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Trump Tariffs Rattle Markets, Raise Recession Fears; China Sends New Response To Sweeping U.S. Tariffs; DHS Email To Ukrainians In U.S.: "It Is Time For You To Leave"; Protest Against DOGE Outs; Deportation, DEI Reversals; How A Cell Phone Ban Is Changing A Virginia High School. Aired 8-9 pm ET

Aired April 05, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

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[20:00:34]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

President Trump's sweeping tariffs are now in effect. Overnight, a blanket 10% tariff on all U.S. imports officially went live, meaning you're likely about to spend more for just about everything, groceries, clothing, electronics, cars.

This escalation in the President's trade war has sent the stock market plunging, the global economy reeling, and corporate America seething. But so far, the President remains defiant in the face of this economic turmoil. He's been hitting the golf course at his Florida resort for the -- for three consecutive days now and is telling Americans not to worry, posting on "True Social" today, quote, "This is an economic revolution and we will win. Hang tough, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic."

CNN's Betsy Klein is live in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Betsy, the President appears to be pretty confident, pretty relaxed about everything that's going on, as so many Americans are deeply concerned. What is the White House saying?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Yeah, we are really witnessing a historic reconfiguration of the global trade order and so much economic upheaval as a result of President Trump's tariff policy. We're seeing market selloff, foreign retaliation, anger from corporate America, as well as skepticism from the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

But it was really business as usual here in South Florida for President Trump, who hit his golf club in Jupiter during the day today. And a remarkable split screen, Jessica. As protesters flocked to the streets of the U.S. in protest of these tariff policies, the White House issuing this statement, quote, "The President won his second round matchup of the senior club championship today in Jupiter, Florida, and advances to the championship round tomorrow." But as President Trump arrived at his golf club, he remained defiant,

telling supporters in a post to, quote, "hang tough." His team overall is staying the course.

Listen to what his trade advisor, Peter Navarro, told CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNSELOR: The market will find a bottom. It will be soon. And from there, we're going to have a bullish boom, and the DOW is going to hit 50,000 during Trump's term. The S&P 500 is going to have a very broad-based recovery, and wages are going to go up, profits are going to go up, and life's going to be beautiful here in America. Trust in Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Trust in Trump, even as markets are spiraling. The DOW down 12 percent from a recent high, the NASDAQ more than 22% down. But President Trump and his team are staying the course here.

Now, the President has acknowledged that some short-term upheaval is to be expected. The reality is, we don't know what the longer-term implications will be, Jessica.

DEAN: And we are just going to have to wait and see what those are. Betsy Klein in West Palm Beach, Florida, thank you for that reporting.

In addition to the 10% levy against nearly all countries, the President also imposed additional tariffs, which will start Wednesday. China hit the hardest among all of them at 34%. Combining that with current levies, Chinese imports are subject to a 54% tariff now.

In retaliation, China slapped a 34% tariff on all U.S. imports. Their foreign ministry is slamming Trump's move, saying the markets have spoken.

CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing. Marc, give us more details on how China is responding to all of this.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jessica, China has a very big toolbox of weapons. We saw the retaliatory tariffs. And now to make its latest assault, it's focusing on messaging. And I want to show you a Facebook post we saw on Saturday here in China from a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And on that Facebook post is a graphic of all of the different stock indices, the three major stock indices that saw big declines on Friday. With the wording, the market has spoken.

What's interesting about this is that this post was on Facebook, which is banned pretty much here in China. It's not accessible to most Chinese citizens. And that it was in English. So you could argue this was an attempt by the Chinese government to reach a Western audience, by an American audience, to make its point about what the United States is doing. [20:05:04]

In many ways, this is not that surprising, because China has been very smart and strategic about how it's been fighting back, in the sense that the early tariffs that we saw in this back and forth were really focused to American farmers and the agriculture industry. So the messaging that we're seeing here, this use of social media, Jessica, fits very much in the way China operates.

