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--:-- Host John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. When you visit the doctor, you probably hand over your insurance, your ID, and contact details. It's just one of the many places that has your personal info. And if any of them accidentally expose it, you could be at risk for identity theft. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second. If you become a victim, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Big-name billionaires signal that they may lend their voices and money to Trump's re-election bid. He's still showing that he's got the best political instincts, probably in the Republican Party, like on immigration, on trade, on Bush's forever wars. Why are some high-dollar donors souring on Biden and leaning toward a second Trump term?
--:-- Host John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Bhatia Ungar-Sargon, opinion editor at Newsweek. It's May 11th, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire. Is the Disney brand in decline? New polling suggests it is and that sexualized content is part of the problem. And the blue state exodus out west is leading to a surprising explosion in population in several areas, including one often overlooked deep red state.
--:-- Host John Bickley: We are one of the last places of freedom, I believe, left in the country. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: A recent high-profile dinner hosted by billionaires Elon Musk and David Sachs has some observers of Silicon Valley wondering if the tech industry's titans are looking to back Donald Trump in this year's election. The recent event at Sachs' California mansion featured many luminaries of Silicon Valley and comes amid rumors that Sachs is planning to host a fundraiser for Donald Trump in the coming weeks.
--:-- Guest David Marcus: Hey, so who was at this dinner and why do people think this might have been something of a pro-Trump gathering? Morning John.
--:-- Host John Bickley: It was a veritable who's who of the rich and famous. According to a report in Puck along with Musk and Sachs were Michael Milken, Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, as well as Steven Mnuchin, who was Trump's secretary of the Treasury. Most of the attendees have been critical of President Joe Biden, and there are some who believe the dinner is a precursor to some kind of statement against a second Biden term or even potentially a flat out endorsement of Trump.
--:-- Guest David Marcus: This comes amid reports that Sachs is seriously considering holding a fundraiser for Trump out West and has met with the campaign about that. That would be a good get for the former president.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Yeah, it would. So what's triggering this? What is it about Biden and his presidency that has all of these really major players in the tech world so down on him and possibly even ready to back Trump?
--:-- Guest David Marcus: They're all a little different. Thiel has long been known as a libertarian, if not exactly a conservative. Musk, as his ex-feed shows every couple of minutes, is very motivated by issues of wokeness and free speech and of late increasingly criticizing Biden on the border, which he thinks is an unsustainable crisis.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Yeah. Sacks, for his part, has used his influence and his all-in podcast to vociferously oppose military aid to Ukraine, a top priority for Biden, but in fairness, also something Trump supported.
--:-- Guest David Marcus: What remains to be seen is whether this general dissatisfaction with Biden leads to a full endorsement of Trump by this band of billionaires or if they all just sort of go their own way.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Now in the past few election cycles there been a real reluctance among some public figures especially those in big business to express support for Trump. Has the fear of cancel culture started to sort of lose its leverage here?
--:-- Guest David Marcus: I think it has. You know, Donald Trump has now won the GOP nomination for president three times he's been president. The idea that expressing support for him is disqualifying in some basic way just doesn't make a lot of sense anymore.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And from Musk's perspective, for example, he's pointed out that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent millions helping to get out the vote in districts friendly to Joe Biden. So why shouldn't Musk be able to aid Trump with a potential endorsement or donation?
--:-- Guest David Marcus: Musk and Trump have met, but Musk declined to say if Trump had asked him for any money.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Now, you mentioned Zuckerberg there. We're accustomed to the left-leaning billionaires like Bill Gates or George Soros really having an impact on our politics and policies. Could this turn into something similar on the right?
--:-- Guest David Marcus: It's a fascinating and tantalizing question. One thing to think about is that all of these guys have a top-down approach to their influence on politics and culture. Musk bought X, Sachs has his podcast, etc. With Soros, his organization spends less time with that kind of front-facing stuff and more time picking low-hanging political fruit like district attorney or city council races, getting some very radical people elected and shifting the Overton window of the Democrats to the left.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The left-leaning billionaires have grafted themselves onto the Democrat Party. It'll be interesting to see if this emerging right-leaning billionaires boys club takes a similar interest in the nitty-gritty of grassroots politicking, or if they continue to send their message through big media or internet megaphones.
--:-- Guest David Marcus: These men have amassed impressive cultural, one might even say countercultural influence. But it remains to be seen if that's enough to actually win elections. Another question that may be answered come November.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: A new poll finds that three out of four Americans want Disney to stop including sexualized themes in their children's content. Meanwhile, CEO Bob Iger has announced that the company will change its approach to its most profitable films.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So Megan, let's start with this survey. Who conducted it and what did it find?
--:-- Host John Bickley: So it was conducted by the polling firm Rasmussen, and they asked just over 12,000 adults if they agree with this statement. Should Disney return to wholesome programming and allow parents to decide when their children are taught about sexuality?
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: Well, 71% said yes. The pollsters also quoted the 2022 statement from a Disney exec that the company has many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories. And then they asked, is such programming appropriate for children under age 12? Well, 54% said no, and only 13% said yes. The rest weren't sure.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So did Rasmussen break down the political leanings of those surveyed?
