Megan Basham
Appearances
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
Yeah, I would say there's no question that's what he's doing. So, you know, he was actually pretty transparent in his announcement that he sees the 2024 election as a message from the American people that this is a new era and that they want to see a return to free speech principles.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
He said that he plans to work with President Trump to push back on governments in Europe that are passing censorship laws and regulations. And he noted that the Biden administration actually worked against that effort during their tenure. And then he offered something of a mea culpa for letting his platforms become a big part of the problem.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
Now, part of that simplification is community notes that allow for crowdsourced fact checks that simply add corrections or context to the bottom of posts rather than removing them or deemphasizing them. Zuckerberg also says that they're gonna be promoting civic content again, so political content, because he believes that people do wanna see that.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
And he said that the platforms are also going to get rid of some restrictions on hot button topics like immigration and gender in order to allow more opinions to be expressed. And then this was a really interesting one. He said they'll be moving the content moderation team from California to Texas to help draw from a less biased talent pool.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
Yeah, I think so. I think what we're seeing, as my kids might call it, is a pretty clear vibe shift from Meta. So first we saw Zuckerberg donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration. And then Meta announced it was replacing its policy chief, Nick Clegg, who previously worked in British politics on the political left with a known conservative, Joe Kaplan.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
who just last month appeared at the New York Stock Exchange with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Trump. And then, this is a biggie, on Monday, Meta announced that major Trump booster Dana White would be joining the board. So with all of this and the Community Notes announcement, pretty clear Zuckerberg's not being shy and publicly trying to ingratiate himself with the new administration.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
Yes, definitely. And some are saying that, look, this is all well and good, but they do still want to see some real accountability for Meta's past censorship. One example is Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro, who celebrated the prospect of the change that's coming. But he did also stress that we actually need to see more than talk from Meta.
Morning Wire
Meta Curbs Censorship & Trump's Second Term Plans | 1.8.25
Molly Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist, also weighed in on X on Tuesday, demanding accountability for what Meta has done over the last eight years.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Yeah, I would say what's going on, Georgia, is that the rumors of Christianity's death have been greatly exaggerated because what we're seeing is some new information and data out of the Pew Research Center showing that Christianity has actually seen a 12% uptick, since 2022, and that's coming from both Catholics and Protestants.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
In some dioceses, we're seeing as much of a rise as 72% in converts from 2023 to 2024. Meanwhile, when we look at Protestantism, particularly those evangelical and non-denominational branches, they're up 14% overall. And as we heard there at the start of the show,
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
You're hearing pastors like Greg Laurie, who are the pastors of mega churches in California even, saying that they are seeing record levels of attendance and baptisms.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Yeah, the same trend is playing out in Western Europe, particularly Germany, France, Italy, Spain. Germany is reporting a 15% increase in Catholic conversions and a 10% surge in Protestant affiliations, especially among those Pentecostals and Baptists. Catholic pilgrimages like the Charter Pilgrimage in France, that has seen record attendance, over 15,000 participants last year.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
And you know what's really interesting about this, Georgia, is that it's not coming from older generations who are just returning to church. It's actually coming from young adults. So even in places like Silicon Valley that are known for their secularism, we're suddenly seeing reports of young tech people returning to church, embracing Christianity.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Vanity Fair recently did a lengthy story on this, on the tech titans that are adjoining churches. This is what Will Minitis, founder and CEO of medical AI company Science.io, recently told the Technology Daily podcast.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Yeah, so a lot of sociologists are pointing to what they call a post-secular moment. Essentially, what they say is that a lot of people are feeling unmoored by the rapid pace of political changes that we had seen in recent years. And also, part of this is coming from the fact that we're seeing a rise in conservatism, and conservatives tend to be more religious.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
So as the country has turned to the right, we're seeing something of a more muscular movement. public form of Christianity. And I would also say that for countries like France and England, and also the US to some degree, you have a lot of citizens who feel that their cultures are being erased by mass immigration.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
And so this is perhaps a way to try to reshore up that Christian character of their countries. And what's interesting is that statistically what's driving this is young men. They are really the ones who are embracing church. And that reverses a decades long trend, really since time immemorial where women were more religious. So really fascinating that now it's young men.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Sociologist Dr. Ryan Berg, who's known as an expert in this area, has written that young men are rejecting the feminization of liberal churches in particular. And they're seeking the traditional worship of more conservative churches.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
Josh Abatoy, executive director of American Reformer, which is a Protestant journal that describes its mission as reinvigorating Christianity in America, told me that he is seeing unprecedented engagement from young men.
Morning Wire
Danger in the Sky & Christianity Grows | 5.7.25
And to his point there, a 2023 report from the Baptist World Alliance noted a 12% rise in Germany with young men specifically citing the appeal of biblical authority.
Morning Wire
NSA Chat Crackdown & Bondi Warns Maine | Afternoon Update | 2.26.25
In a statement, Bezos said the paper will cover other topics too, but he said viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. Now, despite some backlash, Bezos doubled down on that stance, stating, "'I'm confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.
Morning Wire
NSA Chat Crackdown & Bondi Warns Maine | Afternoon Update | 2.26.25
I'm excited for us together to fill that void.'" The move, however, has sparked outrage from left-leaning readers and staff, including the resignation of the Post's current opinion editor.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
Well, I'll tell you, Georgia, Rubio is not being shy in billing this as an aggressive reform plan. In a department-wide email, he called the State Department bloated and beholden to a radical political ideology. And he said that because of this, he aims to reduce the agency's U.S.-based staff by 15%. and cut the number of offices from 734 to 602. That's a 17% reduction.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce addressed the cuts in a press conference on Tuesday.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
Now, there's also one addition in this plan. Rubio proposes a new Bureau of Emerging Threats, and that's going to focus on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. As far as implementation goes, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said an internal working group is going to develop thoughtful plans by July 1st. But we do want to note that there are some hurdles here.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
Some of these changes may require congressional approval. And a preliminary budget proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget that bolsters Rubio's plan by cutting the State Department's funding by 15%, well, that isn't likely to pass Congress. Hmm.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
Yeah, we do. Primarily it's offices like the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which Rubio has criticized for promoting left wing agendas in countries like Poland and Hungary. Specifically, he's argued that they advanced LGBTQ and gender-related initiatives, often undermining the democratic will of more conservative people in those countries.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
And he's also targeting the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. There, he's arguing that it funneled taxpayer dollars to NGOs that facilitated mass migration, including at the U.S. southern border. Rubio said in a new State Department substack that these bureaus have been misused to push policies misaligned with national priorities.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
And he says that for the sake of efficiency, the goal is to refocus diplomacy on greater power competition and consolidate those region-specific functions of the embassies into regional bureaus.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
And all of this, you have to say, is very much in line with President Trump's America First foreign policy vision in that it follows the administration's efforts to downsize these federal agencies and keep resources in the U.S.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
During the press conference Monday, Bruce said that abolishing and absorbing USAID into the State Department was the first step in this kind of streamlining, and now they're simply moving forward in the same spirit. Hmm.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
I would say that's developing. There hasn't been a lot of chatter so far. Some analysts are saying this is going to alienate career diplomats. Some Democrats are saying that these moves will diminish the US's influence abroad. But we're also hearing that some are breathing sighs of relief because they were expecting even deeper cuts after a draft executive order circulated last weekend.
Morning Wire
US India Trade Deal & Rubio Revamps State Dept | 4.23.25
That document proposed slashing entire bureaus like African Affairs and closing embassies across sub-Saharan Africa. But Rubio said that was all fake news. So the current plan is less drastic than that was. And Bruce stressed that no one is being fired immediately and they're going to be carefully looking at the best ways to cut.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
Well, you know, there's a number of data points driving this story. And I think we should start with the fact that since Trump took office, 75,000 federal workers have already taken the buyout that he was offering. And around 10,000 have been directly terminated. And then, of course, Trump has tasked Elon Musk with eliminating many more government jobs through Doge.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
So a lot more cuts are expected. And in that time, real estate watchers say that a huge number of new homes have flooded the market in and around DC where a high concentration of these federal workers live. So in the DC Metro itself, around 4,000 new homes have been listed for sale in the last 30 days. And that's well above average by nearly 25%.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
Now, if you drill down on the Virginia suburbs, that picture is even more striking. There, some areas like Fairfax and Alexandria are even seeing a 60 to 70% increase in year over year listings. And you have to keep in mind, yeah, that this is during the winter months in a housing market that has historically seen low supply.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
So according to Redfin data, the median selling price in the area is down 20% from November to February. Now, of course, some experts will say that that is cyclical. Homes don't move as much in this quarter. But even if you look back at last January compared to this January, you still find that the median price is down nearly 9%.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
And Redfin has also found that buyers in DC are tending to sit on the sidelines. So for the first month of 2025, pending sales were down 6%. And there's now more than five months of housing supply in D.C., which is the most that that market's seen in six years since before the pandemic, in other words. And overall, you've got Redfin agents saying that the D.C. market is in chaos right now. Right.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
But a lot of it is anecdotal. We have Redfin agents reporting that this is what clients are telling them. And then also looking at the timing of these market changes. And that's what has a lot of investing companies paying attention.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
Market analysts with the Kobesi letter, for example, have said that what they're seeing in DC is an unprecedented level of selling in a generally strong housing market. And because of that, they noted that Trump's plans to further cut waste are likely to ramp this trend up. And then you also have another research firm, John Burns Research and Consulting, which specializes in housing data.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
And it's advising its clients that the D.C. housing market is already showing signs of hesitancy and they too are citing those federal layoffs. Now, of course, that said, you do have some local real estate agents telling outlets that they don't believe that anything unusual is happening here and that it's too soon to tell that Trump's layoffs are driving these market shifts.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
Well, there's some evidence suggesting that it's quite a number of the highly paid ones. So the Kobisi letter also noted a surge in new listings above a million dollars. And maybe a related data point, right after Trump's election, WikiLeaks found that Google searches in D.C. for terms like Swiss bank and offshore bank skyrocketed.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
So I don't know about you, John, but I have personally never been in the earnings bracket where I needed to look for information like that.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Seek Peace & DC’s Housing Market Chaos | 2.19.25
You know, it's not clear yet, but certainly researchers like at John Burns are on the lookout for that. They particularly pointed to California, Texas, and Florida, because those are areas that also have a high number of federal workers.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
Well, you know, one, I think they have the political winds at their backs as trust in the media is at an all-time low. So you have a lot of Americans who are sympathetic to the idea that we don't need to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on these entities that a lot of people view as very biased. President Trump specifically accused NPR of being a mouthpiece for the radical left.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
So he's calling on Republicans in Congress to introduce legislation that rescinds the funds that had been previously approved.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
Well, I think that the congressional hearings that were held three weeks ago provided plenty of fodder for why people are saying that. So during questioning of NPR CEO Catherine Maher, we learned that all 87, meaning 100% of NPR's board, are registered Democrats. And then Maher was also asked to defend some of her public statements.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
Have a listen to this exchange with Congressman Tim Burchette of Tennessee.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
She also acknowledged what she called mistakes in NPR's coverage. Now, as for whether this rescission proposal goes through, that's always a tough sell. And there will be a real uphill battle to get it through both the House and the Senate. So if you're betting, I guess it's not going to make it. But, you know, you never know with Trump.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
Yeah, sure. So the administration froze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard after the university refused demands to overhaul its policies. And the White House is saying that a total of $9 billion in funding could ultimately be on the table.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
The White House also, through its Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, claims Harvard hasn't done enough to address antisemitism tied to radical anti-Israel and pro-Hamas campus protests. They demanded changes like banning face masks, which a lot of the protesters wear, and enforcing merit-based rather than race-based admissions. Harvard's president, Alan Garber, is rejecting this.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
He's calling it a violation of First Amendment rights and academic freedom. And he put out a statement saying, no government, regardless of which party is in power, should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue. But... In the meantime, a lawsuit from the American Association of University Professors is pending.
