PBS News Hour

GEOFF BENNETT: Good evening.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On the "News Hour" tonight: Global markets surge as the United States and China announce a deal to roll back steep tariffs for now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Hamas releases the last living American hostage held in Gaza in what's being described as a gesture of goodwill toward the Trump administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: And the president signs an executive order attempting to lower drug prices in line with what other countries pay.

STACIE DUSETZINA, Vanderbilt University: One of the most basic challenges is that we don't really know what they pay.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

There's been a big breakthrough in the battle over tariffs.

The United States and China have paused many of their most punishing tariffs for the time being while they try to reach a larger deal.

GEOFF BENNETT: It's a major thaw in the trade war between the world's two biggest economies.

And the news brought euphoria to the stock market.

The Dow Jones industrial average skyrocketed by more than 1,100 points.

The Nasdaq shot up by more than 4 percent, and the S&P 500 rose by more than 3 percent.

All of this set the stage for a big day of news from President Trump, as he began the first major foreign trip of his second term.

Lisa Desjardins starts our coverage.

LISA DESJARDINS: The closing bell rang with good news today on the New York Stock Exchange, as the U.S. and China are lowering the temperature on tariffs, at least for now, announcing a three-month pause in their trade war, buying time to reach a broader deal.

President Trump today called it a total reset.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The relationship is very good.

We're not looking to hurt China.

China was being hurt very badly.

LISA DESJARDINS: In fact, the tariffs have hurt both countries, contributing to a record U.S. trade deficit and market turmoil.

Now come temporary tariff reductions that are deeper than investors predicted.

The U.S. will deflate Trump's recent 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 percent, while China will go from 125 percent on American products to 10 percent.

After weekend high-stakes talks with the Chinese in Switzerland, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said both nations want a strong relationship.

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. Treasury Secretary: The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling.

We do want trade.

We want more balanced trade.

And I think that both sides are committed to achieving that.

LISA DESJARDINS: In a separate press conference, Chinese officials stressed their national interests.

LI CHENGGANG, Trade Representative, Chinese Ministry of Commerce (through translator): China has always pursued win-win outcomes in its trade and economic negotiations, and therefore any deal to be reached must surely be in China's own development interests.

LISA DESJARDINS: A final deal with China is not guaranteed, and today's rollback does not include continued tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, or pharmaceuticals.

On drug costs, today Trump signed an ambitious executive order directing that Americans will pay the lowest price available worldwide on prescription drugs.

His plan is for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to give pricing targets to drug companies in the next month and then impose new regulations if they don't comply.

DONALD TRUMP: We're going to equalize.

We're all going to pay the same.

We're going to pay what Europe's going to pay.

LISA DESJARDINS: Lowering drug costs is popular, but this idea has raised opposition from drugmakers, who say it's dangerous, along with criticism from the right that this is government price control, and from Democrats who say it's meaningless, that Trump does not have this power and will be challenged in court.

All this as President Trump begins the first major foreign trip of this term, to the Middle East, stopping in Qatar, where the president says he's ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747 as a gift from that country's ruling family to use as the new Air Force One.

DONALD TRUMP: I think that was a very nice gesture.

Now, I could be a stupid person and say, oh, no, we don't want a free plane.

We give free things out.

We will take one too.

LISA DESJARDINS: But it wouldn't be without cost, needing a complete scrub for any security risks and some rebuilding to become Air Force One.

And there are questions of benefit.

Trump says the plane would go to his presidential library, not stay in government after he leaves office.

And critics question whether it's ethical or legal for him to accept it.

MAN: Welcome.

Welcome to the United States of America.

LISA DESJARDINS: Also today, while the president departs the country, a few dozen South Africans arrived as refugees outside the nation's capital.

The Afrikaners, or descendants of Dutch colonizers, were given fast-track status, even as the Trump administration has virtually shut down all other refugee admissions.

Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk, a native of South Africa, has raised their cause.

Trump today said it wasn't about race.

DONALD TRUMP: I don't care who they are.

I don't care about their race, their color.

I don't care about their height, their weight.

I don't care about anything.

I just know that what's happening is terrible.

LISA DESJARDINS: All of those arriving today are white.

South African officials have responded strongly, saying there is no legal or factual basis for classifying this group as refugees.

But in the White House is a president who classifies global issues from tariffs to drug prices to refugees on his terms, and his alone.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

GEOFF BENNETT: Let's focus now on this announcement about the tariff pause, what's behind it, and where things go in the weeks ahead.

Derek Scissors closely follows the Chinese economy and U.S.-China relations.

He's a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

That's a conservative think tank.

Thanks for being back with us.

It was really striking to see the treasury secretary acknowledge that the tariffs, as he put it, resulted in an embargo on both sides that effectively ended trade between the U.S. and China.

How significant is this 90-day pause?

What's the real-world impact?

DEREK SCISSORS, American Enterprise Institute: Well, the pause is significant.

How we got here is a little strange.

But we were looking at shortages.

