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U.S. President Trump Echoes Kremlin's Talking Points, Falsely Claims Ukraine Started War; Vatican: Pope Francis Showing "Slight Improvement"; Tomorrow: Hamas To Release Remains Of 2 Youngest Hostages; Trump Order Increases White House Control Of Independent Agencies; Judge Considers Motion To Drop Charges Against NYC Mayor; Trump Plans Tariffs On Cars, Drugs, Semiconductors. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 19, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:35]

ISA SOARES, CNN HOST: It is 8:00 p.m. in London, 3:00 p.m. in New York. I'm Isa Soares. Thanks very much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's get straight to the news.

And we begin this hour with President Donald Trump's shocking words to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here's what President Trump actually wrote today on Truth Social. Let me read it out to you.

A dictator without elections. Zelenskyy better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. In the meantime, we are successful in negotiating an end to the war with Russia. Something all admit only Trump and the Trump administration can do.

Biden never tried. Europe has failed to bring peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the gravy train going.

That's just a snippet, really, of what we heard. They're accusing President Zelenskyy of elongating a brutal war in his country in order to take in European, as well as U.S. military assistance. And these statements amount the American president parroting the arguments that we have been hearing so far from the Kremlin.

Already, last night, President Trump falsely claimed that it was Ukraine who provoked Russia to war. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I have the power to end this war, and I think its going very well. But today I heard, oh, well, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: And so President Zelenskyy heard that. And this is how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Unfortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us. Unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Mr. Trump's words have stunned not only global leaders, but also Ukrainians fighting for their country's freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just -- I have a really bad feeling that the future of Ukraine is not really bright right now because of everything we hear in news from Trump, and we are really upset and we a little bit hate him for this war.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would I like to have elections in my country? Of course. But after war ended and ended -- not just stopped, but ended with some documents that prove that we are protected. So we can't do elections without protection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Let's get more from our Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv.

And, Nick, let me just pick up on what I heard from one of those Kyiv residents saying, I have a really bad feeling this talking about the negotiations that we are seeing being led by the U.S. president. Just give us a sense of what the reaction has been to what we heard from President Trump, calling Zelenskyy a dictator.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, look, this matter of hours old on an unofficial level, we haven't heard a response to that. Instead, we have heard from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who I think has tried to step over this landmine, forgive the pun here, but really talking about the visit of Trump's envoy, General Keith Kellogg, here, how he met with the military leaders, intelligence officials and essentially trying to learn what Ukraine needs for a peace deal, trying to get things back on track and sort of ignore this spat over the last 24 hours.

But look, this morning, when people heard Trump say that Ukraine started the war and Zelenskyy had 4 percent approval ratings in the polls, but people look utterly shocked. I mean, they heard these arguments coming from the Kremlin. And so to hear them coming from the man now running the White House, formerly the place where they got most of their geopolitical, military and financial support, that is shocking for many.

It leaves them questioning the viability of defending Ukraine going forward. And important to remember, we still have a big question mark over continued aid from the United States, particularly given the comments Trump made today that half of it, he falsely says, has gone missing -- Isa.

SOARES: Yeah. And in the meantime, I understand you've got new reporting, Nick, on this rare earth mineral deal that president Trump initially said, that said that it was suggested by President Zelenskyy. What -- what are you learning about that deal? What has happened to that?

WALSH: Yeah, I mean, look, this has gone back and forth. And the extraordinary notion that Ukraine is sort of sitting on billions of dollars of rare earth minerals that could finance its future in its past, has formed such a plank of Trump's interest over the past weeks that the U.S. treasury secretary, about a fortnight ago, presented a deal here in Kyiv, which Zelenskyy rejected.

[15:05:07]

Now we're learning more about what it actually contained. And sources familiar with the document we heard from Zelenskyy today saying that essentially they had to give up 50 percent of Ukraine's rare earth mineral resources.

But we understand from our sources that that was actually to repay past debts. This document was trying to recover United States aid given essentially during the Biden administration. And this document of about 16 pages, one source told us, was 2 or 3 pages of legalese and then a list of places of resources of specific locations that the U.S. had interest on.

