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Florida, Auburn, Houston And Duke Play In Men's Final Four; Large Crowds At "Hands Off!" Anti-Trump Rallies Across U.S.; China Retaliates With 34 Percent Reciprocal Tariffs On All U.S. Goods; European Stock Markets Drop After Trump Tariffs; Colombia's Coffee Industry Braces For Impact From New Trump Tariffs; Flash Flood Emergencies In Effect For 2 Areas Of Arkansas; Train Trestle Collapses, Knocking Train Cars Off Rails In AR. Car Buyers Race To Beat 25 Percent Auto Tariffs; Mayor Michael Taylor (D-Sterling Heights, MI) Discusses 25 Percent Tariff On All Imported Vehicles Taking Effect & Lutnick Amid Economic Uncertainty Over Tariffs Saying "Trust Donald Trump"; Veterans Affairs Gives Employees The Option To Resign Again; Kansas City Grapples With Impact Of DOGE Layoffs; Trump Admin Files Emergency Stay To Block Order To Return Man Deported By Mistake. Aired 1-2p ET
Aired April 05, 2025 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
[13:00:00]
BRUCE PEARL, AUBURN HEAD COACH: -- trusting your staff. Everybody making sacrifices, you know, for the greater good. Understand that when we as a team are successful, you as an individual will benefit far more than if you as an individual is successful, the team fails. All these kids cared about all year long is winning.
TODD GOLDEN, FLORIDA HEAD COACH: I try to lead, you know, from kind of the player's perspective. And even though, obviously, I'm the head coach, I want them to feel like I'm in it with them. And so whether it's practice, you know, or some of our workouts and when watching film, we always want our staff and team to feel connected. And, you know, one of our kind of traditions is shooting half-court shots the day before the game and that was an example of that today.
KELVIN SAMPSON, HOUSTON HEAD COACH: Respect the people you're leading. And make sure they understand that we're doing this together. And somewhere along the way, I've learned the importance of being a servant leader and not a boss. I like working with people and helping them become better at whatever they're doing, and I think it should always be a joint effort.
JON SCHEYER, DUKE HEAD COACH: I've learned that in order to ask anybody to do anything, you better be willing to do it yourself and that's something I've always tried to take pride in. You know, I've tried to use the fact that I'm younger to get out there with our guys when possible but end of the day, I don't think you can ask them to do anything you're not willing to do yourself. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: They're dunking on them.
SCHEYER: Oh, I'm not, I'm not. I can shoot on them but not dunk on them. I'm not sure about defense either but I'll give the effort.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
WIRE: All right, it's almost game time, Fredricka. Tonight you have Auburn, Florida tipping things off. Then it's Duke, Houston duking it out all for a chance at the national title game on Monday. You can head to CNN.com for our March Madness live story for all the updates and analysis all games long.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
WIRE: And Fredricka, I'm going to give you a sense of the place right now. This is the Alamo.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
WIRE: Texas' only UNESCO World Heritage Site, the most visited place, a landmark in Texas. A $550 million enhancement effort going on right now to open in 2027 complete with a 4D theater and 5,000 artifacts --
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Oh it is.
WIRE: -- telling the Alamo's full 300-year history. But as you can see right now, it is a hot spot for fans from all across the country who are here in San Antonio rooting on their teams --
WHITFIELD: I love it.
WIRE: -- to see who's going to make that trip to the national title game on Monday.
WHITFIELD: It's so exciting. I love the mix of fans right behind you. All right, and I'm so inspired by the fun these coaches are having. I love it.
Coy Wire, we'll check back with you from San Antonio --
WIRE: Got it.
WHITFIELD: -- coming up.
WIRE: Thanks, Fredricka.