Secretary Bessent was right about that.

This was effective embargo on a lot of goods.

You can transship goods through other countries.

We were making some exclusions.

The Chinese were making some exclusions.

But a lot of goods were just not going to appear.

So there were going to be shortages for American firms and American consumers starting later this month.

And with the pause, you're going to get some resumption at least of trade.

And so those shortages should be quick.

And that's what President Trump wanted.

GEOFF BENNETT: How did China find its way to this short-term deal or the U.S., for that matter?

What drove both countries back to the negotiating table?

DEREK SCISSORS: Well, I think they have two different timelines.

The U.S. is very concerned about the short term.

President Trump did not want to take the political and economic hit of an actual trade conflict.

He talks about it all the time.

He says, other countries are ripping us off.

I have to do this.

But as soon as actual costs reared their head, he backed off.

The Chinese have a long-term risk.

They impose a lot of costs on their own people all the time.

They're not too worried about things getting worse in China in July and August.

But they face a deflationary environment with low growth.

And losing the U.S. as an export market for the long term,that was scary to the Chinese.

So we came to the table for short-term reasons.

They came to the table for long-term reasons.

GEOFF BENNETT: And looking big picture at the president's tariff plan or tariff policy, the administration argues that you have to look at the policy as a whole, his economic policy as a whole, tariffs paired with tax cuts and deregulation.

Taken together, might any of that result in an economic gain?

DEREK SCISSORS: It's a little strange.

If you're working a pro-growth agenda, if that's what you want, you're not as worried about other things, you're really worried about growth, tariffs are not pro-growth.

So the tariff part of it doesn't make sense.

If you're working to balance trade outcomes, then the tariffs make sense, but now your tax cut is actually going to boost the U.S. trade deficit, right?

We're going to boost demand.

We're going to increase growth in the country, which a lot of people would say is a good thing.

That's going to boost imports, including Chinese imports.

So they don't mix well together.

It's as if the administration has two different economic strategies at the same time and just jumps back and forth from one to the other whenever it's convenient.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what do the next three months hold for the prices of Chinese goods and for the global supply chain?

DEREK SCISSORS: Well, this is definitely going to at least temporarily ease supply chain problems.

I don't know if prices are really the issue.

It was more availability.

We were just not going to get Chinese goods at 145 percent tariffs.

They weren't going to be shipped.

And so that's going to happen.

It's baked in at this point, but it shouldn't last very long.

And sometime, let's say 60 days from now, we're back to normal, at least for the moment.

And people will act as if the crisis has passed.

I think that's wrong.

I don't think we're on sustainable footing.

All the things that President Trump has complained about with regard to U.S.-China trade are still in existence.

And with regard to U.S. trade with other countries, I think he's going to get some trade data for the year and into next year that he's not going to like.

So, the short term, I think we're going to have some shortages.

They're going to be resolved.

Through the 90-day period, things are going to return to some semblance of normalcy.

But people should be wary because that's not going to last for too long.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, on that point, the treasury secretary emphasized today that the deal really is just for a pause.

I mean, what are the challenges in getting beyond that to a final agreement?

DEREK SCISSORS: They're huge.

It was remarkable to me to listen to Secretary Bessent and President Trump today sound so much like President Obama and Secretary Geithner and a whole bunch of other presidents and treasury secretaries, saying, we're going to negotiate with the Chinese and they're going to restructure and we're going to make trade more balanced and they're going to make these big changes.

We have been saying that for 25 years.

And, of course, it hasn't happened, quite the opposite.

And President Trump knows that.

He's been critical of it for almost the entire time.

Yet today we hear the same thing from him and his treasury secretary that we have heard from so many presidents and treasury secretaries in the past.

The Chinese are not going to restructure their economy for the United States, certainly not for like a tariff imposition that only lasted a few weeks, and probably not at all.

If the U.S. wants to change trade with China, we're going to have to take the necessary and costly actions.

Pretending we can negotiate with the Chinese the way we have for 25 years isn't going to work, and it's just a matter of time when people recognize that as not a winning strategy.

GEOFF BENNETT: How fragile, in your view, is this 90-day pause?

DEREK SCISSORS: Well, I think we can get through the 90 days itself.

There's going to be some criticism of President Trump for, why did you escalate and then de-escalate?

You got nothing out of the de-escalation.

There was no Chinese promises at all.

Why did we go through all this?

But I think we can get through the 90 days.

I think, after the 90 days, the U.S. is going to have to roll out some set of wins from China if we want to keep the tariff slow.

And it's very hard to know what those are.

TikTok deal maybe.

The Chinese will promise to stop fentanyl.

But we have already had the administration say it's successfully stopped fentanyl.

They will promise to buy more U.S. goods.

They promised that before, and it hasn't happened.

So I think the 90 days will work out.

I think the clock really starts ticking, oddly, when the 90 days run out.

Secretary Bessent gets up in front of America and says, this is the deal we got.

And it's going to pretty quickly be obvious it's not a great deal.

