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Trump Says He Will Announce Reciprocal Tariffs This Week; Trump Administration Making Massive Cuts To Federal Workforce; NYC Immigration Memo Sparks Outrage Among Advocates; Trump Claims He Had Talks With Putin, Expect To Have Many More; Trump Warns European Union Could Be Next To Face Tariffs; Experts Warn Trump Cuts To USAID Endanger U.S. And World; Trump's Mass Deportation Plans Spark Fear Among Nebraska Migrants. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 09, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:15]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.

Kickoff for Super Bowl LIX between the Eagles and the Chiefs in New Orleans now just minutes away. But before that kickoff, President Donald Trump turning to one of his favorite plays in route to New Orleans, flooding the zone. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way there to the Big Easy, Trump laying out several new policy developments including announcing plans for new reciprocal tariffs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll be announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference, reciprocal tariffs. And very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them. That's all.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: When is it going to take effect, sir?

TRUMP: Almost immediately. But I'll be announcing the details of it. Highly detailed, and it will be great for everybody, including the other countries. But if they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing, it's not going to stay that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Trump also described Gaza as a big real estate site, talking about managing America's trillions in debt, the war in Ukraine, and also possibly meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

CNN's Betsy Klein has been following it. Now she joins us now from West Palm Beach.

Betsy, he covered a lot of ground. He talked for about a half hour. What more can you tell us?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: You're absolutely right, Jessica, to describe it as flooding the zone. President Donald Trump speaking to reporters for about half an hour aboard Air Force One as he made his way to New Orleans and making good on a pair of campaign promises on the topic of tariffs.

So, as you mentioned, he will be announcing reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday for all countries that tariff the U.S. He also announced that on Monday he will be unveiling 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. Again, 25 percent.

Now, Trump also doubled down on his plans to redevelop Gaza, telling reporters to think of it as, quote, "a big real estate site." Take a look at what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think that it's a big mistake to allow people, the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza to go back yet another time, and we don't want Hamas going back and think of it as a big real estate site. And the United States is going to own it and will slowly, very slowly, we're in no rush, develop it. We're going to bring stability to the Middle East, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: And Trump once more suggested that neighboring Middle Eastern countries would house displaced Palestinians in what he described as beautiful sites. Now, regional leaders, with the exception of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have rejected these plans. Of course, this will be a major topic of discussion when President Trump hosts the king of Jordan at the White House this week.

And we should note that 90 percent of Gaza residents have been displaced, and many have been forced to move repeatedly. That's according to the United Nations -- Jessica.

DEAN: And Betsy, also just staying with President Trump today. He is going to be the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl. He's there in New Orleans where they had that deadly terrorist attack at the beginning of the year. We know he had a meet and greet with these families, with victims, with first responders. What more can you tell us about that?

KLEIN: That's right, Jessica. President Trump right now at the Superdome, where he will be the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl, something he told FOX News in an interview was surprising to him, and he said he wanted to be there for the country. So we saw him hit the field of the Superdome just moments ago, meeting with some of those victims, family members of that deadly terror attack on New Year's Day, as well as New Orleans Police Department officers and other first responders and emergency personnel.

But President Trump broached a very controversial topic, telling FOX News that he predicted a win for the Kansas City Chiefs tonight.

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein there in West Palm Beach. We'll see if that prediction is true. I know a lot of people betting on the game. We were just talking to one of them in the last hour. Betsy, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

A judge has temporarily delayed Trump's deadline for the so-called buyouts for federal workers. A hearing is scheduled on that tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, Vice President JD Vance weighing in on the legal roadblocks that the administration is encountering, posting on X today. quote, "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power." Now, the Constitution, of course, sets up the three branches of government as a system to check and balance each other.

Also tonight, the Trump administration has informed employees of another agency that they won't be in the office this week. Workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have been told its D.C. headquarters will be closed for the next week.

[18:05:07]

That is the agency that's tasked with looking out for American consumers when it comes to interest rates and fees from big banks and other lenders.

Joining us now to talk about all of this is senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

Ron, thanks so much for being here with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Jessica.

