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Fallout Lingers from National Security Team Shake-Up; Poll: Most Americans Think Trump's Tariffs will Hurt their Finances; Buttigieg Plans Trip to Iowa Later This Month; Democrats Look to Raise their Profiles Ahead of 2028. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 02, 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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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today, on "Inside Politics", the strong jobs report sends stocks soaring, but with new tariffs taking effect today and many more to come, is this the calm before the economic storm. Plus, JB Pritzker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris this week, they're all dipping their toes in the 2028 waters.

What's the temperature? New reporting this hour and tomorrow is World Press Freedom Day. We're going to look at how President Trump is reshaping who gets to cover him at the White House. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and "Inside Politics". The president is at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida today, but at the White House, his staff is dealing with the fallout from his national security team shake up.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived at the White House this morning. He's set to take over as President Trump's National Security Adviser, at least on an interim basis. Outgoing National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was also at the White House. He's going to have to start preparing for confirmation hearings to be ambassador to the U.N.

Are there any tea leaves to read from the president's personnel moves. Well, Vice President J.D. Vance says nothing to see here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I've already seen some folks saying that this is a war between the hawks and the anti-hawks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- MAGA --

VANCE: New conservatives vs. MAGA or the realists. That's not what this is about at all. Mike is a person one I think he's a good guy. He has my complete trust, and I know the president really likes Mike Waltz. Just thought that the U.N. Ambassador position would be a better place for Mike Waltz to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House. Jeff, what more are you learning about that decision, not only to take Mike Waltz out, but to make Marco Rubio the NSA.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Dana, there is no question that in a White House, proximity to the president equals power, and putting Marco Rubio, even as Secretary of State in the Office of National Security Adviser, literally just steps away from the Oval Office down the hall is a sign that Marco Rubio is rising.

There is no doubt about it. And it's pretty remarkable when you think back of this decade long relationship, which was a very rivalrous at the beginning, between Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator, and Donald Trump, who is running for the first time, but now he has emerged as one of his trusted advisers, his most trusted advisers, and putting him in that role is certainly significant.

But it also raises some questions about exactly how the president views that role. The national security adviser is a staff job. It coordinates different points of view from the Pentagon to the State Department and really around the horn, while Secretary Rubio, obviously is still wearing the hat as Secretary of State.

That's his first and foremost hat there, as well as some of these others, acting USAID administrator, the Archivist of the United States, but it really begs the question of how much the president actually views the traditional role of national security adviser in the same way as other presidents.

It is also someone who alerts the president and coordinates the national security council, but it clearly is a position for Rubio, at least he has the president a trust. And there's also someone else, sort of doing some of the secretary of state's job. That is Steve Witkoff, who is traveling around the world, negotiating and having conversations with world leaders.

So, this is not necessarily the same a traditional structure that other presidents have had, even in the first administration, but to the vice president, point there about to differences of view. There are many people who do not believe that, because the reality here is, even before the signal scandal, there were many concerns inside about Mike Waltz's views.

He was arguing for tougher sanctions on Vladimir Putin. So, will there be other dissenting voices in the room, will Secretary Rubio raise those questions? We shall see. But the last time this happened was with Henry Kissinger back in the Nixon and Ford Administrations, and it was a conflict.

We will see if it will be at this point. But we know the president is his biggest adviser of all, his biggest own adviser of all --

BASH: Yeah. That is so true. Jeff, thank you so much. And I'm joined here by a group of terrific reporters on this Friday. CNN's Harry Enten, Shane Goldmacher of "The New York Times", Abby Livingston of Puck News. And CNN's Isaac Dovere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

BASH: We made it to Friday on this very, very busy week.

[12:05:00]

And I do, of course, want to talk about what I was just discussing with Jeff. But first, I kind of want to take a big picture look at this week, because it was, I don't know if anybody has told you, but this week was 100 days of the Trump presidency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

BASH: And putting up on the screen just some of the headlines. First and foremost, the president's approval is lower than any president in seven decades. At this point in his presidencies, the stock market not great, even though it is up this morning. Your story "The New York Times" about the U.S. announcing a deal to share Ukraine's mineral wealth.

And then, of course, what we were just discussing about Mike Waltz. So, kind of the assessment of where we are right now, at the end of this big week.

SHANE GOLDMACHER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, I think the end of this week captures what the first 100 days has been, which is just a relentless set of stories where Trump is driving the news, he's driving his party, and he's pushing the boundaries on everything. And I think that you've seen pushback from voters in terms of polling.

