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The Situation Room

Americans' Views on Trump?; Trump Backs Off Tariffs. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 07, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:32:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Now to our weekly series "Your Voice."

Every Friday, we check in with talk radio hosts across the country to hear what their listeners are thinking and saying about what's going on in Washington.

And, today, we have got liberal host John Fugelsang joining us from New York, and center-right talk show host Jeff Angelo in Des Moines, Iowa.

Thank you both for being here with us. A lot to discuss.

John, let's start with this new jobs report. Job gains were up, lower than expected, but still economists say it was solid. Is this something that your listeners are particularly paying attention to? And also just help us understand who your listeners are.

JOHN FUGELSANG, HOST, "TELL ME EVERYTHING WITH JOHN FUGELSANG": Well, thank you so much. It's lovely to be here.

Our listeners are the evening audience on SiriusXM Progress, although the way radio is going right now, about half of our audience listens live every night on the Progress channel, and about half listen on demand on the app and on the podcast.

People are -- it's really on the left spectrum from fear to outrage. The stock market is crashing, prices are going up, we're breaking laws, appeasing dictators, and folks are scared. Folks are trying to figure out where they should focus their outrage.

I'm glad the jobs report is better than expected, but it's very, very early yet. These policies have not gone into place, and people are terrified that more and more federal workers are going to be losing their job for no reason other than a billionaire's whim.

BROWN: Jeff, I see you sort of nodding over there.

JEFF ANGELO, RADIO TALK SHOW SHOT: Well, I would say that, in conservative country -- Iowa's a state that voted for Donald Trump by a 13-percentage-point margin -- I'd say cautious optimism.

I don't think that anyone is pie in the sky or thinking unicorns and rainbows about the economy at this particular point. But they did vote for Donald Trump. It is early in his term, and they are hearing him talk about what his ideas are.

It's a really interesting mix of either tariffs or tax cuts. And I think a lot of the listeners are hopeful that it will result, because most of them did vote for Donald Trump, in a better economic future for Iowa and Americans. But we're still in the wait-and-see mode.

BROWN: And just to follow up on that, Trump had said, look, day one, I'm going to lower prices. That clearly hasn't happened. Some of that, like eggs, look, it's the avian flu. There's not a whole lot he can do. But the prices are up and there's concern about the tariffs going up.

I'm wondering if your listeners, are they putting the blame on Biden or are they starting to look at Trump more of, like, why are you not doing more for us in this realm? To you, Jeff.

ANGELO: Well, the blame is still among my listeners on Biden. And I think people understand we really can't do anything about the egg shortage unless Trump can produce robotic chickens.

So we are waiting for that 18-week period. This is farm country. And I do understand it's going to take 18 weeks to get more laying hens out there to lower egg prices. But I think that's a real example of waiting and seeing and seeing if the economy can recover.

And it is interesting to me. On WHO radio, I do the morning show. We play the farm markets every 15 minutes. And what's going on in the farm markets is a lot like what's going on in the stock market. Based on what the tariff news is, it's causing the farm prices to bounce all over the place.

[11:35:14]

So there's still a lot of people waiting and seeing what Trump's economic policies are going to do for them.

BROWN: It sounds like right now, though, a lot of your listeners are giving him grace.

What about your listeners, John?

FUGELSANG: You know, that's not quite the case. Listeners to SiriusXM Progress remember all too well Donald Trump squandering everything he inherited from Barack Obama.

Joe Biden gave us an economy with incredible job growth for years and the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, as well as every country on Earth has post-COVID inflation. America has the lowest inflation of all the G7 nations. We're doing better than all of our capitalist allies.

Sadly, it seems like most Americans don't know these facts. So people are worried that Trump is going to squander all he inherited from Biden as well. And no one knows what to believe. He says he wants to get rid of undocumented immigrants, but they will never go after the employers who put up the help wanted signs at our border.

They say they want to cut government waste, but they will never touch the Pentagon and won't consider taxing billionaires, who could easily afford it. They say they're going to protect Social Security, but this week in that speech, we saw the president laying the groundwork by falsely claiming it's filled with fraud.

So folks don't know what to be afraid of.

BROWN: I do think, in terms of the Pentagon, I mean, we could see some cuts there, from what I understand. But I think that that's interesting, that the uncertainty of, I don't know what to expect here, what's going on here.

FUGELSANG: Yes.

BROWN: And I wonder to you, Jeff, on that...

FUGELSANG: He backs down so frequently.

BROWN: Well, yes, what are your -- I'm just wondering, on that note, Jeff, what your listeners think about that, because Donald Trump's whole thing is about being a strong and tough and to sort of project that sense of certainty.

But he's got -- he's made a lot of moves since he's been in office, where he's pulled back on what he has done, hiring, firing, then pulling back, I should say, firing, then hiring the people he fired, on the tariffs, imposing tariffs, then pulling back on that.

With Ukraine, there's been a lot of whiplash. How do your listeners see that, Jeff?

ANGELO: Well, I think that -- I think it's important to note the context that, in the last election, people said the country was going in the wrong direction and that what they expected Donald Trump to do and what he is doing is shake up the status quo.

And if you're going to make dramatic change, and I think that's what Iowans voted for -- they wanted dramatic change in how our government is run -- they understand it's going to look messy. I think no one expects that doing some of these unprecedented things really for the very first time in many decades, taking a serious look at how our government spends its money, what our employees are doing in federal government, that it is going to be a little bit messy.

But he is being bold. He is a bold leader. That doesn't mean that everything runs perfectly on time. You do have to make adjustments on the fly. But I do think there is -- I think he is giving the voters who voted for him exactly what they wanted, which is dramatic reform, dramatic change.

It is not a clean way to go about it. It's a messy way, but you have to break a few eggs, to keep the egg theme going, to -- in order to try to get the government change that I think folks voted for in Iowa. (LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Excellent example there, Jeff.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: So, John, I mean, look, bureaucratic bloat is a thing. And I think a lot of Democrats would also admit, look, yes, some of our agencies have gotten out of control.

Do you have any listeners who actually sort of can think, well, yes, I'm kind of curious about this DOGE thing, maybe this could be a good thing in the end?

FUGELSANG: Absolutely.

Well, I mean, everyone's in favor of cutting government waste, my goodness. Jeff's exactly right as well that folks voted for this guy to shake up the status quo. They didn't vote for thousands of American veterans to get fired by an unelected billionaire and his unvetted 22- year-old henchmen.

They didn't vote for us to abandon our own treaty obligations to our ally and to call surrender a peace deal. So, folks are very, very worried about this, because they remember what happened the last time. They expect there to be a gigantic tax cut for the folks who need it the least.

And the problem is, the last time he was in office, that contributed to 25 percent of all the debt this country has accrued in 250 years. He did it in four.

(CROSSTALK)

ANGELO: But, John, I know that your listeners voted for Donald Trump. And I think that a lot of the fears that they had in advance of the election are playing themselves out, with respect.

But I think for the folks who did vote for Donald Trump in Iowa, this is what they did expect, even if it does look a little bit messy.

FUGELSANG: I hope you're right.

BROWN: All right, thank you so much for helping us all get out of our bubbles and hear what people across the country are thinking about all of this happening in Washington.

Thank you both, Jeff and John.

We have much more after this short break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:15]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We all know the saying that Wall Street hates uncertainty. And evidence of that is certainly unfolding right now. The Dow is down more than 300 points.

This week has seen a whiplash of President Trump's threats of tariffs. He started the week with new tariffs on both Mexico and Canada, only to back off with new exemptions by the end of the week.

For some perspective on all of this, we're joined now by the presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

Doug, Douglas, thanks so much for joining us.

How unusual is this level of turmoil this early in a new administration?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Never before in modern American history every had it is kind of whiplash 100 days. Trump acts like he makes a big foot forward with an executive order or proclamation or a shouting that match at Zelenskyy or Trudeau, and then, 48 hours later, he reverses himself.

[11:45:10]

So it's dizzying. And I think people thought, with Nixon at one point, there was such a thing as the madman theory of the presidency, scaring people about what you're going to do.

I have never heard, though, of putting people in utter panic and of pitching America in disregard the way that Trump is doing around the world right now. He seems to be creating a scenario where nobody likes him, and yet people fear him because of his erratic behavior.

BLITZER: We have also seen, Douglas, a remarkable shift in foreign relations right now. The Trump administration has been openly hostile towards Ukraine, various European allies and our North American neighbors, while making an extraordinary pivot toward Russia. How historic is that?

BRINKLEY: We have lived in the United States from Harry Truman all the way to Joe Biden with the notion that NATO was supreme, that our great success project was building the European Union, that, if a president was going to score some points on the history board, like Bill Clinton did in the '90s, you did NATO enlargement, adding countries like Poland into NATO.

But, alas, Trump is a dismantler. He finds that what he should do is blow up the Truman-to-Biden world order and reframe it back in really a 19th century way, when you had robber barons. It was a high moment for the Monroe Doctrine, which he's now grabbed onto in his claim for taking Panama. And he sees Greenland the way that, say,

Andrew Johnson's secretary of state, William Seward, saw Alaska, something you could just kind of buy for cheap or grab. So we're dealing with a 19th century imperial, autocratic, expansionist president, although we're in the 21st century.

And I'm afraid his administration is acting like these building blocks of internationalism, ranging from the World Bank, to USAID, to our State Department programs around the world, CIA intelligence gathering, it's just wasteful spending. Instead of getting out the waste from international programs, he seems to be sledgehammering them and then see what might be worth piecing back together.

BLITZER: We are still very early into this second Trump term, Doug. But what moments have stuck out to you so far that you believe history will remember?

BRINKLEY: I think day one of Donald Trump, the theatrics of his inaugural inside, and the fact that he then goes to the arena and does these giant Donald Trump signatures, which are bigger than all president's signatures combined, one after another of executive orders, some of them as silly as changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, other ones a little bit like his first term Muslim ban, things to try to do mass deportations, which with some American public is game if they're deporting criminals.

But, instead, they're kind of rooting around to figure out what to do. But the big symbol -- and we're in a visual age -- of Musk holding the cutter, he's going to cut government by a third,but when you start cutting people that served in the U.S. government in our armed forces, people at our Veterans Department, people now that are counting on living on Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare, those are birthrights, those three.

BLITZER: Yes.

BRINKLEY: And if the Trump administration goes forward, I think it'll be a problem.

But I think it's the friendship of Musk and Trump and DOGE that will be remembered.

BLITZER: The presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:53:50]

BROWN: Netflix's new political thriller "Zero Day" has topped the streaming giant's most-watched TV list. That is thanks not only to leading man Robert De Niro, but also to a special appearance by familiar face.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Communications and other infrastructure completely hijacked, with safety warnings somehow overridden.

Seemingly every phone in America displayed the same haunting message: "This will happen again." (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: As you know, that is none other than our very own Wolf Blitzer here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

But this wasn't his first rodeo. Wolf has delivered the news to some of Hollywood's biggest names through the years, from Zachary Levi's Shazam to Daniel Craig's James Bond in "Skyfall," as a signature Blitzer newscast compels 007 to come out of retirement.

And then there's this unforgettable moment with Tom Cruise and "Mission: Impossible Fallout."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Did we get it?

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Of course we got it.

[11:55:02]

BLITZER: Told you we'd get it.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: And fun fact, Wolf is the only Screen Actors Guild cardholder to appear in both of the highest-grossing entries of the "Mission: Impossible" and "James Bond" films. Talk about a recipe for success.

All right, and now I'm here to interview Wolf, the one and only Wolf Blitzer.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: I'm hoping you're going to be in some of these upcoming movies as well.

BROWN: Well, Wolf, you got to get me a role, man. I have a dream playing a cameo.

BLITZER: Yes, I want you to be in the role.

BROWN: OK, so here's my big question. Do you still get royalties from some of the...

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: You do?

BLITZER: I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild, SAG.

BROWN: OK. BLITZER: So I get royalties.

BROWN: How much?

BLITZER: Every time "Mission: Impossible Fallout" or "James Bond: Skyfall" or any of these movies that I have been in re-airs, whether in Europe or Asia or anyplace else or here in the United States, I wind up getting a check for $12 or $14 or...

BROWN: Wow.

BLITZER: And I cash those checks.

BROWN: You cash it?

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: You go to the bank and cash it. I love that, such a...

BLITZER: My dad would have wanted me to.

BROWN: Of course.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: Money is money.

All right, Wolf Blitzer, amazing. I will be checking it out on Netflix. Thank you all for...

BLITZER: You promise?

BROWN: I promise, when I can find the time, whenever that is.

BLITZER: "Zero Day" is a hot, hot film right now.

BROWN: That's right.

BLITZER: And you can watch it on Netflix.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN.

We will see you back here Monday and every weekday morning for our expanded two-hour SITUATION ROOM. It all starts at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS" with Jessica Dean is next right after a short break.