DEAN: I just -- it's good to see you. I want to kind of zoom out for a second because we're getting new information about these tariffs, which I do want to touch on. But the Trump administration believes and has been very clear, that they have a mandate to dramatically reshape the federal government, that all of these moves that they're making right now are targeted at that and that they're all connected. The question, though, is about how they're doing it and if it's legal and if it's constitutional.

BROWNSTEIN: Right, exactly. I mean, look, every president who wins claims a mandate. You know, Donald Trump did win. He won all the swing states. He didn't get over a majority of the vote, again, although he did win the popular vote for the first time.

I mean, I think there are two ways to interpret what JD Vance was saying in that tweet, the relatively more benign interpretation, and I say relatively, is that he was signaling to the Republican appointed justices on the Supreme Court the way he wants them to interpret these suits when they the most important of them, inevitably get to them. And they, in fact, have taken a pretty broad view of executive power in the past.

The more ominous interpretation of what he was saying is that he was repeating something he had said several years ago on a podcast, which is that Trump, if reelected, should simply ignore judicial decisions. In fact, in that podcast back in '22, I believe, JD Vance quoted the famous, maybe apocryphal quote from Andrew Jackson about John Marshall, who created the idea of judicial review. The Supreme Court chief justice, you know, and Andrew Jackson

supposedly reacted to a ruling by saying John Marshall had made his decision. Now let him enforce it. JD Vance said that would be a good model for Donald Trump. So we, you know, this could be, you know, as I say, relatively more benign, a signal to the Republican justices the way he wants them to ultimately rule on this. It could also be the first step on a road toward a full scale constitutional crisis.

DEAN: And so then we have the Elon Musk of it all, right, and what -- and his role in all of this. There are concerns about the unprecedented access that he and his team have, what they're doing with that information, how secure it might be. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this to our colleague Dana Bash today. I want to play a quick clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about and worried about the government, particularly unelected people.

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We can't trust the government anymore.

BASH: Having access to personal data.

NOEM: Yes. Oh, absolutely.

BASH: But you are the government.

NOEM: Yes. That's what I'm saying is that the American people now are saying that we have had our personal information shared and out there in the public.

BASH: But now Elon Musk has access to it or he said he does.

NOEM: But Elon Musk is part of the administration that is helping us identify where we can find savings and what we can do. And he has gone through the processes to make sure that he has the authority the president has granted him.

BASH: You're totally comfortable with him.

NOEM: I am today by the work that he is doing by identifying waste, fraud and abuse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And I guess the question here, Ron, is what do the American people think? You know, and if they're OK with it, that's one thing. And if they're not, that's another thing.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, we don't really have great reads on this yet, but I'm guessing that most Americans are not going to be that comfortable with the idea of an unelected billionaire whose profile really is someone who is at his best, disruptive and erratic. I mean, nobody thinks of Musk as kind of a pillar of stability, rummaging around the plumbing of the federal government and having access to their private financial and medical records perhaps.

I just think that that is more than most people are going to be comfortable with. And, you know, look, it fits what we were just discussing at the outset here, Jessica, which is that, you know, Trump is taking this win to mean that he can push as far in any direction that he talked about during the campaign. And it's pretty clear, both in the confirmation votes and otherwise, that Republicans in Congress are not going to put up even as much resistance to him as they did in his first term, which wasn't that much to begin with.

So you're really left with the courts. And ultimately, even though they are losing a lot of these early cases, you know, at the end of the line of all of these cases are six Republican appointed justices.

I was thinking today, you know, looking at these early decisions, think back to the immunity case with Donald Trump and how emphatically lower courts rejected his arguments. And then John Roberts wrote a decision that not only gave him everything he asked for, but ultimately even more than that. So we have a long way to go. But it really is, I think, shaping up that those Republican appointed justices on the Supreme Court are really the ones who are going to have the leverage to decide what the country looks like, what our constitutional democracy looks like after a few years of the Trump presidency.

[18:10:11]

DEAN: Yes. And then there's just this -- the idea that President Trump, since he took office 21 days ago, he's everywhere. And I know we keep saying flood the zone. But look, he's at the Super Bowl. He's talking to the press all the time. He is the news cycle right now.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. As was the case in his first term.

