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U.S. Added Just 73K Jobs In July, Much Weaker Than Expected; Trump Pauses Higher Tariffs On Mexico For 90 Days; WI GOP Lawmaker Faces Raucous Town Hall Crowd Over Tariffs, Gaza. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 01, 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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[11:00:42]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, jobs and tariffs. President Trump unveils unprecedented global tariffs and the White House is calling the latest jobs report less than ideal. As the trade war is adding more uncertainty for employers and the stock market here in the United States.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news this hour. The U.S. economy taking hits on multiple fronts right now. A new troubling jobs report this morning shows the labor market may be slowing down. Just 73,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month, missing estimates and forecasting and forcing a rise, I should say, in unemployment. And revised figures show June, with the weakest job growth in more than four years, just 14,000 jobs were created.

Meanwhile, President Trump is escalating his very aggressive trade policy, slamming virtually every U.S. trading partner with sweeping tariff hikes ranging from 10 to more than 40 percent. Those are all set to go into effect next week. Global markets are falling on this news right now. The Dow is down. Look at this, down more than 600 points.

I want to go straight to CNN chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny. He's over at the White House for us. Jeff, how is the Trump administration, first of all, responding to this latest jobs report?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this summertime slump is obvious in the numbers, and the White House is really not pushing back that much against the narrative that employers are pulling back. It is clear that the economy is slowing on some indications, but it's that revised jobs report number for the hiring of only 14,000 jobs were added. That's effectively none. So that is pointing to the fact that many businesses are putting things on hold given the uncertainty in the job market. But just a short time ago, a top Trump economic official explained these numbers like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN MIRAN, CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMICS ADVISERS: About 40 percent of that is due to -- is -- is due to seasonal adjustment quirks around teachers. Some of it is due to declining foreign-born employment, even as we created more American-born employment, and that is going to net out in a way that you see ultimately reflected in the data like that.

And then finally, there's the uncertainty, right? Don't forget, we were in the midst of restructuring the global trading system in a way that hasn't been done in decades. And of course, that was going to induce some uncertainty. It induced some volatility in financial markets, and we can see it induces some volatility in economic data, too. But that uncertainty is resolved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the translation to that is the Trump tariff policy has injected uncertainty into the economic system. There's no other way to put it. So obviously, there's fresh tariff news, so perhaps more uncertainty as well. A bigger question is, what does the President do with these policies? Of course, he for months has been railing against the chairman of the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, and Jerome Powell has not done that, Wolf. That's what we expect the President to also point to when he addresses this, perhaps later today when he leaves the White House for a weekend at his resort in Bedminster. But as of now, we've not heard directly from the President on these dismal numbers.

BLITZER: And as you point out, only 73,000 new jobs were created in July, but it's very, very worrisome that only 14,000 new jobs were created in June, 19,000 in May. These are the revised numbers that were released this morning. I wonder if the President's going to continue saying the U.S. has the hottest economy in the world.

The President also adjusted so-called reciprocal tariffs on a slew of U.S. trading partners. What is the White House saying about that?

ZELENY: The deadline day for the new tariff numbers to come out, and we have seen those really negotiated last evening. Let's take a look at some of these numbers that we have. Canada certainly jumps out as one. There's now like a 35 percent across the board tariff for Canada. Countries like Mexico have been given a reprieve, but other top trading partners have not.

[11:05:05]

So Taiwan, for example, very important in terms of semi-conductor chips. So those tariffs will now go into effect next week. So, Wolf, as we sit here at the beginning of August, all of the on-again, off- again tariff policies the President has employed are now coming into a much fuller effect here, and we can see the result it's having on the economy. The markets clearly are not liking what they're seeing.

Overall, until now, the markets have generally responded favorably to all these threats of tariffs, but that is not happening at this moment because obviously some reality coming in with these new jobs reports. But the White House is still insistent its tariff policy is the right one. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes. The Dow Jones down almost 600 points right now based on these latest numbers. Jeff Zeleny at the White House for us. Thank you very much.

