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Trump Considers Tariff Exemptions; Trump's Approval Rating Falls; Bueckers Number One WNBA Pick. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 15, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

LAWRENCE SUMMERS, FORMER PRESIDENT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: That you have to engage in a process of discussion. That your punishment has to be tied to what an institution has done wrong rather than indiscriminate, that the focus has to be discrimination. That's not what any of this is. This is an attempt to impose the kind of regulation on Harvard that is imposed by government on universities in countries that we don't think of as democracies. Countries that don't have free speech protections.

And so, one obviously should follow the law, but that does not mean obeying government edicts when those edicts are themselves extra lawful. That's why we have courts.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And - and to be clear -

SUMMERS: And so if it comes to that, there'll - there'll be litigation.

BERMAN: And I'm sure Harvard could find some lawyers.

SUMMERS: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Mr. Secretary, just very quickly on this subject, because I also want to talk about the economy. You've also been critical of Harvard and other universities. You don't think they're in any way perfect. And you do think some reform is needed.

SUMMERS: Yes, I think that in all kinds of ways, with respect to prejudice, with respect to anti-Semitism, with respect to making sure that all kinds - all views are represented, respect to making sure that order is maintained, that universities are in need of a great deal of reform, and it's come too slowly. But that's not a reason why the government can entirely suspend the law and make up self-serving political demands and impose them on universities.

BERMAN: So, Mr. Secretary, I want to ask you about the tariffs. What message do you think that markets, but more importantly businesses, foreign leaders, decision makers are taking away right now from the president's tariffs, but also the exemptions and exceptions and maybe not the exemptions and exceptions, just the back and forth on all that information that's coming at them?

SUMMERS: That they should think about the United States, the way they have traditionally thought about developing countries. That you can't predict what's going to come next. That you have to put a major uncertainty factor into every dealing and every relationship that you have. That it depends less on the rules and more on who you - who you know.

And so, countries, businesses, they have in their playbook dealing with situations like this. It's just it was never in their playbook for dealing with the United States. It was in their playbook for dealing with what we call developing countries. Countries much poorer or less democratic and more erratic than the United States.

And that kind of skepticism, applied to the United States, is going to make everything harder and more difficult for us. We're going to pay more. People are going to be slower to invest. We're going to have fewer partners. And that's why the pattern has been absolutely clear for the last 12 days since liberation day, when the administration is reinforcing its policies, everything in markets goes down. When it looks like the administration is seeing the light and pulling back, markets rally. So, at least the judgment of the markets matches the judgment of economic experts that this is about when this mistake is going to get unmade.

BERMAN: Mr. Secretary, Larry Summers, always a pleasure to have you on. Thanks so much for talking to us on a variety of subjects this morning.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, markets, they are open right now. U.S. stocks starting the day, well, if you're looking, it's a little bit mixed at this very moment, as investors, they're facing more ups and downs, as John was just talking about in this trade war roller coaster. President Trump now saying he is considering another round of tariff exemptions for automakers.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich here with us now to make sense of it all for us.

What are we seeing at this moment?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: All right, so the Dow down just slightly. A mixed picture on Wall Street this morning.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

YURKEVICH: The way that one analyst described what's happening with the markets right now is sort of like a ping pong ball.

[09:35:03]

The first time it hits the table, you have that big bounce. And every time it hits the table after, a little bit less. And that's kind of what we're seeing in the markets, less reaction, less volatility, especially after that 90-day pause. But let's not fool anyone. For these next 90 days, investors, traders

in particular, who are really controlling much of the market because they're doing a lot of the day trading around this volatility, it's going to be bumpy for the next 90 days, but not the dramatic volatility likely that we saw in the - in the early weeks of this.

But I want to talk about the auto exemptions -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

YURKEVICH: Which President Trump talked about in the Oval Office. I mean this would be huge and dramatic for automakers, especially the big three. Yesterday, these stocks all popped when President Trump announced that he was looking at exemptions on foreign car part imports. Those are going to be tariffed on May 3rd. But he's thinking about putting a pause on those.

So, you see, you see Ford, GM down a little bit, Stellantis up today. But essentially the president looking at this. And we know that the big three have been talking to the president about trying to figure out just what tariffs would mean for their industry.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

YURKEVICH: Take a listen to what the president said just yesterday about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm looking at something to help some of the car companies, where they're switching to parts that were made in Canada, Mexico and other places, and they need a little bit of time because they're going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time. So I'm talking about things like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And that would, obviously, be welcome news for these automakers, because, if you remember, GM, Ford, Stellantis, yes, they make cars here in the USA, but they use a lot of foreign car imports. So, if those parts are taxed or tariffed at a high rate, like 25 percent, that makes the car ultimately more expensive. And for the average consumer, that will likely mean that your price will go up.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, I think a lot of people would say the question now is, is a little bit more time. What's the definition of a little bit more time, as the president's talking about? We will -

YURKEVICH: Right, May 3rd is coming up. So, he has to make a decision pretty quickly.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right.

