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The Situation Room

Trump Tariffs in Effect, Import Taxes Highest Since Depression; Trump Orders Census to Exclude Undocumented Immigrants; CNN Gets Unprecedented Access to Gaza Aid Drop. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 07, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, hero of soldiers, an Army sergeant opens fire at Fort Stewart, Georgia, that fellow service members almost immediately tackle and subdue him. A first on CNN interview with two of those soldiers is ahead.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a ray dubbed Trojan Horse, ICE agents spring out from the back of a box truck and take 16 people into custody at a Los Angeles Home Depot. The mayor and the trunk company -- Trump company -- truck company, I should say, are now responding.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news, President. Trump's sweeping tariffs are now in effect and they raise taxes on imported goods to their highest levels since the Great Depression. Most products coming into the United States now face an average effective tariff rate of 16 to 17 percent, and they include some of the country's largest trading partners.

The president writing on social media this morning, and I'm quoting him now, Tariffs are flowing into the United States, USA, at levels not thought even possible, end quote.

CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us from New York right now. Vanessa, countries are paying these new tariffs. What kinds of products are we really talking about?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, Wolf, these are historic tariff levels not seen in nearly a century. We have not seen tariffs at these rates since the 1930s, and following that was the Great Depression, and all countries are being hit. The minimum is 10 percent, but then it's ratcheted up to 50 percent for some countries.

This is President Trump's big bet. He believes that he's going to shrink trade deficits with other countries and believes that he's going to move manufacturing to the United States. Here are some of the countries that are impacted. Look at that high rate for Brazil, Switzerland, 39 percent. That's actually higher than the initial tariff of 31 percent that was announced on liberation day. You have India, 25 percent. Trump has threatened to move that up to 50 percent. Vietnam, Cambodia, other East Asian country, at 20 percent, 19 percent. And the European Union, a major trading partner, Wolf, sitting at 15 percent. They actually negotiated that tariff level as Trump was trying to bring that even higher.

But a significant, historic day as nearly all countries now hit with historic tariff levels.

BLITZER: Vanessa, how much is this going to cost average Americans?

YURKEVICH: Yes. Well, this is going to hit a lot of products that we, Americans love to buy. Computers, electronics coming in from countries like China, Vietnam, Malaysia being hit with 30, 20, 19 percent tariffs, clothing, and shoes coming in from China, Vietnam, India going to be hit with 30 20 percent, 25 tariffs.

Watches now on the list because of Americans love for Swiss watches. That's going to be tariffed at 39 percent. Alcohol coming in from the European Union, countries like France and Italy, that's wine and spirits, going to be tariffed at 15 percent, and toys being tariffed at 30 to 20 percent coming in from China and Vietnam.

There are many, many estimates to suggest what this may cost American families. The most recent estimate that we have is from The Yale Budget Lab, just this month projecting that because of all of these tariffs, if they stay in effect, it's going to cost the average family $2,400 a year. Obviously, that is significant. As Americans, we know, are worried about these tariffs, worried about their finances, worried about inflation, that is a significant hit to the average American family. Wolf?

BLITZER: Indeed, it is. All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, new this morning, President Trump says he is ordering the federal government to start work on a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population, and it would happen in the middle of the decade. This would be unprecedented. The Constitution calls for a census every ten years.

So, let's bring in CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. Alayna, you cannot ignore the timing of this either, given everything going down in Texas right now.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No, that's exactly right, and I think that's why this is even garnering even more attention, given that, currently, the White House is pushing for red states to try and draw new Congressional lines before the midterm, something that, of course is gaining a lot of tension in the middle of the country.

[10:05:13]

And this, if the census were to change in the way that the president wanted to, would only add to that impact. But to go back to what he announced, so, as you mentioned, he said that he wants the sentence to be immediately changed to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted. This is what he posted this morning on Truth Social. He said, quote, people who are in our country illegally will not be counted in the census.

Now, this is of course, a dramatic shift from the longstanding census practices. The survey has historically counted all residents regardless of their immigration status. And that's because, you know, if you look at the census website, it cites Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution for that reasoning, which essentially says that all, according to the respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, that just gives you a sense of, you know, how, where they're saying representatives and taxes should be apportioned against all these different states.

