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Trump Threatens Tariffs On Apple iPhones And EU Products; Sunday To Mark Five Years Since George Floyd's Death; Russia And Ukraine Exchange Hundreds Of Prisoners In First Step Of Large-Scale Swap; North Korea Investigating Failed Launch Of Warship. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired May 23, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Billions of dollars has been paid to Harvard. How ridiculous is that? Billions. And they have $52 billion as an endowment. They have $52 billion and this country is paying billions and billions of dollars and then give student loans and have to pay back the loans. So Harvard is going to have to change its ways. So are some others.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On that note, a lot of CEOs in the United States, big companies are for it. What is that going to do --

TRUMP: I'm fine with that. No, I'm fine with that. No, we want to do that. We're actually going to be doing something in the near future that's going to make it possible for people to come into this country and come in and, you know, have a road toward citizenship. And I think it'll be very exciting. But it's too soon to speak.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would you not want the best and brightest from around the world to come to Harvard?

TRUMP: I do. I do, but a lot of the people need remedial math. Did you see that? Where the students can't add two and two and they go to Harvard. They want remedial math and they're going to teach remedial math at Harvard.

Now wait a minute. So why would they get in? How can somebody that can't add or has very basic skills, how do they get into Harvard? Why are they there? And then you see those same people picketing and screaming at the United States and screaming at, you know, they're antisemitic or they're something. We don't want troublemakers here. But how do people that can't -- when Harvard comes out with a statement that they're going to teach some of their students remedial math. That's basic math. That's not the deal. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there other countries you're considering shortening the 90-day pause on tariffs for? And then are there specific steps you're looking for the E.U. to take?

TRUMP: We're doing well. We have a lot of requests and, you know, you don't have the people to handle it, frankly. Everybody wants to make a deal. I'm sure now the European Union wants to make a deal very badly, but they just -- they don't do it right. They don't go about it right.

The other thing they do is they sue our companies all the time. You know, they have suits where their judges, I don't know if they're appointed by them, but they're definitely Europe centric. And we're not going to stand for it. They won a $17 billion lawsuit for Apple.

And I read that case and that's not a case that should have been won. They're suing other of our companies. They use this as a weapon, but they use it really to raise funds for what they do. It's almost like a fundraising mechanism. So we add that to the fact that they do the non-monetary tariffs and lots of other trading you would call them trading barriers.

They don't take our cars, they don't take our agriculture, they don't take anything. But we take their cars by the minions and therefore they have the jobs, they get the money and we get closed plans. Not going to happen that way anymore.

Thank you very much, everybody.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, we are listening to President Trump there in the Oval Office as he has launched a 50 percent tariff threat on the EU and a 25 percent tariff threat very specifically on Apple. Apparently having a beef right now with CEO Tim Cook.

He's talking about what we've heard from one of his top officials in his administration that Apple should come and have plants that are computerized or automated. Of course, experts say that would make an iPhone cost somewhere about $3,500, which love it. But that might be a little steep.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Might be a little steep. Might be a little steep. But you know, on that front, you know, we've seen over the years from Apple who has said the logistics -- the logistical challenges of trying to build in the United States versus what they've done over years in places like China and India at the very least would take a long time. But also the demand just would not be able to be there for the pace of what they've been able to create.

And we also heard that when he was asked, are you looking for a deal in that 50 percent tariff rate? To give you an idea of the posturing, he said, I'm not looking for a deal. We've set the deal at 50 percent, putting the onus on the E.U. apparently. But we've got CNN's Jeff Zeleny who's with us now.

Jeff, I know you were listening in on that, taking questions as he often does off the cuff even for an executive order signing. What's what stood out to you?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, President Trump was in the Oval Office signing a couple more executive orders on nuclear power. But of course took other questions and I think to the point there, Omar, you were just making about President Trump saying he's not looking for a deal. The 50 percent tariff threat against the E.U. will stand. Well, I think there's enough evidence to show that simply is not the

case. It's clearly a negotiating tactic. Those 145 percent tariffs against China were going to stand until they weren't. So the bottom line here is I think this is just indicative of the president's frustration.

[14:35:00]

But interestingly, Brianna, to your point about Apple, the president also said there that he would also include Samsung and some other competitors in the list of tariffs, otherwise it would not be fair. And he said incorrectly that iPhones can be made in the U.S. and that simply experts and industry officials have said it's simply not possible at the price point that they are or that people would be willing to pay there. But a variety of things.

The president also talking about Harvard specifically, he said that Harvard needs to change the way it does business and also suggested that other universities could also fall under this new administration policy of effectively trying to expel international students. So the president making these remarks, he's scheduled to go to Bedminster, his golf course in New Jersey for a long weekend here shortly.

KEILAR: He really has, Jeff, a beef with Harvard trying to highlight a remedial math class that they have. I looked. That's something that's been reported, I think by the New York Post. We should be clear. I don't think all students at Harvard. I think we can say categorically they are not taking remedial math. But this is a long going beef that he's had with the university.

