Trump State of the Union Strategy, Mexico Cartel Violence, Epstein Files Naming Trump
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Mexico is still reeling from cartel violence after a military operation killed the country's biggest drug lord, El Mencho, and triggered a wave of retaliation, raising questions about whether the government can take on the cartels without fueling even more violence.
And an NPR investigation finds the Justice Department removed or withheld dozens of pages from the Epstein files database that include allegations mentioning President Trump, even as the administration says it has released everything.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Rebecca Rosman, Megan Pratz, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
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.
Our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.
(0:00) Introduction
(02:16) Trump State of the Union Strategy
(05:57) Mexico Cartel Violence
(09:43) Epstein Files Naming Trump
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Got a message for you here. |
| 0:02.0 | Many people who listened up first have had the podcast directly shuffled into their feed, |
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| 0:09.8 | That's changing for some. |
| 0:11.2 | So you need to be active. |
| 0:12.9 | And make sure to follow up first in your podcast app to continue getting this service. |
| 0:18.9 | That way you'll never miss the news, which comes right now. |
| 0:24.1 | President Trump says a lot in public, but has not persuaded most of the public to support |
| 0:29.7 | his policies. |
| 0:30.5 | He has an opportunity to clarify in a state of the union speech. |
| 0:33.5 | What can he say about issues from tariffs to Tehran? |
| 0:36.4 | I'm Leila Faudil. |
| 0:37.3 | That's Stevenski, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:42.8 | In Guadalajara, Mexico, burned out cars are still in the medians of empty streets. |
| 0:47.9 | These are signs of the violence after Mexico's government killed a drug cartel leader. |
| 0:53.0 | What is the government's strategy? |
| 0:54.7 | Also, a new NPR investigation finds the Justice Department |
| 0:57.9 | withheld or removed dozens of Epstein file pages |
| 1:02.3 | that include allegations mentioning President Trump. |
| 1:05.1 | What's missing? And why does it matter? |
| 1:07.4 | Stay with us. |
| 1:08.3 | We've got the news you need to start your day. |
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