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CNN This Morning
Trump On Palestinians In Gaza: "They're All Going To Want To Leave"; Trump Imposes 25 Percent Tariffs On Steel And Aluminum; President Trump Claims To Be In Talks With Putin On Ukraine War. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 11, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, February 11th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they don't agree, I would -- I would conceivably withhold aid.
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SCIUTTO: And aid threat to move 2 million people. President Trump considering withholding assistance from Jordan and Egypt if they do not get on board with his Gaza plan. Today, he will meet with one of those leaders in the Oval Office.
Plus, a widening trade war. President Trump imposes a new set of tariffs aimed primarily this round at China.
And later --
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I wish the courts would allow the executive and the legislative branches to work.
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SCIUTTO: A battle between the branches. Why the president claims the judges who are putting his agenda on hold are overreaching.
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SCIUTTO: Five a.m. here on the East Coast. That's a live look at my hometown, New York City.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Jim Sciutto, in for Kasie Hunt. Wonderful to have you with us.
In just a few hours, President Trump hosts Jordan's King Abdullah at the White House at a critical moment in the history of the Middle East. The president is threatening to withhold funding from Jordan and Egypt, U.S. allies, if they do not agree to accept millions of Palestinians from Gaza. Both countries have rejected the idea.
Trump wants the U.S. to take control, take ownership of Gaza. He's making it clear he does not believe the Palestinian people have a right to return to their home.
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REPORTER: But what about the Palestinians who just won't leave? We've spoken -- our team has spoken to many in Gaza. They'll say it's their home.
TRUMP: They're all going to leave when they have a place that's a better alternative. When they have a nice place that's safe, they're all going to leave. It's a hellhole right now.
REPORTER: But how are you so sure? Would the U.S. force them to leave?
TRUMP: You're going to see that they're all going to want to leave.
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SCIUTTO: It's not clear that's true.
President Trump is also threatening Hamas after leaders of the group threatened to postpone the next hostage exchange with Israel this weekend. The president gave Hamas until Saturday at noon to comply with that deal.
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TRUMP: I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out.
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SCIUTTO: Let's bring in Joel Rubin. He's a former deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the Obama administration.
Joel, good morning.
JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Good morning, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Lets state quite clearly this is not normal for a U.S. president to demand that 2 million people leave their homeland and to then threaten U.S. allies by withholding aid if they don't accept that forced removal of people, and at the same time saying the U.S. is going to take ownership of this. A basic question, because so often with this president, you will hear it's just a negotiating tactic.
And yet he's repeated this quite publicly, and apparently he's going to tell King Abdullah of Jordan, if you don't accept this, I'm going to pull your aid.
RUBIN: Yeah, Jim, it's a highly destabilizing effort right now underway that the president is engaged in. It's dangerous. It's risky to American interests. It's risky to our allies.
And we have allies for a reason because they support our goals. They are people. They are countries. They are leaders like King Abdullah, who have been standing with the United States for a number of years in the fight against ISIS last year and shooting down missiles coming from Iran, headed towards Israel.
In Syria, a highly destabilized country where they've taken in refugees, where they're providing us with intelligence in the fight against ISIS. So it's a really dangerous risk without any appreciable upside. And that's what's so shocking about this.
SCIUTTO: And its a risk to their stability, is it not? You look at Jordan, it already has 2 million Palestinian refugees and the Jordanian people and the Egyptian people would certainly not be happy if their leaders accepted U.S. pressure to participate in the forcible removal of --
RUBIN: That's the gentle way of putting it. I think there will be riots in the street.
Look, Jordan is a majority Palestinian country ethnically in terms of the population. King Abdullah, his family is from the Hashemite Tribe. They are and have been leaders for decades.
But if you -- if you were to watch the street protests now, you would see the anger, the seething anger, the concept of Palestinians being forcibly driven from Gaza into Jordan is so unthinkable. And then for the United States to do it -- you know, look, this region is always unstable.
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It's always burning, it's always hot. And now, to have the president of the United States put gasoline on those smoldering embers could turn into a raging fire. We know what that looks like in the Middle East. We don't need to create hostility again against the United States. We have a stable ally undermining that completely.
That is backwards for our interests.
SCIUTTO: Do Jordanian and Egyptian leaders have the wherewithal to say no to Trump? Because it appears that Trump and this is this is a consistent piece of his foreign policy so far, which is to say, I will withdraw, I will crush you economically if you don't listen to me.
I mean, you could look at, say, Denmark with Greenland or even this putative offer, putative offer of statehood to Canada, which no Canadians are interested in. Can Jordan and Egyptian -- Egypt resist this pressure?
RUBIN: Ultimately, there are major aid packages that we provide to these countries. Jordan is the number three aid recipient in the world from the United States. Egypt, also a top recipient.