It's not going to change things very much.

And then pressure on the Trump administration to take trade action will rise again.

GEOFF BENNETT: Derek Scissors, thanks so much for sharing your insights with us this evening.

We appreciate it.

DEREK SCISSORS: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: We start the day's other headlines with the end of one of the longest-running insurgencies in the Middle East.

The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, says it's laying down its weapons and disbanding.

For decades, the PKK sought to create an independent state for Turkey's Kurdish minority and also worked towards Kurdish independence across the region.

More recently, it's pushed for greater rights for Kurds inside Turkey, where it's classified as a terrorist organization.

The U.S. views it as one as well.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed today's announcement, saying it will usher in a new era.

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, Turkish President (through translator): The terrorist organization has announced that it has decided to dissolve itself and hand over its weapons.

We see the decision as important in terms of cementing the security of our country, the peace of our region, the everlasting brotherhood of our people.

AMNA NAWAZ: Erdogan also said that a new window of opportunity has been opened to reach a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey is set to host talks on Thursday, though it's unclear who will be in attendance.

At the White House today, President Trump suggested he might make a detour from his Middle East trip to be there, adding that the meeting should not be underestimated.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would welcome Trump's participation after offering to meet directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia has committed to direct talks, but there's been no word on whether Putin will attend.

In the meantime, Ukrainian officials say that Moscow launched more than 100 drones overnight, killing at least one person.

The prime minister of India is warning Pakistan that his country will retaliate against any further attacks.

Narendra Modi was speaking for the first time since the nuclear-armed neighbors agreed to a cease-fire over the weekend.

That truce appeared to be holding, with officials from both sides saying there had been no firing reported overnight.

Last week, India launched strikes on alleged terrorist camps across the de facto border into Pakistan-administered Kashmir and deep into Pakistan's Punjab province.

Today, Modi characterized the truce as a pause.

NARENDRA MODI, Indian Prime Minister (through translator): If there is a terrorist attack on India, a fitting reply will be given.

We will give a befitting response on our terms only.

We will take strict action at every place from where the roots of terrorism emerge.

AMNA NAWAZ: Meanwhile, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the cease-fire over the weekend came -- quote -- "in the spirit of peace."

Pakistan denies that it backs the militants who carried out a massacre on more than two dozen tourists in India-administered Kashmir last month that kicked off this latest conflict.

The Trump administration is officially ending so-called temporary protected status, or TPS, for thousands of Afghans living in the U.S. That includes those evacuated after America's chaotic 2021 withdrawal.

In a statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that -- quote -- "Afghanistan has had an improved security situation and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country."

The United Nations has said that the situation in the Taliban-run nation continues to deteriorate.

Some 9,000 Afghans currently fall under TPS, which allows those facing war or climate disasters at home to live and work in the U.S.

The termination takes effect on July 12.

Here at home, the Justice Department says Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will take over as the new acting librarian of Congress.

Blanche is a former federal prosecutor who represented Donald Trump during his New York hush money trial last year.

He replaces longtime librarian Carla Hayden, who was fired last week amid a broader push by the Trump administration to remove officials who it perceives as opposing its agenda in some way.

At Newark Airport, flight disruptions entered a new week today with dozens of delays and cancellations.

That comes as the Federal Aviation Administration announced it will soon propose flight cuts at the airport, citing air traffic controller staffing, runway construction and equipment issues.

Newark has suffered a number of radar outages in recent weeks.

Just yesterday, the airport halted flights for around 45 minutes following a problem with the telecommunications line.

At a news conference today, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he's fast-tracking technology fixes at the airport, but the work could take as long as two weeks to complete.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is putting pressure on local governments across the state to clear homeless encampments.

His administration announced a template for a new local ordinance that would allow cities and towns to outlaw the growing number of makeshift camps in public spaces.

The model is not mandatory.

But it comes as Newsom's office is releasing $3.3 billion in funds to expand housing and treatment options for homeless residents.

More than 187,000 Californians lack housing.

That's about one-third of the nation's entire homeless population.

Pope Leo XIV called on journalists to reject divisive language today in his first address with the media as pontiff.

(APPLAUSE) AMNA NAWAZ: Leo entered the Vatican auditorium to a standing ovation from the audience.

It included some of the 6,000 reporters who came to Rome to cover his election.

The new pope affirmed freedom of speech and the press and called for the release of imprisoned journalists.

He also urged the media to use its voice to promote peace.

POPE LEO XIV, Leader of Catholic Church (through translator): Peace begins with each of us, with the way that we look at each other, listen to each other.

In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance.

We must say no to the war of words and images.

We must reject the paradigm of war.

AMNA NAWAZ: The pope also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today in his first known conversation with a foreign leader since his election last week.

In a social media post, Zelenskyy said the meeting was warm and substantive, adding that they talked about the negotiations to end the war with Russia.

Still to come on the "News Hour": a luxury Qatari jet that could be gifted to President Trump raises ethical and legal concerns; a group of white South Africans arrives in the U.S. after being granted refugee status; and Tamara Keith and Amy Walter break down the latest political headlines.

