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Interview with Sen. Abka Fitz-Henley, State Minister, Office of the Jamaican Prime Minister: Hurricane Melissa Leaves 77 Percent of Jamaica Without Power; Global Leaders Turn to Flattery Diplomacy with Trump; Trump and Xi Set to Meet Amid Bitter U.S.-China Trade War. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 29, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hours from now, the Bahamas will become the latest nation to face Hurricane Melissa. A just-released update from the National Hurricane Center says the storm is currently packing 100 mph winds. The Bahamas is already getting pounded with heavy rain and monster winds as the storm approaches.

Nearly 1,500 people managed to get out before all flights were suspended, according to a state minister.

[14:35:00]

The historic storm has killed at least 30 people in multiple Caribbean nations, but rescuers are still trying to determine how many people have been hurt or killed in Jamaica. It's Western Region bore the brunt of Melissa, which made landfall there as a Category 5 hurricane yesterday. Teams are facing downed trees, other major obstacles there as they're trying to get to these impacted areas.

I'm joined now from the capital, Kingston, in the east by Senator Abka Fitz-Henley, the state minister of the Office of the Jamaican Prime Minister.

Thank you so much for being with us. And can you just give us a sense of a potential death toll from this storm? I know officials have been reticent at this point to put a number on it, but are you getting a sense of people injured or missing?

SEN. ABKA FITZ-HENLEY, STATE MINISTER, OFFICE OF JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER: Hello Brianna, and hello to the viewers of CNN. Just before coming on air, I spoke to the police chief, the head, the commanding officer for two parishes in Jamaica which were badly impacted. One indicated that at least four bodies have washed up in St. Elizabeth, that's a parish on the southern coast of Jamaica. And the head of the St. James Police indicated to me that at least one infant has died. It is suspected that the deaths are due to the occurrence of Hurricane Melissa.

So far, based on what I just indicated, the preliminary tally, and that's very preliminary, is five people have unfortunately died due to Hurricane Melissa, and I want to offer my condolences to the families of the victims of this unfortunate event.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly we all do. That is some bad news, certainly to hear, Senator. A government spokesperson this morning said the telecommunication infrastructure was hit hard.

I think we expected this to happen, and it means, of course, that it's difficult, right, to get in touch with people, get a sense of how things have gone, and the eye passing over this more rural western part of the country. How is that complicating efforts there?

FITZ-HENLEY: Let me put this in context. The United States has states. Jamaica has parishes. We have 14 parishes.

Preliminary accounts are that at least four of the 14 parishes have had significant impact from Hurricane Melissa, at least two badly impacted. The two badly impacted are St. James and St. Elizabeth. The major telecoms providers have done a reasonable job at maintaining connectivity during the hurricane, but there are still major challenges concerning that. Not as bad in terms of connectivity compared to what transpired during Hurricane Beryl last year, but it is a challenge to get in touch with some people in St. James and St. Elizabeth. We do have situations where family members have resorted to social media, asking folks to check in on their loved ones because, you know, naturally they are concerned.

The hope is, though, that the death toll is limited. So far, as I indicated, five have been confirmed by the police. As you would understand, we await confirmation from the police before indicating that the death toll has increased.

And this does not include the deaths by misadventure, which transpired just before the hurricane, people preparing, and at least two fell from a tree and unfortunately succumbed.

KEILAR: And what do you need from the international community?

FITZ-HENLEY: Well, the government of Jamaica has launched a formal website to accept donations, supportjamaica.gov.jm. That's supportjamaica.gov.jm. That website was announced, published on the social media pages of the Most Honorable Dr. Andrew Holness, who is the Prime Minister of Jamaica, and a number of items are on the needs list, including batteries, housing equipment such as bedding, etcetera. Those are on the website for people interested in donating, supportjamaica.gov.jm.

As we speak, Dr. Holness, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, is on the ground, boarded a helicopter this morning, touring sections of the island which have been badly impacted by Hurricane Melissa, including St. Elizabeth. In a few hours or so, or in about an hour, he will head to the western portion of the island, St. James, which has been badly impacted as well by the Category 5 hurricane, which incidentally is the strongest hurricane that has made landfall in Jamaica in our history.

[14:40:04] KEILAR: Senator, thank you for being with us, for giving us an update. Our hearts are certainly with the people of Jamaica, as you are telling us that at this point at least five people have passed away. Thank you for being with us.