DEAN: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: I mean, look Trump, you know, through his whole career really has been someone whose greatest skill is commanding attention. He's been more of a marketer than a kind of a business thinker. And he remains that, you know, setting up tent cities in Guantanamo as a way of signaling that he is serious about his deportation drive, even if we don't know yet whether he's ultimately going to deport more people than, for example, Obama did in his first term.

So, you know, Trump knows marketing, but he is also, as we talked about, right at the very beginning, all -- I think almost all of the constraints that he faced in the first term are gone. You know, in his first term, he had to appoint people to his administration that represented other powers inside the GOP, who sometimes said no to him and push back. That's not happening. In his first term, he had McConnell and Ryan as the congressional leaders who in private sometimes push back. That's not happening.

In the first term, you had business leaders who were keeping their distance from him, and now you have a procession of them, you know, proceeding to Mar-a-Lago, trying to get in his good graces. So Trump clearly has more freedom to do what he wants unfettered than he did in his first term. And that, I think, is not an unmitigated blessing for him because there is clearly the risk with Trump that on multiple fronts he will go further than his coalition, or certainly a majority of the American people will accept, giving Musk unfettered access to, you know, federal records, maybe one front excessive tariffs if he goes through, as he said today, Mexico and Canada still seem to be heading for 25 percent tariffs.

There are a lot of ways in which Trump unbound could be -- could, you know, rebound in a way that is not positive for him or Republicans in Congress.

DEAN: Yes. We just have to see what Americans think about it all as the dust kind of settles on it.

Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. Good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Happy Super Bowl. Yes.

DEAN: You, too.

Still ahead, a recently surfaced memo instructs New York City employees to let ICE agents search schools and hospitals if the staff feel, quote, "threatened." How some local officials are fighting back. That's next.

And not one, not two, not three, five. Five winter storms could deliver more snow than the last two winters combined in the coming days. That means millions of Americans are on alert for snow, sleet or ice. And we're going to track it for you ahead.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:37]

DEAN: Sources tell CNN the White House is pressuring federal immigration agents, often called ICE, to ramp up migrant arrests. The Trump administration's hardline policies have left many major cities scrambling with how to respond after DHS gave ICE new powers to make arrests in previously off-limits spaces like churches, schools and hospitals.

Gloria Pazmino is there in New York now, and she's joining us now with more on this.

What is the latest response from the New York City mayor -- Gloria.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, we have been watching as cities across the country sort of struggle to respond to Trump's immigration crackdown. We've seen many sanctuary cities, places like New York City, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, trying to sort of balance the fact that they are sanctuary city jurisdictions, that they will not cooperate with federal law enforcement, but also having this law enforcement show up in their city to do targeted enforcement.

Now, there's a memo that went out to New York City employees several weeks ago outlining how they're supposed to respond in the event that a federal law enforcement agent shows up either to a city agency or to city property like a hospital or a school. And it was part of that memo that really upset some migrant advocates here in the city, as well as other Democrats who say that the mayor is not doing enough to protect immigrant communities.

The memo goes on to say that if a person is in fear for their safety, or if they feel threatened by the officer, that they are allowed to let them in. Take a listen to what some of the advocates had to say about this today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANA MARIA ARCHILA, CO-DIRECTOR, NEW YORK WORKING FAMILIES PARTY: New York City is a proud sanctuary city.

CROWD: Yes.

ARCHILA: We made it so. Eric Adams sent a guidance to city workers encouraging them to give away that power that the law has granted them. He has told city workers that if they feel intimidated by an ICE officer, they should open the doors of our schools, of our hospitals, of our city agencies.

(CROWD BOOING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Advocates also say that this memo essentially encourages federal law enforcement to take aggressive action when they do these enforcement operations.

[18:20:01]

Now we are expecting to see more immigration action this month in the city of Los Angeles. That is according to a source familiar with the planning, and all of this, as I said, playing out in the background of the sanctuary city issue. A lawsuit filed by several cities in California saying that Trump is targeting sanctuary jurisdictions, which they say is illegal. So it looks like that will play out in court as we await this increased action -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino with the latest, thank you so much for that reporting.

