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Polls on Trump's Standing; Mary Lovely is Interviewed about Japan's Trade Agreement; Anti-Vaccine Group Sues RFK Jr.; Altman Warns of A.I. Fraud Crisis; U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee will Comply with Transgender Ban; Heat Alerts in Two Dozen States. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 23, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Are unhappy about it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. faces a new lawsuit from an anti-vaccine group that he created.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, we are now six months and about three days into this Trump administration. The president is touting it as some of the most successful six months any president has ever seen. But what do the voters think about that? And his job in general?

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here.

[08:35:05]

So, the president says things are great. What do the voters say?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: No, I think is the answer. Six months in, the rules of political gravity absolutely apply to Donald Trump. And the USS Donald Trump is taking on a lot of water.

What are we talking about? Trump's net approval rating. Look, he started off back in January plus six points on the net approval rating, minus three in March, minus seven in May, and now he's at a term two low at minus 11 points. His net approval rating has dropped nearly 20 points. In the aggregate, since the beginning of his presidency, the American people do not like what they're seeing. And Donald Trump's administration is in a ton of trouble at this point in the minds of the American voters.

BERMAN: Well, on what issues do the American voters seem to disapprove of him?

ENTEN: They disapprove of him on all of the issues. He's underwater on all the major issues of the day. Trump's net approval rating on all the major issues, minus five points on immigration, his best issue he's underwater. How about the economy? That was what he was elected for. Minus 14 points. How about foreign policy? Minus 14 points. How about trade in those tariff wars? Minus 15 points. And, of course, the Epstein case, the lowest of the bunch, minus 37 points, 37 points below water.

My goodness gracious, on every single issue, Donald Trump is below water on all the major ones. They're all dragging him down, no matter, it seems, what Donald Trump does, the American people do not like it. And that is why, at this particular point, he's at a term two low.

BERMAN: It's interesting because this is the issue that may be on the top of many peoples' minds as members of Congress head home for this extended summer recess.

ENTEN: And it's his worst one.

BERMAN: I'm not sure that House members will be excited to see that number as they leave Washington today.

So, where does his overall approval rating stand compared to other presidents?

ENTEN: OK. I do have one piece of good news for Donald Trump, and that there is one other presidency that has a lower net approval rating at this point than this one. The bad news is that it was Donald Trump's other presidency, his first presidency. Net approval rating six months in. The worst was in 2017. Donald Trump was 16 points underwater. The second worst, however, is this Donald Trump presidency, 11 points underwater. The average president at this point since 1953 has a plus 27 net approval rating.

John, do some quick math with me. It seems to me that Donald Trump is about 40 points lower than the average president at this particular point. He has the second worst net approval rating at this point. He is underwater on all the major issues of the day. The bottom line is, six months into this administration, I think that most Americans would apply the word or words "disaster," "terrible," "awful," "horrible." I think that is the way that the American people would see it at this particular point. He is so far below underwater compared to the average president. The only one he beats out is him in term number one. And I don't think that's exactly the metric he wants to be applying to himself.

BERMAN: Interesting to see which direction it will go next.

Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, President Trump announced a long awaited trade agreement with Japan on Tuesday night. Under the deal, Japanese exports to the U.S. will face a 15 percent tariff. That is lower than the 25 percent that the president had threatened against the country earlier this month. And that lower rate will also extend to Japanese auto exports, which is critical as foreign cars are Japan's biggest export to the U.S. In turn, Japan agreed to open up more for American cars, trucks and agricultural products.

But let's talk about the impact here. Joining me right now is Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Thanks for being here.

The president calls this a massive trade deal with China. How big is it? Japan, rather, sorry.

MARY LOVELY, SENIOR FELLOW, PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: Well, it's understandable. There's so many deals being negotiated right now.

It's not a massive trade agreement. It is an agreement in which the Japanese open up their markets in some important ways but, basically, swallow a 15 percent tariff on their exports to the United States.

This is good news for Japanese autos, who were facing 25 percent, and now reportedly will face 15 percent. We're seeing that in the markets today, this sense of relief. But it's still a far way from where we were six months ago.