DEAN: And the new tariffs are, in a way, bringing China and Europe together in their response. Walk us through that.

STEWART: Right. In fact, I was having a conversation, an email exchange the other day with a source of mine, talking about the fact how a trade war will perhaps or will create some unusual partnerships.

China has been on this charm offensive, and a Chinese official recently met with an official from Hungary and talked about the fact that China would be perhaps willing to partner with the E.U. in some broader trade-related issues, going on to say, you know, China will oppose protectionism, unilateralism and bullying. That was a statement that was given to CCTV, which is a state media here in China.

Look, China and the E.U. do have some profound differences when it comes to trade. China has been accused of flooding the market with everything from EVs to solar panels, but it is showing in this heightened environment there are some conversations taking place.

And Jessica, this very much fits into this Chinese idea of being an alternative to create a new world order. This is one way that China perhaps is trying to elevate its profile.

DEAN: And Marc, we also saw this photo of President Trump reading the "New York Post." He says that he has the paper open. He's reading a piece in there. It appears to be a story about China and Xi. And there is that whole relationship of all of this, President Trump's relationship with Xi. What are the dynamics of that as we sit today?

STEWART: Right. This is a fragile relationship. This is a fickle relationship. And by nature, when you look at the U.S. and China, that's just how things have been.

At one point, President Trump and Xi Jinping had a pretty friendly alliance. It was back in the first Trump administration that we saw Xi Jinping and President Trump having chocolate cake together at Mar-a- Lago.

But then these issues of free trade came about. There was the pandemic and that relationship kind of broke off. We have heard President Trump make several statements expressing, if you will, admiration towards Xi Jinping.

He even has said statements to that effect during this very tense time. Perhaps this is going to be the precursor to a bigger trade agreement. But this is uncharted territory, so it's not clear how this will unfold. But yes, at times this relationship has been warm, but then at other times it's been frosty, if not very icy, Jessica.

DEAN: Yeah. And you say something we keep hearing from everyone we're talking to around this. We just don't know how it's going to play out. There is still so much uncertainty in America and around the globe.

Marc Stewart, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

And new tonight, Ukrainians seeking safety in the U.S. from war in their home country were told, quote, "It's time for you to leave." This was the email sent in error by the Department of Homeland Security. It said, quote, "DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States. The federal government will find you."

Now, that email was sent on Thursday. It was then followed by a message on Friday retracting the previous notice and telling the Ukrainians, quote, "no action will be taken."

Joining us now is Angela Boelens of Iowa Nice. It's an organization supporting refugee families. Angela, thank you so much for being here with us tonight.

Listen, I spoke with DHS tonight. They said this was sent in error. They have no plans right now to get rid of this program. But I know that you and a lot of the Ukrainians you've been working with, it really rattled a lot of people nonetheless. What are you hearing?

ANGELA BOELENS, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, IOWA NICE: Yeah, it definitely rattled people. You know, we've been telling people all along that with some of the changes being announced by the administration, that they should remain calm, that our policymakers are listening and that, you know, if and when that time came, they would be given due process and that we would help them get through that situation.

This shocked everyone that received this. It was a pretty harsh email. And when people received it, example, a couple of the ladies who received it, one is pregnant and one has a three-, four-month-old baby. And they received the email and were just immediately terrorized.

[20:10:09]

They were crying, calling their sponsors, saying, what did I do? I don't think I have any parking tickets, right? They just could not imagine why they were being asked to leave and why the letter was written in such a harsh tone. It was extremely scary to them and to the sponsors.

DEAN: And I just want to fill people in just on the background here. They are here is part of a Biden administration-era program that allowed them to come here legally to the United States. They were vetted. They went through extensive background checks. If they were approved, they were able to get work authorization. Then people like you and different programs could sponsor -- all of them had sponsors here in the United States, and you helped them get settled. You also all went through background checks. So, again, this is a very different situation, just to underscore,

than people who were perhaps illegally crossing at the border. These people were told to come to the United States and went through a legal process, right?

