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Laura Coates Live

Trump Edits Due Process To Just "A Process"; Trump Defends Economic Agenda; Harry Enten Reports On Trump's First 100 Days; CNN Presents "America Asks." Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Ana Navarro is not here because you would get whipped.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A hundred of you, guys, versus Ana Navarro.

All right, everybody, thank you very much. And thank you for watching "NewsNight." You can catch me any time on your favorite social media: X, Instagram, and TikTok. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: On day 100, the president edits due process to just a process in one of the most revealing and perhaps consequential sentences of his presidency. Tonight on "Laura Coates Live."

So, tonight, President Trump is trying to take a victory lap on 100th day of his second term, even though much of America is worried about where things are going and have gone for the last hundred days. He spent a lot of the evening at a rally in Michigan, but he also gave a wild combative interview with ABC. It got really heated, frankly, when Trump was pushed on his immigration crackdown and whether he's violating the due process rights of the very people he's deporting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If you're going to have 21 million people and we have to get a lot of them out because they're criminals, we're going to have to act fast. We can't -- do you think we can give 21 million trials? Let's say each trial takes two weeks. Is that what you want us to do? Give 21 million?

TERRY MORAN, ABC NEWS REPORTER: The law is the law, sir. The law is the law.

TRUMP: The law isn't saying anything about trials.

MORAN: No, not trials, hearings. I said hearings.

TRUMP: These people came in. They're not citizens. They came in illegally. They came into our country illegally. We have to get them out.

MORAN: There's a legal process for them.

TRUMP: I can't -- sure, and we follow the legal process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: But isn't quite clear if the president fully understands the scope of that legal process because a few moments later, well, there was this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORAN: In our country, even bad guys get due process. Right?

TRUMP: If people come into our country illegally, there's a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally.

MORAN: But they get due process?

TRUMP: Well, they get a process where we have to get them out. Yeah.

MORAN: Okay. Let's talk about the Venezuelans.

TRUMP: They get whatever my lawyers say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: They get whatever my lawyers say. Now, to be clear, everyone in the U.S. is guaranteed due process under the law. Hope that's what these lawyers are saying. That includes migrants and people who are here illegally.

And that gets us to this man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He was deported to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador. And the president is saying tonight, he will not bring him back, even though he could. That's despite Trump's own administration admitting it was a mistake and, of course, the Supreme Court order blowing his return has to be facilitated by the administration.

The president says that he is a member of the gang MS-13. And he posted this very image a few weeks ago. It appeared digitally altered, with the text "MS-13" added over Abrego Garcia's knuckle tattoos.

Now, we don't know if the actual tattoos below even represent MS-13. But tonight, the president is insisting the MS-13 that seems doctored is actually tattooed on Abrego Garcia's hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He said he wasn't a member of a gang. And then they looked. And on his knuckles, he had "MS-13."

MORAN: There's a dispute in that.

TRUMP: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He had "MS-13" on his knuckles tattoo.

MORAN: Oh, he had some tattoos that are interpreted that way. But let's move on.

TRUMP: Wait a minute, Terry, Terry, Terry.

MORAN: He did not have the letter "MS-13."

TRUMP: It says "MS-13."

MORAN: That was photoshopped. So, let me --

TRUMP: That was photoshopped. Terry, he had "MS-13" tattooed.

MORAN: Agree or disagree. I'll move on to something else.

TRUMP: Terry, do you want me to show you the picture?

MORAN: I saw the picture.

TRUMP: And you think it was photoshopped.

MORAN: Here we go. Here we go.

TRUMP: Don't photoshop it. Go look at his hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: I want to bring in Congressman Dan Goldman, a Democrat from New York. He also sits on the House Judiciary and Homeland Security committees. Congressman, welcome back.

First, I want to start with this issue of due process. President Trump says that people being deported get a process, but didn't say he believes they get due process. What's your reaction to that distinction he seems to be making?

REP. DANIEL GOLDMAN (D-NY): Well, he was clearly separating it from what we know to be due process, which is that if you are alleged to be a terrorist, if you are alleged to be illegal and deportable, then you have to go through a court process. He very clearly answered due process with a process and then went on to say, yeah, well, we have to get them removed.

Let me explain just for a second, Laura, why this is so important.

[23:04:55]

Because, ultimately, our courts are the ones who are charged with interpreting the law, and our due process says that every single person has -- gets a notice of what they're charged with and an opportunity to be heard, and a neutral judge makes the decision.

