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--:-- John Bickley: Donald Trump's triumphant return to Washington sees his inauguration today as the 47th president of the United States. The curtain closes on four long years of American decline, and we begin a brand new day of American strength and prosperity, dignity and pride. We discuss Trump's massive rally ahead of the event and what to expect throughout the historic and historically cold day.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, January 20th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump is ready to hit the ground running with a slew of executive actions. What's he prioritizing day one?
--:-- John Bickley: Very soon, we'll begin the largest deportation operation in American history, larger, even larger than President Dwight Eisenhower, who has the record right now.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And as Trump returns, Joe Biden retires, declaring a new constitutional amendment and touting the release of hostages on his way out.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- Brandon: Hey, guys, producer Brandon here. Black Rifle Coffee helps you wake up each morning feeling dialed in and ready to make the most of your day. And now's your chance to get 20 percent off your purchase using code dailywire at blackriflecoffee.com. All of their explosive coffees are roasted right here in the USA by a veteran-led team of expert roasters obsessed with crafting the perfect cup of coffee. Every Black Rifle purchase gives back to those who serve our nation. Your support makes it possible for Black Rifle Coffee Company to help provide funding, training, and equipment to our nation's military and first responders. Head over to their site now for 20% off your purchase with code dailywire.
--:-- John Bickley: The 45th president of the United States will officially become the 47th president today, completing an incredible political comeback. The Daily Wire has been on the ground in D.C. for the big event, as well as the celebratory rally Trump held over the weekend. Joining us now with more is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: A cabot, so a jam-packed series of days for all of you in D.C., culminating with this inauguration today. First, give us a sense of what it's like there.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, you said the word celebratory, and that certainly is the overarching mood here in Washington where hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters have descended. In many ways, that victory rally, which we were front and center for, was far more than just a Trump rally, and much more like his return to the stage at the Republican National Convention after he'd just been shot. It was raucous, it was optimistic, it was star-studded, and it was triumphant, as you might expect.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Taking the stage, Trump kicked things off with this simple message. We won. We won. Thank you very much, everybody. What a good feeling. We like winning, don't we?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, one thing that really stuck out was how often Trump returned credit for that victory to his supporters. And at times, at this, his final rally before becoming president, he sounded almost sentimental. For the past nine years you and I fought side by side against the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth And in our magnificent victory on November 5th you showed them once and for all that this nation does not belong to them This nation belongs to you.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Again, as you can imagine, Trump focused much of his speech on immigration, the issue that arguably played a bigger factor than any other in his victory. And the issue that also drew the loudest applause throughout the evening.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt and all the illegal border trespasses will in some form or another be on their way back home. And it's certainly worth noting those plans are growing more popular by the day with all Americans.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: For example, a New York Times poll this week found that 87% of Americans support deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records. 63% support deporting all illegal immigrants who've come here in the last four years. And 55% support deporting all illegal immigrants, period. In modern history, we've never seen such strong support for mass deportations.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And more broadly, a CBS poll found that 60% of Americans say they're optimistic about the next four years under Trump. That includes 67% of 18 to 29-year-olds and even 30% of Democrats. So there certainly seems to be much more support for Trump coming into the second term than we saw back in 2016.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, turning to the big event today, just a few hours away now, what is the schedule of events for Trump?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. So Joe Biden's presidency officially ends at noon Eastern on January 20th, as specified by the 20th Amendment. The inaugural ceremonies for Trump and VP Vance will begin at 11.30 a.m. and be overseen by the chair of the inaugural committee, Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar. They also feature an invocation from Franklin Graham and a performance by Carrie Underwood.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: It'll all start with the procession to the Capitol, followed by Vice President Vance's swearing-in ceremony, and then President Trump's swearing-in. Trump will then give his second inaugural address. Now, these addresses traditionally are not very long. Trump's was just 16 minutes back in 2017.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: As we've reported, the big shift this year because of the frigid weather here is that Trump will be inside the rotunda of the Capitol rather than outside on the west front of the Capitol facing the National Mall. While that is unusual, it has happened before with Ronald Reagan's second inauguration.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Right. After that, we have the honorary departure and what there's been a huge degree of anticipation about, as I know Meghan will be discussing next, the signing ceremony. This is where Trump will sign his key nominations and memos and, crucially, those first executive orders.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The signing ceremony is followed by the inaugural luncheon and finally the ceremonial pass in review. That's where President Trump and VP Vance go to the east front steps of the Capitol to review the military troops, then lead a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: All the key elements of the ceremony are expected to take just about an hour. And here we are again, a historic inauguration on so many levels.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Kevin, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I should note here that The Daily Wire is live streaming the inauguration on our website, app, and other platforms. and providing our live news and commentary coverage starting at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. That'll feature Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and all of our backstage hosts. Cabot will, of course, also be there along with some other familiar Morning Wire voices.
