Trump's First 100 Days
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It's Monday, April 28th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Donald Trump's first 100 days. New polling says he's the most unpopular president at this point in his term seen in seven decades. So why is he saying he runs the world in a new interview released just moments ago? Plus, children aren't deported. The mother chose to take the children with her.

Did the Trump administration deport children who are citizens born in the US? We'll hear again from the man in charge in a matter of hours. And a deadly hit and run on the water, a boat slams into a ferry filled with people and then flees the scene. Also this. Is everyone in college right now like passing with flying colors because of AI?

AI companies are betting big on college students, but how long will the era of free help with your homework last? It's 6:00 AM here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House as the president prepares to mark his first 100 days in office. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And we're going to talk about the president because he's basically getting ready to take a kind of victory lap this week as he marks 100 days in office for his second term.

He's holding a rally in Michigan tomorrow to celebrate with his supporters on what his team is calling promises made and promises kept. New CNN polling seems to have a slightly different takeaway from the last 99 days. According to a new poll, the President Trump's approval ratings now sit at 41%. That's the lowest number for any president at this point in their term, and that's going back 70 years.

leading the charge for the sagging poll numbers, the president's handling of the economy. Both his approval ratings on tariffs and the economy are down since March, now dipping into the 30s, lower than at any point in his first term. But his cabinet remains confident in the president.

There are 100 different polls that say 100 different things. At the end of the day, President Trump is resolutely focused on ensuring that we are realigning the American economy to put Americans first.

joining me now the group chat sarah fisher cnn media analyst and media correspondent and for axios stephen collinson cnn senior politics reporter and alex thompson cnn political analyst and national political correspondent at axios thank you guys for coming in looking uh bright eyed bushy tailed on a monday morning um stephen i want to start with you because you've commented that this is the most fundamental shift

of the American economy in decades. And I want to know if that is also the reason why these numbers are the way they are, as people are living through that shift. Yeah, certainly the tariff economy trying to rebuild American manufacturing is what the president says he's trying to do.

is going to be exceedingly painful if he follows it through to the logical extent of what he's planning. Which is? Which is keeping tariffs high, trying to eradicate China's advantage in manufacturing, for example.

The issue here, I think, though, is that in political terms, although we've seen the start of this and the president's approval ratings have already plummeted and the economy was a key area of strength for him in his first term, we haven't yet seen the actual impact on everybody's lives of tariffs. What's likely to happen is prices are to go up

there could be shortages on the shelves of supermarkets. I actually think more importantly those things that you're saying are now common parlance to everyday people. Like people who I used to start my stories like tariffs, so boring, but here we go. And now we play clips all the time of people saying tariffs are a tax. Yep. And when we talk to companies in the public sector, publicly traded firms, this is the big earnings week. So we are hearing from different corporate stakeholders saying, look,

We are giving you really, really bad forecasts for the next few quarters. You might not feel it right now, shareholders. Our businesses might not feel it right now, but we know it's coming. And when that message gets put out time and time again by corporations, many of which are sucking up to Trump, I'm talking about big tech firms,

That's a message of the American people are gonna start to pay attention to because they're buying stocks They want to have faith in the economy, but when um, you know purportedly unbiased corporate leaders are saying that this is coming. They're listening It's interesting. Oh, go ahead There's the other problem which I mean you're seeing the front page story just this morning Which is basically that companies basically because Trump is so unpredictable. They are holding back on their own investments Yeah, they're gonna say that on these calls. Yeah

- Okay, my time has turned the paper. Tariff amount, so do questions. And these are the two big questions. Can tariff revenue replace the income tax, which is what Congress is dealing with next? And is the economy headed for recession? Which is not what some of these key demographics who voted for Trump the first time around

are interested in hearing, right? That's where you're starting to see him lower in the margins in our polling when you're talking about women, Hispanic voters, and as we said, sort of where they were, which ahead of the midterms is not ideal.

Polling did find he was above water approval on one issue, which is gender identity. A lot of these executive orders, specifically there's one that says the government says this is a man, this is a woman, and it's reverberated since then.

