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--:-- Host John Bickley: President Trump rolls out a series of sweeping executive actions designed to reshape the economy from 401ks to the banking industry. The banks discriminated against me very badly. They discriminated against many conservatives. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. Georgia Howe is off today. Don't worry, she'll be back next week. It's Friday, August 8th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host John Bickley: As underage crime runs rampant through D.C., Trump is threatening federal intervention. The rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings, and everything else, we're not going to let it. And that includes bringing in the National Guard. And new data shows that marriage may be making a comeback in America. We are seeing, I think, some evidence that maybe Gen Z is a bit more religious than millennials, that they have more marriage-friendly attitudes than millennials.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: As Donald Trump's tariffs continue to reshape the global economy, new executive orders are shaking up the banking industry at home. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips joins us now from the White House, where the president is signing significant executive orders, hey, Cabot. So hope DC is treating you well.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So tell us about these new orders.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, on Thursday, President Trump here at the White House signed two executive orders that will have an immense impact on the finance industry, both from a banking perspective and also for everyday Americans. First, there was an order that will make it easier for Americans with 401ks to invest in private assets. Remember, at the moment, almost all 401ks consist nearly entirely of publicly traded goods and other funds. But now Trump is calling for regulators to remove red tape that will allow folks to add to their 401ks, things like private equity, gold, and even cryptocurrencies.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, critics say that these assets come with higher risks and also higher fees. But this was music to the ears of hedge fund managers and other private equity funds on Wall Street, who for quite a long time have been calling for deregulation so that folks can use their 401ks to invest in their industries. And the hedge funds, they see $12 trillion in money right now in the 401k industry. And they say, let us get a piece of that.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All right. So again, some sweeping implications for that order. Now, what about the order on banks and discrimination? What exactly does that say?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Right. This is a story we addressed yesterday. And now we have the details as President Trump signed his second executive order This one cracking down on banks that he says have for years been discriminating against conservatives Christians and others with what banks call controversial beliefs
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The White House released a sheet with numerous examples of instances in which they say that banks have discriminated against folks on the right. For example, under President Biden, federal regulators reportedly encouraged banks to flag transactions between private consumers that used words like MAGA or Trump. And it's important to note, many of those cases did not include any criminal activity. It was just the use of those words that was causing them to be flagged by regulators.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Elsewhere, the White House released an endless list of conservative organizations, activists, nonprofits, and others who they say had their bank accounts shut down for what the banks called, quote, reputational risk. And then in a really extraordinary moment, President Trump himself went as far as saying that he had been debanked after January 6th. His accounts with J.P. Morgan and Bank of America were shut down.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here he is speaking about that earlier this week. I had hundreds of millions. I had many, many accounts loaded up with cash. I was loaded up with cash and they told me, I'm sorry, sir. We can't have you. You have 20 days to get out. I said, you got to be kidding. I've been with you for 35, 40 years.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the order itself will now direct regulators to remove that phrase reputational risk as a reason for banks shutting off services. He also directed the Small Business Administration to track down instances where this had happened in the past and then tell the banks that they had to reinstate those individuals as customers. Now, this order also had plenty of critics as well, especially on Wall Street.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Those people said that private institutions should have the freedom to do business with whomever they choose. But the White House perspective is that this is a matter of economic freedom. They wrote that the order will, quote, reduce regulatory overreach that stifles American businesses and individuals.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the White House standing by that order for sure. Now, this all comes as the president has continued his quest to reorder global trade. India is front and center right now because of Russia. What's the latest on that tariff battle?
--:-- Host John Bickley: Well, since President Trump's tariff deadline last week, the White House says that all the countries who do not yet have a deal have been knocking down their door, trying to get back to the negotiating table. But at the moment, one country is standing firm, India. Remember, they were hit with 25 percent tariffs after they failed to get a deal done before the deadline.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And then after ignoring President Trump's warnings to stop purchasing Russian oil, the president hit them with another 25% tariff. So they're now looking at a 50% rate. That's one of the highest of any country on earth. Remember, India is Russia's second largest purchaser of oil. They get a discounted rate from Moscow, and they say that they're not going to cut it off anytime soon.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: First, on Wednesday, the Indian government released a statement in response to the tariffs, which they called, quote, unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable. And then on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi went a step further. saying that, quote, I know I'll have to pay a heavy price, but I'm ready. India is ready.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The two sides will next meet for formal negotiations on August 25th. But until then, it looks like a standoff. India said they're not budging. Trump said he's holding firm on 50 percent tariffs. It looks like India sort of landed itself between a rock and a hard place at this point.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.
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--:-- Host John Bickley: President Trump is threatening to federalize D.C. as youth crime runs rampant across the nation's capital. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter, Tim Pierce. Hey, Tim. So a recent attack in D.C. has made national headlines. I'm sure we'll get to that in a second. But first, let's talk about this federalizing of D.C. What would that mean?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, it would mean for the federal government to take control of D.C. But that would require Congress to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act that gave D.C. the ability to elect its own leadership. And President Trump probably doesn't have the votes in the Senate for that. It would be a 60-vote threshold that you'd have to get over, so you'd have to get a few Democrats on board.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The president has some levers he can pull, though. For example, he can temporarily take over the D.C. police. Here's Trump being asked about that on Thursday. We're considering it, yeah, because the crime is ridiculous. I could show you a chart comparing D.C. to other locations, and you're not going to want to see what it looks like.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Trump could also call in the National Guard, much like he did in California, to stop the attacks on ice. Right. And his problems with the city's leadership involve more than just crime. The president said he wants to beautify the city as well. The graffiti that you see, the papers all over the place, the roads that are in bad shape, the medians that are falling down, the median in between roads that's falling down. We're going to beautify the city. We're going to make it beautiful. And what a shame.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, while D.C.'s crime rate has dropped from a spike in 2023, it still remains one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. Last year, it ranked fourth in homicides per capita behind New Orleans, St. Louis and Detroit. Yeah, not a list you want to be on as a city.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, we've also seen this surge in crime from young people in D.C. Tell us about that, Trent. Yeah, actually, Trump's threats to federalize D.C. began with a group of young people attacking a former Doge staffer. After that, the president backed kids as young as 14 being charged as adults.
