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Trump, EU Leader Hold Phone Call Over Tariffs; DOJ Charges American Citizen Over Plot To Firebomb U.S. Embassy In Israel; Restaurant Near U.S.-Canada Border Hit By Trump Policies; Northwestern's Women's Golf Team Wins National Championship. Aired 6- 7p ET

Aired May 25, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:01:38]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. Jessica Dean has the day off.

We're going to begin this hour with a bit of breaking news. The president of the European Commission says she had a, quote, "good call" with President Donald Trump tonight when earlier this week Trump called for making goods from Europe far more expensive by adding a 50 percent tariff to them amid some stalled trade negotiations.

CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak joins us now.

So, Kevin, I mean, a pretty significant development here at least getting some feeling over how European leadership is feeling at this moment. What more do we know?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think you're right that this is quite a significant phone call because even amid all of these trade tensions between the United States and the European Union, President Trump and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, had not spoken on the telephone since Trump came into office.

They had had, you know, an informal conversation on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral last month. But in terms of really getting on the phone and getting in each other's ear about this critical issue of trade, this will have been their first opportunity to really discuss some of the differences these two sides have had, and there have been some pretty major differences. And we saw that kind of flare up at the end of last week.

President Trump growing frustrated at the pace of conversations with European officials. You know, they have been in talks with the U.S. for the last several weeks. From the European side there have been some frustration that they weren't exactly clear what President Trump and what the White House were looking for out of these trade talks. From the U.S. side of things, there was concern that European officials were not providing serious enough offers in order to stave off some of those tariffs.

And for that reason, President Trump announced on Friday that he would be applying that 50 percent tariff on the European Union on June 1st, saying that the talks with the E.U. were going nowhere and that the E.U. had been very difficult to deal with. You also heard from Scott Bessent saying that -- here's Trump here.

JIMENEZ: In New Jersey. Let's take a listen.

LIPTAK: Are you guys getting the audio?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had some very good talks with Iran yesterday and today, and let's see what happens. But I think we could have some good news on the Iran front. Likewise with Hamas on the -- on Gaza. We want to see if we can stop that. And Israel, we've been talking to them and we want to see if we can stop that whole situation as quickly as possible.

But having to do with nuclear, we've had some very, very good talks with Iran, and I don't know if I'll be telling you anything good or bad over the next two days, but I have a feeling I might be telling you something good. We've had some real progress, serious progress. On any other front, I don't know. Do you have any questions?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have a message for the Senate? A lot of Republicans have said there are going to be significant changes to the budget bill.

TRUMP: Well, I want the Senate and the senators to change, you know, to make the changes they want. And we'll go back to the House and we'll see if we can get them. In some cases, those changes maybe are something I'd agree with, to be honest. You know, it happens. But we've had a very good response from the Senate.

[18:05:02]

And I don't know how Democrats can't vote for it. If they don't vote for it they're talking about a 68 percent tax increase. Remember that if the Democrats don't vote, it's a 68 percent tax increase, which is ridiculous. And one of the things that's being covered indirectly is the fact that we'll be lowering the cost of drugs from 50 percent to 85 percent under Trump, and it's going to have indirectly something to do, not directly, but indirectly, something to do with the bill. The one big beautiful bill. And it is a big, beautiful bill.

And so I think the Senate is going to get there. I hope they're going to get there. I think they're going to have changes. Some will be minor and some will be, you know, fairly significant. But we've been working with the House all the way up. They've been working together and the speaker has been working with the leader of the Senate. And, you know, they've done a great job. John Thune and Mike Johnson have done a fantastic job. They've been working together all the way up. So hopefully that will be fine.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: President Trump, on Andrew Cuomo, he's under federal investigation. Do you have a comment on that and how that should impact the mayoral election coming up?

TRUMP: No, I was surprised. I didn't know exactly. I just read about it, just like you did, having to do with Andrew. I've known Andrew and we've had an on-off relationship. He was saying the greatest things about me. I'm the greatest president, et cetera. And then the next day it hit us.

