The Trade War is On
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It's Monday, February 3rd, right now on CNN This Morning. We put tariffs on, they owe us a lot of money, and I'm sure they're going to pay. Trade war is on. President Trump set to enact tariffs on America's biggest trading partners, hinting this is just the beginning. Plus... Nowhere in my entire 21-year history in the FBI did I ever see anything like that.

Showdown at the FBI, the Justice Department questioning thousands of career law enforcement officials over their role in January 6th investigations. And then... I think Elon's doing a good job. He's a big cost cutter. What is Elon up to? The head of Doge vowing to eliminate the agency behind most of America's foreign aid. This as Musk's team gains access to the Treasury's multi-trillion dollar payment system.

The Grammy goes to Cowboy Carter. The Grammy Awards, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, others. Walking Home winners on music's biggest night.

All right, it is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at the Washington Monument. The White House, still dark here at 6 a.m. in Washington, D.C. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. The promised trade war, it's here. President Donald Trump over the weekend making good on campaign promises that have made the business community nervous and that threaten to raise prices for Americans.

And he's targeting our neighbors, including Canada, whose troops have fought alongside Americans in our foreign wars. Plus, this might not be the last of it. The new tariffs include a 25% markup on goods from Canada and Mexico. China will see a 10% tariff. These changes set to take effect tomorrow.

Canada isn't taking it lying down. Stores immediately started pulling American goods off the shelves. Tennessee whiskey, bourbon from Kentucky. And this was the scene at the start of an NHL game between the Ottawa Senators and the Minnesota Wild. Yes, those are Canadian fans in Ottawa loudly booing the star-spangled banner. It happened at an NBA matchup in Toronto, too.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, had this reminder of why booing the anthem is so stunning from our neighbours to the north. From the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of the Korean Peninsula, from the fields of Flanders to the streets of Kandahar, we have fought and died alongside you during your darkest hours.

During the Iranian hostage crisis, those 444 days we worked around the clock from our embassy to get your innocent compatriots home. American presidents passed, Republican presidents passed, seemed to share that view. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends, weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world.

all while cynically waving the American flag. And then there's the modern-day political reality. The tariffs will make things more expensive for Americans. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, from Trump's party, at least ostensibly, saying this on 60 Minutes just last night. It will drive the cost of everything up. In other words, it'll be paid for by American consumers. I mean, why would you want to get in a fight with your allies over this?

Even President Trump seems to be aware that the effect of all this might be the opposite of what people elected him to do, which was to lower prices. I disagree with the leadership of Canada, and something's going to happen there. But if they want to play the game, I don't mind. We can play the game all they want. Millions of people float into our country through Mexico and Canada, and we're not going to allow that. We may have short-term, a little pain, and people understand that.

Joining us now to discuss our panel's here, Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics senior reporter, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst, national political reporter for Axios, Megan Hayes, former Biden White House director of message planning, Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Stephen Collinson, let me start with you. Big picture here.

Donald Trump is clearly choosing one set of the priorities that he campaigned on over another. I mean, he threatened this tariff war. He said he was upset about deportations and about immigration and about drugs.

But he also said he was going to lower prices. That's right. And I think this is one of the big risks of the approach he's taking, is that this could spike inflation. That could make the Fed keep interest rates high. That could keep the housing market locked up. So there's lots of...

consequences if the president does go ahead and these terrorists come into force Tuesday morning at 12:01 a.m. and they stay in force for a long time. I think this is symptomatic of a break with the way that the United States has used free trade over the last 40 odd years, putting pressure on an ally like Canada, especially although they don't have the capacity like Mexico to paralyze the U.S. economy.

they can't push the U.S. into a recession like the U.S. can to them, they can hurt Americans, and this is going to have consequences. So it's going to be interesting to see. One of the big questions of this presidency is,

How far is Trump willing to go? Is he willing to pay the price for some of the transformational policies that he wants to affect if he wants to completely rebuild the world economy and the U.S. manufacturing base? Matt, is Trump right there that some people, that people will go along with some short-term pain, as he put it? Well, I think this goes to the psychology of Trump, whether he's a businessman or he's a president. He wants to get you in a room, cut a deal, sell it,

And I think this is a tactic in that thing. We saw this, we were talking about this last Monday with Columbia, right? He's been emboldened by whether it was the work in Columbia, doing very similar things, threatening again tariffs and that sort of thing to extract what he wanted from policies there. You saw it last night with Panama with breaking of the Chinese. So I think this is not intended to stay this way. This is not an end game. This is a tactic he is using to extract policy concessions from this.

