The Supreme Court says President Trump can keep building his White House ball...
The conservative majority said that the laying construction could hurt National's security, but the court hasn't decided whether the project is even legal by that time the ballroom might be nearly finished.
I'm Leila Faldel, that same Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News.
The Secretary of the Army, Don Driscoll, resigned after 18 months on the job. The Army's top civilian leader didn't like the purging of senior generals to install Loyalists among other things, and PR's Greg Myri digs into the friction at the Pentagon. And the world's biggest economies are meeting in North Carolina this week. The Trump administration wants to use the G20 summit to convince countries to help squeeze
Iran's economy. The question some countries are asking at the moment is, is the US's source of stability or instability of the global economy?
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The Supreme Court is allowing construction on the White House ballroom to continue. That hands President Trump a significant victory on one of his top priorities, by way of the High Court's emergency docket. The move drew a dissent from Chief Justice John Roberts, and the Court's three liberal justiceists. MPR's Kerry Johnson has been following the case. Kerry, why is the Supreme
“Court siding with the Trump administration on this?”
The Court said it was not tackling the heart of a matter whether this construction is legal for now, but the majority five justices said the group suing over the ballroom project had not suffered a direct concrete injury that would allow it to bring the case to court. The Supreme Court majority said, quote, "mear offense, disagreement, or distaste, does not qualify as an injury to get through those courthouse doors."
And the majority also said the government will likely suffer irreparable harm if construction is delayed. They mentioned court papers filed by leaders of the CIA, the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence, who all sat national security could be at risk, and it could be harder to protect the president. All right, so that's the majority. The court though was a closely divided five four. What did the
dissenters say? In a bit of a surprise, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the dissent, and he was joined by the three liberal justices. They all agreed with the national trust for historic preservation, which argued the construction is likely unlawful, because federal law says Congress needs to approve buildings on federal park grounds, and Congress has not passed any law to pave the way for this ballroom. John Roberts says the White House is an iconic building whose
quote, "symbolism in history are wrapped up in its architecture." He says the White House is not just any building, and the member of the national trust who said she was injured here is not just any person. She's an expert on architecture. Her name is Alice in Oakland. She talked
a morning edition this year near the construction site at the White House. Here's what she said at
the time. As most Washingtonians do we come through here all the time. This is the center of the city. We bring friends here. We drive by, we walk by, and the White House is so visually accessible to all of us. It's something we can see from the street, or at least it used to be today. It's a little difficult. Now the national trust says it's disappointed with this ruling, and presidents are
“only temporary stewards of the People's House. What's the reaction from the White House?”
You know, despite everything going on, the war's high prices for consumers, President Trump has really focused on the ballroom and other construction projects around the city. He posted on true social quote, "I'm pleased to report the United States Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of the ballroom military complex being built without any further contingency, doubt, or threat." Trump is so detailed oriented about these projects he even gave reporters a tour of the ballroom
in May. Hundreds of billions of dollars already under the ballroom, and it's coming out incredibly. Now it does the Supreme Court's decision mean that Trump's ballroom has no more obstacles to get around. Now the court is letting the construction continue for now, but it left some room to hear the underlying dispute about the legality of this project in the future.
There's a complicating factor.
20 hours a day, seven days a week to finish this project. The construction has been underway for
“the better part of a year, and a lot more work could be done by the time the Supreme Court”
gets to the biggest question. In this case, the president seems aware of that. He said on social media, it will all be complete in the summer of 2028, something he says the country can be proud of. That's MPR's Kerry Johnson. Kerry, thanks. Thank you. The Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, has resigned after just 18 months on the job. Driscoll was the Army's top civilian leader, and his relationship with the Fenn Secretary
Pete Heggset has grown increasingly tense. For more, we're joined by NPR National Security correspondent Greg Mayary Good Morning, Greg. Hi, Leila. So, what was the source of friction between Heggset and Dan Driscoll, the Army's Secretary? Well, it really began almost immediately. Heggset began dismissing many top military officers, including a number of senior army generals, and replacing them with officers seen as more aligned with Heggset. And Heggset also blocked
promotions of black and women army officers that Driscoll supported. And these personnel differences were seen as the main reason, but not the only reason they didn't see Ida I. So, before Driscoll became Army Secretary, he worked in venture capital and explored ways new technology could upgrade the Army's drone program. And in office, he was sometimes known as Trump's drone guy. However, the Pentagon recently announced the dismantling of an Army drone unit in Europe,
which had been studying Ukraine's drone successes against Russia.
“Was Driscoll sharing his concerns, his misgivings along the way?”
Yeah, I think at least indirectly, back in April, Heggset fired the chief of the army general Randy George without giving a reason. Driscoll was asked about this when he testified in April on Capitol Hill. He said he was on vacation with his family in North Carolina when he heard the news. And they all drove straight to General George's home. We walked right in and we all gave my hug. There is no person that has more respect for General George in his 42 years of service.
