American forces seize an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, the Senate shoots down competing bills on the future of health care, and a prominent college football coach is fired—then arrested.
It’s Friday, December 12, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251212-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u-s-defends-tanker-seizure-senate-subsidy-standoff-12-12-25/id1576594336?i=1000740979487" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker Off Venezuela Coast</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013813" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Tanker-Seizure-Shock.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela on Wednesday in an escalation of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Bloomberg was the first to report that a tanker had been seized earlier Wednesday, and President Trump confirmed the news later in the day at a roundtable with business leaders.
“An interesting day from the standpoint of news. As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large–largest one ever seized, actually,” <a href="https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1998847332616421875">said</a> Trump.
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Some administration officials posted a video of the operation that showed American forces dropping onto the tanker and taking control of it. Attorney General Pam Bondi explained that the United States “executed a seizure warrant for a crude oil tanker used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.” She added that the oil tanker had been sanctioned because of “its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”
Maduro’s response: The Venezuelan government condemned the seizure in a statement that said Venezuela “strongly denounces and repudiates what constitutes blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”
This development has to be concerning to Maduro. Venezuela is a petrostate, with petroleum accounting for nearly the entire economy. The money the Maduro regime receives from oil sales is the key to its stability. Because the United States has sanctions on Venezuelan oil, Maduro has been forced to do business with regimes that typically are opposed to American interests, such as China. And then at deep discounts to offset the risk of violating American sanctions. If Venezuela is no longer able to sell its oil, that’s a huge blow to Maduro’s revenue.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">The Battle Over Obamacare Continues</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013815" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Subsidies-Split.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The battle over Obamacare is in full swing, with Democrats advocating for extended subsidies and Republicans offering alternative healthcare options.
Two votes took place in the Senate on Thursday regarding the looming Obamacare deadline. Neither of the bills passed, but it’s important to break down what Democrats and Republicans are pushing forward, because this deadline is coming up in a matter of weeks.
The Democrat bill: The Democrat-backed bill, called the “Lower Health Care Costs Act,” would extend Obamacare subsidies, which are technically tax credits, for another three years. These started back in 2021 and were only supposed to be in place for two years, but Democrats extended them until December 31.
The plan is pricey; it’s expected to cost taxpayers about $83 billion. But Democrats argue that the extension is necessary, otherwise more than 20 million Americans will see their healthcare costs more than double, on average. Republicans dispute that.
“Twenty-two million of the 24 million people will still get their subsidies, the original Obamacare subsidies, which subsidize the insurance at 91% of the premiums. So, their premiums won’t double,” GOP Sen. Ron Johnson told Morning Wire last month. “Going from zero to a negligible amount is an infinite increase. You can’t put that as ‘doubling premiums.’ The people we’re talking about, the 1.6 million people whose subsidies completely go away—I’m willing to work with Democrats on that.”
Republicans also argue that Obamacare, and specifically these subsidies, are creating massive fraud–another burden on the American taxpayer.
The GOP bill: The GOP-backed bill, called the “Health Care Freedom for Patients Act of 2025,” does let the Obamacare subsidies expire on the timeline Democrats set. But it also offers Americans direct payments to help cover healthcare costs. This was an idea floated by President Trump last month.
The health savings accounts created by the bill would be available to Americans earning up to 700% of the federal poverty limit, and the funds would range from $1,000 to $1,500 for 2026 and 2027. The accounts would restrict use for abortion and certain gender-transition coverage.
Republicans needed 60 votes, which would have to include a handful of Democrats, but that didn’t happen.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Michigan Head Coach Arrested</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013817" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sherrone-Moore-Saga.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The University of Michigan finds itself engulfed in controversy after administrators abruptly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/michigan-fires-football-coach-sherrone-moore-621eb019?mod=hp_lead_pos9">fired</a> head football coach Sherrone Moore with cause. Now, he’s in custody on suspicion of assault. Morning Wire spoke to former Michigan quarterback and Daily Wire Crain &amp; Company co-host David Cone about the Moore saga. (This interview has been lightly edited.)
Morning Wire: I&#8217;ve been, honestly, kind of shocked by this story. We looked at it initially and thought, oh, this will be an Evening Wire. And then it turned into a full-blown story that we felt like was worth covering here. What exactly is happening in this case?
Cone: A sad day for Michigan football. A sad day for this country. I just want to say that first and again, I&#8217;m praying for this man because there&#8217;s some very serious allegations here. I&#8217;ll just say to you now that I heard as far back as September, following Michigan&#8217;s loss to Oklahoma, I had a very reliable source closely associated with Michigan football call me and just say it&#8217;s widely known that Sherrone Moore has engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a staff member, and that conduct likely resulted in a pregnancy that was terminated. I heard this in September. I did some due diligence, but every time I would hear something that corroborated that, I would hear something else that says, that&#8217;s just rumor. Come to find out, throughout the fall, many other people and former players close to the program have been hearing something very similar. Wednesday, Warde Manuel, the athletic director, decided to fire head coach Sherrone Moore. … The reports out of Ann Arbor are that Sherrone Moore did not take that news very well, and that allegedly threatened to take his own life. I don&#8217;t know if this was directly with his wife or with the staff member. There is a question here, possibly threatening to even take her life, and he was arrested. I do want to go to as reliable of a source as it gets with the University of Michigan. This is John Bacon, and this is directly from <a href="https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1998978431154008380">him</a>: “The UM employee presented irrefutable documentation about Moore&#8217;s conduct to UM leaders this morning (Wednesday). The president and regents had seen enough, and Manuel fired him (Wednesday) afternoon. Moore is now detained in protective custody in a mental health institution.”
Morning Wire: One of the big questions here is who knew what when. You say you have the source, it&#8217;s pretty shocking you heard this all the way back in September. Do you feel that this is a cover-up situation by the administration? And that&#8217;s a major allegation to make, but is that possibly the case?
Cone: That is a critical question that you&#8217;re asking, particularly since we are a week now removed from National Signing Day. You have national recruits here who, in good faith, signed their name to a national letter of intent because they thought Sherrone Moore was going to be the head football coach–how does that impact their decision? I lived through this as a recruit at this very place. This was my alma mater. But again, this is way bigger than football. We&#8217;re talking about someone&#8217;s life or family at stake here. So again, I can&#8217;t answer what board members will do when I just know that if I&#8217;m hearing about something in September, the athletic director certainly must have heard about this sooner. At the same time, how does he separate rumors that he must hear on a daily basis versus something that is credible and he must investigate?

MRN_251212_V1

Morning Brief: Oil Tanker Tango, Obamacare Subsidy Standoff, & Major College Football Coach Arrested

Morning Brief: Oil Tanker Tango, Obamacare Battle Continues, And UM Football Coach Arrested

