MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump is experiencing something this week that's been rare in his second term - pushback. The Supreme Court stopped his attempt to restrict mail-in voting. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates at a time when Trump has been aggressively pushing the Fed to get rates lower. A federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center from putting his name back on the building. And those aren't the only roadblocks to his agenda starting to appear.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben joins us. Danielle, let's run through that list.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Sure. So let's start with the Supreme Court, which ruled against a Trump executive order that told the Postal Service to only send mail ballots to certain verified voters in this year's midterms. Trump thinks limiting mail-in voting helps Republicans, which, by the way, isn't at all clear. But also, that type of restriction is tied to the 2020 election because Trump still baselessly maintains that he won that. Of course, that's not true. Now, as far as interest rates, the Fed said this week that it was raising the federal fund rates a notch to just under 4%. Trump, though, wants interest rates lowered, like Michel mentioned. Here he was at a rally this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The only problem we have is that interest rates are artificially high. Interest rates in the United States should be 1% or less because we are the best credit in the world by far, with all that money pouring in.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, lower interest rates encourage growth, but then they can also push inflation even higher. And right now, the Fed wants to lessen inflation. And that's inflation, by the way, caused in part by Trump's war in Iran.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so that's the policy-related stuff. But there's also the Kennedy Center.
KURTZLEBEN: Right. Well, yes, a federal judge said the Kennedy Center can't put Trump's name on the building after removing it. Now, subsequently, Trump said, well, then he might demolish the landmark. But yesterday, a judge said the center has to give at least 30 days' notice before any building changes, including demolition.
Now, on top of all of that, Trump has other ongoing problems. His approval remains below 40% by most polls. We saw some pushback from his own party with a new ad from Florida Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar criticizing Trump's immigration policy. And the price of diesel fuel hit a record high this week.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so he's having a bad week. Why do these setbacks matter?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, beyond the substance - and the substance is important because, you know, there's the issue of people not being surprised by new voting rules, for example - it's also striking that a lot of this pushback is on some of his top priorities, like voting limits, the economy, his building projects. This is also, though, new data for the ongoing question of what limits institutions are willing to put on him. The Supreme Court has given him a lot of power, but now not to quickly impose voting restrictions. Trump picked Kevin Warsh as Fed chair while frustrated about too-high interest rates, but then Warsh didn't do what he wanted this week.
MARTÍNEZ: But, OK, Trump's still the president, though. I mean, he's got so much power, wielded a lot of power, making a lot of changes to the government. Is this any sign, though, of any real change in his circumstances?
KURTZLEBEN: You're totally right. It is not that suddenly all the institutions are turning on him. But the midterms are getting closer, and he has just over two years left in his presidency. So first of all, after those midterms especially, what capacity will he have to act more on his priorities? A new Congress might push back on him. And anytime we're looking ahead, we have to think about political life after Trump. We see some growing ideological rifts in the GOP. We see the first inklings of Republican lawmakers pushing back on him. Voters are frustrated with him. And so especially after midterms, all of that may intensify.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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