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President Trump's Buyout Program Blocked By A Judge, Set To Announce Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum; President To Attend Super Bowl LIX; New Bird Flu Variant Found In Nevada; Trump's Gets Positive Approval Rating On Second Term; New Head Of The OMB Is Project 2025 Architect; Betting At The Super Bowl Expected To Break Records. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 09, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the "CNN Newsroom," I'm Jessica Dean in Washington. As President Trump settles into the Big Easy for tonight's Super Bowl, federal workers have never been more unsettled about their careers. A judge temporarily delaying Trump's deadline for so-called buyouts, a hearing on that is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Meantime, Vice President J.D. Vance weighed in on the legal roadblocks, posting on X today, quote, "judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power," end quote.

The Constitution set up the three branches of government to act as checks and balances to one another. Also tonight, the administration has informed employees of another agency that they will not be in the office this week. Workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been told its D.C. headquarters will be closed this week. That agency is tasked with looking out for American consumers when it comes to interest rates and fees from big banks and other lenders.

For more on all of this, CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us from West Palm Beach. And Betsy, the president just spoke on his way to the Super Bowl. He made some news. What more can you tell us about that?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, Jessica, that's right. President Trump spoke with reporters for about 30 minutes aboard Air Force One on the way from Palm Beach over to New Orleans, where he will attend the Super Bowl later today. And he made a little bit of news on tariffs. He announced that he would be unveiling reciprocal tariffs at a press conference either this Tuesday or Wednesday, and that would be posed almost immediately and would apply to every country that tariffs the U.S.

This was a major campaign promise for President Trump back in 2024. He also announced that tomorrow, Monday, he will be unveiling steel tariffs on U.S. steel imports at a rate of 25 percent. Now, if the theme of the first few days of the Trump administration was flood the zone and the theme of next week is tariffs, the theme of the past few days has been revenge and retribution, Jessica. I mean, over the past few weeks, we have seen President Trump dramatically reimagine and reshape the use of executive authority, and we have seen him use that presidential authority to take aim at his perceived enemies.

So over the past few days, he has really expanded on those themes of revenge. We saw him announce that he would be clearing former President Joe Biden of his security clearance. He announced that he would be stripping the security details of more officials, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who of course remains subject to threats from Iran for the actions he took under the first Trump administration.

He announced plans to gut the board of the Kennedy Center and install himself as the chairman of that board. And he also dismissed the National archivist. Now in addition to that, as you mentioned, Trump has empowered Elon Musk and his so-called DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency, to go into different parts of the U.S. government and take stock. We're also seeing efforts to target those who may be perceived to be as disloyal. But we are also just now, Jessica, getting some of that sound on the tariffs. Take a listen to what President Trump told reporters just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference, reciprocal tariffs, and very simply, if they charge us, we charge them. That's all.

UNKNOWN: When is it going to be in full effect?

TRUMP: Almost immediately. But I'll be announcing the details of it, highly detailed, and it'll be great for everybody, including the other countries. But if they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way.

UNKNOWN: This is on every country?

TRUMP: Every country will be reciprocal, that's with everybody country. It won't affect everybody because there is somewhere we have similar tariffs. But the ones that are taking advantage of the United States, we're going to have an expressive process that is reciprocal --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: So there we are seeing President Trump announce his plans to make good on that 2024 campaign promise on reciprocal tariffs. Of course, this comes just days after he announced his plans to back off at least for 30 days his intentions to tax Mexico and Canada at a very high rate. Trump previously told reporters that he would still be reevaluating those tariff plans and asking Canada and Mexico to take additional actions, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein in West Palm Beach, Florida, tracking President Trump who has been in the spotlight really since the second he took office and continues with his trip to the Super Bowl tonight. Betsy, thank you so much for that. And for more on how the president's latest moves are affecting Americans financially, we're joined now by CNN economics and political commentator, Catherine Rampell.

