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Hamas Threatens To Delay Hostage Release; Trump Slaps 25 Percent Tariff On Steel, Aluminum Imports; Trump Confirms Special Envoy Kellogg Will Soon Visit Ukraine; Greenlanders Speak Out Over Trump's Plans. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 11, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: From an already devastated Gaza where tens of thousands of people have been killed, a warning from Donald Trump, all hell could break loose. Hello, I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN Newsroom.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPDONDENT: The most significant threat to this cease fire agreement thus far, but it is a threat for now.
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VAUSE: The threat means a fragile cease fire now hanging in the balance as Hamas delays the next hostage release.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is the beginning of making America rich again.
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VAUSE: Big promises from Donald Trump and his new tariffs, but experts disagree, warning the tariffs could fuel inflation and cost American jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't to be an American.
UNDIENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should I?
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: And the people of Greenland not only opposed to Donald Trump's plans to buy their homeland, but also pushing for independence from Denmark.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Nori fragile Gaza cease fire is now hanging in the balance after Hamas accused Israel of serious violations and announced the next release of Israeli hostages scheduled for Saturday will be delayed.
Hamas says the Israeli military has opened fire on Palestinian civilians returning to their homes in the north of the territory, also saying Israel is refusing to allow certain humanitarian supplies like tents into Gaza.
Israel's defense minister says the announcement by Hamas in itself is a violation of the ceasefire deal and has ordered troops to the highest level of readiness in the south. U.S. president also weighing in on the threat by Hamas to delay the release of hostages.
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TRUMP: I'd say they ought to be returned by 12 o'clock on Saturday. And if they're not returned, all of them, not in drips and drabs, not 2 and 1 and 3 and 4 and 2, Saturday at 12 o'clock and after that I would say all hell is going to break out and I don't think they're going to do it.
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VAUSE: Meantime, in Tel Aviv, calls are growing louder for all remaining hostages to be released with protesters accusing the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to sabotage the deal. For the very latest details here, CNN's Jeremy diamond reporting in from Tel Aviv.
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DIAMOND: Hamas is threatening to delay the release of the next three Israeli hostages this coming Saturday over what it says are a series of violations of this cease fire agreement by Israel. Not only do they say that Israeli forces have fired on Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, they also accuse Israel of obstructing the entry of shelter equipment, including tents, but also these prefabricated homes that Hamas says were supposed to have entered Gaza by now, but have not.
The Israeli government hasn't responded to those specific ceasefire violence violation allegations. But we do know that this certainly seems to represent the most significant threat to this ceasefire agreement thus far. But it is a threat for now.
And Hamas is making clear that they have issued this threat five days ahead of this planned release in order to give the mediators, quote, sufficient time to pressure Israel to get in line with the ceasefire agreement. And they say that leaves the door open to this Saturday hostage release actually going forward as planned.
But this is already a very delicate time in the, in Israel. The public consciousness here has really been seared with the images of those three emaciated hostages who emerged on Saturday after 16 months of captivity. It's really driven a sense of urgency about the fate of the remaining hostages. And then in Gaza, of course, there is in the background, President Trump's proposal to permanently displace more than 2 million Palestinians who live there and for the United States to take ownership of it.
And all of that, of course, puts these ceasefire negotiations with added stakes and in a very delicate position. Now, in response, the Israeli defense minister says that he's putting Israeli troops on their highest alert to prepare for, quote, any possible scenario in Gaza.
The question now is how will the Israeli government respond to all of this? We know that the Israeli prime minister is set to meet with his security cabinet.
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VAUSE: Live now to Geneva and H.A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. Thank you for being with us.
H.A. HELLYER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE FELLOW, ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE: Thank you. Good morning.
VAUSE: Good morning. Now, the U.S. president believes Hamas is delaying the next hostage release not because of possible Israeli violations of the ceasefire, but rather the health of the Israelis still being held in Gaza. Here's Donald Trump. Listen to this.
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TRUMP: I looked at the hostages that came in, and they're emaciated. It looked like something out of the 1930s. It's an absolute disgrace. And I think they saw the way the world viewed it, and they're looking for a reason not to send more because they're all. You take a look at that. It looks like it was -- it looked like it was a concentration camp, which is essentially it was. Looks like they came out of the Holocaust.