But I did a lot for them. I brought in the ship during the COVID crisis. I brought in the mercy ship, and I built about 3,000 units in the Javits Convention Center. And he didn't use them. I don't understand it. He wanted them, but he didn't use them. But I hope it's going to be OK. I hope it's not going to be serious for him. Let's see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You spoke to European Commission President von der Leyen. Did you discuss the 50 percent tariffs and did you agree to (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: She just called me, as you know, and she asked for an extension on the June 1st date. And she said she wants to get down to serious negotiation because I've told you specifically, I told anybody that would listen. They have to do that. And we had a very nice call, and I agreed to move it. I believe June 9th would be, July 9th would be the date. That was the date she requested. Could we move it from June 1st to July 9th, and I agreed to do that and that she said, we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Another question, you announced on Friday about. U.S. steel. The Nippon Steel.

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What will the ownership structure look like? What made you (INAUDIBLE)?

TRUMP: It will be controlled by the United States. Otherwise I wouldn't make the deal. I went to the unions, to the all of the local unions. They all wanted it. And I'm doing it because all of the congressmen came in, about five of them. And the others, I understand, are in concurrence. And they asked that I do it. Everybody seems to want it. And we'll see. I mean, you know, we'll see what the final is, but they're going to invest billions of dollars in steel, and it's a good company.

Nissan is a very good company. We'll see. But it would -- it's an investment and it's a partial ownership. But it will be controlled by the USA.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: President Trump, on Saudi Arabia, you came back with a lot of investments. There was an American who's stuck there facing a trial for tweets. His family want you to intervene and ask the crown prince to let him go. What do you think about that?

TRUMP: I haven't heard about it at all. If you give me the information on the plane. Are you on the plane? Give me the information. I'll see what I can do. Do you think he's OK?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'm a reporter. I can't --

TRUMP: I know. But are you giving a recommendation?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No, I'm not.

TRUMP: Well, then maybe I won't do it. I don't know, you tell me. The way you posed the question. I thought you assumed it was -- he was OK. What did he do supposedly?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sent some political tweets about Saudi Arabian politics.

TRUMP: Were they bad?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He said he approved of naming a street -- renaming a street in D.C. It was fairly innocent stuff by American standards.

TRUMP: Let me take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you provide us an update on Russia and Ukraine as well?

TRUMP: Yes, I'll give you an update. I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. OK? We're in the middle of talking, and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what do you want to do about that?

TRUMP: And I'm surprised. I'm very surprised. We'll see what we're going to do. What, am I going to tell you? You're the fake news, aren't you? You're totally fake. All right. Any other questions? I don't like what Putin is doing. Not even a little bit. He's killing people. And something happened to this guy, and I don't like it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can I follow up on that? A Russian commander reportedly said that Putin was almost caught in the middle of a drone attack from Ukraine. So do you have any --

[18:10:03]

TRUMP: I haven't heard that. But maybe that would be a reason. I don't know, but I have not heard that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: President Trump, Secretary Hegseth's acting chief of staff is a Biden administration holdover who has said some very critical things about you and Vice President Vance. Do you have thoughts on that?

TRUMP: Who is the chief of staff?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Ricky Buria? TRUMP: I have no idea who he is, but if he did say that, I would

recommend that we don't take him. I mean, if he did say something like that, I would recommend we don't take him. But let's see. I'll take a look. Buria? I'll check it out. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On Harvard, do you think you'll come for their endowment in any way or go after financial aid?

TRUMP: Well, look, part of the problem with Harvard is that there are about 31 percent, almost 31 percent of foreigners coming to Harvard. We give them billions of dollars, which is ridiculous. We do grants, which were probably not going to be doing much grants anymore to Harvard. But there are 31 percent. But they refuse to tell us who the people are. We want to know who the people.

Now, a lot of the foreign students we wouldn't have a problem with. I'm not going to have a problem with foreign students, but it shouldn't be 31 percent. It's too much because we have Americans that want to go there and to other places, and they can't go there because you have 31 percent foreign.

Now, no foreign government contributes money to Harvard. We do. So why are they doing so many, number one. Number two, we want a list of those foreign students. And we'll find out whether or not they're OK. Many will be OK, I assume, and I assume with Harvard, many will be bad. And then the other thing is they're very antisemitic. Everybody knows they're antisemitic. And that's got to stop immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: President Trump, secretary --

TRUMP: Who are you with?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: New York Post.

