Transcript of Trump Signs Initial Deal With Iran, Trump Withholds DNI Nominee, Trump Approval Poll

President Trump and Iran's president signed an initial agreement to end the war.

In exchange for lifting sanctions, Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and promises not to make a nuclear weapon, both of which were the case before the war. So what did the U.S. gain?

I'm Steve Inskeep with Amy Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump is putting Senate Republicans in a hard spot. He held back his pick for director of national intelligence until they meet his demands. His threat is to leave that vital agency directed by a man who lawmakers consider dangerously unqualified.

And a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds Americans still aren't happy with the economy or with President Trump. His approval numbers are the lowest they've been, even dropping among groups that helped put him in office. Stay with us, we've got news you need to start your day. President Trump signed the agreement with Iran intended to end the war and get oil flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States says it is prepared to lift decades of sanctions, potentially allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to flow to Iran. In return, Iran repeats its promise never to build a nuclear weapon, a promise Iran has made for decades and that U.S. officials usually have not believed. The idea now is to spend 60 days negotiating terms to back up that promise.

All right, here to break this down, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre in Tel Aviv. So, Greg, there was supposed to be a big U.S.-Iran signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday.

What changed? Yeah, we got a last-minute surprise. Trump and Iran's president signed the formal agreement Wednesday. Iran's leader did it in his home country. Trump did it at the French Palace of Versailles. Now, we know Trump is enamored with such opulence, but historically, this is where a treaty ending World War I was signed, a treaty ultimately considered a failure. So there's no need for that ceremony planned Friday in Switzerland, though we are After that hearing, the U.S. and Iran may go ahead and meet and just start working on the final agreement that still needs to happen.

Okay, so I saw that President Trump spoke at length about the deal and also took questions from reporters. What jumped out at you?

Yeah, many things, Al. I'll just mention two. First was Trump's language. He said he didn't want to be another Herbert Hoover, the president who presided over the Great Depression. He also said oil supplies would be depleted in another 4 weeks if the war had gone on. So remember, in the early days of the war, Trump was calling for Iran's unconditional surrender. Now he says he's ending it to avert an economic catastrophe. And second, this deal is designed to end the war, yet Trump was still using belligerent language, saying he reserves the right to resume the war.

If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.

And he talked about bombing Iran a half dozen times at this press conference.

All right, so what should we be on the lookout for? What are we looking for first out of this agreement?

Yeah, the Strait of Hormuz opening, everybody wants this, perhaps Iran most of all. It needs to export oil for its crippled economy. So there may be logistical issues like clearing Iranian mines, for example, but everyone is expected to look for solutions, not create problems here.

President Trump says Iran's nuclear program is the most important issue, so how are those negotiations shaping up?

Yeah, this is going to be the hardest issue to resolve, and the memorandum says both sides will freeze in place as they negotiate. Iran won't work on its nuclear program. The U.S. won't impose more sanctions. But there's a lot of tough issues here, and the most important is what happens to nearly 1,£000 of highly enriched uranium. These negotiations are supposed to last 60 days, but that deadline can be extended.

All right, so what else can the U.S. and Iran expect out of this preliminary deal?

Well, the U.S. is getting two things it had before the war: the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an Iranian promise not to have a nuclear weapon. This raises a key question: What did the U.S. gain from this war? Well, Iran has a lot to gain. Iran can now sell its oil freely. This is a huge immediate benefit. And a final agreement would call for the lifting of all U.S. and U.N. sanctions. Now, that's a big if, but the U.S. has squeezed Iran since the 1979 revolution there with all sorts of punitive measures. For the first time, Iran could begin to operate without all these restrictions.

That's NPR's Greg Myhre in Tel Aviv. Greg, thanks.

It's your thing, eh?

President Trump is putting Senate Republicans on the spot again, this time over his pick for Director of National Intelligence.

Okay, it's a little complicated because the president is stopping himself from installing someone in office, but here's what we think is happening. Bill Pulte, a man with a record of weaponizing government information to undermine Trump's perceived foes, will serve as the temporary boss of the nation's 18 intelligence agencies. President Trump does not want his full-time pick for that role, Jay Clayton, to move ahead with Senate confirmation until the Senate confirms a replacement for the job Clayton is leaving— U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

NPR Congress reporter Eric McDaniel is covering this. So, Eric, take us through what the president is asking of GOP senators.

So in an overnight post on Wednesday, Trump made two demands. They both show his relationship with Senate Republicans is breaking down. Let's start with the first demand. Trump said that he would hold back his own director of national intelligence until the pick's replacement is confirmed, like you heard. That leaves the very controversial Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence for now.

So why is he so controversial?

Yeah, he used his first role in the administration as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to assail folks who'd frustrated the president, like Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California and former Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Pulte accused Schiff of mortgage fraud, which Schiff denies, and Democrats are worried Pulte would do worse with access to the entire government's surveillance toolkit. Republicans are frustrated that he lacks any national security or intelligence background.

And the president won't let the confirmation of his full-time pick move ahead.