Morning Wire
Judge Blocks Deportation Effort & Federal Funding Fights | 4.16.25
So, you know, we're going to see if this survives a challenge in court.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
You know, Georgia, what I can tell you is that the atmosphere so far at the Combs trial has been explosive. Some of the details that have been offered are extremely not safe for work. I think I could safely say that this is the most X-rated trial that I've ever followed.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
So, you know, I do want to warn parents, if you have kids in earshot right now, you might want to put the show on pause before I get into it. But just some details. Inside the courtroom, these prosecutors painted a very dark picture. They alleged that Combs used his fame, his wealth, his multimedia empire.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
to coerce and threaten women and prostitutes into this decade-long scheme involving sex trafficking and violence. They claim that he lured these women with promises of romance or career opportunities, only to then force them into what the prosecutors are calling freak-offs.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
And essentially what they are is sexual performances that are drug-fueled involving male prostitutes, sometimes recorded in order to blackmail the people who participated in it. And they say that it was particularly during these freak offs when Combs would abuse the women in his life, including his former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
Yeah, so Combs is facing five felony counts. He has one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of transportation for prostitution. So if convicted, he could face life in prison, but he will at least face a minimum of 15 years for those sex trafficking charges alone.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
And the prosecutors are presenting, I would call it, a very compelling argument so far. On Monday, they played the full video of that viral 2016 tape that was leaked that showed Combs beating up and dragging Ventura by the hair in a hotel hallway in LA, hitting, kicking her.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
The security guard who took that footage while trying to de-escalate the situation testified that he found Ventura with a black eye. and that Combs offered him a bribe to stay silent. And then on Tuesday, Binger herself, in a pretty explosive moment, took the stand. And she said that Combs too frequently mashed in her head, dragged her along the floor, kicked her, stomped on her head.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
She also said he characterized these drug and alcohol-fueled freak-offs as a part of her quote-unquote job.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
And she said that they increased in frequency over the course of their relationship so that in the final years that she was with Combs, she said these sex sessions became all-consuming and she spent most of her time either engaging in these freak-offs or recovering from them while simultaneously enduring Combs' abuse.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
Now, two other women are expected to come forward to testify about alleged coercion and abuse. One other person the jury heard from this first two days was Daniel Phillip, a former male escort. Now, he gave graphic testimony about being paid thousands of dollars to have sex with Ventura while Combs watched and masturbated in the corner. He said that Combs also, in one particularly gruesome
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
incident asked him to urinate into Ventura's mouth. Philip also said that he witnessed Combs' physical abuse of Ventura when he threw a liquor bottle at her and dragged her into a bedroom and slapped her as she was crying, I'm sorry. Now, Philip said that the reason that he didn't confront Combs at that time was because he was afraid of Combs' power and the bodyguards that were present. Wow.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
You know, I would say his defense attorney is taking a pretty bold approach. Essentially, what she's done so far is concede that he is guilty of domestic violence and drug use. But she stressed that domestic abuse is not a federal crime. So she's insisting that this isn't a racketeering or sex trafficking case. She told the jurors, and I'm quoting here, this is about Sean Combs' private sex life.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
And she emphasized that the women involved, including Ventura, were strong, capable, in love with him, and were making consensual choices. So she argued that that 2016 video, while indefensible and showing dehumanizing behavior, stems from a dispute over Ventura's phone and some jealousy. And she said it had nothing to do with sex trafficking.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Middle East Trip, Diddy Trial & Afrikaners Controversy | 5.14.25
She urged the jury not to act as moral police here, but instead she said they should focus on the evidence and not, for example, his now well-known love of baby oil. So this trial is expected to last approximately eight weeks, and the court has warned that we should expect to hear even more disturbing testimony as this trial goes on.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
Well, really what we're seeing is that Trump and his Republican allies are doubling down. They're making it clear that they're not going to be put off by statements from groups like World Relief or the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that are decrying that funding freeze.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
So after a lot of negative coverage from the legacy media, this latest memo from Trump seems like a pointed response. He says that many NGOs are, quoting here, engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people. And he says that his administration isn't going to continue funding groups that undermine our national interest.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
What these two bills really underline is that sentiment by attempting to codify Trump's policy into law. So on Monday, Congressman Lance Gooden of Texas reintroduced a bill that prevents NGOs from receiving taxpayer dollars unless the Office of Management and Budget has certified that they're not involved in human trafficking or smuggling. Here's what he told Morning Wire.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
And Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee introduced the Fence Act that strikes at the tax exempt status of organizations that facilitate illegal immigration. And how are the NGOs responding? Well, as you'd expect, they're arguing more from religious standpoints rather than addressing these questions of legality or national interest.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
Pope Francis released a letter to the Catholic bishops that said that Catholics are obligated to disagree with any measure that associates being an illegal immigrant with being a criminal. And some Protestant church leaders are also criticizing Trump from the pulpit.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
The Reverend Duke Lackey, senior pastor at United Methodist Church in Raleigh, asked during his Sunday sermon why USAID funding can't continue while federal spending is being audited. And he suggested that the government is morally obligated to continue funding religious groups.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
It's worth pointing out that even conservative denominations have seen a split between leadership and rank and file church members over this. Just yesterday, Daily Wire reporter Leif LeMayhew had a story about the Presbyterian Church in America, which is known for being very conservative. Their missions arm issued guidelines to illegal aliens on how to avoid detection by ICE.
Morning Wire
US takes AI Lead & Ending DOJ Corruption | 2.12.25
And when word got out, there was outcry and that page disappeared.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Yeah, sure. So primarily, these are grants that are flowing to universities under the umbrella of the Department of Health and Human Services for research projects. Now, the White House says schools are not eligible for this taxpayer money if they fail to protect Jewish students and uphold new civil rights standards, which includes doing away with those race-based admissions.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
This is what Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News last week.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Now, McMahon added that the task force investigating the schools was formed between the Department of Education, DOJ, and HHS and Government Services Administration, and that they're giving the schools a chance to comply so that funding can be restored.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Well, Columbia University was the first school to have its funding suspended in early March, $400 million. That's really not surprising given the campus saw so much unrest during pro-Palestinian protests last year.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
And then the University of Pennsylvania, Trump's own alma mater, is losing about $175 million in federal funding over a biological male swimmer who previously competed on the girls' team. the school still hasn't changed its policy on transgender athletes. And then last week, $210 million in research grants to Princeton University were halted over antisemitism.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Then just a few days ago, $510 million in funding to Brown. That's the latest cut for the same reason.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Yes, absolutely. Harvard is the gorilla in the room here with $9 billion in contracts and grants under review. And that funding is halted pending an investigation into its handling of anti-Semitism. Former Harvard president Larry Summers commented to the Wall Street Journal that if Harvard folds he thinks every school will. But so far, Harvard has been threading this needle very carefully.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
Its current president, Alan Garber, acknowledged the anti-Semitism problem on campus, and he warned that losing $9 billion would halt life-saving research and imperil scientific innovation. But it's still not clear that the school's going to comply with all of these new federal standards. And we have to keep in mind that Harvard was the epicenter of the DEI admissions scandal.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
But so far, the president is only commenting on the anti-Semitism part of this investigation. Christopher Eisgruber, president of Princeton, told Bloomberg News that this funding isn't to the benefit of the schools per se, but for the American people in general.
Morning Wire
Trump Trade War & Defunding the Ivy League | 4.8.25
On NPR on Sunday, he called the funding halt a threat to academic freedom and said it's the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare. And he also said that while he's not judging other university presidents, Princeton isn't going to be making concessions. So overall right now, every Ivy League school, with the exception of Dartmouth, has had some funding frozen.
Morning Wire
Jack Smith Report Blocked & Congestion Toll Avoidance | Afternoon Update | 1.7.25
Meta will now implement Community Notes, a similar program to that used by X. Here's Zuckerberg.
Morning Wire
Jack Smith Report Blocked & Congestion Toll Avoidance | Afternoon Update | 1.7.25
In a video today, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the platform would end its partnerships with independent fact-checkers, loosen restrictions on controversial topics like gender and immigration, and scale back filters that previously censored innocuous posts. Zuckerberg cited bias among fact-checkers as a key reason for the shift, saying they had done more harm than good, especially in the U.S.,
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
Yeah, a first here. So under the Consumer Data Protection Act, Virginia residents who are under the age of 16, they're going to have a one-hour default time limit on their social media scrolling. However, if a parent wants to override that default setting, they'll be able to give their consent and do that. And it's notable that both sides of the aisle back this.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
The bill garnered wide support from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the state. And that's not really surprising given how parents have increasingly become concerned about the effects social media has on children's mental health. Virginia's Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin signed the bill into law on Friday. And it was actually Youngkin who's really become an advocate for parents.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
He wanted this bill to be even more strict. He wanted it to extend to residents under 18 years old. And he wanted the bill to limit addictive features like autoplay on videos where one video plays right after another and infinite scrolling where there's just no bottom to your scrolling. Here's Governor Youngkin.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
The act will take effect on January 1st of next year, so 2026.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
Yeah, in states led by both Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers appear to have gotten the message that parents, no matter their political leaning, they want their kids protected online. In California, for example, Governor Newsom signed a bill last year that blocks platforms from providing addictive social media feeds to minors without parental consent.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
It also restricts companies from sending notifications to minors during certain hours, like late night hours on a school night. And then in Florida, Governor DeSantis signed a bill that requires social media companies to verify the age of users and to actually terminate accounts of kids who are under the age of 14.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
If you're 14 or 15 years old in the state, you can have an account on social media, but you're going to have to get parental consent. If a company is found violating that law, they could face fines up to $50,000 per violation. Florida, by the way, has been a leading state on this subject.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
DeSantis signed a bill back in 2023 that made Florida the first state in the nation to ban cell phone use in schools during instruction time.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
Now, in Utah, we have a social media curfew. Minors there can't access social media between 10.30 p.m. and 6.30 a.m. unless a parent overrides that default setting. The general pattern that we're seeing across these different states are age verification measures and restrictions for minors as the default setting, though those can be changed through parental consent.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
Yes, some of these laws that deal with age restrictions in particular, they're being held up or blocked by legal challenges. For example, that Florida law that bans children under 14 from making accounts on these platforms, that was initially held up. Big tech platforms argued that restrictions were in violation of the First Amendment.
Morning Wire
Fighting Mexico’s Cartels & Hollywood Dreaming | 5.6.25
They took issue with this law effectively requiring adults to prove their age for some of these websites. Similar legislation is still being held up in other states too, including in Texas.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
You know, the story of the box office is that this was just a monster weekend. We saw Lilo and Stitch and also Mission Impossible 8, I think, or Mission Impossible 8, the final reckoning, coming in with just huge numbers for what's being called the biggest Memorial Day box office in history. So I just want to run through a few of these numbers with you, Georgia.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
According to studio estimates, Lilo and Stitch grossed a staggering $183 million domestically. Now, that's an all-time Disney record for this timeframe. And then if we look at its global haul, we're looking at $342 million. And then meanwhile, we've got Mission Impossible, which brought in a franchise-best $77 million domestically and $190 million worldwide domestically.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
Taken together, Hollywood is hoping that this is going to be a game changer for an industry that has really been looking to get back that pre-pandemic momentum. And I know that's something you and I have been talking about, Georgia, for the last couple of years.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
You know, I think in part that this was a lot of nostalgia for millennials and other people who kind of grew up with that version. They stuck very close to the script there. Where is he? He escaped. And then you have social media buzz, especially coming from younger women and parents. It's been off the charts. It's got an A cinema score, so that's signaling strong word of mouth.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
And then you look at posts on X that are really capturing this excitement. You're seeing people show up to the theaters in costume, in stitch merch, as plushies, turning these screenings into events. And that's really the kind of cultural resonance Disney looks for in its very IP-driven strategy.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
Yeah, absolutely. And I would say he's very much one of the few stars today who still can. While it didn't reach the heights of Lilo and Stitch, Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning is unquestionably a triumph for him. So we've all seen for a while that Cruise's plan seems to be to be a one-man chamber of commerce from the film industry. And he's really succeeding in a lot of ways.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
MI's opening take beat the previous franchise record set by Mission Impossible Fallout in 2018 by $14 million. And that's not adjusted for inflation. And then globally, it's already at $204 million, despite not yet opening in China.
