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Israel Announces Expansion of Military Operation; Democrats Score Big Election Win in Wisconsin; Amazon Makes Bid to Buy TikTok; Trump Set to Announce Tariffs. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 02, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:44]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The president about to play his hand and reshape the global economy, President Trump just hours from rolling out tariffs on friends and foes alike. We're tracking the latest ahead of this major announcement.

Plus: down, but a new sign they're not out, Democrats scoring their first big win of Trump's second term. Is this a blip, or is it a chance to build some real momentum?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, phone-free schools getting bipartisan support across the country. CNN takes you to one school in Virginia where the ban is bringing out some big changes.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Just hours from now, President Trump's high-stakes tariff announcement at the White House and, notably, after markets close.

SANCHEZ: Details of his plan are still unclear. Wall Street, Main Street, and capitals around the world are bracing for impact.

We do know, notably, over the last few days that car sales have surged before these tariffs kick in.

Let's take you to the White House now with CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who has new reporting on these 11th-hour moves.

What are you learning, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Boris, we know that the president has long been talking about this, of course, being one of the reciprocal tariff days.

It's part of his argument that America, in his view, has been taken advantage of by some allies and adversaries alike, but, really, it's the a beginning or continuation of launching a trade war. So that is what is likely to happen in about three hours' time, when the president steps into the Rose Garden for his first event of this administration in the Rose Garden.

It is already being turned into a bit of a celebratory background with big flags. Members of the Cabinet will also be invited, but, of course, that is not how many business leaders, many American consumers are seeing this, as a celebration, far from it.

But the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president has been open to negotiations right up until the end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has been looking at the a very unfair trade practices of the past. Certainly, the president is always up to take a phone call, always up for a good negotiation, but he is very much focused on fixing the wrongs of the past and showing that American workers have a fair shake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So that is the question. Who has been getting into some of these negotiations, if you will?

Some business exemptions perhaps, although the White House has said there will not be any broad exemptions in this. Or some country specifically, will they be excluded from this list? We shall see in about three hours.

But you said this is happening after the markets close. That, of course, is by design. The markets have already been rattled by all this discussion of a trade war. But if you look at some of these specifics, one of the reasons that this is causing so much concern from homebuilders, to car dealers to, the grocery store, because a tariff is a tax on an imported good.

That is what it is, a tax on an imported good. So even as the inflationary concerns and the -- our high consumer confidence has been quite jittery, that sets up the backdrop here for the president's big plan.

Some of the members of the Republican Senate Budget Committee have just left the White House a short time ago. They too are getting briefed on this. And, don't forget, one of the reasons for all of this is to raise revenue to help pay for and offset the president's tax cut agenda.

So, all of this is linked. But, without question, there is -- no doubt it's one of the biggest gambles, at least economically speaking, of his presidency -- Boris and Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Jeff Zeleny live for us at the White House, thank you so much.

Let's expand the conversation now with business journalist and host of "Full Disclosure" Roben Farzad. Also with us, CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston.

Thank you both for being with us.

Roben, there's sort of three options that the reporting bears out that Trump has, and he may go with something completely different. But, essentially, they are a blanket tariff on every import into the United States, specifically tailored tariffs that are ideally reciprocal to the number on specific countries, and then grouping of certain countries into tiers, and putting tariffs on them as a group.

[13:05:00]

Where do you see this landing?

ROBEN FARZAD, HOST, "FULL DISCLOSURE": You guys are young, but this reminds me of an early '80s movie called "Trading Places."

I know you're young millennials.

(LAUGHTER)

FARZAD: But there's that orange juice crop futures report and the guy on the phone at the end, and the world is waiting with bated breath.

They're trying to manufacture so much drama around something that nobody can even understand. My sources on the Street, traders and other people, it's like, what is he going to do? What is he going to do? And you have to believe that he loves that.

And is there a method to the madness? Is there -- like, does he wake up one morning, we're only going to do it where it's reciprocal or cars 25 percent one day? If the market was truly worried, the market would be worried. So it's curious that he's releasing it after the close of trading.

KEILAR: We have Roben on because he refers to me as a young millennial, even though I'm perhaps the oldest millennial possible.

(LAUGHTER)

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Do you want to get a drink after this? Because I could use a little help.

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: So -- but, consumers, I mean, as we don't know exactly what to expect, they are expecting something. There's a lot of anticipatory anticipation and nerves going on, and they really have a say in this when it comes to how the economy performs with that anticipation.