So a pretty direct dash, it seems, there for Ukraine's resources, but one about aid in the past being repaid. The big question now is, given that peace deal, that document hasn't indeed been signed in itself. And there has been pressure from senior Trump figures that they should indeed sign it. What does this mean for future aid?

Without that, U.S. resources that Ukraine, I think pretty much universally accepts here there are real trouble on the front lines. They're in trouble already. The Europeans can't make up that gap.

And so, we're into a dark period here where the relationship between Zelenskyy and Trump are always in a back burner. Frankly, it seemed like Trump was more interested from the start talking to Putin than he was to Zelenskyy. That is deteriorating. It seems like Zelenskyy is trying to step over that and move on.

But the broader relationship of financial assistance, of keeping this bulwark against Russia's aggression towards Europe viable, that's massively in question, too. I never thought, frankly, in the war of the unexpected, we'd see a moment like this and it is upon us so much faster in the Trump administration that I think anybody expected.

SOARES: Yeah, important reporting there from our Nick Paton Walsh and team in Kyiv. Thank you, Nick.

Well, let's go to our Melissa Bell who is in Paris. President Macron held another round of talks in Ukraine.

And, Melissa, I'm just hearing -- seeing that Ukrainian president said this evening that he was counting on unity and courage from his compatriots and pragmatism from the United States. Give us a sense of what he could possibly look at, be seeing from European leaders.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there was certainly a reframing of the entire thing from President Macron as he finished this second part of the meetings that had begun on Monday. You'll remember after these pronouncements from senior American officials, J.D. Vance amongst them, that had really set alarm bells ringing here on the European continent.

This was the second part of talks to which some of those leaders that hadn't been invited on Monday were convened, and what the French president tweeted as he left them was that he agreed with President Donald Trump. But reframing what he agreed with, and that was to support the Ukrainian people in the wake of the aggression that they'd suffered from the Russian Federation three years ago, nearly, we're nearly on the third anniversary.

So really trying to remind the world and his constituents of how things have unfolded and how it began. And it did not begin, of course, with the Ukrainians.

Many of these conversations, Isa, have been about how Europe can continue to support their Ukrainian partners given everything that we've seen in Riyadh, given the shift of tone that we've heard from Washington, and amongst the conversations, we know that they are talking very much about what kind of shape a post-peace deal peacekeeping force might take or what boots on the ground that might involve. We understand it might be a few different European nations, but all of them insisting this should come with an American backstop.

So the idea is that, however, the Europeans continue to support Ukraine in terms of security guarantees and troops on the ground going forward. Once a peace has been found, whatever the shape of Ukraine, once that peace has been agreed with Moscow, the question is for Europeans now, even who would be going in, what that force would be looking like, some kind of rapid reaction force on the basis of what NATO has already assembled. You'll remember with 300,000 troops that are on high alert, given what's happening in Ukraine. What shape does that take going forward, and how can those troops be deployed to Ukrainian soil to keep it safe?

Another thing we've been hearing is, despite the claims from American officials, I'm thinking here of Pete Hegseth these last few days, speaking in Brussels and saying that there is no future for Ukraine inside NATO. In fact, not at all. The secretary general of NATO says that that process is already underway. Ukraine will be a part of NATO. It's simply that the United States have decided they will not be. That will not be a key part of leverage, a key part of the negotiating strategy going into those talks.

Still, longer term, Europeans are absolutely clear on this, as is NATO. Ukraine will be a part of NATO. The question is how Europeans on their own, perhaps more now, can go about supporting that transition -- Isa.

SOARES: Melissa Bell for us in Paris -- thank you, Melissa.

Well, U.S. lawmakers are also watching this escalating feud unfold between U.S. President Trump and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy.

[15:10:01]

While many Republicans have largely avoided weighing in, a few have pushed back against Mr. Trump's claims, saying the only person who started the conflict is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Have a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN CRAMER, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Vladimir Putin, a dictator who wants to reassemble this Soviet Union or his version of it, illegally and unwarranted, attacked a sovereign nation and he did it with -- with incredible impact and intensity.

