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--:-- Host John Bickley: President Trump reshapes the Pentagon as he shows several top defense officials the door. Why are the officials being removed and who's in line to take over? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, February 24th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The Trump administration labels several cartels terrorist organizations as the border czar vows to wipe them off the face of the earth. You have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined. And the state of Maine is refusing to keep men out of women's sports, teeing up a major legal battle with Trump. Every state has a responsibility to comply with Title IX, and we'll be enforcing aggressively, and we're going to be protecting our citizens. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: This weekend, President Trump again shook up Washington after firing a number of top Pentagon officials, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it all down, A. Cabot.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, Trump believes that his first term was held back by government bureaucrats who weren't fully bought into his mission or were openly hostile to his worldview. He clearly feels institutional change can only take place if the people running those institutions are all in. As part of that effort, the president this weekend removed three key figures at the Pentagon. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti. She was the Navy's top officer. Vice Chief of Staff General Jim Slyfe. He was number two at the Air Force. And the big one, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C.Q. Brown. All right, so several members of the top rest, most notably Brown.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Exactly. So for context, the chairman serves as a top advisor to the president and SECDEF. They serve as sort of a middleman, relaying information and concerns from the heads of each service branch. In a statement announcing the firing, Trump was surprisingly cordial, thanking General Brown for his 40 years of service, saying, quote, he is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family. He'll be replaced by Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Cain, who served most recently as the Associate Director for Military Affairs at the CIA.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, under law, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs technically must have served as either the vice chairman, a service chief, or a combatant commander. Positions Cain has not held, but Trump can waive that requirement if he quote determines such action as necessary in the national interest And clearly he feels it is Trump said Cain was integral in the destruction of ISIS during his first term and will quote restore peace through strength put America first and rebuild our military. So what was the president's rationale for replacing Brown in particular?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, he's long drawn the ire of Republicans who say he's been overly focused on DEI initiatives during his time as chairman. In the past, for example, he touted the fact that he, quote, purposely built his office with diversity as a core priority. He supported racial quotas for Air Force hiring, and he was a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter throughout 2020. Here he is, for example, in a video posted following the death of George Floyd.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Most of my mentors could not relate to my experience as an African-American. I'm thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceive had expected less from me as an African-American. I think about having to represent by working twice as hard to prove their expectations and perceptions of African Americans were invalid. Pete Hexeth had strong words for Brown last year, saying, quote, he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, for their part, Democrats across Washington said the move was supposedly fueled by racism. Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of Trump, quote, for his administration, if you are black, qualifications don't matter. They only see people of color as DEI hires. Others on the left said Trump's Pentagon sweep reeked of authoritarianism. But Defense Secretary Hegseth was quick to point out the historical precedent for moves like this. Here he is on Fox Sunday.
--:-- Defense Secretary Hegseth: Nothing about this is unprecedented. The president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who've made changes from FDR to Eisenhower to H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, who fired or dismissed hundreds of militaries during his term. There were six three- and four-star generals that were moved into different positions or retired on Friday night of 160 three- and four-star generals. This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right, so despite all the hand-wringing, Trump is really just doing what other presidents have done at this stage. Right, that is their argument.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: The State Department officially designated eight international cartels as terrorist organizations last week, a move long sought by Donald Trump. Here to break down what the new designation means is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, practically speaking, what does it mean for the U.S. to approach these cartels as terrorist organizations? It's a big deal. One way to think about it is that these cartels, groups such as Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and Mexico's Jalisco cartel, will now be treated similarly to al-Qaeda. Practically, that means more latitude to use tools such as sanctions and criminal charges. The biggest change, though, is that the U.S. can now crack down on people and organizations deemed to have given material support to the cartels, such as cash, a phone or an apartment.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That could be gangs that work with the cartels in the U or it could be businesses that have deals with the cartels outside of the country Here border czar Tom Homan talking about it at CPAC last week.