And again, what I would expect, we saw this at the end of November when he threatened a lot of this. Right around Thanksgiving, Trudeau immediately went to Mar-a-Lago. They had a face-to-face meeting and it ended okay. Scheinbaum took a different tact of Mexico. We'll see how that goes. I would expect sometime this week, Canadian officials, maybe Mexico, we'll see, at least Canadian, to go face-to-face with Trump and work something out. I think that is the endgame in this. Let's put up on the screen, if we can, the stock market futures chart.

from the weekend, okay? Because Alex Thompson, one of the things that Donald Trump responds to, we know, are the markets. How is this going to impact him?

Short term, not that much. Long term, it really could. In this latest, you know, the first two weeks, what we've really seen is this the latest example of what is going to become an imperial presidency in many ways. You mentioned that we haven't seen this sort of trade war in 40 years. And a lot of the laws that Trump is using give him almost unilateral power. They're usually, the specific law has really been used for like terrorist and rogue states.

He is using the fentanyl crisis and the immigration crisis to justify basically completely unilateral actions. I mean, a couple of things here, right? And the exit polls are really clear that the number one issue of people who voted for Trump was inflation. This is going to do the exact opposite of bringing inflation down. And it's going to make inflation go higher, which means the cost of goods are going to go higher. You know, people in L.A. are going to try to rebuild their homes. 60 or 70 percent of the lumber comes from Canada. It's going to be impossible for people to afford to rebuild. You saw all these different manufacturing groups in the

Builders Association putting out letters to Trump talking about the cost. And often raw materials are excluded. Even if tariffs are applied on manufactured goods elsewhere, they'll leave raw materials out because that can hurt

us more in many ways than other good and but the Builders Association like sent a letter to Donald Trump over the weekend saying how much this is going to impact that cost of housing bring housing prices up as well as jobs are going to be impacted so I think this is going to have more impact than he thinks it's going to have even if it is only a couple of weeks this is going to have lasting impacts on our economy on the backs of the middle class yeah well and so the Wall Street Journal editorial board called this terror war the dumbest trade war in history

in a headline over the weekend, the 25% tariffs. We can put that headline up.

And then Donald Trump responded this way, saying, quote, this will be the golden age of America. Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe and maybe not. But we will make America great again and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. I mean, I guess Trump versus the Wall Street Journal editorial board isn't necessarily new of late. But I mean, they're the globalists. They represent, as far as Trump's concerned, the people that hollowed out the U.S. economy last.

by sending low wage jobs abroad. So he'll embrace that fight. The question for me, though, is it's not clear what the end game is with Canada. Fentanyl and border crossings are minuscule compared to those in Mexico. Is Trump just going to embrace some kind of quasi deal like he did in his first term and call it a big win? He's put himself out there, his credibility on the line with his tariffs now to walk back

It's going to make other partners like the EU, for example, think, well, when Trump makes a tariff threat, it's just a bargaining chip and it doesn't matter. What's interesting is that you said the Wall Street Journal, the people that hauled out the economy. But these tariffs are not targeted towards bringing back steel jobs or manufacturing jobs. They are very broad based and they seem more designed to actually just bring in more tax revenue for his agenda rather than actually resuscitating the Rust Belt. Yeah.

Because again, this is an area where Democrats and Republicans have been closer in recent years, right? I mean, it's not as though President Biden got rid of all of the tariffs that Trump had imposed in his first term when he came into office.

But this, of course, just a new level. I guess it's going to be the imperial presidency. I think that's a phrase that is going to stick with us here for a while. Ahead here on CNN this morning, call it a doge takeover. Elon Musk targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development and his desire to, quote, shut it down. Plus, how Trump's moves in his opening days in the White House are reshaping presidential power. Former advisor to George W. Bush, Mark McKinnon, joins us live to discuss this.

And tough questions. Thousands of FBI agents ordered to answer 12 questions about their role in the January 6th prosecutions. They called the rioters martyrs. Yeah, no, it was an insurrection. Pardoning people who've been convicted is a mistake. I'm Anderson Cooper. Grief isn't talked about much, but that's what my podcast is all about.

