Trump In Scotland, Gaza Aid, Pete Buttigieg on Democrats

0:02President Trump and a European leader announced a trade agreement. The U.S. gets more access to European markets. European products face lower tariffs than feared. Which details are still unknown? I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News.

0:21Israel's military says it will pause attacks in Gaza each day and restart food airdrops. The change is common with warnings of starvation. So how much difference will they make? Also, how should Democrats face the future? Pete Buttigieg says the party should stop defending institutions that weren't working well. We should be unsentimental about the things that don't work. We should be fearless in defending the things that do work. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

0:54This message comes from NPR sponsor FX. Presenting The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. introducing you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist slash rare bookstore owner slash unofficial truth seeker who is always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing. He must be on to something big. FX's The Lowdown, all new Tuesdays on FX, stream on Hulu. This message comes from NPR sponsor Charles Schwab with its original podcast On Investing. Each week, hosts Lizanne Saunders, Schwab's Chief Investment Strategist, and Kathy Jones, Schwab's Chief Fixed Income Strategist, along with their guests, analyze economic developments and bring context to conversations around stocks, fixed income, the economy, and more.

1:50Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash oninvesting or wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Dell Technologies. The new Dell PC with Intel Core Ultra helps you fast forward through busy work, leaving more time for you time. Get a new Dell PC at dell.com slash ai dash pc. The United States says it has a trade deal with the European Union. President Trump announced the agreement with Ursula von der Leyen, who's a top EU leader. Now, from what we know so far, American firms are promised more access to European markets, and the U.S. will impose a 15 percent tariff, a tax that Americans pay on European imports.

2:33Trump discussed this deal in between rounds of golf in Scotland, and NPR's Lauren Frayer is there. Hi there, Lauren. Hi, Steve. How's the trade announcement work? So these are the world's two biggest economies, and this is the result of months of negotiations that culminated yesterday with a visit by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, to one of Trump's golf resorts here in Scotland. At first, they spoke in front of the traveling media. Trump said he was not in a good mood. Both acknowledged negotiations were tough. Trump talked about a 50-50 chance of a deal. But then an hour later, they rushed the media back into the room, and Trump said this.

3:10We've reached a deal. It's a good deal for everybody, I believe. And it's I think you were saying this is probably the biggest deal ever reached in any capacity, trade or beyond trade. And they announced a trade framework for the U.S. and E.U. that entails 15 percent tariffs on E.U. goods sold into the U.S. and no tariffs on U.S. products coming into the E.U. But beyond that, we're waiting for details on how this will affect key sectors, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, steel. You say waiting for details and you said framework. Is this deal actually finalized? No. I mean, as you know, Steve, a lot of these things get announced and then don't actually get signed and put in writing for weeks or months.

3:56And that was the case with the U.S. trade deal with the U.K. was announced in May, signed in June, and some of the details changed in that time. So the U.S. gets to sell things into the EU tariff-free. What does the EU get? Well, Trump had threatened 30 % tariffs on EU goods starting this Friday, August 1st. Now that's being reduced to 15%. So from the EU perspective, it could have been a lot worse. And I suppose we can also note that European consumers get American products without paying a tax. Now, this announcement came while the president is in Scotland. What kind of reception does he get there?

4:30Yeah, Trump has family ties here. His late mother was born and raised in Scotland. She was actually a native Gaelic speaker. There was a small group of Trump supporters waving signs at one of his golf courses, but many more protesters. They lined the motorcade route, waving photos of the dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a former Trump associate. There are lots of Palestinian flags, signs criticizing what some see as Trump's inaction on starvation in Gaza. At a protest outside the U.S. consulate in Edinburgh, we actually met a distant relative of Trump's mother. His mother was named Mary McLeod.

5:06this protester is Janet McLeod Trotter, and she reads aloud the sign she's holding. McLeod's against Trump because a lot of McLeods are very, very upset. He just comes over and uses his power to buy up golf courses and line his own pockets. A recent poll found that more than 70 percent of people in Scotland have an unfavorable view of Trump. What else is on the president's agenda? He's meeting here today in Scotland with the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. They'll be refining details of their own trade deal that I mentioned announced back in May. But the main topic is Gaza. The UK is working with Jordan on aid drops into Gaza.

5:47Starmer is under pressure from his own lawmakers to recognize a Palestinian state. Before he leaves tomorrow, Trump is also inaugurating a new golf course named after his mother, Mary McLeod. I actually climbed up a sand dune last night to get a glimpse of that golf course on the North Sea coast, and we'll be bringing you more reporting from there. And Piers Lauren Frere, thanks so much. You're welcome.

6:16Israel has paused fighting in major population centers of Gaza for 10 hours a day. And for the first time, Israeli planes have dropped aid into the enclave. The turnabout comes amid international criticism over starvation in Gaza. Israel took a group of journalists into a small sliver of Gaza yesterday. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley was one of them. We reach her now in Tel Aviv. Eleanor, what was it like? What did you see? Well, we went in at the Karom Shalom crossing, which is at the southern end of Israel near Egypt. We were taken in in the back of military vehicles to a place that had clearly been an entry point for aid, but it was desolate, a searing heat desert.

6:54We saw no Palestinians or destruction, just barbed wire fencing, trash strewn everywhere, some abandoned flatbed trucks, stray starving dogs. And I did hear sporadic gunfire and the boom of heavy artillery in the distance. You know, I thought we would see aid trucks coming in, but we didn't. They took us to a massive black asphalt parking lot where pallets of aid were baking in the sun, pasta, oil, flour, toilet paper, baby formula that should have been kept cool. Much of it likely spoiled. and they said that was the proof that the UN is not doing its job distributing it. And here is Elon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson on the trip.