FITZ-HENLEY: Thank you very much for the interest as well, and we are thankful for the support from the international community, including the private sector and the government. Our Prime Minister has indicated that he will be in touch with the Secretary of State, Rubio, who has passed on moral support, and we know comments as well in the media from President Trump regarding willingness to assist.

Jamaica is grateful. We're a strong country, and we are confident we will build back stronger. Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you, Senator.

Still ahead, from a golden crown to a $400 million luxury jet. We break down how world leaders are showering President Trump with lavish gifts and what it says about the importance to them of staying in his good graces.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Flattery diplomacy has come to define how foreign leaders relate to President Trump, and yesterday South Korea understood the assignment.

Welcoming Trump with his familiar campaign anthem, YMCA, played by a military band. President Lee Jae Myung also appealed to the president's well-known love of gold, presenting him with a replica of an ancient golden crown, and even serving gold-adorned brownies for dessert on this visit where Trump became the first American leader to receive South Korea's highest honor. Trump loves being the first, and he loves pomp and circumstance, and foreign leaders have come to play the game.

Last month, the U.K. welcomed Trump for a second state visit complete with carriages, cavalry, a flyover, and a dinner fit for a king. It all started months earlier with a letter from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer from the King delivered in the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Perhaps you'd like to say what that very important paragraph is.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Yes, so this is a letter from His Majesty the King. It's an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special.

This has never happened before. This is unprecedented.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Also unprecedented, this gift from Qatar, a Boeing 747 that Trump wants to use as his Air Force One, probably the most expensive gift by far ever received by a president. Portraits of Trump, of course, are also popular, especially from strongmen. Russia's Vladimir Putin gave him this one in March.

El Salvador's Nayib Bukele commissioned one during Trump's first term, according to a report by House Democrats. But for Trump, words of affirmation might be his leading love language, and world leaders have learned to speak it. From Europe --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: We want to thank you, President of the United States, dear Donald, for the fact that you, as I said before, broke the deadlock, basically, with President Putin by starting that dialogue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: To Africa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MOHAMED OULD GHAZOUANI, PRESIDENT OF MAURITANIA: Your work in favor of peace has been tremendous.

UMARO SISSOCO EMBALO, PRESIDENT OF GUINEA-BISSAU: We are a small country, but we are a great state, not a great state like the United States.

JOSEPH BOAKAI, LIBERIAN PRESIDENT: Liberia is a longtime friend of the United States, and we believe in your policy of Making America Great Again.

BASSIROU DIOMAYE FAYE, PRESIDENT OF SENEGAL. Mr. President, as you've seen, you can only do business when there is peace and security, and you build peace everywhere in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And if a leader really wants to get on Trump's good side, they say on camera that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEHBAZ SHARIF, PAKISTANI PRIME MINISTER: Today, again, I would like to nominate this great president for Nobel Peace Prize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Though perhaps nothing compares with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's so-called love letters, this one penned to Trump on Christmas Day 2018.

"Even now, I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency's hand at that beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched with great interest and hoped to relive the honor of that day."

It's enough to make you blush, but Kim's overtures weren't too surprising considering how his earlier letters to Trump landed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was really being tough, and so was he. And we would go back and forth, and then we fell in love. OK?

No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they're great letters. We fell in love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, if a leader can't muster that kind of connection, they can find a common interest in golf. The late Shinzo Abe, the OG of foreign leaders flattering Donald Trump, knew this well, showing up to Trump Tower in 2016 with golden golf clubs for the president-elect. No coincidence that yesterday in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gifted Trump Abe's putter, a trifecta gift, one-of-a-kind, golf-themed, and once owned by someone who knew the true way to Trump's affections.

[14:50:00]

For more on what all of this means, let's bring in Josh Rogin. He is the lead global security analyst for Washington Post Intelligence. The real question here, Josh, is does it work, all of this, for these foreign leaders to get what they want, or is it just kind of the price of entry?

JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE: Right. Well, it's clearly better than not complimenting Trump and not giving him gifts, because that doesn't get you anywhere. But it's table stakes.

It gets you in the door. It doesn't get the deal done. And the problem, of course, is that the Qataris or other dictatorships can offer planes, and the democracies can't do that, so they have to offer them trinkets.

So it gives a real advantage to the countries that don't have, you know, elections or, you know, accountability, because they can make these gifts worth hundreds of millions of dollars instead of, like, you know, a crown, a beautiful crown. Don't get me wrong, but it's not a plane, you know. And, you know, according to the law, according to the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act, anything over $480 he's supposed to turn over to the National Archives, OK?