If we don't have that, then what we have is Donald Trump making the decision as to whether someone is a terrorist, whether someone should be granted asylum, whether someone should be removed. And that is what happens in monarchies, with kings, and in dictatorships with dictators. That is not what the very foundation of this country was built on in reaction to get away from a monarchy where the king decided everything.

And that's why this is so important, and that's why him avoiding it and actually disregarding due process is so incredibly dangerous, not just for those who came in here illegally, but for American citizens as well.

COATES: Well, you know, he was asked about bringing back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. And the Supreme Court, of course, said that they must facilitate -- that was their terminology -- facilitate his return. Now Trump is saying, essentially, he could bring him back, but he won't. In your view, is the administration ignoring the Supreme Court's order?

GOLDMAN: Absolutely, and I think Judge Wilkinson, the conservative judge from the Fourth Circuit, said it best. Maybe he is a member of MS-13, maybe he isn't, but he requires due process to make a showing that he's a member of MS-13.

And when the Supreme Court says facilitators, Judge Wilkinson said, that requires some action. And you know he can do it because El Salvador has said that the only reason they're not returning him is because Donald Trump is paying El Salvador to keep Kilmar Abrego Garcia there.

If he stopped using American taxpayer dollars to prevent Kilmar Abrego Garcia from getting due process, El Salvador would send him home, he would go through the normal process that he should have gotten to begin with, as the Trump administration admitted, and our system remains firm on safe legal ground. But instead, he is defying a Supreme Court order.

COATES: You know, immigration, congressman, is but one of many issues that the American voter is looking at, is assessing this first 100 days of a second term. And I want to direct you to a new poll that CNN has that found that 72 percent of people do not approve of your party's job in Congress so far.

Do you and your colleagues have a solid plan to course correct, particularly in the environment that has some pretty low favorability ratings for President Trump as well?

GOLDMAN: Yeah, we do, and I think it's a reflection that people are disillusioned by government generally. And I think as the Democratic Party, we need to get back to our roots. We need to make the case to the American people that we are the party that wants to lift everybody up. We are the party that wants to return America to the American dream, not a situation what we have now with a few haves and many, many more have nots.

And there is a future for the Democratic Party that embraces everyone, that is a welcoming party for everyone, that tries to help everyone, and gets rid of this division and fear and horrific policies that is destroying our economy and our democracy that Donald Trump is bringing. And you will hear a lot more of that as we go forward.

But right now, we're trying to defend against a complete Republican control in Washington where they are trying to cut Medicaid, to cut SNAP, to cut food benefits, Social Security, so that they can pay for tax cuts for billionaires.

COATES: Hmm.

GOLDMAN: That is our priority right now, and that is what we're focused on.

COATES: Multitasking would be the appropriate philosophy given what the American voters were thinking about.

Well, speaking of what happened at the state level, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared with Trump during one of his stops in her state of Michigan today, and there was a lot of backlash when she met with Trump earlier this month, if you can recall.

Many people are wondering, is this the right decision for a governor, to meet with an unpopular president even if it means that the president is bringing good news to her state?

GOLDMAN: Well, look, a governor runs a state, and a governor has to make sure that they are -- that state is working with the federal government, whoever is in office. So, I have no problem with governors meeting with the president, trying to make sure that each state is treated fairly and properly, which this president has a tendency not to do.

[23:09:58]

But it's a whole different thing to appear at a campaign like rally, and I think that was a mistake. But governors do have a different role, and we have to recognize that governors have no choice who the president is. They have to work with the federal government.

COATES: Congressman Dan Goldman, thank you.

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

COATES: With me now, CNN political analyst and "The New York Times" White House correspondent, Zolan Kanno-Youngs. Zolan, let me just get to the point with this notion of whether Trump can or cannot. He said he could facilitate Abrego Garcia, but passed the buck to his lawyers. That was very significant.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES: It was very significant. The interviewer of ABC News in this instance points to the telephone on the desk in the Oval Office and says, you could call President Bukele right now and return Mr. Abrego Garcia. And President Trump says, I could, I could.

Now, that's extraordinary because previously, the argument of the administration has been that in order to facilitate and follow the Supreme Court's order, they essentially just need to let Mr. Garcia -- Abrego Garcia in through the border, but that it's El Salvador's job to actually release him and bring him to the United States.