Officials from the NTSB are documenting the wreckage of the American Airlines plane that collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport. Crews were able to recover every major piece of the aircraft out of the icy Potomac River. And now that everything is out of the water, the teams are investigating for any additional signs of what went wrong. Meanwhile, one crash victim, flight attendant Danasia Elder, was

honored Saturday as her remains were flown back to her home in North Carolina. Her fellow flight attendants lined up to pay their respects, placing flowers on her coffin. Her coffin was met on the tarmac with a water salute, a final honor from her hometown in Charlotte.

The eastern half of the United States is facing the second of five winter storms set to hit the region in just two weeks. Weather systems bringing snow and ice are bound for the Midwest and the northeast, with precipitation turning into rain further south.

Meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the latest.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The system in the northeast finally starting to wrap up, and it dumped a pretty significant amount of snow. Widespread totals about four to six inches but we did have one spot in upstate New York that topped out at 14 inches of snow. Ice was also a concern, especially across Pennsylvania, where we had at least a quarter of an inch of ice accumulating on those roadways, power lines and even the trees.

But now it's time for us to get a little bit of a break across the central portion of the country before the next system begins to arrive. It should start to take shape late Monday and continue to spread eastward on Tuesday, sliding over portions of the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys and then into the mid-Atlantic. Right on the heels of that storm, the next system begins to spread in on Wednesday across portions of the Midwest, sliding over the Great Lakes and back into the northeast, bringing additional snow and even some ice chances as well.

Saturday this comes the next system. Late Friday, setting up over the central U.S. and then Saturday spreading into portions of the Midwest and into the northeast, but also noting, too, the southern end of these areas are also going to get some precipitation. It's just going to be warmer here. So you're going to get a significant amount of rain on the southern end of all of these systems.

But just like the snow, the rain is also going to accumulate. You can see widespread totals from Louisiana up to the Carolinas of three to five inches of rain. Not out of the question, however, to see six, maybe even seven inches of rain total. On the northern tier, you're looking at widespread snow totals of at least four to six inches. Keep in mind, this is on top of what they've already had as we finished out the rest of the weekend.

And that snow is likely going to stay there because those temperatures in the northern tier are going to remain below average. So any additional snow that comes in is just going to accumulate on top of what's already there. The southern tier, however, that's where the above average temperatures are located. That's why you're mostly going to see rain, but a lot of rain. So you've got Tuesday and Wednesday both looking at a slight risk of excessive rainfall and the potential for flooding exists both of those days.

DEAN: All right, Allison Chinchar, thanks for that update. Still ahead, Russia's war in Ukraine is nearing the three-year mark.

What we're learning about a conversation between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:08]

DEAN: President Trump now says he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Speaking with reporters this afternoon on board Air Force One, the president avoided getting specific about the timing of that conversation but said there would be more talks to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I know you don't want to tell us about your conversation with President Putin, but can you clarify whether you have that since you've been -- since you've been in office or whether it happened before you became president?

TRUMP: I've had it. Let's just say I've had it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: As president?

TRUMP: And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended. It's going to end, and we have to get it ended, and we have to get it ended soon. It should have never happened. Would have never happened if I was president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now is Jill Dougherty, CNN contributor and previously she served as the network's Moscow bureau chief. She's also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Jill, it's great to have you here. And we're getting this new news just within the last hour. President Trump there saying he's spoken with President Putin and that there will be more conversations to come. I just want to get your reaction to that.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, he's not giving any details, so it's a little bit hard to see exactly what he's saying. And of course, you have to look at what the Kremlin is saying and the spokesperson for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said, well, there are a lot of contacts going on at various levels and maybe I don't everything that's going on so I cannot either confirm or deny.

So, you know, this is very delicate and even having contact could be, you know, political and sensitive so I think, you know, we've got kind of a diplomatic game going on between the White House and the Kremlins, specifically between the president and Putin. All, you know, pushing toward getting some type of at least ceasefire, maybe not a full resolution, which is extremely complicated, but some type of ceasefire in Ukraine.

[18:30:09]

DEAN: Yes. And the president also says he's likely to meet this week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Between those three leaders, everybody has got their own agendas, obviously, and their own outcomes that they want. How do you see these negotiations playing out?

