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--:-- Georgia Howe: Good morning, I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 14th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's get right to it.
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--:-- John Bickley: President Trump's Capitol crackdown ratchets up with hundreds of arrests as the president signals he may push for an extension. I don't want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will. But I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We look at the growing list of arrests and the backlash from Democrats. What should we expect out of the historic summit between Trump and Putin? We talked to an expert about what's driving both sides and what's on the line.
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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to the table. National Guardsmen and federal agents have hit the streets of Washington, D.C. as part of President Trump's crime crackdown in the nation's capital. And the arrests are already racking up. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest on those efforts and the response from Democrats.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So, Cabot, boots are on the ground. What have we seen so far?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, just hours after Trump's announcement Monday, we began seeing National Guardsmen and federal agents from the DEA, ATF, and FBI sweeping the streets of D.C. Officials say those efforts have already resulted in more than 100 arrests, with the numbers expected to rise as more Guardsmen and agents arrive.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: According to Fox, among those arrested already are a man suspected of homicide, seven people wanted on narcotics charges, 33 for firearms offenses, 10 with outstanding warrants, and 23 illegal immigrants. The White House says agents also recovered at least 24 illegal firearms as well.
--:-- John Bickley: Again, that's just a few days in. According to FBI Director Cash Patel, quote, we are just getting started.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One video going viral online appeared to show officers approaching D.C. residents, telling them that they would be cracking down on all crime, including the enforcement of quote quality of life offenses.
--:-- John Bickley: Have a listen. Tell your boys everybody out from FBI to police So do your thing let them know don't be smoking outside, don't be drinking outside, because Donald Trump's tired of it.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, it's worth noting, under the law, President Trump will only have 30 days control of the D.C. police, unless he gets approval from Congress for an extension. And yesterday, he said he plans on doing just that.
--:-- John Bickley: We expect to be to Congress before Congress very quickly. And again, we think the Democrats will not do anything to stop crime. We're going to need a crime bill that we're going to be putting in, and it's going to pertain initially to D.C. We're going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can't have 30 days.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As part of that looming crime bill that President Trump mentioned, the White House also said they'll be calling for stricter penalties against juvenile offenders. In recent years, the city has been ravaged by large groups of teens who commit smash and grab robberies, carjackings, and other violent crimes. But those who are caught are often let off because of their age.
--:-- John Bickley: U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro says that will now change. We're also looking to lower the age of criminals. What's happening is even if you shoot someone with a gun, someone with a gun, you go to family court where the purpose is rehabilitation. You get to go to an ice cream social and you get to go to yoga classes. That's nonsense.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So this crackdown already resulting in a lot of arrests, potentially some policy changes. How are Democrats responding?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, they're furious, but largely helpless to actually stop him from a legal perspective. The reality is Trump and Congress are well within their rights to initiate this crackdown, and that leaves the left searching to win not the legal battle, but the PR battle.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, a number of Democratic commentators and officials have implied that Trump's crackdown is driven by racism, given the fact that D.C. is nearly majority Black. And in response to Trump's takeover, Democrats have now renewed their calls for D.C. statehood, the party's Official social media accounts, for example, posted in all caps this week, statehood for D.C., while Mayor Muriel Bowser also echoed those claims.
--:-- John Bickley: Access to our democracy is tenuous. We are American citizens. Our families go to war. We pay taxes and we uphold the responsibilities of citizenship. But President Trump responded very quickly Wednesday, shutting down that idea entirely.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Statehood's ridiculous. It's unacceptable. It's the Democrats want it because the Democrats have, you know, about 95 percent in this little area. They want to pick up two senators and it's not going to happen.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, do we have any idea how voters feel about this?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, it depends on which party you're asking. Latest polling from YouGov found that 81 percent of Democrats opposed the federalization of D.C. police, but 74 percent of Republicans support it. Among independents, things were a little bit more split with 45 percent disapproving and 26 percent approving.
--:-- John Bickley: And on the topic of polling, if you zoom out a bit, it's worth noting President Trump's approval numbers are holding remarkably steady. On average, he's sitting at 46 percent. That is actually higher than the marks for President Obama and Bush at this stage in their second term.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Those numbers will be hugely consequential as the midterms approach next November. Well, a lot can happen between now and then.
--:-- John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
--:-- John Bickley: President Trump and Vladimir Putin are set to sit down face to face in Alaska on Friday for a highly anticipated summit on ending the Ukraine war. Joining us now to discuss the high stakes sit down is Victoria Coates of the Heritage Foundation.
--:-- Victoria Coates: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- John Bickley: So we have this big summit, a lot of eyeballs on this Trump and Putin in Alaska on Friday. First, what do we expect out of this meeting?
--:-- Victoria Coates: Well, the White House has been very careful to sort of tamper down expectations to say that this is a listening exercise. We shall see because there been some interesting movement over the past week in terms of Putin starting to say maybe I could meet with Zelensky Zelensky is starting to say maybe I not going to ask for all the territory back and I still really really want to go to Alaska We just don't know.
--:-- John Bickley: It's going to be a very fluid day in terms of who shows up, who says what, who listens to what. But the very fact that this is happening, and it emphasized that it's happening in Alaska, given the history of the state. This was Russian territory. They had to sell it to the United States for $7 million to pay their Crimean war debts. So this is pretty fraught historically.
--:-- Victoria Coates: Now, the point about Zelensky not being in this meeting, why is this just Trump and Putin?
