Trump Signs Initial Deal With Iran, Trump Withholds DNI Nominee, Trump Approval Poll
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
President Trump is once again putting Senate Republicans in a tough spot, he's holding back his pick for Director of National Intelligence until his demands are met, leaving his temporary pick Bill Pulte to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies, with Trump threatening to block a key spy tool until he gets his way.
And a new NPR/PBS News/ Marist poll finds Americans still aren’t happy with the economy or with President Trump, his approval numbers at the lowest they’ve been, even dropping among groups that helped put him in office.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Tina Kraja, Jason Breslow, Megan Pratz, Mohamad ElBardicy, and HJ Mai.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Ava Pukatch.
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
(01:57) Trump Signs Initial Deal With Iran
(05:42) Trump Withholds DNI Nominee
(09:31) Trump Approval Poll
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Trump and Iran's president signed an initial agreement to end the war. |
| 0:06.7 | In exchange for lifting sanctions, Iran reopens the straight-of-hor moves and promises not to make a nuclear weapon, |
| 0:12.4 | both of which were the case before the war. So what did the U.S. game? |
| 0:16.2 | I'm Stevenske with A. Martinez, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:22.2 | President Trump is putting Senate Republicans in a hard spot. |
| 0:25.4 | He held back his pick for Director of National Intelligence until they meet his demands. |
| 0:30.6 | His threat is to leave that vital agency directed by a man who lawmakers consider dangerously unqualified. |
| 0:37.5 | And a new NPR PBS News, Maris Poll, finds Americans still aren't happy with the economy or with President Trump. |
| 0:43.2 | His approval numbers are the lowest they've been, even dropping among groups that help put them in office. |
| 0:48.4 | Stay with us. We've got news you need to start your day. |
| 1:01.3 | President Trump signed the agreement with Iran intended to end the war and get oil flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States says it is prepared to lift |
| 1:04.7 | decades of sanctions, potentially allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to flow to Iran. |
| 1:10.6 | In return, Iran repeats its promise never to build a nuclear weapon, |
| 1:14.9 | a promise Iran has made for decades, |
| 1:16.9 | and that U.S. officials usually have not believed. |
| 1:19.7 | The idea now is to spend 60 days negotiating terms to back up that promise. |
| 1:23.7 | All right, here to break this down, we're joined by NPR's Greg Miree in Tel Aviv. So, Greg, there was |
| 1:28.3 | supposed to be a big U.S. Iran signing ceremony in Switzerland on Friday. What changed? |
| 1:33.2 | Yeah, we got a last minute surprise. Trump and Iran's president signed the formal agreement Wednesday. |
| 1:39.5 | Iran's leader did it in his home country. Trump did it at the French Palace of Versailles. Now, we know |
| 1:45.4 | Trump is enamored with such opulence, but historically, this is where a treaty ending World War |
| 1:51.6 | was signed, a treaty ultimately considered a failure. So there's no need for that ceremony |
... |
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