All right, hello again everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
All right, breaking news. Right now, large crowds turning out at rallies across the U.S. and in cities around the world, in fact, to protest President Trump's dramatic cuts to the U.S. federal government and his new tariffs that have the markets taking a nosedive. Organizers of the so-called hands-off protests say they expect today's rallies to be the largest since Trump took office. CNN's Brian Todd is joining us from the nation's capital. Hopefully we get that signal re-established with him. Correspondent Ivan Rodriguez is at a rally in Atlanta.
So, I think Ivan, we're going to come to you. We'll be able to see you and hear you the best for now. What's going on?
IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, an hour ago when we spoke, people were still gathering inside of Piedmont Park and now we're right at that time when the march is going to start from here in Piedmont Park in the heart of downtown Atlanta all the way toward the state capital. You can see new lines of people here.
We're pretty much at the end of where the march is and this just sort of continues all the way forward. An organizer who I spoke with, Fred, before mentioned how this isn't necessarily about one specific issue. This is about those that they're protesting. They're protesting the Trump administration, immigration policies.
A lot of different organizations coming together for one solidified rally. And again, they said here that about 5,000 people signed up for this rally. And I can tell you, I mean, this sort of just continues far beyond what I can see.
I want to bring in an organizer here with Indivisible ATL to give us a little bit more of a background of why this is important. Kimberly, tell us a little bit about what brought you out here, why you think so many people are out here today.
KIMBERLY KRAUTTER, VOLUNTEER, INDIVISIBLE ATLANTA: Look at the diversity of this crowd. This is America and we are stronger because of our diversity. Not all of us agree on every little thing in this crowd right here right now. We're from all different backgrounds. We're from different geography around Georgia.
Many people have moved to Georgia from many different places, internationally and domestically. And this is about saving what the founders brought for us. And since our leaders aren't doing it, we have to.
RODRIGUEZ: So you mentioned everybody's here for a different reason. What do you think is one of those or that unifying factor that really binds people together here?
[13:05:00]
KRAUTTER: In just a few short weeks, our United States government and all the taxpayer services that we've been paying for our whole lives, and our for generations has been completely dismantled. And that's not fair. We didn't vote for that.
We need the services. We need our law enforcement. We need our scientific research. We need kids to not die from cancer because they stopped funding at the NIH. We need our grandmothers to be able to eat and pay their rents from their Social Security that they work so hard for. It doesn't matter what the issue is. We are united because it's all being taken from us.
RODRIGUEZ: Kimberly, thank you.
And Fred, all this also happening as a new report found more than 270 -- 275,000 jobs were laid off. Essentially, those related layoffs. That's also a big conversation point we've been hearing here.
By the time we get to the state capital, we're also going to hear various speeches, some from the NAACP, the CDC, as well as people within the Georgia state legislature. So at this point, we're just going to continue on walking here.
WHITFIELD: I mean, that's a pretty significant turnout right there as they make their way to the state capital.
All right, thank you so much. Ivan Rodriguez will check back with you.
All right, let's now go to the nation's capital. Brian Todd is there.
Brian, it looks like you got a pretty sizable crowd there right at the Washington Monument where you are.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Fredricka. The crowd has been very strong and growing for hours now. Thousands and thousands of people here at the foot of the Washington Monument. You know, they come from everywhere from Seattle to Buffalo, New York to New Jersey. Those are the people we've talked to.
Some of them have relatives who work for the government. Some of them work for the government themselves. All of them worried about the DOGE layoffs. What's coming next?
One of the people I spoke to among the several members of the U.S. Congress who are speaking here today is Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost from the state of Florida. I presented him the argument that Elon Musk and President Trump have been making throughout this process that the government is too bloated, that so many of these agencies are corrupt, inefficient and simply just too many people.
This is his response to me just a few moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
REP. MAXWELL FROST (D), FLORIDA: Because of what Trump has done, people's livelihood has been at stake, especially folks who depend on rental assistance. People are in public housing, different things like that. We have a housing crisis in central Florida and across the entire country right now. So it has real local impact.