Donald Trump

Michigan

Morning Wire

Nicolas Maduro

Obamacare

University of Michigan

Venezuela

Daily Wire Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak details his reporting on governmental waste and fraud before Congress, controversy swirls around Zohran Mamdani’s administration-to-be, and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) gives us an inside look at Minnesota’s fraud scandal.
It’s Thursday, December 11, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251211-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dei-fraud-exposed-mamdanis-radical-moves-12-11-25/id1576594336?i=1000740820041" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Senate Digs Into DEI Fraud</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013133" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/8a-Ate-Billions.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Senate is investigating a multi-billion-dollar DEI fraud scheme, as the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates, sending markets soaring. 
Senate drills into DEI: The Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program was initially intended to offer support for those deemed “socially and economically disadvantaged.” Under the Biden administration, federal agencies were instructed to ensure 15% of all contracts were given to businesses operated by minorities or women, meaning billions of taxpayer dollars were awarded based on race and gender in what became one of the largest DEI programs in the country.
Not only was the program intentionally excluding people based on race, but it was also ripe with fraud. Daily Wire Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak documented countless cases in which minority business owners would win a contract, then outsource all the work to non-minority-owned businesses, pocketing most of the money in the process.
On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Small Business held a hearing to address the fraud, and Rosiak testified about his findings.
“8A creates a random group of influence peddlers who like lobbyists, get rich by selling their access to government insiders to the benefit of big businesses, while driving up the cost for all of us. This is the kind of thing people hate about Washington. You owe it to voters to end this program,” <a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/1998848540135555157?s=20">said</a> Rosiak.
Interest rates: On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board voted to cut interest rates by a quarter point to the 3.5%-3.75% range. That means rates have now come down by nearly 2% over the last year and a half. They’re now at their lowest point in more than three years.
There was not unanimous agreement from the voting members of the Fed Board. For the first time in six years, three of the twelve officials cast dissenting votes, with two saying cuts weren’t needed, and one saying the cut should be bigger.
Essentially, the disagreement stems from whether the Fed should prioritize the labor market, which has slowed significantly, or inflation, which remains well above the target range of 2%. Typically, rates are raised when inflation is high, and lowered when the labor market is cool. Ultimately, the Fed Board, led by Chair Jerome Powell, viewed the labor market as a more pressing matter, and said these cuts would help with hiring and unemployment. 
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Mamdani’s Rule Already Stirring Controversy</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013135" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mamdani-Doubles-Down.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: As New York City braces for a seismic shift in leadership with democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani taking the helm as mayor next month, a wave of controversy is erupting over his early moves.
Many political pundits, particularly those on the Right, warned that Mamdani would endanger public safety and undermine law enforcement, and now they say they’re seeing evidence for these claims even before he has officially taken office.
One of the most talked-about moves came just days ago, when Mamdani put out a video addressed to immigrants living in New York City. In it, he <a href="https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1997801475066745259?s=20">told</a> viewers they have the right to “stand up to ICE.”
Critics argue this goes beyond merely explaining constitutional rights. Some say it could embolden illegal aliens, even those with criminal records, to resist or evade lawful ICE action.
Mamdani’s transition: The transition team has been an explosive topic as Mamdani has tapped Mysonne Linen to be a key voice on justice reform on the “Committee on the Criminal Legal System.”
Linen was once a rising hip-hop star signed to Def Jam. But in 1999, he was convicted of two armed robberies where he held up taxi drivers at gunpoint. He served seven years and was paroled in 2006.
He then rebranded as a Black Lives Matter activist and co-founded Until Freedom with Linda Sarsour, a controversial pro-Palestinian activist who has also served as a Mamdani advisor.
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The choice has driven law enforcement apoplectic. Correction officers’ union head Benny Boscio called it “disheartening and deeply disturbing.” Retired NYPD brass such as John Chell see a pattern with Mamdani filling his team with anti-cop firebrands like black nationalist Lumumba Bandele, defund-the-police guru Alex Vitale, and others.
Mamdani says he just wants a broad array of “experiences and analysis” to draw from.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">What’s Behind The Massive Somali Fraud Scandal?</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1013137" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Congressional-Minnesota-Probe.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The sweeping fraud allegations coming out of Minnesota have sparked demands for more investigations and further action from political leaders in D.C. to protect against billions more in taxpayer dollars getting funneled into the hands of fraudsters. Morning Wire spoke with House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota’s 6th congressional district, about the scandal. (This interview has been lightly edited.)
Morning Wire: We have this massive fraud scandal continuing to unravel this week. What do you believe were the most critical oversight failures within the Walz administration? And how should Minnesota restructure its safeguards to prevent this from happening again?
Emmer: The first thing you do is you got to get rid of [Minnesota Democratic Governor] Tim Walz and [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison and [Congresswoman] Ilhan Omar. I mean, there&#8217;s your biggest structural problem right there. Let me put some context around this for your viewers, your listeners. … The facts are this: today, there are roughly 80,000 Somali immigrants that are living in Minnesota. The vast majority of them live in Minneapolis or Hennepin County–an area called Cedar-Riverside. … Tim Walz and Keith Ellison cannot get votes in greater Minnesota. Think about this: in the last election, Tim Walz outspent the Republican candidates $15 million to $1.7 million, and he won with 52%, just over 52% of the vote. If you look a little deeper, we have 87 counties. Tim Walz only won the 13 metro counties. We&#8217;ll go a little farther. If you look at the 74 counties that he lost, he got 37% of the vote, including losing his former congressional seat by eight points. So, what is this about? This is about the fact that when he and Keith Ellison took office, Keith Ellison instantly set up a policy in his attorney general&#8217;s office that required his approval before any further investigations into fraud could go forward. Guess what? He&#8217;s never approved one of them. … And it&#8217;s not that all Somali immigrants are bad. It just so happens that 90% of the crimes we&#8217;re talking about have been committed by people that are in the Somali community. And by the way, they have been sending millions back to Somalia into the hands of Al-Shabaab, a known terrorist group. So, if you look at Keith Ellison, he won by a little less than one point in his last election. What is this all about? This is all about them getting re-elected. They need that 60 to 80,000 Somali population. They need them to be voting for them. That&#8217;s what this is all about.
Morning Wire: You mentioned the word accountability. We do have some individual actors being convicted, but what about on the government level? What about some of these officials? Is there any action being taken to hold people accountable if they looked the other way knowingly? What investigations are going on with that, and what do you hope to see pursued?
Emmer: Look, I think our U.S. Justice Department is starting to pick up where Minnesota should have been involved investigating not only the fraud but who might have been not just incompetent but actively engaged in the fraud because they should be criminally held, criminally responsible. You&#8217;ve got Dr. Oz, who&#8217;s investigating a fraud on the Medicaid program. You&#8217;ve got Kelly Loeffler, who&#8217;s investigating fraud in the SBA program. You got Kash Patel, who&#8217;s busy with his team investigating Somali gangs that have frankly been running rampant in the Twin Cities committing crimes and no one will hold them accountable for it.

MRN_251211_V2

Morning Brief: DEI Fraud Exposed, Mamdani’s Radical Moves, & Minnesota Scandal Reveals Fault Lines

Morning Brief: Senate Digs Into DEI, Mamdani Picks Stoke Controversy, And The Politics Of MN Fraud

Federal Reserve

Jerome Powell

Keith Ellison

Minnesota

New York City

Tim Walz

Zohran Mamdani

President Donald Trump highlights the administration’s affordability efforts, a key Senate race gains a new wrinkle in Texas, and mainstream science erupts at a new government memo on vaccines.
It’s Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251210-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-touts-affordability-lone-star-senate-showdown/id1576594336?i=1000740617515" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Kicks Off Economy Tour</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012423" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump is hitting the road to tout his economic progress as Americans remain pessimistic about affordability and the cost of living.
Since retaking office, many of the president’s most high-profile road trips have been abroad to meet with foreign leaders and lock down peace deals and trade agreements. But with midterms fast approaching and affordability remaining the top issue for voters, he’s launching a nationwide tour to tout his economic record and address voter concerns on affordability.
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For years now, Republicans have dominated on the topic, with poll after poll showing voters prefer their handling of the economy over Democrats. But goodwill from Trump’s first term has not carried over, as Republicans now trail Democrats on the economy.
Last month’s electoral results in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York were seemingly a wake-up call for the White House. It’s not just that Democrats won handily, but it’s the fact that they won by attacking President Trump’s economy and focusing on affordability. Now the president has held a series of meetings with his top advisers to devise a new messaging strategy to convince voters that he’s taking the right course ahead of the midterms.
Trump appeared in Pennsylvania for the first of what the White House says will be a string of events focused primarily on affordability.
Trump is in a tough political spot. On the one hand, he takes great pride in his economic prowess and his role as a sort of businessman-in-chief. But if he continues insisting that things are going great, he risks coming off as out of touch and angering folks.
A Fox News poll this month found that 76% of voters view the economy negatively, while POLITICO found that even 37% of Trump voters say the cost of living is the worst they’ve ever seen.
For his part, the president reportedly feels the issue is perception, and that Republicans must step up their efforts to highlight the progress they’re making.
“We gave you an extension of the biggest tax cuts and the biggest tax cuts ever, even bigger than the first term, and that&#8217;s one of the reasons that your 401(k)s are through the roof. It&#8217;s one of the reasons that the stock market is at the highest point,” said Trump Tuesday evening. “Rent prices are down, dairy prices are coming down very strongly. The cost of Thanksgiving turkeys was down by 33% compared to the Biden era. That&#8217;s a good start. We&#8217;re bringing it down and we&#8217;re coming down more. We&#8217;re coming down a lot more.”
President Trump also touted the progress made so far in lowering the cost of gas and eggs, which reached historic highs in recent years. 
“We&#8217;re down lower than we&#8217;ve been in seven years. And gasoline prices in oil prices, not just the three states that I talk about with 1.99 a gallon,” said Trump. “  What about eggs? … The price of eggs is down now 80% since March. Think of that.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Shootout For Texas Senate Seat</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012425" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A Texas Senate race is already heating up as candidates for both parties jockey for the chance to win the key seat, and some notable names are shaking things up.
A new Democrat challenger: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is jumping into the race. Crockett is a sound-bite factory, so prepare to see some major developments out of the U.S. Senate race in Texas.
Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) dropped out of the race earlier on Monday while signaling that Crockett was going to get in. Meanwhile, state Rep. James Talarico is maintaining that he is going to stay in the contest on the Democratic side.
Texas is a red state, but with the 2026 election, Democrats are feeling a bit cocky about their shot at winning that seat and many others, if possible.
Crockett’s impact: The NRCC, or the Republican arm focused on House elections, is already touting that Crockett could potentially be the Democratic nominee. What that means for down-ballot races is that moderate Democrats will face a choice: whether to embrace Crockett and risk being painted as radicals by Republicans, or to push away from Crockett and risk pushback from Democrats.
Either way, Republicans will likely try to paint Crockett as the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party in Texas.
GOP’s packed primary: On the Republican side, it&#8217;s a complicated primary. Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is running, as well as state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) is also in the race.
Cornyn is backed by the NRC, the official party arm that defends incumbent GOP senators. Paxton, Hunt, and Cornyn are all vying for Trump&#8217;s endorsement. But the president has not yet picked a favorite.
Hunt and Paxton have both portrayed themselves as the better option to stand with Trump and carry out the president’s agenda. But there is a highly volatile dynamic in the race, and polling shows the contest is incredibly close.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">FDA Revamps Vaccine Standards</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012427" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The FDA is implementing tougher standards for vaccines, a move riling up the medical establishment.
Reports circulated this week about an internal memo from Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s vaccine division, proposing an overhaul of how vaccines are evaluated and approved, initiating tougher standards. The new process would include full randomized clinical trials even for updated or routine vaccines, such as the flu shot.
The trials would allow evaluation of real-world protection, not just antibody levels, as well as side-effect rates and additional information for risk-benefit analysis. Currently, officials rely primarily on immune-response data, such as antibody levels from small groups of people.
Notably, this memo cited at least 10 children who died “after and because of” receiving COVID vaccines. That is apparently driving this new direction for tougher vaccine approvals. 
How it&#8217;s playing: Twelve former FDA officials denounced the memo in an editorial, claiming that it casts doubt on vaccine safety. They claim these new standards reject “long-standing science” and say it will slow innovation. Former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb appeared on CBS News and <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1997844527353409711">said</a> Prasad’s new procedures could hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Trump admin response: The Department of Health and Human Services stands by Dr. Prasad and these new standards. An HHS spokesperson took a swipe at the “resistance” editorial, saying, “The fact these criticisms are coming from former FDA officials who opposed raising the bar for vaccine science confirms we are on the right track.”
HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard told Morning Wire that the American people “deserve evidence-based science,” and said Dr. Prasad’s email “lays out a philosophical framework that points us toward that higher standard.”
Hilliard also said HHS will “soon release documents laying out that framework,” as well as data confirming how the COVID vaccine resulted in children’s deaths that previous leadership failed to investigate properly.

