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Federal Court Blocks Trump from Imposing the Bulk of His Tariffs; Trump Admin Begins Formal Process of Stripping Harvard of Its Ability to Host International Students; Trump Issues Slew of New Pardons and Sentence Commutation. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 29, 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now hitting a roadblock. Why a federal court says President Trump overstepped his authority in most of his global tariffs.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Face-off in federal court. In just moments, Harvard and the Trump administration will be in a Boston courthouse battling over the president's move to ban the university from accepting all international students, and we're now learning that process has already started.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin this morning with news on the U.S. economy. A federal court blocked almost all of President Trump's global tariffs. A three-judge panel says the measures, quote, exceed any authority granted to the president, close quote. The administration immediately appealed this decision, setting up even more uncertainty for businesses as they try to navigate President Trump's trade war.

Let's go live right now to CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene. Alayna, what are you hearing, first of all, from the White House this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well look, they're clearly not happy with this ruling from the court, Wolf, and I would note as well this three-judge panel, one of those judges was actually someone who was appointed by the president himself. But we are hearing we have a statement from the White House as well as hearing other pushback from some of his top officials.

I just want to read for you one of these White House statements. They said, quote, it is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency. President Trump pledged to put America first, and the administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American greatness.

We also heard from Stephen Miller, one of the president's deputy chiefs of staff, he put it more bluntly, Wolf. He said, quote, the judicial coup is out of control.

But, look, what is clear as the administration immediately tried to appeal this decision. And we heard from Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, this morning, he essentially said, there are ways around this. Because the issue that the court really, you know, is grappling with the questions that they are raising is, is the way in which the president tried to impose these tariffs, which was going around Congress and declaring a national economic emergency in order to impose a sweeping tariff agenda.

And so what we've been hearing now from White House officials is they could perhaps have other ways to get around this to reclassify some of these tariffs, but, personally, they say, they believe that they will be able to win on this appeal. I can tell you that they are very much prepared in my conversations with Trump officials prepared to bring this fight to the Supreme Court, if that's what it takes. Wolf?

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

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: Good to have you back.

BROWN: It's great to be back here in the seat with you, Wolf. Let's go live now to CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich in New York. Vanessa, what is the larger impact of this ruling on the economy?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela. I'm watching Wall Street and I'm watching Main Street. Wall Street right now very much reacting positively to this judge blocking these tariffs from going -- from continuing to go into effect, but little bit of a muted open here. You see the NASDAQ up substantially, but that's mainly because of the NVidia earnings that beat expectations.

What you have is investors sort of waiting to see if this block actually remains. That's the big question. And then on Main Street, you have businesses who you would think would be cheering, oh, yes, a 10 percent tariff on other countries going away, the 30 percent tariff on Chinese exports going away, but we don't know that just yet, just because of all the legal battles we think this is going to -- are going to play out, maybe all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Also worth noting that there are a lot of other levers that the president can pull, as you just heard Alayna talking about, that could essentially put more tariffs in place. You have things -- tariffs that relate to national security, unfair trade practices, retaliatory tariffs, and something called balance of payments. These are all levers that the president can pull to put tariffs on.

We also have all of the sectoral tariffs that are still in place right now.

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So, you see those on your screen. Those are levers that the president can pull, and there are other tariffs that still remain. For businesses, it is still just so hard to do planning right now. What can they continue to import into this country? How many jobs can they advertise for? What do they think that the next even month is going to look like? It is so unclear.

While this ruling for many businesses signals a positive step in potentially pulling back these significant tariffs, it still adds just another layer of uncertainty into the mix into what has been a very, very turbulent several months for businesses around the country.

BROWN: It certainly does, because you have this ruling and the White House is saying that it wants to take it -- challenge it all the way to the Supreme Court.

We were also getting a new look at GDP, at the GDP for the first quarter of the year. What are you learning?

YURKEVICH: Yes. So, GDP contracting still, but doing a little bit better than the initial reading. The initial reading showed that the annualized rate GDP contracted by 0.3 percent. The revision said that GDP actually contracted by 0.2 percent largely because there was an increase in investment, but a decrease in consumer spending. So, the investment actually pulled GDP forward a little bit, but we did see consumer send spending rather weakening a little bit more than we expected.

