'This Week' Transcript 4-6-25: White House NEC Director Kevin Hassett, Sen. Cory Booker & Larry Summers

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, April 6, 2025 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: THIS WEEK with George Stephanopoulos starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC "THIS WEEK" ANCHOR: Meltdown.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Foreign nations will finally be asked to pay for the privilege of access to our market.

STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump’s tariffs upend global trade, shatter alliances, as markets suffer their worst days since the pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Higher tariffs are likely to raise inflation in coming quarters.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The gamble to revive American manufacturing sparks backlash at home and abroad.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): They’re a terrible idea economically.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It’s a time to – to fight those tariffs. It’s a time to protect our workers.

STEPHANOPOULOS: We'll speak with top White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

Historic protest.

SEN. CORY BOOKER, (D) NEW JERSEY: I yield the floor.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Cory Booker’s marathon 25-hour speech against President Trump breaks Senate records.

BOOKER: My efforts today are inadequate to stop what they’re trying to do. But we, the people, are powerful.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Protesters take to the streets. Will a new wave of resistance rise? Our Sunday morning exclusive with Cory Booker.

And retribution.

TRUMP: We're going to let go of people. People that may have loyalties to somebody else.

STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump purges more top national security officials and targets law firms and universities. Jonathan Karl reports on the fallout. Plus analysis from Chris Christie, Donna Brazile and Reince Priebus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News it's THIS WEEK. Here now, George Stephanopoulos.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to THIS WEEK.

President Trump has been pushing for tariffs since the 1980s. And this Wednesday what he called liberation day, arrived. His announcement sent shockwaves through global markets, sparked backlash from global leaders, and economists here at home sounded alarms about higher prices for consumers, higher risk for recession across the whole economy.

Trump's message Saturday, hang tough, the gain will be worth the pain. We’re going to speak with his top economic adviser about that.

Senior political correspondent Rachel Scott starts us off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL SCOTT, ABC NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was an announcement that up-ended the global trade order, a sweeping set of new tariffs that would send the market spiraling, prices soaring, economists warning of a recession. But as shock waves rippled across the world, the president was out of sight, spending the weekend away from the cameras on the golf course. His message for Americans, “This is an economic revolution,” saying, “Hang tough, it won't be easy.”

As he left town for Florida, he insisted things were going, quote, “very well.”

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. And the rest of the world wants to see, is there any way they can make a deal.

SCOTT (voice over): But the financial markets suffered its worst week since the pandemic. The S&P losing more than $5 trillion in value in just two days. JP Morgan, now predicting a recession, is more likely than not.

The president declaring a national emergency to justify imposing a 10 percent tariff on nearly all foreign imports, a 25 percent tariff on all foreign cars, and even steeper tariffs on roughly 60 countries, including a 34 percent tariff on imports from China, a 25 percent tariff on products from South Korea, and a 20 percent tariff on goods from the European Union.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're going to touch everything from going to the grocery store, to going out to restaurants, because everywhere you go there's some aspect that they’d have to import to do that.

SCOTT (voice over): Across the country, business owners say they'll be forced to raise their prices. Patrick Kummrow owns an auto repair shop in Glendale, Wisconsin.

SCOTT: Will you have to raise prices for your customers?

PATRICK KUMMROW, AUTO REPAIR SHOP OWNER: Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely.

SCOTT: By how much?

KUMMROW: I guess the minimum is going to be 25 percent on all parts.

SCOTT (voice over): And around the world, our closest trading partners, retaliated. Canada putting a 25 percent tariff on American-made cars and trucks.

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We take these measures reluctantly. And we take them in ways that it's intended and will cause maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact here in Canada.

SCOTT (voice over): China not only imposing a 34 percent retaliatory tariff on all American goods, but sources tell us they also shelved a deal to turn over TikTok’s U.S. operations to a new company mostly owned by American investors. Sources say TikTok's parent company telling the White House the Chinese government said no deal can go through until they negotiate on these tariffs. But it's unclear if the White House is interested in a compromise.

PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP SENIOR COUNSELOR FOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING: This is not a negotiation. It's a national emergency.

SCOTT (voice over): The Yale Budget Lab estimating the global trade war will increase costs for the average American household between $3,400 and $4,200 a year. On Capitol Hill, some Republicans, uneasy. Senator Ted Cruz warning this could hurt Americans.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): If we're in a scenario 30 days from now, 60 days from now, 90 days from now with massive American tariffs and massive tariffs on American goods in every other country on earth, that is a terrible outcome.

SCOTT (voice over): But the president is holding firm, insisting this is a great time to invest in America, saying, quote, “my policies will never change.”

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT on camera: George, President Trump is betting that this drives up manufacturing here in the United States. But even the president has acknowledged, that could take years. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's traveling to Washington to meet with President Trump at the White House tomorrow to discuss that 17 percent tariff the U.S. has now imposed on his country.

George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Rachel, thanks.

Let's get the global reaction right now. Britt Clennett is in Hong Kong.

And as we just heard from Rachel, Britt, China promising to hit back hard.