ZELENY: It absolutely is. I mean, it started with the freeze of $2 billion in federal funding. It, you know, continued to curriculum issues and now this. Of course, he has made or sought to make an example of Harvard. One of the reasons is because Harvard has fought back. They do have the largest endowment and President Trump mentioned that right there. He said the specific amount of their endowment, I think he said $52 billion or so. It's around there.

But look, this is a lot of people think that there is much more to this here. The president's ongoing antagonistic view with Harvard certainly is indicative of a broader view, but he does like Ivy League graduates. He has many of them in the West Wing and as well. So we will see where this goes from here.

Of course, a judge has stepped in and put a temporary restraining order against the administration's decision. So one more legal case for us to keep our eyes on.

JIMENEZ: But something tells me that is not going to be the end of the saga. Jeff Zeleny, good to see you. Thanks for the reporting.

All right, everyone, we'll be right back. This is CNN News Central.

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[14:42:18] JIMENEZ: Minneapolis holding a moment of silence to mark five years since the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The world watching after the bystanders at times, excruciating footage showed Floyd beg for his life with Chauvin kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes.

Now, the nationwide outrage prompted police policy reforms in Minneapolis to try and prevent this from ever happening again. But on Wednesday, the Trump administration announced its ending federal oversight in cities like Minneapolis.

I want to bring in Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison now to discuss. Good to see you. I want to start with that last point there that the Trump administration announced this week. It would end its oversight of policing reforms through court authorized consent decrees in cities like Minneapolis.

For example, Mayor Jacob Fry has said they are going to move forward with their own police reforms. But what is your reaction to what we're seeing from the Trump administration and what do you believe is the most pressing need for change in terms of law enforcement in the city?

KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I believe that Donald Trump is not a partner for improving relationships between police and community. He wasn't a partner during his first term. He's not a partner now. He famously said that, hey, at a graduation of police officers, hey, don't worry about them smashing their head into the door. Do that. You know, don't try to prevent that from happening. Hey, he famously said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, he's actually thrown gas on the fire. And that's really unfortunate coming from somebody who claims to be a leader of the country.

At the same time, this is the same man who sent a mob to attack the Capitol to overturn an election, then pardoned the criminals who attacked the Capitol then. And they hurt, they injured the, those 1,200 people, injured about 140 police officers. One of them lost their eye and several of them died.

So he's not a friend of law enforcement. He's a friend of chaos. And it's unfortunate. But that will not stop us from working with our police officers who really believe in public service and our communities who really want good service and coming together.

And I think Mayor Fry is absolutely right. No matter what Trump does, it's not going to stop us from building a great state and a great city and having a wonderful harmonious relationship between police and community. We're working on it every day and we're going to continue to do so.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, it's a challenge. You know, cities across this country deal with trying to find that balance and keeping the public safe with also trying to bridge some of those community divides.

[14:45:07]

You know, this weekend is going to be five years since the killing of George Floyd. And as I look at some of the latest Pew research, 72 percent of those polled say the increased focus on race and racial inequality after Floyd's killing did not lead to changes that improve the lives of black people. And I wonder just five years now on what do you see as the enduring legacy of that chapter?

ELLISON: Well, you know, if you really count up all of the change and non-change, the truth is that it's a mixed bag. Yes, the George Floyd justice and policing never got passed through Congress. But locally we did ban no knock warrants, certain chokeholds or all chokeholds. We strengthened the Police Officer Standards and Training Board. We made our Minneapolis Police Department into a Department of Public Safety that combines not just police department, youth violence prevention, health, 911 so that we can have greater coordination. We hired people who were reform minded chiefs.

So we've been moving on the ground. And I think this is going to be to the betterment of all Minnesotans, including black Minnesotans. And so I would not say that we haven't made any progress. We've made it at state and local governments. The state of Colorado has made big reforms and important reforms to qualified immunity. The city of Buffalo has made meaningful reforms. There are changes going on the ground. It's just that now that Trump's in office, we have no federal partner.

JIMENEZ: Look, you obviously led the prosecution of Derek Chauvin at the time and after you all secured a conviction, I remember you me that the actions of the witnesses who testified as part of the trial helped restore your faith in humanity.

Fast forward to now. There are some who are calling for President Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, which if it comes from the president, would just be on the federal charges, not on what you secured at the state level.

But what is your reaction to hearing those calls even all this time later? And do you subscribe to any of the reasoning being pushed for a pardon, including that there were massive pressures on the jury to return a guilty verdict?

ELLISON: No, no. This case was tried fairly. You know, Judge Cahill did a great job. The lawyer for Derek Chauvin, attorney Nelson, did a good job. He got his full due process rights. He took advantage of the appeal process and he has been found guilty at the jury trial and at the appellate level. He had a fair trial. He's serving a sentence. There's no legitimate basis for a pardon in this situation.

But why are they calling for it? I think they want to demonstrate contempt for the life of George Floyd, contempt for his family and the victims. They want to demonstrate contempt for the people who protested for a more just America. And they want to demonstrate contempt to the police officers who stepped forward and did the righteous thing by testifying against Chauvin and by working with community to build reform.

That's where they're coming from. This is a theatrical, symbolic thing to just show one more time how much they don't respect certain Americans. I mean, it's like, emblematic of this. You know, when they let the Afrikaners in, but they tell the Afghanistan refugees to go. I mean, it's just -- it couldn't be more clear where leaders in the Trump administration stand.