BOELENS: Yeah, absolutely. And, in fact, I think that's the thing that's so hard for us to believe. You know, I'm in a red state, overwhelmingly voted for the Trump administration, and we believe in this community that immigration needs to be legal and we need to control the problem at the border.

So our families were offered sponsorship. We invited them to come to Iowa. Our sponsors agreed for a period of 24 months to take care of them financially and to make sure that they integrated very well.

We have a 100% success rate in integrating the families that come to Iowa within 90 days. And what I mean by that is that we give them temporary housing and vehicles and things like that, but before the 90-day mark, they're completely financially independent. They're paying taxes. They're buying homes. You know, they're adding value to our schools, and they're giving back to the community.

So when our community first started hearing about the potential for these folks to have their status revoked, they were largely in disbelief. So yeah, but to your point, you're absolutely correct. These are very responsible, hardworking families. These are the kinds of families that we need in the state of Iowa.

DEAN: And who are trying to escape war. They didn't -- a lot of them, have plans to move to America. There was a war that came to their country. As I mentioned to you, DHS did tell us that this was done in error. The program has not been terminated. There aren't plans for that. Is that enough to calm concerns now?

BOELENS: Well, I kind of wish it was. I mean, I know one of the ladies that received one of these letters was literally having a hard time breathing. She was just so full of anxiety because it said you have to leave in seven days, right?

So we certainly were able to calm down just a little bit when we got that email saying that this was actually an error. But I got to tell you, it's actually left us with more questions than what we had before. We're asking ourselves as sponsors and as a community, you know, who wrote this letter? Why was it written in such harsh terms? And why only seven days to leave? And why was it so threatening in its tone?

Who is it intended for? Because it says very specifically, you were granted parole, legal parole. We are revoking that and telling you have seven days to leave. You can imagine the trauma that creates for a community who, in our community, for example, we've got a population of about 5,000 and $1.3 million in mortgage loans alone. How is a family supposed to respond to that?

And so while we have been cautiously optimistic and we have been talking to our policymakers, they have been listening, we have been more optimistic in the past than we are today. Because after seeing that email, it just begs a lot of questions. Who wrote it? Why? Who is it intended for? It was the mistake, simply, that it was earlier than expected. We're now more concerned than we were before.

DEAN: Yeah. Yeah. And does it -- does it make any of you -- is one of those concerns that ultimately this could come down the pike at some point?

BOELENS: Yeah, yeah, that is one of our concerns. I don't remember what the date was, but I know that President Trump was actually asked that question in the Oval Office. And I think his response was something like, you know, some people say it's a good idea, some people say that it isn't. And so, yeah, I mean, absolutely remains a possibility. And it's very, very difficult to calm people's nerves.

Keep in mind that if that decision were to come down, if that decision were to be made by the administration, it's not just hurting the people from Ukraine, who, you're right, there's still very much a war zone. I visited there in the past couple of weeks, and it's not time to go back. But it doesn't only hurt the Ukrainians, it helps the sponsors like me, for whom these are now our family members.

This is -- we've put a lot of our heart and soul into these families of bringing them here. But in addition, it's the communities that have wrapped their arms around these folks. They're going to be devastated. They are not going to believe it.

When I first told them that this was a possibility, the kind of benedict reaction they all had was, oh, no, no, no, they're just going to be removing the illegal criminals.

[20:15:08]

So yeah, it's going to affect our entire community, and it's going to be devastating.

DEAN: All right. Well, Angela Boelens, thank you for your time tonight. We'll certainly keep in touch with you. We really appreciate it.

BOELENS: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Still ahead. Should you quickly stock up before prices go up? We're going to speak to a financial expert about what you should or shouldn't do in the face of a tariff war.

