US-China Trade Deal & Rioters Charged | 6.12.25

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Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm Georgia Howe.

John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire.

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John Bickley: The U.S. and China agreed to a trade framework, slashing tariffs and unlocking rare earth minerals. If it really is put into law, this is a blockbuster. This is huge. Is the trade war over or is this the opening move in a bigger game?

Georgia Howe: I'm with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, June 12th, and this is Morning Wire.

John Bickley: Inflation finally cools, but L.A. remains hot. We break down the latest on the economy and the political unrest. There's no way to look at these numbers and say they're not welcome news. And as chaos erupts on the L.A. streets, the real battle is for the narrative. Who's winning the PR war?

Georgia Howe: I think now Americans have a very good and clear sense that these are not organic riots necessarily. These are not spontaneous.

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John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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John Bickley: President Trump broke some major news this week announcing the U.S. has reached a trade deal with China. The announcement comes amid an uneasy truce after a series of retaliatory tariffs. Here with a look at this developing story is Daily Wire deputy managing editor Tim Rice.

Tim Rice: Good morning, guys. So we don't know exactly what the deal entails yet, but we have a pretty good sense of where it's going. Early yesterday morning, Trump shared on Truth Social that our deal with China is done, subject to final approval of President Xi and me. This followed two days of negotiations between top economic officials from both countries in London. Trump said that the deal as it stands would impose 55% tariffs on Chinese goods entering the United States, but just 10% on American goods in China. China has also agreed to resume shipping magnets and rare earth minerals to the United States right away, a pretty big win for the White House.

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Tim Rice: We recently talked about the importance of rare earth minerals and the tariff standoff with Sean Ryan. He's the founder of the China Market Research Group and the author of The Split, Finding the Opportunities in China's Economy. He underscored just how crucial these minerals are to the U.S. economy. Rare earth, for an audience that doesn't know, powers $7 trillion US dollars of consumer goods every year. So without Chinese rare earths, our iPhones aren't going to work, our cars aren't going to work, and importantly, our military defense weapons aren't going to work. So without Chinese rare earths, America is in a lot of trouble.

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Georgia Howe: The clash between Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom escalated Wednesday as anti-ICE riots continued to spread across the country. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it down.

Cabot Phillips: So, Cabot, the rioting is approaching its seventh night in Los Angeles, and we're also seeing some unrest pop up in a few other cities across the country. What's the latest?

Cabot Phillips: Yeah, once again, these anti-Trump riots and protests continue to pick up steam in the last 24 hours, growing nationwide. By Wednesday night, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Seattle all joined the growing list of cities hit by these demonstrations. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott mobilized the National Guard after protests there turned violent, with officers in a number of cities left hospitalized. In Atlanta, hundreds of rioters lobbed fireworks at police and attempted to shut down a highway. Authorities there responded with tear gas and finally got the crowd under control.

Georgia Howe: Demonstrations continued across the state Wednesday night as rioters defied curfews and clashed with the police. Now, at least one rioter, Emiliano Galvez, has been charged with attempted murder. Galvez, a previously deported Mexican national, allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at police in L County.

Cabot Phillips: And more broadly, according to White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt on Wednesday, a large chunk of the 330 illegal immigrants who have been arrested during these riots already have passed criminal records. Since June 6th, there have been 330 illegal aliens that have been arrested as part of these riots in Los Angeles. 113 of those illegal aliens had prior criminal convictions.

Georgia Howe: For his part, California Governor Gavin Newsom essentially cheered on the demonstrations, telling Americans it was time to, quote, stand up to Donald Trump, who he blamed for provoking supposedly peaceful demonstrators.

Cabot Phillips: Donald Trump, without consulting California law enforcement leaders, commandeered 2,000 of our state's National Guard members to deploy on our streets, illegally and for no reason. And then Newsom went on to offer a call to action for all Americans, not just those in California. The founding fathers, they didn't live and die to see this kind of moment. It's time for all of us to stand up.

Georgia Howe: Critics say that he's planning his run for president in 2028 and views this as an opportunity to paint himself once and for all as the leader of the anti-Trump movement at the state level.

Cabot Phillips: It's worth noting, though, these riots are not likely to die out anytime soon. Organizers are planning a, quote, no kings event in cities across the country on Saturday. That event will coincide with President Trump's 79th birthday and that massive parade in D.C. to celebrate the Army's 250th birthday.

Georgia Howe: For his part, though, Trump had a message to anyone planning on shutting down that event. We're going to be celebrating big on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of, and if there's any protest that wants to come out, they won't be met with very big force.

Georgia Howe: Now, these riots have been getting a lot of attention, but there's also been some pretty big economic news. What's new there?

