AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
If you can't tell, there was a lot going on out here in D.C. this past week. And if you had trouble keeping track, we don't blame you. Trade wars, that federal funding freeze - were two million federal employees really expected to resign? We're joined now by NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Good morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: OK. So we just heard about those tariffs President Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, he definitely seems to be following through with the threat, although we will see what, you know, Tuesday brings. I mean, pretty much as Scott was talking about, every economist warns how bad this would be. But, you know, Trump has been kind of wielding these things more as a negotiating tactic. Talk - Scott talked about kind of the wiggle room for Tuesday.
And look, this is Trump's MO. On the campaign trail, I was in a lot of rallies where he would talk about using tariffs to get what he wants, such as the Remain In Mexico program, where asylum seekers stayed in Mexico during their core process. And even more recently, Colombia is another big example. He threatened these big tariffs to get them to flip and start accepting after they denied deported migrants arriving on military planes.
Now, of course, both Canada and Mexico have vowed to respond, but these are, you know, smaller, weaker economies who really have always had to deal with the whims of whoever is in the White House. You know, there was actually a former prime minister of Canada - Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, you know, famously joked that living next to the United States was like sleeping with an elephant and that no matter what you're going to do, you're going to feel every single twitch and grunt.
RASCOE: Yeah. This was just the latest in an already hectic week, which started with an attempt to freeze federal funding, and that sowed a lot of confusion. That was followed on Tuesday with what the Trump administration called the Deferred Resignation program, targeting two million federal employees. Where do things stand on on those policies?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. It really was a chaotic week. I mean, some of it was probably scripted chaos, but it was definitely chaos. You did see that with the attempt to freeze federal funding. That really set off a wave of confusion across agencies and states. The White House insisted to follow through, and the courts stepped in Friday to block it. And then, as you say, there was that letter to federal employees, two million of them, essentially inviting them to resign, though with compensation.
Now, that needs to be approved by Congress, and it hasn't been. And then, Ayesha, there was just yesterday, the USAID website went down, really causing a lot of panic among aid workers, especially after the administration froze foreign aid and started taking pictures down off the office walls. So we will see how this all shakes out, but there is a lot of uncertainty and fear across the government, and that's likely by design.
RASCOE: President Trump also had a lot to say about diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, again this past week after signing an order to end the practice for federal contractors.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. That order led to a scramble across federal agencies to scrub their websites of DEI and gender equality content. And some, you know, government websites even went dark in the confusion. Here's President Trump talking about that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me - DEIs would have ruined our country, and now it's dead. I think DEI is dead. So if they want to scrub the websites, that's OK with me.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump also blamed Wednesday night's deadly crash between an American Airlines flight and a Blackhawk helicopter over the Potomac on DEI. And yet, at the same time that he's targeting these programs, he also signed a proclamation recognizing Black History Month.
RASCOE: So what about the week ahead? What are you focusing on?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. I'll be watching the nomination process of Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and how that continues to play out. It's been a tougher path for them, especially Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence. That said, no Republican has said that they won't vote for her, so a lot going on.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Franco Ordoñez. Thank you, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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