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[20:20:12]

DEAN: There's now a brand-new tax on virtually every item coming into the U.S. after Trump's universal tariff went into effect overnight. And for consumers, this likely means increased prices on everything from groceries to electronics, clothing, toys. So what do you do? Do you race to the shops? Do you click add to cart on that thing you've been waiting to buy? Or is this when you pump the brakes, exercise some caution? It's a question that a lot of people are talking about right now, and joining us to talk more about it is money expert Tori Dunlap.

Tori, thanks so much. You're the author of "Financial Feminist," so you are a great person to talk to at this moment. Where do you sit on this debate? Do you go ahead and buy things? Do you wait?

TORI DUNLAP, MONEY EXPERT: Yeah, thanks for having me. What a time to be alive, huh?

DEAN: Yeah.

DUNLAP: I think the big thing that everybody's stressed about is, do I do this? Do I not do it? Wait, what happens? I think we all lived through COVID, right? We know the toilet paper craziness that happened in 2020. So I would really advise people to not begin stock hoarding. You know, really be strategic about your purchases. And this is actually a great time to look at your money and figure out what money is coming in, what money is coming out, and where can you start being more strategic about your spending.

DEAN: That's smart. Yeah, really kind of strategize about it. People out there already obviously dealing with inflation. They've been dealing with that for a long time now. Are there specific items or categories that you would say it's worth spending on now in order to save later?

DUNLAP: It's hard to know, right? This is a very big unknown for us, especially with, you know, what the consequences are going to be for the average individual. But I think you should spend as normal, right? If anything, you were going to spend money on already, it's a great time to keep making sure that you have those essentials. So things that you'll use every day, your groceries, that sort of thing. But I think that trying to be strategic about when and how you're spending money, especially right now, is a wise decision.

DEAN: What if you need something specific, like you need a new iPhone? Do you do that now?

DUNLAP: Again, it's hard to know. I think that if this is something that you have budgeted for and that you have room for, yeah, it's a great time, especially because we don't know what is going to happen in these next couple months. But this is -- I'm going to sound like a redundant, you know, person here and a broken record. But I think there is so much unknown right now that causes panic and causes people to make these rash spending decisions.

We really don't have enough evidence to determine, like, are these things going to, you know, absolutely decimate how we spend our money on the day-to-day? So I think it's really important that if you're already going to spend your money, great. Go for it. If not, try to hold back.

DEAN: OK. And look, yeah, there is a lot of -- this has been the theme of these last four hours that we've been on the air. There is a lot of uncertainty right now, and I think you're right. I think people are trying to kind of figure it out. Knowing that and kind of putting an asterisk on this, what do you think, though, that people should understand about how these tariffs might affect them day-to-day?

DUNLAP: Yeah. I mean, the first thing to understand, and this is for, you know, folks in power, is that they're vastly unpopular. It's really -- it's very unpopular with the average consumer because I was just talking to a fellow business owner friend of mine. It's not just going to affect individuals. It's also going to affect small businesses, especially women-owned businesses, BIPOC-owned businesses.

So tariffs are going to impact not just us at the individual level, but also the very businesses we rely on as the backbone of our economy. And I think when we are talking about preparing for any sort of, you know, potential, you know, recession -- we just saw the stock market, obviously, take a huge downturn.

It's really important for me as a financial expert to tell you that you need to make sure you know where your money is. You need to make sure that you're looking at your money and that you're not just putting your head in the sand and acting like your financial problems don't exist. We need to be building our emergency fund, which should be at least three months of living expenses and a high-yield savings account. And we need to be strategic, again, about the spending we're doing and not allow panic to influence our decisions.

DEAN: All right, there you go. Don't allow panic to influence your decision. Tori Dunlap, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

DUNLAP: Thank you.

DEAN: Yeah. Still ahead, thousands of anti-Trump protesters taking to the streets across America. Their message, they're saying enough is enough. We'll take you live, next.

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[20:28:57]

DEAN: Tonight hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating against President Trump and Elon Musk. The hands-off movement planned more than 1,200 rallies across the United States to protest the Trump administration.