[17:04:56]

Catherine, thanks so much for being here with us. We're just getting this breaking news from President Trump aboard Air Force One about these reciprocal tariffs and then also the tariffs on steel and aluminum. So I just want to start first with these reciprocal tariffs. As Betsy noted, he says he's going to announce them Tuesday or Wednesday. They would go into effect, he says, pretty much immediately. Walk people through what that might look like, how it might impact people.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The last time Trump waged these trade wars, which were very similar, if more limited, in the sense that he waged tariffs on other countries, they had reciprocal tariffs, then we raised our tariffs, et cetera. It was sort of a situation where an eye for an eye left everybody blind. Most of the cost of Trump's own tariffs were borne by Americans, whether American consumers or American businesses that bought the products from abroad.

And then a lot of American companies were also hurt by the retaliatory tariffs from abroad, right? You have Canada, for example, now threatening as retaliation tariffs on American orange juice, peanut butter, et cetera. Those were the kinds of products that we saw last time around that are being targeted again. So this escalation is not going to be helpful. Then we're talking about the steel tariffs. Again, you can look back to what happened during Trump's first term. Trump in his first term also imposed 25 percent tariffs on global steel and aluminum.

Again, that was very damaging to American companies because something like 70 jobs, excuse me, 70 jobs in downstream steel consuming companies exist for every one job that is in a steel producing company in the United States. So think people who work at auto manufacturing plants, people who work at appliance manufacturing plants, all of those jobs are affected and harmed when Trump makes the cost of those inputs, steel and aluminum, more expensive for their employers. That's what we saw last time. That's what we are likely to see again this time.

And by the way, last time there was very little evidence that Trump's steel tariffs did really anything to improve the long-term health of U.S. steel companies. As viewers may recall, U.S. Steel is currently, the company known as U.S. Steel is currently struggling and has put itself up for sale because despite many rounds of protectionist measures under both Democratic and Republican presidents, by the way, it still is struggling to compete with companies from abroad.

DEAN: And the president continues to make this argument that by putting these tariffs into place, whether it's these new ones that we're talking about, the ones on Canada and Mexico, which we know are temporarily paused while they're working all of that out, or the one on the additional tariffs on Chinese goods, that that is good for America, for the American economy. But I hear you and a number of economists say that just the math doesn't math. RAMPELL: Yes. That's a good way to put it. There were lots and lots of studies that looked at the consequences of the first rounds of Trump tariffs in his first administration, and again all of them either found that all or most of the cost of the tariffs were ultimately borne by Americans. Either the additional tax that importers paid, because a tariff is a tax, got passed along down the supply chain to consumers in the form of higher prices.

Good example of this might be, for example, washing machines. So we saw washing machine prices shoot way up as soon as Trump put tariffs on global -- production of global imports of washing machines. Same deal with steel. So steel is an input, right? Consumers aren't buying raw steel per se, but they're buying a lot of products made of steel, autos, washing machine is another good example, refrigerators, et cetera.

And so the American companies that made those products were then having to pay higher prices for the steel that they purchased and either absorbing some of that cost themselves, which doesn't help those companies and the workers who they employ, or -- and or I should say, passing along some of those additional costs to their ultimate customers, regular consumers.

So again, lots of evidence done, lots of evidence, lots of research done, looking at what we saw first time around. Plenty of trade wars have happened elsewhere in the world and you see generally similar effects. I mean, it depends a little bit on the product market, of course, but that's what we would expect to see here. Trump thinks that these tariffs are being borne entirely by foreign companies, but they're just not. Foreign companies are definitely hurting because it means that there's less demand for their products when the price goes up because of these taxes.

[17:10:01]

But so are the customers of those companies, which are Americans, American businesses and American consumers.

DEAN: And so again, the news here that we are expecting Trump, and he says 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum being announced tomorrow. And then reciprocal tariffs on other nations being announced sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday. So we'll continue to see what more we can learn about that. Before I do want to let you go, Catherine, all of this goes back to the central reason why a lot of Americans said they voted for President Trump. They want the cost of living down. They want to be able to make their dollar go further, and they don't feel like they can do that.