Cabot Phillips: Yeah, big news and good news at that on the economy. On Wednesday, we learned that inflation last month rose just 0.1% compared to April. It's now sitting at 2.4%. That is just off of a record four-year low. Among the products that saw the steepest declines in May were milk, eggs, smartphones, and gas. Economists had been projecting for months now that inflation would get worse as President Trump's tariffs took effect. But once again, those predictions have yet to come to fruition.

Georgia Howe: Low inflation is something everyone can be happy about. Cabot, thanks for reporting.

Cabot Phillips: Absolutely.

Georgia Howe: As L.A. and other cities struggle to contain the anti-ICE riots, Democrats, Republicans, and the media battle over containing the narrative. In the end, who will the public side with more? Joining us now to discuss is Mark Hemingway, senior writer at Real Clear Investigations.

Mark Hemingway: Hey, Mark.

Georgia Howe: So we've seen the L.A. riots continue for several days now. The left is trying to frame this as Trump being dictatorial, as they've always portrayed him to be. But Trump has also been really leaning into this as well. Very proactive in terms of sending out the National Guard, very strong on his messaging. So both sides see this as an opportunity, clearly. Who is right?

Mark Hemingway: Well, they're really trying very hard to establish narrative control over what's going on because what's going on looks really bad to the average American. But this is a very different time than 2020. And we went through months of riots in 2020. And I think now Americans have a very good and clear sense that these are not organic riots necessarily. These are not spontaneous to the extent that you have the more violent elements. These are actual terrorist groups like Antifa that are out there agitating and causing problems.

Georgia Howe: So as much as they try and drive this message that Trump is overreacting by driving in the Marines, well, actually, no, he's not. I mean, he's trying to prevent even further violence by getting on it before it gets out of hand, And particularly since we have a situation here where the local Los Angeles authorities were pretty clearly sympathetic to what was going on initially. And that has been a real problem for sort of the narrative issue for Democrats right now. Because there's a big difference between what's happening on the ground and the local politicians who seem broadly sympathetic to it. And national Democrats who realize, oh wow, gosh, this looks really bad. And they're not condemning the violence in moral terms. The message that Gavin Newsom and National Democrats are actually driving is don't do this because it helps Trump. There's like no moral core to it whatsoever. And I think that's a really, that's a big time losing argument right now.

Georgia Howe: Now for the Democrats' escalation argument, is the American public going to agree that Trump has escalated the situation by sending in troops too early? Or are they going to see this as Trump being correct and prescient and being quick to act? I mean, so far, I think the American people are broadly sympathetic to Trump. Trump campaigned on mass deportations. His immigration policy is still broadly popular. And the idea that Democrats are attaching support of violent riots to that or trying to make Trump look like the extremist, it's just, this is not five years ago. And even then, people were more supportive of law and order than they were of continuing violence. So, you know, at this point in time, I think the average American would, you know, trust the first 700 Marines in the phone book at 29 Palms over the elected leadership of Los Angeles to do what's right for the people of that city.

Georgia Howe: I just don't think the idea that this represents martial law is that scary or intimidating to the average voter after dealing with years of nationwide riots driven by professional leftist agitators. Like you've said, things have really changed since 2020.

Georgia Howe: Final question, you mentioned astutely at the beginning that the American people are now aware that these are not organic protests for the most part. We see high levels of organization, organizers handing out face shields, protective gear, signs, flags. Do we have specific evidence of entities that are involved in funding these protests?

Mark Hemingway: Anna Polina Luna announced that the House Oversight Committee was going to hold some hearings on the funding of this. And they're specifically focusing on this American billionaire named Neville Singham. He's well known for funding far-left causes. And he's a literal Maoist who's done a lot of work with the Chinese communist government.

Georgia Howe: So like there's a million legal aid groups out there that will basically, if you're arrested in a riot or whatever, there's bail funds. It will spring you from jail. Someone else will have paid for it. Oftentimes, the funding might even come from state grants or even federal grants. And then there's all these pro-bono lawyers that will go out there and defend you. There are websites where Antifa and similarly aligned groups, they actually share tactics. They write papers on when we overran the police station in Minneapolis, this was the tactic that worked.

Georgia Howe: So the infrastructure is out there. And I do think, though, that we didn't do a lot better job of exposing it and getting out who's funding it and doing things to, you know, prevent these people from, you know, using, you know, whatever resources they have to do illegal things, which is clearly what's happening.

Georgia Howe: As you've laid out, it sounds like that effort is well underway. Mark, thanks so much for coming on.

Mark Hemingway: Thank you.

Georgia Howe: Before we go, a quick programming note. A lot of you asked for it, so we brought it back. Morning Wire's afternoon update show is now back with a few slight tweaks. So look for Evening Wire in your podcast feeds on weekdays at 5 p.m. Eastern time. 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.

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