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VAUSE: Notably, last year or just a few months ago, a U.N. report found 133 Palestinians in Gaza were in the catastrophe phase. Catastrophe phase of food insecurity. 664,000 were in the emergency phase. And a group of volunteer health workers from the U.S. believes the death toll from the famine in Gaza is in the tens of thousands.
The food shortages have impacted everyone, regardless of who that person might be. So in that context, is Hamas really concerned about bad PR caused by images of emaciated Israeli hostages?
HELLYER: Thank you for having me on your program. A few things first, of course, it's terrible that anybody looks like that. But as you noted, when it comes to Gaza, the level of famine and starvation has been extreme. And if you look carefully at the reports over the last few days, what was clearly stated is that the hostages, these particular hostages, were kept in one area and then had to be moved because of Israeli bombing and shelling.
Also, when we talk about the appearance of prisoners and hostages being released as a result of the conditions of their captivity, we should also keep in mind that there scores more that we don't look at, that we don't see, you know, plastered on our screens and being focused on in this fashion. And we're talking about Palestinians that are being detained by the Israelis.
I'm not saying that, you know, if this happens, then this is okay. I'm saying it's all bad. It's all really terrible. And the focus should be on everybody and all of those scenes should be on our screens because no life ought to be treated with more worth than another.
Also, when it comes to the ceasefire, if you allow me, the violations taking place, it doesn't just start there, OK? Before the ceasefire was even signed, Netanyahu and his government were making it very clear they didn't want to go ahead with phase two of the ceasefire.
On the contrary, Head Minister Ben-Gvir leave the government (INAUDIBLE) is going to stay, but is assuming that they're going to go back to war within phase one, not get to phase two. And this is before we've even signed the ceasefire.
Netanyahu has been reported in the Israeli press as instructing his cabinet not to talk about the ceasefire deal as a deal, but to talk about it as an outline of, as a framework, not a deal, not an agreement. And the encouragement I think that has been given to the Israeli far right about designs on Gaza because of this talk about Riviera, excuse me, in Gaza and the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza permanently, not, you know, even temporarily, but permanently.
And also the killing of more than two dozen Palestinians in Gaza. We're not talking about the West Bank, where of course many more have been killed by Israeli forces, but in Gaza during the ceasefire. And then finally, and I think this is quite crucial, we're talking about a ceasefire agreement that has very particular deadlines.
And during that phase one, the Israelis were obliged to start negotiating in good faith for phase two. And a delegation has been ordered to go to Doha to be a part of those discussions, but without any mandate and not actually negotiate on very much at all.
And again, I'm not telling you anything that's like from the dark web or something. This is all over the Israeli media and has been talked about for weeks, yet we're now talking about a threat to the ceasefire against Hamas is saying that they're not going through these hostages in many violations that have taken place since that, since before that, since the beginning of this deal. VAUSE: What is interesting though is that the violations of the
ceasefire, as far as the Hamas is concerned is one of the points is that Israel is refusing to allow tents and other temporary housing units into Gaza. That alone may not seem to be a huge deal.
But in the context of an American president saying he wants a one way ticket for 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza never to return, that's when that refusal to allow that sort of humanitarian assistance into Gaza becomes incredibly important.
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HELLYER: Well, it just reinforces the idea, forget about Hamas because Hamas, you know, Hamas doesn't really mean many excuses to be a bad actor. But when you look across the Palestinian community, when you look across the Arab world, when you frankly look across the international community, when you have the President of the United States talking about simply moving 1.6 million people, and he said 1.6, which may indeed indicate that the death toll in Gaza is much greater than what we've been told.
But when he talks about that and he doubles down, you know, this has been going on now for a couple of weeks and talking about buying and holding on to Gaza, then, I mean, what does that tell them? It tells them that there is an incredibly short window where there will not be war on them because the American president has told the Israelis, yes, I want them to leave, too, and I want to take over Gaza and then we're going to turn into a Riviera.