COATES: A jurisdictional issue?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Correct. That because he's now in a prison in El Salvador because the United States sent him there, that it is the job of Bukele to release him from prison. Bukele, by the way, has said that he will not release him.

The -- the administration has pretty much said, hands off, this -- this isn't our job here, it's El Salvador's now. But here, you have a comment from the president that contradicts those previous statements by his attorney general and Stephen Miller and says, no, no, I do have the power to help facilitate his return, I'm just not doing it, I'm not willing to do so.

COATES: Believe a judge can listen to that point. Right? Thinking about, well, hold on, if I'm going to make sure that a prosecutor statement about a mistake is going to be, you know, held to all the prosecutors and the government, the president's statement will be a bit issue as well.

Why do you think President Trump was so fixated on demonstrating that that tattoo on Abrego Garcia's knuckles, purportedly, according to ABC and others, photoshopped, why was he so intent on proving it was not?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Because the administration -- it follows in this overall strategy where the administration has tried to turn this from a legal argument to an immigration argument by continuing to accuse Mr. Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13.

The evidence that the -- the government and law enforcement relied on for that has been the subject of scrutiny from a federal judge. It relies on the informant. It also, overall, relies on these tattoos.

The president previously posted on social media a photo of Mr. Abrego Garcia's knuckles. And it had symbol on -- symbols on his knuckles and appeared to also then have a sort of translation on it.

Now, while some say that those symbols are representative of MS-13, we have talked to many law enforcement experts that have said that tattoos solely are not enough to justify identifying somebody as being a member of a gang.

That being said, the score card the ICE uses that we've obtained actually puts a lot of points on whether or not somebody has tattoos as well as their choice of clothing and other ICE work as well.

COATES: Well, Trump obviously wants the court of public opinion to weigh in and maybe over --

KANNO-YOUNGS: That's why they moved it from a legal to an immigration.

COATES: But we'll see what happens there. He also was talking about the use of executive power in the interview. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MORAN: Are you using your powers as president to get personal revenge?

TRUMP: No. I'll tell you what -- I tell you what you should not -- you're really not asking and you should be asking. There has never been a president in this country in the history that was persecuted like I was persecuted by really crooked people, dishonest and horrible people, and it has been proven. All I'm doing -- hey, Biden did something to me, and I did something to Biden. And you know why I did it? Because he's grossly incompetent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: How do you interpret that? Tit for tat or otherwise?

KANNO-YOUNGS: I mean, I think it's clear that there is an intent to expand this, that this administration has an intent to expand its executive power. It's also clear that often, when faced with tough questions, President Trump has gone to an old campaign playbook of turning to the previous administration and blaming President Biden.

What I also thought was revealing in that interview, too, that's related to this topic of retribution and expansion power, his acknowledgment of how private law firms have also been pretty much giving into this administration and agreeing to various deals. He almost seems surprised as well with his answer of how much some of those firms have sought to placate this administration at this time. But without a doubt, there has been an -- an attempt to expand executive power.

[23:14:55]

And to our previous topic, that's also, again, leading to some real tension with the judiciary here and a real test of the judicial branch's role in conducting oversight over the executive branch.

COATES: And a test of checks and balances --

KANNO-YOUNGS: That's right.

COATES: -- to boot. Zolan, stand by. We're coming back. We have a lot more to get to tonight because Trump's other major issue, the economy, it could go one of two ways. If it starts going more south, well, Trump has a message for his Main Street and Wall Street tonight.

Plus, remember when Trump promised to be the most transparent president ever? Well, he didn't mean your Amazon bill. We'll take you inside the Trump-Bezos call that revealed a whole lot about what Trump may be afraid of.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COATES: To say it has been a wild ride for the economy during President Trump's first 100 days this time around would be an understatement. I mean, up and down markets, eye-watering tariffs.

[23:20:01] So, what does the crystal ball say about the next 100 days? Will America look like what Trump says is going to look like? A booming economic powerhouse? A nation with 200 new trade deals?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're coming from all over the world to see your president. They want to make a deal. They want to make a deal. And, you know, we'll make deals, but we don't have to. I've already proudly imposed a 25 percent tariff on all foreign automobiles. Any foreign car like (INAUDIBLE). This is going to create more jobs in this state, in this country.