MRN_251210_V2

Morning Brief: Trump Touts Affordability, Lone Star Senate Showdown, & Vax Standards Revised

Morning Brief: Trump’s Economy Tour, TX Senate Race, And FDA Revamps Vax Standards

Economy

Jasmine Crockett

John Cornyn

Ken Paxton

Pennsylvania

Texas

Vaccines

Trump leans on both Ukraine and Russia as peace negotiations grind on, Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak heads to Capitol Hill, and a new memo reveals Biden knew his immigration policies would have chaotic consequences—and chose to proceed anyway.
It’s Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251209-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wir</a>e:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-presses-zelensky-bidens-immigration-ignorance/id1576594336?i=1000740381305" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Zelensky Rallies European Support Amid U.S. Peace Talks</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011783" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Presses-Zelensky.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Zelensky met with European leaders on Monday to rally support for the war.
State of play: Peace talks have made some progress over the past few weeks, but that progress has stalled. After President Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1997812364931195249">appeared</a> frustrated on Sunday and suggested that Zelensky was ignoring the peace plan, the Ukrainian president addressed the current framework on Monday.
According to Zelensky, the disagreement is over the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east. The Trump administration reportedly wants Ukraine to hand over control of the rest of the Donbas to Russia, which controls most of it already. In return, Ukraine would get security guarantees and financing to help rebuild. But Zelensky says he can’t because the Ukrainian constitution forbids ceding territory that way.
Zelensky’s corner: Zelensky wants a freeze along the current lines of the conflict. And he doesn’t appear to be alone. European leaders seem frustrated, too.
Zelensky appeared in London on Monday and met with the E3, or the top leaders in Europe: U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“The principles remain the principles that we&#8217;ve operated on for a very, very long time, which is that we stand with Ukraine. If there&#8217;s to be a ceasefire, it needs to be a just and lasting ceasefire,” <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1998077179251261884">said</a> Starmer.
Merz was the most vocal about disagreements with the United States:
“We are still and remain strongly behind Ukraine and giving support to your country because we all know that the destiny of [Ukraine] is the destiny of Europe,” <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1998077179251261884">said</a> Merz. “I&#8217;m skeptical about some of the details which we are seeing in the documents coming from the U.S. side, but we have to talk about that.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">The Daily Wire To Testify Before Congress </h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011785" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-On-Display.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Daily Wire investigative reporter Luke Rosiak will testify to the Senate on Wednesday as an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wires-luke-rosiak-will-testify-before-the-senate-on-massive-federal-dei-scheme">expert</a> on what he calls the government’s longest-running, largest, and most corrupt DEI program. Morning Wire spoke to Rosiak ahead of his appearance in the Senate. (The following interview has been lightly edited.)
Morning Wire: The Senate Small Business Committee oversees the Small Business Administration and its government-wide minority contracting program called 8(a) or “set-aside contracting.&#8221; Luke, you’re getting prepared to testify–that’s very exciting. First, how did this come about–it’s actually years in the making, right?
Rosiak: About 15 years ago, I was sitting in a cafe doing some computer programming when I got offered a job. A well-dressed black man was sitting next to me and said he noticed that I was programming in C++, and that he needed to hire some people quickly for the computer programming company he owned.
The problem is I was coding in a different language that looks nothing like C++. I tried to figure out how he owned a computer company and didn’t know that. He said it was an 8(a) contract from the government, and that he just gets contracts and then finds people to do the work.
It struck me that this is a pretty poor way to run the government. I’m not even a professional computer programmer; I just dabble in it. But for all I know, he was ready to hire me to build some sensitive government system.
Anyway, instead of taking the job, I dug into this 8(a) program, and what I found was that that’s more or less exactly how it works.
Morning Wire: Explain to us–what exactly is going on here?
Rosiak: If you’re a racial minority, the government can give you a contract without trying to find the best price or the best person.
More than five percent of all federal contracts are reserved for minorities and women, who are often really just men who put their company in their wife’s name. The program was created in 1978 to help black people, but now it’s gone really off the rails. Indians get preference for contracts even though they have a higher median income than whites, and they’re overrepresented in fields like IT, which didn’t even exist prior to the civil rights era. 
Morning Wire: So some of the people receiving these preferential U.S. government contracts are actually foreigners, people who are minorities because they’re immigrants.
Rosiak: Yes. But what I’m going to tell the Senate is that the scandal here is a little different than you might think. It’s really a loophole exploited by the government and big corporations, you heard Accenture mentioned in that video, to circumvent competitive bidding.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Early Warnings About Border Chaos</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011787" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Willful-Border-Chaos.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A new report reveals that former President Biden was told he could’ve stopped illegal immigration, but chose not to during his tenure in the White House. 
A shocking <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/us/politics/biden-immigration-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The New York Times said that President Biden was warned while on the campaign trail, before he even assumed office, that some of his immigration policies would lead to political chaos. That&#8217;s exactly what happened as the consequences of Biden’s policies began to unfold at the border.
The record amounts of illegal immigration that swamped the border, then towns, then major cities, drove the immigration issue to become a priority for voters in the next election. The issue also likely played a major role in President Trump&#8217;s victory.
According to The New York Times, there were a number of memos and meetings where aides and experts brought up immigration and warned the Biden team that his policies needed to be stricter or the border would descend into what it became, which was millions of illegal immigrants coming across in a free-for-all.
In a 2020 memo from aides cautioned Biden’s “inner circle” “that his promises—coupled with pent-up demand from the Trump years and economic hardship from Covid—could provoke a spike in border crossings,” according to the Times.
The memo offered potential solutions to tighten permissions for illegal border crossers, “including making it easier to quickly reject asylum claims; holding people in ‘reception centers’ until their cases could be heard; transferring some migrants to other countries; and continuing to make some asylum seekers wait in Mexico, while ensuring they had access to shelter,” the Times reported.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda: After the fact, many former officials are saying there were many mistakes made on the Biden team and by Biden himself, who knowingly went against this advice. They scrapped rules such as asylum restrictions and remain in Mexico, which kept people in Mexico rather than releasing them into the United States after they crossed illegally.
After the changes, the number of illegal crossings ticked up–8 million illegal immigrants crossed into the country and many were released. Border authorities conducted poor vetting because Biden wanted a very quick, expeditious process. That let in terrorists, traffickers, and cartel members that led to chaos across the country, such as in Aurora, Colorado, where Tren de Aragua took over apartment complexes.

Luke Rosiak

Morning Brief: Get A Sneak Peak Of Daily Wire Investigative Reporter Luke Rosiak’s Senate Testimony

Emmanuel Macron

Immigration

Joe Biden

Keir Starmer

Russia

Small Business Administration

The Daily Wire

Volodymyr Zelensky

The Supreme Court takes up a case that could decide the future of so-called birthright citizenship, elected leaders in Minnesota are scrutinized for links to the state&#8217;s massive welfare scandal, and the announced Netflix-Warner Bros merger sends shockwaves through Hollywood.
It’s Monday, December 8, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251208">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/birthright-citizenship-showdown-minnesotas-fraud-firestorm/id1576594336?i=1000740192995" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump vs Birthright Citizenship</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011047" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Weighs-Citizenship.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Supreme Court will soon decide the fate of birthright citizenship in what could be a historic court case brought on by the Trump administration.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants and other short-term visitors would no longer be considered American citizens.
That order was immediately challenged in multiple lower federal courts and subsequently put on hold. But on Friday, the White House got some major news: the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case and will decide on the constitutionality of birthright citizenship. A ruling is expected by this summer.
Preview: The case will hinge on the court’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
Supporters of birthright citizenship say that sentence includes virtually everyone born on U.S. soil, but opponents say those born to illegal immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, and thus are not Americans.
50% off DailyWire+ annual memberships will not return for another year, so don’t miss this deal! Join now at <a class="c-link" href="http://dailywire.com/cyberweek" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://DailyWire.com/cyberweek" data-sk="tooltip_parent">DailyWire.com/cyberweek</a>.
Essentially, the White House says birthright citizenship was originally a good-intentioned provision meant to extend citizenship to the children of former slaves after the Civil War.
But they argue it’s now been abused by millions of illegal immigrants and even tourists, who race across the border while pregnant to ensure their children will get citizenship. 
Lawyers for the White House argue that Trump’s executive order would simply “restore the clause’s original meaning.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Massive Minnesota Fraud</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011049" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Welfare-Scandal-Widens.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Somali-linked welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota is now being tied to Democrat leaders in the state, drawing more attention from the Trump administration and Congress.
Catch up: Billions of tax dollars have been stolen in the state of Minnesota during the tenure of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz. City Journal reporting has uncovered that at least a billion dollars in welfare and social service schemes have largely been connected to the Somali community in Minnesota. Alarmingly, some of this money was allegedly <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-welfare-fraud-somalia-al-shabaab" target="_blank" rel="noopener">funneled</a> to Somalia-based terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
How could it be worse? Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller says the welfare fraud scheme is far worse than the American people think, involving “complicit” state government officials and totaling more stolen money than initial early estimates stated.
“We believe we have only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes,” <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1997135207707615556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1997135207707615556%7Ctwgr%5E79d8d486c99e2a14a41c75308117655867895db2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-somali-welfare-fraud-scandal-is-even-worse-than-you-think">said</a> Miller in an appearance on Fox News. “We believe the state government is fully complicit in this scheme, and we believe that what we are going to uncover is going to shock the American people.”
Miller also underscored the Somali ties to this fraud, connecting it to a larger conversation the nation is having about immigration from third-world countries.
“Seventy-five percent of the Somali population in Minnesota is on welfare, and that’s likely a significant undercount of just how much of a financial burden the Somali refugee population is imposing on this country,” <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1997135207707615556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1997135207707615556%7Ctwgr%5E79d8d486c99e2a14a41c75308117655867895db2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-somali-welfare-fraud-scandal-is-even-worse-than-you-think">said</a> Miller.
Who knew what: Reporting from the New York Post has tied Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar to the scandal. Omar held parties at one of the key restaurants named, and she knew one of its owners, who is now convicted of stealing millions in funds. Additionally, one of her own staffers has been convicted of stealing millions. Omar even introduced the bill that led to $250 million in fraud.
“I just think that a lot of the COVID programs were set up so quickly that a lot of the guardrails did not get created,” Omar <a href="https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1996395142001864889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1996395142001864889%7Ctwgr%5Edaf0b98b351595e957decab8d8baed2dec55e0db%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Filhan-omar-says-trump-supporters-might-attack-somalis-brushes-off-fraud-scandal">told</a> CNN last week when asked about the fraud.
There have also been questions about Walz’s oversight. The Treasury Department is investigating this scandal, and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has announced a congressional investigation.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Netflix-Warner Bros Seismic Merger</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1011051" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Streaming-Studio-Shake-up.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: In a seismic shift for Hollywood, Netflix has struck an $83 billion deal to acquire Warner Brothers. The merger would potentially reshape the entertainment business for generations.
Announced just days ago, Netflix&#8217;s binding offer will give it not just Warner Bros the movie studio, but also streaming assets like HBO Max. And it&#8217;s gobbling up classics like Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Looney Tunes, Friends, etc.
It’s being called one of the biggest, if not the biggest, mergers in Hollywood history. It comes after a bidding war that saw heavyweights like Paramount Skydance and Comcast get outmaneuvered or outspent by Netflix.
The Netflix angle: Netflix has been in a content arms race with Disney and Amazon. The Warner Bros. vault offers instant firepower.
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos says it&#8217;ll “accelerate HBO Max growth” while blending Warner&#8217;s “theatrical expertise.” But many critics are concerned that this means Netflix will shorten theatrical windows and further decimate the moviegoing business.
That’s part of the reason many creatives hate this deal. During the bidding war, director James Cameron <a href="https://x.com/Todd_Spence/status/1996991743116591550?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that Netflix&#8217;s acquisition of Warner Bros would be “a disaster” for the industry.
Batman director Christopher Nolan is representing the Directors Guild in meetings with Netflix to express concerns. Both the East and West Writers’ Guilds issued a joint statement unequivocally opposing the sale and asking regulators to block it.
Could it be blocked? There are already rumbles in Washington that the Trump administration doesn’t like this merger.
And opposition is bipartisan. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), chair of the antitrust subcommittee, said Netflix should “Buckle up for an intense antitrust hearing.” Meanwhile,  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has called the merger an “anti-monopoly nightmare,” warning that it could lead to higher subscription prices and fewer choices for consumers.
There’s no question that because Netflix is already the largest global streamer, adding Warner Bros. content and HBO Max subscribers would give it extraordinary dominance–over a third of the streaming market.
Netflix, though, already seems to be trying to soothe customer jitters. It sent a message to subscribers on Saturday night, repeatedly assuring them that their plans, fees, content access, and the separate operations of both Netflix and HBO Max will not change.