I mean, this is the dream of so many in the Israeli far right. And I don't -- and I want to be clear with the viewers, this isn't a sort of Arab world versus U.S.-Israel. On the other side, this is the international community. Many of America's allies, the United Kingdom, much of the E.U., they've come out very publicly and denounced this sort of plan and including, by the way, the state that Israel claims it really wants to normalize with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has utterly condemned this plan and said, you know, if you want normalization, then there needs to be a Palestinian state. And the Israelis just simply aren't having any of it. So if we're talking about good faith negotiations, one side is refusing to even call it a deal. All right. They insist on an outline and they've been very clear from the get go that they're simply not serious about it.
VAUSE: Yes, H.A. Hellyer, seem as if the Israelis are heading towards what could be a resumption of fighting in Gaza. And they have been looking for a reason for that that could be what they have now with this delay by Hamas. We'll see. But thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate you getting up early. Thank you.
HELLYER: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: Well, Donald Trump has significantly escalated his tariff war. A new blanket 25 percent tariff on all imported steel and aluminum without any exceptions or exemptions. The tariffs are aimed primarily at China, the world's largest steel producer. Less than 2 percent of steel imported by the U.S. comes directly from China.
But in recent years, Chinese steelmakers have used Mexico and other countries as a backdoor to the U.S. market, circumventing tariffs which were announced during President Trump's first term. Canada, Mexico and Brazil will be hardest hit by tariffs announced Monday. The U.S. buys almost $10 billion worth of steel and iron every year from Canada, more than any other country. Canada's industry minister says the action taken by the Trump administration Monday is totally unjustified.
And earlier I spoke with David Lynch, a financial reporter covering trade and global economics for the Washington Post. I asked him if there's any reason why these new tariffs might result in a different outcome from those which were imposed by Donald Trump in his first term.
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DAVID LYNCH, GLOBAL ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: I think the administration's argument is that unlike the last time, these will be more comprehensive and they will close what the president and his advisers see as loopholes, exemptions, exclusions that have allowed Chinese steel to continue entering the U.S. market via Canada, Mexico and other countries.
Now, of course, what we saw the last time was, as you say, marginal benefits for the steel producers. But there are a lot more Americans, 10 times as many Americans who work in steel using industries like the auto sector, who may end up being hurt by this.
The other factor to consider is the retaliation that's inevitable from our trading partners. We saw that the last time. The European Union, just within the past 24 hours, has promised to retaliate against these measures. Canada is certain to do the same. Mexico as well. And so what -- what we're likely to see going forward is another form of the trade wars that we saw back in the 2018-2020 era.
VAUSE: And on Monday, the president outlined the overall goal for his tariff trade policy when he was answering a number of questions from reporters like this one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say to consumers who are worried about prices?
TRUMP: Oh, I don't think you're going to know. You're going to ultimately have a price reduction because they're going to make their steel here. There's not going to be any tariff. These foreign companies will move to the United States, will make their steel and aluminum in the United States. Ultimately, it'll be cheaper.
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VAUSE: I think what the President wants, obviously is that manufacturing jobs to return to the U.S. and that's what the tariffs he hopes will do. But tariffs alone seem like a bit like a one armed man clapping. And even if those jobs actually do return, does that mean there'll be lower prices for consumers?
LYNCH: Well, I think the President's view here is a minority view. I think most economists would tell you that certainly in the near term and the medium-term inflation, you're going to see a price increase. That's going to start with the businesses and the manufacturers that use steel and aluminum. The whole point of tariffs is to raise the cost of foreign made goods to discourage Americans from buying them. When you do that, when you make foreign steel and aluminum more expensive, the domestic producers are able to raise their prices as well because the competition isn't as tough.
And so you end up with higher prices across the board. Those inputs factor into other products like cars and appliances and airplanes and hand tools and any number of products that use those metals that are made of those metals.
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VAUSE: When we come back, the push for peace talks to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Both sides talking publicly about their must haves before any negotiations begin.
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VAUSE: U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg is expected to visit Ukraine next week. A source in the Ukrainian government tells CNN the trip is set for February 20th. That's after the Munich Security Conference this coming weekend where Kellogg says he plans to discuss with allies peace plans for Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he also plans to meet U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at that Munich conference. Russia's deputy foreign minister says any peace negotiations with Ukraine must include Moscow's indisputable ownership of annexed Ukrainian regions.
