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Stocks Tumble, China Retaliates, Strong-Than-Expected Jobs Report; Trump Fires Director and Deputy Director of National Security Agency; Violent Storms, Tornadoes Slam Central U.S. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 04, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news stocks, tumble China retaliates, but a stronger than expected jobs report. We'll break down all the latest economic indicators that are coming in.

Plus, firings at the NSA. Both the director and the deputy director from the highly sensitive National Security Agency are now gone after far right activist Laura Loomer met with President Trump and advocated for their firings.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. U.S. stocks are tumbling for the second day. The Dow is already down a thousand points after dropping almost 1,700 points yesterday. This comes amid President Trump's escalating trade war, and despite a stronger than expected new jobs report just out this morning.

Also affecting the markets this morning, retaliation from China. Beijing announced it's responding to the White House's sweeping tariffs with 34 percent new tariffs of its own against the United States.

Let's go live right now to New York and CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich who's standing by. Vanessa, you're watching all of this. Break it down for us. First of all, start with the jobs report that came out this morning.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, this jobs report better than expected jobs report, may have softened the opening on Wall Street just a little bit. But look at stocks right now. Look at where markets are, really tumbling this morning, as investors are pricing in really the worst case scenario, a trade war escalation. They are looking for some sense that the administration is willing to negotiate with countries. That does not seem to be the case. Investors telling me that their trust has been just completely eroded as this trade war escalates. As you mentioned though, a bright spot, the jobs report, better than expected numbers in March, hiring picked up 228,000. That's a more than a hundred thousand, or about a hundred thousand more than expected, and the unemployment rate ticking up to about 4.2 percent, just slightly from 4.1 percent.

But, really, as investors are telling me this is ancient news at this point, this is looking backwards in March. Really, everything changed on April 2nd when President Trump announced these universal tariffs. And Wall Street was waiting for retaliation from major trading partners.

And we heard from China just this morning a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. exports going into China. That's about $143 billion worth of goods every single year, things like chemicals, computers, agriculture, products, which I will note already have previous tariffs on them from 2018 during President Trump's first term, and also retaliatory tariffs that went into place in March. So, an escalation on that front, you also see there that's going to impact transportation and oil and gas coming out of the United States.

But worth noting though, that we, the U.S., get a lot more from China than we send them. We get about. $438 billion worth of goods every single year, and that now also because of what President Trump put in place, has a 34 percent tariff on those goods. Economists agree, Wolf, that those prices, those increase in prices will likely get passed down to us, the U.S. consumers. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, they almost certainly will.

All right, Vanessa Yurkevich reporting for us, thank you very much.

China, as we've been reporting, is imposing this new 34 percent retaliatory tariff on all imports from the United States starting April 10th.

I want to go live to Beijing right now. CNN's Marc Stewart is watching all of this unfold. Marc, this is a major escalation in an already very contentious trade war between the U.S. and China. What are you learning?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No question Wolf a very hectic evening here in Beijing, as well as in Washington, as we try to sort out exactly how hard these tariffs are going to hit.

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As one analyst told me, this is a very strong response from China.

Let me just pick up on a few points that Vanessa made about who these tariffs will target or hit the most. These specifically will hit American farmers and the agriculture industry very hard.

China imports a lot of soybeans of all products from the United States. It's been a top customer. The fact that these products, these soybean products, are going to cost even more are certainly going to be a big blow to American farmers, especially as China looks elsewhere to buy soybeans and other agricultural products.

Also on the list, rare minerals. Rare minerals are important because they are used to help make things, such as electronics products, different products that people use in their homes, they're necessary at a time when the Trump administration is really trying to encourage more domestic manufacturing. If these products are hard to get, it certainly could impact life in America.

I also want to point out about the timing of all of this. This is happening on a Friday night, the start of a very important holiday weekend here in China. For Beijing to make the move that it did so late at night at a very important time, it really says a lot about the impact of all of this.

And then there's the broader question, will this lead to a bigger discussion between Xi Jinping and President Trump? One thing that China has to be careful about, its economy right now is dealing with a lot of weakness. So, it may be vulnerable, it may have to use some caution, Wolf, when dealing with D.C.

BLITZER: Yes, and we can see the bottom right hand corner of the screen, the Dow Jones down once again today, more than a thousand points already.

Marc Stewart in Beijing, we'll watch it together with you.