BRITT CLENNETT, ABC NEWS FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, George, and here in Asia, stocks fell sharply across the board this week. A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry quipping on Facebook that the market has spoken. And global markets are even more anxious now that China has hit back with a 34 percent tariff on all American goods, a move designed to sting more than earlier moves which were more targeted.

This now escalates tensions between the world’s two big economies even more. And speaking to people in China, they mostly shrug off the idea that tariffs on American goods would impact their daily lives, telling me they don't really use American products. That most of the things they own from their phones, to their clothes, are actually made in China, whereas American retail stores, like Walmart and e-commerce platforms like Amazon are flooded with Chinese-made goods.

We were at the world's largest wholesale market. That’s in eastern China. And it's where much of the stuff Americans buy online is made. Everything from flower pots, water bottles, soft (ph) toys, you name it. The vendors there say they won't actually be eating the costs of the extra tariffs, that it would ultimately be passed on to the American consumer.

China, meanwhile, has been preparing for this for months. It's very much focusing now on diversifying to other markets. So, while the U.S. is inflicting economic pain on its allies, like Japan and South Korea, with high tariffs, China is using this moment to woo them, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And so many American companies produce goods in Asia. Tim Cook of Apple says that's where the workers have the skills they need. It's not going to be easy to switch gears.

CLENNETT: It's really not. Remember, this is trade war 2.0 with China. Some companies, like Nike, tried to avoid Chinese tariffs during the first round by shifting their operations to places in Southeast Asia, like Vietnam, where they now face a massive 46 percent tariff. The CEO of a large American toy manufacturer described it to me as a moving target. Other companies, including Apple, are finding themselves in very vulnerable territory. And the sentiment I gauge from American manufacturers in China is that moving operations back to the U.S. is unrealistic, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, Britt, thanks.

Let's talk now to the president's top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett.

Mr. Hassett, thank you for joining us this morning.

KEVIN HASSETT, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: Thank you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, the president promised all through the campaign that prices would come down right away. Said they’d come down right away. Now he's saying, hang tough. It won't be easy.

How high are prices going to go? How long will they stay there?

HASSETT: I actually saw in this story that you just gave, George, there's kind of like a logical disconnect between the stories – the competing stories that your team is using to attack President Trump.

On the one hand, you're saying that the countries are really angry, they're going to have to retaliate. On the other hand, you're saying that consumers are going to bear the costs and it’s going to drive inflation up. But if U.S. consumers are bearing the cost, there's no reason for the countries to be angry. So, the fact is, the countries are angry and retaliating and, by the way, coming to the table.

I got a report from the USDR last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation. But they're doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff. And so, I don't think that you're going to see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S. because I do think that the reason why we have a persistent, long-run trade deficit these people have very inelastic supply. They've been dumping goods into the country in order to create jobs, say, in China.

And, George, also, I promise you, I'll answer your question directly and not filibuster. So, I'll stop with that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you base your – where do you base your conclusion that you're not going to see an increase in prices? Just about every economist who’s looked at this said you are going to see an increase in prices, including Goldman Sachs, including JP Morgan, including the chairman of the Federal Reserve?

HASSETT: Well, there might be some increase in prices. But the fact is that if we’re going to be a heavy burden on the U.S. consumer, then this trade deficit that for 30 years we've seen really since China entered the WTO would be something that would have gone down. It would have gone down over time. It would have responded to the prices.

The bottom line is that China entered the WTO in 2000. In the 15 years that followed, realincomes declined about $ 1,200 cumulatively over that time.

And so, if cheap goods were the answer -- if cheap goods were going to make Americans real wages, real welfare better off, then real incomes would have gone up over that time. Instead, they went down because wages went down more than prices went down.

So, we got the cheap goods at the grocery store, but then we had fewer jobs. And that's why President Obama and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and President Trump have come out saying, we've got to come up with a better policy, a policy that treats our workers fairly compared to everybody else.

And now, President Trump, true to his word, just like he promised during the campaign, just like he put into his campaign platform, he's delivering on his word.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Right, but you also -- he also said prices were going to come down and he just conceded the prices are going to go up,

Also on Truth Social, the president retweeted a post that said the market drop was part of a deliberate strategy to force the Fed to lower interest rates. Is that the president's strategy? If not, why did he post it?

HASSETT: Yeah. Yeah -- that -- you know, the bottom line is the president has been talking about tariffs for 40 years and this is like been absolutely the policy that he's focused on in the campaign and throughout his political career. And you know, the cyclical cycle of the Fed, it comes and goes. That's a different matter.

But -- but this is President Trump's desired policy. He's been arguing for it ever since. I think he was on “The View” 30, 40 years ago, and it's exactly -- the baseline tariff is exactly what he -- he put into the convention.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But is it his strategy --

HASSETT: So, this is not a surprise for anyone.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it his strategy to force the Fed to lower interest rates, and that the market crash was part of that strategy?

HASSETT: We understand the Fed is an independent agency. We respect the independence of the Fed.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So --

HASSETT: But the president's allowed to have an opinion. The -- absolutely, the president's allowed to have an opinion but there's not going to be any political coercion over the Fed, for sure.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So -- so that is his strategy? Tank the market so the Fed will lower interest rates?

