Transcript of Trump's Speech On Iran, Reactions To Trump's Remarks, SCOTUS Birthright Case

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President Trump addressed the nation and talked of ending the war against Iran eventually.

We're going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.

He called on other countries to grab the straight of poor moves.

I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. Representatives of 35 countries meet today to discuss measures to reopen the strait. Iran has threatened to strike U.S. tech headquarters in the Middle East after Trump repeated his threat to strike Iran's power grid.

And President Trump watched as Supreme Court justices questioned his lawyers about his challenge to birthright citizenship on Wednesday.

We're in a new world now where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a, a child who's a U.S. citizen.

Well, it's a new world.

It's the same Constitution. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. President Trump addressed the nation Wednesday night, making the case for war with Iran more than a month after he ordered attacks against Iran.

He contended the war is a success and that it will end after another round.

We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.

NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us now. What was the president's message?

Yeah, well, the president wasn't very specific in his remarks, but he said the war was ending shortly and provided a 2 to 3 week timeline on that, which is something he said before. He said Iran was completely decimated militarily and economically. And for most of his remarks, he explained why Iran was a threat. He said it would be intolerable if Iran had a nuclear weapon. And he said U.S. involvement in Iran was an investment in the future.

This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren's future. The whole world is watching and they can't believe the power, strength, and brilliance. They just can't believe what they're seeing.

I think it's important to point out that this was Trump's first formal address to the nation about this war. And 5 weeks in, his message on what the U.S. was doing in Iran, what the plan was, how long it would take. It's all been kind of muddled. Polling shows that this war is unpopular with Americans, and the war has also led to a sharp increase in gas prices, which has been politically difficult for Trump and Republicans heading into the midterm elections in 6 months.

Yeah, when it comes to his goals, though, for the war, he said he wanted to remove Iran's nuclear capabilities. He also wants the Strait of Hormuz open. If indeed the war is winding down, does the administration see those goals getting accomplished at the same time?

Yeah, I mean, this point is a little unclear and it's part of the reason, you know, we've been talking about it all week because Trump has been saying so many different things and thousands of US troops are still in the region. Whether those troops will be used in any significant ground operations in the time that the US is allegedly winding down the war is not something that the president talked about at all. But he did seem to indicate that the US could take future action in Iran if the country moves to try and make a nuclear weapon.

If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we'll hit them with missiles very hard again. We have all the cards.

And on the Strait of Hormuz, which is a really critical route for oil that Iran clamped down on as a result of these strikes that the US started, Trump is now calling on other countries to do the work of reopening the strait. He didn't name any countries specifically, but he has been really critical of NATO allies in particular for not helping with US operations in Iran. He said other countries should take care of the passage and cherish it.

Yeah, and it's interesting that he said other countries should take it because for a while the U.S. talked about taking it. And in his same speech, Trump said it would open his word naturally.

Yeah, this is just another example of Trump saying a lot of different things but then not providing any specifics. Trump said in his speech last night that the U.S. didn't need the oil coming through the strait, and he's basically tasked other countries with reopening this passage that Iran closed during the war. But because the strait is how more than 20% of the world's oil gets transported, it's still affecting oil prices here in the U.S. Trump claims, though, that once the strait is opened, the price of gas in the U.S. will lower again. But in the meantime, he wants other countries to deal with this, and that likely includes NATO allies. He's been really unhappy with them and has recently been bringing up again leaving NATO, though that's up to Congress to decide. A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak on the record said that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is meeting with Trump at the White House next week.

All right, that's NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

In his address, President Trump repeated this threat to Iran if a deal is not reached soon: If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.

Now, the president had previously threatened to hit power plants if Iran failed to open the Strait of Hormuz. Now that Trump has abandoned that goal and said it was other countries' problem, it is unclear what deal he wants from Iran.

We're joined now by NPR international International correspondent Ayat Batrawy in Dubai. So let's start with, uh, the threat that we just heard from the president. What's Iran's response to that?

Right, so Iran has already made clear that if its power plants are hit, it will target power plants in Israel and across the Gulf. And we already saw this week Iran can do that. It hit a power and water desalination plant in Kuwait after electricity outages in Tehran. And Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps listed American tech companies that they would target in the region if there are any more assassinations happening. Many like Oracle and Google actually have their headquarters right here in fly where I am. But Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson did say after Trump's speech that Iran is not interested in just a ceasefire with another war being launched on them again. And in response to Trump calling Iran a state sponsor of terror, Iran's foreign ministry said it's actually Israel with the backing of the US that's being prosecuted now in international courts for war crimes in Gaza. Israel denies charges of genocide. But, you know, Iran says it is forced to continue confronting this war until it ends. And we've seen that they still have the capability to do that.