Also imports, there were actually more imports coming into the country in the first quarter. That is because a lot of businesses were trying to beat the tariffs that they knew would be coming. But essentially a little bit of a better reading than the initial reading, but still a contraction, which is obviously not very good for the overall state of the economy. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you. Wolf?

BLITZER: There's more breaking news, Pamela, we're following right now. The Trump administration has begun the formal process of stripping Harvard University of its ability to host international students. And it comes as a federal judge is set to hear arguments over the White House's international student ban at the Ivy League university just minutes from now.

CNN's Danny Freeman is joining us from Harvard's campus. The commencement ceremonies, I take it, Danny, are also underway at the same time. What's the tone there right now?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Wolf. Not only has commencement officially begun but actually just in the past few minutes, Wolf, President Alan Garber of the university here, he actually got an extended standing ovation right before his remarks began just a moment ago. And, again, he's really been on the forefront of this larger battle between university and the Trump administration. Now, a few things that I want to talk to you about, Wolf, and when it comes to the tone here, it's a lot of mixed emotions, frankly. As commencement was getting ready to begin, we saw what you'd expect to see at any commencement across the country, a lot of happy graduating seniors, caps, gowns, a lot of beaming families who were in their finest attire, just so excited to celebrate their students.

But this battle with the Trump administration, Wolf, really has loomed large over the entire ceremony and really over the entire month on campus for this community. I was speaking to researchers yesterday who were so devastated that some of their funding for, say, cancer research, tuberculosis research, even researching ALS in veterans, all of that has either been frozen or canceled at this point. These researchers really just devastated by that impact.

And then I've also been talking to students over the course of the week who have really united specifically when it comes to the threats against international students here on campus. I want you to take a listen to what one international student told me about how he and the larger international student community is feeling right now at Harvard.

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LEO GERDEN, HARVARD GRADUATING SENIOR FROM SWEDEN: People are truly panicking because they don't know whether they will be able to come back next semester, whether campus is going to look the same. I think that it's really hanging over all of this commencement week because we're about to leave a place that might not look the same next semester. Because without the international students, Harvard is not Harvard.

Harvard thrives on the fact that it can bring together the best and the brightest from all around the world, put us in the same dining halls in the same classrooms.

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FREEMAN: And, again, Wolf, remember, we're talking about almost 7,000 international students who attend Harvard University on any given year. And meanwhile, there's also this split screen of this battle happening in federal court again over this visa program of which we're getting minute-by-minute updates really as we're waiting for that court hearing to begin in a federal courthouse in Boston.

Last thing, Wolf, I'll note, we saw alums handing out these stickers that say Crimson Courage, just a sign that folks are really trying to unify this campus and community as the Trump administration continues to battle this historic campus. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Danny Freeman up at Harvard University, Danny, thanks very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, in a major escalation by the Trump administration, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. will aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students. [10:10:07]

He says the administration will target students with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or those studying in, quote, critical fields.

So, let's go live now to CNN State Department Reporter Jennifer Hansler. What is the latest on this, Jennifer?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Pam, this surprise announcement from Secretary Rubio last night has already ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing and poised to serve as another blow to international higher education students here in the United States.

This statement from Secretary Rubio is sparse on details. For example, he does not say what those critical fields are or how they're going to establish a connection to the Chinese Communist Party, which is ubiquitous across China. He does note, however, that the Department of Homeland Security will be working with the State Department on these visa revocations, which indicates that they are going to be aggressive about not allowing students to remain in the United States if their visas are revoked.

Now, the broader issue here, Pam, is that this is going to have a devastating impact on universities here in the United States. Chinese students were the second largest population of international students here in the U.S. in the 2023 to 2024 academic school year. They were more than 275,000 students studying here from China in that year. They have traditionally been the biggest population of international students here in the United States.

And this comes amid a flurry of other actions that will likely deter international students from coming to study here. Those students are important to universities because they provide enrollment numbers and tuition money.

