Trump's Whiplash Foreign Policy, Iran War Escalates, Graham Platner Drops Out

President Trump went from praising Iran's leaders to calling them "skum" in a matter of weeks. He used a similar strategy at the NATO Summit, but rating allies, then telling them he felt the love in the room is the Whiplash part of his strategy or just a sign of his short views.

I'm Michelle Martin, that's Amartina's, and this is up first from NPR News.

[MUSIC] The U.S. Stroke Iran for a second night in a row in Iran fired back at U.S. bases again, Israel's military is preparing for the word to escalate while the ceasefire deal in Lebanon is also falling apart. Is the Middle East going back to all out war?

And Graham Platner is out, the main Democrats suspended his insurgents Senate campaign last night, saying it's not admission of guilt to the allegations he committed sex crimes, but an acknowledgement of political reality Democrats have three weeks to find a replacement.

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Today, the NPR network proudly upholds your first amendment rights with reporting accountable only to you. It's something we protect together. Power a truly independent press, support the NPR network at plus.npr.org. [MUSIC] We're having such a sports summer, the New York mix won the NBA championship, the World Cup is in full swing.

And a new season of Love Island has brought us back into the villa. On it's been a minute, we talk about how this summer we're all coming together to root for our favorite sports teams and our favorite couples. Listen to it's been a minute on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. [MUSIC] Three weeks ago, President Trump praised Iranian leaders as brave people who wanted to change the direction of their country for the better.

“And with dealing with people that I think are very rational people, they were nice to deal with.”

They were strong people, smart people. I think actually they're smarter than the first and second group. But yesterday, in a dramatic shift in tone, President Trump, in Turkey, railed against those same Iranian leaders accusing them of lying and failing to uphold commitments of their ceasefire agreement. To me, I think it's over.

I don't want to deal with them anymore. There's come, you know, scumbags, there's scumbags, there's sick people, they're led by sick people. And the vicious violent people. MPR White House correspondent, Franco Ordonius joins us not to talk about the diplomatic whiplash that has come to define Trump's approach to global affairs. Franco, I just called it whiplash, is that a fair word to use here?

I think it is, I mean, and it's really part of this pattern that we've kind of been talking about for some time now. Whether it's, you know, announcing the wars over or almost over when it's clearly not to dramatically swinging between praise and threats over the course of a few hours. I mean, it's really like these different faces of the same President trying to will this war to an end. And you can almost hear really hear Trump struggling with that balance,

even telling reporters later insisting that the war will not start again.

“What did Trump say when asked about these obvious contradictions?”

Well, he was asked about it, and he strained a bit to kind of square the two conflicting assessments of, you know, those Iranian leaders. I think they are more rational, but based on their actions over the last week or two, they're not doing a service to the people. And I think more than anything else as I got to know, and I'm not sure I want to make a deal with them.

We can play games, but I'm not sure I want to make a deal.

You know, the thing is with Trump is when he makes these kind of threats, you never really know if it's actually a change in policy or simply a negotiating tactic.

Yeah, I think it's not just a run. I mean, his approach to NATO is also generated a lot of whiplash, too. I mean, it seems like through the end, though allies might be more appreciative of this kind of reversal. Yeah, that's right. Trump went into this summit with a lot of complaints about NATO.

I mean, he's really still mad over NATO leaders lack a support for the war in Iran, and he's complained also about defense spending and revive concerns about the U.S. taking control of Greenland from Denmark, something that really frustrates allies. But during the press conference, Trump actually spoke warmly of NATO leaders in ways I've never heard him do before. I mean, let's just listen a little bit. If you could have seen the respect and the love in the room, and it's love really for the country for a country, I don't want to say me because you're saying, oh, he's so conceded.

He's such a conceded person, but they do, and you know, they like the job I'm doing, they said, we love, we'll sue, we'll love you. You know, Trump has said in the past that he wants loyalty from allies, and they certainly came into the summit wanting to keep Trump engaged and happy. So what about Trump's announced, but also somewhat of a rehearsal, too, that the U.S. would be granting Ukraine license to manufacture patriot air defense missiles. Yeah, I'm sure that was also a part of it. It almost appears that Trump's newfound support for Ukraine, along with the charm offenses has fostered this renewed sense of camaraderie among NATO leaders.

We're going to talk more about those U.S. strikes in Iran. It was back to back night of strikes around responded overnight by firing at American military infrastructure in the Gulf, and countries in the Middle East are back on high alert as they prepare for potentially more war. MPR's Emily Fang has been monitoring this newest outbreak in hostilities from Tel Aviv, but Emily tells us what we know so far about these strikes. Good morning. So U.S. Central Command says overnight they hit about 90 military targets in southern Iran, along its coast and the street are for moves.

“And as you mentioned, Iran has responded, it launched air attacks overnight U.S. military infrastructure for a second day as well, and Kuwait and Bahrain.”

There were sirens going off overnight across the Gulf. Kuwait's defense ministry said it was intercepting missiles and drones early this morning. My time.

