Transcript of Blanche Rescinds 'Anti-Weaponization Fund', Iran Strikes Off, Midwest Primaries

President Trump is backing off additional attacks on Iran.

They said, "Please don't do it." And other— their neighbors said that, too.

Negotiations resume today. How does the U.S. get out of the cycle of attacks followed by stabs at diplomacy?

I'm Steve Inskeep, with Amy Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump's nominee for attorney general gave senators a letter they demanded. Todd Blanche finally rescinded an order to create a $1.8 billion fund for Trump's political allies. Is that enough to persuade senators who blocked his nomination?

Also, how far can progressive candidates make it in the Midwest? Candidates on the left are running in Democratic primaries. Their goal is to shoulder aside more mainstream contenders. Primaries beginning tomorrow will do a lot to shape the midterm elections. Stay with us, we've got news you need to start your day.

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President Trump's nominee for attorney general has finally canceled an order that got him in trouble with some senators.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanch released a letter last night. He says he's rescinding a plan to create a $1.8 billion fund for President Trump's political allies. Two Republicans have been demanding that action in writing. They had been blocking his nomination to hold the job permanently.

NPR's Claudia Grisales has been covering the action in the U.S. Senate. Claudia, good morning.

Good morning, Steve.

OK, so what did the acting attorney general say in writing this time, and what's it mean for his confirmation?

Right. This order was just issued a few hours ago. It rescinds this controversial effort the administration dubbed the, quote, "anti-weaponization fund." This is part of a deal that was made with the Internal Revenue Service under Trump's administration. Now, Trump threatened to revive the fund just this weekend if two Republican senators— that's Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina— would not back off their objections to this fund. But there's a lot more elements to this deal that remain controversial. That includes a provision that would have protected Trump and his family from past tax audits. So while this may address a major hurdle that has held up this confirmation on the Senate Judiciary Committee, plenty of other questions Questions remain.

Yeah, and here's another question. I've been reading Blanche's letter that came out overnight. It's mostly in the present tense. He says the fund, quote, "is not moving forward," for example. He doesn't say this fund was bad or inappropriate. He doesn't say what he would do if his boss orders him to revive it next week. And you just said Trump still spoke in favor of it this past weekend. Are senators persuaded by any of this?

That's the big question now. This letter may address, again, those concerns for Corden and Tillis, who were on the Judiciary Committee, but Blanche faces a lot of concerns that are not clear, making not clear that he has enough support on the Senate floor from Republicans to get that confirmation. And as we know, Republicans are operating with tight margins, so it doesn't take much to derail a vote in that chamber. And while all the focus has been on Cornyn and Tillis because of their roles on this committee, it's a new ballgame when we talk about a whole of the Senate Republican conference. And so we should also note the administration has resisted for weeks to go this far, so this is still a lingering issue for many, and it's just one of several items causing headaches between the administration and Republicans in Congress.

What's another?

Well, a big part of this comes back to Trump's push for the Save America Act. That's a GOP bill that would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to cast a ballot. Trump has blamed Senate Majority Leader John Thune for not getting a lot of this done, even if it means getting rid of the filibuster. In this past week, Trump was asked whether he was confident in Thune, and he did not give a ringing endorsement.

Hmm. How's Thune responding? To that pressure?

Well, he is not exactly taking his lumps and going home. He's been consistent that the votes are not there to pass the Save America Act, and they are not going to get rid of the filibuster. Trump has wanted them to stay in for the month of August, but Thune has said that would not be productive either.

Claudia Grisales, thanks so much.

Thank you.

President Trump once more backed out of threats to unleash strikes on Iran.

On Wednesday, he said the U.S. would be, quote, "hitting them very hard." Saturday night, he called the strikes off. The U.S. has been in a cycle of Iranian attacks, U.S. strikes, U.S. threats, and quick stabs at negotiation.

NPR's Adeel Al-Shalchi has been covering all of this from Istanbul. Welcome.

Thank you.

Why did the president say he canceled his strikes?

Well, President Trump said that his allies, including Saudi Arabia, had talked him out of a series of renewed attacks. Yesterday, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said he'd called Trump by phone and that he, quote, affirmed the necessity of prioritizing the language of dialogue to reduce escalation. Of course, Saudi Arabia was at the receiving end as Iran targeted US bases in the Gulf and Jordan in response to US strikes. In March, a US service member was killed by an Iranian strike on a base in Saudi Arabia. And then on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote that the, quote, perimeters of a deal were reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end Iran's nuclear capabilities. Here's Trump speaking to reporters Sunday evening on Air Force One.

I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by UAE, and by Qatar, and by Iran. We were all set to go about at this time right now, and it would have been a massive attack. We're all set to go, but when the allies asked to call it off, You got to sort of say, well, let's see. And the reason they asked is they think there's a deal.

Yeah.

