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One World with Zain Asher
CNN International: 52 Percent Of Americans Say Trump Deportation Policies Have Gone Too Far; Trump Says He "Could" Bring Abrego Garcia Back To U.S., But Won't; Source: Ukraine To Sign Minerals Deal With U.S. Wednesday. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired April 30, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
ZAIN ASHER, HOST, "ONE WORLD": From forward to reverse. The U.S. economy takes a hit in the first quarter. One World starts right now.
We'll look at what the new economic data means for Trump's second term agenda. Plus, new CNN polling is out today, looking at how the American
people feel about Trump's immigration policies. And sources say Ukraine is expected to sign a natural resources deal with the U.S. as soon as today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think the number one thing was on illegal immigration --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right. Coming to you live from New York, I am Zain Asher. My colleague, Bianna Golodryga, is off today. You are watching One World.
Let's begin at the White House, where any moment now President Trump will continue marking 100 days in office by holding a cabinet meeting. It comes
on the heels of new data, which actually shows that the U.S. economy actually shrank for the first three months of this year. It is the worst
showing since 2022. We will go to the White House when that cabinet meeting happens. Economic policies really are likely to dominate this meeting, just
in terms of topics. And we are now 101 days into Donald Trump's second term, and we are getting a clear idea of where Americans stand on his
immigration policy, and a majority of them say it's not going well.
New CNN polling shows that Trump's hardline enforcement tactics are losing support, with 52 percent concerned that his actions on deportations have
gone too far. 33 percent say they're about right. 14 percent say they do not go far enough. When asked if the President's policies are making the
U.S. safer, only around 47 percent, so almost about half, say yes. The Trump administration, meantime, is facing dozens of immigration lawsuits,
and Americans are growing increasingly concerned about the lack of due process granted to undocumented immigrants, including a Maryland man
mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Despite the rising anxiety, here is what Trump told his supporters at a campaign-style rally in Michigan on
Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I won on the basis of -- I think the number one thing was on illegal immigration, the border. Democrats have vowed mass invasion and mass
migration. We are delivering mass deportation, and it's happening very fast. And the worst of the worst are being sent to a no-nonsense prison in
El Salvador. So, under President Trump, America is a dumping ground for criminals. No longer. They're not even trying to come in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Federal data, meantime, shows that deportations are being carried out at a slower pace than during President Biden's last year in office.
CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us live from the White House with more on this. So, Kevin, what's interesting is that views on Trump's handling on
immigration really are divided starkly by political affiliation. It depends on whether you are Republican or Democrat on this front, but there is a lot
of concern about the lack of due process here.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I think there is no question that this idea of immigration and mass deportation is at the
very center of Trump's political project.
And you played that clip from his rally last night. I was in the room, and his lines about deportation and about immigration were by far the biggest
applause lines that he got that entire night. And in fact, he played the very video clip that the President of El Salvador, President Bukele
released when the U.S. sort of flew these migrants to El Salvador, loaded them in buses and shipped them to that high security mega prison. He
essentially played that propaganda video from beginning to end, drew an enormous reaction from his crowd. But, obviously, the group that was in
that room were his key supporters. Those people are going to be behind him, no matter what.
And when you dig into the numbers, it is the case that this question of deportation and the question of whether or not these migrants are receiving
their day in court is sort of drawing some concerns among the American public, and you see the numbers shifting in the wrong direction for the
President when compared to when the same questions were asked in February. In February, 45 percent of Americans said that his deportation policies
went too far. Now, 52 percent say that. And so, you see the numbers sort of creeping in the wrong direction for the President, as this effort to deport
people, who the administration claims are gang members, sort of ramps up.
And when you think about what has happened between February and now, you see the administration start to use the Alien Enemies Act, that centuries-
old law that allows for summary deportations of migrants without due process. The administration has used that to try and remove individuals
that they say are associated with gangs and fly them to El Salvador.
[11:05:00]
And so, certainly, as the administration starts to use some of these novel methods to try and remove immigrants from the country, one, they're running
crosswise into the courts. But, two, it seems as if the American public is starting to have more and more questions about whether that is, in fact,
the right thing to do.
ASHER: And speaking of one particular deportation, just in terms of one man that the administration is saying is affiliated with gangs, Trump obviously
had that interview with ABC, and essentially he said that, listen, I could, I could, if I wanted to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but obviously
implying that he is simply not going to. Just explain to us what Abrego Garcia has become a symbol of for this administration.
LIPTAK: Well, it's become a symbol of that very question of whether due process is being denied to some of these individuals that the
administration accuses of being members of a gang. And you heard in the interview last night, the President pointed to Abrego Garcia's tattoos as
evidence that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. He actually said that he had the words or the letters MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles, which he does
not. The President has showed a photo that had that photoshopped onto it. He has other tattoos that the administration claims are evidence of gang
affiliation, but experts on gangs have questioned whether that's the case.
And when the President says that, yes, he could pick up the phone and call President Bukele and tell him to return Abrego Garcia to the United States,
that is actually the opposite of what you have heard the administration, one, tell the courts, but two, say in public. When Bukele was here in the
Oval Office, you heard the attorney general, you heard Stephen Miller, the top advisor to the President, all say that this is a matter for El
Salvador, that they would need to be able to pull him out of the jail and return him to the U.S. President Trump is now saying something very
different. Listen to what he said in that ABC interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.
TERRY MORAN, HOST, ABC NEWS: I'm not saying he is a good guy. It's about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir --
TRUMP: He came into our country illegally.
MORAN: You could get him back. There is a phone on this desk.
TRUMP: I could.
MORAN: You could pick it up, and with all --
TRUMP: I could.
MORAN: -- the power of the presidency, you could call up the President of El Salvador and say, "Send him back," right now.
TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.
MORAN: But the court has ordered you --
TRUMP: But he is not.
