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:
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">NATO Wants A Say On Ukraine</h2>
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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>
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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)

Donald Trump

Immigration

Joe Biden

Kelly Loeffler

Marco Rubio

Morning Wire

NATO

Russia

Small Business Administration

Ukraine

Three Russian military jets violated NATO member Estonia&#8217;s airspace for 12 minutes on Friday in an &#8220;unprecedentedly brazen&#8221; incursion, its government said, the latest in a series of recent military actions by Russia that have rattled the alliance.
With tensions already high because of the war in Ukraine, the incursion came just over a week after more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on the night of Sept. 9-10. That prompted NATO jets to down some of them and Western officials to say Russia was testing the alliance&#8217;s readiness and resolve.
It also occurred three days after Russia and Belarus ended their &#8220;Zapad-2025&#8221; joint military exercises, which included the rehearsal of the launch of Russian nuclear weapons.
Tallinn said the three MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace without permission and stayed for a total of 12 minutes before they were forced to withdraw, a period during which the high-speed aircraft could have traversed broad swaths of the country.
&#8220;Russia has violated Estonian airspace four times already this year, which is unacceptable in itself, but today&#8217;s violation, during which three fighter jets entered our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen,&#8221; said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its jets routinely fly over the Baltic Sea between mainland Russia and its exclave of Kaliningrad.
Separately, Poland said on Friday two Russian fighter jets violated the safety zone of the Petrobaltic drilling platform in the Baltic Sea.
The U.S. State Department referred queries to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment.
President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration was being closely watched for a response.
Washington had had little to say about the drone incursion into Poland and did not participate directly in fending it off, triggering deep anxiety among NATO members.
NATO said Russia was reckless.
&#8220;Earlier today, Russian jets violated Estonian airspace. NATO responded immediately and intercepted the Russian aircraft. This is yet another example of reckless Russian behaviour and NATO’s ability to respond,&#8221; a NATO spokesperson said on X.
Europeans quickly responded to the Russian jet incident on Friday. &#8220;This was no accident,&#8221; EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas &#8211; a former Estonian prime minister &#8211; said in comments relayed by a spokesperson.
Estonia said it had summoned the top Russian diplomat in the country to lodge a protest and deliver a note.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said his country had decided to ask NATO to open consultations under Article 4 of the alliance&#8217;s treaty, and that the Russian jets flew around 5 nautical miles (9 km) into NATO airspace before Italian F-35s, currently stationed at a base in Estonia, pushed them out.
NATO polices the airspace of Estonia and other Baltic nations in its &#8220;Baltic Sentry&#8221; mission.
&#8220;We consider it essential to consult with our Allies to ensure shared situational awareness and to agree on our next joint steps. The entire Alliance is treating this incident seriously,&#8221; Michal said.
Tsahkna suggested that Estonia would be asking allies for more air defenses. &#8220;It was a very clear provocation. It was definitely meant like this. And that&#8217;s why we are calling the Article 4 political consultations,&#8221; he told Reuters.
Article 4 states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territory, political independence or security of any of them is threatened.
Ukraine called the incursion an unacceptable new destabilization measure by Russia and said it stands with Estonia. &#8220;Strong action is needed, both jointly and from individual countries,&#8221; President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said NATO should urgently move air defence capabilities to frontline states.
&#8220;We are being tested, our citizens are being threatened almost every day now. This means that we need to have capabilities collected from our allies (to be placed) by our borders, because that&#8217;s the border of NATO,&#8221; she told Reuters.
In New York, Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told Reuters he wasn’t aware of the incident, but added: &#8220;I do not trust what Estonia is saying about Russia.&#8221; When told about the accusation by Estonia that Russia had flown jets into its airspace, Nebenzia said: &#8220;How tragic.&#8221;
Estonia said the airspace violation occurred on Friday morning in the area of Vaindloo Island, around 100 kilometres (124 miles) from the capital Tallinn.
The aircraft did not have flight plans, their transponders were not switched on and they were not in contact with air traffic control, Estonia said.
While incursions over Vaindloo Island by Russian aircraft are fairly common, they do not usually last as long as Friday&#8217;s incident. &#8220;It&#8217;s tough to see how this wasn&#8217;t intentional,&#8221; a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said.
The official noted that it was difficult to see a situation where that many Russian aircraft did not know they were in Estonian airspace for that long, but added that a deeper assessment was ongoing.
Jakub M. Godzimirski, a research professor in Russian security policy at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said the incident could be a test, but could also be purely coincidental.
&#8220;Still, this happens in a given context, having in mind what happened with the drone incursion in Poland a few days ago,&#8221; Godzimirski said.
A staunch supporter of Ukraine, Tallinn said in May that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221; defying Western sanctions on Moscow.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, Gram Slattery, Sabine Siebold, Gwladys Fouche, Angelo Amante, Idrees Ali, Anne Kauranen, Louise Rasmussen, Terje Solsvik, Nerijus Adomaitis, Lili Bayer, Andrew Gray, Michelle Nichols, David Latona and Yulia Dysa: Writing by Alan Charlish and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Alex Richardson, Sharon Singleton, Don Durfee and Nick Zieminski)