Also new this morning, a major shakeup in the U.S. intelligence community, sources telling CNN that the Trump White House has fired the director and the deputy director of the top secret National Security Agency, the NSA. The news of the top level dismissals follow the firings of at least four National Security Council staffers over at the White House. Sources telling CNN that far right activist Laura Loomer, who visited President Trump on Wednesday, advocated for these firings. Loomer, by the way, once claimed that the 9/11 terror attack against the United States was an inside job.

Let's go live right now to CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene. Alayna, what are you hearing? What's the reaction you're getting from top administration officials this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, Wolf, it's hard to overstate just how significant these firings are. I mean, the White House has now dismissed the top two officials at the National Security Agency, General Timothy Hogg, the director of the NSA. He's also the head of a U.S. Cyber Command. He was Senate-confirmed, and then also Hogg's deputy, Wendy Noble.

Now, this comes of course, as the United States Intelligence Community is still trying to navigate a lot of the changes that they've been seeing over the last several months since President Trump took office. But almost as interesting, if not as equally as interesting, is how all of these firings came about. We know now that they come after Laura Loomer, a far right activist, someone who once said that 9/11 was an inside job. She met directly with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday. I was told that she brought a list of around a dozen names of people that she deemed disloyal to him and to this White House, and it's clear that he was influenced by this when I talked to different sources who were familiar with that meeting. I also spoke with Loomer herself directly. They said that she directly led to some of these firings, that she was the one who got in President Trump's ear and convinced him to move forward with these dismissals.

Now, something that's interesting, just to give you some context of this, because I've covered Loomer's relationship with the president for, you know, a couple years now. She was someone who actually had pretty good access and proximity to him on the campaign trail. She rode with him on his private plane, but then some of the top officials, including then-Campaign Manager Susie Wiles, now, of course, Trump's chief of staff kind of put the kibosh on that. What's clear, though, is she now has regained some of that access and clearly regained some of that influence. Wolf?

BLITZER: And do we have any idea why the new White House chief of staff allowed her to come into the White House to meet with the president?

TREENE: Look, Susie Wiles is someone who has been very careful about who gets access to him. You know, it's surprising that Loomer was able to get an Oval Office meeting. I think a lot of this, though, is coming from President Donald Trump himself. He spoke with reporters about this yesterday. He said that he likes to listen to her. He likes to take some of her ideas, and then he makes some of the decisions based off of that.

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you very much.

Also, new this morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio concluding meetings with top European leaders at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. He addressed everything from volatile U.S. markets amid President Trump's trade war, to reaffirming America's strong commitment to NATO.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Alex Marquardt.

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He's joining us from NATO headquarters in Brussels. Alex, I know you had a chance to ask a question to Secretary Rubio earlier this morning. What did we learn?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the tariffs news has really loomed large over these two days of meetings. I spoke with the Canadian foreign minister yesterday who said that it's hard to talk about NATO business in the middle of a trade war. And rather predictably, Marco Rubio defended his boss' decision to put tariffs on so much of the rest of the world, and he said that businesses and markets will readjust as they learn the new rules.

Here's a little bit more of what he told reporters.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think it's fair to say economies are crashing. Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.

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MARQUARDT: Wolf, rather remarkable there that he acknowledged that the markets are indeed crashing. He went on to say that we have to reset the global order of trade.

And then I asked him about the ongoing Russia negotiations to get to a peace deal. He revealed that he had met with top Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev before coming here to Brussels. And he said that the message essentially to the Russians was that the clock is ticking, that the U.S. wants to know whether or not Russia is indeed sincere about peace and that they want to know that soon. He said in the next few weeks was the timeframe that he put on it, and that Dmitriev should take that message back to Mosco,.sSo essentially putting the ball back in Russia's court. I also asked Rubio if they planned on any more of these meetings that we've seen in the past few weeks. He said, we're not going to have more negotiations about negotiations. So, right now, it seems Wolf, the U.S. is waiting for that answer from Russia. Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll see what that answer is. Alex Marquardt reporting from NATO headquarters, thank you very much.

Also happening now, dozens of catastrophic tornadoes and violent storms slamming the Central U.S. this week, across Tennessee, Missouri, and Indiana. Seven people have already been killed as houses and businesses were leveled throughout the region. Here's the account of one survivor.

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SHALIKINA WEEDEN, STORM SURVIVOR: The whole backside of the house is leaning like it's the whole house. Yes, it's the whole house. I just bought this house two years ago.

