New economic data rolls in with good news for Americans’ wallets, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on whether states can bar males from competing in women’s sports, and how did Minnesota get here? We speak to former GOP governor Tim Pawlenty to learn more.
It’s Tuesday, January 13, 2026, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
Trump’s Wins
Nearly one year after retaking the presidency, the White House says President Donald Trump’s economic and domestic agenda is starting to pay off. When Trump launched his trade war, the consensus among most economists and Democratic lawmakers was that it would tank the economy and stall GDP growth. But each month, the data continues to defy those expectations. At the beginning of 2025, the U.S. GDP shrank by half a percentage point. That set off alarm bells in Washington that a recession was looming. But in Quarter 2, GDP grew 3.8%; by Quarter 3, it was up to 4.3%, and based on the latest projections from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, GDP growth in the final quarter of 2025 was a stunning 5.1%. On Monday, gas prices fell for the seventh straight week. On housing, mortgage rates fell below 6% for the first time in nearly three years, while rents declined for the fifth straight month. Inflation has trended in the right direction for months.
SCOTUS Weighs Women’s Sports
The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on Tuesday in two high-stakes cases that could have sweeping consequences for women’s sports and state authority. The paired cases come from Idaho and West Virginia and center on whether states can enforce laws banning biological males from competing in women’s sports. In Idaho’s Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a male who identifies as a transgender woman, is challenging Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. In the West Virginia case, a male middle school athlete known as BPJ is asking the court to invalidate a similar law. The Court consolidated the two cases because they raised nearly identical legal questions.
Former Gov Tim Pawlenty Talks MN Fraud And ICE
The protests gripping Minneapolis over the last few days have come amid federal investigations into widespread fraud, which President Trump is now sending even more agents to investigate. Former Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty joined Morning Wire to discuss the issue rocking his state. The former governor blamed the tense standoff between local leaders and federal law enforcement on the state’s sanctuary policies. The extent of social service fraud in the state could be as high as $9 billion or more, which “could be the largest theft or fraud of public money in the history of our country,” Pawlenty said. On the chances that Democratic Governor Tim Walz could have known about the massive amount of fraud in his state prior to the recent media attention, Pawlenty said that the Minnesota state government has quashed fraud investigations before, simply by bureaucrats refusing to work with investigators.
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