HASSETT: No, no, no.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you just said the president's allowed to have an opinion. Is that his opinion or not?

HASSETT: He's not trying to tank the market. He's trying to deliver for American workers.

And -- I mean, what would you have him do? Again, real wages down 15 years in a row under the previous policy, and that's why Americans voted for him. They brought him in to turn the economy around for the American worker, and that's what he's focused on.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm -- I'm just trying to get some clarity. Is that the strategy --

HASSETT: I’m going to give clarity.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No, is that the president's strategy or not? He posted it. He said the strategy is to lower to -- for the markets to crash so the Fed lowers interest rates. Is that the president’s strategy?

HASSETT: It's not a strategy for the markets to crash. It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age in America for the American worker. That's his strategy.

STEPHANOPOULOS: JPMorgan says the risk of a recession has climbed to 60 percent. Your response?

HASSETT: We just had one of the stronger jobs reports I've seen in a long time. It was about 50 percent better than markets expected. It's the second one in a row. We've created already something like 10,000 auto jobs since President Trump took office, and I just got word -- anecdotal word last night that auto plants are adding second shifts in the U.S. in order to respond to these tariffs these days.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, we've also seen auto companies like Stellantis say they're having layoffs.

HASSETT: There's -- we've got the data. We just got the data for last month or the month before, both times, manufacturing employment went up, and auto employment went up.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s looking back --

HASSETT: And again, we're looking at about 10,000 auto jobs. George, that's more than we got all of last year with Joe Biden.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's looking back. But looking forward, Stellantis did say this week they were laying off workers. They did (ph).

HASSETT: The reason -- the reason that they were starting it in the last two months was they anticipated the tariffs that were announced this week and they're starting to ramp up in anticipation of that.

I would expect that the jobs numbers and I'll come back and talk to you about it when they come out or going to go up by even more now that the tariffs are in place.

STEPHANOPOULOS: It's not just economists who are sounding the alarms. Republicans in the House and Senate have sounded some alarms as well, including Rand Paul, senator from Kentucky. I want to show what he wrote this week.

He said: The truth is that tariffs are taxes. They don't punish foreign governments. They punish American families. When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything from groceries to smartphones, washing machines and every other conceivable product.

President's own vice president last term, Mike Pence, said this is the largest peace time tax hike in us history.

Your response?

HASSETT: Well, we just saw that the Senate has agreed to budget rules that the House is negotiating with them now that it's going to give the biggest tax cut in history in order to make space for these policies and to not have the runaway deficits that gave us all the inflation in the Biden administration, then we've got an all the above approach where we're reducing taxes, reducing spending, reducing regulation and imposing a baseline tariff around the world and hitting the harder actors -- the tougher actors harder.

That's what President Trump campaigned on. It's a sound policy. It's why people voted him into office and it's what we're doing right now. We're delivering out the promises.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But a tariff is a tax increase, isn't it?

HASSETT: A tariff is a form of tax. It's a way that you collect revenue when you import products, yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And consumers pay that tax, correct?

HASSETT: No, because it depends on supply and demand, elasticity of supply and demand. And again, if you thought consumers are going to pay that tax, then you should be puzzled about why it is that countries are upset about it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I'm just -- I'm -- I'm more focused --

HASSETT: I’m asking you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- I'm focused on the consumers right now. You've conceded the prices are going to go up.

HASSETT: They might go up.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- tariffs.

HASSETT: Some but not nearly as much as you implied in your -- in your piece, and the reason is that the supply is inelastic in China.

Again, I'll give you the simple example. If you have an apple tree and it has 100 apples and then you’re paying $1.00 an apple and then there’s a ten cent tax, then if people – if you raise the price to $1.10, people reduce their demand. And so maybe they only demand 90 apples. But then you’ve got ten apples left. So, what are you supposed to do with the 10 apples that nobody wants? So, what happens is the suppliers have to lower the price of apples in order to get back to 100 and 100.

And so the question is, is supply inelastic or not? And I think that by persistent trade deficits year after year after year, then we can say, yes, supply is very inelastic.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you’re saying consumers are either going to have to buy less or pay more, but the tariffs is a tax, as you just conceded.

HASSETT: No, what happens is the supplier cuts his price so that the price is still $1 in my example.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why did the president not include Russia on the – on the list of countries who are facing tariffs?

HASSETT: There is, obviously, an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine. And I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn't mean that Russia, in the fullness of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But Russia is one of the only countries, one of the few countries that is not subject to these new tariffs, aren't they?

HASSETT: They're in the middle of a negotiation, George, aren't they?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I'm asking a different question. Why – and I just want to know, why Russia would have –

HASSETT: No, would you – would you – would you literally advise that you go in and put a whole bunch of new things on a table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and – Ukrainian and Russian lives? You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You could. Negotiators do that – negotiators do that all the time.

HASSETT: No. No. That’s not appropriate to – to throw –

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that – but to –

HASSETT: To throw a new thing into these negotiations right in the middle of it, it’s just not (INAUDIBLE).

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you are conceding that Russia is not paying any new tariffs, unlike many of our allies, including Europe, Canada, Mexico?