And that's why everybody's here because they've seen the local impact. It's not just some national talking points. People seeing to the things they've worked for their whole life. Social Security is not entitlement. It's something people have earned and fought for. And so, people are pissed off about it, and they want to act. (END VIDEOCLIP)
TODD: So Congressman Frost, one of several Democratic lawmakers here speaking at this event today. You've got union heads also speaking here, other people. It's going to go on for some time this afternoon. They're billing this as one of the largest kind of organized shows of resistance to what President Trump and Elon Musk and the DOGE team are doing.
They've got this hands off rally system planned for several cities. They get people get out in 1,300 cities inside the United States alone. 1,300 cities in small towns. But also, they're calling people to come out in cities like London, Paris, Vancouver, Berlin. This is all over the world.
On this day, Fredricka, it is a large show of force here in the nation's capital. Got to wait to see what it is like in other cities.
WHITFIELD: Yes, incredible. We look forward to seeing all those views to as the pictures come in.
Brian Todd, thank you so much in Washington, D.C.
All right, still to come. Severe weather threatens more than 40 million people today. We're tracking the threat of tornadoes in the same areas already dealing with disastrous flooding.
Plus, everything coming into the U.S. costs 10 percent more today as President Trump's tariffs go into effect. Now, world leaders are striking back.
Plus, the Trump administration appealing an order to bring back a wrongfully deported man from El Salvador. Details on that legal fight straight ahead.
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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Live pictures right now out of Saint Paul, Minnesota, where you see a pretty sizable crowd of protesters who are angry about President Trump's new tariffs and his dramatic cuts to the U.S. Federal government all gathering there. There are a lot of these gatherings taking place across the country as the pictures come in. We'll take you there.
Right now to the growing fallout from President Trump's expanding global trade war. China is now striking back, imposing 34 percent reciprocal tariffs on imports of all U.S. goods. That move is in retaliation for the taxes Trump added to all Chinese goods imported into the U.S.
CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing, where Chinese leaders are highlighting the U.S. stock market sell off to urge Trump to reverse course. MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: China's fighting back even further this time taking to social media to show its disapproval of the Trump administration tariffs. Let me show you the Facebook post from a foreign ministry spokesperson. He said, "The market has spoken". You can see an image showing the losses of all three major U.S. stock indexes.
[13:15:00]
He went on to call the action by the U.S. unprovoked and unjustified and urged the U.S. to reverse course and resolve differences. What's also notable here, this post is in English and Facebook is not available to most people here in mainland China, suggesting this is meant for an audience from the West, with additional Chinese tariffs set to go into place next week.
This is proving to be a big test for the world's two largest economies. Listen to what one economist had to say.
WILLIAM LEE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MILKEN INSTITUTE: I think the response from China that raising the tariffs is more like using a rifle rather than a cannon in response to President Trump. And like every other political leader, President Xi has to demonstrate very quickly.
He's not going to get pushed around by an American president. He has to appeal to domestic audience to show that he wants to maintain China's sovereignty, and he will not allow Americans to push him around.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
STEWART: And on that point, that raises the question, who will pick up the phone first? Chinese leader Xi Jinping or President Trump?
Marc Stewart, CNN Beijing.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Marc.
All right, Italy's economy minister is calling for de-escalation with President Trump's administration after the U.S. announced 20 percent tariffs on the European Union this week.
CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau is in Rome, where the trade war has Italian leaders urging calm and warnings of economic chaos.
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: European Union stock markets suffered the worst day since the COVID pandemic after the U.S. tariffs were announced. Financial services and luxury goods were particularly hard hit, especially those that you supply chains in places like Vietnam and Pakistan.
The European Union leadership promises a firm reaction and retaliation against the U.S. tariffs. But not all E.U leaders agree with what that looks like. In France, Emmanuel Macron called the tariffs brutal and unfounded. Whereas here in Italy, where Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni enjoys a warm relationship with the President Donald Trump, the reaction was more muted.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translation): It is a problem that must be solved, but it's not a catastrophe, as I'm hearing these days, which paradoxically worries me more than the fact itself. Because we must remember that we're talking about an important market, the U.S. market, which is worth about 10 percent of our total exports.