You're not allowed to keep the gifts when you're the president. They belong to the country, not to the man. But President Trump has a history of adhering to that law, let's say, inconsistently.

So, you know, we'll see if this Korean crown ends up in the archives or in the bathroom of Mar-a-Lago.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: I wonder what kind of flattery or gifts we might see exchanged when President Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping later tonight.

ROGIN: Right, well, those are more gifts on the trade side. You know, he wants TikTok to be sold to his buddies so that they can change the algorithm from the Chinese propaganda to the Trump propaganda algorithm. They want, you know, rare earth materials, which are not, like, going into Trump's pockets, but we need them to build everything that we build in America.

And Xi Jinping wants Blackwell AI chips, the NVIDIA chips, which are our advantage over China in AI. But according to reports, Trump's going to give them to the Chinese, destroying our advantage in AI for a generation and undermining our national security. But in exchange, he'll get 15 percent of the profits from the NVIDIA.

That's the deal that everyone's talking about right now. We'll see tomorrow if they pull that off. So those are diplomatic, economic, industrial gifts.

I don't think Xi Jinping is going to show up with a trinket or a plane or something like that. It's not his style.

KEILAR: And what about Taiwan? I mean, what's going to happen there?

ROGIN: You know, I think the best case for Taiwan is that nothing happens because the minute Taiwan becomes a bargaining chip in the U.S.-China relationship, that's all bad news for Taiwan. And that's what Trump said. He said Taiwan's Taiwan, and he doesn't really think it's going to come up.

But you never know if maybe if Xi Jinping has, like, some extra rare earths, he might be like, oh, just throw in Taiwan on top of the deal. And Trump's like, OK, you never know. But hopefully for Taiwan, it won't become a bargaining chip in the Trump-Xi relationship because, you know, it's its own country, and they don't want to become a bargaining chip between these two guys, neither of which whom they really trust that much.

SANCHEZ: What about Beijing's other foreign policy interests? Because they have their hand in Iran potentially rebuilding its ballistic missile program, in Ukraine as well, and their ties to Russia. What do you think?

ROGIN: Sure. I think a lot of people are wondering if the new Trump sanctions on Russia, which can be extended to any country that buys Russian oil, are going to be applied to China because China buys more Russian oil than anyone else. So the Trump administration officials talk a lot about getting China to stop buying Russian oil.

China's not going to stop buying Russian oil. That's not going to happen. But will the Trump administration sanction China?

That might be something that we could see. But if I had to guess, I would say as they're making a deal to keep the tariffs down, to hand over TikTok and to get the rare earths and maybe fentanyl, I don't see any chance really that the Trump administration is going to sanction China for buying Russian oil. But anyway, that's the thing that a lot of people are watching right now.

SANCHEZ: We will be watching it closely. That meeting is set to take place at 9 p.m. Eastern tonight. Josh Rogin, thanks so much for the perspective.

ROGIN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come this afternoon. Policies could soon get a lot more expensive for those who rely on the Affordable Care Act for their health insurance coverage. We have details coming in just moments.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: An update now on some of the other headlines we're watching. A former assistant principal accused of ignoring warnings about a student who shot his first grade teacher is in court for the first of two trials that she is facing. Ebony Parker is being sued for $40 million by Abby Zwerner, who was shot in the chest and hand during the 2023 incident in Newport News, Virginia.

In opening statements, Zwerner's attorney told the jury that Parker had the authority to search the student after faculty raised concerns but ultimately did not. The defendant's lawyer warned jurors against what it called Monday morning quarterbacking. Parker also faces a criminal trial next month for alleged child neglect.

KEILAR: Also, NVIDIA is now the world's first $5 trillion company. The chipmaker whose technology powers AI data centers, reaching that milestone after Wall Street's opening bell this morning, comes just three months after NVIDIA crossed the $4 trillion mark. Only two other companies have ever hit the $4 trillion threshold, Microsoft and Apple, and Apple hit it for the first time just yesterday.

And the news just went from bad to worse. For Americans who get health insurance through Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, the Kaiser Family Foundation is forecasting next year's premiums will surge by an average of 26 percent. And that was with the subsidies at the heart of the government shutdown battle.

If the subsidies expire, Kaiser estimates those premiums will be even more expensive, more than double ...

END