Also this hour, President Trump says he's hitting pause, pause on a tariff hike on Mexico that was set to go into effect today. Let's go live right now to CNN's Valeria Leon in Mexico City for us. Valeria, what are you learning?

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, compared to other nations, Mexico has the best possible agreement. And what President Claudia Sheinbaum has maintained is a cool-headed approach negotiating with her U.S. counterpart, succeeding in holding off more crippling tariffs.

And I want to show you this chart because Mexico, along with China and the U.K., haven't seen a tariff hike with this latest announcement. But Mexico still faces a 25 percent tariff on many exports since May, but has been able to hold off any new tariffs for the next 90 days as a new round of negotiations proceeds between Mexico and the White House, with the rest of the world reeling from the new tariffs.

Mexico is enjoying this relative amount of stability, allowing it to keep its feet on the ground for the next month and a half, with the latest 90-day tariff extension has provided some breathing space for continued dialogue on trade. The current focus over this period is on negotiating and signaling a longer-term trade deal between the two nations. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Valeria, thank you very much. Valeria's in Mexico for us.

As the President hikes tariffs on countries around the world, time is clearly running out for the U.S. and China to strike a trade deal of their own, seeing as Marc Stewart is in Beijing for us with more.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Wolf. As many nations grapple with these tariff announcements, here in China, a temporary truce with the United States is in place until August 12th. Beyond that, it's not clear. Earlier in the week, we saw talks with American and Chinese diplomats in Stockholm, Sweden, but at this point, there's no formal agreement, no formal decision to extend this pause on higher tariffs.

The U.S.-China trade relationship is a very complicated one. It involves rare earth minerals. The United States wants them. China has a grip on them. These are substances that are used to make things such as lighting, electronics, and electric vehicles. And the United States has chip technology that China wants for its high-tech ambitions.

But this is also much more than just economics. There is ego involved. President Trump certainly wants to stand strong, but so does Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who doesn't want to appear as if he is caving in to the United States. Yet, at the same time, there appears to be a willingness between both leaders to meet sometime in the fall face-to- face. These next hours, these next days could be very pivotal, Wolf.

BLITZER: They certainly could be. Marc Stewart in Beijing for us. Thank you very much.

Meanwhile, trade was also in the mind of people in Wisconsin last night at a town hall with Republican Congressman Bryan Steil. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My main concern is the tariffs that are coming up. I was always under the impression that Congress was responsible for issuing the tariff. I really feel that this is a terrible tax that's going to be placed upon the citizens of the United States.

REP. BRYAN STEIL (R-WI): This really, at its core, needs to be an opportunity to make sure that other countries are treated in the United States fairly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: With Congress in recess right now, lawmakers are back in their home districts and they're facing rather raucous crowds. Here's more from that same town hall in Wisconsin.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am so disappointed. I am so disappointed in how you represent us as a citizen. Southeast Wisconsin has not been represented by you. President Trump seems to run Southeast Wisconsin. True you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in CNN chief data analyst, Harry Enten. Harry, last night's constituents brought up what is happening in Gaza as well, an issue they're concerned about. I want you to listen to what Congressman Steil said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEIL: The easy answer to address this crisis is for Hamas to surrender and release the hostages. That ends the war tomorrow. Israel -- Israel was unfairly, unjustly attacked. Their civilians were killed and kidnapped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Harry, you have some new polling on American support for Israel's actions in Gaza. What does the late -- latest numbers show?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, according to Gallup, Wolf, the percentage who support what's going on right now in Gaza, Israel military acts, has gone way, way down. What are we talking about? Net approval, Israel's military acts in Gaza. You know, you go back to November of 2023, the net approval rating was plus five points. It was on the positive side of the ledger.

Look at where we are now in July of 2025. This polling that just came out this past week, way down there, way down there at minus 28 points. That's a switcheroo of over 30 points in the negative direction, and that is being led in large part by Democrats and those under the age of 30.

