House Members During Shutdown; Trump Visits Asia; US Military Buildup in Caribbean

0:01The government shutdown is in its fourth week. Lawmakers in the Senate can't seem to make any progress. And the House is not in session. So how are House members using this time? I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. This is Up First from NPR News. Some members of the House of Representatives were using this downtime during the shutdown to hear from their constituents. And boy, do they have a lot to say. We'll tell you more about that. Also, President Trump heads to Asia. We'll preview what to expect from that trip. Plus, the U.S. is escalating its military presence in the Caribbean. We'll look at how that move is being seen in the region.

0:43So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

0:58In case you've forgotten, we're in the middle of a government shutdown. And we've yet to see any progress in the Senate on a bill to fund the government. But some House members are taking this time to head home and hear from voters in their district. And your congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt went to Texas to see what one of those lawmakers has been hearing. Barbara joins us now. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. I gather you visited Lano, about 90 minutes northwest of Austin. It's represented by Congressman August Pflueger. What did he say to constituents? Well, he praised Republicans' signature tax and spending bill from earlier this year.

1:35It included tax cuts and changes to the Medicaid program, all very popular with this group of about 40 people, including some members of local government. That wasn't a surprise to me. This district went for President Trump in 2024 by 72%. It is a solid red district. He also talked a lot about the shutdown. He said the House did its job in passing a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government just before they left in mid-September. But the House still hasn't returned. That's right. For now, the Speaker isn't bringing the chamber back until Senate Democrats agree to fund the government.

2:09And the Congressman laid out why he thinks Democrats haven't done that yet. Pflueger said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer needs to look like he's opposing President Trump at every turn. I think he has to look tough to his radical left base because he's worried about AOC being the next senator from New York. And so he has to be seen as fighting Trump. Of course, Senate Democrats would put it a bit differently. They say they're trying to force a negotiation on extending ACA subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. Pflueger, like his party leadership, says they should fund the government first and then negotiate on subsidies.

2:45So I asked voters at this about the town hall. Carlton Johnson, a Republican, said he has big concerns about health care, but Democrats' message just doesn't resonate with him. What I see is the Democrats trying to hold the country hostage to get what they want. Yeah, I think it's very childish. Of course, health care is at the center of why the shutdown continues. More and more states will be feeling the consequences, particularly cuts to nutrition assistance. Did that come up? It did. Here's the congressman. I think the food assistance is one that I would put at the very highest level of worry.

3:21Can you imagine kids not getting the funding they need? Now, in Texas, over 3 million people use SNAP benefits and about 10 percent of households in Pflueger's district, according to an estimate from the U.S. Census. One constituent told me she's very concerned about kids not getting this assistance, but she hopes that food banks can step up. Is that even possible? Well, I called the CEO of the Central Texas Food Bank to ask exactly that question. Here's Sari Vatsky. There is no way that we alone can make up for a$44 million food budget shortfall. We are currently spending$1.3 million per month, which is already up from$1.1 million to purchase food to make up for the increased need.

4:05So simply put, we need the government to reopen. She said that if November SNAP benefits are gone for families in central Texas, what that means is 127 ,000 households without those benefits. Of course, President Trump hasn't stepped forward to try to broker a deal. What did people there have to say about his involvement? Well, you know, a few people mentioned wanting to see him step in and play a role. Small business owner Mickey Kosarek is particularly concerned about these health care premiums skyrocketing without an extension of the subsidies. And he said he wonders where the president is in all of this.

4:41I mean, he wrote the art of the deal, right? You know, if he's such a good negotiator and does that, why doesn't he say, let's sit down, let's find something? He's a Republican, but he's critical of the president. He says that if Trump stepped in to stop the shutdown, it would be a plus in his book. But the president left for a trip to Asia yesterday, so it's looking unlikely that he'll be sitting down at any negotiating table with Democrats and Republicans anytime soon. And Paris Barber's Brunt, thanks so much. Thank you, Scott.

5:16President Trump is embarking on the first trip to Asia of his second term, and he's set to meet with both allies and competitors. We're talking about China, of course. And Paris Anthony Kuhn joins us from South Korea, the president's final stop. Anthony, thanks for being with us. My pleasure, Scott. Give us a sense of what's on the agenda. Well, President Trump's itinerary centers on two summits, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in South Korea. But President Trump is more focused on bilateral meetings, and there's some criticism in the region that ASEAN and APEC are multilateral forums.

5:55They're promoting regional integration and free trade, while the U.S. seems to be focused on great power competition and trade protectionism. President Trump wants to preside over a Thai-Cambodian ceasefire deal, apparently to burnish his peacemaker image, which has led to some criticism in the region that Trump is more focused on himself than Southeast Asia. There's certainly no shortage of conflicts that he could try to end, such as Myanmar's brutal civil war, but he doesn't seem interested in that one. President is expected to meet, as we mentioned, his Chinese counterpart. How do you believe he'll handle that meeting?

6:29Well, it's tough. Trade tensions have flared and both sides are trying to pressure the other one with tariffs and export controls. U.S. and Chinese trade officials are meeting in Kuala Lumpur to try to de-escalate that. if the talks fall through, a Xi Jinping-Trump meeting might not even happen, and the Chinese side has not confirmed that there will be this meeting. I spoke to Zhu Feng, who is dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University. Here's what he told me. If the negotiations in Malaysia get no results, he told me, then the resulting U.S.-China split will be very worrying.