Fa-52 Fighter Jets

Russian Jets Enter Estonia’s Airspace In Latest Test For NATO

Estonia

Global Politics

World

Polish officials said Wednesday its forces had shot down a “huge number” of Russian drones overnight that violated the country’s airspace during an attack on Ukraine.
Polish fighter jets, backed by NATO aircraft from Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, intercepted and destroyed the drones, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said. He added that allies stood in solidarity with Poland and denounced Russia’s “reckless behavior.”
“Last night the Polish airspace was violated by a huge number of Russian drones. Those drones that posed a direct threat were shot down,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk <a href="https://x.com/donaldtusk/status/1965663914139824231">wrote</a> on X. “I am in constant communication with the Secretary General of NATO and our allies.”
He said 19 drones had been in Polish airspace, later telling Parliament that Russia had gone too far. 
&#8220;I have no reason to claim we&#8217;re on the brink of war, but a line has been crossed, and it&#8217;s incomparably more dangerous than before,&#8221; Tusk said, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-is-its-closest-open-conflict-since-world-war-two-pm-says-2025-09-10/">according</a> to Reuters. &#8220;This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.”
The Kremlin refused to comment on the situation.
“This is not for us to do so,&#8221; said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c2enwk1l9e1t">according</a> to the BBC. &#8220;It’s a matter for the [Russian] defence ministry.”
Russia&#8217;s Defense Ministry <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-poland-drones-1232774279039f9e5c5b78bd58686cb9">said</a> it did not target Poland, and General Pavel Muraveiko, the Russian-aligned commander of Belarus’s armed forces, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/world/europe/poland-russia-drones-ukraine-attack.html">claimed</a> that the drones “lost their course as a result of electronic warfare.”
Several European leaders condemned the drone incursion. 
“This was an extremely reckless move by Russia and only serves to remind us of President Putin’s blatant disregard for peace, and the constant bombardment innocent Ukrainians face every day,&#8221; said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 
“Hungary stands in full solidarity with Poland following the recent drone incident. The violation of Poland’s territorial integrity is unacceptable,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on X. “The incident proves that our policy of calling for peace in the Russia-Ukraine war is reasonable and rational. Living in the shadow of a war is fraught with risks and dangers. It’s time to make it stop! To this end, we support the efforts of President [Donald Trump] aimed at achieving peace.”
President Donald Trump has pushed for an end to the Ukraine-Russia war, but the fighting between the two countries has continued. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have not yet met to discuss a possible end to the conflict.

NATO member Poland shoots down Russian drones in unprecedented ‘airspace violation’

Poland Downs ‘Huge Number’ Of Russian Drones Violating Its Sovereign Airspace

Drones

Poland

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

Polish and allied aircraft were activated early on Wednesday to safeguard Poland&#8217;s airspace after Russia launched an air attack on Ukraine&#8217;s western regions that border the NATO-member Poland.
&#8220;Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, while ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have been brought to the highest state of readiness,&#8221; the operational command of the Polish armed forces said in a post on X.
Earlier, Ukraine&#8217;s air force reported that Russian drones had entered NATO-member Poland&#8217;s airspace, posing a threat to the city of Zamosc, but the air force has since removed that statement from the Telegram messaging app.
As of 0000 GMT, most of Ukraine, including western regions of Volyn and Lviv, which border Poland, were under air raid alerts for several hours, according to Ukraine&#8217;s air force data.
Ukrainian media reported that several Russian drones crossed into Poland&#8217;s air space. Reuters could not independently verify the reports, and there was no official confirmation from Poland that Russian drones were in Poland&#8217;s airspace overnight.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Jamie Freed and Himani Sarkar)