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SERGEI RYABKOV, RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Undoubtedly, Ukraine joining NATO is one of the root causes of the special military operation. In terms of Kursk, our president has said it all. This is an issue that is so obvious to everyone, even to those who live outside of Russia.
I want to say that the certain cunning with which our Western opponents, mainly the U.S. primarily discuss these topics is also quite understandable at the moment.
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VAUSE: Those demands unlikely to sit well with Ukrainians who've long demanded Russian forces withdraw from all Ukrainian territory seized by Russia, including Crimea. And then there's the Donald Trump factor. The new U.S. president has been pushing both sides to at least begin peace talks. Here's CNN's Nick Paton Walsh with the view not far from the Ukrainian front line.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sound they long for here of peace, of normal.
INESA, SLOVYANSK RESIDENT: I just want it to stop. Stop the bombing. There's no future now. We don't see it. Who does? Do you see it?
WALSH (voice-over): Ten years ago, the war began here in an eastern town like this, Slovyansk. We were there to see ceasefires fall apart, or used by Russian separatists to just take more ground, a memory and distrust that endures.
WALSH: Rarely do they move further into the town or just stay in this position. That Russian fueled unrest. Now, a decade later, transformed into an ugly conflict that's now entering into its fourth year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait, let's lock at the tree again.
WALSH (voice-over): Hundreds of dead or injured daily. But this drone war can feel here like high stakes gaming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems they're in trench. Got it "Lucky Strike". Let's strike it one more time. Fly check it and strike the dugouts. One wounded is crawling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was that successful?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We struck the enemy. There are bushes, he will try one more time.
WALSH (voice-over): For those below a petrifying scramble in the frozen mud, the tiny buzz of death above.
WALSH: This very remote world of chat groups and trunk cameras so removed from the absolute horror what's going down the ground, both sides torn apart and trench warfare not been seen for a century in some places.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The enemy is beyond the river.
WALSH (voice-over): Volodymyr is a week or so shy of his decade anniversary fighting Russia, joining in 2015 when Moscow sees the nearby town of Domodeva (ph) literally during a ceasefire, you better really mean it if you talk peace here.
VOLODYMYR SABLYN, BATTALION COMMANDER, 66TH MECHANIZED BRIGADE: The conflict was frozen, and it only led to a full-scale war. The nearby town of the bolt of a literally during a ceasefire now. It will only get worse for us. Because the enemy will restore itself from new military units again regroup and attack again.
WALSH (voice-over): So many Ukrainians suggesting now that if NATO wants the war to stop, it should put its troops between them and the Russians as peacekeepers. SABLYN: It would be a real guarantee of security in Ukraine. Because Russia, no matter how much they say that they are not afraid of anyone. They are afraid of America and NATO as a whole.
WALSH (voice-over): One certainty, as we head out to see the front is this same drone setup and carnage is being mimicked by the Russians not far away.
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Dusk can bring a brief break in Russian drones in the skies, but this red dot means there's one above us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to go.
WALSH (voice-over): So much changes fast in this war, but the shelling seems like it could go on forever.
WALSH: Massive guns hiding from tiny, $500 machines here, extraordinary change.
WALSH (voice-over): Little geo-politics here, just practical skepticism and hard numbers.
WALSH: Do you think there could be a ceasefire here that could last?
VIKTOR, 66TH MECHANIZED BRIGADE: What percentage for the implementation of a ceasefire? About 30 percent. Because of the situation on the front it doesn't look like there will be a truce. It's very hard.
ANDRIY, 66TH MECHANIZED BRIGADE: It's about 40 percent. The other side is winning, taking territory. And we by and large have nothing to say.
WALSH (voice-over): Just down the road, the Russians are coming yet again. But the prize here is only victory itself. The rest is ruins.
WALSH: Here it is the sort of Soviet prize in Lyman of the railway hub here a place that the Russians took that they were kicked out of by the Ukrainians, and are now closing in on again, just a symbol of the relentlessness of this war.
WALSH (voice-over): Larysa has never left, never will.