BOLDUAN: And the impact on autos is important to focus in on here, because you also have, at the same time, GM just announced yesterday that tariffs cost them $1.1 billion in the second quarter. Stellantis announced that tariffs had costed some $350 million in the first half of the year. I mean we're talking about -- when you talk about GM, that's America's biggest automaker. I mean can you put this in perspective for us, how significant this is, what we are hearing now from U.S. automakers?

LOVELY: Well, in the interest of trying to shore up the U.S. automakers, I'm afraid the government has been adding enormous amounts of costs and uncertainty to automakers and their plans for new models.

[08:40:10]

The automakers, both transplants and domestic brands, have been warning for months that tariffs were going to create havoc with their planning, their costs, their operations, their exports. And we're seeing those chickens come home to roost in these earnings numbers.

U.S. automakers use imports as a way to reduce the cost, particularly of models they sell in fewer numbers. And raising the costs of the imports of those parts and vehicles really does cost them in terms of the bottom line.

We have to remember also, Kate, that they have been subject to enormous amount of uncertainty in the U.S. plans for dealing with climate change. Investments and plans that they had made for battery ventures, for new assembly plants, have either been mothballed or put on hold, and charges have to be made for those losses.

So, all in all, the U.S. auto industry has just been sort of yanked back and forward. Bottom line, we're going to see higher prices and probably fewer exports as U.S. loses competitiveness around the world.

BOLDUAN: Because I was going to ask you, Mary, because GM, I found interesting, also said that there was no immediate plan to hike prices specifically to cover the greater cost associated with tariffs. My question is, how long do you think automakers can absorb this new cost?

LOVELY: Well, of course, as economists say, all else equal, we have to think about what's going on with the economy. If auto prices are softening, it's going to be harder for automakers to pass those costs along immediately. But eventually, if the market demands a certain return on auto stocks, those costs are going to have to be passed through to consumers. If not now, because auto sales are softening, then in the future as they begin to tighten up.

So, we are already seeing price increases in other areas, in steel, in tomatoes, in other sorts of goods and services that are influenced by these tariffs. And we will absolutely see it in autos.

Just one other point that's worth noting is that we're going to see fewer models being brought into the United States and fewer models being made by U.S. producers. So, U.S. consumers are also going to face reduced variety when they go auto shopping.

BOLDUAN: Mary, it's great to have you. Thank you so much for your time.

John.

BERMAN: So, this morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is being sued by the same anti-vaccine group he once created. The Children's Health Defense is now accusing Kennedy of breaking the law by not creating a task force to make children's vaccines more safe.

Let's get right to CNN's Jacqueline Howard with the details on this.

Good morning, Jacqueline.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Good morning, John.

Yes, this lawsuit, it basically is accusing Kennedy of failing to establish this task force that's dedicated to childhood vaccine safety. And the lawsuit alleges that this violates specifically the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. So, just to take a step back, that act, it does direct the HHS secretary to establish a task force that includes the director of the National Institutes of Health, the CDC director, and the FDA commissioner. And in a post on X just yesterday, the Children's Health Defense wrote, quote, "Secretary Kennedy has failed to establish a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer, as mandated by federal law. So, we will be holding him accountable," end quote.

Now, John, this lawsuit also claims that previous HHS secretaries have made similar failures. So, these grievances that the group has, they're nothing new. And we've seen them file similar lawsuits before. But what makes this different is they seem to be attacking their own

leader, who we know is Kennedy Jr. John. That's what makes this significant in a way.

BERMAN: Any response from Kennedy on this?

HOWARD: No response yet. We did reach out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We also, John, reached out to public health experts, like Dr. Peter Hotez at Texas Children's Hospital, and Dorit Riess at UC Law San Francisco, and they both separately said that they view this lawsuit as more performative. We also know CDC and FDA, they do have advisory committees that specifically look at childhood vaccines, vaccine safety. Both experts we spoke to did say that vaccine safety is routinely monitored. So, it's interesting to see this lawsuit. But again, no word from Kennedy himself yet.

BERMAN: All right, Jacqueline Howard for us this morning. Keep us posted. Thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, the CEO of one of the biggest A.I. companies says that we could be on the brink of an artificial intelligence fraud crisis.

[08:45:04]

OpenAI's Sam Altman says that A.I. could enable scammers to impersonate other people. And despite that new warning, his company has urged the Trump administration to limit regulation of this technology.

