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--:-- Georgia Howe: Mexico and Canada back down, making major concessions to Trump and vowing to send troops to their borders in exchange for a pause on tariffs. 10,000 soldiers are going to keep illegal aliens out, otherwise they're going to have a big penalty.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 4th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Texas calls in the cavalry to assist with immigration enforcement while anti-ICE protesters take to the streets. No fear! No hate! No ICE in our state! No fear! No hate! No ICE in our state!
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a controversial international agency is effectively shut down after claims of fraud and insubordination. If you've got an apple that's got a worm out, maybe you can take the worm out. But if you've got actually just a ball of worms, it's hopeless. And USAID is a ball of worms.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: In a stunning move, Donald Trump has agreed to pause looming tariffs on Mexico and Canada following a series of concessions from the leaders of both countries. Here to break down the trade war detente is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, that was fast. What happened in the last 24 hours?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, very fast indeed. So we'll start with Mexico. As we discussed yesterday, President Trump ordered 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico and Canada, saying they would remain in place until the countries made more of an effort to prevent drugs and legal immigrants from crossing into the U.S. Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum initially struck a defiant tone, announcing 25% tariffs of her own. But on Monday morning, there was an apparent diplomatic breakthrough. Following a phone call between the two leaders, which Trump called very friendly, he agreed to pause the implementation of those tariffs for a month to allow for further negotiations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That pause came after Mexico agreed to send 10,000 soldiers to the border to, in Scheinbaum's words, quote, prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the U.S., particularly fentanyl. Scheinbaum added that for his part, Trump has agreed to increase efforts to, quote, prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, while the White House is touting the news as proof that Trump's use of tariffs as leverage is getting results. Democrats, as you can imagine, say otherwise. They argue that Trump quickly agreed to lift the tariffs because he was worried about the stock market, which did slip Monday morning on fears of a trade war, but then jumped back up at the news of these deals.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A number of Democratic lawmakers are saying that Trump supposedly blinked first. There was no blanking She a wonderful woman but she did agree to 10 soldiers on the border I would say that a lot Would you say that's pretty good?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And Vice President J.D. Vance echoed that sentiment Monday, lauding Trump's strategy. So for literally three days, I heard the far left in this country say that these tariffs would make Americans' lives worse off. And what actually happened is the Mexican government was so afraid of the tariffs that they actually are taking their border enforcement and their anti-cartel activity more seriously.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, we also saw a very similar response from Canada. Tell us about that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, initially it appeared Canada was gearing up for a fight. Leaders in both parties, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, called for Canadians to unite against the tariffs by boycotting American products in favor of domestic goods. But speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Trump stood his ground. saying Canada needs America far more than America needs Canada. I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state. We give them protection, military protection. We don't need them to build our cars. We don't need them for lumber. We don't need them for anything.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Trump and Trudeau held a phone call shortly after those comments. And as Trump supporters put it, Trudeau bent the knee, offering a long list of concessions in exchange for a 30-day pause on tariffs. The list is very long, so I'll just read the post that Trudeau made. Quote, I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border. In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a fentanyl czar. We will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24-7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-U.S. joint strike force to combat organized crime, fentanyl, and money laundering.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So quite the list there. Now, all of this comes as Trump is also pursuing a firm approach with Panama. What's the latest there?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. So quick refresher. President Trump last month threatened to reclaim the Panama Canal if the country's leaders did not offer cheaper passage to American naval vessels and do more to combat China's growing influence over the canal. But following a trip from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Panama's president, Jose Raul Molino, announced that he would not only be offering free passage through the canal for American naval vessels, but that his country would be withdrawing from China's Belt and Road Initiative entirely.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So a major victory for the White House and, importantly, a significant blow to China's influence over the canal and Central America more broadly.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: Members of the Texas National Guard can now make immigration-related arrests thanks to an authorization from Governor Greg Abbott. The move comes as anti-ICE protests are causing chaos in multiple cities, including Houston. Here to explain the new agreement between Border Patrol and Texas and give us the latest on a rash of protests is Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Hey, Spencer. So first, tell us about this new National Guard memo.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Sure. So this is a major development. This memo allows members of the Texas National Guard to partake in immigration arrests within Texas so long as they are accompanied by a member of Customs and Border Protection This is expected to apply to an estimated 3 Texas National Guardsmen who will now be able to assist with immigration enforcement.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Texas Governor Greg Abbott celebrated the new memo in a post on X. He stressed that the agreement is effective immediately and boosts manpower for border security. DHS Secretary Christy Noem talked about the significance of the decision as well. These National Guard members that are down here, they have full authority. They can, before I think they were facilitating the illegal immigration because they didn't have the authority to arrest and detain those that were breaking the law. Now they're fully deputized. They can go out there and get the bad guys and make sure that they're prosecuting them.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: And what about other law enforcement officers? Police along the border have expressed frustration for some time now with their inability to enforce the law. Can they also be deputized in the same way?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Yes, but it doesn't apply to local police. Trump's Homeland Security just recently gave other law enforcement agents the power to conduct immigration enforcement activities. They can now investigate, determine the location of, and apprehend illegal aliens present in the country. That decision applies to federal agents within the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Of course, there is also a lot of tension between the Texas National Guard and the Biden administration over the right of the National Guardsmen to secure the border. As we reported here, Texas National Guardsmen took control of Shelby Park on the border through Operation Lone Star after the Biden administration had allowed migrants to enter the country through it.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: And a final note on all this, all deportations have to actually be carried out by ICE itself rather than through these ancillary agents. So that final process is still up to ICE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, as we noted at the top, all of these immigration actions have sparked some pretty major protests in big cities. What's going on in L.A. and Atlanta?
