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March Jobs Report; Trump Makes Investing Statement; Matt Priest is Interviewed about Tariffs; Deadly Storms are Followed by A Flood Threat; Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) is Interviewed about the Economy. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 04, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, day in and day out of people. She puts it all out there. She even had an art gallery. So, she's really - she's done it all, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now she gets to talk to Jake Tapper. So, she really has done it all.

WAGMEISTER: That's exactly right.

BERMAN: Elizabeth Wagmeister, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Do not forget to tune in to a new episode of "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL" with the aforementioned Jake Tapper. It air Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

This is a heck of a morning. Brace yourselves. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, the U.S. economy added a stronger than expected 228,000 jobs in March. What that report, very good report, now means for an economy that just yesterday had its odds of going into recession set to 60 percent.

And we are now just also 30 minutes from the opening bell on Wall Street and stocks are set to tumble with Dow futures down 1,000 points. They've been watching this all this morning. S&P and Nasdaq both set to start down. Well, let's take a look. Well, more than 2 percent. Down more than 2 percent. All because of Donald Trump's tariffs. And now China retaliating.

And prepare for generational flooding. That is the warning heading into this weekend for a huge portion of the central U.S. The same storm system that caused dozens of tornadoes and killed at least seven people.

I'm Kate Bolduan, with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news this morning. A bit

of potential relief for the markets. The jobs report is out just now. And we are seeing another solid month of job gains. The U.S. economy added a stronger than expected 228,000 jobs in March. The jobs report showing the unemployment rate ticking up higher, only slightly though, to 4.2 percent.

The new jobs numbers coming after China, as you just heard, announced it will impose a 34 percent reciprocal tariff on all imports of U.S. goods.

CNN's Matt Egan is now here.

That Chinese news is because of Trump's tariffs. Now they match. They have reciprocated. What can you tell us about this jobs report? And do you think it might get the market to tilt a little better than it did yesterday?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Sara, look, this - this is a jobs market that just continues to chug along for now at least, right? This is a report that paints the picture of a very healthy jobs market. Let's run through the numbers here. We see that the U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs in March. That blew away forecast by almost 100,000.

SIDNER: Wow.

EGAN: That's an acceleration from January and from February, both of which were revised lower. So, that is a very good number. The unemployment rate, it did tick higher, but that was expected. It's also mostly for good reasons because we did see more people enter the workforce.

Of course, let's look at industries as well because we saw kind of a mix there. We saw government jobs did fall in March. And that is, of course, as DOGE and Elon Musk, they try to slash spending and the workforce. You see 4,000 dropped for the federal government. That's on top of 10,000 a month before. Manufacturing, not much of a move there. But look at these other areas that really grew a lot of jobs.

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: Twenty-four thousand in retail, leisure and hospitality and health care. Those are very healthy gains.

But, Sara, as you know, this is a snapshot in time, right? It shows us how the jobs market looked last month as the initial stages of the trade war started to play out. Of course, what we now know is, this trade war has escalated in historic fashion with the president saying he's going to lift tariffs to levels that we have not seen in over a century. And, as you noted, China has already retaliated. More countries are likely to retaliate as well. And those are the kinds of moves that could kill jobs.

So, look, this is a jobs market that has been so resilient, right, bounced back from Covid, survived the inflation crisis, the war on inflation. But this is another test, and it's a big one. SIDNER: Yes. We were in a bull market for a while there. And looking

at those numbers, at least there is something good for the market to chew on because so far because of the trade wars and because we are officially in one, the markets reacting very negatively.

EGAN: Yes. And the focus really is on the trade war.

SIDNER: Yes. Matt Egan, it's always great to see you.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: The jobs news may be taking a little bit off of the edge of the futures, which were even more sharply downward earlier. We're waiting for the White House response to the positive jobs numbers. One can imagine they'd much rather talk about that than the direction the market's been going in over the last few days.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is at the White House for actually a new response from the president just moments ago basically telling investors to buy the low.

[09:05:04]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Pretty much, John. I'm going to read for you what - some of what he said. He essentially is saying, though, that he is resolute in his commitment to these tariffs. He said, quote, "to the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change. This is a great time to get rich, richer than ever before." Essentially saying, come and buy in the United States. That's really what all of these tariffs are about, really. That's the president's main goal with these.

