0:00

Hey, are you there? Yep. What's happening?

0:03

Nothing. How was, where did you

0:05

go? Greenland? I went to

0:07

Turks and Gagos. Oh. It

0:09

was fun. Beautiful. Was it really

0:12

hard to work when I wasn't

0:14

there? Did you miss me so

0:16

much? I didn't. I decided

0:18

not to work until you

0:20

got back. Oh, excellent. Oh,

0:22

excellent. Jordan's

0:25

King of Della is in the US to

0:27

meet President Trump. But it may be a

0:30

tense meeting. The king, like most of

0:32

the world's leaders, has rejected Trump's calls

0:34

for the more than 2 million Palestinians

0:36

in Gaza to be displaced to Jordan

0:38

and Egypt. How many Martinez? That's Lay

0:40

the Fottle, and this is up first

0:42

from NPR News. President

0:46

Trump imposed new tariffs on imports of

0:48

global metals. Economists say that's good for

0:50

American steel and aluminum companies, but not

0:53

so good for other industries. You lose

0:55

jobs in the manufacturing sector when you

0:57

put together the higher costs of input

0:59

and the retaliation, which is sure to

1:02

come. So what's the president's game plan?

1:04

And the federal corruption case against New

1:06

York City Mayor Eric Adams may be

1:09

dismissed. The Justice Department ordered prosecutors to

1:11

drop the charges. We've got the news

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This message comes from A24

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with The Brutalist, nominated for

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Picture, starring Adrian Brody, Guy

2:29

Pierce, and Felicity Jones, directed

2:32

by Brady Corbay, The Brutalist,

2:34

now playing in IMAX, and

2:36

in theaters everywhere. President

2:38

Trump and Jordan's King Abdullah are meeting

2:41

today at the White House. Jordan is

2:43

one of the closest U.S. allies

2:45

in the Middle East, but today's

2:47

meeting is expected to be a

2:49

little awkward, to say the least.

2:52

Trump has floated pushing Palestinians from

2:54

Gaza into Jordan and Egypt. That's

2:56

a plan rejected by both countries

2:58

and the Palestinians. To discuss what

3:00

to expect today, and PRS Jane

3:02

Araf joins us from Jordan's capital.

3:04

I'm man. Hi, Jane. Hi, Jane.

3:06

The tone of this meeting will

3:08

be after Trump has repeatedly said

3:10

he wants the Palestinians out of

3:13

Gaza and wants to own it.

3:15

Yeah, I would expect tenths and

3:17

that's probably an understatement. It's hard

3:20

to put a good face on

3:22

this. That's because, as you noted,

3:24

Jordan is a key ally and

3:27

without any consultation. According to Jordanians

3:29

and White House officials, Trump floated

3:31

that plan last week during a

3:34

meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

3:36

Netanyahu for the U.S. to take

3:38

over Gaza and forcibly push 2

3:41

million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.

3:43

Monday night, Trump doubled down,

3:45

threatening Jordan if it didn't

3:48

accept the plan. If they

3:50

don't agree, I would conceivably withhold

3:52

adium. So Jordan is a small

3:54

country with a large number of refugees

3:56

and it relies on foreign aid, but

3:59

this plan is one of those rare

4:01

ones that has united citizens and the

4:03

country's leaders in opposition to it. And

4:06

what is the king likely to say?

4:08

Well I spoke with Marwan Washer, the

4:10

foreign foreign minister of Jordan now

4:12

with a Carnegie endowment think tank.

4:14

He says this is going to

4:16

be one of the toughest meetings

4:18

the king has faced. Let's listen. The

4:20

meeting is not going to be an

4:23

easy one because there is no amount

4:25

of pressure in my view that the United

4:27

States can exert. that Jordan can

4:29

accede to. This is an

4:31

existential issue to Jordan. And by

4:33

that he means that creating an

4:36

alternative Palestinian homeland here means

4:38

that Jordan would essentially cease

4:40

to exist as a country

4:42

in many ways. The majority

4:45

of its citizens are already

4:47

descendants of Palestinian refugees. So

4:49

this is something that Jordan

4:52

doesn't believe it could or

4:54

ever would agree to no matter

4:56

what the cost. Now, as you

4:58

point out, Jordan has rejected this

5:00

plan, but what has the government

5:02

officially said so far? Well, the

5:05

Jordanian Foreign Minister, I'm in the

5:07

Sufadi, has quite clearly said that

5:09

expulsion of Palestinians here would be

5:11

a breach of its historic peace

5:13

treaty with Israel, and therefore, seen

5:15

as a declaration of war. Despite

5:18

that Trump keeps insisting Jordan and

5:20

Egypt will succumb to US pressure

5:22

and the US has leverage in

5:24

the form of aid, does Jordan

5:26

have leverage? I asked Moasher who's

5:29

also former senior official at the

5:31

World Bank about that. Here's what

5:33

he said. Jordan gets $1.5

5:35

billion from the United States

5:37

each year. Any loss of

5:39

that assistance is going to

5:41

produce economic difficulty for Jordan.