Does that mean we're going to keep hearing about this topic? I think so. Huge platform for Donald Trump when he was running. I cover sports as it pertains to media. This is a huge issue in women's sports right now, and it's an issue that the White House has made a priority. I've never seen in my time covering media and sports.

that the White House puts out on their main Instagram, an entire video reel dedicated to gender identity. But the reason they're doing that is because it's a community issue. Almost everybody in every community is rooting for their high school team, has kids who are in sports. They know this is a winning issue for them. - 'Cause it's been framed as safety for girls. - Absolutely, that's the whole framing.

of this D.E.I. issue. The past was discrimination against trans youth. And it also is an issue that Democrats find very difficult to talk about because it splits their coalition internally. So the White House is always going to use that as a political leader. You are seeing very few Democrats actually go out and say,

and support having transgender women compete in women's sports. Instead, they keep retreating and saying, well, it's a local issue, it's a state issue, it's a case by case issue. You don't have any vocal defenders in the way that you had even just four years ago. - And just big zoom out,

That is a very calculated move. We're not talking anymore about DEI. Or talking anymore about abuse or violence against trans women. Nope. We are talking very specifically about transgender issues because they know that that is the winning issue with the base. And they're talking very specifically about things like sports that are relatable to American people. And in between is immigration. And I want to know...

where his immigration approval is still high. And I think in the news, we've talked so much about these high profile deportation flights, the concern, of course, that people are being sent without due process or who are innocent, so to speak. Does this start to have an impact or are we seeing that like

He's justified in thinking he should move forward on this issue as aggressively as possible. I think he has support on that issue and since the first time the country has moved right on the issue of immigration. Yet you see these cases whereby there was a child, an American citizen deported who's battling cancer because they went with their mother.

all of these issues are going to start to play with public opinion. The question is, does there come a point where the support for Trump fractures if you get a lot of these stories coming out? Yeah. OK, stay with us. We're actually going to talk about these issues more today. Coming up on CNN this morning, have you heard of the Grandpa Gang? They're accused of stealing $10 million worth of jewelry from Kim Kardashian. And today, nine years after that infamous robbery in Paris, the suspects will face a judge.

Plus, intense flooding over the weekend and now another severe weather outbreak. Find out if you need to be on high alert today for tornadoes. Lastly, a ferry carrying dozens of people hit by another boat. The crash turning deadly overnight. You never expect any of this to happen. We can understand how fast they were going, like how that is even logically possible.

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.

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The Pit is a show that follows medical professionals. We have a lot of medical personnel on the show. John Wells. He's one of the show's executive producers. He is a veteran TV producer. John, this is the best medical show I've ever seen. We put a lot of care into trying to really show what that experience is. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, if you're getting ready, it's 15 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going. So President Trump now says that the U.S. has the, quote, confines of a deal that would end Russia's war on Ukraine. This follows his impromptu meeting at the Pope's funeral with Ukraine's president. I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture. And I think he wants to make a deal. Is Valencia ready to give up Crimea, do you think, Mr. President? Oh, I think so, yeah.

Now, Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the possibility that he would recognize Russian control of Crimea. In Yemen, Houthis claim that at least 68 people were killed in an alleged U.S. airstrike on a prison holding migrants from Africa. So the rebel group's news channel released this graphic footage we have blurted here at CNN. The U.S. military has not yet commented.

The Midwest bracing for two rounds of severe weather today. This morning, strong thunderstorms and hail targeting Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. And then later today, another round of storms could produce tornadoes in the same region.

And a prank call to University of Colorado quarterback Shadoura Sanders during the NFL draft, well, it turns out it was made by the 21-year-old son of an Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator. Now, he apologized. So did the Falcons. Basically, he had pretended to be the GM of the New Orleans Saints and falsely told Sanders the team would be selected him. No worries. Sanders was eventually picked by the Cleveland Browns. And you got to see this. Oh! Oh!

So that dramatic video showing the moment a speedboat flips through the air several times. This was during a boating competition in Arizona. The goal was to break a speed record during a three-mile course, and it was going more than 210 miles per hour before going airborne. The two people on the boat went to the hospital.

