Trump's Economic D-Day For Iran, Gulf Allies React To US Plan, SCOTUS Mail-in Voting

**Michel Martin** (0:02)
The White House's plan to hit Iran's economy landed softer than expected.

**Leila Fadel** (0:06)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessette announced 60 new sanction targets, then gave everyone a window to comply. He didn't even mention China, Iran's biggest oil buyer.

**Michel Martin** (0:14)
I'm Michelle Martin, that's Leila Fadel, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump needs other countries to fall in line with his economic pressure campaign on Iran. The UAE has already cut ties. Will others follow suit?

**Leila Fadel** (0:29)
And the Supreme Court handed President Trump a temporary win in his fight against mail-in voting. The court let Trump move ahead with an executive order. Voting by mail is still an option nationwide, but the legal fight is continuing with the midterms coming soon. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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**Leila Fadel** (1:59)
The Trump administration called it the economic D-Day for Iran, but unlike the surprise US landing in France during World War II, this D-Day was more of a warning to countries that sanctions are coming.

**Michel Martin** (2:11)
Here's how Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it in his news conference Monday.

**Scott Bessent** (2:15)
We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?

**Michel Martin** (2:23)
The Trump administration has struggled to find an exit ramp to the war against Iran. Now it's trying to step up the financial pressure instead.

**Leila Fadel** (2:30)
Joining us to talk about this is NPR's diplomatic correspondent, Michelle Kalomin. Good morning, Michelle.

**Michele Kelemen** (2:35)
Good morning, Leila.

**Leila Fadel** (2:36)
Okay, so the Trump administration calls this operation economic outcast. What's the plan here?

**Michele Kelemen** (2:42)
I mean, the US wants to make the choices clear to Iran. It's either economic isolation and a subsistence economy or a path back to normal relations with the world. But the trouble is there are a lot of gray areas and that's what Besant is trying to deal with. He's warning countries that the US knows how Iran is evading sanctions. He says the Treasury Department, and these are his words, have mapped every node, every facilitator, every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions. And now the US is looking at Iran's dealings in cryptocurrency, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The Treasury Secretary says no country or business is above the reach of US sanctions. Take a listen.

**Scott Bessent** (3:27)
We know who they are.
They know who they are. So when the hammer of US. Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

**Michele Kelemen** (3:38)
He announced sanctions on 60 entities and individuals, but didn't say when that hammer of broader sanctions might hit major banks, for instance, in countries that continue to do business with Iran.

**Leila Fadel** (3:51)
Now, he didn't single out China, Iran's biggest customer for oil or other countries in public, right? Why not?

**Michele Kelemen** (3:57)
Yeah, I mean, he said President Trump is having private diplomatic conversations with world leaders about all of this. And of course, China's President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the White House next month. And China views the US sanctions as illegal.
The Trump administration did add some Chinese companies to the blacklist, but it's not clear how far the Trump administration is really gonna push China ahead of Xi's visit. You know, most of this is really just a rebranded sanctions campaign at the moment.

**Leila Fadel** (4:27)
We're nearly six months into the US-Israeli war against Iran, it will be six months at the end of the week. So why this big talk about new economic pressure now?

**Michele Kelemen** (4:36)
Yeah, I mean, the war has lasted much longer than President Trump initially predicted. And remember when he started the war, he was telling Iranians who had been protesting the regime that soon they're gonna be able to take over their country and set a new course. But months later, we're seeing a hardened Iranian regime. It's been striking US assets across the region in allied Gulf states, and now threatening again to block all oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz.