Up First from NPR - Trump's Economic D-Day For Iran, Gulf Allies React To US Plan, SCOTUS Mail-in Voting

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

The Trump administration rolled out what it calls the biggest economic offensive ever aimed at a country, naming 60 targets while warning others to cut ties with Iran or face U.S. sanctions of their own, though the toughest measures are still being held in reserve.In the Gulf, the UAE has already cut all trade with Iran while other neighbors remain in a difficult position, and China continues to buy the bulk of Iranian oil even as it criticizes the new pressure campaign.The Supreme Court handed President Trump a temporary win on his effort to restrict mail-in voting weeks before midterm ballots go out, though the legal fight is far from settled and voting by mail still remains an option for now.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by James Hider, Kate Bartlett, Ben Swasey, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Julie Depenbrock and Nia Dumas.Our director is Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.(0:00) Introduction(01:56) Trump's Economic D-Day For Iran(05:35) Gulf Allies React To US Plan(09:07) SCOTUS Mail-in VotingSee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The White House's plan to hit Iran's economy landed softer than expected. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett announced 60 new sanction targets, then gave everyone a window to comply. He didn't even mention China, Iran's biggest oil buyer. I'm Michelle Martin. That's Laila Fado, and this is up first from NPR News. President Trump needs other countries to fall in line with his economic pressure campaign on Iran. The UAE has already cut ties. Will others follow suit? And the Supreme Court handed President Trump a temporary win in his fight against mail-in voting. The court let Trump move ahead with an executive order.

Voting by mail is still an option nationwide, but the legal fight is continuing with the midterms coming soon. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. The Trump administration called it the economic deed day for Iran. But unlike the surprise Allied landing in France during World War II, this day was more of a warning. to countries that sanctions are coming. Here's how Treasury Secretary Scott Besant put it in his news conference Monday. We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?

The Trump administration has struggled to find an exit ramp to the war against Iran. Now it's trying to step up the financial pressure instead. Joining us to talk about this is NPR's diplomatic correspondent, Michelle Callum. Good morning, Michelle. Good morning, Leila. Okay, so the Trump administration calls this Operation, economic outcast. What's the plan here? I mean, the U.S. wants to make the choices clear to Iran. It's either economic isolation and a subsistence economy or a path back to normal relations with the world. But the

trouble is there are a lot of gray areas, and that's what Bessent is trying to deal with. He's warning countries that the U.S. knows how Iran is evading sanctions. He says the Treasury Department, and these are his words, have mapped every node, every facilitator, every network, that Iran has used to smuggle, oil and evade sanctions, and now the U.S. is looking at Iran's dealings in cryptocurrency, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. The Treasury Secretary says no country or business is above the reach of U.S. sanctions. Take a listen. We know who they are. They know who they are. So when the hammer of U.S. Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

He announced sanctions on 60 entities and individuals, but didn't say when that hammer of broader sanctions might hit major banks, for instance, in countries that continue to do business with Iran. Now, he didn't single out China, Iran's biggest customer for oil or other countries in public, right? Why not? Yeah, I mean, he said President Trump is having private diplomatic conversations with world leaders about all of this. And of course, China's president, Xi Jinping, is expected to visit the White House. next month. And China views the U.S. sanctions as illegal. The Trump administration did add some Chinese companies to the blacklist, but it's not clear how far the Trump administration is really going to push China ahead of Xi's visit. You know, most of this is really just a rebranded sanctions campaign at the moment. We're nearly six months into the U.S. Israeli War against Iran. It will be six

months at the end of the week. So why this big talk about new economic pressure now? Yeah, I mean, the war has lasted much longer than President Trump initially predicted. And remember when he started the war, he was telling Iranians who had been protesting the regime that soon they're going to be able to take over their country and set a new course. But months later, we're seeing a hardened Iranian regime. It's been striking U.S. assets across the region in allied Gulf states and now threatening again to block all oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Did Abeson talk about an end game for these sanctions? Not really, but take a listen to a... his message to ordinary Iranian soldiers. As more and more of your paychecks stop or supposedly

just delayed, ask whether your commanders are leading your country to triumph or to ruin, and recall that the Berlin Wall fell when ordinary soldiers decided not to shoot. So there they are again, counting on regime change as a way to resolve this, but in the meantime, they still need to find ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That's NPR's. NPR's Michelle Kellerman. Thank you, Michelle. Thank you. NPR international correspondent Ayyavatrawi in Dubai is also covering the latest round of U.S. sanctions. Good morning, Ayah. Good morning, Leila. Okay, the United Arab Emirates, where you are, was among the first to announce last week. It was cutting off commercial and trade ties with Iran. Are other countries joining Trump's economic pressure campaign? So reactions from other Gulf allies have so far been muted. You know, some already only had dismal trade ties with Iran before this war, whereas the UAE was a war. among Iran's top international trade partners, according to data by the World Trade Organization.

And the U.S. needs more countries to fall in line with these measures, because while U.S. sanctions have crippled Iran's economy, Trump wants to crush not just cripple its revenue in order to force a change. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump's been phoning world leaders to join him in isolating Iran. And he didn't name which leaders Trump called, but listed some of the ways that countries operate in what he calls the gray zone. Iran's enablers purchase, transport its petroleum. They facilitate the flow of its finances through exchange houses and free trade zones. They welcome Iran's flights and maintain registries on its behalf.