TRUMP: I like the "New York Post." I like Keith Poole. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So, Secretary --

TRUMP: Now I'm going to be nicer to him. I didn't know he was with him. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Secretary Bessent has said that we don't need to return textile manufacturing to the United States. How do you see, like, a lot of your reciprocal tariffs are pretty big on those low income countries.

TRUMP: Yes. No, I tend to agree. We're not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to make -- do the A.I. thing with the computers and the many, many, many, many elements. But the textile, you know, I'm not looking to make T-shirts, to be honest. I'm not looking to make socks. We can do that very well at other locations. We are looking to do chips and computers and lots of other things, and tanks and ships, meaning ships. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You mentioned you were happy with the talks with Iran. Will there be another round of talks soon?

TRUMP: Very soon. Iran, the Iran talks. I can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. I can tell you the Iran talks have been going very well.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And you said you're unhappy --

TRUMP: And I'd love that to happen because I'd love to see no bombs dropped and a lot of people dead. I really would like to see that happen. And I think there's a good chance that it could happen.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You mentioned you're unhappy with President Putin. You've talked before about putting more sanctions on Russia. Is that something you're considering more serious?

TRUMP: Absolutely. He's killing a lot of people. I don't know what's wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He's killing a lot of people. I'm not happy about that. Go ahead. What else? Anything else?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There's a person arrested for attempting to apply in Israel to throw Molotov cocktails at a U.S. embassy office in Tel Aviv?

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The person also reportedly is a dual German U.S. citizen issued threats against your life.

TRUMP: Against My life?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Against your life. Yes. sir.

TRUMP: We've got a lot of them around. A lot of sick people around. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. We are just listening to the president as he exited Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey. Excuse me, getting on there in Morristown, New Jersey.

I want to bring back Kevin Liptak at the White House for us because, Kevin, you know, he touched on a number of different topics, teasing that maybe there was some good news ahead on the Iran talks, which have gone through multiple rounds at points and which some Iranian sources have told CNN that they were not optimistic they would get to a good place. He spoke about the E.U. Commission president as well.

I just wonder, we'll get into all of it, but just what stuck out to you based on what we heard?

LIPTAK: Well, just to button up the E.U. topic that we're talking about before, the president saying that he agreed to this extension that Ursula von der Leyen requested to have until July 9th, which we should say is the original deadline for these trade talks. So the president seems to have taken her position there agreeing to extend those, obviously optimistic about Iran. But I think it was really what he said about Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, that was so significant in that little moment on the tarmac there in New Jersey.

[18:15:02]

Of course, there has been this bombardment of Russian drones and missiles on Ukraine over the last 24 hours. More than 300 of them, dozens of cities, potentially as many as 12 people killed. The president clearly extremely frustrated with his counterpart in Moscow, over what's transpiring there, saying that he doesn't know what the hell happened to Putin. He's saying that something happened to this guy.

He doesn't like it, suggesting that there has been some change in the Russian leader from the time that the president first got to know him during his first time in office. It really is a quite a marked shift. Remember, the president just spoke by phone with Putin one week ago tomorrow. In that phone call, the president seemed to take Putin's word that he was ready to begin direct negotiations to try and bring this conflict to an end.

The president, in his readout of that call, saying that this would be essentially for the Russian and Ukrainian sides to negotiate amongst themselves, really suggesting that the U.S. would walk away from a mediating role. On that same day, he spoke with European leaders and said that he would not agree to new sanctions on Russia as these talks proceeded.

Clearly now a very, very different tone from the president saying, I think it was Jeff Mason there from Reuters who asked him whether he was willing to consider new sanctions on Russia for what is transpiring now. He says absolutely. And so this is, I think, one of the most forceful expressions of displeasure that we have heard from Trump about Putin since he came into office. Very clearly frustrated at the Russian side for stalling on trying to bring this war to an end.

Of course, Ukraine has already agreed to a 30-day ceasefire without any preconditions. Moscow has been stalling. I think it's very evident that the president now is frustrated that this is not sort of reaching any sort of progress. And so that was, you know, quite significant. He also talked about the progress of his, quote, big, beautiful bill in the Senate.

