NBC News Anchor Shocked to Find Just How Much Local News Now Dominated By Trump Tariffs and ICE Raids

NBC News anchor Tom Llamas told CNBC that he was stunned by how dominant two of President Donald Trump’s signature policies have been on local newscasts.

Llamas took over the NBC Nightly News anchor chair from Lester Holt on Monday. But in advance of the promotion, he visited local newsrooms across the country on something of a listening tour.

Llamas shared his insights on Tuesday’s edition of CNBC’s Squawk Box, and told the show’s hosts that he was struck by the “universal” dominance of tariffs and ICE raids in the lead stories around the nation:

TOM LLAMAS: Local news, I came from local news, spent some of my best years working in newsrooms in Miami and New York City and really honed my skills there.

NBC News did something interesting. Over the last month, they actually pulled me off the air in a big way, and I traveled the country going to local stations, getting into local newsrooms, meeting with anchors and reporters from all over the country from places like Memphis and Baltimore, and and getting to know these people.

Listening to them. Making sure that they know who I am, but I know who they are. So when they need, cause we ask them for help a lot. They’re our eyes and ears all over the country in these towns and cities where maybe we don’t have bureaus.

And it was, I got to tell you, it was thrilling to talk to them and it was invigorating because local news is great. They’re still working real hard. They’ve never been asked to do more. And it’s really nice to see.

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Okay, so here’s my question after you’ve gone on this this road show of sorts. You’ve been around the country.

How do you think people feel? Genuinely about the economy right now?

TOM LLAMAS: Yeah, I think it’s interesting.

The two stories that I saw in every local newsroom were immigration raids that were happening in these towns and cities, and then tariff stories. And those were leading the newscasts across the board.

And it was funny, because every time I looked up, I was like, “Wow!”.

Because usually every lead is different in every city, but… Universally right now that’s what people are talking about that’s what people were doing.

I think what Courtney did just now that was a master class in how to do the tariff story. I think it’s really complicated. I think its changing people’s viewing habits.

Someone like myself, I watch the Today Show and my next move is CNBC because I know I got to understand that the business news of the day, it wasn’t always that way.

I mean I’ve always watched CNBC but now every day it changes, the tariffs. Every day there’s new news and it’s going to affect people’s bottom line.

Watch above via CNBC’s Squawk Box.