And to help these automakers bringing their factories home as rapidly as possible, we're going to have something that you won't even believe. We will end inflation, slash prices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: So, that's Trump's vision with many of America's CEOs pretty much being very different. They've been telling the alarm about a recession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS AND FOX BUSINESS CHANNEL HOST: Do you personally expect a recession?

JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JPMORGAN CHASE: I -- I'm going to defer to my economists at this point, but I think probably is the likely outcome.

LARRY FINK, CEO, BLACKROCK: Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now.

RAY DALIO, FOUNDER, BRIDGEWATER ASSOCIATES: We are at a decision- making point and very close to a recession. And I'm worried about something worse than a recession if this isn't handled well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: What about inflation? Analysts are warning that his trade war could send prices soaring and leave shelves empty. I'm talking about in a matter of weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN IVES, GLOBAL HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: You got two weeks. The price storm is coming to consumers. The reality is the average car is going to go up between $5 to $10,000, even U.S.- made cars. That's that Category 5 storm that's coming to Detroit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: And that promise that manufacturing jobs are going to come back to America, well, let's just call that a tall order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GALLOWAY, PROFESSOR OF MARKETING, NYU STEM SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: There isn't a line of people looking to get -- to go work at -- at a plant in Lansing, Michigan. Dave Chappelle summarized it perfectly. We want to wear Nikes, not make them.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: The U.S. is now a digital economy. AI, it needs to have a new skill set of advanced economics and advanced industry, not those older jobs of manufacturing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: But tonight, President Trump is sticking to his guns. He's betting his next a hundred days will benefit United States and his sky-high tariffs will hurt America's biggest competition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORAN: Hundred and forty-five percent tariffs on China, and -- and that is --

TRUMP: That's good. That's good.

MORAN: -- basically an embargo.

TRUMP: They deserve it.

MORAN: It'll raise prices on everything --

TRUMP: They deserve it.

MORAN: -- from electronics to clothing to building houses.

TRUMP: You don't know that. You don't know whether or not China is going to eat it.

MORAN: That's mathematics.

TRUMP: China probably will eat those tariffs. But at a 45, they basically can't do much business with the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Back with me is Zolan Kanno-Youngs. And joining the table, CNN media analyst Sara Fischer and chief economic correspondent for Axios, Neil Irwin. Welcome to all of you. Glad to have each of you here.

Neil, Trump insists that costs are down. They are not. But what is down are consumer confidence, the lowest since COVID. And he has been talking about (INAUDIBLE) there are 19 written offers. Is that enough to course correct?

NEIL IRWIN, CHIEF ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Look, with China, especially 145 percent tariffs, as the president said in the clip you just showed, that's shutting down commerce between the U.S. and China. Ships are not coming over at the same rate. There will be shortage of things. There will be higher prices, especially for Chinese imports.

When it's 10 percent, look, yes, maybe then companies can absorb that in their profit margins. You know, raise prices one or 2 percent. There is some room to negotiate and to navigate. A 145 percent for the, you know, biggest trade partner in two basic economies of the world, different ball of wax.

And, you know -- so, look, there are always dials to turn and the president is willing to turn them. We've seen this over and over. You know, maximalist demands, and then make a deal at the last minute.

But you can't un-ring this bell. You know, we're going to see these disruptions ripple through the economy as we enter the summer and see the kind of lagged effects of the goods that are not being shipped from China right now. They're not on a ship on the Pacific --

COATES: Uh-hmm.

IRWIN: -- right this moment, are not going to be on store shelves over the summer.

COATES: You know, he was pressed on the economy earlier tonight as well. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORAN: People are worried. Even some people who voted for you are saying, I didn't sign up for this. So, how do you answer those concerns?

TRUMP: Well, they did sign up for it actually, and this is what I campaigned on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Did they sign up for it? Is this part of that mandate we heard so much about?

KANNO-YOUNGS: I think most voters would say that they -- when they say they signed up for it, they're talking about the comment to bring down consumer prices on day one, not necessarily weathering through economic frustration for an uncertain amount of time.

And uncertain is the key word there. The administration claims that this economic frustration will be short term in an effort to bring back American manufacturing and that voters will have patience and understand that.

[23:25:06]

Voters don't tend to have patience when it comes to high consumer prices. That does turn into frustration, usually backlash against the administration.