This is All There Is, Season 3. In the past year, I've listened to about 6,000 voicemail messages you've left for me after Season 2 and most of the ones sent in so far this season. When I listen to your messages, it makes me feel less different and alone. My grief is deep and real and it has brought me to my knees. Listen to All There Is with Anderson Cooper wherever you get your podcasts. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.

the vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.

The warning came on Inauguration Day. President Trump telling his supporters that his form of justice was coming. This morning, we're getting a bigger, wider glance at what that looks like. Thousands of FBI agents have been forced to fill out a DOJ questionnaire. The question is whether that signals another mass firing in the works. Sources tell CNN that there are a dozen questions. They focus on January 6th cases.

This comes after more than a dozen DOJ officials who criminally investigated President Trump were fired. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe reacting to this latest action. Nowhere in my entire 21 year history in the FBI did I ever see anything like this, where employees are literally being rounded up for political reasons for cases they did their lawful and expected work on. It's absolutely ridiculous.

the possibility that President Trump is widening his purge of the FBI comes as lawyers are pushing back threatening lawsuits and advising FBI agents to stand their ground and not resign a Matt Gorman I'm there are of course and Lindsey Graham made this on distinction on the Sunday shows over the weekend their differences between any political appointees at any agency in the government or even top officials who may be civil service

and everyday FBI agents who don't have a choice, right? They're just assigned to investigate something. Is this okay? - The timing of this is what struck me, right? This is happening after Kash Patel's confirmation hearing, so he's not gonna get questioned about it during the hearing. And during that hearing, much like Hegseth, really, you could tell his talking points were very much based in the everyday FBI worker. For Hegseth, that was obviously the everyday service man or woman.

So the timing I thought was very interesting. If they did this two weeks before, this would obviously be a huge part of the hearings. Doing it afterwards shows that they were very cognizant to not let this be an issue during the hearings. Well, let's watch a little bit, like the key kind of line, I think, from that hearing, because again, that's a promise from Kash Patel, who's in line to be the next FBI director under oath. Let's watch. Every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard and no one will be terminated for case assignment. All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution. They deserve...

all FBI employees will be protected against political retribution. Is he violating that pledge? Well, he hasn't taken office yet, so we'll see what he does. We'll see what he does. I mean, obviously, again, I think the timing of this was very important. I took note of more than anything else.

I mean, these FBI agents take an oath to the Constitution. They do not take an oath to a president. So I think that this is going after them unnecessarily and unfairly. Also, on January 6th, a bunch of people broke the law and they were investigating it. So let's not forget that. But to be held accountable for something that you had no say in what you were doing is disgusting. And I think this is the definition of weaponizing the DOJ. I mean, Kash Patel did...

you know, he has spoken in the various right wing podcasts that he's been on over the years that he wanted to basically close down the FBI headquarters, get rid of a lot of the people there. And I think the timing here is like, to your point, interesting. It's after the hearing before he's confirmed, he won't have his hands on this, but it'll be interesting to see what he does with those questionnaires if he is confirmed.

Yeah, if you're talking about getting rid of thousands of agents, I mean, that's a huge blow to the FBI. You know, they need these people for terrorism investigations. So we need the FBI. Yeah, yeah. America needs the FBI. So, you know, the Bureau isn't exactly renowned. The rank and file aren't exactly renowned for being liberals.

That's one question. And the other issue here is, even if these people only get to answer the questionnaire, the message has been sent that in future investigating the president or anybody related to the president or the administration is not the right thing to do. So the message would have been sent. The other context here is,

Trump believes the FBI hampered his first year as president in 2017 that James Comey did, and it led to the Russia investigation. That's the broader context. Well, let's keep in mind, I mean, Democrats haven't always loved the FBI either. Hillary Clinton was not exactly pleased with James Comey.

One thing that brings the world against Democrats together is a hatred of James Comey. In this polarized world. Okay, coming up here on CNN This Morning. Democrats in disarray, it's a cliche for a reason, can a new leader for the DNC help the party develop a coherent message and counter President Trump? Plus, a new weather threat facing millions of Californians. And we'll show you what happened on music's biggest night, historic wins and fun surprises.