DOUGHERTY: You know, they're really, really complicated. I kind of look at it as the, you know, part A would be the actual negotiations that eventually will take place, that are very complex, very detailed and could last for a long time. You know, it could be a number of different agreements over a period of time. And then the other side of it, I think, is the interplay among these leaders.

You know, Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy all have their own particular interests, geopolitical, political, and then, of course, just trying to get some type of resolution of this conflict. So -- but I'd say, you know, shorthand, Trump once says he wants to end the war and also wants to look like a peacekeeper. He has tasked Keith Kellogg as his special representative to work out the details.

Putin is not giving any indication that he really wants particularly to solve this. In fact, he frequently says, well, Zelenskyy, you know, president of the Ukraine, isn't really a legitimate leader anyway, so he wouldn't be able to sign any documents. And then -- but then you have President Zelenskyy saying, I'm ready to talk and he has actually brought forward some ideas, especially with the rare earth metals that President Trump is talking about. Maybe we can chat about that, too. But I think Zelenskyy is ready to talk but the details are very tough.

DEAN: Yes. And yes, and I do want to talk about that. Let's get into the rare earth metals and kind of how that might be a factor in all of this.

DOUGHERTY: Yes. Well, President Trump has brought it up. And as we've known for quite a long time, Ukraine has a very large stash of these, what are called rare earth metals and critical metals and things, you know, titanium, et cetera, that are very important for a lot of what we do. You know, computers, green technology interestingly, and other things. So these are really valuable.

And what President Trump is saying, let's do a deal with Ukraine. We get access. We, the United States, get access of some type to those minerals. And the way Ukraine -- and that is how we are paid back for the aid that we are giving militarily to Ukraine. And then Zelenskyy is saying, yes, that would be good. And I do think that this is one thing where Ukraine really could be very valuable to the United States in that particular area.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Jill Dougherty, much more to come on this, but thank you for that analysis, that context. We really appreciate it.

DOUGHERTY: Sure. DEAN: This week, President Trump agreed to a 30-day pause on his

threatened tariffs against neighbors Mexico and Canada after America's two biggest trading partners moved to ease his concerns about border safety and drug trafficking. But Trump warned the European Union could be the next to face levies on their goods.

Our Richard Quest sat down with the French President, Emmanuel Macron, to get his reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: I think it's not the top priority in the current environment, given all the challenges we have. We have to fix Ukraine. We have the situation in Middle East. We have this competition between U.S. and China, and we have all this innovation from A.I. to clean tech as well to deliver.

Honestly, I don't think it should be the top priority. Nevertheless, what is the concern of President Trump? And you know that we have a very good relation and we speak very regularly. He says I'm not happy with the situation with Europe because I have a trade deficit. When you look at the situation, my first question to the U.S., is the European Union your first problem? No, I don't think so. Your first problem is China. So you should focus on the first problem.

Second, Europe is an ally for you. If you want Europe to be engaged on more investment and security and defense, if you want to help to develop, which is, I think, the interest of the U.S., you should not hurt the European economies by threatening it with tariffs. Third, the integration of the value chain between U.S. and Europe is super high. What does it mean? It means if you put tariffs on a lot of sectors, it will increase the costs and create inflation in the U.S. Is it what your people want? I'm not so sure.

Fourth, it's very simple. When you look at the trade deficits you can have the figures mentioned by President Trump. But I insisted in my discussion with him on some very small issues. Look at the financial outflows.

[18:35:04]

A lot of the European savings are going to finance the U.S. economy. If you start putting tariffs everywhere, you cut the links, it will not be good for the financing of the U.S. economy. Second, digital services. We big, huge buyers of digital services. It is unfair not to take the digital services in the trade deficit and to say, I have a trade deficit, but I don't speak about the digital services. You will keep buying them. Why? Why?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Are you prepared to go head to head on this or toe to toe on this?

MACRON: I already did so and I will did it again. And I think we should be ready to obviously be in the room and react. But I think more than that, the European Union has to be ready to deliver what we want and what we need for ourselves. QUEST: Can I suggest to you that the European Union is not fit for

purpose when it comes to dealing with something like President Trump, who is threatening tariffs and basically saying my way or the highway?

