Transcript of Trump's Midterm Travel, Ukraine Starshield Restrictions, Houthis Attack Aramco

President Trump campaigned in Arizona and Montana on Wednesday, 2 states he won in 2024.

As part of a midterm campaign tour through Republican territory, why is the party playing defense on Trump's turf?

I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. Ukraine uses U.S. satellite technology to control its drones, technology that stopped working like it used to. Was the Trump administration trying to limit Ukraine's ability to fight Russia?

Also, Houthis Houthi militias in Yemen say they're the ones who set part of Aramco's headquarters on fire, and they're threatening to attack more targets. How are Saudi Arabia's allies responding to escalating attacks? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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President Trump told people to vote as if he is on the ballot, and he's traveling as if he is.

And hello to the great state of Texas. Thank you. Thank you, Ohio. We love you. God bless you. So, ladies and gentlemen of Nebraska, special place. I love it. 3 times, 3 times, a record 3 times. Thank you very much. Hello, Montana. We love you, Montana. We love you.

The president's itinerary suggests how he or his advisers see the election. We just heard him in a series of red states, including some where Republicans are vulnerable.

NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith has been watching where the president goes and where he doesn't. Tam, good morning.

Good morning.

OK, what are those stops? Tell us.

Well, in some ways, it's what you'd expect to be happening in a year that is going to be tough for Republicans, a midterm with a president whose approval is in deeply negative territory. Other presidents in similar situations have really limited their travel to friendly territory. And for Trump, some of these recent stops have been to exceedingly friendly territory like Tennessee.

These guys are all going to win. These congressmen are phenomenal. So I'm saying, what the hell am I doing in Tennessee? And in a way, I'm here because you want to reward the places that have automatically treated you well.

The places that are automatic. Okay. But is there also a political logic for an unpopular president to be traveling to places where people still love him?

Yeah, I mean, he is saying that it's a thank you, really. But, you know, most of these stops aren't just about feeling the warm embrace of an adoring rally crowd. The map of competitive House and Senate races includes a lot of states and districts Trump won by healthy margins just 2 years ago. Republicans are playing defense in Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, and now even Kansas. I caught Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters on the phone yesterday from a Trump rally in Arizona, and he said Trump's team is picking locations where he can activate the Republican base. And those are places where he's done well in the past.

It's turnout, turnout, turnout. How do you get the base to show up? You put the president on the ballot. You put him out there. Okay.

He seems to be echoing the president's call to act as if Trump is on the ballot.

Yeah. And President Trump really wants loyal MAGA voters to pretend he's on that ballot. But this seems to have its limits. I want to take you back to September 2nd. President Trump held a dinner in the White House Rose Garden for candidates in competitive races, and he pledged to spend the month before the election campaigning with all of them.

I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected.

And there were about 30 candidates at that dinner. Since then, he's only campaigned with a handful of them. And this reflects both a shift in which races are competitive and the fact that there are a lot of places where if Trump held a rally, he'd do more to amp up the opposition than boost the base.

Okay. Does all this add up to a winning strategy?

Well, it's certainly a novel theory that the president and his party are testing. Can they bring the 2024 electorate to the polls in 2026 when a lot of voters are upset about high prices and tariffs and the war with Iran and aggressive immigration tactics, and they blame President Trump for all of it. But Trump and his team just aren't testing this nearly as aggressively as he promised he would a few weeks ago.

NPR's Tamara Keith, thanks so much.

You're welcome.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will go back to attacking Russian oil refineries. That's something President Trump has asked him not to do.

Zelenskyy told the Financial Times today that he held off briefly but not anymore. That's the latest sign of a division between Trump and Ukraine. Another sign is in the skies over Ukraine: the satellite communications system the U.S. gives Ukraine suddenly faced crippling restrictions.

NPR's Greg Myre is following this. Greg, good morning.

Hi, Steve.

Okay, was the United States trying to limit Ukraine's ability to fight?

Steve, no one is saying this explicitly, but given the evidence we have, that certainly seems to be the case, and we do have a new Ukraine's defense ministry is saying that this satellite network is back and working as normal. And by way of explanation, many people know the satellite communication system Starlink. This is part of Elon Musk's empire. But there's also a military version called Starshield that he built for the U.S. government and military. The Pentagon shares this with Ukraine, which uses it to guide its drones. But yesterday, Ukraine discovered quite abruptly that the Starshield system was down. And had suddenly been greatly restricted.

In what way?

Ukraine said that when its drones exceed 100 miles per hour, which is absolutely routine, the communication was automatically cut between the drone and the drone operator, and this effectively made the aircraft useless. Ukraine depends on this Starshield system for both its offensive drones that attack Russia and defensive drones to protect against Russian airstrikes. And so Ukraine said it was trying to figure that out, but it seems it may have now been resolved.

Okay, so you're You said nobody's explaining this explicitly, but are SpaceX or the Trump administration saying anything?

Yeah, Elon Musk went on X and said Starshield is, quote, controlled by the U.S. government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military, and ultimately, he said, the president. Now, the White House and the Pentagon have not commented directly on this, but again, according to Musk, if there were something going on, that would be because the White House and/or the Pentagon had done something.