I do want to ask you one example that gets tossed around a lot, egg prices. And they are jumping. The latest Consumer Sentiment Survey found Americans are also betting that a lot of other prices could rise. You know, this is -- it takes a lot of work and a lot of effort and it's going to be hard to bring these costs down for people.

RAMPELL: Yes, I will say a few things about this broader issue. One is that presidents have very few tools to bring prices down, period. We're talking about eggs in particular. The egg price increases are largely caused by bird flu. That was the case under Biden. That's the case now. Of course, Trump and J.D. Vance, when they were on the campaign trail last year, blamed Biden and Harris for egg prices. Now they're saying, whoa, egg prices are going up, but that's something out of our control, which it is, frankly.

But there are a few things that they are doing, that this administration is doing that may exacerbate some of the grocery price inflation that we've seen. On bird flu in particular, the administration has been withholding research that the CDC planned on releasing a few weeks ago about various forms of bird flu transmission. So those kinds of things, at least on the margin, are not helpful. Then we were talking about tariffs.

So if Trump actually imposes those tariffs on Mexico and on Canada, they're not going to affect eggs per se, but they will affect a lot of the other things you buy at the grocery store. Most avocados that Americans buy that they will be enjoying today during the Super Bowl, those come from Mexico. Most of the fresh tomatoes that Americans buy also from Mexico. And most of the potash that American farmers purchase, potash is basically a form of fertilizer that American farmers use to grow their crops. Most of that comes from Canada.

So if all of these things, whether we're talking about the fruits and veggies themselves or the inputs that American farmers need to grow those fruits and veggies, those are going to get more expensive, not to mention the fact that Trump is continuing to threaten to deport roughly half of the labor force that is employed at U.S. farms to pick those crops. So not only does Trump have very little power to actually reduce prices, some of the things that are on the table at least would potentially increase the costs of your regular trip to the grocery store.

DEAN: All right, Catherine Rampell, as always, thank you very much. We appreciate you being here.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

DEAN: We are about 90 minutes away now for the biggest sporting and television event of the year. Right now, tens of thousands of fans making their way into the New Orleans Superdome, where security is extra tight. President Trump planning to attend that game after meeting victims, family members, and first responders of that terrorist attack on the city on New Year. CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young is joining us now. And Ryan, I know you've been tracking these preparations now for days. Security is high right now.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ultra tight but at the same time people are having a good time. I mean these fans have come from all over the country to be here for their teams. That celebration ongoing on the street you can see them having a good time. Look at this happening right now. These fans have come from all over to show their support for the team, but every block has security going down the way. There's drones above. They have sniper officers all around to keep these fans safe as they get ready for the Super Bowl. Now let's show you the video because the president just landed in the

last half hour or so. So you can see that video of President Trump landing here. He'll be the first president to actually watch a game live. So you understand that. On top of that, the White House released a statement talking about the victims of that attack, 14 killed, 35 injured. That happened just down the way over there. You can see the blockade that is still in the process with all the exits (ph) or officers that search in this area.

But Jessica, as a reporter, you know how this is. The energy is unmatched when it comes to how excited these fans are for this game. And these folks are so just cheering a half hour before the game. Big television event and obviously a lot of emotions tied to a game like this one.

DEAN: Yeah, no doubt about it. They're going to hear that Eagles chant time and time again. Ryan Young there in New Orleans. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

[17:15:01]

Still to come this hour, we'll have much more coverage of Super Bowl Sunday, including the many novelty bets happening right now like which song will Kendrick Lamar play first?

Also ahead, we are nearly three weeks into President Trump's second term. We've got new polling on his approval ratings.