Poland Scrambles Jets To Safeguard Airspace After Russia Attacks Near Border

As the media and Democrats fulminate over President Trump&#8217;s supposed capitulation to Vladimir Putin, precisely the opposite seems to be happening.
But leave it to the media and the Left to deliberately misinterpret what is going on.
On Monday, President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-historic-zelensky-visit-donald-trump-moves-the-world-one-step-closer-to-peace?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=14&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=With+Historic+Zelensky+Visit%2C+Donald+Trump+Moves+The+World+One+Step+Closer+To+Peace">met with</a> Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, along with a bunch of European leaders.
Everything seems to be moving toward Ukrainian territorial concessions in return for serious security guarantees for Ukraine.
Those guarantees would presumably be some form of European trigger force in Ukraine that would implicate a mutual defense pact. It wouldn&#8217;t exactly be NATO, but it would be NATO-lite. The problem is that to be a credible deterrent, you need tens of thousands of troops.
The second possibility is a trip-wire force that would trigger the possibility of the mutual defense coming into effect if Russia were to walk across the border.
A third possibility would be a kind of observer force, perhaps a few hundred troops or so, to report on incoming military action, which could be accomplished with satellites and ground cameras.
Of course, all of this flies in the face of the fact that Russia wants to leave Ukraine utterly defenseless and prostrate before them.
But here’s the thing: The fact that President Trump is willing to hold Russia&#8217;s feet to the fire by even talking about these kinds of significant security guarantees is a major move from the president, and pretending that it&#8217;s a pro-Russia move is silly. If there were a significant security guarantee, a sort of NATO-lite and Article Five-lite approach to Ukraine in exchange for territorial concessions in Donbas, that would be a masterstroke from the president of the United States, because otherwise this war just keeps going.
All of Trump’s forward movement on this issue is to the great consternation of both the media and the Democrats, who claim that Donald Trump was a Putin catspaw. They thought that Trump was going to welcome Zelensky to the White House yesterday by berating him and telling him he needed to basically surrender in the war: No security guarantees, no economic health, no nothing.
None of that happened. In fact, it was pretty warm. You could see Trump and Zelensky getting along. This was not an antagonistic meeting.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2262-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
One of the things that Zelensky also said is that as part of any of the security guarantees put forward by Europe and the United States, Ukraine would buy $90 billion in American weapons via Europe. The rest of the NATO nations and the United States military would benefit from it. The defense industries in the United States would end up benefiting from that. He expressed gratitude to both President Trump as well as the EU leaders for their hard work on the possibility of a peace deal.
There are still a lot of steps to go. We still have to see whether Vladimir Putin actually is interested in ending the war in any serious way.
As I’ve said before, a good thing about President Trump is that he&#8217;s heterodox in his views, which means he does very creative things. But if things don&#8217;t happen, he will respond. He&#8217;s responsive. He doesn&#8217;t just stick with an idea, no matter what.
The idea that endless diplomacy is something that President Trump is going to pursue here is not true. If Russia does not come to the table, if he feels that Putin is jacking him around again, he&#8217;ll walk away. He is not going to be bullied by Vladimir Putin here.
Trump remains optimistic, saying that he thinks that Putin wants to make a deal.
For the media and the Left to pretend that somehow Trump is doing Putin&#8217;s work here is to ignore everything that&#8217;s actually going on in favor of a pre-established narrative.
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Even Michael McFaul, who was President Obama&#8217;s Russian ambassador, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5459351-mcfaul-praises-trump-peace-efforts/">admitted</a> that Trump is actually doing a pretty good job here. “I think this was a very positive meeting,” he said. “And whoever had the idea to bring all these European leaders together, in addition to President Zelensky, that was a brilliant, brilliant idea. And having it come so quickly after Alaska was also very important because now they&#8217;ve changed the talking points here. Just in this meeting alone, they&#8217;ve walked back some of the positions that the president was echoing, when he met with President Putin. So this is very positive progress.”
If you&#8217;re honest —even if you&#8217;re a Democrat — you should be acknowledging that President Trump not only is not doing anything wrong here, he&#8217;s actually moving the ball forward.
To pretend that this was somehow a gigantic Trump capitulation to Putin is to ignore the actual reality of the situation, and it demonstrates the wild disconnect between reality and what Democrats think of President Trump.
But then, Democrats and reality are like oil and water.

TOPSHOT-US-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-DIPLOMACY

Could Trump’s Masterstroke End The Russia-Ukraine War?

Could Trump's Masterstroke End The Russia-Ukraine War?