Tonight, the final living American hostage held by Hamas is free.

Edan Alexander entered Israel from Gaza earlier today in a deal made directly between Hamas and the United States.

His release came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went further than before on his plans for Gaza, calling for its reoccupation, and as President Trump left today for his four-day trip to the region.

Nick Schifrin begins with the hostage release and an emotional reunion in Israel.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Five hundred and eighty-four days.

Edan Alexander is free in his mother's arms, the Israeli-American soldier reunited with his family.

He was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and its supporters rushed into Israel and overran a nearby military base.

That day, he was just 19 years old, now 21, a native of New Jersey, where in Tenafly today, they cheered the moment they saw a native son released.

And the moment Yael Alexander got to speak to him.

YAEL ALEXANDER, Mother of Hamas Hostage: They just released a photo of you.

And you look unbelievable.

Wow, you look beautiful.

I love you so much.

I love you.

And I'm going to see you very soon, very soon.

NICK SCHIFRIN: That photo posted by Al-Jazeera, Alexander, a Red Cross officer, and Hamas gunman.

But today's release does not include nearly 60 non-American hostages still held by Hamas.

Israel and the U.S. believe as few as 20 are still alive.

Their being left behind has sparked anger.

In Tel Aviv's Hostage Square today, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker praised President Trump and attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

EINAV ZANGAUKER, Mother of Hamas Hostage: Mr. President, sir, all of the Israeli people are behind you.

End this war.

Bring them all home.

(through translator): Netanyahu, I won't let you kill my son.

The people of Israel will not let you kill our loved ones.

The people of Israel will not forgive you for these crimes of abandonment.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Netanyahu today took partial credit with Trump.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator): This was achieved thanks to military pressure and the diplomatic pressure exerted by President Trump.

This combination is a winning formula.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Tonight, Netanyahu went further, telling wounded soldiers that Israel had made a decision to reoccupy Gaza.

"Things have changed," he said.

"A decision has been made to go all the way.

We will conquer Gaza and our security control there will be permanent."

In Gaza, Israel has blocked all aid for two months, deepening the deprivation.

Today, an umbrella organization of U.N. and international humanitarian groups declared that nearly half-a-million people face catastrophic hunger and are at risk of famine.

In the next 11 months, more than 70,000 children are expected to be acutely malnourished.

The U.N. has recently run out of food, and residents say what little food is left in the markets is overpriced.

MUNIR FAQAW, Khan Yunis Resident (through translator): We are starved.

Children are dying.

Children need nutrition.

There is none of that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. is trying to put together an independent effort to resupply Gaza using private contractors and private security, but aid agencies do not believe that will work, Amna, either in the time or the scale that's needed.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, let's begin with that news from Netanyahu.

What has been the reaction in Israel to his statement that they want to reoccupy, calling for permanent control of Gaza?

NICK SCHIFRIN: So he spoke to a group called the War Wounded Forum for Decisive Victory.

They confirmed Netanyahu's comments to me, but the prime minister's officials have not actually explain exactly what he meant.

But the statement comes about one week after Israel said it was going to change its military strategy in Gaza, away from targeted raids in certain areas in Gaza to actually holding areas and clearing areas, and then forcibly moving the population of Northern Gaza to Southern Gaza, all of which will require tens of thousands of additional reservists that are being called up right now throughout Israel.

And all of that will bring more pain to the people of Gaza, Says Hussein Ibish of the Arab Gulf States Institutes in Washington.

HUSSEIN IBISH, Senior Resident Scholar, Arab Gulf States Institute: Israel's plans are going to be an absolute catastrophe for the people of Gaza.

The majority, the non-Hamas majority of the 2.2 million Palestinians, will be herded into a tiny enclave in Gaza, where they may or may not get enough food, medicine, water, et cetera to survive.

Meanwhile, the most extreme and militant factions in Hamas will get a war that they have been yearning for.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But Israeli officials, Amna, say that military pressure is the only way to get Hamas to agree to any deal when it comes to the release of the hostages.

And they indicate the next stage of the war could start as soon as this coming weekend after President Trump leaves the region.

AMNA NAWAZ: Nick, among your sources, and staying in Israel here, is there any concern about the decisions that President Trump seems to be making here without any kind of coordination with Prime Minister Netanyahu?

NICK SCHIFRIN: There is absolutely concern among the officials I speak to, mainly because of three decisions that the president has made with Steve Witkoff, one of his most senior aides that you saw in the video there.

One is the release of Edan Alexander, which Witkoff led directly with Hamas over Israeli officials' heads, number two, a U.S. cease-fire with the Houthis in Yemen, despite the fact that the Houthis have not agreed to stop fire at Israel, in fact, recently fired at Israel again, and U.S. direct talks with Iran, something that was announced by President Trump while Netanyahu was actually in the Oval Office.

A U.S. official tells me this.