MRN_251208_V1

Morning Brief: Birthright Citizenship Showdown & Minnesota Fraud Firestorm

birthright citizenship

Ilhan Omar

Netflix

Stephen Miller

Supreme Court

Warner Bros

The FBI arrests a suspect linked to the infamous January 6 pipe bomb case, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo ink a peace deal brokered by President Donald Trump, and the border fight goes digital.
It’s Friday, December 5, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251205-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video version</a> can be seen on The Daily Wire:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/j6-pipe-bomb-breakthrough-trump-brokers-more-peace-12-5-25/id1576594336?i=1000739827019" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">DOJ Says It Finally Caught The J6 Pipe Bomb Suspect</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1010329" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/J6-Pipe-Bomb-Arrest.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The FBI has arrested a suspect in the January 5, 2021, pipe bomb case. The arrest comes after five years of investigations into who planted two explosive devices outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic parties.
According to the Department of Justice, the election of President Trump marked the start of the search for the suspect in earnest. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel hammered that point in a press conference on the arrest on Thursday. 
“The FBI, along with U.S Attorney Pirro and all of our prosecutors, have worked tirelessly for months sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden administration for four long years,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-fWeLzgNyI">said</a> Bondi.
Officials gave much credit to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Even before he was picked to help lead the FBI, Bongino closely followed this case.
“You&#8217;re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices, and walk off in the sunset. Not gonna happen. We were gonna track this person to the end of the earth,” said Bongino on Tuesday.
The suspect: U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Brian Cole Jr., of Woodbridge, Virginia, will be charged with “transporting an explosive device” and “attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials.”
Officials refrained from giving many more specifics on the case. At the time of the press conference, the search at Cole’s house hadn’t even concluded.
Charging <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.287327/gov.uscourts.dcd.287327.1.1.pdf">documents</a> released Thursday gave a few more details. Law enforcement said it reviewed Cole’s credit card activity and found that he purchased components consistent with the materials needed to make the bombs between 2018 and 2020. They also reviewed Cole’s cell phone data, which showed him in the area around the RNC and DNC headquarters on January 5. They also caught Cole’s car, a 2017 Nissan Sentra, on a license plate reader about half a mile from where the bombs were placed.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Peace In The Congo And Senate War Crime Hearing</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1010331" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/From-D.C.-With-Peace.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump hosted African leaders on Thursday for the signing of yet another peace deal, as military leaders testified before Congress regarding recent airstrikes on alleged drug smuggling boats.
Peace president: Trump hosted leaders from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo–two countries that have been engaged in a bloody conflict for more than a decade. But on Thursday, after negotiations brokered by the president, the two countries signed on to the Washington Accords, which will create a “permanent ceasefire.”
Under the agreement, Rwanda will remove all of its troops from Congolese territory, and both sides will cut off all support to militia groups operating there. The presidents of Rwanda and Congo were complimentary of Trump, crediting him with the peace agreement they both signed
“I would like to express, quite solemnly, our deep thanks to the President of the United States of America, Mr. Donald Trump. I would like to thank his administration, and I also wish to thank the American people,” Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1996650157052776787?s=20">said</a>.
What’s in it for the United States? Despite being among the poorest countries on earth, both Congo and Rwanda are home to enormous deposits of rare-earth minerals. Congo, in particular, is the world’s largest producer of Cobalt and the second largest producer of copper. Trump helped move the deal along by <a href="https://x.com/TabZLIVE/status/1996648347403477443?s=20">promising</a> that, with economic development spurred on by the United States, “everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”
War crime or hoax? Congress is moving full speed ahead on its investigation of the strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. On Thursday, Congress heard closed-door testimony from Adm. Frank Bradley, who oversaw the operation, and reportedly claimed he was given no orders to kill survivors, contradicting that Washington Post report.
Members were also shown footage of the attack. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said it proved the two survivors were “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”
Democrat members, though, had a very different take. Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jim Himes said it showed “the United States military attacking shipwrecked sailors.”
President Trump said he would support making that footage public.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">The Immigration Information War</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1010333" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/ICE-Fact-Checks-Back.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: As the Trump administration ramps up its immigration crackdown following the attack in Washington, D.C. by an Afghan national, it’s also fighting a PR battle against the Democrats and legacy media outlets.
Kilmar Abrego-Garcia was just the tip of the iceberg. Since the large-scale deportations began, Democrats and media personalities have glommed onto the stories of any illegal aliens that tug at the heartstrings. Whether or not the story is true does not appear to figure into their calculus.
A recent example is CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan. She claimed that nearly half, 48%, of the illegal aliens currently being detained by ICE are being held without any charges or deportation orders. 
But DHS fact-checked the claim. It says this is simply “WRONG,” and that about 70% of illegal aliens arrested “have pending criminal charges or criminal convictions.” They then pressed the outlet, asking, “Does CBS really want us to release accused murderers and rapists back on the streets?”
Democrats weigh in: Democratic lawmakers are painting the administration as reckless and tyrannical.
A recent example is Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who referred to federal agents as kidnappers and parroted a story about a teen taken into custody at school.
But DHS pushed back on him as well, saying he’s “missing the facts.”
“This 17-year-old used his vehicle to violently ATTACK ICE and Border Patrol agents,” the agency posted. It included a timeline of events that identified the teen as an American citizen — but also identified him as a suspect who had allegedly attacked and impeded federal law enforcement officers.
Another Democratic senator from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen, recently responded to the news that a nail salon owner in his state was set to be deported to Vietnam. He said that “Melissa Tran came here on a Green Card at age 11. She’s since raised four kids, started a business, &amp; is a beloved member of the Hagerstown community.”
But as DHS noted, Van Hollen was “omitting some pesky facts.” The nail salon owner in question had “criminal convictions including grand larceny, multiple counts of forgery and fraud.” In fact, an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal way back in 2004. ICE arrested her in May.