We will not stop exporting to the United States. So it is a problem we must solve. But beware of the alarmism I am seeing in these hours.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
NADEAU: Alarmism or not, the European Union is a single market, so the leaders will have to forge a united front however they choose to respond.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
WHITFIELD: All right, Trump's new round of tariffs are also expected to impact the price Americans pay for coffee. Most of the coffee we drink is imported from countries which the President just slapped with tariffs ranging from 10 percent to 46 percent.
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon has the details on how Colombia's coffee industry is bracing for the impact from this growing trade war.
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Colombian coffee farmers are concerned after the White House imposed a 10 percent tariff on Colombian imports. Most of that include coffee.
Now, here I am at the warehouse where the Colombian Coffee Federation stores its bean before they're ready to be exported to the United States. About 40 percent of these sacks that are just behind my back are destined for the United States. And, of course, an import tariff off 10 percent can create havoc for the many people that depend on coffee here in Colombia.
There are about 500,000 small coffee farmers that are part of the Colombian Coffee Federation. About 3 million people depend on coffee. So an increase off prices because of these tariffs could spell really bad for their bottom line. And that's why many here in Colombia are sharing these concerns.
Now, one thing to notice is that the United States cannot just replace imports of coffee. It's not like America can start growing coffee in Arizona or California. They will still have to purchase coffee from the traditional exporting countries, such as Colombia, which got a 10 percent tariff, such as Brazil, which got a 10 percent tariff, or Vietnam, we got a 46 percent tariff.
Who will pay that extra bill, however, remains to be seen. And that's why there is so much concern here in the global south that those tariffs might impact the bottom line just down here. For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
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[13:24:07]
WHITFIELD: All right, we continue our breaking news coverage as a particularly dangerous, life-threatening flood threat is unfolding across areas already devastated by deadly and violent storms this week. The death toll now at nine after a second flooding related death was just confirmed in Kentucky.
Flash flood emergencies are also in effect for two different areas of Arkansas due to torrential rainfall rather, according to the National Weather Service.
Joining me right now on the phone is CNN Correspondent Michael Yoshida, who is live for us in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas.
Michael, you're near a train, I understand, that derailed because of the flooding?
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on phone): Hey, Fred, yes, we're up in the northern Arkansas part right near the border with Missouri. And I'm sure if you guys have the video, but one of the train tracks heading right into Mammoth Spring, you'll see just the strength and the power of all the water that we've seen coming down over the last 12, 13 hours since we've been out about covering this.
[13:25:11]
The amount of rainfall is just -- it's hard to wrap your head around. And then when you see just the power of it as we're moving through that spring, that river right through Mammoth Spring, it obviously washed away the tracks there. You can see some of the train cars in the water.
One of them as you're up closer, you can see it actually been pushed down further along the river. It was really underwater at that point. Now one of our colleagues was able to talk with emergency management in the area. And we know that crews were out there assessing it, trying to figure out exactly what they can do.
But honestly, with all the amount of rain we see coming down right now, not a lot of distinct that you can do in the immediate time frame. It's just -- it's been nonstop rain, really, since we've been up since around, say, early midnight this morning.
But again, in terms of the visuals that put in perspective of how dangerous this water is, how powerful it is, that probably the best example of Mother Nature's strength every day can speed it up.
WHITFIELD: And Michael, this is just one consequence of the flooding. But because where you are, everyone there is in the middle of this flash flood emergency. What is being instructed of people? Is it a stay in place? Is it, you know, a floodwater emergency crews that have been dispatched? I mean, are you able to kind of paint a picture of what people are enduring right there?
YOSHIDA: For sure. So we've been in the Mammoth Spring area. We also were in Hardy, Arkansas, about 20 minutes away for most of the morning. And there we saw and heard from officials, the sheriff even talking with nature for that county about how they were doing rescues over throughout the night.
