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Numbers on Trump and the Economy; Kevin O'Leary is Interviewed about the Economic Impact of the Shutdown; Mouaz Moustafa is Interviewed about Syrian President Visits the White House; Kate Gallego is Interviewed about SNAP; Obamacare Skyrocketing Premiums. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 10, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:30]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump doubling down on the economy, now claiming that there is virtually no inflation, and most recently also saying quotes like this. "I don't want to hear about the affordability," claiming that Democrats are making up numbers.

But the big question is, no matter what they're saying, how do Americans feel about the economy right now and the impact on -- the impact of rising prices, where inflation is, paying their bills, being able to buy food at the grocery store. Harry Enten is taking a look and running the numbers on all of this.

Politicians can say politician things --

HARRY ENTEN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But how -- where are things with the economy right now, and how people are feeling about it?

ENTEN: Yes, what President Trump is trying to sell, the American folks aren't buying. And we can see it pretty simply here. Take a look here. This is consumer sentiment, the current conditions. Consumer sentiment could be the current conditions or it can be future expectations. We're looking at current conditions. And get this, according to the University of Michigan, we are dealing with the worst ever, the worst ever view of current conditions dating all the way back since 1951. This is record-breaking in the way you don't want to be breaking records. And get this, Kate, it is down 30 percent. Consumer sentiment of current conditions down 30 percent from January when Donald Trump took office. No bueno.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: That is significant and something you can't ignore.

ENTEN: No.

BOLDUAN: You shouldn't ignore.

ENTEN: No, you should not.

BOLDUAN: You would ignore to your peril.

How -- but they -- they do not feel good about the economy. How much are they blaming this on President Trump?

ENTEN: Yes, it would be one thing that President Trump could ignore it if folks weren't blaming him for it. But take a look here, Trump blamed. Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in America. Look at this, we're dealing with a supermajority here. We're talking about more than three in five Americans, 61 percent, who say that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions in America.

How about worsened your own finances? Again, we're dealing with a majority here, 51 percent of Americans say that Trump's policies have worsened your own finances. This is double trouble for the president of the United States. When you're dealing with consumer sentiment of current conditions being record breaking in the wrong ways, being record breaking for the worst ever since 1951, and you're dealing with a supermajority who say that your policies have worsened economic conditions in America, and you're dealing with a majority who say your policies have worsened the folks own finances, that is, ay caramba, no good.

BOLDUAN: Yes, no matter what, you would prefer to not have this be what you're looking at.

ENTEN: No, you would prefer not to, Kate.

BOLDUAN: The -- what about the slice of the electorate both parties need and is what decides elections, independents?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. And, you know, oftentimes we talk about independents. And sometimes that group of voters includes folks who lean either the Republican or Democratic side. I decide to look at pure, pure independents.

BOLDUAN: OK.

ENTEN: Those who don't lean towards either side. And look at this, disapprove of Trump on the economy. Among pure independents, we're talking about four in five. Four and five, 79 percent. I'm laughing because you rarely ever see a number this high, 79 percent of pure independents disapprove of Trump on the economy.

How about this? This is no outlier, Kate. This is no outlier. Because look at Marquette University, their law school, 76 percent of pure independents disapprove of Trump on the economy. When you put it all together with the approval ratings, it averages out to a net approval rating on the economy, among pure independents of, get this, minus 58 points. Oy vey, as my mother used to say. This is the type of thing that is political nightmare fuel. And it is no wonder that a little bit less than a week ago that Republicans went down to defeat in Virginia and New Jersey. If these numbers hold a year from now, the Republicans can wave adios amigos, goodbye to their House majority, and they may very well be bidding adios amigos goodbye to their Senate majority as well.

BOLDUAN: Definitely numbers not to ignore at this point, for sure.

ENTEN: No.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joining me now, Kevin O'Leary, CNBC contributor and chairman of O'Leary Ventures.

Thank you for being here this morning.

Look, in past shutdowns, estimates of lost economic activity have reached into the billions of dollars. And now we're looking at the Congressional Budget Office, which is saying that "the effects of the shutdown on the economy are uncertain." That "those effects depend on decisions made by the administration throughout the entire shutdown." And, "in addition, how federal employees and contractors respond to the delay in compensation" that is also "uncertain."

