President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake

Summary

Up First from NPR – Episode Summary
Release Date: March 31, 2025
Topics Covered: President Trump Third Term, Smithsonian Executive Order, Myanmar Earthquake

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1. President Trump and the Possibility of a Third Term

Discussion Overview:
The episode opens with a focus on former President Donald Trump's ambiguous statements regarding a potential third term in office. Despite the 22nd Amendment, which constitutionally limits presidents to two terms, Trump has not dismissed the possibility, sparking debates about constitutional boundaries and political strategy.

Key Points and Insights:

• Trump’s Ambiguous Stance:
  At [00:02], Amy Martinez introduces the topic by questioning whether President Trump will attempt to serve a third term, noting that he hasn't ruled it out.

• Constitutional Barriers:
  Michelle Martin emphasizes the constitutional restrictions at [00:11], stating, "The Constitution says he cannot," and questions potential methods Trump might use to circumvent this.

• Trump’s Statements to NBC:
  At [02:10], Amy Martinez references Trump’s recent comments to NBC News’ Kristen Welker, where he expressed he is "not joking about staying on as president" and hinted at undisclosed methods to achieve this goal.

• Support and Legal Theories:
  NPR Senior White House Correspondent Tamara Keith, joining from the president's travels, explains at [02:44] that while Trump's approval ratings are currently "underwater," they are better than previously seen. She highlights support from influential figures like Steve Bannon, who believes Trump could secure a third term, and mentions a Republican congressman’s introduction of a constitutional amendment to facilitate this.

• Historical Amendments:
  Tamara Keith further elucidates at [03:38] that not only the 22nd Amendment but also the 12th Amendment would prevent Trump from being elected a third time, reinforcing the constitutional hurdles.

• Political Motivation:
  At [04:28], Michelle Martin probes the political reasons behind Trump's statements. Kristen Welker responds that as Trump approaches the end of his second term, hinting at a third term could "extend his influence" even as his direct political power wanes.

• Tariffs and Economic Policies:
  In the same segment, Trump addresses tariffs on foreign automobile imports, maintaining at [04:59], "I couldn't care less because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they're going to buy American cars." However, this stance faces criticism as economists warn of increased consumer costs, and polls indicate voters prefer a focus on reducing living expenses over imposing new tariffs.

Notable Quotes:

• Trump: "I couldn't care less because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they're going to buy American cars." ([04:59])

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2. Trump’s Executive Order Impacting the Smithsonian Institution

Discussion Overview:
The episode transitions to President Trump’s executive order titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," aimed at restructuring the Smithsonian Institution's portrayal of American history through its museums and monuments.

Key Points and Insights:

• Executive Order Objectives:
  Michelle Martin introduces the executive order at [05:53], explaining that it seeks to reshape American history narratives within the Smithsonian by overseeing the removal of "improper, divisive or anti-American ideology."

• Smithsonian’s Response:
  Kristen Welker reports at [06:21] that Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch responded by affirming the institution’s commitment to "the best scholarship, free of partisanship," and stated that current review processes would continue unaffected by the executive order.

• Monument Restoration:
  The executive order also mandates the restoration of monuments that have been removed or altered since January 2020. Kristen highlights at [07:14] that while numerous Confederate symbols have been taken down across various jurisdictions, the order specifically targets monuments under the Department of the Interior’s control, leaving the fate of many such removals uncertain.

• Historical Community's Reaction:
  Art historian Erin Thompson criticizes the executive order at [08:53], arguing that it attempts to "gloss over some of the darker aspects of American history." She emphasizes the importance of confronting historical mistakes to prevent their recurrence, countering Trump's efforts to control historical narratives through monuments.

• Unclear Implementation:
  Despite the executive order, Kristen notes the ambiguity regarding which specific monuments might be reinstated, as most removed symbols were under local authority rather than federal control ([07:10]).

Notable Quotes:

• Erin Thompson: "You can't turn an ugly history into a glorious one unless you're not telling the truth." ([09:06])

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3. Devastating Earthquake in Myanmar and Ongoing Civil Conflict

Discussion Overview:
The final segment addresses the catastrophic earthquake that struck Myanmar, exacerbating the country’s existing turmoil due to an ongoing civil war. Reporter Michael Sullivan provides on-the-ground insights from Thailand, detailing the challenges faced in relief efforts and the compounded difficulties arising from political unrest.