THOM TILLIS, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Well, first off, clearly, Vladimir Putin is responsible for this war. He started lying about special exercises in October, before he invaded nearly three years ago. He lied about a special military operation. He had every intent to occupy all of Ukraine. His decision has resulted in the murder, rape, torture and kidnapping of untold numbers of Ukrainians. He owns responsibility for this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, that is very clear. My next guest is a founding partner in Washington, correspondent at "Puck", Julia Ioffe, joins us now from Washington.

Julia, really appreciate you taking the time to speak to us. Look, I've been hearing from foreign ministers, from our correspondents, not just in Paris, but also in Kyiv, really stunned by these comments that we heard from President Trump, calling Zelenskyy a dictator. I mean, just give us your -- your take here, whether the United States, whether Ukraine here can rely on the U.S. assistance following these rather intense exchanges and the criticism that we have been seeing from President Trump.

JULIA IOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER & WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Well, I would say that it was clear as of election night in the U.S. here back in November that Ukraine can no longer rely on U.S. assistance, because while the rhetoric has become much more intense and much more pointed, by the way, Vice President J.D. Vance in an interview with "The Daily Mail" just now shot back at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for saying that Donald Trump lived in a disinformation space and said that badmouthing Trump and I'm paraphrasing here would backfire spectacularly for him.

I mean, this has been the position of the American far right, which is the kind of molten core of Trump's support. And -- and Trump has been against Zelenskyy for Putin for a very long time now. So, basically, it was clear on election night when Donald Trump was declared the winner that Ukraine, or at least American support for Ukraine, was basically toast. This is just kind of the proof of concept.

SOARES: And we heard from the former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on X today saying, and it was a long statement. So I'll just put a part of what he said. Boris Trump's statements are intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action, do you buy that?

IOFFE: No. I think this is -- this is something that is very of a kind of 2017 vintage of the kind of take Trump seriously, but not literally, uh, school of thought, which we know is now utter B.S. Trump means what he says, and he does what he says. I think trying to kind of spin Trump's rhetoric for anything other than what it is on its face is a fool's errand.

That said, I don't understand why Europe is still having meetings and walking away without any kind of plans of action or signed agreements. Ever since the first Trump presidency began eight years ago, Europe has been talking about Trump-proofing itself, Trump-proofing NATO, Trump-proofing the E.U., Trump-proofing aid to Ukraine. That's all we've heard about, especially for the last two years.

We've heard about it at last year's Munich Security Conference, at last summer's NATO 88th -- NATO anniversary summit here in D.C. And still, nothing has really been done. They're still having meetings, a la Monty Pythons life of Brian. So not really sure what else Europe is waiting for.

SOARES: Yeah. And some of the points they're trying to agree on. Yes. They agree to step up and speed up production. Something that we've been talking about for years now in terms of, right, military productions is something that Russia has been doing in terms of putting herself on a war footing way earlier. They can't seem to decide now on troops on the ground.

And like our Melissa Bell said just now in Paris, they're clearly looking for the. American kind of back door -- backstop here, which goodness knows, we don't know if they're going to get, given what we've heard from President Trump.

But turning to President Zelenskyy, Julia, what does he need to say now, do now to try and de-escalate this?

IOFFE: Frankly, I'm not sure that there is much he can do. He is associated in Trump's mind with his first impeachment.

[15:15:03]

If you recall, President Trump was impeached twice. The first time was for what he called a perfect phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he tried to blackmail him into digging up damaging information on his rival, Joe Biden, in exchange for American aid that Congress had already allocated. Putin and the other -- on the other hand, is associated in Trump's

mind with what he was told by American intelligence agencies that Vladimir Putin has been trying to help since 2016, get Donald Trump elected as president of the United States, and has been trying to help him stay there by amplifying his message. So I'm not sure that there's anything Zelenskyy can do to change this kind of dichotomy in Trump's mind.

SOARES: Can I -- Julia, can you just -- just explain to our viewers how this thawing of relations between the United States and Russia, how that is being seen? We played a little clip there of Republican senators reacting to President Trump's words of calling Zelenskyy a dictator. But, you know, the fact that Russia's got a seat at the table, the fact that, we're hearing concessions from Trump and not many concessions from -- from Russia, how is that being received in the United States?

IOFFE: Well, I think in D.C., it's being met with shock.