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--:-- John Bickley: President Trump has promised to enact a record number of executive orders when he returns to the White House Among his top priorities, deportation, drill baby drill, and delaying the TikTok ban. Here with more on what we can expect to see from Trump on day one is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, Trump says he wants to sign more than 100 executive orders in his first week. Which ones can we expect to see?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah. And, you know, Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming is familiar with Trump's plans. And he said that it's going to make it clear that this presidency will be transformative. Immigration, of course, has been Trump's signature issue. And he said that deporting illegal immigrants, particularly those who've committed crimes, will begin, quote, very early, very quickly.
--:-- Megan Basham: In fact, new border czar Tom Homan indicated Friday on Fox that we can expect to see raids in major metro areas like Chicago beginning as early as tomorrow. ICE is finally going to go out and do their job. We're going to take the handcuffs off ICE and let them go arrest criminal aliens. That's what's going to happen.
--:-- Megan Basham: Trump has also said that he's going to reinstate some previous policies that the Biden administration ended. things like Title 42, which allowed the U.S. to quickly expel asylum seekers amassed at the border. And he said he's going to restart construction on that border wall. And then he's also looking to end birthright citizenship. That one could be difficult, though, because pro-immigration legal activists are moving to block these efforts through the courts.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I do think that's going to be a fight. And then on another front, an immediate priority is reversing Biden's climate policies, including drilling bans. So this is what Trump told talk show host Hugh Hewitt back on January 6th. Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It's ridiculous. I'll unban it immediately. We have oil and gas at a level that nobody else has, and we're going to take advantage of it.
--:-- Megan Basham: He also said he plans to end taxpayer subsidies for wind turbines. And then one other major priority here, reducing the federal bureaucracy. Trump has promised to make it easier to fire government employees and quoting here, totally obliterate the deep state. In particular, he said that he's targeting corrupt bureaucrats who have weaponized our justice system and corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus.
--:-- Megan Basham: So I want to ask you also about TikTok. The app briefly went dark over the weekend. It's back up now. What's Trump's position on that?
--:-- Megan Basham: So he announced on Truth Social over the weekend that he's going to give ByteDance a 90-day deadline extension to address some of those national security concerns. And that's something that the bipartisan law passed last year does allow for.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, TikTok restored U.S. service after Trump made that announcement and it then thanked Trump for his commitment to free speech. But we do need to note, there's still a lot of concern about national security risks with TikTok. And Trump's national security advisor, Mike Walls, told CNN that the new administration is sure that it can find a way to work through that. Whether that's an outright sale, whether that's some mechanism of firewalls to make sure that the data is protected here on U.S. soil, that's what the president will be evaluating.
--:-- Megan Basham: And I'll certainly be helping from that from a national security standpoint. So it's possible that Trump has also said that he wants to see the U.S. have a joint venture with 50 percent ownership in TikTok. But ByteDance again and again has been resistant to plans just like that. They are still saying they don't plan to sell. So we'll have to see what this extension accomplishes.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well, and it's also worth noting that China does not allow American social media apps in their country So just a little comparison there.
