Up First from NPR - Trump And The Constitution, Gaza Food Aid Plan, Sean 'Diddy' Combs Trial Begins

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

President Trump says he "doesn't know" if it's his job to defend the US Constitution when it comes to providing immigrants due process. Israel approved a plan to take control of the distribution of food aid inside Gaza, and the trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering begins today.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 Krishnadev Calamur, Carrie Kahn, Jacob Ganz, Janaya Williams, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Kaity Kline, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A note before we start today's program. You may have heard that President Trump has issued an executive order seeking to block all federal funding to NPR. This is the latest in a series of threats to media organizations across the country. Whatever changes this action brings, NPR's commitment to reporting the news without fear or favor will never change. Even as paywalls rise elsewhere, we offer this vital resource to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. This is a pivotal moment. It's more important than ever that every supporter who can contribute comes together to pitch in as much as they are able. Support the news and programming

you and millions rely on by visiting donate.npr.org. And if you already support us via NPR Plus or other means, thank you. Your support means so much, now more than ever. You help make NPR shows freely available to everyone. We're proud to do this work for you and with you. President Trump took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution, his answer began, I don't know. We'll listen to the context of a remark about immigration. I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Israel approved a plan to manage all food aid entering Gaza. The proposal is to shut down hundreds of community kitchens run by the United Nations. Israelis instead want to allow just a few food centers. They say they want to do this to deny access to Khamas. How would the plan feed people and how would it affect the war? Also, Sean Diddy Combs is at risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. He's accused of abusing both women and men and using his power over them to keep them silent. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. of NPR Plus podcasts with sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes. Plus, you'll be supporting public radio. Check it out at plus.npr.org. Starting in the 1950s, there was a push to get meat onto Americans' plates at every meal. So you would have breakfast with maybe

perhaps sausage offered. You'd have lunch where it would be deli meat sandwiches and you'd have dinner that would center over a large cut of meat. The hidden forces behind our everyday decisions. That's on the Ted Radio Hour from NPR. Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24 hour job. Luckily it is our job. Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest,

most important stories happening and we package them into five-minute episodes. So you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast, now. Not for the first time, President Trump made remarks that left people wondering what he really meant. This time it was an interview on NBC's Meet the Press with Kristen Wilker. The president celebrated the tariffs that he regularly changes. He said they could be permanent, although he's claiming the power to impose them by saying there's an emergency. He also said, I don't know, when asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was listening. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay. So what exactly did the president say about the Constitution on NBC? Well, the context for this was a series of questions about whether non-citizens in the U.S. deserve due process. The president believes, frankly, he has a mandate, he thinks, on immigration and said,

if you talk about due process for people who are not in the country legally, you'd have to deal with millions of trials. And he was pressed on this by the show's moderator, Kristen Welker. Even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? I don't know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said The backdrop to this is the high-profile case of a man who was sent from Maryland to El Salvador

Despite a court order saying he should specifically not be deported there The Supreme Court has called on the US government to facilitate his return But thus far he remains in El Salvador. And one last related point, Steve, here is that last night Trump said he's ordering the federal government to reopen and rebuild one of America's most notorious prisons, Alcatraz. He told reporters he wants to do this because of radical judges who've been insisting on due process for people in the country illegally.

That we should remind folks, this prison, Alcatraz, is now a tourist attraction. It actually hasn't operated as a prison in decades. Yeah, it had to be closed because it was falling apart. Did the president make any news on the economy, Esma? You know, there were a couple of things that caught my ear, particularly when the moderator asked the president if tariffs are here to stay for the long run. You're not taking the possibility that these tariffs could be permanent off the table. Some of them.

Oh, I wouldn't do that because if somebody thought they were going to come off the table, why would they build in the United States? At one point, Trump also seemed to say that he'd be okay with a short term recession because he believes the economy will be fantastic in the long run. But his optimism does not match economic data or consumer sentiment at this point. We're getting to the contradiction of the entire tariff policy aside from the legality of whether it's even legal what the president is claiming to do on a permanent basis now. He likes tariffs, he wants permanent tariffs, he also talks about negotiating away the tariffs

in exchange for other benefits. Is the administration trying to make deals? I mean, the president told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that there could be some trade deals this week. But at the same time, Steve, he also suggested that this broad tariff dynamic is not an actual negotiation. He said at the end of the day, he

will set the terms of these tariff deals because he sets the deals, other countries do not. Tariffs are key to the president's economic vision. In fact, just last night on social media, he announced plans for yet another tariff, this time a 100% tariff rate on movies produced outside of the United States. One last thing to note, Steve, is that this week Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is coming to Washington.

It is a high stakes meeting to watch given Trump's threats of tariffs and of course annexation toward the United States northern neighbor. And Piers, Esma Khalid with reporting and analysis made right here in the United States. Esma, thanks so much. Good to speak with you. Israel is planning to limit the way that food and supplies are distributed in Gaza. Israel says it is the only way it will allow any food back into Gaza where people are going hungry.

An Israeli official says it's part of a plan to take over more territory and expand the war. The main aid groups in Gaza, including the United Nations, are refusing to take over more territory and expand the war. The main aid groups in Gaza, including the United Nations, are refusing to take part. And Piers, Daniel Estrin is covering this story in Tel Aviv, Daniel, welcome. Thank you, Steve. What exactly is the plan?

Israel's cabinet approved it last night and it completely changes how the two million people of Gaza would get their food and their basic supplies. I got details from five people, including officials with knowledge of this plan. Each one of them spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been officially released and it's very sensitive.