We obviously heard from some fiscal conservatives in the Senate earlier today suggesting that there would have to be major changes to that bill if they were to come along and support it. That could potentially pose another challenge in the House. It's all very complicated. The legislative maneuvering on Capitol Hill. But President Trump clearly very confident that that bill will make it across the finish line -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yes, touching a number of topics and clearly upset that in the middle of negotiating with Putin, as we heard from President Trump, that these bombs were still dropping and seeming to have a different picture than maybe some Ukrainians were warning him of prior to these talks.

Kevin Liptak, thank you for sticking around and going through those topics with us. Really appreciate the reporting.

Still ahead, though, we're going to unpack a little bit more of what we heard from President Trump with former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore, including Trump, as we just heard, agreeing to delay new European tariffs. We'll talk about it all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:34]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. We just heard a few moments ago from President Trump on a number of different fronts, including on his tariff battles. He had previously threatened a 50 percent tariff on the European Union, essentially citing that negotiations weren't going as well as he had hoped. Well, after a call with the head of the European Union Commission, it seems that deadline is now being pushed back. So clearly, a little bit of a breakthrough on that front.

I want to talk about that and more with former Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.

Now, before this break, you know, you heard some of Kevin Liptak's reporting there. President of the European Commission saying she had a good call with President Trump. Now, we just heard Trump's side of the story that this deadline is pushing back.

You and I spoke on Friday. You were very optimistic that just setting that 50 percent would push deal-making ability forward. Where are you now optimism wise?

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Well, I hate to say I told you so, but I do -- look, I do think this is an olive branch by the Europeans and Ursula to come to the negotiating table which is what Trump wanted. And the significant thing, I think the stock market, when it opens on Tuesday morning, remember, tomorrow is a big holiday. I think investors will be happy to hear this news because it means that these tariffs that were supposed to be imposed as early as next week,

Now if I heard the president correctly, it's going to be another month delay on those. That gives some time for negotiation.

JIMENEZ: Yes. July 9th.

MOORE: And so that's good news for everybody. And nobody wants to see those 50 percent tariffs applied. It is true that the Europeans do apply more trade barriers on our products than we do on theirs. So President Trump wants a level playing field. But I feel very good news about this latest -- good about these latest developments.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, earlier this week the president said he's not necessarily looking to make a new deal with Europe and insisted that 50 percent tariffs sort of was the deal at that price, which, you know, if that goes through it could mean higher prices on a lot of things. But bottom line I would find it hard to believe that tariffs don't come out of this in some form or fashion, just based on his strategy to this point.

MOORE: Yes. I agree.

JIMENEZ: So where do you -- yes, go for it. Where is the target here?

MOORE: Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I was going to say, remember, Trump has said he wants a kind of universal tariff of 10 percent on just about anything coming into the United States.

[18:25:00]

So the tariffs, just to clarify, these tariffs that we're talking about now would be apparently on top of that 10 percent across the board tariff.

Listen, Trump always starts with a high number. I've been around him a long time. And then he comes down from that number. And so we'll see if there are some special tariffs applied. And I want to remind people also these are really complicated trade deals. You know, there's -- you're talking about hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of different products. You know, everything from shampoo to computer chips. So these don't get settled in a matter of a couple of days. It could take months.

JIMENEZ: And look, tariff just one piece of the economic picture right now. Obviously we're watching to see what comes out of any Senate markups to what passed on the House side of the bill. But also you've got the downgrading. The Moody's downgraded on the credit rating. There are a lot of just different factors. I'll leave it there.

MOORE: Yes, sure.

JIMENEZ: But if you were working as an economic adviser for President Trump right now, what would you tell him the priority should be or if there is anything in particular that, hey, we should keep an eye on this?

MOORE: Well, there was some other breaking news, if I may, in terms of that press conference that dealt with the economy. And that was one of the strongest comments I've heard from Trump saying, look, I want this deal to get done on Nippon Steel. And that is the Nippon Steel buying U.S. Steel, which I believe is a good deal for investors. It's a good deal for American workers and bring a lot of money into the United States.

Trump has been reluctant to do that, but he basically said they have a deal where the structure ship America will still own a significant part of that. I think that means that this deal is well on the way to getting done. And as I said, I've always been very supportive of that multibillion dollar deal. And by the way, the big losers in that are China because China is trying to take over the steel industry.

On the tax bill, my advice to Trump is let's get this done, get the Senate -- he's got to crack the whip. Get the Senate to move on this, get it done by the 4th of July, because I think it will be very positive for the economy as the president mentioned. You know, you don't get this done and the average family is facing a 30 percent or 40 percent or 50 percent increase in their taxes on January 1st.