Earlier this week, the State Department paused all new appointments for exchange and student visas. They have also moved to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll international students. And just last night, Pam, I learned that they have now initiated a review of all visas for Harvard-affiliated people. This is not just students. These are people on business and tourist visas as well, so a major escalation there. Pam?

BROWN: Yes, it certainly is. Jennifer Hansler, thank you. Wolf?

BLITZER: Pamela, former congressman, an imprisoned reality T.V. couple, and even a notorious gang leader, these are just some of the names headlining a wave of very controversial new clemency actions by President Trump this week as he issued a slew of new pardons and commutations for individuals convicted of everything, from public corruption to federal gun charges. And it appears he may not be done yet.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak is here with us in the situation room. Kevin, what do we know about this latest round of pardons and commutations?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. You really see President Trump here redefining the presidential powers of clemency. And you know this well. Every president issues controversial pardons. That's one of the most sweeping powers that a president has. But there are a few unique things happening here. One is just the pace of it, the president issuing this flurry of pardons so early in his term. If he keeps this up, it could potentially lead to record amounts of pardons or commutations.

The other is how these individuals are getting on the president's radar. They're not following the sort of lengthy Justice Department process that's in place. Many of them are associated with his political movement. Many have claimed political persecution justice, the President has. You also see the influence of Alice Johnson. She's someone the president pardoned in his first term and is now acting as his pardon czar.

And so just to list off a, a few of the people who have received this forgiveness, Todd and Julie Chrisley, they're obviously the reality show couple. We saw them leaving their respective detention centers yesterday. They had been accused of evading taxes, defrauding banks. Their daughter actually spoke at the Republican National Convention over the summer. So, clearly, they were on the president's radar.

You see Michael Grimm. He's the former Republican Congressman from New York. He had pleaded guilty to tax evasion. He got a pardon from Trump yesterday.

You see the Louisiana rapper, NBA Youngboy, he had pleaded guilty to federal gun charges and he had credited after this, in part, Alice Johnson for getting his case in front of the president.

And then you see Larry Hoover, he's the former leader of the Gangster Disciples. He had been in prison since the 1970s. He'd been issued a full commutation by President Trump, which could lead to his transfer out of federal prison in Colorado. But he still has over a hundred years of a state sentence. President Trump cannot erase that.

BLITZER: All right, very interesting indeed. All right, thanks very much, Kevin Liptak reporting for us.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, we have a lot coming up here in The Situation Room.

Still ahead, Comedian Nathan Fielder joins us in The Situation Room to talk about the latest season of his show, The Rehearsal, about aviation security.

BLITZER: And next, and I'm quoting now not chickening out on trade. President Trump fires back at Wall Street investors over his on again, off again tariffs.

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

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BROWN: The Trump administration has begun the formal process of stripping Harvard of its ability to host international students. It's given the university 30 days to respond. This latest move by the White House could upend a major court hearing between the two sides set to be held in Boston in just minutes.

All of this is happening as Harvard graduates dress in -- graduates dressed in caps and gowns received their diplomas just a few miles away. In fact, the university president just received a standing ovation after welcoming graduates from around the world saying, quote, just as it should be.

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Joining us now is Editor-at-large for The Bulwark Bill Kristol. He also graduated from Harvard and taught politics at the Ivy League university. Hi, Bill, good to see you.

So, you were recently involved in a Harvard alumni online event about this battle between Harvard and the White House. Can you share with us the feelings of your fellow alumni about what's happening at Harvard?

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE BULWARK: Yes, Danny Freeman mentioned that some of the graduating seniors are, are wearing Crimson Courage, you know, stickers or whatever, and that the Crimson Courage is an event, a group that seems to have grown up spontaneously in the last few weeks, last month or two, organized this webinar, sent emails to whatever list of Harvard grads they could get. They got over 5,000 people to participate, which is pretty astonishing.

And there are about a dozen of us spoke five minutes each. Amazingly, people stuck to their time. I never thought that would happen in a Harvard event was some professors and distinguished graduates, plus people like me.

And what was striking was I thought, yes, the mood was really upbeat, reasonably upbeat, combative, proud of Harvard for standing up. And what struck me about everyone's comments was they all understood this isn't about Harvard's administering of the international students program. No one is charged that Harvard runs its international student, you know, program any different from anyone else.

