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Up First from NPR

Trump Pressures The Fed, Epstein Town Halls, France Recognizes Palestinian State

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.552.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump personally inspected renovations of the Federal Reserve's headquarters as part of a pressure campaign on chair Jerome Powell, House Republicans are being asked questions back home about the push to release records related to Jeffrey Epstein, and France intends to recognise a Palestinian state.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Roberta Rampton, Padmananda Rama, Hannah Bloch, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Christopher Thomas and Claire Murashima. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange. And our executive producer is Jay Shaylor.


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

President Trump put on a hard hat to tour the renovation project at the Federal Reserve.

0:06.7

He repeatedly mentioned to Fed Chair Jerome Powell that he wants interest rates lowered.

0:10.8

Was the visit really about the project or about jawboning?

0:13.9

I'm Sasha Pfeiffer. That's Michelle Martin. And this is up first from NPR News.

0:21.0

Republicans nationwide are holding telephone town hall meetings with constituents,

0:25.3

and many find themselves fielding questions about the release of information about Jeffrey Epstein.

0:29.8

I believe transparency should be the hallmark of every administration, whether they're Democrat or Republican.

0:35.4

How are Republicans answering to their voters on this issue?

0:38.3

And France will soon recognize Palestine as a state.

0:41.6

They say they want to speed the peace process by leveling the playing field at the negotiating table.

0:46.7

Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

0:59.3

There is so much happening in politics in any given week.

1:01.7

You might need help putting it all in perspective.

1:07.2

As your week draws to a close, join the NPR Politics podcast team for our weekly roundup.

1:12.1

Here are best political reporters zoom into the biggest stories of the week. Not just what they mean, but what they mean for you, all in under 30 minutes. Listen to the weekly

1:17.5

roundup every Friday on the NPR Politics podcast. White House officials say they still have a lot

1:23.6

of questions about a renovation project at Federal Reserve headquarters.

1:31.2

President Trump toured the construction site yesterday with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell,

1:33.2

and both of them wore hard hats.

1:39.0

It's a tough construction job. They're building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them,

1:41.8

and a lot of very expensive work. There's no question about it.

1:46.7

Officially, that's what the visit was about, but there's no separating that tour from an ongoing pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to get the Fed to lower interest rates.

...

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