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Trump Tariffs Kick in at Highest Rates Since Great Depression; Texas AG Vows to Expel Democrats if They're Not Back by Friday; Trump Orders New Census That Would Exclude Undocumented People; CBP Agents Hide in Rental Truck for Immigration Raid in L.A.; Farms Facing Worker Shortage Due to Fear of ICE Raids. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 07, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:58]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The cost of doing business with the U.S. just shot up as President Trump's tariffs take effect. Americans are now paying the highest tax in almost a century for foreign goods.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Controversial tactic. Immigration agents defend using a moving van to surprise and arrest more than a dozen people outside a Home Depot. A video reveals how the raid was carried out. And 200 days in, Americans may be souring on the president's job performance, as critics accuse President Trump and his allies of transforming the federal government to fit their own priorities. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

WHITFIELD: Historic tariffs not seen in nearly a century are now in effect as the White House says trade negotiations are being wrapped up,

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SCOTT BESSENT, UNITED STATES TREASURY SECRETARY: The trade deals are largely done. And now, we can really hone in on the affordability. At Treasury, we're going to be looking at what we can do for housing, for student loans, for overall because, if there is an affordability crisis, the first step in easing the affordability crisis was to bring down inflation.

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WHITFIELD: Experts warn these tariffs will cost one projection -- will cost everyone. And here's one projection. As much as $2,400 a year for the average family. Giants like Walmart and Target say they will have to raise prices to pay for the tariffs. One group estimates that shoe prices could spike 40 percent and hanging over it all is recent jobs data that shows hiring has stalled, but the White House is projecting a massive upside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWARD LUTNICK, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: I think we're going to be heading towards $50 billion a month in tariff revenue that no one's talked about except for the president. As the president says, this could continue to head towards and ultimately reach $1 trillion.

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WHITFIELD: CNN business editor-at-large, Richard Quest is with us right now. All right, Richard, I mean a lot here going on. The White House says it's now focused on making goods more affordable. These tariffs are expected to do the opposite. So, how do you bring down inflation with these tariffs in place?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: No, you don't is the short answer. The whole policy is riddled with contradictions. You just heard then the question of, whether or not you can have affordability whilst at the same time, you've just increased the tariffs by an average of 17 percent. Somebody -- look, Howard Lutnick just said -- the Commerce Secretary just said $50 billion a month is coming into the Treasury, which is great because that will most certainly help cut the deficit.

[14:05:00]

Not by as much as the Big Beautiful Bill increased it, but it will help cut the deficit. But who is paying that $50 billion? From the day tariffs were mentioned, Fredricka, we've gone round in circles. It's as if there's just a -- there's a blind wall here. The tariffs are being paid by the manufacturer, the producer, the exporter, the importer, all the people in the supply chain who then either do one of two things. They either eat it or they pass it on to the consumer. And you can only eat a tariff of 30 percent, 25 percent, which cuts into your margins for so long. So yes, you are going to see an effect. You may not be seeing it now, but it's on its way.

WHITFIELD: All right. Yeah, you just described it, there's no free money. All right. Richard Quest, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: The redistricting fight in Texas is heating up. Republican Senator John Cornyn says the FBI has agreed to help locate Texas House Democrats who have left the state, although they're not exactly hiding and legal experts say it's unclear what authority the FBI would even have here.

The Democratic lawmakers have been very public about where they are and what their plan is, which is to stay away from the lone-star state, so their Republican counterparts cannot push through their new gerrymandered congressional map that could give Republicans more seats in the House of Representatives. Those lawmakers are not only facing arrest warrants, the Democrats, but the threat of being removed from office if they don't return to work by this time tomorrow.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in Austin with more. Ed, what are you hearing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think a lot of people are trying to figure out exactly how all of this is going to ultimately come to a head. And all of that is incredibly fluid from every indication and from all the people that we're talking to. And of course, at least immediately what they're looking towards is, this fight moving into the courts. As we've been reporting, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has asked the Texas Supreme Court to remove the Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Gene Wu, from his position as representative from this Houston district.

The representative has until tomorrow to respond to the court filing. So we're still probably several days away from hearing from the Texas Supreme Court on that issue. And then, you also have the Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who's a big Trump ally. He's saying that if these Democrats do not return to Texas by tomorrow, when the House once again will try to reconvene, that he'll begin the process of filing for removal of all of these lawmakers through trial courts.

Of course, Democrats are pushing back. They do not feel that this is something that's legally viable and that the courts will stand by them. Gene Wu has said that, essentially, the governor is trying to use the court system and the legal process as a way of silencing his political opponent. So that fight will continue, Brianna. But ultimately. Beyond that, there is still, the question is like, the Democrats quite know that they can't stay away from this process forever because the governor here can continue to call special session after special session and the Republicans have the vote.

So, ultimately, where this ends up going are conversations that are probably being had at this moment. It's a question, is exactly how all of that is going to play out.