And I'm speaking to you from Tel Aviv in Israel right now, where it's been quiet, but the military here says it's that full readiness for war against Iran, according to Israeli media. It very suddenly the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel cats canceled a public event because they needed to convene an emergency security meeting as they monitored this newest outbreak in the U.S. Iran more. Emily, the U.S. and Iran were supposed to resume negotiations from a more permanent end to the war after Iran's former supreme leaders buried later today are those talks still on.

And frankly, it is not clear, despite the straight and fire and Trump's comments that you just heard from Franco that the ceasefires over in his eyes, Trump did not rule out more talks with Iran, but both U.S. and Iran seemed to be playing hard, but with each other.

And they seemed to be waiting for the other country to back down first, yet again.

Iran's top negotiator Mohammed Bakr Ghalibafro on X, the social media site, after the second day of U.S. strikes began, and he was warning quote, "If you strike, you will get hit," and he wrote that the straighter for moves would only fully reopen on Iranian terms.

“Okay, so that's pretty intense. So what's the reaction from countries around the region?”

It has been tense here to say to least, "People in Israel where I am are bracing possibly from more attacks again from Iran or its proxies in the region." I should mention Israel's government has generally been supportive of the U.S. resuming strikes on Iran. They were critical of this preliminary ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran, but there's also frustration here, because there's a lack of clarity about what the U.S. and game is with this later surrounded of strikes on Iran.

Iran and Israel are also closely watching what happens next door to me in Lebanon, because Israel has a separate truce there with Hezbollah.

That's the Iran-back militia based in Lebanon, but that truce is linked to the ceasefire with Iran. And also Israel continues to bomb in Lebanon, including a strike just this Tuesday which killed four people, according to Lebanese local authorities and health officials. And then last night, the head of Hezbollah, Iain Kassim, he gave this fiery speech blasting a recent Lebanese government agreement with Israel. Let's take a listen. So here he's talking about this framework agreement with Israel saying it's entirely in Israel's interest, but it's illegitimate, unconstitutional, and illegal. So as you can hear, there's a lot of moving pieces in the region. That means a lot of opportunities for conflicts both old and new to flare up.

And we'll check in with you if that happens. That's NPR's Emily Fang and Tel Aviv. Emily Fangs. Thank you, A. (music) Democrats are scrambling to find a path forward in the main Senate race this morning after Graham Plattener's announcement last night that he was a spending his campaign. Plattener face calls to drop out of the race after a woman he once dated came forward and accused him of rape and allegation he denies with Plattener out, Democrats now face a time crunch to find a new candidate.

“Joining us now to talk about the choices facing the party is NPR's political reporter, Alaina Moore, let's start with the announcement, Alaina, what did you have to say?”

Yeah, this video followed reporting from Politico on Monday that in 2021 Plattener drunkenly entered the home of a woman he was dating and raped her. Over the course of this 11 minute video last night, a Plattener was visibly emotional. He acknowledged that this was a serious allegation, but emphasized his decision to drop out was not an admission of guilt. Instead putting the blame on what he called a political system not meant for normal people. It is a system that is built structurally to make sure that movements like ours cannot flourish.

That if they begin to succeed, they can be crushed. All right, so Plattener is out. The main Senate race though goes on and really it's expected to be one of the most competitive in the country this fall. So where does this leave Democrats there?

They need to pick up seats and many things that means current senator, long time incumbent Republican Susan Collins is beatable.

So there's this tension around what kind of candidate is up for the challenge and not a lot of time to make the decision. Main election law says that Democrats haven't told July 27 to get a replacement candidate on the ballot. And the state's Democratic Party says it plans to hold a nominating convention to pick a new nominee.

“What about Plattener supporters? What happens to them? Where do they go from here?”

It's a tough situation. Plattener was popular.

He talked about issues like affordability and promised political change.

So I think a lot of his supporters who are already really frustrated with the political establishment are hoping that whoever takes his place can keep that momentum going. I talked about this with Joseph Kivargis. He's the executive director of our revolution, which was initially started by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Plattener represented the progressive wing that was falling for healthcare for all. I was calling for good jobs. That is the platform that we think needs to continue.

It's really at the end of the day, not just about the messenger, but it's about the message.

“All right. Now, what about Democrats, though, outside of that more progressive wing?”

Well, if Plattener's strategy was to win by challenging the political system, these Democrats have a more pragmatic goal, which is just to flip this seat. Strategists, I've talked to say Plattener's campaign energized parts of the Democratic Party who haven't been all that happy with their options over the last few years. But they argue there's a way to campaign on some of the same issues around things like affordability and wealth inequality, but do it with a candidate who doesn't align as closely to the left is more tested and isn't surrounded by scandal.

All right. That is NPR, political reporter, Elena Moore, Elena Thanks. Thank you.

And that's the first for Thursday, July 9th at the Martinez.

And I'm Michelle Martin today's episode of the first was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Tena Crya, Jason Ruslow, Mohammed El Partisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zeyat Buch in the Edumas, our directors Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from A-O-N-Fain, our technical directors, Damian Haring, and our deputy executive producers, Kelly Dickens. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. [Music]

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