Shangri-La Dialogue, Trump's Slush Fund, Gas Prices

0:02Leaders from all over Asia gather in Singapore this weekend to discuss defense and security. The U.S. Secretary of Defense explains his plans for trying to keep peace in the Pacific. I'm Ayesha Rascoe. And I'm Scott Simon and this is Up First from NPR News. The Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore reveals a lot of different opinions over which superpower America or China is pulling ahead. Also, the billion-dollar fund that President Trump set up for friends and allies is halted by two judges, and another judge orders Donald Trump's name off the Kennedy Center. And high gas prices are sending more people to Walmart and Costco to fill up their cars.

0:44So please stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your weekend.

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3:00It comes amid concerns about China's military posture, especially towards Taiwan, and after an intense week of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to end their war. And here's Jennifer Pack is in Singapore. Thanks so much for being with us. Thanks for having me. And what was Secretary Hegseth's message at the defense summit? Well, his message, and he said it to a room full of military defense officials and diplomats, is for Asian allies to ramp up their defense spending to counter China. Secretary Hegseth says there is rightful alarm at China's military buildup. That a Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power and undermine the equilibrium we all seek to preserve.

3:43He was less clear, though, on how to prevent an escalation. He only said Asian allies should not be, quote, freeloading off American taxpayers. Overall, this is a more toned down message from last year when he called out China for its aggressive policies, continual harassment of Taiwan, which Beijing protested against. So far, the Chinese delegation has applauded Secretary Hegseth for repeating China's line that the two countries need to maintain a constructive strategic stability. And let me follow up about Taiwan, independent democracy claimed by China, a continuing point of tension. What did Secretary Hegseth say?

4:19Not a whole lot. Let's remember that there was a lot of confusion recently when President Trump commented that arms sales to Taiwan is a, quote, very good negotiating chip with China. Days later, a senior U.S. official said arms sales to Taiwan have been paused due to the war in Iran. Now, today, Hegseth said any decision about the future of Taiwan arms sales rests solely with President Trump. But he also said the U.S. has good weapons stockpiles, and he played down concerns that weapons sales to Taiwan is contingent on how things are going in the Middle East conflict. And he said there is no change in the status of U.S.-Taiwan relations.

4:57Because, of course, the Iran war is another issue that affects Asian allies. Did Secretary Hegseth give any clarity there? Also, no. He repeated what President Trump has already said, that the president is patient and will only strike a deal if it's a good one. and that's defined as one that ensures Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon. He also said that the U.S. is ready to resume strikes on Iran if no deal is reached. Of course, there were some U.S. strikes last week already. And China's defense minister skipped the forum for the second year in a row. What can be written to that? Yeah, I mean, China did not send the defense minister to the summit, and instead they sent a low-level delegation of military experts and scholars.

5:41Now, in terms of direct U.S.-China engagement at this forum, I think that's less important because Secretary Hegseth already said that the two countries have more military-to-military exchanges, or at least that's the plan. And that's important because they need to avoid any misunderstanding that could spark a conflict. But for the wider region, this is a missed opportunity for China. Because even though Secretary Hegseth is touting that relations between the U.S. and China are at their best in years, China and the U.S. are still strategic competitors. And much smaller countries in the region feel really caught between the two superpowers.

6:17Vietnam's President Toh Lam yesterday said in his keynote speech at the event that one of the biggest risks is unchecked competition where might makes right. And they're looking for positive signals, both from the U.S. and China, that this is not the case. NPR's Jennifer Pack in Singapore. Thanks so much. Thank you.

6:43Hopes to end the war in Iran this weekend faded after President Trump left a two-hour Situation Room meeting yesterday without the quote-unquote final determination he promised on the way in. We turn now to NPR senior contributor Ron Elvane for the Week in Politics. Ron, thanks so much for being with us. Good to be with you, Scott. And let's begin with this oft-used phrase of the era. A federal judge says this week that President Trump's name must come off the Kennedy Center because Congress didn't put it there. And two federal judges weighed in, one indirectly, on the president's so-called anti-weaponization fund.

7:20Explain, please. The Kennedy Center issue is pretty straightforward. Congress named the Cultural Center 60 years ago, and the judge said only Congress can change the name. As of this moment, Trump seems ready to accept that decision, but he is likely to fight the other two this week regarding that special fund you mentioned set up by settling his lawsuit against the federal government. That fund provides nearly$1.8 billion to compensate people who claim they were pursued by the administration of President Joe Biden for their roles in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. This includes the rioters who breached the Capitol and sent the members of Congress fleeing in fear.

8:00And now one judge in Virginia froze those payments saying she needed more time to sort out the claims. But another judge has challenged the entire process. The idea that Trump could sue as a private citizen and then cut a deal with his own Justice Department, rewarding his allies with taxpayer money. DHS Secretary Mullen would like to cut custom staffing at international airports in so-called sanctuary cities. The Department of Justice says that would include New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, and more. What are the implications? Immigration hawks have long been critical of big cities that try to protect their residents from federal enforcement actions.

8:39Trump has been critical of the sanctuary policies as well. Yet this new salvo from Mullen, that's the former Oklahoma senator who now heads DHS, has brought howls of protest from the travel and the tourism industries, as well as from the cities and states involved. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified behind closed doors in the ongoing congressional investigations into Jeffrey Epstein's misdeeds and associates. Ron, what stood out for you? First of all, her testimony was not taken under oath, but it was taken behind closed doors. Those are remarkable facts given the gravity of the matter.