"Brett, you're just that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes." Oh, God. ♪ Yeah, 360 ♪

Alright, welcome back. People in California just can't catch a break. There's more rain and potential flooding coming this way their way this week. Let's get to our meteorologist Tyler Malden. Ty the weather guy. Good morning. Hey, good morning Casey. We have an atmospheric river setting up impacting the West Coast and atmospheric river is essentially a pipeline of moisture carrying with it heavy rain, snowfall and strong wind, all of which will

we have coming and happening right now on the West Coast, specifically here in Northern California. We're looking at a level four out of five threat with this atmospheric river. We could see a couple of inches of rainfall across the lower levels. And then as you go up into the mountains,

heavy snowfall. What accompanies that is the potential for 65 mile per hour winds, maybe even stronger than that. We have to watch the risk today and tomorrow for some flash flooding here, a level two risk for that. And then you notice that we have millions under winter weather alerts stretching from California all the way into the northern Rockies where we could be measuring the snowfall in

Looking at the timing here, Casey, you can see that this atmospheric river and the accompanying storms impacting the West continue to push eastbound as we go through time. And by the time we do get to Wednesday afternoon, Los Angeles is picking up on the rainfall, so more in the way of moisture heading to Southern California. That's good news. Now looking at the rest of the country case, you can see.

the snow belt will continue to see some snowfall there. And then yes, even the Northeast will start seeing some snowfall as well. All right, Tyler Malden for us this morning, sir. Very grateful to have you. Thank you so much. And coming up here on CNN this morning, a presidential power grab is Donald Trump issuing executive orders designed to be challenged in court. Mark McKinnon joins us. Plus, Elon Musk and Doge getting heavy handed with their cost cutting and general approach.

I think Elon's doing a good job. He's a big cost cutter. Sometimes we won't agree with it and we'll not go where he wants to go.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. The truth is that many of us warned about this. Reverend Gabriel Salguero, pastor of The Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida. What are the kinds of messages you have been getting? I got a call from somebody saying that they're not going to go to church because they're afraid. Many pastors are concerned that it will impinge on our religious liberty to serve immigrant communities and mixed status communities. What does it feel like to be on the front lines of the immigration debate?

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. We set up Doge. Yes. How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget? Well, I think we can do at least $2 trillion. Yeah! Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that.

A war is underway inside the federal government. On the one side, you have Elon Musk, of course, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, tasked with eliminating trillions in government spending. On the other side, you have career civil servants standing at times quite literally in his way,

And they're paying the price. One senior Treasury official suddenly resigning on Friday after Doge members tried to get access to the Treasury Department's payment system. With that official out of the way, Elon Musk and Doge now have access to that system.

What does that system do? It handles the sensitive information of, it's your sensitive information, American taxpayers' sensitive information, and it conducts payments, cuts the government's checks for $5 trillion every year. That's Medicare payments, tax refunds, Social Security checks, all of it. And then there was another showdown taking place on Saturday night, typically not a hotbed of activity for the government.

Two top security officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development are now on leave because they attempted to block Doge officials from gaining access to restricted systems. Sources telling CNN that Doge officials went to the USAID headquarters. They were trying to access security systems and personnel files. Two of their sources also confirming to CNN Doge officials also wanted access to classified information.

The members of Doge threatened to call the U.S. Marshals, and they were eventually able to access USAID headquarters. The agency delivers billions of dollars in international humanitarian aid annually. It's been around for more than 60 years, originally created by former President John F. Kennedy. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump blasted the organization.

It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we're getting them out. USAID run by radical lunatics and we're getting them out and then we'll make a decision. And last night, overnight really, Elon Musk went a step further. He shared on X that the president has apparently agreed that the organization should be shut down.

What we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you've got an apple that's got a worm in it, maybe you can take the worm out. But if you've got actually just a ball of worms, it's hopeless. And USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you've just got to basically get rid of the whole thing. Our panel's back.

Stephen Collinson big picture here these scenes right of these government officials trying to follow the law as it is currently written um stand trying to stand in the way clearly losing these fights what are the implications I mean this treasury system it's banal but it includes the information of anyone that interacts with the federal government certainly they've got my social security number

Well, we found out last week what happens when you do a radical reform, in inverted commas, to the federal government with that freeze in spending, which caused absolute chaos. And at times like this, you see what exactly the federal government does.