You've seen push back in some of these special elections, and frustrations with the pace of what the Trump Administration is doing, but really it is a relentlessness. And it's something that they've embraced, that they've been really happy, that they are pushing this aggressively from their 100 days roll out to the entire week.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, look, there's a reason why the clear majority of Americans say that Trump and this administration is chaotic. This week was a perfect illustration of it, right? He's, I dare say, Professor Chaos from South Park. That's his inspiration.

When we started this week, my beard was completely black, and now it has white hair. Now, every single day, there is just something new that happens. And at least, you know, as Shane was hinting at, the American voters don't like it. But here's the news for everybody. We're only 100 days in. There is, what a year and a half until the midterm election.

BASH: -- 1300 days left.

ENTEN: Oh, and 1300 days left for the administration. It's just nutter butter. You know, I'm just hopeful that we can get some Murphy beds here at CNN so that I can actually sleep -- BASH: I don't see any white hair in your beard?

ENTEN: There is definitely white hair. I show you. I see it in the mirror every day.

BASH: I'm going to have to do a series.

ENTEN: OK, we'll bring Daniel Dale.

BASH: Let's bring Daniel Dale. That's good. Let's talk about the overarching, overriding issue, which is the economy, and of course, the president's tariffs. There are new tariffs that are going into effect today. All goods under $800 coming into the U.S. It includes nearly 4 million shipments a day, mostly from China and Hong Kong.

Online stores like Temu and Shein, which are sort of part of the fast fashion universe. And then Harry mentioned something he knows a thing or two about, which is polls and data on Trump tariffs. I just want to remind this is kind of the starkest, most telling poll that we saw, I think, this week, from the new CNN poll, which is almost 60 percent almost 6 in 10 respondents say that the president's tariff policy is not having a good effect on their own personal finances.

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF PUCK: I think we are in a very fascinating moment, because when I talk to Republican sources this morning, they're very much in a wait and see posture. Yes, they got good economic news today, but no one knows what this is going to look like in two months. And so, I think a key thing to do is to watch the hill and see if we see any uptick in pushback against the president.

BASH: Do you think there will be, because David Talley and I were talking about this earlier this week, I said, maybe there will be. He was not so sure. What do you think? Because you talk to them every day, all day long,

LIVINGSTON: I think they are frightened to challenge the president. But this rash of polling was very disturbing to a lot of Republicans, and the tone of a lot of conversations changed from this past weekend on --

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: We remain in this period where people say that they think that they're being affected or not being affected, but most of the effect has not been felt yet. We don't know how exactly it's going to be felt when the price increases from these tariffs.

What's going to happen with the job losses that might come from companies that are forced to shrink? All of it has been mostly magic numbers at this point, right? What's happening with the DOW Jones? There's a better jobs report. There's a worse jobs report. It's when people start to see a difference in their lives in hard numbers, cost more.

They can't get toys, maybe for Christmas, that's down the road. But if the numbers that are showing up in these polls now, are scaring the White House and are scaring Republicans. And think about a couple of months, if it continues --

BASH: Yeah --

ENTEN: Yeah. I mean, is this Isaac was saying, look, the real economy, whether it be jobs, the CPI report, the PCE, you know, way to measure inflation. Those have all been pretty good, and yet the polls look horrible. What happens if the worst economic fears actually come true. I'm not quite sure there is a floor for Donald Trump supporting outside of his MAGA base at this particular point.

And I think that is what is just so worrisome. And more than that, you know, you mentioning tariffs, Trump is losing that argument in so many different ways, right? Folks, do they believe that tariffs will be good for the economy in the short term?

[12:10:00]

I think it was 73 percent or 72 percent in our recent CNN poll, said no, they'll be bad. But even in the long term, which is the Trump argument, even there a majority, I think it was 53 percent would say bad for --

DOVERE: And the real threat of it for the president is, Donald Trump is associated with being a businessman, a guy who knows how to make the economy work. He was elected last year in large part because people felt like the economy wasn't working for them. Inflation was too high.

They were paid too much. This is the core of who he is. It's not some other thing.

BASH: Yeah. It is.

DOVERE: This is who he is in people's minds. And if he suffers on this, and it's --

BASH: To your point, it is largely anticipatory right now.

DOVERE: Yes.

BASH: And we'll see what happens when it actually takes hold. Let's talk about what Jeff Zeleny was discussing with me at the beginning, which is Marco Rubio. Let's just look at what his portfolio is now, because he has a very, very big job to begin with. He's secretary of state, which is constitutional.

He's like, what, three or four heart beats away from the presidency. Now he's also interim national security adviser. And by the way, he was already Acting USAID Administrator and the Acting Archivist of the United States of America. I mean, that is taking the gig economy to like a whole new level.

