Mara Liasson
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-03-2025 5PM EDT
On his way from the White House to Florida for a charity golf event, Trump said he wasn't surprised by the market reaction to his tariffs. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the market drop equaled a loss of $2.7 trillion. But President Trump insists that the markets ultimately are going to surge...
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-03-2025 5PM EDT
U.S. trading partners are promising to retaliate with tariffs of their own, which are in effect an import tax paid by American consumers, who economists say may pay as much as $2,100 a year more per family. Mara Liason, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-30-2025 4PM EDT
All these special elections are the first chance that voters have to weigh in on the Trump administration. And Democrats have already won a bunch of special elections for state legislative seats. But now the Wisconsin state Supreme Court race is the first race with national implications. Unlike Florida, it's a battleground state.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-30-2025 4PM EDT
The balance of power on the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin is up for grabs.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-22-2024 11PM EST
Trump's plans, including tariffs, tax cuts, and deportations, are estimated to add as much as $7 trillion to the national debt, and Trump didn't want the debt ceiling in his way.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-22-2024 11PM EST
But even if Trump doesn't care about deficits, there are still about three dozen Republicans in the House that do, and that means Trump may have difficulty convincing Congress to approve all the expensive things he wants to do next year. Mara Liason, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-22-2024 11PM EST
Before Republicans finally came up with a bill that could pass, 34 Republicans helped defeat the bill Trump wanted, a bill that would have, among other things, raised the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress allows the government to borrow to pay for spending Congress has already approved.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
No, I think that the optics are more important. I think that that's going to matter more politically than whether he actually hits a numerical target. If he just... deports people who are in the United States without legal status, I think that will continue to be popular.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
But if he starts taking away legal status from big groups of immigrants who are in this country, like Haitians or Venezuelans who've been protected by TPS, temporary protected status, that might be different. And remember, the reason why we have an illegal immigration problem in the United States is because we have a labor shortage in the United States.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
If there weren't jobs for these people, they wouldn't be coming. And Donald Trump has not addressed that part of the problem.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
Jimena, what is the status of TPS? There are a bunch of immigrants who are here with that legal protection and Trump has talked about ending it. Is it still in effect?
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
Well, yeah, but also it aligns with his view of what he wants America to look like. The people who could afford this gold card, and as you said, it's not new. The United States has had a program for people who could come to the United States and invest a certain amount of money and create jobs. I don't know if it's been $5 million, which is the price of his gold card.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
But he expects that these will be wealthy people from around the world who he says can create businesses and employ Americans. It's a way to get foreigners to invest in the country. Foreign governments do this too. Many European countries used to offer a kind of gold card or an EU visa or passport to people. Yes, some still do to people who would be willing to buy an apartment for X million euros.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
I'm Ximena Bustillo, and I cover immigration policy. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
Oh, I think there's definitely a possibility for action. As a matter of fact, I've had many conversations with Republicans about this. If Trump was really smart politically and wanted to triangulate the way he did on abortion during the campaign, he would sign a comprehensive immigration bill that included a path to citizenship for the dreamers. And he would basically...
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
get tremendous amounts of credit. He might even be able to cement some of the support he got from Hispanic voters, especially Hispanic men. That would be a real political coup. Now, there are people in his party that don't want any kind of immigration reform that would amount to what they would call amnesty.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
In other words, giving people who are here without legal status some kind of legal status or a path to that. But yeah, I think it's absolutely possible.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
Well, Jimena, what about employers? I mean, what about meatpacking plants that depend on people who are here without legal status? What are they doing about this? Are they trying to appeal to ICE not to come into their plants? Or in some communities, this would be economically devastating.