Of course, there are also ethical questions because Elon Musk is the recipient of billions of dollars in contracts with the United States government. And so are his competitors. Right. So it doesn't seem that ethics are a huge priority of this administration. But what you're seeing is the stripping away, as Donald Trump promises, of vast layers at the top of all these bureaucracies because he believes

As you were saying with regard to the FBI, that the government was an impediment to his agenda in the first term. How much of this is legal? How much of it is fair enough because he won an election? I think we're going to see what the dividing line is there. The Trump White House's view is that the executive branch essentially is a business where he should be able to hire and fire whoever he wants. That is like their view. And there are obviously laws that contradict that.

that and they're going to challenge those in court and you can expect it to go all the way up to the Supreme Court to see they're going to try to expand as much of that ability to hire and fire people as possible. The only other little thing I noticed in there, a little tension between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Elon saying it's over, he's already agreed to shut it down. Trump saying, well, we're going to get the top people out and then we'll make a decision. Yeah. Matt Gorman, can you explain why Elon Musk is so focused on USAID?

Not in USAID in and of itself. Look, and I will say this, Trump in his first term fired the head of USAID, the temporary one, Bonnie Glick, at that point. And so he's had machinations around this before. When it comes to USAID, I don't exactly know. It might be more for the foreign aid question, specifically anything else to Stephen's point, right? That was...

before. Look, I think the Trump administration believes, and I think to this extent rightly, is that Congress cannot make an agency, no matter how independent it actually is, a part of the executive branch, yet exempt it from executive branch control. Now, to Alex's point, define control. Exactly, is it the top people, as Casey pointed out too, with the FBI, political appointees, top officials, or again, both Elon Musk and these people at USAID are both unelected,

But only one of them, Musk and Doge, is empowered to actually make these changes. So if you're somebody who's working at USAID or any agency, that's fine. You can disagree. You can, you know, stand athwart in the doorway here. But you don't have the right to disobey, essentially, the head of the executive branch, which I

Again, whether you like it or not, it is Donald Trump. And I think that is a question here these folks will answer, and it certainly will be a question for the courts. But I think we're missing here a bigger picture of what some of these agencies do and the impact that they have. USAID spends $2 billion on food in the United States.

They buy food from farmers. That is going to greatly impact small farms. They spend over a billion dollars in small businesses here in the United States that they then distribute. Also, they don't move money without the approval of Congress. So it's just, there's a lot of people who are impacted here and a lot of waves being, that are going to ripple out here. For what? Like, what is the purpose of doing this?

No matter how altruistic the objective is, it doesn't change the organizational fact that it is still under the executive branch control. You're absolutely right. Congress appropriates the money, but the executive branch does actually determine how to spend it. And that also includes the people, the organization, HR for lack of a better term. I

I totally hear what you're saying. I guess I just don't understand why we are trying to impact all of these Americans and all of these different people's lives. For what? What is the point here? So Elon Musk can take out someone that he doesn't like or that they can have say that they're getting rid of spending. USAID. I think it's exactly the last part. But USAID's budget is 0.7 percent. Like that is not going to solve any budget woes here. But I think that's why that's not the point. Right. Whether it's 0.7 percent or 700 percent of whatever. Right. It's the actual it's the action in and of itself.

But to Megan's point, there are going to be real human costs to this 90-day pause and spending abroad. A lot of these programs need constant funding, and you could see some humanitarian mini-crises if the money doesn't start back. Well, we haven't even touched on the national security implications around American soft power being projected in the world. We can obviously argue if they're doing it effectively, but that's kind of the point, right? I mean, that's part of why Kennedy put the USAID into existence in the first place.

All right, let's turn now to this. Over the first weeks of Donald Trump's second presidency, Democrats have been responding to his executive actions often with something along these lines. It's illegal. It's unconstitutional. It's grossly unconstitutional. What Donald Trump tried to do in the last 24 hours is illegal.

Great citizenship, freeze federal funds, fire inspectors general. Trump is testing the courts with his rapid-fire executive orders. One legal expert telling the New York Times this, quote, this seems designed to invite courts to push back. The overall message is a boundless view of executive power. They're clearly setting up test cases. And as he's looking to reshape the federal government, Trump's White House is continuing to insist on his claims of sweeping presidential power.

He is the executive of the executive branch and therefore he has the power to fire anyone within the executive branch that he wishes to. All right, joining us now, former advisor to George W. Bush and John McCain, Mark McKinnon. He is also the creator of Paramount's The Circus. Mark, good morning. Always wonderful to see you. Good morning.

