AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
President Trump is in Asia this week, leaving behind a government shutdown and a demolition site at the White House. The East Wing has been torn down to make room for something Trump says he really wants - a new massive ballroom.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Sir, this is the White House. You're the president of the United States. You can do anything you want.
RASCOE: That's Trump earlier this month on what advisers told him about making this project happen. Joining me now is NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
RASCOE: So before we get into the Asia trip, you saw the White House up close this week. What are you going to miss about the East Wing?
LIASSON: The East Wing was beautiful and historic. It was a magical way to enter the White House for a Christmas party or another event. But that clip you just played, where Trump was talking to donors at a dinner to thank them for the funds to make his ballroom dreams come true, pretty much sums up his approach to power. He says, when you're president of the United States, you can do anything you want, and this is what he wants to do.
RASCOE: Well, another thing he wants to do is finalize trade deals with Japan and South Korea this week and make a deal with China's leader, Xi Jinping. The two are set to meet at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. How hard will it be for Trump to get an agreement with Xi?
LIASSON: It could be hard. This is the most high-stakes meeting Trump has had this term, with the potential to benefit the U.S. economy or make it worse. And China is a very powerful interlocuter. As Trump would say, China has a lot of cards, and they've been playing them - refusing to sell raw earth materials, not buying any soybeans from the United States.
And on Air Force One on his way to Asia, Trump said, they'll have to make concessions, and we will, too. And the big question is, which concessions will Trump make? Will he let China buy more advanced semiconductor chips, which some national security experts say would be dangerous? Or would he say the U.S. opposes Taiwanese independence? China wants that. He's already held up a $400 million arms package to Taiwan. And what would he get in exchange? Would China start buying soybeans again? Would it resume rare earth material trade?
And today on - this week on ABC, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said what he thinks will happen - what will be in a deal - he said that China had, quote, "threatened to put a global exporting license regime on rare earths", and he said, I believe they are going to delay that for a year while they reexamine it. Now, the Chinese readout of that meeting between Bessent and Chinese officials did not say there would be a delay in the rare earth pause. So we don't have any details yet.
RASCOE: Trump has been focused on foreign relations lately. And he did something unexpected last week. He put sanctions on two Russian oil companies. What more can you tell us about why Trump decided to do this now?
LIASSON: He decided to do it 'cause he was frustrated with Vladimir Putin. This is the first time in this term that he's done anything to pressure Russia other than just rhetorically. Sanctions will hurt the Russian economy, but they're not as powerful as Tomahawk missiles. That's what Ukraine wanted from the U.S., and the president appears to have ruled that out.
RASCOE: I wanted to ask you about the redistricting push President Trump kicked off this year by getting Texas to redraw its maps to favor Republicans. Now it looks like Virginia lawmakers are holding a special session tomorrow to talk about redrawing its congressional maps to favor Democrats.
LIASSON: That's right. Trump really kicked of a kind of cycle of tit for tat in partisan gerrymandering. California Democrats already are taking their redistricting plans to voters. Illinois and Maryland, two more blue states, are considering options to give Democrats more advantages. And that follows successful Republican efforts to redraw maps in North Carolina and Missouri. More red states are going to do the same.
And I think all of this could mean that this mid-decade redistricting or partisan gerrymandering becomes a new normal. And in this game, the Republican party has the advantage because they control more governorships and state houses in the same state and because Republican voters are sprinkled more efficiently for electoral purposes throughout the heartland. Democratic voters tend to be more clustered inefficiently for electoral purposes in urban areas and along the coast, so they are much easier to gerrymander.
RASCOE: OK, today is the 26th day of the government shutdown. That's the other big thing happening. And still no movement toward negotiations. This is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history. What are your thoughts?
LIASSON: I have never covered a shutdown where both sides sincerely believe they have the political advantage. One of them has to be wrong. Polls show more voters do blame Republicans for the shutdown. They are the party in power, but the Republicans are confident that they can pin this on the Democrats.
As far as where do we go from here, there is no more center anymore in Congress. There's no kind of overlap between a group of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans. In the past, that's where deals were hashed out between the parties. The only solution now is if President Trump calls Democrats to the White House for negotiations, but he says he is not going to do that until they vote to open the government.
RASCOE: That's NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Thank you, Mara.
LIASSON: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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