MORAN: -- to facilitate that -- his release --
TRUMP: I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want --
MORAN: You're the President.
TRUMP: -- to do this, Terry.
MORAN: Yeah. But, the buck stops in this office.
TRUMP: I -- no, no, no, no. I follow the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: So, you hear the President saying there that contrary to what he -- his administration has been saying in court that, yes, he does have the
power to call up the President of El Salvador and get this man back to the United States, which is precisely what the courts have been ordering the
administration to do, to facilitate his return to the U.S.
Now, in this CNN poll, you do see a growing number of Americans questioning how the administration has approached this specific case. 56 percent say
that the Trump administration should try to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. That's compared to 20 percent who say that he should not, and 23
percent who say that they're unsure, maybe don't have all of the specifics of this case in their head.
But, I think this all sort of adds up to growing skepticism about how exactly the administration is going about this effort. Certainly, a lot of
Americans are supportive of this idea of mass deportations, and this idea of removing criminals from the United States, but now a majority of the
Americans are questioning how specifically they're going about that.
ASHER: All right. Kevin Liptak live for us there. Thank you so much.
All right. Ukraine is expected to sign a deal soon on sharing its natural resources with the U.S. The Prime Minister says it could happen within the
next 24 hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENYS SHMYHAL, UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER (Interpreted): As soon as all the final details have been finalized, I hope that the agreement will be signed
in the near future, within the next 24 hours. This will be the first step. Following this agreement, two technical and executive agreements will be
signed on the actual creation of the fund, its financing and funding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: The two governments have been trying to hammer out a deal for weeks. An agreement would give Washington access to Kyiv's untapped mineral riches
in exchange for U.S. investments.
CNN's Clare Sebastian is in London for us with more. So, Clare, as I understand it, there is two parts to this deal. There is the framework deal
and the funding agreement that needs to be ratified by Ukraine's parliament. But, walk us through what's in the fine print here, and what
more importantly does this actually mean for Ukraine's security guarantees?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Zain. I think with the initial caveat that we have not seen the text of the final deal, nor is it over the
line yet, and certainly we've seen that this particular deal has hit last- minute snags in the past, of course, most famously with that very public Oval Office spat between Trump and Zelenskyy in February when they were
supposed to sign the deal back then.
[11:10:00]
But look, number one, for Ukraine, this is really important. This would be getting something in writing that might unlock new U.S. military aid. Of
course, we know the Trump administration has not yet approved a single package of new military aid for Ukraine. What they're getting was approved
under the last administration. And look, we're getting some details on what is in this deal from the Ukrainian Prime Minister speaking on Ukrainian TV,
and it does seem that Ukraine has been able to get a lot of what it wanted. He says that they secured a key concession, in the sense that the U.S. is
not going to be repaid through this joint fund for past aid. It will only be future aid that counts towards the U.S. contributions to this joint fund
they're setting up.
Secondly, Ukraine will only pay into the fund using the proceeds of new mineral projects, new licenses, as they say, and royalties that come after
the deal is signed. It doesn't give any ownership of Ukrainian mineral resources. It just sort of offers this profit share mechanism. And
interestingly, it says, according to the Prime Minister, that there will be no distribution of these profits from this fund for 10 years, that up until
that 10-year point, all of the money will go back into Ukraine's economy, funding the development, and reconstruction. So, that all seems like it is
good news for Ukraine.
But, on the other hand, Ukraine had wanted security guarantees from the U.S. as part of this deal. We don't know yet whether they are in there, and
the U.S. has tried to claim before that this deal in itself will function as a security guarantee. So, we await more details. And as I said, it's not
over the line yet.
ASHER: All right. Clare Sebastian live for us there. Thank you so much.
All right. Donald Trump says the greatest accomplishment of his first 100 days has been the economy, but the numbers tell a very different story. New
data shows the economy shrank by 0.3 percent for the first three months of this year. Wall Street actually expected it to grow 0.8 percent. The last
time we saw a GDP decline was back in 2022.
CNN's Matt Egan has the details as to why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: America's economy is shrinking. GDP, the broadest measure of economic growth, declined by 0.3 percent during the first three
months of this year. Now, that was a surprise relative to the consensus expectations for weak but still positive growth, although I would note
there were some estimates out there for an even bigger decline. This is the first time we've seen negative GDP since 2022, and this was really all
driven by the trade war and the epic supply shock that tariffs have set off.
We've seen a situation where businesses and consumers have scrambled to try to beat the clock on tariffs by dramatically increasing imported goods, and
when you have a situation like this where imports outpace exports, that is a negative for GDP, and in this case, it was a big negative for GDP.
Another factor was DOGE. It was a federal government spending decline. Also on the consumer front, there was a noteworthy deceleration in consumer
spending, and that's not very good thing when you're talking about a consumer-led economy.
Now, it wasn't all bad. Digging into core GDP, that did hold up pretty well here. Still, though, some of the economists that I'm talking to, they are
concerned about this report. I talked to Greg Daco, a veteran economist, and he told me that what is extremely concerning here is that this spike in
imports suggests that there could be a demand cliff going forward, as businesses accumulate a lot of imported goods and they no longer need to
spend that money going forward.
Another important thing that came out of this report is that we saw that on a quarterly basis, inflation accelerated. We saw the price increases picked
up steam in the quarter. And so, when you put that together, you have a situation where growth is weak, actually negative, and inflation is higher
than it's supposed to be, and going in the wrong direction. Market veteran Art Hogan, he told me that, look, no one wants to say the stagflation word
out loud, but this report does have that tone to it, and that's the tone that everyone is worried about.
One last point, of course, recession fears were high coming into this report. Now the fact that we do have one quarter of negative GDP and this
supply shock that is distorting the economy, clearly, that is not going to help these ongoing recession fears. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. Many thanks to Matt Egan for that report.