But, you know, if they look at us and say, you are going to destabilize my country, that is a higher cost to us than these funds, these funds -- it's a lot of money in the billions of dollars, but it is nothing compared to what we spent in Iraq, in a country that was totally destabilized. We spent $1 trillion and didn't leave it more stable. So it's a -- it's an investment.
They can withstand the pressure to a certain point, but they are also going to have to look at the new geopolitical landscape. President Trump is using aid and has withheld aid to try to enforce his policies. And they're going to have to look at the United States and make a decision.
Do they want to continue to stick with us, or will they look for other benefactors, like China in particular?
SCIUTTO: Is it possible that Saudi Arabia could be a stopgap here? In other words, I mean, Trump apparently, at least he says he wants this normalization deal with Israel between Saudi Arabia and Israel. He wants to expand the Abraham Accords or not sink the Abraham Accords, right, because you have a scenario where participants in that agreement say were out if you're forcing the Palestinian people away.
Could -- could he get a phone call from MBS saying, this is not going to work, old friend?
RUBIN: Well, I'm glad you brought that up because the context and as in earlier segments, the ceasefire underway, the dialog about Israel and Saudi Arabia, will they become partners? Will there be an agreement between them? All of that will get rocked by this kind of plan.
And if the Saudis do call, and I'm sure they're speaking all the time, their message will be clear. We need a solution on the Palestinian issue that is related to keeping them there and trying to find a way where they have governance in Gaza, in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Netanyahu the other day said something very stark. He said that maybe in Saudi Arabia we could have the Palestinian state, which drew quick rebuke from the Saudis. This is the kind of destabilizing talk that we don't need right now in the Middle East. It doesn't serve our interests.
SCIUTTO: Public talk of moving an entire people, quite public talk. Joel Rubin, appreciate it. I'm sure its not the last time we talk about this.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING: No exceptions, no exceptions. President Trump escalating his trade war with the blanket new tariff on all steel and aluminum imports.
Plus, dropping the case. New York's embattled mayor could soon be cleared of corruption charges.
And next in line, Donald Trump weighs in on who he believes is his Republican successor.
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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Do you view Vice President J.D. Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?
TRUMP: No.
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TRUMP: It's a big deal. It's a big deal. This is the beginning of making America rich again.
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SCIUTTO: President Donald Trump sending a message to China through a hefty tariff on all steel and aluminum imports. Even though the U.S. gets most of its steel from Canada, Brazil and Mexico, China is the world's largest producer of steel and Chinese steel oftentimes makes -- makes its way into the U.S. secondhand.
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TRUMP: It's 25 percent without exceptions or exemptions. And that's all countries, no matter where it comes from, all countries. If made in the United States, however, the United States of America, there is no tariff, zero. So if it's made in the United States, there is no tariff.
All you have to do is make it in the United States. We don't need it from another country. As an example, Canada, if we make it in the United States, we don't need it to be made in Canada. We'll have the jobs. That's why Canada should be our 51st state.
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SCIUTTO: Well, Canada is in fact an independent country showing no interest in becoming the 51st state.
President Trump placed tariffs on steel and aluminum during his first administration, but many customers found they still needed to import the products from lower priced manufacturers abroad. And that move ultimately sparked a trade war, which did raise prices on other items for American consumers.
Joining me now is CNN's Beijing bureau chief, Steven Jiang.
And, Steven, China had to be preparing for this because Trump was quite public about his intent to raise tariffs, not just on steel, aluminum, et cetera., but on China specifically. Is this better or worse than they expected?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Jim, interestingly, so far, the Chinese have not said much about these latest steel tariffs, but this will likely cause pain for their steel sector because one of the long-standing complaints from Washington is Chinese steel makers have been flooding the global markets with cheap products and sometimes at below cost prices because of this country's industrial overcapacity.
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Now, Beijing, of course, has always denied that. But very interestingly, on Monday, their cabinet held a meeting and without mentioning this term, industrial overcapacity. Afterwards, they said they would try to optimize the country's industrial layouts and market supervision and phase out outdated production in certain sectors.
So there seems to be this tacit acknowledgment of this issue and their attempt to address it. But whether or not they're going to launch any specific countermeasures against these steel tariffs, that remains to be seen, Jim.
SCIUTTO: We've been here before because, of course, Trump imposed tariffs in 2018 during his first term. Walk us through how those played out.
JIANG: Indeed, there's quite a bit of deja vu here back then. Of course, we have also seen these tariffs and counter tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods from both sides, the two biggest economies in the world. But eventually the two sides actually reached a trade deal with Beijing agreeing to huge purchasing commitments on American goods and services, including a lot of agricultural products.
But the problem is that trade agreement was never fully implemented. So I think for a lot of people in D.C., that seemed to be a cautionary tale. But I think for now, Beijing officials are focused on this personal report, real or perceived, between the two leaders. As you know, Trump keeps talking about how much he likes Xi Jinping and what a great personal relationship the two men have.
