Hormuz Latest, Trump Rallies Amid Sinking Approval, Tariff Refunds

Iran says it's clamping down again on the street of her moves. >> What do the temporary reprieve of the ceasefire at risk? >> So how temporary is that reprieve? That's the question of the weekend. Amalice and Adwani.

>> And I'm Scott Simon, and this is up first for Menpierre News.

[MUSIC] >> The deal to pause fighting was holding. Now it joins the same shaky ground as the ceasefire in Lebanon. We dig in on both. >> Then we'll take you to a huge church in Arizona as President Trump rally supporters,

as General Support, Eros. >> And Monday is refund day, but not for IRS 1040 filers. >> Though tariffs are a tax will explain. So please stay with us.

“We've got the news you need to start your weekend.”

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>> First, a look at those ceasefires in the Middle East.

Washington and Beirut have announced a 10 day ceasefire in the fight between Israel and the militant group has below. And the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is set to end next week. >> But overnight, Iran reimposed restrictions on the state of Hormuz, putting new pressure around President Trump.

>> And Piero's Quill Lawrence joins his quill. Thanks for being with us. >> Good morning Scott. >> Let's begin with the straight. >> Yeah, it's been real whiplash.

Yesterday with the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Iran announced it would open the straight to commercial traffic for the duration of that ceasefire. But only along this prescribed route close to the Iranian coast. But then the U.S. said it would maintain its blockade of Iranian ports while those peace talks continue. So perhaps in response to day Iran's military said no, the straight remains closed until the U.S.

lifts its blockade of Iran. So it's been confusing 24 hours with a lot of questions left.

“About is the straight reclosed or never really open to shipping?”

>> And so where does that put the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran? >> Well, officially it set to expire on Tuesday, April 21st. There's talk of extending that deadline. One source on Capitol Hill, who's not authorized to speak publicly told NPR that he's hearing at least the Pakistanis who are hosting these talks want to extend them.

President Trump has said that a deal with Iran is very close. And yesterday he told reporters, quote, "I think it's going to happen." As you say, Pakistan's mediating the talks, Vice President Vance was in his land about last weekend, but did not seemingly make much progress. So what's the next step?

>> The next step could be direct talks between the U.S. and Iran, most likely there in Pakistan. And President Trump told reporters that if there's a deal, he might even go there and show up in person, but of course that was before the news that Iran closed the straight. At this point, the deal seems probably to hinge on a pause in Iran's nuclear enrichment program. The administration wants a 20-year pause while Iran is talking about a five-year pause.

So there'll be some haggling over that timeline. We spoke to one analyst who said, "Yes, of course a deal is better than war, but without any details, it's hard to say," for example, will there be international inspectors who will go into see if Iran is just maintaining a peaceful nuclear infrastructure, not a weapons program. With the U.S. unfreeze billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, those were all factors

in a deal forged during the Obama administration that President Trump scrapped in his first term.

He called it a bad deal. The unfreezing of these assets is something that Iranians apparently are insisting on this time. But we don't know what to what extent President Trump will essentially rebuild the JCPOA. That was the deal that was hammered out into the Obama administration. And give us more details, please, on the deal in Lebanon.

“Yes, it's a 10-day ceasefire, but the most important distinction is that Israel may have made a”

peace deal with a Lebanese government. It's not clear they've made a peace deal with Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed Shiite militia army, the entity that was at war with Israel. So that militant group has said it won't accept any deal. President Trump has urged them to quote act nicely. Hezbollah says Israel can't have any freedom of movement in Lebanon, but Israeli forces are in southern Lebanon right now.

They say they're there to prevent his bullah from firing rockets and missiles into Israel. And meanwhile, there's a huge build-up of U.S. forces in the region. One U.S. carrier group actually took the ancient route around the length of Africa, instead of going through the Suez Canal to get there, which I think tells you a lot about the current

President Trump hit the campaign trail out west this week, touting no tax on tips in Nevada. He then headed to Arizona for a campaign style rally held in a mega church with the group turning point U.S.A. During a week marked by controversy around his criticism of Pope Leo and the continued war in Iran, Trump's speech in front of a friendly crowd generated a lot of enthusiasm for the president. This November got to win the midterms.

That's President's appearance comes during a time when his approval ratings across the country are at a record low. In Pierce Age Miller joins us now to give us the rundown on Friday's event. Now the president's grant to convince voters in swing stage two, stick with him. Sage, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me.

“Why was President giving special attention to the West this week?”

Well, Trump is trying to gain critical support for Republicans in swing states ahead of the

midterm election. Really trying to get the momentum going. Both Nevada and Arizona are critical battleground states and Trump doesn't want to lose control of Congress come November. But that's looking like it might be an uphill battle. And also, Trump has been in a lot of hot water following a slew of unpopular policies, including most recently the war in Iran. The war has driven up gas prices and inflation, major election issues. In an average of the polls,

the president has hit a record low approval rating of 39%. However, Trump did not have to worry about criticism with this crowd. The crowd frequently erupted in cheers when Trump said something they agree with. Even when he was speaking about the war. We are not ashamed of American

“might, and we do not hesitate to defend the American people, which is what we've been doing for”

the last two months, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple. And they booed loudly whenever Trump mentioned something about Democrats. They wanted to fund ice. They want ice terming. Even if morale is low nationwide, the audience was full of loyalists. When member station KJZZ political reporter Cameron Sanchez asked about the president's sharp criticisms of Pope Lito. Many voters fear back Trump. This is what Ken McCormick had to say.

