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--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Why shop at Burlington? Maybe it's the deals that are new each time you drop by. Maybe it's the brand names you'll be shocked Burlington has in store. Or maybe it's the quality of the items, the amazing selection, and the newest trends. If you like to save, but also like to stay in style, Burlington is your answer. And the question you'll be asking yourself is, why go anywhere else? Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow.
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--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: The White House is making early progress on trade deals with India, hoping to ease economic tensions caused by Trump's tariffs. Both of our governments are hard at work on a trade agreement built on shared priorities. How are Fortune 500 CEOs and investors reacting? I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, April 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Marco Rubio announces a major overhaul of the State Department, cutting staff and offices. Over the past 15 years, the department's footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return to investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and less efficient diplomacy. And tech stocks rebound and egg prices drop. What's the latest on the U.S. economy? Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
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--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: The U.S. and India are reportedly closing in on a trade deal. Meanwhile, President Trump met with top CEOs to assuage their trade war concerns. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the Trump administration's latest moves on trade.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Hey, thanks for having me on the show.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: So potentially significant meeting in India. Let's start there. When can we expect a trade deal with India?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, that's still up in the air, hopefully for not too much longer, since President Trump only paused tariffs for 90 days. Vice President Vance represented the administration in India. Here's some of what he said on Tuesday. In our meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Modi and I made very good progress on all of those points. And we were especially excited to formally announce that America and India have officially finalized the terms of reference for the trade negotiation.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: I think this is a vital step toward realizing President Trump's and Prime Minister Modi's vision because it sets a roadmap toward a final deal between our nations. I believe there is much that America and India can accomplish together.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Vance was in India for four days and met with top government officials, including Prime Minister Modi. India is a big trading partner with the United States. Last year, trade between the two countries was nearly $130 billion. Since trade deficits are what Trump cares about, that's also big. U.S. imports from India were bigger than exports by about $45 billion last year. Under Trump's new tariff regime, India is under a flat 10% tariff right now, with carve-outs for tech products such as iPhones. But if Trump and Modi strike a trade deal within the next couple of months that tariff rate could jump up to 26.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: So a major spike looming there but some positive signs with India. Now there are dozens of other countries interested in striking new trade deals with the White House. What about these other countries?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Yeah, India is obviously a big player here. So yesterday's announcement was important for the White House, but there has been progress with others as well. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said during the White House press conference yesterday that the Trump administration is moving forward trade negotiations with nearly 20 countries. Well, I spoke to our entire trade team this morning. There is a lot of progress being made. We now have 18 proposals on paper that have been brought to the trade team. Again, these are proposals on paper that countries have proposed to the Trump administration and to our government.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: You have Secretary Besant, Secretary Lutnik, Ambassador Greer, NEC Director Hassett, and Peter Navarro, the entire trade team meeting with 34 countries this week alone. We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker and the American people.
--:-- Tim Pierce: This is a relatively positive day for trade news for the White House. It looks like the administration lately is putting more of an emphasis on negotiating new trade deals to tamp down concerns that these tariffs might be long lasting.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Yeah, about that. What signals are we seeing that the Trump administration is actively working to tamp down, as you're saying, concerns over these trade issues?
--:-- Tim Pierce: Well, there were a couple stories this week about top business leaders and the White House. On Monday, the CEOs of Walmart, Target, and Home Depot met with the president about trade. Those are obviously big names, and each has really complex supply chains that are being hit hard, even now by the tariffs. The president met with the CEOs personally to hear their concerns about trade and tariffs. And then CNBC reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Besant met with top investors on Tuesday about trade with China. Besant reportedly said he expects, quote, there will be a de-escalation in the very near future. He added that no one thinks the current status quo is sustainable.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Those headlines, along with the news of new potential trade deals, boosted markets. According to CNBC, stocks rose about two and a half percent across the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and the Nasdaq after Besant's meeting with top investors. A lot of welcome movement on the market. We'll be interested in seeing how long that boost lasts.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Tim, thanks so much for joining us.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
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--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Secretary of State Marco Rubio just announced a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. State Department, aiming to streamline operations and align diplomacy with the Trump administration's America First agenda. The plan includes significant staff cuts and the closure of numerous offices. Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
--:-- Megan Basham: So Megan, what do we know so far about Rubio's changes and what's motivating them?
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Well, I'll tell you, Georgia, Rubio is not being shy in billing this as an aggressive reform plan. In a department-wide email, he called the State Department bloated and beholden to a radical political ideology. And he said that because of this, he aims to reduce the agency's U.S.-based staff by 15% and cut the number of offices from 734 to 602. That's a 17% reduction.
--:-- Megan Basham: State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce addressed the cuts in a press conference on Tuesday. Secretary Rubio is announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the department into the 21st century. This approach will empower the department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies. Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality. Redundant offices will be removed. And non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America's core national interests will cease to exist.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Under President Trump's leadership, we have a commander-in-chief committed to putting America and Americans first. As his Secretary of State, Secretary Rubio, announces that he is in fact confident, a reformed State Department will meet the moment and help make our country great once again.
