Trump's Busy Week, Hit Song's Extreme Themes, Wagner Group's Africa Aims

Oh, but that's a sign of good cooking.

That's what I'm told anyway.

Intensive. Lots of smoke.

Maybe got one of those hood fans over the-

So, I mean, you should really try my hood.

They're just so sensitive.

You can start off.

I'm like, all right, gotta air this out.

Why are your windows open?

My meals are delicious with a tinge of charcoal.

I'm kidding, I'm a great cook-ish.

Donald Trump posed for a mugshot and dodged a debate

and sat for an interview on social media.

so what will it mean for his campaign?

and this is Up First from NPR News.

A musician who seemed to have come out of nowhere

has a number one song that some extremists may like.

that they might normally not have access to.

before his presumed death

was to recruit for operations in Africa.

Will the Wagner group's influence continue to grow there?

Stay with us, we have the news you need to start your day.

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people are having with chatbots.

Technologies that say, I care about you, I love you,

I'm here for you, take care of me.

The pros and cons of artificial intimacy.

That's on the TED Radio Hour from NPR.

to posing for a historic mugshot,

a shot heard around the world, if you will,

former President Donald Trump has had a busy week.

made a case for themselves,

although most avoided direct criticism of the front runner

they, in theory, are trying to catch.

Trump spun his own narrative in an interview on X,

the former Twitter, and then last night,

he was booked on 13 felony counts

related to election interference in Georgia.

covers the four-time indicted former president

as well as the president currently in the Oval Office,

and he's here to unpack Trump's week and the weeks ahead.

Good morning, Franco.

topped off with a mugshot, as we mentioned.

What were the highs and the lows?

Although I guess I can guess the low there.

the best week for Trump at all.

I mean, you can make the case that he made the right move

skipping the debate, and tens of millions of people

also watched his interview

with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

It really was a defiant act of counter-programming

where he attacked several of his Republican rivals on stage,

also President Biden and Fox News itself.

I mean, he argued that it was not worth it to debate

when he was so far ahead.

But all this, the debate, his interview,

was really, really overshadowed,

but as you guys were saying, his Georgia indictment

and the trip he took to the Fulton County jail yesterday

to turn himself in.

the sets of fingerprints,

he's still in the lead for the GOP nomination.

Can anything shake his support

within the Republican voting base?

I mean, at the debate, as Steve was saying,

his top rivals really continued to largely stay away

from directly attacking him, and those who tried were booed.

I mean, any line of support for Trump was widely cheered.

I will note, though, that most on stage backed Pence

for his actions on January 6th,

saying he did the right thing

and rejecting Trump's efforts to get him

to stop the certification of the vote.

and a booking in Georgia,

what's coming up for Trump in the weeks ahead?

Last night, we covered the trip to the jail.

He got the mugshot, as you noted.

And, you know, this is just one of four indictments.

The first hearing related to January 6th

is on Monday on federal charges,

and he's not stopping run for president.

I mean, within hours, his Super PAC

was circulating his mugshot to stoke support and raise money.

And apparently, he's returned to Twitter,

or as it's X, as it's called now, posting his mugshot.

It's the first time he's posted in more than two years.

this was playing before the candidates even spoke.

These rich men north of Richmond,

Lord knows they all just want to have total control.

He is the first musician ever of any genre

to top the Billboard 100 chart

without making the list beforehand.

That is how quickly his fame has risen.

His song takes the perspective of a working man

who thinks the rich take advantage of him.

That's a familiar theme in country and all sorts of music.

The song also nods to some conspiracy theories,

which has caught the attention of experts on extremism.

is NPR's domestic extremism correspondent, Odette Youssef.

Good morning, Odette.

I wish politicians would look out for minors,

that's minors with an E,

and not just minors on an island somewhere.

And that second minors is with an O.

And this is a reference to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

And Lila, you'll recall that Epstein was a sexual predator

who died in jail in 2019.