HASSETT: Russia is in the midst of negotiations over peace that affects really thousands and thousands of lives of people. And that's what President Trump’s focused on right now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you respond to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell saying we're going to see higher inflation, slower growth?

HASSETT: You know what, we saw a really, really strong jobs number last time. And we've seen inflation coming down. I think inflation comes from runaway spending that is monetized by the Fed. That's what Jay Powell and Joe Biden gave us last term. And then I saw the Fed kind of saw the error in its ways after a while and started to tighten and help get control of their inflation. And what we're seeing now on The Hill is reduced spending. And so, I don't think that the inflationary spiral that we saw last term is a high risk right now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, where do things stand with TikTok? You saw in our report that China has backed out of any negotiations, any approval of a possible sale because of these tariffs. Is that true? Where is it going to go from here?

HASSETT: There are ongoing TikTok negotiations, but I haven’t been involved with them. I've mostly been involved in negotiation the reconciliation package with the Senate and the House and the tariffs over the last couple weeks. So, I can get you an update on that but it’s not something I've been working on this week.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they are tied together at this point, aren't they?

HASSETT: I would have – I would have to get back to you on that, on the negotiations.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And do you expect –

HASSETT: I've heard – I've heard that there are negotiations ongoing and that there are a number of offers, but I have not been read in on what the latest statis of that are.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And have you seen any evidence that China is not going to follow through with their imposition of a counter tariff?

HASSETT: No. No. I – again, I – I – I have not been involved in Chinese negotiations this weekend. But – but – but there are more than 50 countries reaching out and trying to negotiate this new status with the president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Kevin Hassett, thanks very much for your time.

HASSETT: Good to see you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Want to bring in former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers now.

Mr. Summers, thank you for joining us this morning.

You just heard Mr. Hassett. Let's take each of the issues in turn.

Number one, starting out with, these predictions for many economists of higher inflation, lower growth going forward because of these tariffs.

LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER CLINTON TREASURY SECRETARY & HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: I think it's almost inevitable. This is the biggest self-inflicted wound we've put on our economy in history. We are increasing inflation because the prices are higher because of the tariffs. That gives people less spending power. That means fewer jobs. Markets are looking at all of that. And they think companies are going to be worth $5 trillion less than they thought before these tariffs started. And that's just the loss to companies. If you add in the loss to consumers, a reasonable estimate would probably be something like $30 trillion.

How big is all of this in comparison? Here’s a comparison for you, George. The loss to the economy is like if all oil prices doubled. If prices of gasoline went to $6 or $7 or something in that range. We've never seen anything like this before. And whether it's economic forecasts, whether it's the stock market, whether it's Democrats making the forecast, whether it's Republicans like Trump ally Ted Cruz making the forecast, there's no one virtually who doesn't work for the president who thinks this is a good idea.

And, by the way, your guest, Mr. Hassett, before he went to work for the president, if youread his analysis of trade, for example, in his confirmation hearing in 2016, they're just like all the other economists saying that when you put big tariffs on, you get big losses.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you've heard varying justifications for the tariffs from different people on the president's team. Number one, it's about raising revenue. Peter Navarro says, oh, it's going to raise $6 trillion in revenue. The president talks about reviving the manufacturing base. Then you also have a back and forth on whether or not this is really designed just to get other countries to negotiate over tariffs.

But those goals seem to be incompatible in some ways. What's your analysis of what's behind this and where it's going?

SUMMERS: So, look, there's a contradiction. If it's a crowbar, and other people eliminate their tariffs, then -- and we eliminate ours, and it's just making a deal, then we don't raise any revenue nor do we get any businesses to relocate to the United States.

If it's a permanent revenue source and trying to get businesses to relocate to the United States, then we're going to have these tariffs permanently. So the president can't have it both ways, and we don't know which way the choice is going to be made, but, either way, we're not going to get the things that the president is promising.

STEPHANOPOULOS: If you're advising American consumers, also American corporate leaders on where this is headed, how would you counsel them to prepare for all of this?

SUMMERS: Look, I think there's a very good chance there's going to be more turbulence in markets. The two-day move we saw on Thursday and Friday was the fourth largest two-day move since the Second World War. The other three were the 1987 crash, the 2008 financial crisis, and the pandemic. So a drop of this magnitude signals that there's likely to be trouble ahead. And people ought to just be very cautious.

But the risk is, of course, when all of us decide to be cautious, that can become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Unless and until the president recognizes that this is a very serious error that is likely to have very adverse consequences, I think it's likely to make things very difficult. I think people are right to hold off on making big new purchases, businesses are right to be cautious.

People are right to want to hold cash. What we need is a reversal of these policies, and until we have a reversal, I think we're going to have a real problem. This is a moment of testing for the president's advisers. The intellectually honest ones know that this reflects presidential 40-year fixation, not any kind of proven economic theory.

This is the economic equivalent of what creationism is to biology or what ending vaccines is to medicine. And the question is whether his advisers are going to have the courage to tell him that and the courage to step away from being part of these policies if he's not willing to readjust.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Summers, thanks for your time this morning.

