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Trump's 50 Percent Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Take Effect; U.S. Futures Rise as 50 Percent Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum Take Effect; Family of Firebombing Suspect Taken into ICE Custody, Visas Revoked. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 04, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Higher tariffs in effect. As of today, President Trump has now doubled the tariff on steel and aluminum imports coming into the U.S., and the president overnight gave his new take on negotiating a trade deal with China's leader. All caps, he's extremely hard to make a deal with.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The wife and five children of the Boulder Terror attack suspect are now in ICE custody facing deportation. Officials now warning recent attacks against the Jewish community in Colorado and D.C. may inspire more violence.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight a biological pathogen bust. Two Chinese researchers charged with bringing a potential ag road terror weapon into the United States.

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

BOLDUAN: The breaking news overnight twice. The tariffs President Trump's new levies on steel and aluminum imports now in effect, putting a new focus on the concern over rising prices on everything from cans to food -- to cans of food to cars. The executive order signed by the president hikes those tariffs from 25 percent to 50 percent. America's steel industry is cheering this move, but economists warn it will increase the cost of construction projects, automobiles, appliances and more.

Let's show you, going to give you a live look of the markets and how they're reacting so far. Market futures, they've been up pretty much all throughout the morning, a couple hours now before opening bell on Wall Street.

One of the big targets of these new tariffs, China. And overnight, the president decided to throw out a new jab, or at least a new take at the leader of China seeming to confirm what we have known is that the trade talks with China are stalled, and also saying that Xi Jinping is very tough and extremely hard to make a deal with. That is after he accused China Friday of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs while the two countries apparently need to be negotiating.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House this morning to start us off. New tariffs in effect. What are you hearing from the White House?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, that's exactly right. Kate. This morning, tariffs doubled on steel to 50 percent as of 12:01 A.M. today. Now, this move really has been cheered by the, you know, beleaguered American steel industry, but it is raising concerns among many of the different sectors that heavily rely on steel and this metal for their own industries. You mentioned it, car manufacturers to products like cans that use steel to make their products.

Now, the tariffs, Kate, are especially important to the president and his political base because it's really a symbol of the U.S. manufacturing industry, once iconic, that has now fallen on hard times. So, it's no surprise that we actually saw the president make the announcement that he was going to do this when he went to Pennsylvania last week, of course, a swing state that is home to U.S. steel.

Now, we have heard from different American economists and experts that say that the tariffs likely won't hit American pocketbooks immediately. However, higher prices on construction projects, car lots, appliances and elsewhere are all but inevitable from these higher duties.

Now, the tariffs went into effect on essentially all trading partners, all other countries, except for the United Kingdom, because, remember, they were really the only country to make a specific trade deal with the United States during that 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs.

Now, all of this comes as we also know that today's really the deadline that the White House has been setting four different countries to come to them with their best deals. We heard from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday saying that they've been sending out letters to different trading partners, telling them deal now because the deadline to do this is really coming up. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: USTR sent this letter to all of our trading partners just to give them a friendly reminder that the deadline is coming up. And they are in talks. They continue to be engaged in those discussions. And this letter was simply to remind these countries that the deadline is approaching and the president expects good deals, and we are on track for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:01]

TREENE: Now, Kate, this is significant. Well, first of all, I should say, in my conversations with White House officials, they told me that in these letters, it's less so been framed as an ultimatum that they need to make this deal, but more so trying to kind of light a fire under them and telling them, you know, it's only a couple weeks now until July 9th. And so far, as I said, we haven't really seen many of these trade deals that the administration had been hoping they would have by now come to fruition. So, that's really a letter to kind of urge them to get moving on this.

BOLDUAN: Alayna, also at the same time, we've got something going on with Elon Musk. He left the White House just last week. The bromance, we've tracked, you know, since the campaign between Elon Musk and the president and he is just slamming the president's domestic spending bill. What's going on?

TREENE: He is. We really saw him come out yesterday with the harshest language yet that he's used to attack this bill. I want to read for you some of what he said. He said quote, I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. He posted this on X. This massive, outrageous, pork- filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong. You know it.