Key Points and Insights:

• Earthquake Impact:
  At [09:33], Michelle Martin introduces the disaster, with Myanmar's authorities reporting a death toll exceeding 1,700 and thousands more injured following Friday’s earthquake. The situation remains dire as rescue operations struggle against infrastructural damage and extreme weather conditions.

• Challenges in Relief Efforts:
  Michael Sullivan explains at [10:06] that the earthquake has left Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, in ruins with limited access for rescue teams due to collapsed infrastructure and communication networks. A retired teacher from Mandalay describes the destruction vividly, stating, "A hot pot shop near my house just disappeared into the earth" ([10:06]).

• Delayed Foreign Assistance:
  Sullivan notes that although countries like China, India, and Russia have sent aid, logistical issues such as the closure of Mandalay’s airport hinder effective distribution, confining much assistance to Yangon, 350 miles away ([11:04]).

• Ongoing Civil War:
  The earthquake compounds Myanmar’s civil war, which has persisted since the 2021 coup. Sullivan highlights that the conflict has severely disrupted the public health system, displaced millions, and complicated aid distribution. The UN reports that approximately 20 million people require humanitarian assistance, with 15 million facing acute food insecurity even before the earthquake ([11:55]).

• Military Response Amidst Crisis:
  Despite the natural disaster, the military continues offensive operations, launching airstrikes shortly after the earthquake and maintaining attacks on rebel-controlled regions in Karen and Shan States ([12:29]). This unrelenting conflict hampers broader relief efforts and prolongs the suffering of the Myanmar populace.

Notable Quotes:

• Retired Teacher from Mandalay: "A hot pot shop near my house just disappeared into the earth, and many, many big buildings just collapsed." ([10:06])

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Conclusion

The episode of "Up First from NPR" meticulously covers three pressing issues: the contentious possibility of a third term for Donald Trump, the implications of his executive order on the Smithsonian Institution, and the severe ramifications of the recent earthquake in Myanmar amidst ongoing civil conflict. Through insightful discussions, expert analyses, and firsthand reports, the episode provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of these significant global and political developments.

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This summary was crafted based on the transcript provided and adheres to NPR's commitment to delivering accurate and engaging news analysis.

Transcript

[Amy Martinez]

Will President Trump try to serve a third term? He won't rule it out.

[Michael Sullivan]

I'll tell you, I have had four people ask me to have a third term.

[Michelle Martin]

The Constitution says he cannot. So how would he get around that?

[Amy Martinez]

I'm Amy Martinez. That's Michelle Martin. And this is up first from NPR News. A new executive order aims to reshape how American history is told through research, monuments and museums.

[Tamara Keith]

You can't turn an ugly history into a glorious one unless you're not telling the truth.

[Amy Martinez]

What changes does the Trump administration want to make?

[Michelle Martin]

And rescue workers in Myanmar are searching through Roblo following Friday's earthquake as the window to find survivors closes. The death toll is rising. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

[Tamara Keith]

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[Michelle Martin]

Midi.Com could President Trump get elected to a third term in office? The Constitution says no, but President Trump.

[Amy Martinez]

Has declined to rule out the possibility of serving a third term. Yesterday, Trump told NBC News Kristen Welker in a phone call that he is, quote, not joking about staying on as president and said there are ways he could, although he did not elaborate.

[Michelle Martin]

Joining us to talk about all this is NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, who has traveling with the president this weekend. Good morning, Tam.

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

Good morning.

[Michelle Martin]

So Trump has talked about serving a third term many times. I think people assumed he was joking. And based on the plain language of the 22nd Amendment that would not be constitutional. So what's going on here?

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

You know, the way he talks about a third term, it's like he's keeping his options open on Air Force One. I asked him about what he told NBC and asked if that means he's not planning to leave office. And here's what he said.

[Michael Sullivan]

I'm not looking at that, but I'll tell you, I have had more people ask me to have a third term.

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

Later, I asked him again to clarify, are you planning to leave office on January 20, 2029, or are you saying you might not? And he looked to the other reporters and said, any other questions? He also said it is still quite early to be having these conversations. And as you say, the 22nd Amendment bars a president from being elected to a third term. But there are some novel legal theories that have been floated, and while they are quite far fetched, the fact that Trump isn't dismissing it out of hand means it can't be ignored.

[Michelle Martin]

Is there support for a third Trump term as he says?