Up next, Jon Karl reports on the president's escalating campaign of retribution. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: If you're a law firm being threatened, you might have to say, okay, we will lose some business because we're going to stand for a principle. If you are a university, you may have to say, you know, figure out, are we in fact doing things right? Have we in fact violated our own values, our own code, violated the law in some fashion? If not, and you're just being intimidated -- well, you should be able to say, well, that's why we got this big endowment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Former President Obama weighing in on the first 100 days of the Trump administration, which has seen acts of retribution and retaliation against political opponents at a scale unlike any prior president.

Here's chief Washington correspondent, “This Week” co-anchor, Jonathan Karl.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am your retribution.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two years ago, Donald Trump kicked off his presidential campaign with a vow of retribution. Later, he insisted he would be too busy as president to carry it out.

TRUMP: I'm not going to have time for retribution.

KARL: But that retribution vow has been a promise made, promise kept. In his first months in office, Trump has methodically targeted as perceived enemies, purging the executive branch of those seen as disloyal.

TRUMP: We're going to let go of people, people that we don't like or people that we don't think can do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else.

KARL: His most recent target, some of the nation's top security officials. On Thursday, President Trump fired General Timothy Haugh, the director of the NSA, and reassigned his second in command.

Haugh was just on Capitol Hill last week discussing cyber security measures following the Signal scandal.

GEN. TIMOTHY HAUGH, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY DIRECTOR: From our perspective, any -- any advanced warning is something that we certainly are trying to protect.

KARL: Trump didn't say why Haugh was pushed out, but one of Trump's most controversial outside supporters, Laura Loomer, took credit for the move, posting on X, quote, NSA Director Timothy Haugh and his deputy Wendy Noble have been disloyal to President Trump. That is why they have been fired.

Apparently, among Haugh's sins in Trump world was that he had been previously promoted by retired General Mark Milley, who Trump appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in his first term but who he now sees as an enemy.

Laura Loomer had visited the White House earlier this week, recommending several people on the National Security Council to be fired. At least a half dozen of them were let go, according to sources.

Trump was asked about Loomer on Air Force One.

TRUMP: She makes recommendations of things and people. And sometimes, I listen to those recommendations.

KARL: Loomer responded with a post on X saying: Thank you President Trump for being receptive to the vetting materials provided to you and thank you for firing these Biden holdovers.

This week also saw Donald Trump escalating his pressure campaign against some of the nation's biggest law firms, those who have represented or employed his opponents and those who had refused to represent him when he was a criminal defendant.

Trump has recently signed a series of executive orders directly targeting those firms, threatening to cancel all their government contracts and access to federal buildings and stripping security clearances. Several of the firms have come to the White House seeking a way to avoid punishment. On Wednesday, the president announced he had reached a deal with the firm Milbank LLP for $100 million in pro bono legal services toward causes the administration supports, the fifth firm to reach such an agreement. The firm said they were pleased to find common ground with the administration.

Trump struck a similar $100 million deal on Tuesday with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where former First Gentleman Doug Emhoff is a partner. As some firms have sought a truce, others have pushed back. On Friday, over 500 firms signed an amicus brief in support of another targeted firm, Perkins Coie and their lawsuit challenging Trump's executive order, with Perkins Coie saying, "The order violates core constitutional rights."

Two other firms targeted by Trump's executive orders have filed similar suits. All of this comes at a time when Trump is also threatening elite universities that his allies consider left wing. With the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, one of the targeted schools, Columbia University, reached an agreement to implement Trump's demands last month.

For "This Week," Jonathan Karl in Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks to Jon. Senator Cory Booker is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Would the Senator yield for a question?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE: Chuck Schumer, this is the only time in my life I can tell you no.

(LAUGH)

(APPLAUSE)

SCHUMER: I just wanted to tell you, a question, do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?

(CROWD CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: That was the moment Tuesday, and after 25 hours on the Senate floor. And Senator Cory Booker joins us now. Senator, thank you for joining us this morning. How are you feeling after all that?

BOOKER: I'm really feeling strong, there's a lot of challenges before this country right now. So, I'm just grateful, especially yesterday, to stand in solidarity with millions of Americans who are just really determined even though they themselves are tired to keep fighting.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about some of the issues that Americans were responding to, including, of course, the tariffs. You heard Kevin Hassett earlier in the program. He said there may be some increase in prices, but it's going to be worth it. Your response?

BOOKER: God bless, Kevin, but I've never seen an administration in my lifetime do something so monumentally wrong and that so staggeringly hurts American people. I've been hearing all day yesterday, from frightened Americans who've saved for their entire lives, for retirement in the coming months, but now know they can't because in one fell swoop, Donald Trump has devastated their retirement accounts, their 401(k)s.

I know millions of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck who already, in their administration, have seen rising prices, even though he promised they would go down, rising inflation, even though he promised it would go down, and now they're bracing themselves for seeing their monthly bills go up because of what this president did. And that will devastate them.

