Trump's New Tariffs, China Reacts To Tariff Ruling, State Of The Union Poll
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
China is weighing what the court ruling actually changes on the ground for exporters and how it could reshape Trump’s leverage ahead of his trip to Beijing in a few weeks.
And a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds most Americans say the state of the union is not strong, as President Trump heads into Tuesday night’s address facing deep divides over the country’s direction.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calamur, Vincent Ni, Dana Farrington, Mohamad ElBardicy, and HJ Mai.
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.
(0:00) Introduction
(02:13) Trump's New Tariffs
(05:55) China Reacts To Tariff Ruling
(09:37) State Of The Union Poll
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What did you just say? |
| 0:01.0 | I said, I was born ready. |
| 0:03.0 | You need to say that was more... |
| 0:04.0 | Into, like, more... |
| 0:05.0 | Force. |
| 0:06.0 | Make conviction, as if I really believe. |
| 0:08.0 | I was born ready. |
| 0:10.0 | Go for it. |
| 0:11.0 | I was born ready. |
| 0:13.0 | That's true. |
| 0:14.0 | All right. |
| 0:15.0 | I'm ready. |
| 0:16.0 | Republicans had a moment of hope for the midterm elections. The Supreme Court got rid of President |
| 0:23.1 | Trump's unpopular tariffs. Then Trump imposed new tariffs. What's the political cost of a tax on imports? |
| 0:29.3 | We have analysis from Marleyison. I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:36.9 | The president's new global tariff rate is far lower than the taxes he raised, then re-raised, |
| 0:43.3 | then lowered, and raised on imports from China. |
| 0:46.3 | Trump lost leverage just as he was announcing a trip to meet China's president. |
| 0:50.9 | What does that mean for his trade war? |
| 0:52.9 | And heading into President Trump's national address tomorrow night, a new poll finds most |
| 0:57.3 | Americans say the state of the union is not strong. We'll break down the numbers and what they |
| 1:02.2 | mean in a midterm election year. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. |
... |
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