And we are following rising concern about the bird flu after a new variant found in Nevada showed signs of adapting to mammals. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: A new variant of bird flu has an adaptation which could make it more likely to crossover to humans. So scientists are now closely studying that outbreak among dairy cattle in Nevada. One dairy farm worker has tested positive and it's the first human infection that's been reported in that state. Joining us now to talk more about this is Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator. Dr. Shah, thanks so much for being here with us. Let's start there in Nevada. Tell us how concerning this development should be.

ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, first of all, thanks for having me back. Look, what we're seeing is a virus continuing to learn and continue to evolve and becoming more adept at infecting mammals. And obviously, the big concern here is that it will get better at infecting humans. So this is an unwelcome development, watching this much more deadly version of the virus infecting cows. I think we've got to watch this very carefully and we've got to start planning for the potential that we could start seeing a lot more spread in people.

DEAN: And there have been two severe human infections in North America since September, including one death. The CDC is saying, though, that the risk to the general public is still low. Do you agree with that while also acknowledging what you just said, which is we should also be preparing?

JHA: Yeah, look, at this moment, we have not seen sustained human-to- human transmission. So that's good news and let's hope we never do. Like that's always the hope. But we now have seen this virus evolve enough and do enough things that we absolutely need to be making a whole set of investments and taking a whole set of actions so that if you do start seeing real spread among people, that we're going to be ready to act. And that, of course, means vaccines, treatments, testing. We've got to be gearing all of that up.

DEAN: And we know that the governor in New York temporarily closed roughly 80 live poultry markets. She's called that a proactive move. I think a lot of people out there see these stories and they wonder, should I be worried about eating poultry or buying poultry, eggs, beef? Should they be worried about something like that?

JHA: Yeah, so first of all, part of the reason we heard this in the previous segment, that egg prices are so high, is because of avian flu, because we are seeing a lot of egg laying hens get infected and being culled. This is not about to turn around anytime soon. We've got to deal with this. In terms of food safety, look, as long as you're cooking your eggs, you should never eat raw eggs.

As long as you're cooking your chicken, again, you should never eat raw chicken. I think there's every reason to believe that these things are very safe. We continue -- I continue to consume it, my family does. I'm not worried about that as long as you're cooking those things properly.

DEAN: Yeah. I also want to ask you about some news we're getting from the National Institutes of Health. They say that they're slashing the indirect cost rate. That's -- the research institutions can charge the government. So that covers things. I know you know this, but I had to kind of do a little digging. It covers overhead things like lab space, maintenance, researchers, supplies. And the typical NIH grant earmarks about 30 percent for those costs. The Trump administration is planning to lock that in at a maximum of 15 percent.

And the NIH is saying that that's going to save billions in tax dollars. There are scientists, though, that are saying this could really impact even devastate medical research in the U.S. Help us untangle all of that.

JHA: Sure. So NIH has a funny way that it pays universities, pays these direct costs, the direct costs of the researcher and the supplies, but then it also pays indirect costs. All of the overhead, but not just overhead. All the supplies, all this other material that's really critical for the research. By capping it at 15%, it's going to make research a huge loss for every institution in the country. And what we're going to see is most institutions, most universities, most hospitals get out of the research business.

What does this mean? It means that biomedical research, which I would argue has been one of the shining stars of America, responsible for development of heart disease and cancer treatments. Much of that is going to go away. And there's going to be a huge boon to China. China has been trying to poach some of our best scientists and have them come to China. Well, this is going to make that a whole lot easier. This would be an absolutely terrible move.

So I hope that the administration reconsiders. I don't exactly understand the legal basis by which they think they can do this, given that Congress usually is very involved in this. But this would be a devastating blow for research across America.

[17:24:57]

DEAN: And just quickly, the Trump administration says they think that the colleges and the universities can essentially pick up the cost through these big endowments they have, their budgets. Does it not work that way?

JHA: It doesn't work that way. So first of all, much of the big research institutions are public institutions. University of Michigan, University of California, they don't have huge endowments. So that's point number one. Point number two, there's a lot of other really good smaller universities that are doing research. They're not going to be able to pick it up. And the bigger universities, the wealthier universities, my sense is, first of all, they're gonna face huge budget deficits, even if they move some of that endowment dollars trying to make up for it.

