President Trump’s exertion of power over the press, Greenland and even the D.C. landscape are teeing up questions over the president’s limits.
Transcript
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President Trump had a busy weekend. He banned three news outlets from the White House. He updated the world on his plans for an arch here in Washington, D.C. And he announced he wants to send more troops to Greenland. Now, any of these would be pretty big stories on their own, and they all happened in just a few days. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to talk to us about what it all means. Hey there.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: All right, Danielle, just a lot happened. Lay it out for us. What did he do over the weekend that made news?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, first of all, like you mentioned, he kicked three news organizations out of the White House – CNN, MS NOW and Politico – as a result of what he thinks is biased coverage. He also announced that the big arch that he wants to build near Arlington National Cemetery will have a military purpose, being able to house drones and snipers. He furthermore said he plans for the U.S. to build up its troop presence in Greenland after reaching an agreement with Denmark. And he said he wants to create an AI force to oversee AI while also encouraging its growth.
SUMMERS: That is quite a bit for a few days. What do you think is going on here?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, I asked Republican strategist Rina Shah, and she said the motive here doesn’t seem to be any sort of complicated political strategy.
RINA SHAH: The combination of these moves that he’s been making, these moves look like a guy who wants very visible wins and personal imprint more than he wants to reset the political weather.
KURTZLEBEN: Because keep in mind here, all of this comes after last week when President Trump had a handful of disappointments. The Supreme Court blocked his plan to limit midterm mail-in voting. The Fed raised interest rates against his wishes. A judge said his name couldn’t go back on the Kennedy Center. And we saw a few more signs of congressional Republicans in battleground districts being willing to oppose him on topics like immigration and Iran.
SUMMERS: And we know that many Americans have been just really worried about the economy for some time now. Gas prices, as any of us who drive know, have been on the rise.
KURTZLEBEN: That’s right, and diesel fuel hit a record high last week. Now, that could be a huge problem for the president in some places and his party. Right now, for example, it’s just about harvest season in a lot of places, and that means it can take a couple of thousand dollars, possibly, to fill up a combine or a tractor for farmers in places like Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, all of which have big races this year. Diesel right now is at around 6.50 a gallon. That is up from around 3.80 just before this war in Iran.
SUMMERS: So just thinking about the motivations here, Danielle, is this the president lashing out during a rough patch?
KURTZLEBEN: You know, it depends whom you ask. Shah, the Republican strategist, said she doesn’t think that’s quite it – just that he’s flexing the power that he does have right now. But Trump also is likely seeing at least some of the polls that are showing a potentially bad midterms for Republicans. And Trump knows that presidents’ parties do tend to lose power in midterms. Plus, his approval is below 40% in most polls. But Trump isn’t doing what presidents often do in that situation – take a step back and let their party just run their races. Here’s Barbara Perry. She’s a presidential historian at the University of Virginia.
BARBARA PERRY: Donald Trump is a completely different character. He can’t give up power, and he has had a lot of it.
KURTZLEBEN: And we heard him at that midterm convention tell his party to act as if he is on the ballot. And given where his approval rating is, that just may not be helpful. Now, he will be very visible this week. He speaks at the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow. Then he welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House later this week. So he may not have TV poolers broadcasting all of those moments, but he will have more opportunities to make big news.
SUMMERS: NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben, thank you.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.
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