AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
We're joined now by NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben. Good morning, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So I want us to stick with the war in Iran. On Friday, in a social media post, President Trump said he was considering, quote, like, "winding down" the attacks on Iran because he said the U.S. is, as he put it, close to meeting its objectives in this war. But then last night, he threatened more attacks if Iran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz. So I mean, this feels like very mixed messaging.
KURTZLEBEN: Yes, absolutely. In that post about winding down, Trump listed all these goals he said the U.S. is close to reaching like destroying Iran's military and nuclear capabilities but also just keeping the region safe from Iran. Now, in and of itself, that one is confusing because without this war, Iran would have no reason to attack, for example, Gulf Arab countries. So Trump posted that. And then, like you said, yesterday he posted this threat that if the Strait of Hormuz isn't opened within 48 hours, the U.S. would attack Iranian power plants. And on top of that, there are more U.S. Marines being sent to the region. Trump has asked Congress for $200 billion for a war they didn't even authorize. So none of this sounds like a guy who is winding things down.
RASCOE: I mean, the chaotic messaging from Trump and the White House has really defined this war so far. What do you make of these confusing statements and actions?
KURTZLEBEN: The simplest reading to me of all this back-and-forth is that the president has his own aims in Iran, but he also knows this war is unpopular domestically, and it's only going to get less popular as gas prices go up. One example is this week when President Trump lifted sanctions on Iran, the idea there being that to achieve this short-term goal of easing the oil supply for some countries. But then at the same time, he was lifting sanctions against the country he's fighting without achieving the aim of the sanctions themselves.
RASCOE: So earlier in the war, President Trump said he was open to talking to Iran's leadership. But then on Friday night, President Trump presented the Commander-in-Chief's trophy to the Navy football team. And between congratulating players, he talked about a lot of things including how U.S. and Israeli strikes had killed several top Iranian officials.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're having a hard time. We want to talk to them, and there's nobody to talk to. We have nobody to talk to, and you know what? We like it that way.
RASCOE: So that sounds like he's hoping for a power vacuum, but has the president actually articulated a plan for the day after the war in Iran?
KURTZLEBEN: He has not. And from the start when he was, back then, promoting regime change, the aims have been inscrutable. And in that quote you just played, there is right there a contradiction that the U.S. wants Iranian leaders to talk to and also is happy that there are none. And that quote right there emphasizes how Trump has been really proud to talk about how the U.S. and Israel have killed multiple important Iranian figures. But at any rate, when we're talking about leadership, Trump has in recent days backed off of talking about this question of who's in charge. You'll recall weeks ago he said he wanted to be involved in picking a leader. Then he was unhappy at the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei. All of that just seems to have disappeared.
RASCOE: Turning now to the fight in Congress over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the department hasn't been funded for nearly five weeks. Where do things stand now?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, last week, the Senate failed for the fifth time to advance a bill to fund DHS, so the two parties are in talks right now over what to do. But a reminder for what this is over - after federal agents earlier this year killed two people in Minneapolis, Democrats refused to keep funding DHS without some changes to enforcement, for example, stopping agents from wearing masks. Well, there still isn't consensus, and the DHS shutdown is most visible to a lot of Americans because of these long TSA lines at airports as some employees are calling in sick because they're just not getting paid. Yesterday, the president said he would send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports in place of TSA agents starting on Monday, which also just makes this another instance of the chaos of doing policy via social media. President Trump says something. We don't get more details, and so we all end up just waiting and seeing what happens.
RASCOE: And finally, we should note that former FBI Director Robert Mueller passed away on Friday night at the age of 81. He was special counsel in charge of investigating the links between Russia and President Trump's first presidential campaign. How has the president responded?
KURTZLEBEN: Cruelly, in a word - he wrote on social media, quote, "Robert Mueller just died. Good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people." And when Trump posts something like this, it prompts a debate over whether he's trying to distract from X or Y. But it remains true here that the president of the United States is dancing on the grave of a longtime public servant, which is just extraordinary.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course.
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