Hormuz Latest, Trump Rallies Amid Sinking Approval, Tariff Refunds

0:02Iran says it's clamping down again on the Strait of Hormuz. Putting the temporary reprieve of the ceasefire at risk. So how temporary is that reprieve? And that's the question of the weekend. I'm Melissa Nadwarni. And I'm Scott Simon and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20The deal to pause fighting was holding. Now it joins the same shaky ground as the ceasefire in Lebanon. We dig in on both. Then we'll take you to a huge church in Arizona as President Trump rallies supporters as general support erodes. And Monday is refund day, but not for IRS 1040 filers. Though tariffs are a tax, we'll explain. So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

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1:36Glasses designed in-house from premium materials starting at just$95, including prescription lenses. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you. This message comes from Angie. Tackling a home project, Angie can connect you with pros who do such a good job you might ask them to be your kid's godfather. Don't do that. Just trust them to get the job done. Find a pro for your projects at Angie.com. That's A-N-G-I dot com. First, a look at those ceasefires in the Middle East. Washington and Beirut have announced a 10-day ceasefire in the fight between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah. And the ceasefire between the U.S.

2:17and Iran is set to end next week. But overnight, Iran reimposed restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, putting new pressure on President Trump. NPR's Quill Lawrence joins us. Quill, thanks for being with us. Good morning, Scott. Let's begin with the Strait. Yeah, it's been real whiplash. Yesterday, with the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Iran announced it would open the Strait to commercial traffic for the duration of that ceasefire, but only along this prescribed route close to the Iranian coast. But then the U.S. said it would maintain its blockade of Iranian ports while those peace talks continue.

2:54So perhaps in response today, Iran's military said, no, the strait remains closed until the U.S. lifts its blockade of Iran. So it's been a confusing, what, 24 hours with a lot of questions left about is the straight reclosed or never really open to shipping. And so where does that put the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran? Well, officially, it's set to expire on Tuesday, April 21st. There's talk of extending that deadline. One source on Capitol Hill, who's not authorized to speak publicly, told NPR that he's hearing that at least the Pakistanis who are hosting these talks want to extend them.

3:29President Trump has said that a deal with Iran is very close. And yesterday, he told reporters, quote, I think it's going to happen. As you say, Pakistan's mediating the talks. Vice President Vance was in Islamabad last weekend, but did not seemingly make much progress. So what's the next step? The next step could be direct talks between the U.S. and Iran, most likely there in Pakistan. And President Trump told reporters that if there's a deal, he might even go there and show up in person. But of course, that was before the news that Iran closed the strait. At this point, The deal seems probably to hinge on a pause in Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

4:08The administration wants a 20-year pause while Iran is talking about a five-year pause. So there'll be some haggling over that timeline. We spoke to one analyst who said, yes, of course, a deal is better than war. But without any details, it's hard to say. For example, will there be international inspectors who will go in to see if Iran is just maintaining a peaceful nuclear infrastructure, not a weapons program? Will the U.S. unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets? Those were all factors in a deal forged during the Obama administration that President Trump scrapped in his first term.

4:44He called it a bad deal. The unfreezing of these assets is something the Iranians apparently are insisting on this time. But we don't know to what extent President Trump will essentially rebuild the JCPOA. That was the deal that was hammered out into the Obama administration. And give us more details, please, on the deal in Lebanon. Yes, it's a 10-day ceasefire. But the most important distinction is that Israel may have made a peace deal with a Lebanese government. It's not clear they've made a peace deal with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia army, the entity that was at war with Israel.

5:19So that militant group has said it won't accept any deal. President Trump has urged them to, quote, act nicely. Hezbollah says Israel can't have any freedom of movement in Lebanon, but Israeli forces are in southern Lebanon right now. They say they're there to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets and missiles into Israel. And meanwhile, there's a huge buildup of U.S. forces in the region. One U.S. carrier group actually took the ancient route around the length of Africa instead of going through the Suez Canal to get there, which I think tells you a lot about the current state of safety of navigation in the region.

