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Trump Imposes 25 Percent Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Imports; Hamas Threatens to Delay Planned Hostage Release; Two Winter Storms Expected to Slam U.S. this Week; Political and Business Leaders Meet in Paris for AI Summit. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they charge us, we charge them. They've been taking advantage of us for years and years and years. This is the beginning of making America rich again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are staring the death of democracy in the eyes right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump wants to buy my country, Greenland. I don't, I don't want to become a part of the U.S.A. I definitely don't want to be an American.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should I?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's be honest. When was the last time you used a penny? You see them lying on the sidewalk, people don't even pick them up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It's Tuesday, February the 11th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, where the U.S. president is firing another shot in the trade war he started this month by slapping 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S.

The tariffs mainly, albeit indirectly, target China, even though the U.S. imports very little steel straight from China. But President Trump claimed he'd be making America rich again and insisted it's all about reciprocity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to be reciprocal. So very, very -- you'll be hearing that word a lot, reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge them.

If they're at 25, we're at 25. If they're at 10, we're at 10. And if they're much higher than 25, that's where we are too.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, these are the countries that appear poised to take the biggest hit from the new U.S. tariffs. Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, China's own tariffs on nearly $14 billion of U.S. imports kicked in on Monday. They're in response to the initial tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last week. And whilst President Trump said there would be no exemptions for exceptions -- or exemptions to the new tariffs, the Australian Prime Minister suggested they may not be quite so set in stone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I presented Australia's case for an exemption and we agreed on wording to say publicly, which is that the U.S. president agreed that an exemption was under consideration in the interests of both of our countries.

We'll continue to engage quite clearly constructively, but can I say this? It was a very constructive and warm discussion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, let's go to CNN's Steven Jiang. He is live for us in Beijing. So we were talking about how the Chinese tariffs are in response to the first round of U.S. tariffs.

So would you expect to hear about another round of Chinese tariffs now?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Max, so far, Chinese officials have said very little about these latest steel tariffs, but these tariffs are likely going to cause harm and bring pain for the Chinese steel sector, because one of the longstanding complaints we have heard, not only from Washington, but from many other governments, is Chinese steel makers have been flooding the global markets with cheap products, sometimes at below cost prices, because of this country's industrial overcapacity.

Now, Beijing, of course, has always denied that and pushed back very hard. But interestingly, on Monday, the Chinese cabinet held a meeting without mentioning the term industrial overcapacity. The government said in a readout that they are going to optimize the country's industrial layouts and market supervision and phase out outdated, inefficient productions in certain sectors.

So there seemed to be this tacit acknowledgement of this problem and their attempt to address it, but it really remains to be seen if they -- if and how they are going to respond to these latest steel tariffs specifically. As you mentioned, they have responded to the previously announced 10 percent additional tariffs on Chinese imports, but even that affects only less than 9 percent of all U.S. exports into China. So there does seem to be quite a bit of a restraint on both sides at this juncture.

[04:05:02]

I think you remember Trump repeatedly threatened up to 60 percent of tariffs on Chinese imports during the campaign. Obviously, that hasn't happened.

Instead, we have heard the president repeatedly say how much he likes Chinese leader Xi Jinping and what a great personal relationship the two men have. So the Chinese obviously have noticed that and they are trying to take advantage of this personal rapport, real or perceived, at least at this juncture, trying not to unnecessarily antagonize Mr. Trump because they have learned quite a bit in terms of dealing with him from his first term.

Instead, they're focused on working out some sort of broader trade deal with Trump, especially at a time when they're still facing a lot of economic headwinds at home as well -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Steven, in Beijing, thank you so much for that.

Canada's industry minister says the latest tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are totally unjustified. CNN's Paula Newton reports from Ontario.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's on this factory floor in Canada that Donald Trump's demands for fair trade are being tested.

NEWTON: What are these over here?

ROB WILDEBOER, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, MARTINREA: For the Silverado.

NEWTON (voice-over): 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, stamping presses.

NEWTON (voice-over): -- a 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. NEWTON: 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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 (voice-over): 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)

FOSTER: The Israeli military says the oldest Israeli hostage taken on October the 7th was killed during the Hamas-led attack and his body has since been held in Gaza. His kibbutz is remembering 85-year-old Shlomo Mansour as a father, a grandfather, a true friend and the beating heart of the community.

[04:10:00]

According to the hostage and missing families forum, he's survived by his wife, five siblings, five children and 12 grandchildren.

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza appears to be on shaky ground with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of breaking the terms of the deal.

Hamas is threatening to postpone the hostage release scheduled for Saturday, accusing Israel of firing on displaced Palestinians returning to the north and not allowing all types of aid into the enclave.

Israel's defense minister now says Hamas is in violation of the agreement and he's ordering troops to be ready for the possibility of new fighting in Gaza. The U.S. president is also weighing in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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 two and one and three and four and two. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, protesters are calling for all remaining hostages to be released and accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of sabotaging the deal. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: 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 ceasefire 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 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 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 region. 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 to this, 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Later today, U.S. President Donald Trump will host the King of Jordan for talks in the White House. They might discuss Mr. Trump's repeated comments about a U.S. takeover of Gaza and the plan to relocate about 2 million Palestinians from the enclave to neighboring countries. Here's what the president told Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would the Palestinians have the right to return?

TRUMP: No, they wouldn't because they're going to have much better housing, much better -- in other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever -- it's not habitable.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: President Trump is also warning Egypt and Jordan of consequences if they don't take in Palestinian refugees. Mr. Trump's proposal is being slammed by critics as a violation of international law and it's been rejected by Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations. But it's important to note Jordan and Egypt are amongst the top recipients of U.S. military assistance.