Morning Wire
Russia Strikes Again & Cartel Crackdowns | 5.27.25
Yeah, I would say no doubt. I mean, it's obviously been a shot in the arm for an industry that's been struggling. The 2025 domestic box office is projected to hit 9.5 billion. That's up from 8.7 billion last year. And theater owners are being pretty vocal about needing to get these consistent releases of big franchise films, big blockbusters, in order to see these audiences return to theaters.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
Well, I'll tell you, the words epic flop come to mind. It opened to a dismal $43 million domestically and only $87 million worldwide. And that's against a reported $270 million budget. So the numbers are still being finalized, but what that means is it's vying for the title of worst opening for a Disney live action remake ever.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
All weekend, people were posting viral videos of empty theaters for this film and investors seem to be watching closely. Disney stock dipped 3% Monday morning. So why did audiences reject it? Well, I would say that the overarching theme here is that Disney took a classic tale of romance and true love, and they turned it into one of self-empowerment.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
Now, a lot of people have been pointing the finger at lead actress Rachel Zegler for her political commentary, things like saying after the election that she hopes Trump supporters never know peace, and then also comments on the red carpet like this from last year.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
But I want to defend her a little bit because while this was off-putting to a lot of people, it is actually the content of the film, so she wasn't misrepresenting it. One of the most iconic songs of the original, Someday My Prince Will Come, that was cut. Instead, Disney offered a new song that's about not needing a prince for rescue.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
So the lyrics there, if you couldn't quite make them out, no more sending whispers to the water because you were everything you were wishing and waiting for. Someone fearless, someone fair, someone brave. It's worth noting that Prince Charming is quite literally not Prince Charming here because he's not a prince.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
He's been swapped out for a Robin Hood style bandit who steals from the evil monarchy. I saw one comment from a woman online who said, I can't help but think that people, not just women, are growing weary of stories where they have to be their own hero because, dang, life is hard. And that really captured it for me.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
And I'll also add that the movie performed pretty evenly in both red and blue counties. So it wasn't just conservatives who didn't like it. Critics and audiences across the political spectrum have been giving it low marks. Reviews sit at a tepid 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. Opening weekend exit polls from ordinary moviegoers showed only a C-plus cinema score. So really hardly a ringing endorsement.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
So how do you think Disney is going to respond to this feedback? Well, I think to start, they're going to be less willing to reimagine these classic films, because for the most part, these live action remakes have been a cash cow. The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, for instance, each raked in over a billion dollars, but they stayed very true to the originals.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
Those where Disney tries to update for modern sensibilities tend to get rejected by audiences. And there we can look at not just Snow White, but also the underwhelming performance of last year's Little Mermaid, But I also think while there's a lot of talk about the politics of Snow White, I also think there's an element here of fans simply getting tired of remakes.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
So this could push Disney to rethink its strategy.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
It's possible. China and Europe are still rolling out. But the early projections right now suggest that Snow White is not even going to break even. Disney Plus could be a lifeline. But streaming success isn't going to erase the narrative of a theatrical failure. And that's the biggest concern, brand damage.
Morning Wire
Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25
If audiences start doubting Disney's magic touch, I think future projects like the upcoming Lilo and Stitch are going to become a tougher sell.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
Yeah, you know, that was quite something because we're talking about an unprecedented request here, something that really no other democratic nation has demanded. Essentially what happened is two years ago, Apple introduced a new iCloud feature for iPhone users known as Advanced Data Protection, ADP. And what it does is it allows users to encrypt really almost anything they upload to iCloud.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
That includes messages, notes, photos, iPhone backups, things like that. ADP renders all of that indecipherable to anyone who isn't the user. But then last month, according to whistleblowers, the British government asked Apple to create a backdoor mechanism to allow them to bypass that encryption in order to access the private user data. And in fact, data that even Apple isn't able to access.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
And what's key here is that UK officials were not just requesting the right to spy on their own citizens, but this demand included the ability to retrieve content that any Apple user anywhere in the world had uploaded to the iCloud. And that means they were asking to see data of other countries' users without informing the governments of those nations.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
Now, this request was reportedly made last month, but Apple hadn't disclosed it until a few days ago when they announced that they weren't going to comply because they say that once a backdoor like this exists, it's only a matter of time before bad actors beyond government agencies learn how to use it.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
Now, that said, Apple did state that they were dropping the ADP feature from users in the UK and sources told the New York Times that Apple is hoping that will convince British officials to drop their demand. Apple put out a statement saying that they are gravely disappointed that they won't be able to offer the security feature to British customers.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
And they added, quoting here, as we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products and we never will.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
You know, only in the sense of saying that they're not going to comment. So the British Home Office, which is the department that oversees national security, told the BBC, we do not comment on operational matters. So they wouldn't confirm or deny that they made this request of Apple.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
But if you happen to be listening to us in the UK right now, what this means for you is that you won't have access to ADP. New users won't be able to get it. And there have already been reports that British users who had it are now seeing error messages when they try to open it up.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
Yes. So I think just as we've seen with all the other tech titans like Jeff Bezos, like Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook is now taking friendly meetings with the president. So much so yesterday, President Trump announced that Apple is planning to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
That money is going to go to hiring 20,000 new workers and to new manufacturing facilities across the country.
Morning Wire
Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25
Cook called this Apple's largest ever spend commitment. And he said his company is bullish on the future of American innovation.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
Well, I think certainly, Georgia, he's going to be remembered as something of a progressive reformer. In 2013, shortly after he was elected, he made his famously controversial statement about gay priests saying, who am I to judge? And then in 2015, his encyclical called for environmental action. That's something he continually urged world leaders to do to address climate change.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
And then during his last Easter address on Sunday, directly after meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance, he warned politicians against stirring up anti-migrant sentiments. Immigration, of course, was an issue that he spoke about frequently, like in this interview with CBS's Nora O'Donnell last year.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
But that said, his papacy wasn't as transformative as some theological progressives would have liked. He did endorse civil unions for same-sex couples. That was a historic move for a pope. And he approved a document saying that priests could bless gay couples. But he also upheld this church's stance that marriage is between a man and a woman.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
So he stopped short of that full affirmation that so many LGBTQ activists were looking for. He also refused to approve the use of contraceptives or ordaining women to the priesthood. And plus, he was always a very strong advocate for the sanctity of life. And that was something that conservatives certainly cheered.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
They did, and I'd say that's because beyond his overall more progressive positions, he also took actions to suppress a conservative resurgence in the church. In 2021, he started severely restricting the celebration of the Latin Mass, and that was a reversal from the previous Pope Benedict.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
He argued that that right, which conservatives cherish, was being used to foster division and to reject Vatican II's liturgical reforms. But traditional communities felt targeted by that. And further, Francis took steps to curb the influence of conservative prelates who viewed his reforms as a threat to church tradition.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
One example of that, in 2014, he removed conservative cardinals like Raymond Burke, a vocal critic from a key Vatican post, He also appointed more moderate and progressive bishops to various roles of authority and elevated like-minded clerics to the College of Cardinals. And because of this, you have a lot of critics accusing him of stacking the deck and stifling dissent.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
But that said, Father Robert Sirico, former president of the conservative Acton Institute, did tell Morning Wire that he thinks the accusations of Francis being a Marxist go too far.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
Yeah, and those are some really fascinating trends right now. Last year, we reported on the surge of Catholic conversions among young people in New York City, but there's evidence that this trend is happening in a variety of nations in Europe as well. According to the Bishop's Conference of France, more than 10,000 adults were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
And they say that that is the largest wave of conversions in at least two decades. And it's mostly coming from young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. And then something similar is happening in England where surveys now show that Catholics outnumber Anglicans by about two to one among Gen Z and younger millennials.
Morning Wire
Picking the Next Pope & Democrats’ New Message | 4.22.25
And these younger people, particularly young men, are being especially drawn to conservative expressions of the faith, what's known as the Trad Cath or traditional Catholic movement. So really kind of going in a different direction from where Francis was trying to take the church.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
Well, this all started after Vice President J.D. Vance gave a pretty bold speech at the Munich Security Conference last Friday. He took European leaders to task for embracing what he called Soviet-style censorship.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
And then on Sunday morning, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan interviewed Secretary of State Marco Rubio on her show, Face the Nation. And she asked him why Vance would irritate our European allies like that. Then she made the historically incorrect claim that the Holocaust was the result of Nazi Germany having too much free speech.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
Well, Rubio pushed back on that very strongly.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
And then if you'll hang with me for one more soundbite here, Georgia, on Sunday night, another CBS program, 60 Minutes, interviewed some German authorities arguing for state censorship. And the overall tenor of CBS's segment seemed very favorable to their position.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
And by the way, that German law also applies to someone reposting illegal speech, even if the person didn't know, for example, that they were sharing a false quote. Now, has CBS attempted to defend those comments? No. In fact, they proudly released the transcript. And there's really been no comment from other legacy outlets on this either. But there was blowback on the right.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
So how did Vance react? Well, Vance immediately posted on X, quoting here, insulting someone is not a crime and criminalizing speech will strain European-US relations. This is Orwellian and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
Now, that reaction really captured the tenor of most of the conservative criticism, including from outlets like National Review, which called the segment mildly horrifying. And then you even had some conservative critics suggesting that the U.S. may need to pull out of NATO if Europe doesn't reestablish free speech protections.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
And so I do think for that reason, this goes to the broader point of Vance's Munich speech. And that was that the stakes of this clash are really high. Essentially, he said that the reason the leaders of these nations are cracking down on speech is because they fear the views of their voters, which, as in the U.S., have been trending in a populist direction.
Morning Wire
US-Russia Talks Begin & DOGE Targets IRS | 2.18.25
So CBS has appeared to many viewers to be trying to make the case for speech suppression in Europe rather than challenging these European leaders over that program.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Right, so the jury deliberated for about an hour on Monday before they rendered a not guilty verdict on the charge of criminally negligent homicide. As we covered yesterday, Judge Maxwell Wiley, rather controversially, agreed with the prosecution's request to dismiss the state's top charge of manslaughter, too. That carried up to 15 years behind bars.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
When the verdict was read yesterday, applause erupted on Penny's side. Penny, who showed very little emotion throughout the trial, reportedly locked eyes with members of the jury and nodded to them with a smile on his face. A lot of relief on that side, especially from Penny's attorneys. Now, others in the courtroom, though, audibly sobbed and yelled threats over the not guilty verdict.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Neely's father, Andre Zachary, glared at someone who applauded the verdict and said, quote, are you trying to effing get killed? And Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, he said while looking at Penny, it's a small world, buddy, seemingly threatening him. Neely's father and several Black Lives Matter leaders were escorted out of the courtroom after their outbursts.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Right. There were about two dozen or so racially focused protesters outside the courthouse on Monday, and they chanted things like, say his name, murderer, and subway strangler, which were reportedly audible inside the courtroom. So, you know, potentially the jury heard that. But things became even more volatile after the verdict was rendered.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Hawk Newsome, who led daily protests outside the courthouse, urged for what he called black vigilante violence.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Newsom said last week that anyone who believes Penny is innocent is a racist.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
His office put out a statement saying that they deeply respected the jury process and respected this verdict. There's no denying, though, that this was a big defeat for Bragg. Remember, the Democrat DA filed these charges 10 days after the incident, seemingly in response to racial protests. A lot of people saw the indictment as a political move.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
I'll also note that there was some chatter about the possibility of Bragg charging Penny with manslaughter again since that charge was dismissed last week, but that does seem highly unlikely. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said that there is a double jeopardy claim there that could be raised. And he also said that it just wouldn't be practical for Bragg.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Right. Zachary filed a civil lawsuit at the New York Supreme Court last Wednesday. He has accused Penny of assault, battery, and causing his son's death through negligence, carelessness, and recklessness. The suit doesn't specify a specific amount of money.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Now, on the flip side of that, Arizona Representative Eli Crane is planning to introduce a resolution that would give Penny the Congressional Gold Medal for his actions on the subway protecting fellow riders.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Well, on Sunday, Jane Doe amended that October suit to now name Jay-Z as that other alleged assailant. So just to give you a little bit of background for those who have not been following, the suit says that Doe tried to get into the MTV Music Awards without a ticket. And while attempting to do that, she met Combs' limo driver, who then took her to an after party.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
She says she was asked to sign an NDA but wasn't given a copy of that document. Well, once she was inside, she says she accepted a drink from a waitress circulating in the crowd and then began to feel, quoting here, woozy and lightheaded after just a few sips. And she says at that point, she found a room to lie down in.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
And that's when Combs, Carter, and the female celebrity who isn't named in the suit found her. She says that Jay-Z first held her down and raped her, followed by Combs while this unnamed woman looked on. Hmm. Now, what has Jay-Z's response been?