JIMENEZ: Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for being here.

ELLISON: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Of course. All right. Still to come, the stock markets reacting negatively to Donald Trump's latest threats of higher tariffs targeting European countries and tech giant Apple. We'll have more coming up.

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[14:51:24]

KEILAR: Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the next phase of what's expected to be the biggest prisoner swap since the war began. The two countries agreed to release 1,000 prisoners each. About 800 people have been released so far. CNN military analyst retired Colonel Cedric Leighton is with us now.

This is significant. And you have the president saying that a prisoner exchange could lead to something big. Do you think so?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, that's a great question, Brianna. So, so far, they've agreed to release 1,000 prisoners. They've released 390 of them for each side. So that's almost 800 prisoners total. That is certainly a start. But we have to keep in mind there have been a lot of prisoner exchanges throughout this war. So it's not the only thing that they've been doing, but it is probably the most significant part of anything. It was really the only thing that they agreed to in those talks in Istanbul. So whether or not that leads to anything else, that's really an open question right now.

KEILAR: And Vladimir Putin is saying that Russian forces are creating what he calls the security buffer zone along the border between Russia and Ukraine. What's he doing with this?

LEIGHTON: So what he's trying to do is he's trying to basically establish a buffer zone that goes kind of like this in Ukrainian territory. And what he's trying to do is make sure that everything that is within Russia, any target of importance, is basically outside of the range of the HIMARS missiles.

So we're talking somewhere around an 80 kilometer, 50 mile range. He wants to make sure that Ukrainian artillery, especially the HIMARS part of it, can't reach any Russian targets, like, for example, here in Belgium, Belgorod as an example.

KEILAR: And what is North Korea's role in all of this?

LEIGHTON: Well, the North Koreans, they have about 12,000 soldiers in Russia fighting for the Russians. Some of them have probably entered Ukrainian territory by now. And the basic idea here is this is a realization of the agreement, the defense agreement that the North Koreans and the Russians have with each other.

KEILAR: And staying on North Korea. Just some pretty unbelievable pictures that we're getting here of this North Korean naval vessel. Can you explain to us what we're looking at?

LEIGHTON: So this is a destroyer that they were trying to launch in the northeast from a northeastern port in North Korea. And you see it's covered basically by blue tarps all over the place. Or what apparently happened is as it was being launched off of this dock right here, it basically collapsed into the water.

And according to North Korean press reports, they're saying, don't worry about this. There is not too much leakage, but there's definitely leakage. The ship is on its side, it's in the water, and it's going to -- if it's going to be salvaged, they're going to have to pull it out of the water in order to refurbish it at this point in time.

KEILAR: Is that unusual, that kind of thing?

LEIGHTON: Very unusual. It never happens in any of the launch facilities that I've ever seen here in the United States or with any Western country. The North Koreans have some significant problems trying to keep up with the West. What they're trying to do is establish a navy that has a presence beyond the Korean coastline that can potentially threaten Japan or other areas, including the U.S. 7th Fleet, which is based in Japan.

KEILAR: There's trying to keep up and then there's just getting a ship in the water, though. I mean, is that a difficult part of this process or is that something that should be easy?

LEIGHTON: It should be relatively easy. Now, there are a lot of complications. There are a lot of moving parts, as they say, when it comes to launching a vessel. But it's definitely the easier part when it comes to fielding a navy that requires more ships, more capabilities, things like that. So the North Koreans are basically on the back foot with step one here at this point.

[14:55:00]

KEILAR: And while I have you, I want to talk to you about Iran because you had this fifth round of talks and nuclear enrichment is really at the heart of this. The Trump administration insisting Tehran completely stop. Tehran is saying that it wants to have nuclear enrichment for energy capabilities. It is. That's a significantly lower level than for weapons capabilities, but it's still quite the capability. Where do you see this landing?

LEIGHTON: So basically, if you want to enrich things for nuclear weapons, enrich uranium. For nuclear weapons grade uranium, you would need to enrich it to at least the 90 percent level. The Iranians want to have something lower than that. At least that's what they're saying.

Steve Witkoff, the President's emissary for these talks, has basically said that they want zero enrichment. Well, that creates a problem because the Iranians have this nuclear plant here in Bushehr which was actually started under the Shah of Iran back in 1975. And then once the Iranian revolution occurred, the Russians stepped in and built this.

This has only been online, even though they started in 1975. This has only been online providing power to the Iranians electrical grid in 2011. They're building new reactors here. The Russians are with some help from the Iranians, obviously.

But what they really want to do here is they want to create a situation where they can have nuclear power as part of one of their energy sources. They see that as one of their future elements. And if they don't get the power to enrich it, they're going to import nuclear fuel from somewhere else, probably from Russia. And that would of course be a bit of a problem, but it would also cement the ties between Iran and Russia.

KEILAR: That's a very good point, Cedric, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brianna.

KEILAR: And still to come, we're following some breaking news this afternoon as music icon Billy Joel suddenly cancels all of his concert dates after revealing that he has a neurological disorder.

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