9:16Moreover, she refused to discuss Trump's role in the handling of the files. And then she said the issue had all been delegated to her deputy, Todd Blanche. The Todd Blanche who's now acting as Bondi's replacement. The Todd Blanche who made that deal on the$1.8 billion fund we were just talking about. And who heads the DOJ that's looking into civil cases that E. Jean Carroll won against President Trump in 2023 and 2024? What do you see in this news? It appears to be another example of Trump's fixation on settling scores. a grinding away at old grudges, searching for personal payback. And as a recurring theme, it's akin to the pursuit of personal glorification that we've seen the Kennedy Center renaming, the billion-dollar ballroom he wants, the new arch he wants, the$250 bill he wants with his picture on it.

10:06President Trump went to Medical Center at Walter Reed this week, his third trip in the last 13 months. And we learned this week that in Jill Biden's upcoming memoir, she worried that Joe Biden's disastrous debate performance in the last campaign was due to a stroke. Should we be concerned about those close to presidents concealing any possible decline in their fitness for office? Absolutely. Look, we know such concealment has happened before, and we should have been concerned about it for a very long time. President Woodrow Wilson's wife covered for him for much of his second term after he'd had a debilitating stroke.

10:45That was more than a century ago, but there have been other cases since. We learned about Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's after he'd left office. This is all the more relevant in our era of 80-year-olds in the Oval Office. Joe Biden tells us now she was wondering about what was wrong with her husband in that 2024 debate. Of course, we are told the president is fine. We are always being told the president is fine. This week, we were told he checked out, quote, perfectly. But we've come to regard those assurances as anything but reassuring. NPR's Ron Elvin, thanks so much. Thank you, Scott.

11:29High gas prices are driving American drivers to change their habits at the fuel pump. That's what NPR's business correspondent, Alina Seljuk, heard this week from big discount chains, Costco and Walmart. Alina, thanks so much for being with us. Hello, hello. What do these giant retailers tell you about how Americans are dealing with rising gas prices? People are going out of their way to find the best price for gas. In some cases, quite literally driving out of their way for discounted fuel. That is what I heard from Costco and Walmart. They both had calls with investors recently. Walmart's call was last week.

12:07Costco's was on Thursday. And they both said their lower gas prices have people lining up, actually waiting in line longer than usual. And many of those people are coming to Costco gas stations or Walmart gas stations for the first time. First time in a long time or even first time ever. And is this good news for them because they're bringing in new customers? Of course. Of course. Yes. People coming for the first time is really good for them. And Costco also said that in the few recent months, its gas stations were setting record after record. Like, Costco had never sold as much gas as it did between April and mid-May, with stations having to get multiple daily gas deliveries just to keep up.

12:49And is this all to new customers? Well, it's not just new customers. It's also lots of repeat visitors. People are coming back more often. That's what we heard from Costco's two financial officer, Gary Millerchip. A lot of members are increasing their frequency. They're visiting the gas station to top up in between what would have normally been a gap between getting the tank to empty because of the concern about what might the gas price be tomorrow. So not waiting for an empty tank, but thinking maybe prices will rise tomorrow. I better get a little more gas at the price I see today. Or the reverse.

13:22Maybe prices will drop tomorrow. So I'll only top up today and get more another day. And Walmart's chief financial officer, John David Rainey, said this is especially happening with lower-income shoppers. I'll give you an example. We see that in the most recent period, the number of gallons that customers fill up with when they come to our fuel stations fell below 10 for the first time since 2022. That's an indication of stress. We got a new government inflation report showing the cost of living still higher in April as compared to March. are retailers signaling that there'll be any decrease on prices?

13:58So big consumer companies are definitely trying to figure out how to keep prices down so people keep shopping. For example, we heard from Walmart saying it plans to put its tariff refunds toward price cuts in stores. But they're also warning about the costs of what's happening in the Middle East, tankers not being able to go through the Strait of Hormuz. That's a vital shipping lane for the global supply of both fuel and fertilizer, which we need for food. Costco also pointed out that petroleum costs have raised the cost of resin, which affects the price of polyester and plastic. So there's kind of a growing chorus warning that the longer energy prices stay high, the greater the chance of it trickling down into higher prices on all kinds of products.

14:41We heard basically this word for word from Fed Governor Chris Waller this week. We also heard from top executives at big oil companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron. They are saying that with a straight being blocked, the world's oil supplies are depleting and they're about to get really low, which could mean big spikes in the price of oil within like two to three weeks. And Piers Lena Seljuk, thanks so much. Thank you.

15:08And that's up first for Saturday, May 30th, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Michael Radcliffe produced today's podcast with help from Dave Mistich, Danny Hensel, and Andy Craig. Our editor is Diana Douglas, so ably assisted by Miguel Macias, Ed McNulty, and Emily Cobb. In the control room today is our director, Elena Twork, and our technical director, David Greenberg, with engineering support from Zoe Vangenhoven, Jay Sizz, and Valentina Rodriguez-Sanchez. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor. Our executive producer is Evie Stone. And Jim Kane is our everlasting deputy managing editor.

15:50He's the best. Tomorrow on the Sunday story, a cure for the sedentary lifestyle. That won't hurt too much. Thanks for joining us in the podcast feed. You know, we got a lot more for you on a little device called the radio. Yes, it has little knobs and stuff. Does it have that? I don't think it may not have it anymore. I'm not sure it has knobs anymore. It doesn't have any knobs. They used to. Everything's a screen. Everything's a screen. To find your local NPR station, just go to stations.npr.org.

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