AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump's big tax-cutting bill is on its way to the Senate, and it still includes major cuts to programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Meanwhile, the legal wrangling over the president's tariffs continues as businesses and consumers alike try to figure out where things stand. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith joins us now. Good morning, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So is it clear what Trump's economic policy really is at this point?
KEITH: Well, the plan is to get this bill done, inject money into the economy by way of tax cuts, starve the government as much as they can, and then, in theory, negotiate trade deals that are favorable to the U.S. In reality, we are past the midway point in the 90-day tariff pause. White House officials have said they are close to inking deals for weeks now, but there's still not much to show for it. As you mentioned, the tariffs are having some difficulty in the courts, though the current state of play is that they can proceed for now. And Trump's tariff policy has been something of a high-drama roller coaster - huge tariffs announced and then partially rolled back.
There was good economic news on Friday. A key measure of inflation showed little change. The tariff-driven price increases that many have warned of haven't hit consumers yet. Also the stock market was positive in May after a really rocky April following the launch of Trump's trade war. So Trump has been declaring victory with his usual grandiosity.
RASCOE: OK. Well, President Trump's rallying cry is America First. You've been doing some reporting on a deal he announced between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel. What do we know about this deal?
KEITH: Yeah, he held a rally outside of Pittsburgh to celebrate the planned partnership, as he called it, but the deal is not inked yet. The way it has been structured for more than a year was that the Japanese company would be acquiring U.S. Steel at a very hefty surplus, and this matters because President Biden blocked the sale when he was president on national security grounds. And during the campaign, Trump promised he would do the same, but he's now reversed himself, saying U.S. Steel will be U.S.-controlled still. But no one seems to know how it will work. When I asked President Trump on Friday night after the rally whether this was an acquisition, whether Nippon would own U.S. Steel, Trump didn't answer directly, but he described it as an investment.
RASCOE: OK. So the House barely passed President Trump's tax cuts bill, and it's headed to the Senate now. What are you looking for there?
KEITH: Yeah. The big questions are how hard it will be for Senate Republicans to pass this and how many changes they'll make to the House version. There's a lot of pressure on Senate Republicans because this basically contains Trump's entire domestic agenda all in one bill - tax cuts, immigration spending, cuts to Medicaid and other programs. Democrats are keying in on the cuts to food assistance and Medicaid, which provides health care to lower-income Americans.
And Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa gave them a gift with her now viral comments at a town hall. It was a contentious gathering, and at one point, someone in the audience raised concerns that Medicaid cuts could have deadly consequences for the millions of people who could lose coverage. And Ernst responded, quote, "we all are going to die. For heaven's sakes, folks." And then yesterday, she doubled down in a sarcastic post on Instagram.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JONI ERNST: I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth. So I apologize. And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.
KEITH: So this is likely not to fade very quickly. Trump is demanding that his party get in line, but some Republican senators are alarmed by how much this is projected to add to the deficit, and at least one has been raising alarms about those Medicaid cuts being political poison.
RASCOE: And finally, late last night, President Trump announced that he's withdrawing the nomination of tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, an associate of Elon Musk, to lead NASA. What do we know about that?
KEITH: You know, his confirmation process was well along, but President Trump posted last night that he made this decision after a thorough review of Isaacman's prior associations. In this version of the Trump administration, loyalty is demanded, vetting is enhanced, and Isaacman had made campaign contributions to Democrats over the years.
RASCOE: That's NPR's senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith. Thanks for speaking with us.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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