COATES: Speaking of consumer prices, I want to pick your brain on this because CNN is reporting that Trump called Jeff Bezos this morning to complain about reports that he was going to be displaying the cost of tariffs next to products. And then Amazon said the plan -- plan was -- quote -- "never a consideration." What happened?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER FOR AXIOS: I think that there is one report that put that out. Obviously, that spooked the White House. Of course, if Amazon never had plans for it, they're telling the truth. If they did, this is a sort of reflexive measure to back Trump off of them. Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos have been trying to follow up this really, really strategic strong relationship.

But I think where everyone got really up in a tizzy on this is the key question with these tariffs, as Neil pointed to, is who do they get passed off to? And when they're this big, there's no way you can dodge the ultimate truth that they get passed off to the consumer. There's no more obvious way to showcase that than quite literally putting the price of the inflation next to the cost of the good that you're buying.

And in a marketplace as big as Amazon, it's the biggest ecommerce retailer in the United States, that would have an enormous impact on consumer sentiment around these tariffs.

COATES: Is it common for Trump to contact these leaders of these companies and complain in this way?

FISCHER: Yes, it's totally common. And this one is in -- particularly, this one is very, very sensitive. I remember in 2017 when there was an issue with the post office and Amazon and delivery. Donald Trump had a lot of opinions on that. So, it's not uncommon.

What is important and insignificant about this particular situation is that Amazon has such scale over this market. It's not like Donald Trump is calling a random company to complain about something when they're one of five, six companies. In the U.S., Amazon is basically your only major ecommerce game. And so what Jeff Bezos says is what goes.

I thought it was notable that Walmart came out in response and said, we would never do something like this.

(LAUGHTER)

I appreciate that Walmart said that. But when it comes to scale and scope online in commerce, Walmart doesn't hold a candle to Amazon.

COATES: And yet, Neil, Trump says that it's China that will -- quote -- "eat the cost of tariffs" rather than it passing to the consumers and however form it goes. How would that work exactly for China to be the ones to eat the tariffs when, well, logic belies that point?

IRWIN: Well, the truth is if you have goods that have low profit margins, you have clothing, toys, textiles, even some electronics, it's not like you have a 145 percent of margin where you can just sell it for lower price by that -- by that degree. You know, that's where you get into this thing of, like, you're not going to -- you're not going to make things in China and ship them to the U.S. at a loss. If you're Walmart or Amazon, you're not going to sell those things at a loss.

And so, there is room to -- to absorb these but not when the tariffs stay at this scale. And that's where you get back to, are these -- is there going to be de-escalation, which we've been seeing signs of for a couple weeks, but it's not clear whether there's any actual discussions between the Americans and the Chinese? The Chinese say they are not. The Trump administration kind of gives some hints there are. That's where a de-escalation needs to happen to avoid some of these situations where Chinese imports are going to get a lot more expensive.

COATES: And yet, the shelves may be empty soon. We'll have to wait and see what happens and how they might course correct. Thank you, everyone.

Tonight, we ask this question: Is Trump losing the coalition of voters who helped him win in November? Well, Harry Enten looked into this for us, and he has some answers.

Plus, what about those diehard Trump voters? How are they feeling about these first 100 days? Well, the pollster who spoke to a whole bunch of them joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR POLICY: It is our opinion that Fox News needs to fire this pollster. And I won't make -- I won't surprise you with that. I don't think you're surprised that I'm saying that. But the Fox News pollster has always been wrong about President Trump. They were the ones that said, all summer long, that Kamala Harris is going to be the 47th president of the United States. So, we don't acknowledge any of that polling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Well, the White House is certainly not happy with the latest polling numbers that they have been seeing. So much so that the deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, is telling Fox News to fire their pollster.

Thing is, it's not just Fox News. The polls, they've been pretty consistent. And so, it had us wondering, how is Trump doing with those key groups that helped him win in November?

Lucky for us, we have our chief data analyst, Harry Enten, to answer that. Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Evening, Laura. Look, Donald Trump's approval rating has obviously been falling through the floor. And one of the key reasons why it has been falling through the floor is because he is losing ground with groups that he had gained in in 2024 compared to 2020.

What am I talking about? Well, let's first start off with, of course, the center of the electorate, the key independent block. Let's take a look at Trump's net favorability rating among independents.

We'll compare October of 2024 just before the election, according to New York Times/Siena College poll, and then April of 2025. Look at this drop. Oh, my goodness gracious. It was minus nine points in October of 2024. And look where it's declined to today. Minus 30 points way into the ground.

[23:35:00]

In fact, Trump has the worst net favorable rating among independence for a president in a presidency at this point on record as long as I could look back.