KEILAR: Yeah, we'll be watching. Ed Lavandera, thanks for the latest there. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Brianna. Today, President Trump announced the Department of Commerce will begin working on a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count. The president posted on Truth Social saying, work on a "new and highly accurate census" will begin immediately using the results from the 2024 election. This is not the first time the president has tried to change the U.S. census.

He repeatedly asked to make changes during his first term in office, but this will be the first time the country sees such a dramatic shift in the way it counts its population. Joining me right now is the former Acting ICE Director under President Obama, John Sandweg. John, great to see you. So President Trump pushing for this new census that excludes undocumented immigrants. Why does this matter?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING ICE DIRECTOR UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it can affect the apportionment, right, of the House -- the House seats. But I think what's interesting, Fredricka, is it's not entirely clear that the undocumented populations are located in blue states necessarily, right? There are large undocumented populations throughout the country, including in states like Arizona, Texas, et cetera. And I think when we look at the demographics of the undocumented population, over 12 million people, including additional people that were more, that fall on a more ambiguous status who were led in during the Biden administration, you see that they're spread out and dispersed all over the United States.

WHITFIELD: Is there a feeling that undocumented people were filling out the census last go-around?

[14:10:00]

SANDWEG: I think it's more about them being included in the census itself, not necessarily that they're filling in the census. Look, there've been a lot of efforts to detect whether undocumented immigrants are voting, right? And I think the challenge we're facing in this country is just people not voting generally, but there's really not been any evidence of undocumented efforts to get involved in electoral process or voting in any numbers that kind of move the needle in any way.

WHITFIELD: All right. New video is showing Customs and Border Protection agents in a Penske Truck, pulling up to day laborers in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Home Depot. 16 were arrested in the operation known as Trojan Horse. Do you think this is lawful? And then, that given a Federal Appeals Court recently upholding a temporary order blocking the Trump Administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrest in Southern California?

SANDWEG: Fredricka, look, this is interesting. I think there are a lot of questions raised by this. I think the first legitimate question is there's a lot of people in the administration say, we're focused on the worst of the worst. You don't go to Home Depot parking lots to find the worst of the worst. They're not bastions of gathering places for MS-13 members or hardened criminals. This is where you find day laborers. But secondly is, who did this operation, right? If you look at the video, it's actually U.S. Border Patrol agents.

What's interesting to me from that is, the apprehensions, they made 16 arrests in this operation. But the question is not just who did they arrest, but who -- what were they not doing while they were doing this work, right? So we're pulling Border Patrol agents up off the border, and I realize that the numbers have dropped dramatically at the border of migrants crossing. But we are still face an array of threats along our southwest border. There are drug traffickers every single day smuggling narcotics into the United States.

I do worry when we say, Hey, let's pull Border Patrol agents up off the streets, right? And pull them up into a city like Los Angeles, not a border city, to do routine immigration enforcement. What are we losing down at the border? But finally, Fredricka, quickly, of course, how they do it is the real challenge here. You can't do this in a way that's relying on generalized factors like skin color, Spanish language accents. And it's really tough when you storm out the back of a rider truck van and run across a Home Depot parking lot, not to be making snap decisions that are based on those illicit factors rather than the legitimate basis to form a reasonable suspicion as the Fourth Amendment requires.

WHITFIELD: Our David Culver spoke with a farmer in Oregon who says his workers are not showing up this season because they're fearful. They're -- and that means the produce is also rotting on the vine. As the administration considers new regulations around undocumented farm workers, so what should be considered in your view?

SANDWEG: Well, the bottom line, Fredricka, is all the migrants have come to this country for a reason. There are jobs available. It has long been known, and there's been bipartisan consensus in Congress, that we need to do something. We don't give enough -- we don't have enough temporary work programs or work visas available, low-skilled visas available to satisfy the demands in the United States. So as this mass deportation effort goes forward, we've seen a real shift in the administration, right? They've gone from this more targeted approach early on, the problem was they weren't making enough arrests to these kind of widespread work-site Home Depot parking lots.

But in doing that, they are, A, putting a dent in that labor community that American corporations and farmers rely on, but also, two, creating this kind of -- as part of their self deportation effort, right, they're pushing people away from showing up for work. People are hesitant to go to these work sites, scared that they're going to be arrested. That is going to put pressure on the administration. And we've seen signs of that with the president tweeting, saying he might be considering rolling back kind of enforcement efforts in agriculture and hospitality, but it's just going to make it harder for these employers to get the workers they need, which is going to, like I said, kind of put pressure on the administration to potentially dial this back.

It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out though, because I think there's a tension between the kind of wing of the administration that wants to be zealous in enforcement and those who are going to be more concerned about the impact this is having on the broader economy.

WHITFIELD: John Sandweg, thank you so much for your expertise. Appreciate it.

