ADRIAN MA, HOST:
To hear more about that planned meeting between President Trump and President Putin, we turn to NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben who's been following the story. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
MA: We just heard the view from Ukraine. But from the Trump administration's perspective, what do they want to accomplish with this meeting in Alaska?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, of course, they want any progress they can make on peace at all. I mean, Trump has really, really - it's hard to overstate it. He's talked up his ability as a world peacemaker on the campaign trail. He bragged about his relationship with Putin, saying that that would help him end this war. He said repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would end this war within a day of taking office, and that did not happen, clearly. But he has not let up. He talks about this conflict a lot. He's intervened in it a lot via long phone calls with Putin, having Zelenskyy over to the White House, which infamously ended with a shouting match.
And as Putin kept bombarding Ukraine, Trump started criticizing him more. All of which is to say that Trump has talked a huge game here, and that was even before his recent fixation on winning a Nobel Peace Prize, with Trump trying to intervene in all sorts of conflicts worldwide. Now, one other thing that's interesting here is that after opposing aid to Ukraine for a long time, some in his own party - including some MAGA Republicans - are now supporting Trump in his support of Ukraine, which is just a big theme of this year, congressional Republicans falling in line behind whatever Trump says.
MA: So let's stick with the Republicans for a bit longer here because there's a standoff between Texas Republicans and Democrats, which keeps going. And Republicans there want to redraw voting maps to gain five seats for the next midterm elections. And to avoid that, Democratic lawmakers have fled the state. Can you tell us where things stand now?
KURTZLEBEN: Right. Well, those Democrats went to a few blue states like Illinois, Massachusetts, New York. And meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, responded by ordering their arrest. Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton added to that on Friday, filing a lawsuit to remove 13 of the fleeing Democrats from their seats. Now, will any of this work for those Democrats? As our colleague Rachel Treisman reported, walkouts are just not great at getting results like stopping legislation, but they are great at getting attention on an issue. And this has definitely done that for redistricting.
MA: Right. I mean, we've heard that some blue states might respond in kind, but can they really do that? I mean, will the math work in their favor?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, that's two different questions. Can they? They're going to try. California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that if Texas redistricts, well, he's just going to move forward with having California maps redrawn to benefit Democrats. And that would involve a referendum this November for voters to approve those maps. So he's pushing ahead on that. Meanwhile, some other blue state governors have also said they're open to this kind of retaliatory redistricting. But it's just not possible to know what the math would look like. The House right now is so closely divided. This could go any direction.
MA: To turn to a different issue in Washington, D.C., right now, recently, a DOGE staffer was assaulted here last week during an attempted carjacking. And President Trump said he wanted to temporarily federalize the district to bring crime under control. Can you talk about what that means exactly and how would it work?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, it's very unclear. Friday, Trump said there would be increased federal law enforcement on D.C. streets for a week. Now, I asked the White House for more details and didn't get any, but we're going to hear more soon. Yesterday, Trump posted on social media that on Monday, there's going to be a White House press conference that will, quote, "essentially stop violent crime" in D.C. Now, we should note that the district says violent crime is actually down significantly this year in the city. But a lot of what Trump has talked about is very much crime-related and not about the other many parts of running a city, like, you know, roads, trash collection, safety nets. The crime aspect of this is, of course, still a big deal. And Trump has also talked about taking over the city and getting rid of home rule, which is D.C.'s ability to govern itself, elect its own officials. Now, again, we have no idea what he's going to announce tomorrow, but there's a very good chance it will cause a lot of backlash here in the district, at the very least.
MA: That's NPR political correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks again, Danielle.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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