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The Situation Room
U.S. and China Agree to Slash Trade Tariffs for 90 Days; Trump's Executive Order to Lower Drug Prices; Hamas to Release Last Living U.S. Hostage. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired May 12, 2025 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: For now, these growing concerns of a global recession, and that's giving investors around the world a new jolt of optimism.
So, let's go now to scene and correspondent Marc Stewart in Beijing. All right, Marc from your spot in China, why now? Why was the timing right for this to happen?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Pam. Look, I think there are really two things at play here. Number one is respect. China in the past has accused the United States of acting like a bully, but after a number of overtures from Washington, after this decision to hold these talks in Switzerland, which is seen as neutral ground, the timing was right for China. They felt like they were being heard. So, we had these talks take place.
The other factor at play is economics. We have spent so many weeks together talking about all the economic upheaval around the world. We have seen the concerns about the supply chain in the United States. We have seen the concerns about manufacturing here in China. These concerns weighed heavy on both economies. So, the time was also right to have a broader discussion.
Real briefly, I want to look at markets real quickly. If we look at the big boards, we are seeing gains across the board. We've seen a rally take place, trading now just about one hour underway, particularly in the S&P 500. That's significant because that deals a lot of -- with a lot of people and their retirement accounts. So, those are real tangible gains that people will see. But despite all of this excitement a number of China watchers, even Chinese government officials are expressing caution. This is still a very fragile relationship.
Trade issues, these trade discussions can break off very easily. So, we are seeing a lot of guarded remarks, especially from Chinese officials. They just want to make sure they hit the right tone. Not to be too trusting, but at the same time also accepting of this invitation by the United States, Pam, to sit down and have these serious conversations.
BROWN: All right. Marc Stewart, thank you so much. Let's get more reaction now from Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He sits on the Senate Forum Relations and Judiciary Committees. So, we're going to get to the trade deal with China in just a moment. But first, I'm going to get your reaction to the president's announcement on cutting prescription drug prices, Senator.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, VICE CHAIRMAN, SELECT COMMITTEE ON ETHICS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, President Trump just said that he's the one that improved Obamacare, which is actually flat out wrong. He tried over and over to repeal Obamacare when he was president the first time, and House Republicans are moving ahead this week with their bill, which President Trump's asking for that would cut millions of Americans off of healthcare.
In the last administration, Democrats worked hard to pass legislation that reduces prescription drug prices and caps, the out-of-pocket costs for Americans. So, President Biden and Democrats in the Senate made significant progress in capping and reducing drug prices in the last Congress. If this executive order has a positive impact on healthcare and on healthcare costs, that would be a good thing.
But so far, the record of what happened in the first Trump administration and what Republicans are trying to move forward right now in Congress would do the opposite. Throw millions of Americans off of healthcare as they make deep cuts to Medicaid.
BROWN: All right. Lots to discuss with you. I also want to get to what's going on the trade front and the result of talks in Geneva this weekend. This comes as the U.S., as you know, is still pushing other countries to impose their own trade restrictions on China. Do you think the U.S. has the leverage to build a coalition of trade partners to stand up to China?
COONS: Well, you used a word there that's important, of coalition. I've always thought that America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we work in concert with our trusted allies and partners. I recently traveled on a trip to the Philippines and Taiwan, where on a bipartisan trip the message was reinforced, that instead of slapping tariffs on our trusted partners and allies, we should be working closely with them, particularly those like Taiwan that's already announced a hundred billion dollars investment in manufacturing in the United States before Trump began his chaotic campaign of tariffs on all of our partners and friends.
Yes, I think the United States can make a real difference in mobilizing the world to constrain China's aggression, to push back on China's intellectual property theft, and to build a lattice work of partners in the Indo-Pacific that'll strengthen security. That's what happened under the Biden administration.
As President Trump leaves on his first overseas trip, I think it's important that we recognize he has really strained our most important alliances in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. He has a chance to strengthen and deepen some of our partnerships in the Middle East, but note that he's not going to Israel.
[10:35:00] And some of the things he's recently done, negotiating a ceasefire with the Houthis without including or consulting Israel, negotiating with Iran without consulting or including Israel have strained that critical relationship.
So, I'll be watching closely in coming days as he visits Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. But frankly, the piece of his upcoming trip that concerns me the most is news that he will accept a $400 million gift from the Emir of Qatar. It raises obvious national security and ethics concerns for our president to accept a gift of this size for something as important as Air Force One, which is his flying command post from another country.
BROWN: So, let's talk a little bit more about that. Do you think that he is violating the Constitution with this? And will your committee, the Judiciary Committee, be overseeing this, investigating it?