SOARES: Yeah. This is an upending of years of American policy, especially since the full scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine, now, nearly three years ago. But the fact is, these Republicans on the Hill, the kind of more traditional Republicans in Washington who hark back to Reagan, the Reagan era policy toward Russia, who see Russia correctly as the aggressor here, are becoming less relevant by the day. And they have been basically since Donald Trump began solidifying his hold on the Republican Party.

The fact of the matter is that America is now being ruled not by those Republicans, but Donald Trump and people who agree with him and Tucker Carlson, who on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, said our ally shouldn't be Ukraine, it should be Russia because its led by a white Christian nationalist leader that our values are more aligned with him.

So the fact of the matter is now the White House and essentially Congress is led by a Republican Party for whom the German AFD, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Vladimir Putin and Russia are their allies, their ideological allies. Much more naturally than Emmanuel Macron or Boris Johnson or anybody from the mainstream of European politics, or what used to be the mainstream of American politics.

SOARES: Indeed. And in the meantime, while all this is happening, Russia is rubbing their hands with glee.

Julia, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak to us. Thank you. Julia.

IOFFE: Thank you.

SOARES: Now, Pope Francis is showing a slight improvement in his battle against pneumonia. That news was released just a short time ago by the Vatican. The 88-year-old pontiff is said to be in stable condition at a hospital in Rome. He was admitted last week for bronchitis.

Our Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb joins us now.

And, Christopher, you and I have been speaking pretty much on a daily basis, keeping our viewers abreast of what is happening. And it seems slightly more positive news today coming from the Vatican, from the pope.

What more do you know?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isa, it is encouraging the news tonight and it's the word improvement, in the Vatican communique. That is a word that so many people have been looking for ever since the pope was hospitalized here at the Gemelli Hospital on Friday. It's six days since he came here for treatment, initially for bronchitis.

But that bronchitis turned into pneumonia, pneumonia in both of his lungs. Very serious situation for an 88-year-old pope who has had a history of respiratory infections, has been hospitalized in the past for bronchitis and is particularly vulnerable during the winter months. It's very cold in Rome, as I speak. And it's -- this is -- this is the vulnerability the pope has had to these respiratory infections.

Now, although we had this news of improvement, we don't know how long the pope is going to be in hospital. Public events for -- for him have been canceled up until the weekend at the earliest.

He did, however, receive Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, this afternoon for a 20-minute meeting. She said afterwards that the pope was alert and reactive, and also said that she cracked jokes with him or she he still has his sense of humor. So that's also encouraging.

And the Vatican saying that the pope has had a peaceful night, that he's had breakfast, he's doing some work.

[15:20:06]

A Vatican source saying he's sitting in a chair.

So all of these signs are encouraging, but it is a very serious situation and one we're monitoring closely, Isa.

SOARES: Yeah, I heard from the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, saying he hasn't lost his proverbial sense of humor. That is a very good sign indeed and encouraging.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Now coming up, the latest on Israel's military operation in the West Bank. The IDF claiming that they are targeting militants. But a Palestinian official says tens of thousands of Palestinians are now displaced. We're bringing that story after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: Welcome back, everyone. The last 24 hours, IDF forces demolished 14 apartment buildings at a

refugee camp housing dozens of families in the occupied West Bank. It's just the latest camp wrecked by a massive Israeli military operation that the U.N. estimates has forcibly displaced at least 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel says the goal is rooting out terrorism there.

And turning to Gaza, tomorrow marks another major and tragic moment in the hostage as well as ceasefire deal. Hamas will return the remains of four hostages, including the two youngest kidnapped by the terrorist group. A four year old boy and a baby not even nine months old, if you remember, on October the 7th.

Our Nic Robertson has more on the heartbreaking moment from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Thursday really is going to be a very, very painful day for most Israelis. Everyone remembers those searing images of Shiri Bibas trying to shield her young son, Ariel, four, and Kfir, nine months old, trying to shield them under a blanket as she was taken hostage.

And back in 2023, late 2023, Hamas said they had been killed. Israel could not get definitive information about their well-being.

[15:25:05]

Now their bodies being returned Thursday back to Israel, being repatriated.