Julia Vargas Jones joins us now from Los Angeles. Julia, you're there in the middle of the protest. What have you been seeing?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, so far it's been a very peaceful protest. We have started seeing people marching. It's about a one-mile loop that organizers had prepared in downtown Los Angeles. We started with some speeches, there's some music, and people are just now chanting power to the people. You know, the main message here has been hands-off our constitution. The protesters here are saying that many of the actions that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are unconstitutional and they want it to stop.

Some of the signs that we see here, well, here we go, hands-off education, clear nod here to the education department being dismantled. We're seeing a lot of hands-off different things, hands- off ICE, hands-off our immigrants. You know, take it to a lot of power to the people, a lot of nods to the constitution.

[20:30:09]

And some messages, Jessica, that we've seen echoed from other protests that we have been following for weeks now at Tesla dealerships, a lot of discontent with Elon Musk having so much, such a big hand in government when protesters say he was not -- he's not an elected official, saying, calling him a fascist, a lot of Musk signs doing what looks like a Nazi salute from the event earlier this year where we saw him make an arm gesture that looked like that.

A lot of associations and many dolls of President Trump coming up, costumes. Again, it's been a very calm, very peaceful atmosphere overall here until now. It looks like this protest is marching towards City Hall where protesters are going to make their demands. They're going to ask for cuts to the federal government to stop and for ICE to stop doing raids in the Los Angeles area. Those are the main messages that protesters here are asking for, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones there on the streets of Los Angeles. Thank you very much for that reporting.

And joining us now, CNN Senior Political Analyst, Ron Brownstein. Ron, good to see you as always.

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

DEAN: We were just -- hi, we were just seeing those images from Julia there in Los Angeles. I saw the protests in New York today, Washington, but also everywhere kind of in between. It's the first time we're starting to see these kind of mass protests like we did see during the president's first term. Do you think this is the beginning of some of a new kind of era, I guess, in President Trump's second term?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, look, I think people were drawing the wrong conclusions from a lot of those polls showing how many Democratic voters were unhappy with their own leaders. They were unhappy because they wanted them to fight more, right? I mean, and the idea that Democrats were depressed and discouraged after Trump not only won, but won the popular vote for the first time in three tries, that was real.

But one of the most enduring dynamics of American politics is like the simple hydraulics. You know, when one party overreaches, it re- energizes the other party. And whether it's these protests today, or the special elections that we've seen so far, or certainly that state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin this week, I think it's pretty clear that the scale of what Trump is trying to do at home and abroad, erasing not only much of the Great Society, much of the post-World War II international order, and even key pillars of the New Deal, has in fact, I think, moved a lot of Democrats, Democratic voters out of their funk and back into a position of active opposition. DEAN: I'm curious how you think Republicans in Congress are going to respond to this, to these town halls, as we keep seeing those. I had one member on earlier who really just kind of didn't think that anyone was going to, you know, didn't see anything abnormal here. He said, just like, write it out. It's going to be fine. People aren't that worried. Do you think that's right?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Yeah, I don't -- I don't think Republicans have much room, you know. I mean, in this modern party, they have virtually eliminated the ability of anyone to kind of tailor their message to their local district without fear of being crushed by Trump and MAGA allies in both, you know, the media and in political action committees, and so forth.

I mean, look, the reality is, the last five times a president went into a midterm with unified control of government, as Republicans have now, they've lost it. No president has defended unified control through a midterm since Jimmy Carter in 1978, and it has been a pretty consistent pattern of them coming in, you know, kind of moving to kind of pass the wish list of their core supporters, engendering a serious backlash in the country and a lot of marginal members being swept away by that decade after decade.

And, you know, Republicans, I think, don't feel that they have the leeway to change course, but they are certainly getting messages about why staying the course may be dangerous in 2026.