MRN_251204_V1

Morning Brief: J6 Pipe Bomb Breakthrough & Trump Brokers More Peace

Congo

Democratic Party

Department of Justice

Republican Party

Rwanda

NATO ups its support for Ukraine as the United States pursues peace talks, the Trump administration freezes asylum and visa reviews from 19 countries, and a watchdog exposes billions of taxpayer dollars in fraud under Biden-era diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
It’s Thursday, December 4, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251204-member-exclusive">video version</a> can be seen on The Daily Wire:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nato-pressures-putin-trumps-immigration-freeze-12-4-25/id1576594336?i=1000739652455" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">NATO Wants A Say On Ukraine</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1009649 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/NATO-Backs-Ukraine.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: The United States continues to facilitate talks between Russia and Ukraine while other NATO countries rally support for Kiev.
NATO wants to be more involved in the discussions on Ukraine than it has been recently. Almost every foreign minister for NATO met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss that and the broader approach to Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was notably absent from the meeting — the first time in over two decades that the U.S. secretary of State had missed a gathering like this. Though that didn’t deeply concern many officials because Rubio has built up a lot of trust among NATO allies. 
Rutte digs in: The United States has been trying to find an end to the war that both sides can live with. But NATO’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, has made plans to keep funding Ukraine through 2026 and maybe longer if necessary.
“We have to make sure that whilst [peace talks] take place and we are not sure when they will end, that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going, to fight back against the Russians, but also in the strongest possible position when peace talks really get to a point where they sit at the table,” Rutte <a href="https://x.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1996176461934534920">said</a> on Wednesday.
Some members of the NATO alliance have poured money into a program to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine to the tune of about $1 billion a month.
Moscow talks: The Kremlin said Tuesday that it couldn’t find a compromise it could agree with after U.S. officials met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow said that some of the American proposals have been good — likely in reference to the early framework that received so much pushback from Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
Moscow seems to be dead set on territorial gains over what it has control of already, however. Putin has repeatedly signaled that he wants all of the Donbas region, which he does not have full control over.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump’s Immigration Moves After National Guard Shooting</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1009647 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/22Countries-Of-Concern22.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: The Trump administration halts more immigration following the D.C. shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan migrant.
Trump has already halted the processing of asylum applications and put a pause on visas, but there is a lot more being done. The Trump administration has directed U.S. citizenship and immigration services to look at 19 countries that it says are of concern as potential hotbeds of terrorism. Those countries include Afghanistan and several others in the Middle East, in Africa, and in South Asia.
The Trump administration wants USCIS, the agency that vets immigration applications, to scrutinize individuals who are applying or have been accepted to some programs. What this looks like in practice is the administration halting all processing of any legal immigration applications from individuals from these 19 countries.
For those who have been accepted to become green card recipients or citizens already, swearing in ceremonies have been put on pause as the Trump administration more thoroughly vets them.
National Guard shooting: The Department of Homeland Security now says this individual was barely vetted. Interestingly, when the United States left Afghanistan during the botched withdrawal from the country, the alleged shooter had no criminal background check. Nor did he have a biometrics check, cyber background check, or financial background check.
Nor was he the only one who came through this way. There were about 77,000 others admitted into the country through what&#8217;s called Operation Allies Welcome.
This lax vetting has already been pointed out before. A government watchdog came out months after the withdrawal and said the vetting was poor and minimal at the time. In some known cases, individuals were “vetted,” let into the country through this program, and then only after were their links to terrorism discovered.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">The SBA Program Spending Taxpayer Money On DEI</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1009645" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/DEI-Funding-Funnel.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: New investigations from Peter Schweizer’s Government Accountability Institute have revealed just how much taxpayer money has been funneled through federal DEI initiatives – sparking more allegations of widespread fraud and corruption under the Biden administration that still needs to be rooted out.
Morning Wire spoke with Seamus Bruner, director of research at the Government Accountability Institute, about what&#8217;s being called the “DEI Industrial Complex.” (This interview has been edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: Your team has done extensive research on what&#8217;s being called the “DEI Industrial Complex.” We&#8217;ve had our own investigative reporter, Luke Rosiak, digging into this and revealing some pretty alarming findings. First, what kinds of potential abuses are we seeing related to DEI in the federal government?
Bruner: This our latest exposé, and we give Luke a great shout out in it. He&#8217;s done amazing work on this Small Business Administration program. It&#8217;s called 8(a). Kind of an unwieldy title, but the devil is in the details with this. It&#8217;s a multi-billion dollar pass through scheme that rewards minority contractors or people who are “disadvantaged,” which has a very loose definition. I mean, perhaps even just not having access to internet when you&#8217;re way up in your mountain cabin in Yosemite or wherever could qualify you. But you have these firms that set up, Native American firms or any other sort of minority group — Native Americans have been pretty blessed by this program to the tune of billions of dollars. And it turns out that they&#8217;re not disadvantaged at all. The shareholders wear Rolex watches and are very wealthy. Well, in turn, this allows them to partner with real big firms like the Boston Consulting Group or McKinsey &amp; Company or firms that are not at all disadvantaged, and they receive no bid contracts under this program. And for anybody who knows anything about a no bid contract, it&#8217;s about as corrupt as it can be.
Morning Wire: Right. Why are we just now learning about this corruption?
Bruner: The program has been around for decades, but only under the Biden administration did the quotas triple. It really exploded just in the last several years. There was a USAID program, the contracting officials at USAID were taking bribes, over $1 million in bribes. We&#8217;ve also seen a $100 million contract. The minority contractor got 65% of that $100 million. So, well over $50 million. They only did a small fraction of the work.
Morning Wire: Do you think the DEI movement in particular really ratcheted this up – is that the culprit here in terms of the scale that we&#8217;re seeing now?
Bruner: Yeah, absolutely. President Trump, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler, and Treasury Secretary Bessent deserve credit. They really kicked off the investigations into this. The problem is that even though the Trump administration has declared war on DEI in the federal government, this isn&#8217;t necessarily called a “DEI program.” We&#8217;re seeing this across all kinds of sectors, especially in education. They&#8217;re getting rid of the word “DEI” and they&#8217;re using new words – “disadvantaged” or what have you. And the problem is, that there are “disadvantaged” people in America and we do want to support them and help them. But when you are giving multi-billion dollar conglomerates contracts under the banner of being “disadvantaged,” it hurts everybody.

MRN_251204_V!

Morning Brief: NATO Steps Up For Ukraine, Trump Expands Immigration Crackdown, & More Biden DEI Fraud

Morning Brief: NATO Steps Up For Ukraine, Trump Expands Immigration Crackdown, And SBA Funds DEI

Afghanistan

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Kelly Loeffler

Marco Rubio

NATO

Ukraine

President Trump stands by War Secretary Pete Hegseth and the drug boat strikes as the Cabinet convenes once again, the administration threatens to withhold tax dollars over illegal commercial driver&#8217;s licenses, and a New Jersey probe into a pro-life pregnancy center winds up in the Supreme Court.
It’s Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251203-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel">video version</a> can be seen on The Daily Wire:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-defends-hegseth-duffys-minnesota-ultimatum-12-3-25/id1576594336?i=1000739476338" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Backs Hegseth In Cabinet Meeting</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1008973 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Cabinet-Meeting-No.-9.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: President Trump gathered his cabinet Tuesday and defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, vowing to continue his strikes against narco-terrorists.
All eyes on Hegseth: The War secretary has come under fire for allegedly ordering airstrikes targeting survivors of a drug smuggling boat that had been destroyed by an initial strike. The White House has rallied around Hegseth, reiterating that these suspected cartel members have been designated as terrorists, and are essentially enemy combatants of the United States. On Tuesday, Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/AndrewKolvet/status/1995921305728942204?s=20">struck</a> a defiant tone, vowing to continue the strikes.
The original reporting on the alleged illegal strike story is now facing a flood of scrutiny. The New York Times published a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/us/hegseth-drug-boat-strike-order-venezuela.html">story</a> this week refuting the main allegation against Hegseth — that he specifically ordered a second strike to kill survivors.
The Times cited five anonymous U.S. officials who each said separately that Hegseth did order a strike to kill the drug smugglers, but “his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast,” and he did not address what should be done if there were survivors.
Latest on National Guard Shooting: In one of the cabinet meeting’s more somber moments, Attorney General Pam Bondi honored the life of slain National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom and offered an update on Andrew Wolfe, the guardsmen fighting for his life in the hospital.
&#8220;I was there where when the surgeons came in and [his parents] wanted you to know this — he&#8217;s a miracle, and if everyone in this country can continue to pray for that family. He&#8217;s got a long road ahead of him, but he is a miracle,” <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1995918866606698520?s=20">said</a> Bondi.
The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, appeared virtually in court on Tuesday from a hospital bed, where he was formally charged with murder and a slew of other crimes. Lakanwal pleaded not guilty to all charges. He’ll be held without bond throughout the trial. Bondi said the Justice Department intends to seek the death penalty.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Minnesota’s Illegal License Loophole</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1008975 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Minnesotas-CDL-Ultimatum.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: Minnesota is facing federal pressure after an audit found widespread improper licensing of foreign drivers, underscoring broader immigration-oversight issues.
The Trump administration has presented some pretty jaw-dropping findings and is now taking action. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the federal government will withhold more than $30 million in highway funding from Minnesota.
The state can avoid the penalty if Democratic Governor Tim Walz revokes a large number of commercial driver’s licenses that were issued illegally to drivers whose immigration or residency status did not comply with federal law. Duffy gave Walz 30 days to fix it, or the funding would be withheld.
What Walz thinks: Officials in the Walz administration say they are reviewing this letter from the Department of Transportation, and claim that they take “safety” on their roads “seriously.” 
Step back: Commercial drivers licenses for illegals or people with improper status have been a focus for months now, due to some devastating crashes that have killed Americans. The Daily Wire’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-trucker-with-california-license-accused-of-killing-newlyweds-in-tragic-collision?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Illegal+Immigrant+Trucker+With+California+License+Accused+Of+Killing+Newlyweds+In+Tragic+Collision">Jennie Taer</a> reported that a newlywed couple was tragically killed in a collision allegedly caused by an illegal immigrant truck driver with a California license. The Indian national involved in the crash has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. 
The Department of Transportation has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-trucker-with-california-license-accused-of-killing-newlyweds-in-tragic-collision?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Illegal+Immigrant+Trucker+With+California+License+Accused+Of+Killing+Newlyweds+In+Tragic+Collision">found</a> that California authorities have issued some 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses to foreign drivers. The Trump administration is similarly threatening to withhold tens of millions of federal dollars from California. A number of other states, including red states, are being scrutinized over this issue, too.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">SCOTUS Case On Pro-Life Targeting</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1008977 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/SCOTUS-Presses-Platkin.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Topline: The Supreme Court heard <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JysOCj6Dq0g">arguments</a> Tuesday on a case involving a state allegedly “intimidating” and “harassing” a pregnancy center for not conducting abortions. The case, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, could set precedent on states&#8217; ability to similarly target pregnancy centers and pro-life organizations.
Erin Hawley, general counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom and one of the attorneys representing First Choice, spoke to Morning Wire about the case. (The following interview has been edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: This case stems from New Jersey’s Democrat Attorney General Matt Platkin creating a “strike force” that targeted pregnancy resource centers. He issued a statewide “consumer alert” against them — and then specifically issued a subpoena to First Choice that was extremely intrusive, including asking for donor information. We’ve just heard oral arguments before the Supreme Court. By the line of questioning from the justices, do you have a sense how they appear to be leaning? 
Hawley: I&#8217;ll have to paraphrase an old boss of mine. After arguing, he would say, I would rather be on our side than their side. And I think that&#8217;s definitely true after this oral argument. If you think about some of the questions the justices were asking, Justice Barrett, for example, pointed out the hostility that New Jersey has shown toward pregnancy care centers.
Justice Kagan took a really practical view of the case. She&#8217;s not one that you would maybe expect to be ideologically aligned with First Choice, and yet she made the common sense point, if I receive a subpoena that demands donor names, I don&#8217;t want my name and address and phone number out there. And so she was saying that this is going to chill the First Amendment rights of recipients in sort of a common sense way. It seemed like a majority or certainly several members of the court were really understanding the effect that subpoena had both on First Choice Women&#8217;s Resource Center, as well as its donors.
Morning Wire: That seems pretty promising for First Choice. Were there any particularly surprising moments to you in the arguments — anything you weren’t anticipating? 
Hawley: One kind of highlight of the oral argument was the fact that we had hoped to sort of highlight, but that&#8217;s the fact that the New Jersey attorney general has never said that he received a single complaint against First Choice by anyone. Justice Thomas really leaned into that and asked the New Jersey attorney, why did you investigate First Choice? Did you receive a complaint? Like, did anyone tell you that they didn&#8217;t like them? And the New Jersey attorney general had to answer no. They had received no complaints about First Choice.

