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Trump Tells Pentagon to Start Testing Nuclear Weapons; 3-Star General Pushed Out Amid Tensions with Hegseth; Millions Set to Loose Food Benefits as Shutdown Drags On; YouTube Announces Buy-Outs Amid Concerns About AI Replacing Jobs. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 30, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: First Amendment lawsuit against the local authorities in this case -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That is so interesting here. One month in jail for that. Brian Stelter, everyone should go read about this in much, much more on the Reliable Sources newsletter, which I don't think is out yet.

Go hit send so I can get it in my mailbox. Brian Stelter --

STELTER: I'm working on it right now. I'm typing it up.

BERMAN: All right, finish it. Get that done. Brian Stelter, great to see you.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, it hasn't been done for almost 30 years, but suddenly President Trump announcing he's ordering the Pentagon to test Americans' nuclear weapons on equal basis with China and Russia. His order posted online coming in the final hours of his fruitful diplomatic trip to Asia.

What we know about shadow negotiations to end the government shutdown as 42 million Americans are about to lose their food stamp benefits. We speak with a mother of two who relies on those benefits and has something to say to those who say get a job as the answer to family's food shortages.

And talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. A dog found clinging to a cliff there in California. Oh that, sweetie. How he got there and how the pooch ended up giving some love to the firefighters who saved him.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Sorry. Hair in my -- hair on my shoulder.

SIDNER: It happens. BOLDUAN: And then they did not run the breaking news animation. So then I was caught getting the hair off my shoulders in dramatic fashion. Wow.

That hasn't happened very often. Let's go to the breaking news. Oh, man.

President Trump is now pushing to upend decades of U.S. nuclear policy now. Directing the Pentagon -- Sara, pull it together. Directing the Pentagon to restart testing of nuclear weapons, a move that is sure to re-spark fears it'll set off a new arms race. The president made the directive on social media, saying the U.S. needs to start testing on an equal basis. Those are his words with other countries.

But a lot is unclear about the president's expectations here and a lack of clarity on maybe the singular topic where clarity is most critical. It's a major break from longstanding U.S. policy amid growing tensions with the world's nuclear arms superpowers, Russia and China. Russia's responded to this for the first time this morning, saying that it will now act accordingly if any country breaks the moratorium.

The president triggering this just as he was headed to meet with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and announce progress in trade talks. That announcement now somewhat overshadowed by the president's nuclear curveball.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is tracking this one for the White House -- at the White House for us this morning. Kevin, what are you learning about this announcement and what the president really is asking for?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and I think that's the big unanswered question right now from this most provocative message that the president sent. You know, the U.S. hasn't tested a nuclear warhead since 1992, so this would be a major break from decades of practice. And just to set the scene a little of how this all went down, the president was aboard Marine One, flying to an airport in South Korea where he was due to meet the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, for a summit that was meant in part to create a dialogue that would avoid surprises and confrontation.

So the president kind of upending that objective even before they sat down. And even as the president was returning to Washington aboard Air Force One, he still didn't offer much clarity about what exactly he is ordering up, although he did say it wasn't necessarily about China. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And it had to do with others. They seem to all be nuclear testing. We have more nuclear weapons than anybody.

We don't do testing. And we've halted it years -- many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it's appropriate that we do also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So the big question here is whether the president's talking about testing nuclear warheads or talking about the delivery systems. And both Russia and China have both observed a moratorium on nuclear testing for decades. What seems more likely to have caught the president's attention was Russia's tests last week of a nuclear- capable cruise missile and submarine drone.

That happened after the president's planned summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapest fell apart. Now, when you talk to nuclear engineers, they say that nuclear warhead testing is just not necessary. They can do it with computer simulations.

We should also note the president directed this message towards the Pentagon, but it is typically the Energy Department that has historic oversight over the maintenance and testing of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. So clearly a provocative message from the president, even as he works to stabilize this U.S.-China relationship, showing that his approach to foreign policy is still quite volatile.

[08:05:00]

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's great to see you, Kevin. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, a CNN exclusive this morning. Sources tell CNN a three-star general serving on the Joint Staff, the Pentagon's Joint Staff, has been pushed out after months of tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is with us with this new reporting. Natasha, what have you learned here?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, so this is a very senior official in the Pentagon's Joint Staff. He is the director for strategy plans and policy in the Joint Staff, pretty much responsible for advising Cain on -- the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on long-term military strategy as well as the risks involved in military operations and long-term crisis contingency planning, a very key role here. Well, we're told that he was pushed out, particularly by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, with whom he had clashed repeatedly over recent months.

