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U.S., China Reach Framework For New Trade Deal; GOP China Hawks Push Trump Admin. To Harden Stance On China; Thousands Turn Out For Mamdani Rally In Queens With Sanders, AOC; Hurricane Melissa Nears Jamaica As "Catastrophic" Cat. 5 Storm. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 27, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:25]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Today on Inside Politics, trade truce. The Trump administration is hyping a potential breakthrough in the crippling trade war between the world's two biggest economies, but the president says nothing is set in stone until his meeting with the Chinese leader this week.

Plus, Hurricane Melissa is just hours away from making a direct hit on Jamaica. We'll bring you the latest forecast on what's expected to be one of the most powerful storms in history. And if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere. Progressives and democratic socialists may be humming some Sinatra and hoping that their candidate can win, not just the battle to be the mayor of New York, but the broader fight for the soul of their party.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

President Trump is in Japan for the second leg of his nearly week-long trip through Asia. Earlier he met with Japan's emperor at the Imperial Palace. And in just a few hours, he'll hold talks with Japan's first female prime minister. But the White House appears laser focused on the most consequential meeting of the trip, a pivotal sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first of Trump's second term.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, talked up the framework for a potential trade truce with China, while President Trump made clear, it's not done yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: We have a framework for President Trump, President Xi to decide on, and we discussed a wide range of things from tariffs, trade, fentanyl, substantial purchase of U.S. agricultural products and rare earths.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: But nothing has been agreed to yet. But we feel good. We're going to have a great talk. I have a lot of respect for President Xi. I like him a lot, he likes me a lot, I believe. And respects me and I think he respects our country a lot. And we're going to have -- I think we're going to have a successful transaction. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table, CNN's Manu Raju, Seung Min Kim of the Associated Press, CNN's Isaac Dovere, and Julia Ioffe of Puck. She's also the author of a brand-new book, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, which we will talk about later in a show. I'm very excited to talk to you about that.

Let's start with the news of the president's trip to Asia. Seung Min, you covered the White House. What are you hearing from your sources about how it's going so far?

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: Well, what's been really interesting? Well, first of all, they think this -- they think this trip so far has been very successful. Obviously, he was -- his first stop was in Malaysia, where he presided over this peace deal ceremony that he has touted so often. But the real focus of this trip is his meeting with Xi Jinping.

And what I found really interesting about the comments from the top trade officials and the top -- and Scott Bessent said earlier today was that they really are laying the groundwork in a way that we don't often see from this administration. President Trump likes to kind of have these impromptu meetings, but this is kind of what happens in a standard administration.

There are lots of leg work, a lot of preparatory work that goes in advance of a big meeting with the principals. And you saw that with both sides declaring a preliminary consensus on a potential trade deal. But now President Trump is President Trump, and nothing is agreed to until he meets with President Xi. And he's really, as usual, promoting his personal relationships with him to try to secure a good deal for the U.S.

BASH: It's such a good point because we have seen, particularly with Russia and Ukraine, and even to a lesser extent in the Mideast. The president just kind of winging it and going with his instinct. I think it's probably the most true in Russia and Ukraine. But in this particular case, he is letting his people work out ahead of time.

And let's look at what we're talking about for this framework of a trade deal, further cooperation to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., China to buy substantial amounts of us soybeans. China could delay export controls on rare earth minerals and finalizing a deal to transfer TikTok ownership.

[12:05:00]

JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER & WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Well, I think China is a lot more complicated than Russia, and we have a lot more leverage with China, and China has a lot more leverage with us. We're much more interconnected than we are with Russia, where we cut off trade ages ago.

And there's almost no trade to speak of between Russia and the U.S., and China has been playing hardball right back at President Trump. And so, he's had to make some compromises, as he said, just as China, which is teetering a little bit economically has had to as well.

BASH: And Manu, I've been wanting to read this for you because I want to get your take since you are talking to either, I don't know if you call them China hawks still or former China hawks, or quiet China hawks now in the Republican Party on Capitol Hill. This is from the Washington Post over the weekend.