Get this, the net approval rating for those under the age of 35, minus, minus 73 points. Americans don't like what they're seeing over there in Gaza and young voters specifically really don't like what they're seeing, Wolf.

BLITZER: They don't indeed. All right, another issue that constituents brought up was what's called Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It appears that people who are earning $200,000 and less are going to pay more in taxes. People who are making a million dollars and more are going to be paying, getting big tax cuts.

STEIL: I would disagree with the way you framed it. The 2017 tax cuts were made permanent. So the 2017 reforms were made permanent. We've built on top of that additional tax cuts focused in on hardworking families that we will have an opportunity to continue to move forward down the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So Harry, what do the polls show the voters wanting?

ENTEN: They -- they hate the big, beautiful bill. They absolutely hate it. What are we talking about here? Well, I got four different polls for you up on the screen here. The big, beautiful bill, the net favorable rating, minus 22 points CNN, minus 22 points CBS, minus 19 points Fox and Wall Street Journal, the best of the bunch, minus 10 points, all way, way underwater.

And this, of course, these polls were taken after the bill was in fact passed and signed into law by President Trump. Now, one of the things that was being mentioned there was the 2017 tax cuts. So I got a comparison for you right here. All right, the net favorable rating of big GOP and Trump bills. You go back, the tax cuts in 2017 after it was signed into law, minus nine points. Not too hot to trot, but clearly much better than the average of polling right now on the big, beautiful bill, 18 points underwater.

This bill is twice as unpopular as those tax cuts were. That town hall tonight, in my mind, is just the beginning of what we're going to see constituents just eating those representatives alive on the big, beautiful bill. Simply put, it's one of the most unpopular, if not the most unpopular bill I've ever seen passed and signed into law when it comes to the budgetary process.

BLITZER: All right, Harry Enten with the latest numbers. Harry, thank you very, very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Still ahead, we'll talk with a co-founder of a charity urgently working to deliver relief and support for Palestinian families as Gaza endures a hunger crisis.

[11:14:04]

And here at home, what we know about new plans for a White House ballroom and what will be torn down to make it a reality. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: New this morning, the death toll from Russia's latest attack on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has now risen to 31 people. Ukrainian officials saying this marks the deadliest single attack on the country's capital in a year. And most of that toll resulted from a strike on a block of apartment buildings earlier this week.

A few days ago, President Trump cited Moscow's killing of Ukrainian civilians. And he cut the 50-day deadline he gave Russia to end its war in Ukraine to just 10 or 12 days, or threatened that Russia will face even greater sanctions from the United States.

I want to bring in CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger. He's also a White House and national security correspondent for the New York Times. David, thanks so much for joining us. Does Trump have any sway at all with Putin at this point? Or are calls for a ceasefire falling when it comes to Putin on deaf ears?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITCAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, right now, President Trump has significant leverage, but I don't think Putin believes he's really willing to go use it. You know, in -- you may remember that when the tariffs were first announced back in April, there were almost none on Russia. And one of the President's economic advisors came out and said, why would you put tariffs on a country that you're trying to negotiate with?

[11:20:05]

They've now pivoted to trying threats because they've recognized that Putin was not responding to the sort of Mr. Nice Guy Act that they did. That act may have been badly thought out to begin with. So now what they're threatening basically is secondary sanctions. And that means saying that there will be sanctions put on countries that buy Russian oil and gas and the three major countries that of course buy the most of that include China, India, and Turkey.

Now of course the President's got other interests with them. So I think the Russians are betting, Wolf, that the President doesn't really mean it. BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Clearly Putin is ignoring all these threats from Trump. I also, while I have you, David, I want to get your reaction more broadly to the president's sweeping worldwide tariffs and their reverberating impacts. I want to start with the U.S. bordering neighbors, both Canada and Mexico. Trump is increasing tariffs against Canada to 35 percent for goods not covered by the U.S. MCA.

Meanwhile, Mexico received a 90-day pause on higher tariffs, keeping the level at 25 percent. So what does this difference in tariff policy say about where our relationship with these two countries stands as of right now?