And after the break on CNN this morning, a major escalation in the showdown between the president and the courts. Why the FBI arrested a judge in Wisconsin and what it could mean for future challenges to mass deportation efforts. Plus, every day, millions of young Americans use AI chatbots to help them with everything from homework to diet plans to relationship advice. Ahead, why free AI might have a hidden price tag.

Good morning, Chicago. Want you to know that you are at risk for possible severe storms today. Bring an umbrella. Stay safe. Everyone in college uses AI. This is just a fact at this point. You should be using AI to make your studying more efficient and making it easier to understand stuff.

All right, let me go off script for my next segment because I've been hearing a lot about how expensive things are. And then I'm hearing about college kids using AI. And I was thinking about what it's like to be a young adult in this economy because there was a time when people were enjoying what economists called a lifestyle subsidy from Silicon Valley. So that's when all these new upstart companies-- let's say it's Uber or Airbnb, DoorDash--

they were also cheap convenient easy exciting to use and then like one day they weren't so cheap and of course by then we were hooked and our wallets took the hit so now the same thing could be happening with ai at least according to a recent article in the atlantic

AI companies are targeting college students because these are the early adopters that will one day become customers who pay full price. Joining me now to discuss the author of that piece and assistant editor for The Atlantic, Lila Shroff. Welcome to the studio. Welcome to CNN This Morning. Thank you. All right. So I can remember when credit card companies would like come to campus during my freshman orientation. But AI is like online. So how are they showing up to campus, so to speak?

So you have companies like Anthropic that have actually started campus ambassador programs where students are helping get the word out about AI deals on campus. Is it like when we see a TikTok, should I be suspicious that someone is a influencer or ambassador for one of these companies? I think in these cases, students are showing up in person and going to their classes and saying, hey, AI companies are offering students a deal. You should take it.

It's funny, I actually pay for one of the AIs. It was a couple hundred a year. But getting it free sounds ideal. You were writing that these deals didn't last forever, talking about basically those cool apps that we all took advantage of, right? Uber, DoorDash, Airbnb. You write that they didn't last forever and neither can free AI. The millennial lifestyle subsidy eventually came crashing down as the cheap money dried up.

Help me understand the economics of this because AI is way more expensive than some dopey startup for something that brings it to your house. You know what I mean? Like it's not the same value proposition even for investors and for Wall Street. So how does the industry, why does the industry think this is a viable way?

Totally. You know, the cost of starting an AI company is much more than starting up Uber, for example. Like we're talking trillions versus millions. I don't know if we've quite hit trillions yet, but huge amounts of money. And so there is this imagined world in which AI cures all of the diseases and it's just transformative and miraculous.

And, you know, maybe if AI continues to improve the way it has been, we eventually get there. And some investors may be betting on that. But, you know, these companies need a backup plan if AI doesn't deliver the earth shattering technology that they're hoping for. And so they need other ways to make money. And so you actually start to see these companies start to look a little bit more like big tech companies. Already open AI is getting into search. They're starting to think about

social media, it's a very interesting moment. Will, is there a chance though, I mean young people are so much more savvy, so much more wary of tech, they've lived through the years where there's been a backlash to tech, do you think that they're going to be smarter than us? And do you think that this will just end up being search, like browsers are still free, right? Will there still be a tier of this that isn't going to kind of be a bait and switch money wise?

I think there's always going to be a free tier, but you know there's that saying, if you're not paying, you're the product.

And right now, when you search for free using AI, there's not a lot of advertising happening. At the same time, all these companies are building up pretty vast stores of data on their users. And it's tricky for me to imagine a future where eventually they don't start to want to monetize that information. - All right, Lila Shroff, thank you so much. This is fascinating, I appreciate your time. I want you guys to check out her article in The Atlantic.

Now, still to come on CNN This Morning, it's election day in Canada. Polls are about to open. President Trump may not be on the ballot, but his tariffs and the threat of annexation are having a dramatic impact on voters. Plus, it's been two years since Tyree Nichols died after being beaten by police in Memphis. Today, three former officers will face state murder charges.