But it's not just independents. Remember, Donald Trump gained considerable ground among voters under the age of 30 in 2024. But take a look here. According to New York Times/Siena College, his net favorability rating, look at this, in October of 2024, he was underwater, but just by 12 points. Look at where he is now. Holy Toledo. We're talking about minus 47 points. That's a drop of 35 points over the last few months. And I've looked at other polling, and it looks very similar. You see a massive drop for Donald Trump support among voters under the age of 30.

And then finally, the key group of nonwhite voters. Remember, Trump was able to gain considerable ground with them back in 2024. And what do we see here? Well, Trump's net favorable rating among nonwhite voters. In October of 2024, it was minus 27 points. Not too hot to Trump, but pretty gosh darn good for Republican. Look where it's down to now. Minus 39 points. Again, a double- digit decline amongst the group that Trump had gained considerable ground with in 2024.

So, the bottom line is, Laura, it's pretty simple. Among the groups that Trump gained most amongst in 2024, he has seen the biggest declines in 2025, and that is no one (ph) no matter how you put it, Laura Coates. Back to you, my dear friend.

COATES: Harry, thank you so much, my friend. Joining me now, pollster and communications strategist, Frank Luntz. Frank, good to see you. I want to get your reaction to what we've heard from Harry. Why is Trump shedding support among independents and also younger voters?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: Well, I first want to say to Harry, come on, you're not on Broadway. Look, I used to do exactly what you just did maybe 10 years ago. But this stuff is very serious now. So, oh, my God is not helpful as a pollster in providing information. It may get people to pay attention for a minute or two, but it doesn't communicate what needs to be said.

But Harry is correct. That group, that center group has begun to abandon the president, and it is significant because he was able to wing among groups that had never voted Republican before, and some of them do regret their decision.

My focus has been to look at the Trump vote itself to see whether those people are staying with him and moving against him. And more than 95 percent say that they made the right vote.

Is there a level of anxiety? Absolutely. Our people in the center and the groups that Harry mentioned, the stuff is correct. But in the end, Trump wins or loses, and Republicans succeed or fail based on whether or not they keep the people who voted for them. And as of right now, they're willing to tough it out.

In fact, I'm being criticized by some of those people for being too dramatic, too dramatic in that some of them are leaving because the vast, vast majority are staying with the president at this moment.

COATES: Well, first, I love Broadway, and I love Harry Enten. I think that it helps people to be more included in the conversation to the point you've raised about the dramatic nature of how serious the events are and how people are viewing this.

I mean, our CNN poll asked how Trump's tariff policies will affect people's finances. Certainly, very close to home for so many people. Eighty-six percent of Democrats, 64 percent of independents say that it will hurt their finances. But just 28 percent of Republicans say that tariffs will hurt them.

You've been talking to Trump voters in all of your focus groups. And for the most part, they are, as you say, standing by the president. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUNTZ: I need to ask you an issue that no one has brought up and that has crashed your 401Ks, most of you, to tariffs. Stock market is way down.

UNKNOWN: It needed a correction.

LUNTZ: Oh, so you support it?

UNKNOWN: Yes.

UNKNOWN: You bet.

UNKNOWN: Yep.

LUNTZ: How many --

UNKNOWN: And I have to tell you --

LUNTZ: How many --

UNKNOWN: -- my 401K wasn't impacted at all.

UNKNOWN: I also trust that Trump and all of his advisers that are involved with the tariff issue know what they're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Why do you think Republicans that you spoke to are not voicing the same level of concern on tariffs as the other groups?

LUNTZ: And yet they are losing money. And I think one of -- one of the reasons is that they don't see an alternative. That they believe that what has happened in the years preceding Donald Trump created the problem, made it worse, and so they needed some sort of action.

And second, because they believed the president, that they needed some sort of bold, dramatic action to say, in particular to the Chinese government, that you cannot dump steel, you cannot dump project products, that in the end, you have to give the American worker his or her due.

[23:40:07]

And they believe that getting tough will make a difference. I don't know how long that will last. And, Laura, I do believe that there is a certain time frame when even some Trump people will say enough. But a hundred days is not that time frame.

COATES: Hmmm.

LUNTZ: And they live through four years of what they believe is inaction, and they're willing to live through whole lot more than four months before they're going to say this isn't working.