7:06He adds that China has already endured unendurable treatment from the U.S., and it's got to push back to show that it will not be cornered by the U.S. President Trump is also known for his skepticism toward allies as well. What can we expect from meetings with countries that include Japan and South Korea? Well, President Trump will meet in Japan with the country's new female prime minister, Sanae Takeuchi, and in South Korea with President E.J. Myung. And the U.S. has gotten both of these allies to pledge a combined nearly$1 trillion in investment in the U.S. in exchange for lower tariffs. But there are still differences, such as how much of that is paid up front in cash.

7:47And if the allies aren't happy with the details, they could try to negotiate. If the U.S. isn't happy with that, it could reimpose tariffs. Both Seoul and Tokyo are under pressure from the U.S. to pay more for military protection and to help the U.S. confront China. President Trump said on the way to Malaysia that he is open to meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, but apparently there are no plans for that to happen so far. This is President Trump's first trip to Asia in his second term. Anthony, what can we say about President Trump's Asia policy? Well, previous administrations, especially President Obama's, have said they want to try to pivot to focus their attention on Asia.

8:28Trump has not. He has been mostly focused on conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. There is a central disagreement within the administration between maintaining U.S. primacy in Asia or putting America first by minding its own hemisphere. And that has aggravated fears among many nations that the U.S. will either drag its allies into unnecessary conflicts or become isolationist and just abandon them. NPR's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul, South Korea. Anthony, thanks so much. My pleasure, Scott.

9:06The U.S. is deploying its most advanced and lethal aircraft carrier to the Caribbean. The Pentagon says it's for a counter-narcotics operation, but this is widely seen as something more, an escalation in the standoff between the United States and the government of Venezuela. NPR's Ada Peralta just came back from a reporting trip to the Caribbean, and he joins us now from his base in Mexico City. Good morning, Ada. Hey, good morning, Aisha. So what's the latest? Like, what kind of military presence will the U.S. have in the Caribbean? I mean, look, the big news is that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has rerouted the USS Gerald R.

9:46Ford from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Just off the coast of Venezuela, the U.S. military describes the USS Gerald Ford as, quote, the most capable and lethal naval mission package in the world. It's massive. I mean, it can carry up to 90 aircraft and the strike group that comes with it is also significant. It includes guided missile destroyers and up to 5 ,000 troops. And the news here is that the aircraft carrier is joining an already robust deployment. Remember, the U.S. had already deployed a submarine, F-35 fighter jets, Reaper drones, surveillance aircraft, and 10 ,000 troops. It has been decades since the U.S.

10:26has deployed this heavily in the Americas. And so far, the U.S. has targeted 10 small vessels that they allege we're carrying drugs. The U.S. says it has killed at least 43 people. The U.S. says this is a counter-narcotics operation. Is there evidence of that being true? I mean, look, what every analyst I've spoken to has told me is you don't need tomahawk missiles to deal with speedboats in the Caribbean. We also have to point out the obvious. By the DEA's own accounting. Very little of the drugs that come into the United States actually transit through the Caribbean or Venezuela. What's clear is that all of this military gear is very capable of either directly toppling the government of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, or at least putting some fear into the government to force Maduro out of power.

11:16And I think the Trump administration itself has already telegraphed what this massive deployment is really about. They have said that this is an operation against Trendyaragua, which is a Venezuelan gang that the U.S. has designated as a, quote, narco-terrorist organization. And then Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that President Maduro is the head of that organization. Finally, President Trump has on multiple occasions said the U.S. has now controlled the waters and that it may very well go after targets on land. What are you hearing from Venezuela? What's the government and what are the people there saying?

11:54President Nicolás Maduro has kind of been vacillating between trying to show strength. You know, he deployed troops to the Caribbean and state TV has been showing off Venezuela's military hardware. But at the same time, Maduro has been trying to bring the temperature down. In one of his recent speeches, he made it very clear he wanted peace and he did it in English. Not war, not war. Just peace, just peace, just peace forever, forever, forever. Peace forever. No crazy war. One of our producers went out to the streets of Caracas and she found a little bit of everything. She found disinterest and worry and hope.

12:35She spoke to a 53-year-old professor. We're not using her name because she fears retaliation from the government. And she said she so desperately wants a change in Venezuela that she welcomes American military action. But she also said the uncertainty was eating at her. We have fear on one side, she said, and hope on the other, but we can't be certain about what's about to happen, she says. That's NPR's Ada Peralta reporting from Mexico City. Ada, thank you so much. Thank you, Aisha.

13:14And that's up first for Saturday, October 25th, 2025. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Elena Tworick produced today's podcast with help from Fernando Naro and Samantha Balaban. Our editor has been Deepa Vaz along with Vincent Nee, Kelsey Snell, Tara Neal, and Miguel Macias. Michael Radcliffe directed. Our technical director was David Greenberg with engineering support from Zovang Genhoven, Nisha Hines, and Stacey Abbott. Our senior supervising editor is Shannon Rhodes. Evie Stone is our executive producer and Jim Cain, our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, New Zealand is home to more than 4 ,000 native species that are threatened or at risk of extinction.

13:57To protect their biodiversity, the country has embarked on an experiment that aims to eradicate all invasive species by the year 2050. We look at how feasible this is and at just how far we should go to undo the damage we've done to the planet. And we have so much more available for you on the radio, so please find your local NPR station at stations.npr.org. You won't regret it.