The Last of Us, the HBO original series based on the critically acclaimed video game, is coming back. I'm Troy Baker. I played the character Joel in the video game. And I'm also the host of HBO's official The Last of Us podcast. Each week, I'll be joined by showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, where

We'll unpack every new episode right after it airs, bringing you deeper into the show. You can stream The Last of Us Season 2 starting April 13th on Max. New episodes of the podcast launch that night, so make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. We're going to make a lot of money and we're going to cut taxes for the people of this country. It'll take a little while before we do that.

President Trump is asking the American people to trust him, arguing that his tariffs and trade war will pay off. But a new CNN poll shows that voters' patience is wearing thin. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. If it's half past the hour, here's what's happening right now.

President Trump says that a third term is, quote, not something that I'm looking into. Those comments coming in a new interview with The Atlantic that was released just this hour. In a few minutes, I'll be joined by one of the reporters who did that interview. Today, opening statements will begin in the trial of three former Memphis police officers accused in the beating death of Tyree Nichols.

It happened during a traffic stop in 2023 and led to national protests. They're charged with second-degree murder. They've already been found guilty of witness tampering in a federal trial. In just hours, border czar Tom Homan will hold a special news briefing on the Trump administration's immigration policies. Expect to see him questioned about the three children who are U.S. citizens who were recently deported to Honduras with their mothers.

If you choose to put your family in that position, that's on them. But having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. It doesn't make you immune from our laws. A colleague of a Wisconsin judge who was arrested says what happened to Judge Hannah Duggan was an attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate the judiciary. The FBI arrested her Friday, accusing her of trying to help an undocumented immigrant avoid ICE agents. She is charged with obstruction.

I think they're trying to send a message to chill the judiciary, to punish someone with an uneven hand, to be handcuffed and to be brought into this situation. It's just appalling. President Trump doesn't see it that way. We have to be proud of our country. We can't let these people stay, and the courts are allowing them to stay. And we're just not going to allow it.

Okay, group chat is back to talk about this. And Alex, what were you hearing from the White House about how they want to talk about this particular case? Because there has been this question about how the president deals with the judiciary and what they can do about it and her taking this action of reportedly having

their defendant exit through a non-public door is seen, I think, pretty aggressively. But they are completely unapologetic. And in fact, they would actually prefer to talk about this as a political matter now. And also even as a legal matter, the fact is that they are

intentionally defying or pushing the bounds of the checks and balances with the judiciary. But they, there is sort of, and you see this in this Atlantic, New Atlantic interview, there is sort of this feeling of invincibility that they feel, and they're going to push and push and push

and eventually there's just going to be multiple showdowns with the Supreme Court. So this judge, Hannah Duggan, she's at the Milwaukee County Circuit, and basically courthouses, but also schools, hospitals, there are a number of places where ICE agents have been told

it's okay, whatever courtesies you were extending, you're not doing that. And this is the gray area in this conversation with this particular judge. But Stephen, you've talked a lot about this pushing of boundaries. Were some things always just courtesies? They weren't rules? You know, he's not like destroying all of democracy by coming up against those lines. - I think that's true to some extent. I think what's very interesting about Trump

is that, and if you look at him in comparison to recent presidents, they all understood the breadth of presidential power that they could use, but they made a decision not to push to those boundaries because they believed that was-- - It might be politically damaging. - Yeah, or they also thought they could open themselves up to impeachment, right? Especially in the last few Democratic presidents. Trump has basically walked across all of those rules, and I think what's gonna be really interesting to see is with future

Presidents is if they use that latitude that has been created You know the tools of the imperial presidency or if Congress finally at some unspecified date in the future decides it won some of its power back Yeah

I look at right now, most second term presidents, you're not thinking about a reelection, right? So this is the time when you're not trying to win the base. But this story is a winning issue for the base. It's like MAGA catnip. And so I look at him pushing the bounds. And my biggest question is why? Because he came out with his 2020 hat, 2028 hat. His press secretary, Carolyn Leavitt, told Axios, that's just a hat. It's not a real thing. But if it's not a real thing, why push the limits to this extent?

