The NPR Politics Podcast - Trump Says He's Willing To Meet Iran's, China's Leaders — But Next Steps Unclear

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

At the end of the G-7 gathering of global economic powers Trump said he believes Beijing "wants a deal very badly" to end its trade war with Washington, and that he'd consider meeting with Iran's president if Tehran came to terms over its nuclear program. This episode: political reporter Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Email the show at [e-mail]. Find and support your local public radio station at npr.org/stations.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, my name is Chase, and I am a nursing student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is 5 a.m. It is the first day back at the semester, and I'm currently on my way to my very first clinical at a hospital. It's a 45-minute drive, so I'll definitely be filling the time by listening to the NPR Politics podcast. This podcast was recorded at 1.27 p.m. on Monday, August 26th.

Things may have changed by the time you hear this. All right, enjoy the show. Wait, is Chase actually driving while doing this? Because that's not safe. Either way, when he said it was 5 a.m., I was very happy to report that it is 1.27 p.m. when we are recording this all. Well, hey there, it is the NPR Politics Podcast.

I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the 2020 presidential election. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. We are here because at the end of the G7 summit in France, President Trump held a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, and then he held a solo session afterwards. He took a lot of questions on a lot of topics, and we are here to break down the key moments. So let's begin with the trade war with China. When we last left off on Friday, the markets were in chaos, I would essentially say, because of a rapidly escalating

trade war between the United States and China. What has changed since Friday? Well, the G7 meeting happened earlier today, much earlier today. President Trump came out and said, hey, actually, things are going to be great with China. I'm feeling really good about it. I have great respect for the fact that China called. They want to make a deal. So he says there was a call or actually he says there were a lot of calls. The vice premier of China came out and made kind of a pretty standard statement that was sort of like, hey, you know,

we would like talks to continue. In fact, talks are set to resume in September. But the White House is certainly making it seem like and President Trump is making it seem like there is something going on there that maybe there could be a breakthrough. Yeah, certainly President Trump is acting like there is a lot more progress. Trump today during the press conference said that he felt like they were farther along than they had been a long time. But it's kind of Tam saying, you know, there's really a lot of questions about whether these, you know, is this really new? Because we knew before that they were going to be talks and they were going to be talks very soon.

But the tone seems so different than what we had been hearing at the end of the week last week. And for me, it raises these questions that, you know, that he speaks a lot about China and this trade war in kind of seemingly unpredictable and contradictory ways. And he was actually asked about that today. You're talking about global economic instability? Right. I don't consider it instability. One of the things that it comes from is the back and forth and the changing statements from yourself.

Sorry, it's the way I negotiate. So my question is, is that a strategy? Is it a strategy to call President Xi an enemy one day and then say that relations are very good the next day? The way I negotiate, it's done very well for me over the years. And it's doing even better for the country. Could you talk a little bit about why it works here? And I do think that, look, here's the story. I have people say, oh, just make a deal, make a deal.

They don't have the guts. Welcome to the Trump presidency. It's been going for two and a half years. And there's been a lot of this. And I think the reason that both Franco and I are kind of a little tentative about saying what's going on with China is we don't know. You know, it feels like we've been here before where we've been on the brink of a deal, right? So many times. And I wouldn't even say that. I don't think either of us would say, oh, definitely brink of a deal now. Like, it's not clear what is going on. the uncertainty and volatility that the trade war with China was causing. To global markets. To global markets, exactly. And the need to really bring some stability. And he almost

seemed to be encouraging President Trump when he was saying that President Trump is agreeing that some type of effort needs to be done. And he seemed to kind of like be pulling President Trump along. Because really, President Trump says, as Tam just noted, the same thing over and over. So one thing I don't understand is why he is introducing this volatility in the overall economy through his rhetoric around a trade war. Right. And so most recently, the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates slightly, but not to the amount that the president would like so that the economy will get supercharged in theory and so that he can win reelection. But like actual uncertainty is not something that the president is bothered by. If he were bothered by uncertainty, he wouldn't have launched any of these