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BLITZER: And millions of Americans are still at risk as the threat of tornadoes and once in a lifetime flooding still remains.

Let's go live right now to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. He's got the latest developments for us. Derek, where's the greatest risk for what could be generational flooding?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Wolf, if the threat of tornadoes isn't enough, the flooding is going to make the misery even worse for many locations.

So, right now, we're monitoring heavy rain across Kentucky, Western Tennessee, and parts of Arkansas. This was the scene yesterday coming out of Nashville. Look at these inundated vehicles. Those are complete write-offs in terms of an insurance standpoint, right? The moment you get water into an engine, that car no longer functions properly. And this is all part of a wider range of rain that has fallen from the Ohio River Valley, stretching so westward towards the Ark-Tex (ph) region.

And some of these rainfall totals have been impressive. This is radar estimated, but some locations have picked up over a foot likely according to this radar output. Right now, it is still raining heavily. And what makes us so ominous is that these precipitation, or this rain band is moving over the same locations for several hours, if not days at a time. So, Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee, that's an area we're monitoring with considerable tags associated with the flash flood warnings ongoing.

Computer models putting our heaviest rainfall just across that border of Missouri and Arkansas, that's where we have our high risk of excessive rain that could lead to flash flooding. We've already seen it in the images, the social media posts, and then on top of that, the severe weather threat that's really going to ramp up later today across this region, and eventually shift eastward for the day tomorrow.

Here's our greatest chance of tornadoes. Look at that. Lake City, Arkansas, the area that got pummeled by a recent tornado, is under the threat once again today. Wolf?

BLITZER: So, you say it's heading towards the eastern part of the United States. What about here in Washington, D.C. or along the eastern seaboard?

VAN DAM: Yes, let's be clear about that. Not the eastern seaboard. We're talking about the southeastern parts of the U.S. So, this line of storms will actually gradually move on Saturday, tomorrow, and then into the day on Sunday across parts of Alabama and into Georgia, with more of a marginal risk into the Mid-Atlantic. So, not as excessive of a severe weather threat as what we're experiencing across the mid- south right now and for the day tomorrow. Wolf?

BLITZER: So, is it also going to move south towards Florida?

VAN DAM: Yes, you can see the potential for severe storms as we head into Sunday for the Florida Peninsula. So, heads up Pensacola and to Mobile, Alabama. That's an area we'll monitor for the potential of severe storms this weekend.

BLITZER: All right. We'll all be watching you and your reporting. Derek Van Dam, thank you very much.

Other news, we're following the acting inspector general of the U.S. Defense Department is reviewing the group chat where Trump administration senior officials discussed military strikes.

[10:15:08] The watchdog will review defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the unsecured Signal app for a group chat with other key national security officials. The journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, was accidentally invited to that message thread.

Joining us now, CNN Correspondent Natasha Bertrand. Natasha, what will this review try to determine?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the acting inspector general has launched this probe to determine essentially whether classified information was improperly released or disclosed on the Signal messaging app by Secretary of Defense Hegseth, as well as any -- as whether any records retention laws were violated because several of those messages were set to disappear after about two to four weeks, according to the chat logs that were revealed by The Atlantic last week.

And so the inspector general here is going to be asking Secretary Hegseth likely to turn over documents as well as his aides and personnel here at the Pentagon and the inspector general said that part of this investigation is also going to be carried out at Central Command Headquarters down in Tampa.

Now, this is significant because it's really the first independent investigation of this Signal gate fiasco that we have seen since news first broke last week that Hegseth, as well as other senior national security officials, including the national security adviser, were discussing military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen on Signal, which is not typically a platform that officials should be using to discuss information that is highly sensitive and, we are told, actually classified.

We reported last week that the information that Hegseth had posted on signal was, in fact, classified at the time that he wrote it because, primarily, he disclosed that information before the operation against the Houthis actually began.

So, all of this is something that the acting inspector general will be probing over the coming weeks and months, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon for us, thank you very much.

Still ahead, I'll speak to Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen about the impact that recent firings at the nation's top foreign intelligence agency could have on national security.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: More now on President Trump's stunning purge of top U.S. national security officials apparently at the urging of right wing activist Laura Loomer, the director of the NSA, the National Security Agency, and his deputy have just been fired, according to multiple sources.

