Up First from NPR
Trump And The Constitution, Gaza Food Aid Plan, Sean 'Diddy' Combs Trial Begins
Mon, 05 May 2025
President Trump says he "doesn't know" if it's his job to defend the US Constitution when it comes to providing immigrants due process. Israel approved a plan to take control of the distribution of food aid inside Gaza, and the trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering begins today.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calamur, Carrie Kahn, Jacob Ganz, Janaya Williams, and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Kaity Kline, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What did President Trump say about the Constitution?
I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. Israel approved a plan to manage all food aid entering Gaza. The proposal is to shut down hundreds of community kitchens run by the United Nations. Israelis instead want to allow just a few food centers. They say they want to do this to deny access to Hamas.
How would the plan feed people and how would it affect the war?
Also, Sean Diddy Combs is at risk of spending the rest of his life in prison. He's accused of abusing both women and men and using his power over them to keep them silent. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. Not for the first time, President Trump made remarks that left people wondering what he really meant.
This time, it was an interview on NBC's Meet the Press with Kristen Welker. The president celebrated the tariffs that he regularly changes. He said they could be permanent, although he's claiming the power to impose them by saying there's an emergency. He also said, I don't know, when asked if he needs to uphold the Constitution.
NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid was listening. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so what exactly did the president say about the Constitution on NBC?
Well, the context for this was a series of questions about whether non-citizens in the U.S. deserve due process. The president believes, frankly, he has a mandate, he thinks, on immigration and said if you talk about due process for people who are not in the country legally, you'd have to deal with millions of trials. And he was pressed on this by the show's moderator, Kristen Welker.
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Chapter 2: What is Israel's new plan for food aid in Gaza?
Even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
I don't know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.
Chapter 3: How will the Gaza food aid plan affect civilians?
The backdrop to this is the high profile case of a man who was sent from Maryland to El Salvador, despite a court order saying he should specifically not be deported there. The Supreme Court has called on the U.S. government to facilitate his return. But thus far, he remains in El Salvador.
And one last related point, Steve, here is that last night, Trump said he's ordering the federal government to reopen and rebuild one of America's most notorious notorious prisons, Alcatraz. He told reporters he wants to do this because of radical judges who've been insisting on due process for people in the country illegally.
That we should remind folks, this prison, Alcatraz, is now a tourist attraction. It actually hasn't operated as a prison in decades.
Yeah, it had to be closed because it was falling apart. Did the president make any news on the economy, Asma?
You know, there were a couple of things that caught my ear, particularly when the moderator asked the president if tariffs are here to stay for the long run.
You're not taking the possibility that these tariffs could be permanent off the table.
Some of them. Oh, I wouldn't do that because if somebody thought they were going to come off the table, why would they build in the United States?
At one point, Trump also seemed to say that he'd be OK with a short term recession because he believes the economy will be fantastic in the long run. But his optimism does not match economic data or consumer sentiment at this point.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Trump's tariffs on the economy?
Chapter 5: How does Trump's immigration stance impact due process?
Yeah, it had to be closed because it was falling apart. Did the president make any news on the economy, Asma?
You know, there were a couple of things that caught my ear, particularly when the moderator asked the president if tariffs are here to stay for the long run.
You're not taking the possibility that these tariffs could be permanent off the table.
Some of them. Oh, I wouldn't do that because if somebody thought they were going to come off the table, why would they build in the United States?
At one point, Trump also seemed to say that he'd be OK with a short term recession because he believes the economy will be fantastic in the long run. But his optimism does not match economic data or consumer sentiment at this point.
We're getting to the contradiction of the entire tariff gap. Aside from the legality of whether it's even legal what the president is claiming to do on a permanent basis now, he likes tariffs. He wants permanent tariffs. He also talks about negotiating away the tariffs in exchange for other benefits. Is the administration trying to make deals?
I mean, the president told reporters on Air Force One yesterday that there could be some trade deals this week. But at the same time, Steve, he also suggested that this broad tariff dynamic is not an actual negotiation. He said at the end of the day, he will set the terms of these tariff deals because he sets the deals. Other countries do not.
You know, tariffs are key to the president's economic vision. In fact, just last night on social media, he announced plans for yet another tariff. This time, 100 percent tariff rate on movies produced outside of the United States. You know, one last thing to note, Steve, is that this week, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is coming to Washington.
It is a high stakes meeting to watch, given Trump's threats of tariffs and, of course, annexation toward the United States northern neighbor.
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Chapter 6: What reactions have aid groups had to Israel's food aid strategy?
Well, the centers are supposed to be run by an American security contractor in coordination with a new foundation recently established in Switzerland that we know very little about. Israeli soldiers would not run them, but they would guard the periphery of this zone. And Palestinians would be coming to these places registered and screened through facial recognition technology.
They'd pick up parcels for their family. Israel says this whole operation is an attempt to isolate aid from Hamas and to weaken the group. And an Israeli official tells us it's actually part of a bigger strategy to get Palestinian civilians to move en masse to a smaller, more consolidated area of Gaza so that the military can expand the territory that it's taking over in Gaza.
And the army is already starting to call up more soldiers.
Thanks for that bit of reporting. What are aid groups and the United Nations saying as they reject this plan?
They put out a statement together and they say basically this is not an acceptable aid plan. It's a military plan. They say you cannot use life-saving supplies to achieve military goals. They also say that large groups of people will simply struggle to reach these new aid centers. So think pregnant women or the elderly.
So what we're seeing is this serious standoff over the very basic necessities of life. And it's happening at a time of extreme desperation in Gaza. Israel has been banning food and supplies, everything, for more than two months into Gaza. This is the longest full blockade it has ever imposed. So bakeries are closed. Food kitchens are closed. Hunger is widespread.
Daniel, you said something about an American contractor being part of this. Is the United States on board?
Very good question. The Trump administration has not commented specifically on this plan. But President Trump has said that food needs to get into Gaza. He is coming to the region next week. I should note that a former U.S. official told me that Israel actually tried to implement a version of this aid plan under the Biden administration's tenure. But the Biden administration said no.
According to the International Laws of War, It said that anyone who needs aid must get aid. You cannot vet. You cannot fight a war through manipulating humanitarian aid. That's what the Biden administration said. But Trump has not made the same demands on Israel.
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