In private letters and careful public statements, Republicans are urging the administration to cleave the world's two superpowers apart, further separating their markets, protecting and accelerating critical industries like artificial intelligence and deepening military support for Taiwan. But the months-long lobbying effort has largely failed to sway the president.

When you talk to Republicans in the hallway, are they still sounding like the old Republican party when it comes to China?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, they privately, yes, publicly, no. They don't want to break with the president, but their views on trade, on tariffs, are diametrically opposed to where Trump has been. Trump has reshaped the Republican Party with protectionist policies, with the pro-tariff policy and these Republicans, for the most part, they're free traders. They came up through the ranks of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

They supported free trade agreements, but they're very much keeping their mouths closed as Trump is making this centerpiece of his economic policy. But it does raise the stakes politically for him, for this meeting on Thursday, which is arguably most important meeting of his second term so far, because there's so much desire among people in his party for some level of trade agreements, more trade agreements, particularly with China because so much is riding on including the U.S. economy.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, there's like China hawk when it comes to national security, which I mean TikTok, obviously, the fact that there's going to be a deal. We'll see what it looks like, is one thing. And then there is with regard to economic issues, and that is perhaps something different.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. I think it's a question that how this plays out longer term politically is also interesting. You hear a lot of Democrats talking about how they think that going into 2028, going up against China, and making that more of an issue of the opposition to China will be a prevalent theme. But obviously, it depends a lot of what happens with the president. What he does over this time.

Look, we have -- how did you say it, a preliminary--

KIM: Preliminary consensus, I believe. I don't know exactly, basically that, yeah.

(CROSSTALK) IOFFE: The concepts of preliminary.

DOVERE: When we saw just over the weekend that Donald Trump got so annoyed about an ad that ran that he canceled negotiations with Canada. So, who knows what will come of any of this?

BASH: Well, that's actually -- I mean, there's a connection here, weirdly, mostly because it's a connection that the president made. Here's what he said about that over the weekend. Canada was caught red handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan's speech on tariffs. Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts and hostile act, I am increasing the tariff on Canada by 10 percent over and above what they are paying now.

So, he's got this -- he's angry at Canada because of this ad featuring Ronald Reagan, which was spliced, but I think the broad idea of what Reagan said all those years ago still stands, and it is pretty much represented in that ad. But here's -- that's his posture towards Canada while he's over trying to make a deal with China.

IOFFE: Well, I think Trump fundamentally respects force and strength. He respects strong men. He respects people like Vladimir Putin. He just said he likes Kim Jong Un. He doesn't like the technocrats of Europe. He likes Xi Jinping. He doesn't like Mark Carney of Canada, necessarily. He's kind of this soft spoken again, technocrat. He likes Viktor Orban of Hungary. And he's -- everything is also very personal to him.

To Manu's point and to your question about former China hawks or declawed China, former China hawks, everything is so personal to Donald Trump. And what he believes is now the -- is what the Republican Party has to believe because he has so personalized the Republican Party, and what he believes changes day to day.

So, he didn't believe in regime change, and then when Israel struck Iran, he was for regime change, and now he's maybe for regime change in Venezuela. And he didn't -- you know, he was super against China, but now he might make a deal with China.

DOVERE: But also -- and to your point, it's not the way that the executive authority of tariffs works that the president can just decide because he feels about--

[12:10:00]

BASH: I don't know. We'll see with this -- go ahead -- about that.

(CROSSTALK)

DOVERE: It does not today--

IOFFE: Working without anything.

BASH: All right, we're going to sneak in quick break. Coming up. The political world is in a New York state of mind in the final stretch of a mayoral race with huge national stakes. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: We will not bend. We will not flinch. We will triumph over the oligarchs, and we will return dignity to our lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: It's the final sprint till Election Day, and in New York City, the frontrunner to become the next mayor. Zohran Mamdani is taking nothing for granted. He called on thousands of supporters who gathered in Queens last night, just to give a little bit more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAMDANI: While Donald Trump's billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election. We have a movement of the masses. No longer will we have to open a history book to read about Democrats leading with big ideas. Let us win a city hall that works for those straining to buy groceries, not those straining to buy our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Our panel is back. Isaac, you are not only a native New Yorker. You've been covering this race extensively. What are your thoughts as we're heading into the final stretch?