On the fact that he became interim national security adviser. My colleague, Kylie Atwood, was asking at the State Department about this move just as it was happening. Watch it. Watch the way it unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Do you know how long he is going to be serving in both roles?

TAMMY BRUCE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Yeah. It is clear that I just heard this from you. I had -- I -- this is the magic -- president makes perfect assessments about who would implement his agenda. And in this case, he's chosen certainly the secretary and Mr. Waltz to facilitate his agenda moving forward. Not entirely surprising, I have to say, and good news for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That is somebody who can think on her feet.

GOLDMACHER: I mean, I think that the elevation of Rubio and watching the cabinet meeting this week, this is how Donald Trump wants to run his team. He actually likes a small team in the 2024 campaign. He was happiest when he was flying around the country and had a small number of advisers on his plane with him.

And he's not treating Marco Rubio as x in line to the presidential succession. He's a staffer. All those people are staffers. They're all staffers saying praise for their boss. They work for him. They don't have their own independent powers. He is keeping a tight leash on this cabinet, and by bringing them in these multiple roles, everybody serving --

BASH: Yeah, that is true. That's the way he ran his business. It was very, very small. We're going to take a break, but I just have to put up something that actually, I think is pretty funny. The Vice President of the United States saw a tweet from journalist Burgess Everett talking about all of the jobs that Marco Rubio has.

And Vice President Vance said, I think you could take on a bit more if only there was a job opening for a devout Catholic. OK. That's pretty good. Coming up, the calendar says May 2, 2025 but some Democrats are already thinking about where they might be on May 2, 2028. We have new reporting after a break.

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[12:15:00]

BASH: We're six months past, the 2024 election, and guess what? We're only 1000 days away from the first contest of 2028. So far, and yet, close enough, because we saw a series of really big potential candidates making moves this week. JB Pritzker, he took a pilgrimage to New Hampshire.

Kamala Harris gave her first major post-election speech. Gretchen Whitmer appeared alongside President Trump on his 100-day in office. Wes Moore took his message to the view, and according to our own Isaac Dovere, Pete Buttigieg is gearing up for an Iowa join later this month. Iowa, of course, the state that launched Buttigieg into the political stratosphere in the first place, back in 2020. And my smart reporters are back, including Isaac. What more can you tell us about this?

DOVERE: Well, it's an event that will be in Cedar Rapids May 13, and Buttigieg is doing it with this group called vote vets, which works with veterans, democratic aligned group that has been associated with him a lot in the years past. But look, I was not going to be probably as important to the Democratic nominating calendar as it was in 2020 when Buttigieg won the caucuses there, or, according to the Bernie Sanders campaign, tied in the caucus --

What is definitely true, though, is, you see, I think, not coincidentally, as we hit these 100 days mark for Trump, and people start to think what might be next, and there is a hunger among Democratic voters. There are core democratic voters for some level alternative that these candidates have started stepping up.

I was there on Sunday night in Manchester with JB Pritzker, and he gave a rip-roaring speech attacking not just Republicans, but Democrats for not speaking up more. And the response from the people, there was a lot of standing ovations. That's what Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez and Bernie Sanders have been getting as they've been touring the country.

[12:20:00]

We will see what happens when Buttigieg gets Iowa and when these other candidates Wes Moore is going to South Carolina, even though he said yesterday he's not running for president, for sure, but --

BASH: Yeah, we'll talk about that. Yeah.

DOVERE: We've heard that before from people. It is the starting to strut their stuff, starting to see what people like about them, or don't.

BASH: Yeah, you mentioned AOC, she and Bernie Sanders spent their spring break traveling around, having huge rallies, particularly in red states. Her team put out a video. Watch this and see her response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO CORTEZ (D-NY): I'm a girl from the Bronx to be welcomed here in this state, all of us together, seeing our common cause. This is what this country is all about. It's a video. And frankly, I think what people should be most concerned about is the fact that Republicans are trying to cut Medicaid right now, and people's health care is in danger. And that's really what my central focus is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm not running for anything. It's just a video --

DOVERE: That could be a presidential launch video. Just that video. BASH: Exactly, just a girl from the Bronx hanging out in Idaho. Look, I mean, let's be -- I don't want to be flip about it. There is a huge amount of energy. I mean part of the conversation has been, is she going to challenge Chuck Schumer for his Senate seat? I think the conversation has shifted to a much bigger role.

LIVINGSTON: Well, what's remarkable about the congresswoman is, when she came to Congress, she didn't have many friends. She burned a lot of bridges when she first got there.

BASH: Because she beat an incumbent Democrat.

LIVINGSTON: She beat an incumbent Democrat, but she also picked fights with her colleagues, and they were in fear that she would primary -- you know, support a primary challenger. I've never seen this on Capitol Hill. She is possibly going to run for a House leadership position oversight.

