SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Trump said he's confident the Israel-Hamas ceasefire will hold. He's expected to be in Israel Monday to speak to the country's Knesset. NPR senior political contributor Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: How big an achievement is this ceasefire for President Trump?
ELVING: We are still in the first phase of watching this agreement play out, but even now, it's a significant achievement just getting these parties - Hamas with all its factions, Israel with all its factions - all coming together on an agreement on these terms. So it's an enormously welcome breakthrough. And if it holds up, it would certainly be a highlight of Trump's presidency, perhaps reminiscent of the way the Camp David Accords were the pinnacle of Jimmy Carter's presidency. But we haven't seen the return of the hostages yet. We still don't know whether that will lead to the next steps in the peace plan or potentially unleash more violence. If Trump and his team can keep Bibi Netanyahu on board and if he, in turn, can control his hard-liners, this will indeed be a monument to peace and to Trump and his administration, and they will deserve a great deal of credit.
SIMON: Staying with foreign policy for a moment, the president said yesterday he plans an additional 100% tariff on China starting November 1 or sooner. Should we take his words as policy or posturing?
ELVING: China announced some new restrictions on the export of rare earths, which are minerals crucial in high-tech manufacturing. Trump erupted with promises of payback. He said he would raise tariffs 100% on everything Chinese. Now, perhaps we should be accustomed by now to this kind of threat from Trump, especially to gaudy numbers like 100%. But Wall Street took it seriously - had its worst day in six months, with deep losses in the midst of what has been a long-running rally for stocks. So what happens next? We've seen this thrust and parry before. Will Chinese President Xi's trip to the U.S. be canceled, and which side will do the canceling? And we wait to see how much this disrupts the most important trading relationship in the world - the relationship between the two largest economic powers.
SIMON: U.S. government shutdown heading into its third week. Layoffs of federal workers have begun. When asked by a reporter yesterday how many layoffs he'd authorized, the president said, a lot.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And it will be Democrat-oriented because we figure, you know, they started this thing...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Can you give us some numbers?
TRUMP: ...So they should be Democrat-oriented. It'll be a lot, and we'll announce the numbers over the next couple of days. But it'll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats.
SIMON: I think he's blaming the Democrats. What more can you tell us?
ELVING: Yes, he continues to blame the Democrats, and he is openly punishing the people in blue states, whether they're Democrats or not. I think we all know at this point that the impasse between lawmakers in Congress has caused federal workers to be furloughed, but fired? Their jobs are just as mandated by legislation as they were before. They have been assured their jobs were protected and they would get back pay. Now the White House is casting doubt on both.
And the cuts are concentrated in some highly sensitive departments such as health and treasury. We've seen the figure of 4,000 already and more, and the aggressiveness of these firings is causing some heartburn among Republicans as well as the targeted Democrats. Republicans have voters who work for the federal government, too, and even more who depend on the government for services and for other things as well.
SIMON: Ron, are we reaching the point where enough people are feeling the effects of this shutdown that we can expect some movement to bring it to an end?
ELVING: People are feeling it, Scott, at airports, in farm country, wherever people do business with the government in any way or depend on it in any way. Republicans had hoped those people would blame the Democrats and put pressure on them. Some do and some have, but polls show more people are blaming the president and his party. So can there be an end in sight? Yes, when both sides are willing to talk seriously about the coming cuts to health care, cuts that will hurt people in red states as much as in blue states and very possibly hurt them more.
Some of Trump's biggest counties have very high rates of dependence on Medicaid. Republicans say they are willing to talk about health care and its costs after the shutdown ends, but if they have ideas and a willingness to address this issue, people who are suffering are very likely to ask, why can't they talk now?
SIMON: NPR senior political contributor Ron Elving. Ron, thanks so much.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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