They had urged people over the last few days to either evacuate or if you were in higher ground to shelter. But obviously this is historic levels of rainfall and flooding for Hardy. The Spring River, which is the same body of water that we were talking about with the trade derailment, it reached levels that they haven't seen in many, many years.
Early this morning when we were there, you're talking about river heights in 23 feet range. Put that in perspective. Flood stage for that part of the river and for that town is 10 feet. You have to go back to 2008 when they last saw something around 22 feet.
So they exceeded that this morning and that level flooded Main Street. If the river was well out of its banks flooding its old historic district, City Hall, the police department. So officials urging everyone to evacuate.
And if they haven't, and they're in high enough ground to just hunker down, not venture out, don't test the roadways. If you see water on the road, obviously turn around, don't drown. We've heard it many times before, but that's really the message from the sheriff, from the emergency and everyone else that we've been hearing from.
Because, again, it's -- they'll try and get to you, but it's dangerous for them as well. One of the -- I know officials we spoke with earlier, they lost one of their boats in the Hardy area as they were trying to do some of these rescues. Thankfully, their first responders just suffered minor injuries. But it's dangerous all around for everyone involved.
WHITFIELD: Yes, it's a danger for everyone, including you and your crew. Michael, you should be careful there in Arkansas.
And we'll be right back.
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[13:33:31]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Now that President Trump's sweeping across-the-board, 10 percent tariffs are in effect, some companies are pressing the pause button on their upcoming plans.
Nintendo is delaying preorders in the U.S. for their recently unveiled new gaming console, the Switch 2. The company initially indicated orders would start on Wednesday, this coming up April 9th.
But in a statement, Nintendo says, "The pause is in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions." Meanwhile, the launch date for the Nintendo Switch 2 remains
unchanged, June 5th.
All right, before the Trump auto tariffs, the average price of a new car was $48,000. Now, analysts project, with new tariffs in place, the average price increases to about $60,000.
That projected hike has potential customers racing to buy or lease before costs skyrocket.
CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke to people at a dealership in Michigan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE GLASSMAN, PRESIDENT, GLASSMAN AUTOMOTIVE GROUP: I've had my share of turmoil over the years and so that's why I'm comfortable that this, too, will be something that we'll be able to deal with and overcome.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But George Glassman knows it won't be easy. He runs Glassman Automotive Group in Southfield, Michigan, outside Detroit, the self-described auto capitol of the world.
GLASSMAN: My father served the business in 1969. We haven't seen anything, in my opinion, this disruptive as long as I've been in the business.
[13:35:05]
JIMENEZ: His current inventory of cars is pre-tariff, unaffected, but that won't last.
(on camera): Do you anticipate having to raise prices on your vehicles when we get to that point?
GLASSMAN: Well, we're not going to have a choice. Ultimately, a decision has to be made by the manufacturers, how much are they willing to absorb of the tariff?
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Which would affect prices for people like Laura Downing.
LAURA DOWNING, DETROIT AREA RESIDENT: I have huge concerns about the tariffs and all the different ways that prices are going to go up, not just as related to, you know, automobiles and auto parts, et cetera.
JIMENEZ: As she spoke with us, she had just leased a car.
DOWNING: And with auto parts going up, I just figured might as well be in something that's newer that I'm not going to need a lot of maintenance on.
JIMENEZ: The Trump administration also plans to put tariffs on car parts by May.
DOWNING: I don't know how much I can say, but, I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
JIMENEZ (on camera): You can say whatever you'd like.
DOWNING: You know, I think the entire thing is it's bad politics. It's not good for anybody. Even much further outside of just auto parts. You know, it's going to hurt a lot of people.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): And she wasn't the only one thinking tariffs.
(on camera): So, that was on your mind when you came in into shop?