MACRON: I think it could be the opposite when you have direct contact and you are clear. I think the European Union should not be the one to wait for the initiative of the others and just react. What we have to do is to act for ourselves and to tell our people this is our project. This is what we want. This is why, for me, the top priority of Europe is competitiveness agenda, is defense and security agenda, is A.I. ambition.

And let's go fast for ourselves. If in the meanwhile we have tariff issue, we will discuss them and we will fix it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right. Our thanks to Richard Quest for that.

Still ahead tonight, the Trump administration attempting to gut the U.S. government's foreign aid agency. How dismantling USAID could push allies into the hands of our adversaries.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:40]

DEAN: A federal judge temporarily blocked the White House from putting more than 2,000 USAID employees on leave. The judge saying he wants time to hear arguments on whether President Trump's plan to dismantle the agency is legal. Some analysts are concerned that cutting the agency's aid programs will deeply cut into America's power and reputation around the world.

CNN's Brian Todd has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At this hospital in Thailand refugees from war-torn Myanmar say services at their refugee camp came to a sudden stop after the U.S. froze aid to the region.

MAUNG LAY, INJURED REFUGEE FROM MYANMAR (through translator): We don't have money to buy medicines. We will all die if we have no medicine at the camp.

TODD: Part of the fallout worldwide of President Trump's decision to gut the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, the agency that provides food and other humanitarian assistance to millions around the world. The president citing alleged waste and fraud unearthed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: Sixty percent of the budget goes to humanitarian emergencies, literally to provide shelter, food, and medicine to keep people alive.

TODD: In 2023, USAID says it provided nearly $2 billion in food assistance to more than 45 million people around the world. But now food services in famine stricken places like Sudan are already shutting down. Programs to provide safe drinking water for billions of people in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and India are under threat. And the impact on treatments for disease could be catastrophic.

ANDREW NATSIOS, FORMER HEAD OF USAID UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: There are health clinics around the world that are treating people for HIV/AIDS, for measles, or children who get measles, 50 percent of them die in the developing world. We had a campaign to eradicate polio. That's been stopped.

TODD: And USAID's ability to detect and treat diseases doesn't just help people in faraway lands.

DR. ATUL GAWANDE, FORMER USAID ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR GLOBAL HEALTH: They're responding to diseases that threaten populations and can come to the United States. A case example is right now in Uganda there's a very serious Ebola outbreak in the capital city.

TODD: And another malaria uptick in the U.S., like the one in Florida in recent years, is possible if agencies like USAID can't detect it overseas first. USAID also works with security agencies to safeguard Americans.

STEVE SCHMIDA, FORMER USAID CONTRACTOR: There are organizations monitoring ISIS, right, in Syria, trying to keep an eye on extremist groups to make sure they don't attack us again. You know, these are -- they've gone dark.

TODD: Work often done by USAID employees who are putting themselves in peril.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You have USAID employees in incredibly dangerous areas that are impacted not just by disease but also conflict and war. At least some of these workers are in places where they are risking their lives.

TODD: And in some cases, dying. In 2023, A USAID contractor was killed in an airstrike in Gaza. In 2010, suicide bombers stormed a USAID compound in Northern Afghanistan, killing four people.

(On-camera): According to analysts and two former top USAID officials who spoke to CNN, another disturbing ripple effect is that as USAID pulls out of developing nations, America's adversaries like China, Russia and Iran could move right in to fill that void and distribute their own aid to those countries, winning hearts and minds on the ground, something China has already been doing in places like Latin America and Africa.

[18:45:05]

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Brian, thank you.

And still ahead, Trump's immigration crackdown raising concern even in states where the president is popular. We're going to go to Nebraska to hear from voters there about the impact of the president's immigration policies.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:08]

DEAN: A look at New York City. They got some snow last night as we move through the month of February. Back here in D.C., Trump administration officials are moving swiftly to implement the president's ambitious immigration agenda, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and seal off the southern border.

As part of his "All Over the Map" series, CNN's John King went to Nebraska, which depends on immigrant workers, to see how these hard line policies are playing out with voters there and the immigrants themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Nebraska prairie, it's calm and quiet as the rolling farmlands wait out winter.

CROWD: This is what community looks like.

KING: But even here, the new Trump agenda stirs passion and fear.