All right. Still to come, Israel's Prime Minister says he plans to expand the war on Gaza despite warnings that it could endanger the remaining hostages and worsen the starvation crisis. We're live in Jerusalem. Plus, a dinner party where our top Trump administration officials were expected to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein crisis appears to have been rescheduled, what we're learning. And later, 200 days into President Trump's second term and Republicans have a lot to show for it. There are potential problem selling it, that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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KEILAR: Israeli reoccupation of all of Gaza is on the table right now. That is what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox today.

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BILL HEMMER, CO-ANCHOR OF "AMERICA'S NEWSROOM," FOX NEWS: Will Israel take control of all of Gaza?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We intend to, in order to, A, assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza, and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel. That's what we want to do.

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[14:20:00]

KEILAR: Netanyahu's cabinet is meeting to discuss full reoccupation this evening, despite Israel's own military warning that expanding operations could endanger the lives of hostages who are still being held there and it could kill more Palestinian civilians. CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem tracking this. Oren, how would a full Israeli military takeover of Gaza play out?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, that is what's being discussed. What is the plan by which Israel's political echelon could order the Israeli military to carry this out? And this conversation at the security cabinet has already been going on for several hours and is expected to continue for many more hours. According to Israeli officials with whom we have spoken, this would be a phased plan.

The first phase of that would be to order the evacuation of Gaza City and other populated areas and push approximately one million Palestinians to Southern Gaza. That's about half of Gaza's population, into effectively compounds that would contain these Palestinians and set up more of the humanitarian distribution sites that we have seen operating over the course of the past several weeks. After that, it's a question of how does the military operate in these areas which -- in which Israel has displaced the population.

Israel's military chief favors essentially laying siege from the outside in an effort to increase pressure on Hamas, according to an Israeli official, while Netanyahu himself favors a more intrusive approach of going into these areas, which according to the Israeli military chief who warned Netanyahu of this, would put not only hostages at risk, who are believed to be held in these areas, but would put soldiers at risk and put a greater burden on the Israeli military.

And that's not to mention, of course, the humanitarian and starvation crisis we're seeing unfold in Gaza. That almost certainly likely to get worse if Israel pursues an expansion of the war in this major escalation. So, we're following very closely what comes out of these discussions.

KEILAR: Yeah. And there are protests outside. Of them, we're tracking that there in Jerusalem. How much opposition is there to this plan? Can Netanyahu get it through? LIEBERMANN: Those protests also in Tel Aviv and several other areas, and that gives you a sense of the opposition within Israel's society and as we mentioned, the opposition from Israel's military leadership. But when it comes to the security cabinet, Netanyahu almost certainly has the votes he needs. There is a bit of a question about the foreign minister and whether he'd oppose it, but that's pretty much irrelevant.

Netanyahu's far-right parties within his government have pushed for an expansion of the war for months now. So, he has their support and likely all the support he needs to get this through. Crucially, President Donald Trump said earlier this week, pretty much that Netanyahu can do -- and Israel can do whatever it wants in Gaza and that may be the only green light that Netanyahu needs.

KEILAR: All right, Oren Liebermann live for us from Jerusalem.

A dinner party for top Trump Administration officials canceled following a report about it from CNN, what they were planning to discuss. Plus, soldiers are being praised for their role in ending yesterday's mass shooting at Fort Stewart in Georgia. Their heroic actions coming up.

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[14:27:50]

KEILAR: More questions swirling about how the White House is responding to the controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files after a meeting between top officials appears to have been moved or canceled. CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and others were planning to hold a dinner to talk strategy at Vice President J.D. Vance's residence last night. But a source familiar with the planning says those invited were told the meeting was being relocated or canceled.

Vance's spokesman denies any such meeting was scheduled. We're joined now by David Schoen, who is an attorney who was representing Jeffrey Epstein at the time that he died. David was also lead counsel for President Trump during his second impeachment. David, thanks for being with us. And news of this meeting being moved or rescheduled, what did you think when you heard that these top administration officials were gathering to discuss next steps?

DAVID SCHOEN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR JEFFREY EPSTEIN: I only heard it the same as everyone else, through the media. I don't think it would be unusual for them to discuss this matter. I mean, it's something that's sort of, I think, based on agendas from both the left and the right has sort of taken over other news and other more important developments around the world. So I don't think -- I think it would make perfect sense for officials to be discussing how to deal with it.

KEILAR: What do you think they should be looking at if they meet?

SCHOEN: I don't know. I mean, I think everything surrounding it. I think that there's certainly an interest in transparency and getting out there what the public ought to have, but, if they don't have it already. The problem I have with the story is, I mean, I think that all relevant documents have been made public already. I don't think there's any client list or any secret smoking gun out there, but I don't know what's going to make the story go away.

I personally think for the good of the country, I'd like to see this story go away. I think that other than prurient interest in what's going on, I don't buy this, that it's reflective of cover-up of elites either on the left or the right and so on. I think the story's out there, it's been done.

KEILAR: So, you think all relevant documents are out there. So, as the White House is weighing whether DOJ should release a transcript of Deputy AG Todd Blanche's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is a convicted accomplice of Epstein's, and her attorney has said that --