Tensions had been simmering between them for quite some time, particularly because this three-star general, J.P. McGee, he frequently pushed back on issues ranging from Russia and Ukraine to the strikes in the Caribbean. He was also seen by some as too close to the old guard of the Pentagon. He was seen by some as particularly close to former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who, of course, is a very fierce Trump foe, as well as former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Now, he is essentially retiring early, which is another way of saying that he is being pushed out. His nomination was stalled for a promotion to director of the Joint Staff, and there essentially wasn't a future for him anymore because Hegseth essentially did not want him there, we're told. So this is another example of a very high-level military official being pushed out over disagreements with Secretary Hegseth over the last several months -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, my friends in the military say this is getting a message that says basically, thanks for playing. See you later.

Natasha, you also have new reporting on National Guard troops, the National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C. What did you learn there?

BERTRAND: Yes, just on Monday, John, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, he extended the D.C. National Guard's orders through at least February of 2026. That's about four months later than they were originally anticipated to be in Washington, D.C. Their orders were going to lapse at the end of November, but Secretary Hegseth has now extended them. Now, of course, this is all supposedly in service of President Trump's desire to fight crime in the district.

But as has been noted repeatedly, including by the Guard themselves, those troops are primarily doing beautification projects inside the district, including picking up trash and gardening. These troops, we should note, they have higher paying civilian jobs back home. They have families.

And so this extension is bound to cause some heartburn among a lot of the troops that have been serving there -- John.

BERMAN: They'll be there longer than they thought. Natasha Bertrand, great reporting this morning on a variety of subjects. Thanks so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, AI strikes again. Another day, another announcement of layoffs or buyouts.

Now it's YouTube, the big tech giant, announcing plans to offer buyouts as the company pivots towards its next frontier, artificial intelligence.

And how Arnold Schwarzenegger and the car repair shop behind MTV's Pimp My Ride, teaming up now to give former prisoners a second chance.

And more homes collapsing into the ocean. You've seen this time again off the coast of North Carolina. New details on why so many homes are crumbling in the Outer Banks.

[08:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Approximately 42 million Americans, one in eight, are about to lose their ability to buy enough food for their families in the next couple of days. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, as it's known, will be cut off as Congress fails to pass a budget that has shut down the government. Now, this is the first time in American history that the federal government has halted food assistance during a shutdown.

Joining me now is Elizabeth Austin. She is the mother of two and a SNAP recipient. Elizabeth, you wrote a really personal essay in "The New York Times" opinion section saying, in part, "My own remaining SNAP balance, $149.57, was supposed to help carry my family until November 9th. Now it will have to stretch indefinitely."

I think the big question to you this morning is how?

ELIZABETH AUSTIN, SNAP RECIPIENT: Good morning. It won't. I wrote that last week.

I finished edits this week. And then I went to the grocery store last night. And so now, you know, it won't stretch.

It doesn't. So we'll pull from other parts of our budget. And that means my kids will go without.

My daughter's birthday is coming up. You know, it means I'll compensate in other areas that I shouldn't have to compensate.

SIDNER: You have applied and gotten SNAP benefits twice, you wrote. What were the circumstances that led you to have to apply so that you could afford food for your family?

AUSTIN: Sure. When my kids were -- I had two under three, and their dad left. I never heard from him again.

And I was alone with them. I was living with my mother. I hadn't finished school.

And so I went back to community college and eventually Temple University and graduate school. And I lived with my mom that whole time. And I took care of my kids by myself.

And I was in school full time. And I was on SNAP benefits, which allowed me to feed them. And then I got a job.

And it wasn't paying a lot. But it was a full-time salaried position. I graduated from graduate school.

And I was able to get off SNAP, which was great. You know, I felt good about it. And then in May 2020, my daughter was diagnosed with leukemia.

So it was a pandemic. I'm still a single mom. And I was working full- time remotely during a pandemic, caring for her alone for almost three years, which took a toll on my mental health.

[08:15:03]

And then my company restructured. And at the end of 2023, I lost that job. And so I reapplied for SNAP.

And now we're SNAP recipients again.

SIDNER: I want to talk to you about the conversations around SNAP or what we used to call food stamps. They're often fraught. They're filled often with judgment, with one common refrain. What do you say to people and politicians who we have seen saying, hey, you know, these people need to get a job and get off this assistance?

AUSTIN: Yes, I think it speaks to how we view work and how we view care responsibilities. People who are raising children full-time have a job. You know, I had a job when I was in school full-time taking care of two kids.

That was my job. And I needed help doing that. I had a job, you know, when I was taking care of my daughter, I should not have been working full-time.

Nobody should be working full-time caring for somebody with cancer full-time. So I think it speaks to how we view work, you know, which speaks, you know, a lot of care is women's work. Women do the bulk of care.

So I think it actually has really deep roots.