The other thing is so important for both the economy and for investors to get these trade deals done. Put the tariffs a little bit behind us. People want certainty about where that's all headed. If that happens, I'm pretty bullish on the U.S. economy, frankly.

JIMENEZ: Yes. You know, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has said he hasn't ruled out sort of in the economic picture ahead, has not ruled out, you know, stagflation where you've got high unemployment, high inflation, slow economic growth.

MOORE: Right. Yes. Yes.

JIMENEZ: And I guess when you look at just the economic picture in general, is that something that you worry about or you think about in this moment? I mean, how do you contextualize some of his comments?

MOORE: Yes. Well, certainly stagflation is the worst of all worlds because stagflation goes back to the 1970s when we had rising unemployment and rising inflation at the same time. It's a witch's potion that we don't want to see. I've been looking following very closely these inflation numbers. And so far they've remained pretty calm. In fact, surprisingly so.

The Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index have been, you know, they're rising at about a 3 percent pace. But that's not, you know, that's not a terrible number. But all the more reason, I mean, Jamie Dimon is also concerned about the runaway debt that we have in Washington. And the one thing I think that the Senate has to do is get more serious about, let's put in some spending constraints so we can -- we can't keep borrowing $2 trillion a year. I think that's something that everybody would agree with.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, those are -- that's along the lines of what we've heard from Senator Ron Johnson, who actually told CNN this morning he does believe at this point that there are enough Republican senators to stop the bill from advancing, whether it's over Medicaid cuts or modifications or adding to the deficit, as Senator Johnson has said.

MOORE: Yes.

JIMENEZ: But are there modifications you believe might make it more palatable? I mean, what is that winning argument when, you know, the House might say, look, we're dropping $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and Ron Johnson says that's not enough?

MOORE: Well, the problem you have, quite frankly, is you're right. You've got some senators saying it's not enough and then you've got all others objecting to the cuts that are in the bill. So it gets very complicated. I would like to see -- I would love to see across the board cap on spending. How about putting in place some of these DOGE reforms that make a lot of sense. They're not going to cut the essential services that people want out of government. Just get rid of a lot of the waste and fraud, which is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. But I will assure you that this bill will get done. There's going to

be a lot of squawking, a lot of negotiating for the next month or two or three. But the failure is not an option here. They've got to get it done or we're facing a huge tax increase, which would be really devastating to the American economy. I'm 90 percent certain we're going to get this done by the end of the summer.

[18:30:04]

JIMENEZ: Stephen Moore, always appreciate you being here. Thanks for being here Friday and today. Good to see you.

MOORE: Thank you. Thank you. Have a great Memorial Day.

JIMENEZ: You, too.

Still ahead, a U.S. citizen charged by the Department of Justice for allegedly plotting to firebomb the U.S. embassy in Israel. We're going to bring you the details on what we're learning. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: More breaking news tonight. A U.S. citizen arrested by the FBI after being deported by Israel. Now the Department of Justice says the man was allegedly plotting to throw Molotov cocktails at the U.S. embassy there.

[18:35:00]

And the incident comes amid heightened tensions over Israel's ongoing war in Gaza. Earlier this week, two Israeli embassy staff members were shot and killed in Washington, D.C. This also comes as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is in Israel right now.

CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook joins us now.

So, Julia, what more do we know about this?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are getting new details on this. The Department of Justice unsealed charges against a dual American and German citizen who they say plotted to throw Molotov cocktails at the United States embassy in Israel. The man, 28-year-old Joseph Neumayer, was deported from Israel to the United States earlier today and was arrested at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

According to the DOJ, Neumayer arrived at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv early last week and spit on an embassy guard unprovoked. He was not detained at that time, but as he fled, he left his backpack there and when they searched that backpack, they found three Molotov cocktails. Now, after that, they went and searched his social media, the social media that they believe belongs to him. And there was a post saying that he had plans to burn down the embassy. He also said things like death to America, death to Americans. And there were post threatening President Donald Trump as well.

Now, here's what Attorney General Pam Bondi had to say about these charges. She said, quote, "This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans and President Trump's life. The department will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law."