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

Trump's approval rating is underwater right now, but these are better poll numbers than he's seen before. And there is something of a movement among his most ardent supporters to promote the idea of a third term. Earlier this month, Steve Bannon, who served in Trump's first White House and is now an influential podcaster, said that he not only thinks Trump should run, but that he he'd win. Separately, just three days into Trump's second term, a Republican congressman introduced a constitutional amendment to pave the way for a third Trump term. But just to go back to the Constitution, there are actually two amendments that would stand in his way. The 22nd amendment is one of those. It was put in place after FDR served four terms. Separately, the 12th Amendment prevents anyone disqualified constitutionally from being the president, from being the vice president.

[Michelle Martin]

Is there a political reason for Trump to be saying this?

[Kristen Welker]

Yeah.

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

You know, he's in his second and final term unless something dramatic happens. And that means the clock is ticking on his power and relevance because soon members of his own party will be running to replace him and he will be seen as a lame duck. So teasing a third term has the potential at least to extend his influence.

[Michelle Martin]

Before we let you go, in his conversation with NBC's Kristen Welker, Trump also made news on tariffs. Tell us what he said there, please.

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

Yeah. He stood firm on the 25% tariffs on foreign automobile imports, including parts made outside of the US he dismissed concerns that this could cause prices to rise for American consumers. He said quote, I couldn't care less because if the prices on foreign cars go up, they're going to buy American cars. But even cars assembled in the US Often contain parts made in other countries. The president is promising additional tariffs later this week. He is calling Wednesday Liberation Day. Economists warn higher tariffs mean increased costs for consumers, and polls show that voters just want the president to focus on bringing costs down.

[Michelle Martin]

That is NPR's Tamara Keith Tam, thank you.

[Isabella Gomez Sarmiento]

You're welcome.

[Michelle Martin]

President Trump has issued an executive order to try to make changes at the Smithsonian Institution.

[Amy Martinez]

The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum, education and research complex, and it's comprised of 21 museums and libraries each, 14 education centers, and the zoo. The order also paves the way for the return of monuments that have been removed in recent years.

[Michelle Martin]

NPR culture reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is with us now for more. Good morning, Isabella.

[Kristen Welker]

Good morning.

[Michelle Martin]

So the order is called Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Maybe start by telling us a bit more about what it says.

[Kristen Welker]

A lot of this is about the people and stories that are highlighted at these museums and sites and the language used to describe American history. The order directs Vice President J.D. vance, who is on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents to oversee the removal of, quote, improper, divisive or anti American ideology from the Smithsonian's museums and research centers. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch sent an email on Friday telling staff that the Smithsonian will continue to employ internal review processes and that, quote, as always, our work will be shaped by the best scholarship, free of partisanship, to help the American public better understand the nation's history, challenges and triumphs. The Smithsonian spokesperson confirmed that email to npr. And we should note here, Lonnie Bunch was previously the founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, one of the museums Trump singled out in the executive order.

[Michelle Martin]

There's also a section of the executive order focused on monuments. What does that say?

[Kristen Welker]

That's right. I mean, if we can rewind a little bit. There's been a growing movement in recent years to reflect on what history we honor in the US and what may have been left out. But there was a turning point when a white police officer killed George Floyd, who was Black, in 2020. His death sparked wide protests, and for a lot of people, it was a reexamining of this country's racial history. Within a year and a half, 200 public Confederate symbols had been taken down, relocated or renamed that included things like monuments, school names, even road names. Those are numbers provided by the Southern Poverty Law center, which is a legal and advocacy group which tracks Confederate iconography in the US I should say the executive order isn't specifically about Confederate symbols, but it instructs the Interior secretary to review monuments, markers and statues that may have been taken down or changed since January 2020, more than a year before Trump left office in his first term, and restore them. It calls for a wholesale review to make sure that memorials under Interior Department jurisdiction, quote, do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living, including persons living in colonial times.

[Michelle Martin]

Do we know what monuments could actually be put back up?

[Kristen Welker]

That's the big question, and it's pretty unclear right now. Seth Levy of the Southern Poverty Law center says many of the sites that did see changes were on land controlled by municipalities and state governments, not land controlled by the Department of the Interior or any of the bureaus it oversees, like the National Park Service. I'm not actually aware of any removals.

[Amy Martinez]

On National Park Service land.

[Kristen Welker]

We reached out to the Department of the Interior and didn't hear back.

[Michelle Martin]

So, you know, a lot of this executive order focuses on how the story of America is told. So what are historians saying about this?