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERT HOLIDAY, SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: That was mainly on our mind, the tariffs. Everybody's saying that the prices on automobiles are going to go up. We're carrying on fixed income.
DENISE HOLIDAY, SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: Yes, we're retired.
R. HOLIDAY: We're retired.
D. HOLIDAY: We thought we better come now while we still can, and we still have our Social Security.
(LAUGHTER)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): JIMENEZ: But after this window of opportunity for customers comes reality.
GLASSMAN: Regardless of the make, the model, every single manufacturer will be affected by the tariffs.
JIMENEZ: Even with the roadblocks, Glassman sees a way through.
GLASSMAN: Detroit has been through so much over the years. There have been ups and downs. And the automobile business and its dealers have been resilient.
The thought of building plants and having more manufacturing jobs here in the states is admirable but it doesn't happen overnight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much for that.
So Trump's long-promised tariffs on U.S. auto imports are now in effect. And at this moment, every vehicle not assembled in the U.S. is being hit with a 25 percent tariff.
The president and the White House say some short-term pain is necessary for long-term success for American manufacturing.
The news is hitting communities hard, especially in those home to major U.S. auto plants. Joining us right now, Mayor Michael Taylor of Sterline Heights,
Michigan, which is home to four automotive manufacturing plants.
So great to see you, Mayor.
MAYOR MICHAEL TAYLOR (D-STERLING HEIGHTS, MI): Oh, thank you for having me.
WHITFIELD: So these tariffs just went into effect on Thursday. Stellantis, which has a plant in your city, announced 900 U.S. worker layoffs. At the same time, Stellantis is offering employee discounts to the public to help move car sales.
So what are your friends and neighbors saying about these tariffs? Are they seeing the same kind of optimism that the Trump administration is touting?
TAYLOR: Not really. I think that there are still plenty of Trump supporters who are willing to give him more rope and trust that what he's doing is going to have the effect that he claims it will.
But I think more and more people every day are seeing just how dangerous these tariffs can be to their way of life.
And a lot of people in Sterline Heights are living paycheck to paycheck, and every cost increase and price increase and every headwind for the local economy, it's going to take a toll.
So I'm seeing a lot more people saying this might have -- this might have been too much.
WHITFIELD: This was the president on Wednesday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. And you see it happening already.
We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So the president says this will bring more jobs back to the U.S. Do you see that happening? Is that what you're hearing from your constituents?
TAYLOR: Well, I mean, the longer this goes on, I think that there's no other option but to have more manufacturing in the United States. But I don't think that that's necessarily a benefit.
We have strong manufacturing in Sterline Heights already. We have strong manufacturing in the state of Michigan. But I just don't see the -- the ability to transfer all of the offshoring that we've done back to cities like Sterline Heights.
We'll run out of capacity, and we benefit from having free and open trade with other countries. So I don't see those benefits.
And -- and the reality is, I think residents and people who live in cities like Sterling Heights benefit from having lower costs for products like groceries, food, clothing, shoes, electronics, and they're all going to be pinched by this.
[13:40:09]
WHITFIELD: You know, we've seen the president go back and forth on tariffs before. If these tariffs are maintained for a significant period of time, what kind of impact do you think this is going to have on your city?
TAYLOR: Well, I think it could be devastating. You know, I've heard from government-relations folks at the auto companies and, you know, they did announce that there's going to be temporary layoffs for now, but they can't promise how long those temporary layoffs are going to last.
And the indication I get is that the longer that these tariffs remain in effect, the deeper the cuts are going to be, the longer that plants are going to be idled or potentially even closed. So it's not a good situation and it's only getting worse.
WHITFIELD: U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke to CNN earlier this week. He, too, is very enthusiastic. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he's doing. He's been talking about it for 35 years. You got to trust Donald Trump in the White House. That's why they put him there.
Our markets are going to be up. And I understand that it's tough for the global markets. But our market, you should be betting on Donald Trump and the United States market. We are going to do much, much better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Are you sold on that?