Let's get over to Clare Duffy, who's got much more on this one for us.

Clare, what is Sam Altman warning about, and what is he saying could be coming with this technology?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so A.I. has gotten so good at replicating peoples voices, and increasingly even their faces over video. I saw an example of this recently, and it's really stunning how you can show up on a Zoom call looking like a completely different person. These comments from Altman came at a speech at the Fed in front of representatives of some of the biggest U.S. financial institutions, and he warned them that it is -- it is crazy if banks are still using voice authentication technology to let people move large sums of money, withdraw large sums of money, because A.I. can be used by scammers to impersonate them.

Let's listen to a bit more of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM ALTMAN, CEO, OPENAI: I am very nervous that we have an impending -- a significant impending fraud crisis because of this.

You know there's obviously some reports now of these sort of like ransom attacks where people have the voice of your kid or your parent and they make this urgent call. That is going to get so compelling. Society has to deal with this problem more generally, but people are going to have to change the way they interact. They're going to have to change the way they verify, like this person calling me. Right now it's a voice call. Soon it's going to be a video facetime. It will be indistinguishable from reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Now, what's worth noting is that Sam Altman has backed a technology called the Orb that purports to solve this problem by verifying people's unique humanness on the internet. But this is especially interesting because him being at the Fed, making these comments, is an example of how OpenAI has really been building its presence in Washington. The company is planning to open an office there early next year.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

DUFFY: And they have been advising the Trump administration ahead of this A.I. action plan that President Trump is expected to reveal today outlining his regulatory priorities when it comes to this technology. And OpenAI has really asked the federal government to maybe pass some federal regulations but limit the amount of state regulations that these companies have to comply with.

BOLDUAN: There's been this tension. Should it be state regulation? Should there be a ban on states offering regulation for a period of time? But how quickly the Feds move is a huge question, right?

DUFFY: Exactly. And the message from the tech companies seems to really be, don't guard -- put guardrails around us. Let us build more technology to counter the problems that our technology is potentially creating here.

BOLDUAN: I mean the whole just trust us is -- can be a little bit tough to swallow when you're talking about something like this. But we will see how this goes.

DUFFY: We'll see.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Clare.

John.

BERMAN: All right, more than two decades after losing sight in both eyes because of a tumor, one California coffee shop owner is inspiring his staff and customers while making up a delicious brew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKEY DAVIS, OWNER, MIKEY'S COFFEEHOUSE: I did not go through the whole five stages of grief. That's all based off of feel. And with the frothing the milk, I focused on the sounds of what the milk is making.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Well, that's great. It must sound perfect. Mikey Davis runs Mikey's Coffeehouse, relying on sound, touch and technology to make his drinks. He says he occasionally spills one, but it's no big deal. Davis says he savors every day, knowing the tumor could have taken his life.

All right, we're getting new details in about a man police say planned to set off homemade bombs in Manhattan.

And the district attorney now says the suspect accused of killing an "American Idol" executive and her husband used the couple's own gun, then called 911.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:53:04]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says it will comply with President Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.

With us now is CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan. She is the author of the wildly successful new book "On Her Game."

Christine, always great to see you.

When you heard the news about the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, I'm just curious what your reaction was.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: No surprise at all, John. This is the way the sports world has been going, certainly since President Trump's executive order right after he got into office. But even before then, when Joe Biden was president, both World Aquatics and World Athletics, those are two of the biggest international federations in the -- in the world, in the Olympic world and throughout sports. That's -- World Aquatics runs swimming and World Athletics runs track and field.

So, when everyone watched the Paris Olympics a year ago and you were watching track and field and swimming, the policy -- the same policy, which is, if someone has gone through male puberty, they cannot compete in the women's category. That policy was in place for the Paris Olympics because both of the track and field and the swimming federations worldwide, not in the U.S., worldwide governing the U.S., of course, those decisions were made during the Biden presidency. So, this has been happening now over the last few years. It is consistent with the way the world of sports is going.

BERMAN: You know, and what's interesting, and no one understands, I think, the politics of some of these organizations better than you do. When it was announced, it was sort of embedded in this PDF link under athlete safety policy on the Olympic Committee's site. It avoids any use of the words "transgender," any direct mention of the executive order. Instead, it refers to it as sort of 14201. So, why do you think this sort of veil over what they were doing?

