Personnel Changes and Congressional Drama

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Ashy Lopez, I cover politics. I'm Franco Oorddonia, as I cover the White House. and I'm Mara Lyason, senior national political correspondent. And we're recording this at twelve twenty PM Eastern Time on Friday, june twelfth, twenty twenty six. It's been another busy week in politics, one with a lot of whiplash as President Trump went back and forth between making threats to Iran and suggesting a peace deal may be imminent I mean, let's take a quick trip down memory lane. Stay with me guys. This is like a lot of back and forth. So Trump started off on Monday early in the morning with a truth social post that he reiterated later during a tele rally for South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham We're negotiating now and they want to make a very good deal. They're willing to give us everything. They're willing to give us no nuclear weapons And on Wednesday, he seemed to reverse himself Well we're going be attacking them and attacking them very hard. Cut to Thursday morning, he doubled down, threatening to take Carg Island in another social media post before again, reversing course, both on social media and during an event in the Oval Office We have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon which was the whole purpose of what We had to go through it to get this. It was a big, very big thing But u We have a signigning soon and the documentsary Pre prettytty final shape, so we'll see. I'll see And then this morning he reversed himself again. He made more threats on truth social Franka what is going on? I mean, look, it's a lot of whiplash and it's the kind of whiplash that we have been watching over the last several weeks. but I will say this week, it was just to an exponential degree. I mean, it was just so much back and forth. And I think it really kind of shows the kind of box that Trump is in as he really tries to end this war. Sometimes it seems like he's trying to end the war with his own words As we saw with the, you know the downing of the Apache helicopter and the fact that Israel will make strikes when he doesn't want them to. It just shows that there are so many other things that are just out of his control and he cannot end this war with his rhetoric. I mean, I've spoken with several analysts who just tell me that he's trying to manufacture a reality that is not true. And you can kind of see why with, you know, inflation hitting these high numbers, his popularity remains low. I mean, he's under a lot of pressure to kind of deal with getting that cost down. he's also I think wants to you know reassure Americans that the narrative that he told is going to work out and that he just needs a little bit more time. But the reality again is that gas prices keep going up, electricity is still more expensive U and after weeks and weeks and weeks, people are just not necessarily believing as much, you know, when he says this is around the corner You know, he the velocity of the whiplash has just been getting exponentially faster. He went from yesterday in the Oval Office saying that there was going to be a time and a place for signing the agreement, maybe in Europe today saying that the terms that Iran leaked were completely false. and it's all totally unacceptable. They better get their act together and fast He's in a box of his own making. I mean, he started a war he thought would be easy to win just like the military action in Venezuela where the U. S. military went in and grabbed Nicholas Maduro. But it turns out it's not like that at all. And it turns out that the enemy gets a vote and Iran has some cards to play and he can't figure out a face saving off ramp stop this unless he does what he attacked Barack Obama for doing, which is to giving Iran a lot of money in exchange for opening up the Strait of Hormuz, which still wouldn't solve the big reason that he says he went to war in Iran, which is to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. Yeah, I should say this was all in the backdrop when he was attending the Nicks game in New York City this week and He has also spent a lot of time this week talking about his building projects. I mean to the president's comments this week amidst all of what's going on in Iran? What does this tell us about where his focus is? Yeah, I mean, I definitely think it shows that it's in many different places. I mean, in some ways, it's kind of like you have like these two different presidents on the one hand You have a president who's kind of mixing threats and diplomacy as he tries to end this war. And then the other, you have one who's kind of dialed into this cultural moment, you know, going to basketball games, the NBA playoffs, you know, hosting a World Cup and also planning to host a UFC fight, an ultimate fighting, championship, mixed martial arts battle on the same weekend as his birthday. I mean, Trump has always kind of meshed sports and politics like no other president. But I do think what is so fascinating is he's doing at a time of war when most past presidents would have, you know, just I felt like this moment needed to be as serious as possible, really calibrate any type of message and not try to do anything that could be know seen as frivolous Now supporters will say, well, that just shows his versatility, that shows how close he is with the working man or how he relates with them. But critics are going to say, look, this is someone who's distracted who is out of touch with the seriousness of the