CROWD: Love over hate.

KING: Immigrant workers are critical in a state where cattle outnumber people by more than three to one. Nebraska is second to Texas in U.S. beef production, sixth in pork, and its Cornhusker State nickname celebrates its role as an agriculture giant.

JOHN HANSEN, PRESIDENT, NEBRASKA FARMERS UNION: If we have a hitch in the get along in Nebraska, it's a big enough processing state, it's going to be felt in the food chain.

KING: By hitch in the get along, Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen means a Trump immigration crackdown that rounds up undocumented workers.

HANSEN: Do we need better enforcement? I think we do. There's a constructive way to do it, and there's a less than constructive way to do it. And so it remains to be seen how we proceed.

KING: This is a red state, and its Republican governor is offering support if the Trump White House puts Nebraska on its immigration crackdown list. Fear is the word you hear most from immigrants, even those with legal status.

"GIN", NEBRASKA RESIDENT: This first term was more of like, let's see if this can happen. This year is more, I'm going to do it.

They go to school.

KING: Gin has a green card now and is working towards citizenship, but he has family and friends who are undocumented, and he asked that we not use his full name.

GIN: It's a scary time for my community, for people I care for basically are not lucky enough like I am.

KING: Rumors of ICE activity spread fast, as did word that agents can now enter schools and churches.

GIN: It starts up people getting scared. Basically, it starts off like, have you seen immigration? Have you seen this? And you see the fear in people's eyes. Just the fact that they can't go out to the store, they can't go get groceries or even hospitals. It's just a hard time.

KING: Immigrant advocates like Mary Choate say clients are worried now about sending their children to school or showing up for English classes and other services.

MARY CHOATE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR LEGAL IMMIGRATION ASSISTANCE: We really want to keep immigrants and refugees involved in the communities because they're so integral to our community. But it's been very difficult for them to be able to do that because they fear going outside of their homes.

KING: "G" is seeking asylum. She was a journalist back home in Honduras, targeted by the government, she says, after reports detailing corruption.

"G", ASYLUM SEEKER (through translator): If I go back to Honduras, they will kill me.

KING: She entered the States a year ago using a Biden administration phone app that Trump eliminated on day one.

Your lawyers tell you you're in the asylum process and you should be OK. But with Trump as president, are you worried?

"G" (through translator): Of course. For sure.

KING: Why?

"G" (through translator): Because he tries to implement quite strict policies with immigrants in general. And I think even more with people who have just entered the country. At least with the program I entered with, there is some instability, so to speak. So, of course, that increases anxiety and concern.

With Trump's arrival, I have felt very unstable. I have a lot of anxiety. I suffer from insomnia and I cannot stop thinking about the possibility of being deported. I cannot go back.

KING (voice-over): Nebraska State Senator Kathleen Kauth is pushing a new E-Verify law that requires employers to certify their workers are legal. Simple and common sense, she says. But Kauth concedes, the polarized national debate might make it harder to win over Democrats.

KATHLEEN KAUTH (R), NEBRASKA STATE SENATOR: I'm really more worried about Nebraska and focusing on what do we need in Nebraska to understand the problem, how do we make sure that we are keeping people who are not here legally from taking jobs from people who are here?

KING (voice-over): Kauth believes the state can handle any workforce disruption caused by stronger enforcement, and she is a state example of the Trump effect on the Republican Party. Any path to status or citizenship for those already here illegally must start with going home.

KAUTH: I kind of view it as a poison apple from the poison tree. Whatever the legal definition is. If your first act is to break the law, you have become a criminal. And so therefore everything after, even if it's well- intentioned, even if it's wonderful, please go back and go through the process because we do want you here, but we need you to do it the right way. And I don't think that that should ever change.

[18:55:07]

KING: Go back is the driving theme of the new Republican immigration push, and a big reason more immigrants think it's best to stay in the shadows.

John King, CNN, Lincoln, Nebraska.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: John, thank you.

The comedy quiz show "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU" is back for a new season. You can join Roy Wood, Jr., Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black as they serve up a smart take on news of the week, Saturday nights at 9:00, and streaming the next day on Max.

Thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. We're going to see you again next week. Have a great night.

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