Now, Kate, we have actually heard Elon Musk, particularly as he was gearing up to leave the administration begin to use much harsher language in criticizing what he believes the administration is doing wrong, and specifically this bill. Part of it, part of the concerns he's been airing is that he believes it's adding to the deficit. We heard him say that on some media interviews. Of course, his whole goal in coming here with DOGE was to try to cut, you know, spending in the federal government. But also we know that some of this bill would actually personally go against his businesses, like Tesla, that rely on electric vehicle credits. So, that's part of this as well.

Now, we did hear that many White House officials were kind of caught off guard because this was such a public statement, but we did hear the White House also say that this won't change the president's thinking on this bill. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Great to see you, Alayna. Thank you so much for starting us off. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. CNN's Matt Egan is joining me now for more on how markets are reacting to this tariff increase. Matt, futures have been relatively flat this morning. We're looking at them there. How are investors feeling about all of this?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes I think markets are mostly unfazed this morning. A lot of this was baked in as the president telegraphed this was coming on Friday. We did see an initial reaction in the market on Monday. We saw steel stocks go straight up. And auto companies, which use steel, go straight down.

But, look, this is another really aggressive use of one of the president's favorite economic tools, right, tariffs, we have not seen tariffs this high on steel and aluminum since the 1930s. And the goal here is to revive the Rust Belt, right? They're trying to boost manufacturing jobs. And it's true, right, employment production, when you look at steel, it is down dramatically. And that has been really painful to communities that rely on steel and aluminum jobs. But here's the problem. Steel and aluminum are critical inputs. They're used to make a lot of items, right, cars and trucks, home appliances, like washing machines and dishwashers, machinery, aircraft, building materials, food and beverage cans. And economists say that these tariffs are going to lift the cost to make all of these goods and that eventually all of us as consumers could feel the impact.

And here's the other thing that doesn't get enough attention. There's a lot more people that work at companies that make all of these items than there are at companies that make steel. Listen to University of Michigan Economist Justin Wolfers explained this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: What this is going to do is jack up the price of steel, which then jacks up the price of inputs for American manufacturers. We've actually seen this movie once before, Jake, in 2018, the exact same movie, Trumped raised tariffs on steel, saved 1,000 steel jobs, which sounds terrific, until you realize that the higher cost of steel costs 75 times as many jobs elsewhere in the manufacturing sector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: So, in other words, the problem here is that this policy could protect manufacturing jobs at the cost of even more manufacturing jobs.

SIDNER: Yes. It's really a point that needs to be looked at.

Matt Egan, great reporting.

EGAN: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: Well, I knew this morning the family of the man charge in the anti-Semitic attack in Colorado now facing expedited removal from the United States. We're standing by for a response from President Trump this morning, oddly quiet, after his former first friend, Elon Musk slammed his spending bill as a quote, disgusting abomination.

And breaking overnight, two Chinese researchers have been charged with attempting to smuggle a potential bio weapon into the United States.

[07:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, a source tells CNN that immigration officials plan to transfer the family of the Colorado firebombing suspect to Texas for expedited removal from the United States.

[07:15:00] His wife and five children are in custody and their visas have been remote -- revoked, I should say.

Let's get right to seeing as Whitney Wild in Boulder for the latest on this. What are you learning this morning, Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: John, sources are telling CNN that family has been taken from Colorado to Texas where they are facing an expedited review. We also know, as you said, that sources are telling CNN that that family's visas have been revoked. We're talking about. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man who attacked those peaceful protestors in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday. We're talking about his wife and his five children.

The expectation here, John, based on what the White House has said, and based on what the Department of Homeland Security has said, is that they will be deported and quickly. Here's more from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: Today, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE are taking the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado, terrorist and illegal alien Mohamed Soliman into ICE custody.

We're also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack, if they had any knowledge of it or if they provided support to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Soliman had previously told law enforcement that no one knew about the attack. However, law enforcement is going to investigate this to the fullest extent.

Finally, John, we have some updates on Mohamed Sabre Soliman's court cases. And what we know is that he's doing court on the state charges on Thursday. The expectation is that he's going to appear in federal court by Friday.