But the far right continues to circulate conspiracy theories

about the circumstances of his death.

And Anthony appears to nod to elements

of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory

that claims that powerful elites are sex trafficking children

in some of his other online content.

So it's really remarkable to hear these ideas

in a song that's topping the charts.

And it's concerning to people

who study the spread of conspiracy theories

and extremist ideologies.

I mean, this is a song.

Lots of people may simply like it for its musical qualities.

How can it play a role in spreading extremism?

He's with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

And he says political movements

always look for cultural artifacts like music or movies

that can help popularize their ideas.

But the problem here is that the song has been seized on

by some far right influencers,

some of whom peddle antisemitism and transphobia.

in associating themselves directly with this song,

it could potentially open up a wider audience

that they might normally not have access to all the time.

latching onto the song to boost their own profiles.

But is there concern that the song itself

could actually turn listeners into conspiracy theorists?

helps to normalize it.

Michael Crenshaw saw this

when he was a black anti-racist skinhead

in Chicago 40 years ago.

He said that racist music from the UK

played a role in shifting the attitudes

of people around him.

or they would have a screwdriver shirt on.

And sometimes they would still be nice to me.

And so then I would have to sit there and figure out like,

this dude listens to music

that talks about killing my people,

but he's still acting like everything's okay.

but if we continue to see these messages

mainstreamed over time, it could shift people's beliefs.

And I'll note Layla, NPR did reach out

asking to speak with Oliver Anthony,

but received no response.

Thank you.

what happened to a Russian mercenary leader.

General Pat Ryder is at the Pentagon

where intelligence analysts have observed

the plane crash that involved Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Days before his death, he released a video

that talked about recruiting strong men

for operations in Africa.

So what is his Wagner group doing there?

joins us from Lagos.

Good morning, Emmanuel.

in a handful of African countries,

and they've become key there providing support

for some fragile states.

But since the failed mutiny a few months ago,

there's been various interviews,

various clips of Prigozhin.

Many of them are hard to verify,

but they show us what Wagner was trying to project

about Africa and this continent being

increasingly important to them going forward.

This video was released by telegram channels

linked to Wagner in the last week,

and in it, Prigozhin implied he was in Africa,

that Wagner was making Russia great around the world

and making Africa more free in his words.

But of course, that was before this incident this week.

what is the likely future of Wagner in Africa,

if we know at all, and the potential impact

on countries where these private soldiers operate?

but it's not clear yet.

What we know is that in the last few years,

this group has become more powerful

in the Central African Republic, in Mali,

and then to a lesser extent, maybe Libya and Sudan.

In the Central African Republic,

they've helped secure the government there,

fighting rebel groups, and in exchange,

they've taken control of key mineral resources.

And rights groups have documented

systematic rights abuses and killings by Wagner there.

And a government official from CAR recently,

he lamented Prigozhin's death,

but said their partnership was primarily with Russia.

So you can infer that Russia's going to determine

if and how things change there.

of the Wagner group in Africa to Russia?

in the case of Mali, for example.

You know, Mali kicked out French troops

that had been there since 2013

to fight Islamist insurgency,

but they were deeply unpopular,

you know, accused of killings too,

at a wedding by the UN, which France denied.

But when France became isolated from the West,

and it relied on Russia and, by extension,

Wagner to fill that gap.

So Wagner mercenaries help it to exploit

the withdrawal of French troops

that has happened in Mali, in Burkina Faso,

and now, likely, in Niger.

And this, by definition, helps Russia expand,

try to expand its influence in this part of Africa.

I'm Layla Fulden.

Up First is produced by Monsey Karana

and Claire Murashima.

Our editors are Megan Pratts, Tara Neal,

Michael Sullivan, Andrew Sussman,

Jan Johnson, and Alice Wolfley.

Our director is Lily Quiroz,

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Our executive producer is Erika Aguilar.

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