LARYSA, LYMAN RESIDENT: Here I ran barefoot. There I swam in the river. I'm 72-years-old. I don't want to leave. My three brothers are buried here all my aunts, uncles, dad, mum. I can't leave. I can't.
We've been hit 19 times today, 19 times since the morning. My husband is counting and I'm taking sleeping pills. Nobody's is going to solve this. Only Putin will if he says that's enough, I've already killed so many people.
WALSH (voice-over): It's only for Putin.
Far back Ukraine is making the bare minimum preparations for a worst case scenario. They've always needed the world's help to stave off disaster. Just now, hope it doesn't come disguised as peace.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Lyman, Ukraine.
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VAUSE: In a moment on CNN, a Donald Trump tariff do over leaving major steel producing countries to decide how best to respond. In a moment, reaction from Canada and Australia.
Also ahead, how will the Trump tariffs impact an already struggling Chinese economy awash in debt, falling demand and with a massive oversupply of housing?
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VAUSE: The biggest exporter of steel to the United States, Canada, says Donald Trump's new 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum is totally unjustified. And the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, claims the White House is considering an exemption for Australian steel even though Donald Trump made clear Monday there would be no exemptions while adding the tariffs are a big deal and would make America rich again.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't want it to hurt other countries, but they've been taking advantage of us for years and years and years, and they've charged us tariffs. Most of them have charged us -- almost everyone, I would say almost without exception. They've charged us and we haven't charged them.
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VAUSE: As for any tariff negotiations with China, the U.S. President says he's in no rush. But he adds he has spoken with Chinese president Xi Jinping since taking office last month. Donald Trump says he likes President Xi a lot and speaks to his people all the time.
The U.S. announced 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this month, but has since postponed 25 percent duties on products from Canada and Mexico.
China responded with a broad range of tariffs on American goods, including coal, liquefied natural gas, farm equipment and some vehicles.
Logan Wright is joining us now. He's a partner at the research firm Rhodium Group and leads the firms China market research. Good to see you.
LOGAN WRIGHT, PARTNER, RHODIUM GROUP: Hi, John. Good to be with you.
VAUSE: Ok, so if there's one country which seems to be in the direct line of fire for Donald Trump's tariff war, it's China. Here's the U.S. President speaking before the Super Bowl on the weekend.
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TRUMP: I think that China is so economic. It's so trade based and look, Biden allowed China to go crazy. And we have a deficit with China of over $1 trillion a year. Can you believe it?
But with all of that said, China needs us because they take out so much money out of the United States.
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VAUSE: Ok. China's trade surplus with the U.S. Is probably a good place to begin with. For a start, last year it was just shy of $300 billion, down from the previous year, and well short of the record, which was set in 2018 of more than $400 billion.
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VAUSE: The trillion-dollar global surplus is being driven in part by a fall in imports, which seems to indicate the surplus is both a sign of economic strength as well as economic weakness and problems domestically.
WRIGHT: That's exactly right. The real issue is the weakness in China's domestic demand. Over the last three years, nothing has replaced the property sector or local government infrastructure investment as drivers of demand. And as a result, China remains an investment-led economy.
And when you are the world's largest investment-led economy, China is about 28 percent of global investment, you can only really expand relative to the rest of the world by displacing others' investment, which is one reason that the surplus has expanded so much, and why more countries are more and more concerned about Chinese excess capacity and being exported abroad.
VAUSE: Yes. For more than two decades, China's economic growth has essentially been driven by government investment, especially real estate, and especially by the state-owned banks.
A former Chinese government official said last year about the property boom. He asked, "How many vacant homes are there now? Each expert gives a different number, with the most extreme believing the current number of vacant homes are enough for 3 billion people," double the size of the population of China.
And all that construction for the 3 billion homes, which to be fair, is at the top end of the estimate, has surged this fuel in debt.
So you've got the real estate problems, you've got the debt problems. You've also got an aging population. You've got huge environmental problems. You put all these things together and the outlook for China isn't so good right now.
What's the potential impact of a trade war with the U.S. on top of that?