5:52And Pierce Quill Lawrence, thanks so much. Thank you.

6:03President Trump hit the campaign trail out west this week, touting no tax on tips in Nevada. He then headed to Arizona for a campaign-style rally held in a megachurch with the group Turning Point USA. During a week marked by controversy around his criticism of Pope Leo and the continued war in Iran, and Trump's speech in front of a friendly crowd generated a lot of enthusiasm for the president. This November, we've got to win the midterms. But the president's appearance comes during a time when his approval ratings across the country are at a record low. NPR's Sage Miller joins us now to give us the rundown on Friday's event.

6:40Now the president's trying to convince voters in swing states to stick with him. Sage, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. Why was the president giving special attention to the West this week? Well, Trump is trying to gain critical support for Republicans in swing states ahead of the midterm election, really trying to get the momentum going. Both Nevada and Arizona are critical battleground states, and Trump doesn't want to lose control of Congress come November. But that's looking like it might be an uphill battle. And how so? Trump has been in a lot of hot water following a slew of unpopular policies, including most recently the war in Iran.

7:19The war has driven up gas prices and inflation, major election issues. In an average of the polls, the president has hit a record low approval rating of 39%. However, Trump did not have to worry about criticism with this crowd. The crowd frequently erupted in cheers when Trump said something they agree with, even when he was speaking about the war. We are not ashamed of American might, and we do not hesitate to defend the American people, which is what we've been doing for the last two months, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. And they booed loudly whenever Trump mentioned something about Democrats.

8:03They wanted to fund ICE. They want ICE terminated. Even if morale is low nationwide, the audience was full of loyalists. When member station KJZZ political reporter Cameron Sanchez asked about the president's sharp criticisms of Pope Leto, many voters fear back Trump. This is what Ken McCormick had to say. I've heard about it. Don't really care about it. Yeah. I mean, he says things all the time that make people mad. And I just that's just the way he is. These are the voters, and this is the kind of crowd he feels he can build momentum in a swing stay ahead of a midterm election that could be really cumbersome for Republicans.

8:44The majority of polls project a Democratic advantage, but Trump told attendees not to listen to the polls. Just get out and vote red when the time comes. What was President Trump's message overall to voters in Arizona? You know, Trump stuck to his usual script for the most part. He praised the same talking points he has since the beginning of his second term. America is on the march and America is on the rise like we haven't seen maybe ever before. We are respected again as a country. Right now, though, there isn't a lot of strong policies he can lean on and elevate. There isn't a winning message out of the White House at the moment, which makes it harder for him to sell on the campaign trail.

9:26That's why the turning point crowd bodes so well for him. They are people who will support Trump no matter what. And he wants these loyalist crowds to help him do the heavy lifting of persuasion for voters who are on the fence, especially in these swing states. Of course, this was a Turning Point USA event, and President Trump is closely aligned with the organization, which has been in a period of rebuilding since its founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot to death last fall. What role does Turning Point play in all this push to win with conservatives? Turning Point used to have a really strong influence on young conservative voters.

10:04That was a voting bloc both parties struggled with, but Turning Point seemed to have figured out the secret sauce. But ever since, like you said, the founder Charlie Kirk died, the organization hasn't had the same reach with young Republicans as it once did. That didn't seem to be a problem for Trump on stage, though. This is what he pointed out. I want to thank all the young people. I've never seen so many young people in my life. Trump told the crowd that it's on Republicans to keep Kirk's legacy alive by encouraging young people in swing states to vote red. But we won't know if Trump's messaging is successful until November.

10:44And Pierre Sage Miller, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you.

10:55Monday, 8 a.m. Eastern, is the moment lots of businesses are waiting for. That's when the government finally launches an online refund portal for the Trump administration tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down. NPR's Alina Seljuk is gearing up to cover what's about to be America's hottest website. And she joins us now. Hi there, Alina. Hello, hello. Oh. Okay, so what are we expecting on Monday morning? Like, is this going to be a Beyonce ticket bonanza? Kind of, yes, just with a dizzying amount of paperwork and spreadsheets. Yeah, so let me set the stage, I guess, pun intended. About a year ago, President Trump set historic tariffs on virtually all imports into the U.S.