The government's been shut down for 41 days, and that's a heck of a lot of uncertainty.

[08:35:03]

Do you think that this may usher in a downturn in the overall economy?

KEVIN O'LEARY, CNBC CONTRIBUTOR AND CHAIRMAN OF O'LEARY VENTURES: These shutdowns historically have not done that. They haven't really changed the outcome of the direction of the economy. You know, the mother's milk of any economy, the earnings of the companies within it, looks like we're going to be up 14 percent as we sit right now. And that's one of the reasons you have this dichotomy. You've got the chaos of the shutdown against record highs in the stock markets and the indexes.

And so, the answer is always the same. The minute you can't get on an airplane to go home for Thanksgiving or a holiday is when the shutdown ends. And that's exactly what's happening now. It's -- right now, this morning, is the most cancellations since the shutdown began. I monitor this closely as an investor. And all of a sudden we've got the House on notice. They're going to be coming back. This thing will be over by the end of the week. Even though Schumer's not going to vote for it.

This shutdown really won't change the trajectory of the economy in any way. It would have had it lasted any longer, but it didn't.

The bigger question is, how does this whole tariff thing get worked out? And everybody's waiting to see what the real deals are from all of these different countries. SIDNER: Yes, I want to talk about the tariffs because the Supreme

Court is considering whether tariffs that have been imposed by this administration are legal. And while that's happening, though, Trump, overnight, put out a social media post on Truth Social saying that anyone who doesn't agree with tariffs is a fool and he's going to pay every American $2,000 each from tariff revenue except high earners. You see that there.

Several economists are looking at that and talking to CNN, saying, look, this may sound good as a -- as a bit of a relief. Who's going to say no to a $2,000 check right now? But that it might backfire, sending inflation even higher. How do you see this?

O'LEARY: I look at it slightly differently as an investor. And believe me, many of us have had this conversation since that social media information release came out.

No, we would rather see this put against the national deficit. We would rather see the debt drawn down. That's what keeps the bond market intact. That's what drops mortgage rates. Money for nothing. Checks being sent out to people? No, that's not a great outcome if you're a debt hawk. And, you know, frankly, I would think, on a bipartisan basis, both sides would rather see the deficit addressed. It's a big problem. And you can't keep kicking it down the road because the bond vigilantes, which was a popular term in the '70s and '80s, they come back by raising long term rates, by forcing people to buy treasuries to get a lot more than 4 or 5 percent. And so, the reason they would do that is they'd start to deem the U.S. Treasury at risk. And that's because there's too much, too much debt on the economy. And that is why most of us that are investors would much rather, and would prefer, to have this money directly applied to reduce the national debt.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, look, there are people who are not investors who are looking at this and saying, man, I sure would like to have that money. But of course, there's another wrinkle here, that Congress would have to approve it.

I do want to ask you about the shutdown. Look, we are still in the shutdown. It has not broken completely yet. There has not been a final vote in the Senate. And then, of course, it has to go to the House after that. There are all kinds of things that could happen in the next couple of days.

But because of the shutdown, we're experiencing this unprecedented blackout of economic information. It's not coming out from the government as usual. But we are seeing some indicators from the private companies, as you well know, that track all of the numbers and they're showing some dark clouds. Challenger, Gray and Christmas found that announced job cuts from U.S.-based employers skyrocketed over the month to the highest October total in more than 20 years. What is your biggest worry about the economy right now?

O'LEARY: Well, the economy hates uncertainty. I mean, we got a lot of uncertainty. We got uncertainty on tariffs. We have government shutdown, as you've detailed very well there. We would like all this to go away. I mean I'm invested in over 50 companies. Businesses between five and 500 employees in almost every state and almost every sector. So far so good. But, yes, we would like this to stop.

I mean even our salespeople can't fly to see their accounts right now, which is very bad. We're dealing with the chaos every day at the airports. And I would remind everybody that everybody in America is an investor, because that's how you reach retirement, whether it's in some kind of savings account or whatever. That's why the economy is so important. And nobody likes to do self-inflicted wounds on the economy. This is the largest economy on earth. And so, we would like resolution with China, India, Canada, 26 states. Number one trading partner, Canada, we want that resolved.