There's talk about her in the Senate and the presidential you just don't see that many political players who have their hands in all three. Usually, you're just good at one thing, and so Republicans are somewhat gleeful over the horizon profile lately, but some say underestimate her at your peril.

ENTEN: Well, as a boy from the Bronx, I would say, you know, you asked the question the top of the show. How's the water, you know, for the Democratic field? I think it is quite warm, because this is the least organized, most messy Democratic primary field since I earn the right to vote by turning 18.

You have to go back to maybe 2004, maybe all the way back to 1992 to see a Democratic field that really does not have a front runner at this particular point. What was it? Our CNN poll asked, you know, who is the leader of the Democratic Party, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez came out on top.

But it was like 10 percent. I have no freaking clue who the Democrat nominee is going to be. And I think you know. What was it? 25 people ran back in 2020.

DOVERE: 27.

ENTEN: 27. Thank you, Isaac, the fact checks right there. We don't need Daniel there. We got Isaac right here for us, it could be a very high number. I don't know if we'll approach there, but you know, double digits easy.

BASH: But listen the other thing, just to stay on AOC for a second, celebrity, that thing, that sort of ineffable thing, that a person has.

GOLDMACHER: Attention, people want to pay attention.

BASH: People want to pay attention. And she has that. It's not to say that others can't develop that, but she's already got it. GOLDMACHER: I mean, I think what she and Bernie Sanders tapped into in that initial set of tours that he began and then she joined, is that Democratic voters are pissed at the Democratic Party in a way they haven't been in years. And you see it in that approval rating of the Democratic Party.

You see it at Democratic lawmaker's events in their own districts, where voters come in, not just angry at what Trump is doing, angry at Democrats are not doing enough to push back.

BASH: Yes.

GOLDMACHER: And so, I think that even people who might not want to get ahead of this 2028 discussion feel an urge and a need to get in front of this anger to show that you are fighting on behalf of people who are also angry.

BASH: Yeah.

GOLDMACHER: So maybe you know, Pete Buttigieg wasn't thinking about these events, or Wes Moore wasn't thinking about raising their national profile, but you need to meet the voters where they are and they're angry they've been in a long time.

ENTEN: I mean, what's Chuck Schumer's approval rating nationally? Was it like 17 percent in our poll? What was even among Democrats? It was like 33 percent approved. 31 percent disprove. Even in New York, Chuck Schumer's favor rating among Democrats is what 52 percent, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is well into the mid-60s.

BASH: Yeah.

ENTEN: The Democratic brand among Democratic voters has a real problem right now. Who knows what will be the case two, three years down the line, but an outsider, I think this as a real shot of happening.

BASH: So, the other question is, you mentioned 92. What you hear a lot from people is whether or not this is going to be the year that Democrats return to the notion of getting somebody who is not in Washington and somebody who is in the governor's mansion, and Wes Moore, JB Pritzker is certainly one of those. He's further away from Washington than West Moore is in Maryland.

DOVERE: Yeah.

BASH: And there are others, but Wes Moore went on the view yesterday. Here's how that went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): I am not running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not.

MOORE: I'm not running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're saying that. You're saying that, for sure.

MOORE: I'm not running.

[12:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's saying -- he's not running --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Don't press them too hard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Politicians do not say things like that. They said that's too early.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, also, he's doing a pretty bang-up job in Maryland.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, Maryland for two --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But what if we really wait a minute? What if we really, really, really need?

MOORE: -- I'm really excited about the work that's happening right now in the state of Maryland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I don't know about that. He is going to be on the ballot again in Maryland. So, you know, when politicians say I'm just worried about Maryland, he really is, because that's the first thing up. But there's no question that there is a lot of buzz around him. The AOC thing is one thing, but she comes from a very specific wing of the Democratic Party, very far left. Wes Moore, not so much.

LIVINGSTON: I think what's interesting here is that back in 2006, Barack Obama took a similar stance during the midterms.

BASH: Yes, he did.

LIVINGSTON: And then all hell broke loose when he announced on television just before then that he was thinking about running. I think the difference between now and then is, in this moment, there is such a desperate need within the Democratic base following for authenticity.

And that's going to be a hard quote to walk back, because it's why would -- he was very he crossed the Rubicon on that one. And that clip could get played over and over and over again.

BASH: Yeah, but you know, like you said, President Obama did.

LIVINGSTON: Yes.

BASH: And he did, OK. All right, don't go anywhere, because will Donald Trump's big beautiful bill run into an ugly, unruly Congress. The latest on a presidential promise now up against the clock. Stay with us.

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