--:-- Megan Basham: Now, there's also one addition in this plan. Rubio proposes a new Bureau of Emerging Threats, and that's going to focus on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. As far as implementation goes, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said an internal working group is going to develop thoughtful plans by July 1st. But we do want to note that there are some hurdles here. Some of these changes may require congressional approval. And a preliminary budget proposal from the White House Office of Management and Budget that bolsters Rubio's plan by cutting the State Department's funding by 15 percent, well, that isn't likely to pass Congress.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: So some significant changes potentially. Do we have any idea what specific offices would be targeted for closure?
--:-- Megan Basham: Yeah, we do. Primarily, it's offices like the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, which Rubio has criticized for promoting left-wing agendas in countries like Poland and Hungary. Specifically, he's argued that they advanced LGBTQ and gender-related initiatives, often undermining the democratic will of more conservative people in those countries. And he's also targeting the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. There, he's arguing that it funneled taxpayer dollars to NGOs that facilitated mass migration, including at the U.S. southern border.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Rubio said in a new State Department substack that these bureaus have been misused to push policies misaligned with national priorities. And he says that for the sake of efficiency, the goal is to refocus diplomacy on greater power competition and consolidate those region-specific functions of the embassies into regional bureaus. And all of this, you have to say, is very much in line with President Trump's America First foreign policy vision in that it follows the administration's efforts to downsize these federal agencies and keep resources in the U.S.
--:-- Megan Basham: During the press conference Monday, Bruce said that abolishing and absorbing USAID into the State Department was the first step in this kind of streamlining. And now they're simply moving forward in the same spirit.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: So how are the diplomats and staff inside this agency reacting? I would say that's developing. There hasn't been a lot of chatter so far. Some analysts are saying this is going to alienate career diplomats. Some Democrats are saying that these moves will diminish the U.S.'s influence abroad. But we're also hearing that some are breathing sighs of relief because they were expecting even deeper cuts after a draft executive order circulated last weekend. That document proposed slashing entire bureaus like African Affairs and closing embassies across sub-Saharan Africa. But Rubio said that was all fake news. So the current plan is less drastic than that was. And Bruce stressed that no one is being fired immediately and they going to be carefully looking at the best ways to cut.
--:-- Megan Basham: Well we will continue to follow the story and see how these cuts develop. Megan thanks for reporting.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: My pleasure.
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--:-- Announcer: Consumers could soon see relief on egg prices. Daily Wire investigative reporter Maraid Elordi has the latest on the domestic economy.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Hi, Georgia. Well, the market has been all over the place amid uncertainty over these tariffs. The Dow plummeted on Monday, but then, as Tim mentioned, spiked again on Tuesday. Investors are more hopeful after the Trump administration said it made significant progress on trade with India this week, and Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said he expects a de-escalation of the trade war between the U.S. and China.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Now, meanwhile, back at home, we have some good news on egg prices, correct?
--:-- Maraid Elordi: That's right. Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olihan spoke to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. They've been working hard on a plan to get egg prices down from their high point under Biden. And Rollins told us their work is paying off.
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--:-- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins: A couple of months ago, we rolled out our big five point egg plan. And at the time, the eggs were, I think, the highest they've been perhaps since President Trump left office. I know under Joe Biden, they increased 237 percent. So while the cost of groceries has skyrocketed, nothing has skyrocketed more than eggs. So the president asked us to be bold and big and right here at the White House almost seven weeks ago we laid that plan out. But what is amazing is since we rolled that plan out, which included money for biosecurity, locking the barns down, repopulation, the hens that we lost due to the virus, getting the new hens back lane quickly, deregulation, so getting government off the back of our egg layers, importation of eggs from other countries for the short term, and then a significant effort at vaccine therapeutic research for future avian flu issues, which is what's caused a lot of this. And since then, the cost of wholesale eggs has gone down 58 percent.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Rollins also told us that part of Trump's plan with tariffs is working on correcting the agriculture trade deficit that widened under Biden. Here's Rollins again.
--:-- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins: There's now a 50 billion dollar agriculture trade deficit that was zero four years ago. So that means that all of that product, sorghum, wheat, corn, beef, that we were moving out in Trump one, somehow that market disappeared and we've got to get it back. And that's part of the president's sort of big vision with this trade and tariff discussion is realigning the American economy around putting America, American producers, American manufacturers first, and then holding accountable partners around the pool that have not treated our products fairly.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: So again, lots of factors affecting the economy from egg prices at home to tariffs abroad. In a sign of how unpredictable the situation is, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that the global economy could be hit hard by tariffs and slashed its forecast for U.S. growth to 1.8 percent this year, down from the 2.8 percent it had predicted in January. But even they acknowledge that the tariff situation is unpredictable due to the Trump administration using tariffs as a negotiating tactic.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Right. Well, it's a very unpredictable international system, but the Trump administration says they're trying to make long term changes for the better.
--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Maraid, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Maraid Elordi: Thanks, Georgia.
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--:-- Host - Georgia Howe: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire. We created this show to bring more ballots to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five star rating and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