DEAN: Yeah, you do start to wonder just how much -- and I hear the point you're making, which is they don't have a lot of maneuvering room with President Trump as president and kind of how he wants to run that party, but how much pain they're willing to take and accept, especially when it comes to these tariffs and higher prices that are coming to people.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, I think the tariffs are going to be more of a point of pain and potentially departure for them than a lot of the civil rights and civil liberties issues, constitutional rights that are kind of coming up.

You know, Trump is dealing, I think, with a dynamic that President Biden learned the hard way, which is that when people are worried about their cost of living, more jobs are not an antidote to higher prices.

[20:35:11]

I mean, President Biden talked a lot and, in fact, achieved a lot of new investment, new jobs in manufacturing, new jobs in construction, I think 1.7 million over his presidency, over a trillion dollar in private sector investment. And for someone struggling to pay their rent in Las Vegas, the fact that Intel and Honda were opening new manufacturing plants in Ohio didn't matter that much. And I think Trump is facing kind of a similar dynamic.

You know, there are about 1.5 million people who make cars in the U.S. There are about 17 million people who buy them. There are about a million who are involved in computer and communications manufacturing. We have 310 million iPhones alone whose price may go up 40%. You got toys, clothing, 450,000 people each manufacturing. How many people buy clothes and, you know, and toys?

Just the scale of the number of people who are going to be hurt by these tariffs vastly exceeds the number of people who may get manufacturing jobs. Even succeeds at his wildest dreams.

Jessica, post-World War II high in manufacturing in the U.S. was 19.7 million. It's now 12.7 million. He's probably not going to get all the way back to that. But even if it wildly succeeds and he got halfway there, man, there are a lot more people who buy Barbies and Nikes and iPhones than will ever be working in a new plant that he hopes will be built someday.

DEAN: It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Still ahead. It's not just D.C. reeling from DOGE cuts. One of the hardest hit places, Kansas City. We're going to go there, next, to see how laid off workers are doing. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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[20:41:36]

DEAN: Layoffs in the U.S. are reaching the highest level since the pandemic, and the main culprit is the federal government. CNN's Kayla Tausche spoke to some workers in Kansas City who are reeling from Elon Musk's DOGE cuts.

(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.

(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.

[20:45:08]

So this is happening in real time and with very real-world impact.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Kayla Tausche, thank you.

Still ahead tonight, cell phone bans are becoming increasingly popular in schools across the country. But just how much of an impact are these bans having? We're going to sit down with students and teachers to find out. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

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[20:50:05]

DEAN: More and more schools are turning to total cell phone bans in order to keep kids from scrolling in class. Maybe, you know, reclaim part of their attention span. CNN's Pamela Brown visited one Virginia high school to see what it's like in action and hear what teenagers had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Raise your hand if you're a fan of this new phone-free policy at the school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's complicated.

BROWN (voice-over): This Virginia high school looks like any other during passing periods, but notice one thing's missing.

ALEX HEATON, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: I remember, the first day, I was sitting in physics. My phone was locked up in my back, and I kept reaching for it, but I couldn't. And the only thing I can do was sit on my computer and listen.

BROWN: Wakefield High is a guinea pig of sorts. Students are expected to store their phones in this magnetic locking pouch throughout the day. At first, there was resistance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People were putting dents and holes in the wall. Like, there are tables we had to, like, get fixed.

LUCAS LOPEZ, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Right after we got them, when I walked in the cafeteria, all you hear is just like the banging.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bang. Like, it sounded like gunshots.

BROWN: Greg Cabana, a government teacher at Wakefield, noticed it too.

GREG CABANA, GOVERNMENT TEACHER, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: The fact that they're banging pouches around the cafeteria trying to unlock their phone, this is proving our point right here of how meaningful and how powerful that phone is.

BROWN: It may be too soon to fully understand the impact of phones on academic performance, especially talking to this group of high- performing students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it depends on who you were before the phone policy.

BROWN: But other benefits inside the classroom are clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even just picking it up for a small time can take away from, like, your learning experience.