The NPR Politics Podcast
How Trump's Immigration Policy Is Taking Shape
I'm Jimena Bustillo, and I cover immigration policy. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
Well, Sue, explain the role that he played in the Senate and why he was so consequential and also the role he played in Trump's return after 2020.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
And of course, it's beware of what you wish for. You just might get it. He got Donald Trump elected. And then there was January 6th. And very famously, Mitch McConnell decided not to vote to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House. for fomenting the January 6th insurrection. And he said at the time, famously, the criminal justice system can take care of Donald Trump.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
And I wonder if Mitch McConnell is both responsible for helping Trump get elected so he could reshape the judiciary, but also helping him come back when McConnell clearly did not think he was fit to be president.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
I'm Susan Davis. I also cover politics. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
Well, it certainly fits into his larger governing strategy, which, as expressed by people like Russ Vogt, believes in an all-powerful executive with no checks and balances. They believe in something called the unitary executive. If an agency is in the executive branch, that means it, in effect, belongs to the president and he's in control of it.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
What the implications are of this, it offers tremendous opportunities for corruption and self-dealing. Because the president has business interests. Elon Musk has tremendous business interests and a lot of government contracts. And this means that they can decide if an investigation is moving forward into Tesla or crypto, they can squash it.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
So this executive order on independent agencies is part and parcel with almost every other thing that Trump is doing. And eventually, it's going to go to the Supreme Court because some of these agencies were set up by Congress. And the Supreme Court will decide.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
And we know that several members of the conservative majority of the court that Donald Trump built are very receptive to this idea of an all-powerful executive.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
And don't forget, there's a third branch of government here, Congress. Congress created these independent agencies. And so far, what we've seen is that especially the Republican Congress under a Republican president, this president, has pretty much abdicated its role as a co-equal branch of government.
The NPR Politics Podcast
McConnell Announces His Retirement And Trump Signs Another Executive Order
So you've got left, the only check left is the courts, and we're going to see how willing they are to let Trump's new, very expansive view of the executive prevail. Right. Right.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
That's right. But he's still underwater. He's never had a net positive approval rating as president. And he is trying to do things that are very dramatic, big changes. Now, Donald Trump ran as the change candidate. He was elected because people wanted to make big changes. But we don't know if they wanted to make the changes that he's making now. like completely upend U.S.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
foreign policy so that the U.S. is now aligned, at least in the last United Nations vote, with Russia and North Korea and against the Western democracies of Europe. We don't know if they wanted him to radically downsize the federal government. We just don't know the answer to that. We know that they wanted him to bring down the price of eggs.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
And that's it. And when you have 57 percent of Americans saying they think the price of groceries will increase in the next six months, that affects inflation. Inflation is made up a lot of things. It's made up of supply chain problems. It's also made up of expectations. There's a psychology to this.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
If a majority of people think that groceries are going to get more expensive, they're going to change their behavior.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
See, that's the big question. Trump is such a different president in so many ways. And one of the most the biggest is that he's an automatic lame duck. He's barred by the Constitution from running again. So public opinion is not as much of a guardrail for him. As it would be for other presidents. The markets still are. He seems to react to them.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
If they freak out about tariffs, he pulls back, at least temporarily. And that's why this whole presidency might be completely different in terms of public opinion. I don't think he's thinking about how can I – Be as popular as possible so J.D. Vance becomes the next president. That's not an issue for him.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
But he wants to prove a couple things, things that he really believes in like tariffs are the answer to all economic problems or dismantling the federal government will make America better.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
And, you know, we're going to have a real controlled experiment about the political impact of Elon Musk. Like Trump, he is very polarizing. And he may turn out voters for Republicans and against them, just like Trump did. We have an election coming up on April 1st. It's in Wisconsin. It's for a seat on the state Supreme Court.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
And it's the first election of the cycle with national implications because the Wisconsin state Supreme Court will probably draw congressional district maps. And Elon Musk is pouring money into that race. And Democrats are going to make him an issue. And it'll be really interesting to see if his money is a net positive for Republicans or does he become a lightning rod?