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Well, he issued a blistering statement on Sunday saying that this is a shakedown effort on the part of the accuser and her lawyer, Tony Busby, who is representing several of the roughly 30 plaintiffs now suing Combs. In the statement, Jay-Z calls Busby a deplorable ambulance chaser in a cheap suit. And he called a demand letter that Busby and his client initially sent a blackmail attempt.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Instead, Jay-Z says this prompted him to expose them as frauds. Reading just a bit here from his statement. These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint today. not a civil one. Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away. Would you not agree? These alleged victims would deserve real justice if that were the case.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Now, Busby issued a response on Monday saying that his and his client's initial demand letter only asked for confidential mediation, not money. And he also said that they will litigate the facts in court, not in the media.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
But another wrinkle revealed in Busby's statement is that sometime between the initial October lawsuit and its amendment that names Jay-Z, Jay-Z filed what Busby called a frivolous case against him and Jane Doe under a pseudonym. And Busby says that Jay-Z did this to try to bully and harass them.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Well, according to Busby, he had reached out to Jay-Z on behalf of Jane Doe about arranging a meeting for remediation. Although, again, he states his client has never asked for money. And just a side note, people on social media were pretty quick to point out that Jay-Z's statement did not actually include a direct denial of the crime.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
It was what you might call more of a scathing rebuke of the lawyer, Busby. Some interesting insight, though, from NBC's legal analyst, Danny Savalos. He pointed out that Jay-Z's attempts to preemptively quash this may have actually had the opposite effect.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
And that goes along with something else that Busby said in his statement Monday, and that was that his client was actually emboldened by Jay-Z's suit. Hmm. Now, still no leads about who that female celebrity is? No, but the pressure is definitely building and certainly a lot of speculation online circulating, but nothing concrete. Has Combs commented?
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
He has, and he continues to deny all the allegations. But it's worth noting that Combs is not just being sued in civil court. He is also facing federal criminal charges that include sex trafficking and racketeering. And he's been in a Brooklyn detention center since mid-September, awaiting trial on May 5th. Last month, he was denied bail for the third time. Hopefully the truth will come out. Yep.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Acquitted & Suspected CEO Assassin | 12.10.24
Megan, thanks for reporting.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Yeah, so Le Pen is the prominent leader of the right-wing National Rally Party. She's a very Trump-like figure in France, very much feared by the political establishment who characterize her as an extremist, but she's also very popular with the French public. Recent polls and elections show that nearly 40% of French voters back her and her party, and no other candidate comes close to that.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
So she was found guilty of misappropriating several million euros in European Union funds. Essentially, her party was entitled to a certain amount of European funding for things like paying staff to work on general European political operations. Well, the court found that she used that money to the benefit of her national party, essentially a co-mingling of funds.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
But Ellen Fantini, managing editor of the European Conservative, told me that virtually every major party in Europe does this same kind of thing. She says that the way this conviction is being carried out makes it very clear that this is about sidelining Le Pen as a candidate.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Fantini compared it to the same kind of lawfare that Donald Trump experienced.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Well, I'd say it's hard to overstate just how seismic this shift is. It's a huge setback for National Rally, which has been gaining ground as France's largest parliamentary party after last year's legislative elections. Now, Le Pen was poised to win the presidency as well. Fantini says she expects to see serious pushback from Le Pen supporters now.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
And I'll add, you're even hearing some saying that French authorities are inviting civil war here.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Not much from those on the left, but those on the right are speaking out loudly. So on Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted, «Je suis Marine. I am Marine». Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League Party, called the ruling a «declaration of war by Brussels», meaning the European Union establishment.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Populist party leaders in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, all of them are characterizing this as an attempt to stymie the success that the right has been experiencing across Europe. Many are comparing it to Colin Georgescu of Romania. He's another popular right-wing presidential candidate who a court just banned from running.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Piantini also expects the Trump administration to weigh in here in support of Le Pen.
Morning Wire
Tariff Time & Marine Le Pen Convicted in France | 4.1.25
Le Pen herself says she's a fighter and she says she is not going to allow the courts to eliminate her from this race.
Morning Wire
Epstein Contacts Release & Hackman Death Investigation | Afternoon Update | 2.27.25
Police say the couple was found inside their Santa Fe home with an unsecured door and scattered pills near Arakawa's body. A search warrant reveals Arakawa's body showed signs of mummification, suggesting she had been dead for some time before being discovered. Police found her body in a bathroom with scattered pills nearby, while 95-year-old Hackman was in a separate room.
Morning Wire
Epstein Contacts Release & Hackman Death Investigation | Afternoon Update | 2.27.25
One of their dogs was also found dead, but their other two survived. Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner, was last seen in public a year ago. His decades-long career included iconic roles in The French Connection and Unforgiven.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
Yeah, you know, Georgia, it really is, and for a couple of reasons. So one, we have to look at the overall picture in publishing for the last couple of years, and it has not been great. In 2023, for example, sales were down nearly 3%, and they're really not much better this year. But the Bible has been bucking that trend.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
As the Wall Street Journal reported in something of a viral story recently, sales for the good book are up 22% for the year so far. Now that was just through October before a lot of those Christmas sales are included. And some Bible publishers saw even stronger revenues than that. Lifeway and B&H Publishing are reporting an approximate sales increase of 30%.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
And this is coming on the heels of an already pronounced upswing over the last few years. From 2019 to 2023, Bible sales went from 9.7 million to 14.2 million.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
He added that he sees signs that after years of individual spiritualism, you know, where everyone kind of defines faith for themselves, young people in particular are beginning to reconsider the value of those handed down traditions and texts, especially the Bible. In fact, one researcher found that 21% of Gen Z increased their Bible reading last year.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
I have, and that goes along with other reports from the New York Times showing that for the first time ever, young men are actually more religious than young women. Now, a part of that is because young women are following that trend we've seen for decades and becoming more secular, but church attendance among young men is actually increasing.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
And it immediately brought to mind for me what we've seen with the public evolution of Russell Brand, who announced that he became a Christian earlier this year. He recently said this.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
So I think you can say that these Bible sales may be part of a broader trend that has seen popular podcasters among that young male demographic talking about Christianity.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
Think Theo Vaughn or Kid Rock recently discussing his faith on Joe Rogan, or even Elon Musk telling Jordan Peterson that he considers himself a cultural Christian, meaning he believes that Christian principles are good for society even if he's not personally religious.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
Walker tells me he thinks that this interest in cultural Christianity is a good thing, but he does hope that it will lead to deeper commitments.
Morning Wire
New Year's Terror Investigations Expand | 1.2.25
And worth noting, this trend is so strong right now. Publishers Weekly reports that religious book sales overall are up 18.5%, making it the fastest growing segment of the publishing business. And that's led one of the biggest publishing houses, Penguin Random House, to launch a new standalone entity devoted entirely to Christian books.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
Well, you know, essentially because he was facing a revolt led by Elon Musk and the House Freedom Caucus. They felt that this was a bloated bill, more than 1,500 pages, that added on tens of billions in unnecessary new spending. And they said it was being rammed through before anyone could fully review it. Eric Burleson of Missouri called the bill a total dumpster fire.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
Chip Roy of Texas said passing it would be the equivalent of eating a crap sandwich. So pretty pointed words there. Then there was Elon Musk. Trump has tasked him and Vivek Ramaswamy with finding spending cuts, and Musk clearly wanted Republicans to reject this bill. He'd been posting prolifically against it on X for days, including this clip of Ramaswamy that he shared on Wednesday.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
Now, regular listeners will remember, Georgia, that we talked about the Global Engagement Center last week. That's a controversial State Department agency that is at the center of a joint Daily Wire and Federalist lawsuit alleging widespread censorship efforts against conservatives. Shutting it down has been a top priority for free speech advocates for a while, and its end did look imminent.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
But this bill extended its life for another year. Well, Musk called that criminal, and he said he would support primary challenges against any Republican who voted for it.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
No, not publicly, but Morning Wire has spoken with some sources on the Hill who say that one of the concerns is that shuttering the agency means that the center's staffers will be moved to other positions in the State Department. They say this would make it harder to root out corruption.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
So part of the reason some of these GOP leaders might like to see the center stay in place for another year is to allow the fully Republican controlled House, Senate and most importantly, the White House to take action to deal with this agency correctly, whether that's fully shutting it down or rooting out the corruption. So getting back to the bill more generally, why is Johnson supporting it?
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
Well, he said on Fox Wednesday that Republicans are in an impossible position where they have a razor-thin margin in the House. And he said he didn't like the bill either, but that the House needed to pass it so they could fight for serious cuts after Trump takes office. This was Johnson on Fox talking about his conversations with Musk and Ramaswamy.
Morning Wire
House Scraps Spending Bill & Mangione’s Extradition | 12.19.24
But the final nail in the coffin likely came when Donald Trump put out a statement Wednesday night saying that he was totally against the continuing resolution and that the Republicans should pass a bill that doesn't include Democrat giveaways. So now Johnson will reportedly be looking to get a much narrower spending bill passed. All right, well, we'll see if he has better luck with that.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
Yeah, a lot of disturbing reports and images are coming out of Syria right now as the country shifts toward more rigid Islamist rule. So HTS is Sunni, like 70% of the rest of Syria, and they're tied to ISIS and al-Qaeda. And HTS claims that the violence that erupted last Thursday began when some holdovers from the Assad regime attacked them.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
So they, the Sunni HTS rebel group, then began targeting provinces that are known to be Alawite, which is the Shia Muslim sect Assad belongs to. They've also been killing Christians, Kurds, and Druze as mosques in these regions have started calling on people to wage jihad.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
Now, humanitarian groups say Northwest Syria has been ethnically cleansed of Christians and Kurds and that whole families are being slaughtered. Essentially, they say that what started as small spurts of random vigilantism has now progressed into large-scale organized violence.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
The evangelical news outlet World Magazine interviewed several Syrian Christians now in hiding, and one described seeing a convoy of military vehicles and tanks that stretched for miles entering the main street of his town before the militants began shooting everything in sight. He said he watched them kill four young civilians right in front of him while shouting, "'We will behead you, pigs.'"