Two new winter storms expected to bring more snow and icy conditions to parts of the U.S. with millions now on alert across the Midwest and Northeast. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the latest forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Heads up, if you're living across the mid-Atlantic and eastern seaboard, we've got the potential for a significant ice storm, especially over parts of Virginia and the Appalachian Mountains today. This will actually be a one-two punch in terms of winter storms. We have our first initial storm that'll move through and a secondary storm system that will be waiting on its heels.

So I'll get to the details in just one moment, but I want to show you some of the dialogue that the National Weather Service out of the Blacksburg, Virginia office is saying numerous power outages with this ice storm potential.

[04:15:00]

These outages could last for multiple days and travel will become nearly impossible. That timeframe, Tuesday night, that's tonight, into early Wednesday morning. So the potential for a crippling ice storm is definitely there and I'll show you why.

Here's the first initial storm system. You could see the rain-snow mix over portions of Virginia. Rain to the south, snow to the north, including Baltimore and the nation's capital.

This system quickly exit, but it's already done its damage. But look what's developing behind it, a secondary storm system that will impact basically the same locations and also produce a swath of snowfall from Detroit to Chicago. So here's a look at the overall rain and snow accumulation.

You could pick up several inches of snowfall into let's say the state of Michigan, stretching into portions of the upper Midwest. Look at the rainfall potential though to the deep south. This is important to note that excessive rain could lead to flash flooding today and tomorrow for places like Jackson, Mississippi into Birmingham, Alabama, and then that shifts to the southeast near Atlanta, Georgia tomorrow afternoon.

Behind it, temperatures are going to drop and we're talking 25 to 40 degrees below where they should be this time of year. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FOSTER: Still to come, Europe makes a push to embrace AI. We're live in Paris with the latest on the international summit aimed at shaping the future of artificial intelligence.

Plus, we go to Greenland where people are speaking out over Trump's plan to buy the territory and some are now pushing for their independence from Denmark.

And later, Americans could someday be saying goodbye to their one cent coins. Why Donald Trump believes the penny is more trouble than it's worth.

[04:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The future of AI security is high on the agenda of the second day of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. Political and business leaders are meeting right now about how to create effective guardrails for AI without stifling innovation.

J.D. Vance is attending the summit on his first international trip as U.S. Vice President. He's set to meet with the French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the summit. Macron currently speaking. He's been vocal about Europe's need to accelerate its pace in the AI race, as well as rely on clean power to do so.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Paris with the very latest. We don't know what AI is going to look like, so it's hard to regulate right now, presumably.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And yet the European Union had, Max, become the first part of the world to regulate AI with its AI Act. What Emmanuel Macron was calling for yesterday, beyond that 109 billion euro investment that's been announced for France from private foreign and French companies, is for Brussels to do more to look at ways to allow Europe to innovate when it comes to AI, rather than seeking to regulate it too fast and too hard. That message received, apparently, in Brussels.

We've heard from the European Commissioner for Tech saying that it is important now that the AI Act be applied in ways that are innovation- friendly, promising that there would be reform and simplification of laws as they apply to the digital field.

So right now, Emmanuel Macron kicking off that second day here at the Grand Palais with his speech. And now what we're going to do is hear from all of these heads of state who've gathered in Paris. They were received at the Elysee Palace for dinner last night.

We're going to hear from Narendra Modi, who is co-hosting the summit with the French president, and also from J.D. Vance. And we're likely to hear more about what the French had hoped might be a series of non- binding resolutions or commitments that might be signed by the end of the day that would look at the responsible application of AI, its regulation, even whilst its innovation has allowed something that the global community could agree on.

We'll look to J.D. Vance's words to see whether that's something in line with the current American administration's thinking.

AI, though, is not the only thing they're going to be talking about. He'll have a lunch at the Elysee with the French president. What we understand they'll be talking about also is Ukraine, with the American vice president determined here in Europe while he's in Paris and then on in Munich for the security conference to convince his European counterparts that it's time to do what they can to help bring that war to a swift end -- Max.

FOSTER: Every country wants to lead on AI. That's the impression you get. They want their home nations to be at the forefront of this because it's seen as the future, as you say.

Are you seeing very different perspectives going into the regulation of this between North America, Europe and Asia?

BELL: There have been. I mean, in fact, what we've seen very clearly since the Trump administration has come in is a rollback of the few bits of regulatory framework that have been put in place by the Biden administration. So that has been the move in the United States, welcomed, of course, by big tech.

You then have the Chinese model, very much government-backed, state- backed tech companies that have done so well. And specifically, we've seen that great disruptor DeepSeek and the effect that's had on the market.

Here in France, the fear expressed clearly by Emmanuel Macron yesterday was that the European Union might find itself as simply a consumer of AI that had this wake-up call, as he called it, not happened. That had been one of the big dangers.

So he's calling for two things, not just this fresh investment that will allow, he hopes, France to become a European hub for these things, but also Europe-wide, that the continent do much more to look at innovation before it looks at regulation and how it can make up for some of that lost time -- Max.

[04:25:04]

FOSTER: OK, Melissa, thank you so much. Back with you as we get more updates from that.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk attempting to put himself at the forefront of artificial intelligence. The Tesla and SpaceX founder leading a group of investors who have offered to buy the parent company of ChatGPT for nearly $100 billion. Musk is no stranger to Sam Altman's OpenAI, which owns the popular machine learning software.

He co-founded the company back in 2015 but departed over disagreements on a shift from non-profit to for-profit work. Altman posted on X, owned by Musk, quote, No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want. Musk simply replied, Scam, Altman. Judges across the U.S. are pressing pause on Donald Trump's executive orders. A closer look at their objections when we come back.

Plus, Donald Trump suggests a potential outcome of the war in Ukraine that can't be going over well in Kyiv today.

[04:30:00]