So he said that they were close to a deal and that talks will in fact start today. But Iran didn't confirm this yet. We're yet to hear about what the potential deal could look like, what those perimeters are. We haven't heard from the Iranians about the deal. We do know that over the weekend, Iran's foreign minister had a whole series of phone calls with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and mediator Pakistan. He also told them that Iran will strike if it is attacked again. And like you mentioned, this has become a cyclical pattern. Trump threatens strikes, pulls back, saying a diplomatic solution has been reached. Rinse and repeat. He's done it several times since a deal with Iran was struck initially in April.

And I'm just noticing what feels like a contradiction now, Hadeel. If he's saying we're close to a deal and talks will start today, that implies maybe there's a little more work to do than the president would have said, just judging by his own words. And the president keeps encountering an Iran that is more defiant than he would like.

Absolutely. I mean, Trump and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, have repeatedly said that the US has delivered blows to Iran's military capabilities, that they've completely destroyed them. But every time the US strikes, Iran is able to respond and they're targeting these US installations in the Gulf and Jordan and making damage. And so we've seen also this war widen. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis have also gotten involved. They imposed a blockade on Saudi ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is a choke point and connects the Red Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. And then last week, Iran attacked two gas tankers, one belonging to the US, near Egypt's Suez Canal.

I noticed that each Iranian attack and each US head fake seems to move oil markets.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, yesterday oil prices plummeted after the Trump announcement that he'd hold off on those strikes. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, fell 8% to about $83 per barrel yesterday. The price of oil has been, of course, like you said, has been on a roller coaster since the war started at the end of February. Hitting over $100 a barrel many times. And earlier in the day, OPEC approved an increase of oil production to about 188,000 barrels a day.

NPR's Adil El-Shalchi, thanks so much.

You're welcome.

Far-left challengers have won Democratic primaries this year in some deep blue congressional districts from New York to Colorado.

Progressive politics is about to undergo its biggest test yet in Midwestern swing states and competitive districts that could decide control of Congress.

The first of these primaries comes tomorrow in Michigan, and NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith is covering everything. Tamara, good morning.

Good morning.

Okay, U.S. Senate primary in Michigan. Why so much focus there?

It's a true swing state, and Democrats really need to hang on to that seat, uh, currently held by a retiring Democrat if they want a chance of gaining control of the Senate. The primary matchup really reflects something Democrats have been wrestling with at least since 2016. Who can win, a populist progressive or a moderate favored by the Democratic establishment? In this case, polls show former public health official Abdul El-Sayed in the lead for the primary. His campaign is very much anti-establishment, and the other candidate is Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens. Recent polls have shown her with a better chance of winning in November.

Okay, that's interesting, but I also know there is this progressive tradition in the Midwest, Tam, going way back. Uh, the, the region is more diverse than it seems lots of different kinds of people, lots of different kinds of thought. But what do Democrats think right now about a progressive's chances in Michigan?

Right, just because a state is purple, it doesn't mean that its partisans are moderate. The issue is swing voters. Establishment Democrats say nominating El-Sayed is too much of a risk because some of the positions that he's taken could be painted as extreme. But those in the insurgent wing of the party say playing it safe is the real electability problem. William Lawrence is running to shake things up. In Michigan's 7th Congressional District.

People are not interested in going along to get along in a time like this.

We've seen that fail time and time again. Okay, what message do you think voters are sending?

Well, primary election voters are only a small motivated subset of those who will vote in November, but the message is unmistakable: voters are angry and incumbents are facing a lot of opposition. Liz Smith is a Democratic consultant who has worked with candidates in Michigan, She says voters appear willing to take a risk on candidates whose public statements and policy positions could be seen as a general election liability.

It seems like that is a trade-off that Democratic primary voters in places like Michigan are willing to accept.

Is that surprising to you?

No, because when people are angry, you know, sometimes they go with their heart over their head and But the reality is that none of us know how it's going to play out in November.

But what happens in November could really determine the direction of the Democratic Party. Also, you know, the party is trying to figure out what it stands for and not just who it's against, namely Trump. If a progressive populist is able to prevail in a general election in a swing state, that could change the way Democratic primary voters think about electability. In Wisconsin, which has its primary next week, Francesca Hwang is dominating in the polls in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, she's aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. So this race is another swing state test for the left. A loss in Wisconsin or Michigan could deal a significant blow to that wing of the party.

NPR's Tamara Keith, always a pleasure to hear from you.

Always good to be on. Thank you.

We're also following this story. In recent weeks, prominent Republicans have been sounding an alarm.

This is not a game.

This is not our father's Democrat Party.

We're not arguing over marginal tax rates anymore.

We're arguing over whether or not freedom is going to survive. Their concern is communism coming to America.

Let's call it what it is.

It's communism.

Back in 2024, President Trump outlined the thought behind this strategy.

All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's going to destroy our country.

This week on the Sunday Story, how Republicans are using the accusation of communism ahead of the midterm elections. Listen to the Sunday Story right here in the Up First podcast. And that's Up First for this Monday, August 3rd. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Ian Martinez. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Tina Krya, Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, Arzu Rezvani, and Lindsay Totty. Was produced by Ziyad Baj and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us again tomorrow.

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