All right. For more on President Trump's handling of the U.S. economy and his impact on the U.S. and global politics, let's bring in Richard Haass.
He is the President Emeritus of the Council of Foreign Relations and the author of the book "The World: A Brief Introduction". Richard, thank you so
much for being with us.
So, I'm not sure if you got to listen to Matt Egan's report there, but we had been expecting these GDP numbers to be a little bit skewed, because we
knew that people would be front loading.
[11:15:00]
That is to say that in March, when the first set of these tariffs were announced, that people were rushing out to go and buy imports to get ahead
of these tariffs. And obviously imports really do drag GDP numbers down. So, just in terms, though, of the way the Trump administration is trying to
frame this report, because obviously the headline number, even though we know the sort of reasons as to why the headline number is, of course, quite
troubling, Peter Navarro essentially saying that, look, the Trump administration inherited a bad set of economic policies from the Biden
administration. Donald Trump himself going back to blame the Biden administration as well. We know that Americans are really souring on Donald
Trump's handling of the U.S. economy. He continues to blame Biden.
How well is that likely to go over with ordinary Americans, do you think?
RICHARD HAASS, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: It doesn't go over well now and it will just get worse with every passing day. This is
the President's economy. Even worse, he inherited a good one. The economy he heard inherited was growing at close to three percent. Inflation had
tapered. Unemployment was way down. The analogy I draw is you basically had a healthy patient walk into the doctor's office for a physical, gets
administered a drug, in this case, tariffs, and suddenly the patient has a heart attack. This is now Donald Trump's economy. Peter Navarro can also
take intellectual ownership for it, because he has been a great advocate of these tariffs.
But, the American people aren't going to abide that this was Joe Biden's fault anyway. This is Donald Trump. He called tariffs beautiful things. He
has put them in place. Well, now he has to live with the consequences.
ASHER: Just in terms of what the consequences are going to be, I mean, obviously there is so much uncertainty about what these tariffs will
actually end up being. I mean, it is one thing to announce tariffs. It's another thing to move the goal post every single week. I mean, there has
been literally a different headline about these tariffs almost every other day. So, just in terms of how that's going to affect the U.S. economy going
forward, just give us your thoughts on that, because obviously there is uncertainty. Businesses don't know how the imports, especially the tariffs
when it comes to China, are really going to shake out. How do you plan in that kind of environment?
HAASS: Well, the answer is you can't plan. And virtually, every business leader I know of has pressed the pause button. You can't buy. You can't
sell because you don't have any idea of what prices are going to be. You don't know what the tariffs are going to be. So, the tariffs themselves are
obviously inflationary. They lower growth and so forth. But, the policy around the tariffs, just every day you get new exceptions or exemptions
announced. We still haven't negotiated one of the so-called 90 agreements, or whatever the number is these days, that are meant to be negotiated over
these three months to bring the reciprocal tariffs down.
So, this is an environment in which uncertainty is breeding uncertainty, and that's adding to the economic slowdown, but we're simply -- we're not
seeing businesses make long-term investments. I think also, it's raised fundamental questions about American stewardship of the dollar, of the
economy, and the rest of the world is beginning to look for ways to reduce its vulnerability to American policymaking.
ASHER: You have a situation where there is sort of stalemates between the U.S. and China, just in terms of neither side is willing to pick up the
phone. We know that trade agreements can take years to negotiate, especially if you're negotiating a full one. I mean, obviously members of
the administration have come out and said, listen, we're very close to a deal. And obviously the assumption is that these are going to be very, very
sort of watered down deals.
Just in terms of actually getting a trade deal on the books with China, just walk us through how complex that is, because you're dealing with not
just the tariffs, you're also dealing with intellectual property rights. You're dealing with the ease at which American companies can do business in
China. You're dealing with the sale of TikTok. You're dealing with Taiwan. I mean, there is just so much that would potentially go into a deal between
the U.S. and China.
HAASS: You're exactly right. My hunch is it'll ultimately be broader than a trade deal, and may involve, as you suggest, geopolitics like Taiwan. It
may involve TikTok, the tariffs and so on. I think the tariffs are heading down. What you -- I think now you have to do is almost orchestrate the
diplomacy of it, where the United States and China, neither one is seen to lose face. Neither one is seen to take the first step. So, my hunch is it's
going to have to be negotiated behind the scenes. If I were going to choose someone, it would be the Treasury Secretary on the part of the United
States with his opposite number in China, and you'd have a mutual announcement of lower tariffs. And I think that's the way to go.
But, to take your larger point, we're not going to have elaborate trade agreements. Those take months or years to negotiate. I think what you're
going to have is agreement on a couple of select issues, and that'll have to suffice for now.
[11:20:00]
ASHER: All right. Richard Haass, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Donald Trump pumps the brakes on some auto tariffs, but will that be enough to accelerate growth in the sector? We'll take a look after the break.
We'll also look at how his tariffs are affecting the economy overall, with a closer look at today's dismal headline GDP numbers too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. Any moment now, President Donald Trump will begin his next 100 days in office with a cabinet meeting at the White House. We will
bring that to you as and when it happens. Later on in the day, President Trump will also host prominent CEOs at the White House to speak on American
investment. But, CEOs who do business with China may not see eye to eye with Trump when it comes to steep tariffs on Chinese imports. Last night,
during his interview with ABC, President Trump doubled down on Chinese tariffs, saying that they deserve it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You don't know whether or not China is gonna eat it.
MORAN: That's mathematics.
TRUMP: China probably will eat those tariffs. But, at 145 percent, they basically can't do much business with the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: This as Trump eases his auto tariffs. 25 percent tariffs on imported cars stay in place and a new 25 percent tariff on auto parts will take
effect this weekend. But, U.S. car producers do qualify for some relief, and auto manufacturers won't have to pay multiple auto-related tariffs
stacked upon each other.