COONS: Look, the Republicans control the Senate. And so, we will have a hard time getting the majority on the Judiciary Committee to agree that we should be investigating whether this is a violation of a clause of the Constitution that says we should not accept gifts from foreign princes, kings, and potentates, the emoluments clause.
This is almost exactly the sort of gift that our founders had in mind that Americans shouldn't accept. And I'll remind you, other federal employees can't accept even $50. They can't accept anything from a foreign agent of a foreign country, but they can't accept anything worth more than $50 from a lobbyist or from an American, let alone $400 million.
And the details of this deal are not transparent. As it's been reported, the intention is to give it not just for the president's use while he's president, but then to his future library so that he can continue to fly around in this plane. It's apparently a luxurious modern 747. But the president of the United States already has two versions of Air Force One, which has important national security features to defend the plane against attack, to be able to manage our global military in the event of a crisis, and there's no way to guarantee that this plane -- even though Qatar is a trusted partner and ally, there's no way to guarantee this plane doesn't have devices embedded within it that might compromise our security.
BROWN: So, you're concerned about that. We know that, you know, DOD would have an active role in retrofitting it. It would take a while for it to be ready for use -- presidential use. I want to go to something else you mentioned, and that is, of course, what's going on in the Middle East. The president skipping going to Israel on this trip to bring everyone up to speed. The last known living American hostage, Edan Alexander is being released today.
Hamas says they conducted direct negotiations with the U.S. on his role. What do you think about that?
COONS: Look, it's good news anytime another hostage is released from the brutal captivity of Hamas in Gaza. And I worked with 25 senators to send a letter to President Trump before he departs today to say, use your leverage, use your leadership in the Middle East to secure a ceasefire, to get humanitarian aid into Gaza, to move forward --
BLITZER: All right. I just am going to have to hold that thought. Hold that thought, please, Senator, because President Trump's talking about the jet right now.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: -- the United States of America plane, it's like from a different planet and it's close to 40 years old. It might be more than 40 years old now. And we -- when I first came in, I signed an order to get it built. I took it over from the Obama administration. They had originally agreed. I got the price down much lower.
And then when the election didn't exactly work out the way that it should have, a lot of work was not done on the plane because a lot of people didn't know. They made change orders that was so stupid, so ridiculous. And it ended up being a total mess. A real mess. And when I came back, I said, by the way, what's going on with the Boeings that are coming in? Well, sir, they're way behind. And they are, they're way behind. They were way behind. Another mess that I inherited from Biden. And it's going to be a while before we get them.
And I think Qatar, who has really -- we've helped them a lot over the years in terms of security and safety, I felt they -- I think they -- and very, very nicely, and I have a lot of respect for the leadership and for the leader, Qatar. And I think they very -- they knew about it because they buy Boeings, they buy a lot of Boeings. And they knew about it and they said, we would like to do something. And if we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they're building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture.
[10:40:00]
Now, I could be a stupid person to say, oh, no, we don't want a free plane. We give free things out. We'll take one too. And it helps us out because, again, we're talking about we have 40-year-old aircraft. The money we spend, the maintenance we spend on those planes to keep them tippy top is astronomical. You wouldn't even believe it. So, I think it's a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person, say, no, we don't want a free very expensive airplane.
But it was -- I thought it was a great gesture. And I think it was a gesture because of the fact that we help have helped and continue to -- we will continue to, all of those countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and others. We keep them safe. If it wasn't for us, they probably wouldn't exist right now. And I think this was just a gesture of good faith.
And I don't get it. Someday, it'll be like Ronald Reagan, they decommission them, you know, they get to a certain age, they decommission them. It'll go to my library. They're talking about going to my library in years out. But I thought it was a great gesture. And it's something that was done by Ronald Reagan. They actually decommissioned the plane and he put it in his library and it actually has made the library -- I think of Boeing 707, it's actually made the library more successful. So, it was good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you plan to use the plane after you leave office?
TRUMP: No, I don't. No, it would go directly to the library after I leave office.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --
TRUMP: I wouldn't be using it. No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on the hostage. You said that the release of the American hostage, Edan Alexander, is a step in good faith to end this war. Do you expect any progress in perhaps announcement on ceasefire during your trip to the Middle East?
TRUMP: We hope that we're going to have other hostages released too, as you know. So, when I met with the hostages three weeks ago that were there for quite a while, you remember the 10 people that came in, mostly young people, one or two were a little bit older. They went -- they were explaining the trials and tribulations. I mean, they went through hell. And I said, how many are there? They said, 59. I said, that's a lot I didn't realize. because we got a lot out. You know, we got a lot of hostages out. I think you will acknowledge.
They said 59, but then they said -- they followed that up by saying 59 of which 24 are living, the rest are dead. But the people whose son, mostly son, I think one daughter in this case, but mostly sons are there -- or husbands are there. Those people want the dead bodies as much as they want the live body.