Is it, for what political purpose is it? All right, we're going to hear more actually from the Atlantic reporter who was on this case. Now, Donald Trump's name, of course, is not on today's ballot in Canada. But I want to talk about it because his threats of annexation and tariffs are actually overshadowing the election there. You put your vote where it counts a little more in this situation. Is that just because of Donald Trump? Yeah. Yeah.

Unfortunately. Yeah. The biggest thing in Canada is we have friends all over the world. How many friends does Americans have right now?

Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney vying to continue leading the country, his conservative rival lagging in the polls. Joining us now, Toronto Mike, host of the Toronto Mike podcast. Toronto Mike, welcome back. And I remember the last time we talked, you described this shift in real time, that you were hearing people move from what is a very strong conservative movement in Canada to where we are now. This is Prime Minister Carney speaking.

talking about Trump, making him an issue. Take a listen. The president's ideas and his head, his designs wants to break us so he can own us. The question is who's going to stand up to that? I'm ready to do it. Is that now the referendum that people are voting on?

Without a doubt. Good morning again, Adi, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It's tough to focus on the typical federal issues, you know, immigration, taxation. It's tough to focus on that when your sovereignty as a fiercely independent nation is at risk, at stake. So I think most Canadians who have voted and many have,

but many will vote today, are voting on that singular issue. Who do you want at the helm to take on your president and his threats to make us a 51st state and these tariffs? The Secretary of State for the U.S., Marco Rubio, actually has defended Trump's call to annex Canada. So to your point, I want to play this for folks.

What the president has said, and he has said this repeatedly, is he was told by the previous prime minister that Canada could not survive without unfair trade with the United States. At which point he asked, well, if you can't survive as a nation without treating us unfairly in trade, then you should become a state. Can you talk about that in particular? Has there been has the spurred conversation within Canada about, hey, can we stand up on our own? What what are we capable of?

Yeah, without a doubt. I've heard your president make those remarks, and then I heard your secretary of state echo those sentiments. Part of the problem here is that this

This subsidy keeps getting referenced as if the United States is subsidizing our country, Canada, to the tune of like $200 billion. But that is not actually a subsidy. It is a trade deficit. And it's closer to $63 billion. But this trade deficit is in place simply because, as you know, we have 10% of populace as the United States of America. So the economics are...

faulty and as a result canadians are wondering if it isn't wise to have a world-class economist at the helm at this time to take on trump as our sovereignty is threatened right even though in the past it was a liability right that he hadn't been in government so this is a remarkable shift in fortunes for him toronto mike host of the toronto mic podcast thank you so much appreciate your time thank you

All right, now we're going to catch up on a case from way back. Kim Kardashian will finally see the people accused of robbing her at gunpoint. They're going to stand trial. It's been nearly a decade since that night in Paris, and a group of suspects nicknamed the Grandpa Gang are now going to court. So they're accused of getting away with millions of dollars of jewelry, including Kardashian's $4 million engagement ring from her now ex-husband Kanye West.

He tied me up with handcuffs and then zip ties and then duct tape. And then duct tape my mouth and my eyes. And before he had my eyes, he had, I saw, I mean before he duct taped my eyes, because that was the last thing, he, I saw he found my whole jewelry box and like held it up like, aha!

So today that trial gets underway. We're going to go to CNN senior international correspondent Melissa Bell, who is in Paris. Melissa, it's been a decade since that night that a Kardashian, I mean, very vividly at the time kind of described in public. Why is this trial just happening now?

Well, look, there have been already so many high-profile trials here in Paris these last few years, not least for the terror attacks of the last few years. It has taken a long time to bring these nine men and one woman who will be facing the beginning of this trial later today here at this Paris courtroom to trial, although they were

caught relatively quickly after the theft itself. You'll remember just how high profile it was. An extraordinary series of events. Kim Kardashian had been here with her sister for Paris Fashion Week in 2016. They'd been staying at this very exclusive address. In fact, the hotel itself is called No Address. There's no distinctive signs on it. There were a lot of security arrangements.