--:-- Tim Pierce: U.S. Attorney for D.C. Janine Pirro explained more about that on Fox News on Wednesday. None of them come to my office, Laura, because they're not considered criminals. They go to family court where the effort is rehabilitation. The D.C. Council and the president is right. They've got to stop their cobbling.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And here's Piro again on youth crime. In the last four years, we've had 150,000 cases of youth violence. OK, four years ago. Now it's close to a half a million cases of youth violence. We've got D.C. as one of the highest murder rates in the country. So we can talk about crime going down, but going down from where? And a lot of this appears to have to do with light sentences and suspects and criminals being set free from custody, often to become repeat offenders.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Here's a shocking stat for you. Between 2018 and 2022, less than 2% of people arrested in D.C. for carrying a pistol without a license were sentenced to prison. That despite firearms being involved in nearly 80% of homicides in D.C. Well, you'd think Democrats would be outraged by that.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, in terms of the Democrats, how have they responded to this pressure from the president on D.C.? Well, D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has kept pretty quiet, at least publicly. But according to the Washington Post, Bowser's office says it is working with the White House to curb crime in the Capitol.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Worth noting that Bowser has worked better with Trump during his second term than she did during his first. For example, Bowser accepted calls to remove Black Lives Matter Plaza from downtown. It may not have been all goodwill. Bowser suggested that it was done to preserve some federal funding. And a similar dynamic may be at work here, where Trump has control of a lot of funding and other perks that Bowser and the DC government currently enjoy.
--:-- Tim Pierce: We'll see what this slightly improved cooperation ends up getting.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- Host John Bickley: New research shows that the US divorce rate has plummeted by around 40 from its peak in 1980 and that decrease has only accelerated over the last decade Joining us now to discuss why American marriages appear to be making a comeback is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Hey, Megan. So these statistics will probably be counterintuitive to a lot of people. I was pretty surprised by them myself. I've seen a lot of headlines about how younger generations are bearish on marriage.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, you know, it's funny you mention those headlines because, well, millennials and Gen X were actually more negative on marriage. Gen Z is actually more positive. So recent studies have found that today only 20 percent of 18 to 27 year olds say that marriage is irrelevant. Now, that's quite a contrast from 20 years ago when nearly 40 percent of young adults felt that way.
--:-- Megan Basham: And a part of that may be because they've witnessed less divorce than past generations. In fact, the divorce rate has now hit a 50-year low. Now, part of that is, of course, attributable to fewer people getting married. But sociologist Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies, which recently produced a report on this research, told me that there's actually quite a bit more to the story.
--:-- Megan Basham: I think we have to realize that for almost 60 years, Megan, we've been seeing single parenthood in America growing and growing. And we've been seeing family instability growing and growing. And what we document in this new piece of research is that that's all over, Megan. So divorce is down, single parents coming down, family stability is going up.
--:-- Megan Basham: So for our kids across this country, what we are seeing is that more kids are being raised by their own married biological parents. And that's good news for kids. And it also means that kind of the composition of American family life is changing in the direction of becoming more kind of traditional or more kind of classic, if you will.
--:-- Megan Basham: Wilcox says that this is really good news as marriage correlates strongly with better mental health and financial stability. And married people also tend to be happier. Right. That's been a consistent trend.
--:-- Megan Basham: Are there particular demographics where marriage is doing better? Yeah, there definitely are. And in fact, it's doing better in some demographics where previously we've seen marriage suffer the most. So over the last 10 years, the divorce rate has especially dropped in black communities and in lower income brackets.
--:-- Megan Basham: So what we're seeing is that there's a six percentage point increase in the share of kids being raised in black married families in America over about the last decade. And that's, you know, striking and obviously good news, both for Black families and for the country more generally.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, that said, more educated, affluent Americans are getting married at a much higher rate than their less affluent, less educated counterparts. 87% of kids in higher income families have married parents. You contrast that to only 42% of children in lower income families. And that's a problem given how much research shows that kids do tend to do better on a host of social metrics when they live with their married biological parents.
--:-- Megan Basham: So what are the threats to marriage? Does the research tell us anything about that? Yeah, a big one that we haven't talked about much in the past is AI. So right now we're seeing the rise of these very lifelike AI companions. And there's some question about how those could be disruptive to marriage. A lot goes along with things like widespread porn use, which we know from studies is also harmful to relationship formation.
--:-- Megan Basham: So really just some big question marks around technology. I don't think we've even scratched the surface at this point on how AI is going to disrupt so many of our sort of social building blocks.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Megan, thanks so much for coming on.
--:-- Megan Basham: My pleasure. Thanks for waking up with us.
--:-- Host John Bickley: 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. Thank you.