What are they thinking about it?

PRESTON: They're scared, right? And they should be scared right now, not because of what is going to happen, because they don't know what is going to happen.

And if you look at this new Marquatte -- Marquatte -- Marquette Law School poll, shows that 58 percent of Americans right now think that these tariffs are going to hurt. They also think that it's going to cause inflation. But this makes sense because they're already hurting right now. I mean, the wealthy are not hurt, but the middle class is being hurt right now. And we have already seen from CNN's own poll that, across every age group except 65 and older, they have already cut back on discretionary spending, and that includes Republicans, independents, and Democrats.

KEILAR: How are you seeing how they're feeling?

FARZAD: I'm hearing about leading indicators, but I'm still seeing FOMO spending. I'm still seeing crazy amounts of driving over spring break. I mean, we're talking about Miami and South Beach and Fort Lauderdale spring break, about dining, reservations, movies, all of that FOMO spending.

I mean, if you were thinking about something like a 2008, 2009, or economic doom, you would be husbanding that cash. And we have not snuffed out inflation yet, and people are trying to make ends meet. But having said that, this is a super resilient economy. You almost have to stand on your head to kill it.

We're still creating more than 100,000 jobs every month. But if he keeps browbeating it, I mean, maybe there's a chance of recession. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

SANCHEZ: About a quarter of those asked in polling, Mark, indicate that the economy is excellent or good, not really a huge change from where things were under President Biden.

I wonder, when do you think politically we might see the impact of these tariffs kick in?

PRESTON: So let's assume that President Trump didn't come in and do all this economic chaos, OK, because that's basically what he did. He just created chaos.

You could make the argument that this is still Biden's economy, OK, because economy does not turn on a dime. However, when you're Donald Trump and you come in, and you have just gone in and taken every economic model that is known to man and basically burned it down and said, we're going to go with this one idea, it's called tariffs, we're going to make things even, well, it is now his economy.

What's interesting about the disposable income right now, though, is that we have already seen that Americans are in so much debt right now. And if these tariffs go in, the cost of everyday goods are going to go up. So even if they are spending some of their disposable income, they're going to put it on credit cards, and you're going to see an even worse situation with personal debt than we see now.

FARZAD: But that begets a certain wild card. Uncle Sam is in so much debt right now...

PRESTON: Right.

FARZAD: ... is spending beyond his means. If the economy is crashed -- I know this is circular and bass-ackward, I guess, is the term, the scientific term of art.

(LAUGHTER)

FARZAD: The Fed will slash rates, and you're paying less on this debt and less on your obligations.

And Trump is still very young in his presidency.

KEILAR: What do you make of the Treasury secretary saying this is a -- whatever this is, as we await it, a ceiling which can be negotiated down?

And then you have the president, one of the president's top trade advisers, Peter Navarro, saying that this is going to bring about $6 trillion in revenue over the course of 10 years, which, of course, would mean that it would have to be long-lasting to do that.

The sort of range of, possibilities here, the Treasury secretary hinting that this could really be short-lived, what do you think about these expectations they're building?

FARZAD: Maybe it's -- maybe, maybe, maybe it's just fake it until you make it, because it sounds great. There's grievance. They're saying -- and you saw what the press secretary said. We're finally going to right the wrongs in this economy. People who've been left out are going to get vindication.

And they're not beholden to the traditional stock market metrics and GDP growth, and it's still Biden's problem nominally until you get later in the year. So the consequences aren't really there for them.

SANCHEZ: A slight pivot to what we saw last night in some special elections, Mark, in Wisconsin and Florida.

Do these results give you any view of how Trump is doing among these voters?

PRESTON: Well, a couple things.

One, a little bit, but only in the moment that we sit in right now. Six months from now, this moment is going to be forgotten. However, look at what we have seen from Elon Musk. Look at all the cutting we have seen from the government.

[13:10:06]

We say this every day. Let's talk in September, October, November, when these people, when folks have been unemployed, when some of these court cases have exhausted themselves, and they realize they're out of a job. And then take that going into a midterm election year.

Donald Trump, his name is not on the ballot, except he's on the ballot.

KEILAR: Roben, Mark, thank you so much to both of you.

FARZAD: Thank you.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Really appreciate the conversation.

And this just in, sources telling CNN, Amazon has put in a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok. The app's owner, ByteDance...