MRN_251203_V2

Morning Brief: Trump Backs Hegseth, Minnesota Issues Illegal Licenses, & SCOTUS Takes On Pro-Life Targeting

Morning Brief: Trump Backs Hegseth, MN Illegal License Loophole, And SCOTUS On Pro-Life Targeting

Department of Defense

Pete Hegseth

SCOTUS

White House

U.S. negotiators head to Moscow after huddling over a peace framework with Ukraine officials, Luigi Mangione arrives at a Manhattan courtroom for pre-trial hearings in his murder case, and the Supreme Court hears arguments on who is responsible for music piracy.
It’s Tuesday, December 2, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251202">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/moscow-peace-negotiations-mangione-contests-evidence/id1576594336?i=1000739259937" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">U.S. Negotiators In Moscow, And Trump’s Caribbean Crackdown</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1008293" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Peace-Within-Reach.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: U.S. negotiators are in Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the White House faces growing scrutiny over its drug crackdown in the Caribbean. 
Ukraine peace deal: Last week, a draft of the U.S. peace plan leaked, including significant concessions from Ukraine. After outrage from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and virtually every European head of state, the White House spent the following days meeting with Ukrainian officials who lobbied for more favorable terms.
Specifically, Ukrainian officials want to remove portions of the text that hand over large swaths of land in the East and cap their military at 600,000 personnel. And perhaps most importantly, they want explicit guarantees that if Russia invades in the future, the U.S. and NATO will have their back.
Those talks concluded Sunday in Miami, where three of Zelensky’s top advisers huddled with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Ukraine’s secretary of national security called the meetings productive and said, “The U.S. is hearing us, supporting us, and walking beside us.”
Witkoff to Moscow: Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, are in Moscow on Tuesday for an expected sit-down with Putin. But he’s unlikely to sign on to the current deal if it doesn’t allow him to seize large portions of land in Eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, including some territory still in Ukrainian hands.
Speaking last week, Putin warned that “when Ukrainian troops leave the territories they hold, then the fighting will stop. If they don’t, then we’ll achieve that through military means.”
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But the reality is, even if Zelensky agreed to hand over land in exchange for peace, which seems unlikely at the moment, there are significant legal hurdles. Under the Ukrainian constitution, any change to the country’s borders must be approved by voters through a nationwide referendum.
Caribbean capers: The administration is facing increased scrutiny over White House <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/5628447-defense-secretary-authorizes-drug-boat-strike/">confirmation</a> that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized, but did not order, a follow-up strike on a suspected drug vessel after at least two people survived the initial strike.
On Monday, Democrats continued to slam Hegseth and the president, accusing them of committing war crimes. Now, Congress is stepping in, with the Republican-led armed services committees in the House and Senate vowing to conduct “vigorous oversight” and a “full accounting” of the alleged incident.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Luigi Mangione In Court For Pre-Trial Hearings</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1008295" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Evidence-Suppression.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Luigi Mangione, the man charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, appeared in a New York City courtroom this week for key pre-trial hearings.
Mangione, a 27-year-old Ivy League grad, has been charged with stalking and killing Thompson in December 2024. Thompson, a father of two, was shot from behind while walking toward a New York City hotel to attend a corporate investor conference.
Prosecutors say Thompson was targeted over the suspect’s grievances with the health insurance industry, citing a “manifesto.” Recovered shell casings also had the inscriptions, “delay,” “deny,” and “depose.” Mangione is facing life in prison for the state case against him, and potentially the death penalty if he’s convicted in the federal case. Mangione has pleaded not guilty on all counts.
The state case: Mangione appeared in a New York City court on Monday to begin a pre-trial evidentiary hearing. His lawyers are asking that key evidence be suppressed at trial, arguing that it was found on Mangione without a warrant and before Mangione was read his Miranda rights.
The evidence in question is crucial to the case, including the 9 mm handgun matching the murder weapon, and a notebook that prosecutors say contains writings revealing Mangione’s motive for the assassination. The defense also wants statements Mangione allegedly made to police, which they say were made before the suspect was read his rights, tossed.
The prosecution’s case: Prosecutors say the search of Mangione’s backpack was lawful and not unreasonable, as officers needed to search the suspect’s bag for safety reasons. Officers needed to ensure there were no weapons or dangerous items on Mangione when they found him at a McDonald&#8217;s in Pennsylvania. That was after a days-long national manhunt.
As far as the statements Mangione made before being read his Miranda rights, the state says Mangione spoke to them voluntarily and before he was in formal custody, so the Miranda requirement doesn’t apply. They also note that the only statement they plan to use is when officers asked Mangione for his name, and he allegedly gave a false name in response.
Looking ahead: Pre-trial hearings in the state case could last several weeks.
As for the federal case, the next court appearance is scheduled for Friday, and a trial date may be set then. Prosecutors have filed a &#8220;notice of intent&#8221; to seek the death penalty.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">SCOTUS Hearing On Music Piracy Case</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1008297" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Piracy-Penalty-Push.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Supreme Court is stepping into a billion-dollar showdown that&#8217;s pitting the music industry against internet giants. Cox Communications v. Sony Music will decide who’s responsible for illegal downloading of copyrighted content – and whether millions of Americans could lose their broadband access. 
At its core, this case asks whether an internet service provider can be held financially liable for its subscribers&#8217; illegal downloading or sharing of copyrighted material. It’s called “secondary liability.”
This began back in 2018 when major record labels like Sony, Warner Brothers, and Universal first filed a bombshell lawsuit against Cox, the third-largest broadband provider in the country. They accused Cox of ignoring rampant music piracy. This was primarily peer-to-peer file-sharing via BitTorrent. Think sites like The Pirate Bay.
In 2019, a Virginia jury ruled against Cox and awarded the plaintiffs a staggering $1 billion for allowing &#8220;habitual offenders&#8221; to steal more than 10,000 works.
But the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the damages, so Cox didn’t have to pay the $1 billion. But the Court upheld the liability. Cox appealed, and on Monday, SCOTUS heard oral arguments in the case.
The case: The main question the justices focused on was whether Cox had an obligation to terminate broadband internet provision of content thieves once the music companies had informed them of the theft.
Cox’s attorney argued they can’t set a standard here because there would be no way to isolate and punish a single user when it comes to massive accounts like universities, hospitals, and office buildings.
If the Court sides with Cox, it would reaffirm broad protections for ISPs and possibly constrain how aggressively artists and content creators can pursue copyright claims. But if the Court sides with the record labels, that could have a massive impact on millions of Americans, establishing a standard under which internet service providers are required to police user activity and cut off service to anyone found illegally downloading content.

MRN_251202_V3

Morning Brief: Moscow Peace Talks, Luigi Mangione Back In Court, & SCOTUS Piracy Case

Morning Brief: Witkoff In Moscow, Mangione In Court, And SCOTUS Case On Music Piracy