On the one hand, there's no daylight between Netanyahu and -- Bibi and President Trump, in the sense that President Trump has not criticized Netanyahu's plans for Gaza, at least not publicly.

And last week, Trump met with Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu top aide for many years.

That's an unusual level of coordination with a minister from a foreign government by the president.

But, on the other hand, this U.S. official says there's definitely a different approach that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu has.

This official says President Trump's been vocally anti-war and is trying to make deals that end the wars in Gaza and prevent a war in Iran, whereas Netanyahu has talked about military action in Gaza, in Lebanon, and floated the idea of military action in Iran.

And the official warns me that, as long as this war in Gaza continues, the more likely it is that President Trump will see Netanyahu as unwilling to compromise and make the kinds of deals that are clearly the priority of President Trump going into this Middle East trip, which, notably, by the way, does not include a stop in Israel.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell us more about that trip.

These kinds of presidential trips usually have some sort of big announcements attached to them.

What should we expect from this one?

NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, we call them deliverables in the news business, right?

President Trump is on the way to Saudi Arabia right now, where a senior official there tells me that the deals announced tomorrow during this trip will include artificial intelligence, space technology, and energy, including a reference of future U.S. support for civilian nuclear energy in Saudi Arabia.

But much of the trip, this official and other officials tell me, will be focused on business deals.

And these will be billed as enormous investments in the U.S. and into the U.S. economy.

And that approach, according to analysts I speak to, works for Gulf leaders.

They need U.S. military assistance.

They need U.S. engagement in the region.

And they see flattering Trump, an investment in America, as the best way to do that.

And they welcome how Trump administration officials have taken a more realist approach to the region, says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

JON ALTERMAN, Center for Strategic and International Studies: They don't talk about democratization.

They don't talk about human rights.

They don't talk about humanitarian assistance.

They don't talk about all sorts of things that a lot of regional governments feel are naive and weaken them in terms of security in the name of rights.

And this more transactional president narrows the area of interest of the United States in ways they feel is in their interest and gives them something to work with.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, Amna, what will not happen this week, any meetings between Trump and Putin in Saudi Arabia, something that Saudi officials hoped would happen.

AMNA NAWAZ: All, Nick Schifrin, thank you very much.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump says the U.S. government is poised to accept an airplane from Qatar valued at nearly $400 million.

He explained on social media: "The Defense Department is getting a gift free of charge of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One."

The announcement has raised ethical and national security concern.

We're joined now by Kathleen Clark, an expert in legal and government ethics and professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

Thanks for being here.

KATHLEEN CLARK, Washington University of Saint Louis: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, President Trump today, he called the offer of this airplane, he said it was a nice gesture that would be stupid to turn down.

And the attorney general, Pam Bondi, reportedly said in a memo that this was perfectly legal because it was a donation.

Bondi, we should say, worked as a foreign lobbyist for Qatar.

What questions does all of this raise for you?

KATHLEEN CLARK, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law: This appears to be an illegal, unconstitutional payoff from a foreign government to the president at a scale we actually have never seen, on the order of $400 million.

GEOFF BENNETT: You use the word payoff.

Why?

KATHLEEN CLARK: I use the word payoff because it implies corruption, and that's what we're talking about here.

Our founders put into our Constitution a prohibition on government officials, including the president, accepting payments, gifts from foreign governments.

They didn't want our government officials to have tainted -- to be tainted by this kind of conflict of interest.

And that's why the Constitution includes this Emoluments Clause and says that the president and others cannot accept such gifts, unless Congress specifically authorizes it.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about the level of transparency?

The administration says this is all happening out in the open, there should be no concerns.

Does that in any way counteract the perceived conflict of interest?

KATHLEEN CLARK: Not at all.

This is not a situation where disclosure cures the crime or disclosure cures the conflict.

Our founders didn't say the president and others cannot accept gifts from foreign potentates unless they disclose them.

They said the president and others cannot accept gifts from foreign potentates unless Congress affirmatively consents.

GEOFF BENNETT: The president said that this plane will be a gift to the Department of Defense and once he's no longer in office it will be decommissioned, then go to the Trump Library.

He says there's precedent for this because Ronald Reagan did it and there's a decommissioned Air Force One at Reagan's presidential library.

What do you make of that?

KATHLEEN CLARK: There is no precedent that I'm aware of, of a president accepting a gift on this scale from a foreign government.

And the fact that he's doing so while laundering it through the Department of Defense and using it as the equivalent of Air Force One for a couple of years does not in any way diminish the corrupt nature of this deal.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about the national security concerns?

Air Force One is a flying fortress for the president of the United States.

If this were to move forward the U.S. Air Force would, of course, have to receive this plane.

They'd have to basically strip it down, search for surveillance devices, and then rebuild it to fit the needs of transporting a president.

The idea that an Air Force One would originate for from a foreign government, what questions does that raise?

KATHLEEN CLARK: It raises all sorts of questions about electronic security.

