musk. I mean, it's also kind of a big story in the first 100 days. And I just want to take like 30 seconds to note how much of the perception of Elon, never mind what he's done, but the perception of Elon Musk has changed because of it. And the status of his companies.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: This is why corporate leaders, historically in politics, don't like to get involved, or they give to both sides, and they're working both sides, and they try not to be aligned with either side. Because when you get into the arena as a partisan, given today's political climate, this is almost inevitable. And this is precisely why corporations and corporate leaders tend to hold politics at arm's distance.

BASH: OK, let's get back to the questions. Mary from Macomb, Michigan, where the president is going today. "Have there been any discussions in Congress to pass a law to limit the power of executive order? What is the point of legislative body if the President can act unilaterally on such important matters as tariffs and military eligibility?

[12:35:14]

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So in terms of some sweeping bill to rein in executive orders or his ability to act unilaterally? No, there is not. In terms of tariffs, there are some Republicans, a small group of Republicans in the Senate and in the House, that have proposed a bill that would make it so the president has to give them, I think, roughly 48 hours of notice if he wants to institute new tariffs. I'm skeptical that's going to go anywhere, but that's something that is out there.

BASH: OK, David, I'm going to have you take this one. This is from Chris asking about frustration by Democrats with their leaders. "All Democrats can say in 100 days is they have worked to stop and failed 47 from doing anything. Why won't they work on doing things for their constituents? Why aren't we talking about what the Democrats in government haven't done?

CHALIAN: I think Chris, and I don't know if Chris is a Democrat or not asking that question, but I think he's giving voice to a lot of Democratic concern. We see it in our poll out today. 38% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents actually approve of the job their leaders in Congress are doing. Compare that to the nearly three- quarters of Republicans who support their side. Democrats are furious with their own leadership right now.

A reckoning is coming within the Democratic Party, and I think there are a lot of Democrats talking about, and we just heard from J.B. Pritzker this week, about what Democrats are doing in Washington. Now, the reality is they also have no power.

BASH: Right.

CHALIAN: So I'm sure they are working for their constituents. I don't want to say they're not doing their jobs, but they don't have the power or the numbers to actually alter a lot of outcomes.

BASH: OK, Jamie, this one's for you. This is from Rae in Austin. "Is there a moment in the first 100 days that's left you completely speechless? What moment was this?"

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, we're not allowed to be completely speechless.

BASH: Have you ever been speechless?

GANGEL: OK, a lot. Elon Musk left me speechless a lot. Didn't see war with Canada coming. Didn't see the Oval Office with Zelenskyy coming. But I think the award goes to Jeffrey Goldberg at "The Atlantic" for Signalgate. I do not know a reporter who, when they saw that headline, did not stop and go, OMG. I think we're all a little jealous of Jeffrey, that my initials are JG too. I could have been on the Signal chat. It was just an extraordinary story.

BASH: I'm just going to just have mine, the Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting. I watched that, and I'm sure a lot of people did, in its entirety, like, I don't know, ten times. And I still, it was just mouth agape. There was so much -- so much there.

All right, thank you. And also, for more of your questions, go to CNN.com to join CNN anchors and correspondents, answering live your submitted questions about the administration. I'm going to be there, and I'll get right online right after the show is over.

Now, let's talk about Arizona, which flipped from blue to red in 2024. It wasn't even close. John King visited the Grand Canyon State to see whether Trump voters are still happy with their choice.

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TAMARA VARGA, ARIZONA VOTER: I'll give him some time, and I'm hopeful. But, you know, I think that if he doesn't come through, he's going to have a lot of people turning on him.

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[12:43:00]

BASH: President Trump's election win wasn't overwhelming, but it was decisive. He won all seven swing states, including six he lost in 2020. Topping the list for Trump was Arizona. He narrowly lost in 2020, but in 2024, he won big by more than five points. CNN's John King is all over the map and visited Arizona to hear what voters think now, 100 days in.

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): The afternoon rush in full swing. Pallets of produce whizzing by. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, and more. Farm to table has a pit stop, this one in the Arizona desert. Feeding America is complicated, more so right now. Everything here is for Mexico, and Donald Trump is back in the White House threatening tariffs.

MATT MANDEL, ARIZONA VOTER: It's a brave new world.

KING: Matt Mandel helps run SunFed, this warehouse just a few miles from the border.

(On camera): 100 days into the Trump presidency, your business has been impacted how?

MANDEL: The biggest problem that we have up until now is uncertainty. We have talk about tariffs, and then the tariffs are off. We have tariffs that came into play for three days. They were canceled. But the constant threat of what if makes it very hard for us to plan.

KING (voice-over): The border crossing at Nogales is almost always humming. Commerce both ways caught up in 100 days of Trump trade turmoil.

MANDEL: Food does not make sense at all. All you're going to do is raise those costs to consumers. People have become accustomed to having all their fruits and vegetables on a year-round basis, and that is entirely due to imports. Putting tariffs on imports is only going to limit supply, raise prices, or both.

KING: Small businesses at the border are grumbling too. They complain of a double whammy, tariff threats and tough immigration talk. Yes, illegal crossings in Nogales and across Arizona are down. That's a big Trump campaign promise. But business owners say legal crossings are down too, dropping sales as much as 40% these past 100 days.

[12:45:10]

Tucson is an hour north, reliably blue, but Trump did run a bit stronger here last year, as he won Arizona and all the battlegrounds.

(On camera): What's all this going to do?

VARGA: Well, this is going to train our individuals how to cook.

KING: Tamara Varga is a Trump supporter, happy with some promises kept, but nervous. A big one could be broken.

VARGA: I'm worried about Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security. He did say that he wasn't going to cut them. That he was just going to find the waste, and I really hope that he sticks to that.

KING: Why is that so important to you?

