Transcript of VP Vance In Israel, Shutdown Politics, White House Under Construction

Vice President J. D. Vance is in Israel to make sure the ceasefire deal stays on track.

If Hamas doesn't comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen. He's meeting with Israel's Prime Minister to talk about phase two, but phase one has been off to a shaky start.

I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Trump administration's pressure campaign to end the government shutdown has not worked so far, but the clock is ticking toward health insurance hikes for buyers of Affordable Care Act insurance and to off-year elections in several states. Could that shift the political calculus to break the stalemate?

And at the White House, demolition crews are tearing down the East Wing to make way for President Trump's new quarter billion dollar ballroom. A national planning board says it regulates construction, not destruction. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

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On NPR Shortwave podcast, we rewatched Christopher Nolan's Interstellar to separate the science facts from science fiction. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Vice President J. D. Vance is in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Vance says the Gaza ceasefire is making progress despite fighting between Israel and Hamas over the weekend.

Vance and several other US officials in Israel are trying to get the two sides to take the next steps under the deal. They acknowledge it will be challenging.

All right, let's hear from NPR's Greg Myrie in Tel Aviv. So, Greg, the ceasefire mostly is holding. So how is J. D. Vance describing what he's seeing?

Yeah, the vice president says it's actually going better than he expected. We're almost two weeks in, and the ceasefire is largely holding aside from a significant flare-up of fighting last Sunday. But the next phase poses some hard problems, and we can't emphasize this enough. Gaza doesn't have a government, and it's not clear when it will get one. When asked about this, Vance said other things should happen first. The people of Gaza need food, medicine, security. Then he added, If we get to the point where we're arguing exactly what the governance structure in Gaza is long term, then we should pat ourselves on the back.

That's a very good problem to have, but I won't anticipate that problem before we actually have it. Okay, so what is the Trump administration doing to work on these priorities that Vance has mentioned?

Vance spoke in Southern Israel, just 10 miles or so from Gaza, at a civilian military coordination center built in the last few days by 200 US troops. This operations center will include officials from the US and other countries, as well as aid groups and others working in Gaza. The goal is to make sure everybody is operating from the same playbook. The head of the US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, has overseen this work, and he was there as well with Fants. So was Middle East envoy Steve Whitkoff and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Collectively, this reflects the major effort the Trump administration is making to get this ceasefire to stick. Now, Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Yahoo is universally known here as Bibi, and the Israeli media is calling this American contingent meeting with him, babysitters. They have a lot of work ahead of them. This next phase calls for Hamas to give up its weapons, for Israeli soldiers to pull back and for international troops to replace them in Gaza as a stabilization force.

The thing is, though, these ceasefires between Israel and Hamas don't have a great track record. I mean, did President Trump get ahead of himself by declaring peace in Gaza?

Well, you can certainly see some parallels to President George W Bush in the Iraq war back in 2003. Just a few weeks into that war, Bush went aboard a US aircraft carrier and essentially declared the fighting over in front of a huge banner that read Mission Accomplished. Of course, the US ultimately fought for many years in Iraq. That should be a cautionary tale for the Middle East. Yet at the ceasefire signing ceremony last week in Egypt, Trump stood in front of a huge banner that read peace in the Middle East.

But you know, Trump has long said that it'll keep the US out of what he calls our Forever Wars. I mean, isn't Israel and Palestine, isn't that conflict the very definition of a Forever War?

Well, absolutely, A. Trump seems torn about this. He says he wants to avoid open-ended conflicts, yet he also believes he's a master negotiator who's able to end wars. He keeps saying he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, but he's very much taking ownership here of this conflict. Now, that's also true of many previous US presidents, and none of them were able to forge a full-fledged Middle East peace.

All right, that's NPR's Greg Meiry in Tel Aviv. Greg, thanks.

Sure thing, eh?

The US is entering another week of the government shutdown, and many things have not changed.

Republicans still need democratic buy-in to pass a funding plan to reopen the government, and Congress leaders still are not negotiating. But the White House has tried multiple strategies to end the standoff, mainly by threatening Democrats with more cuts to spending in the workforce, which the Trump administration has been pushing for all year.

Npr's Stephen Fowler has been tracking the political pressure campaign during the shutdown. So, Stephen, much as the federal government is still functioning just like normal, federal workers are either furloughed or doing their jobs without pay. But the Trump administration has tried to fire some of those workers and to cut the programs that they're working on. So, Stephen, where does all this stand?

About 4,000-ish people have been issued layoff notices in the last few weeks. I say-ish because hundreds of them were sent in error to people and resented, and because of a lawsuit. A federal judge late last week said that trying to fire people during a government shutdown is neither necessary nor legal, and several of the affected agencies have paused those firings for now as more unions have been added as plaintiffs. A federal official's estimate 300,000 federal workers will be gone from the government by the end of the year, with about half of them taking the so-called fork and the road buyout. While the White House promised, quote, substantial layoffs ahead of the shutdown, it's worth noting the number is substantially smaller than other cuts to the federal workforce so far this year.

