Consider This from NPR

President Trump traveled to Scotland to talk trade with the EU and play golf. But as soon as he landed he was asked about Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender.The pressure on the Trump administration has continued to intensify over its handling of the Epstein files, and who-knew-what-when. Pressure that's also coming from within his party.And as those calls have ramped up, so has messaging from the administration about a range of other issues, including a rehashing of the 2016 election, and Russia's involvement in it. Trump has lobbed serious claims, like treason, at former President Obama.To get at why these two complicated and dated stories are intersecting and to understand what we can learn from it about the president's governing style, NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro and cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At least 135 people died earlier this month when floods swept through the Texas Hill Country. As in any other natural disasters, journalists from around the country soon arrived to cover the catastrophe. For this week's reporter's notebook series, NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán and Kat Lonsdorf speak with host Scott Detrow about their experiences covering the floods and the importance of interviewing people affected by the disaster with empathy and respect. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Before he entered politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a career out of stoking doubt about vaccines, promoting theories contradicted by mountains of scientific evidence on common vaccines which have been studied for decades and safely administered to hundreds of millions of people.Now, six months in as head of Health and Human Services, he has instituted a number of policy changes on access to vaccines for both children and adults. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly and health correspondents Rob Stein and Pien Huang talk through how these changes could impact public health and the public's wallets. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Federal education policy has seen a lot of changes since President Trump's inauguration. For example, the Department of Education itself, which Trump has vowed to close.But that hasn't stopped the Trump administration from also wielding the Department's power. Most recently, by withholding billions of dollars for K-12 schools.The Trump administration has drastically changed the federal government's role in education. What does that mean for American classrooms? For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Since returning to office, President Trump has moved swiftly to upend decades of federal policy—from education to healthcare to vaccines...but nowhere more aggressively than immigration. Congress just passed tens of billions in funding for immigration enforcement...It's the largest domestic enforcement funding in U.S. history, fueling Trump's mass deportation campaign of migrants living in the U.S. illegally. President Trump campaigned for office promising the largest deportation in history.Six months into his second term, how has immigration enforcement changed.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As a candidate in 2024, President Trump promised – often – to end what he and other conservatives describe as "woke" policies.On his first day in office, he signed executive orders rolling back policies around diversity, equity and inclusion — and those policy changes have continued over the last six months of the second Trump administration.One of the oldest civil rights organizations in the country now warns that the administration's policies have thrust Black Americans — and the entire country — into a "state of emergency." NPR's Juana Summers speaks with Marc Morial, the president and CEO of the National Urban League. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump helped reshape the federal courts during his first term in office. And he relied heavily on the Federalist Society in that effort, which helped him zero in on judges with a conservative, originalist interpretation of the constitution.Now the nominations machinery is restarting, and Trump's most controversial judicial nominee is only one step away from the federal bench.His name is Emil Bove. During his first term, Trump appointed scores of originalists to the federal bench– a victory for the conservative legal movement.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Plea deals with the 9/11 defendants, including for the alleged ringleader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have been canceled. Families of those who died on September 11th are still calling for justice. What happens next in the most delayed criminal trial in US history? NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with Georgetown University Law professor Stephen Vladeck. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR correspondent Jasmine Garsd has taken several reporting trips to Florida recently, a state seeing some of the most aggressive immigration enforcement since President Trump took office again in January. She's spoken with children separated from their parents and reported on a new massive detention center in the state. For our weekly Reporter's Notebook series Garsd talks about how Florida is key to understanding what the future of immigration enforcement may look like. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

One of the narratives at the heart of President Trump's political movement is this: American society is dominated by a shadowy group of elites, and those elites are deeply corrupt. Nothing represented that theory more than the case of Jeffrey Epstein.He was a man most people had never heard of initially, with a private plane and a private island. Acquainted with the world's most powerful people: British royalty, U.S. presidents.A man who ultimately died in jail...by suicide, according to authorities... before the case against him went to trial. Epstein's case and his death bred skepticism and conspiracy theories – especially among supporters of Donald Trump.Now, some of Trump's most ardent supporters are attacking his Justice Department's decision not to release all of the files related to the Epstein case.Trump says nobody cares about Epstein. But his base won't let it go. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy