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Power Outage Causes Chaos In Parts Of Spain & Portugal; Russia Announces Unilateral 3-Day Ceasefire In Ukraine; CNN Poll: Approval Of Trump's Handling Of Economy Sinks To 39 Percent. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 28, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:09]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. Ceasefire in Ukraine, Russia announcing a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine starting next week and urging Ukraine to do the same. We're going to tell you how Kyiv is responding.

And the Trump administration defending its nationwide immigration crackdown, including the deportation of three American children, all U.S. citizens, with their mothers. President Trump's borders czar blaming their parents.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. Pamela Brown is off today. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room. This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: And we begin with breaking news. Officials are racing to try to restore power in both Spain and Portugal after a widespread outage knocked out electricity across both countries. Police are urging people to avoid any unnecessary travel because traffic lights are shut off and train service is down.

It could be several hours before power is restored. Let's go live right now to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz. Salma, where do things stand right now? What's the latest?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The mayhem continues, Wolf, in what is potentially an unprecedented power outage that has affected tens of millions of people basically across the entire Iberian Peninsula.

It started about midday with all electricity services cut to major towns and cities again across Spain and Portugal. So think of people who are on the train, on the metro. They got stuck over ground. Think of airports where now passengers are stranded with who knows how many dozens of flights delayed and canceled. Think of children who are in school now without electricity, without running kitchens. And of course, businesses are shuttered, shops, restaurants, banks, where there are major lines for people to get access to those services as well.

But we are seeing signs of progress right now with Spain's electricity provider saying that some services have been restored to some substations across the country. But that provider is also saying, Wolf, that it could take potentially up to 10 hours to fully restore those services. Portugal as well, saying it's working to restore its services.

At this time, it looks like this is a technical failure. But the mayhem continues on the streets of Spain and Portugal as people reel from this. And Madrid's mayor is asking for the military to step in.

WHITFIELD: Yes, they've got to figure out why this happened, how it happened. What a disaster. All right, Salma, thank you very, very much.

We have more breaking news to bring you right now. This morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin is unilaterally declaring a three-day ceasefire in Ukraine beginning May 8th. Ukraine has responded, saying that the temporary truce has to be unconditional.

We're following all the latest developments from Russia to Washington. I want to begin this part of the story with CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred -- Fred Pleitgen, who's joining us live in Moscow. What are you hearing, Fred, from the Kremlin this morning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. Yes. As you mentioned, the ceasefire is set to take place from May 8th until May 11th, obviously all centering around the May 9th celebrations, which is, of course, the victory over Nazi Germany 80 years ago. And you can see that Moscow is already getting ready for that. If we pan over there, we can see a big sign that was put up. That's all across the city. And that says Pobeda, which means victory from 1945 until 2025.

This, of course, as you know, Wolf, by far the most important public holiday here in Russia, but also very important for Ukraine. And so, therefore, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has said on humanitarian grounds he's calling for this ceasefire to be put in place for the Ukrainians to do the same thing. However, of course, it also comes as the Trump administration appears to somewhat be souring to the diplomatic efforts it's put in place to try and get a ceasefire going for Ukraine.

[11:05:02]

President Trump on this weekend saying that he was disappointed in the Russians firing missiles as Ukrainian towns as these talks were set to take place. The Russians, therefore, seem to have heard some of this and are also saying that they are ready for unconditional talks directly with the Ukrainians and are also calling for the Ukrainians to come to the table. Kyiv, however, today has come out and said that they don't buy any of this.

They say that an unconditional 30-day ceasefire has to be put in place as called for by the Trump administration as agreed to by the Ukrainians. Otherwise, the Ukrainians say they believe that this is all a stalling tactic by the Kremlin. Wolf? BLITZER: All right, Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us. Thank you very much. I want to bring in CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene and CNN national security correspondent Alex Marquardt. Alayna, what are you hearing, first of all, from the Trump administration?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Look, they argue that this is clearly not enough. We heard from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressing this directly during a press briefing this morning. She said that the President has been clear that he wants a permanent ceasefire deal. She also acknowledged that President Donald Trump behind closed doors is frustrated, something we've been reporting as well about the lack of progress and tangible results when it relates to a deal between Russia and Ukraine.

And she said that the President remains optimistic that a deal and a permanent ceasefire can ultimately be reached, but added that he's also being realistic. But I think what's really important here to note, Wolf, is the tone change we've really heard from President Donald Trump in recent days and over the last week.

As Fred laid out, he has been very frustrated by the continued attacks by -- by Russia on Ukraine, particularly last week, one of the worst attacks on Kyiv since last summer. And there has been a notable shift in how the President, with the type of rhetoric that he's been using, he's been far more critical of Putin, I'd argue, in the last few days than he has been this entire term of his thus far.

And what's clear to me and from my conversations with top Trump administration officials is that the President thought that he would have made more progress on this. He really wants to see both sides come into the table. And what they believe is that the next few days are really going to be critical to determining whether or not an actual deal is possible. Very notable is what we heard the President say on Saturday shortly after he met directly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Italy on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funerals.

He said maybe he suggested maybe Putin doesn't want an end to the war. Maybe he's just tapping him along. That is very different language than we've heard previously. So it's very clear the President is frustrated behind closed doors and really wants to see real results very soon. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. Good, good point indeed. Alayna, thank you very much.

Alex is with me here in the Situation Room. Alex, over the weekend, the President also questioned whether Russian President Putin really wants to end the war. How much confidence does the Trump administration have in, first of all, the ceasefire proposal and whether Putin really does want to end the war?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It seems increasingly little, Wolf. You can see from the President's reaction to these repeated Russian strikes that he does believe that perhaps Putin is -- is stringing him along. The administration perspective all along has been we want a permanent ceasefire. They called for an immediate ceasefire last month that was rejected by the Russians.

The Russians violated an energy infrastructure ceasefire. They flouted a maritime deal ceasefire. They violated an Easter Day ceasefire. So there's a lot of questions as to now why Russia would actually go along with this ceasefire that they have announced. And I think the only reason that they might is because, as Fred noted, they have this big victory day -- day parade that is very important to them. And they don't want to get attacked by the Ukrainians on that day.

And Ukrainians have shown that they are able to attack in the in the Russian capital. Just want to pick up a little bit more on what Fred said. We have heard these responses now from the Ukrainians who are essentially saying, why not have this ceasefire in place now? This is a bit more of what the Ukrainian foreign minister had to say. If Russia truly wants peace, it must ceasefire immediately. Why wait until May 8th if the fire can be ceased now and any since -- since any date for 30 days? So if it is real, not just for a parade, Ukraine is ready to support a lasting, durable and full ceasefire.

And I think the American administration very much agrees with them. We heard from Secretary Rubio on Sunday saying this is a critical week to move the negotiations along because we have heard him threaten to move on if the two sides don't show that they want to make progress. Here's a little bit more of what he had to say.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think peace deals are built on trust. I think peace deals have to be built on verification, have to be built on facts, have to be built on action, have to be built on realities. So this is not an issue of, well, of trust. It's an issue of building in these sorts of things, verification, security guarantees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Rubio went on to say we're close, but we're not close enough. So that is going to be the emphasis this week is to get these two sides a little bit closer, but still major questions about whether Putin is making this suggestion in good faith. Wolf?

[11:10:06]

WHITFIELD: We will stay on top of this important development indeed. Thank you very, very much, Alex Marquardt.

And there's more breaking news we're following. President Trump's border czar holds a special White House briefing as the Trump administration ramps up its immigration crackdown. Over the weekend, ICE announced the arrest of nearly 800 people in Florida. And in Louisiana civil rights groups say last week's deportations included three American children, all U.S. citizens. One of them is battling cancer.

Let's go to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She's joining us from the White House right now. Priscilla, what did Tom Homan, the border czar for Trump, say this morning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Wolf, the focus here at the White House is on President Donald Trump's signature issue, and that is immigration. And the White House borders are highlighting border security today here in the briefing room, touting the low border numbers, as an example, over the last 24 hours. About 178 encounters when you compare that to recent years when it was in the thousands. So the administration is feeling as though they have made inroads and progress on border security.

But, of course, part of their pledge is also mass deportations. And on that, I asked the White House border czar about the latest numbers and how he feels about them. He said he felt good and he said that there were about 139,000 deportations since President Trump took office. Now, of course, in some ways, that is a reflection of the challenges the administration still faces as it tries to execute its agenda, because, of course, finding people in the interior has always been a difficult and challenging task for immigration officers.

Now, all of this, of course, is coming against the backdrop of what we are learning. A new court filings of three U.S. citizen children who were removed to Honduras with their mothers last week. Their mothers, in both of these cases, had been going to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for routine check-ins when they were detained with their children. And then attorneys say there was very little time and lack of due process to try to get more information to try to reunite these children with their fathers.