But even in the way you phrase that question, it undermines the claim that this is actually some kind of bargain for the federal government.

It's not that the federal government is getting the equivalent of Air Force One for free.

They're getting an airplane frame that they will then have to, as you say, strip down and examine for countermeasures, electronic countermeasures, and then provide it with the same kind of capacity that our Air Force One jets have.

This is no bargain.

It's not even a corrupt bargain.

It's just corrupt.

GEOFF BENNETT: If this moves forward, what precedent does it set, not just for President Trump, but for future presidents?

KATHLEEN CLARK: I'd say that President Trump thinks he's going to get away with this.

And if he does, we can anticipate his convincing some other foreign government to provide more lavish gifts to him in the future.

I won't posit what the future holds past the Trump presidency, but I suspect that this will not be the last time that President Trump attempts to violate the Emoluments Clause.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, this administration, presented with this offer, should just say, thanks, but no thanks?

KATHLEEN CLARK: Absolutely, yes.

Be gracious when someone offers a gift, and refuse it where it would be corrupt, as this one would.

GEOFF BENNETT: Kathleen Clark, thank you so much for your insights.

KATHLEEN CLARK: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's take a deeper dive now into President Trump's plan to lower pharmaceutical drug prices which he announced today in the Oval Office.

Stephanie Sy joins us with more -- Stephanie.

STEPHANIE SY: Amna, unlike in other countries, in the U.S., pharmaceutical companies set the prices of drugs with few restraints, which means in many cases we pay a lot more compared to, say, Canadians or Europeans.

The U.S. is where these companies make most of their profits, including those that go into research and innovation for new and better drugs.

President Trump wants the prices Americans pay to be on par with the lowest prices paid in other nations.

For more on what his executive order could mean, I'm joined by Stacie Dusetzina of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Stacie, thank you so much for joining the "News Hour."

As you know, there is bipartisan agreement that Americans pay too much for these drugs.

Former President Biden made this a policy priority as well.

What does today's E.O.

do, and do you think it could move the needle?

STACIE DUSETZINA, Vanderbilt University: Thanks very much for having me.

Today's executive order is a bit light on details, but one of the first steps that they have articulated in the executive order is to open up price negotiations with drug manufacturers, and presumably having those negotiations take place over the next 30 days or so, with the goal of having prices in the U.S. be more similar to other countries.

They also mentioned that, if those negotiations are not successful at bringing down the prices substantially, that they will take another series of actions which, would include more formal rulemaking around things like a most favored nations proposal, which we actually saw something similar to that in the prior Trump administration.

STEPHANIE SY: Americans pay three times as much for prescription drugs than citizens of peer nations.

Stacie, listen to what President Trump said he wants to see now.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's called most favored nation.

We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world.

We will get whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're going to get.

STEPHANIE SY: Stacie, you laid out some of what the president hopes he can do.

How realistic, though, is that kind of price decrease so suddenly?

STACIE DUSETZINA: I wouldn't expect to see changes soon, even if changes do occur.

I think there are a couple of incredibly difficult challenges associated with lowering prices to what our international peers pay.

And one of the most basic challenges is that we don't really know what they pay.

So we might know what the sticker price is for them, the list price of the drug, but we might not actually know what the negotiated discounted price is that they pay.

So there are a lot of details here that will slow this process down.

Basically, if I were a patient, I would not necessarily expect to see any changes in the price you're paying at the pharmacy for quite some time.

STEPHANIE SY: The president, though, is hinting that he would use other federal agencies to make doing business harder for the big pharmaceutical companies if they don't cooperate.

For example, he's threatening antitrust actions by the Department of Justice.

He's also saying that the government is going to be targeting not only drugs that they pay for under Medicare, but Medicaid.

And the order directs the FDA to look into importing more drugs from foreign countries.

What do you think of those potential actions.

Could that be enough to scare these drug companies essentially into lowering prices?

STACIE DUSETZINA: It's possible that it could move the needle for some companies and some products, especially for companies that have products that maybe are ending their normal life cycle, so maybe they're facing generic competition.

So those companies might be willing to be one of the first to negotiate a favorable deal.

But, by and large, many of the policy options that have been put forward under this executive order have been things that have been explored either under the current administration or prior administrations, and they're very difficult to implement.

A very good example is drug importation.

A lot of those policies rely on things like importing drugs through Canada, which we have seen over and over Canada is not willing to participate in a drug importation program with the U.S. when thinking about large purchases from the U.S.

So I think that these are threats, but whether or not the drug companies think that these are going to be credible threats is something different.

STEPHANIE SY: Let's say Trump were able to pull off lowering prices to what, again, peer nation citizens are already paying.

How big of an impact would that have on U.S. consumers?

STACIE DUSETZINA: It would depend a lot on which programs are affected and which drugs.

But let's say that it was a broad approach to lowering prices of drugs, it applied to all insured populations.

It could have a substantial impact.

Again, the logistical challenge of understanding what price is paid in other countries is one that has not been solved, even as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has explored different options for implementing this type of policy.

