Crowds of protestors gathered in cities and cities throughout the nation on Saturday to protest in opposition to President Trump. And there’s no signal of a breakthrough to finish the federal government shutdown.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Ho, ho. Donald Trump has received to go. Hey, hey. Ho, ho.
DON GONYEA, HOST:
Protesters in cities and cities throughout the nation took to the streets yesterday to problem the Trump administration. A kind of attending a No Kings rally right here in Washington, D.C., was Jane Campos (ph).
JANE CAMPOS: Properly, I believe we’re liable to dropping our democracy, and we actually want to face up and say sufficient is sufficient.
GONYEA: However Republican Home Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the demonstrations as a hate America rally. Becoming a member of us now to debate the protests and way more is NPR White Home correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Good morning, Don.
GONYEA: So how do you assess the importance of those demonstrations?
KURTZLEBEN: Properly, they’re positively important. I imply, initially, they had been enormous. You noticed these full metropolis blocks simply densely filled with folks in New York, D.C., Chicago. You noticed some large protests worldwide and nonetheless sizable protests in smaller cities, suburbs and small cities.
But additionally, I simply preserve pondering again to protecting protests proper after Trump was first inaugurated in 2017. You instantly had the Girls’s March. You had these demonstrations at airports about immigration, pro-science demonstrations. However they had been all separate.
This has been a slower construct, nevertheless it’s such as you’re seeing all of that vitality rolled into form of one large protest motion. And moreover, as Trump has gone additional and sooner along with his agenda this time, these protests really feel existential. They are not about points. Because the protesters preserve saying, that is about democracy itself.
GONYEA: And the president, in the meantime, continues to make overseas coverage a prime precedence. He talked on the cellphone to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin final week earlier than internet hosting Ukraine’s chief Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the White Home. That was on Friday. What would you say is the state of play on the subject of these relations?
KURTZLEBEN: Properly, it is actually placing to me how large occasions preserve occurring on this entire saga, and but we’ve not seen President Trump make a number of headway. There was that disastrous Oval Workplace assembly earlier this yr the place Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President Vance got here to a near-shouting match. There was that assembly in Alaska with the Russian president on U.S. soil. That was momentous. And there have been a number of overseas leaders coming to the White Home to speak about peace this yr. After which this week, this two-hour cellphone name with Putin and Zelenskyy visiting the White Home. And but for all of that sounded fury, there simply hasn’t been a number of motion.
GONYEA: Something come out of those newest talks?
KURTZLEBEN: Properly, one large matter was these long-range Tomahawk missiles. Previous to that Thursday Putin name, Trump had signaled he may provide these missiles to Ukraine. However after that decision, speaking to Zelenskyy, he appeared to have softened on it, saying he hopes to finish the conflict with out these missiles. However we do now have some extra large conferences to return. Trump says he’ll meet Putin quickly in Budapest, Hungary, to debate an finish to the conflict. And as well as, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he’ll maintain talks with the Russian overseas minister earlier than all of that. However as we have seen, none of meaning progress.
GONYEA: After which lastly, Danielle, it’s Day 19 of the federal government shutdown. Any glimpse of a deal?
KURTZLEBEN: No, in a phrase.
GONYEA: OK.
KURTZLEBEN: On Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats alike are dug in, and Trump does not appear himself to be in a rush to sort things. He is utilizing the shutdown to choose winners and losers throughout the authorities. He has mentioned he is making an attempt to harm what he calls Democrat applications. And in the meantime, whereas some staff are beginning to go unpaid, he says he will make it possible for some – navy, FBI, ICE – that they may receives a commission.
Now, yet one more improvement. The administration has been making an attempt to do layoffs throughout authorities throughout the shutdown. They mentioned that they had deliberate round 4,000 at one level. A U.S. district court docket decide issued a short lived restraining order halting a few of these layoffs. What occurred was some unions representing authorities staff argued, look, you possibly can’t simply shut down applications as a result of funding runs out, and the decide agreed with them.
However that restraining order solely protects some staff. And so the Trump administration, as of Friday, had solely paused work on a small share of the firings. Now, in the meantime, White Home Finances Director Russ Vought – he mentioned layoffs ultimately might complete greater than 10,000. So this struggle simply will not be going to go away.
GONYEA: That is NPR White Home correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. Danielle, thanks, as at all times.
KURTZLEBEN: Thanks, Don.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts could range. Transcript textual content could also be revised to right errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org could also be edited after its unique broadcast or publication. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
