ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Negotiations over a deal to end the war between the U.S. and Iran were supposed to take place this weekend in Islamabad. But President Trump has abruptly canceled that trip. He said the travel would take too long and that Iran could negotiate with the U.S. over the phone. It's another sign that the war the U.S. started does not seem to be coming to an end, despite Trump saying that it would only last six weeks. NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram joins us now to talk about all this. Hey, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey, Rob.
SCHMITZ: So OK, the president posted on social media that he canceled this trip that the U.S. delegation was supposed to make. Did he give a reason?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, I mean, Trump basically said that the back and forth with travel was taking too long. He said there was too much time spent, and it was too expensive. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner were supposed to be in Pakistan this weekend for these talks. Pakistan, of course, is facilitating a deal between the U.S. and Iran, but Trump, pretty last-minute, said it was too much time wasted. Here he is speaking with reporters on the tarmac in Florida on his way back to D.C. earlier today.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: People traveling for 16, 17 hours - we're not doing it that way. We'll do it - when they want, they can call me.
SHIVARAM: So he's essentially telling Iran that the negotiations can continue over the phone. Trump also told reporters that Iran had previously put forward some kind of a proposal which wasn't good enough. And the president said, after he canceled the meeting today that was supposed to take place, Iran, 10 minutes later, he says, put forward a better offer. So the president seems to think this is a tactic that works, though I will be clear there's no actual deal that's been reached.
SCHMITZ: OK, so what happens now?
SHIVARAM: Well, to put this in context, I mean, this recent decision comes as, just earlier this week, the president decided to extend the ceasefire with Iran again. Vice President JD Vance was set to travel to Islamabad for more negotiations, but that didn't end up happening. Meanwhile, the White House and the president himself keep insisting that Trump, quote, "holds all the cards." And the president said today that Iran's leadership is all over the place. They don't know who's in charge. That's something that Iran has denied. But to be clear, I mean, there was no indication that a face-to-face meeting between the U.S. and Iranian sides were - was scheduled to take place today in Pakistan, but Iran still showed up in Islamabad.
SCHMITZ: Right.
SHIVARAM: Iran's foreign minister posted - right? - on social media and said that his visit was fruitful. And then he added, pretty interestingly, quote, "have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy."
SCHMITZ: And that was Iran's tforeign minister Abbas Araghchi. So is there still some sort of deal that might be possible here?
SHIVARAM: I mean, it's kind of unclear, Rob. The president has been really all over the place in the last two months of this war in terms of laying out any kind of timeline, goals, how the war will end. Remember, two weeks ago, he was saying he was going to obliterate a whole civilization.
SCHMITZ: Right.
SHIVARAM: This latest decision from the president definitely makes it questionable how close the U.S. and Iran are on agreeing to any kind of deal. Trump was also asked today if he would continue the ceasefire that he extended, and he said he hadn't thought about it. So it's a lot of wait and see for a war that the president said would only last six weeks. He keeps saying it'll end soon while taking actions that make it seem like it's not ending soon.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, there's a lot of back and forth here. You know, the war has disrupted the global economy. It's jacked up oil prices. It's taken a toll on President Trump's approval ratings that were already not so great. You know, what does this mean not only for Trump, but also for the Republican Party in what is now a midterm year?
SHIVARAM: Right. The president's poll numbers on the economy have only been getting worse. There was - this week, a poll came out from the Associated Press and NORC that showed only 23% approve of the job Trump is doing on the cost of living, which is many voters top issue in the midterm elections later this year, and that's a stunningly low number.
SCHMITZ: That is.
SHIVARAM: And what's significant is that Trump is seeing a dip among his own Republican supporters, and that doesn't bode well for some of these tight congressional races - right? - where Republicans are going to have to figure out a way to explain to their constituents why this war hasn't ended yet, why their gas prices and other prices are still high because of this war. It's definitely a complicated spot for the party to be in considering that Trump made campaign promises in 2024 to lower costs and to not have any new wars.
SCHMITZ: That is NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Deepa, thanks for your reporting.
SHIVARAM: Thanks, Rob. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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