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Trump Warns GOP Over Ballroom Funding, Trump Gives Iran More Time, Castro Charged

Trump Warns GOP Over Ballroom Funding, Trump Gives Iran More Time, Castro Charged

Up First from NPR
May 21, 2026 13 min
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About this episode

Republicans in Congress are racing to pass a $72 billion immigration enforcement package using budget reconciliation, but President Trump is furious that funding for his White House ballroom was blocked, escalating tensions with GOP lawmakers still recovering from his primary challenges.<br>President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a tense call Tuesday over the direction of the war with Iran as Trump delayed a planned U.S. strike at the request of Gulf leaders concerned about next week’s Hajj pilgrimage.<br>The U.S. has indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro for his alleged role in the 1996 downing of two planes that killed four Americans, part of the Trump administration’s intensifying pressure campaign on Cuba.<br/><br/><em>Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? </em><a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/news"target="_blank" >Subscribe</a><em> to the Up First newsletter.<br></em><br>Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Tina Kraja, Krishnadev Calamur, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Adam Bearne.<br/><br/>It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas. <br/><br/>Our director is Christopher Thomas.<br/><br/>We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.<br/><br/>And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.<br/><br/>(0:00) Introduction<br>(01:59) Trump Warns GOP Over Ballroom Funding<br>(05:39) Trump Gives Iran More Time<br>(09:34) Castro Charged<br><br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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