Trump's Midterm Travel, Ukraine Starshield Restrictions, Houthis Attack Aramco

President Trump campaigned in Arizona and Montana on Wednesday, two states he won in 2024. He's part of a midterm campaign tour through Republican territory. Why is the party playing defense on Trump's turf? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. Ukraine uses U.S. satellite technology to control its drones, technology that stopped working like it used to. Was the Trump administration trying to limit Ukraine's ability to fight Russia? Also, Houthis in Yemen say they're the ones who set part of Aramco's headquarters on fire, and they're threatening to attack more targets. How are Saudi Arabia's allies responding to escalating attacks? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. President Trump told people to vote as if he is on the ballot, and he's traveling as if he's on the ballot. And hello to the great state of Texas. Thank you. Thank you. Ohio, we love you. God bless you. So, ladies and gentlemen of Nebraska, special place. I love it. Three times. Three times the record. Thank you very much. Hello, Montana. We love you, Montana. We love you. The president's itinerary suggests how he or his advisors see the election. We just heard him in a series of red states, including some where Republicans are vulnerable. NPR. Our political correspondent, Tamara Keith, has been watching where the president goes and where he doesn't. Tam, good morning. Good morning. Okay. What are those stops? Tell us. Well, in some ways, it's what you'd expect to be happening in a year that is going to be tough for Republicans, a midterm with a president whose approval is in deeply negative territory. Other presidents in similar situations have really limited their travel to friendly territory. And for Trump, some of these recent stops have been to exceed. To exceedingly friendly territory, like Tennessee. These guys are all going to win. These congressmen are phenomenal. So, I'm saying, what the hell am I doing in Tennessee? And in a way, I'm here because you want to reward the places that have automatically treated you well. The places that are automatic, okay. But is there also a political logic for an unpopular president to be traveling to places where people still love him? I mean, he is saying that it's a thank you. Thank you, really. But, you know, most of these stops aren't just about feeling the warm embrace of an adoring rally crowd. The map of competitive House and Senate races includes a lot of states and districts Trump won by healthy margins just two years ago. Republicans are playing defense in Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, and now even Kansas. I caught Republican Party Chairman Joe Gruters on the phone yesterday from a Trump rally in Arizona. And he said Trump's team is picking locations where he can activate the Republican base. And those are places where he's done well in the past. It's turnout, turnout, turnout. How do you get the base to show up? You put the president on the ballot. You put him out there. Okay, he seems to be echoing the president's call to act as if Trump is on the ballot. Yeah, and President Trump really wants loyal MAGA voters to pretend he's on that ballot. But this seems to have its limits. I want to take you back to September 2nd. President Trump held a dinner in the White House Rose Garden for candidates in competitive races. And he pledged to spend the month before the election campaigning with all of them. I'm going to go to every one of those 35 places and we're going to see if we can get everyone elected. And there were about 30 candidates at that dinner. Since then, he's only campaigned with a handful of them. And this reflects both a shift in which races are competitive and the fact that there are a lot of places where, if Trump held a race, he would have won. If he held a rally, he'd do more to amp up the opposition than boost the base. Okay, does all this add up to a winning strategy? Well, it's certainly a novel theory that the president and his party are testing. Can they bring the 2024 electorate to the polls in 2026 when a lot of voters are upset about high prices and tariffs and the war with Iran and aggressive immigration tactics? And they blame President Trump for all of it. But Trump and his team just aren't testing this nearly as aggressively as he promised he would a few weeks ago. And, Piers Tamerkeith, thanks so much. You're welcome. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he will go back to attacking Russian oil refineries. That's something President Trump has asked him not to do. Zelensky told the Financial Times today that he held off briefly, but not anymore. That's the latest sign of a division between Trump and Ukraine. Another sign is in the skies over Ukraine. The satellite communications system the U.S. gives Ukraine suddenly faced crippling restrictions. NPR's Greg Myrie is following this. Greg, good morning. Hi, Steve. Okay, was the United States trying to limit Ukraine's ability to fight? Steve, no one is saying this explicitly, but given the evidence we have, that certainly seems to be the case. And we do have a new development this morning. Ukraine's defense ministry is saying that this satellite network is back and working as normal. And by way of explanation. Many people know the satellite communications system, Starlink. This is part of Elon Musk's empire. But there's also a military version called StarShield that he built for the U.S. government and military. The Pentagon shares this with Ukraine, which uses it to guide its drones. But yesterday, Ukraine discovered quite abruptly that the StarShield system had suddenly been greatly restricted. In what way? Ukraine said that when its drones exceed 100 miles an hour, they can't fly. administrative offices. And this company is the backbone of the Saudi economy, its main source of revenue. This attack is not just a hit on the nerve center of the Saudi economy, but it comes just days after the deadliest attack on the kingdom in more than a decade. The Houthis hit the airport in the capital Riyadh, killing more than a dozen and wounding hundreds, shutting down that airport since Saturday. Why are the Houthis choosing these targets according to them? So the Houthis who are backed by Iran say they were striking Aramco's offices in response to Saudi jets bombing an oil facility in Yemen's capital of Sana'a and other fuel sites Tuesday. And the Houthis and Saudis both say they struck each other's oil sites because they're used to support military operations. The Saudis are carrying out a major offensive with Yemeni government forces against the Houthis. And the Houthis say Saudi Arabia has launched more than 2,000 airstrikes on Yemen in past weeks, killing civilians. UN agencies say some 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in southern Yemen, with hundreds of thousands more losing access to aid because roads are cut off. So a lot of people are affected here. Is anyone trying to stop all this? Well, there are some regional countries trying to mediate, but there's no easy way out for Saudi Arabia. The Houthis have expanded control along the Red Sea in Yemen and are able to repeatedly hit Saudi oil refineries, gas fields, air bases, airports, and now Aramco's main offices. President Trump wrote on Truth Social after Tuesday's attacks that the Houthis are behaving very badly. And he says they're trying to drive up the oil prices before the U.S. midterm elections. But he hasn't committed to taking any specific action. And so the real question for Saudi Arabia is how to weather these various Gulf Wars. Saudi analyst Hisham Al-Ghannam told me Saudi Arabia is expanding its security ties with countries like Turkey and Pakistan right now, which are providing military support to Riyadh. But he says Riyadh also has to use diplomacy. This is especially crucial and true with Iran. So talking to Iran does not mean trusting Iran. It means keeping a channel open, in case there is a wider crisis. You know what? When trust is low, having this active channel can actually become more important. And Steve, on Sunday, we saw that channel being used. The Saudi and Iranian foreign minister said they spoke by phone about the recent escalations, but there is still no sign of a truce on the horizon. Okay. And Perzia Batraoui in Dubai, thanks so much. Thanks, Steve. You know, we'd like to invite you to watch a new special report called Michelle Martin, Going There, A Matter of Life and Death. Michelle sat down with prominent experts and folks who offered very personal insights about the rising suicide rate among black Americans and who dispelled some of the myths around this. You can watch the full conversation on NPR's YouTube page. And that's Up First for this Thursday, October 15th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Megan Pratt, Andrew Sussman, Tina Kriah, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and also Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Ben Abrams. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. We hope you'll join us again tomorrow. Thank you.