Now, in the case of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran basically is choosing which ships can pass through. What has the response been from Gulf Arab countries who can't get their oil?

Right. This war was launched by Israel and the US mostly without consulting with Gulf Arab partners who do host thousands of US troops that have been targeted. We know from our sources in the region that some Gulf Arab states had short advance notice of the war in order to sort of just prepare their air defenses, but others did not. And right now there is not one defined Gulf stance on this war or how it should end. And despite continued Iranian Iranian attacks, the Gulf countries have not hit back. Analysts tell me that's in part because they don't know what Trump will do next, and they don't want to end up having to fight Iran alone. But the United Arab Emirates has been more hawkish, and it says it's willing to join an international coalition to open the strait.

Yet no international coalition exists, and the price of oil climbed again after the Trump speech yesterday, right?

Exactly. There is no coalition to speak of yet, despite that pressure from Trump. Countries like the UK and France have actually tried to distance themselves from Trump's decision to go to war with Iran. And in his speech last night, here's what Trump said other countries should be doing.

Go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy.

Should be easy, he says. Now, the UK is hosting a virtual meeting today of around 35 countries to discuss diplomatic and political measures to try to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which again, a lot of that Gulf oil needs to go through and can't. Canada and European nations, Japan and 2 Gulf Arab countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, are among those taking part. And we've reported that military planners will also meet to discuss naval options. But again, they're signaling any naval escort would be after the war. And it's important to remember, A, that some 3,600 ground troops, among them Marine infantry, were just sent to the region or on their way. But it's still unclear what their mission will be.

That's NPR international correspondent Ayat Batrawy in Dubai. Thank you very much. Thanks, Eddie.

The Supreme Court has questioned the lawyers in a case on birthright citizenship. The court heard a challenge to the long-settled meaning of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Yeah, it says, quote, "All persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States." Trump administration asked the justices to discover an exception to those words, and the president himself came to watch the arguments.

NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg also went to watch the arguments. Nina, good morning.

Good morning.

How important was it that the president himself came to watch?

I'm not really sure that it was important. Trump came into the Supreme Court chamber about 10 minutes before the argument began. As far as my spotters could see, because I'm too short, he glowered the whole time, never once smiled, and left after his solicitor general had finished the main part of his argument. The justices, for their part, seemed to have organized themselves more than usual and were quite determined not to let the argument go on ad infinitum, even mentioning a desire not to exceed time limits. I even had the impression that they must have met up for a few minutes at least and said how they wanted to treat Trump respectfully, but not be his lapdogs either.

And they're putting questions to John Sauer, the Solicitor General of the United States, who's arguing for the government, arguing for Trump. What was the policy he was trying to defend?

President Trump has long wanted to get rid of birthright citizenship. On day one of his second term, he signed an executive order barring citizenship for children born in this country to parents who are illegally here or who are here legally but on temporary, even long-term visas. And here's Sauer trying, rather unsuccessfully, I think, to persuade Chief Justice Roberts.

We're in a new world now where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a, a child who's a U.S. citizen.

Well, it's a new world.

It's the same Constitution.

Several of the conservative justices, however, indicated major questions about how the Trump administration plan would work out in practice if there were no automatic citizenship for newborns in the United States. If we were to do that, asked Justice Gorsuch, how would you know who the father is or the mother? What if they are unmarried? Whose house do they live in? Justice Barrett also questioned the practicality of the Trump plan.

You're not going to know at the time of birth for some people whether they have the intent to stay or not, including U.S. citizens, by the way.

Okay, so sharp questions for the government. What about when the other side had its turn?

Well, the ACLU's Cecilia Wong had a lot easier time. After all, every judge to have examined the Trump policy has found it to be unconstitutional.

But she was really on her game yesterday as she told the court We can't take the current administration's policy considerations into account to try to re-engineer and radically reinterpret the original meaning of the 14th Amendment.

So we've heard the lawyers. What do you think is on the justices' minds?

Well, it looked to me as though Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito were leaning towards the Trump administration position—no guarantees—but as for the other 4 conservatives and 3 liberals, they sort of seem to me to be leaning the other their way. Hmm.

A majority would be against the government then. Nina, thanks so much. Thank you. That's NPR's Nina Totenberg, who has reported for decades on the Supreme Court. Now, here's a matter where you can be the judge. You can decide. You can give your ruling. You can help us out today by telling us what you like and how we could improve this podcast. All you have to do is complete a short survey. You can find it right now at npr.org/springsurvey. That's npr.org/springsurvey. Thanks.

And that's Up First for Thursday, April 2nd. I'm Amy Martinez.

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Gerry Holmes, Domenico Montanaro, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Eva Puketsch. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Misha Hyness, who is always supporting and our technical director, who is always direct, is Carly Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us tomorrow.