If convicted, Neumayer faces a minimum of five years in prison. The FBI field office in Washington is leading this investigation with assistance from the FBI field office in New York -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Julia Benbrook, really appreciate it.

All right. Coming up, still ahead, caught in the middle of a trade war and Trump rhetoric. How a small American town only connected by land to Canada is dealing with the impact of Trump's tariffs.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:55]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back. There's a town in Washington state that's a little bit of the U.S. and a little bit of Canada. It's called Point Roberts. And even though it's part of the United States, you can see it on the map there, it relies almost entirely on Canada for its utilities. The majority of the homes there are owned by Canadians.

One man who's lived there almost his entire life there telling me, quote, "half our families are on either side of the border and so we have a very strong, probably the strongest of any place in North America bond between Canada and the United States." But now with Canada and the U.S. somewhat at odds at points, Point Roberts finds itself right in the middle.

Tamra Hansen owns a saltwater cafe there, and she joins us now.

And, Tamra, can we just walk us through how your business has changed let's just say in the months since President Trump was inaugurated? And why do you think it has changed?

TAMRA HANSEN, OWNER, PIER RESTAURANT: Right. Well, I will tell you, I am 55 percent down since February. And those numbers are actually is probably even worse than 55 percent for myself. I have two restaurants here, and we are struggling ever since the tariffs have been threatened, the sovereignty of actually the Canadian people and we're stuck in the middle.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, part of that reason is, you know, for those who don't know, I mean, a lot of your economy there is driven by Canadians coming across the border. And I mean, shopping in American shopping at your town. Can you just tell me a little bit about that dynamic? How much are Canadians part of Point Roberts?

HANSEN: 90 percent of my business is driven by the Canadian people. And that's tourism. That's cottage people that own homes here. 70 percent of the people that have homes here are Canadian. So this is our busy season coming up and we haven't seen that yet. In fact, last weekend was Victoria Day and it was very, very slow.

JIMENEZ: And you know, you have a sign in your shop that says "Point Roberts Supports Canada."

HANSEN: Right.

JIMENEZ: What is the significance of that sign for you? Why did you want to put that up?

HANSEN: Well, we wanted to show the Canadian people that Point Roberts is a unique situation, and we are there to support each other through this difficult time. So I just -- we wanted to get the word out.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And just basically you were talking about coming into this busy season. You haven't seen sort of the numbers of Canadians yet or the number of people in general. What do you think should happen next? How do we fix this?

HANSEN: I don't know, we're going day by day here. It changes so dramatically day by day. And I have not seen an increase yet, so I am very worried. I have a lot of people relying on me.

[18:45:02]

I have two restaurants here, and it's difficult times ahead. And I'm very nervous for the summer. I'm hopeful, but I'm nervous.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, just before we go, can you just give us some insight into, have you heard from some of maybe your typical Canadian customers? Why aren't people coming?

HANSEN: They're worried about the border. They're worried that they're going to be detained for something. They're also worried of --

JIMENEZ: We lost your signal for a second. I think she's back. All right, we lost your audio, Tamra. But really appreciate you coming on, coming on from Point Roberts, Washington, whose traffic across the border has declined significantly since Trump was inaugurated, in large part over some of the rhetoric over trying to make Canada the 51st state.

Still ahead, a comeback victory for the Northwestern University women's golf team. Full disclosure, my alma mater, go Cats. But to win its first national championship ever, we're going to talk to the head coach about that win and so much more in the world of women's sports.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:00]

JIMENEZ: A huge victory for my alma mater, Northwestern University, go, Cats. The women's golf team won its first National Championship ever earlier this week. Dianna Lee sank the winning putt in Carlsbad, California, and talked about settling her nerves to clinch that victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANNA LEE, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S GOLF TEAM: I was so nervous. I was saying this earlier, but I don't think I have nerves of steel. You know? But all I did out there was just take a few deep breaths and really trust myself. I knew it meant something. And obviously, this is everything to me and to us. And so I'm just so happy to be here.

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JIMENEZ: Joining us now, Emily Fletcher, the head coach of the women's golf team.

So, Coach, you came into this tournament ranked 11th. You went up against the number one ranked Stanford. What does this victory mean to you? What does it mean to your student athletes?