But look, all of this coming as we have some new reporting about how, when the president was huddled with his advisers, working on this tariff plan, until really the 11th hour, we were told, he essentially communicated to them that he wanted to make sure this tariff plan was not weak or soft.

Now, of course, it comes as over the last several weeks in the lead up to Wednesdays announcement, a lot of people questioning whether or not the president would actually follow through with this tariff announcement, if it would be as strong as he had kind of communicated behind the scenes. Of course, now we know that they are as firm as he has been saying for a long time now.

Now, that's kind of why we've seen this message from some of the president's top cabinet officials, from Secretary Bessent, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, to Howard Lutnick. But even Marco Rubio this morning, all of them signaling again how firm they are with these tariffs, how serious they are. We have heard some of these people say there could be negotiations in the future. But as we are hearing, even from the president directly, there are no plans for that from now.

We have heard from, like I said, Rubio this morning, though, he was saying, while in Brussels and trying to listen to some of the concerns from the United States NATO allies about how these tariffs are impacting their countries, he acknowledged that markets are crashing, but he also said that businesses are going to have to learn the rules.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The markets will adjust. Businesses around the world, including in trade and global trade, they just need to know what the rules are. Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules.

So, I don't think it's fair to say economies are crashing. Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, really, we have to see where this goes from here. Already we're already seeing kind of this global realignment of the economy. That's exactly what the president wants. We're seeing, as you said, markets crashing, or as Rubio said, markets crashing really to levels that we haven't seen since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. People's 401(k)s across the country are on a downward tailspin. A lot of concerns here. But as we are hearing now from the president, from his top advisers, no real offramp that some people are looking for.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we will see what happens next. Alayna Treene, great to have you, at the White House this morning sharing your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And the footwear industry is one of those that took a big hit on the Trump tariff news. Why? Well, Trump imposed big tariffs on not only China but also Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, all companies where shoe brands make most of their products. China is the biggest sourcing market in the industry by far, hit now with an added 34 percent tariff, bringing the total tariffs imposed by President Trump on that country to 54 percent.

And shares of some of the biggest brands in footwear plummeted yesterday. Nike, down over 13 percent. Skechers down more than 17 percent. VF Corp, a global company that makes shoes like Vans, down nearly 30 percent. This is what they're looking at now.

Joining me right now is Matt Priest, the president and CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, a leading footwear trade group that represents dozens of companies, some of them I just mentioned.

Matt, thanks for coming back in.

MATT PRIEST, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FOOTWEAR DISTRIBUTORS AND RETAILERS OF AMERICA: Yes, thanks for having me, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What are you hearing from shoe brands today?

PRIEST: Say that again.

BOLDUAN: What are you hearing from the brands today?

PRIEST: Yes, you know, we're hearing a lot of concern, Kate. You know, we host a member call every week for the last five years, and we had an emergency call yesterday. We typically have about 200 people on the call. We had over 700 people on our call yesterday. And so there's a lot of concern about costing. A lot of concern about how this is going to impact the consumer.

And the tariffs that you just showed are on top of what we already pay. So, a pair of sneakers out of Vietnam has a 20 percent duty on it before this new duty takes effect. That's a 66 percent duty. Some of our shoes out of China have over 100 percent duty now. Those are kids shoes sold at - at mass retail. And so we're - we're very concerned about where we are right now in the trade war.

BOLDUAN: Look, it would have been - it would have been bad for the industry with the tariffs just on China. But then you, like, add Vietnam also getting hit so hard where a lot of - that was - you have told me that is where some of the brands were trying to diversify - diversify production. Is this worse-case scenario?

PRIEST: Yes, this is worse-case scenario, because we - we weren't quite sure what was going to happen. But we've seen - this - this is actually worse than Smoot-Hawley of 1930.

[09:10:01]

These are going to be higher tariff rates on average across the economy than Smoot-Hawley. And we've seen in history, both in the 19th and 20th centuries, Kate, that as tariffs are put in place, it drives down - it drives up prices, drives down consumer behavior, drives down GDP, leads to job loss, and then the party in power usually is thrown out very quickly. And so we fully expect that the American people are not going to take lightly to this, as they see their prices go up across the board.