Ben Shapiro

Democrats

Europe

Legacy Media

Opinion

President Trump

President Trump has two goals. One goal is to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump said this over and over during the campaign. He said, “If I&#8217;d been president, it never would have started. … I want to stop the death. There&#8217;s too much carnage. “
It’s a simple truth. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed on both sides. The number of total dead and wounded is probably over one million at this point, depending on the estimates that you are using. There has been a vast flight of people from places like Ukraine. Seven million people from Ukraine left the country during the ongoing conflict, which has been going on for three years.
But President Trump also has another goal, a larger geopolitical and geostrategic goal here, and that may be to do a sort of reverse Henry Kissinger.
In a famous incident, Henry Kissinger went to China to normalize relations with the U.S. when he served under Richard Nixon. It was an attempt to split the USSR from China in the early 1970s.
It is quite possible that this is something that President Trump would like to do here: Stop allowing Russia to be predominantly used as a Chinese gas station. If we are orienting ourselves toward boxing in China, then a Russian-Chinese close alliance is a bad thing.
The idea could be to reach an end of the war, create a warm relationship with Vladimir Putin, and create a quasi-detente with the Russians in an attempt to pry them out of the waiting arms of the Chinese.
Is that something that&#8217;s going to happen? Not likely. The Chinese and the Russians share many interests. The Russians have a long-standing agenda.
And this gets to what Vladimir Putin wants.
What Vladimir Putin wants is not only territorial expansion in Ukraine. What he wants is the capacity to turn the rest of Eastern Europe, as well as Western Europe, into an anti-Atlantic preserve. What Putin would like is for Europe to become a Russian sphere of influence, because the goal of the Russians is not to be a sort of strategic player in the world. They want Russia to be an actual, honest-to-God, quasi-empire.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2261-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=1&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
They would like for the Russian capacity to influence events to spread far beyond its borders. They see themselves as preservers of a deeper Russian ideology that should be spread.
Thus, the war could be the first step toward something like that. Gain a little bit more territory in Ukraine, stall for time, wait for the next president of the United States, and then go after the rest of Ukraine, or put additional pressure on Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, try to formally actually break NATO, try to get all of these countries —because they&#8217;re afraid of the West abandoning them — to start treating Russia in friendlier fashion.
Something like that has been happening in Taiwan, where every few years they have a presidential election, and then they decide whether to pursue a closer policy with China, a friendlier policy with China in an attempt to prevent a Chinese invasion, or whether to stand tall and independent of China.
Vladimir Putin&#8217;s goal here does not align with the goals of the president of the United States. When it comes to China, if Putin has to choose between siding with China against the United States and siding with the United States against China, the answer is probably the former rather than the latter.
And then there&#8217;s the interests of Vladimir Zelensky and the rest of Ukraine. They want to be an independent state. They do not want to be under the Russian thumb. They&#8217;re not interested in becoming Belarus. They&#8217;re not interested in becoming a Russian proxy state. They don&#8217;t want to be Georgia.
They want their independence.
Meanwhile, the Europeans want to have a warmer economic relationship with Russia. They had that before Vladimir Putin&#8217;s repeated invasions of Ukraine.
But they would also very much like for Vladimir Putin&#8217;s influence to stop at the borders of NATO.
Those are the various interests at play here, and it&#8217;s very hard to see a deal that gets made here that enshrines all of those interests and ensures all of these different interests.
This is a very, very sticky situation, and the thing that makes it most sticky is that the history of Russia in conflict is this: Mass casualties do not matter to the Russian regime.
The rest of the West sees mass casualties as a terrible thing. Russia does not. The more Russians who died during World War II, the more Russians can claim Russian heroism.
Vladimir Putin&#8217;s losses in Ukraine — which he thought he was going to win easily — have not diminished his standing in Russian circles.
How does all of this end? There are a couple of scenarios posited by The Wall Street Journal in a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/how-will-the-war-in-ukraine-end-two-scenarios-2bcc0d99?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAgxsUv7fSfcNxX0S-r1dO8mTJs-IYDSK6mjtpNdSLHTTb-jHIj-SJRqZwoBfE4%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68a37030&amp;gaa_sig=dSZh-rHKSheqYDiYEd_dTJ1ihnv4w61g0lZcxHW8Oe6_mmapRSi7iegB9YbQ0pYI78J96YZypMywe8EtvU_3lw%3D%3D">piece</a> by Marcus Walker.
One is “partition with protection.” He writes: “Ukraine’s leadership has quietly come to accept that it doesn’t have the military strength to get its borders back in full. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated his willingness to negotiate about territory in video calls with President Trump and European leaders—after a cease-fire that freezes the current front line.”
So the goal there would be to stop the forward momentum that Russia is attempting to pursue while the talks continue.
“Kyiv and European countries say they would never give legal recognition to Russia’s gains, a step that would turn international law into an incentive for further conquest instead of a taboo against it. But they are signaling they would live with the reality of de facto Russian control,” he continues.
What would that look like? It’s unclear. It wouldn&#8217;t be a formal recognition of annexation.
“The best-case scenario for Kyiv and its European backers is probably to limit Russia to what its forces already occupy, equivalent to about one-fifth of Ukraine’s land. The Kremlin continues to insist that Ukraine retreat from areas that it claims as Russian but doesn’t control — notably the Ukrainian-held part of the Donetsk region, where Ukraine holds a chain of fortified cities that Russia so far has been unable to conquer,” he writes.
Remember, any sort of territorial acquiescence by the Ukrainians will have to go through a referendum in Ukraine. There&#8217;s a constitutional provision in Ukraine that requires that the people vote if they&#8217;re going to give up land to the Russians.
“But the biggest question is what happens to the other 80% of Ukraine,” Walker asks. “Kyiv and its European allies want to protect the future security and sovereignty of the remaining rump with a combination of strong Ukrainian military defenses and Western security assistance. A so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ led by the U.K. and France wants to deploy some of its own troops to Ukraine as a further deterrent against a future Russian attack.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale &#8211; Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
It&#8217;s similar to the way the United States has a trigger force in South Korea to prevent North Korean aggression.
That is possibility number one: Get very, very strong security guarantees. Ukraine makes some sort of territorial concessions. And this conflict comes to a sort of ceasefire, an end point without a full-scale peace agreement. That is the most hopeful possibility.
Then there&#8217;s possibility number two. Walker calls it “Partition with subordination,” writing:
<blockquote>Russia’s demands since its 2022 invasion have included shrinking the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, limiting its weaponry and its supplies of Western armaments, and changing its political regime—including its constitution, its leadership, and its policies on language, history and national identity. The greatest danger for Ukraine isn’t just losing its east and south. It is that what remains wouldn’t be able to resist a third Russian invasion, following those of 2014 and 2022. </blockquote>
You can&#8217;t imagine a situation in which Ukraine accepts that outcome, not after the second invasion of Ukraine in a decade. There&#8217;s no way they&#8217;re going to accept full-scale subordination. They&#8217;re going to say, “We might as well fight this thing out and slug it out on the front lines, if the idea is that we&#8217;re supposed to diminish our military in some serious way.”
So possibility number one looks like the best solution.
Which means Trump will do everything he can to achieve it.

U.S. President Trump And Russian President Putin Meet On War In Ukraine At U.S. Air Base In Alaska

The Trump/Putin Faceoff

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte voiced support on Sunday for President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that is scheduled for later this week.
Rutte appeared on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” and <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1954557171477176434">said</a> that Trump “broke the deadlock” and opened Putin to peace negotiations. In response to a question from host Margaret Brennan that compared the Trump-Putin meeting to appeasement of the Nazis in 1938, Rutte said Friday’s meeting will be about “testing” how serious Putin is about a ceasefire or an end to the war in Ukraine.
“Obviously, when it comes to peace talks, the ceasefire, and what happens after that on territories, on security guarantees for Ukraine, Ukraine will have to be and will be involved,” Rutte said. “But on Friday, it is important to see how serious Putin is, and the only one who can do that is President Trump.”
“It&#8217;s really crucial that a meeting takes place,” he continued. “It is important to start the next phase of this process, putting pressure on the Russians exactly as President Trump has been doing over the last six months.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says President Trump “will test&#8221; Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska this Friday.
&#8220;It is important to see how serious Putin is, and the only one who can do that is President Trump,&#8221; he says, though he adds that &#8220;there… <a href="https://t.co/V4q1B7VgJE">pic.twitter.com/V4q1B7VgJE</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1954579621959323997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
Putin has reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/putin-says-hell-end-war-with-ukraine-with-one-major-concession">told</a> the Trump administration that Russia would end the war if Ukraine ceded control of its eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia largely controls though Ukraine’s military is fighting back in some spots. Putin also demanded recognition of Russian control of the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
On Friday, Trump said that a peace between Ukraine and Russia could involve “some swapping” of territories, a suggestion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flatly rejected on Saturday.
“Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” said Zelensky, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/world/europe/zelensky-trump-ukraine-russia.html">The New York Times</a>.
“Any decisions made against us, any decisions made without Ukraine, are at the same time decisions against peace,” Zelensky added in a <a href="https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/15575">video</a> posted to Telegram. “They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.”
Ukrainian support for continuing the war against Russia has collapsed, according to a Gallup <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/693203/ukrainian-support-war-effort-collapses.aspx">poll</a> released last week. Support for finding a negotiated solution to end the war has surged to 69% up from 52% last year. Support to continue fighting dropped from 38% to 24% over the same period.