EMILY FLETCHER, WOMEN'S HEAD GOLF COACH, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: Yes. It's just been a whirlwind of the last two or three days. But it just, as Dianna said, it means everything. It's something that we set our sights on at the beginning of each year and the beginning of my tenure here. But you sort of lose sight of that, I think, in the everyday. And to have it come to fruition, it's just been an incredible experience to watch our players live this out. And to see the fruit of all of their hard work, it's just been absolutely incredible.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And, you know, this comes on top of titles in at least one women's team sport at Northwestern almost every year over the last five years. But I bring that up to say congrats on being the latest entry, but also to ask, I mean, what do you see as the current state and culture of women's sports right now, not just at Northwestern, but beyond?

FLETCHER: Yes, I mean, I think some would say it's probably the golden era for women sports. And I think to your point, not only around the world, around the globe, in all sports, but I don't have to look very far. We have lived that out here at Northwestern, as you mentioned, with lacrosse, field hockey, softball. It's just such a privilege to have women's golf add to the legacy of that, you know, here at Northwestern.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And, you know, one of the things I think about where, you know, I played basketball at Northwestern, and one of the major things that has changed, aside from the fact that the basketball team, we have not won a national championship so some work to do on that front. But one of the major things that has changed is I feel like student athletes have to deal with a little bit more, especially with name, image and likeness. NIL, they've got a lot more attention and in some cases more opportunities.

And "Forbes" just had an article about how female athletes are actually reshaping college sports' financial landscape. But for you as a coach, how have you navigated leading a team to a national championship like this knowing that there are likely more outside distractions and in some cases opportunities that your players might want to be a part of?

FLETCHER: Yes, I think for us it starts with our staff and our support staff and the support that we get at Northwestern along those lines, educating us, and equipping us as coaches to manage these changing times. It really is. It's moving at a pace and changing at a rapid pace. And so for us it's about having the support to be ready. And I think our players, one of the things that they're so articulate, they're smart, they have it, they're here at Northwestern for the world class education as well as the excellence in sport.

And so I think there's something a little more that keeps them here, keeps them tethered to Northwestern and makes them they're invested in it for more than just the sport or maybe the name, image, likeness. It's that degree, you know, the value of that degree from Northwestern. And so, you know, for us, I just think our players I know during the championship, they -- you speak to it, you got, you know, they're having to sort of manage what they're allowing themselves to be bombarded with.

And I just have so much admiration for the way that our players have been able to not only manage that during a championship, but just all of the noise.

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JIMENEZ: Yes. And, you know, one of the largest conversations that's happened just around women's sports in general, we've seen it on the women's basketball side with the increased attention on that front. But for women's golf, for other women sports, I mean, clearly the achievement is there, the talent is there. What do you think it's going to take for the attention to come with it and sort of the explosion and growth that we are seeing in female and women's basketball right now, driven in part by Caitlin Clark and what she's been able to do.

But what do you think it will take to sort of have a similar type of explosion in other sports?

FLETCHER: I think some of it is already occurring with the groundswell of support and eyes on the competition. I think about Diana bringing us down the stretch. There are matches coming down to the end. You know, it was pretty riveting TV. It was riveting being there, but I felt like it transcended across and through the TV. And so I think we have such a great support system and a community of people that are excited about golf, excited about Northwestern, and they're excited about women sports.

And so I think it's going to start, you know, by the fans and the people that want to support their sport, their athletes and, you know, I think it's going to be a groundswell from that perspective.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Coach Emily Fletcher, really appreciate you taking the time from celebrating the win. You got the trophy behind you. I wouldn't hide it, either. Thanks for being here.

FLETCHER: I had to peel it away from our players. They've had it for a day and night. Thank you so much.

JIMENEZ: Yes. You get some time with it, too. Thanks for being here. Go, Cats. Got to get it. Wore the purple for you, you know it. Got to wrap it.

FLETCHER: I love it. Thank you, Omar. Go, Cats.

JIMENEZ: All right. See you.

All right. Still ahead for us, we are following a lot of news, including breaking news that President Donald Trump agreeing to give the European Union until July 9th to negotiate a trade deal. Plus, the president says, quote, "I don't know what the hell happened to Putin," as Russia launched its largest ever aerial assault on Ukraine, pummeling Kyiv with missiles and drones for a second night in a row. We'll break it all down coming up.

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