Weekly Roundup: Israel vs. Iran, Immigration News, and A Mascot Love Triangle

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, where pure ingredients and sustainable brewing meet a legacy of craft.

Share one with a friend today and taste for yourself.

Sierra Nevada, taste what matters.

Please drink responsibly.

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify.

No idea where to sell, Shopify puts you in control of every sales channel.

It is the commerce platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide.

Whether you're a garage entrepreneur or IPO ready, Shopify is the only tool you need to start, run, and grow your business without the struggle.

Once you've reached your audience, Shopify has the internet's best converting checkout to help you turn them from browsers to buyers.

Go to shopify.com/slash NPR to take your business to the next level today.

Hi, this is Jen and Josh and Quinn.

In Chicago, Illinois.

We are currently up early with our six-month-old son who is wearing his I've listened to NPR since conception onesie,

and he is currently snuggling with our five-year-old dog.

This podcast was recorded at 1236 p.m.

Eastern Time on Friday, June 13th, 2025.

Things may have changed by the time you hear it, but we'll still be catching up on sleep.

Okay, here's the show.

That's so, those little coos, so cute.

That is so cute.

That's a dedicated listener since conception.

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.

I'm Sarah McCammon.

I cover politics.

I'm Greg Myri.

I cover national security.

And I'm Dominico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.

Last night, Israel launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, killing at least three of Iran's top military leaders.

These attacks came days before international talks to address Iran's nuclear program were planned for Sunday.

Greg, let's start with the basics.

Why did Israel launch these strikes and why now?

Yeah, this is something Israel has been talking about forever.

When I was based in Israel in the early 2000s, they were talking about this.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken about it for years, but it was always considered too risky.

It could ignite a regional war.

Israel could suffer heavy losses.

Often the U.S.

was opposed to it.

But a lot of factors seem to come together right now, really dating back to the Hamas attack in October of 23, when since then, Israel has systematically devastated its rivals.

Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran has been very weakened.

And in particular, when Israel and Iran were trading missiles last October, Israel inflicted great damage on Iran's air defenses.

So Iran has been very, very vulnerable.

Israel felt it could carry out an attack like this at a much lower risk.

And in fact, that seems to have happened.

They apparently used up to 200 planes in this this attack.

No reports that any of them were lost.

They hit this wide range of targets, nuclear facilities, missile facilities, killing military leaders, politicians who were involved in the nuclear talks, nuclear scientists.

So a devastating and widespread attack by Israel, something that they had just been planning, gathering intelligence, thinking about for many, many years.

And this seemed, in the view of Israeli leader Netanyahu, to be the right moment.

And as we alluded to a moment ago, you know, the timing is interesting because President Trump has been urging Iran to make a deal regarding its nuclear program.

Of course, the context there is that Trump during his first term in office pulled out of the last Iran deal, which had been reached under President Obama.

So what does Trump want from a new deal and what does Iran want?

Yeah, Trump seemed to be asking for more concessions than Iran made under the original deal back in 2015 under President Obama.

Iran was allowed to keep its nuclear program and enrich uranium, which it could use for a civilian nuclear plant.

But it enriched uranium way beyond that level of the say 4% enrichment you need for a nuclear or civilian plant up to 20% and then 60%, which gets very close to the 90% you would need for nuclear weapons.

So Trump wanted to basically end Iran's enrichment program.

And Iran has always said that's non-negotiable.

We're allowed to have a civilian nuclear program and we can enrich.

So they seem to be stuck on that point.

They've had five rounds of talks.

The talks seem to have been serious.

This sixth round was planned on Sunday, but they hadn't had a breakthrough.

So Trump was pushing a very hard line.

Iran was holding its ground.

It didn't seem like they were going to get past that or it was going to be hard to get past this.

And then boom, kind of out of nowhere comes this Israeli strike.

And, you know, Domenico, of course, we want to get to the politics of this.

As is often the case, I think it's safe to say President Trump's messaging on all this has been a little mixed.

You know, he posted on Truth Social about the strikes this morning and basically said that he had warned Iran that this would happen if they didn't reach a deal.

These are the consequences.

At the same time, he has also said that he did not want Israel to take military action while these negotiations were ongoing.

So,

what do you make of all this?

I mean, is this a setback for Trump?

Yeah, it's not clear at this point.

Certainly seems like it.