And Israel is so aware of the pain of this that Shira's husband, Yarden, released just a couple of weeks ago, came back to discover that his wife and two sons are dead. It's -- it's a pain for the nation.

But what Hamas appears to be doing here by releasing on Thursday the remains of four hostages, releasing six living hostages Saturday and releasing four other hostages -- remains of hostages sometime next week. They are accelerating the completion of the release of all 33 hostages they agreed to under phase one.

Israel, on the other hand, several weeks late, is talking about entering phase two negotiations sometime this week. What we understand from Israeli government officials is what they'd actually like to do is really slow roll the phase two process, focus on extending phase one so that they can get more living hostages released.

But Thursday is going to be that really tough day here in Israel when those -- the youngest victims of Hamas, their bodies, returned to their home. A final journey.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And our thanks to Nick for that report.

Still ahead, is this the end of independent federal agencies, the new Trump order demanding control of groups built to be outside of political influence. We'll bring you the very latest on what that could mean, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:02]

SOARES: President Donald Trump is wielding executive power to bring independent agencies under his control, as well as supervision. On Tuesday, he signed an executive order giving him more direct authority over agencies created by Congress to be independent, agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.

Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy -- advocacy group, pardon me, has called the move illegal and a giant gift to the corporate class.

For more on the president's latest move, let's bring in senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

And, Kevin, this is being interpreted as President Trump making a play for even greater power. Just give us a sense of what this could actually mean in practice.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. Well, in practice, I think it will be challenged in court, which I think was, in the end, the goal all along is President Trump really trying to set up a battle at the Supreme Court, testing the bounds of executive power? And what this order does is sort of set up this challenge by issuing this order to agencies, requiring them to pass through the White House, the regulations that they were trying to impose, and also giving his own budget office the power to limit spending on some of these regulations and these agencies that would be effective, were designed by Congress to sort of act outside the political sphere.

Certainly, the president has some informal control over them by appointing agency heads that last term of -- that last length of term that goes beyond the presidents own term. So it sort of is inside the executive branch, but existing outside of the president's particular purview.

What this action intends to do is really kind of centralize control over those agencies. And these agencies are responsible for some very important regulations in the United States, whether it's on transportation, whether it's on banking and Wall Street, some broadcasting, communication regulation as well.

What the order says is that its necessary for these agencies to be under the control of the White House in order for the president to execute on his agenda. It says for the federal government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people's elected president. But I think when you listen to opponents of this move, they say this

sort of defeats the point of these independent agencies, which are meant to exist outside of politics.

At the end of the day. This is something that conservatives in the United States have been wanting to do for decades, really going back to the administration of Ronald Reagan. They see a Supreme Court now that is heavily weighted to conservatives, including three appointments made by Trump himself. And they say this, this is the opportunity to really sort of get rid of some of these independent agencies for good and bring them under the control of the White House.

SOARES: Kevin, I appreciate you laying it all out for us. Thank you very much. Good to see you.

Now, some 20 lawsuits have been filed across the United States challenging the unprecedented authority of Elon Musk and his DOGE team. But efforts to slow the slashing of government jobs and federal funding received a setback Tuesday from a federal judge. She denied a request from state attorneys general to issue a temporary restraining order. The judge said they did not show they would suffer imminent, irreparable harm, even though she said their lawsuit legitimately calls into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual.

President Trump defended Musk during a joint interview on Fox. Here's a little clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So when he said that, he said, you know, when you signed these executive orders, a lot of them don't get done, and maybe the most important ones. And he would take that executive order that I signed, and he would have those people go to whatever agency it was. When are you doing it? Get it done, get it done? And some guy that maybe didn't want to do it, all of a sudden he's signing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Lets get more on all of this. Let's bring in Sophia Cai for more. She's a White House reporter for "Politico".

Sophia, really appreciate you coming on the show.

Let me just pick up, really, we had a little clip from that Fox interview, and we in that interview, which was very buddy, buddy and both sides praising each other. We also heard President Trump and Musk kind of reject allegations that they are creating a constitutional crisis. Musk actually called it absurd.