Let's bring in Anna Stewart to take a look at the economic situation. So, just explain to us how these changes, this relief, in particular, Anna, is
going to impact the auto industry.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, it wasn't a pause on the tariffs, which is, of course, what U.S. carmakers probably hoped for. The 25 percent
tariff on imports of cars stands. So does the 25 percent tariff on car parts that kicks in actually this weekend. But, U.S. car producers can get
a reimbursement, essentially, so three and three quarter percent on the value of the car they make. That is for the next 12 months. Next year,
Zain, it reduces to 2.5 percent, and then the year after, it is removed altogether. So, it's quite a time-limited reprieve. Carmakers will be
concerned that in two years you can't suddenly make all the car parts you need, and that they'll just be facing the same problem further down the
line.
You're right. There were some other bits here, no stacking of tariffs. So, say you're a U.S. carmaker. You want to import a steel part. You're not
going to get 25 percent tariff and it being a car part and on it being steel. So, that's some clarity for the carmakers, and some good news. And
no tariffs if 85 percent of the car parts comply with the USMCA.
[11:25:00]
This is good news, maybe for Tesla, for instance, which makes a lot of the car actually in the United States. That's probably the main beneficiary
here.
But, while this is a reprieve, while this is good news, it doesn't go probably nearly far enough, and U.S. stocks, in terms of the carmakers, not
looking particularly good today. It's limited relief, but relief nonetheless. Zain.
ASHER: Yeah. So, what has been the reaction overall, though, from car companies?
STEWART: Well, it's interesting now that we're an earnings season, because we actually are getting to see what the impact is here. From carmakers,
we've actually had notice from General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, that all pulling their guidance in terms of profits for this year. For
clarity, I mean, the tariffs have changed so many different times. It's very hard to forecast what you're going to do next and where you're going
to put your investment if it takes four or five years to build a factory, for instance. Do you start that work now? But, wonder whether a new
administration may change things, wondering whether these tariffs may still exist in the next few years.
The CEO of Ford spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett today, obviously said it was fantastic news that there was a reprieve on the current 25 percent auto
tariffs, but also ran us through just how complex it is to be a car CEO right now. And the question for some of these carmakers is, how to make
their cars with more U.S. parts, but still making them affordable for U.S. consumers? Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM FARLEY, CEO, FORD: Keep it competitive and affordable compared to companies that import from overseas like Mexico or South Korea, Japan. We
have to import certain parts, and a lot of parts, like fasteners, washers, carpet, wiring looms, are just not available. We cannot even buy those
parts here. So, for affordability and available the supply chain, what the President did is say, OK, for 15 percent of your parts, if you make a
vehicle in the U.S., and you make 75 percent of the parts in --
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Yes.
FARLEY: -- the vehicle from the U.S., there is 15 percent exemption from the tariffs.
And also, the second thing he said is compounding. We have a lot of parts that come from overseas that have multiple tariffs. We have the fentanyl
tariffs. We have the China tariffs. We have the reciprocal tariffs.
BURNETT: Yes.
FARLEY: Some of our parts went from zero tariff to 140 percent tariff. So, they decided to say, you get one tariff, it's 25 percent. That clarifies
things. But, boy, do we have a lot of work to do with the administration on exports, and these parts, affordability of parts is a really important
thing for America, because we got to keep the vehicles affordable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: And keeping them affordable will be very tricky. Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, has said they believe the average auto sticker price will
go up roughly $5,000 to $10,000, Zain, even with this latest sort of reprieve on auto tariffs.
ASHER: Unbelievable. Anna Stewart live for us there. Thank you so much.
Let's bring in CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, So, Ron, what's interesting here is that Americans are already souring on Donald Trump's
handling of the economy. Obviously, there is so much uncertainty. I mean, if this continues, if this trade war continues, if it takes a while to get
a deal with China, which obviously we anticipate that it would, how is this going to affect Republicans come the midterms, do you think?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Severely, in all likelihood. I'm struck as the President today is inviting CEOs to the White House who
have made big investments or promised big investments in the U.S. Zain, he has basically argued himself into the same position on the economy, and
will sense as Joe Biden. Americans are concerned about prices. President Trump, like President Biden before him, is talking a lot about investment
and jobs. But, I think the very clear political message, lesson of the Biden presidency is that when people are worried about their cost of
living, more jobs are not an antidote to higher prices.
I mean, Biden had giant private investment, over $1 trillion in his term, and he generated a lot more manufacturing jobs, 600,000 manufacturing jobs,
a million more construction jobs over his four years, both building those new plants and working on the infrastructure projects, and it didn't matter
that much to voters who were worried about affording groceries and shoes and clothes. And I think if you look at the polling in the last few weeks,
it's unequivocal that Americans are judging the health of the economy about whether they can afford their cost of living, not by the job market.
And so, the President's approval rating has become the single most important factor in midterm election outcomes in the U.S. Full stop, Donald
Trump was at 45 percent on Election Day in 2018. Republicans lost over 40 seats in the House. Today, he was at like 41 percent, 40 percent, 42
percent, depending on the poll. If he is down that low, November of 2026, no guarantee. But, if he is, it'll be a very long night for Republicans.
[11:30:00]
ASHER: So, what does this trade war tell us about what has happened to the Republican Party, ideologically? Because Republicans traditionally are the
party of free trade. Obviously, that is not the case anymore. What has happened to this party just in terms of from an ideological perspective?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Great question. I mean, Trump has accelerated and intensified a movement that was already underway. The shifting position of
the Republican Party on trade is really part of the underlying cultural, economic, demographic and geographic realignment of American party -- the
American political parties. I mean, the Republican Party over the past 25 years, again, in a movement that Trump has accelerated, has really traded
white collar metro area voters for blue collar voters who are heavily located outside of metro area.