Most of them are probably gonna get out of the research business. A lot of the biggest researchers are also hospitals. They don't tend to have huge endowments. University of Texas Medical Center, for instance. So you are gonna see a large number of our best research institutions, cancer institutes, all of them step out of the research business. This really would be devastating and no, there are no large endowments that are going to somehow save the day here.

DEAN: All right, Dr. Jha, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

JHA: Thank you.

DEAN: President Trump is predicting the Kansas City Chiefs will win tonight's Super Bowl. Ahead, how the majority of Americans are feeling about the matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:30:00]

DEAN: It's been 21 days now since President Trump took office, wasting no time issuing sweeping orders to dramatically reshape the federal government. This is a much more organized and effective start to his second term as compared to his first. CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten joining us now to run the numbers. Harry, hello, good to see you. We're getting some --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Hello, nice to see you.

DEAN: Yeah, we're getting some new information about how Americans view President Trump's -- how he's doing his job.

ENTEN: Yeah, so you know CBS News/YouGov came out with a poll earlier today that had him on the positive side of the ledger and I decided to average all the polls and you know what the average of the polls also has him on the positive side of the ledger. Alright, let's take a look. Trump's net approval rating on February 9th. Look at this, in 2025 he's at plus four points. Look at where he was in 2017, his first term at this point. He was at minus five points, so he's doing nearly ten points better on the average.

And more than that, as I mentioned, it's not just the CBS News poll. It's the Ipsos poll. It's the Gallup poll. It's the Pew poll. All of these polls have him in better shape than those respective polls had him at this point back in 2017. So the bottom line is no matter where you look, Donald Trump is more popular than he was eight years ago at this point in his first term and he's on the positive side of the ledger versus the negative side of the zero point line as he was back in 2017.

DEAN: And how rare is it that Trump's in this positive territory when it comes to his approval rating?

ENTEN: Yeah, you know, I remember Donald Trump's first term and it just seemed every single day Donald Trump was in the negative territory. And it turns out it was pretty much every single day of his first term. Positive net approval rating for Donald Trump, again, using the aggregate of the polls. Look at this, in his entire first term, just 11 days. Just 11 days was he on the positive side of the ledger. Compare that so far, every single day, all 20 days so far, he has been on the positive side of the ledger.

So he has nearly doubled up the number of days in which he has a positive net approval rating from his first term and we're only 20 days in. Every single day, Donald Trump has been in positive territory compared to just 11 days during his first term. The bottom line is no matter which poll you look at, no matter what way you look at it, simply put, Americans like the job that Donald Trump is doing significantly more this time around than they did in his first term when he just had 11 days in which he had a positive net approval rating compared to already nearly three weeks so far, Jessica.

DEAN: That is pretty incredible to compare those two. So break this down then. Why -- do you have any idea why more Americans are approving of his job -- of the way he's doing his job this time around?

ENTEN: Yeah, you know, of course, Donald Trump won the 2016 election. He won the 2024 election. But when you went into his first term, there were a lot of folks who simply put did not think that Donald Trump was doing what he promised Back in April of 2017, it was just 46 percent. Compare that to 70 percent so far. So a big reason why Donald Trump is significantly more popular now than he was at this point his first term is because simply put the American people believe he is fulfilling his campaign promises in a way that they did not believe he was doing, believed he was getting off on the wrong track back in 2017.

They believe he's following his campaign promises this time around and that is I believe a big reason why so many more Americans are proving of the job that he's doing compared to his first term at this point.

DEAN: And the president is there in New Orleans. He's going to attend the Super Bowl tonight, the first sitting president to do so. Obviously, Americans have very strong preferences on who they want to win the Super Bowl. What did you find on that?

