SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump says he plans on meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to talk about ending the war in Ukraine. He did not mention including Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in those meetings. We had a phone call with Mr. Zelenskyy this week. Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: Is President Trump picking up where he left off with President Putin?
ELVING: It does seem that way. And that's assuming, of course, that Trump ever left off with Putin after leaving office. The investigative reporter Bob Woodward wrote last fall that Trump had as many as seven phone calls with the Russian dictator after leaving office, and that's a report Trump has denied.
Those with long memories recall that in 2018, Trump held a summit meeting with Putin in Helsinki, where the two discussed accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump was asked then whether he accepted the judgment of U.S. intelligence that Russia had interfered. Trump said Putin had denied it, and Trump added he saw no reason to disagree with Putin, in essence, taking Putin's word over his own intelligence reports. In 2019, Trump and Putin had a private conversation at a G20 meeting in Argentina with no staff or notetakers present. Since then, of course, we've seen Trump maintain a respectful demeanor toward the Russian dictator, praising his strategy for pressuring Ukraine before the war and blaming U.S. policy for the war.
SIMON: Switch to Congress for a moment, 'cause House and Senate Republicans don't seem to be singing from the same hymnal when it comes to the top agenda items for President Trump - things like tax cuts and border security. Why different approaches?
ELVING: Overall, the Republicans in both chambers are all backing the Trump agenda, with very few exceptions, but with different priorities and points of emphasis. So Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime Trump ally, has called for two budget measures for 2026 - one just on defense and border security, and then a later, larger bill imposing tariffs and extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts. Now, the House version is closer to Trump's own vision of, quote, "one big, beautiful bill," unquote, incorporating border security and Pentagon, spending and tariffs and tax cuts - you name it.
Speaker Mike Johnson has taken personal responsibility for the House bill. He needs first to please Trump and then to move this whole process along as quickly as possible. His House members are already raising money for reelection in 2026 and worrying about challenges in the primaries.
SIMON: Well, the White House has banned journalists from the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the AP still referring to what I'll just call that oceanic basin of the Atlantic as the Gulf of Mexico, rather than President Trump's preferred Gulf of America. Any precedent for this?
ELVING: Not in terms of the Associated Press. The AP has been reporting from the White House since the 1880s. It's one of the most widely disseminated and respected news services in the world. Other administrations, including Trump's first one, have on occasion, pulled press credentials, but the AP has not yet lost its press passes or its access to the grounds of the White House, just to the Oval Office and Air Force One. Many major news outlets, including NPR, have long relied on AP to call election outcomes and to determine the most accurate names and labels for people in places in the news. That may be why the White House has singled them out in this instance.
SIMON: Of course, we just three weeks into this administration, Ron, what information do you see in polls and surveys about how voters feel about the welter of actions undertaken by the Trump administration?
ELVING: The voters are noticing that big and unusual things are happening. As a rule, if you voted for Trump, you're approving of his moves so far because you voted for a dramatic change and for swift and decisive action. Those who did not vote for him have reactions ranging from concerned to outraged. Now, new presidents in both parties have usually gotten a bump in their approval rating after the election and in the first weeks of their term in office. It's often called the president's honeymoon. Trump this month has seen some of his best approval numbers ever. But they are still well below historic averages for new presidents taking office, and they are also beginning to fade just a bit. On Friday, the polling aggregate in FiveThirtyEight.com was 49%, just about exactly Trump's share of the vote in November.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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