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
And it's not just executions. Residents of Christian and Alawite cities and villages are also being displaced and their property is being seized. So across the country, HTS soldiers are allegedly harassing young Christians for not adhering to strict Sunni customs, like demanding Christian women cover up in Muslim garb. They've also reportedly been targeting men who have Christian tattoos.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
In some areas like Damascus, Christians are protesting against but thousands are also fleeing to Lebanon or Russia as Putin was Assad's ally. And then one other interesting note here, the Alawites who again are Shia Muslims are calling on Israel to quote, save them from the brutal regime. In a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, they wrote, we are a minority like you in the Middle East, help us.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
And if you reach the Syrian coast, which is mostly Alawite, you will be received with songs and flowers. Hmm. So are these attacks religiously motivated or are there other factors as well? I would say it's both. Syria has been embroiled in civil war for more than a decade now, and those skirmishes are still continuing.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
So in rural areas where HTS has a weaker grip on power, targeting these religious minorities helps them exert some greater control. And also part of this is class-based, as the Alawites are more associated with the political elites, as Assad was. But, you know, this is a catch-22 that we see so often in the Middle East.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
Though Assad was by no means a good leader, he and his father before him did keep the region relatively stable. And those who opposed the U.S. meddling and trying to unseat him were concerned about these very kinds of alternatives. In fact, when President Trump first ran for office in 2016, he criticized Hillary Clinton over her support for arming anti-Assad rebel groups.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
This is what he told CNN at the time.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
And to that point, Syria's new president, Ahmad al-Sharra, who replaced Assad, is himself a former Islamic State and al-Qaeda terrorist.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
The U.N. is calling for immediate action to protect civilians, and the U.S. has condemned the killings, specifically blaming radical Islamic terrorists. More pointed, the Israeli defense minister said Shara is showing his true face as a jihadist, though Shara denies this. He said these killings are a threat to his plan to bring unity to Syria.
Morning Wire
Inflation Cools Down & Education Department Downsizes | 3.13.25
But he has not yet acted to bring those loyalists who are acting in his name to heel.
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
So before we get to some of the kind of legal ramifications, there's obviously been a lot of leaks. There's been a lot of, I would even say, shifting in public loyalties back and forth. At least that's been my experience. At the outset, I was kind of team Justin. And then I went, well, wait a minute. Okay, that...
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
New York Times piece was really persuasive, but then Justin Baldoni's team released some new audio leaks and those kind of things sort of shifted the game a little bit. What's your sense right now of who's on top in the PR war?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, you know, it seems like there was a moment where Lively could have disengaged and just moved on. And this would have been something of a blip on Hollywood's gossip radar. Why do you think she escalated to a lawsuit that opened up so much more of these internal communications?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, I'm glad that you bring that up because I do want to talk a little bit about those messages between Baldoni and Lively. And I know that some media outlets characterize them as flirty. I don't know that I necessarily saw them that way, but I at least saw them as very familiar. Let's put it that way. Do you think that, by surprise?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Thanks so much for joining us, Maureen. You know, for those of us who are maybe just catching up with this story a little bit on the later side, I'm wondering if you can give us something of a 10,000-foot summary of this scandal.
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, and do you think that Lively and Reynolds, at least as a couple, their image, like maybe Reynolds individually, Lively individually, do kind of come back from this? Because, you know, Brad and Angelina eventually did. But does their image as this blissful it couple bounce back?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, maybe just a couple more questions, Maureen. One of them is that The New York Times has come under a lot of scrutiny for the role it played in sort of rehabilitating Lively's claims when she was on the outs in terms of public affection, let's put it that way.
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
I have seen some claims that they handled that coverage in a biased way that was clearly working hand in glove with Blake Lively's team. What do you think of that? Any validity there?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, you kind of intuited where I was going to go next. And that was the role that Me Too has played in this with these claims that it was a sexual harassment issue. So do you think on a broader level, the tide has turned?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
And maybe this is because of Johnny Depp, because before I think there was a period of time where even when the public was willing to say, hey, I don't know that that's a Me Too allegation. I'm thinking of something like Aziz Ansari, where there was a back and forth debate about that.
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
In this case, it seems like some of these men in Hollywood who don't even possess the power of some of these women are now willing to challenge these Me Too allegations. So do you think this sort of shifts the balance on where we are in Me Too? Yeah, I think this case is very...
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
the cultural corrective that is underway. Okay, well, last question then. Any predictions for the March trial?
Morning Wire
It Ends With Us...In Court | 2.8.25
Well, thank you, Maureen. That was enlightening. And I kind of can't wait to see where this goes next. I know. It's like every day we get another tidbit.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
I also think about the destruction to the young men in creating this fantasy world that they're leaving, living in. Do you ever talk about that? Is that something that you get into the destructive nature on men as well?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
So now that you've moved on from that and you're working with Creating Gems, What do you suggest in terms of how we solve this problem?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Amen, because both the woman behind the camera and the man who's watching it are both made in the image of God. And so we don't want to attack them and villainize them. So, well, Victoria, this was really illuminating. And God bless you for your work, just revealing the behind the scenes of what happens at OnlyFans and how destructive it is and how much of a mirage it is.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
So thanks so much for joining us. And we wish you not even just good luck, but all the success in the world in this work that you're doing. Thank you so much, Megan.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
A recent Reuters report cites 140 police complaints about non-consensual pornography on OnlyFans, with 30 cases involving child sexual abuse material.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Was it hard recruiting? I mean, is it a tough sell to a young woman to say, look, we're going to recruit you, you're attractive, maybe you're already doing something in this arena, and we're going to bring you on and help you blow up on OnlyFans?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
And, you know, one of the things that you and I talked about when we were backstage in an event together that, man, it has stuck with me was the fact that you said there were young women, young girls, actually, under the age of 18, maybe 14, 15, who plan to film content now, pornographic content now, so that when they were 18, they could legally release it since it was their own image, their own material that they had filmed because they knew that that would be attractive to the consumer.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
In this special report, Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham speaks to Victoria Sinnes, a former OnlyFans recruiter. She has since left the industry and now works with nonprofit organizations to educate the public about the realities behind the platform's glossy exterior.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Gotcha. Okay. And so to get back to what you're saying, and I didn't mean to interrupt you, but it was so compelling when you told me about that. There was a particular interest in barely 18. So we're hearing a lot of language that is really close to pedophilia here.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Wow. Okay, let's back up there really quick. So we're talking about how things look, how it seems very glamorous. You're recruiting these women. You said you're taking them on yachts. They're coming to glamorous parties thinking, I'm going to be recruited into this world and make a lot of money. So the average is $160 a month, but I'm going to presume that's not the girls you were working with.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
A warning to our listeners, the following segment contains explicit discussion of sexual content, pornography, and coercion within the adult entertainment industry. Listeners' discretion is strongly advised.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Wow. Okay, so I think that should be a sobering fact, just practically for a lot of young women who are getting involved in this stuff. So once an Instagram influencer or some other young woman has gone, okay, I want to make this transition over to OnlyFans because I think I can earn all of this money. What did that look like for them?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
So once they've created an account and they're starting to create content, how long would it take to build up a following? And what were... they required to do in order to build that following?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Victoria Sinnes, who is a former recruiter for OnlyFans who left that work and now does consultancy work with nonprofits, helping them understand what goes on behind what you see in front of the camera in so much of this world, is with us now. And thanks so much for joining us, Victoria. Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Megan. So let me start out with this.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
So we would hire- But that's the interactive part of it. That's why OnlyFans is different than, you know, just hopping on some pornography site because they think I'm interacting with this woman.
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
At what point do they start to go, OK, maybe they're not earning that much because they're only a level two. So, I mean, did you have to push some of these women to say, OK, if you really want to earn, you're going to have to step it up or you're going to have to move to this next level?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
So at what point for you, were you like, I can't do this anymore. And when did you decide to step out of this?
Morning Wire
“It’s All a Lie” Former OnlyFans Insider Reveals Dirty Secrets
Just tell us about your background as an OnlyFans recruiter, because I think a lot of people would be surprised to know that that was even a job.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Verdict & Lara Trump Steps Down | Afternoon Update | 12.9.24
He called the allegation heinous and a blackmail attempt. In refuting the accusation, Jay-Z challenged attorney Tony Busby to file a criminal complaint if the allegations were true and later filed a motion for the rape accuser's identity to be revealed. Now, the lawsuit initially filed against Combs was amended to include Jay-Z as a defendant.
Morning Wire
Daniel Penny Verdict & Lara Trump Steps Down | Afternoon Update | 12.9.24
The alleged victim, identified as Jane Doe, claims she was taken to a house where she was drugged and then assaulted by both men. The lawsuit also alleges that Combs, who is facing separate charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, watched the assault. Here's what former FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffendaffer told NewsNation about the case.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
Well, you know, President Trump has made it very clear for some time that he's no fan of public broadcasting. Just recently, he posted that Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS, the radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country. So close quote, of course, there.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
And he said that taxpayer funding of media networks is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. Well, on Thursday, he made that policy official. The president signed an executive order to eliminate about 535 million annually to NPR and PBS and other public media.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
But in a statement Friday, Patricia Harris, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, immediately shot back at this, saying that the company is not subject to the president's authority. She says Congress authorized the funding, so only Congress can end it. Paula Kerger, president of PBS, also put out a statement. She called Trump's order blatantly unlawful.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
This is what she told PBS NewsHour last week.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
One of PBS's star personalities, writer David Brooks, has also been out defending his employer. This is what he said Friday.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
Both PBS and CPB say that they are going to pursue all legal options to block Trump's order.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
Yeah, and the administration and its allies have really zeroed in on her past statements, like a 2018 ex-post that called Donald Trump a racist. Now, she later deleted that, but in 2022, in a TED Talk, she also suggested that a reverence for the truth can be a distraction from positive social change.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
So I would say that she's not as out front as the others, likely because of her past public comments and associations. But she also put out a statement indicating that NPR is going to fight this in court.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
You know, I would say that maybe the most noteworthy item here is Yuri Berliner. He exposed NPR's dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop story and its focus on diversity initiatives over balanced reporting. So Berliner's suspension after his whistleblowing especially fueled that feeling that NPR has been silencing non-leftist voices. This is what he told the Free Press last year.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25
So, no doubt, a lot of that evidence is going to end up in court.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
Well, you know, on Saturday, we saw over 500 protests worldwide, everywhere from Australia to Germany to Chicago. And these turnouts were pretty mixed, I would say. You know, on one hand, in Michigan, you had what looked like... you know, fairly pitiful, small crowds, gray haired, maybe people in their 60s and 70s.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
And they were chanting and carrying signs saying things like no one elected Musk and drive Tesla out of business. But then in other areas like Manhattan, I would say the crowds were much more robust, much younger, much more energetic, and they were easily in the hundreds. And I'd say the key aim of these protests and this entire movement is to hit Musk where it hurts.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
They want to take down his electrical vehicle empire so that he backs off of all of these activities that he's been engaged in on behalf of the political right, especially his work cutting government waste with the Department of Government Efficiency. And you have to acknowledge they are having some success with that. Tesla sales are down. The value of used vehicles for Teslas are also down.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
But I do want to say for context, Tesla stock is up overall since the election.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
You know, no evidence of that yet, but I would say that it looks like Musk realizes that he might be losing something of a PR battle here and he's stepping up his game on that front. So originally he said that he wanted to keep Doge analysts out of the spotlight to protect their privacy and safety. But on Friday, Doge leaders sat down with Fox News and they made their case to the American people.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
This gave Musk a chance to dispel this image of Doge as just a bunch of young, inexperienced tech bros. What we saw instead were highly seasoned CEOs, scientists, people who took up the call to stop government spending out of patriotism. I want you to listen to this exchange between anchor Brett Baer and one of Doge's key leaders.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
And then another person on that Doge interview was Joe Gebbia, billionaire founder of Airbnb.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
So really just emphasizing that these are people who are highly experienced at streamlining very large budgets.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
Right. You know, so there's been a number of reports coming out about this, and the latest is a new one from the Fairfax Times in Virginia. What they have found is that this movement has been almost entirely bankrolled by professional protest organizations, firms like the Indivisible Project, which organized around 30 percent of these protests.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
Also, MoveOn.org, the Disruption Project, local Democratic Party chapters. And they're getting their funding from well-known left-wing operatives like George Soros. So emphasizing the very partisan nature of this. And look, this is a very typical play from the left when they are out of power.