BOLDUAN: So Skechers has said it's going to - it would raise prices to protect margins if tariffs went into effect. That's - that was before the fact. You just mentioned, and we've talked about this before, that prices end up -

PRIEST: Yes.

BOLDUAN: That the tax ends up being paid by the consumer eventually. But Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, continues to be pushing back on that concept that prices are going up, saying once again that he does not think American companies or consumers are going to pay for the tariff.

Let me play what he said for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNSELOR: Foreign nations, who have to sell here, who have to sell here, are going to lower their prices. And then the next thing they're going to do is continue to manipulate their currency. So, our currency is going to get stronger. We're going to have more purchasing power for the imports. That's going to offset it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Is that going to happen for your industry?

PRIEST: No. The answer to that is simply no. We've seen Mr. Navarro make this claim countless times. We appreciate the tough questions you've asked in response to him. But I can tell you, I've shown his clips to our members who are literally at the negotiating table right now to figure out what the price increases will be. And they tell me, this is - this is insane in the sense that if it's a 10 percent increase, maybe there's some opportunity for savings with the factory, a point or two. Maybe there's an opportunity for savings with currency depreciation. But when you're talking about a 66 percent tariff, you're talking about a 71 percent tariff on women's leather shoes out of China. There's nowhere to put that. And so, Mr. Navarro even said on another network that this is a tax cut.

We're down to economic gas line at this point. And we've seen the messaging change. You know, the president started out with a mandate to lower prices, and he committed to do that. And we want to help him do that. We do not want to see the economy struggle. It hurts our companies, our brands and our consumers. But right now, the narrative now, there's going to be pain. And this is as painful as it could possibly be.

BOLDUAN: So, what are the companies to do? I mean, to ask the obvious question, one of the things we've heard is move production to the United States. I mean, and they cannot, at the flip of a switch, move production to the United States. What are the - what's the conversation? What do they do?

PRIEST: Yes, so there's a couple strategies to mitigate the impact. And they're not - none of them are good. There's no good options. I mean, if we look at the domestic production opportunity, Kate, the irony of all of this is that the rhetoric that the president has put out there, which is positive, meaning we want to establish domestic production and key industries, doesn't line up with the policy itself. They are attaching high duties on parts, components, materials and machinery needed for production here in the United States, not just for footwear, but across every single industry.

So, that makes it hyper uncompetitive to try to establish domestic production here, coupled with, you know, we're going to see companies start to pull out quality out of the - out of the product. They're going to try to lower their FOB price, the price that the good is at the border, to try to - while having these elevated tariffs, at least bring down the cost on their end by delivering less material - quality materials, less functionality. And so, there's - and because there's not really another place to go from a trade landscape, this is going to impact what's available to the consumer in real time.

BOLDUAN: It sounds like no good news across the board and what you guys are facing.

Matt, thank you for coming in. Appreciate your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, great conversation.

Some of the same communities hit by tornadoes earlier this week are now worried about dangerous flooding today. We have a live report on the dangerous weather system.

Also, a significant escalation in the standoff between the White House and a federal judge. Why he's considering holding some Trump officials in contempt.

And, more big laughs, lots of drama, and perhaps a little backstabbing thrown in for good measure. A new season of "Hacks" is on the way. I will speak with one of the stars this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT VANDEVANDER, TORNADO VICTIM: So, I'm like, oh, crap, better hop in the tub. So, I jump in the tub. It probably only took five seconds from that point before I could just hear my house ripping apart. And then I was instantly in the neighbor's backyard it felt like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This morning, cleanup across the central United States after a line of deadly and violent tornadoes. Now, forecasters are warning there's an extremely high risk of generational flooding. A lot of problems.

Let's get right to CNN's Michael Yoshida in Lake City, Arkansas.

I can see the sun coming up there. It's light now. What are you seeing?

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, John.

