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

The 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 Ayesha Rosco. 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 US is escalating its military presence in the Caribbean. We'll look at how that move is being seen in the region.

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

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Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air.

I interviewed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro about his lifelong obsession with Frankenstein and his new adaptation in which the creature is tormented by eternal life. I'm a huge fan of death. I'm a groupie for death.

You can find my interview on the Fresh Air podcast. In case you've forgotten, we're in the middle of a government shutdown.

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 for 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 by Congressman August Fluger. What did he say to constituents?

Well, he praised Republican's signature tax and spending bill from earlier this year. It 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. The congressman to find out why he thinks Democrats haven't done that yet. Fluger 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. Fluger, like his party leadership, says they should fund the government first and then negotiate on the subsidies. So 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. Can you imagine kids not getting the funding they need?

Now, in Texas, over 3 million people use Snap benefits, and about 10% of households in Flugr's district, according to an estimate from the US 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. So 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 I have to say about his involvement?

Well, a few people mentioned wanting to see him step in and play a role. Small business owner Mickey Kisarek is particularly concerned about these health care premiums skyrocketing without an extension of the subsidies. He said he wonders where the President is in all of this.

He wrote The Art of the Deal, right? If he's such a good negotiator and does that, why didn'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 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 Sprunt. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Scott.

President 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. They're promoting regional integration and free trade, while the US 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 pacemaker 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?

Well, it's tough. Trade tensions have flared, and both sides are trying to pressure the other one with tariffs and export controls. Us 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 Ju Feng, who is dean of the School of International Studies at Nan Jing University. Here's what he told me. If the negotiations in Malaysia get no results, he told me, then the resulting US-China split will be very worrying. He adds that China has already endured unendurable treatment from the US, and it's got to push back to show that it will not be cornered by the US.

President Trump is also known for 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, Sanai Takaichi, and in South Korea with President E. J. Mion. And the US has gotten both of these allies to pledge a combined nearly $1 trillion in investment in the US in exchange for lower tariffs, but there are still differences, such as how much of that is paid upfront in cash. And if the allies aren't happy with the details, they could try to negotiate. If the US isn't happy with that, it could reimpose tariffs. Both Seoul and Tokyo are under pressure from the US to pay more for military protection and to help the US 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. Trump 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 US primacy in Asia or putting America first by minding its own hemisphere. And that has aggravated fears among many nations that the US will either drag its allies into unnecessary conflicts or become isolationist and just abandon them.

And here's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul, South Korea. Anthony, thanks so much.

My pleasure, Scott.

The US 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 Eida Peralta just came back from a reporting trip to the Caribbean, and he joins us now from his base in Mexico City. Good morning, Eader.

Hey, good morning, Asia.

What's the latest? What military presence will the US have in the Caribbean?

I mean, look at the big news is that Secretary of Defense, Pete Hexeth, has rerouted the USS Gerald R. Ford from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean. Just off the Coast of Venezuela, the US military describes the USS Jerold Ford as, 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. The news here is that the aircraft carrier is joining an already robust deployment. Remember, the US had already deployed a submarine F-35 fighter jets, reaper drones, surveillance aircraft, and 10,000 troops. It has been decades since the US has deployed this heavily in the Americas. And so far, the US has targeted 10 small vessels that they allege were carrying drugs. The US says it has killed at least 43 people.

The US 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. 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 Trendiaragua, which is a Venezuelan gang that the US has designated as a quote, narco-terrorist organization. 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 US 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?

President Maduro has been vacilating between trying to show strength. 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, 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. She spoke to a 53-year-old professor. We're not using her name because she fears retaliation from the government. 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 Eider Peralta reporting from Mexico City. Eider, thank you so much. Thank you, Asia.

And that's up first for Saturday, October 25th, 2025. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm Ayesha Rosco.

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