We've been talking about this here all morning, whether it's the FBI, the Treasury Department, the USAID. Musk's people are in the federal government in ways that I suppose they told us they were going to do, but seeing it as quite a different matter. What do you think is going on here? And if you're a Democrat, if you think it's illegal, is there any way to stop it? Well, I...

- The blizzard is so strong, Casey, that it seems to me that we need to just mandate that President Trump take a day off a week because it's just hard to keep up with everything, all the controversies that are going on. But clearly, Trump is doing what he started doing the first term, which is to test the limits of executive authority.

And in his mind, there is no limit. He's trying to push it as far as you can absolutely go to the point where you really ask the question, what do we need Congress for? And at a certain point, Congress is going to stand up and say, well, now, wait a minute. We have a role here. And I think that's going to include Republicans as well. But, you know, there's so much criticism about Democrats having no message. At a certain point, it becomes easier for them because they're just going to say, well, we're not those guys. And the other interesting thing I think that's happening is that

It is making clear what government does, right? When we freeze funds, suddenly we have all these reports about, oh, this is happening and this is happening, and in the USAID, same thing. Americans don't really have a sense of what that money does or what it's being spent for, but in a way, this is redounding to Democrats' benefit because it's saying, well, here's where the money's going, here's what it does. And I think at a certain point, people will say, well, now, wait a minute, that's a pretty good expenditure of funds. And the interesting thing, I think, about Canada

Everybody's got to be asking the question, including and especially Canada. Wait a minute. We're supposed to be like the favorite aunt next door. What did we ever do? And there's a guy named Mark Dubowitz who's a national security expert. I think he nailed it when he said, sometimes you kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.

And this may be an example of Trump taking on, you know, a benign, a benign actor. But the point of it is not to really punish that benign actor is to send a message to everybody else around the world that here's what we can do.

I absolutely take your point, although it seems like a risky strategy to put it mildly. So one thing, Mark, this just crossed here. We're learning at CNN that USAID workers who are based at the Washington headquarters are

were told to stay home today, not come to work today, Monday, in this unexpected early morning email. And it says here, quote, at the direction of agency leadership, the USAID headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. will be closed to agency personnel on Monday, February 3rd, 2025. Agency personnel normally assigned to work at headquarters will work remotely tomorrow with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions.

individually contacted by senior leadership. Can we talk about the impact on foreign aid here? And there's something I want to ask you about that's not part of USAID, it's underneath the State Department, but it has been in the news because of this federal funding freeze on foreign aid. And that's PEPFAR, which I know President George W. Bush took incredibly great, takes incredibly great

Pride in it's a program that pays for HIV life saving medication across the world for millions of people. It saved millions of lives potentially. Can you talk a little bit about what that program has stood for for Republicans in the past and and what the overall impact of all of this is? Yeah, Casey, I mean, I remember working very closely with people like Bono to make this happen and very conservative senators.

that recognized the human tragedy in places like Africa where millions of lives are being lost. And there's no question, I think, more broadly in the historical sense, that George W. Bush's PEPFAR policy will be his most lasting impactful legacy. It saved tens or 20 millions of lives

in Africa and continues to do so. And it's really one of the most important health public policy initiatives in the world ever. And it's a great example of what I would call compassionate conservatism. And the problem is with what Trump is doing in his new administration,

of this sort of policy is he's eliminating compassion from conservatism. And that's what drew a lot of people across the bridge like me from being a former Democrat to being a Republican was this idea of embracing a compassionate notion of conservatism. You take that away, you're going to lose a lot of people. Mark,

Overall, I mean, what do you think of all of the things, this blizzard, as you described it, that have unfolded here in the first couple of weeks? What is still going to matter in two years when we head to the midterm elections? What's going to matter in four years? Well, I think what's going to matter is that, again, I think in an ironic way, what Trump has done

you know republicans for years have just been sort of a uh campaigning on this notion that we're gonna we're gonna tear down government we're gonna stop basically stop government and they've made government this big boogeyman of of of you know that's affecting american lives and is the problem well now they've caught the car and they got to do something about it and in and in trying to do something about it and give people like elon musk who by the way is flying so close to the sun i can i can smell the wax melting on his wings

to give unelected people this ability to go into the Treasury Department and find out your private information. People, I think, in a couple of years by then are going to say, well, wait a minute, this is not the mandate that we gave. And by the way, now we have a better recognition of what government does, what it means, and why we've got it. All right. Mark McKinnon, always grateful to have you on the show, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

See you soon. Thanks, Kate. All right. Still ahead here on CNN This Morning, President Trump set to launch the first tariffs in a growing trade war. How the president's new taxes on imports could ultimately hit your wallet. Plus, as Democrats elect a new DNC chair, the debate rages on about how to emerge from the political wilderness with voters.