Morning Wire
Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25
But I would say we're seeing some things that are a little unusual on the right as we're seeing some pro-Doge rallies starting now. And those do seem to be organic. For example, you're even seeing some pastors of the more charismatic type holding sort of prayer rallies on behalf of Elon Musk and Doge.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
So I think on one side of this, you have the traditional conservative and MAGA base who do tend to draw a pretty hard line on all things related to immigration. They take a very skeptical view of that H-1B program because they say that while its ostensible purpose is to allow U.S. companies to bring in highly skilled immigrants for jobs that would otherwise go unfilled,
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
What it's really being used for is hiring a cheaper foreign workforce. And they say that overall, it depresses American wages. Well, on the other side, you have what's being referred to as the new tech right. Think people like Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and also some other Silicon Valley titans whose names you might not know, people like venture capitalist David Sachs.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
They believe that this program has given America a competitive edge in the global free market. Musk, for example, said over the weekend that expanding immigration for the top 0.1% of engineering talent is essential for America to keep winning. And he said that it's thanks to H-1B that the world's great innovators, like him, have chosen to build their companies in the U.S.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
And where does President Trump come down on this? So after a couple of days of this inter-party wrangling, he told the New York Post that his companies have hired H-1B visa holders many times and that he supports it for highly skilled workers. Now, a lot of media outlets took that as carte blanche support for the program, but I'm not so sure that they should have.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
So one, there's that caveat, highly skilled. That's really the crux of the argument. Is the program being used to fill a void that the American talent pool can't? Because we do need to remember that Trump did try to reform the program in his first administration, and he has in the past been critical of it for holding down American wages.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
And I've got to say that as I watched this debate unfold over the weekend, Georgia, it did seem to me like the two sides were often speaking past each other. And that was something that conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings also highlighted.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
By Saturday, Jennings was largely proved right on this. After interacting with some accounts that were highlighting government data that shows that many companies are using the program to hire lower skilled foreign workers for generally less than they'd have to pay Americans, Musk said that he does believe the program is broken and needs major reform.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
Some of his suggestions to fix it, an annual fee for H-1B visas that would make it more expensive for companies to hire from overseas. He said that that would help ensure that they're really doing it to bring in top talent, not just to hire cheap. And it would also ensure that it's really going to those roles that you can't find in the U.S.
Morning Wire
Jimmy Carter Passes Away & The H-1B Visa Divide | 12.30.24
Well, by Sunday morning, representatives on both sides of the aisle were voicing support for reforms like those Musk suggested.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
Yeah, I mean, if you remember as far back as 2023, BlackRock and those other big asset managers like Vanguard and State Street were at least beginning to downplay their commitment to ESG, which, you know, quick reminder, it's an investing strategy that involves prioritizing left-wing social goals over financial returns.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
But at that time, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told Fox News that his main reason for abandoning the term ESG was for PR perceptions.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
And you can hear there that Fink was already starting to get a little bit defensive then with the perception that the company was woke, but he was still using a phrase with a similar meaning to ESG, conscientious capitalism. But now it looks like BlackRock is dropping wokeness for real.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
So its 2025 annual report filed last Tuesday is missing the DEI commitments that were boilerplate for BlackRock investor letters in recent years. Instead, it now has strong meritocracy language. It talks about attracting the best people from across the world and supporting top talent and fostering diverse perspectives to avoid groupthink.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
And according to the journal, BlackRock is dropping its internal DEI hiring requirements as well. An internal memo said managers no longer have to make sure to interview a certain number of minority candidates for jobs either. And then a couple more concrete data points. The firm has backed out of the group Net Zero Asset Managers, which is a UN-sponsored climate coalition.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
And while it launched 30 ESG funds between 2019 and 2023, BlackRock has not launched any since the first quarter of 2024.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
Well, you know, part of it was certainly public image. When your average suburban mom starts to know the name of BlackRock and associate it with wokeness, that's an issue. But also some concrete losses started to accrue for BlackRock from that association. Several red states sued the company for placing its political views above its fiduciary duties in managing pension funds.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
Others passed laws against ESG investing of public funds and promised to stop doing business with BlackRock altogether. And then you had the Republican-led House subpoenaing BlackRock for hearings. I think Fink is a true believer in these progressive policies, and he seemed to believe for a while that he could carefully navigate the issue by using different rhetoric.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
But I think when Donald Trump not only won the election, but the popular vote, it was clear at that point that a new era was dawning and it wasn't going to be possible to simply wait it out. Now, how much influence do you think this will have in the rest of the industry? Oh, I think it's going to be huge. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world. It sets the terms in this business.
Morning Wire
Zelensky Seeks European Aid & BlackRock Goes Woke-less | 3.3.25
If they think that wokeness is now bad for business, other investment managers, large and small, are going to follow their lead. And you're already seeing a lot of them like Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Citigroup doing just that.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
Well, you know, look, there's been a lot of talk from political analysts about Democrats needing to pivot away from niche identity politics and more toward kitchen table issues like inflation. But I I have to tell you, there was no indication over the weekend that the party is ready to do that. So this meeting began with a land acknowledgement.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
And if you're not familiar with that, that just means formally stating that the United States was, quote, built on indigenous lands. And in a moment that went viral for all the wrong reasons, every single finalist for chair blamed Kamala Harris's loss on racism and misogyny.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
So eight candidates on the stage and every hand immediately went up. And then there was a pretty confusing moment where multiple officials attempted to explain the gender aspect of the party's voting bylaws. So the rules attempt to create voting parity between men, women and non-binary candidates where you can vote twice, but only for different gender candidates or something to that effect.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
Now, despite those gender equity efforts, at the end of the day, two white men did end up winning. Longtime DNC insider Ken Martin was elected chair, and young anti-gun activist David Hogg was elected vice chair.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
Well, both referenced the working class versus billionaires in their acceptance speeches, but their records are pretty far from those of the blue dog Democrats of yesteryear who did hold the loyalties of union workers and rural blue collar workers. So Martin is a longtime leader of Minnesota Democrats, and he helped shape the party's focus on identity politics.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
This is what he said at the Muslim Caucus of America just a few years ago.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
And then he's also been an enthusiastic supporter of the lawfare against Donald Trump that really energized the Republican base while doing very little to win over moderates. And it seems like Martin plans to continue with that no holds barred style, as he said that his plan is to, quote, take the low road so my candidates can take the high road.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
And you have to say that sounds more like an attack plan than selling voters on what Democrats have to offer. And then we look at David Hogg. Now, he's only 24 years old, and he pitched himself as being able to bring younger voters back to the party. But what he's best known for, gun control, was not actually a top issue for young voters in the last election.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
Now, any indication that Democrats are getting re-energized post-election?
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
To be honest with you, no, not really. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Trump is experiencing a high watermark in favorability for him after his first couple of weeks in office. But meanwhile, that same polling group is showing a record unfavorability rating for the Democrats.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
Now, these results just came out last week, and they showed that voters are about evenly split on their feelings about the GOP, but Democrats are polling 31% favorable to 57% unfavorable. So a stark 26-point deficit there. And that's the lowest rating since Quinnipiac started asking the question back in 2008. And Quinnipiac isn't alone.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
YouGov shows that the Dems' popularity is at its lowest point since January 2017. And meanwhile, a new CNN poll shows that a record low 33% of Americans view the party favorably. But that tracking only goes back to 2006.
Morning Wire
Trade War Escalation & DNC's New Leadership | 2.3.25
As the Washington Post pointed out, if you expand that and include earlier CNN, USA Today and Gallup polls, these are actually the worst numbers the party has seen since at least 1992. So going back more than 30 years.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Well, the first international trip of Trump's second term was a brief one. It only lasted 14 hours, but it was certainly consequential. While waiting for the funeral to start, President Trump and Vladimir Zelensky huddled with Britain's Keir Starmer and France's Emmanuel Macron. It was a remarkable scene of political strength and, importantly, unity there in St. Peter's Basilica.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Another image shows Trump and Zelensky intensely meeting one-on-one on that famous floor. Now, keep in mind, this was their first encounter since Zelensky's just disastrous visit to the White House back in February. But this time, there were no advisors, translators, or video cameras. And by all accounts, things went much more smoothly this go-round.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Zelensky called it a, quote, "...very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic," adding that he and Trump discussed a "...full and unconditional ceasefire and reliable and lasting peace." Now, for his part, the president certainly seemed more pleased with Zelensky than last time, writing on Truth Social that it was time for a high-level summit to, quote, finish it off.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
In his words, most of the major points are agreed to.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Yeah, for months, Trump has been taking a more diplomatic approach with his Russian counterpart, implying it was actually Zelensky who was the reason that a deal had not yet been struck.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Following Saturday's sit down, he took a rare public shot at Putin, writing on social media that, quote, there is no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns over the last few days. Makes me think that maybe he does not want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along. It has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Last week, the White House threatened to abandon peace talks entirely if the two sides did not show more of a willingness to negotiate. That seemed to get the ball rolling. On Friday, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Moscow for a three-hour meeting with Putin, which the Kremlin described as, quote, constructive and quite useful.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
They added the two sides had, quote, narrowed differences. That same day, as a sign of their willingness to make a deal, Ukraine reportedly sent the White House a new peace proposal that included a major concession. They would not demand all of their land back that Russia had taken. As Zelensky sees it, Russia is the one holding up a deal. He says that peace can only be reached if the U.S.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
continues to exert pressure on Putin. The Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro traveled to Kiev last week to sit down with Zelensky, and here he is making that argument.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
Yeah, a wild election for control of the prime minister's office will be decided today. And like you mentioned, in many ways, the defining issue of this race has been Donald Trump. The election has hinged on which party Canadians feel will stand up to Trump best. To that point, 39% of Canadians now say Donald Trump was their top concern this election. That is second behind only the cost of living.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
In the winter, it looked like Pierre Palliev's Conservative Party would cruise to victory. But acting Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal Party has been surging in the polls. And in large part, it's due to his promise to fight Donald Trump. To give you an idea of that message, here is his closing statement to supporters this weekend.