They turn a blind eye to seaborne fuel transfers and overland transits. I, listening to Besson's words there, what stands out to you? Well, what stands out isn't just that he called out the purchase of Iranian oil, Lela, but also welcoming flights from Iran and overland transits. And if we look at flights, there are still flights as of today on Iran air to Dubai, connecting Iranians to the biggest airport in the world for international transit. And I checked flights on Iran's Mahan air as well this morning, and it's flying to neighboring Oman as well as Turkey, Russia, China,

even the tropical Thai holiday destination of Fouquet. And as for overland transits, Pakistan, which has emerged as the lead mediator between Washington and Tehran in this war, has plans to expand annual bilateral trade with Iran by more than threefold to $10 billion annually. During this war, Pakistan also opened more land routes for non-sanctioned goods from other countries to enter Iran. But the most consequential country here is China, which is the biggest importer and buyer of Iranian oil. China's foreign ministry today slammed the White House's latest measures against Iran, calling them, quote, elicit unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law. China says economic wars only escalate the conflict and disrupt global financial order and says it isn't going to cut off Iran.

China has had to dig into its oil reserves to weather the fallout from this war as the biggest buyer of both Iranian and Saudi oil. And what have we heard from the Iranian government? Has there been a reaction? Sure. I mean, last night Iran's economy minister Ali Madanisadeh brushed aside the White House's economic deeday. So that's him on the time of the time of the time. So that's him on State TV saying Iran's been planning this for a long time and is ready with a two-year plan to manage the fallout. And Iranian politicians, Lela, are casting this new economic offensive by Washington as evidence that the U.S. military offensive failed to cower Iran.

But I will say here, Iran's central bank chief did hint last week that the economic situation now is harder than it has. has been in decades, with both oil revenues and taxes being affected. That's NPR's Ayabitraou in Dubai. Thank you for your reporting. Thanks, Lath. The U.S. Supreme Court has handed President Trump a temporary win on his efforts to restrict voting by mail. It involves how the U.S. Postal Service will deliver ballots for this fall's midterm election, but the legal fight is not over.

To break down the Supreme Court's decision, we're joined by NPR's Hansi-Lawong. Good morning, Hansi. Morning, Leila. Okay, so this lawsuit is based on an executive order that Trump signed in March. Where are we in this legal fight over that order? We are in the middle of this fight still. This new Supreme Court decision is not the final word. The justices have not ruled on whether President Trump's order is legal.

And so far, this order has not directly affected mail-in voting. So what effect does yesterday's Supreme Court ruling actually have then? Well, here's a way to think about this. there have been two rulings from a judge in Boston. They both block the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out Trump's order to restrict voting by mail. And I should note U.S.PS is a financial support of NPR. Now, what the Supreme Court has done is pause the first of those two rulings. This first one blocked U.S.PS from working on Trump's order in about half of the states plus Washington, D.C. But there is a second ruling that is still in effect, and it's blocking U.S.PS across the country right now. What had Trump ordered the Postal Service to do?

Trump basically called for the Postal Service to deliver mail and ballots only to people on lists of mail and voters that states would have to turn over to USPS. And Trump has said he issued this order to stop illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens, which many studies and audits have found to be extremely rare. And by the way, Trump himself has voted by mail in Florida. And what did the Supreme Court actually say? What we have is an unsigned ruling from this conservative-led court on procedural questions. The court's three liberal justices dissented, but the ruling basically says the judge in Boston weighed in too early back in June by concluding that Trump's order oversteps to president's authority under the Constitution and that USPS has no legal authority to control mail-in voting. The Trump administration argued it had not fully carried out the order, so it shouldn't be blocked and the Supreme Court agreed. And what are you hearing from the order's challengers?

Well, we're weeks away from the start of mail and voting for the midterm elections. And I talked to Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State, Jennifer Riswell. Her state is one of the 23 suing over Trump's order. And there is real concern about the possibility of Trump's order making a real mess of mail and voting for the midterms. The election process is already underway. This is a very close fight to the actual election. But make no mistake on the first. federal government attempts to implement this unlawful executive order, Colorado and other states

across the country will fight back. Okay. So before you go, we should talk about what this means for voters. What should eligible voters take away from all of this? At this point, it's really unclear what impact Trump's order will actually end up having. And for now, the bottom line is voting by mail is still a viable option to all voters who are eligible for it in their states. And USPS is expected to deliver mail imbalance as usual. But Lila, I'm going to keep watching these lawsuits. The Supreme Court said its new ruling does not mean the implementation of Trump's order will be lawful. The court even wrote in its decision, quote, on that score, time will tell.

That's NPR's Hansi Lo Wong. Hansi, thank you. And thanks for watching these lawsuits. I'm sure you'll be back on to talk about that. You're very welcome, Leila. And that's up first for Tuesday, August 25th. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Michelle Martin.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by James Heider, Kate Bartlett, Ben Swayze, Mohamed Elberdisi and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Julie Deppenbrock and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Highness. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.