COATES: You know, when Trump was running, you remember that he told supporters -- quote -- "I am your retribution." Now, in your conversations with voters, you say you notice a new level of distrust in our country's institutions. I mean, here's more from that Trump -- the Trump supporters that you spoke with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: To see the exceptionalism and his tenacity and just kicking ass and and -- and taking no prisoners, that's what -- that's what he -- that's what we elected him -- him to do. He's just getting started.

UNKNOWN: Trump is a teddy bear. He was injured. We care about him. We cared that he was getting attacked at all these times. We want people to go to jail for this. And we're angry for him, and I wish he would not be so -- I think he in the end, he's trying to make bygones be bygones. We don't want it to be. We want people arrested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: He seems to be giving his base, at least a part of them, what they want. Is it working?

LUNTZ: It's working to some degree. I'd say to you that, as Paul Simon once wrote, a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest, so they see in Donald Trump what they want to see in him. And second, we're having a deal on it right now, and this is my greatest concern. We trust institutions and the people who run them so little. They were prepared to give more power to the president as a result. And in the end, that is going to have biggest impact as any public opinion finding over the weeks and months ahead.

COATES: It certainly speaks to people's, perhaps, tolerance for less checks and balances, and then where will we end up? Frank Luntz, thank you so much.

LUNTZ: Thank you.

COATES: You know, so many of you have questions about these first 100 days and what the next 100 days may bring. Tonight, we're answering them. And you can send me yours on X, @thelauracoates. Chuck Rocha, Lance Trover, they're ready to field them with me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:45:00]

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COATES: Well, it has been a whirlwind first 100 days in the second Trump administration, from tariffs to DOGE to teases of a third term. You all have a lot of questions about what has happened so far and, frankly, what comes next.

So, tonight, it's time for "America Asks." And here to answer your questions, Lance Trover, Republican strategist and former spokesman for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign, and Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns.

First question, Claudia asks, what is Trump's end goal? What does he want America to look like? Lance?

LANCE TROVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SPOKESPERSON FOR DOUG BURGUM'S 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: How much time do we have?

(LAUGHTER)

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR BERNIE SANDERS'S 2016 AND 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: Hang on just a second --

COATES: I know --

(LAUGHTER)

TROVER: All right. I think -- I will try to boil this down into under a minute, and I think I can do it. I think the place to start with this is what he believes, and that gets us to what his end goal is.

Starting with number one, there is a belief, and millions of Americans agree with him on this, that there is an entrenched bureaucracy in this town aided by Republicans and Democrats over the course of the last 10 or 20 years that have been making very bad decisions that have not helped the American worker or the American taxpayer.

Number two, due to those decisions that we -- that America which -- while prosperous, could and should have been more prosperous, and that's why we have new tax packages coming and we have a trade deal coming.

Number three, on the social front, the issue surrounds why are we letting 10 percent of the country dictate, and this is where I think your party is really going to struggle down the road, why are we letting 10 percent of this country dictate what 90 percent of the other country doesn't agree with? I.E., why are we allowing and saying okay for biological boys to play in girls' sports? And so, returning to a modicum of common sense in this country.

So, to boil it all down, it is to bust up the system that has been making bad decisions, renegotiate trade deals, and bring some common sense back into the country.

COATES: Well, let's go to another question because we have Glenda from Fairfield, California who asks, why isn't there more of a response from the rest of the people have -- who have elected to represent them? Did we vote in a bunch of people who do nothing? Chuck?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR BERNIE SANDERS'S 2016 AND 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: Well, I would say no, we did not because when you vote in the folks like Donald Trump, sometimes, like James Carville, you don't have to do anything but let them self-implode with their three points.

What I'm -- the point I'm really making that and not making light of that is that you have to do something I totally agree. And I think that it has been so bad. Your polling says that it has been so bad to American people. But now, Democrats. And tomorrow, Jeffries is coming out with a plan that he's going to be talking about on the House floor, about -- there's two things you have to do in politics. You have to -- why should you fire somebody? And then you have to say, why should you get hired?

We've been really good in the last three cycles of going, we're not them, we're not Donald Trump, but we've done really bad at saying, here's who we are, and that's what's going to happen tomorrow, I hope.

[23:50:04]

COATES: Well, let's see. Hope, he said at the end of it. We'll see. Doug in Utah asked this question: Why does it seem the president is doing more legislating with his executive orders than his Republican Congress is doing?