[08:40:02]

We want resolution.

I'm not saying that the tariff policy is good or bad. After all, other countries have value added taxes, 13 percent in Europe, and the same in Canada. So, if the president wants to put on a value added tax and call it a tariff in the U.S., I got it. But it can't be 39 percent. It can't be 50 percent. It can't be 100 percent. That just grinds everything to a halt. And so we need these packages that have been put out there and all this communication about these countries. We need it resolved.

And I think the president knows that. His administration knows that. And you detailed, we're going into the midterms in terms of thinking. All of this has to be resolved by the midterms if you want to have success.

SIDNER: Kevin O'Leary, it is a pleasure. Thank you for waking up early. I know you sometimes come in late as well. We've been side by side at 10:00, 11:00 p.m. Thank you. I appreciate it. Live there from Miami for us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, from pariah to partner. The new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, once had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. In just a few hours, he becomes the first Syrian president ever to visit the White House. President Trump will host al-Sharaa for talks in the Oval less than a year after he took over power in Syria. He led rebel forces that toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December. One second, please. And I'm back. What is so extraordinary is that in the years before that, al-Sharaa had actually also led Syria's al Qaeda affiliate, was once imprisoned by U.S. forces in Iraq. President Trump and President al-Sharaa briefly met in Saudi Arabia back in May. This is an historic moment that is about to take place at the White House.

Joining me right now is the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, Mouaz Moustafa.

It is good to see you again my friend.

MOUAZ MOUSTAFA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Syrian EMERGENCY TASK FORCE: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: You just met with the Syrian president. What does today's meeting at the White House mean for him, mean for the Syrian people?

MOUSTAFA: For the Syrian people, frankly for the world, today is an historic meeting in every sense of the word. This is the first Syrian president ever entering the American White House in history. This is a country that was under the sphere of influence of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, what have you, of the worst of the worst. Today it is looking to align itself with western democracies.

And more -- and importantly, and really the objective of the meeting, is for Syria to join the de-ISIS campaign, the global coalition to defeat ISIS. And what Syria brings to that is experience and skill in countering ISIS with very little international support and while fighting others. And so, really, I think this will be the beginning of the truly enduring defeat of ISIS in Syria and hopefully in the world.

BOLDUAN: Critical. A lot has been made of his transformation. Just on Friday, the State Department said that he would be removed from a list of U.S. globally designated terrorists. For anyone in the United States' U.S. government or beyond, Mouaz, who would have questions, can he be a trusted partner of the United States, what do you say?

MOUSTAFA: I say, judge him by his actions. He's saying great things, but forget his words. He's meeting the right people. Forget that. Judge him by the actions that we see on the ground in Syria since the liberation of Syria from Iran, Russia and Assad on December 8th up to today.

I can tell you, the joint operations that are ongoing between Operation Inherent Resolve, CENTCOM, the United States military and Syria have led to the neutralization and detention of ISIS cells. Today, the collaboration between the Syrian government and the U.S. military is at the highest level. There's a video that's been going viral of general -- Admiral Cooper (ph) playing basketball with President al-Sharaa.

And finally, I mean, look, just yesterday, I introduced him to the chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community, Rabbi Yosef Hamra (ph). And the rabbi gave him a blessing. And it was this beautiful coming together of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Syrians, you know, looking for a country that is finally on its way towards becoming a place that is a representative democracy. That is a commitment that -- that al- Sharaa has made that we are working towards elections and no more will Syria live under a tyrant.

So, the actions, especially in countering extremism and terrorism, including ISIS, is the best way to judge that. And only in the last month there were multiple foiled attempts, thank God, by ISIS to assassinate al-Sharaa. That's because they fear his role in working to rid the world of ISIS and to bring Syria to the place that it deserves to be. A place where people can vote for their leaders.

BOLDUAN: And part of that -- that brings me to my question on sanctions, because how the country can function and become that representative democracy under the thumb of sanctions is a huge question.

You worked to help write what is called the Ceasar Sanctions Bill. You and I have -- I covered your work on that for a very long time.

