Primary Results, DOJ Scraps Anti-Weaponization Fund, Trump Appoints Acting DNI
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Justice Department is scrapping President Trump's nearly $1.8 billion dollar anti-weaponization fund after sustained bipartisan backlash, though the DOJ says part of the IRS settlement shielding Trump and his family from past tax investigations still stands.
And President Trump has named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence despite his complete lack of intelligence experience, drawing skepticism even from Senate Republicans.
Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratz, Anna Yukhananov, Rebekah Metzler, Mohamad ElBardicy and Lindsay Totty.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:59) Primary Results
(05:58) DOJ Scraps Anti-Weaponization Fund
(09:40) Trump Appoints Acting DNI
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Voters in six states picked their midterm candidates. |
| 0:06.0 | Iowa Republicans rejected President Trump's choice for governor, and Democrats chose a more moderate candidate to try and flip the state's Senate seat. |
| 0:12.9 | We run down the results from Iowa and across the country. |
| 0:15.5 | I'm Leila Faldi. That's A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:22.5 | Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the Justice Department is scrapping |
| 0:27.5 | President Trump's anti-weaponization fund. |
| 0:30.1 | We are not moving forward to fund. |
| 0:32.0 | Not moving forward ever. |
| 0:33.5 | Correct. |
| 0:34.4 | Oh. |
| 0:34.8 | But the part of the deal that shields Trump and his family from IRS investigations still stands. |
| 0:40.6 | And President Trump named a new acting director of national intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard. Bill Pulte spent his career in housing with no intelligence experience. Even some Republicans are skeptical. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. |
| 1:03.4 | Another round of primaries offer a glimpse into the midterm landscape. |
| 1:12.6 | Last night, President Trump's pick for governor of Iowa lost his race. The loss is a blow for Trump, who has seen almost all of his chosen candidates this cycle sail to victory or advance to runoff elections. Democratic voters chose candidates they |
| 1:18.8 | hope give them the best shot at flipping congressional seats in November. MPR political reporter |
| 1:24.6 | Stephen Fowler has been watching all the primaries for us. He's here with some pretty important takeaways. So let's start with Iowa, a state with a number of competitive races in November. What are the matchups look like? Well, Democrats chose their nominee for U.S. Senate. Republicans chose their pick for governor. Three of the four House races are indeed viewed as the few competitive races in November. |
| 1:46.1 | For Senate, the nominee of State House Representative Josh Turrick. |
| 1:49.4 | He's a Paralympian who holds a seat that voted for Trump and argued that his background and campaign strategy is the best way for Democrats to win in a red state. |
| 1:58.0 | Primary voters agreed, picking him over a progressive state senator by a two-to-one |
| 2:02.4 | margin. Turek now faces Republican Congresswoman Ashley Henson, who had a nominal challenger in her race. |
| 2:08.9 | What about Iowa's a governor's race? Rob Sand is the Democratic nominee. He ran unopposed and is the |
| 2:14.4 | only statewide Democratic elected official. While Trump endorsed Republican |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 25 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.