moment. Yeah. And Mara, I was struck by the fact that he went as far as to say he's bored by the negotiations with at one point he said he was bored by the negotiations can tell that he is because he's so much more interested in talking about other things like the buildings he's planning to build on the mall or painting the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting pool or pond, as he calls it. So yeah, he is distracted. And what's interesting to me is that he is still not immune to the laws of political gravity. His approval ratings are really low. People don't like the war. People don't like the fact that taxpayers are paying for the ballroom and other of his building projects, even when he promised that they wouldn't But he's not on the ballot and he's pretty unfettered. I mean, there are no real political consequences for him. There will be political consequences for his party, but we don't know yet how important Republicans winning in the midterms is to Trump because he's doing a whole lot of things to undercut Yeah, I mean, there's no political repercussions yet in his b base anyway, right? becausecause his approval r not on the ballot. won't be on the ballot. Yeah, but polland shows he's been pretty unpopular. Yes, he certainly has consequences in terms of polling, but I'm just saying he's not going to face the electorate again. so he doesn't have electoral consequences. Yeah. do What do you guys think voters probably want to be hearing from Trump right now know how he's going to bring prices down. And I think voters don't just want him to tell them he's going to bring prices down because he's done that ad nauseum, but they want to see prices come down and he hasn't been able to do that, and the war in Iran is keeping prices high I mean, the fact that the Strait of Hormuz still has not opened, that Iran still has control over it is just making Energy prices surge, gas prices, electricity prices, and that is leading to all different type of other goods and services being expensive. So life just does not seem like it's going to start getting less costly until this war is over. But Trump hasn't been able to figure out how to end it. A, he's trying to will it to an end But that's not happening. Yeah. I guess my last question for you guys is like, are there any geopolitical repercussions to Trump zigzagging so much on this, like being so inconsistent on the message of how things are going in Iran I mean, I'd say yes. I mean, look, Europe is seeing the same things that we're seeing. Trump zig zagging that his message changing I mean, they have to take that into consideration when they are dealing with the president. They have been taking that into consideration. I mean, next week, Trump is actually heading to Southern France to attend the G seven summit where he's going to be talking with leaders about Iran and a host of issues. You know, I've been talking with diplomats and analysts about this trip And they're telling me that that these leaders are trying to do everything possible they can to kind of avoid kind of getting too much into this whiplash. They don't want to deal with any controversy because he could do the same lashing out at them. Sometimes he lashes out even when they haven't done anything to anger him. Like when they've agreed to certain conditions or a certain tariff rate, and then he turns around and decides he wants it higher. So there's no predictability here. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a quick break more in a moment Welcome back. and we have some new economic data this week showing that inflation hit a three year high now above four percent, which is at least in part a result of the war in Iran Trump was asked about those numbers on Wednesday and said this. You know what, I really love. I love the inflation. You know why Be as soon as this war is over You know, I can say it now Something you didn't know. you know, we've been taken out Millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now I love the inflation. Franco, what does Trump mean by this? What he said he was trying to say is that he loved that the inflation was going to go down becausecause once they end this war, inflation would roll and he was referring to kind of the oil tankers as bringing in so much oil that the numbers would quickly go down Yeah. Well, you know, he's also said in the past that he is not thinking about Americans financial situations. He said the economy is great He said gas prices are going to come down really, really fast when the war is over The problem is that all of these statements, even if he tries to explain them later are all going to appear in Democratic political campaign ads this fall. Yeah, you can see kind of like the Democratic advertising writers kind of clipping those those those points right there. Yeah, which I imagine is what voters are going to hear more of. They're less likely to get like a associated press fee. They're going to hear those ads. No, I mean, look, the Democrats are very you know Politically, they' arere very excited by all these things happening. They want nothing more from a political standpoint to be able to point to President Trump and say that he is distracted by all these interests that he have, his priorities, whether it's foreign intervention, an arch near the Lincoln Memorial, fixing the pond, building a ballroom president is so focused on his own personal goals and not focused on the issues that you, the American people want, which is lowering the cost of living. Yeah. and we've talked about this