All to say, I think there's also other context here that is important. We know that the president previously tried to do this back in the lead up to the 2020 sentence. He wanted to add a question to the sentence to show whether people were in the United States illegally. That ultimately -- that effort was ultimately moved or blocked, I should say, by the Supreme Court.

So, this is something he has tried to do and failed to do in the past, seeing this kind of reemergence of this in light of what he's trying to do in Texas and with the Congressional maps.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Happening now. Indiana's governor says, Vice President Vance will visit the state today as the White House pushes red states to redraw their Congressional districts.

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GOV. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): Here in Indiana, we've become more Republican over time, and these maps probably need to be looked at anyway.

I'm going to be listening to J.D. today and our two leaders of the legislature as well, and we're going to have that discussion.

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BLITZER: All right. Let's go CNN Senior Reporter Steve Contorno. He's joining us from Chicago right now. Steve, the White House hasn't said if Vance will be in Indiana today. What are you learning?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Wolf, Governor Braun's comments just moments ago illustrating that the redistricting arms race that President Trump has initiated won't be reserved just for large states, like Texas and California, but could impacts small states as well. Take a look at Indiana's Congressional map. The only blue spots on that map are outside the Chicago suburbs and around Indianapolis. And Republicans hold a 7-2 majority in the Congressional delegation. So, they could potentially pick up one at most two seats by pushing ahead with a mid-decade redistricting.

Obviously, Democrats object to this. Representative Andre Carson saying just moments ago, quote, as the dean of the Indiana delegation, the only black member of Congress in Indiana, and one of just four Muslim members of Congress, I'm fighting to ensure redistricting does not silence minority voices.

Now, it will be a challenge for Democrats to stop this. Republicans have a two thirds majority in both chambers of the Indiana legislature as well as the governor's mansion. So, another situation where we could see Democrats -- or Republicans pushing ahead with this, with little that Democrats can do to stop it.

BLITZER: All right. Steve Contorno with the latest on that front, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, turning now for a special Situation Room special report, a remarkable look inside the controversial airdrops into Gaza as a deadly crisis has left many Palestinians going days without food. And for the first time on CNN, our correspondent went on an aid flight. This is new video of that unprecedented access from this morning.

Here's CNN Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Matthew Chance in Amman, Jordan.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: You got these big transport aircraft behind me. These are from the Jordanian Air Force, but there are other countries as well, like Germany and Belgium and United Arab Emirates and France and Britain. They're all sort of taking part in this international humanitarian effort to drop aid in Gaza, and they're loaded up with pallets in in the back cargo space.

You then take off from this airport in Amman, which is in Jordan, head over towards the Gaza Strip. The back opens up and then the aid pallets, they parachute off into the waiting crowds below. And you can see on the tail fin of this aircraft there, there's a very idealistic scene painted of a Jordanian transporter -- actually one of the Jordanian transporters dropping humanitarian aid into Gaza, and people are gratefully receiving it.

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The reality is much more chaotic, much more violent. Remember, there's an intense humanitarian starvation crisis underway in Gaza, and so people are absolutely desperate for any kind of food that they can get. And so these aid drops result in chaos on the ground, people scrambling, violence, there have been multiple stabbings of people as they tried to get their hands on the aid packages. Also, people have been killed by the aid pallets actually hitting them on the head as they drop down.

And so, look, this is a far from perfect means of delivering humanitarian assistance into that crisis zone, but having said that, there is intense starvation that's gathering pace in the Gaza Strip. And so, you know, today, for instance, we delivered 6.5 tons of powdered milk and tinned food to Gaza from the back of one of these Jordanian military transport planes. It's not much. It's nowhere near enough to tackle the hunger problems in Gaza, but it's better than nothing. And for some people in the Gaza Strip, it may make the difference between life and death.

BROWN: Matthew Chance, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: New this morning, a top Kremlin aide confirms that President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days. Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff met with Putin yesterday in Moscow to discuss an end to Russia's war in Ukraine. Trump has given Russia until tomorrow to accept a ceasefire deal or face new additional U.S. sanctions.

CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood is here with us in The Situation Room. What are you learning about this potential meeting?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we know a lot more about the genesis of it than we do about the details of it, we don't know exactly when it's going to happen, exactly where it's going to happen, exactly what date. But what we do know is that when Steve Witkoff was visiting with President Putin yesterday in Russia, it was Putin who suggested this meeting between Trump and Putin.

President Trump then told European leaders in a phone call after he got the readout of that meeting that he was expecting to have this meeting with President Putin and then a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the coming weeks, as soon as next week. And President Trump confirmed that it is very likely that the two leaders, he and Putin, meet very soon. That was when he spoke yesterday from the White House.

As you said, just in the open there, it's Putin who also spoke today about the possible location, being the United Arab of Emirates. Listen to what he said earlier.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: We have many friends who are ready to help us organize events of this kind. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates. I think we will decide, but this will be one of the suitable, quite suitable places.

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ATWOOD: Now, the backdrop, of course, to President Putin agreeing or suggesting this meeting with Trump is that the Trump administration has been talking about these secondary sanctions, these secondary tariffs on countries who are importing Russian oil. So, is this a genuine desire from Putin to actually drive an end to the conflict, or is it a tactic to try and push off that pressure, which could further harm the Russian economy? That's what we have to watch for.

BLITZER: It could be very, very significant historic meeting if in fact that happens in the UAE. We'll see if it happens.

All right, thanks very much, Kylie, for that report. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. New this morning, ICE agents emerge from the back of a box truck and take 16 people into custody. It happened right outside a Los Angeles Home Depot in an operation dubbed Trojan Horse. The agents were hidden in the back of a Penske truck and this is video of them loading into the back just before that raid.

Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. What more are local leaders in L.A. and the truck company, for that matter, saying about this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, remember, Pamela, that Los Angeles has, in many ways, been the epicenter of the aggressive immigration strategy that the Trump administration has been executing on. And the Los Angeles mayor has been the face of the opposition in that. And she waited on this yesterday calling it unacceptable. Take a listen.

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MAYOR KAREN BASS (D-LOS ANGELES, CA): It is hard for me to believe that that raid was consistent with the court order that said you cannot racially profile, you cannot racially discriminate. What I saw on the video, what I saw on the pictures that were sent to me looked like the same guys chasing people through a Home Depot. This is something that is not acceptable and we are not going to stand for it in Los Angeles.

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ALVAREZ: So, you heard there, she mentioned a court order. A federal judge did order or rather block the Trump administration from indiscriminate operations, which appears to be what was happening here.

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Because what the video shows us is U.S. Border Patrol agents going into this moving truck then unloading in a Los Angeles Home Depot parking lot, where, according to this Department of Homeland Security, they arrested 16 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Now, in addition to the pushback from Los Angeles, there's been pushback from the company of this truck, that would be the Penske truck, and they said in a statement that it, quote, strictly prohibits the transportation of people into the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances.

Look, there has been an aggressive strategy and tactic that has been employed in Los Angeles, particularly led by U.S. Border Patrol, which has found out across the country to conduct immigration enforcement. This example is likely to come up in court, however, because, again, the federal judge said that it blocked the administration from indiscriminate raids. And so we'll see how it all unfolds in the courtroom from here.

BROWN: That was a strong statement from Penske there, saying it didn't authorize this.

Okay. Priscilla, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And still ahead, the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, joins us here in The Situation Room. Why he's concerned that President Trump will target a key trade agreement with Canada with tariffs now in effect.

BROWN: And then later, first on CNN, we're going to speak with two of the heroes who stopped a shooting rampage on a Georgia Army post.

You're in The Situation Room. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: Breaking news on President Trump's trade war with American allies, tariffs on imported goods are now at their highest levels since the Great Depression. Products from Mexico and Canada are exempt from those duties if and only if they comply with the U.S.-Mexico- Canada free trade agreement. Otherwise, Mexican imports face 25 percent tariffs while Canadian goods face 35 percent.

Joining us now is the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford. Premier Ford, thanks so much for joining us.