Instead, the mothers taking the children with them to Honduras. Now, I asked the White House border czar about that. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, TRUMP BORDER "CZAR": If you choose to have a U.S. citizen child, knowing you're in this country legally, you put yourself in that position, you put your family in that position. What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision. Parental one -- parenting 101, the mothers made that choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, there is at least one ongoing legal proceeding in this case in Louisiana. Later today, to the President signing an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to release a list of those so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, those cities that limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Wolf?

BLITZER: Priscilla Alvarez at the White House for us, thank you very much for that report.

Still ahead, a new CNN poll shows President Trump with the lowest approval rating of any president at the 100-day mark in the last seven decades. We'll take a closer look at what's behind the decline in those numbers. [11:13:07]

And a huge raid at an underground nightclub in Colorado that officials now say led to the arrest of more than 100 illegal immigrants. Some of the people working there were allegedly U.S. service members. We're going to bring you the shocking details and a lot more. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Tomorrow marks President Trump's 100 days in office. He's planning to head to Michigan to hold a rally celebrating his administration's victories with supporters. But just ahead of that milestone, brand new CNN polling is painting a very different picture. The President's approval rating hitting a historic low of 41 percent. It's the lowest for any president's first 100 days in office in at least seven decades.

Less than half of those polled see his approach as a necessary shakeup. And nearly 60 percent say it is unnecessarily putting the country at risk. Approval is also down on his handling on a host of key issues. And that includes immigration, his managing of the federal government, foreign affairs, as well as the economy, including inflation and tariffs amid an ongoing trade war. This week here in the Situation Room, we're taking a closer look at five key topics and where they stand through Trump's first 100 days. For a deeper look into the impact on the economy, CNN's Brian Todd is joining us at the Magic Wall. So, Brian, where do things stand through 100 days?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it's safe to say that the U.S. economy is in a state of upheaval and uncertainty after the first 100 days. And some of the reasons for that are fairly obvious. Let's take a look at the obvious reasons here, tariffs. The imposition of tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico and other countries has had an enormous impact on the markets. He started to impose a 145 percent tariff on China, then imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel, aluminum autos, auto parts and goods not included in the U.S. Mexico, Canada trade agreement that has been in place since 2020.

He imposed all of that on Canada and Mexico, 25 percent and 10 percent on other nations. Now, all of this is subject to negotiations, according to the President, in the months ahead. So what will the tariffs look like in a few months? That is going to be a key barometer of how the economy goes in the next few months.

[11:20:03]

Let's take a look at how all of that has reflected on the stock market. And I think pretty much everybody's been paying attention to this because a lot of our 401(k)s have really gone downhill and literally trillions of dollars have been wiped off the market, much of that due to the tariffs. Now, the market had held pretty steady right after Donald Trump was inaugurated, then started to kind of go down in natural correction mode. But it was really when the imposition of tariffs was announced in early April that the market really plummeted to a low of just about 37,600 points. Now, again, we have to say that the market has rebounded, gone up in the last few days. But again, Wolf, with the imposition of the tariffs, the negotiations over those tariffs, that is really going to reflect how the market will go. And of course, we know that Donald Trump pays a lot of attention to the markets.

BLITZER: What impact has all this had on everyday goods, for example, for the American public?

TODD: Well, we looked at that by tracking the consumer price index, Wolf. The consumer price index basically tracks price changes in typical household items like housing, food, transportation. Let's take a look at eggs. Now, Donald Trump promised to bring the price of eggs down. Just a quick reminder here, egg prices spiked in November and December because of an outbreak of avian flu and the demand over the holidays. So from January to March, egg prices have gone up to a little over six dollars per dozen.

Now, what we can tell you is that wholesale egg prices have started to come down, but the consumer is not going to see that for a little while. The consumer -- the wholesale prices have come down because demand has decreased and they've kind of gotten a handle on the avian flu at least a little bit. So egg prices could be coming down again.

That's not something a President can have a lot of control over. It was the -- it was the avian flu and the demand falling as a result of that. Now, let's quickly look at gas prices. Gas prices did spike after Donald Trump was inaugurated to a high of just under 340 a gallon in February and have started to come down, Wolf. So again, that is not something that a President can necessarily control. But, you know, we're going to see where the gas prices go.

