Morning Brief: Mike Waltz Lands On His Feet, Senate Fights For Trump, And Abortion Pill Dangers

The Trump administration shakes up its National Security Council, Senate Majority Leader John Thune lays out his plan to advance Trump’s agenda, and a new report reveals the abortion pill is much more dangerous than the FDA admits.

It’s Friday, May 2, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.

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Security Leadership Shakeup

(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Topline: As the Trump administration works to secure trade deals with China and end the war in Ukraine, the president announced a leadership shakeup at the White House.

On Thursday morning, numerous outlets reported that the president was firing his national security adviser, Mike Waltz. But hours later, Trump threw a major curveball, announcing that Waltz would be leaving his role as NSA, but would be nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.

“From his time in uniform on the battlefield, in Congress and, as my National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz has worked hard to put our Nation’s Interests first,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “I know he will do the same in his new role.”

Waltz’s nomination as UN Ambassador shocked many people, but his removal as National Security Adviser was widely expected. Waltz was responsible for accidentally adding Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to that now-infamous Signal group chat. Trump initially stood by him following the scandal, but the pressure campaign to relieve Waltz reportedly grew as some within Trump’s inner circle expressed concerns that his more hawkish views did not reflect the America First foreign policy. But the fact that he’s staying on as UN Ambassador shows the president still views him as a valuable asset.

In the short term, the president announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take over the role of National Security Adviser. A long-term replacement will likely be promoted from within the Trump administration. Some names that have been floated include Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, National Security Council Director of Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, or Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

This week, the White House announced that after months of intense negotiations, they’d officially signed a long-awaited minerals deal with Ukraine. The agreement will create a new “reconstruction investment fund” managed fifty-fifty by the two countries. Moving forward, half of all revenues from new oil, gas and mineral projects in Ukraine will go into that fund, helping to pay the U.S. back for the billions we’ve sent towards their war effort.

Morning Wire Interviews Senate Majority Leader John Thune

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Topline: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the most powerful member of the Senate, sits down with Morning Wire.

In order to implement his America First agenda, President Trump will be heavily relying on the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan sat down with Thune this week to discuss the president’s first 100 days and how the Senate is backing Trump’s agenda.

Thune highlighted the importance of getting Trump’s cabinet nominations through the Senate quickly to enact the America First agenda, while also acknowledging the need for the legislature to pass several of the president’s proposed reforms into law.

“We confirmed his cabinet at the fastest rate in 20 years,” Thune said. “We’ve gotta start delivering on the legislative agenda, and that’s where you get into energy independence, where you get into rebuilding the military, securing the border, providing tax relief for the American people, and reducing spending and getting our country on a more sustainable fiscal path. Those are the things that we, the president campaigned on, and we need to deliver on for the American people.”

Thune also told The Daily Wire a few of his priorities for the next 100 days.

“There wasn’t a single year in the Biden administration where their commitment to the military kept up even with the rate of inflation. So we’ve fallen behind in a lot of areas. And President Trump recognizes that, recognizes that we live in a dangerous world and we’ve gotta be able to defend America and American interests. And so that’s a priority. And the border security, I would argue, is right up there with that, because that’s also, in my view, a national security issue. … On the economy, it’s getting rid of burdensome Biden regulations, extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, and then creating an energy policy that makes America energy dominant. I think those are all issues that feed into a strong economy that creates better paying jobs and, and makes the lives of Americans more prosperous.”

Study: Abortion Pill Complications Much More Common Than The FDA Claims

(Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Topline: The abortion pill is much more dangerous than the FDA claimed, with more than one in 10 women suffering serious complications.

In 2023, about 11.2% of women experienced a “serious adverse event” after taking the mifepristone abortion pill, according to new research commissioned by the Foundation for the Restoration of America. That works out to about 17,310 women in 2023 alone. “Serious adverse events” can include hemorrhaging, requiring a blood transfusion, an emergency room visit, and even deadly conditions like sepsis.

Context: This is about 22x higher than what the FDA claimed on its label for Mifeprex (a brand name for mifepristone) in 2023 — the FDA cited clinical studies saying less than 0.5% of women suffered “serious adverse reactions.”

“If you had any other drug that was kind of similar in terms of the magnitude of what this thing does, anywhere north of 2% and they’d shut it down,” Doug Truax, founder of Foundation for the Restoration of America, told The Daily Wire. “They’re just hell bent on just increasing the amount of abortions.”

Mifepristone was originally approved by the FDA in 2000. For many years, women had to see a doctor in person to obtain the abortion pill, but a few months before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the FDA scrapped that requirement – now women can get it through the mail. This came as abortion advocates argued that the abortion pill should be more available to order online because some Republican-led states were looking to ban abortion. Medication abortions made up 63% of all abortions in 2023, up from 31% in 2014, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.