--:-- Border Czar Tom Homan: The other thing I said I stated to the RNC that President Trump is going to designate the criminal cartels of Mexico as a terrorist organization He's going to wipe you off the face of the earth. So word out to anybody that assists them, anybody that sells your drugs on the street, anybody that assists these cartels in any way, you are helping a terrorist organization and the weight of the world is coming down on you.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The Trump administration has also ramped up its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels. According to the Los Angeles Times, the CIA has increased drone surveillance flights over Mexico. U.S. officials said that those drones could easily be upgraded to carry lethal payloads. Now, Trump first raised doing this during his first term. And even before that, the Obama administration considered doing the same thing, but they backed off. Why have these administrations been hesitant up to now?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, Mexico has always opposed the designation. President Claudia Scheinbaum and before her, President Lopez Obrador were against it because they thought the designation could be destructive to Mexico's sovereignty. There's a fear that the designation increases the likelihood that the U.S. could use military force against the cartels, many of which operate in Mexico. Now that it's done, though, it may force Mexico and other Latin American countries to take their cartel problems more seriously.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The state of Maine has gone to war with the White House over President Trump's executive order banning males from women's sports and spaces, with Governor Janet Mills threatening to take legal action to allow boys and girls sports. Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan, who's been closely following these developments and reporting online for us.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Hey, John, and hello from D.C. So as we've reported on Morning Wire, Donald Trump signed an executive order February 5th banning men from women's sports and promising to revoke all funding from educational programs that deprive girls of fair athletic opportunities. Now, Maine's Department of Education quickly said it would not comply with this. And mere days after Trump signed this executive order, as our Amanda Prestigiacomo reported, a high school boy who said he identifies as a girl took first place in the girls' poll vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. And just one year earlier, this boy had competed as a male.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: The real drama began when Maine Governor Janet Mills went to the White House on Friday for the governor working session Trump challenged the governor to her face for refusing to defend the integrity of women sports Here the audio of that moment.
--:-- President Trump: Are you not going to comply with it? I'm complying with state and federal law. Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports. So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding. Every state. Good. I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics. All right.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: So things getting pretty spicy there. Yes, indeed. And the next day, a White House official told me that Jeremy Kennedy, the governor of Maine's chief of staff, melted down a White House director of intergovernmental affairs named Alex Meyer. My source says when Meyer told Kennedy that Maine needs to follow the law, Kennedy cursed at him, allegedly saying, F you, you a-hole, and stormed out of the room. Now, the governor's office is denying to me that Kennedy cursed, but they did not deny that there is an altercation, and they also did not deny that he stormed out of the room.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Kennedy, who's worked in the past for Planned Parenthood and the human rights campaign, hasn't responded to my request for comment. And I should note that Maine House Republicans have called for an investigation into his behavior after we reported on his alleged meltdown, citing a, quote, troubling pattern of intimidation and unprofessional conduct by Kennedy. I spoke with State Rep. Laurel Libby, and she explained to me that the state is completely controlled by Democrat lawmakers and that the governor's office is reportedly furious at our reporting.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: It's unacceptable for Mills to use our tax dollars in support of these extreme policies, especially when our federal funding for Maine students is at risk. There's a simple solution. Reverse course, remove boys from girls' sports in Maine, and there will be no further risk to our state's federal funding. Okay, so lots of tension here. What's next in this fight?
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: Well, Governor Mills released a statement on Friday night declaring that if Trump pulls the funds, her administration and the state's AG will, quote, take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. And I think it's worth pointing out that no school has ever actually lost federal funding due to a Title IX violation. They usually end up complying. Maine is set to receive about $175 million this year for the Maine Department of Education alone, and that's no small sum of money.
--:-- Mary Margaret Olihan: The state also does have a Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. And so Mills and her allies say that she's upholding state law by allowing boys and girls sports. As we've documented, this is an issue that Trump really leaned into during his campaign, and he knows that the majority of Americans are on his side. So I don't see him backing down for a second. It appears the ball is really in the governor of Maine's court, interested to see what she does next.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Another story we're tracking this week, Trump is letting go another 2,000 USAID employees and putting all but a few of the thousands of personnel worldwide on leave. In a notice to employees sent over the weekend, the administration said that as of midnight, all USAID direct hire personnel, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership, and or special designated programs, will be placed on administrative leave globally.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you liked what you heard this morning, share this episode with a friend.