mini trade wars. He wouldn't have threatened to pull out of a bunch of international treaties like President Trump, as he makes clear again and again, embraces uncertainty. He wants people to be off balance. He wants the whole world to be off balance. But presumably investors don't. I think presumably investors don't. But certainly President Trump has used it as a negotiating strategy. And today we heard that when he acknowledged that this is how he is dealing with the president of China, with Xi, and creating this uncertainty to hopefully get an upper leg on the negotiations. So I think that if there was a theme from today's press conference, that theme would be, they want to make a deal. And you say that because China was not the only

country the president brought up in terms of negotiating a potential deal. He referenced Iran as well. And we're going to shift gears and talk about Iran. But I want first, Franco, for you to walk us back and explain the current tension between Iran and the United States. The reason why we're in this current tension is because President Trump pulled out of the Iranian deal with several European countries, as well as Russia and China. It was a deal that so much of the international community kind of was in support of in order to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. But President Trump campaigned on saying this was a deal that was too weak. He didn't like that there was a sunset clause that would eventually allow Iran to continue

its uranium production. And just last year, under great controversy, he pulled out of that deal. And as we saw today, still European leaders are, you know, fretting about it and they want a way to kind of reach another deal. So at the G7, we had Iran's foreign minister make a surprise appearance. Tam, what was that about? Because you got the sense that Emmanuel Macron invited him there. Oh, Emmanuel Macron did invite him there. He told President Trump that the foreign minister would be coming. President Trump said that he was OK with that, but that he wasn't going to meet with him. And essentially, you know, other than the United States, all of the other parties to this nuclear agreement that Iran had, all the other parties want the agreement to stand. And so Emmanuel Macron, for some time, has been trying to save the Iran nuclear agreement. And this is part of his effort

to try to save the Iran nuclear agreement. So he said, you know, things seem to be going OK. He invited Zarif, the foreign minister from Iran, to come and talk to him and other leaders. And then, and this was, I think, the real news of the press conference. You have the French President Emmanuel Macron with President Trump standing next to him. And Macron says, I am hoping that maybe we can get President Trump to meet with the Iranian president and Rouhani. and President Trump doesn't say no. And Tam, what you're saying about a potential meeting between the Iranian leader and President Trump is a huge deal because the United States has not had a formal relationship with Iran since 1979. So the fact that President Trump now seems

open to this is a big deal. Absolutely. I think any like little bit of, you know, lean olive branch even is very significant. I mean, I certainly was caught off guard by that. And he genuinely appeared open to the idea, talking about how, you know, they would likely need to have a conversation, talking about his concerns about the people of Iran and the economic issues that they were dealing with. And he also, I think it's important to note that there was a level of specificity in how a potential deal would work. I think that Iran is a country of tremendous potential. We're not looking for leadership change. We're not looking for that kind of change. This country has been through that many times before.

That doesn't work. We're looking for no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missiles, and a longer period of time. Very simple. Yeah, so that right there, that is President Trump spelling out if there were to be a new Iran nuclear agreement, because he has pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear agreement, what it would take for him to have an agreement with Iran. And basically, to translate what he's saying, he's saying the deal I would like would be a longer time frame. And the other big difference would be that it would also cover ballistic missiles and not just nuclear development.

All right. Well, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back, President Trump talks about Russia and hosting the next G7 summit at one of his golf resorts in Florida. in PR and the following message come from Rothy's. Rothy's are the everyday flats for life on the go. Stylish, versatile, fully machine washable and they go with everything from yoga pants to dresses and skirts. Best of all, there's zero break-in period thanks to their woven design seamlessly crafted from recycled

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But clearly some people know how to do it. Check out Life Kit's new guide from NPR on navigating the highs and lows of friendship or subscribe to LifeKit All Guides for all of our episodes all in one place. And we're back. And let's talk about Russia. Tam, give us the backstory because Russia is no longer a part of this group of leading economic political leaders, but it used to be. Right. And President Trump is arguing or has argued, though not successfully, that maybe they should be let back in. But let me take you back in time to 2014. Russia went in and annexed part of Ukraine called Crimea. Russia has always claimed that Crimea should be part of Russia. And so they go in and annex Crimea. Russia has always claimed that Crimea should be part of Russia. And so they go in and annex Crimea to great pushback from the international community. Before then,

it was called the G8, the eight leading world economies. And then after Russia went into Crimea, the international community pushed back. And part of that pushback was to push them out of the G8. And now it is the G7. So, you know, five years ago, this wasn't the G7. It was the G8. And President Trump has been pushing for Russia to be readmitted to the G7. You know, this is a controversial idea, to say the least.