WRIGHT: Yes. On the one hand, I mean John, you're describing that accurately. I think that's a bit larger in terms of the property overhang than we would have expected. But it's absolutely true that China has built way too much housing in interior cities that aren't really going to see any fundamental, you know, fundamental new population growth. So a lot of that investment is going to be -- need to be written down.
And just as you say, the demographic headwinds are known, there are very few countries that have had declining working age populations over a long period of time and grown it at rapid rates.
So China is more dependent than ever on exports. They are, however, less dependent upon exports to any individual country at the same time. So it does require sort of a more multilateral response to China's exports if there's actually going to be a change in the overall pattern of, you know, of their, their growth model.
So, China is vulnerable to, you know, tariffs and trade differences from -- from other -- from other countries, including the United States. And at the same time, the problems that are emerging within China's domestic economy mean that it's very difficult to see how those imbalances are ever resolved without a significant increase in Chinese domestic demand.
Because even if China can offset the pressure from tariffs, even if China can sort of extend trade with the rest of the world for another couple of years, that doesn't make the political pressure or the response to Chinese -- the political opposition to Chinese imports in all around the world go away anytime soon. And that's really the structural problem that Beijing is confronting at this point.
VAUSE: And their response from Beijing has been fairly consistent when it comes to any tariffs, any kind of trade war.
Here's the spokesperson for the foreign ministry speaking a few weeks ago.
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MAO NING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: On this issue, we have repeatedly expressed China's position. We always believe that there are no winners in trade wars and tariffs tit for tat. China has always firmly safeguarded its national interests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ultimately, though, will China's economic problems domestically play into their response to U.S. tariffs in a way that what -- it could mean a more aggressive approach in a potential trade war? Or will it mean Beijing is more inclined to try and negotiate with the United States?
WRIGHT: I think Beijing is more inclined to try to negotiate. and I think they'll try to take opportunities to pick up where they think that there are, you know, U.S. Assets on the table to try to get into a negotiation and to try to slow the pattern of escalation.
But like I said the -- you know, the problems that China is facing are really structural within their domestic economy. There's no easy solution to any of this.
And so in that context, you know, you could see China take steps like using export controls or, you know, using, you know, other restrictions where they can take advantage of their position within global manufacturing supply chains.
Those are, you know, maybe temporarily effective, but they become self-defeating in the long term for Beijing because that just makes -- increases the potential for others to other countries to want to reduce their reliance upon Chinese supply chains.
So probably the best -- most of Beijing's efforts will be designed to try to enter a negotiation and extend it.
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VAUSE: Logan Wright, good to see you. Thank you for your time, sir.
WRIGHT: Thanks, John.
VAUSE: Right now, Donald Trump is effectively reshaping global trade. He says tariffs are a way of evening the playing field. But in reality his tariffs, especially on Canadian imports, will see price increases for a range of consumer products.
So for more on the impact of tariffs on Canada, here's CNN's Paula Newton reporting in from Ontario.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's on this factory floor in Canada that Donald Trump's demands for fair trade are being tested.
What are these over here?
ROB WILDEBOER, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, MARTINREA: For the Silverado.
NEWTON: These are parts for the Silverado, a GM truck made in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. And they're made by Martinrea --
WILDEBOER: These are thousand-ton, tamping (ph) presses.
NEWTON: -- global auto parts supplier with thousands of workers in all three countries.
Trump tariffs would strike at the very heart of this business and its workers in North America, says executive chairman, Rob Wildeboer.
President Trump would say why Mexico, why Canada? Why can't you just make it all in the U.S.?
WILDEBOER: I don't know anyone in our company that wants tariffs between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico because we work very well as a unit.
We take care of our people everywhere. We make great parts in every jurisdiction and quite frankly, we benefit from that.
We've got some great plants in Mexico, in the United States and in Canada.
NEWTON: Do you believe a U.S.-made car then would be more expensive?
WILDEBOER: Yes. For sure. For sure.
NEWTON: That's the math, he says. A calculation made every day here as the threat of tariffs hang over one of the most prized manufacturing industries on the continent.
Canada's auto industry directly employs at least 130,000 people in dozens of towns and cities, including Martinrea's facility in Vaughan, Ontario just outside of Toronto.