11:38So for a year now, anything imported into the U.S. has cost companies extra fees to get the goods through customs. Then two months ago, the Supreme Court said the majority of those tariffs were unconstitutional. And that's an estimated$166 billion that was collected illegally. Billion. Wow. Yeah. So you can imagine every importer instantly going, how do I get that money back? And they have been waiting for that answer for two months. At first, it wasn't clear if the government would or even could do the refunds. Then it seemed the businesses might have to sue the government individually to get that money back.

12:17And just over a month ago, U.S. Customs revealed in court that they were working on an online portal to file refund claims. And this past week, it was kind of like, here it is. The portal opens Monday. Wow. OK, so is everyone just going to rush to apply at once? I asked exactly that But when I was talking to Jonathan Gold, he is the customs expert at the National Retail Federation. I think, unfortunately, there will be a mad dash at the beginning because everybody wants to be first in line. Everybody's eagerly waiting for this money to come back to them. One small business owner I talked to who is a mom was saying she felt like she was applying for a competitive summer camp slot.

12:54Like, will the fastest fingers get to be first in line? People are getting multiple colleagues prepared to log in and file. They're setting up AI tools to speed up applications. I think it will be tens of thousands of people trying to file their tariff refund claims first thing Monday. And is the government ready for that? We did pose this question to customs, you know, but the volume of claims that their tariff portal is prepared to handle on Monday. A spokesperson just said the new tool was built to, quote, efficiently process refunds and also shared a new guidance page it's created for importers and brokers.

13:28Of course, not all businesses will be ready immediately. there's a fair amount of bureaucratic prep work that has to be done to qualify for a refund claim. And we do know that this is only the initial phase of refunds. So not all imports will be eligible quite yet, though it is the majority. Okay, what about the shoppers, though? Like, are we going to be able to get any of the money back that we've been paying in the form of these higher prices caused by tariffs? Yeah, that's the question I've been getting the most. And the honest answer is probably not. The government can only refund the tariffs to whoever actually paid them.

14:03It's called the importer of records. So whoever shepherded the goods through customs and paid the duty gets that money back. And sometimes that's the store where you bought something. But sometimes it's like a company that's like three steps up the supply chain. And so a lot of store owners are actually in a bit of a quandary. I talked to Joe Kimray. He owns B &W Hardware, North Carolina. He sells a lot of grills, and he says last year, manufacturers both hiked their prices to him due to tariffs, and they tried to shield shoppers by requiring that stores offer discounts. Wholesale prices went up.

14:40Retail prices went down. I was the one caught in the middle. And now, because he's not the direct importer, he's going to have some tough conversations with his suppliers. He hopes that he can at least get some good deals on new orders going forward. And I bet we will hear a lot about shoppers pushing for refunds, too. There are already a few class action lawsuits against some major companies. Some retailers are already saying, yes, we'll try to pass along any refunds we get. But this is something I'll be watching for sure. Yeah, can't wait to hear about it. NPR's Alina Selig. Thanks, Alina. Thank you.

15:19And that's up first for Saturday, April 18, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Melissa Nadmorny. Dave Mistish produced today's podcast with help from Margo Bauerlein and Gabe O 'Connor. Our editors were Ed McNulty, Ariel Plotnick, Andrew Sussman, Megan Pratz, and Emily Kopp. Here in the studio, our directors, Michael Radcliffe and Elena Tworek, and our technical director, David Greenberg. He's got engineering support from Jay Sizz, Simon Laszlo-Jansen, and Zoe Vangenhoven. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Evie Stone. And Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor.

15:56Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, we take you to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where public schools compete in the free market. But are students better off? Click play here in the feed. And thank you for listening and for supporting your local NPR station. And if you need to find yours, and we all do, go to stations.npr.org. Thank you.

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