SIDNER: What are you going to do now? I mean, just explain to me how difficult this is going to be for your family. Within the next two days, you'll not be getting that extra money to afford food, more food.

AUSTIN: Yes, so I did write that op-ed for "The New York Times." So that will replace my monthly food budget, the income I will earn from writing that. You know, I do teach.

I freelance. You know, all of that will have to be cobbled together. I'm putting a Substack post out today promoting the courses that I offer and promoting the benefits of paid subscriptions to my newsletter.

Hopefully that will help bring in some income. But I'm going to be working overtime to make up the gap that we're going to have with the loss of these benefits.

SIDNER: Elizabeth Austin, thank you so much for spending the time. I'm sure this has been a time of anxiety for you.

AUSTIN: Yes, thank you.

SIDNER: All right, Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning, the FDA is launching a new plan to streamline approvals of generic so-called biologic drugs, including things like vaccines, insulin and immunotherapy. Medications derived from living organisms.

The move could make these drugs significantly cheaper for millions of Americans. Currently, they require a special pathway for FDA approval. The new draft guidance proposes allowing companies to scale back on studies and trials to prove a generic version of the drug is similar enough to an already FDA approved version.

The FDA commissioner says that this could cut approval time in half and could potentially slash development costs by $100 million -- John.

BERMAN: All right. The world's first $5 trillion company. This just in. That's a lot of money. So what does that mean for the economy?

And a dog clinging to the side of a cliff. The incredible rescue and how we got there in the first place.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning. AI reshaping companies at the expense of workers. YouTube announced it is restructuring and will offer voluntary buyouts to employees in the U.S. who want to leave the company. It calls artificial intelligence its next frontier.

CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy is with us now. Voluntary -- but it feels like kind of a nudge here, yes.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, kind of a maybe friendly or less disruptive way of still trying to trim the company's headcount. Now, when CEO of YouTube, Neal Mahan, said to employees in this internal memo yesterday that AI is the next frontier, it wasn't immediately clear whether that's referring to a focus on AI features on the platform or AI doing more work within the company or potentially some combination of those two things.

But the company is splitting its product team into three separate teams. So that'll be subscription products, viewer products and creator and community products. And as part of that restructuring, as you said, they're offering voluntary buyouts with severance to U.S. employees who may wish to leave the company.

But, of course, this is notable in light of the major layoffs that we've seen at other companies announced just over the past month. Those 14,000 layoffs that Amazon announced when it did point to AI as part of the reason for that reduction. UPS earlier this week said it's cut 48,000 employees so far this year.

Target, 1,800 layoffs. Meta laid off 600 employees from its AI division. And so I think all of this continuing to add to these concerns that the labor market, job opportunities in this country are becoming harder to come by, in part because of AI taking on more human work.

BERMAN: Yes, the subject of AI, you know, AI chipmaker NVIDIA just like shattered this incredible milestone as a $5 trillion company.

DUFFY: It's remarkable. Its first public company to reach this $5 trillion valuation. And just three months after it blew through the $4 trillion valuation mark.

Of course, all of this because the company provides the chips that are necessary to power data centers running large AI models. But I was at the company's GTC AI conference in Washington, D.C., this week, where they also talked about a desire to get their technology into more everyday -- in everyday tools and technologies. Things like self- driving cars, cell phone towers, potentially the robots that will be living in our homes or doing robotic surgeries or running factory floors in the future.

So this company really trying to ensure that its future is cemented as we move into this A.I. era.

BERMAN: A lot of investors seem to think that future is bright --

DUFFY: Yes.

BERMAN: -- with that valuation. All right, Clare, great to see you. Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead. We're only days away from Election Day in the Big Apple.

[08:25:00]

What new polls are saying about the chances of an Andrew Cuomo surge against Zoran Mamdani in the homestretch of this race.

And caught on camera. A terrifying moment. A coyote finds their way into family's backyard and then goes after the dog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: New this morning. The government shutdown is now -- stretches on and is now putting millions of Americans at risk of going hungry. Federal food benefits known as SNAP.

The government's largest anti-hunger program will begin to run out of funding as soon as Saturday. And here's what it's state -- here is what is at stake for so many families in their own words.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH ORRBELL, SNAP RECIPIENT: I will not be getting no SNAP benefits come the 1st of November. So I came and checked in to see if it was my time to shop for groceries.

DONOVAN MIKESELL, SNAP RECIPIENT: I'm very concerned. I don't know what I'm going to do. I know you can go to food pantries and stuff, but it's going to be so out of control.

I mean, you might be standing there five, six hours to get any food.

RICHARD DAVIS, SNAP RECIPIENT: It would be a matter of do we eat or do we pay rent?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:30:00]