SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
I am Scott Detrow, and also you’re listening to TRUMP’S TERMS from NPR.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We will be doing all types of issues no person ever thought was even potential.
MIKE JOHNSON: President Trump has introduced again power to the White Home.
JD VANCE: We won’t simply ignore the president’s needs.
TRUMP: This might be a completely completely different nation in a brief time frame.
DETROW: Every episode, we convey you the most recent information in regards to the forty seventh president and the coverage adjustments he’s pursuing on his personal phrases. We all know from expertise meaning difficult precedent, busting norms and pushing towards set concepts about what the federal authorities can and might’t do. All of it raises questions on how a lot Washington and the nation will change over the course of this time period. NPR is protecting all of it in tales just like the one you’re about to listen to proper after this.
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A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: I am A Martínez. There is a sample in a lot of President Trump’s interactions with different world leaders. You may name it the artwork of the reward. Here is NPR senior White Home correspondent Tamara Keith.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: When U.Ok. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the White Home in late February, he carried a letter in his jacket pocket.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: It’s my pleasure to convey from His Majesty the King a letter.
KEITH: In it, an invite for a state go to.
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STARMER: I believe the final state go to was an amazing success.
TRUMP: It was.
STARMER: His Majesty the King needs to make this even higher than that. So that is really historic, an unprecedented second…
TRUMP: That is a terrific…
STARMER: …State go to.
KEITH: In July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a letter of his personal.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: The letter I despatched to the Nobel Prize Committee…
TRUMP: Oh.
NETANYAHU: …It is nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is effectively deserved. And you need to get it.
TRUMP: Thanks very a lot. This I did not know. Wow.
KEITH: In Trump’s first time period, many leaders had been standoffish and skeptical. Now, as a rule, they’re obsequious. Profession diplomat Kurt Volker served within the first Trump administration. That is how he describes the considering of European leaders, particularly.
KURT VOLKER: He is again and he is highly effective, and he can do issues that we like or don’t love, so we higher ensure that he does what we like.
KEITH: And Trump is not simply getting extra reward, he is getting outcomes, says Volker. In a press release to NPR, White Home spokesperson Anna Kelly stated, quote, “overseas leaders are looking forward to a constructive relationship with President Trump and to take part within the booming Trump economic system.” Over the weekend, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen made positive to go with President Trump earlier than hashing out the ultimate particulars of a commerce settlement.
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URSULA VON DER LEYEN: You are often known as a tricky negotiator and dealmaker. What’s in entrance…
TRUMP: However honest.
VON DER LEYEN: And honest. And what’s in entrance of us…
TRUMP: That is much less vital.
VON DER LEYEN: …If we’re profitable, I believe it will be the largest deal every of us has ever struck.
KEITH: They received a deal. Ivo Daalder is a former U.S. diplomat, now a senior fellow on the Belfer Heart at Harvard.
IVO DAALDER: Most world leaders have taken the measure of the person. And so flattery and saying he’s the very best, that he’s the one one who may have achieved this consequence at this summit, is supposed at first to maintain him on aspect.
KEITH: And within the case of NATO, it helped. Trump has lengthy been skeptical of the mutual protection alliance. Earlier than their most up-to-date summit, NATO chief Mark Rutte despatched a textual content to Trump saying he would obtain one thing no American president in a long time may get executed – getting NATO nations to conform to spend 5% of their GDP on protection, and he repeated it after they had been face-to-face.
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MARK RUTTE: It is completely true. I need to state right here, with out President Trump, this could not have occurred.
KEITH: This was the identical sit-down the place Rutte appeared to discuss with Trump as Daddy, which the president ran with.
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TRUMP: I believe he likes me. If he does not, I am going to let you realize. I am going to come again, and I am going to hit him arduous, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: However do you…
TRUMP: He did. He did it very affectionate. Daddy – you are my daddy.
JUSTIN LOGAN: I believe a few of these remarks present that shamelessness really is a superpower in worldwide politics and in different realms.
KEITH: Justin Logan is the director of protection and overseas coverage research on the Cato Institute. He says for President Trump, management is private.
LOGAN: Nothing is perpetually. You’ll be able to go from the great record to the naughty record and again with some alacrity. And so that is the actually unnerving factor. So I believe the lesson right here might be proceed larding on the reward, even at occasions the place it does not really feel so nice.
KEITH: And even when there are political penalties at house in nations the place Trump is unpopular, different leaders have been extra stern of their dealings with blended outcomes.
Tamara Keith, NPR Information.
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DETROW: Earlier than we wrap up, a reminder – you’ll find extra protection of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, the place you possibly can hear NPR’s political reporters break down the day’s greatest political information, with new episodes each weekday afternoon. And thanks, as at all times, to our NPR+ supporters who hear each episode of the present with out sponsor messages. You’ll be able to study extra at plus.npr.org.
I am Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to TRUMP’S TERMS from NPR.
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