TAYLOR: No. I mean, Donald Trump has given us 10 years of reasons to not believe anything he says. I mean, he lies about things that are clear right in front of your eyes.
So, no, I don't trust Donald Trump. I won't I don't trust Donald Trump to run anything, let alone the global economy. And that's not his role. And I don't think that that's what people elected him to do.
While certainly they want to see prices come down and they want to see a strong economy, this is a grand experiment that he's running and we are all just sort of guinea pigs in his experiment. It's unprecedented.
And I certainly, for one, don't trust him. And I know most of the -- most of the country doesn't trust him either.
WHITFIELD: So what kind of comfort, I guess, can you give to your community -- community of -- of auto workers and beyond?
TAYLOR: Well, we just tell them we're going to continue providing services. We're going to continue to be one of the safest cities in the country. We're going to continue to do everything we can to support them and be business friendly.
But there's unfortunately very limited resources that we have to combat this. This is -- this is really an overwhelming onslaught against the average American worker and family.
And so we just have to keep getting that message out to our federal legislators and to Washington, D.C. And hopefully, after enough time, they will realize just how disastrous these policies are.
WHITFIELD: All right. Mayor of Sterline Heights, Michael Taylor, thank you so much.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up next, a judge has given the Trump administration until Monday to bring a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador back to the U.S. Why the administration is calling it "indefensible."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:47:47]
WHITFIELD: All right. Starting Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs workers will have the option to resign while still getting paid until September, according to an email sent to employees and reviewed by CNN. The opt-in period will last until April 30th.
And in the email, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins said the ultimate goal is to reduce the agency's workforce by 15 percent. He went on to say the V.A. can't guarantee what will happen with positions of employees who don't take the offer.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is the latest federal agency to make this offer again to their staffers. The original program was offered to about two million federal employees who had to accept by mid-February.
Right now, economists are estimating DOGE's federal job cuts made up nearly 80 percent of last month's 275,000 layoffs. And those jobs aren't just in Washington, D.C.
CNN's Kayla Tausche spoke to federal workers impacted by layoffs in Kansas City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than a thousand miles from Washington, D.C., the impact of DOGE is hitting the heartland.
In Kansas City, the federal government is the largest employer, a growing presence in recent years.
In Trump's first term, the Department of Agriculture relocated two divisions to the area to save money and move closer to farmers.
Now, USDA is among the many agencies scaling back here. All told, job cuts are expected to be in the thousands.
MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS, (D-KANSAS CITY): It's going to hurt the city. It's going to hurt the people a lot. It's going to hurt their families, and it's going to hurt a lot of secondary businesses.
TAUSCHE: Kansas City's Democratic mayor says the city won't be able to absorb all the laid off workers.
LUCAS: We're not building a new 4,000-person factory to replace 4,000 jobs at the IRS at the same time. And frankly, these folks will have very different skills.
TAUSCHE: At Kauffman Stadium, Jason Buck has picked up bartending part time. He used to manage fleets of government vehicles until he was fired a month ago. The search for a new job was slow going.
JASON BUCK, GSA PROGRAM SUPPORT SPECIALIST: Get a spattering of interviews over the course of a month and, you know, I haven't really had any headway on that.
TAUSCHE: While we spoke with him, his manager called to say he'd been reinstated. He doesn't know for how long.
[13:50:04]
(on camera): Do you worry that this is temporary?
BUCK: Absolutely. Yes. Yes. I don't know if I'm going back just to get -- be a part of a reduction in force at some point, or I have no idea what to expect.
TAUSCHE (voice-over): Daniel Scharfenberg worries his job is on the line, too. He joined the IRS 16 years ago. With two teenage kids, he's taken a second job to save money.
DANIEL SCHARFENBERG, IRS EMPLOYEE: Some days, I get off work here and I go straight to the movie theater. I bring my work uniform with me and I change, and I go straight to the movie theater and work there.