It's good to see you. Thank you.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: All right, so, coming up still for us, today is tax day. It is also a day for IRS employees that may end with massive layoffs at the agency.

And the Trump economy, rejected. The new polling that shows the president is facing an all-time low in his approval among independents when it comes to his handling of the economy.

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[09:41:55]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, some pretty stunning numbers provided by CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten. He aggregated a bunch of independent polls that he's seen recently. Again, this is among independents and their view of President Trump's handling of the economy. You can see in January it was positive. Plus one point. Now their views on his approval of handing the economy, minus 29 points. A 30 point drop with independents in just a few months.

With us now, former Republican strategist and pollster Lee Carter and CNN political commentator Karen Finney.

Lee, let me just start with you. You're the pollster here. A 30 point drop among independents in handling the economy in just a few months. What does that tell you?

LEE CARTER, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: Well, it's significant. And I don't think anyone can understate how bad this is for this president. The independents were the ones that gave him the benefit of the doubt and really brought him to victory. We knew he was going to win with Republicans. We knew he wasn't going to win with Democrats. And independents are what put him over the edge. And now they're losing faith in what they said the number one issue was, which was the economy.

I think what's also really damning in these polls is that for the first time in, I don't know, more than a decade, we're seeing that the Democrats are being viewed more favorably in Congress' handling the economy. So, the Republicans have really lost the benefit of the doubt.

I mean we've been talking about this for a little while. I said he's probably got two months of the benefit of the doubt. He's lost it. I think the tariffs situation, the market volatility, has really, really given people pause. A lot of fear out there. When you look at consumer confidence, it is way, way down.

And so, these next 90 days are going to be critical. How this whole tariff argument plays out is going to be absolutely essential for the president's popularity. He's willing to take that bet. I think he knows that he's going to take it on the chin. There's no doubt about it. But these 90 days are going to be absolutely critical to him.

BERMAN: You know, James Carville wrote an op-ed the other night in "The New York Times." He had been saying, James had, Democrats should more or less play dead. Let Republicans just do their thing for a while.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN : Yes.

BERMAN: But in this op-ed he now says, these tariffs are giving Democrats this huge opportunity to come out and talk about it, if you talk about it in the right way. What is that way?

FINNEY: Yes, as you know, I'm not a big fan of Carville's advice, but -

BERMAN: I got it. I got it. And I don't think the blame game was something you ever wanted to do, but now -

FINNEY: But here's the - exactly.

But here's the thing. A couple of things. Part - and the tariff argument is really important because the number one thing, as Lee pointed out, people wanted him to focus on was inflation. And now the message they're hearing from the president, particularly for working people is, hold on. It's going to be a while. We're going to make all these deals and we're going to bring manufacturing back. But there's going to be some pain. That's not what he said during the campaign, right? He said, within 24 hours I'm going to solve the problem.

So, for Democrats, this is an opportunity to talk about the fact - this is a real betrayal of what the president promised on the campaign trail in terms of his ability to deal with inflation.

And secondly, what they're seeing on immigration, and this is part of why I think the president is so afraid to admit publicly what they said privately in the court, they made a mistake.

[09:45:05]

They actually deported someone who should not have been deported. And so, if people are hearing, wait a second, you're making mistakes, you're deporting people who - maybe you're now you're maybe deporting Americans, you're more focused on tariffs than you are on inflation. So, the economic argument is really fraying for the president. And immigration, which is an issue where he - he is actually still doing well, he's - you know, he's got some bumps there that he's going to have to deal with.

BERMAN: Again, we are talking about what Democrats can do. Let's talk about what Democrat voters want to see Democrats do.

FINNEY: Yes.

BERMAN: There have been town halls across the country. One was in Maine last night. Chellie Pingree, who's a representative - one of the two Democratic representatives up there, held a town hall. And I think what this soundbite is, is a Democratic voter saying, you've got to have a better message.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Democrats have had a messaging problem, not just for a couple years, but for a couple decades now. We're in trouble. And it's only going to get worse. If we are continually behind the eight ball, it's only going to get worse. And it's pretty damn bad right now. And I appreciate you said that you're working on it. And I believe that you all are. You're not doing a good enough job. And please take that with the utmost respect. Because we're in trouble. And it's been coming for a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FINNEY: So, a couple things. I think we have to remember, the Democratic Party is not just members of Congress in Washington. It's our governors, it's our AGs who are engaged in protecting Americans right now. And we - and I think part of our message is that - should be about that. We are acting. We are taking action where we can.

But for Democrats in Congress, they could be far more aggressive in talking about, this president needs to follow the law. When we look at what's happening at Harvard, when we look at what's happening with these - with immigration, due process matters, following the law matters.