BLITZER: How are Americans, Brian, feeling about all of this? Well, you want to look at the consumer sentiment here. Consumer sentiment is basically a measure of people's optimism about the general state of the economy. And this is a real reflection here. Look, in January, it was a little under negative. It was already in the negatives at negative 10 percent. But look at how far it's gone down to a little negative past 30 percent, almost down to 35 percent. People not feeling great about the economy. Wolf?

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thank you very, very much. New this morning in a wide ranging interview with "The Atlantic" magazine, President Trump admits that he has some regrets from his first term in the White House. And it comes as he closes in on his first 100 days in office. And this is second term. And he says he's having much more fun this time around.

Let's go live right now to our senior White House reporter, Betsy Klein. Betsy, what else did the President reveal in this "Atlantic" interview?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yes, Wolf, we have seen the President move so aggressively in his first 100 days to enact his agenda, an agenda four years in the making. He is transforming the use of executive authority, reimagining the role of the U.S. in the world, as well as the U.S. and global economies.

He slashed the federal workforce. But the President in this striking quote in this brand new "Atlantic" interview out this morning, weighing in on how it's been different from his first term in office. He said, quote, the first time I had two things to do, run the country and survive. I had all these crooked guys. And the second time I run the country and the world.

The President clearly believes he has a mandate here. We have seen him install loyalists as he works to enact that agenda. And he's also been seeking retribution against some of his perceived political enemies. Wolf?

BLITZER: Trump, as you know, Betsy, also spoke about a conversation he had with his defense secretary following that signal chat fallout. The controversy that erupted. What more can you tell us about that?

KLEIN: Well, the fact that he even did this interview with "The Atlantic," I think, is fascinating. Obviously, he's had a very contentious relationship with the publication's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Well, Goldberg was the one who was inadvertently added to that signal chat where top national security officials from the Trump administration discussed sensitive national security issues.

Now, asked about his embattled defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, the President said, I think he's going to get it together. I had a talk with him, a positive talk. But we know from our sources that this entire episode really frustrated President Trump. He really views it as an unforced error, specifically the fallout and how it was handled from a communications perspective. And asked what he had told his staff about the controversy.

Afterward, he said, quote, maybe don't use Signal, OK? "The Atlantic" reported that White House aides had actually joked about bringing in Mike Waltz. Of course, he's the one who added Goldberg to that chat. They said they were going to send him into the Oval and not tell him who was also there when the President met with Goldberg on Friday. Wolf?

[11:25:11]

BLITZER: And as you know, Betsy, the new CNN polling just out is giving us a better idea of what Americans think of Trump's job performance after nearly 100 days in office. And it's not necessarily good news for the White House. Break down these latest numbers for us.

KLEIN: Yes. Well, as you mentioned, the President's poll numbers of -- his general approval rating is down significantly even just from last month. And it is the lowest rating for a president since the Eisenhower administration in the first 100 days, 41 percent approved, 59 percent disapproved. But we are also seeing him trend downward on almost every single issue, even signature issues like immigration for him, 45 percent of voters approve of his handling of immigration. That's compared with 51 percent last March.

His handling of foreign affairs down three points. Wolf, the economy down five points. Inflation down a whopping nine points since last month. Another number that was really striking to me is we asked voters if they were confident that the President is going to use his presidential power responsibly. That is 54 percent say they have no confidence he will do so in this latest poll.

BLITZER: Betsy, how is the White House responding to these very bad polling numbers?

KLEIN: Well, the response is really just to change the subject. They are here celebrating how the president has performed over his first 100 days in office. And today is the focus is on immigration. So you can see the signs behind me highlighting some of the illegal immigrants they say have been arrested and convicted of crimes. Of course, it also comes as we've learned that three U.S. citizen children, a seven-year-old, a four-year-old who was suffering from cancer, were deported alongside their mothers who were undocumented immigrants over the weekend. Asked in "The Atlantic" interview what would happen if the administration accidentally got this wrong. The President said, let me tell you, nothing will ever be perfect in this world. Wolf?

BLITZER: So, Betsy, those signs behind you on the North Lawn of the White House, they were placed there by White House officials, not by the news media, right?

KLEIN: That's exactly right. And, you know, the President is so keenly aware of stagecraft. These have been behind every television live shot all day today, everyone taking pictures and getting that message out on their behalf.

BLITZER: All right. Betsy Klein reporting for us. Betsy, thank you very, very much.

Up next, chaos over at the National Security Council. Why our next guest says the President -- President's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has effectively lost control over the National Security Council.

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