But this fairly brazen attack took place. They went in, this gang of armed robbers dressed as policemen, overpowered the concierge of the hotel, found their way to her bedroom. And you could hear in her voice, her emotion of the ordeal that she went through. And yet so much of the coverage and the focus in the days just afterwards were about this trail that she left on social media. Extraordinarily, one of the men who's going to be facing trial has even written a book

about how he kidnapped Kim Kardashian. There was such a backlash against her for the way the engagement ring had been flaunted on social media. But I think now that we've heard from her herself and what she went through and how terrifying it must have been, she thought she was going to be raped and then she thought she was going to be killed.

I think there's been a lot more sympathy towards her. But you're quite right. This has taken a long time to bring these nine men, this one woman, to justice. There are another couple of people who are accused. One has since died. The others will be tried separately because of his ill health. But there's going to be a lot of attention paid to this month's trial. It's expected last month. She herself will be here on May 13th. So you're going to spend a lot of attention for that. She said that she expects and hopes it will happen in an orderly fashion, according to

to French justice, and we should get the verdict, Odi, by May 23rd. We'll find out exactly what happens to these men and women, many of them face up to 30 years in jail.

I've seen your international correspondent, Melissa Bell, on that case. Appreciate you. Next on CNN this morning, they're ready to scream yee-haw. Beyonce's cowboy garter tour kicks off tonight. Some tickets are cheaper than a meal at McDonald's somehow. We're going to figure that out. And who runs the world? Well, if you ask President Trump, it's him. His new interview just published moments ago about his first 100 days back in office. We'll have more from the group chat after this.

President Trump says during his second term he runs the country and the world. That is from his latest interview out just minutes ago marking his 100 days in office. He sat down with a team from the Atlantic in the Oval Office for their cover story. Part of that team was editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. You might remember him as the guy mistakenly added to a group chat about military plans in Yemen. He was invited on purpose for this interview.

When the Signal group chat came up, Trump told The Atlantic reporters that he said to his staff, quote, maybe don't use Signal, okay? Joining me now to talk about this is Michael Scherer, staff writer at The Atlantic, one of the journalists behind this latest interview. Michael, thanks for being here with us this morning. What was the vibe? Thanks for having me on. Trump was very annoyed with the Signal chat story. So let's get that out of the way. How was it behind closed doors?

Well, this story was a long journey. We've been reporting it for a couple months. We interviewed him in March by phone after he publicly denounced me and my reporting colleague Ashley Parker as being lunatic leftists and liars. But then when we called him, he took our call. We had a perfectly fine, gracious interview. Obviously, after that, the Signalgate thing happened. He attacked the Atlantic ruthlessly, attacked my boss, Jeffrey Goldberg, ruthlessly.

By the end, though, and this is just last week, he was in a far more conciliatory mood. You know, the tone of that exchange was very respectful. He

was, you know, acknowledged the success of the Signalgate story, wasn't doing what he did in the days afterwards, which was to deny anything improper had happened. You know, he mentioned to us, for instance, that Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, was getting his act together and he'd had a talk with him. He admitted that the national security advisor had gone through a difficult time as well.

What this article does in a lot of ways is give us a sense of his thinking when he was in quote unquote political exile after he lost. And he describes his first term, he's like, look, the first time I had two things to do, run the country and survive. And he said, I had all these crooked guys. This time around, he's really feeling like he is in charge. Can you talk about how that thinking is infusing his approach?

Yeah, I mean, if you remember back during the campaign, Democrats would argue that there would be no boundaries on a second Trump term. It would be very different than the first. And it turns out they may have even been understating it. You know, Trump overcame something that really no president, no leader has overcome before. If you go back to the days after January 6th, where you have multiple Republicans voting to convict him in the Senate,

You have, you know, most of the party, corporate America cutting him off, social networks cutting him off. He was able to come back to power. And I think that experience, which is really what we tried to explore in this story, informs the boldness with which he is governing now. He really doesn't see...

many boundaries to going after people he perceived to be his enemies, even if he's doing things to them that he objected when government did to his allies before. He feels fine doing it now. I mean, his economic policies obviously are very disruptive and, you know, of questionable effectiveness. And that comment about running the world, I mean, he truly does believe that

He has enormous leverage at this point, not only within the country, over the country, over the other parts of government, but over a number of conflicts elsewhere in the world. I mean, at times during that interview last week, he was talking to us about intervening in a negotiation over a dam being built in Ethiopia and continued disputes in Serbia. He's a dealmaker,

all the way through. I think the difference is in the first weeks and months of his first term, he felt a little bit underwater. He didn't have the people in place. He didn't really understand the town. He didn't understand how the government works.