Morning Wire
Trump Meets Zelensky & ICE Ride-Along | 4.28.25
For his part, conservative Pierre Polyev has taken more subtle jabs at Trump and instead chosen to focus on combating mass migration and reversing liberal Trudeau-era economic policies. But the polls are tight. This looks like a toss-up. You can bet the White House is going to be watching these results very closely tonight.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
Well, it's because this is a rare chance to flip the ideological balance of the highest court in a key swing state. So depending on how things play out on April 1st, Wisconsin Supreme Court could go from a 4-3 liberal majority to a 4-3 conservative one. And that will, of course, have a lot of ramifications on national policy. Arguably, the biggest factor here is congressional redistricting.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
So after the 2020 census, Republicans who controlled the legislature drew Wisconsin's congressional maps. Democrats cried gerrymandering and they sued. And then in 2022, the liberal court threw out the GOP's maps and adopted new ones that had been drawn by Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat. And that new map helped Democrats flip one congressional seat in 2024.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
So if conservative candidate Brad Schimel wins, he will likely uphold those GOP-drawn maps that help cement the very slim margin that Republicans have in the House right now. On the other hand, if liberal Susan Crawford wins, the court is likely to strike down those Republican maps again, meaning Democrats will have a greater likelihood of winning more seats in the state.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
Yeah, absolutely. And election integrity legislation like voter ID has also been a very big focus here. We have to remember that Trump won Wisconsin in 2024 by less than a percentage point. So these were the issues that Elon Musk stressed during an X space late Saturday night.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
Republicans also see a conservative court in Wisconsin as a potential firewall that could shield Trump's policies from state-level challenges. Think things like lawsuits over federal overreach or immigration crackdowns.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
So on Truth Social yesterday, Trump called Crawford a radical left Democrat, and he said she's insistent on bringing hardened criminals that we remove to faraway places back into our country and allowing men into women's sports and open borders. Quoting there, of course.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
And then pro-lifers are closely watching this race as well, as Crawford has made protecting access to abortion a major part of her pitch to voters.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
So in 2022, when the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision, Texas was one of those states that had a trigger law on the books. Now that law had been passed in 2021, but it was superseded by Roe. Once Roe was overturned, it was then allowed to take effect. Essentially, it's a heartbeat law that bans abortion after around six weeks.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
So the Texas law also requires any physician who provides an abortion-inducing drug to examine the pregnant woman in person, meaning they can't simply have an appointment online or over the phone. This past July, however, New York doctor Margaret Daly Carpenter, who is the founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, a group that seeks to expand abortion access through mail delivery,
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
allegedly prescribed abortion pills to a 20-year-old Dallas woman who was around nine weeks pregnant. Now, according to that suit, the woman received the pills via the mail and after she took them, she began to experience serious complications and called the father to take her to the hospital.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
It was only at that point that he discovered she had ended her pregnancy and after getting her medical attention for what the suit calls severe bleeding, he then called the authorities. So Paxton says that Dr. Carpenter violated not only Texas's abortion law, but also a state law that requires any physician who treats patients through telehealth services to hold a valid Texas medical license.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
So he's asking the District Court of Collin County, Texas to enjoin Carpenter from providing abortion services to Texas residents and also to impose civil penalties of $250,000 for her violation of Texas law.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
Exactly. Because New York is one of 18 states that have an abortion shield law. And those are laws that protect doctors from prosecution when they provide abortions in violation of another state's law. In fact, in 2023, when New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed her state shield law, she specifically referenced Texas, perhaps expecting a showdown like this.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
So Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James both put out statements on Friday promising to oppose Paxton's suit, with James saying, quoting here, we will always protect our providers from unjust attempts to punish them for doing their job. Now, has Dr. Carpenter also put out a statement?
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
Not directly, but a spokesman for the abortion coalition that she founded said that abortion pills are, quote, FDA-approved medicine that are an essential part of women's health care. The spokesperson also accused Paxton of prioritizing his anti-abortion agenda over the health and well-being of women.
Morning Wire
Trump Keeps Winning & Drone Defense Debate | 12.16.24
Paxton, on the other hand, says that Texas, quoting, treasures the health and the lives of mothers and babies, and this is why out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
Yes. And at this point, SCOTUS has ruled on six of those emergency applications. And I'd have to say that the president is faring mostly pretty well. One of the most significant rulings we've seen so far has been on that Alien Enemies Act. Now, it's a somewhat unique situation where both sides, the administration and the ACLU, are claiming victory.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
The administration argued that illegal alien gangs like Tren de Aragua pose such a national security threat that under the authority of that 1798 act, they can remove the gang members rapidly without hearings because they're not citizens. And as we've reported here, last week, SCOTUS lifted a lower judge's block on those deportations, but it did add some guardrails.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
Detainees must now receive notice and a chance for judicial review. Attorney General Pam Bondi celebrated that ruling on Fox News.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
Now, what about the cases relating to federal workers? Yeah, that was another big win, though, again, a bit of a win on technicality. A lower court had ordered Trump to rehire about 16,000 provisional federal workers that he had fired from agencies like Agriculture, Defense, and Veteran Affairs.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
Well, in a 7-2 ruling, SCOTUS found that the organization's suing lacked standing since individual workers weren't part of that lawsuit. So it overturned the lower court ruling. So as with a couple of these other rulings, it's part of a trend of the court putting the brakes on what many are calling judicial activism from these lower courts.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
Oh, yeah, there definitely have. And that has led to some significant grumbling from conservatives about Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, who have tended to be the two that are siding with the liberal justices. The administration had asked SCOTUS to block orders from two federal judges who required Trump to
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
to reinstate two Biden-appointed board members that he had fired from two independent agencies, the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. Well, last Wednesday, Roberts did put a temporary hold on those orders, but it wasn't the clear ruling that the administration was looking for.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
So it's a partial setback because essentially it leaves the issue unresolved and it will likely have big implications for how much control Trump has over these federal agencies and whether he's able to continue pursuing that aggressive agenda through executive actions.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
So next week, the court is set to hear arguments regarding the president's claim of immunity from prosecution over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. And we still have challenges to executive orders on birthright citizenship and federal funding cuts. So still several major rulings ahead. But I think it's worth noting that so far, the court has been pretty restrained.
Morning Wire
China Escalates Trade War & Trump SCOTUS Victories | 4.14.25
And a lot of analysts are pointing out that Chief Justice John Roberts is steering the court toward narrow implications technical rulings in order to avoid any blockbuster showdowns with Trump. So we'll have to see if that's what continues.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Well, you know, I think what you're seeing is some careful PR management surrounding a program that has been significantly slowed down by the courts and has become a key target for Democrats. I think some of that has spooked Republican lawmakers. Reportedly, the president has been hearing from them.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
And then last Thursday, he posted on Truth Social that these cuts are going to be made using a scalpel rather than a hatchet. And he also stressed that the cabinet secretaries will be making the final calls on these cuts. And that's something that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick emphasized on Meet the Press on Sunday.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
But at the same time that Trump is being careful to note that Musk is only advising, and we want to be clear, presidents have every right to call on private sector advisors, he's also touting the waste, fraud, and abuse that Musk's team has identified. This is what he told Fox yesterday.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Trump added that Musk has convinced him that some government departments do need to see deep cuts as much as 50 to 70 percent.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Where are we seeing those? So they're calling these Tesla takedown protests. And I'd say that none have been particularly large. You're mostly hearing about gatherings of hundreds, but they are actually happening all across the country and they're getting substantial media attention. Now, part of that is because some pretty high profile people are participating in these rallies.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Like on Friday, former head of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, led a protest song at the Lincoln Memorial over potential research cuts.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Okay, so that's not something that you see every day. But as for the less famous protesters, the GOP says that many of them are actually being paid by power brokers like George Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. And they say that Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue is also playing a role in funding some of these groups.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Unfortunately, other protests are making news because they're going far beyond peaceful singing or carrying signs. We're now seeing protesters attacking Tesla dealerships, manufacturing facilities, and even charging stations with Molotov cocktails, gunfire, arson, things of that nature. Just a sampling here.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
Over the weekend, someone shot up a Tesla dealership in Portland, Oregon, damaging cars and shattering windows. In Massachusetts, arsonists set a number of Tesla charging stations on fire. But we do want to note that for all of those protests, the latest polling says that the majority of Americans do back Doge.
Morning Wire
Trump’s DOGE Double Down & Federal Worker Competency | 3.10.25
asked how much influence Musk and Doge should have on government spending, 54% said some or a lot, compared to 46% who said only a little or none. A narrow majority, 51%, also said that they want to see that federal workforce reduced.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
So the White House says that they're emphasizing access and availability. And because of that, they're now welcoming non-traditional media outlets into the briefing room. And that includes political podcasts, bloggers, independent journalists, people like that who reach large and or underserved audiences.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
So to give you just one example, one of the White House's first press briefings included John Ashbrook of the podcast Ruthless, which is especially popular with young men. And then newer outlets with very large audiences, like the Daily Wire, also now have ongoing credentials for daily briefings.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
And our new White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Olihan, has already been called on for several questions. So the White House has also established a permanent seat that will be occupied by rotating members of the new media. And Levitt invited outlets to apply for credentials for that seat. And at last count, at least 11,500 have done so.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
Some are. So already the Department of Defense has restructured its press access with a new annual media rotation program. So legacy outlets like the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Politico, NPR, they'll still be members of the Pentagon Press Corps and have access to DOD briefings, but they're not going to get dedicated workspace in the building, which they have in the past.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
Instead, this year, those offices are going to outlets like the New York Post, Newsmax, the Huffington Post, the Free Press, and then they'll rotate again in 2026. Now, I imagine these legacy outlets are not happy about this. Well, I would say that's putting it mildly.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
A New York Times spokesman said that these are, quoting here, steps designed to impede access that are clearly not in the public interest. And a former Politico exec told CNN that it's the erasure of journalism. So some somewhat hyperbolic responses there.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
And then just generally you're hearing these outlets who are losing their workspaces, accusing the administration of giving preferential treatment to Trump-friendly outlets. And you do have to say it's true that some of these outlets are considerably more favorable to Trump than, say, CNN and The Washington Post, whose own owner, Jeff Bezos, has acknowledged that it has a liberal bias problem.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
But again, this new rotation program is also providing space to media that are notably left, like The Huffington Post, or you could say consistently neutral, like The Free Press. But I do think it highlights that Trump no longer feels that he has to play nice with frequently hostile legacy outlets anymore.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
And he's no longer willing to give them pride of place just because past administrations did so.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
Well, already ABC has settled with Trump over a defamation lawsuit and issued a public apology. Now it looks like CBS's ownership, Paramount, is set to settle over a $10 billion lawsuit that Trump had filed against 60 Minutes. He claims that during the election, the network deceptively edited its interview with Kamala Harris in order to help her campaign.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
And you're hearing a lot of legacy media figures upset about this, like Jake Tapper at CNN.
Morning Wire
Trump Super Bowl Buzz & New Media Rises | 2.10.25
So I think it's very likely that we could see additional changes from other federal agencies as Trump's cabinet continues to take shape.
Morning Wire
FEMA Fires Partisans & February Jobs Growth | Afternoon Update | 3.7.25
Producer Jeffrey Seller announced this week that he and his team are canceling planned shows, saying that President Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center's leadership and his push for an anti-woke overhaul was the cause.
Morning Wire
FEMA Fires Partisans & February Jobs Growth | Afternoon Update | 3.7.25
Hamilton was set to run from March 3rd to April 26th next year, but in a statement, Seller said, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center. Trump is now chair of the Kennedy Center, and interim president Richard Grinnell called Hamilton's cancellation a publicity stunt that will backfire.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
So as we reported yesterday, this really started with the Trump administration's announcement that it was effectively shutting down USAID. And that's the United States Agency for International Development. Now, that led to a lot of scrutiny over what exactly USAID has been spending money on.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
And that's when data analysts found millions of taxpayer dollars from various federal agencies flowing into legacy outlets like Politico and AP. Now Politico has been the main focus because they received 8.2 million from the federal government in just the last fiscal year.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
Some initial reports falsely claimed that all of that money was coming from USAID, but in reality, only 24,000 came from that group. But what that did was the discovery got a lot more people looking into these payments and millions more was discovered coming from other government agencies. So now we're seeing a similar debate around the AP, the New York Times, and Reuters.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
AP has received $620,000, primarily coming from the State Department. The Times was paid $378,000 last fiscal year for its various subscriptions. And Reuters received $13.6 million, with the majority coming from the Department of Defense for a premium data analysis product called Thomas Reuters Special Services. And how are these outlets explaining those payments?
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
Well, they argue that these are legitimate business transactions, not subsidies. Politico's argument is that these agencies were buying subscriptions to its premium news service, Politico Pro, and some annual subscriptions could cost over $10,000.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
So Politico CEO and editor-in-chief issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the company has, quoting here, never received any government funding, no subsidies, no grants, not one dime in 18 years. And they also underscored that Politico Pro is a different product than their general news program. And they say that most of their subscribers are in the private sector.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
Now, AP also doesn't deny that they've received millions in payments, but they made a point of noting that both Republican and Democratic administrations have been their customers.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
But a lot of critics, particularly those on the right, counter that these premium subscriptions, like Politico Pro, are pretty exorbitantly priced, over 10K a year, and that this is effectively a racket that relies on government agencies greenlighting these high expenditures. And they also worry about how these large sums of money might influence news coverage.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
Molly Hemingway at The Federalist shared a post that called it payola, quoting, like when a labor union buys 250K copies of a hack politician's book no one wants to read. Sure, they technically paid for a book, but the union was purchasing something else. And then political talk show host Eric Erickson argued that if any Republican were using federal tax dollars to pay for subscriptions,
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
to a conservative news service that costs ten thousand dollars the very press outlets defending this would assail that now is there evidence that this cash flow has skewed their coverage well we can see that these pricey politico accounts did ramp up during the biden years they went from 6.5 million during the trump administration to 26 million between 2021 and 2024 under president biden
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
And that does present some problematic optics, if nothing else. And then a former Politico reporter, Mark Caputo, has acknowledged that the outlet's editors tended to quash those stories that were unfavorable to Biden. He said they wouldn't run coverage on Joe Biden's cognitive decline. or on the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Morning Wire
Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
In fact, he said that staff were instructed to not even talk or tweet about that laptop story. So there's no proof that that editorial bias was influenced by money. But again, the optics aren't great.