And this is all happening in the backdrop of what happened in the Senate this week where they’re pushing an extension of the Trump tax cuts that overwhelmingly went to the wealthiest of Americans. It’s going to blow another multiple trillion dollar hole in our deficit. but they're doing all of that and they're going to pay for it by savaging Medicaid, which millions of Americans rely on to meet their financial challenges, to meet their health care challenges. And that is scary.

I had a town hall yesterday where parents of disabled children, where parents with – that are taking care of their elders, all told awful stories that even a 5 percent cut in the services they get will send their families into chaos. And, again, they asked why? Why? Because this president is pushing yet again a plan to gut basic services, to give bigger and bigger tax cuts to the wealthy.

So, the chaos he has unleashed on America, the financial insecurity that he has brought to people's lives, this is not what he promised people. And I think he will already go down for a president having the worst first 100 days in the last century of any president that's ever taken that office.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You also saw that – Jon Karl's piece about the president’s retribution campaign, he promised to be the retribution during the campaign. We're seeing these moves against universities. We’re seeing these moves against law firms. You took the Senate floor to protest. What should these law firms and universities do?

BOOKER: Well, first and foremost, you're calling retribution, but it's something far worse than that. If you look around the world, from Viktor Orban, to Vladimir Putin, this is not what democratic leaders do. This is really a violation of our constitutional principles, that he's using that power of that office, not to advance noble causes that could help the American people, whether I disagree with them or not, that's what a president is called to do, do what they think is in the best interests of the public at large.

What this president is instead doing is violating our constitutional principles, violating the fundamental rights of people in order to punish them, to carry out his own retribution plan.

You know, John F. Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Donald Trump is now saying, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Donald Trump to make amends. He is trying to hurt people, to make them cower to him and offer him tribute in order to not violate the Constitution and hurt them economically. This is something that should not just be about a bunch of law firms. This is something that should ultimately be about Americans.

And every American right now should be sitting back – I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat or independent, and should ask yourself, when is it enough? When has he crossed my line when it comes to my love of this country? Is it bad enough that he's putting on the biggest tax on Americans that I've ever seen through these tariffs, which are taxes on Americans? Is that enough? Is it enough when he's threatening the health care of tens of millions of Americans, disabled children or elders? Is that enough? Is that crossing my line? Or will it (ph) pay for his tax cuts?

STEPHANOPOULOS: But until – until Americans rise up, are Democrats powerless to stop him?

BOOKER: Well, again, I’ve learned a lot about power from my ancestors, from my parents' generation, the civil rights generation, where the most powerful people in the land tried to violate the principles of our Constitution and hurt people. And yet when Strom Thurmond and others tried to block the several rights movement, the civil rights movement was passed by our rainbow coalition of people from all political perspectives who joined together and said, enough is enough. We are not going to have this continued violations of decency, principle and constitutional ideals (ph) happen.

So, we know the power of the people is greater than the people in power. And so, whether it's Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world, or Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, their power pales in comparison to the American people. And we stand up, rise up, speak up, and say, no, no more.

And so, this is not about the Democratic Party. I'm sorry. The Democratic Party is at its weakest when it's concerned about the party. It's at its strongest when it's concerned about the people. When it's bigger and broader than any narrow politic analysis.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you – but – but you did say during your –

BOOKER: This is a time for Americans to step up.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you did say during your speech that Democrats have made some terrible mistakes and have to take responsibility – some responsibility for the state of the country right now. Elaborate on that. What were the mistakes? How can they be fixed?

BOOKER: Well, the biggest mistake is not centering people enough. A lot of people voted for Donald Trump because they trusted him and didn't trust the Democrats could deliver for them.

And -- and so this to me is one of the most important principles in American politics. You may have this great policy, great analysis, great thoughts and ideas but people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. We are in a -- in a state where again the Democratic Party should own up.

We partfully (ph) laid this pathway for this demagogue to come into office. And so, the way we deal with that, the way we correct from those mistakes is to do more of the centering of American voices, American people in our conversation and in our focus. Not focus on politics, focus on people.

And right now, I wish you could have been at my town hall yesterday when you see veterans standing up and speaking to their anguish of knowing that their brothers and sisters are being fired from jobs, that their healthcare is being threatened, and that the V.A. losing 80,000 people is now weakening in its ability to rise to its commitments to our veterans.

If you could have seen the parents standing up with one -- I will never forget -- with their autistic child who has severe anxiety but still decided to come and speak to the audience there, and to talk about their healthcare being on the -- on the chopping block right now by a president who's told Congress to cut $880 billion.

These are the people right now that are important, not the Democratic Party. It's the destiny of our country.

And this is a time where Americans have to say this is not about party. It's about patriotism. It's about people. It's about the future of our nation and what's going to define us together.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Booker, thanks for your time this morning.

The roundtable's up next. We'll be right back.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: You see it right there, scenes across the country yesterday as citizens took to the streets to protest President Trump's policies, also Elon Musk. One of the things we're going to talk about on the roundtable, also all the fallout from the president's tariff decision. It's coming up when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Back now with the Roundtable, joined by Donna Brazile, Former DNC Chair; former RNC Chair, also White House Chief of Staff for President Trump, Reince Priebus; Former Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. Thanks to all of you. Let's begin with the tariffs. Obviously, that's the biggest news of the week.