TROVER: Doesn't seem that way. He is. I mean, let's face it. Congress was not designed to move at a very fast pace, and I think we'll have some stuff like tax cuts.

ROCHA: (INAUDIBLE). Just above parties (ph). TROVER: We will have -- yeah, we will have tax cuts and all that stuff coming. But, look, the president was -- had a -- was given a mandate. He campaigned on a lot of things. And he can effectuate a lot of this stuff via executive order. The border is a very good example of that. For all intents and purposes, the border is closed. The legal immigrants are getting arrested. That's because of the president's executive authority. Those are things he can move on now.

COATES: I've got to go to South Carolina, Charleston to be specific. Catherine from Charleston asked this question, Chuck. Why is Democratic leadership refusing to acknowledge the energy on the left of the party?

ROCHA: I don't know if they're refusing to look at it. Every Democrat I've talked to, whether they're moderate or even conservative, has said, look what Bernie is doing, look what AOC is doing, they're tapping into the end the energy that's out there.

It's just, like, the difference between an 80-year-old Democrat or a 20-year-old Democrat. They're all going to act differently, and they're all going to show up in different places. We should all be recognizing all of our party and say, get up and do something.

COATES: All right. Got one from Pennsylvania. Sid from Pennsylvania has a question about Amazon reportedly considering displaying the tariff cost. They're not going to do that. But he wants to know -- quote -- "Does the president not want the American consumer to know how much more they're going to have to pay? Lance?

TROVER: No. I mean, my response to that is, well, did Walmart, Target or Amazon put a Biden inflation tax while inflation skyrocketed over the last four years? No, of course not. Did they pass bills that dumped tons of money and lit inflation on fire? No, they didn't do that. So, it did have a ring of politics to it.

Also, prices have not gone up. In fact, the last inflation report had prices inflation cooling. So, my guess is this is some woke person at Amazon, didn't run this by Jeff Bezos, and maybe he should've.

COATES: Your response?

ROCHA: Look, I think -- I know that -- if you don't believe things are going up, go to the grocery store and look at the grocery store. Things have been going up.

COATES: Okay. Well, there you go. We have what? Rick from Perry, New York has a question. How concerned should we be about President Trump seeking a third term? Is it realistic? Take that one for everyone.

Well, first of all, they were talking about that, but he cannot be elected to a third term. Per the 22nd Amendment, no persons will be elected to the office, but there are ways to be able to do so. Perhaps it's a -- one plan is to have a vice president take a particular role and then or -- or the succession comes into play. Maybe there's also ratification of that amendment, which takes a lot of people, a lot of states to do so. So, the realistic aspect of it, not particularly realistic, but then, again, welcome with 2025.

Lance, Chuck, thank you both so much.

It takes a lot to unite Republicans and Democrats these days, but it happened today in honoring unsung heroes from World War II. We'll give the "Six Triple Eight" their due, next.

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[23:55:00]

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COATES: The Pentagon so-called DEI purge continuing today. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ending a program that encourages women to take roles in national security. It was a program that was started in the first Trump administration, but I digress.

Now, we've talked a lot lately about the attempts made to minimize, if not erase from the history books, the contributions of Black service members under Trump's second term.

But today, there was no denying what a group of Black women did during World War II. The "Six Triple Eight," the only all Black and all female unit to serve in Europe during World War II. These women were able to clear a backlog of nearly 17 million pieces of undelivered mail, letters, photographs, gifts that were stock piled and sat in warehouses for months, and in some cases, years.

Now, Army leadership believed their mission was crucial to boost the morale of millions of service members during the most horrific periods of the war. One general predicted it would take them six months to finish the job, but the "Six Triple Eight" did it in just three.

Their story came to life in a Tyler Perry film that bears that name. Well, today, both Republicans and Democrats came together to award them the Congressional Gold Medal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We gather to let -- today to salute these mighty veterans. We salute the ingenuity with which they sprang into battle. We salute the barriers that they broke in a system designed to push them aside. We salute their trailblazing spirit and the road that they paved for others.

MIKE JOHNSON, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: For their distinguished service, I am proud our nation is finally giving the women of the "Six Triple Eight" the recognition they've long deserved. Today is our way of saying in no uncertain terms that their story will never be forgotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: Will never be forgotten indeed. Hey, thanks for watching. "Anderson Cooper 360" is next.

[00:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tonight on "360", the president takes a victory lap on his first 100 days as the consequences of those 100 days add up.