And he was an amazing transformational leader. So, this is just one episode that did make clear Heggset and Driscoll were not on the same page. How significant is this resignation? At a time when the U.S. is still in the middle of a war it started with Iran. Yeah, Leila in the broad sense, this resignation is significant because it's part of this constant churn we're seeing at the Pentagon under Heggset. And it's continuing as the Iran war still plays out with no wind and sight.
But we should note the army secretary is the army's top civilian position. It's a critical job
with a focus on issues such as overseeing personnel dealing with the army's budget and longer term planning. But this position is not part of the military chain of command. Driscoll is not commanding army troops in the Middle East. Though the army does have significant forces there. The White House said in a statement that Driscoll was quote highly effective in advancing President Trump's agenda to make America strong again. And it noted he had done significant things like take part
in negotiations that were aimed at trying to resolve the Russia Ukraine war. Now Driscoll is very
“close with Vice President JD Vance. With Vance and his camp does that mean he has a political future?”
Yeah, quite possibly. Driscoll and JD Vance were both military veterans who served in Iraq and they met at Yale Law School and became very good friends. Vance had pushed for Driscoll to get this position as army secretary and Driscoll became the youngest ever army secretary when he took the job last year at age 38. So well before Driscoll's resignation there was a good deal of speculation. He would leave the position at some point to take a prominent
role in a JD Vance presidential campaign. No one would be surprised if this is where Dan Driscoll turns up next. Let's then PR's Greg Myri, thank you Greg. Sure thing, Lila. Finance ministers from the world's biggest economies are gathered in the mountains of North Carolina this week. They're talking about how to encourage faster economic growth while also putting the
squeeze on the economy of Iran. It's the first time the U.S. has played host to the G20 summit
in more than a decade and a half. MPR Scott Horsley has been monitoring the talks. Scott Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant is pushing other members of the G20 to join the U.S. in tightening the screws on Iran. How's it going for him so far? It's a mixed bag A and so far. The U.S. has been unable to force Iran to reopen the trade of war moves using military force. So last week the administration announced what it's calling. Operation economic outcast to
Sever Tehran's remaining links to the global economy.
sanctioned but now the U.S. is threatening to punish other countries that do business with Iran.
“At the G20 summit, Treasury Secretary Bessant said he was pleased to get enthusiastic backing”
for the effort from the European Union. But you know, Josh Lipsy, who's a senior director of the Geo Economic Center at the Atlantic Council says it's not really the EU Bessant needs to win over. You have the U.S. going to the G20 and sitting across the table from countries like China and Turkey, which are economic lifelines for Iran, and asking them to crack down. And the question across that table is how serious are you about those threats? China does not feel that the U.S.
is incredibly serious about those threats right now. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its allies are paying a price for the ongoing stalemate with Iran gas prices here at home or still more than a dollar a gallon higher than they were before the war began. And diesel prices are almost $2 higher. So this meeting, Scott, is supposed to promote economic growth around the world. How does the U.S. propose to do just that? deregulation oil and gas production and cutting taxes.
Of course, the GOP tax cuts last year have added to the U.S. federal debt, which taught 40 trillion dollars a couple of weeks ago. And that's forcing the U.S. to borrow money from investors around the world. But Bessant insists there is a simple solution. The world is a washing debt
“and the only way for us to get out of this is to grow our way out of this. Now, fiscal wash”
dogs acknowledge that growth is part of the solution, but they're doubtful that it's some kind of magic elixir. Federal debt in the U.S. is growing about three times as fast as the overall economy right now. And just paying interest on that debt is consuming within a quarter of all government revenue. So I saw that Russia's finance minister showed up at this week's meeting, which I was a bit of a
shock. Tell us more about that. Yeah, this was the first time Russia's been represented in person
at a G-20 finance meeting since the country invaded Ukraine more than four years ago. And European ministers at the meeting protest, they refused to take part in the traditional family photo until the Russian finance minister bowed out. Bessant, however, appeared to have no such qualms. Meanwhile, of course, the U.S. is in a bitter trades bat with our next door neighbor, Canada, whose finance minister is also in North Carolina. The ski says it's a curious backdrop when the U.S. is calling
for global cooperation against Iran. The whole reason the U.S. was able to stand up the G-20 in the first place is because the world needed and wanted U.S. economic leadership. They needed it to stabilize the global economy. And the question some countries are asking at the moment is, is the U.S. source of stability or instability of the global economy? Is the premier British Columbia said this summer, if you're picking fights with Canada, you don't have a friend in the world.
That's NPR's Scott Horsey Scott, thanks. You're welcome.
And that's our first for Tuesday, September 1st, on the Martinez.
And I'm Layla Falded. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yugananov, Andrew Sussman, Raphael Nam, Hamadat Bartisi, and Dallas Wolfley. It was produced by Ziyat Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynes. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our supervising senior producer is Vince Pearson. Join us again tomorrow.
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