NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-06-2025 11PM EST

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts, perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dua-Helisa Icautau. President Trump is again expressing doubts about NATO's mutual defense pact. It's something he did in his first term in office too, as NPR's Franco Ordoñez reports. A week ago, Trump said he would support the key provision of NATO that requires members

to come to the defense of another if attacked. But now he's told reporters at the White House that the U.S. may not defend allies if they don't spend enough on their militaries. Well, I think it's common sense, right? If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them. No, I'm not going to defend them. I got into a lot of heat when I said that. You said, oh, he's violating NATO.

Trump has regularly sent mixed signals about US support for NATO. He long pushed allies in the alliance to increase their spending on defense, charging that the US should not have to carry such a high financial burden of European security. Franco Ordonez, NPR News, The White House. Elon Musk says he wants to cut one trillion dollars in federal spending by the end of the fiscal year, but changes of that magnitude are supposed to be driven by Congress, not Doge, as NPR's Stephen Fowler reports. For every dollar the federal government has spent so far since the start of this

fiscal year in October 2024, Doge has claimed to save the equivalent of about four pennies. An NPR review finds those savings claims from actions like pushing agencies to fire workers and cut contracts are drastically inflated. But even if you take those numbers at face value, Doge's focus is on such a small part of the multi-trillion dollar federal budget handled by Congress. About two-thirds of this year's federal spending has been on social security, Medicare, health programs, income security, and veterans' benefits and services. Most of what's left goes towards interest on the debt and defense.

Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. Lawmakers from both parties, along with the Jewish civil rights groups, are criticizing the Trump administration for hiring a press aide at the Pentagon with a history of extreme comments and Piers Tom Dreisbach has details Kingsley Wilson comes to the job of deputy Pentagon press secretary with a history of controversial online posts in one Wilson said the United States is based on Blood and soil that slogan was popular in Nazi Germany and today among white nationalists. She also endorsed the extremist great replacement conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that elites are trying to replace white Americans with immigrants. And she appeared to support political violence saying, quote,

there can be virtue in violence. The Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs criticized Wilson's comments, as did some Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The Department of Defense did not respond to NPR's request for comment. Tom Dreisbach, NPR News. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his goal with the U.S. remains to get all tariffs removed. This is NPR News. The latest SpaceX Starship, described by many as the most powerful rocket ever built, launched from a South Texas site on its eighth test flight just after 6.30 p.m. Eastern but malfunctioned

less than 10 minutes later, breaking in the sky, falling in parts over the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean and Florida. The Federal Aviation Administration says it temporarily issued ground stops for flights out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Palm Beach airports for safety measures. The FAA said SpaceX will be required to investigate the loss of the Starship vehicle, which is 171 foot tall. Arts groups, including the National Queer Theatre, are assuming the National Endowment for the Arts over an executive order issued by President Trump, requiring grant applicants to agree not

to promote, quote, gender ideology in their work. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of four arts groups with the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. The suit seeks to dial back an executive order that forces grant applicants to certify that they will not use federal funds to quote promote gender ideology. Vera Adelman is the ACLU's lead counsel on the case. This new prohibition forcing artists to be a mouthpiece for government views runs directly counter to the point of the NEA and to the point of art in general, which is to explore ideas, explore the diversity of human experience.

The NEA did not respond to a request for comment. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. And I'm Dua-Helisa Ikelletel, NPR News in New York. There's a lot of news happening. You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't want it to be your entire And I'm Dua-Helisa Icautel, NPR News in New York.