[08:45:02]

It was enacted in 2019, essentially to cripple the Syrian economy under Bashar al-Assad and his war crimes.

You are now fighting to have basically that work thrown -- removed. Those sanctions lifted. The administration seems to be on board. So, what is the holdup? Why are the sanctions still in place?

MOUSTAFA: It is quite shocking. You know, as you know, Kate, and you've met Cesar, the defector, which the sanctions were named after. This bill, as we wrote it, as we named it, is against a tyrant who, at the time, had killed half a million people. And this was the sort of sanctions we needed to pressure him to stop killing and stop these atrocities. And now the tyrant's gone. If you read it in the bill, it is quite clear, it's about Assad. And Assad is gone. So, I'm not sure what message it sends the world for this bill to stay on the books. It makes absolutely no sense.

But, unfortunately, a couple of members in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham, and Chairman Brian Mast, in the House, for some reason they remain sort of an obstacle to the full and permanent repeal of the Caesar Act, which is necessary if we want to see 14 million refugees go back home, necessary to see a stable Syria where American investment and American companies can make millions of dollars while keeping Chinese companies that don't care about sanctions away. We don't want to go back to the authoritarian corruption of Russia, China, Iran, et cetera.

And so really today I call on everyone to call Chairman Mast and Senator Graham, and I would -- and I would appeal to them, you know, you know who Caesar is. You know this was about the Caesar Act. And the president, your president, the leader of your party, President Donald Trump, has made it clear that he wants to see this go away. So, I ask that they don't undermine Trump's policy in Syria and truly giving Syria the chance to be an American ally.

BOLDUAN: And to get to be -- will be one of many key focuses today as we watch this historic meeting take place at the White House.

Mouaz, thank you so much for coming in.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, in a dramatic shape up at the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC as it is known, two of the broadcasters top executives have resigned as a scandal over impartiality and bias grows. Director General Tim Davie and News Chief Deborah Turness stepped down Sunday after a leaked memo revealed the BBC had misleadingly edited a speech by President Trump, making it appear he directly encouraged the January 6th Capitol riot. This morning, the BBC's chair apologized for what he called an error of judgment over the way Trump's speech was edited. Trump praised the resignations, calling the BBC corrupt and the scandal a terrible thing for democracy. British lawmakers and media critics say the scandal exposes long standing issues at the BBC.

All right, a potential deal to end the longest government shutdown in history. But Democrats cave on holding out for a deal on the health care subsidies. What that could mean for Americans facing skyrocketing costs.

And officers responding to a call about a suspicious person found this and his friend, a bull named Gus, and his cowboy companion.

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[08:52:41]

BOLDUAN: All right, new this morning, millions of Americans expecting and needing food assistance for the month of November, they are now still stuck, almost like stuck in a new form of limbo this morning, because it is confusing. The key issue right now is a federal court ruling that ordered USDA, which administers SNAP funds, to fully issue food stamp benefits to all recipients for the month. That was yesterday.

But late yesterday, USDA ordered states to stop issuing full food stamp benefits and also to immediately undo whatever they've done for SNAP benefits during the shutdown, leaving a big question still, even as they're negotiating this deal, not only, what is the federal government going to do, but what does this mean for cities and city leaders across the country who are stuck in the middle of it all?

Joining us right now is the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, Mayor Kate Gallego.

It's good to see you again, Mayor. Thank you for being here.

First and foremost, you can take it with SNAP benefits, but even more broadly, what has the government shutdown meant for the residents of Phoenix?

MAOR KATE GALLEGO (D), PHOENIX: The uncertainty has been very difficult. Our SNAP benefits recipients are having a hard time following, is it on, is it off? Is the state going to be penalized for providing SNAP benefits? We have a lot of city services that we deliver in concert with the federal government, whether it be our youngest residents, who don't deserve politics, like our Head Start students, to housing vouchers. We work very closely with the federal government, right? Medicaid is our top payer for our fire emergency management system. So, we want a healthy, strong federal government. And the uncertainty is complicated, as well as just the huge financial impact. SNAP is an enormous amount of money. So, we are hopeful that we get a good solution, but wish we could have something that delivered for health care as well.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean the city -- the city, or any city, let's be frank, I assume cannot fill the gap in terms of paying SNAP benefits. So, in the absence of being able to provide that to the residents in need, what are you doing? What is the community doing?