FARZAD: Wow.

KEILAR: Roben over here saying, wow.

The app's owner, ByteDance, has until Saturday to find a buyer and divest from its U.S. operations, or be banned for American users again.

FARZAD: I'm still on MySpace.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Alayna Treene has the new reporting.

Alayna, we know the president is set to have a meeting about TikTok. What are you hearing about that?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes.

So, well, let me start here with Amazon, Boris, and Brianna, because it is interesting that they're really making this 11th-hour offer. I'm told it actually came in a letter directly addressed to Vice President J.D. Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, both of whom have been working behind the scenes on this broader TikTok deal.

Vance, for his part, we should point out that Trump directly kind of tasked with figuring out what is going to happen with TikTok before that deadline, which is coming up on April 5. That is this weekend.

I will just say, though, I was told that they are not taking it this seriously, Vance and those who are working behind the scenes on a potential deal. That's because they already have a deal that they want to present to President Donald Trump, and they are planning to do so today in the Oval Office.

Essentially, the deal would be a kind of an ownership structure, is the way that it was described by different sources who are familiar with the deal to me. They said, essentially, a number of venture capital, private equity funds and tech companies would be involved in this, this potential deal with TikTok to kind of have this future investment in TikTok and the U.S. jointly.

Now, two companies we know who are involved in this potential deal are Oracle, big tech giant, as well as Blackstone a private equity firm, but others as well. And, again, this is something that Vance, I'm also told other top officials, like Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, and Lutnick, again, the commerce secretary, are all going to be in that meeting presenting this deal to the president today.

And then really the big question is whether or not President Donald Trump will actually accept this, again, with just days to go now until that pause on a broader ban on TikTok in the United States would officially expire.

And so it's, one, we have to see if the president would agree to this, but then also whether TikTok and ByteDance, who owns TikTok, would agree to this as well, all to say my sources believe and are cautiously optimistic that the president is going to accept this because he doesn't want to extend that pause on this ban, but, hopefully, we will learn more after they meet today.

KEILAR: Alayna Treene, we will be looking for that. Thank you.

As President Trump is shaking up the government and the global economy, Democrats are showing signs of fighting in special election results and a record-breaking 25-hour rebuke of Trump's policies.

Plus, a pro Israel group says it gave the U.S. a list of noncitizen protesters and activists to deport. But did the government use the list? We will have much more on that story ahead.

SANCHEZ: And, later, Hollywood is saying goodbye to "Top Gun"'s Iceman, legendary actor Val Kilmer passing away.

You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We will be right back with details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I confess that I have been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes.

This is the time where new leaders in our country must emerge. I'm not talking about senators. I'm talking about citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Just hours after Democratic Senator Cory Booker's record- breaking 25-hour speech, Democrats are celebrating a critical win in the swing state of Wisconsin, Susan Crawford, the liberal Democratic- backed candidate, beating out conservative Brad Schimel in the state Supreme Court race.

The win comes just three months after President Trump's victory in that swing state and despite Elon Musk's pouring millions of dollars into the race.

In Florida, a different story, Republicans holding on to two critical congressional seats, but those wins may come with a warning. The Democratic candidates there overperformed, slashing the Republicans' margins roughly in half, with every single county in those two districts shifting considerably to the left.

All this could be seen as a big boost for Democrats, who are seeking to find new momentum ahead of next year's midterm elections.

Let's get some analysis now with pollster and communication strategist Frank Luntz.

Frank, thank you so much for being with us.

You just told me a moment ago that you watched several hours of Cory Booker's speech. You described it...

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER: Which makes me weird. I get that.

SANCHEZ: No, I mean, you're -- I just described you as a pollster and political analyst, so it's what you would do, watch Cory Booker for three hours.

You were moved by his speech. You thought it was very effective. Why?

LUNTZ: Yes.

And I say this to Chuck Schumer. We did a survey asking Democrats who they think should lead their party. And Schumer doesn't have the leadership, isn't willing to speak out, doesn't have the message.

I'm watching Cory Booker, and I'm thinking, this is the first Democrat who's actually challenged Trump in a human way, a personal way, an individual way. It's not about bashing and slashing and stuff that some of the Squad want to do.

It's a narrow approach that says, we can do better. And it humanizes the these issues. And he said, we need leaders, not from Washington, but from the citizenry.

