Up First from NPR - D.C. Crackdown, Europe's Putin-Trump Scramble, Ford's Cheaper EV Rollout

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

President Trump asserts federal control over Washington D.C., police force. European leaders will meet with Trump before a U.S. - Russia summit. Ford plans to invest billions of dollars into a plant in Kentucky to prepare to build a new, cheaper electric truck.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Douban, Ryland Barton, Kara Platoni, Olivia Hampton and Adam Bearne. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Destinee Adams, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Violent crime is at a 30-year low in Washington, D.C., but President Trump has launched a federal takeover of local police and deployed the National Guard. Many D.C. residents are skeptical. It's going to cause more damage. How is this actually going to work? I'm E. Martinez, that's Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. European leaders are scrambling to get Trump to sit down with them ahead of his plan meeting with Russia's leader to end the war in Ukraine. Will these peace talks be more successful? And Ford is building a cheaper electric truck. It will have amazing range.

It can power your house for six days. And we're going to start the vehicle at $30,000. Can it compete with Chinese models? Stay with us. We've got news you need to start your day. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, You'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply. President Trump says he'll use the National Guard and Metropolitan Police to target criminals in Washington, D.C. Yeah, but criminals aren't his only targets. Trump also called for the nation's capital to be purged of people without housing. Now, much of his toughest rhetoric was aimed at young people. And Pierce Brian Mannis with us now to tell us more about all this. Good morning, Brian.

Good morning, Michelle. So Trump has compared this crackdown to his aggressive effort to target migrants. Who is Trump focused on now? Yeah, Trump often uses really harsh language to describe foreign people living in the U.S., especially those without legal status. During this press conference at the White House yesterday, he used similar rhetoric to describe groups of Americans he accuses of destroying the nation's capital. Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out, maniacs and homeless people. Violent crime is at a 30-year low, according to the Justice Department in Washington. But Trump says he wants city residents dealt with harshly. He said metropolitan police are going to operate a lot more aggressively under federal control

for at least the next 30 days. In his words, cops will be able to, and I'm quoting Trump here, do whatever the hell they want. So obviously we're going to hear more about that. But first, let's break down that list of people that Trump mentioned. Tell us more about who he seems to be talking about. Well, first, Trump is talking about criminals. And in this case, that often means teenagers, many of them black. Washington has struggled at times with violence caused by young men and boys and some girls riding ATVs, motorcycles, and four-wheelers. Trump spoke about them at length yesterday. The city's Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith was asked about this issue at a separate press conference yesterday. We want young people to be safe in our city. We want them to be able to enjoy the activities of our city. But we're not going to tolerate that kind of criminal. activity that we've seen in the past. Now, Michelle Smith says before yesterday's federal takeover

a metropolitan police by Trump, the city had juvenile curfews and other policies that were working. Again, crime is down here. So during this press conference, Trump lumped criminals together with homeless people, many of them mentally ill, some experiencing addiction. How could tougher policing tactics affect those groups? Yeah, experts I've been speaking to says if Trump does as he's threatened here, forcing unhoused people out of Washington away. from families and support networks and their health care. It really could be devastating. Many of these people are severely ill. I spoke with a man named Will in one of the homeless camps here. He's in his 60s. He asked NPR only use his first name because he fears authorities will punish him for sleeping

on the street. Only thing we ask for a fair job, fair housing, and we can't get that. We stuck out it. We don't enjoy it. Where are we supposed to go? And Michelle, that question, where are these people supposed to go. Trump hasn't answered that. He spoke yesterday, not just of purging homeless people from Washington. He also said he plans to clear out what he described as the city's slums. So, Brian, you also spend some time talking to people, just people in the street about this crackdown. What do they tell you? There's a lot of skepticism that Trump's approach using tough police tactics to solve these complex social problems will work. J.U. King is an 18-year-old student at Howard University. Yes, every city has their crime, their gangs, their homelessness, but I don't feel like the displacement of those things are going to cause the solution.

I think it's going to cause more damage. People told me they want safe streets, Michelle, but they don't want vulnerable people treated harshly. That is NPR's Brian Mann reporting here in Washington, D.C. Brian, thank you. Thanks so much. It will be the first meeting between a U.S. President and Russian leader Vladimir Putin since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. It's planned for this Friday in Alaska.

And President Trump says he's going there to, quote, see what Putin has in mind. Now, European leaders think they know exactly what Putin has in mind. We go now to NPR's Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz to hear more about this. Good morning, Rob. Morning. So how are European leaders seeing this one-on-one between Trump and Putin? Well, President Trump has framed the meeting as a discussion for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but European leaders such as German Chancellor Friedrich Meertz are questioning that if this is a discussion to end the war,

then why not include Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky? Merz and other European leaders wrote a joint statement this past weekend saying there can be no peace that rewards Russia's aggressive actions and encourages further actions. So say more about that. What are they getting at with that statement? Well, first off, they're talking about the meeting itself. for the U.S. President to host a one-on-one meeting with Putin, a man who ordered troops to invade Ukraine more than three years ago, seems like a reward in and of itself. But they're also referring to President Trump's comments in the days running up to this summit that a path to peace would require Ukraine to give up territory to Russia. So how has Ukraine's president of Vladimir Zelensky reacted to that?