So, you basically have a Republican Party that has a lot of blue collar workers who feel they have been hurt by free trade, and the white collar
workers who tend to support free trade, in fact, services are where we have our big export surplus, those tend to be located in metro areas that are
growing more democratic. Manufacturing tends to be located in Republican -- in rural areas that are growing more Republicans.
So, you have a kind of a spatial, economic and demographic reconfiguration of the parties that has driven this shift, and then Trump really put the
exclamation point on it, because on this front, as on so many others, virtually no Republicans are extremely leery about crossing him. I will
say, though, we have heard some rumbles from people like Ted Cruz, historic free traders, and you do have to wonder if we get to the end of May and
beginning of June, and the shelves are looking a little bare and people are panic buying in Target and Walmart and their grocery store, this may be an
area where more Republicans feel comfortable stepping out against him.
ASHER: And quick question, just in terms of immigration, we saw the ABC interview with President Trump, and of course, Kilmar Abrego Garcia came up
in that interview, and what Donald Trump said was, multiple times, listen, yes. It's true. I could. I could pick up the phone and call President
Bukele, and I could have Abrego Garcia brought back to the U.S. if I wanted to.
Obviously, we've seen so many different excuses as to why the administration doesn't want to do this. We heard at first that this was a
mistake, that this was an unforced error. Then, after that, that he was a gang member, which they've offered no evidence for. And then we also heard
Donald Trump say that essentially he had no power to bring --
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
ASHER: -- Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., and now he is saying, well, I actually could bring him back, but essentially implying that he is not
going to. Why is this the issue that Republicans, or rather, the Trump administration, is really clinging to? I mean, why has Abrego Garcia
essentially become a symbol of for this administration?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Well, first of all, the administration is operating under an order from the Supreme Court to facilitate, if not effectuate, his
return. Now, it is likely that the Supreme Court, sooner or later, probably sooner than later, is going to have to give a more definitive directive to
the Trump administration. They're a conservative. I mean, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has said, why is this the hill that you are dying
on? You're going to have so much at stake before the courts. So many lower courts have blocked so many things that Trump wants to do. He ultimately
needs that Republican majority and the Supreme Court to reverse some of that. Do you really want to poke this stick in the eye of the Supreme Court
on this front?
I think, look, they believe -- in some ways, similar to what happened with Pete Hegseth, with all of his missteps, they believe they're hat conceding
to their critics on any front, basically invites more attacks. That weakness be gets a weakness. But also, immigration is an area where Stephen
Miller and J,D. Vance have very explicitly said that if they follow the rules, if they follow due process, it cannot get to the numbers that they
want to achieve in terms of removing people from the country.
So, I think they are determined to use this example to try to show that they can bend the courts and the political system to their win -- to their
will, to cut the corners that are necessary to achieve the level of deportation that he has promised. The Supreme Court has also said that you
can't remove people without some level of due process. So, he is steaming toward confrontation with this Republican majority on the Supreme Court,
and the question is, will they stand up for their institutional prerogatives anymore firmly or resolutely than the Republican majority in
Congress has done?
ASHER: All right. Ron Brownstein live for us there. Thank you so much.
We'll be right back with more after this short break.
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[11:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right. I want to take you to the White House now, where President Trump is holding a cabinet meeting. Let's listen in.
TRUMP: -- and very quickly. We officially designated Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and we're
expelling these monsters from our country rapidly, and working with the Department of Justice. Pam, you're doing fantastic. You people are amazing.
We're having some judge problems. Everybody is reading, some judges that don't like killers, murderers being thrown out of the country. So, I don't
know what their problem is, but we have little difficulty.
We won on the basis of a great border and of getting criminals out of our country. That was why we won every swing state. We won by millions of
votes. We won everything. Every metric, we won by a lot. It was a massive victory, and we won, I think, largely because of this issue. I put this
issue as number one issue, and they don't want us to do what we're supposed to do. And I don't think that can be, and I hope the Supreme Court is going
to fully understand what's going on. We have to get the criminals out of our country, and that's the basis under which we won the election.
Core GDP, and this is -- you probably saw some numbers today, and I have to start off by saying, that's Biden. That's not Trump, because we came in on
January, just a quarterly numbers, and we came in, and I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy, destroying our
country in so many ways, not only at the border. The border was more obvious, but we took over his mess in so many different ways. Core GDP,
removing distortions from imports, inventories and government spending, was up close to three percent when you add it. We had numbers that despite what
we were handed, we turned them around, and we were getting them really turned around.
Gross domestic investment was a whopping 22 percent. Now, that is a number that people are coming in at numbers. For instance, I just walked in. I
heard Samsung is now -- because of the tariffs, they're going to build massive facilities in the United States. If we didn't do the tariffs, they
wouldn't be doing that. So, it takes a little while to get those facilities built. But, they're coming in with big, big numbers. They're all coming in
with big numbers.
We have more monies being spent than any -- at any time in the history of our country. We're up to close to $8 trillion, I think I can say, and
really it's going to be a lot higher than that. Those are just the ones that we know about, $8 trillion. I'm not going to say, but I don't think --
I'm not sure Biden did a trillion for four years, $1 trillion, but we're $8 trillion for two months, because let's give us a pass on the first month.
We were sort of getting a little bit used to things, right? But, after two months, we have $8 trillion. There has never been a number like that, and
that includes chip companies, car companies, every form of manufacturing, high tech companies.
[11:40:00]
Nobody has ever seen anything like it. So, $8 trillion. I can talk about gross domestic product, gross domestic investment. I can talk about a lot
of things, but to me, the biggest numbers, the kind of numbers that are -- and these people are coming in. Our Secretary of Commerce spent the
weekend. He went down to Arizona to see what was happening with the chip, the biggest chip company in the world, and he said, Howard, he said, you've
never seen anything like it. Do you want to just describe what you saw?
HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: So, they're investing $165 billion in 1,100 acres in Arizona, and they're building the highest tech chip
manufacturing, semiconductors, and 4,000 employees, American trade craft, right, technicians doing every kind of work. That classic Foundation of
America is building it. They have 14,000 people. They're expecting 40,000 people to build the rest of their plants and to employ 20,000 people for
the rest of time, and it's all driven --
TRUMP: You never saw a site like that.
LUTNICK: -- and this is all driven by your tariff policies. No chance this be happening without you.
TRUMP: It's going to be about 40 percent of the chip market from that one section, and this is the biggest chip maker. They have 99 percent of the
market. They come from Taiwan. And unlike the CHIPS Act, which was done by Biden, where they hand everybody billions of dollars, the thing they don't
need is money. They got plenty of money. What they need is an incentive to come in. And the tariffs, they're building because of the tariffs. If
without the tariff -- and I like to say they're building because of November 5th, the election and the tariffs. But, I'm going to be a little
more blunt. They're building because of the tariffs, and November 5th gave them the tariffs.
So, the -- it's amazing when you look -- and these are not companies that go out and say, well, we're going to build. We have to go get our
financing. Let's go. Like, we would -- in New York, everybody would look, you get a building site, and then you'd look around for money. You look
around for financing for six months. You get your financing. You'd build your building. The market would be good. You'd make money. The market would
be bad. It wouldn't be so pretty. You'd have to negotiate (inaudible). This is different. These people have so much money they don't know what to do.
They are -- I asked, Howard, did they finance it? No, they do it through cash. And they say that site, and they just started. They just announced it
like a month ago, and they've already started. He said, I've never seen a site like it so big.
So, you're talking about a $50 billion -- essentially a $50 billion building. Now, if you build a warehouse for $50 million, that's a big
warehouse, Scott, but a $50 billion building, that's a lot. They're building the electric. They're building -- they've become a utility, and
I'm giving them the right to become. They're going to build their own electric. They're going to build their own electricity, which they need
tremendous amounts of electricity. They're going to build it themselves. Anything they have look -- left over, they'll hook that into the grid, but
the grid is old, and they're unreliable, and bad things can happen to grids. I said, if you want, you can hook into the grid, but that's a little
bit risky. Or you can build your own electricity and become your own utility, and the -- I think, in all cases, are deciding to do that.
So, it's very exciting, and we have a lot of things going. We took over on January 20th. These are quarterly reports. We took over on January 20th.
The tariffs haven't kicked in yet. I know that, and I don't want this to happen, but I know that China is doing very poorly right now. I just saw
some reports coming out, and I don't want that to happen to China. I like the President a lot, President Xi. I don't want it to happen. I was
actually saddened to hear it. But, they are getting absolutely hammered in China.
And they're sending boats, the biggest boats in the world, carrying cargo like nobody has ever seen before. These are the biggest boats in the world,
biggest cargo ships in the world, and they're coming and they turning around in the Pacific Ocean. They're doing a big U-turn and going back
because they don't want the goods, because 145 percent tariff. But, at a certain point, I hope we're going to make a deal with China. We're talking
to China, but their factories are closing all over China because we're not taking their product. We don't want their product unless they're going to
be fair with us, and that includes intellectual property and other things. There are a lot of things far beyond just buy, sell. So, we'll see what
happens.
But, I was not -- because somebody said, well, were you happy? I said, I am not happy. I want China to do well. I want every country to do well, but
they have to treat us fairly also.
So, with that, I think we're going to maybe go around and we have some letters where the secretaries and people around the table are making
statements about how they're doing and what's happening. And I could start with Pete on the left, because he is my least controversial person.
[11:45:00]
They don't know how good he is. So, we'll go around the table, and you can hear. These are cabinet meetings where they're very open and transparent.
And I can guarantee you, Biden didn't do this. He didn't do this. Go ahead, Pete.
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, Mr. President, I think we're controversial because we're over the target. And like so many things, Mr.
President, you inherited a demoralized military that couldn't recruit, that was perceived this week after what happened in Afghanistan and elsewhere
because of Joe Biden. And what we have seen since your election and the inauguration was -- has been nothing short of a recruiting Renaissance.
Decades -- it hasn't been in decades since we've seen this kind of recruiting in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, the men
and women of America want to join the United States military led by President Donald Trump.
TRUMP: And the police, by the way --
HEGSETH: Absolutely.
TRUMP: -- and fire. I always mention the fire, but the police and fire, but the police and fire, likewise are -- I mean, they have waiting lists now,
and six months ago it was a disaster. Go ahead.
HEGSETH: Truly historic. We can really absorb the volume and retention as well, men and women in the military who don't want to get out, now that
they have a real Commander in Chief. We're reinforcing standards. We're going to be fit, not fat, in our formations. We welcome back all the COVID,
the folks who were forced out because of the COVID mandate. We ripped wokeness out of the military, sir, DEI, trans, and it's Fort Benning and
Fort Bragg again at the DoD. We're rebuilding the military serve. The Golden Dome is well underway. F-47, reassuring allies and deterring
enemies.
We found nearly $6 billion in DOGE savings that we're going to reinvest, including $50 billion from the Biden administration, focused on things like
climate that have nothing to do with lethality and warfighting. And we will have, as you said, sir, the first trillion dollar budget that we plan to
spend wisely on behalf of our warfighters.
From day one, sir, we've gotten 100 -- helped get 100 percent operational control of the border. Come alongside DHS and CBP, we've got 11,000 troops
on the border, who now, because of the new national defense area, sir, can help detain illegals at the border and hand them over to CBP. It used to
be, if you saw camouflage on the border, they could hold binoculars, and that's it. Now we can detain and assist, and we are. We're going to get 100
percent operational control of that border.
Our NATO allies know they have to step up. The Houthis in the Middle East are feeling the weight of American power, and we're deterring Communist
China. So, because of your leadership, sir, I believe we're making the military great again. Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you. Howard.