Now, yesterday in the Rose Garden, President Trump praised the architect of those cuts. That's Office of Management and Budget Director, Russell Vote. He actually compared him to one of the most famous movie villains of all time.

They call him Dorthsvader. I call him a fine man, but he's cutting Democrat priorities, and they're never going to get them back. They've caused us, and they've really allowed us to do it.

Democrat priorities. What does Trump mean by that?

Well, Trump has actually referred repeatedly to cutting explicitly Democrat programs, and there is no such thing. The 2 million or so civilian federal employees that do things like process social security payments, handle your taxes, and do other government services work in a non-partisan manner. But there are things championed by Democrats and former President Joe Biden's administration that the White House says are partisan, not necessary, and do not align with Trump's values. Vote has been at the forefront of this. I mean, he's announced attempts to cancel grants for energy projects. He's targeted transportation funding in major Democrat-led cities and states, and led other efforts to try and make Democrats feel the fiscal impact of the shutdown. But it's also led to a view among the Democratic Party that even if they did negotiate the Trump administration and vote would ignore it and cut whatever they want.

So if the threats of layoffs and funding freezes hasn't changed the stalemate so far, what could change in the days and weeks to come?

Well, there are a few other potential off-ramps to look for. One, later this week is the first full miss paycheck for federal workers. Then you've got the start of November, which is the start of open enrollment. Democrats have been holding out on reopening the government to try and stop health insurance premiums from doubling or tripling for millions of people who get their insurance through the federal exchange. Then a few days later, on November fourth, it's an off-year general election where the results could send a message that voters generally aren't happy with how Republicans are governing, including with the shutdown. Even if somehow there's an agreement on the continuing resolution that the House passed in mid-September, that's only good through November 21st.

All right, that's NPR's Stephen Fowler, part of a team covering the restructuring of the federal government. Stephen, thanks.

Thank you.

Images of an excavator tearing off the façade of the east wing of the White House are going viral this week.

The demolition marks the groundbreaking for President Trump's $250 million ballroom project.

You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that sound? Oh, that's music to my ears. I love that sound.

But not everyone loves what they're seeing. Historic preservation groups are expressing concern, and there are questions about the White House has followed proper procedure.

We're joined now by NPR senior White House correspondent, Tamara Keith, who has become our resident White House Renovations Correspondent. We're adding a title to you, Tamara. All right, a lot of changes already. I got to admit, I saw that picture of the East Wing, and I was like, Oh, wow. Okay, so it definitely does look dramatic.

It is. A White House official not permitted to speak on the record tells me the East Wing is being brought down, modernized, and rebuilt as part of the ballroom project. President Trump has wanted to build a ballroom at the White House for more than a decade. But this demolition is taking a lot of people by surprise because when the project was announced in July, President Trump downplayed the impacts.

It won't interfere with the current building. It'll be near it, but not catching it and pays total respect to the existing building, which I'm the biggest fan of.

But then at a dinner last week for project owners, Trump pointed toward the East Wing and said this.

Everything out there is coming down, and we're replacing it with one of the most beautiful ballrooms that you've ever seen.

The seating capacity and the price tag of this project have increased since this summer, too.

Can he just do this?

He is just doing this. There was a historical preservation phase earlier this fall. Now, they're in the demolition phase. The National Capital Planning Commission would typically have a role in approving a project like But the newly appointed chair of that commission, a top Trump aide named Will Scharff, said in September, the commission doesn't have jurisdiction over demolition.

Any assertion that this commission should have been consulted earlier than it has been or that it will be, is simply false and represents a misunderstanding of this commission's role in that project. When we are submitted a plan, we will review that plan.

So they will need to approve construction, but they haven't yet, and the commission Commission is currently closed due to the government shutdown.

Okay, so the commission is shut down. The demolition is continuing, though, during the shutdown.

The ballroom is being privately funded. Trump says he is chipping in, and donors include maybe larger corporations with business before the government. Google is donating more than 20 million to the project to settle a civil suit filed by Trump, and those are among many reasons watchdogs say this project is a giant ethical red flag.

How does the White House respond to this?

Well, they put out a fact sheet listing all of the various White House construction projects over the years and called the negative reaction to this one, Pearl clutching. For an earlier story, the White House Historical Association told me that the White House is a living structure that has evolved repeatedly over the years. They didn't get back to me yesterday when I reached out for a comment on the demolition, but there is no denying President Trump is making an indelible mark on the White House and and arguably also the country.

All right, that's NPR's, Tamara Keith. Tamara, thanks.

You're welcome.

That's Up First for Wednesday, October 22nd. I'm E. Martinez.

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