He feels like he has a much better understanding now. He's also surrounded by people who possibly understand him better. You were writing about the fact that some of his White House advisers have learned to their approaches, follow ideas when he says something twice. Can you give us examples or give a sense of what this means? He sounds way more in charge and everyone says the people around him acquiesce a little more. But like, how is it playing out?

Yeah, I think that's one way of describing it. I think I would say, you know, the people around him don't feel like they have to manage him or prevent him from doing what he wants to do. They advise him. They sometimes tell him, you know, there's downsides to this, and they try and discourage him from doing things. But it's really different from the first term, where you had a number of chiefs of staff who either were outwardly refusing or quietly refusing to carry out orders,

or maneuvering behind the scenes to get him to change his mind. That's not the mood right now. Now that line about "if he says something twice, we know to do it" really comes out of the fact that he says a lot of things. He has a lot of ideas, he throws things around a lot. That came up when they were discussing what to do with the Kennedy Center during the transition.

He had the idea after reading a story that he wanted to be chairman of the Kennedy Center. He didn't get to go to the premier performing arts institution in America the first term because he was shunned by artists. And he decided he wanted to do it all himself this time. And they figured out how to make that happen.

Well, Michael, thanks so much for talking with us. There's a lot of great stuff in this story, including around that question about whether or not he wants to run for a third term. You can check out that article, this interview in The Atlantic, which is out now. It's 52 minutes past the hour. Here's a morning roundup. Some of the things you need to know as you get out the door. A boat collided with a ferry that had dozens of people on board in Florida. One person was killed. Multiple others were injured overnight.

All of a sudden we hear the first mate yelling, "Hey, hey, hey!" And then we look back behind us and this big yacht just came through the boat.

Clearwater police say the boat that caused the collision left the scene but was identified and may have already been located. A man in Canada has been charged with murder after he allegedly rammed his car into a crowd in Vancouver that happened over the weekend. At least 11 people were killed, the youngest just five years old. It happened at a street festival celebrating Filipino heritage Saturday night.

Police say more charges are pending. And today, Harvard will have its first day in court as it challenges the Trump administration's attempt to withhold billions in federal funding. Earlier this month, the White House sent Harvard a lengthy list of demands the university refused, characterizing the letter as an attack on free speech. And there's this. ♪ These allergies driving away while I watch them ride with my fears away ♪

Okay, grab your cowboy hat and boots. Tonight is the opening night of Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour. It's going to launch out of Los Angeles. She's heading across the U.S. and Europe. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, don't worry. Some fans online have noticed very low resale prices, some under $25.

And over the weekend, it was nerd prom here in Washington, D.C., also known as the White House Correspondents' Dinner. There was no comedian, and following the tradition of his first term, no President Trump either. But there were plenty of speeches, including one from the man right here at this table, Alex Thompson, who is accepting an award for excellence in coverage. And he delivered this message to the D.C. press. President Biden's decline and its cover-up by the people around him

is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception. But being truth-tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.

Group chat is back. And Alex, since you're here, what have you heard from people? Because there was backlash when the story came out, right? Like, well, why didn't the media say more? Is this true? What was it like? Well, I was terrified.

Really? You looked very comfortable up there. Look can be deceiving. But, you know, I felt like I was winning an award, even though I was aggressive on covering Biden and his age. I thought I was winning an award for what ultimately, you know, I felt something that we fell short on.