Donna, we've seen the response from Cory Booker. We've seen it from Kevin Hassett. What's your take?

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: With Donald Trump, it's all sticks and no carrots, all sticks, no carrots. I mean this is about bullying. It's about making sure that he can bring American allies and folks to the table. And -- but it's also, as I think of it, it's going to hurt the American consumer. It's going to hurt investors. We saw the stock market do a nosedive. Don't look at your 401(k) unless you're my age and you can't see much of anything.

(LAUGH)

BRAZILE: But the point is Donald Trump understands in the short term this will cause pain. The problem is, in the long term, he believes this will bring back American manufacturing. I don't think that's going to happen. Look at what happened in Trump 1.0 with soybean farmers. Trump basically let them out to dry and then had to give them a bailout. So I think this is an incoherent policy, George, and it's going to hurt the American food supply (ph).

STEPHANOPOULOS: Reince, of course, you were chief of staff in the first term where the president had a different team around him, he had Gary Cohen from Goldman Sachs as his Economic Advisor, Steve Mnuchin also from Goldman Sachs as the Treasury Secretary. It seemed like he had people there who were willing to resist some of his impulses. Not this time around.

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER RNC CHAIR & FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF & ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's got a few opposites around him too. I mean, he is got Lutnick and Bessent and, and Hassett, and they're similar in the sense of Wilbur, Mnuchin, Gary, me, Bannon. But look, the fact is the farmers did go for Trump. Second, I come from Kenosha, Wisconsin, you know that George, where our parents worked at auto plants. They made good money, they retired, their kids went in school. That's all gone now.

So yeah, Donald Trump did shock the world and the market went down. But what if tomorrow, President Trump announces that 20 countries, they're cutting a deal and they're going down to zero tariffs. What if in one week, we've got 50 countries with deals coming in to Congress (ph) --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Then, you're not going to revive manufacturing, are you, if there's no change?

PRIEBUS: Well, that -- I understand your point with Larry Summers, but certainly, if that did happen, it would change our trading relationships with the entire world and the economy will boom. And these losses would come back. We just don't know. We really don't know.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, I want to bring that -- I want to bring that to Chris because he just said something, OK, the deal -- the goal here is negotiating new deals. President said that wasn't the case.

CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Look, there's only been, I've known him for 23 years. There's only one thing politically he's been completely consistent on his entire career, and that is that he believes tariffs are the cure to everything. The cure to not having enough revenue, the cure to reviving the manufacturing base. They're the cure to making America great again.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He can't do all three at the same time.

CHRISTIE: You cannot. But this is -- George, here's what this has become. It's a toxic mix of stubbornness and a lack of intellectual curiosity by the president. The president believes this 40 years ago when it related to Japan because he doesn't read, because he doesn't think. What happens is he just sticks with this old thing and now he's stubborn about it.

The difference between 1.0 and 2.0 is that in 1.0 the folks you mentioned, including Reince, the president had some respect for their intellect, and when they pushed back before policies were put out, he would listen to it. He has intentionally this time surrounded himself with a group of sycophants who are not nearly as bright as the group he had the first time. That's just a fact, and they say, yes, sir, and that's it.

PRIEBUS: Well, I would just say, Kevin Hassett, the one thing he said in that interview that jumped out at me was he mentioned that there's already 50 countries that have come to the table. Now here's what I'm saying as an insight. Kevin Hassett would not come on your air today and talk about negotiations if the president -- like you said earlier, we're not talking negotiations. We're not going to do this. He would not do that.

CHRISTIE: Because no one has ever had internal inconsistency coming out of the Trump White House.

PRIEBUS: No, no, no.

CHRISTIE: And been surprised by something the president is going to put on social tomorrow.

BRAZILE: But, Chris --

PRIEBUS: No. He would not have done that.

BRAZILE: This might be the strategy.

CHRISTIE: No.

PRIEBUS: There is no chance.

CHRISTIE: There's no -- he doesn't have the first idea --

BRAZILE: Chris, let me --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Donna, go ahead.

BRAZILE: Let me help bring this out for --

CHRISTIE: Because the president doesn't have the best idea.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Donna, you go ahead.

BRAZILE: Well, Chris, but I get your point.

PRIEBUS: What he's going to do. That's why he was elected president.

BRAZILE: Your point is there are certain countries across the world that are saying, we're not going to retaliate. We're going to fly to America, go down to Mar-a-Lago, and come up with our own deal. I suggest Vietnam get in line. I suggest the people in Sri Lanka. I suggest that Ireland, McDonald Island, a remote island off the coast of Australia, I suggest that the penguins and the polar bears hurry up and come and negotiate so they don't get a 10 percent tariff.

PRIEBUS: We do not tariff our McDonald's.

CHRISTIE: When Trump is tariffing his junk food, you know that he's really committed to the policy.

BRAZILE: But that's the policy.

CHRISTIE: But, look, the policy -- look, Donna, the problem is that we don't know what the president will do next. I think the fact of the matter is the markets are showing you that. If they were confident that he was going to cut deals, the markets wouldn't have gone down the amount that they went down Thursday and Friday. They're saying that they don't have any idea. Uncertainty is the enemy of the American consumer, it's the enemy of the marketplace, and Donald Trump lives to create uncertainty.