Yeah, he immediately rejected that. Last night, Zelensky posted a video on social media and addressed to the Ukrainian public about this upcoming meeting with Trump and Putin. and here's what he said. And Michelle, he said here that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, Putin is not preparing for a ceasefire to end the war. He said Putin only wants to present his meeting in America as his personal victory and then continue waging war on Ukraine,

exactly as before. Zelensky said there is no indication the Russians have received orders to prepare for a post-war situation. On the contrary, he said, they're redeploying troops in ways that suggest preparations for new offensive.

operations. If someone is preparing for peace, said Zelensky, this is not what he does. So Zelensky has many times rejected President Trump's suggestion of territorial concessions. Does it make it easier for Putin to convince Trump that Ukraine should be blamed for any failure to strike a peace deal? Yeah, it sure does. And this is why European leaders want to be part of these discussions. They've had more experience dealing with Putin. They know his strategies and summits like these. And they're worried that Putin's goal here is to not only gain points at home with this meeting, but to also use it to drive a wedge between the Trump administration and Ukraine, essentially saying, you know, I've done all I can to make peace,

but Ukraine doesn't want it based on Ukraine's refusal to give up territory. And this is why merits and other European leaders say they've convinced Trump to sit down and meet with them, including a meeting with Zelensky, ahead of the Alaska summit. They plan to hold what they call an emergency virtual summit with Trump tomorrow. Apart from warning Trump about what they consider Putin's real intentions here, what else will tomorrow's meeting focus on? Well, European leaders will likely reiterate tomorrow that they will also need to be part of these peace talks because a lasting peace in Ukraine will involve them and their resources. It will require European Union investment, both in terms of money, but also probably manpower.

It may require NATO resources and more. European leaders have a big stake in all of this. That is. NPR's Berlin correspondent Rob Schmitz. Rob, thank you. Thank you. Ford Motor Company is investing billions in building a more affordable electric vehicle. At an assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday, Ford's CEO Jim Farley stood next to an old Model T pickup truck and boasted about the electric truck of the future. It will have amazing range. It can power your house for six days. And we're going to start the vehicle at $30,000. That's what Ford is planning to build at that plant by 2027.

And Paris Camilla Dominooski was at this announcement, and she's with us now in our studios to tell us about it. Good morning. Good morning. So what do we know about this new truck? Well, there's a lot about the truck that is still pretty mysterious. Ford was promising a Model T moment here, but we didn't actually see the vehicle.

Instead, we heard more about how they're going to build it. So the event was inside this factory, which is some 70 years old, very hot, very noisy inside. And the company's leaders announced that they're going to totally transform that plant from making Ford escapes to making this new truck. And executives talked about how they're cutting costs, things like assembling the truck in three separate chunks to put together and simplifying the design. You know, they did give that price target of $30,000, which is cheap even for a gas truck and at least $20,000 less than most other electric trucks are going for right now. I'm always a little skeptical about these early price targets because companies have overpromised many times before, but we'll see if Ford can do it. So Camille, say more about why Ford is betting on EVs and why now?

Well, the company has been trying to crack EVs for years now, and it's been quite challenging. But executives think that they have to do it, and it's not just about the climate or the environment. Those were actually not mentioned at all in this event. It's about global competitiveness. Chinese automakers are making electric vehicles that are very good and very cheap, and they're selling really well around the world. So Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, has said for years that this is an existential threat if companies like his, which want to sell cars globally, can't keep up with that. Talking to reporters after this event in Louisville, he was really blunt about how hard it is to compete with Chinese automakers like BYD. Their battery is going to be cheaper than ours.

They have 120,000 power change years. We've got 1,200. The only way to compete with them is innovation. Innovation, like stripping parts out and getting more efficient, so the vehicle doesn't need as much battery in the first place. So, Camilla, what could this mean for car buyers? Well, it could mean that less expensive electric vehicles might be coming. And not just from Ford.

Chevrolet is about to bring back the bolt. Tesla is promising an entry-level version of the Model Y. All these vehicles have been in the works for years, but it just so happens that they're approaching the finish line now at a moment when the Trump administration is rolling back a whole bunch of policies that support EVs, including the federal tax credit for people buying them. And in the meantime, those super affordable Chinese EVs, they are not available in the U.S., right? So finding reasonably priced EVs is about to get harder. And that means if companies can pull off these new lower-priced vehicles, that's going to be pretty good timing for American buyers, especially those who are looking to go electric. That is. NPRS. Camilla Domenoski. Thank you for keeping our coverage of this. Okay, I'll say it. Charged up. Good one.

And that's up first for Tuesday, August 12th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm May Martinez. How about listening to Consider This? is from NPR. At first, we give you the three big stories of the day. Consider this takes a different approach with a focus on a single news story and what it means to you in fewer than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Duban, Ryland Barton, Carol Plotoni, Olivia Hampton, and Adam Bairn. It was produced by Zieg Butch, Destiny Adams, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director is Carly Strange. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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