Tension In Two Ceasefires, Navy Secretary Out, Trump's Slumping Approval
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
The Secretary of the Navy is out with no explanation, the latest in more than 30 high-level departures at the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as the war in Iran enters its eighth week.
And with the midterms are six months away, President Trump's approval rating on the economy has dropped to 30 percent, the Iran war is two weeks past his own deadline, and his tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Ruth Sherlock, Andrew Sussman, 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 Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
(0:00) Introduction
(02:00) Tension In Two Ceasefires
(05:18) Navy Secretary Out
(09:05) Trump's Slumping Approval
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Iran seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The White House says it's not a ceasefire |
| 0:06.5 | violation because neither of them was American or Israeli. Meanwhile, a journalist was killed by an |
| 0:11.6 | Israeli air strike on Lebanon, even as ambassadors meet today to extend their ceasefire. |
| 0:16.9 | I'm Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:22.1 | The Secretary of the Navy is out. It's the latest in more than 30 high-level dismissals at the Pentagon under defense secretary Pete Hegeseth. |
| 0:29.6 | And this one comes as the war in Iran is in its eighth week. Is this level of turnover a problem? |
| 0:34.6 | And the president's economic approval rating is on a downward turn. |
| 0:38.3 | The Iran war is two weeks past his own deadline. |
| 0:41.5 | His tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court and the Republican redistricting push could backfire too. |
| 0:46.4 | We'll examine President Trump's political position ahead of falls midterm elections. |
| 0:50.5 | Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day. |
| 1:04.0 | Iran has tightened control on the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. continues to claim success in its blockade of Iranian ports in the strategic waterway. Iran is still not officially acknowledging |
| 1:09.2 | a unilateral U.S. ceasefire declared by President Trump. |
| 1:12.7 | For more, we go to NPR's Jane Raff in Amman, Jordan. Jane, hello. |
| 1:15.9 | Hi, Michelle. |
| 1:16.9 | So there's been a flurry of competing messages over what's happening in the straits since U.S. warships in the Indian Ocean began efforts to intercept the traffic there. |
| 1:24.3 | So what do we know about what's going on? |
| 1:27.1 | Well, Iran yesterday fired on three |
| 1:29.3 | ships, seizing two of them in the Strait of Hormuz, that narrow waterway between Iran and |
| 1:34.9 | Oman. And it released video with dramatic music swelling, an Iranian gunboat and troops |
| 1:41.6 | boarding one of the container ships that were taken to Iranian port. |
| 1:45.7 | It's the first time in this war that they have seized vessels. |
... |
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