[08:55:01]

BRENNAN: Well, it is part -- as you know, I've covered the Olympics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee since the, you know, the '80s, since '83, '84, right before the L.A. Olympics. And so, there are -- there are rules. They are federally chartered. They are not federally funded, the USOPC, John. So, they do have to, as the leadership of the USOPC said in the -- in the document, the letter that came out, that they do have to comply with the expectations of Trump's executive order, just like the NCAA did.

And there is a lot of arcane language within Olympic -- the Olympic world. But the Amateur Sports Act, called now the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act, which chartered the U.S. -- the current day U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Those are the rules. It is, again, as I said, they're not getting federal funding, but they are chartered. And so, frankly, it's no surprise at all that they did this. They obviously took their time.

What's happening throughout the sports world, this is a fraught issue. Obviously, there are people who are furious about this, there are people who are happy about it, and everywhere in between. But this is an issue that science, medicine, good people are talking without -- throughout the sports world, international sports world, and within the U.S. are having these conversations about science and medicine, what is fair for everyone. The hate is awful. We want young kids to play sports. But we're talking about the elite level here. And, of course, we're also talking about very few people who might be able to -- be able to be Olympic athletes or eligible.

And there's more. The national governing bodies for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee need to make up their own set of standards and rules and watch for open categories. In other words, where -- swimming did this worldwide and tried to do this. Not male, not female, but open category. I think that's where we're headed for transgender female athletes is to be in open categories or the mixed sports, like mixed doubles or mixed swimming events, male, female. We'll see how that plays out.

BERMAN: Christine Brennan, great to talk to you this morning. Again, congratulations on the new book. It's so exciting to read about all the interest in it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Columbia University is now sanctioning more than 70 of its students for taking part in pro-Palestinian protests last year. A source familiar with the action says 80 percent of those students have received two year suspensions, degree revocations or expulsions. It comes as Columbia tries to regain access to millions of dollars in federal funding that had been put on hold, funding that the Trump administration had frozen up earlier this year over the school's handling of anti-Semitism on campus.

And there are new details in the murder of an "American Idol" executive and her husband in Los Angeles. Authorities now say that the murder weapon was actually their own gun. Police believe that the suspect used the gun registered to one of them in the attack when they arrived home unexpectedly in the middle of this man robbing their home. Authorities also say that the suspect himself called 911 to report the shooting. He was arrested the following day, and he is now charged with two counts of murder and one count of residential burglary.

And federal investigators have indicted a man they say made at least seven homemade bombs that he planned to set off in New York City. Prosecutors say the 55-year-old made the bombs with ingredients that he bought online. They say that he planted them in several places around Manhattan, including the Williamsburg Bridge, on a subway track, and on the rooftops of residential buildings. None of the bombs ever exploded, thank God. The man now faces several charges, including unlawful possession of destructive devices.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, more than 95 million people in two dozen states are under heat alerts today, and the heat dome blanketing the Mississippi Valley is headed toward the East Coast by the end of the week. No thank you.

With us now, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

Good morning, Derek. What are we looking at?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I wish I could send the heat dome away, but that's not the reality, John. This heat dome is driving stronger thunderstorms across this outer periphery as well. So, heads up. Keep an eye to the sky in Minneapolis.

But underneath that oppressive heat dome, it is suppressing the cloud cover, precipitation. And this is the over two dozen states that are under heat alerts from the Gulf Coast, through the mid-Mississippi valley, all the way into the Midwest.

Look at these temperatures for today, skyrocketing just under the 100- degree mark. But, of course, you factor in the humidity levels and that's where we feel the heat. The heat indexes above triple digits from Chicago to Omaha, Kansas City for the day today. Notice how that advances eastward into the Ohio River Valley for tomorrow.

And then the heat wave advances to the East Coast to start off the early parts of the weekend. Heads up D.C., New York to Boston. And I just want to give you a heads up as well. The hottest part of the country today will actually be really across the corn belt. This is where we grow the majority of our corn. And the reason I bring this up is because it's that time of year again. Corn sweats.

[09:00:00]

Yes, it really does. It's just like our human body sweating and evaporating that heat off of our bodies. Well, corn actually absorbs and brings