LUTNICK: So, I have the pleasure of running the investment accelerator which gets to recruit these companies, and you've never seen anything like
the companies committed to building in America. Technology companies have committed over $2.5 trillion to build in America, based on your tariffs,
right, sovereign countries, all backing the whole Middle East, and all these countries backing their sovereign wealth funds, they all want to
invest in America, and they're coming in again, over $3 trillion committed. So, just those two topics, we're at $5.5 trillion, and then you've got the
whole pharma industry knows it's got to come home, because America pays for all the drugs of the world. So, the pharmaceuticals have to come home,
right? Auto is coming home. Industrials coming home.
So, we've got to train and your great Secretary of Labor together and Secretary of Education, together we're going to train the workforce to
build America. It's unbelievable. We've got so much, as I travel around, the attention on the Trump gold card. I mean, it makes me very popular.
Last night, I was out to dinner, and someone came up and said, can I buy 10? And how do I buy 10? And I'm like, it's pretty good. It's $50 million
for a dinner. So, it's paying for my dinner. The external revenue service, right? You've got the tariffs and the hundreds and hundreds of billions of
dollars coming in to build the external revenue service that our objective, of course, is to replace the Internal Revenue Service and let those outside
countries trading with us, let them pay their fair share to America. And then, of course, you got rid of de minimis.
And what happened is these foreign countries were sending in little packages for free and knocking out our mom and pop businesses across
America. You put it into it, and you're going to rebuild the mom and pop and the small business of America. You're their President, and I'm proud to
support you.
TRUMP: It's very important, de minimis, it's very -- it's a big deal. It's a big scam going on against our country, against really small businesses,
and we've ended. We put an end to it.
SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Mr. President --
TRUMP: Please.
DUFFY: So, CAFE standards, we have fuel economy standards on vehicles that are going to go to 50 miles per gallon. We are going to rewrite those
standards, bring it down to something that's far more reasonable.
[11:50:00]
Elon is fine with that, I hope, but it's going to drop down -- it's going to drive down the price of a car in America, making cars more affordable
for families. Also, Biden had the social cost of credit when we build infrastructure, roads and bridges, adding three percent to five percent on
infrastructure costs. We've gotten rid of the social cost of carbon, driving down the cost to build roads and bridges across the country.
We have what is called follow the law. So, we have so many states and municipalities that don't follow the law. So, whether it's DEI,
discriminate against Americans, whether they give illegals driver's license or their sanctuary cities or states, if you don't follow the law, if you're
giving license to illegals, if you're having DEI policies, we're not going to fund your projects. So, you got to certify in your state or in your city
to get road and bridge money or rail money that you're actually following the law, which includes executive orders from you, Mr. President.
We're cutting back funding. We sent research money, Mr. President, to universities to do research on more equitable and sustainable
transportation systems, projects that will use data and public opinion to inform policy and infrastructure and technology benefiting diverse
communities, including women and gender non-conforming people. Just stupid waste of money. We're pulling that money back from universities. We should
do good research if we're doing research in universities.
And then one last thing, air traffic control. We don't have enough air traffic control. There is about 3,000 short. We're working on an agreement
with the union. So, when controllers become retirement eligible, we're going to cut a deal to try to get them to stay longer, stay in the tower,
and then we have a plan to put more butts in seats in Oklahoma City, so we can get more students through the academy and into towers as well. It's
going to take us a while to do that, to train them up, but we're the process. Before our four years are done, well before that, we're going to
be at full capacity.
TRUMP: Sure. Do you want to tell about -- I think we have to bring it up. We have very obsolete equipment for air traffic control, as the equipment
at the towers have horrible equipment. It's been renovated for years. The money they spent over the last four years, this booted edge did a horrible
job. They wasted billions and billions of dollars hooking up wire equipment to non-wire equipment to satellite equipment. And a third grade student
would know it doesn't work. You can't work. And they spent -- they wasted tens of billions of dollars. But, we want to put a brand new air traffic
control system in, and you might want to just add on that, please.
DUFFY: Yes. Yes. You and I talked about this. It's a state-of-the art system, envy of the world. And it's -- I mean, listen, I don't want -- our
system is safe, but you would have hoped someone would have seen that there is a problem with fixed wing aircraft and helicopters coming in at DCA.
Someone should have seen that before. We lost almost 70 lives. It's our job to look and see that we have an aging infrastructure around air traffic
control. And so, if we don't build a brand new system, there is going to be failures and people will lose their lives.
And so, we need the help of Congress to help fund this, but it's going to be all brand new, and after you build a brand new system, we have the
bedrock and the foundation to actually build on top of it. But, no one has done this, Mr. President. There is band-aid fixes that have happened over
the course of 20 years. You can't have a band-aid fix. It doesn't get done. It has to be brand new.
The technology, it's -- it looks like it's out of a 1980s movie, old computers, floppy disks. We're using copper wires, not fiber. So, there are
great solutions we have available that -- by the way, everyone is sick of their delayed flights or their canceled flights. We have more capacity in
the airspace. And if we rebuild, not rebuild, if we build this brand new system, what you'll have is more efficiency in the airspace, and it will be
safer. So, the economy will be stronger. We can have more flights and less delays. So, I appreciate your support on that, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Rebuilding, that is very important. You wouldn't have had the helicopter crashing into the plane at 400 feet up, what is supposed to be
200 feet. That would have -- bells and whistles would have been gone over, and you would have heard the screaming equipment saying, there is a problem
coming up in 15 seconds. You got to do something about it right now. And it would have also sent the word right into the helicopter, because I guess
you'll be doing the full report on that, but it was pretty obvious what happened.
And there was supposed to be a 200 feet, there were 400 feet, and a terrible thing, and that wouldn't have happened if we had the right
equipment. If we had the right equipment, you would have heard bells and whistles going off, and it would have alerted long before that would have
happened, two minutes before. It would have had a lot of time.