5:43

This is not to say also that

5:46

cutting off aid to Jordan is not

5:48

that easy. So he points out

5:50

that Congress would be quite

5:53

resistance to this because it's

5:55

a friend, many of Congress

5:57

people are friends of Jordan.

6:00

If the U.S. cut aid,

6:02

would other countries

6:04

step up? Well, there

6:06

is one key friend,

6:09

Saudi Arabia, and its

6:11

rulers have made clear

6:14

that they will not

6:16

accept this plan.

6:18

So in the end,

6:20

that could be what

6:22

stops it. And Peers-Jeneraf,

6:26

in Aman, thank you. Thank you.

6:28

Signing the order for the tariffs

6:30

last night, Trump emphasized the sweeping

6:33

nature of his new taxes on

6:35

imports. It's 25% without exceptions or

6:37

exemptions, and that's all countries, no

6:40

matter where it comes from, all

6:42

countries. NPR White House correspondent Daniel

6:44

Kurt Slavin is here to explain what's

6:46

going on. Good morning, Daniel. Good morning.

6:48

So what are these tariffs and how

6:50

do they compare to what Trump imposed

6:53

in his first term? Well, American importers

6:55

will now be paying a 25% tax

6:57

on steel and aluminum, and that makes

6:59

these tariffs a lot like some you

7:01

might remember him imposing during his first

7:04

term, except this time the aluminum rate

7:06

is higher. It was 10% back then.

7:08

In doing this, the administration has stressed

7:10

they're trying to use these tariffs to

7:13

stick it to China, which is the

7:15

world's biggest steel exporter exporter. Now, the

7:17

US doesn't actually get much steel or

7:19

aluminum directly from China, but... The White

7:22

House argues that Chinese steel makes it

7:24

into the U.S. by being sold through

7:26

other countries. So you point out that

7:28

China doesn't export much steel or aluminum

7:30

to the U.S. What countries do export

7:33

all that steel and aluminum? Well, the

7:35

U.S. gets by far the most of

7:37

its aluminum imports from Canada, according to

7:39

data compiled by Reuters. And on steel,

7:41

Canada is also first. And there are

7:43

other allies on that list, like Mexico

7:45

and South Korea. You might notice that

7:48

in all those countries I mentioned, Canada

7:50

and Mexico feature prominently. Trump had recently

7:52

threatened tariffs on them and then paused

7:54

them at the last minute, while with

7:56

this new announcement, he's putting tariffs on

7:58

those two countries anyway. Just not on

8:00

all of their goods. And that gets

8:03

to one really important thing about these

8:05

tariffs. There are no exceptions to these,

8:07

and that's different from Trump's tariffs last

8:09

time around. It's also different from how

8:11

Biden treated tariffs. Both of them had

8:13

carve-outs on tariffs for some allies, but

8:15

not now. I think the big question

8:17

for so many Americans are what are

8:19

these tariffs going to mean for the

8:21

U.S. economy and for them? Well, in

8:23

the near term, this should be good

8:25

for American steel and aluminum companies because

8:28

tariffs raise the price of steel and

8:30

aluminum, and they protect against some

8:32

foreign competition. And markets seem to

8:34

think so yesterday. Shares of Alcoa,

8:36

an American aluminum company, and U.S.