--:-- John Bickley: And it's also worth noting that China does not allow American social media apps in their country So just a little comparison there.
--:-- John Bickley: As Trump makes his triumphant return to Washington Joe Biden is bringing his presidency and his political career to a close Here with a look at Biden's last day in the White House's Daily Wire deputy managing editor, Tim Rice.
--:-- Tim Rice: Say, Tim. So an end to a really tumultuous chapter under Biden. First, what's the mood like on Pennsylvania Avenue?
--:-- Tim Rice: You know, John, it's a little dreary and not just because of the weather. Usually when presidents leave office, even one-term presidents, they're met with a lot of pomp and circumstance. But Biden is leaving amid a sea of criticism from members of his own party. This quote from Democratic strategist James Carville sums up the mood pretty well. The Joe Biden story is one of the great tragedies of American politics. I really mean that. He should be having a glorious, well-deserved, highly acclaimed retirement, and he's not.
--:-- Tim Rice: In addition to that, you've got Nancy Pelosi's daughter unloading on Jill Biden to Politico, calling her Lady McBiden and telling her to put on her big girl pants and think about her husband's legacy. This is just the latest volley in the ongoing fight between Biden and the Democrat leaders who pushed him off the presidential ticket.
--:-- Tim Rice: We obviously heard a lot about that over the summer, but things have bubbled up again in these waning days of the administration. Just last week, the New York Times reported how Chuck Schumer went to Delaware to talk a stubborn Biden off the ticket. For his part, Biden's been telling anyone who will listen that he would have beaten Trump, something that seems to have upset whatever allies he had left, including Kamala Harris, who was reportedly disappointed in her boss's latest talking point.
--:-- Tim Rice: Yeah, the inviting has gotten ugly in these final days. Other than apparently burning 50 years worth of bridges, how is Biden spending his last few hours as commander in chief?
--:-- Tim Rice: Well, he's pulling out all the stops in a last ditch effort to change the grim narrative of his presidency. He commuted another 2,500 prison sentences on Friday and now holds the record for the most presidential pardons and commutations in a single term.
--:-- Tim Rice: He also announced that the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, which it wasn't. That announcement was immediately met with pushback and confusion because it's up to the states to ratify constitutional amendments, not the president. Still, the White House insists that Biden is using his power of the presidency to make it clear that he believes, not that it should be, but it is the 28th Amendment of the Constitution.
--:-- Tim Rice: So clearly an effort to bolster progressive spirits on his way out the door, but not one that appears to carry any legal weight. Yeah. And just yesterday, Biden celebrated the release of the first three hostages held by Hamas and Gaza under the newly signed ceasefire agreement.
--:-- Tim Rice: Of course, the hostages returning is great news, and the Biden administration was certainly party to those negotiations. But Biden's really trying to make it seem like he alone was responsible for the deal. That's clearly an effort to combat the stories that Hamas only buckled because Trump threatened there would be hell to pay if a deal wasn't reached by the time he returned to the White House.
--:-- Tim Rice: But Biden's gone so far that he's talking as if it was just him, not the State Department, not Tony Blinken, not even the United States who sealed the deal. Here he was speaking about the hostages yesterday. This was the deal that I outlined for the world back in May 31st. It was endorsed overwhelmingly. by folks around the world, including the U.N. Security Council, unanimously endorsed the deal and developed a coordination with I developed in coordination with Egypt, Qatar and Israel.
--:-- Tim Rice: I've worked in foreign policy for decades, and this is one of the toughest negotiations I've been part of. We'll have to wait to see if any of these last minute pushes do anything to change how history sees Biden's presidency. Until then, Tim, thanks for reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: You bet. And before we go, a reminder to tune in to The Daily Wire's live coverage of the inauguration starting at 8.30 this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.