ENTEN: Yeah, I love looking at this poll data. Sometimes we do the politics stuff, but I really love the sports stuff, the fun stuff there. I say, although I find politics to be fun as well. The team America prefers to win. Well, remember, the Kansas City Chiefs were involved in the Super Bowl two years ago. And of course, the American people preferred the Chiefs to win. Last year, the American people wanted the Chiefs to win, but this year the American people do not want the Chiefs to win.

They want the Philadelphia Eagles to win which I think maybe a sign of a little fatigue when it comes to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

DEAN: Yeah. And so tell us more about that. Did you find any data on that?

ENTEN: Yeah. Okay. You know, a lot of folks ask me who do I want to win the Super Bowl? And you know what the honest to God truth is? I like to quote Steven A. Smith here. We don't care. I don't care. Who the heck cares? Don't care who wins the Super Bowl.

[17:35:00]

In 2023, it was 43 percent. It jumped up to 47 percent last year. And this year, the majority of Americans simply put, don't care who wins the Super Bowl. I am one of -- we don't care, Jessica. We don't care.

DEAN: But you know what I think you might care about is this puppy bowl that you are apparently a part of today.

ENTEN: Ah, there I am. Oh, there's Cody. There's Cody, my childhood dog who stole my Twitter avatar. My heart is forever his. I love doing that segment. It was a lot of fun. And Cody will always be in my heart, Jessica.

DEAN: That's very sweet. I have to note, though, Harry, you were very dressed up, suited up for that hit. This is a more relaxed Harry. We're getting the real Harry on this show.

ENTEN: You're getting the real Harry. You always get the real Harry, Jessica. Although I like to say, I have a weekday Harry and a weekend Harry.

DEAN: Yeah, and we get the weekend, Harry, and we're all better for it. All right. Thank you so much. Enjoy the Super Bowl. We appreciate it, Harry Enten.

ENTEN: You as well, Jessica. Thank you.

DEAN: All right. We'll be right back.

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[17:40:00]

DEAN: Another independent agency is the new target of the Trump administration sweeping cuts. This time it is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and it comes after the White House budget director ordered employees to stop virtually all their work. It's just days after Russell Vought was confirmed by the Senate as OMB director. As CNN's Brian Todd reports, Vaught has raised some alarm for his ties to Project 2025.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He doesn't have the flash of Elon Musk, but 48-year-old Russell Vought could soon be upending the workings of the U.S. government every bit as much as Musk has.

JOHN BRESNAHAN, CO-FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Very controversial figure, very aggressive on the power of the executive branch, on the power of the presidency.

TODD (voice-over): Vought, President Trump's pick to head the Office of Management and Budget, is cast by top Democrats as a dangerous and destructive choice to lead that agency.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Russell Vought wants to cast chaos across America.

TODD (voice-over): But to many Republicans and Trump loyalists in particular, Vought is just the person to slash the ranks of a bloated bureaucracy and to grab some key powers from Congress and hand them to the President.

RUSSELL VOUGHT, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF THE MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: I do believe that there are bureaucracies that are weaponized against the American people.

TODD (voice-over): Vought served as OMB director at the end of the first Trump administration, but it was his work when Trump was out of office that's drawn the ire of Democrats. Vought wrote a key chapter of Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint for Trump's second term that would impose an ultra-conservative social agenda and enhance Trump's power.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: In that chapter, he wrote a lot about how he believed that the president has really expansive authority, that the president can do almost anything that the president wants to do.

TODD (voice-over): Specifically, Vought wants to hand more of the government's purse strings over to the president's control, for the Trump administration to not have to spend the money that Congress tells it to.

BARRON-LOPEZ: They believe that the president has the power to stop payments and to redirect money how they see fit.

TODD (voice-over): Last year, in a hotel suite, Vought spoke to two men who he thought were relatives of a wealthy conservative donor. They turned out to be with a British nonprofit journalistic outlet and were secretly recording him. He spoke about his behind-the-scenes efforts to plan Trump's second term.

