Trump says Russia, Ukraine peace talks to begin 'immediately' | The Excerpt
On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: What's next for Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations? Paste BN Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page discusses how former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis is landing in Washington. President Donald Trump signs a 'revenge porn' ban alongside First Lady Melania Trump. Paste BN Supreme Court Correspondent Maureen Groppe explains what a Supreme Court decision stripping more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants of temporary protected status will functionally mean. The family of Ashli Babbitt, a January 6 rioter killed in the 2021 Capitol attack will get $5 million from the Trump administration. Bono talks about his revealing new film in a sitdown with Paste BN. Today is National Dog Rescue Day. Check out our recent episode on dog rescuer Niall Harbison who has saved 80,000 dogs and counting. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, President Donald Trump is optimistic about Russia-Ukraine peace talks after a call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Plus how former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis is landing in Washington this week. And the Supreme Court lets Trump strip hundreds of thousands of migrants of protected status for now.
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President Donald Trump said after a two-hour call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that peace talks would begin immediately following their discussion. Trump said on social media that he believed the call went very well, and he said that both Russia and Ukraine would start negotiations toward a ceasefire. Trump added that Pope Leo XIV offered to host the talks at the Vatican. Putin said that Trump noted Russia's support for peace though the key question was how to move toward that. Trump has pressured both sides to accept a ceasefire and peace deal to end a war that began in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. Zelenskyy backs a 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has said he first wants talks to review details of a possible truce.
The two countries already held negotiations last week in Turkey, marking the first time the two sides engaged in talks since the early weeks of the war. They agreed to a prisoner swap and continued discussions though Putin sent a second-tier team of negotiators to the peace talks, rejecting Zelenskyy's challenge to meet in person. Despite tensions with Zelenskyy weeks ago, Trump more recently has shown increasing impatience with Putin and threatened additional sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have met directly with Zelenskyy during trips to Rome over the past month. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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Former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis has led to a surge of sympathy across the political world, but also some more complicated reactions and difficult questions. I spoke with Paste BN Washington bureau chief Susan Page for more. Hello, Susan.
Susan Page:
Hey Taylor.
Taylor Wilson:
What do we know as of now about former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis?
Susan Page:
Well, we know it's a very serious one. It's a stage four prostate cancer. It's metastasized to his bones and he is 82 years old, so this is not good news.
Taylor Wilson:
How did President Donald Trump and the Trump family respond to this news? And I know the president's son, Don Jr. Mentioned a potential coverup here. That language caught my ear. What can you tell us about how that conversation is playing out this week?
Susan Page:
Well, President Trump's been relentlessly critical of Joe Biden, but he was one of the early voices out there after the diagnosis was released with his good wishes, his best wishes for Joe Biden. That was followed by his son, Donald Trump Jr. Who posted a message that suggested there had been a coverup conspiracy and that mocked Jill Biden. Jill Biden has a doctorate in education and she likes to be called Dr. Biden, but of course she's not a medical doctor. And Donald Trump Jr.'s post also made some fun of her for not catching this diagnosis earlier.
The Vice President JD Vance was talking to reporters on Air Force Two, and he said that at some point there needs to be a conversation about whether Joe Biden was capable of doing his job. Now that lines up with the allegations that there was some coverup by the innermost circle at the White House around Joe Biden to keep Americans from really knowing what was happening with his health. And this is something that's dealt with in a new book out Tuesday by two reporters, Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper called Original Sin, which takes a very tough view of Biden's final years in the White House.
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of how this news is landing with Democrats and some of Biden's major allies, we know that Democrats were already facing questions recently about Biden's health while he was in office. What's the latest on that side of the coin?
Susan Page:
So of course there's a surge of compassion for Joe Biden and sympathy for the medical situation he finds himself in. There's no question about that. There's a lot of good feeling for him. On the other hand, there's also some anger, especially among Democrats who think he should not have tried to seek a second term. If he hadn't, the outcome of the 2024 election they think might have been different after a kind of full-fledged Democratic primary that would end up with another nominee. So feelings about Joe Biden, they're pretty complicated at the moment.
Taylor Wilson:
While I have you, Susan, what do we know about President Trump's health? We do know, of course, that he's turning 79 next month. Are there any indicators, at least over the last few months of how he's doing?
Susan Page:
There used to be a tradition where presidential nominees released a lot of medical information about themselves. That last time that happened was in 2008. So that is a practice that has ended, and we have some information about President Trump's health, but not much and not kind of the full-fledged disclosure that was once considered common and expected among presidents and presidential candidates.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Susan Page is Paste BN's Washington bureau chief. Thank you, Susan.