Let's discuss this and more with Democratic Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland. He sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

As you see, the president appears to be firing these top national security officials based on the advice of a far right conspiracy theorist who believes that 9/11 was an inside job. Potentially, how damaging is this?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Well, Wolf, it's good to be with you especially at this very difficult time for our country. This is potentially very damaging. I mean, when the Trump administration is essentially making personnel choices based on people like Laura Loomer, a right wing activist, you know that the best interests of our national security are not centering this conversation.

So, these are in the -- these are smart people who understand the national security implications and needs of the United States, like the head of the NSA. And what you're seeing from the Trump administration is essentially getting rid of competent people and replacing them with political cronies.

BLITZER: Military officers, as you well know, Senator, serve apolitical and, traditionally, presidents keep them in their posts, especially three or four star generals, even if they were nominated by their predecessors. What are the long-term effects on our national security of Trump now breaking with this precedent?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Wolf, you're absolutely right to emphasize that bipartisan tradition where what we do is value merit, knowledge and experience. And that has been a tradition in the military. And yet you see Trump come into office now and essentially push aside people with those qualities, with expertise and experience. That will undermine our national security because he is replacing them with people who are political cronies. I mean, Laura Loomer's not only going to be deciding who to fire, she's probably going to be deciding who they should hire.

And when you begin to have a government based on political cronyism, we are all going to be at greater risk, especially as this happens in the national security field.

BLITZER: While I have you, Senator, I want to quickly turn to President Trump's trade war that's ongoing right now. Markets, as you well know, are plunging once again this morning after China announced huge retaliatory tariffs against the United States. Do you believe we're looking at a recession, potentially not just a recession here in the United States, but a global recession this year?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, the chances for that just went way up, and I've seen some forecasters say now it's more likely than not, that we will have a recession, because Trump has unleashed this trade war. It's a double-whammy, right? I mean, first of all, it will operate like a national sales tax here in the United States. People's costs of goods will go up. [10:25:01]

And then when you see the retaliatory tariffs, which inevitably come, it means American businesses that help, you know, and producers, and manufacturers that export to these countries, they're not going to be able to sell their goods there because other countries will retaliate.

So, this is a declared trade war by Donald Trump. I don't know why he thinks that this is in our national interest. It's going to hurt us dramatically, and it's going to hurt the people he claimed that he was campaigning for in the last election.

BLITZER: The president and his close allies claim that this is simply a temporary disruption and is absolutely necessary to reset the global trading system and make it more fair, which will bring jobs and manufacturing back to the United States. That's what he claims. What's your response to that?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, he is dead wrong. Look, I support narrow, targeted tariffs in strategic areas. But what Donald Trump is doing is across the board, tariffs. And I'll tell you, Wolf, I'm hearing from small businesses in Maryland, the Maryland Retail Association is strongly against this.

And at the Port of Baltimore, we import a lot of cars. We import a lot of other very important goods for the American people. And all the prices on those goods and products are going to go up and people are going to really be hurting economically. And then, of course, you know, we also export out of the Port of Baltimore and those exports are going to be hit. So, this is a lose-lose proposition.

So, clearly, a lot of Americans are deeply concerned right now as the stock market continues to fall amid these growing warnings about a potential recession here in the United States. How should Democrats, and you're a Democrat, respond to this moment politically?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, we should essentially be telling the truth as what the consequences of this will be. And that's what we're trying to do. I mean, I'm going to go to the Senate floor shortly to talk about their plans to provide very big tax cuts for very rich people and big corporations at the expense of everybody else.

So, for example, you know, Trump is saying that these tariffs he's going to be collecting are going to offset the deficits for his tax cuts for the rich. Well, who will be paying the costs of those additional prices because of tariffs? The American people, middle class families.

So, I think what we need to do is just shine a light on the great betrayal. Donald Trump claimed he was going to be a president that brings down prices, he was going to fight for the forgotten Americans. The people he's fighting for are the billionaires and the big corporations. They won't feel the impact of, you know, the price increases, relatively these tariffs, just like, you know, Secretary Lutnick said that, you know, his mom wouldn't miss her social security payment. Well, we don't all have billionaire sons and daughters. So, the reality is, Wolf, that this is a great betrayal and the American people are seeing it in real time.

BLITZER: Yes, Marylanders and indeed Americans all across the country are soon going to see prices for various products, including shoes and sneakers and clothes, stuff that's imported from China and other countries go up, up and up, and we're going to watch that unfold.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up we're keeping an eye on the market, says Wall Street and investors are reacting big time to China's new tariffs against the United States. What this means for you and your wallet, that's next.

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