Jordan's King In Washington, New Tariffs, NYC Mayor's Corruption Charges
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What personal anecdotes do the hosts share to start the episode?
Hey, are you there?
Yeah.
What's happening?
Nothing. How was, um, where'd you go? Greenland?
I went to Turks and Caicos.
Oh.
It was fun. It was beautiful. Was it really hard to work when I wasn't there? Did you miss me so much?
Why is King Abdullah's visit to the U.S. significant?
I didn't. I decided not to work until you got back. This is my first day back. Oh, excellent. Jordan's King Abdullah is in the U.S. to meet President Trump.
But it may be a tense meeting. The king, like most of the world's leaders, has rejected Trump's calls for the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza to be displaced to Jordan and Egypt.
I'm Ian Martinez, that's Leila Fadl, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump imposed new tariffs on imports of global metals. Economists say that's good for American steel and aluminum companies, but not so good for other industries.
You lose jobs in the manufacturing sector when you put together the higher cost of input and the retaliation, which is sure to come.
So what's the president's game plan?
And the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams may be dismissed. The Justice Department ordered prosecutors to drop the charges. We've got the news you need to start your day. President Trump and Jordan's King Abdullah are meeting today at the White House.
How might Trump's plan affect Jordan and Palestine?
Jordan is one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East, but today's meeting is expected to be a little awkward, to say the least. Trump has floated pushing Palestinians from Gaza into Jordan and Egypt. That's a plan rejected by both countries and the Palestinians.
To discuss what to expect today, NPR's Jane Araf joins us from Jordan's capital, Amman. Hi, Jane.
Hi, Leila.
So what do you think the tone of this meeting will be after Trump has repeatedly said he wants the Palestinians out of Gaza and wants to own it?
Yeah, I would expect tense, and that's probably an understatement. It's hard to put a good face on this. That's because, as you noted, Jordan is a key ally, and without any consultation— According to Jordanians and White House officials, Trump floated that plan last week during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the U.S. to take over Gaza and forcibly push 2 million Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. Monday night, Trump doubled down, threatening Jordan if it didn't accept the plan.
If they don't agree, I would conceivably withhold aid.
So Jordan is a small country with a large number of refugees, and it relies on foreign aid. But this plan is one of those rare ones that has united citizens and the country's leaders in opposition to it. And what is the king likely to say? Well, I spoke with Marwan Washer, the foreign foreign minister of Jordan, now with the Carnegie Endowment think tank. He says this is going to be one of the toughest meetings the king has faced. Let's listen.
The meeting is not going to be an easy one because there is no amount of pressure, in my view, that the United States can exert, that Jordan can accede to. This is an existential issue to Jordan.
And by that, he means that creating an alternative Palestinian homeland here means that Jordan would essentially cease to exist as a country in many ways. The majority of its citizens are already descendants of Palestinian refugees. So this is something that Jordan doesn't believe it could or ever would agree to, no matter what the cost.
Now, as you point out, Jordan has rejected this plan. But what has the government officially said so far?
Well, the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman al-Safadi, has quite clearly said that expulsion of Palestinians here would be a breach of its historic peace treaty with Israel and therefore seen as a declaration of war.
Now, despite that, Trump keeps insisting Jordan and Egypt will succumb to U.S. pressure and the U.S. has leverage in the form of aid. Does Jordan have leverage?
I asked Mosher, who's also a former senior official at the World Bank, about that. Here's what he said.
Jordan gets $1.5, $1.6 billion from the United States each year. Any loss of that assistance is going to produce economic difficulty for Jordan. This is not to say also that cutting off aid to Jordan is not that easy.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What personal anecdotes do the hosts share to start the episode?
0:01–0:18
2
Why is King Abdullah's visit to the U.S. significant?
0:18–1:26
3
How might Trump's plan affect Jordan and Palestine?
1:26–4:33
4
What are the implications of the new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum?
4:33
5
What is the status of the corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams?
0:54–12:50
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Up First from NPR
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