You know, the White House appeared to have at least some prior knowledge that this was going to happen.

But is this Trump playing good cop, bad cop, or is this Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flouting Trump?

And, you know, because Trump has said he wants peace and he wants to have this deal with Iran.

Iran, of course, didn't appear to agree to what Trump wants.

And so maybe Trump felt like this isn't going to go anywhere and allowed Israel to do what it wants to do.

But this has not really been a MAGA priority.

Foreign policy has ranked very low on the list of things for most voters.

And certainly for Trump's base, it's really been all about culture war issues.

Of course, Trump really wants these deals that have really eluded him so far when it comes to Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran, all things that he seemed to have simple solutions for and have all turned out to be way more complicated.

Domenico, you mentioned that for Trump's base, foreign policy isn't a huge priority.

At the same time, you know, white evangelicals, who are an important part of Trump's base, have been staunchly supportive of Israel.

And then there's sort of the America First isolationist contingent that doesn't want to see the U.S.

involved in more foreign wars.

How does Trump sort of navigate those competing ideas within his base?

Well, I think the bridge there between those things is that Everyone in the Republican Party strongly supports Israel.

And, you know, whether or not you're committing more time, energy, money, troops to something, that's where things get a little messy because obviously the Republican Party previous to Trump was more interventionist.

Trump is certainly more isolationist.

And that's been a bit of a rift within the party, but he's gotten most of the party to kind of come around to his position.

So

the thing is with Trump is his foreign policy is transactional.

We saw that in his Middle East trip that he took last month, where he was more concerned about, you know, getting these financial deals done than he was about pushing American democracy or ideology.

And Greg, a moment ago, Domenico mentioned that we don't really know what went on between Trump and Netanyahu other than sort of the public statements.

But what does this move by Israel against Iran, despite Trump's calls for a diplomatic solution, what does that say about the relationship between Netanyahu and Trump?

Well, it was very good the first term.

It's been much more difficult this time around.

Trump has been doing what he wants to do.

He started these negotiations with Iran.

Netanyahu has always opposed them,

never been a fan of them.

We saw the Trump administration negotiate with Hamas for the freedom of an American-Israeli hostage being held in Gaza.

So Trump has kind of done the things he wanted to do.

I'm not sure he was necessarily trying to go against the wishes of Netanyahu, but he pursued his own America-first policies, and they were not what Netanyahu wanted him to do.

So it's going to be very interesting to see how much coordination there was with this strike.

Were they actually saying very different things and wanting very different things?

Or was it sort of an orchestrated campaign where Trump was pushing a hard line on negotiation, say, you better do this or something terrible is going to happen?

And that being a coordinated effort with Netanyahu to go ahead and carry out the strikes.

But we just, we don't know which scenario was the accurate one at this point.

And Trump has kind of continued continued on with that ominous tone.

He wrote on Truth Social this morning, he said, Iran must make a deal before there is nothing left and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.

And he said they should do it before it's too late.

Is there still a chance for a deal here, or is the region just kind of gearing up for more escalation?

At the moment, it's really hard to see that.

Iran has already stated that it won't take part Sunday in the talks that were planned for Oman.

Not clear if

Trump will continue to pursue those or not.

You have to think that this military action by Israel is going to have to play out first and perhaps an Iranian response before there's really a possibility of the talks resuming.

And I would certainly consider it likely that Israel is going to continue with these attacks.

And as long as those are ongoing, hard to see that they're going to get together or let alone make any progress in negotiations.

And we're going to take a quick break.

When we get back, we'll round up the latest immigration news and look ahead to to Trump's military parade.

This message comes from Charles Schwab.

When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices, like full-service wealth management and advice when you need it.

You can also invest on your own and trade on Thinkorswim.

Visit Schwab.com to learn more.

This message comes from Jerry.

Many people overpay for car insurance because switching feels like too much hassle.

That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant.

Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease.

Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop.

No spam calls or hidden fees.

Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year.

Switch with confidence.

Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.ai slash npr today.

Support for NPR and the following message come from IXL Online.

Is your child asking questions on their homework you don't feel equipped to answer?

IXL Learning uses advanced algorithms to give the right help to each kid, no matter the age or personality.

One subscription gets you everything, one site for all the kids in your home, pre-K to 12th grade.

Make an impact on your child's learning, get IXL now.

And NPR listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today at iXL.com slash NPR.

And we're back.