No, he says it's because he wants a backfill person in place, but he also says the Senate is trying to deprive Pulte of a turn at the job. Trump has said he wants Pulte to declassify 2020 election documents and fire folks at the DNI office.

Okay, so you mentioned Trump had two demands.

The second is for Republicans to pass his election security law. Senate Republicans have tried twice and failed twice because the Save America Act doesn't have enough support to become law. As the top Senate Republican, John Thune, said, "The U.S. Senate is bound by arithmetic, and they do not have the votes to overcome the chamber's de facto 60-vote majority required to pass legislation." But because they haven't passed it, Trump says he'll block the renewal of a key spy tool, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the government says underpins 60% of the president's daily intelligence brief.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] So why would the president block a key spy tool or hold open a seat in his own cabinet?

I mean, things have broken down. First, we've got three co-equal branches of government. The Senate can't do what Trump wants because they don't have the votes. U.S. elections are also already secure. The president keeps making the demands anyway. Second, the Senate is supposed to be able to vet cabinet nominees, but the president's decision to block the confirmation of the full-time guy deprives them of that constitutional responsibility. This is not how checks and balances are supposed to work, but it is where we find ourselves.

And here's the thing, Senator Republicans have been here before, not that long ago.

I mean, I've recently been here in studio to talk about the president's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund the president hoped to use to issue payments to compensate people he says have been victimized by the government. There was also $1 billion the president wanted to fund security of his White House ballroom project. Both of those are varying degrees of defeated, but they were both massive headaches for the Senate Republicans and nearly derailed funding for one of the president's own priorities, immigration enforcement.

All this feels like it could be a little messy, Eric. I mean, where's it heading now?

Eh, I don't know. Presumably, the Senate tries to get Jay Clayton's replacement as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York confirmed quickly to unlock some things. But the goalposts keep moving further away, and I'd imagine there are still some surprises that lie ahead.

All right, that's NPR's Erik McDaniel. Erik, thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Americans continue to not feel great about the economy or about President Trump's leadership.

And the latest NPR/PBS NewsMarist poll released this morning adds more data points to that discussion.

NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler has been reviewing the results. Okay, Stephen, so I'm going to take a guess and say, like many things in politics, Democrats don't like how things are going, Republicans pretty much like how things are going, and independents are somewhere in the middle. So how'd I do?

Wow, you're pretty much spot on.

Perfect.

Overall, President Trump faces the largest gap ever of people who approve of his job as president and those who disapprove. He's at 36% approval and 59% disapproval, basically where we were with the last survey that came out in early May. You've got basically every Democrat that disapproves, about two-thirds of independents, and one in five Republicans. Like previous versions of this poll, there are notable declines in different groups that help Trump get elected in 2024. Gen Z Americans, women, those with a household income below $50,000 a year. Some of these changes are within the margin of error of the poll, which was conducted last week before news of the agreement between the U.S. and Iran, but it is still cratering numbers from February 2025. Case in point, back then, Trump had a net positive approval rating of 22 points among rural adults, but he's now 10 points underwater. And by a roughly 2-to-1 margin, Latinos disapprove of Trump's performance. It's everywhere.

All right, so that's how Americans feel about the president's job overall. Tell us more about what people are feeling about the economy.

It's even worse for Trump and by extension Republicans in Congress that are on the ballot this November. Only a third of Americans say they approve of how the president is handling the economy. That's lower than the lowest marks that folks gave former President Joe Biden, who, as you may remember, presided over an economy people did not feel great about. When specifically asked about the economy, only 34% of white Americans without a college degree say they approve of Trump's handling, down from about half in April 2025. And even though gas prices have dropped about $0.40 from this time a month ago, according to AAA, the cost of filling up continues to put a strain on budgets, people say.

Yeah, so there's a big picture displeasure with President Trump's performance and unhappiness with the economy overall. That's one thing, though. Answering those things are one thing. What about real-world impacts of all this?

There are many economic factors working against Republicans this year, including the gas prices, high inflation, tariff policies, the war in Iran. Although this survey was done before the latest memorandum of understanding that, as I understand, may or may not end things. In this month's survey, people were asked about summer plans and if costs had any bearing on things. 2/3 responded yes. Another interesting question to me asked if folks planned on taking a summer vacation, and if not, why? About half of those who said no cited cost as a top factor.

Still plenty of time though before, uh, November and the general election. What does this, uh, data tell you about what's to come?

Well, it's obviously much too soon to tell, especially when there are still primary elections going on, but this sort of persistent pessimism about the economy that dates back to the Biden administration and is especially acute among Independents sets up the following situation that strategists from both parties say could play out, where in key races, people who at one point supported Trump switch back to Democrats who offer solutions to rising prices, and some of the most loyal Trump base opt to stay home.

All right.

That's NPR's Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thanks.

Thank you.

And that's Up First for Thursday, June 18th. I'm Emi Martinez.

Indeed you are. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Tina Krya. Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, and Mohammed El-Bardisi, along with H.J. Mai. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Eva Pukac. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We got engineering support from Nisha Hynes, and our technical director is Carley Strange. That's Carley Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us tomorrow.

Good night.