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Greenland's Prime Minister Slams Upcoming Visit from U.S. Officials; Appeals Court to Hear Trump Administration's Challenge to Block on Use of Alien Enemies Act; Trump Seeks Golden Dome Capable of Defending Entire U.S. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Highly aggressive, what The New York Times calls an eruption in relations between the U.S. and Greenland. The planned visit that set off the prime minister there and the new promise from the president to get the island one way or another.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: An emergency appeal expected in just a matter of hours. The Justice Department wants to restart deportation based on wartime presidential powers. And President Trump continues his attacks on the judge at the center of it all.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the Carolinas burning several wildfires on North and South Carolina forcing evacuations this morning and some of the very same places hit so hard by Hurricane Helene. Now, the National Guard has been called.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And controversy erupts this morning over a planned U.S visit to Greenland this week. It comes as President Trump has pushed to annex the autonomous Danish territory, saying he thinks the U.S. will get it one way or the other.

Second Lady Usha Vance and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, are expected to be among the Americans visiting. The White House says Usha Vance will attend the islands national dog sled race, and, quote, celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity. But Greenland's prime minister is slamming the visit, calling it, quote, highly aggressive and sinking relations to the U.S. to a new low.

Let's get right to the White House. CNN's Alayna Treene is there. It's the second international trip by the Second Lady, Alayna, and it's an odd one.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is, and I think it just is really putting a further spotlight on this administration's desires to try and purchase Greenland, despite, of course, we're hearing repeatedly now several different times over from both the leaders of Greenland, but also Denmark, that Greenland is not for sale. And just to back up here, to give you the big picture, I've talked to several White House and Trump administration officials about the president's desire to purchase Greenland and make it a U.S. territory, this both before he was in office and after he was sworn in. And part of the reasoning behind it is, one, they argue it would be economically beneficial to the United States. That's in part because Greenland has vast stores of rare earth minerals that would be great for technology here in the United States.

But another, and this is the key thing that I think that Greenland's prime minister was really focusing on here in his criticism of the these visits is there are national security interests as well. That's in part because the United States really sees Greenland as a way to try and curb both Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region.

Now, I want to read to you some of what Greenland's prime minister said in response to these visits, particularly as it relates to National Security Adviser Michael Waltz's visit this week, again, focusing on that national security part of the desire by the United States to purchase it. He said, quote, what is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us. His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump's mission and the pressure will increase.

And I'll have to say the pressure has been increasing now for several weeks during, and you mentioned this, John, during Donald Trump's state of the -- or excuse me, not State of the Union, but a joint address to Congress, which was essentially state of a union address in February. He said directly that he -- I think we're going to get it one way or another when we're, referring to his to desire to take over Greenland. All to say the tensions between these two countries incredibly have been escalating in an incredible way over the last several months, again, before the president even officially took office. Those are only escalating further this week with these visits from the second lady and Michael Waltz.

BERMAN: Meanwhile, a new round of negotiations in Saudi Arabia to end the war in Ukraine, and it comes as the special U.S. Envoy is making comments that sounded an awful lot like one's made by Vladimir Putin.

TREENE: Yes. Those comments by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff yesterday, who I will say is currently now in leading that delegation in Riyadh with different representatives from the Kremlin, are quite concerning, I think, to the Ukrainians. And part of this is because, and we've heard this now repeatedly in our conversations, you know, with our reporting with Ukrainian officials going out of these talks, is there's a big concern that perhaps President Donald Trump is so eager to get a deal and do it so quickly that they're -- that he may give away more to the Russians than they are willing to concede to.

[07:05:16]

Now, we heard Witkoff essentially say this weekend that he takes Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, at his word, that he doesn't believe that this is -- he wants to take over Europe, things that are, of course, very concerning to people in Ukraine as they're entering these talks. So, this is a huge day for the broader ceasefire talks overall. We know that the goal here is really to hammer out, I'm told, specific language on the pathway to trying to find lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine. John?

BERMAN: Alayna train at the White House this morning of where there is, as always, a lot going on. I appreciate it. Sarah?