Susan Page:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Two months after First Lady Melania Trump spoke up in support of banning the publication of sexually explicit images and videos without a person's consent, President Donald Trump signed legislation doing just that yesterday. Addressing the audience made up of victims of revenge porn, members of Congress and cabinet secretaries, the First Lady called the new law a national victory. The law will require technology platforms to remove reported non-consensual sexually exploitative images within 48 hours of receiving a valid request. Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced the legislation in August.
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The Supreme Court yesterday said the Trump administration can move to strip more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants of temporary protected status. I caught up with Paste BN Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Groppe to discuss what that means for the migrants and what might happen next. Maureen, always a pleasure. Thanks for joining me.
Maureen Groppe:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Really, what did the court decide here Maureen?
Maureen Groppe:
In March, a federal district judge in California put the brakes on the administration's termination of this program while the courts decide if the administration can in fact end it the way that they did. And so what the Supreme Court did was they essentially overturned that decision, they took off that pause that the judge had put on the administration. So that means that the administration can move forward for now with ending this program, but the underlying challenge to the termination, that does get to continue. And there's in fact, the judge in that case said that he's going to have a hearing at the end of the month on May 29th about what the next steps are.
Taylor Wilson:
Is there now a formal deportation plan for those 300,000 people? What does this mean for them?
Maureen Groppe:
Well, attorneys for the migrants said the Supreme Court's order is very unclear. In fact, one of them called it "Impossible to understand," just this two paragraph order. So the attorneys say they're going to have to wait to see how the Trump administration interprets those two paragraphs and what it means in terms of exactly when the program participants' legal status is terminated and when they can be deported.
Taylor Wilson:
So Maureen, I mean, I would guess that ICE might have names and addresses for many of these hundreds of thousands of folks. What could that mean in terms of the deportation process?
Maureen Groppe:
Yeah, according to my colleague who covers immigration, the government has the biographical information and addresses of all the participants. So it makes it easier for them to deport them when they're ready to do that.
Taylor Wilson:
Is there any way, Maureen, for TPS recipient migrants to fight this?
Maureen Groppe:
Yes, and the lawyers for these participants said that they are continuing to fight this. As I said, the Supreme Court's order didn't stop the underlying litigation, and because they didn't give an explanation for the decision, we don't know what that legal reasoning is and whether that will affect the underlying challenge. The reason could be fatal to their underlying challenge, but it could not be. We just don't know because they didn't spell it out. But the lawyers for the Venezuelans were clearly disappointed with their ruling, even if they don't fully know the long-term impacts.
Taylor Wilson:
Maureen, can we talk through the economics here a bit? I mean, what impact do these folks really have economically on the country writ large?
Maureen Groppe:
Well, the federal judge who initially paused the administration's attempt to end this program said in his ruling that the program participants have a higher education on average than most Americans, they have a high rate of labor participation. He said they are contributing billions to the economy through their jobs and by spending their wages and by paying taxes. And a call that alliance for these migrants had after the order came out, one of the program participants, her name is Cecilia Gonzalez. She is a student at the University of Central Florida, and she wanted to make the point that she and other Venezuelans who are benefiting from this program are not criminals. She said, "We're students, teachers, healthcare workers, small business owners." She said, "We're survivors who are looking for some shelter for safety and opportunities in this country, and we all deserve the chance to thrive without the fear of being sent back to danger."
Taylor Wilson:
All right, lots still to come here. Maureen Groppe covers the Supreme Court for Paste BN. Thanks, Maureen.
Maureen Groppe:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
The Trump administration will pay nearly $5 million to the estate of Ashli Babbitt, a pro-Trump rioter, who was killed by law enforcement after invading the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. That's according to reports yesterday from the Washington Post and CNN. U.S. Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd shot and killed 35-year-old Babbitt as members of Congress were still in the lobby after Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol to try to stop congressional certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. The settlement comes after Trump granted clemency to some 1,500 defendants who faced charges for their alleged and in many instances, convicted roles in the attack. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told Paste BN that he is extremely disappointed and disagrees with the settlement. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Paste BN's request for comment, nor did a lawyer for the right-leaning group Judicial Watch who represented the Babbitt estate.
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As the Cannes Film Festival continues this week in France, one notable musician has been preparing for his film to premiere.
Bono:
Insecurity is your best security if you're a performer because you need the audience and the audience permissioned me here to go all the way.
Taylor Wilson:
Bono, the iconic frontman of rock band U2, sat down with my colleague, national music writer Melissa Ruggieri, for a candid conversation about his insecurities as a performer, what he's learned about the audience's needs and his complicated relationship with his father. After Cannes, his film, Bono: Stories of Surrender is set to debut on Apple+ at the end of this month. You can watch part of his conversation with Melissa using the link in today's show notes.
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And today is National Rescue Dog Day. Be sure to check out our episode about a man's work rescuing street dogs from earlier this month.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. If you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.