VARGA: It's important because we need to take care of our people with disabilities and our elderly and those that depend on it. And they can't survive as it is right now, and we cannot cut.

KING: Varga is a Tucson hero. Her food truck and candy store employ 50 people with special needs. She's renovating this restaurant to employ even more. A devout Christian, lifelong Republican, but some big changes. Varga says she no longer believes Trump's claim the 2020 election was rigged. She's now open to supporting Democrats for local offices and says Trump tariffs are one reason prices are not dropping fast enough.

VARGA: The items that we put in our gift baskets have gone up. KING (on camera): So when he says there's going to be some disruption, maybe even some pain, but we're going to get there, for now you think, OK, I'll give you some time?

VARGA: I'll give him some time, and I'm hopeful, but I think that if he doesn't come through, he's going to have a lot of people turning on him.

KING: Melissa Cordero is an Air Force veteran who voted for Trump once, back in 2016, and regrets it every day.

MELISSA CORDERO, ARIZONA VOTER: He's, like, crazed right now. I'm constantly going, can he do that? I'm angry because the communities that I care the most about are being attacked. The LGBTQ community, the trans community, and what's really got me angry is immigration and what's happening to deported veterans.

KING: Cordero just visited some deported veterans in Mexico. Just learned she lost a conservation grant that was part of a DEI program. He's organizing protests against Trump cuts at the Veterans Administration.

CORDERO: There's no one answering the phones. Mental health, too. Making cuts in that area, that's, like, what all of us veterans need the most.

RAY FLORES, ARIZONA VOTER: She made everything. She made the best cheeseburger.

KING: Ray Flores named The Monica after a family legend. 100 years ago, Tia Monica inspired the first of what are now more than a dozen family restaurants.

FLORES: We're sending this to Food Network, Vince. You don't make it right, you're screwed.

KING: His biggest 100-day take, Trump turmoil, is rattling consumer confidence.

FLORES: We are definitely seeing less spending at the pump. In our world, that would be the cash register, right? So we're seeing numbers dropping 7%, 8% around the system right now.

People are afraid to go out to dinner. We're built on hospitality and celebration and spending time together, and maybe there's some fear of spending that extra money out.

KING: Flores is an independent disgusted with both national parties, all for cutting wasteful spending, all for deporting the undocumented who have committed crimes, but not impressed so far.

FLORES: I'm a little bewildered about how they've gone about things, only because it seems a bit haphazard.

KING: Scale of 1 to 10?

FLORES: I'm at a 5.

KING: What's your test for the second 100 days? I don't want to see it get worse. I don't want to have that aggressive, somewhat mean- spirited decision-making take root on everything we do.

KING (voice-over): A great kitchen thrives on controlled chaos, but in Trump, Flores sees too much impulse and emotion, too little planning and creativity. 100 days of too much heat.

John King, CNN, Tucson, Arizona.

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BASH: From Tucson, Arizona, right back here. Poof, John is back. Do we have him here? Let's see. There he is. He's working on getting something really important and interesting for all of you as President Trump heads up to Michigan to talk to voters up there on this 100th day. I'll be over there at the wall with John after a quick break.

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[12:53:36]

BASH: President Donald Trump is celebrating 100 days today outside the beltway. He's going to head to another swing state that voted for him and that is the state of Michigan. CNN's John King is here now at the wall.

So what you found in Arizona was fascinating, particularly from people who want to like Donald Trump, voted for Donald Trump, and there is so much anxiety.

KING: Even people who didn't vote for Donald Trump who thought maybe under their breath that he would do a better job on the economy. So you're looking at the map. He's going to Michigan right now. I'll get closer in a minute, but just watch this for one second. He flipped those swing states, right? Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

There they are, blue for Joe Biden in 2020. There they are, all red for Donald Trump in 2024. Why did that happen? Because the cost of living was punishing people and they wanted to give Trump a chance. Where is he going here? He's going to one of the places I've been going. I've been doing this for 40 years now and I've gone to Macomb County over and over and over again.

Now Donald Trump has actually won Michigan twice in 2016 and 2020. He's won Macomb County all three times. This is where the auto industry is. This is where Michael Dukakis took the ride in the tank. These are blue-collar auto workers, blue-collar defense workers for General Dynamics. This is a place where Trump has a base. You see, that was his best performance in the three elections at 56% there. But guess what's happening? Turmoil in the auto industry, right? So can he convince those workers? I know it's been a tough few months.

I know there's all this talk of tariffs. Stellantis, one of the automakers out there, has actually had some layoffs, small-scale layoffs. But can he convince them, hang in there with me, or do they think, you know, we placed a big bet on you, sir, and we don't see the results?

[12:55:10]

So Michigan -- and Michigan in 2026, is going to be like a Disney World for both Democratic primaries and for competitive Senate and governor's races. It's a huge state politically.

BASH: But the key here is that he's going to Michigan. It's a huge state politically. But what we are hearing and seeing from voters in Michigan, and you in particular when you went to Michigan, is the same thing that you've heard in your travels all across the country.

KING: So very early in his term, we went to Nebraska. Some farmers want tariffs, other farmers don't. We went to Colorado, a purple congressional district there, already people worried about the economy. Just back from Arizona, a lot of worries about the economy, even Trump voters. And here's why, Dana. This is from our polling right here.

Trump's policies have increased your cost of living. They're not just mad prices aren't going down, they think his policies are making it worse. That's just one. Then you look at more globally on the economy, economic conditions in the country. Are they getting better or worse? Trump's policies have worsened conditions.

Six in ten Americans, that means some Republicans too, not just Democrats and independents, think cost of living, economy writ large, his policies are making it worse and he promised to make it better.

BASH: Well, he has 1,300 days to turn it around. Thank you, John. Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS today. CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts after the break.

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