JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It was another busy week in politics. The Supreme Court approved controversial redistricting plans in Texas. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was in hot water in part because of strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boats in the Caribbean. Oh, and also, there was another special election. So we've asked senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro to join us today to take a step back and put all of this into context. Hi to both of you.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hello.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey.
SUMMERS: Tam, I want to start with you and Secretary Hegseth, who was at the center of some really big scrutiny this week. Tell us what happened.
KEITH: It all comes back to Hegseth's leadership and judgment as secretary of defense. He was clearly in the hot seat all week. There was concern about the boat strike on September 2, where there were survivors who were then hit a second time and killed. Top lawmakers on key committees went into a closed-door hearing this week with bipartisan concerns. During that meeting, they saw a full video of the strikes, and they came out divided over how alarmed people should be about what happened. And they were divided on partisan political lines.
And that briefing up on the hill happened on the same day that an independent inspector general at the Department of Defense released a report that found, back in March, Hegseth had violated policy and risked the safety of U.S. service members by sharing sensitive military information in a group chat.
MONTANARO: Yeah. And politically, I mean, we've seen Republicans come to Hegseth's defense clearly here. You know, they're pointing to former President Barack Obama for these double-tap drone missile firings in the war on terrorism that were really controversial. They're saying that he wrote the playbook on this. The Pentagon spokesman called the inspector general's report a, quote, "total exoneration," but that's not quite true. And, you know, it's just another example in the Trump era of just saying something is true and then hoping the base will echo those talking points.
And that's also been the case with Trump's recent racist comments about Somalis and Afghan refugees. You know, it's part of the Trump playbook to distract from worse news, like negative views of his handling of the economy, frankly, and go to xenophobia, immigration and other culture war issues. And his base has generally gone right along with that.
SUMMERS: And Hegseth is one part of all of this. But what are we learning this week about the way that the Trump administration is approaching foreign policy and national defense?
MONTANARO: Well, the White House put out a 33-page national security strategy document for the country. It's pretty notable for how Trump and his administration see the United States' role in the world. A few things really jumped out to me. One, there's real isolationist tendencies in it, noting, for example, quote, "the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests." Second, there's a clear retrenchment and focus on the Western hemisphere, which we've seen already here. And thirdly, there's this very harsh, negative view of Europe. The document describes Europe as undergoing economic decline and, quote, "civilizational erasure" tied to migration.
SUMMERS: But I have to say, this is not entirely surprising given what we've already seen and know about President Trump.
KEITH: Yeah. It's in line with how he has governed. But the document does lay this out explicitly, and it is quite the crack up of the post World War II order of alliances that largely kept peace and security for the West for well more than half a century at this point. And the question I have with this document is, will this be an enduring position or will it shift depending on who the president's talking to, as policies often do under this president?
SUMMERS: But at the same time, Republicans are grappling with a whole lot of data that suggests that voters are souring on Trump. Tell us what we're seeing.
MONTANARO: Well, Trump is really at his lowest point in his presidency politically. His approval ratings are the lowest. He's seen averaging now in the high 30s. He's in the 20s in our polling with independents. And so much of that is about the economy. His handling of it is low, as the cost of living has really been the dominant issue on people's minds. And yet Trump again this week was dismissing affordability as something important.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You know, there's this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about - affordability. They just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. They just say it - affordability. I inherited the worst inflation in history. There was no affordability. Nobody could afford anything.
MONTANARO: You know, it certainly was the key issue in the special election we just saw this week in Tennessee, where Democrats again overperformed. The Republican won there, but Democrats did better. So clearly, the cost of living does really matter to people.
SUMMERS: What has the White House been saying about all of this?
KEITH: Well, first, they insist that they do not have their hair on fire about what happened in Tennessee. I did go in and speak with a senior White House official earlier this week who said that the president's travel is really going to ramp up at the end of this year. The first stop, the only one that's been announced so far, is next Tuesday in Pennsylvania. The focus will be affordability. But I have to say, this same senior White House official told me almost exactly the same thing almost a month ago. That time, I was told that the message would about empathy on prices, saying, you know, I feel your pain. We've done a lot, but there's a lot more we need to do.
But as we've seen, the president keeps steering back to the idea of affordability as a word that Democrats made up as some kind of con job against him. That lack of message discipline has been hard to break. And the problem with the cost of living is people go to the grocery store all the time. They are out Christmas shopping, holiday shopping right now, and they can see for themselves what things cost.
SUMMERS: Right. And we've also talked a whole lot about the structural advantages that Republicans have when it comes to the midterms next year. Where do things stand now?
KEITH: Well, the Supreme Court last night delivered a big victory to Republicans, saying that the maps drawn in Texas can stand. That mid-decade redrawing of lines was designed to give Republicans up to five more seats in an already heavily Republican state. President Trump has been a driving force behind that because he is very openly concerned about what happens if Republicans lose control of the House.
MONTANARO: And still, though, for Republicans, you know, they're trying to gain more seats, and they very well may create more in someplace like Texas, but they may not get as many as they would have hoped for. And they're being offset by places like California and elsewhere. And in a wave year, redrawing those seats and making some of them less Republican could backfire. And it's part of a reason, that and affordability, why we've seen potentially so many Republicans retiring from Congress, a real sign that Republicans are taking it very seriously that this could be a wave year coming up for Democrats next year.
KEITH: Because nobody likes to be in the minority.
SUMMERS: NPR's Tamara Keith and Domenico Montanaro, thanks to both of you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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