[Kristen Welker]

That's right. I spoke with art historian Erin Thompson. She's the author of a book called Smashing the Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments. And she says that Trump's executive order is trying to gloss over some of the darker aspects of American history, that.

[Tamara Keith]

You can't turn an ugly history into a glorious one unless you're not telling the truth.

[Kristen Welker]

Thompson says it's important to grapple with mistakes from the past so we don't make them again. But ultimately, you can't control historical memory by controlling monuments.

[Michelle Martin]

That's NPR culture reporter Isabela Gomez Sarmiento. Isabella, thank you.

[Kristen Welker]

Thank you.

[Michelle Martin]

Myanmar's military authorities say the death toll from Friday's earthquake has risen to more than 1700, with thousands more wounded, numbers that are expected to rise as the window for finding survivors survivors closes.

[Amy Martinez]

While some foreign assistance has started to arrive in the country, efforts to get help to those who need it may have been stymied by buckled roads, collapsed bridges, and downed cell towers that make communication difficult.

[Michelle Martin]

Reporter Michael Sullivan has been following the relief effort from neighboring Thailand. Hello, Michael.

[Michael Sullivan]

Good morning.

[Michelle Martin]

So what do we know about the damage so far?

[Michael Sullivan]

Well, the pictures we're seeing coming out of Mandalay are pretty awful. It's Myanmar's second largest city, about 10 miles from the epicenter. And those pictures show many parts of the city of 1.5 million in ruins. And efforts to free those trapped under the rubble have been hampered by a lack of heavy equipment and personnel. And time is running short for finding more survivors, especially with the temperature hovering near 100 degrees. And the smell of death, rescue workers say, is overpowering. Here's a retired teacher from Mandalay. She doesn't want to be identified. She's afraid of the military. My house was badly damaged, she says, so now we're sleeping out here in the road. A hot pot shop near my house just disappeared into the earth, she says, and many, many big buildings just collapsed. We cannot count how many have died. And this is just in Mandalay. Michel those other area rescuers haven't been.

[Michelle Martin]

Able to reach what has been the military government's response. Have they reached out to other countries for help?

[Michael Sullivan]

They have, and that's unusual and maybe a sign they realize how bad things are. It's something they've been loathed to do in past crises, especially in 2008 when Cyclone Nargis struck and left about 140,000 dead. Emergency response teams from China, India and Russia and some other countries have arrived in country. But the airport in Mandalay, it's still closed to large aircraft, and that means much of the foreign assistance is being flown into the former capital, Yangon, some 350 miles to the south. That's a long way from Mandalay. President Trump said on Friday the US Will be helping, too, but we're still waiting to see just how. USAID has played a large role in disaster relief in the past, but it's been gutted by the Trump administration in recent weeks.

[Michelle Martin]

And, you know, you've reminded us that this is just the latest problem for the people of Myanmar because they're in the midst of a civil war.

[Michael Sullivan]

That's right. I mean, this war has been raging since the 2021 coup and it's crippled Myanmar's public health system. It's displaced millions and severely restricted the distribution of aid for those people and for others as well. The UN says nearly 20 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance and roughly 15 million were facing acute food insecurity. That's before the quake.

[Michelle Martin]

And there have been calls for a ceasefire from abroad and from some of the groups battling the military. So is the conflict on hold to deal with this tragedy?

[Michael Sullivan]

No. In fact, just hours after the quake, the military launched airstrikes and drone attacks in Karen State, according to relief workers, and reportedly launched several more airstrikes on Sunday against another rebel controlled area in neighboring Shan State. The war goes on even as the death toll from the quake continues to rise.

[Michelle Martin]

That is reporter Michael Sullivan in Thailand. Michael, thank you.

[Michael Sullivan]

You're welcome.

[Michelle Martin]

And that's up first for Monday, March 31st.

[Amy Martinez]

I'm Michelle Martin and Ame Martinez make one of the next things you listen to. Consider this from npr. We hear it up first, give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider this take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Everything you need to know about that big story of the day in fewer than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get those podcasts.

[Michelle Martin]

Today's episode of up first was edited by Krishna Devkalimar, Claire Lombardo, Ryland Barton, Lisa Thompson and Ellis Wolfley. It was produced by Ziaed Bunch, Nia Dumas and Chris Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hyenas, and our technical director is Carly Strange. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

[Tamara Keith]

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