We talked earlier this week about the protests in Los Angeles after a series of of ICE raids there.

And yesterday, a judge ruled that President Trump had overstepped his authority by federalizing the National Guard.

Again, calling in the Guard kind of over the head of the governor to respond to these protests.

Greg, what do we know about that court decision?

That's right.

So a district court ruled that President Trump overstepped his authority by calling in the National Guard without coordinating with the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.

But shortly afterward, an appeals court has stayed that ruling.

So this is going to have to play out and quite likely will go to the Supreme Court before we get a final decision.

You know, Trump also sent a few hundred Marines to Los Angeles this week.

Is he on sturdier legal ground with that?

Well, probably not.

I mean, I think that the National Guard is called in.

We've seen that in many cases

to deal with things like a natural emergency.

When there's a flood, a tornado, a hurricane, occasionally they're called in when there's massive civil unrest on a very large scale.

The scale that we've seen in Los Angeles, Gavin Newsom has said that's not necessary to call in outside forces.

And so the U.S.

does have a history of having a very firm line of not using uniformed military to deal with domestic civil unrest.

It has happened very rarely.

I believe the last time it happened was in the 1992 L.A.

riots when police were acquitted in the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King.

President George Bush called in about 1,500 Marines, but he did so under the Insurrection Act and with the cooperation or at the request from the L.A.

mayor and the California governor.

So a very different situation when you have the mayor and the governor saying, we don't need them, and the Insurrection Act has not been invoked.

Okay, meanwhile, there was also this really dramatic moment yesterday when federal agents forcibly removed a U.S.

Senator from a Homeland Security press conference with Secretary Christy Noam.

The video shows California Democrat Alex Padilla being brought to the ground and handcuffed.

Senator Alex Padilla, I have a question for the Secretary.

Because the fact of the matter is, a half a dozen violent criminals that you're rotating on your...

Hands off.

Now, Domenico, you've been following this this week.

What do you make of the politics of that situation?

Well, what we've seen right now is that the polls are pretty mixed on a lot of this.

You know, there was a CBS poll out this week that showed 54% approve of Trump's deportation policies, but that was taken before what was happening in Los Angeles.

There was another poll from Quinnipiak that showed the opposite, 56% disapproving of Trump's deportation policies.

There was a Reuters poll that was out just yesterday that showed by a 50 to 35 margin that people disapproved of Trump's response to these protests so far, even though you had a plurality also saying that they thought Trump should deploy the military to bring order to violent protests.

So, I think that the issue here is the fact that we're seeing so much volatility in the numbers means that there's a lot of potential to win people over or lose them based on whatever the message is that goes out or whatever the circumstances are that play out.

And what we've seen with the the Senator Padilla situation, I mean, somebody who, a United States senator, said he was a United States senator, whether or not you think it was a stunt, having a United States Senator handcuffed, put on the floor forcibly is not the kind of image that most people probably think is something that's appropriate overall.

And we've also seen people say that they're less likely to be in favor of deporting people who are cooks and day laborers and farm workers as opposed to those hardened criminals who the White House and President Trump had said that they were going to be focusing on.

At the same time that we're seeing these really aggressive moves from the administration, Trump posted this week that he could be changing his immigration policy to protect farmers and hotels that employ undocumented workers.

Now, that feels like a backpedal.

How do you square that?

Well, it's what he said.

It's certainly a change in tone.

But we should say there hasn't been a policy change so far.

But Trump is clearly responding to the politics of this.

He is at risk of going going too far.

I mean, if you look heavy-handed in who you deport and

you see moms

arrested by plainclothes officers and thrown into unmarked vans,

these are the kinds of things that Republicans are telling Trump to be careful of.

Look at people in competitive districts.

They're pretty good bellwethers when it comes to the politics of things usually.

And David Valadeo is a Republican from California.

He's one of those people.

And he said he's warning Trump not to you know, go after people like farm workers and to stick to criminals because he thinks it's the wrong thing to do.

Tony Gonzalez is another Republican from Texas.

He chairs the Congressional Hispanic Republican Conference.

And he, you know, essentially said, don't go after the guy milking cows.

You should be going after criminals.

So the message is pretty clear, at least from Latino Republicans.

But it's going to be hard to meet the goal of the White House wanting 3,000 deportations a day without going after people beyond the quote-unquote hardened criminals.

