STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump admitted the war that he started in Iran affected his party in the midterm elections.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Trump spoke about the war following a meeting with Qatar's prime minister.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Iran militarily is effectively over. We're just keeping it the status quo, and we're doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbors.
INSKEEP: NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us now. Good morning.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK. So how do those remarks we just heard fit in with what Trump had been saying?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. Just as a reminder, Trump said weeks before the election that he was going to hold off on any strikes in Iran, though I will say, as he campaigned all over the country, he was sort of musing at his rallies on how to proceed with the war, teasing that he could do something big to end it.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
SHIVARAM: Now, though, Trump is saying that there's no need to strike Iran again if talks are ongoing. Here he is in an interview on "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday. The president is being interviewed by Ross Douthat, and it's his first formal interview since the midterm elections last week.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")
ROSS DOUTHAT: So you're not going to escalate the war now that the midterms are over?
TRUMP: Well, I'm not looking to. I don't think there's any reason to. I don't think there's any reason to. Look...
DOUTHAT: They still have nuclear material, right?
TRUMP: They have nothing. It's buried under thousands of tons of rock.
SHIVARAM: In that interview, Trump did not answer on how he sees the conflict ending and what that timeline would look like.
INSKEEP: Which, I suppose, means, among other things, he's keeping his options open for what to do as time goes on.
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, Trump has been shifting around on his rhetoric since the war started. You and I have talked about this, right? So it's within the realm of possibility that Trump picks back up on military action. If he isn't getting a deal that he wants, he said that the U.S. is still, quote, "locked and loaded" if needed. At the same time, Trump has acknowledged that the war played a part in Republicans losing control of Congress, saying he knows that high prices because of the war were a big issue for voters this year.
But he also continues to dig his heels in and say the war was necessary and he would do it over again. He said in that same interview that even if the war isn't popular today or tomorrow, he said historically, it's a good decision. And I think that highlights an important bit here, which is that Trump is starting to shift focus for these last two years of his presidency to line up his legacy. He's trying to frame up this really unpopular war as a success by saying Iran's nuclear stock is gone, and that really was what his goal was.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, help us reset where the president stands, then. He does have these two years to go. After January, he's not going to be passing any legislation unless he deals with Democrats, who are going to control Congress. So what does he mean to do?
SHIVARAM: Yeah. I mean, in terms of what his priorities are, he's trying to cement his legacy. And that comes in a lot of different ways, right? It's physical changes around D.C. He's still very intently focused on his ballroom at the White House. He's attempting to try to build an arch in D.C.
But Trump also sees himself as a dealmaker and a peacemaker, and that's a big part of this, too. It comes down to things like ending Russia's war in Ukraine. The administration recently kicked off another round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi this week. And next week, Trump is headed to the Philippines and China for two summits. He's set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping again and maybe also meet with Xi and Russian leader Vladimir Putin together. And that's interesting. Trump says he wants to talk about denuclearization and ending the Iran war. It's not yet clear if the meeting will happen and if anything tangible would come out of it. But keep in mind, this is a president who loves a photo op, and that's part of his legacy-building, too.
INSKEEP: Deepa will be covering that trip to Asia. NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thanks so much.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