So one question that I think is really outstanding is, how do we know what those prices are?

And if we can't observe the real prices and the pharmaceutical companies just push up the list prices, the sticker price in other countries, we might be able to match that, but then that's not real savings for us.

So, again, I think that the possibility of savings is very dependent on some of these logistical issues that I don't believe have been fully worked out.

STEPHANIE SY: That is Stacie Dusetzina at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Stacie, thank you.

STACIE DUSETZINA: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Today, nearly 60 white South Africans were admitted into the United States.

It's part of President Donald Trump's resettlement program for white Afrikaners, largely descendants of Dutch and French colonial settlers in South Africa.

Afrikaners also led the racist apartheid government there until it ended in 1994.

Today, the White House alleges that a new South African law which redistributes unused land to the state is racist and that the white minority is being persecuted by the Black-led government.

President Trump even halted all aid to South Africa back in February.

Applications from these white families were fast-tracked by the administration, even as it suspended the U.S. refugee resettlement program, leaving thousands of approved refugees worldwide stranded.

Joining us now is Bill Frelick, the head of the Refugee and Migrants Rights Division at Human Rights Watch.

Bill, welcome to the "News Hour."

BILL FRELICK, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division Director, Human Rights Watch: Good to be here.

AN So President Trump was asked about the classification of these families as refugees.

Here's what he had to say about conditions in South Africa.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing that's taking place.

And farmers are being killed.

They happen to be white, but whether they're white or Black makes no difference to me, but white farmers are being brutally killed, and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.

AMNA NAWAZ: White farmers being brutally killed, their land being confiscated, what do you make of these allegations of white genocide, as the president has said, as we know Elon Musk has said before, and the classification of these families as refugees?

BILL FRELICK: Well, this is not actually supported from any of the information that we have seen.

The expropriation law that you mentioned only came into effect in January, and it is stated that it is for noncompensation for private land that would go into public hands if that land has been unused, if there's nobody living and working on that land or developing it.

And, so far, of course, none of that land has actually been taken.

So there have been homicide rates that are high rates in South Africa.

I think it was like 13,000 in 2023, but only single digits were farmers that were killed.

Now, you don't want anyone to be killed, and I don't want to disparage any one person's story, but we don't have the phenomenon of people fleeing the country, as we do with refugees all over the world.

There are about 38 million refugees in the world who, by definition, are people who have crossed an international border because they're fleeing persecution, they're fleeing war, they're fleeing conflict, and there are no Afrikaner refugee camps.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees didn't refer any South Africans of any background, of any race, of any language for settlement in the last year.

So this is something really new and different from anything we have seen.

AMNA NAWAZ: And the families who arrived today were approved in a few months time.

We understand they're flown over on a State Department chartered flight.

Is that the usual process for refugee resettlement?

BILL FRELICK: No.

I mean, one, you often have refugees that have spent years and years in refugee camps.

And then out of the millions of refugees in the world, less than 1 percent are ever even referred for third country resettlement.

They have exhaustive vetting, security screening, health screening, screening to make sure that they actually do have a well-founded fear of being persecuted.

And they usually are people that have great difficulties in the country of first asylum.

They're people that have difficulties in the refugee camps in which they're living.

Maybe they're being persecuted in the country of first arrival as well.

So these are circumstances that you would assess on a case-by-case basis.

And that takes a long period of time to do.

This was done in three months.

And these are people that came directly from their country of origin.

They were not people that were living in refugee camps.

They were not people that were vetted by the U.N.

Refugee Agency or referred to the United States in the normal way.

And they were flown here in chartered planes paid for directly by the U.S. Usually, it's the International Organization for Migration that does travel loans that refugees are expected to pay back actually upon arrival.

AMNA NAWAZ: As we speak, we know the Trump administration has ended deportation protections for a number of countries, people from Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan.

The refugee resettlement program, as we noted, has been halted.

It's very difficult to ignore the racial dynamics here.

White South Africans have been allowed in, while people from majority Black and brown countries have been kept out.

What do you see when you look at these policies?

BILL FRELICK: Clearly, there's a racial twist here.

When you see, again, going in the first Trump administration, where he described Haitians as coming from four-letter word countries, that he said he wanted people that looked like Norwegians to come to the United States.

And in 2018, long before the Russians had invaded Ukraine, under the first Trump administration, the group that he chose to increase the refugee numbers were Ukrainians, while there was a dramatic decrease, slashing of refugee numbers in Africa, in the Middle East, and in the rest of the world.

And so now we have seen a complete closing of the door, a total suspension of the refugee resettlement program for all refugees everywhere, and then, 18 days later, another executive order that privileges only white South Africans.

AMNA NAWAZ: Bill Frelick from Human Rights Watch, thank you for being here.

We appreciate your time.

BILL FRELICK: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, it has been a busy day, with the announcement this morning of a pause in the trade war with China and President Trump leaving for a nearly weeklong trip to the Middle East.