PRIEBUS: But that uncertainty will be -- will change once a number of deals come down the pipeline. I mean, all of that could be different. And there's only two countries -- other than China, there's only two responses so far for most of these countries. It's either we want to cut a deal with the United States, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, I think Canada might have a deal in the works, or it's been muted. There's been a fairly muted response across the world.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're being quite clear. I will grant you that. You're saying the strategy here was to get these kinds of deals negotiated. The president said exactly the opposite.

PRIEBUS: He did but Hassett came on your show today and said things are different.

CHRISTIE: President Hassett?

PRIEBUS: No.

CHRISTIE: Is that President Hassett?

PRIEBUS: It's not.

CHRISTIE: Well, why don't we just listen to the president of the United States?

PRIEBUS: Because I know. I worked there. I know that the press secretary --

CHRISTIE: We all did.

PRIEBUS: -- and all these internal debates over, are we going to say we're negotiating, or are we going to say we're not so that we can get more leverage over these tariffs? And he came on and said that they were negotiating.

CHRISTIE: No, no, no. No, no, no, that's not what he said. Let's be careful about what he said. What he said was other countries have called asking to negotiate. He did not say --

PRIEBUS: He only said that --

CHRISTIE: No, no, no, Reince.

PRIEBUS: He didn't come for it.

CHRISTIE: Reince, he didn't say they were negotiating back.

PRIEBUS: During the interview.

BRAZILE: He would not have said it.

CHRISTIE: You know what, look, and he may. And if that's the case, then all of this baloney that the president is selling to Middle America, that he's going to bring back the Kenosha manufacturing jobs are baloney because if he makes the deal he won't.

BRAZILE: And he's not, he's not -- they're not coming back.

PRIEBUS: Since the beginning --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Go ahead, Donna.

BRAZILE: If anything, we're going to have to innovate our way out of this. And let me just say, the first day, to your point by this consistent, I think that was your point, well, it was about fentanyl, it was about, you know, stopping the border crossing. I mean, he comes up with a different plan, a different idea. But right now he should be thinking, whether he's on the golf course or wherever, he should be thinking about this looming recession.

He should figure out what the hell he's going to do to prevent any more damage to the American people and the American economy. That's what he should focus on.

CHRISTIE: And let --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTIE: Let me tell who's not uncertain. Who's not uncertain is Xi Jinping who understands that this was a great move for him. The president is now going to drive folks towards making deals with China. While China is in an economic real problem, he is now driving people towards China and our allies toward China, and creating uncertainty whether America can be counted on or not. Either we're going to be the leader of the world economy and the world's military, or we're not. And Donald Trump is sending the signal that he doesn't care.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: One casualty of his announcement does appear to be this TikTok deal.

PRIEBUS: Yeah. And maybe the deal needs to start over from the very beginning. But obviously, that's a deal that J.D. Vance is driving and we don't know where it's going to go. But I will say in Middle America, Washington D.C. is upset about these tariffs. But in Middle America --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Oh, oh, oh.

PRIEBUS: -- 5 million jobs have been lost in manufacturing. I think people understand that we need to bring manufacturing back.

(CROSSTALK)

PRIEBUS: How pain we're going to --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTIE: Can't be both ways.

PRIEBUS: -- along the way is yet to be seen. But you just don't know that. You're saying this thing is over and --

CHRISTIE: No, no.

PRIEBUS: And he has made a horrible decision.

CHRISTIE: That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you can't have it --

PRIEBUS: I get it.

CHRISTIE: You can't have it both ways.

PRIEBUS: Right. You're repeating --

CHRISTIE: You're saying there's going to be a deal.

PRIEBUS: I get it.

CHRISTIE: And then you're saying they're going to bring the -- we're going to bring back the 5 million manufacturing jobs. The only way the 5 million manufacturing jobs have a chance of coming back is if he doesn't make a deal. So you can't have it both ways, Reince.

PRIEBUS: You could have it both ways.

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: He wants to eliminate --

PRIEBUS: On some of these tariffs -- you could target on some of these tariffs, and you can cut deals with some of these countries as well. It doesn't have to be completely all one way or the other.

BRAZILE: And all of those projects, all of those grants that went to many red states to bill (ph) here in America, what has Trump done over the last couple of weeks? He has canceled or put a pause on all of those contracts, the CHIPS Act. So even if he's thinking long term and not the short term pain that every American will feel, the president is even cutting paths to the future in terms of long-term investments in communities.

CHRISTIE: And I wonder how those soybean farmers in Iowa feel this morning.

BRAZILE: Yeah. And Minnesota --CHRISTIE: When they know a 34 percent tariff --

BRAZILE: -- and Illinois.

CHRISTIE: -- is being put on them by China, which soybeans -- soybeans, China is the biggest market.

BRAZILE: By the way, they're going to Brazil. That's where -- that's the new market now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That's all we have time for. As Reince just said, I guess we're going to see. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: That is all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Check out "World News Tonight." I'll see you tomorrow on GMA.