"I've heard about it. Don't really care about it. Yeah. I mean, he says things all the time. That make people mad. That's just the way he is." These are the voters, and this is the kind of crowd he feels he can build momentum in a swing stay ahead of a midterm election that could be really cumbersome for Republicans. The majority of polls project a democratic advantage, but Trump told attendees not to listen to

the polls, just get out and vote red when the time comes. What would President Trump's message over all the voters in Arizona? You know, Trump stuck to his usual script for the most part.

He praised the same talking points he has since the beginning of his second term.

America is on the march, and America is on the rise like we haven't seen maybe ever before. We are respected again as a country. Right now, though, there isn't a lot of strong policies he can lean on and elevate. There isn't a winning message out of the White House at the moment,

“which makes it harder for him to sell on the campaign trail. That's why the turning point”

crowd bodes so well for him. They are people who will support Trump no matter what, and he wants these loyalist crowds to help him do the heavy lifting of persuasion for voters who were on the fence, especially in these swing states. Of course, this was a turning point USA event, and President Trump has closely aligned with the organization, which has been an period of rebuilding since its founder Charlie Kirk was shot to death last fall. What role does

turning point play in all this push to win with conservatives? Turning point used to have a really strong influence on young conservative voters. That was a voting block, both parties struggled with, but turning point seemed to have figured out the secret sauce. But ever since, like you said, the founder Charlie Kirk died, the organization hasn't had the same reach with young Republicans as it once did. That didn't seem to be a problem for Trump on stage, though. This is what he pointed out.

I want to thank all the young people. I've never seen so many young people in my life.

Trump told the crowd that it's on Republicans to keep Kirk's legacy alive by encouraging young people in swing states to vote red. But we won't know if Trump's messaging is successful until November. And Pierre Sage Miller, thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Monday, A-A-A-M-Eastern is the moment lots of businesses are waiting for. That's when the government

struck down. And Pierre's Alina Salioch is gearing up to cover what's about to be America's hottest

“website. And she joins us now. Hi there Alina. Hello, hello. Okay, so what are we expecting on Monday”

morning? Like is this going to be Beyonce ticket bananza? Kind of, yeah, it's just with a dizzying amount of paperwork and spreadsheets. Yeah, so let me set the stage, I guess, pun intended, about a year ago, President Trump set historic tariffs on virtually all imports into the U.S. So for a year now, anything imported into the U.S. has cost companies extra fees to get the goods through customs. Then two months ago, the Supreme Court said the majority of those tariffs were unconstitutional.

And that's an estimated $166 billion that was collected illegally. Billion. Wow.

Yeah, so you can imagine every importer instantly going, how do I get that money back? And they have been waiting for that answer for two months. If first it wasn't clear if the government would or even could do the refunds, then it seemed the businesses might have to sue the government individually to get that money back. And just over a month ago, U.S. customs revealed and court that they were working on an online portal to file refund claims. And this past week, it was kind

of like, here it is, the portal opens Monday. Wow. Okay, so is everyone just going to rush to a play at once? I asked exactly that when I was talking to Jonathan Gold, he is the customs expert

“at the National Retail Federation. I think, unfortunately, there will be a mad dash at the beginning”

because everyone wants to be first in mind. Everybody's eagerly waiting for this money to come back

to them. One small business owner I talked to, who is a mom, was saying she felt like she was applying for a competitive summer camp slot. Like, will the fastest fingers get to be first in line? People are getting multiple colleagues prepared to log in and file. They're setting up AI tools to speed up applications. I think it will be tens of thousands of people trying to file their tariff refund claims first thing Monday. And is the government ready for that? We did post this

question to customs, you know, but the volume of claims that their tariff portal is prepared to handle on Monday. A spokesperson just said the new tool was built to quote officially process refunds and also shared a new guidance page that's created for importers and brokers. Of course, not all

“businesses will be ready immediately. There's a fair amount of bureaucratic prep work that has to be”

done to qualify for refund claim. And we do know that this is only the initial phase of refunds. So, not all imports will be eligible quite yet, though it is the majority. Okay, what about the shoppers, though? Like, are we going to be able to get any of the money back that we've been paying in the form of these higher prices caused by tariffs? Yeah, that's the question have been getting the most. And the honest answer is probably not. The government can only refund the tariffs to

whoever actually paid them. It's called the importer of records. So, whoever shepherd the goods through customs and paid the duty gets that money back. And sometimes that's the store where you bought something, but sometimes it's like a company that's like three steps up the supply chain. And so, a lot of store owners are actually in the bit of a quandary. I talked to Joe Kim Ray, he owns B and W hardware North Carolina. He sells a lot of grills. And he says last year,

manufacturers both hiked their prices to him due to tariffs. And they tried to shield shoppers by requiring that stores offer discounts. wholesale prices went up retail prices went down. I was the one caught in the middle. And now because he's not the direct importer, he's going to have some tough conversations with the suppliers. He hopes that he can at least get some good deals on new orders going forward. And I bet we will hear a lot about shoppers pushing for refunds to there are already a few

class action lawsuits against some major companies. Some retailers are already saying, yes, we'll try to pass along any refunds we get, but this is something I'll be watching for sure. Yeah, can't wait to hear about it. And Pierre's Alina Celic, thanks Alina. Thank you.

And that's the first for Saturday, April 18, 2026. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm a listen ad morning. Dave mystisch produced today's podcast with help from Marco Bauerline and Gabel Connor, our editors were at McNulty, Ariel Plotnik, Andrew Sussman, Megan Crats, and Emily Coch. Here in the studio, our director is Michael Radcliffe at the Linda Torek and our technical director, David Greenberg. He's got engineering support from Jason, Simon Laslo, Johnson, and Zovangan Hogan. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor

or executive producer is E.B. Stone and Jim Kane is our deputy manager. Tomorrow on the Sunday Story, we take you to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where public schools compete in the free market,

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