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: You know, it didn't. But the mainstream, some might even call moderately left-leaning news outlet Puck, also commissioned a Disney poll last week. And that came from a different polling firm, and it did break down the numbers along those party lines.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Now if you not familiar with Puck it was founded by well mainstream Hollywood journalists who came from well trade publications like The Hollywood Reporter and big entertainment glossies like Vanity Fair
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So very very familiar names in big entertainment journalism And they've been asking if Disney has a growing brand problem given its battles with Elon Musk and Ron DeSantis and really just an overall perception of wokeness.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Well, Puck found that Disney scored the lowest favorability of any entertainment company at 21% unfavorable. Now, that may not sound catastrophic, but Disney was the only studio with an unfavorability rating above 11 percent, and respondents disliked it at nearly twice the rate of any other studio or streamer.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: On general favorability, 30% of Republicans and 26% of independents have an unfavorable opinion of Disney. For Democrats, it's only 8%. But I do think that independent number in particular cannot be making Disney happy, given that on Tuesday, its box office earnings sent its stock tumbling 10%. And that was its steepest one-day decline in what's already been a pretty bad year and a half.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So is there any indication that Disney is planning to change course?
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: Well, you know, last month after he narrowly won a proxy fight for control of Disney's board, CEO Bob Iger denied to CNBC that the company has a wokeness problem. But he spoke a little bit out of both sides of his mouth there because he also indicated that he feels that they haven't been prioritizing entertaining the audience.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The term woke is thrown around rather liberally. No pun intended in that regard. The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we're up to. They need to be entertaining. And where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it's fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great. But generally speaking, we need to be an entertainment-first company.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So I think we can see from that that Iger knows the audience is souring on Disney films, but publicly he's placing the emphasis more on a lack of quality than in, say, violating that famous Michael Jordan rule that you should not get political because Republicans buy sneakers, too.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So during an earnings call on Tuesday, Iger said, I've been working hard with the studio to reduce output and focus more on quality. And as a part of that, he said Disney is now going to cap Marvel films at three releases per year. And they're also not going to release any more than two Marvel shows on Disney Plus per year.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: So I wouldn't expect them to announce that they're pulling back on politically themed content. But this would create a mechanism to quietly allow them to do that in the background. So I think we'll have to see.
--:-- Host John Bickley: 71%. Once again, proving that more unites us as Americans than divides us. Yes. Thanks so much for the great recording, Megan.
--:-- Guest Megan Basham: Anytime.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: It's no secret that thousands are fleeing from deep blue states like California, Oregon, and Washington. But it may surprise you to learn which red state they're fleeing to. While the state of Florida sees a lot of migration from blue states, a new red state has emerged as the fastest growing place for those fleeing riots, crime, and homelessness, Idaho.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: Hey, Ash. So why Idaho?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Well, for starters, it borders Oregon and Washington, so it makes sense for residents of those states to simply flee east. As to why Californians are going to Idaho instead of neighboring Arizona is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's the weather or the more lush areas or the fact that Arizona cities can be very densely populated whereas Idaho might provide more open spaces.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: So what are the numbers here? How much has Idaho grown thanks to those leaving blue states?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Idaho's population has grown 12 percent between 2018 and 2023, the most recent year population data is available. Of course, it can't all be the result of blue state distress, but many who move to Idaho do count these issues as their reasons for moving, like husband and wife Nick Kostonborder and Ashley Manning, who told the Daily Mail that they moved to Idaho from Portland because they were worried about their young son and the potential danger from the growing homeless population in their old city.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: Several people have shared their reasons for abandoning California for Idaho in a popular YouTube video titled Escape California. I got to volunteer at this school here in Idaho, what I've noticed is there is a lot more friendly people. They're excited to be at work and you can see the change in children and just how they behave at school when they have caring adults that love their jobs.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Back in California, I worked full-time. My husband worked full-time and we were able to make ends meet. Now I'm a stay-at-home grandma and I watch my five grandbabies and my husband goes to work and we're able to make ends meet. It's just so much less expensive here in Idaho. You can actually run your AC, run your furnace, and keep a nice moderate temperature, whatever you like, at any given time.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: When it's hot in the summertime, I water my lawn two times a day, every single day. Could you imagine doing that in California? I mean, there's no tents, there's no poop, there's no heroin needles. It's just a pleasure to walk around down there. But people are just out having a great time. There's no one harassing them. All right.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So we're talking about three very well-known blue states, but what's the situation like in the rest of the country when it comes to people leaving one state for another?
--:-- Guest Ash Short: So the states that are losing the most people are California, Illinois, and New York. Specifically, California had a net loss of 75,423 residents between 2022 and 2023. But other states that lost population between 2022 and 2023 include West Virginia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Oregon. Meanwhile, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina saw the biggest increase to their population in that same time period.
--:-- Host John Bickley: While Idaho didn't make the top 10 list for net migration for that particular year, it was number four in terms of percentage of population growth, with the state's population growing by 1.3%.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: Okay. What kind of effect is the influx of these new residents having on Idaho? The increase in population is naturally making once small towns more congested, and it's causing home prices to increase along with more traffic. Fields and woods are being paved over to create new developments. And of course, there's always the fear that residents from blue states will vote for the same policies that caused them to flee those states in the first place.
--:-- Host John Bickley: It's an issue that's come up here in Nashville a time or two. Ash, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Guest Ash Short: You're welcome. Thank you for listening this morning.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And before we go, Bhatia, thank you so much for working with us this week. It's been a real joy.
--:-- Guest Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: It's been such an absolute pleasure doing this with you. Thank you so much for having me.
--:-- Host John Bickley: I found out that a lot of my friends are Morning Wire listeners. Well, we love to hear that.
--:-- Guest Bhatia Ungar-Sargon: And I should note to listeners that we have an interview with Bhatia coming out this afternoon on her new book, Second Class. So look for that when it drops.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire. Bye.