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John. Happening today, an appeals court is set to hear from Justice Department lawyers as they fight a federal judge's temporary block on certain deportation flights. Judge James Boasberg says The Trump administration cannot use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged gang members. Boasberg is also considering whether the administration ignored his orders to halt those flights, all the while President Trump has heightened attacks on that judge. And now the president insists he never signed the controversial proclamation that started all of this.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is joining us now. Katelyn, what can we expect today as this heads back into court?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sarah, this hearing today, this afternoon, it's not before Judge Boasberg, it's before the court above him, the appeals court, and it's not about the facts of this case either. It is about the law around here, the role of the courts and the power of the presidency.

So, that drama over whether the Trump administration was listening to the judge, took people out of the country against his orders, that's not going to be discussed as the core of what's happening today. What it is going to be much more about -- it's not even about the president's ability to detain people specifically. It's about removing them from the country, sending people on planes to say a Salvadoran prison.

The Justice Department, the Trump administration, they are arguing to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today that the president should be able to make these decisions essentially unilaterally, especially because they are about national security reasons. And they want the court to sign off on the idea that judges shouldn't be able to step in whenever presidents are making decisions like this around immigration.

They say on their side that if presidents are blocked from taking people out of the country for immigration reasons, that means judges could step in and block drone strikes, sensitive intelligence operations, the list is long.

Here's the White House borders czar, Tom Homan, just highlighting the position generally of the Trump administration here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, TRUMP'S BORDER CZAR: I don't care what that judges think as far as this case. We're going to continue to arrest public safety threats and national security threats. We're going to continue to deport from the United States. I understand this case is in litigation to the Alien Enemies Act and will abide by the court order as litigated, but my quote was, despite what he thinks, we're going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we've been doing since day one, and deporting from the United States to the various laws on the books.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, Homan there is speaking about the power of the presidency, what they want to maintain through this court hearing. On the other side, lawyers for people being removed from the United States, they say this is about due process. The slippery slope, quote, from one of their court filings, if the president can designate any group as enemy aliens under the ACT and that designation is unreviewable, then there is no limit on who can be sent to a Salvadoran prison or any limit on how long they will remain here.

So, very important questions about the power of the administration to send people out of the country as they choose, and so this is going to be quite a crucial hearing today. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. Using something from 1798, there's so many questions surrounding this. It will be very important what the court decides, the higher court decides in this case.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for keeping track of all of it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us, a golden dome missile defense system capable of defending the entire United States. That's one of the president's top Pentagon priorities, and one expert says, one that experts say strategically doesn't make any sense.

Also a family visiting the United States from South Korea has been missing for more than a week after driving through a winter storm near the Grand Canyon. Details on the investigation to try to find them now.

And how's your bracket doing today? March Madness is well upon us, and there is officially zero perfect brackets left standing.

[07:10:00]

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BOLDUAN: This morning, multiple sources tell CNN that military officials are rushing to fulfill what's considered one of President Trump's top Pentagon priorities, a so-called golden dome defense system, one that would be able to protect the entire United States from long range missile strikes, one similar to Israel's Iron Dome,

CNN's Zachary Cohen has this new reporting for us. He's joining us now. And, Zach, what more are you learning?

[07:15:00]

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate. Really, the big question for Pentagon officials is how they're going to come up with a plan to turn Donald Trump's vision for a golden dome into a reality, and they have until Friday to do it. And, look, this is an idea that Donald Trump had and is one of the top priorities he has for his newly minted defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

And what he wants is effectively a space-based missile defense system. It's one that can protect the U.S. from ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons, and it's something that would require a web of satellites as well as thousands of space interceptors that effectively could shoot down an incoming missile minutes after it's launched.

And, look, I'm told the reality is that right now this is just an idea outside of the name golden dome, which as you mentioned, Trump has essentially rebranded and tried to draw some similarities to Israel's Iron Dome system, and talks right now are purely conceptual. But one consensus has emerged even in this early planning stage is that the golden dome would take years to develop and likely cost billions of dollars, so really something Trump's Pentagon is having to wrestle with as Donald Trump also wants the Pentagon to start slashing its budget in the near term.

BOLDUAN: And that's only -- you know, that's part of it, right, in the moment that they're talking about slashing the budget. They're talking about something that would obviously be expensive. When you compare -- just when you're talking just sheer size, and Israel's the size of New Jersey, how realistic is this?

COHEN: Yes, that's really the primary challenge here. It's really that the Iron Dome and the golden dome would not be anything like each other because the United States is just so much bigger than Israel is. As you mentioned, Israel is about the size of New Jersey. Covering the entire United States with a protective shield of sorts is a much more daunting challenge and one Pentagon officials have been grappling with over the last several months since Trump issued that executive order directing them to develop a plan for implementing the Golden Dome.

