Israel-Lebanon Ceasefire, Trump's Spending Cuts, A Conservative Activist's Plan

0:02Officials say they're close to getting a temporary truce between Israel and Hezbollah. They've been trading fire for over a year. In the last two months, Israeli attacks escalated, decimating Hezbollah's leadership in parts of Lebanon. I'm Leila Faldin. That's Rob Schmitz. And this is Up First from NPR News. Congress holds the power of the purse. But could the future president take that power? To further crack down on rampant waste in the federal government, we're going to bring back presidential impoundment authority, which nobody knows what it is. Or look at one way President-elect Trump could slash government spending.

0:37And what a man central to the conservative legal movement plans to focus on during the next administration. I want to crush liberal donors. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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1:31This message comes from Doctors Without Borders. People are living through a moment defined by unrelenting crises and need. Civilians are caught in the crossfire of violence and war. Malnutrition threatens the lives of children. Communities depend on life-saving humanitarian aid. Doctors Without Borders is meeting this moment of overwhelming need with action. But they can't do it alone. Help provide life-saving care around the world. Learn how to donate today at doctorswithoutborders.org slash NPR. A possible ceasefire is in the works between Israel and Lebanon. Yeah, both Israeli and Lebanese officials are set to hold meetings and vote on the proposal this week.

2:13Israel and Hezbollah had been fighting a low-level conflict for more than a year now. Then, in late September, Israel widened its airstrikes on Lebanon and sent in ground troops, killing most of Hezbollah's leadership and devastating the country. The UN estimates a quarter of Lebanon's population has been displaced. For more on the details of the ceasefire, we're joined now by NPR's Lauren Freyer in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Lauren, what are the terms of this proposal? So it's not a done deal yet, but here's what we understand. It would be an initial two-month ceasefire. 60 days takes us to Donald Trump's inauguration.

2:50Israeli troops would withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah would pull its fighters and weapons north of the Litani River. That's about 20 miles from the Israeli border. The Lebanese army would move in alongside UN peacekeepers who are already there. An international committee would be set up to monitor implementation of this ceasefire. Incidentally, these are basically the terms of the last ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, which was never fully implemented. The U.S. and Israel, of course, consider Hezbollah a terrorist group. So how do these talks work? So Hezbollah is really the power broker in this country, but it is the Lebanese government that is negotiating and signing this agreement.

3:32The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament is close to Hezbollah and is sort of deputized to negotiate on Hezbollah's behalf. So he's been shuttling back and forth between Hezbollah and the U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has been shuttling back and forth between Beirut and Jerusalem, which explains in part, aside from all these sensitivities, why this process is just so time-consuming. Right. So in Washington, of course, U.S. officials have been characterizing this as close to a deal, but not quite there yet. So what are some of these stumbling blocks that we're seeing? So one of them is Israel wants the freedom to attack Hezbollah if it thinks the group is violating the ceasefire by keeping weapons near the Israeli border, for example.

4:13By the way, Israeli surveillance here is intense. I don't know if you can hear me, but there's Israeli drone buzzing over the building where I am right now. If the U.S. guarantees Israel the right to strike preemptively, that could be seen here in Lebanon as a violation of this country's sovereignty and really a red line on this side. NPR spoke this morning to a Lebanese member of parliament. His name is Simone Abiramia.

4:42And he basically says no matter what the U.S. may be telling Israel on the sidelines, any such right for Israel to attack preemptively is not part of this official agreement. And Lauren, you're there in Beirut. You mentioned the drones buzzing over your head. You know, I'm wondering, how are people there that you're talking to? How are they feeling? Devastated and exhausted. Lebanon and Hezbollah have paid a very dear price in this war. Nearly all of Hezbollah's leaders have been killed in Israeli attacks. More than 3 ,700 people killed on this side of the border since September. You know, even today, airstrikes seem to be intensifying, even during these negotiations.

5:20In central Beirut, we get shaken from our beds. There are huge booms constantly. There's widespread destruction. Parts of Beirut look like Gaza. But Hezbollah is still managing to fire rockets at Israel. This weekend, upwards of 250 rockets in a single day. So in that sense, Israel has failed to eliminate the threat. That's NPR's Lauren Frey in Beirut. Thanks, Lauren. You're welcome.

5:49President-elect Trump is promising big cuts in government spending. And he wants to use a little-known tool to make those cuts. To further crack down on rampant waste in the federal government, we're going to bring back Presidential Impoundment Authority, which nobody knows what it is, but it allows the president to go out and cut things and save a fortune for our country, things that make no sense. And on Friday, he announced his pick for someone to wield that tool. It's Russ Vogt, a key architect of Project 2025 who will lead the White House Budget Office. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez joins me now in the studio to break this all down.

6:27Good morning, Franco. Hi, Rob. So let's get into this. You know, We heard Trump there say nobody knows what impoundment authority is. I mean, this sounds like something you might do to a dog. What does the incoming administration say about this? Yeah, so Congress has the power of the purse, right? It decides how money should be spent. Impoundment, it is an odd word, is when the president kind of holds back money that Congress has approved for a specific purpose. Trump and his allies, like Russ Vogt, argue a president has the right or should have the right to not spend those funds. And that's raising alarm bells across Washington that Trump may be trying to overstep his power.

