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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, March 13th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's get right into it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Inflation cools even more than economists expected, just as Trump's tariffs go into effect. The president wants steel and aluminum in America. And let me be clear, nothing's going to stop that until we've got a big, strong, domestic steel and aluminum capability.
--:-- John Bickley: How do Americans feel about Trump's strategy on the economy?
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm joined now by Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot, thanks for being here.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, let's dive right in. Inflation just slowed to its lowest rate in years. What did we learn on Wednesday?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, according to the Labor Department's monthly inflation report, the consumer price index, which tracks the general cost of everyday goods, rose 2.8% from the same month last year and just 0.2% from the month before. Both of those numbers were better than expectations and marked the first time in four months that we saw an annual decrease in the consumer price index or inflation.
--:-- John Bickley: At the same time, core prices saw a 3.1% increase from last year. That is the best number we've seen in nearly four years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yes, that's right. And White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt addressed those numbers on Wednesday, saying, "You see the cost of eggs is going down, cost of gasoline is going down because of the massive deregulatory efforts of this president and also the fact that we are delivering on his promise to drill baby drill already."
--:-- John Bickley: Now, let's talk about the tariffs. These numbers do reflect February data that came in before President Trump ratcheted up his trade war with Canada, Mexico, Europe, and China, among others. On Wednesday, 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum products went into effect.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. And Canada immediately responded with 25% tariffs of their own on more than $20 billion worth of American imports. For their part, the European Union also slapped retaliatory tariffs on nearly $30 billion worth of goods, including home appliances, textiles, and agricultural products.
--:-- John Bickley: And it's worth noting that list of goods is not random. EU officials told reporters they wanted to target products that primarily came from Republican-led states.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. They're hitting soybeans in Mike Johnson's Louisiana, beef in Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas, and produce in Alabama and Georgia.
--:-- John Bickley: So, the White House has conceded that these tariffs could cause prices to go up in the short term, but they will, in theory, increase demand for American-made products in the long run, incentivizing companies to up their domestic production, bringing hopefully lower costs.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made that point on Fox on Wednesday morning, saying, "Inflation comes from a government printing too much money. The Biden administration having a $2 trillion deficit. You don't get inflation from having a tariff because what a tariff says is if it's made in Europe, if it's made foreign, it costs, it might cost a little more. But that which is made in America does not cost more."
--:-- John Bickley: Now, others on the right say Democrats are fear-mongering over the looming impacts of tariffs. They point to President Trump's policies from his first term as proof you can implement them without broad price increases.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. Heritage economists E.J. and Tony pointed out that when Trump implemented tariffs in his first term, the price index that measures the overall price level of things we import into this country actually fell.
--:-- John Bickley: So, what kind of reaction are we seeing from voters? During his first term, President Trump consistently saw a higher approval rating on his handling of the economy than any other issue.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That's right. But in recent weeks, Americans do appear to be souring on his handling of the economy. A CNN poll found him at 44% on that front and 12 points underwater and his lowest rating on the economy on record.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: President Trump seems closer than ever to fulfilling his campaign promise to shut down the Department of Education. Here are the latest is Daily Wire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: So things are moving pretty fast here. There's been a lot of reaction already to this. What's the latest?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, good morning, Tim. Things kicked off late Tuesday when Education Department staff across the country were told to stay home on Wednesday. All department offices were closed starting Tuesday night for security reasons.
--:-- Tim Rice: Staffers were told to take their laptops and vacate their offices by 6 p.m. Shortly after that, the Education Department notified around half of its employees that their positions had been terminated.
--:-- John Bickley: This is probably the biggest round of layoffs we've seen since the Trump administration shut down USAID. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Wednesday that this reduction in force reflects the Department of Education's commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most, to students, parents, and teachers.
--:-- Tim Rice: And in an appearance on Fox News Tuesday evening, McMahon told Laura Ingram that this was indeed the first step towards shuttering the department entirely.
--:-- John Bickley: Is this the first step on the road to a total shutdown?
--:-- Tim Rice: Yes, actually it is because that was the president's mandate. This directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress to get that accomplished.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump addressed these layoffs from the Oval Office yesterday when a reporter noted that many of the affected employees served during his first term.
--:-- Tim Rice: I feel very badly, but many of them don't work at all. Many of them never showed up to work.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, there's been a flood of reactions from Democrats and media figures about this really sounding the alarm about what this will do. What impact will this really have? What exactly will happen if the education department is fully shut down?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, to hear Trump and McMahon tell it, not a whole lot. McMahon has stressed that this first round of layoffs won't impact student loans or programs dedicated to students with special needs.
--:-- John Bickley: The cuts seem largely targeted at the department's Office of Civil Rights, which is charged with enforcing Title IX policies.
--:-- Tim Rice: So things like whether or not schools should have gender-neutral bathrooms. Trump has said he wants to stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's youth.
--:-- John Bickley: And McMahon says she wants to return control of education to the states.
--:-- Tim Rice: The department has already cut $600 million in grants for training teachers in things like social justice activism and anti-racism.