But it's a plan to shut down hundreds of community kitchens and food distribution points across Gaza. And instead Israel would allow for just around four to 10 designated aid centers in Southern Gaza. Okay, limited number of aid centers. Who would run them? Well, the centers are supposed to be run by an American security contractor in coordination with a new foundation recently established in Switzerland that we know very little about. Israeli soldiers would not run them, but they would guard the periphery of this zone.

And Palestinians would be coming to these places, registered and screened through facial recognition technology. They'd pick up parcels for their family. Israel says this whole operation is an attempt to isolate aid from Hamas and to weaken the group. And an Israeli official tells us it's actually part of a bigger strategy to get Palestinian civilians to move en masse to a smaller, more consolidated area of Gaza so that the military can expand the territory that it's taking over in Gaza. And the army is already starting to call up more soldiers. Thanks for that bit of reporting. What are aid groups and the United Nations saying as they reject this plan?

They put out a statement together and they say basically this is not an acceptable aid plan, it's a military plan. They say you cannot use life-saving supplies to achieve military goals. They also say that large groups of people will simply struggle to reach these new aid centers, so think pregnant women or the elderly. So what we're seeing is this serious standoff over the very basic necessities of life. And it's happening at a time of extreme desperation in Gaza. Israel has been banning food and supplies, everything, for more than two months

into Gaza. This is the longest full blockade it has ever imposed. So bakeries are closed, food kitchens are closed, hunger is widespread. Daniel, you said something about an American contractor being part of this. Is the United States on board? Very good question. The Trump administration has not commented specifically on this plan, but President Trump has said that food needs to get into Gaza. He is coming to the region next week. I should note that a former US official told me that Israel actually tried to implement a version of this aid plan under the Biden administration's tenure, but the Biden administration said no. According to the international laws of war, it said that anyone who needs aid must get aid. You cannot vet. You cannot fight a war through manipulating humanitarian aid.

That's what the Biden administration said. But Trump has not made the same demands on Israel. One bit of news from the weekend. There was a big bomb crater that I saw outside Israel's airport. What happened? Yesterday, the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen fired a missile at Israel. Israel failed to intercept it and it landed around Israel's international airport near Tel Aviv. More than a dozen airlines have canceled flights. And the Houthis in Yemen say that they will continue to target Israel because Israel is expanding its offensive in Gaza. The Houthis say that the US struck targets in Yemen overnight and Israel is vowing

to strike back too. And Peres Daniel Estrin is in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much. You're welcome. All right. The trial of Sean Diddy Combs begins in New York today. The record executive rapper and businessman has been in federal custody since his arrest last September. He faces charges that include sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He's pleaded not guilty. NPR's Isabella Gomez-Sarmiento is covering the trial for NPR in New York, and this report

lasts about three minutes. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Many people have followed this blow by blow, but what exactly is Combs on trial for? Yeah. I mean, he's on trial for a number of alleged activities that center on the abuse of women and others around him. So, prosecutors are basically alleging that Combs used his significant power and his business empire to protect himself from the repercussions of those actions. So for one, he faces charges of sex trafficking. That means forcing or coercing someone to engage in commercial sex acts.

Aya Gruber is a criminal law professor at the University of Southern California, and she says that, especially after the trials of Harvey Weinstein and the Nixxiom cult case, the legal definition of commercial sex is quite broad. Courts are willing to define commercial sex as an exchange of sex, not just for money, but for anything of value. So for example, promising to help someone's career could potentially be considered something of value in some instances. Combs also faces charges for transporting people across state lines to participate in commercial sex.

And the third charge, racketeering conspiracy, is what ties all of this together. Prosecutors allege that Combs directed his employees to organize and conceal these sex crimes for over a decade. And Combs is pleaded not guilty to all of these charges. How did these criminal charges relate to the civil sexual assault lawsuits that Combs also faces? The civil law and the criminal law are two completely different systems, but there is a lot of overlap in the behavior described here.

So you're absolutely right, Combs faces dozens of civil lawsuits. Some listeners might be familiar with the R&B singer Cassie Ventura, who filed the first prominent civil lawsuit against him. But that's not necessarily what this trial is about. He's really only on trial for the criminal charges in the indictment that we just discussed. However, there is a chance that some of the alleged victims who filed civil suits have

also been cooperating with this criminal investigation. So even though there are two different legal roads when it comes to Sean Combs, there could be some intersecting here. And we have this question now that comes up whenever somebody who's extremely famous is put on trial. How do you select a jury for a case like this

where so many people have probably heard something about it? Yeah, I mean, Combs is from New York City, and he's a huge star. So there's really a high chance that potential jurors here will already have some opinions about this case. Both the prosecution and the defense submitted proposed questionnaires for what they'd like the jury to be asked.

Combs team included questions about how jurors feel about wealthy celebrities, what kind of music they listen to, and how they might respond to evidence that, you know, describes people engaging in sexual relations with multiple partners. On the prosecution side, several of their key witnesses are alleged victims who will be testifying against Combs under pseudonyms. So the prosecution also proposed asking whether jurors

would be more or less likely to believe a witness who testifies under a different name. Really interesting. So if he is convicted, how long could he go to prison? So Sean Combs has been in custody since he was arrested in September. He's been denied bail multiple times. And if he's found guilty of all of these charges, he could be spending the remainder of his life behind bars. Man in his mid-50s. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, thanks so much.

Thank you. And that's up first for this Monday, May 5th. I'm Steve Inske. And I'm Michelle Martin. There's an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network. That's the NPR app. Hear community coverage from your local station, stories from around the world, and podcast suggestions based on what you like.

Download the NPR app in your app store. Today's Up First was edited by Krishnaishnadev Kalamur, Kari Kahn, Jacob Gans, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Katie Klein, Neha Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Zach Coleman. Join us again tomorrow.

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