Why is your party so staggeringly unpopular with the public? The American public looks at standard campaigns. They don't see Democrats advertising on the economy, which is their principal concern, and so they have wonders about us. Let's return to the bread and butter basics that people want to really focus on.

President Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China set to go into effect tomorrow, barring a last second change of heart. All those countries now vowing to fight back. Canada announcing retaliatory tariffs of 25% on $30 billion worth of U.S. goods. In three weeks, another $125 billion could be added. Mexico plans on announcing what they'll do in a few hours. China promising corresponding countermeasures.

Canada also going a step further by taking some U.S. products off store shelves and vowing to boycott other products. There are many ways for you to do your part. It might mean checking the labels at the supermarket and picking Canadian-made products. It might mean opting for Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon or foregoing Florida orange juice altogether.

for going florida orange juice joining us now to discuss jason firman former chairman of the council of economic advisors uh sir good morning to you thanks so much for being here um morning

Let's just start with the impact of this. I mean, we've been watching Dow futures, for example, all morning down around 500 points. Now it's 600 points. There you can see the other markets, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. As we anticipate, you know, the U.S. absorbing what we learned from the president over the weekend. What's the impact?

Yeah, so first of all, most markets are down. So Americans are losing retirement savings. And by the way, the markets are not fully pricing in these tariffs. They still think they might go away. They might go away quickly. If they last, it's going to be even more. The one market that's gone up is oil prices. They're up enough that they're going to make it cost you an extra 80 cents to fill the tank of your car. And again, that could go higher.

So what impact does this have? And what's the difference between, and maybe you can help us understand why Canada is facing 25%, whereas China, the tariff is at 10%, obviously an adversary versus an ally. I don't know.

I don't think anyone can help you with that question. I mean, it just boggles the mind. You know, you say it's fentanyl. You know, they say it's fentanyl. Forty pounds came over the border from Canada to the United States. A bunch of fentanyl went from the United States to Canada. By the way, those are tiny numbers compared to what you're seeing on the Mexican border. Canada is an incredibly close ally.

And it's not just that products are going to become more expensive. It's going to be really hard, for example, for American auto companies to keep their plants open if this trade war continues and escalates.

Jason, tariffs have been used by both Democratic and Republican administrations in recent years. I mean, President Biden did not undo some of the tariffs that Donald Trump had put into place. This is a tool that in a post-NAFTA America and the resulting, the populism that has resulted from that is not necessarily always unpopular with American consumers. Is there a role for tariffs? And if so, what do you think that is?

Yeah, so this is just at a completely different scale. President Biden added tariffs on $18 billion of stuff.

This is $1.4 trillion of stuff. So this is about 100 times more extensive than the tariffs that President Biden did. And it is true that you couldn't quite see the price increases from the Trump tariffs. The Biden ones even less because many of them weren't on consumer goods or were delayed. Here, people will see it. People are already getting notices.

from some of the businesses they deal business with, that their prices are going up because of these tariffs. You're going to see job loss if these tariffs continue. I think this is going to be the moment when people figure out that a globally integrated economy is good for them both as consumers and as workers. All right. Jason Furman, formerly of the National Council of Economic Advisors. Sir, very grateful for your time. Thanks very much for being here today. Thank you.

All right. And as President Donald Trump tests the limits of his presidential powers following that bruising election cycle, Democrats have been trying to pick and choose their battles. The New York Times reports this, quote, as Democrats face the reality of President Trump's second term, they share a fundamental belief. This moment calls for an inspirational message from their party.

They just cannot decide what exactly that should be. They disagree over how often and how stridently to oppose Mr. Trump. They have no shared understanding of why they lost the election, never mind how they can win in the future. Virginia Senator Tim Kaine offering this advice to his fellow Democrats.