Yet even the judge that we just mentioned said, quote, musk has not been nominated by the president nor confirmed by the U.S. Senate as -- as constitutionally required for officers to exercise significant authority.

How do you see them? Because there are so many legal battles playing out. How do you see this playing out? Because I think we mentioned like 14, but there seems to be stops at every juncture here.

[15:35:03]

SOPHIA CAI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO: Yeah. So I think, you know, where those two issues converge is really why both President Trump and Elon Musk, at least on paper, are trying to minimize Musk's role and say that he is just a senior advisor. He is not in charge of DOGE. That is all on paper. The White House even went as far as to say that, you know, he is a senior advisor, and that was just his title.

But I think in practice, all signs point to the fact that Elon Musk is really leading the way. I mean, he is taking direction from President Trump, but he wore a shirt that said, I'm just a tech guy. I think that's very telling.

And, you know, secondly, one of the things that they really tried hard to do is to emphasize that they're very much on the same page, because Democrats have been trying to drive a wedge between them, calling Elon Musk, President Musk, you know, all in a way, to really create a divorce between the two men who are wielding a lot of power over federal government right now.

SOARES: Yeah. And speak to and speak to that relationship. Of course, you would have heard this. We have heard it here on this side of the continent. To that, some critics suggest that Mr. Trump is the face of the administration, but Musk is actually kind of running the show behind the scenes. The president, of course, denies this.

How do you see their dynamic?

CAI: I mean, look, they've gotten extremely close during the campaign trail. You know, they -- they first met in 2020. They were not very close. I think, you know, Elon Musk would say that he more sided with Democrats before then, and over the campaign, Elon Musk spent a lot of money helping Trump get elected. And that's something that Trump very much values.

Elon Musk was then embedded at Mar-a-Lago, literally sleeping there, on the property, advising President Trump on some of the transition picks. And he's really continued to be, you know, a close contact point, right? Yesterday, we saw someone with a proposal to -- to give out DOGE dividend checks.

And, you know, this was a proposal that gained some traction online. And then Elon Musk ended up replying to James Fischbach, saying, I'll check with the president. I mean, that tells you everything you need to know that this is someone who's bringing ideas to President Trump, someone who's instructing his allies who are going into these agencies to execute, um, some of these cuts. I mean, this is a huge role behind the scenes, but the difference is just on paper, you know, they don't want to show that.

SOARES: And -- I mean, for so many of us on this side of the pond, of course, we know he's not elected. When he's not elected, Americans didn't vote for Musk here. So, I mean, first of all, how is this being received by U.S. voters? How do they feel about having Musk play this role? And I mean, and how unprecedented is this sort of dynamic -- dynamism in this relationship?

CAI: You know, Elon Musk is really a kitchen table name, you know, in part because of Tesla. And a lot of people own electric cars.

But I think, you know, the American people really voted for Trump. And so just anecdotally, I've heard from some federal workers who voted for President Trump who are saying, well, wait a minute, who is actually making the decisions? You know, I just lost my job because Elon Musk came in here and made all of these cuts that are quite drastic in nature.

And again, he was not Senate confirmed. He was not elected. And so, you know, this is someone who is moving outside of the democratic process. And a big question that really has to be answered in the courts is whether all of this is legal.

SOARES: Yeah, indeed. And what we heard in that Fox interview from Elon Musk on that point, exactly. He said, well, you know, the person who's making the last decision is not me, it's President Trump. And that's clearly what the sounding board, what he will have to say for Americans to hear that it's the President. Trump is the ultimate person who makes that last decision.

Sophia, appreciate you taking the time to speak to us. Thank you very much.

CAI: Thanks.

SOARES: Now, federal judge in New York is considering a motion by the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Today's hearing ended without a ruling. Protesters at the Manhattan federal courthouse greeted Mayor Adams, as you can hear there, as he arrived there in the last hour.

This is the first public face off in the case since several seven, I should say, federal prosecutors resigned in protest. Four of Adams top deputies have also stepped down. The order to drop the charges said Adams, was vital to the Trump administrations crackdown on illegal immigration, and that's led to allegations of quid pro quo.

[15:40:04]

Adams is Democrat, and he denies a deal was made with the White House.

CNN correspondent Gloria Pazmino joins us now.