I was -- I have a mother that calls me, but came up to me when I first met her and she said, sir, please get my son out. He's dead, but they have his body. And I asked her about that and it's as though he were alive. The level of wanting that body back is the same. It couldn't be anymore as though he were alive. So, we -- you know, getting the bodies back is very important. That could be a thing having to do with the religion. It could be same. I was amazed at the level of importance. It's the same as if the son or husband or whatever was alive.
So, they said 59, in fact, they came out -- they came in with a number 59 written out on like a sign on their chest. But they came to thank me for getting them out. And I said, what does the 59 mean? They said, well, that means there are 59 people. But then they said, but 24 are living now. It's 21. The number's 21.
So, now it's actually -- well, we'll get Edan today. We think we're getting him today. So, it's 20. So, they have 20 live hostages there. The rest are dead bodies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President, are you open to negotiating your tariffs on cars, steel, and aluminum with China or any other country?
TRUMP: Well, we're not even talking about that. We're bringing the car back -- business back into this country. We have commitments -- and not only commitments, they've already started construction on many plants. They've left Mexico and a few cases and a few cases they've left Canada. They're not going to build in Canada. They're going to build here, because we have the market. And the tariffs have been amazing.
The election and the tariffs. November 5th was a big day. And on top of that, of course, you wouldn't have the tariffs without the election, I guess if you look at it. But we have at least 11 committed massive car factories that are going to be built, that are going to be -- that are in the process of being built. And some are going -- some have actually started.
[10:45:00]
We also have renovations of existing factories where they weren't utilizing the full factory from years gone by and now, they're under full renovation. They'll be opening up full renovation, they'll be opening up full factories in a very short period of time.
Our car industries, I think we're going to have the number one industry. You know, if you look at Japan and these others, they do tremendously with cars, and they can do that too. They -- but you know, when they -- if they want to sell cars in the United States, they're going to have to build factories in the United States because I'm interested in cars for the United States.
Now, one other thing is, in our tax bill, we are giving not only no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, but also, we're going to get a deduction for people that borrow money to buy a car, if it's made in America. If it's not, we have no interest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on the meeting with -- between President Putin as well as President Zelenskyy, if President Putin doesn't show up to these talks in person in Turkey, will you join Europe in putting higher sanctions on Russia?
TRUMP: If they -- if I felt it would be important toward getting the deal done, I'm the one that insisted on the meeting. They couldn't get a meeting because one said ceasefire, one said, no ceasefire. It was going back and forth. I said, look at this point we got to stop it. Just go to the meeting. The meeting's been set. Go to the meeting on Thursday.
And if I thought it would be helpful, I don't know where I'm going to be at that particular point. I'll be someplace in the Middle East, but I would fly there if I thought it would be helpful. Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask you about South African refugees. Dozens of Afrikaners who claim discrimination in their home country are heading to the United States where your administration is going to welcome them as refugees. Now, this comes as you halted virtually all refugee admissions for people fleeing famine and war from countries like Sudan, the Democrat Republic in Congo. Why are you creating an expediting path into the country for Afrikaners but not others?
TRUMP: Because they're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed. Now, South Africa leadership is coming to see me. I understand sometime next week. And you know, we're supposed to have, I guess, a G20 meeting there or something, but we're having a G20 meeting. I don't know how we can go unless that situation's taken care of, but it's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about. But it's a terrible thing that's taken place and farmers are being killed.
They happen to be white, but whether they're white or black, it makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the media television media doesn't even talk about it. If it were the other way around, they'd talk about it. That would be the only story they'd talk about.
And I don't care who they are. I don't care about their race, their color. I don't care about their height, their weight. I don't care about anything. I just know that what's happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa. They say it's a terrible situation taking place. So, we've essentially extended citizenship to those people and to escape from that violence and come here. Yes. Please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, thank you. Are you letting China off the hook for these 90 days and do you really believe that they will follow through with non-tariff barriers and remove those?
TRUMP: Non-monetary tariffs. Yes. Yes, I think they're going to follow through. I think they want it very badly. I think they want the deal very badly. Again, this doesn't include the steel tariffs that I put on a long time ago, that Biden tried to get off but he couldn't get them off because it was too much money.
You know, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars from China. What a lot of people don't know, but we put on the tariffs originally. And if I didn't do that, we wouldn't have a steel industry today. Now, we have a thriving steel industry. It'll be thriving much more with what we're doing because this is the next level. But it doesn't include -- that doesn't include cars, it doesn't include pharmaceuticals when we do that.