I think sometimes national Democrats don't. We focus on competent government and running the economy in a great way that focuses on innovation and advancing. We have what we call a make-build-grow agenda. While the Republicans are talking about cutting taxes and cutting regulation, and most people understand that tax cutting is just for the wealthiest, on the Democratic side in Virginia, and I think we can do this nationally,

All right. Our panel's back. Megan Hayes, is that a fair assessment from the New York Times of where Democrats are right now? Yes. I think that there is a big divide still of what the messaging should be. I think you have a lot of people who want to move back to the middle and talk about the economy and talk about how to build back out the middle class from the bottom up. And then you have a lot of people who are still in the identity politics and still want to move further to the left. So I do think that the Democratic Party is going to have to

figure out where they are or they will continue to lose. Yeah, I mean, it's like an anvil hell on the entire party's head and they're very stunned and they can't decide whether or not it's a communications problem or an agenda problem. You saw like what Tim Kaine just said there. That's more of saying it's a messaging problem. Our agenda is fine. And you have people out there like Rahm Emanuel and then also even some other Democrats that are saying we have to move to the right on issues like immigration, the border, crime.

We have to meet voters where they are, and we haven't yet. And that debate isn't going to be solved in the immediate future. I don't think this is going to get solved until there is a candidate. I think an inspirational messenger is as important as an inspirational message. And that will galvanize. When that person or people emerge, that will galvanize the party to have a message to come back.

All this stuff is great, but there's no one with the authority to rest the party one way or the other and lead it behind them. A good candidate can solve a lot of ills. And messaging, when Ken Martin talked about this, the new DNC chair, it's such a cop-out, right? Like it's, you know, putting lipstick on a pig, so to speak, right? And I think it's not just about the economy. It's not just about identity issues, right? I think it's so...

oversimplifying to say we want it just solely based on prices or just solely based on this it was a question of priorities we talked at nausea about that infamous kamala ad about priorities which really blended the two it was about what the priorities were and i think again it's meeting folks where they are and not just saying it was a messaging problem was so much more than that

But there are some Democrats that don't want to overreact to the results of the election. I mean, at the end of the day, they won competitive Senate seats in places where Trump won. Kamala Harris, the margin of the electoral college was only 250,000 votes, and she had a 107-day campaign. You know, I think there are some people that don't want to overreact to what was actually a fairly close loss. But Democrats are nowhere near where the rest of the country is, and, like, we are very much aligned where the coast is, but we are not where the moderate Democrats are. We are not where the battleground states are. No.

as a member of the Democratic Party, we are just not there. And I think that we need to decide whether we're going to move there or we're just going to shake it out until the country moves to where we are. And I just don't think they're going to move to where we are. Really fascinating. Great way to end it. All right, let's leave. I'll leave you with this today. The Grammys last night in Los Angeles crowning a couple of big winners. The Grammy goes to Cowboy Carter.

Beyonce. Beyonce. Los Angeles fire officials reading the winner for album of the year. Beyonce taking home the win with Cowboy Carter. Her first win ever in this category after four previous nominations. Kendrick Lamar. Not like us. Not like us.

And another big night for Kendrick Lamar, winning Song of the Year and Record of the Year for his diss track "Not Like Us." It's just the start of a big week for the rapper. He's going to be performing at the Super Bowl in just six days. And yes, we here at CNN even got a moment in the lime green light.

Quote, "Brett, you're just that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes." End quote. Oh, God. ♪ Yeah, 360 ♪

That is, of course, CharlieXCX reacting to our very own Jake Tapper and Jamie Gangel, who explained to people like me and others out there exactly what brat meant when we were all talking about that. Popstar also took home the first of three Grammys of her career last night.

Thank you. Did you guys know what brat was before this? No, still don't. Still don't. I think you're brat. Thank you. Kendrick Lamar, Jamie Gangale. It's all the same. Wow. I don't know. Well, we'll leave it there. Jamie, we love you. Thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

I'm back with a vengeance.

After a decade of history, exes Christina Haack and Tarek El Moussa finally face off. The flip-off is a house-flipping competition. There's so much at stake. It's the ultimate design showdown like no other. This is war. Things are definitely going to get heated. If I lose to my ex-wife... Bring it on. I'm back with a vengeance. The Flip-Off, all new Wednesday night at 8 on HGTV. Stream next day on Maxx.