Up First from NPR - GOP Hopefuls In Iowa, Putin Courts Africa, Auto Sales Strong

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

Republican presidential candidates gathered in Iowa for the state party's annual Lincoln Dinner. Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to turn African nations into allies. Car companies are making large profits despite inflation and high interest rates.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Former President Trump makes a rare appearance alongside other Republican candidates. He couldn't pass up the Iowa GOP's annual fundraiser less than six months before the state party's caucus. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is Up First from NPR News. Many in the crowd took Trump's side as he faces multiple indictments. There is absolutely nobody, nobody that could go through with what he's gone through and his family. Russian President Vladimir Putin turns to Africa to gain allies. But the continent's leaders worry about what the war against Ukraine is doing to the world's food supply.

And some car companies pull ahead as electric vehicles catch on. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. Now Our Change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to our change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their

storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. The annual Lincoln Dinner in Iowa is not an event any Republican presidential candidate wants to miss. Even a frontrunner like Trump, he was joined by 12 other candidates Friday night. Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters was there, and he joins us now. Clay, thanks for being with us. Yeah, good morning. Mr. Trump hasn't spent nearly as much time in Iowa as some other candidates. Noteworthy that he was even there? Yeah, it was. And it's a high-profile public appearance at the same time he's facing mounting legal questions. And that's clearly on his mind as he went a little off script during his prepared remarks. And by the way,

if I weren't running, I would have nobody coming after me. Or if I was losing by a lot, I would have nobody coming after me. He said that, of course, just as new charges came this week in a federal case accusing him of illegally possessing classified documents. But in Iowa Friday, it was generally less about indictments and more about connecting with voters. The former president has been running here like he's already the nominee. He has not been appearing at these events that feature multiple presidential candidates before. And that's largely because he has to play by the rules like everyone else. Like last night, each address had to remain at just 10 minutes and Trump had to condense his typical long meandering speech into that packed format.

So he focused on what he called the achievements of his first term in office from appointing justices to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade to touting the farm subsidies he doled out during his administration. And that's how he's trying to remind Republican Iowa voters that he's their man in 2024. He continues to enjoy a lot of support here from Republicans. Clay, what was audience reaction like to Donald Trump and to other candidates? So early on, you could kind of hear the clinking of silverware on plates of chicken and mashed potatoes in the ballroom. Over a thousand people were there. So it was dinner and people were clearly focused on that part of the night. But politics was also on the menu. Mindy Ginger was there to see Trump and said she'd listened to what the others

had to say, but she wants Trump back in office and was visibly frustrated when she was talking to me about the mounting indictments against the former president. I'm so sick and tired of all the crap they're doing to him right now. There is absolutely nobody, nobody that could go through with what he's gone through and his family. Everybody else would have buckled like a cheap suit. So Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as Trump's main rival in this race, went early on in the program and stuck to his normal stump speech, talking about laws he's passed in Florida, like an abortion ban, for an example. Most of the candidates are still introducing themselves, like former

Texas Congressman Will Hurd. He's far from a household name, and he was not met with fanfare when he had this to say from the stage. Donald Trump is not running for president to represent the people that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Donald Trump is running to stay out of prison. And if we elect, I know, I know. And Scott, you can hear the booing there. He said nominating Trump guarantees another term for Biden. And that was one of the only, at least the most direct attacks on Trump the whole night. The other candidates, including DeSantis, avoided calling Trump out by name.

And Trump went last in these back-to-back speeches. And that meant he had the final word for the night. Clay, a new NPR poll shows that maybe the indictments, maybe other factors add up to the fact that the number of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who say they believe Donald Trump has done nothing wrong dropped nine points in the last month. Does this give any of the other candidates what they see as a path to the nomination? Right. Well, afterwards, there were these meet and greets with the candidates so people could shake hands and take selfies with them. And I use that as an opportunity to take kind of an informal straw poll. So bear with me. And judging from the number of people waiting to meet the candidates, Trump's doing just fine.

There were also lines to see DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, while not very many people were sticking around by comparison to see former Vice President Mike Vivek Ramaswamy, while not very many people were sticking around by comparison to see former Vice President Mike Pence. So anecdotally, you know, Trump still has Iowa support, but he's still going to have to campaign here. Iowans reward politicians for showing up in all 99 counties, and most everyone on that stage vowed to spend a lot of time here between now and January 15th. That's when, of course, the first in the nation Iowa caucuses will take place. And Clay, how was the chicken? I didn't have any of the chicken. I ate afterwards. Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Thanks, Scott. Western nations have been virtually united in condemning Russia's war in Ukraine.

And that's left President Vladimir Putin looking to the rest of the world to try to find allies. This week, he invited African leaders to a summit in St. Petersburg to do just that. And Paris Charles Mainz joins us from Moscow. Charles, thanks for being with us. Good morning. And what was Moscow hoping to achieve? Well, you know, Russia has been focusing increasingly on Africa in recent years, almost trying to reassert influence it once had under the Soviet Union. You know, sometimes it can feel like a replay of the big power politics of the Cold War.