And the reason we're doing that will be to get them to come back in the country. You know, there are -- again, I always say it because a lot of people forget it, but if a company like Eli Lilly, which is making a massive investment in the United States right now. They're building many, many plants. They've already started like seven of them. Many plants, but they are not going to be tariffed. There's no tariff cost.
So, they're all doing that. They're all coming back to the United States. I mean, I'll tell you what, I hope I get the benefit of watching this because as president, because, you know, it takes a little while to do this stuff and we're doing it early in the administration.
If you think of it we have, I believe, if you look at the real total, it's over $10 trillion committed for plants and factories. Other administrations haven't had 1 trillion over a four0year period, even over an eight-year period. We have over 10 trillion committed in one form or the other over two months. Give me a break. I'm here to hear three, but let's give me a break on the first month. We want to get acclimated.
[10:50:00]
But -- you know, but if you think about it, it's really two months. And so, in two months we have an investment already of over $10 trillion. And other presidents haven't had that done over a year, over four years in some cases. It's unprecedented. There's never been anything like it. It's a very exciting time in America.
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So, there's the president of the United States, Pamela. I was very intrigued. He made some news there indeed confirming these latest reports that the United States is going to welcome these white South African farmers to come to the United States immediately and have an expedited opportunity to become U.S. citizens. He's accusing the black-led South African government of going after these white South African farmers and he says they deserve to come to the United States. I thought that was significant.
He's also confirming that this dual citizen, this Israeli-American, Edan Alexander, this hostage, will be released very, very soon. He's welcoming that. He's hoping more hostages will be released as well.
But there's a whole lot of other news he's making on the economic front as well. And you take a look at the Dow Jones industrials now, up more than a thousand points so far today because a lot of this breaking news, U.S.-China trade deals, improving the prescription drug, reduction, costly saying will benefit the American people. So, there's some good news for him on the economic front.
BROWN: Right. And he's just about to sign this E.O. right now. So, we want to note that. But also, Wolf, he addressed this gift from Qatar, this plane.
BLITZER: Yes.
BROWN: Very expensive lavish plane that he called, quote, "a great the gesture." He said that after his term as president, that it would go to the Trump Presidential Library and that it wouldn't be used. So, essentially, he says that it would be decommissioned at that point. But of course, that is raising a lot of concern. All of this from ethics experts who are saying, look, this is a gift, a huge gift from a foreign nation that could be in violation of the --
BLITZER: And some critics are actually calling it a bribe by Qatar to the United States to provide this Boeing 747 to be a new Air Force One, and it would be decorated the way Trump likes to decorate things along the lines of Trump Tower in New York, the interior of this 747.
BROWN: That's right. Something that he has long had his sights on even in his first term, he wanted a new Air Force One. Now, it appears that one is being gifted to him by Qatar. Pretty extraordinary times and unprecedented. We'll be right back.
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[10:55:00]
BLITZER: And we have more breaking news. Hamas is expected to release the hostage Edan Alexander in the next hour, that according to an Israeli official, he's the last known living American hostage being held in Gaza. He is actually a dual Israeli-U.S. citizen. His family in the U.S. hostage envoy have just landed at a base where Edan Alexander is due to be received later today. President Trump made this comment just moments ago, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And he is coming home to his parents, which is really great news. I mean, to me it's big news. They thought he was dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. Let's go live to CNN Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond right now. Jeremy, so what more are we learning about Edan Alexander's release?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, within the next hour, we expect that Edan Alexander will be handed over to Red Cross officials inside of Gaza and then make his way to an Israeli military base along the Gaza border in a place called Re'im. That is where Edan Alexander will finally embrace his mother after more than 19 months of captivity.
Also on hand will be Adam Boehler, the U.S. hostage envoy who has traveled to Israel with Yael Alexander, Edan's mother. But, Wolf, this has broader implications beyond just the release of one individual. We are also seeing that U.S. officials very much expect and hope that this goodwill gesture, as it's being described by Hamas to release Edan Alexander without receiving anything immediate in return, will potentially unlock a ceasefire and hostage release deal that will see more hostages released and that will see a ceasefire go into effect in Gaza.
Indeed, we've heard President Trump both out loud and in his social media posts over the last 24 hours talking about the fact that he hopes that this will be the first of the final steps in order to end the war in Gaza, something that he described as a brutal conflict.
And indeed, we know that for the other 58 hostages in Gaza as well as for the 2 million plus Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are currently undergoing a total humanitarian aid blockade time is certainly running out, Wolf, and the hostage families who I've spoken to here today at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv are certainly hoping that this release of Edan Alexander will unlock a deal to secure the release of many more Israeli hostages. Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's hope many more are released, in fact. All right. Jeremy Diamond with all the latest developments. And this important note to our viewers, we're going to have live coverage of the expected release of Edan Alexander. That's coming up in the next hour. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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