DOVERE: Look, Mamdani is obviously favored to win, and you can see in his presentation last night how much he feels that himself. I will read it. This is the quote that really struck me from it. He said, my friends, the world is changing. It's not a question of whether that change will come. It's a question of who will change it.

Now, like there's a lot of eyes on this race. I am a native New Yorker. I buy into all the provincial New York stuff.

BASH: What do you get when you go to the bodega.

DOVERE: I mean, the funny thing to me about that New York Times question, like, what's your bagel orders? Like, if you only have one, then what are you doing? But I do think it's important to remember how not representative and reflective the New York City electorate, whether in the Democratic primary in June or even in November is of the Democratic electorates, or the general population electorate in America.

And that said, you do see a lot of Democrats from the moment that Mamdani won, saying, he's talking about affordability in a way that matters. He's going right to what people are talking about, and he's energizing them in a big way. There was that moment last night where Kathy Hochul, who waited a long time to endorse Mamdani, and then endorse him. She came out on stage. She is running for reelection next year.

Mamdani has not endorsed her yet. And while she was trying to speak at a rally for Mamdani, they started just chanting tax, the rich in a way that hounded her off stage enough so that Mamdani had to walk out and raise her hand in victory and sort of call an end to it.

So that tells you, I think something about where at least that portion of the Democratic left wing, Democratic socialist political feeling is.

BASH: I want to actually run a couple. First of all, I'm still, like, stuck on the fact that you, as a New Yorker, just admitted that New York is not like America. But I will -- we won't tell anybody in New York that you said that, because I don't know if you'll be able to come home. But I do want to play what -- it wasn't just him there. AOC and Bernie Sanders were also there. Listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally, both in authoritarian criminal presidency, fueled by corruption and bigotry and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement. And an insufficient, eroded, bygone political establishment.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT): Ordinary people, working class people, black and white, and Latino, Asian, gay and straight, coming together to take on the oligarchy, that is Trump's worst nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Seung Min, I should add that as Mamdani said in his speech that if he wins, it will be because of the movement that Bernie built.

KIM: Right. I mean, you have AOC and Bernie right there effectively nationalizing this race. And while the energy is certainly there, going back to Isaac's point about how the New York electorate isn't necessarily reflective of the broader electorate, that this is also precisely what Republicans want.

I was speaking of quotes that, you know, strike us. I was struck by what Steve Scalise, the number two House Republican, said this morning. He said, When Mamdani wins, he is the head of their party now, especially when he's eventually elected mayor of New York. And again, no offense to the New Yorker on the panel, but the head of the New York City mayor isn't usually the head of the Democratic Party, but Republicans from President Trump on down is sure going to make sure that he is the face.

RAJU: And that's what explains why Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, had such a hard time getting to the endorsement on Friday, just saying he's endorsing the Democratic ticket. After weeks and weeks and weeks of not saying what he was going to do. Chuck Schumer still has not endorsed. That's obviously something where you continue to ask about keep saying, he says, meetings with Mamdani. OK, you had meetings. What have they actually led to?

[12:20:00]

I'll be interested, though, I agree, it's not reflected of the full picture. But what is Mamdani's ultimate coalition that gets him to winning? Is he appealing mostly to rich liberals? Is he actually appealing to working class voters, black voters, Hispanic voters? Or Democrats have had a more difficult time working class voters in particular? And he didn't do particularly well with that demographic (Ph) too in the primary. That's going to be a question.

BASH: I know you want to get in. I want to bring you in, but as you do, I just want to put up on the screen how bonkers voting is so far in New York. I mean, look at that. So early voting in 2021, 31,000 over this last weekend, 164,000 just in the first couple of days.