7:30Israel has called the UN's bluff because here are hundreds and hundreds of pallets of aid that the UN is letting rot in the sun. And instead of taking responsibility for that failure, fessing up, they're blaming Israel and pretending that Israel isn't letting this aid in altogether. Okay, so the UN is being accused of things. How have the aid agencies responded? Well, yesterday the UN World Food Program put out a statement and said it's impossible to deliver the aid needed under what it called extremely challenging circumstances that put civilians and aid workers at tremendous risk. And Cindy McCain, who's executive director of the WFP, she told CNN that there were desperate crowds, thousands running at their trucks and being fired upon by Israeli tanks and weapons.

8:11But I will say people are also dying from chaos at the food distribution sites. They're looters. People get stabbed, run over by aid trucks. There is so much fear to go get food that some Palestinians say they would prefer to stay home and die from Israeli shelling or starvation. Wow. What's it look like in Gaza today? What's the situation there? Well, the situation is extremely dire. It has progressed to this point, largely aid groups say, because Israel completely cut off aid for two months from March to May. And now it's going to be hard to reverse that. There is world outrage, yet Israel continues to officially deny that there is starvation or that it has contributed to worsening humanitarian conditions.

8:48I want you to listen to Brigadier General Effie Deferin and his Israeli army spokesman, who talked to us in Gaza yesterday. He said they're closely monitoring things, and while conditions are hard for Palestinians in Gaza, he claims there's no starvation. Here he is. We've seen the pictures coming out of Gaza. It's breaking our hearts, but most of it is fake. Fake distributed by Hamas. It's a campaign. Unfortunately, some of the Israeli media, including international media, is distributing this information in those false pictures and creating an image of starvation which doesn't exist. Well, now, he did not single out any media, but NPR has done extensive reporting in Gaza on starvation, and we have seen for ourselves that there is starvation going on in Gaza, and we stand by our reporting.

9:35Now, analysts do say Hamas is capitalizing on this surge of international shock and sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza. President Trump even made comments. by hardening its positions. Hamas is saying no negotiations with a famine going on and genocide, they say. Aid agencies say they welcome Israel opening humanitarian corridors for aid trucks and the pause in fighting, but they say only a total ceasefire will allow the necessary aid to get in. All right, that's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley. Thank you very much. Thank you, A.

10:15President Trump has been trying to change the subject from Jeffrey Epstein, and Democrats see an opportunity. That includes a Democrat who's thinking about his party's future. Pete Buttigieg, former transportation secretary, former presidential candidate, former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, draws a larger meaning out of Trump's reluctance to release information. So I think what that tells you is, first of all, obviously something very sensitive for President Trump. But also, I think it speaks more broadly to this pattern of events where the president has said he would do something when it suited him to say he would do it.

10:50And then when it's his interest to do the reverse, he'll do that. Buttigieg is the subject of NPR's latest all-platform interview on the radio, on podcasts, and on video. He spoke with Steve. So, Steve, why speak with him now? Because he's seen as one of many potential future presidential contenders on the Democratic side in this interview series, one of the many kinds of people we're talking with are people who might run for president someday. And he's part of a big debate about the future of his party, which is clearly in trouble, out of power and also, according to surveys, held in very low esteem.

11:24We mentioned earlier about a possible opportunity the Democrats see. What would that be at this moment? This is a moment when President Trump has crossed some of his own core supporters. And you heard Buttigieg say that's part of a pattern with the president. He said more about that. I would point to promises that this administration made saying, hey, we're going to be the ones who are finally for you, only to behave in the exact opposite way, kicking people off Medicaid after promising they wouldn't, increasing tax breaks for billionaires, which is why they needed to pay for it by kicking people off of health care.

11:55And this is happening at a time when people really don't trust the government. Of course, A, the Biden administration was accused of not being truthful, so I asked about that. There are also Republicans alleging that you and others in the administration did not say all you knew about President Biden's condition. How his age has affected him over time? That's not true. In my case, at least I told the truth, which is that he was old. You could see that he was old. Buttigieg contends the president was always responsive when Buttigieg needed him. Now, one of the things is that surveys have not been very kind to the Democratic Party.

12:27when it comes to the numbers of people that have confidence in that party. So what would Buttigieg do about that? Well, this is one of the most compelling parts of the interview. A lot of Democrats feel they got stuck defending a status quo that is unpopular, that doesn't work for people. They're still defending because President Trump is tearing down institutions that Democrats believe do some good or could do some good in the world. But Buttigieg wants Democrats to talk a little bit differently about what they would do if they regained power. It is wrong to burn down the Department of Education.

12:58But I actually think it's also wrong to suppose that the Department of Education was just right in 2024. You could say the same thing about USAID. It is unconscionable that children were left to die by the abrupt destruction of USAID. Unconscionable. But it's also wrong to suppose that if Democrats come back to power, our project should be to just tape the pieces together just the way that they were. Might need some more reworking. He's one of several Democrats, by the way, offering different ways forward. Chris Murphy, Rahm Emanuel, and in a different way, by the way, Zohran Mamdani, who is the candidate for mayor in New York City, the Democratic candidate.

13:38That's where we were. Buttigieg praised Mamdani's campaign style and focus, even as he kept his distance from his Democratic socialist ideas. Thank you, Steve. Steve. You're welcome.

13:51And that's Up First for Monday, July 28th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. You can hear this podcast sponsor-free and financially support public media at the same time with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's P-L-U-S.npr.org. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block, Miguel Macias, Rina Advani, Jenea Williams and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Butch, Neil Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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