[13:20:05]

And that was a powerful statement to me. I know that's what Democrats are waiting to hear. We just did a focus group on this. And I know that they're frustrated with the current leadership, who aren't holding the president accountable.

Now, I don't take sides. I'm a teacher, so it's my responsibility to call it what it is. The public still wants most of what Donald Trump is trying to do. They actually support in a generic way putting America on a level playing field in terms of economics.

But they don't like the approach that's being taken, because they think it's too extreme. They think that it ignores the individual, and they think that there's a better way to do it.

SANCHEZ: What did you make of the way that he described the shortcomings, not only of himself, but of the party, and how that might be received? I mean, what do Democrats risk by not listening to that message?

LUNTZ: Well, they -- he's telling the truth.

All the polling -- I think CNN has some of it itself. All the polling shows that the Democrats have never been as unpopular as they are right now, at the very moment that people are starting to question what the Trump administration at least how it's doing what it's doing.

So, his speech was basically a reset. And I'm not saying that it'll hold, but I do believe that Cory Booker has now emerged as one of the single best spokespeople for the Democrats, who are saying this is not good for the country, we disagree, and we want resistance. He never used that word.

SANCHEZ: Notably, yes.

LUNTZ: And I think that's important. It's not politics that he's preaching. It's policy.

SANCHEZ: I also want to get your thoughts on the two special elections last night, the first one in Wisconsin, where Elon Musk spent millions and millions of dollars.

Could that race be read as an indictment of his role in this administration? Because Wisconsin has had razor-thin margins over the last few elections.

LUNTZ: It could be.

I think that Democrats will read too much into it, saying, aha, we found the secret sauce, we're going to change things. And Republicans thinking that Florida, winning both those House seats, the fact is, they won those seats with a reduced margin.

I have never seen anyone like Donald Trump able to turn out votes when he's on the ballot, but he's not been nearly as successful when he provides support for candidates, but his name doesn't appear. And, in the end, we're still an evenly divided country. We're still a polarized and angry country.

And the reason why I appreciate this discussion is that it's a chance to say precisely, the agenda and the policies have support, the communication and the execution do not. So, I don't know, if you're a Democrat or Republican, you're going to be mad at this analysis, but this is the way things are.

And we should start to pursue the truth, rather than pursue some sort of partisan game.

SANCHEZ: How do you take that sentiment and apply it to what we're going to see at 4:00 p.m. in the Rose Garden, this announcement on tariffs?

LUNTZ: It's going to freak the world out, and some Americans don't care.

I understand that he did it because the markets are closed at that point. You could see an explosion on Wall Street, and Donald Trump has always used the stock market as a measurement of his success. Well, he can't ignore it now. And if the markets are saying this is not the right way to do it, he needs to listen.

Make no mistake. Americans are tired of being treated as second-class citizens. They're tired of countries like China taking advantage of our markets, selling their products, and blocking our products. But they don't want to pay more. And the tariffs are like a tax, and so we have got once again a mixed message.

I hope Americans respond slowly to this, because, in the end, our businesses are at stake. Our economic system is at stake. Capitalism is at stake.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

LUNTZ: And how we handle this will determine how the rest of the world is going to see us, trade with us, negotiate with us, and treat us in the months and years to follow.

SANCHEZ: Powerful analysis, as always.

Frank Luntz, appreciate the perspective. Thanks for joining us.

LUNTZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come.

The Israeli military announcing a major expansion of its operation in Gaza, now ordering some residents to leave their homes. We will take you live to Jerusalem in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:29:04]

SANCHEZ: Israel is now ordering residents of southern Rafah to abandon their homes and move north amid military expansion plans in Gaza.

In a statement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the plan involves seizing large plots of land that would be incorporated into Israel's security zone.

KEILAR: The announcement comes after heavy airstrikes against Hamas that killed dozens, according to local authorities.

Gaza's civil defense says the bodies of 19 people, including women and children, were recovered after a strike on a U.N. relief shelter inside a refugee camp.

Let's go to CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, what are you learning about Israel's plans?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli military is clearly carrying out a major expansion of its ground operations.

And these operations appear to be focused on the southern part of the Gaza Strip at the moment. Of course, over the last two weeks, we have been watching as the Israeli military has steadily expanded this offensive in conjunction with heavy airstrikes that have been carried out on every single part of the Gaza Strip.

Overnight, Israeli forces seem to have pushed into Rafah, that southern city in Gaza.