And everybody who got up that night without the comedy, which I think has propelled this event into the public consciousness, the speeches themselves became the commentary along with a montage of things the president has said. Sarah, you've been to a lot of these. You gave me an excellent pro tip of hiding a scooter in the bushes to get from place to place. But what did you think of this? It felt to me like a chapter closing on this event in the

public's mainstream consciousness. It does feel that way. So this relationship between the White House Correspondents Association and the White House has been strong for decades. And it's really this second Trump administration where it now starts to feel on the brink.

If we continue to have dinners with no comedian because the White House, you know, this year put a lot of pressure on the group not to have one, the dinner was shorter, and it continues to have this somber tone, it calls into question what the future of the dinner is, what really even is the point. I will say, as somebody who's been to a lot of these, I really liked this year's dinner, and so I hope that that's not the case. I like that it was shorter. I like the fact that it really highlighted award-winning journalism and students.

And even though this relationship is really contentious, it definitely brought a sense of uniformity amongst the press corps during a really contentious time. You know, here's my frustration with it. One, the criticisms that the association hasn't been strong enough in speaking against

the White House when it's felt pressure. Two, you know, when Colbert roasted Bush to the ground, when people were like speaking, roasting the President, Obama, whoever, that was a moment where collectively the President had to come out of his bubble

and hear what people really thought because the laughter is the thing that shows, oh, we all get this as a joke, right? That's why Saturday Night Live works. That's why people watch it. The joke and the kinds of jokes tell you the real deal about how people are thinking about this.

it feels like that is a loss. I don't care about the dinner, but the moment for the culture feels like a loss. That's true. Sometimes it's good to see that a president can laugh at themselves. They don't generally, they're not used to people getting their face and telling them stuff that they don't want to hear. I think the converse of that is that the White House would argue that

the people whose voices they really want to hear are not a bunch of journalists in Washington who are in the White House, in the Beltway bubble. They're the people outside who often, I think, have looked at these occasions with some disdain. - You also have, sorry, you can't forget that Trump has a very particular relationship with this dinner because Obama roasted him in 2011 at that dinner and it is something that he has feelings and in some ways rage about.

And also has his own reach in comedy land, right? This just in, I want to follow up with something, you guys. The Vatican is actually announcing that the conclave to elect the next pope will begin on May 7th. That's next Wednesday. The last two conclaves lasted two days, so we may know Pope Francis' successor by next week, which is going to be my keep an eye on it.

I think, because we've all been wondering about that. Sarah, can I start with you? What else are you looking ahead to? Yep. So I mentioned this earlier. We have a big corporate earnings week, the first corporate earnings since Donald Trump was reelected. And I'm in particular looking at Apple because they are so heavily impacted by some of these tariffs and trade war with China.

To date, most companies have said that they haven't been feeling the effects yet. But what we keep hearing and what we're going to expect to keep hearing, weaker forecasts and slower hiring. Yeah, and honestly, what they tell the money is what I believe. It's one thing what they say in public. It's another thing what they say on those calls. Stephen. Canadian election today, Pierre Poliev, the conservative leader,

who was 20 points ahead in the polls because of the Trump intervention. Now he's locked in a very tight race. And because of his alignment with Trump, right? His positioning. Yeah, he was a little too Trumpian populist. This is a guy that was marked out as a future prime minister ever since he was in college.

If he loses today, it's going to be very interesting to see how he works. This tries to stay in the spotlight. Yeah, and the movement in general. Alex, last word to you. Yeah, I'm fascinated by this dynamic between Trump and Vladimir Putin. You know, Trump has long believed that he was capable of trying to, you know, reestablish, reset the relationship with Putin, that he was able to actually get along with him in a real way. That relationship has broken down the last few days over the weekend. And, you know...

It's unclear if they can get it back on track for these peace talks. Yeah, all of a sudden Putin is raining missiles down, and you saw that image of Zelensky and Trump knee to knee. So thank you for that one. Thanks all of you for the group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish, and CNN News Central starts right now.

This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. This week is the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And needless to say, with the decision to cancel the traditional comedy roast from the program, the vibes are off. What is even funny anymore when it comes to politics? Who gets to decide which comedians are the truth-tellers of the moment? And who's laughing now?

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.