Chapter 1: What racist remarks did Trump make about the Somali community?
President Trump has offered two days of racist rambles about Somali Americans, specifically targeting a Minnesota lawmaker, Ilhan Omar. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work. What's behind Trump's latest tirade? I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Defense Secretary Pete Hankseth is under scrutiny.
A Pentagon inspector general says his March signal chat regarding military plans in Yemen violated the rules and may have put U.S. troops at risk. So how does the White House respond?
Chapter 2: How did Trump's comments target Congresswoman Ilhan Omar?
And CDC vaccine advisors meet today with a new chair and a new agenda after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced the entire panel. They're considering rolling back recommendations that doctors have followed for decades. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Pentagon report on Defense Secretary Hegseth?
For two days in a row, President Trump has gone on racist tirades against the Somali community in Minnesota.
The Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.
In a ramble that went on for several minutes on Wednesday, the president complained about Somalis as a group, including many citizens who employ him. Trump talked about deporting Ilhan Omar, a U.S. citizen who is a member of Congress. In the middle of his discussion, he threw in mention of President Obama, although he did not specify what he thought Obama and Somalis have in common.
The president was responding to a question about the previous day when he also rambled for several minutes about Somalis.
We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. She's garbage.
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Chapter 4: How did Hegseth's use of Signal app endanger U.S. troops?
Her friends are garbage. These aren't people that work.
Chapter 5: What changes are being proposed by the CDC vaccine advisory panel?
These aren't people that say, let's go, come on, let's make this place great. The two days of remarks, so far, began when a reporter asked about a fraud investigation in Minnesota where some Somalis, among others, were convicted of defrauding social service programs.
And Paris, Mara Lyson is here to tell us more about all this. Good morning, Mara. Good morning.
Chapter 6: What controversies surround the new chair of the CDC vaccine panel?
So, you know, Mara, we've heard Trump target immigrant groups before from the first day of his first campaign for president, in fact, but calling an entire community of people garbage. I mean, is there something different here?
Yes, I think even by Trump's standards of nativism and xenophobia, these attacks were pretty harsh. You know, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been one of Trump's favorite targets for quite some time. He belittled her on social media recently, saying she's, quote, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab. He's told her to go back where she came from, even though she's an American citizen.
And this does come, as you say, at a time when there's this big financial scandal in Minnesota. Federal prosecutors have convicted or indicted dozens of people for defrauding social services funding totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Minnesota Public Radio. Most of those convicted are of Somali descent. The vast majority of Somalis in the Minneapolis region are U.S. citizens.
But the situation has provided the chance for Trump to attack Omar and the entire Somali community. And here's what he said.
They contribute nothing.
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Chapter 7: How might changes to vaccine recommendations impact public health?
The welfare is like 88 percent. They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you.
So let me just say here that there's no evidence that what he said is accurate. But having said that, what do you think he gains from this?
I think this has been a tried and true tactic for him over the last 10 years, these nativist attacks. I think they attract attention. They can distract from problems he's having. He denigrated Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals during the 2024 campaign. He and J.D.
Chapter 8: What are the potential consequences of altering vaccine schedules?
Vance repeated false rumors that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs?
Could it be that he's also lashing out because he's frustrated? I mean, his approval ratings are low. He has not achieved a number of the things that he claimed he was going to achieve, including peace in Ukraine, etc. And I just wonder if this part of the way he reacts to situations where he's not doing well.
I think that's right. His approval ratings are low. His base is solid. But independents give him a 25 percent approval rating. And Republicans are going to need those independent voters in the 2026 elections. Maybe they would rather have him bring prices down than attack immigrants.
So we don't know whether this is going to continue. As we mentioned, this has gone on for a couple of days now. The president is meeting with some African leaders today. How do you think that's going to go?
Well, they're not from Somalia. They're from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They're here to sign a U.S. brokered peace deal. Trump is taking credit for solving the conflict between these two countries, and he's adding this to a long list of wars he claims to have ended. It's all part of him making the case for why he should get the Nobel Peace Prize. That is NPR's Mara Eliasson.
Mara, thank you. You're welcome.
At the start of this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced intense scrutiny over a U.S. attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
Now an investigation criticizes the way that Hegseth shared highly sensitive attack plans for airstrikes against Yemen back in March. That was the attack that Hegseth discussed in a group chat that included the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
And here, National Security Correspondent Greg Myrie is covering this, and he's with us now. Good morning, Greg, to you.
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