Mark Rutte

NATO Head Backs Meeting With Putin, Says Trump ‘Broke The Deadlock’

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration would sell the &#8220;best equipment&#8221; and &#8220;best missiles&#8221; to NATO for Ukraine&#8217;s defense and threatened to impose 100% &#8220;secondary tariffs&#8221; on Russia as it continues to wage war on Ukraine.
During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said, &#8220;We&#8217;ve made a deal today where we&#8217;re going to be sending them weapons and they&#8217;re going to be paying for them.&#8221;
&#8220;The United States will not be having any payment made,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We&#8217;re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they&#8217;re going to be paying for it.&#8221;
&#8220;We have an ocean separating us,&#8221; the president <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1944783154327204286">continued</a>. &#8220;We make the best stuff, but we can&#8217;t keep doing this — and Biden should&#8217;ve done this years ago.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;We make the best equipment, the best missiles&#8230; the European nations know that&#8230; We&#39;ve made a deal today where we&#39;re going to be sending them weapons and they&#39;re going to be paying for them. The United States will NOT be having any payment made.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/TG2URSC3Ya">pic.twitter.com/TG2URSC3Ya</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1944780326531698861?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rutte agreed that &#8220;it&#8217;s totally logical&#8221; for Trump to want European countries to pay for Ukraine&#8217;s defense.
&#8220;This is again Europeans stepping up,&#8221; Rutte said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been in contact with many countries. I can tell you at this moment Germany, massively, but also Finland and Denmark and Sweden and Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, Canada — they all want to be part of this, and this is only the first wave. There will be more,&#8221; Rutte added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecGenNATO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecGenNATO</a>: &quot;You want Ukraine [to have] what it needs &#8230; but you want the Europeans to pay for it — which is totally logical.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/k2tSUfCGJ4">pic.twitter.com/k2tSUfCGJ4</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1944779973316792809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The 100% tariffs on Russia would go into effect if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days, according to Trump. The &#8220;secondary tariffs&#8221; would penalize countries that do business with Russia, such as those purchasing Russian oil and gas. Trump&#8217;s 100% tariff rate on Russia is lower than what some GOP lawmakers are pushing for. A bill introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposes 500% tariffs on nations that deal with Russia.
&#8220;We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we&#8217;re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don&#8217;t have a deal in 50 days,&#8221; Trump said. He added that his talks with Putin have become meaningless.
&#8220;I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up and say, &#8216;Well, that was a nice phone call,'&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;And then missiles launched into Kyiv or some other city, and I said, &#8216;strange.'&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we&#39;re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don&#39;t have a deal in 50 days.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/hQSTIng1zj">pic.twitter.com/hQSTIng1zj</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1944778508669943868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last week, Russia launched two major drone and missile attacks on Ukraine after Trump publicly expressed disappointment with Putin. The strikes included a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/clear-escalation-of-terror-russia-hits-kyiv-with-another-major-missile-and-drone-attack">barrage</a> on Kyiv that killed at least two people and wounded 16 more.
Trump praised Ukraine and other European nations for their &#8220;spirit&#8221; during the war, a major change in tune from just a few months ago, when the president blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for requesting more U.S. assistance in the fight against Russia.
&#8220;I think this is a chance at getting peace,&#8221; Trump said of the new deal with NATO and Ukraine. &#8220;Europe has a lot of spirit for this war. When I first got involved, I really didn&#8217;t think they did, but they do &#8230; they really think it&#8217;s a very, very important thing to do or they wouldn&#8217;t be doing it.&#8221;