Luigi Mangione

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

The Trump administration tightens immigration restrictions following a fatal attack on National Guardsmen, illegal alien access to federal benefits comes under scrutiny, and is the United States about to strike narco-terrorists on Venezuelan soil?
It’s Monday, December 1, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251201">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-attack-fallout-venezuelan-skies-closed-12-1-25/id1576594336?i=1000739099845" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Launches Immigration Crackdown After D.C. Shootings</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1007687" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Guardsmen-Shooting-Fallout.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The tragic shooting of two National Guard members from West Virginia by an Afghan national has triggered a massive immigration response from the Trump administration. And the president does not appear to be done with his sweeping actions.
Over the course of last week and then into the weekend, President Donald Trump has taken a series of aggressive actions in response to this attack, about which some very harrowing details continue to emerge.
The attack: Police say the 29-year-old suspect approached with a revolver and was shooting at a point-blank distance. He was also reportedly shouting “Allah Akbar!”
One heroic guardsman, armed with only a pocketknife, was able to stop the shooter. The guardsman heard the gunfire, charged the shooter, and then stabbed him with the knife.
Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old woman who was one of the guardsmen shot in the attack, died as a result of her injuries. The other guardsman who was shot, Andrew Wolf, is still fighting for his life. There continues to be an outpouring of support and prayers for his recovery and his family.
The suspect was also severely wounded, but he is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-guard-shooting-suspect-expected-to-survive?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=National+Guard+Shooting+Suspect+Expected+To+Survive">expected</a> to survive.
Where the prosecution stands: U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/charges-upgraded-against-afghan-shooting-suspect-after-national-guard-soldier-dies">said</a> that the charges have been upgraded to first-degree murder since Beckstrom’s death. Pirro said that this appears to be a case of an ambush-style attack. The FBI is even looking at this as a possible act of terrorism.
In response, President Trump said he is considering dispatching 500 more troops to the nation’s capital to keep the peace, doubling down on his earlier executive order to protect the city and quell crime.
The suspect: He came into the United States as part of Operation Allies Welcome, launched by the Biden administration after the botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal. Many soldiers, including Afghan and American soldiers, were killed during that process, and the Taliban was able to retake the country.
The suspect fought with a group of elite Afghan fighters known as &#8220;Zero Units.&#8221; They were all so-called “death squads” working with the CIA to help fight the Taliban. A friend of the suspect’s told the New York Post that he suffered from serious mental health issues as a result of his years in combat.
Immigration crackdown: Trump has said the United States is not admitting any more Afghan nationals. The president has ordered a review of how Afghans were vetted during and after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Notably, tens of thousands of Afghan nationals came to the United States as refugees following the withdrawal.
The State Department has said it is refusing visas to Afghan nationals until it conducts further vetting of the country. The president has said that he will “deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Steps Up Enforcement Against Illegals Receiving Benefits</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1007689" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Illegal-Benefits-Axed.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Trump administration is working to remove federal benefits for people who are in the country illegally.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will “end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens.” He added that many recent arrivals depend on taxpayer-supported welfare programs while coming from “failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels.”
Bessent’s turn: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved to implement the president’s order. Bessent said that his department is working to cut off federal benefits to illegals and stressed that these must be preserved for American citizens.
Specifically, Bessent said the Treasury “will issue proposed regulations clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens.”
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued an alert to better crack down on the exploitation of the U.S. financial system by illegals who are seeking to move illegally obtained funds. 
The department <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-issues-alert-cross-border-funds-transfers-involving-illegal-aliens#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%94Today%2C%20the%20U.S.%20Department,to%20move%20illicitly%20obtained%20funds">said</a> that over the past several years, the United States has witnessed a “significant volume of cross-border funds transfers, including remittances” from illegals.
MN Somalis: City Journal has reported in detail on a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota under the tenure of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, where billions of taxpayer dollars intended for social services were funneled through fake nonprofits and shell companies, and — alarmingly — some of that money <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-welfare-fraud-somalia-al-shabaab">ended up in the hands</a> of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab.
Much of the fraud has been traced back to Minnesota’s Somali community, where fraudsters have allegedly exploited numerous loopholes in the state’s welfare system. But the story has been overlooked for a long time.
“I think it’s fair to say there was an unwillingness or inability from Democratic state officials in Minnesota to recognize some pretty obvious alarm bells here. Claims were skyrocketing, spiraling out of control,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpQQ9nJPBhg&amp;t=216s">said</a> investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe, who helped break the story. “The reality is, the Somali community … is a voting bloc you have to win if you&#8217;re going to win political office in Minneapolis.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Clears The Skies Over Venezuela</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1007691" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Venezuela-Tensions-Strike.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Tensions are escalating after President Trump announced that the airspace over Venezuela should be considered closed. The announcement has raised new questions over potential U.S. strikes inside Venezuela amid the president’s war on drug cartels.
The situation around Venezuela appears precarious. Trump on Saturday posted on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115633041089714842">Truth Social</a>: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.”
That post has again sparked predictions about when airstrikes could occur.
“We should read into it that strikes are very probably going to occur over the course of this week,” retired Admiral James Stavridis <a href="https://x.com/stavridisj/status/1994895666242257322">told</a> CNN. “When you hear the president of the United States throw that warning out there, to me it sounds like strikes are coming probably sooner rather than later.”
The fallout: Venezuela’s foreign minister called Trump’s post an “extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.” A country can’t actually close another country&#8217;s airspace, but that seems to be a technicality in this situation.
Ten days ago, the FAA had already warned about a “potentially hazardous situation” for flights over Venezuela. Commercial air traffic has avoided the area since. Venezuela has <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venezuela-trump-airspace-migrant-repatriation-flights/">said</a> that U.S. migrant repatriation flights have stopped.
Diplomacy? The New York Times and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/trump-declares-that-airspace-around-venezuela-should-be-considered-closed-07b748ee?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqdYROyIVy7gClY9Bq41wnncsq-Qat1oRTlqYoKx0V6tbAonb7EZrT7QkEcL4N8%3D&amp;gaa_ts=692c8335&amp;gaa_sig=FZG9XNJCxmFvKFgy6onM_3SgPB5tUMSPwJXqN2n4szJLOt3sdRVw2O24SgzgHNBcNUGqk8fn_gJ-kgAiYrOD0w%3D%3D">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported that Trump and Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan leader, spoke by phone recently. Trump confirmed the call on Sunday while speaking to reporters on board Air Force One. Trump did not provide details, but the call represents a shift after the U.S. cut off diplomatic talks in October.
Reportedly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the call, as well, and Trump and Maduro spoke of the possibility of a meeting, which would be a significant shift after Trump called on Maduro to step down and authorized CIA operations in Venezuela.
Allies of the president have maintained that this is a drug operation–a very intense one, but one that will not lead to war.

MRN_251201_V2 (2)

Morning Brief: Capital Attack Fallout, No Aid For Illegals, & Venezuelan Airspace Closed?

Morning Brief: Trump Cracks Down On Afghans, No Aid For Illegals, And Clear Skies Over Caracas

Media

National Guard

Politics

Negotiations continue as a deal for peace in Ukraine takes shape, the surge of new Turning Point USA chapter requests hits a surprising stonewall, and the Trump administration reverses a longstanding approach to handling homelessness.
It’s Tuesday, November 25, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251125">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ukraines-new-deal-christian-colleges-snub-tpusa-11-25-25/id1576594336?i=1000738303342" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Pushes Peace In Ukraine </h2>
Topline: American and Ukrainian diplomats continue to meet in Europe this week as they negotiate the details of a peace plan with Russia. 
The White House presented both sides with a 28-point peace plan that included significant concessions from Ukraine. Initially, it appeared the plan was a final offer—Trump went so far as to set a Thanksgiving deadline —and there were even reports that the Trump administration would cut off all military and financial aid if Ukraine turned it down, which it did. But now it appears that all-or-nothing language was more of a negotiating tactic from Trump.
After strong pushback from Ukraine and the European Union, the White House now says the plan is meant as a starting point. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio put it, “just because it’s printed on a piece of paper doesn’t indicate finality … you get input and you make adjustments.”
President Donald Trump displayed some cautious optimism, writing on Truth Social Monday, “Is it really possible that big progress is being made in Peace Talks between Russia and Ukraine??? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening.”
What’s in the way: The main issue for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is that the current plan would require Ukraine to surrender large portions of land in the East that would then be recognized as Russian territory. He pushed back publicly on that demand Monday, saying, “It is crucial to support the principles on which Europe stands, that borders cannot be changed by force.”
Kyiv also wants to see more concrete security guarantees that would put on paper assurances of European and U.S. military support if Russia were to relaunch its invasion.
But the big problem now is that if Ukraine succeeds in amending the plan to its liking, there’s a good chance Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t sign on. After the initial plan was released, he said it “could form the basis of a final peace settlement.” But that could well change if significant changes are made.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Christian Colleges Reject TPUSA</h2>
Topline: TPUSA chapters are exploding across college campuses in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, with 44,000 new applications. But a surprising number of Christian colleges and universities have rejected the organization, telling students they aren’t allowed to start new clubs.
Which schools? It’s a surprisingly long list of schools that have rejected TPUSA chapters. Point Loma Nazarene in California rejected students’ requests for a TPUSA chapter at least three times. At Biola, one of the largest evangelical universities in the country, students’ first request for a chapter was denied in 2023. In September, after Charlie’s assassination, they tried again and aren’t getting an answer.
Another Christian school, Concordia University in Wisconsin, initially rejected TPUSA, but after a student&#8217;s post about it went viral last month, they reversed course.
All told, about 20 Christian colleges and universities have said TPUSA isn’t welcome on their campuses. That includes well-known schools like Bob Jones University, Asbury, Oral Roberts, and Loyola University New Orleans. 
Why? The reasons for rejection vary by school. The students and alumni who want to see new TPUSA chapters at the schools don’t always buy the reasons they’re being given.
Point Loma said its board of directors rejected TPUSA largely because of a professor watchlist that “exposes and documents&#8221; professors who allegedly discriminate against conservative students. Even though Point Loma students agreed not to use or contribute to that list, the board still felt TPUSA doesn’t represent the kind of “constructive communication” they require from official clubs.
However, the school has approved left-leaning clubs like BREAK that focus on issues like “gender equality” and &#8220;gender justice,&#8221; and the &#8220;Center for Justice and Reconciliation,&#8221; which focuses on &#8220;immigration and racial justice.” The administration also removed a Charlie Kirk memorial that had been put up on campus after his death.
A similar situation has played out at Biola. Biola approved the left-leaning club, Students for Justice and Liberation, which says it stands for “progressive values,” the same semester they applied. Yet the verdict on TPUSA is being dragged out.
In the first rejection, the decision once again went all the way to the board of directors, and they said they took issue with TPUSA’s “narrative” and “tactics.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump’s Turn On Homelessness</h2>
Topline: The Trump administration has recently announced major changes to how the federal government funds housing for the homeless. The administration says the changes will encourage more self-sufficiency and reduce drug abuse, while opponents say it could lead to almost 200,000 people being kicked out of their homes. 
Morning Wire spoke to Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute, about the administration’s announcement. (The following interview has been edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: This all revolves around federal funding for homelessness. First, how does the federal government actually distribute money for this issue?  
Glock: Every year, the feds announce how nonprofits and other groups can apply for what are known as Continuum of Care or CoC grants. The CoC grants a total of about three-and-a-half billion dollars a year and mainly goes to nonprofits that provide housing. And I should just say that homeless nonprofits read this yearly announcement like it’s the Talmud or the Bible or something, because it says what they have to do to compete for the federal money and what sort of programs they can fund and what sort of things are forbidden.
Morning Wire: Got it. The administration’s announcement this year said the federal government would no longer support what it calls “the failed ‘Housing First’ ideology.” Can you explain a little bit about what “Housing First” means? 
Glock: The “Housing First” idea is that the only way to “solve” homelessness is to give the homeless subsidized and permanent housing without any conditions before entering the housing or strings attached afterwards. The basic idea is that you provide both housing and services, but it’s all voluntary. A nonprofit couldn’t force a person in one of these Housing First apartments to, say, take a drug test or even get a mental health screening. And for a little over a decade–including, I might add, through the first Trump administration–these annual funding announcements said federal money would be given almost exclusively to groups that practiced the “Housing First” philosophy. Because in most of the country, the federal money is the main source of funding for the homeless, the Housing First idea became something of a nationwide mandate.
Morning Wire: Right – so that made it a nationwide policy. What does this announcement actually change?
Glock: The biggest change is that there is no more Housing First mandate. Instead, the administration says nonprofits must provide treatment for underlying issues instead of just focusing on housing. The Housing First program was supposed to provide treatment, but it said people just kind of had to come to the treatment on their own. The problem was it’s often impossible for people in the midst of, say, a heroin addiction or schizophrenic episode to really pursue treatment. This new policy will mandate some treatment services for those in the housing units and will require more housing to be “transitional,” meaning for a limited time period until people can get back on their feet, instead of the old permanent housing model.