[08:55:02]

GALLEGO: Phoenix has stepped up in an incredible way. First recognition to our nonprofits, our food banks, and our faith institutions. I was at a church on Friday, First Institutional Baptist. They were doing, in one Friday morning, what they normally give in an entire month.

BOLDUAN: Oh, wow.

GALLEGO: So, incredible generosity. The city of Phoenix is stepping up with a big food assistance and food drive. And we're telling people they need to continue to show this incredible leadership because it will take a while to work through this in Washington, D.C. And then just deliveries to food banks will take a while to recover as well. This has been a bit of a supply chain shock to food delivery, and the normal systems haven't been working. So, we won't be out of this for a while.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

As a Democratic mayor, you've got this deal that has been struck in the Senate. Eight Democratic senators joining Republicans to vote to open the government, extend -- fully fund SNAP benefits through 2026. But as part of that, no concrete extension of Obamacare insurance subsidies.

From your perspective on the ground in Phoenix, as your city leader, would you say, take the deal, to Senate Democrats?

GALLEGO: I continue to be concerned about the long-term implications for health care. We have hundreds of thousands of people in our community who are affected by the Affordable Care Act premiums and whether they will get support in that area. I can't tell you how closely linked the federal health care supports are and our community. For our fire department, we worry that people won't get insurance and will transport them more often when they are sicker, and then be less likely to be reimbursed.

So, we are not out of the water yet, and health care needs a huge amount of reform -- or it needs a huge amount of support still. So, I think I'm a concerned mayor this morning. I think we did not solve the problems that we set out to solve.

BOLDUAN: Mayor Kate Gallego, thank you very much for jumping on early this morning. Best to you and the city of Phoenix. We appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, for more on the grave concerns about the health care subsidies which expire, as you know, at the end of the year and if Congress lets them lapse, millions of families face paying health care premiums that, in some cases, are double or even triple what they were, making them completely unaffordable.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining me now.

You've been talking to people who use Obamacare and who are really afraid of what is going to happen to their ability to have health care. Tell me what you learned.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, we're talking about more than 24 million people who are enrolled through the ACA marketplace, what many people refer to as Obamacare. They are going to see, on average, their monthly premiums go up about 26 percent. But what they actually pay for those premiums is going to be skyrocketing a lot more than that because those federal subsidies, what the government has been paying to insurance companies to bring down those costs for so many low and middle income Americans, those are going to be sunsetting at the end of the year. So, some people are going to be paying hundreds of dollars more, in some cases more than $1,000, more than $2,000 per month.

And so, so many people are having to make these tough decisions as open enrollment gets underway. Some of them saying, I'm going to have to go get a corporate job that can give me health insurance. Others saying they're going to be downgrading their coverage. And in some cases, they're going to be forgoing health insurance altogether.

I spoke to a 63-year-old woman in Alabama who has been battling lung cancer, who told me she just will not be able to afford the spike that she is facing, going from $540 a month for insurance up to more than $1,700.

Here's what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNNY MONTGOMERY, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT ENROLLEE: I have to face the reality that I am probably going to become a late stage cancer patient who's uninsured.

COHEN: If you don't have insurance, what will that mean for your scans and your treatments and your oxygen?

MONTGOMERY: I won't have any of those. Life is going to get a lot harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Yes, so, Sara, you can hear how emotional of an issue this is for so many people. And I -- look, I spoke to a local Republican council member, a major Trump supporter, out in a rural, very impoverished part of Maryland, who told me essentially he's seeing his insurance premiums go up about 40 percent, and he never qualified for a subsidy. And he said, this is not about if you're a Republican or a Democrat. At some point this is just a humanitarian issue when you're talking about telling people their insurance is going up $2,000 suddenly per month. That's going to blow up the budget for the vast majority of people in this country, not just folks who are extremely low income.

[09:00:05]

There are plenty of people who consider themselves middle class, who say, you know,