MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're going to start with a bird's eye view of President Trump's third week back in the White House.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. And I don't want to be cute, I don't want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so - this could be so magnificent.
MARTIN: Besides the plan he revealed for Gaza, Trump is attempting to overhaul the federal workforce and end diversity, equity and inclusion programs - and another thing or two or 10. Joining us now to talk about all this is NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, good morning.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: Domenico, you have a new analysis on npr.org this morning that breaks down by day everything that happened this week. And it's incredible just how much did happen, but I take it this is not random. I take it that this is a strategy.
MONTANARO: Yeah, I mean, it's by design. I mean, it's been a philosophy of Trump's and the people around him for years. Here's former Trump adviser Steve Bannon speaking to PBS' Frontline in 2019.
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STEVE BANNON: All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day, we hit them with three things. They'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang. These guys will never be able to recover, but we got to start with muzzle velocities.
MONTANARO: So that's the idea - get it all out there as fast as possible so that some things maybe slide by. There's, you know, only so much the media can cover, and the public can consume. And the first three weeks of the Trump presidency, the second term, have certainly lived up to that idea.
MARTIN: Well, yeah. Just to review, there have been dozens of executive orders and lots of cabinet appointees who are getting through, ready to carry - despite the fact that many of them are very controversial, despite, you know - and they're ready to carry out what Trump wants done.
MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, he's getting his people in place - even Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's up for health secretary, and Tulsi Gabbard, for director of national intelligence. They look like they're on their way to being confirmed to those positions, despite what have been bipartisan concerns. We also saw Pam Bondi confirmed for attorney general. Just hours after she was sworn in, she set up a group to review the work related to the cases that were brought up against President Trump.
MARTIN: We also saw Trump announce tariffs against Canada and Mexico and then immediately delay them a month.
MONTANARO: Yeah, 25% tariffs were supposed to go into effect on them this week. But Trump said he was delaying those to work out deals with them on immigration, fentanyl and trade. Ten percent tariffs on China did go into effect, though. This whole thing, though, showed this new way that the U.S. is going to be operating on the world stage under Trump, you know, trying to get what he sees as the best deal in a short-term, transactional way, even with allies. And that's to say nothing of Trump's continued attempt to expand America's footprint, this time, you know, saying he wants ownership of Gaza, something that allies and stakeholders in the region, by the way, have said is a complete nonstarter.
MARTIN: And then there is what Trump and Elon Musk are trying to do with the federal workforce and shrink the size of government. What do we learn about Musk's efforts?
MONTANARO: Yeah, it's been a real whirlwind here in D.C. DOGE, this informal Department of Government Efficiency, has been at multiple agencies accessing records, including sensitive payment information at the Treasury Department. And there's this effort to get federal workers to resign by, quote, "deferred resignation" - essentially, a buyout.
MARTIN: Which a judge yesterday moved the deadline from yesterday at midnight to Monday.
MONTANARO: Right. And the administration has pushed very hard to shut down USAID, which is responsible for doling out about half of U.S. foreign aid.
MARTIN: Finally, let me ask you about the administration's battle against DEI policies. What steps did it take this week?
MONTANARO: Yeah, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports. The NCAA said that it'll adjust to the order. But I want to play this exchange between Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and NCAA president Charlie Baker, who's a former Republican governor from Massachusetts, from a hearing earlier this month for some context.
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DICK DURBIN: How many athletes are there in the United States in NCAA schools?
CHARLIE BAKER: Five hundred and ten thousand.
DURBIN: How many transgender athletes are you aware of?
BAKER: Less than 10.
MONTANARO: So Durbin went on to stress that number - less than 10 out of 510,000. Yet, it's become, in many ways, a cultural touchstone of the 2024 campaign. There were other efforts this week, like photos of women and minorities at the National Cryptologic Museum that were covered up. Those were later removed after public outcry. It's really a push to systematically remove any idea that diversity and multiculturalism are good things in this country. Conservatives have long viewed the culture in the country as moving too far in a liberal direction, and they're certainly trying to change all of that now.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Thanks, Michel.
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