[11:55:00]
So, we have to do this. We have no choice, and we're going to do it, and we're going to be very proud of it. They did old equipment and new
equipment, and you can't hook in old equipment to new equipment because it's a different -- some is satellite and some is ground. The satellite
doesn't work. This man would know that better than anybody, but you can hook up a satellite system to a ground wire system, and if you do, you're
wasting a lot of money.
They spent billions, this is Buttigieg. They spent billions and billions of dollars trying to patch a system together. They had hundreds of different
contractors, and the contractors were all fighting with each other. We're going to have one great big contractor, like the great big, beautiful bill,
which is going along very well. I guess I like great, big, beautiful, but we're going to have one great, big, beautiful contractor, whether it's
maybe Raytheon, maybe IBM, maybe it could be anyone of four or five different groups, but you put one in charge, they're very big, very
powerful, monetarily, and they give you a guarantee, and they hook up everything. They do every single thing. So, they're responsible for the
digging of the ditches and the fiber and every single element.
And it's one system that's hooked in. It's not all these hodgepodge systems that don't work together, and it's just a shame. It's basic construction,
but it is complex stuff, and there are a few companies that do it unbelievably well, and we're going to have that. So, good job, Sean, I know
that you're -- that's your big project.
DUFFY: And Mr. President, no one has done it because it is complex. It's hard to do because as you're building a brand new system, you have planes
taken off and landing. So, because it's complex, no one has done it, and you've given the directive and the support to make this happen. So, thank
you.
TRUMP: Well, ours is going to be an all new system. It's going to all hook up. It's going to be the same -- the same tower is going to have the same
equipment, and all towers all over the country, all over the world, actually, mostly are going to be hooked in together. And when there is a
problem, when planes are too close, you will hear a sound that's very ear shattering, and I've heard it, and it's amazing. I mean, honestly, it's
amazing. It's real genius stuff. And we didn't do that. What we did was just waste money, threw -- you could have just thrown it right out the
window. What they did in this last four years was disgraceful, whether it was the border or this, you name 100 different things, the worst
administration ever. OK.
DUFFY: Thank you, Mr. President.
TRUMP: Thank you. Mr. Secretary.
DOUG COLLINS, U.S. SECRETARY OF VETERAN AFFAIRS: Yeah. Mr. President, thank you. And I think one of the things I want people to understand about the VA
is we're part of the national security interest you have, and you've laid the groundwork for that, this leadership and making sure that, with the
Secretary of Defense and myself, we take care of veterans on two ends, one when they come in and one when they serve. They've earned the benefits that
we have. And one of the things is, if we're not doing our job on our end, then the recruitment and all goes down the other end, because we have a
full spectrum. That's what leadership is about. What we found speaking the last four years --
ASHER: All right. You've just been listening to Donald Trump hosting a cabinet meeting at the White House, and he spoke a little bit about
immigration, a little bit about making Tren de Aragua, excuse me, and MS-13 foreign terrorist organizations. He also talked a little bit about GDP at
the top there, essentially saying that he started in terms of when he was inaugurated on January 20th, and therefore tried to blame the Biden
administration for the lackluster GDP report, which came in at a contraction of 0.3 percent. He talked about the fact that imports really
did weigh heavily on this GDP number. But, again, really trying to blame the Biden administration for the headline number, which obviously investors
were not too excited about.
Let's bring in Ron Brownstein, CNN political analyst. So, Ron, obviously, there was a lot discussed in this cabinet meeting, from a little bit on
immigration, a little bit on the GDP report, and Howard Lutnick also touting the fact that, listen, because of these tariffs, you're seeing an
uptick in investment from foreign companies and also countries that really want to pump more money into the U.S. I mean, just from an economic
perspective, what do you make of what you heard in this cabinet meeting, particularly as it pertains to blaming the Biden administration for this
lackluster GDP number, even though we all know that Donald Trump inherited a really resilient economy, and also what Howard Lutnick said about the
uptick in investment in the United States as a result of these tariffs?
BROWNSTEIN: One thing Donald Trump has been very good his whole life is putting his brand on things, big Trump letters on the river in Chicago, on
the building. His stamp is on the economy already. I mean, public -- all the 100-day polls show that more Americans believe that he is responsible
for economic conditions today than Biden. That's rather quick how fast that turned around. But, that was a -- that meeting confirmed what we were
talking about before it started, which is that he is heavily touting investment as evidence that his economic program is working. So did Joe
Biden. And I think what Biden learned was that Honda or Intel opening a new plant in Ohio, or the Taiwanese chip manufacturer opening a new plant in
Arizona, doesn't mean that much to a construction worker in Las Vegas who can't afford his rent.
Zain, the post-World War II high of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. was 19.7 million. When he took office again in 20th January, there were 12.7 million
people working in manufacturing. If this all goes as well as he could possibly hope, what would he add? Maybe three million more jobs in
manufacturing. There are 310 million people who own smartphones. There are 17 million people a year who buy cars. And the trade-off in terms of more
manufacturing jobs against how many people will have to pay more, is a very tough one politically.
The other thing that jumped out at me, the Transportation Secretary saying that they're not going to give even transportation and infrastructure
grants to states and cities unless they accept Trump policies on all the social issues that blue states have rejected over the years, ending DEI,
preventing transgender girls from participating in high school sports. There are all sorts of others.
We are -- I said in his first term that Trump governed as a wartime President with blue America rather than any foreign adversary as the enemy,
and you really see that ramping up here again in the second term, the arrest of the judge, the executive order he signed this week on sanctuary
cities. This is heading back to the Supreme Court again. How much can he coerce -- try to coerce reluctant government, state and local governments,
with grants that are unrelated to the policy that he is trying to force them to accept?
ASHER: All right. Ron Brownstein live for us there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
END