President Trump Meets NATO Secretary General

Trump Strikes Deal With NATO To Send Weapons To Ukraine On Europe’s Dime

Politics

Trump Administration

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump was in a great mood as he took the podium at a surprise White House press briefing on Friday.
His team called the briefing just after the Supreme Court upheld his executive order on birthright citizenship, ruling that lower courts do not have the authority to unilaterally block Trump’s agenda.
Not only that — the court also ruled Friday that schools violate religious liberty when they bar parents from opting their children out of classroom instruction involving LGBT-themed books, a major win for religious conservatives and for the Trump White House, which has championed parents and their right to decide what their children are taught.
Each ruling in and of itself would have been celebrated by the White House. But together, on the heels of Trump&#8217;s success negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, achieving a 5% defense pledge from NATO members, gas prices dropping to their lowest <a href="https://x.com/PressSec/status/1938232771509354514">since 2021</a>, and the stock market nearing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wall-street-rallies-sp-500-nears-record-high-as-middle-east-tensions-cool">record highs</a>, the news made Friday &#8220;a really big day&#8221; for Trump.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve had a big week,&#8221; Trump told the clamoring reporters in the James Brady Briefing Room.&#8221;We&#8217;ve had a big week, we&#8217;ve had a lot of victories this week.&#8221;
The past week has indeed been full of wins for the president, both at home and abroad. After the United States bombed key Iranian nuclear sites with Tomahawk missiles and 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on Saturday, the president announced a ceasefire on Monday, strong-arming the two countries into a cessation of attacks on one another with a rare, emphatic f-bomb.
&#8220;They don&#8217;t know what the f**k they are doing,&#8221; an angry Trump told reporters shortly before getting on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cnn-misconstruing-intelligence-to-undermine-successful-u-s-strike-in-iran-trump-officials-say?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=CNN+Misconstruing+Intelligence+To+Undermine+Successful+U.S.+Strike+In+Iran%2C+Trump+Officials+Say">maintains</a> that the Iranian nuclear sites were completely obliterated, and the White House has celebrated this as a massive win marred only by suggestions from legacy media outlets, led by CNN and the New York Times, that the United States failed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and only set it back by months.
These outlets cited an &#8220;inconclusive, low confidence intelligence assessment &#8230; leaked from deep state intel analysis to deep state news,” an administration official told The Daily Wire earlier this week.
Since then, CIA Director John Ratcliffe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-reveals-intelligence-showing-u-s-destroyed-key-iranian-nuclear-facilities?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=CIA+Reveals+Intelligence+Showing+U.S.+%E2%80%98Destroyed%E2%80%99+Key+Iranian+Nuclear+Facilities">said</a> that the agency has new intelligence indicating “several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed” by the recent American strikes; Director of National Intelligence&#8217;s Tulsi Gabbard cited “new intelligence” showing that “Iran’s nuclear facilities have been destroyed&#8221;; and the president himself excoriated CNN&#8217;s reporter who broke the story, Natasha Betrand, pointing to her reporting denouncing the Hunter Biden laptop story — which was completely true — as “Russian disinformation.”
Trump then headed to the Netherlands for the NATO summit, where he convinced the leaders of member states to raise defense spending to 5% of their country’s gross domestic product by 2035. That&#8217;s a major victory for the White House and the president, who called it a &#8220;tremendous victory,&#8221; and who has long demanded that “freeloading” NATO allies pay their fair share for their own security.
&#8220;Winning is easy when the most consequential president in history is back at the helm,&#8221; White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers told The Daily Wire. &#8220;President Trump has restored America’s dominance on the world stage and kept the promises he made to over 77 million Americans across the country. America is hot again, and we aren’t tired of winning yet!”
As he spoke to reporters on Friday, Trump pointed to the next big White House goal: getting the &#8220;Big, Beautiful Bill&#8221; signed.
Trump has called for lawmakers to get the bill on his desk by July 4. At an event for the bill at the White House on Thursday, flanked by the parents of children killed by illegal aliens, Border Czar Tom Homan argued that holding up the bill is putting American lives at risk.
&#8220;Every day we arrest a public safety threat, it makes this country much safer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Who the hell would be against that? I get pissed off because I&#8217;m sick of meeting Angel Moms and Dads. You want to talk about family separation? They buried their children.&#8221;
Trump called on the Senate to get the job done as he headed to the NATO summit earlier this week, even suggesting they lock themselves in a room if they must as they work with the House of Representatives to reach a deal.
His direction was clear: “Don’t go home.”
“It will be a Historic Present for THE GREAT PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, as we begin the Celebration of our Country’s 250th Birthday,” the president wrote in a Truth Social <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114738729363742349" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on Tuesday. “We are finally entering our Golden Age, which will bring unprecedented Safety, Security, and Prosperity for ALL of our Citizens.”
“NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE,” the president warned. And during the briefing on Friday, he suggested that Democrats who vote against the bill are &#8220;voting in favor&#8221; of the largest tax hike in the &#8220;history of our country.&#8221;