BROWN: The 2023 surgeon general's report says up to 95% of kids 13 to 17 use social media.

Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy even called for tobacco-style warning labels on social media platforms, saying they're associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: The data also shows, when kids are spending more than three hours on average, that they face nearly double the risk, increased risk of depression and anxiety symptoms.

BROWN: But a recent CDC study found about 50% of teenagers between ages 12 and 17 had four or more hours of daily screen time.

JAM'HARIE PRICE, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Every day, I go straight to my phone when I get home. Don't even think about the homework.

BROWN (voice-over): But when he's in the walls of Wakefield, he's opening up in other ways.

PRICE: It's definitely helped with, like, social issues, for sure, like, without the phone, because, like, I feel like I connect with more people and, like, have better conversations than I could have had with the phone.

BROWN: Student Karen Mines says it's led to a new kind of engagement. KAREN MINES, SENIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Even just, like, at lunch, you, like, talk to each other. You know, like, people bring games to class.

BROWN (on camera): You never experienced that kind of engagement?

MINES: Well, it was just like -- and maybe not since kindergarten, maybe not since preschool.

BROWN (voice-over): And the students and teachers here say less isolation has meant less interpersonal conflict.

MINES: There were a lot less fights. I haven't seen any this year.

BROWN: The movement to restrict cell phones in classrooms is growing, with nine states having already passed a ban or restricted cell phone use in schools. And 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, have introduced legislation to do the same. But not every educator is on board, including Brandon Cardet-Hernandez, a former public-school principal in New York.

BRANDON CARDET-HERNANDEZ, PRESIDENT, MRS WORDSMITH: We have to teach digital literacy skills. Like, kids need to know how to use social media. And by an outright ban of smartphones in schools, we are not getting any closer to teaching those skills.

Kids who are already the most vulnerable and the most under-resourced schools who are already experiencing skill gaps, those are the kids who are going to be the most harmed.

BROWN: There's also a very real concern about what happens during an emergency.

HEATON: I know one of the biggest things that people are worried about was if there's, like, a lockdown and, like, there's someone in the school and you need to text your parents, and then all the parents would be going crazy because they can't text their kids. They don't know if they're OK.

BROWN: Cabana points out that he thinks phones can do more harm than good in those situations.

CABANA: Misinformation could be put out on phones, incorrect rumors, perhaps panicking when there shouldn't be. That would just be a hindrance to keeping students safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, that was Pamela Brown in Virginia. Thank you for that.

A new episode of "Have I Got News for You" is next, and guests this week are Representative Ro Khanna and comedian Karen Chee.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROY WOOD JR., COMEDIAN: Question. Does anyone know the name the administration has for the countries that they think are ripping America off the worst?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Countries that just have penguins?

WOOD JR.: Let's hear the name of the countries.

UNKNOWN: The "Dirty 15".

UNKNOWN: The "Dirty 15".

UNKNOWN: The "Dirty 15".

WOOD JR.: Question. How many countries comprise the "Dirty 15" countries?

AMBER RUFFIN, COMEDIAN: Roy, it has to be 15. I don't like it when we're this dumb.

[20:55:02]

MICHAEL IAN BLACK, COMEDIAN: I'm missing 23.

KAREN CHEE, COMEDIAN: I'm going to say three.

WOOD JR.: Twenty-nine. The administration is not giving any type of clarity. It's like, well, what is the "Dirty 15" Is it 15 percent or is it 15 -- it's like a well, it's a baker's dozen plus two more and then --

RUFFIN: I would like to file a motion that we be known as the "Dirty five".

CHEE: Oh.

KHANNA: I mean, can we be the "Dirty eight"? And then real complicated.

RUFFIN: Yeah. That's better. The "Dirty eight" because there's five of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Be sure to tune in a brand-new episode of "Have I Got News for You" premieres next right here on CNN.

Thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you again tomorrow night right here. We start at 5:00 Eastern. Have a great night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)