And on the economy, they absolutely should go on offense. This week they're going to be talking about Social Security, protecting Medicaid. Next week I think they're going to be talking about costs in general. And so I think going on offense, on an economic message that talks about restoring sanity, that talks about, here's how we're going to reduce prices, that is a way, I think, to try to flip this narrative and to point out that this chaos and pain is, a, not what the American people voted for, and, b, there's a - a way to do this.

The last thing I'll say is, they should raise the stakes on Republican members of Congress who have basically abdicated their responsibility to hold this president accountable.

BERMAN: So, Lee, given the option between talking about tariffs, Harvard and immigration, which two of those three subjects do you think Republicans would be more happy discussing right now?

CARTER: Well, I think Republicans right now, it's easier for them to talk about Harvard and some of the issues related to immigration because they're doing much better on that. I think, you know, a lot of people are looking at holding out on elite institutions and pushing back on - on elite colleges as a positive. It's not, obviously, everybody, but that is something that's popular among their base.

I think on immigration, despite some bumps in the road, people are feeling that the border is much more secure.

The big issue for the president and this administration right now is the economy. We're seeing really, really bad numbers when it comes to consumer confidence, when it comes to looking at how the handling of the economy is seen. And so what the president and the administration and Republicans in Congress need to lay out is what the strategy is behind this, because a lot of people are looking at this and saying, is this a negotiating strategy? Are you playing chicken with our future? I'm not really sure why you're doing what you're doing. I understand you're saying you're fighting for the working man, but it doesn't feel so good right now. So, they don't understand the why behind the what.

Now, the Democrats, I think, are making a huge mistake as well. They are just talking about how bad it is. They're on this great road show, a huge opportunity right now when the Republicans are missing the mark. And what they're doing is reminding everybody how bad it was, which is the exact strategy that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden tried to use running against Donald Trump this time, and it just doesn't work. Americans know things are bad. They want to know what you're going to do to make it get better.

BERMAN: All right, Lee Carter, Karen Finney, thanks so much for the discussion. Appreciate your time this morning.

So, a college basketball star now going pro. What is next for one of the best basketball players on earth.

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[09:53:55]

BOLDUAN: She led - helped lead UConn to victory at the NCAA championship, and now Paige Bueckers is on to bigger and better, headed to the pros. The top pick in the WNBA draft going to Dallas. And to - it's like an understatement to say that they are pumped about it.

CNN's Coy Wire back with me to talk more about it.

I love the reaction to this.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, it's real exciting. And for the fans, yes, but also these players. Their hopes and dreams are coming true. In Dallas, they got an absolute baller in Paige Bueckers. UConn Coach Geno Auriemma says that she flows like water. I guess kind of like Bruce Lee.

She started off her career by becoming the first ever freshman to win national player of the year. She missed all last season after tearing her ACL, but she persevered. She bounced back and finished as a national champion there with UConn.

Check out the watch party Kate's talking about back in Dallas. This was the moment she was selected number one overall by the Wings. Here she is after the selection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAIGE BUECKERS, WNBA NUMBER ONE OVERALL PICK: Obviously got a little bit emotional there just talking about my teammates and what they mean to me.

[09:55:04]

But just so much gratitude, so much appreciation for the journey that it took to get here and the people that it took to get here.

So, just rewarding their hard work and all of my hard work, I guess. It's - it's very gratifying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, check out this tweet from September of 2014. A local photojournalist in Minnesota where a then 11-year-old Bueckers is from. She - he posted, "remember the name Paige Bueckers. sixth grade. Think Diana Taurasi. Best sixth grade guard I've ever seen." That is prescient and precious.

All right, something fun for you this morning. The Ohio State football team honored at the White House by President Trump on Monday for their national championship win in January. And our vice president, J.D. Vance, an Ohio State alum, pumped to pick up the trophy, but then, fumble! Oh, no. Star running back TreVeyon Henderson caught the top of it, thank goodness. True team effort there. Watch Coach Ryan Day coming in here. Here, let me help you with that thing and make sure it's not messed up too much.

BOLDUAN: Ryan Day's like, just stop touching it.

WIRE: Yes. And VP Vance said afterwards, he said, I just didn't want anyone after Ohio State to be able to have this trophy, so I broke it, he said in a post out on the twitterverse there.

BERMAN: The slow motion version of it is particularly cruel. You can see Vance's face the whole time saying, oh, no, I'm going to be on every show for the next.

BOLDUAN: Butterfingers.

BERMAN: Oh! Oh!

BOLDUAN: Someone was writing about the reaction. They said there were audible gasps from the other players when it was happening, which is understandable.

BERMAN: Yes.

I will say one thing, and I don't want to get in trouble with PETA, but one person said to me yesterday, just glad it wasn't a groundhog. Memo to Bill de Blasio.

All right, Coy Wire -

BOLDUAN: Never - never (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Thank you very much. Coy, thanks.

BOLDUAN: Oh, John Berman.

Love you, Coy.

Thank you so much for joining us. Take the rest, please.

BERMAN: This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" up next.

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