Okay, so is there some connection between these 2 events, the sudden Starshield outage and the disagreement between Trump and Ukraine over whether Ukraine should be attacking Russian oil facilities?

Well, Steve, NPR's Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis interviewed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday in Kyiv. Here's what he said about the importance of this satellite network that Ukraine is using.

We need Starlink. We asked administration, government and SpaceX on different channels. We asked them to share with us Starlink only for military goals.

So the big issue has been this cooperation and intelligence sharing. Trump said back on Tuesday that intelligence sharing hadn't been cut, but what we saw yesterday did look like some sort of intentional action against Ukraine. What options does Ukraine have if that I spoke with Mark Montgomery during this whole episode. He's a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral. He travels to Ukraine often to train and advise the military there. Now, he said Ukraine shouldn't go against Trump and attack Russian oil facilities, but he thinks there are still a number of things Ukraine could do. He suggested this approach.

I turn to my military planners and say, good news, boys. I'm going to give you full operational planning to strike non-energy targets in Russia. Have a field day. And you know what Vladimir Putin's going to find out? He's vulnerable everywhere, all the time, all at once.

Still, it's a difficult moment for Ukraine, which is taking hits on several fronts. Russia has stepped up attacks with ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones as Ukraine struggles with a lack of air defenses to counter these weapons. And Russia says openly that this is part of a broader campaign to take out Ukraine's electricity grid this winter, which looks to be the toughest one yet facing Ukraine.

NPR's Greg Myre, thanks.

Sure thing, Steve.

Some other news now: Saudi Arabia issued new security alerts across its southern regions and has been intercepting missiles targeting its capital.

But the Saudis were not able to stave off an attack on the offices of its state-owned oil giant. That attack came after Saudi fighter jets hit energy sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

NPR's Aya Batraoui is covering all this from Dubai. Hi there.

Hey, Steve.

Okay, how can you describe these latest attacks?

So, it was very significant because Tuesday what happened is the offices of Aramco in Dhahran, where its headquarters are, were hit. Now, the Saudi Energy Ministry says a limited fire broke out after an attack, and it did not mention the Houthis, but the group confirmed using drones and missiles attacks Tuesday on Saudi Arabia, including on Aramco in Dhahran. And with the exception of acknowledging a few hits, the Saudi Energy Ministry has not really been commenting on Houthi claims of near-daily attacks on various Saudi energy sites. But this was different, Steve, because it was Aramco's administrative offices. And this company is the backbone of the Saudi economy, its main source of revenue. This attack is not just a hit on the nerve center of the Saudi economy, but it comes just days after the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade. The Houthis hit the airport in the capital, Riyadh, killing more than a dozen and wounding hundreds, shutting down that airport since Saturday.

Why are the Houthis choosing these targets, according to them?

So the Houthis, who are backed by Iran, say they were striking Aramco's offices in response to Saudi jets bombing an oil facility in Yemen's capital of Sana'a and other fuel sites Tuesday. And the Houthis and Saudis both say they struck each other's oil sites because they're used to support military operations. The Saudis are carrying out a major offensive with Yemeni government forces against the Houthis. And the Houthis say Saudi Arabia has launched more than 2,000 airstrikes on Yemen in past weeks, killing civilians. UN agencies say some 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in southern Yemen, with hundreds of thousands more losing access to aid because roads are cut off.

So a lot of people are affected here. Is anyone trying to stop all this?

Well, there are some regional countries trying to mediate, but there's no easy way out for Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have expanded control along the Red Sea in Yemen and are able to repeatedly hit Saudi oil refineries, gas fields, air bases, airports, and now Aramco's main offices. President Trump wrote on Truth Social after Tuesday's attacks that the Houthis are behaving very badly, and he says they're trying to drive up oil prices before the U.S. midterm elections. But he hasn't committed to taking any specific action. And so the real question for Saudi Arabia is how to weather these various Gulf wars. Saudi analyst Hesham Al-Ghannam told me Saudi Arabia is expanding its security ties with countries like Turkey and Pakistan right now, which are providing military support to Riyadh. But he says Riyadh also has to use This is especially crucial and true with Iran.

So talking to Iran does not mean trusting Iran. It means keeping a channel open in case there is a wider crisis. You know what, when trust is low, having this active channel can actually become more important.

And Steve, on Sunday we saw that channel being used. The Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers said they spoke by phone about the recent escalations, but there is still no sign of a truce on the horizon.

Okay, NPR's Zia Buttrowi in Dubai, thanks so much.

Thanks, Steve.

You know, we'd like to invite you to watch a new special report called Michelle Martin: Going There: A Matter of Life and Death. Michelle sat down with prominent experts and folks who offered very personal insights about the rising suicide rate among Black Americans and who dispelled some of the myths around this. You can watch the full conversation on NPR's YouTube page. And that's Up First for this Thursday, October 15th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratt, Andrew Sussman, Tina Craya, Mohammed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyad Butch and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacy Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

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