MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump's administration is continuing with its expansive definition of the legal boundaries of the war in Iran.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The administration faces a deadline today to obtain congressional approval for military action that it told lawmakers about 60 days ago. It is not seeking that approval. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserted the deadline set by law does not apply because a ceasefire stops the clock. Iran and the U.S. are still facing off through dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz, and that leads us to our next story. How is the United States trying to bring the conflict to an end?
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is following all this, and he's with us now. Good morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel,
MARTIN: So the Iranians have offered a proposal that would involve reopening the Strait of Hormuz and deal with negotiations over nuclear restrictions later. So what's the latest on that?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. President Trump reviewed the proposal with his national security team. But, you know, he's been really adamant that a nuclear deal must be part of all this. And he was asked yesterday about the apparent standstill but insisted that the Iranians want to make a deal while also acknowledging difficulty determining who's actually in charge.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They want to make a deal badly. We have a problem because nobody knows for sure who the leaders are. It's a little bit of a problem, you know? The leaders have been wiped out, along with their military.
MARTIN: You know, Franco, it seems like neither side wants the bombing to resume, but both continue to make these demands that the other side will not accept.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. It's really testing the U.S. strategy. And as Steve mentioned, instead of resuming a bombing campaign, the U.S. has launched its own blockade of Iranian ports. Alexander Gray served as chief of staff at the National Security Council in the first Trump administration. He says the blockade gives the U.S. maximum leverage.
ALEXANDER GRAY: This is a game of leverage. This is a game of who has the ability to call the other side to account and who's going to blink first. And I think the Iranians are going to blink because they're losing $400-plus million a day to the U.S. Navy's blockade.
ORDOÑEZ: You know, one thing, though, is Trump administration has been at this for a while, you know, expecting if they just put enough military pressure, economic pressure, that Iran will capitulate. But so far, it just hasn't.
MARTIN: And the president is also now in a war of words with the German chancellor, who in leaked comments said that Trump was being, quote-unquote, "humiliated" by Iran. How is Trump responding to this?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I mean, Trump's threatening to pull U.S. troops stationed in Germany. And it's not just Germany. He's also threatened to pull troops from other European countries. Constanze Stelzenmuller, who studies trans-Atlantic security at the Brookings Institution, told me that much of Europe feels Trump kind of mishandled these negotiation and now worry that they're going to have the burden of fixing the problems. But she also says they need to be careful.
CONSTANZE STELZENMULLER: Both sides depend on each other, are increasingly irritated with each other because they understand that dependence and because it's not possible to cut loose for either side. And the greatest risk of that, besides the erosion of trust, is a sort of toxic interdependence, kind of like a marriage where one side can't leave the other.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, the U.S., of course, needs Europe, where it has military bases. And Europe needs the U.S. for help defending Ukraine against Russia.
MARTIN: So this war seems to be taking up a lot of the president's time. What does it mean for Trump's other agenda priorities?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. The White House says Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time and is quick to point out the administration is continuing its affordability agenda. Trump signed an executive order yesterday on retirement savings. But at the same time, gas prices hit a new high since the start of the war. And Americans say they aren't seeing much relief. According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, just 27% approve of how the president is handling the U.S. economy.
MARTIN: That is White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Franco, thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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