You mentioned a lot of cleanup ahead. And really the rush is on to get a lot of it done before that next wave of weather. You can see crews hard at work behind me following this severe weather. This has been going on for the last hour, crews moving up and down the streets here in Lake City, Arkansas, working to repair and get up some of those downed utility poles.

[09:20:02]

You can see some of the poles scattered across the ground. You also see what's left of some of the homes in this area. Severe damage to that home. Trees uprooted, on their sides.

And as we kind of pan around to this part of Lake City, we'll look across to the other side of the highway. You can see all of the debris there. Some of the vehicles that were flipped over. More crews continuing to do all of this work.

And as our photojournalist continues to look across, again, more crews. That's - once the vehicles pass by, you'll see cars thrown around like they were toys.

Following this storm, of course, a lot of recovery ahead for this area, for this city. And again, there's that threat of more storms to hit. In talking with local officials, they have opened up sandbag areas for residents to try and get prepared for the potential of flooding. Officials telling me they also have swift water rescue teams on standby in case they're needed.

Obviously, that's on everyone's mind. Officials saying they're not out of the woods just yet. And, of course, as you can see, just so much work going on following this first round of severe weather here in Arkansas.

BERMAN: Yes, I was just going to say, so much work to do. And with the threats of this flooding to come, it's got to be even more difficult.

Michael Yoshida for us in Lake City, Arkansas, thank you very much. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us this hour, the global fallout from Donald Trump's tariffs was swift and is not over. China hitting back this morning. Who's next? We are now minutes away from opening bell on Wall Street.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:01]

BERMAN: All right, it has been one thing after another this morning. We're just minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. You can see right there, futures are down sizably after China announced major retaliatory tariffs on the United States.

Now, the futures not as bad as they were. They maybe ticked up a bit after some good news on the economy. Just a short time ago we learned that 228,000 jobs were added to the economy in March. That was stronger than expected.

With us now is the House Democratic whip, Congresswoman Katherine Clark, from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Thank you so much for being with us.

I do want to start on the jobs news, 228,000 jobs added, better than expected. What do you attribute that to?

REP. KATHERINE CLARK (D-MA): You know, as we are taking in this new jobs report, we're always glad to see that be added. But I'm concerned about that the jobs reports from January and February have been downgraded, and we're also seeing an uptick in unemployment.

But the real news today is the impact of these tariffs and putting a $4,000 tax on the average American family and what they will have to pay in increased costs. And these tariffs are not strategic. They are not meant to have a plan for bringing jobs and more growth back to our country. And the fact that so many economists are saying this is the beginning of lurching us into a recession, that is our real concern today as we are evaluating these job numbers.

BERMAN: Well, on the subject of jobs, the president and his allies say that tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there's been a huge loss of manufacturing jobs over the last 35 years. Some 260,000 fewer manufacturing jobs today than there were back in 1992. So, are these tariffs a good way to bring them back? And if not these tariffs, what will?

CLARK: You know, the way we bring manufacturing back is by the investments that we made in the Chips Act. And we can use tariffs strategically to bring good jobs and manufacturing jobs back to Massachusetts, back to the country.

But what we have here is tariffs by chaos. We don't even understand where the White House came up with the numbers for these tariff rates. And it is not part of a strategy that is laid out. So, what we have is chaos, retribution, uncertainty and we're already seeing Stellantis on - lay off, temporarily, 900 employees. Whirlpool laying off employees because it has created uncertainty for manufacturers and it takes sometimes decades for us to rebuild these supply chains.

But in the short term, they are doing just the opposite of what they promised the American people, that they would come in and reduce their costs. Again, this is going to be a tax for the average family of almost $4,000 in increased costs from these tariffs alone. And you couple that with what they're doing in taking away Social Security, health care, veterans benefits, funding for public schools and childcare. And this is a disaster for family budgets across this country.

BERMAN: They would say that they haven't taken away Social Security. What they've done, or considered, is changing the way the Social Security offices respond to claims.

I want to ask you, obviously, these tariffs are broadly unpopular in the United States. The vast majority of voters say they are against them. But they are supported by some parts of the traditional Democratic base.

[09:30:02]

The president of the United Auto Workers Union was on with Kaitlan Collins, Shawn Fain, this is what he said. He supports some of these tariffs.