They depend on these stable jobs, as do workers at this Martinrea facility in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
WILDEBOER: I'll put my U.S. hat on, right, because we are an American supplier, we're a Canadian supplier, we're a Mexican supplier. But we have twice as many people in the United States as we do in Canada.
And in a number of communities, we're the largest employer. So Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Jonesville, Michigan and others, we're a big -- we're a big deal. We're a big deal locally. We take care of a lot of people.
And I would say a lot of those people probably. voted for President Trump. They liked his message of lower inflation, more jobs, stronger economy.
But with the tariffs and so forth, they're getting higher inflation, less jobs, weaker economy.
NEWTON: Despite that pitch, even employees here know what they're up against in the Oval Office. And some told us they approve of Canada standing up to the threat.
NATIK JARIWALLA, MARTINREA EMPLOYEE: It's going to hurt anyhow. It's like either you deal it right now or in the future.
NEWTON: And it's not just Canada. Trump is challenging the very template of free trade right around the world.
The European Union can see what's coming their way. It has one of the largest trade deficits with the U.S. It too, says it will respond firmly to any tariffs.
But it is Trump's tough talk about an economic takeover of Canada that cannot be reconciled.
TRUMP: What I'd like to see, Canada become our 51st state. NEWTON: It's triggered an uncommon anti-American backlash in Canada
that may have legs. Booing the U.S. anthem, boycotting American products -- all of it so far seems to have staying power.
DON PEPPER, BURLINGTON, ONTARIO RESIDENT: Well, I think it's ridiculous. We've been friends for years, traded for years. And then all of a sudden this happens.
NEWTON: For Martinrea's executives and its North American workers, tariffs could still be a reality within weeks, putting at risk a profitable business and good paying jobs in the U.S. and beyond.
They are asking President Trump, why mess with that?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The Trump administration's overhaul of the federal government is facing more legal challenges. A deadline for federal workers to accept a buyout offer from the White House has been extended again as the federal court decides if those offers are legal in the first place.
The buyouts are a key part of the administration's goal of eliminating hundreds of thousands of government jobs.
And on Monday, a federal judge again told the Trump administration it cannot freeze all federal aid and loan payments. Several states sued the administration, arguing previous court orders had been ignored.
The Trump administration is claiming it's trying to cut wasteful spending.
Still to come, CNN travels to Greenland, where the people there are speaking out about Donald Trump's plans to buy the territory. Some are now pushing for independence from Denmark.
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VAUSE: What first sounded like an off the wall suggestion will now be the focus of a U.S. Senate Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Officially, the committee will examine the strategic significance of Greenland to the American economy and national security. Even though the people of Greenland have made it abundantly clear, "No, thanks, we're not for sale. Yankees go home."
We sent Donie O'Sullivan to Greenland because we could.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUPANUK OLSEN, GREENLAND ELECTION CANDIDATE: I really want this statue gone.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Why? OLSEN: Because why should he be up there? Why isn't it a Greenlander up there?
Trump wants to buy my country, Greenland.
O'SULLIVAN: This is Qupanuk Olsen.
OLSEN: Today, Mikko (ph) and I are having whale skin.
[01:49:49]
O'SULLIVAN: She's known as Greenland's biggest influencer, and she's running in the island's upcoming elections.
She's a native Greenlander, and for her, this statue of an 18th century missionary is a daily reminder of Denmark's control of her country.
O'SULLIVAN: So you would like to be independent of Denmark?
OLSEN: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: But that doesn't mean you want to be part of the U.S.A.?
OLSEN: No. I don't -- I don't want to become a part of the U.S.A. I definitely don't.
O'SULLIVAN: You don't want to be an American?
OLSEN: No.
O'SULLIVAN: Why not?
OLSEN: Why should I? Why should we just be taken by another colonizer?
O'SULLIVAN: Native Greenlanders, or Inuits, make up almost 90 percent of Greenland's population.
O'SULLIVAN: Is all this interest in Greenland because of Trump -- is it a good thing or is it a bad thing?
OLSEN: In my opinion, it's a good thing. Because it's speeding up our independence process, so I see it as a good thing.
O'SULLIVAN: When the Nazis took over Denmark during World War II, the United States stepped in to protect Greenland.