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Morning Brief: Ukraine’s New Deal, TPUSA Vs. Christian Schools, & Trump’s Homeless Policy

Morning Brief: New Ukraine Peace Plan, TPUSA Rejected, And Trump’s Turn On Homelessness

Charlie Kirk

Housing

TPUSA

President Donald Trump pushes ahead with a potential war-ending deal in Ukraine,  Democrats spend big on a House race in red Tennessee, and Wicked: For Good casts a spell on audiences, leaving some hope for Hollywood after a disastrous year of earnings.
It’s Monday, November 24, 2025, 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, and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251124-member-exclusive">video version can be seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan</h2>
Topline: President Trump is offering Russia and Ukraine a new peace deal, and ramping up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign on.
Peacemaker-in-chief: President Trump has relished his role as peacemaker since regaining the White House, brokering an end to a number of conflicts. But despite his best efforts, the war in Ukraine continues to rage.
But the White House is out with a new 28-point plan that they’re confident will benefit both sides. The plan seems more favorable to Russia, which, from a geopolitical standpoint, makes sense. Regardless of whether they’re the &#8220;bad guys,&#8221; the reality is they have the upper hand militarily. This is a war of attrition, and Moscow is much better suited to endure.
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The White House is urging the Ukrainians and others to be realistic and understand that Putin will not sign onto any deal that leaves him empty-handed, and that means making some painful concessions.
Ukraine’s concessions: Ukraine would be forced to give up on NATO membership and “enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO.” It would also bar NATO troops from being stationed in Ukraine in the future and limit the size of Ukraine’s military to 600,000 personnel.
Perhaps most importantly for Zelensky, it would give Russia nearly all of the land it has seized in Eastern Ukraine, and even some it hasn&#8217;t. Specifically, it calls for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk Oblast region, a strip of land that was home to a quarter million Ukrainians before the war. That region would be turned into a demilitarized zone to serve as a buffer between the two countries.
All parties involved in the conflict would be granted amnesty under the deal, and the U.S. would begin immediately lifting sanctions on Moscow, bringing them back into the international economy.
Finally, it would require Ukraine to hold nationwide elections within 100 days of signing.
What Ukraine gets: The biggest reward would be an end to the conflict. There’s also a promise to allow them to seek membership in the European Union, and a plan for $100 billion in frozen Russian assets to be invested in a fund to rebuild Ukraine.
As far as security guarantees, one of Zelensky’s main demands, there’s not much beyond vague assurances that Europe and the U.S. would coordinate a military response and reimplement sanctions if Russia were to invade again.
What the U.S. is hearing: Ukraine and the rest of Europe are generally not happy. The headline this weekend on one of Ukraine’s largest newspapers read, “New U.S. peace plan pushes Ukraine toward capitulation.”
Elsewhere, Ukrainian military and political leaders expressed anger that they were not consulted beforehand, accusing Trump of giving Putin his wishlist. In a speech over the weekend, Zelensky seemingly implied that the U.S. had threatened to withdraw support unless they signed onto the agreement, telling his people, “Now, Ukraine may face a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity or the risk of losing a key partner.”
Over the weekend, Zelensky held calls with European allies, including France and the U.K., and they offered a unified front, telling the White House in a joint statement the deal “would leave Ukraine vulnerable to attack” and “requires additional work.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Tennessee Special Election</h2>
Topline: An important special election in Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District will take place on December 2 to replace former Republican Congressman Mark Green. Democrats are pouring big money into the race, hoping to flip the seat. In 2024, the reliably red district backed Trump with 60% of the vote.
All eyes on TN: This is for a crucial seat in the House, as all seats now are, since the GOP majority is so thin. Also, Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District is important as it represents parts of the Nashville metropolitan area.
Democrats are eager and see it as a pick-up opportunity following off-year election victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and Georgia earlier this month. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/21/house-democratic-super-pac-drops-1-million-on-tennessee-special-election-00664768?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQKNjYyODU2ODM3OQABHogrquGjqh20iTwQ6dUzCymZZpN20Ifc4YfHQ1_eafcdb9uyMSsEtcPs6kEu_aem_h0OvKIWh4pdNncH8LWPpBQ">Politico</a> reports that the Democrats’ House Majority PAC has poured $1 million into advertisements for the race. <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/house/tennessee-house/2026-tennessee-house-analysis-music-city-mayhem">Cook Political Report</a> ranks the race as “Likely Republican,” but the focus and money has some Republicans a bit nervous.
The Republican: The GOP candidate is Matt Van Epps, the former commissioner of Tennessee’s General Services Department. Van Epps is a West Point graduate and a combat veteran, and he has the crucial endorsement of President Trump.
Morning Wire spoke to Van Epps about his views on Trump’s agenda and how it aligns with his own goals for Tennessee.
“I&#8217;m an America First conservative. What we&#8217;re hearing quite a bit as we&#8217;re out across the Tennessee 7th Congressional District is cost of living and working to decrease inflation,” said Van Epps. “We&#8217;re working really hard to connect with a lot of folks to address that and put plans in place to do that from housing, energy, keeping taxes low, cutting regulations, health care, [and] child care.”
The Democrat: Most of the attention in this race has focused on the Democrat, state Rep. Aftyn Behn, touted by some Democrats as a rising star and “Tennessee’s AOC.” Behn even had former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Jasmine Crockett campaign for her.
But she’s also caused quite a stir, partly from her social media posts. For example, she has <a href="https://x.com/RepOgles/status/1924882174865502306">filmed</a> herself openly bragging about trying to bully law enforcement from carrying out its federal operations.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">&#8220;Wicked: For Good&#8221; Saves The Box Office</h2>
Topline: In one of the worst years in Hollywood history, one film waved a magic wand this weekend to bring audiences back to theaters. &#8220;Wicked: For Good,&#8221; the follow-up to last year&#8217;s smash hit musical, is shattering records. But is it any good?
The numbers: The numbers are nothing short of dramatic. According to early estimates, &#8220;Wicked: For Good&#8221; opened globally in the neighborhood of $228 million.
Final numbers are not out yet, but in the domestic market alone, the film is projected to debut at around $151 million, making it the biggest opening ever for a Broadway-musical-inspired feature.
Beyond that, the film had already pulled in the highest earnings this year, around $31 million, in domestic preview screenings. It also had the highest pre-sales for a PG movie ever. It’s definitely on its way to being one of the highest grossing films this year.
The critics: So far, critics aren’t as positive about the sequel as they were about the original. On Metacritic, &#8220;Wicked: For Good&#8221; has only a 59% positive rating. The first movie averaged 73%. The same story is taking place on Rotten Tomatoes. The first movie was 88% positive. The new release is 70%.
DW’s take: That decrease in enthusiasm isn’t too surprising. The first film largely followed the path of the stage production. Even though Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s performances didn’t seem to match the energy and wit that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth brought to Broadway, powerhouse ballads like “Defying Gravity” (so good Disney ripped it off for &#8220;Frozen&#8221;) and comical ditties like &#8220;Popular&#8221; and &#8220;Loathing&#8221; were still very entertaining.
The problem is the most compelling parts of the musical were covered in the first film.
&#8220;Wicked: For Good&#8221; is 20 minutes shorter, but feels about an hour longer because there’s simply not a lot of the actual story left to tell. There is a lot of padding to fill out a sequel that could have been wrapped up in 30 minutes. There are some new songs, but they don’t boast either that sly humor or moving poetry of the originals. The performances are, overall, somewhat flat, though Jonathan Bailey as love interest Fiyero is an <a href="https://x.com/wickedcomfort/status/1985635639060992190?s=20">exception</a>.
While a handful of sequences are impressive, &#8220;Wicked: For Good&#8221; doesn’t offer the entertainment value of the first entry. But when you’re the only holiday blockbuster extravaganza in town …

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Morning Brief: Trump Eyes Ukraine Peace Deal, Tennessee’s 7th In Focus, & ‘Wicked’ Sweeps Hollywood

Morning Brief: Trump Seeks Peace In Ukraine, All Eyes On TN’s 7th, And A ‘Wicked’ Hollywood Weekend

Hollywood

Tennessee

U.S. House of Representatives

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