I'm 45 years old. I'm too old to be working two jobs.
TAUSCHE: The owner of Waterbird Coffee says business has picked up with federal workers ordered back to offices. But he fears it's short lived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, OWNER, WATERBIRD COFFEE: Definitely, the mood just feels sort of different. Everything feels kind of stressful, uncertain. It just kind of created this mood of anxiety overall.
TAUSCHE: The layoffs will ripple through the economy. Many federal workers say they may have to sell their home. Others canceling family vacations.
For each federal worker who loses their job, economists say the pullback in their spending could cost the city another one and a half jobs, multiplying the effect on unemployment.
The Kansas City metro is blue, but polls show that voters in Missouri still largely support Trump.
Shannon Ellis leads the Treasury Employees Union here and says her members feel the cuts hitting close to home.
SHANNON ELLIS, CHAPTER PRESIDENT, NATIONAL TREASURE EMPLOYEES UNION: I've had people approach me in this building and say, look, if I knew that this was what was going to happen, that all these attacks on federal agencies, I would have voted a different way.
So you can't say that all Americans still support what's happening.
TAUSCHE (on camera): Republican Senator Josh Hawley was among the proponents of moving these agencies from Washington to states like Missouri. He told CNN that he thinks the state's voters are largely supportive of the move to downsize.
The next major wave of federal layoffs is expected in mid-May, but employees say they expect to learn their fate in the next two weeks.
Even so, as we were leaving Kansas City, employees reached out to tell me about ongoing cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, with some workers terminated on the spot.
So this is happening in real time and with very real-world impact.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:56:55]
WHITFIELD: A temporary reprieve this week for a Venezuelan man who was arrested by ICE after coming to the United States to donate a kidney to his brother.
Jose Gregorio Gonzalez was released from federal detention yesterday on a humanitarian parole and was reunited, as you see right there, with his brother.
He'll now be allowed to stay in the U.S. for a year while caring for his brother, who has been diagnosed with kidney failure. And this just into CNN. The Trump administration has just filed an
emergency stay to block an order to return a man to the U.S. who was deported to El Salvador by mistake.
The Trump administration, arguing that it has no power to compel the Salvadoran government to release him.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez takes us through the case.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A week that began with the Trump administration saying they had mistakenly deported a Maryland man to El Salvador ended with a federal judge in Maryland directing the federal government to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia by 11:59 p.m. on April 7th.
Now, this is the case of a Salvadoran national, who was a resident of Maryland, who in 2019 was granted by an immigration judge what is known as withholding of removal.
That is to say that, while he could be removed from the United States, he could not be sent back to El Salvador over fear of persecution.
But that is what happened after Abrego Garcia was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month and then removed to El Salvador, along with other migrants, and is now being held at the notorious mega prison in that country.
Now, the federal judge on Friday asking many questions about this particular instance, the fact that he was granted a protected status but was removed anyway.
Now, the federal judge had asked for evidence, both on this, but also about his alleged ties to M.S.-13 as the Trump administration has said he has.
The Justice Department attorney saying during the hearing, quote, "The government made a choice here to produce no evidence."
Now, the family was relieved by the ruling that he be returned to the United States, but maintained that they, too, are going to keep up the fight.
His wife saying earlier in the day Friday that this has had a tremendous impact on their family and her three children.
Now, the Trump administration has appealed the case. So these legal proceedings will be ongoing and we'll see what happens there.
But certainly a remarkable and after a week where a -- the Trump administration had admitted to an error and then been directed to return one of those migrants who they say is in Salvadoran custody.
Back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.
All right. She conned banks, hotels and businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with her web of lies, convincing them that she was a wealthy German heiress.
But despite her deception and eventual conviction, Anna Delvey's celebrity continued to grow.
[13:59:58]
Jake Tapper has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It says on her reservation that she is a friend of Aby Rosen, so she avoids putting down a credit card. She's going to pay by wire transfer.