VOUGHT: I want to be the person who crushes the deep state. I think there's a lot of different ways to do that.

TODD (voice-over): During the campaign, Trump repeatedly disavowed any connection to Project 2025.

TRUMP: Project 2025, I've said a hundred times, I know nothing about it, I had nothing to do.

TODD (voice-over): But a CNN analysis of Trump's executive orders from his first week in office found more than two-thirds of those orders reflected proposals outlined by Project 2025, including his orders to crack down on illegal immigration, to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and to undo environmental restrictions on oil and gas exploration.

BRESNAHAN: The blueprint was there inside Project 2025, no matter what Trump tried to say, and we're seeing it via his executive orders and some of the actions they're taking.

TODD (on camera): There are at least a couple of issues where President Trump has actually gone against what Project 2025 recommended. President Trump ordered a pause on the ban on TikTok in the U.S., a ban that Project 2025 was strongly in favor of. Project 2025 had also pushed for the administration to reverse federal approval of abortion pills. Trump recently said he was unlikely to limit access to those pills. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

DEAN: Brian, thank you. From the color of the Gatorade bath to whether Travis Kelsey will propose to Taylor Swift, the novelty bets this Super Bowl Sunday are all over the place. We'll talk about them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:00]

DEAN: Super Bowl Sunday officially here, kickoff very close to now. Just moments ago, President Trump arrived at Caesar Superdome for the big game. He met with victims, family members, and first responders from the New Year's Day terror attack there in New Orleans and then he met with them there at that stadium. He's going to be the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. Thousands of people right now filling the stadium to watch the Eagles take on the Chief. CNN's Coy Wire is there. Let's check in with him.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hello Jessica, welcome to New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl 59, a rematch from the Super Bowl two seasons ago between these two teams. Can the Eagles get revenge or will the Chiefs pull off that first ever three-peat Super Bowl champion? Now listen, Patrick Mahomes is their star quarterback. He leads the way. He recently had his third child, his baby daughter, Golden. She'll be here her first football game, seeing that in action. So he has added motivation and inspiration.

His head coach, Andy Reid, says that of all the stars that he has coached, none other is like Patrick Mahomes. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY REID, HEAD COACH, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: I've tried not to compare him. I've been blessed to have been around some great ones. Listen, you can take a little piece out of every guy and say he's kind of like this guy, he's kind of like that guy, but he's really rewriting it for himself.

[17:50:05]

It's really what makes him unique is that he does so many things so well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: If Mahomes can pull off this win today, it would be four Super Bowl titles in his seventh season as a starter. It's incredible. Now, if the Eagles are going to get it done, yes, it will be because of Jalen Hurts and their defense, but also Saquon Barkley. The all-world running back had one of the best seasons we've ever seen from a running back in the NFL. And the teammates that I talked to, they love him because as big of a star as he is, he still remains humble and hungry. Listen to Saquon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAQUON BARKLEY, RUNNING BACK, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: You don't rush for 2,000 yards by accident and you don't do it by yourself. That's why I love this sport. It's the ultimate team sport. And I have the best offensive line in the league and you can make an argument, one of the best offensive lines ever and I argue with you that all day, because I firmly believe that, I stand on that. And that's why I go to the guys every single game, let them know that you guys are the best in the world. So whatever we call, you guys do your job and I'll go out there and try to make the best plays I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, as is Saquon Barkley do get any added motivation to get his first ever Super Bowl title, today is his birthday. So we'll see him streaking down that field today, not because he's in his birthday suit, just running all over the place trying to get a Super Bowl win for Philly and a rematch revenge game here against these Chiefs.

DEAN: All right, Coy Wire, thank you so much. And from the winning score to the color of Kendrick Lamar's shoes during the halftime show, a lot of fans placing bets on anything, everything at the Super Bowl. Joining us now, Dustin Saracini, a senior analyst and betting analyst host at Oddspedia. Dustin, good to have you. I want to start first with just how much money people are expecting to spend betting tonight?