I think what we have seen with Democrats, though, is a little bit of coalescing on a message that's opposing Trump, not necessarily laying out a vision for immigration in the future.

That's something that Remsey Kosum told me this week.

He worked in the Biden White House on immigration policy and now teaches law at the City University of New York.

The Democrats haven't yet figured out how to tell a compelling affirmative story around immigration.

And I think that's been the downfall of the Democratic Party on this issue.

And certainly we saw during the campaign, people trusted Republicans more, trusted Trump more because those southern border encounters had been as high as they were, you know, the highest since 2001.

So the administration clearly has signaled a willingness to use force to achieve policy goals, at least when it comes to immigration.

Meanwhile, this weekend, Trump will be hosting a military parade in Washington, D.C.

to commemorate the 250th birthday of the U.S.

Army.

This is the first military parade of its kind in more than 30 years.

What will you be watching for?

Well, one of the things I'm going to be looking for is Trump's body language.

You know, it is his birthday.

So is he going to have happy birthday sung to him or is he going to be focused on the Army and its 250th birthday?

I think that's kind of an important thing, especially for Democrats who think of this as some kind of authoritarian play.

And speaking speaking of Democrats, by the way, you know, there's going to be a bunch of protests.

And I think it's really interesting that right now we're starting to see the left find its voice a little bit against Trump when there had been really a lot of silence in the first few months, not totally sure how to attack Trump, how to go after him, how to pick and choose, rather than getting flooded by the deluge.

And it does seem that they're starting to find their voice a little bit, especially with some of these harsh immigration policies and the like.

We're going to take another quick break, and when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Sutter Health.

Whether it's prenatal care or postmenopausal guidance, Sutter's team of OBGYNs, doctors, and nurses are dedicated to building long-term relationships for lifelong care.

With personalized care plans for every patient, it's their commitment to supporting every woman at every stage of her life.

Learn more at Sutterhealth.org.

This message comes from BetterHelp.

With all the talk about mental health and wellness these days, it can feel like there's advice for everything.

But how do you know what actually works for you?

BetterHelp therapists have a 4.9 rating from 1.7 million client reviews.

So you're in good hands with their licensed therapists who can help figure out what's best for you.

Visit betterhelp.com/slash npr for 10% off your first month.

This message comes from Wise, the app for using money money around the globe.

When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit wise.com.

T's and C's apply.

This message comes from Visit St.

Pete, Clearwater, Florida, where 35 miles of white sand beaches meet arts and culture.

Visitors can explore the glassworks of the Chihuahua Collection, immerse themselves in exhibits at the Dali Museum, and discover over 500 public murals throughout the destination.

Learn more at visit spc.com.

And we're back.

And it is Friday, so it's time for Can't Let It Go, the part of the show where we talk about the things that we just can't stop thinking about, politics or otherwise.

Greg, I'm going to start with you.

What can't you let go?

I can't let go the NBA Finals.

The NBA playoffs last forever.

It seems like they go on, and even after you know who's going to win, this year, the level of play has just been so dramatic, and it's the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder in the finals, two teams that have never won an NBA title before.

Oklahoma City had this fantastic year, won 68 games.

Indiana has been an underdog and defeated several teams that they probably shouldn't have beat to get to the finals.

Indiana is now up 2-1 in the finals and has a home game tonight.

So if they win, they'll be up 3-1, one victory away from their first championship.

And the overall level of play, again, just fantastic.

And stars who casual basketball fans probably haven't heard of.

Shea Gilgis Alexander for Oklahoma City and Tyrese Halliburton for Indiana.

So really riveting stuff for me.

Yeah, in the politics podcast, you've heard of Halliburton for other reasons, but no relation.

Do you have a rooting interest in this, Greg?

Not really, other than Oklahoma City has said it's a great year.

I think they kind of deserve to win.

But both teams have just, they're just fun to watch.

The play just flows.

And if you turn away or blink, you miss three baskets up and down the court.

So just really exciting, flowing play to watch.

I am not a sports ball person, as we all know, but I have to root for Indiana because my mother's family is from Indiana.

And I know that basketball is almost a religion there.

I think I'm rooting for Oklahoma City because I was there in Oklahoma City last year and there was a Thunder game playing and the fans are just so, they love their team.

And I think it would be good for them.

It's kind of cool, even though Indiana is a great basketball state.

And by the way, Greg played at a little school in New Haven.