before, Maara, which is like there are parts of the economy and they're like Trump doesn't have full control over what Iran does. But do you think it would be just politically beneficial for Trump to be making the show that he's trying to solve these things Well, there are certainly a lot of Republicans who think that They're concerned about the midterms and they're concerned about all the things that Trump is doing that's making their life harder in the midterms Whether he went out and showed that he cared about ordinary people's financial situation would change the dynamics of the midtermss is unclear. But there's no doubt that if you had a secret ballot Republicans who are up for elections would say they wish that he would stop talking about all the things he's building on the mall and start talking about how he is helping ordinary people. Now let's be clear that when you ask the White House and you ask President Trump whether he's doing that, he says yes. He is working on these issues, and he is talking to voters. He's going to Wisconsin to talk to farmers. He's going to Florida to talk to seniors and talk about the work on prescription drugs and lowering the cost of drugs. That said, you know, just pointing out all the issues that we're talking about the buildings, when you really kind of fine tune and look at what he's talking about more and you compare it scale by scale, Clearly, the issues that he's most focused on are Iran, the foreign intervention and all these building projects Yeah Before we wrap things up, I do want to talk about something in the news this week. We saw another example of Trump backpedaling with his pick for director of national intelligence. Last week, he named Bill Polty, his acting director of National intelligence, which sparked a backlash among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Then yesterday, he named Jay Clayton as a permanent pick for the role, but not before the drama prevented Congress from voting to renew a key surveillance before it expired today How do you guys Read how all this went down Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of controversy about Bill Polty when Trump announced him. I mean, Bill Pouty, he was the head of the Federal Housing Finance aggency, but he was so controversial because he had no military background, He had no intelligence background. And many people, including Republicans thought he was more of a Trump attack dog than someone who could legitimately serve in this role I think that all of these controversies on Capitol Hill have shown that Republicans are slightly more willing to They're angry about a lot of things that he's done to make their lives harder. And I don't think this adds up to a big rift I don't think he's losing control of Congress. He still has a pretty rock solid hold on the base of his party. But a handful of them are willing to push back now. Eespecially now. I mean, the primaries are over, you know, where Trump can do the most damage is lessened. Now a lot of the, you know, this handful of Republicans that Mara's talking about who are speaking out, they're likely looking at, you know, general elections where they got to appeal to more independent and more moderate voters. Yeah. The primaries are over for some We still have until September, but I imagine the more some of these Republicans in more purply areas, they win their primaries, they're going to have to pivot away from the president. Anyways. All right, Mara, we have to let you go. We're going to take a quick break and when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go And we're back and political reporter Elena Moore joins us now. H It's time to end the show like we do every week with Can't Let it go. The part of the show where we talk about the things from the week that we just can't stop thinking about, politics or otherwise I'll go first I I've been wanting to talk about this for a while, but I feel like now is the time and I'll get into why. So it all out. I want to talk about Congresswoman Alexandro O Casio Cortez I Just she happens to be the person in Congress who most descriptively represents me for people who did not subject themselves to polyi one hundred and one. That just means like our demographics are very similar. We the same age. She's a Latina from the Caribbean diaspora, likeike our cultures are very similar. Blah, blah, blah, Who cares about that? I'm going to tell you about the one way in which she really represents me in which she is't Have it Obsessive, knitter. No way Yeah. So CNN had a story out this week. They followed her on the road. She's sort of road testing some messaging across the country. The articles' like, oh, you know, she's looking at a possible Senate run, maybe a presidential run in twenty twenty anyways. And the opener to this piece was that Alexandrio Casio Cortz has been doing a lot of knitting lately. They talked about how she's churning out a collection of hats and sweaters as she's like talking about messaging and her endorsements and stuff like that. And I just I love that. I am also an obsessive, avid knitter. Have you checked out her work I have. and I and the reason why I'm like, I've wanted to talk about this before is because I do remember her doing like an Instagram live And she was knitting and she was talking to people about what happened U, And I was like, of course What sweater is she knitt? Yeah, you want to know details.. And so I learned it was a step by step sweater, which signaled to me it was probably her first sweater because it's like a very popular