Now the U.S. military has had a presence here on Greenland for decades. But in the capital, one of the very few signs of the United States is this -- the U.S. consulate which was reopened by President Trump in his first term in 2020.
TOM DANS, FORMER U.S. ARCTIC COMMISSIONER: Americans died for this country. In my own family, my -- my grandfather watched his -- his shipmates die. O'SULLIVAN: Another sign of the U.S. here is Tom Dans, who was appointed to the U.S. Arctic Research Commission during Trump's first presidency.
O'SULLIVAN: When Trump first brought up Greenland, people treated it like it was a joke. People thought, that's crazy. But you're saying it's not so crazy.
DANS: It's not crazy at all. Greenland, due to its geographic position, is kind of the front door for North America.
O'SULLIVAN: The U.S. is jostling with Russia and others for arctic dominance. Military bases here are prime real estate for satellite and missile detection systems.
So this is Danish navy.
OLSEN: It's the Danish navy, yes.
O'SULLIVAN: Greenland currently relies on Denmark for security and financial support.
You think Greenland can survive without -- without this? Without the support of Denmark?
(CROSSTALKING)
OLSEN: We will definitely need an agreement with another country, either with -- or still continue the agreement with Denmark, with military or go with U.S. or Canada.
O'SULLIVAN: Climate change is opening up new shipping routes in the arctic that the U.S. want to control.
The Greenlanders you've spoken to are excited about a closer relationship with the U.S.?
DANS: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, I'm talking with businessmen, investors, entrepreneurs. Tremendous things are happening.
O'SULLIVAN: And another appeal of Greenland for Trump is its many natural resources.
DANS: Fishing, tourism, mining, security, investments, logistics. The hard thing is deciding where to start first.
O'SULLIVAN: Tom Dans does not have a role in the current administration, but he did campaign for Trump in the last election, along with Greenlander Jorgen Boesen.
DANS: He's been known as Trump's son here.
Papa. Papa.
Papa.
O'SULLIVAN: I mean, maybe you could be. Yes.
Jorgen has made multiple trips to the U.S. in recent months, even campaigning for Trump in Pennsylvania.
Do you want Greenland to be part of the United States?
JORGEN BOESEN, GREENLAND RESIDENT: Not a 51 state, but best and closest ally with everything, with defense, mining, oil exploration and trade. I mean, everything.
O'SULLIVAN: Right.
BOESEN: Ok. We are here in Greenland with Don, Jr.
O'SULLIVAN: In January. Another sign of the United States here. Donald Trump Jr. arriving on the plane, dubbed Trump Force One. It's all a sign here for some that there's a lot more to come.
OLSEN: The feeling when I saw the plane was kind of excitement, but also like, should I be nervous now? And like, the realization of Trump's words are no longer just words. Now they have become the reality.
O'SULLIVAN: And Greenlanders will go to the polls here next month in an election where Donald Trump and the United States is expected to loom large, so much so that just last week, the parliament here fast- tracked new legislation -- a law banning foreign political donations.
Here, that is very much seen as something that is in response to the renewed and intense interest from the United States.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thanks to Donie O'Sullivan for that report from Greenland.
We'll be right back. You're watching CNN.
[01:54:32]
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VAUSE: Elon Musk has been busy. He's now attempting to put himself at the forefront of artificial intelligence. Tesla and SpaceX founder is leading a group of investors offering to buy the parent company of ChatGPT for nearly $100 billion.
Musk is no stranger to Sam Altman's OpenAI. He co-founded the company back in 2015, but left over disagreements on a shift from nonprofit to for-profit work. Altman posted on x, known as Twitter, which is also owned by Musk, quote "No thank you, but we'll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.
The U.S. penny, the one-cent coin might just be another victim of the Trump administration, which has ordered the U.S. mint to stop production because of cost.
Each one actually costs more than 3 cents to make. But the U.S. Constitution says only Congress has the power to coin money and regulate currency. The penny, though, has been under bipartisan scrutiny for years. Notably, its purchasing power has all but disappeared.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. My friend and colleague, Rosemary Church will be up after a very short break.
Hope to see you right back here tomorrow.
[01:57:12]
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