--:-- John Bickley: And why do you think Putin is willing to meet now?
--:-- Victoria Coates: Well, right now, it's a process. Even getting Putin to the table, having an in-person meeting with Putin is something that hasn't happened in three and a half years of war. You know, there hasn't been this kind of a summit with a decision maker, somebody who Putin respects, at least to some degree, sees as an equal. That hasn't occurred. So we haven't had this conversation with him. He's been very cut off.
--:-- John Bickley: But another thing I'd mention that might be causing some of this motion is the economic pressure on Russia. Their economy was running super hot for about three years, this so-called wartime economy, which can be a positive thing when you're pumping about 40 percent of your GDP into military acquisitions that does fuel industrial activity. But eventually you can't eat it. So it becomes a problem.
--:-- Victoria Coates: And he's starting to run into that. And especially as we look at the U.S.-India relationship. The president's been very harsh with India recently. That's out of character. That's not how he's treated the country in the past. I think it shows he really wants to get their attention, really wants to get them off of Russian gas. And that's what's going to truly bring Putin to the table, change his calculus.
--:-- John Bickley: So all these things are shifting right now. Is there any sense from the Ukrainian people, the Russian people, their willingness to reach some sort of agreement? Or is that sort of impossible to gauge at this stage?
--:-- Victoria Coates: I don't think it's impossible. I think both the Ukrainian people and the Russian people are sick of the killing. There's nothing really to be gained from this war. It's not like there's some fabulous prize to be, you know, to be taken at the end of it. And I think particularly for Ukraine, the encouragement they should take from the Hague summit, the NATO summit two months ago, in which the U.S.-European allies agreed to get to 5 percent of GDP on defense spending. That's the best possible message for Russia, which is jointly the EU, UK, U.S. economies dwarf Russia. There's no way, logically, if that is actually the case, if Europe is taking its defenses seriously, that Russia could challenge that. That's what prevents this from going any further.
--:-- John Bickley: Final question. The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Ruta, he's given Trump a lot of credit for his string of peace talks and peace deals. Do you think Trump deserves that credit?
--:-- Victoria Coates: I absolutely do. I mean, I've been tracking a lot of these deals, the Thailand-Cambodia deal, the Azerbaijan-Armenia deal from last week, which is important to this. That's another conversation. But Mark Ritchie came in as secretary general, I think, very clear as his predecessor, Yen Sultenberg, was without the United States, NATO is empty. And so he knew what the United States needed to do. We had him over for lunch at Heritage a couple of weeks before the last NATO summit. He said he was going to get to 5 percent. I have to say I didn't believe him, but he got there. So I think the secretary general also deserves a lot of credit for this unified message out of NATO and for encouraging President Trump to take this strong stand.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, we soon see what comes of this summit. Like you said, muted expectations for this initial face to face at least. We see if there any movement afterwards. Victoria, thank you so much for joining us. Always a pleasure.
--:-- Victoria Coates: Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: A new analysis of data shows that the foreign-born population in the U.S. has plunged since President Trump took office. Meanwhile, the president is cracking down on violent drug cartels in Mexico. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to walk us through the data and the latest immigration news.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, first off, what does this data show?
--:-- John Bickley: An unprecedented drop in the foreign-born population in the United States. Analysts at the Center for Immigration Studies looked at raw data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they found that between January and July of this year, the foreign-born population in the United States decreased by 2.2 million. That is the largest six-month decline ever within the same year.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, how does that break down in terms of legal, illegal, citizen versus non-citizen?
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, non-citizens accounted for all of that decline. Naturalized U.S. citizens have actually increased since Trump took office. But of the non-citizen drop, most of it came from illegal aliens. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that the illegal alien population in the U.S. has declined by 10% over six months by 1.6 million people.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's by a combination of forced and self-deportations as the Trump administration has stepped up immigration enforcement. There's also an interesting nugget on employment in the report. Job growth in the United States may be underreported right now. Earlier this month, a Labor Department report showed a huge downward revision in jobs numbers. But according to this analysis, that drop may be mostly due to illegal aliens leaving the country and leaving their jobs.
--:-- John Bickley: Job growth among U.S.-born workers appears to be significant. Now, all this should be taken with a grain of salt because these numbers are preliminary and there are some caveats about whether or not these interpretations will hold up. But it's certainly a good sign for the White House.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, what about the border? Over the past few months, there have been very few crossings. Where do things stand recently?
--:-- John Bickley: The border has been effectively sealed to illegal immigration for the third month in a row now. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt talking about that on Tuesday.
--:-- John Bickley: The Trump administration continues to shatter records on border security. According to brand new numbers released this morning from Customs and Border Patrol, illegal crossings have fallen to all-time lows once again.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And for the third straight month, there were zero illegal aliens released into the country. This is historic. Under President Trump, this border is the most secure it has ever been.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, all of this coincides with Trump's efforts to crack down on cartels. Tell us about the extradition deal.
--:-- Tim Pierce: That's right. Mexico will transfer over two dozen top cartel leaders to U.S. authorities this week. The Trump administration appears to have cut some sort of deal with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to secure these prisoners.
--:-- John Bickley: And this comes as the administration has focused in on these cartels. Last week, news broke that the president gave the green light to the Pentagon to use military force against the cartels. That brought some pushback from Sheinbaum, but this transfer may mean she's willing to work with Trump to fight these cartels and avoid further tariffs from the United States.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, that would be a win for the Trump administration.
--:-- John Bickley: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.