SANGER: Well, you know, it was -- it was bad with Canada from the beginning in part because of the President discussing annexing Canada and kept saying that they would be better as a state of the United States. That resulted in a nationalistic response that you would have fully expected from the Canadians.

We thought with a new prime minister, maybe this would be abated with Mark Carney. But in fact, you know, Carney's effort to go negotiate something has so far failed. There are many in Canada who believe that what this is motivated by is an effort by the President to drive Canada to consider joining the United States. It's clearly not going to happen. But I think this is going to get worse with the Canadians before it gets better.

BLITZER: And as you know, Trump is threatening Canada that if Canada goes ahead and recognizes a Palestinian state, forget about any tariff deals with Canada. You think he's serious about that?

SANGER: You know, it's -- it's a little hard to tell because on Monday, he was sitting with Prime Minister Starmer of the U.K. The prime minister discussed something very similar in recognizing a Palestinian state. And President Trump sort of nodded and said, well, we wouldn't go along with that, but we're not going to stop you.

He didn't sound like it upset him. And of course, Britain would be joining what is, in that case, sort of a majority of countries around the world or at least of populous countries. Then when Canada made the same statement a day or two later, he reacted the way he reacted, which was to say, oh, we'll put more penalties on you. So talk about foreign policy inconsistency, Wolf. This was pretty -- pretty remarkable.

BLITZER: It certainly was. China, as you know, David, did not see its tariff rate change yesterday, but is up against the clock right now to make a deal before its rates soar. Chinese and American negotiators met for two days this week. Nothing substantial, we're told, came out of those talks. Do you expect a trade deal to be made between the U.S. and China?

SANGER: I do ultimately expect one will be made. It's just too important to the two economies. China is one of the few countries where we import so much that they have considerable leverage to go in the -- in the other direction. What's interesting is that the president's initial approach had been soft on Russia, hard on China. Now he's reversing, and I'm pretty convinced, Wolf, that you'll see the Chinese get another 90 days to go work this out, which could take you to a meeting between the president and Xi Jinping.

They've been discussing meeting possibly at the celebration of the end of World War II, possibly at a meeting of the G20. So I think there'll be opportunities, and I think the President would probably want to show that he did this directly with President Xi.

BLITZER: David Sanger, helping us appreciate what's going on. Thank you very, very much.

The White House, meanwhile, is set to get its biggest Mar-a-Lago makeover to date with a new ballroom nearly as large as not one but two NFL football fields. And we're getting the clearest picture yet of what the 90,000-square-foot venue will look like. Let's go live right now to CNN's Kevin Liptak over at the White House. What more is the White House saying about this new ballroom that they want to build in the East Wing of the White House?

[11:25:14]

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and I think one thing to know is that President Trump is going to pay for it himself along with some other private donors. Obviously, $200 million is a lot of money to build this kind of thing, and it is an enormous construction, 90,000 square feet. That's the size of 19 basketball courts. It will be built on top of the current East Wing, which is where the offices of the First Lady are traditionally held.

The President says it's necessary because for many years, the White House has had to use a tent on the South Lawn for major events like a state dinner. And when you look at the rendering, it's pretty striking. You know, you see those Corinthian columns along the wall, coffered ceilings with gold inlay, gold chandeliers, gold everywhere, really.

It does kind of resemble the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago. It has that kind of Versailles, Louis Couture style going on. The President has actually had this in his mind for a long time, well before he actually entered politics in 2010. He offered to build a ballroom for the Obama administration. They turned him down. They essentially didn't answer his calls.

Now the President says that this is more, about more than just some cosmetic renovations to the White House. He actually said yesterday that this could be a big part of his legacy. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, let's see if that happens. Kevin Liptak, thank you very, very much.

And just ahead, a live look from Cape Canaveral, where NASA is just minutes away from sending another group of astronauts into space. We'll talk about the mission with someone who spent their fair share of time in orbit.

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