stephen collinson and nia-malika henderson are back.re also joined by naveed shah, an iraq war veteran and political director of the veterans group common defense. so, naveed, i want to start with you because it was a bit of a plot twist, i think, for the administration to learn 30% of the workforce, of the federal workforce they were cutting were veterans. but as you see this moving towards the va itself, do you see it as part of the privatization movement? >> absolutely. it definitely seems like what the they intend to do is cut the va bit by bit. and this has been an ongoing problem with different pieces of legislation that the republicans have passed, like the mission act and the community cares act. they've been sniping at the va and cutting it bit by bit, and now it seems like they're taking trying to take a big chunk out of it. >> but they don't call it sniping. right. they're saying make it more efficient or i think pete hegseth said something like, let the dollars follow the veterans. they take the money and go where they need

cnn's jeff zeleny, ayesha rascoe of npr, cnn's kayla tausche, and cnn's stephen collinson. hello, everybody. um, i just want to pick up where vanessa just left off. i mean, there were so many data points that really do hit home the impact of these tariffs. uh, $1,200 a year, for example, is one estimate that is going to be the increase in prices for the average consumer. this is what donald trump ran on, on making the crisis of affordability better. so far it ain't happening. >> without question. and even if this was, you know, this is not happening in a vacuum. i mean, even if it was just this, it would be significant for prices. but it's not i mean, high prices on goods are already one of the central challenges of the administration. that was yesterday. never mind today, not just eggs and other things, but there is a sense of of consumer confidence has been shaky. and this is only adding to that fact. the president talks a lot, and i expect we'll hear him tonight talking again about all the battleground states he won. he talks about wisconsin. he talks about michigan. he

. >> margaret talev, nia-malika henderson, stephen collinson, who i love to read online, columnist at cnn. i want to thank you guys for being here, having a group chat with me. i also want to thank you for waking up with us. i'm audie cornish and cnn news central begins right now. >> all right. we do have breaking news. president trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as today that would dismantle the entire department of education. >> and happening now, european leaders gathered at a crucial summit with ukrainian president zelenskyy. can eu leaders fill in the gap left by president trump after his decision to pull u.s. aid from ukraine? >> also new this morning, there's new dna evidence discovered on one of the victims in the idaho quadruple murder case. i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner. this is cnn news central all right. >> breaking this morning was one hell of a headline in the politico playbook. look at that. school's out forever. well, there it went. moments ago, sources confirmed to cnn that president trump is preparing to sign an order to elimin