As you know, President Trump negotiated the agreement with Canada and Mexico during his first term to replace NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. You say, and now he could put suddenly all of a sudden open up the USMCA. What makes you think that?

DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: Well, you, you know, Wolf, first of all, I start off every interview with saying how much we love the Americans, how much we love the U.S. And as I've said on this show many times that a tariff on Canada is a tax on the American people. And as you've seen the study from Yale, it's going to cost Americans $2,400. Manufacturing employment in the U.S., there's over 37,000 people since April have lost their jobs. It's the lowest rate in five years, and it's just not working. Let's create the AMCAN fortress, two strongest countries in the world.

Again, this is hurting the American people as the rest of the countries, including Canada, is diversifying our trade. We're seeing 25 percent increase in trade with European Union. The U.K.'s up by 30 percent. So, as we're diversifying and onshoring products, the American people are losing their jobs.

BLITZER: What would the impact be for Canada and for the U.S. if President Trump pulled out of that agreement?

FORD: Well, it would be unfortunate. We directly employ just Ontario alone 9 million Americans, and across the entire country of Canada, it's probably closer to 20 million Americans rely on Canada for jobs and vice versa. We rely on jobs with trade with the us, but it's just hurting both countries. And as we're diversifying and the rest of the world's diversifying onshoring products that are typically made in the U.S., no matter if it's aluminum cans or tins or steel beams, we're onshoring everything.

We're very, very concerned with the actions of the Trump administration and, you know, President Trump and Secretary Lutnick, they're smart guys, like they understand numbers. And when you see 37,000 Americans have lost their jobs, that can't pay rent or can't pay a mortgage, put food on their table, and this is just going to grow even more, $6.2 billion in tariff-related costs to the auto sector, and that's going to increase. So, the auto workers are going to be losing their jobs.

BLITZER: So, how is Canada, Premier Ford, preparing for that possibility now? Have you warned your prime minister, Mark Carney, that Canada needs to take action?

FORD: Absolutely, and we're doing it as we speak right now. We're onshoring manufacturing jobs that typically are American jobs. We have a market here that we can sustain it. And we're lowering taxes. We're making sure we're competitive for companies to come and invest in Canada. Ontario alone last year attracted over $40 billion of investment, creating more jobs, more opportunities.

I would much rather, you know, work with our greatest ally and closest friend and increase jobs in both countries, and we can do that. We'd be the two strongest nations in the world economically. That's our goal. But, unfortunately, President Trump doesn't want to go down that avenue.

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He wants to hurt the American people, and that's exactly what he's doing.

BLITZER: Do you know when Prime Minister Carney of Canada is next scheduled to speak with President Trump?

FORD: I'd imagine over the next few days, Wolf. But we're going to continue the dialogue and communication to the best of our ability.

BLITZER: You know, it's strange to me. Trump has repeatedly said over these past several months, that he wants Canada, our neighbor in the north, to become a 51st state of the United States. He hasn't said that though in a while. Do you still worry about his rhetoric on that front?

FORD: No, I'm not worried about that because. That's never going to happen. We'll be your closest ally and closest friend forever, as we have been for 200 years, and we will outlast the Trump administration and we'll continue working with our great American partners.

BLITZER: What's the general impression of Trump in Canada? FORD: He is probably the most disliked politician in the world in Canada, because he is attacked his closest family member. And that's the way we look upon it. And when I talk to the governors and senators and Congress people, even Republicans, totally disagree, but they're too scared to come out and say anything, because the president will go after him. Outside of a few senators, and I want to thank them for, for coming out and standing with not just American people, but their closest friends and allies, which is Canada.

And, again, we love the Americans. It's unfortunate President Trump decided to go down this road.

BLITZER: And just to be totally transparent as someone who grew up on the U.S.-Canada border in beautiful Buffalo, New York, I love Canada as well. I love the Canadians, and always have.

The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

FORD: Thank you. Thank you so much, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Coming up, heroism honored. We're going to speak to two soldiers who helped stop a shooting rampage on a Georgia Army post. It is a CNN first, and it's next.

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