Let's delve a little deeper into those topics and more with Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

It's good to see you both.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Hello.

GEOFF BENNETT: So we awoke this morning to news of a 90-day truce in President Trump's trade war with China.

Tam, based on your reporting, was this the plan all along, be tough on tariffs, hope that China flinches and negotiate a deal, or was just the turmoil in the markets and the economy just too much for this administration to bear?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: The plan all along is tariffs.

President Trump is someone who has talked about wanting there to be tariffs against pretty much every country in the world on imports from everywhere.

He has always wanted to be tougher on China.

What happened here is essentially the tariff level that President Trump imposed on China, and then China retaliated, and then the U.S. retaliated.

And then it got to a level where it was essentially a trade embargo.

Whether it's 80 percent or 100 percent or 135 percent, those goods are not being transferred between the countries.

And so where they are now is 30 percent for imports to the U.S. and 10 percent for imports to China.

That is in the neighborhood of what President Trump had discussed on the campaign trail, which at the time was roundly rejected by economists and others, who said that would disadvantage American consumers, would make things more expensive, would hurt small businesses.

But now it's like, wow, those tariffs really came down.

This is such a dramatic reduction from where it was.

So, in a way, President Trump has, by imposing these so-called reciprocal tariffs that are extremely high, conditioned people to be OK with the tariffs that he truly has been talking about all along.

If you will note, the deal, which is a preliminary deal with the U.K., those tariffs are also at 10 percent.

President Trump has made clear that he thinks a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imports to the U.S. is something that he'd like to have because he wants the revenue from it, though that is widely seen as revenue that would be paid by the American people.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

And, Amy, the president had said that these tariffs are hard medicine.

That was the phrase that he used.

It apparently works both ways, hard medicine for the American people, but also for the administration.

AMY WALTER: Yes, what's been interesting to watch today, Wall Street obviously very happy with what it's seeing, you talked about Dow shooting up.

It's not really clear that consumers or voters are feeling similarly.

And when you look at the president's overall approval rating, especially on the issues of the -- excuse me - - especially on the issue of the economy, you can see from February until now it's dropped a net of 20 points.

Some of that was due to concerns about this, right, what's happening with China, all this talk about 145 tariffs and Christmas presents not coming in and you're only going to get two dolls, and all the anxiety around that.

But there's also something more, I think, underneath it.

And this is why I think you also had the president today coming out and talking about drug prices.

There's still an overwhelming anxiousness among the public about the current cost of living.

Take away tariffs, but they feel as if they voted, many of them voted for Donald Trump because he was the one that they thought was going to best -- was best able to tackle the day-to-day cost of living.

I have been listening into a lot of focus groups recently and that's what you hear more and more of is, my rent's still unsustainable.

The grocery bill is too high.

So I will be watching these job approval ratings to see if talk of putting the tariff on pause only maybe helps Wall Street, but it's not really helping consumers feel that much better.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Tam, with the president on his, -- or embarking now on his first foreign trip of his second term, might there be egos of his first foreign trip of his first term, in the sense that he's looking for quick economic wins on trade, on technology potentially, economic investments from these three countries that he's visiting?

TAMARA KEITH: And arms sales.

That is a big part of this.

And President Trump, I was on his first trip to Saudi Arabia the last time.

I'm obviously not on this trip.

He's in the air right now.

But on that trip, he celebrated $110 billion of arms sales to Saudi Arabia that could grow to $350 billion, including also some commercial deals.

The numbers were always a little squishy, but going back and looking to see what ended up with those deals, it's clear that those numbers weren't hit.

They're not even close to those numbers because it turns out these sorts of foreign military sales transactions are really complicated.

A memorandum of understanding between a Saudi business and American business is not actually a new factory being built.

And so what we know is that President Trump said, I will go back to Saudi Arabia again if they up it to a trillion dollars.

He literally said that multiple times, sort of conditioning the trip on this.

And what we know is that all of these countries want to lavish the president with these sorts of deals that offer that quick fix, that big headline, something to celebrate, even as the rest of the foreign policy is complicated, bogged down and not going to deliver quick wins.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, let's talk about that airplane, because it's not just Democrats who are raising alarm about Qatar reportedly offering this $400 million version of Air Force One.

It's also dividing MAGA world, apparently.

AMY WALTER: Yes, it is.

From the left, you're hearing a lot about the cronyism and the corruption.

But from the right, what you're hearing from some of the more outspoken folks either in the Twitterverse or who have their own sort of podcast space is that Qatar is not our friend.

They are friends of Hamas.

They are friends of Hezbollah.

They are not America's friends.

We should not be accepting this from Qatar.

So they're not taking it as something that this is an Emoluments Clause problem.

And Ari Fleischer, who is definitely very supportive of this president, worked for a previous president, George W. Bush, said, I just don't think we should be getting Air Force One from a foreign country, certainly not from a king.

GEOFF BENNETT: More to come.

Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, thank you.

Thank you both.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: And that's the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

AMNA NAWAZ: And I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us.