US President Donald Trump held a press conference at the White House

‘America Is Hot Again’: A Week Of Wins For The Trump White House

Benjamin Netanyahu

Karoline Leavitt

President Donald Trump’s official website is now selling a &#8220;Trump Daddy&#8221; t-shirt, just a day after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte referred to the president by the affectionate title.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 “DADDY” MERCH OUT NOW!<a href="https://t.co/YAxVOAdj8y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://t.co/YAxVOAdj8y</a> <a href="https://t.co/08PnAHhtFX" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/08PnAHhtFX</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1938241270255915189?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Rutte, a Dutch politician, discussed with Trump the president’s actions during the Israel-Iran war. Rutte brought up the fact that, after a ceasefire agreement had been reached, Iran struck Israel one last time, leading Trump to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-holds-ceasefire-after-israel-refrains-from-major-retaliation-for-irans-strike-on-civilians" target="_blank" rel="noopener">express</a> his annoyance by saying that, &#8220;They don’t know what the f*** they’re doing.&#8221;
In reference to that, Rutte <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nato-chief-hails-trumps-leadership-calls-him-daddy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a>, &#8220;Daddy has to sometimes use strong language.&#8221; Agreeing, Trump added that, &#8220;Every once in a while you have to use a certain word.&#8221; Later, <a href="https://x.com/townhallcom/status/1937884957956886621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responding</a> to a reporter from Sky News inquiring about Rutte’s comment, Trump said &#8220;I think he likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know. I’ll come back and I’ll hit him hard, okay? He did it very affectionately. &#8216;Daddy — you’re my daddy.'&#8221;
Following that humorous interaction, which left Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth chuckling behind the president, the White House <a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1938053287535616085" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> a video of Trump’s visit to the NATO summit captioned &#8220;Daddy’s home… Hey, hey, hey, Daddy&#8221; with Usher’s song &#8220;Hey Daddy&#8221; playing over it.
Then, Thursday morning, Trump’s official shop <a href="https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1938256071686296040" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> a memo showcasing the new merchandise: a red T-shirt with Trump’s official portrait and the word &#8220;DADDY&#8221; underneath.
Rutte has since <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/5369816-nato-rutte-daddy-comment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clarified</a> his comment. &#8220;What I said is that sometimes, in Europe, I hear sometimes countries saying, ‘Hey, Mark, will the U.S. stay with us?’ And I said that sounds a little bit like a small child asking his daddy, ‘Hey, are you still staying with the family?’ So in that sense, I used ‘daddy’– not that I was calling President Trump daddy.&#8221;

President Trump Signs Executive Orders At Mar-a-Lago In Palm Beach, Florida

Daddy’s Home: Team Trump Embraces NATO Leader’s Remarks With New Merch

White House

President Donald Trump secures increased funding from NATO members, Senate Republicans consider the &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill,&#8221; and a therapy student blows the whistle with explosive allegations on mandatory training in smut.
It’s Thursday, June 26, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
 
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<h2>The North Atlantic Trump Organization</h2>
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Topline: In a significant foreign policy victory for President Trump, NATO allies agreed Wednesday to his demands that they increase defense spending.
President Trump took a victory lap following his successful strikes on Iran and subsequent ceasefire on Wednesday, scoring another feather in his foreign policy cap. For years, Trump has been a vocal critic of NATO, arguing that the United States was being taken advantage of by its allies, who spend far less on defense for the NATO alliance. He arrived at The Hague this week demanding that member states increase their defense spending from 2% of GDP to 5% by 2035, and almost all members quickly agreed.
For context, one country — the United States — currently accounts for more than two-thirds of NATO’s entire defense budget.
&#8220;For too long, one ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden of that commitment — and that changes today,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1937806555186962864">said</a>. “President Trump — dear Donald — you made this change possible&#8230; we will produce trillions more for our common defense to make us stronger and fairer by equalizing spending between America and America&#8217;s allies.&#8221;
In exchange for that increased spending, President Trump reiterated his commitment to adhering to Article 5, the NATO clause that states an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. 
Ahead of the summit, Trump said he wasn’t sure where he stood on Article 5, and that it “depends on your definition.” However, once the other members agreed to increase defense spending, the president offered his full support. 
The only holdout among the alliance was Spain. The country’s prime minister said 5% was “unacceptable” and would force him to cut social services. Instead, they plan to increase their spending from just 1.2% to 2%. That clearly angered Trump, who said he’d make them pay more in a future trade deal.
In a press conference at the summit, the president also refuted reports that Iran’s nuclear facilities only sustained minor damage in U.S. strikes last weekend, reiterating that Iran&#8217;s nuclear program was “completely and fully obliterated.” Trump announced that the United States would meet with Iranian officials next week to ensure the country does not continue to pursue a nuclear weapon.
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<h2>The &#8216;Big Beautiful Bill&#8217; Nears Senate Vote</h2>
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Topline: The Senate is set to vote on Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill&#8221; – will the GOP majority hand the president a win on his signature legislation?
The Republican-led Senate is set to vote on Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill this week despite some continued divisions within the GOP. The bill contains many of President Trump’s key policy planks, including increased immigration enforcement and defense spending, a $5 trillion increase to the debt ceiling, his promised ‘no tax on tips,’ and permanent extensions for the 2017 tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term.
“It is so important that we get this one big bill, this one big beautiful bill over the line,” Stephen Miran, chairman of the nonpartisan Council of Economic Advisors, told The Daily Wire. “If we don&#8217;t, it&#8217;s going to be the biggest tax hike in history. It&#8217;s going to be a $4 trillion tax hike on American families and American workers.&#8221;
A key sticking point has been the bill&#8217;s pricetag – the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that it would add $3 trillion to the deficit. Supporters dispute that characterization, arguing that the CBO isn’t factoring in the economic growth they believe the bill would create, which they say could result in a net decrease of deficit spending on the order of trillions of dollars over the next 10 years. 
“More tax revenues reduce the deficit,” Miran said. “So the best way to reduce the deficit in debt is to grow the economy. …[The] CBO just ignores growth altogether… [and] tariff revenue. Tariffs are bringing in total deficit reduction – hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue every year going forward.”
However, some Republican senators remain skeptical and continue to argue that passing the bill would be fiscally irresponsible.
“I&#8217;m not for raising the debt ceiling by 5 trillion dollars,” Sen. Rand Paul(R-KY) said. “I think that is a mistake to have such a large extension of the credit line to a Congress that has shown disregard for fiscal responsibility.
The Republicans have a three-seat majority in the Senate – Vice President JD Vance will presumably break any ties in the president’s favor, but unless Democrats decide to cross the aisle (which appears highly unlikely), the &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill&#8221; will need the support of at least 50 of the 53 Senate Republicans.
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<h2>A Course You&#8217;ll Remember In Therapy</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-939605" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_10.Still002.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_10.Still002.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_18_10.Still002-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: A California psychology student training to be a therapist is blowing the whistle on alleged ideological bias and required sexual disclosure in therapy training. The following story is not appropriate for younger readers.
Naomi Epps Best, a 26-year-old graduate student at Santa Clara University, decided to go public with allegations against her university’s psychology counseling program. Best says she was required to write a sexual autobiography and was subjected to gratuitous smut in one of her required classes, “Human Sexuality.” 
“I immediately discovered in the syllabus sadomasochistic erotica, a crassly written pornographic illustration guide, and the final exam was an eight to 10 page comprehensive sexual autobiography: ‘When did I start masturbating? Chronicle my sexual past and present.’ I requested an accommodation not to complete this sexual autobiography and I was denied. I went up the chain to the professor, the chair, the dean, the provost, the president, the Title IX office, the campus ministry office and the ombudsman and I was met with institutional indifference to my ethical concerns.”
Best later asked for an accommodation she heard had been offered to Muslim students – the ability to take the course remotely. Instead, she said the professor asked to meet with her and promised that there would be no required sexual disclosure and everything would be professional.
“In this new class, I was required to write something down anonymously about something I disliked about my breasts or my genitals. We watched bondage videos, tutorial videos… there&#8217;s an argument to be made that therapists should be aware of the breadth of human sexual practices, including BDSM. I am not contesting that. But the manner in which this material was presented was promotional. It was actually a promotional video for a sex dungeon. And when the video ended, the professor said, ‘So what do you think? Who wants to try it?’ There was no clinical framing.”
The Daily Wire reached out to Santa Clara University for comment. A spokesperson stated that the Human Sexuality class has been taught with a similar approach and assignments since the mid-1990s. They added that “we do not agree with many of the student’s public assertions about the class” and that “people who were present” dispute Best’s characterization of classroom discussions and course content.