first sweater. Anyways I just love this. I want to I know that there are probably more members of Congress who knit a lot Do a shout out. Yeah be like, hey, if you're knitting and you're in Congress Talk about it more. Iard hear about that than a lot of other stuff. Come on the politics. Is the most Talk about knitting Felt seen. Yeahah Descriptively represented. Wow, Okaykay, this is politics aside Anyways That was I was very excited to see this CN Happy for you. Yeah. Franco, why can't you let go this week What I can't let go is I am so excited that the World Cup has started. I mean, I love soccer. I love the competition. I love kind of just like the international flavor and taste that you get when the World Cup is going on, just all the fans What's interesting about this one, you know, obviously being in the U S, you having all these You have all these people coming to the United States from other cultures, other countries. and a few of them have actually gotten some attention. There's this German guy named Freddy who's gone a little bit viral with his like his posts online as he kind of discovers the south for the first time. He's been He's been to Atlanta. I think he's just arrived New Orleans and a lot of people are kind of tracking him Yeah And you know, I'm from Atlanta as well. you know, he's been to like a waffle House and he's talking about getting the, you know, the hash brrowns smothered covever chunked and, you know, just tryrying taco bell. and it's just so much fun to kindind of see see your own background, see your own culture through another person's eyes. And I was joking with our producer Bria about this. S. And she was just saying that she found it so funny, you know, kind of watching these people talk about American food and that people are actually joking That they're going to return to their home countries about fifteen pounds heavier. Yeah, probably. I mean, the portions are what they are. Yeah. I mean, I feel like this is very heavy food for sporting. You you're like running around a lot. This seems like a stomachche waiting to happen, but who knows? I mean, you only live on time. I feel like a stomachche waiting to happen is okay though when it's like delicious breakfast food It only happens every four years the worldorld Cup Yeah Get yourself some smother other covered. Okay no All right, Elena, I'm almost scared to ask because I know it's coming. What can't you let go of this week? Well You all might be wondering why I'm here I don't have reporting that I share have on pot today. I'll set the scene. I'm wearing a beautiful blue Nick's hat keeps hitting this microphone as I talk. I'm here to talk about the freaking Nicks. Yeah. I'm from New York City. The Nicks are one game away from winning the NBA championship, they have not won since the seventies. Decades of loss, heartbreak, tears the garden could be rectified tomorrow, Saturday And it's going to be crazy. The last game was insane. The Nicks came back from a twenty nine point deficit. It was nuts so. I was watching with my sister in our house And we were screaming so much, my downstairs neighbor texted us and said, is everything okay? It was like eleven thir That final shot was just It was absly amazing. Unreal. And honestly, so the magic of the actual game is the thing I can't let go of, but the thing that makes it extra fun is like New Yorkers are crazy. They're acting out They're really acting out. and it's been so funny. like there's this one incredible creator, long time New York Kicks fan. His name is Chay Igbo. He's been posting about the Kicks nonstop. He's been posting in front of the Garden he'll do after games. he'll like talk about how much he loves Jalen Brunson, the pointint guuard captain, MVP And there's this one video of this creator who talks about how much he loves Jaylen Brunson. This is the original video. This is my. My Egineer. He's a mechanic Wh dri in. But of course, because it's twenty twenty six, everything has to become a song. And so now this is what it sounds like and I can't get out of my head. and it needs to be in your heads too Oh engineer Ggan it That's the way driver I'm not from New York. I'm not a fan of the Kicks in the way you are, but it is all over my social media feed. I'm wondering if anyone has been spared from the chaos. I'm excited for the Kicks. I lived in New York a while. I loved watching the Kicks, but when I was there, they really sack. I think you're alone Started watching the Ns. what was then was the New Jersey Nets. So I really feel for the Kicks and I really hope they can pull it off I am not going to be convinced until they actually do. Why are we bringing that n no Nojo. Dojo, Mojo. We're rooting for the underdog here. No, I'm I'm all for the Nicks. I'm very excited. I just don't want you to jinxit by wearing your hat today at work. That's true. I could have made a huge mistake and it's documented now. But yeah, oh my God, go New York go This is going be amazing. and please just, if you're not, I don't know, living under a rock, just open your phone. sccroll. look at the content. It's so good right now. It's waiting for you. It's wait for you. I can ensure that. All right. That's a wrap for today. O executive producer is Mythonia Maturi, ourur editor is Rachel Bay. Our producers are Casey Marerell and Bria Sugggs Thanks to Krishna Deb Callimer, I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Elena Moore. I also cover politics. And I'm Frank Ordonz. I cover the White House. And thank you for listening to the NPR pololitics podcast Bing bong