8:39

steel were both up. But that

8:41

doesn't mean this is great for

8:43

the rest of the economy. I

8:45

talked to Gary Huffbower, a senior

8:47

fellow at the Peterson Institute for

8:50

International Economics. He told me that

8:52

industries that use those metals like

8:54

aircraft and auto manufacturing, also bridge

8:56

construction, those could lose jobs. You

8:59

lose jobs in the manufacturing sector

9:01

when you put together the higher

9:03

costs of input and the retaliation,

9:05

which is sure to come like night follows

9:08

day. He's saying there that not only would

9:10

prices be higher for steel and aluminum,

9:12

but other countries are likely to hit

9:14

back and tariff American exports, which will

9:16

hurt these companies. Now the president has

9:18

talked about imposing still more tariffs this

9:20

week. What does he say? Well, it's

9:22

unclear, but he's dribbled out a bit

9:24

of information. He has said he'll be

9:26

announcing what he calls reciprocal tariffs. The

9:28

idea there seems to be that whatever

9:30

tariff a foreign country has put on

9:32

a US good, he wants to impose

9:34

it back in return. He also said

9:36

yesterday that he'll be considering tariffs on

9:39

cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, but it was

9:41

unclear whether those are separate from

9:43

the reciprocal tariffs. And this is

9:45

one constant feature of how Trump

9:47

does tariff policy. There's often not

9:49

an orderly rollout. We really just

9:51

don't know what's coming until he

9:54

says it. I'm Pierre as Daniel

9:56

Kurzleven. Thank you for your reporting. President

10:06

Trump's Justice Department is ordering prosecutors

10:08

to drop the case against the

10:10

Democratic mayor of the nation's largest

10:13

city. New York City Mayor Eric

10:15

Adams was indicted last year on corruption

10:17

charges with a trial scheduled for April.

10:19

He's also for re-election this year. Adams

10:22

has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Join me

10:24

now with the latest is Bridget Bergen.

10:26

She's a senior politics reporter at member

10:28

station WNYC in New York. Good morning,

10:30

Bridget. Good morning. Okay, so for those

10:33

who haven't been following this closely, just

10:35

lay out the charges the mayor was

10:37

facing. Yeah, he was charged in

10:39

September in a five-count criminal indictment.

10:42

Prosecutors allege that Adams accepted about

10:44

$100,000 in luxury travel perks, as

10:46

well as illegal foreign campaign contributions

10:48

from people connected to the Turkish

10:51

government in exchange for official acts

10:53

from City Hall. Adams, as you

10:55

said, has pleaded not guilty to

10:57

those charges and has been really

10:59

pretty vocal about calling the case

11:02

politically motivated without really any evidence.

11:04

He says it was payback for

11:06

speaking out against the Biden administration's

11:08

handling of the migrant crisis. Since

11:10

President Trump's election, he's been very

11:12

careful not to criticize him. He

11:15

visited him at Marilago, attended the

11:17

inauguration. Adams even held a meeting

11:19

yesterday with heads of city agencies,

11:21

according to sources at the meeting

11:23

who spoke on condition of anonymity

11:25

because they were not authorized to

11:27

speak on behalf of the administration.

11:29

They were also told not to

11:31

publicly criticize President Trump. So why

11:33

does the Justice Department say this

11:35

case should be dropped? So they

11:37

sent a memo to federal prosecutors

11:39

outlining two very specific reasons. First,

11:42

it says the charges were filed

11:44

too close to the mayor's re-election.

11:46

And the second reason relates to

11:49

the Trump administration's ongoing immigration enforcement

11:51

actions. The memo states that the

11:53

pending prosecution has, quote, unduly restricted

11:56

the mayor's ability to devote his

11:58

full attention to a legal... immigration

12:00

and really his ability to support the

12:02

Trump administration's efforts. The memo also seeks

12:05

to have the mayor's security clearance restored

12:07

and says that no further steps should

12:09

be taken as it relates to the

12:11

investigation, at least for now. And what

12:13

is the mayor saying? So there was

12:15

a post on the social media platform

12:17

X last night. It was from a

12:20

Fox News reporter who actually caught up

12:22

with the mayor who was out at

12:24

a restaurant. Adams has said... You know,

12:26

you're speaking with his attorneys to looking

12:28

at what's happening. Normally on Tuesdays, he

12:30

holds a weekly off-topic press conference, but

12:33

instead he's scheduled to deliver an address

12:35

today at noon that's going to stream

12:37

online. So at this point, there's not

12:39

going to be any chance for reporters

12:41

to really ask him about any questions

12:43

about whatever it is he announces. So

12:46

at this point, does this all mean

12:48

that Adams legal troubles are over? Well,

12:50

not quite yet. Now the acting U.S.

12:52

attorney of the Southern District will need

12:54

to decide whether to follow the direction

12:56

in that memo, and the judge overseeing

12:58

the case would need to decide on

13:00

whether to sign off on dropping the

13:02

charges. Those actions could set off another

13:04

set of repercussions in this office that's

13:06

really known for taking on these high-profile

13:08

corruption cases. We haven't heard from the

13:10

Southern District yet. It's also worth noting

13:12

that the memo explicitly says that the

13:14

charges will be dropped without prejudice,

13:17

which means they could potentially

13:19

be brought again. The memo

13:21

states the case should be

13:23

reviewed after the general election

13:25

in November. That's WNYC senior

13:27

politics reporter Bridget Bergen.

13:29

Thank you Bridget. Thank

13:32

you. And that's the

13:34

first for Tuesday, February 11th.

13:36

I'm Layla Falden. And I'm

13:39

E Martinez. Remember, you can

13:41

listen to this podcast, sponsor

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free while financially supporting public

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media with a first plus.

13:48

Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's

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