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Morning Brief: Trump Scores NATO Win & A California College Sparks Smut Uproar

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U.S. Senate

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened that Spain would have to &#8220;pay twice as much&#8221; in a future trade deal after the NATO member refused to commit to the alliance&#8217;s new target of spending 5% of its gross domestic product on defense and security.
&#8220;You&#8217;re the only country that is not paying. I don&#8217;t know what the problem is,&#8221; Trump said at the NATO summit in The Hague when questioned about Spain&#8217;s refusal to go along.
&#8220;You know what we’re gonna do? We&#8217;re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We&#8217;re going to make them pay twice as much. And I&#8217;m actually serious about that,&#8221; the president added.
NATO members <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-triumphs-nato-bows-to-u-s-pressure-with-5-defense-pledge?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+Triumphs%3A+NATO+Bows+To+U.S.+Pressure+With+5%25+Defense+Pledge">agreed</a> to increase defense spending from the current 2% level to 5% of their country’s gross domestic product by 2035. Spain was the only member that rejected this target, arguing that it would strain the country’s extensive welfare state.
“We fully respect the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their defense investment, but we are not going to do it,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-heads-to-nato-summit-demanding-freeloading-allies-pay-their-fair-share?author=Nathan+Gay&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Heads+To+NATO+Summit+Demanding+%E2%80%98Freeloading%E2%80%99+Allies+Pay+Their+Fair+Share">said</a> before the summit.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
President Trump rips into Spain for refusing to increase NATO spending.
&quot;I think Spain&#39;s terrible what they&#39;ve done, they are the only Country that won&#39;t pay 5%&quot; <a href="https://t.co/WD5JGnc2WU">pic.twitter.com/WD5JGnc2WU</a>
&mdash; Media Research Center (@theMRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/theMRC/status/1937881474520223900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;They want a little bit of a free ride, but they&#8217;ll have to pay it back to us on trade, because I’m not going to let that happen. It’s unfair,” Trump said.
As a part of the European Union, Spain <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-25/trump-threatens-to-double-tariffs-on-spain-over-nato-spending">negotiates</a> trade as part of the 27-member bloc, not individually, per Bloomberg. Still, Trump emphasized his intention to bypass the European Union&#8217;s regular trade negotiation protocols.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to negotiate directly with Spain. I&#8217;m going to do it myself,&#8221; Trump insisted. &#8220;They&#8217;re going to pay, they&#8217;ll pay more money this way.&#8221;
The threat comes ahead of the Trump administration&#8217;s July 9 deadline for the European Union to agree to a trade deal. If no agreement is reached, tariffs on EU products imported into the United States are set to increase to 50%.
NATO members condemned Spain for rejecting the 5% target.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, whose country allocates a higher percentage of its GDP for defense than any NATO member, blasted Spain’s lack of commitment.
“We believe that any deviation from this principle by any member country is a bad example,” he said.
“It’s incredibly unfair to the alliance,” another NATO official <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-nato-canada-defense-target-spending-gdp/">said</a> to POLITICO.
At the press conference on Wednesday, Trump said his outlook on NATO had changed. Previously critical of &#8220;freeloading&#8221; nations not paying their fair share in defense, he now believes the alliance is no longer a &#8220;rip-off&#8221; given the new 5% commitment. The increase is expected to significantly boost the alliance&#8217;s collective defense capabilities at a time of heightened global tensions, as the United States has historically shouldered more than two-thirds of NATO&#8217;s collective defense spending.

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