--:-- John Bickley: So we should expect to see a lot more of that type of cut while the department reassigns things like student loans and special needs programs to other federal agencies or even state governments.
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, it's certainly going to be interesting to see how these changes are handled.
--:-- John Bickley: Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Just months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, government forces there are massacring religious minorities. Current estimates vary, but some human rights groups say more than 1,300 Christians and Alawites have been killed in the last few days alone.
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--:-- John Bickley: Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, Megan, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, took control of Syria in December, and they were promising to be tolerant of religious minorities, but it looks like they're not sticking to that. What's happening?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, a lot of disturbing reports and images are coming out of Syria right now as the country shifts toward more rigid Islamist rule.
--:-- John Bickley: So HTS is Sunni, like 70% of the rest of Syria, and they're tied to ISIS and al-Qaeda.
--:-- Megan Basham: And HTS claims that the violence that erupted last Thursday began when some holdovers from the Assad regime attacked them.
--:-- John Bickley: So they, the Sunni HTS rebel group, then began targeting provinces that are known to be Alawite, which is the Shia Muslim sect Assad belongs to.
--:-- Megan Basham: They've also been killing Christians, Kurds, and Druze as mosques in these regions have started calling on people to wage jihad.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, humanitarian groups say Northwest Syria has been ethnically cleansed of Christians and Kurds and that whole families are being slaughtered.
--:-- Megan Basham: Essentially, they say that what started as small spurts of random vigilantism has now progressed into large-scale organized violence.
--:-- John Bickley: The evangelical news outlet World Magazine interviewed several Syrian Christians now in hiding, and one described seeing a convoy of military vehicles and tanks that stretched for miles entering the main street of his town before the militants began shooting everything in sight.
--:-- Megan Basham: And it's not just executions. Residents of Christian and Alawite cities and villages are also being displaced and their property is being seized.
--:-- John Bickley: So across the country, HTS soldiers are allegedly harassing young Christians for not adhering to strict Sunni customs, like demanding Christian women cover up in Muslim garb.
--:-- Megan Basham: They've also reportedly been targeting men who have Christian tattoos.
--:-- John Bickley: In some areas like Damascus, Christians are protesting, but thousands are also fleeing to Lebanon or Russia as Putin was Assad's ally.
--:-- Megan Basham: And then one other interesting note here, the Alawites, who again are Shia Muslims, are calling on Israel to, quote, save them from the brutal regime.
--:-- John Bickley: In a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, they wrote, we are a minority like you in the Middle East, help us. And if you reach the Syrian coast, which is mostly Alawite, you will be received with songs and flowers.
--:-- Megan Basham: So are these attacks religiously motivated or are there other factors as well?
--:-- John Bickley: I would say it's both. Syria has been embroiled in civil war for more than a decade now. And those skirmishes are still continuing.
--:-- Megan Basham: So in rural areas where HTS has a weaker grip on power, targeting these religious minorities helps them exert some greater control.
--:-- John Bickley: And also part of this is class-based as the Alawites are more associated with the political elites as Assad was.
--:-- Megan Basham: But, you know, this is a catch-22 that we see so often in the Middle East.
--:-- John Bickley: Though Assad was by no means a good leader, he and his father before him did keep the region relatively stable.
--:-- Megan Basham: And those who opposed the U.S. meddling and trying to unseat him were concerned about these very kinds of alternatives.
--:-- John Bickley: In fact, when President Trump first ran for office in 2016, he criticized Hillary Clinton over her support for arming anti-Assad rebel groups.
--:-- Megan Basham: This is what he told CNN at the time. The problem is the other side of Assad. We have no idea who they are. They probably are racist. We have no idea who these people are.
--:-- John Bickley: We give them weapons. We give them ammunition. We give them everything. Maybe it's worse than Assad.
--:-- Megan Basham: Why are we involved? I look at Assad and Assad to me looks better than the other side.
--:-- John Bickley: And, you know, this has happened before. We back a certain side and that side turns out to be a total catastrophe.
--:-- Megan Basham: And to that point, Syria's new president, Ahmad al-Shirah, who replaced Assad, is himself a former Islamic state and al-Qaeda terrorist.
--:-- John Bickley: So what kind of international response are we seeing?
--:-- Megan Basham: The U.N. is calling for immediate action to protect civilians, and the U.S. has condemned the killings, specifically blaming radical Islamic terrorists.
--:-- John Bickley: More pointed, the Israeli defense minister said Shara is showing his true face as a jihadist, though Shara denies this.
--:-- Megan Basham: He said these killings are a threat to his plan to bring unity to Syria, but he has not yet acted to bring those loyalists who are acting in his name to heal.
--:-- John Bickley: Megan, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Megan Basham: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week. Senate Democrats say they're going to block the House-passed funding bill, making the prospect of a government shutdown much more likely.
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--:-- John Bickley: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is pushing for a one-month extension for more negotiations, but Republicans say the six-month plan endorsed by Trump is the best way forward.
--:-- Georgia Howe: At least eight Senate Democrats would need to join Republicans to break a filibuster. And if no deal is reached by Friday, the government will partially shut down.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you enjoyed what you heard this morning, share this episode with a friend.
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