And, look, I'm told, even if they were able to find the money and the time to develop this golden dome system, experts are skeptical that it would even work. So, a lot of questions here, but it's something that Donald Trump has made clear that he wants and he wants the Pentagon to focus on.

BOLDUAN: Zach, great reporting. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. John?

BERMAN: Right. Brand new allegations against the detained former Columbia University student who led protests there, how the Trump administration might be trying to move beyond his possible First Amendment rights.

And the 14-year-old child and former major leaguer dies mysteriously on a family vacation. We've got new details this morning about what might have happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00] BERMAN: This morning, the question being asked by millions of Americans, how is your Sweet 16? We're all poring over our brackets to see how many teams we have left. Last night, there's some pretty crazy finishes.

CNN's Coy Wire is with us now. Some fun basketball, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: No doubt about it. The madness is officially here, John. And it did look like we were going to see a 12- seat. Colorado State taking down four seed Maryland, bust even more brackets. The Rams were down two with less than ten seconds to go to the Terps, and they get it to Jalen Lake and that is fitting because watch him go splash. Make that thing wet. Yes, there it is.

Maryland, they were going to have to get it to their Playmakers. We're talking 6'10", big boy from Baltimore, Derik Queen, with less than three seconds to go, John, off the glass, madness. The guy's a freshman, Derik Queen sending his Terps dancing through to the Sweet 16 after a 72-71 win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Where does that confidence come from?

DERIK QUEEN, MARYLAND TERRAPINS CENTER: I mean, so I think I'm from Baltimore. That's why. And then I kind of had it going, oh, okay, man. My teammates had to go in and like I said, like they trusted me to take that last shot.

KEVIN WILLARD, MARYLAND HEAD COACH: I asked everybody, I said, who wants the ball? And he said, give me the MF ball. And I said, all right, you're getting it.

REPORTER: This is your first game winner ever or --

QUEEN: Yes.

REPORTER: Did --

QUEEN: I wouldn't have given it to him if I want to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. The two-time defending champions UConn taking on the last team to win two straight number one Florida. And UConn. ties it with two minutes to go. But here come the Gators. Walter Clayton Jr., got it. He had five three-pointers, including the dagger. Sara Sidner goes buck wild after a 77-75 win. Florida's through to the Sweet 16 for the first time in eight years. They'll face Maryland on Thursday.

Women's defending champs, Dawn Staleys, South Carolina, they were down at halftime to eight seat Indiana. The Hoosier, Sydney Parish, seven. Before the game, the Gamecocks just didn't have the same players this year. And that is what we call bulletin board material.

All three of South Carolina's losses this season came when they were trailing at halftime, but not this time. They rallied. Bree Hall, one of the leaders said that she fell asleep reading that article. South Carolina advances to their 11 straight Sweet 16, John, after a 64-53 win.

And I'm just kind of perusing the CNN anchor bracket challenge here, John. It looks like Kate Bolduan is leading team CNC with 44 points. John, you're two points behind, and Sara, well, she's -- let me keep scrolling here. She still has Florida in it though. Oh, I know that.

SIDNER: Okay. First of all, I'm not even going to let John talk here, because who won the -- did Florida win or did Florida not win?

WIRE: Oh, they're still rolling, girl. You got it. Chomp, chomp. Let's go.

SIDNER: Chomp, chomp. Let's go. How dare you.

BOLDUAN: I'm sorry. We're missing the headline here.

BERMAN: I got signed over there, Bolduan over there, two group spans yelling across the headline the studio here.

BOLDUAN: Even on vacation. I can still beat you.

[07:25:00]

SIDNER: Okay, let's go.

BERMAN: Coy Wire, thank you. You bore witness to what we just saw. Sara?

SIDNER: Coy Wire, no, thank you for that comment about my bracket being busted at the beginning.

Anyway, all right, ahead, new reporting this morning in President Trump's first term, he was a laser focused on the stock market, but with his latest move that seems, the president says he just doesn't care so much about these market dives.

And with Democrats at a crossroads, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is privately offering some advice to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. What she is saying to him, ahead.

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[07:30:00]

SIDNER: New this morning.