Morning Wire
Johnson Wins Speaker Vote & Biden Blocks US Steel Sale | Afternoon Update | 1.3.25
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs have all left the net zero banking alliance, whose purpose was to reduce greenhouse gases to combat climate change.
Morning Wire
Johnson Wins Speaker Vote & Biden Blocks US Steel Sale | Afternoon Update | 1.3.25
The departures come as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term, with his administration expected to roll back climate-related regulations and increase scrutiny of initiatives perceived as limiting fossil fuel investments.
Morning Wire
Johnson Wins Speaker Vote & Biden Blocks US Steel Sale | Afternoon Update | 1.3.25
Republican lawmakers have raised concerns that such alliances could violate antitrust laws, intensifying political pressure on financial institutions to disengage.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
Well, you know, Kennedy took over the franchise in 2012 and despite a few successful products like the Mandalorian, she very prominently embraced the girl power model. And meanwhile, the iconic characters that fans love like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo they were kind of deconstructed. In fact, you could even argue that Luke's character was so subverted that he actually became a bad guy.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
And so a lot of fans objected to this new sort of feminist bent of Star Wars and also the Indiana Jones franchise. And ultimately, the trend became a cultural punchline, which I think was pretty well captured in an infamous South Park clip.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
Bottom line, with each new Star Wars film and series, you saw the fan base diminish. And you think this is part of a larger shift in Hollywood? Well, there's definitely signs of that. So multiple A-list actors, including Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford, appeared in unmistakably patriotic Super Bowl ads this year.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
Really interesting that Ford made a pointed comment about pride in his Jeep ad, which was all about freedom and honored military members. Take a listen here.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
And keep in mind that every word of these ads is carefully considered. And then, just like the rest of corporate America, a lot of studios have quietly laid off their DEI executives. And just like the big tech execs, some entertainment bigwigs have been making nice with Trump. Netflix chief Ted Sarandos, for instance, made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago after the election.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
And I would say that things have been pretty muted, politically speaking, this awards season. We simply have not seen the acceptance speeches condemning Trump or pushing politics in the ways that typically characterize these ceremonies.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
In fact, when Trump announced that he'd named Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Jon Voight as his new Hollywood ambassadors to bring back the golden age of the industry, I expected joking and criticism, and there really wasn't even any of that. And then there's the new messaging coming from the studios.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
Paramount told the New York Times recently that their focus is now on all audience flat out entertaining films. And that's similar to what we've heard from Disney chief Bob Iger. This is what he told CNBC in April.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
And he made good on that. Just recently, Disney removed a transgender storyline from Pixar's new streaming series, Win or Lose. And after the election, Snow White star Rachel Zegler apologized for posting that she hopes Trump supporters never know peace. And reportedly, Disney publicists were a part of orchestrating that apology. So a lot of evidence that the political winds are changing.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
But I would say that 2020 to 2023, those years when the political fracturing was at its most extreme, they allowed a new competition to gain a foothold.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
We've seen more conservative leaning audiences have gotten used to looking for entertainment in more niche ways and fledgling entertainment companies that cater to them like Angel Studios and The Daily Wire, which produces this podcast, have had some really big successes.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
Well, you will still see the big tentpole successes with movies like Wicked or Deadpool and Wolverine. But overall, box office is still way down from where the industry was before the pandemic. 2024's total was 8.7 billion compared to 2018, which was 12 billion. And that's not adjusting for inflation, which makes those numbers even worse.
Morning Wire
Trump Hosts Starmer & Hollywood’s Woke Reversal | 2.28.25
So we do need to see a lot more movies that draw audiences of all political stripes if we hope to return to that pre-pandemic strength.
Morning Wire
Trump Tours Disaster Areas & Fauci Security Ends | Afternoon Update | 1.24.25
The film Amelia Perez led this year's Oscar nominations with 13 nods, including Best Picture and Best Actress. Carla Sofia Gascon, who earned a Best Actress nomination for the Spanish-language film, is the first actor who identifies as trans to be nominated for an Oscar. Other top contenders included Wicked and The Brutalist, which earned 10 nominations.
Morning Wire
Trump Tours Disaster Areas & Fauci Security Ends | Afternoon Update | 1.24.25
Wicked scored acting nods for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, while Adrian Brody earned his second best actor nod for The Brutalist. He won in 2002 for The Pianist. The ceremony will take place on March 2nd.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
So as President Trump said during his announcement on Tuesday, the primary intent of the Stargate project is to build essential data centers and computing infrastructure that's going to enable more and more importantly, faster AI development. So right now, only a few states like Texas and Arizona have the energy grids that are capable of supporting those new data centers.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
So part of this public-private partnership between the government and the Stargate companies is going to be to increase available electricity so that those centers can get built more quickly. This is what Trump told the World Economic Forum yesterday.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
It's also about creating jobs, as Trump said there at the top of the story, but also that AI infrastructure has innumerable applications from health to military development. OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, three of the companies funding this project, are promising that Stargate is going to allow the United States to do that.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
Well, you know, I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Musk is not a fan of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Trump has cozied up to him for this project. So Musk has been pretty public about his displeasure about that on X recently. And this isn't new. Late last year, Musk made this comment to Tucker Carlson.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
And immediately after OpenAI's X account posted Wednesday that it would begin deploying the first 100 billion of the project, Musk replied, quoting here, they don't actually have the money. SoftBank has well under 10 billion secured. I have that on good authority. And Altman eventually responded, Wrong, as you surely know.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
I realize what is great for the country isn't always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first. So some pretty sharp exchanges there.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
Well, you know, Musk and Altman have had something of a feud going on for what you have to say is a number of years. They co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit way back in 2015. And then Musk later cut ties with the company when it transitioned to a for-profit model after partnering with Microsoft. And at that point, Musk sued.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
Essentially, he says that Altman has moved completely away from the original ideal of open AI, which was transparency and benefiting humanity, not profit. He's also accused Altman of, again, quoting, deceit of Shakespearean proportions. The other company heads involved in Stargate are not commenting so far.
Morning Wire
Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25
Yes, and Musk has also been pretty public about Altman's not being a Trump fan in the past. So we'll see how that plays out. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
Yeah, so we don't have the names of the suspects yet, but we do know that these charges center on attacks on Tesla dealerships and charging stations. One suspect allegedly lobbed eight Molotov cocktails at a retailer in Oregon. And then another in Colorado is charged with attempting to light Teslas on fire, again with Molotov cocktails.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
And then the third charge comes out of Charleston, South Carolina. where the suspect allegedly scrawled obscene graffiti about President Trump on Tesla property and lit charging stations on fire. Now, this violence is especially concerning as it's now putting ordinary citizens at risk.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
A number of Tesla owners confirmed that their names and home addresses were published on an online map that had been decorated with a Molotov bomb. And the site also encouraged protesters to unleash their artistic flair by vandalizing Tesla vehicles. And it also recommended other, quote, creative expressions of protest.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
And I'll be honest, we're just not seeing the kind of bipartisan condemnation of this that I think you would expect. In fact, some Democrats and public figures have even seemed to make light of the violence. On Wednesday night, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel responded to a clip of Elon Musk saying that these attacks make no sense by saying this.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
And then also on Wednesday night, this is what Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said during a live stream with the protest group Tesla Takedown.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
Well, you know, obviously the investigations are ongoing into the individual incidents. But yes, there is plenty of evidence that these protests are being well-funded by outside political groups. One of these groups, for instance, is the Indivisible Project. It's been heavily financed by George Soros' foundation, Open Society, to the tune of some $8 million.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
And they've also received funding from Democratic fundraising platform, ActBlue. In fact, one of their founders, Leah Greenberg, spoke recently about organizing protests at Tesla dealerships and spreading the word that Musk's advisory role in the administration is a unique threat.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
An Indivisible Project is not the only group either. Others like Action Network are longtime professional protest organizers. They worked behind the scenes at Occupy Wall Street for years, for instance. And now they're helping to organize these Tesla demonstrations. They also published addresses of Tesla dealerships across the country for protesters to target.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
So how badly is this hurting Musk and Tesla? Well, you know, the bulk of Musk's wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. So the fact that it has taken about a 50% hit since December is significant, but he's still the richest person in the world. And he also recently got some good news on the X front. The value of that company has experienced a major rebound.
Morning Wire
Education Department Dismantled & Tesla Terrorism Continues | 3.21.25
While at one point it had fallen as low as 70%, its latest valuation puts it at 44 billion, which coincidentally is exactly what Musk paid for it in 2022. Wow.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
You know, I don't think it would be hyperbole to call it enormous. It's totally different this time around. Elon Musk, as we would expect, is going to have pride of place at Trump's inauguration on January 20th, but he's not going to be alone.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
So will Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, both of whom donated a million dollars each to Trump's inaugural fund, and both will be seated on stage with him at the inauguration. And speaking of donations, Trump also raked some in from OpenAI CEO and the CEO of Uber. And these are companies that up until just about five minutes ago were viewed as, well, pardon the pun, Uber progressive.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
And then when we turn to car manufacturing, Toyota, Ford, General Motors, they're also kicking into Trump's inaugural fund with Ford reportedly donating fleets of vehicles for use by high-profile guests. And if you look at the financial world, we see Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, major hedge fund managers also throwing the returning president their support.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
So just a complete turn of the page here.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
Well, you know, this may be the most dramatic. During Trump's 2016 inauguration, planners actually had a pretty difficult time scheduling A-list performers.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
Among the artists who declined to sing at that event were Garth Brooks, Celine Dion, Elton John, and then world-famous opera singer Andrea Bocelli initially said that he had accepted an invitation to perform, but then he backed out due to backlash in the music industry. This time, though, the Trump team has had no trouble scoring one of the biggest country artists on the planet.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
Carrie Underwood is going to be singing America the Beautiful at the ceremony itself, and then other major acts like Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts are going to perform at an inaugural ball. And then maybe even more telling, I haven't really seen much backlash from the entertainment industry for any of these performers. I mean...
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
You know, there's been a little bit of low-level grousing from a few isolated figures. Joy Behar comes to mind, but nothing significant. And I also think if we turn and look at comedy, we see the same thing. So on New Year's Eve, comedian Whitney Cummings went on CNN and absolutely roasted the Democrats.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
And then just a few days later, comedian Nikki Glaser hosted the Golden Globes and took aim at Hollywood for being politically disconnected from the American public.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
In terms of actors, if we look at A-list celebrities, they are openly backing Trump in a way we never saw before. I'm thinking of people like Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and DC superhero Zachary Levi.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
Now, professional sports have, of course, always had a little bit more of a conservative bent than other areas of culture, but you still mostly saw the big names keep pretty quiet about their politics. That's not happening now. Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, Danica Patrick, former Patriots general manager Bill Belichick, two-time Super Bowl champion Lawrence Taylor. They are all open Trump supporters.
Morning Wire
The Trump Shift & Cabinet Confirmation Questioning | 1.17.25
And if you paid any attention to this past NFL season, you noticed that it was replete with players doing that famous Trump dance. So just a completely different landscape. Right, no doubt it feels totally different this time around.