And that trend has really picked up even more as Russia has faced Western condemnation over its actions in Ukraine. So events like this one, which is billed as the Russia-Africa summit, allow Moscow to show that it has not isolated, as the West claims, and that Russia still has plenty of friends in the rest of the world. And it's why we saw President Vladimir Putin really fet his audience. Putin hosted in his home city, the beautiful St. Petersburg, and he made a pitch that he does often these days, that power had shifted away from the U.S. and Europe to what he calls a multipolar world, one where not only Russia, but Africa will play a major role, whether the West likes it or not. So here Putin, speaking Friday, tells the audience that in front of our very eyes, Africa is growing into a major political and economic power, and the rest of the world will have to accept what he calls that objective reality. Of course, Charles, the summit takes place just as Russia has decided not to renew

that UN-backed grain deal that delivered a lot of food to Africa. Did Putin try and overcome doubts about that? of grain for free to several African countries. The next day, we're canceling some $23 billion in debt to African nations. And yet, this Russian largesse kind of bumps up against economic reality. The West provides far more trade and aid to Africa. Also left unsaid here is that Russia's subsequent blockade and nearly daily bombing of Ukrainian grain facilities has led to a spike in food prices globally. And for that reason, perhaps it was unsurprising to see several of the African guests press Putin, as they have in the past, to find a negotiated settlement to end the war.

What other ways is Russia trying to draw in allies from Africa? Well, you know, earlier we talked about the Cold War with the U.S. and the Soviet Union competing in Africa with these competing political ideologies. And today, there's kind of a new twist on that. Putin seeks to find common cause with potential allies over what Russia calls traditional family values, in other words, conservatism. And they've really grafted that on really as an added front to this wider war with the West.

So for example, we saw a Russian Orthodox patriarch, Kirill, on stage in St. Petersburg denouncing same-sex marriages as hedonistic and approved by the West, but not in Russia, and he implied in large parts of Africa. Meanwhile, military aid and weapons also hold their lure. One of the more popular stands at the summit involved a new generation of weapons. Let's not forget the Soviet-made Kalashnikov machine gun is the continent's weapon of choice. There were also indications that the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was in St. Petersburg to meet with some African delegates on the sidelines. If true, it suggests that the Kremlin has, in some fashion, plans to retain Wagner's services to countries in Africa as Moscow seeks to develop and deepen ties on the continent.

And Pierce Charles Maines in Moscow, thanks so much. Thank you. One auto CEO likes to tell investors that his goal is to be boring. As in making money quarter after quarter, year after year. Right now, the auto industry is anything but boring with the giant shift to electric vehicles, though it's still profitable. NPR's Camila Dominovsky is here to bring us up to speed.

Hi, Camila. Hi, Aisha. So when we say auto companies are making a heck of a lot of money, how much money are we talking about? How much green? A lot. So Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, among others, they just set a record with the profits they just announced.

GM is going to make more money this year than they thought, a cool billion dollars extra. So yeah, people are buying a lot of new cars, even though prices are high and taking out a loan is getting more expensive. So how do electric vehicles play into all of this? Right. It's a small part of the market now, but it's growing fast. And you have Tesla, which just dropped its prices on EVs and is still profitable. That is pushing down electric vehicle prices across the board, which is good news if you're shopping for an electric vehicle. It's a challenge for these

companies that are racing to try to catch up with Tesla. What are companies doing? You've got Ford, which is tapping the brakes. They are still losing money on EVs. They lost a billion dollars on them last quarter. That same big number. They want to stay in the race for the long term. So they just actually cut the price of the Ford Lightning, even though they're losing money. But they are pushing back their plans to really make a big push into EVs. Then you have Stellantis, which is slamming the accelerator. They are about to launch what they called an EV offensive in the United States. And in Europe, where electric vehicles are already a lot more popular, CEO Carlos Tavares said this. Every electrified vehicle that we sell is highly profitable. So he's obviously trying to persuade investors that this big offensive is going to pay

off. And then you've got GM, which just whipped a U-turn. GM, which is going electric, they killed the Chevy Bolt, which is one of the cheapest EVs on the market. Because while it was popular, it was not a profit machine. But now, just a few months later, they're bringing it back. So that was a big surprise. So what do you make of all of this? It's chaotic, right? The industry is making a big change.

They are doing this transition to electric vehicles. Even Ford said, while they're slowing down, that, like, we know EVs are coming. That's not a question, right? When are they coming? How do we get there? Those are really big questions. And there's known challenges, right? Battery minerals, having enough chargers, how do we recycle batteries? But there's going to be surprises too. So GM this week, they said they're having trouble getting their battery production lines up to speed because some assembly line robots aren't as fast as they were supposed to be. So, you know, there you go. A surprise. That wasn't on my bingo card.

Yeah. Well, speaking of production, how does all of this affect workers? It's a huge upheaval for the industry. Electric vehicles are simpler to build, so that's fewer assembly jobs at car plants, there's more jobs than at battery plants that are being built, which raises questions like, will those be unionized, right? Talks between the United Auto Workers Union and the Detroit Big Three automakers, they're happening right now. Electrification is a huge topic at the table. So are these monster profits, right? The UAW sees this as an opportunity. You know, you're making so much

money. You can afford to give us cost of living wage increases, right? Among other things. The companies, on the other hand, they would rather give out bonuses instead of wage increases. So they only pay out more when business is good and they're not on the hook on a bad year, for instance. These talks, they're intense. A strike is definitely on the table. Like I said, these are not boring times. Not at all. NPR's Camila Dominovsky, thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. And that's Up First for Saturday, July 29th, 2023. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Tomorrow on Up First, NPR's B.A. Parker visits the plantation where her ancestors were held as slaves

and asks herself, what kind of descendant does she want to be? Today's episode of Up First was edited by Nishant Dahia, Lisa Lambert, Megan Pratt, Hadil Al-Shauchi, and Matthew Sherman. It was produced by Michael Radcliffe and directed by Danny Hensel, with engineering support from Hannah Gluckman. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Sarah Oliver, and our deputy managing editor is Jim Kane. And for more news, interviews, books, music, sometimes just plain fun, turn on the radio every Saturday and Sunday morning for Weekend Edition from NPR News.

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