But it's something he reiterated today at his press conference. I think it would be better to have Russia inside the tent than outside the tent. Do we live either way? Yes, we live either way. Is it politically popular for me to say that? Possibly not. I think a lot of people would agree with me, frankly, but possibly not. I do nothing for politics. I know a lot of you aren't going to you're going to smile at that. I do nothing for politics. I do what's right. So Franco, why does President Trump want to do this? Why does he want to bring Russia back into the club? Well, President Trump, you know, since the campaign has argued that it is better to have

Russia close than far away. He's talked about the influence, the positive influence, in his words, that they could have in helping with international efforts to, for example, put pressure on North Korea, on Iran, on Syria. He feels that having Russia close and working with Russia is better than having Russia working against the international community. But Russia, you know, interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Russia has still not left Crimea. It is still in Syria. It is involved in a lot of things in a lot of ways that the international community disagrees with. So the argument that you would get from some other countries is, what have they done to deserve readmission into the G7 or 8 if they were to be let back in? And not only other countries, but certainly leaders of the United States who

consider Russia's maligned activity sees them as an enemy. All right, let's switch gears. The United States will be hosting the next G7, and President Trump today suggested that he has a good idea for a possible host location, one of his golf resorts in Florida. And by the way, my people looked at 12 sites, all good, but some were two hours from an airport, some were four hours from, I mean, they were so far away. Some didn't allow this or they didn't allow that. With Doral, we have a series of magnificent buildings. We call them bungalows. They each hold from 50 to 70 very luxurious rooms. Sounds like an advertisement.

Well, it is the president's, one of the president's several resorts. In fact, he mentioned four different Trump properties over the course of this press conference. But Doral is in the Miami area. It is very close to the airport. with trying to host the G7 conference at the Trump property, it would be a very controversial move, simply because of the idea that the president would potentially be profiting from his official duties. But, Tam, he was asked about this potential sort of conflict of interest and this notion that he would profit off of this. Well, I'll tell you what I've spent, and I think I will in a combination of loss and opportunity, probably it'll cost me anywhere from three to $5 billion to be president. And the only thing I care about is this country couldn't care less. Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it.

People have asked me, what do you think it costs? And between opportunity, not doing things, I used to get a lot of money to make speeches. Now I give speeches all the time. You know what I get? Zippo, and that's good. We should certainly note that he didn't provide any evidence for those numbers or what that is from.

There is reporting out there that his properties, for example, have been losing money, Doral, for example, and others for various reasons, because one of which is people. There's been so much controversy surrounding his name and the brand. exactly what President Trump's net worth is, but $3 to $5 billion is in all likelihood more than his total net worth. So to say that he's losing that much would be a stretch. Got it. So let's talk, though, actually about the ethics of this all, because you get the sense that if the G7 comes to Doral, would you not have foreign governments paying the president of the United States or paying his organization to stay at this location during the summit? I mean, that's definitely one of the large controversies of this administration as it deals with foreign powers and foreign leaders. Because many times, as we've seen in the past, foreign leaders will come and they'll go to Mar-a-Lago. Foreign leaders will come to Washington. They'll stay at Trump Hotel. Maybe not the leaders themselves, but their staffs. So there's a lot of questions from Americans about whether the

president is profiting incorrectly. And there's this thing called the emoluments clause. And it essentially says that the president cannot take a gift or profit from a foreign country as part of his official duties. That has not ever really been tested. That is still being litigated as we speak. All right. Well, that is a wrap for today. Tomorrow morning, we are back on the campaign trail again. I sat down with former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke and asked him why he thinks he's the answer the Democratic Party needs in 2020. Check that out tomorrow. And for other conversations with Democratic candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Andrew Yang, check out our podcast feed. I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the 2020 presidential election. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. And I'm Franco Ordonez. I also cover the White House. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.