IOFFE: I just want to say, yes. New York is not the U.S., but I have also seen, just anecdotally, the way Mamdani campaign has resonated for liberals across America, far beyond New York. And to the point that he said, this is the movement that Bernie built.

If you remember 2016, there was a big overlap between Bernie supporters, or a significant overlap between Bernie supporters and Trump supporters, because of the crisis of affordability, because of the sense that there was a growing, like an elite that was accumulating more and more resources, more and more power and taking advantage of all of us.

That has only gotten worse in the last 10 years with the pandemic and everything. And I think that this is resonating, whether or not it plays into Republicans hands, it might also play into Democrats' hands, because it is a message that seems to resonate with liberals across the country.

DOVERE: It's fresh and it's energetic, and people are responding to that. They're responding to the idea that he is putting himself out there in ways that politicians haven't, and that's a big deal. I mean -- but I -- again, I'll just comment, if we're going based on the polls, Mamdani is in good position to win. We'll see if he gets over 50 percent of the vote.

But also, Abigail Spanberger is in a good position to win in Virginia to be governor. Abigail Spanberger and Zohran Mamdani are--

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Yeah. Jeff Zeleny went to Virginia and New Jersey. We're going to have a great piece for him later in the show. Up next. Hurricane Melissa could be the most powerful storm ever to hit Jamaica. We're going to look at where it's projected to go, after a quick break. And the pains of a government shutdown get louder. First, it was missed paychecks. Now, the FAA is having big staffing problems, causing the worst delays since the shutdown began.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Right now, you are looking at live pictures of Jamaica, where a rare category five hurricane is fast approaching. Hurricane Melissa is forecast to be the strongest ever to hit the country after a stunning double punch this weekend, intensifying rapidly and slowing down tremendously.

The warnings cover everything from flooding and landslides to storm surge and catastrophic winds. Ministers had pleaded with Jamaicans to evacuate, but now the time for preparation is quote, all but over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW SAMUDA, JAMAICAN MINISTER OF WATER, ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE: It's a devastating storm. Go to the shelters. Go to higher ground because this can take lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN meteorologist Chris Warren joins us now. Chris, I mean, it's just -- we were talking in the break about how heartbreaking this is. It turned into such a monster so quickly. What is the risk as we speak, for Jamaicans?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Initially, it's going to be rain, and the flooding in the mudslides and the landslides, that will be the first risk. And it's going to be the one that's going to last throughout the duration of the storm. The winds will come and eventually go, catastrophic winds, mind you, they will come, and they will go. But that rain, that flooding, is a huge concern.

So, here's Hurricane Melissa, and as you mentioned, going from a tropical storm on Saturday to a major hurricane on Sunday. This did happen very quickly. It is now 165-mile per hour, category five hurricane. See how big it is. And then right here, that's Jamaica, and this is where it's going. It's already raining. The rains only going to get heavier, and it's going to last for several hours, possibly making landfall around sunrise tomorrow morning, as a category five.

It will be making landfall, but possibly as a category five, four or five, as far as the winds go. Catastrophic damage can be expected close to the center, but the whole island could see hurricane force winds, and it could see this dangerous catastrophic flooding as well. Because of this rain footprint right here, any movement in the storm is not going to change the rain footprint that much.

Here's just how slow it's going. Eight o'clock this evening. This is extremely heavy rain for the island. The mountains make it worse. You get more left. Here it is overland. By tomorrow morning, we're looking at some of the worst of the conditions with the rain and the wind, lasting about 18 hours. You can drive from New York to Miami in that time, while Jamaica is dealing with this.

So, that is just a long period of time. Mountains make it worse. Extra lift that rain has to come out of the mountains. But Dana, I tell you what, with that rain coming out of the mountains, this huge hurricane is pushing the sea water on shore, and what that is doing is making that fresh water hard to drain out because the salt water is coming up.

BASH: Wow. I mean, what an image or an analogy talking about driving from Miami to New York. That really tells you a lot about how long this is expected to be sitting over Jamaica. Thank you so much for that, Chris. Appreciate it. Up next. It has been weeks since House Speaker Mike Johnson.

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