No one is charged that Harvard's medical research's, you know, different or flawed or more so than anyone else's. This is all about going after Harvard because Harvard is prominent. Harvard is well known. Harvard is sort of, you know, a big institution in America and Trump wants to bring it to heel, just like the law firms, just like the businesses, just like media companies. He understands that his authoritarian project requires knocking down as much as possible places that are prominent enough, wealthy enough, well connected enough to offer some resistance.

BROWN: According to court filings, foreign competitors are trying to recruit Harvard students and you write that this international student ban is a, quote, unprecedented assault on American greatness. Tell us more about that and your concerns that the U.S. is in danger of losing some of its smartest talent to other countries right now.

KRISTOL: Yes. So, I'm thinking of ways to go after Harvard and other institutions of higher education. The Trump administration kind of almost stumbled on, I think, the fact that -- I mean, these students get their visas individually, but the institution they go to is required to keep track of them, certified that they're enrolled and so forth, update their records. It's a pretty ministerial thing. No one's thought that's a way you're supposed to regulate universities or go after international students. But the Trump administration hit upon this as a way to do so.

And so on that issue itself, I mean, they're being unbelievably reckless and irresponsible. It's a huge asset to the United States to attract students. I mean, it's an economic benefit. Just to begin with, Trump's so worried about the balance of trade, this is money coming into the United States from abroad.

But more importantly, these are people coming into the United States. Many of them will work here. Some of them will stay here and become citizens. Some of them will study here and go back home and have contacts with the U.S. and come back here to visit and hopefully think well of the U.S. I mean, this has been a huge asset to the US over decades, over decades, really almost for our old history that we attract people from abroad, all kinds of people from abroad, but especially younger people, some of whom will stay here, some of who will do very well here.

And the idea we're just going to exclude them now, for what reason? What damage are -- I'm really thinking about this for a minute, family, I mean, you understand this, but what damage are international students doing to any, right? Has anyone -- do you travel around the country? Has anyone said, you know, what's really a problem in the U.S? Having these international people, these foreign students come here and study in college or go to medical school or, heck, have post- docs where they work on various efforts to, you know, cure various diseases.

I mean, this is a non-problem that the Trump administration has invented as a problem, mostly to go after the institutions of higher education and also as it fits with their general nativism and attempt to sort of make everything foreign seem evil and dangerous.

BROWN: And now the State Department says that it's going to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students who they say are tied to the Chinese Communist Party. Bill, I want to take a listen to China's response about this and get your thoughts.

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MAO NING, SPOKESPERSON, CHINESE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: This politically-motivated and discriminatory action exposes the lie of the so-called freedom and openness that the U.S. has long claimed and will only further harm the U.S. international image and national credibility. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Do you agree with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this one?

KRISTOL: I mean, I hate to agree with them and I think they're have been some issues with Chinese, some Chinese students and researchers having really close ties to the Communist Party. And those should be looked at individually or campus-by-campus.

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Not everyone deserves to necessarily automatically get their visa stamped. But most of these students are here, I think, in pretty innocent ways. And, yes, I think China is actively recruiting foreign students, not only keeping their own students home now, I suppose, but recruiting other foreign students who are going to be deterred from coming here.

I've got friends who teach here, who've been here for a long time who are foreign. I mean, they got jobs here, but they started off elsewhere. They obey every law. They're good taxpaying citizens. And they're worried about their own future.

And I think you reported earlier in the show that it's not just people who are enrolled at Harvard, it's people who come to conferences at Harvard, people who might accept a one week, you know, visiting fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard or at Harvard Medical School.

I mean, we're just cutting off our contacts with the world or at least threatening to, and, again, for what, for what benefit? It's ridiculous.

BROWN: All right. Bill Kristol, nice to have you on, as always, and good to hear your perspective on this issue. Thank you so much.

KRISTOL: Thanks, Pamela.

BLITZER: And up next, addressing cockpit communication on commercial flights. The comedian, Nathan Fielder, joins us here in The Situation Room to talk about the latest season of his show, The Rehearsal.

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