So, Gloria, give us a sense of what happened inside that courtroom. Will we go from here?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isa, we got a little bit of drama and a little bit of action from inside that courtroom, which we were not sure if we were going to get today, because it wasn't clear whether or not Judge Dale, who has been overseeing this case, would issue a ruling in the case. He signaled multiple times during the hearing today that he was going to issue his decision in writing. So we did not get a resolution to the case today. But we did get to

watch as Judge Ho kind of questioned both parties about the merits of this dismissal. The Department of Justice had their representative in there in the form of Emil Bove. He is the acting U.S. attorney general, and he's the one who signed the order directing federal prosecutors here in New York City to drop the charges against the mayor.

As you know, that order resulted in the high profile resignation of several prosecutors, not just here in New York, but also in Washington, D.C.

Two important points that happened during the hearing, which just wrapped in the last few minutes. First, we heard from the mayor at length. This is the first time that we hear directly from Mayor Adams inside that courtroom, and the judge essentially asked him whether or not he understood the terms of the dismissal.

And at one point, he asked him if he understood that the Department of Justice was moving to dismiss the charges without prejudice, meaning they're free to bring back these charges at any point. And here's what the mayor responded. He said, I have not committed a crime. I don't see them bringing it back. I'm not afraid of that.

Then, Ho, the judge in this case, asked Adams whether or not anyone promised him anything in order to not bring the charges back, and the mayor responded, not at all.

Also, during questioning of the prosecution in this case, Emil Bove essentially argued that they were using their prosecutorial discretion in -- in dismissing these charges, something that he argued they have the right to do a very sort of bizarre, thing that were seeing play out here, Isa, is that you have the defense and the prosecution in agreement saying that the charges should be dropped. There was discussion about whether or not this is preventing the mayor from doing his job of running the city and governing here in New York, something that was also brought up in the memo.

So it doesn't look like we are going to get were going to get a decision today, but now we'll be watching to see when the judge will issue his decision in writing. We also got some signs from the judge that he is taking this not just very seriously. Obviously, this is a very big case, but that he is doing it methodically and slowly.

He ended the hearing by saying that he wasn't going to, quote, shoot from the hip by ruling from the bench. So it just gives us a little bit of insight into his mindset and perhaps how long it might take him to reach a decision.

SOARES: Gloria, really appreciate you laying it all out so clearly for us. Thank you very much indeed. Just wrapped up no ruling that will stay across at Gloria Pazmino there. Thank you.

And coming up right here, newly announced tariffs. What President Trump plans to target with a 25 percent tariff that experts believe consumers will bear most of the brunt for. That is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:59]

SOARES: U.S. President Donald Trump says he's getting ready to roll out a new round of punishing tariffs, which could have a major impact on Americans wallets.

Mr. Trump says he'll impose tariffs of around 25 percent on imported vehicles, pharmaceutical products and semiconductors, possibly as soon as this April.

Our Anna Stewart is tracking all of this and how deeply these tariffs could impact their wallets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It probably wasn't the welcome the E.U. trade commissioner would have wanted. The night before his address in Washington, D.C., President Trump announced a possible new round of tariffs that would hit the E.U. hard, particularly German car manufacturers.

In a speech ahead of trade talks with his U.S. counterparts, Maros Sefcovic made clear that he believes the E.U.-U.S. trading relationship is fair and balanced. The very opposite of what President Trump has previously said. And while the commissioner plans to do what he can to avoid new tariffs, he left it in no doubt what would happen if President Trump implements them.

MAROS SEFCOVIC, EUROPEAN TRADE COMMISSIONER: If the U.S. imposes tariffs on E.U. products, it would create unnecessary barriers to European exports, harming businesses and workers on both sides. Therefore, to protect European interests, we will have no choice but to respond firmly and swiftly. But we do hope to avoid this scenario, meaning the unnecessary pain of measures and countermeasures and remain committed to constructive dialogue.

SOARES: In this scenario of tit for tat tariffs, the commissioner didn't say where or what the E.U. would target in the first Trump administration. The bloc targeted Levi Jeans, bourbon whiskey and Harley-Davidson motorbikes, companies, both symbolic but also headquartered in states of influential policymakers.