DUSTIN SARACINI, SENIOR ANALYST & BETTING ANALYST HOST, ODDSPEDIA: Well, thanks for having me, Jessica. And it's honestly upwards to about $1.39 billion. I mean, KC opened as 1.5 favorites. They've moved to one at some sports books, so not much has changed in terms of the odds and the lines. And bettors are seemingly split so far. I mean, in just under an hour until kickoff, which you usually don't see, you know, 51 percent of bets are with the Eagles at plus one, 49 percent of tickets are with the Chiefs.

We have some huge bets coming in. We have $800,000 bet with the Eagles. We have a $300,000 bet on the Chiefs. So the public is making a lot of plays. The professionals are making a lot of plays in what should be an incredible Super Bowl.

DEAN: Yeah, and so what are some of the most popular bets?

SARACINI: Oh, there is a ton. I mean, anytime touchdown scores for Saquon Barkley is the most bet handled right now. I mean, you have pass from Mahomes over five and a half rushing attempts. Saquon Barkley again over 112 rushing yards. Like I said, millions of dollars are being spent and bet on this game tonight. There's a lot of tickets going out there, but yes, a lot of the people out there, the public are loving Saquon Barkley tonight.

DEAN: Okay. And then look, I -- it can get pretty niche in terms of the bets. What are some of the crazier ones?

SARACINI: I mean, we talked about the numbers betting tonight and knowing you could bet on absolutely anything for the Super Bowl. I mean, the sheer volume of markets you set it is absolutely ridiculous. You can bet on the coin toss, you can bet on the national anthem, halftime show picks like what color Kendrick Lamar's bandana will be, what type of shoes he'll wear. You can even bet on the color of Gatorade being poured on the winning coach.

And you said it again, Travis Kelsey to propose to Taylor Swift after the game. Heck, you can even bet on whether or not Donna Kelsey, Travis's mom will show cleavage tonight. So it's just insane. The player props are out there, the novelty props are out there, and it's nothing short of spectacular

DEAN: It's insane indeed. That is so -- yeah, it's quite a listing you got going. Okay, what about live betting how many people you expect to participate on that and what's the appeal to that over betting in advance?

SARACINI: Yeah, live betting is crazy because if the Eagles go down and score really fast, you know you can get -- and if you love the Chiefs, you can get the Chiefs at some great value. The live betting numbers for the Super Bowl are supposed to be 15 to 20 percent of the entire Super Bowl handle. So we'll have a ton of live bets this year. That's up from around 5 percent last year. That's thanks in large part to a lot of recreational bettors. So like I said, over an estimated $1.39 billion are going to be exchanged on just this one game and live betting numbers are a big part of that.

DEAN: And I think we have to ask, who do you -- who are you betting on to win?

SARACINI: Oh my god, I'm gonna go with the Chiefs. I mean, I absolutely love the Chiefs. They've made me and a lot of bettors some good chunk of change this year. Andy Reid is just a true magician out there. I mean, he's 17-3 in the playoffs with Mahomes. Steve Spagnuolo, he's one of the best defensive coordinators in the game. Him versus Jalen Hurts is going to be a lot of fun to watch tonight.

The Chiefs are no strangers to one score games either. They're 12-0 in those situations with Mahomes leading the charge. And on the other side, Vic Fangio, he's the Eagles defensive coordinator. His defense is against Mahomes. They played each other eight times.

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He's 0 and 8 against Mahomes tonight, 2 and 6 against the spread. So the intangibles are with the Chiefs tonight, so I'm gonna have to ride with them on the money line. Go Chiefs.

DEAN: All right, Dustin, thanks so much. Have fun tonight.

DARACINI: Thank you. Thank you -- you as well. Have a good one.

DEAN: Thank you. As Elon Musk's DOGE upends federal agencies, employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received an e- mail saying its D.C. headquarters will be closed this week and what this could mean for all Americans. We're going to talk about that next. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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