I don't think many have heard of it.

Wow, wow.

Sarah, what can't you let go of?

So

we often talk about animals.

I feel like in this part of the podcast, and this week will be no different.

You all, surely you saw that viral video of the zebra, right?

The zebra rescue.

I don't think I have.

Yes.

I saw him.

Yes.

Being lifted.

Yes.

It was amazing.

Okay, because I I feel like it was all that my algorithm was feeding me, but maybe that's just because it knows what makes me happy.

Okay, if you haven't seen it, you need to see it because it's just, it's just hilarious.

I don't know.

So this zebra named Zeke had escaped from his private owners.

This happened in Tennessee.

And I guess he escaped for like eight days.

This family had just gotten a zebra as a pet.

He gets out.

They're very worried about him.

A search ensues.

And the video that went viral was just this amazing clip of basically a zebra like kind of in a bag being like airlifted by a helicopter back to wherever he's supposed to go.

And I, you know, had to investigate more about what happened here.

And my favorite part of the story, there are many details, there are many layers, but

the owner, Taylor Ford, said, he told the Tennessean that his wife was not enthusiastic about this idea in the first place, that she had gotten a bad feeling about getting a family zebra and he said quote it turns out she was more right than ever that's what he told the tennis

here's here's your random fact do you know why zebras have stripes evolution well yes they've evolved to deter biting flies specifically horse flies uh that's the most logical uh explanation according to science and my 15 year old son so i need like zebra stripe pants in the summer because i get bitten up by like mosquitoes.

Anyway, I just love it that the moral of the story was that he should have listened to his wife.

Oh, that's always the case.

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's tried and true.

Domenico, what can't you let go?

All right, I can't let go of, and we're going to go back to sports ball here.

Apologies, Sarah, but this is beyond sports.

Not only is it just that, you know, people know I'm a Mets fan, and it's not that I can't let go of the fact that the Mets are, right now, have the best record in baseball.

That's not it at all.

That's not what I'm trying to boast about here whatsoever.

What I can't let go of is the mascots.

And the Mets have two mascots, Mr.

Met and Mrs.

Mett.

You know, they're kind of a goofy couple, whatever.

The Mets were playing in Colorado, and Colorado is not having a very good year.

Their mascot is Dinger, Dinger the Dinosaur.

He's a triceratops, so he's a little, you know, heavier set, let's say.

And he put up a sign where he said to Mrs.

Met, call me.

I've never seen this before.

Creepin' mascots on Mrs.

Mett?

Yeah.

Take a listen to Sports New York with announcers Gary Cohen and former New York Mets pitcher Ron Darling.

I mean come on dinger.

Hey

we need to go to confession.

There's supposed to be some honor amongst the mascot community.

That's just downright low down.

And Mrs.

Mett had a response.

She held up a sign in the outfield next to her husband, Mr.

Mett, and said, my husband has bigger biceps.

Take a hike, Barney.

Call him Barney?

You know what?

I bet Mr.

Mett listens to Mrs.

Mett when she gives him advice.

I bet that's true.

Absolutely.

She sounds pretty tough.

All right, we're going to leave it there for today.

Our executive producer is Mathoni Batturi.

Casey Morrell edits the podcast.

Our producer is Brea Suggs.

Special thanks to Lexi Schapidal and Krista Dev Callimer.

I'm Sarah McCammon.

I cover politics.

I'm Greg Myri.

I cover national security.

And I'm Domenico Montanero, senior political editor and correspondent.

And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.

This message comes from NPR sponsor OnePassword.

Protect your digital life with OnePassword.

If you're tired of family members constantly texting you for the passwords to streaming services, OnePassword lets you securely share or remove access to logins.

Access from any device, anytime.

OnePassword lets you securely switch between iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC with convenient features like autofill for quick sign-ins.

Right now, get a free two-week trial for you and your family at one password.com slash NPR.

This message comes from NPR sponsor, Oracle.

In business, they say you can have better, cheaper, or faster, but you only get to pick two.

What if you could have all three at the same time?

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, and AI needs.

With OCI, you can run any workload in a high-availability, consistently high-performance environment and spend less than you would with other clouds.

To try OCI for free with zero commitment, go to oracle.com slash npr.

This message comes from Warpy Parker.

Prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable.

Glasses designed in-house from premium materials starting at just $95, including prescription lenses.

Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.