7:09So what does the law say about that? Well, there is a law in the books. It's called the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. It requires that the president spend money as Congress directs. I talked to Eloise Pasikoff. She's a Georgetown law professor. She says it's all part of the system's checks and balances. I'm cautiously optimistic because I think that this is the way the system is supposed to work. You know, I believe in the rule of law. I believe in government institutions doing what they're set up to do. I'm also worried because these are complicated times. But Vogt has argued, and I'd say forcefully, that it's unconstitutional.

7:49Trump is nominating him for his old job, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vote told me last year when talking about Project 2025 that impoundment could be useful. And here he is talking about it on Fox Business. I believe that the loss of impoundment authority, which 200 years of presidents enjoyed, was the original sin in eliminating the ability from a branch on branch to control spending. And we're going to need to bring that back. So, of course, how would Trump bring that back? Well, I mean, he tested it out once before in his first term. He impounded foreign aid for Ukraine, but Congress objected.

8:26It was part of his first impeachment. So we'll see what Congress does this time with Republicans in control. Several of Trump's top aides want to use it. That includes Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy. They say bypassing the law could help them in their work on the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. And Trump says he'll direct agencies to identify part of their budgets to impound. He also says it's a way to, quote, choke off the money to parts of the government he doesn't like. So, Franco, if there's a law in the books, though, I mean, wouldn't any moves to cut costs by using this impoundment authority be challenged in the courts?

9:04Yeah. And I talked to experts about this, you know, and they say it is almost certainly going to be headed to the Supreme Court and that Trump would have to argue that his constitutional powers will override the 1974 law. But they also say that the Supreme Court has acted favorably toward Trump in terms of executive power, and they think it will be sympathetic again this time. That is NPR's Franco Ordonez. Franco, thank you. Thank you.

9:39A second term for President-elect Donald Trump means another opportunity for conservatives to entrench their power. Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices in his last term explicitly promising that they would overturn the federal right to abortion. And they did so at the first opportunity. So what do conservatives plan this time? Steve Inskeep has been talking with a man who's been central to the conservative legal movement. Steve, who are we talking about here? He's Leonard Leo, and he played a big role in assembling the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority. He has links with a lot of conservative donors and with several conservative legal groups, the most famous of which is the Federalist Society.

10:20And he's been central to setting up a network to identify and promote young lawyers, law clerks, with what Leo would consider the right political views or judicial views and persuaded Republican presidents to appoint them to the bench. So what does he plan this time around? Well, his network has potential judicial nominees ready, although there are fewer vacancies this time. So Leo is turning his fundraising and organizing skills on other targets. He wants people promoting Western culture and traditional values as he sees them in other industries, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, even Hollywood. And there are a lot of young professionals in entertainment and in journalism and in business and finance who are looking for opportunities to inject their traditional values and the Western cultural tradition into other aspects of American social and cultural life.

11:14ProPublica obtained a video of you promoting this project and saying you wanted to, quote, crush liberal dominance. Is that what you want to do? Yes. Yes. And the reason, Steve, and I would really call your attention to the words I use, I want to crush liberal dominance. In other words, I want to make sure that there's a level playing field for the American people to make choices about the lives that they want to have in our country. So this approach obviously was successful for the judiciary, but Steve, I'm hearing him talk about Hollywood, Wall Street. Is he able to do that for these sectors of American social life?

11:53Well, he can try and he has access to funding for sure, although these industries are a lot bigger and less centralized. You can't just win a presidential election and have your guy start appointing people. It'd be a much more complicated process, although he feels like those industries are moving in his direction now. Yeah. And I want to ask you about another aspect of the coming administration. Trump wants to greatly increase presidential power. He wants to take steps that may get him sued and he'd end up in front of judges promoted by Leonard Leo. Can they rule independently in those cases?

12:26Well, I ask because Leo himself contends that he's for the rule of law. So does he want a lawless president? And he expressed confidence in the separation of powers to contain Trump. I think the conservative justices of the court have consistently shown that they rule independently. In 2020, during the earlier election, the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts ruled in the election cases the way they saw it. Of course, the court has also ruled in the president-elect's favor, most recently saying that the president has immunity for his official acts and even for some private actions, which impeded the prosecution of Trump and will now apply to his actions in 2025.

13:09That is our very own Morning Edition host, Steve Inskeep. Steve, thank you. You're welcome.

13:18And that's up first for Tuesday, November 26th. I'm Rob Schmidt. And I'm Leila Faldil. For your next listen, why not try Consider This from NPR? President-elect Trump has suggested that in his second term, he'll take on the news media with more than just words. How might he do it and how will the press respond? Listen to Consider This from NPR. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Diedrich Skanky, Roberta Rempton, Jan Johnson, Lisa Thompson, and Mohamed Elbardisi. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Lily Quiroz. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carly Strange.

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