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
OK, it's time for a quick break.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
The dogs of NPR welcome them.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
Well, what's interesting to me is that to what extent is the debate about Ukraine becoming a debate about Vladimir Putin and how close Trump is to him, how much he identifies with him? He talked about the two of them going through this horrible experience together of the investigation that led to Trump's impeachment of how much Russia supported him in the 2016 election.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
So I think if this question gets drawn as kind of pro-Putin, anti-Putin, you'll see those numbers be even stronger for Ukraine because the American people don't like Vladimir Putin. There is a big chunk of the MAGA right that likes him because he's a kind of conservative culture warrior, anti-LBGTQ rights, etc.,
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
But this is one place where Trump is at very much at odds with American public opinion, even though foreign policy is not something that usually is a top priority for voters.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
Doesn't look like it is so far. That's for sure.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
They must have been begging for one for a long time. That's usually what happens.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
Right. But he's not reshaping the U.S. into being a kind of neutral bystander or someone who – or just an isolationist country. He actively – he parrots Kremlin talking points. He calls the president of Ukraine a dictator but he won't call Putin a dictator. He won't say that Russia invaded Ukraine. He says Ukraine started the war. So this has gone farther than just he kind of likes strongmen.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
He's actively siding with Russia. And that vote in the United Nations, which was on the third anniversary of the invasion, and it was a motion – to condemn Russia. You know, there the United States was refusing to sign on and siding with North Korea, Belarus and Russia.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
You know, Donald Trump has a very radically different view of how the government should work. The founders set up a system of broadly distributed power, three co-equal branches of government, so that if someone was elected with what they would have called monarchical tendencies or authoritarian tendencies, the system would prevent that person from doing too much damage.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
Well, Trump and the people around him believe in something called a unitary executive. They want a vastly empowered president. Congress... right now has pretty much abdicated its role as a check on the executive branch. And Trump and his supporters are talking about impeaching judges. So he's going after the judicial branch, which is supposed to be the ultimate check on
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
on the executive, the branch that decides whether what the executive is doing is constitutional or not. And this hasn't come to a head, but it will, because a lot of the things that Trump is doing are headed for the Supreme Court.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Poll: Majority Thinks Trump Is Making Changes Too Quickly
I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Some of this is the normal anticipation and enthusiasm that the business community has billionaires, Wall Street would have to any new Republican president who's going to cut their taxes and limit regulation. Some of it's because Trump's takeover of the Republican Party is now complete. There are no more Romneys and Flakes and Cheneys around.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
And some of it is that he's seen as a more legitimate president this time because he won the popular vote. But a lot of it is just a change in the approach of foreign leaders and business leaders and Democrats to they are using a different way to resist Trump compared to his first term. They're choosing their battles instead of across-the-board resistance.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
They believe his mind can be changed on things like TikTok, which now he sees as useful to him, or cryptocurrency because his family is now in the crypto business. So I think it's a different kind of resistance.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Well, you know, he described the dinner he had with two big pharma CEOs and that industry's lobbying group. They're concerned about his pick for Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy, who is an anti-vaccine activist. Here's how Trump described RFK Jr.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
So he was asked about his own views on vaccines, and he gave full support to the polio vaccine. He said it's not going anywhere. But Trump did leave the door open to those who believe that vaccines are linked to autism, something that has been widely debunked. He said, quote, we're going to find out. He also wasn't clear about his position on vaccine mandates.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
He was asked if schools should mandate vaccines, and he said, I'm not a big mandate person. But he also gave the pharma executives something they wanted. He was very hard on pharmacy benefit managers who pharmaceutical companies blame for price hikes. He scornfully referred to them as middlemen.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Well, it was a bit like all of his rallies in the campaign condensed into an hour and 10 minutes. He covered a lot of the same ground. He said that everything was pretty much perfect when he was president. There were no wars, no inflation. Now that he's going to be president again, he said things will be great again.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
There were a lot of exaggeration and that he won the youth vote by 34 percent or that he brought down the price of insulin to $35, which although he did something on that, it was Biden who brought it down to $35. And there were still a lot of grievances. He talked about how he was going to sue the board of the Pulitzer Prizes and the Des Moines Register for publishing a poll
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
that showed him losing. So very similar to the old Trump.