President Trump says he will likely give more detail on his latest tariff proposal in April, leaving open a window for negotiation.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:38]

SOARES: There's a new car on the racing circuit. It looks like your typical race car, but this one has twice the power as others. There's also an electric, not gas powered car.

Here's our Bill Weir with much more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just outside the cradle of American racing. Automobile history was made this weekend when formula drift superstar Ryan Tuerck swapped out his rubber burning rig for a machine with twice the power, over 1,300 horses, but with a fraction of the noise and not a whiff of exhaust. Behold, the first electric NASCAR.

This is so surreal. Normally, this event would come with a thunderous sound of that internal combustion engine, but all you hear is this high pitched whine and then just the tires being shredded by those electric engines.

RYAN TUERCK, FORMULA DRIFT DRIVER: The power is just out of this world. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before.

WEIR: It's like twice as much horses as one of the regular NASCAR.

TUERCK: Yes, that beyond that you have the power on demand at all times.

WEIR: Like a power drill.

TUERCK: There isn't a power band. It's just -- there's just all the power at all times.

WEIR: This is one of three electric prototypes unveiled this year, as NASCAR pledges to be net zero by 2035. But while this Chevy Blazer was supposed to be the first electric pace car in Daytona 500 history, it was literally cut off by Donald Trump's armored plated motorcade, a fitting metaphor for a president who was vowing to destroy EV incentives, charging networks and tailpipe pollution standards, as he promised to fossil fuel executives.

Has the politics made your job harder these days?

RILEY NELSON, HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, NASCAR: We have very clear corporate goals around sustainability, and so our job is to focus on getting those done no matter who's in office or what's going on. So our focus is on right now again, energy. And right now the race track you have behind you that keeps you up at night. And how do we decarbonize that within the next ten years?

And so, that's everything from energy efficiency, led lights, bringing in different technologies, other partner technologies so that we can reduce our own operating footprint as a sport and then bring that to the fan and educate the fan on how can we bring some of these technologies into our communities and help support the growth of sustainability across the country.

DAVID RAGAN, FORMER NASCAR DRIVER: I guarantee you, there's more EVs in the parking lot today than there was five years ago, and in another five years, there's going to be a lot more.

WEIR: David Ragan is a third generation NASCAR racer who now drives an electric Ford Mustang in retirement simply because it's fast, fun, and cheaper to fuel and maintain. He believes this fan base is destined to make that same discovery. So the market, not the president, will decide.

RAGAN: And I think the manufacturers really that they've got their finger on the pulse. Chevrolet, Ford Motor Company, you know, Toyota, the big partners here in NASCAR. They've all got their different plans for how they're going to attack that. And again I think NASCAR is just saying, hey, we want to be prepared when that evolution takes place.

JOHN STAHLBUSCH, EVP OF SALES, ABB: So Daytona they just electrified their parking lot. So they're -- whenever their employees pull up, they'll be able to charge your vehicle. Once charging becomes more ubiquitous and it sort of gets integrated into the fabric of the everyday American, I think it'll become more and more accepted, and it will be utilized more and more by everybody.

WEIR: You were telling me this is a conscious effort to win hearts and minds of folks who pay extra for the fumes and the noise of a --

[15:55:08]

CHRIS SHIGAS, VICE PRESIDENT, ABB: We're in the energy transition right now in this country, and the energy transition isn't for some people, it's for everyone. So I think we need to have better conversations about how we use energy in the United States. And we welcome all the opinions and all the opinions out here today, because these are important decisions to make our country stronger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys are watching Ryan Tuerck right now in the electric drift car with a partner.

WEIR: And then there is the Elon Musk of it all. We have a great piece on CNN.com about how Tesla loyalty seems to be sliding in blue states as global sales slumped after a couple big years of near 40 percent growth.

Big picture, China has hundreds of different EV companies right now. Experts say they're going to winnow that down to a dozen or two big global superpowers in the next decade.

But by all indications, that EV race is one Trump doesn't even want to enter.

Bill Weir CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And that does it for me for today. Thanks very much for your company.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" with Paula Newton is up next. Have a wonderful evening.