Again, John, this attack was absolutely horrific. According to the FBI, he had planned it for more than a year. There's quite a bit of information that Mohamed Sabry Soliman gave up voluntarily, but, again, investigators are looking into every single piece of this and every single piece that led up to this horrific attack Sunday. John?

BERMAN: Yes, it's important to pull on all the threads in this investigation.

Whitney Wild for us in Boulder this morning, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, in April, President Trump approved millions of dollars of FEMA assistance for Virginia after some devastating storms, but at least four -- it took at least four days for the funding request to actually reach FEMA. There's new CNN reporting on what is causing these alarming delays and what officials, former and current, are telling CNN now.

And Marty McFly's famous guitar from Back to the Future, it's missing. The famous guitar maker and the stars of the film are launching a search to track it down.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, new CNN reporting current and former FEMA officials concerned about the White House's approach to disaster relief. Typically, FEMA advises the White House on which states should get critical assistance in times of need and after natural disasters. But sources now tell CNN confusion at the agency has led to a breakdown in communication with the White House and led to delays in getting aid to the people who need it most.

CNN's Gabe Cohen has U.S. reporting. He is joining us now. Gabe, tell us more about what you're learning.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It. So, Kate, let me take you back to April, when President Trump approved this disaster declaration, millions of dollars in funding for the state of Virginia, which was reeling from winter flooding. Virginia's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin gets a call from the White House, puts out a press release. Local news outlets start reporting that funds are coming to the state. But FEMA, the agency that actually delivers that critical money, had not been told. And, in fact, they learned the news from those news stories. They didn't get official word from the White House about that disaster declaration for more than four days, which meant the money that was supposed to go out the door to those hard hit communities was delayed.

Then in May, a similar situation, President Trump approves disaster funds for Arkansas for severe tornadoes, after Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders had lobbied him for help. Again, FEMA did not find out for five days, delaying the process to get money out the door.

And several current and former top FEMA officials are telling me that that is very odd, that usually FEMA is this integral partner in that process, who knows within a few hours that funding has been approved. One of those officials told me, a five-day lag is unheard of as it prevents FEMA from fulfilling its statutory roles. It feels like a way to make it look like FEMA is being slow when we are not yet authorized to act.

And, Kate, this breakdown in communication is really indicative of this increasingly fractured relationship between the Trump administration and FEMA, which they have vowed to eliminate. But it is particularly alarming given that hurricane season is just underway. And it is just one piece of the panic that we are hearing from folks inside FEMA who are saying that the agency right now really is not properly prepared for a severe storm season given all the turmoil that they have faced.

And to give you a sense of that turmoil, well, we've now obtained this email from FEMA's former second in command, a longtime, well-respected leader at the agency who resigned last month, sent a note to her team. And in it, she said, everyone has a line and I have reached mine. I will not be complicit in the dismantling of this agency, and while I would readily implement change, even radical change, the current approach lacks a clear end state or plan and has been done recklessly without regard to our current statutory or moral obligations to the American people. I also will not be part of the intentional traumatization of our workforce.

And, Kate, she is just one part of the mass exodus of key leaders that we have seen at FEMA in recent months. And for those who are still left, there is this extremely tall task ahead because we could see a lot of catastrophic storms in the coming months.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And that is quite a statement from that now former official.

Gabe, great reporting, thank you for bringing it to us. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Still ahead, President Trump says China's president is, quote, extremely hard to make a deal with. Will we see a return to big tariffs on China?

Plus, two Chinese researchers charged with smuggling a biological pathogen into the United States.

[07:25:05]

What they allegedly wanted to do with it.

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, President Trump venting his frustrations over his trade war with China after accusing China of violating an agreement to temporarily roll back tariffs. Overnight, the president posted this, I like President Xi of China, always have and always will, but he is very tough and extremely hard to make a deal with.

That jab coming as a U.S. ambassador is in China, meeting with that country's top diplomat.

CNN's Marc Stewart is joining me now from Beijing. What has been the reaction there after these comments from President Trump?

[07:30:02]

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Sara. It's almost as if China is blowing this off.