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Well, it's been very disruptive. There's thousands of people who have taken the streets in both of the cities. In L.A. over the weekend, protesters marched on the 101 freeway, blocking traffic for hours before police forced them to disperse. Several cities in Texas also saw significant protests, as well as Chicago and Atlanta. And a flood of video has been circulating online. Things have certainly gotten tense, with some allegations that police are being told to largely let the rioters do their thing.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Spencer, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Spencer Lindquist: Hey, congrats. The U.S. Agency for International Development was closed on Monday as Elon Musk and his Doge agents audit the bureau. The interruptions at USAID have drawn outcry from Democrats who say the agency is under illegal attacks from the Trump team. Here to talk about the controversy over USAID is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, first off, what is USAID?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, so USAID was created by Congress to be a sort of global humanitarian mission funded by the U.S. taxpayer. It directs taxpayer money toward goals such as feeding starving children in Africa. But Elon Musk and Doge took a look at some of its books and found that USAID money was spending funds on a slew of left-wing political priorities. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. These are some of the insane priorities that that organization has been spending money on. $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces, $70,000 for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And that's just scratching the surface. There have been a slew of reports of controversial spending over the years, such as funding opium farms in Afghanistan. For his part, Trump said those misplaced priorities are pushed by bad personnel at the agency I love the concept but they turn out to be radical left lunatics And the concept of it is good but it all about the people
--:-- Tim Pierce: Morningwire also spoke with Hillsdale professor Dr Mark Moyer for some outside perspective He was a senior political appointee in the first Trump administration and wrote a book afterward, Masters of Corruption, How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency. Here's what he said about USAID. There are people, good Americans in that agency. But the problem is that a lot of the worst actors have floated to the top and hold positions of tremendous authority, and they misuse that authority partly for ideological reasons. A lot of them don't agree with Trump's agenda, and so they have tried to obstruct what he wants to do.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And part of it is simple greed that they want to exploit their position to help enrich themselves or enrich their friends. Part of the problem is how the contracting is done and how it has been corrupted. Now, is there a way to clean house and get more politically neutral people in charge? A lot of the higher-ups have already been put on leave. Since last week, that tally is about 100 or so and includes many senior officials.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has taken control of the agency as its acting head. Here's Rubio. It's a completely unresponsive agency. It's supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department. and it refuses to do so. There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And Rubio has a special interest in USAID programs because some of the spending on DEI and transgender projects actually reflects badly on the U.S. on the world stage. Here's Moyer. It's also recently done a lot of harm to our image because we are, for example, pushing LGBTQ agendas in all sorts of countries, that was done in the Biden administration. And of course, a lot of these countries don't agree with the Biden view on these issues. And so we're actually making enemies by pushing these sorts of things.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump is reportedly interested in merging USAID under state anyway. So Rubio is the ideal choice for Trump. Now, is this a politically partisan move or are Democrats on board?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, Democrats are definitely not on board. They held a rally in front of the agency on Monday. Senator Andy Kim said Trump's actions on USAID are weakening America. Senator Chris Van Hollen called Elon Musk a wannabe dictator and then led a crowd of people to storm the USAID building. We are here to enter the building and so we can hear firsthand from whoever is here at AID or at least witness firsthand what is happening with this Elon Musk attempted takeover, which will not stand. We will prevail.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Let's go. All USAID employees were told to stay at home yesterday, so it's unclear who was there from the agency to actually greet the senator.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me on. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to this episode of Morning Wire. If you want to support our show, go to dailywire.com and become a member. And if you want to get the latest news and updates, follow us on social media @morningwire. Thanks for listening.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And don't forget to check out our sponsors. GoodRanchers.com for 100% American beef, chicken, and wild-caught seafood. Shopify.com/morningwire for a $1 per month trial period and upgrade your selling today. And BlackRifleCoffee.com for 20% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code DAILYWIRE.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