So I think Beijing noticed that, and they have learned quite a bit from his first term in office. So they are now trying to use that to work out some sort of broader deal, especially at a time when they are facing a lot of economic headwinds at home -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: And Trump has just said recently he has spoken to the Chinese president since the inauguration.
Steven Jiang in Beijing, thanks so much.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING: President Trump says he does plan to have more discussions with Putin in an effort to end the war in Ukraine. Ahead, why the Kremlin says a ceasefire agreement will not be an easy task to achieve.
Plus, in your "Morning Roundup", the NTSB is investigating a plane crash in Arizona.
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SCIUTTO: President Trump says he has spoken to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, since returning to the White House. But the Kremlin would neither confirm nor deny the two leaders spoke. Trump says he plans to have, quote, many more conversations with Putin as he pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine.
In Russia, Trump seems to be getting positive reactions from people there.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen spoke to some of them.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Thank you, soldier, the song goes, the crowd chiming in at an event in support of Russian veterans and troops fighting in what Moscow still calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Valentin fought for the now defunct Wagner private military company and says he's not unhappy President Trump is in office and Biden is out.
Biden, I don't want to offend him, of course, but my personal opinion is that he was like an oddity in the country. Like the U.S., Trump is a commercial man. He's a businessman. He does everything for his own benefit.
Nina wears a "Team Putin" t shirt, but also likes what she's hearing from the new U.S. president. Of course, I like him, she says. You have to be tough and have discipline in everything so people can live well without wars.
"Do you think he can help resolve the conflict with Ukraine?" I ask. It's long overdue, she says. He promised it and we're waiting for it. Hurry up. Don't waste time. People are dying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our grandfathers once saved the world.
PLEITGEN: Russian intelligence following up with a very open influence operation targeting Americans.
This slick ad showcasing Soviet and U.S. troops defeating Nazi Germany together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't trust those who would divide us. Remember, we all fought together for the truth. Our grandfathers' flags matter.
PLEITGEN: Urging Americans not to support further military aid for Ukraine, at the end, the symbol of Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR.
All this as President Trump this weekend claimed he's already in talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to end the war.
TRUMP: And I want to stop it just because I hate to see all these young people being killed. The soldiers are being killed by the hundreds of thousands.
PLEITGEN: While Russia says its forces are making steady progress on the battlefield in Ukraine, the costs are high. The Ukrainians publishing this video allegedly showing a Russian warplane crashing during battle in the same area.
The Russians won't confirm or deny whether President Trump and the Russian leader have already spoken directly. And Russia's deputy foreign minister making clear that peace talks with Moscow will be tough when I asked him at a press event.
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There is no hidden agenda or purpose in our position, he says. There's no element of grandstanding. Our position is derived from a full understanding of internally felt and deeply experienced tragedy and seriousness of what is happening to the national interests of our country.
Music to the ears of those attending the veterans' event in Moscow, vowing to fight on as long as the Kremlin says.
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PLEITGEN (on camera): Tonight, the Russians going a step further, as the Ukrainians say they need security guarantees from the Trump administration if there is going to be a ceasefire agreement.
Tonight, Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, saying that any talks need to take what the Russians call their legitimate national security concerns into account.
SCIUTTO: Our Fred Pleitgen there, thanks very much.
We are just 25 minutes past the hour. Here is your "Morning Roundup".
The Department of Justice now seeking to end a federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A DOJ memo obtained by CNN listing two reasons why they want the case to be dismissed. First, the publicity around it. Second, the impact on Adams' ability to do his job as mayor, including, crucially, cooperating with President Trump's immigration agenda.
Tulsi Gabbard facing the final test in her bid to serve as director of national intelligence. 52 Republican senators outvoted 46 Democrats last night to break a filibuster on her nomination. The Senate will hold its confirmation vote for Gabbard as late as just past midnight tonight if senators from both parties cannot cut an agreement to vote sooner.
And take a look at this business jet crashing into a parked plane. This at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona. Here's the moment right here. Good Lord. At least one person was killed, three others injured. The plane owned by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil. However, we should note a representative says the singer was not on board during the time of that collision. The NTSB is investigating.
And at least 51 people are dead following a bus accident in Guatemala early Monday. The bus, you can to see it there, plunged 65 feet into a ravine. Guatemala's president has deployed the army and disaster agency to help with response.
Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump is just starting his second and final term in office, of course. But who might take his place as a potential successor? Leader of the Republican Party? Why? The vice president might not, at least in Trump's view, be the next in line.
Plus, President Trump and his allies calling out federal judges for ruling against him. Some lawmakers are now calling it, if the president were to defy the judiciary branch, a constitutional crisis.
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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Clearly, the vice president needs to go back to grade school because every fifth grader knows that there are three branches of government, and that is part of our checks and balances system.
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