Morning Wire - Budget Hawks Rejoice & Trump Cancels “Pride Month” | 6.5.25

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Elon Musk and fiscal conservatives are pushing back on President Trump’s new budget bill, warning it could add trillions to the national debt. The White House has officially replaced Pride Month with “Title IX Month,” focusing on protecting women’s sports and spaces. And, two Chinese nationals were arrested for attempting to smuggle a dangerous agricultural pathogen into the U.S. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Good Ranchers: Visit https://goodranchers.com and subscribe to any box using code WIRE to claim $40 off + free meat for life! NetSuite: Download the free e-book “Navigating Global Trade: 3 Insights for Leaders” athttps://NetSuite.com/MORNINGWIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Senate takes up debate on Trump's budget bill, while Musk raises concerns over massive debt. With all due respect, my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill. Will the Upper House be able to compromise? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, June 5th, and this is Morning Wire. Instead of Pride Month, the Trump White House announced that June will be dedicated to highlighting the protection of women's spaces. Parents can certainly rest comfortably knowing that the men would not be allowed in women's forts. And two Chinese nationals have been arrested for smuggling a dangerous pathogen into the United States.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Summer's almost here. And that means dads firing up the grill for those backyard barbecues. But did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef in U.S. stores is actually imported? That's why I trust good ranchers. At Good Ranchers.com, they source 100% of their meat from American farms. Every cut of beef, chicken, and pork is born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA. Plus, there are no antibiotics, no added hormones, no seed oils, just real, quality meat delivered straight to your door. Perfect for when dad wants to show off his elite grilling skills without the grocery store hassle.

Knowing I'll be grilling and chowing down on clean American-race protein options with the convenience of delivery right to my door makes them that much better. Give the fathers in your life what they really want this summer. premium American meat that they can be proud to serve. Visit Good Ranchers.com and get $40 off plus free meat for life with our code wire. Again, that's Good Ranchers.com for $40 off plus free meat for life with our code wire. Good Ranchers, American Meat delivered. Elon Musk made waves this week with his criticism of President Trump's big, beautiful bill, and budget hawks couldn't be happier.

Here with the latest on the budget battle is Daily Wire Deputy Managing editor Tim Rice. So, Tim, Elon issued a pretty harsh critique of this. budget bill. Yeah, that's right, Georgia. Musk, who let's remember just stepped back from his government post last week, said Tuesday that the bill was, quote, a disgusting abomination. Republicans who opposed the bill, like Congressman Thomas Massey and Senator Rand Paul, quickly joined Elon in slamming the bill. Utah Senator Mike Lee took a slightly different tack, saying that the bill that passed the House was flawed and that it was on the Senate to fix it. And Democrats even joined the fight with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer highlighting the fact

that even Trump's buddy doesn't like his spending bill. Even Elon Musk, who's been part of the whole process and as Trump's buddy says the bill is bad, you can imagine how bad this bill is. But plenty of people rushed to defend the bill as well, including the two men most responsible for its passage. First up is House Speaker Mike Johnson. We had a long conversation yesterday. He and I spoke for, I think, more than 20 minutes on the telephone.

And I extoll the whole of the virtues of the bill. And he seemed to understand that. Trump also defended the bill, but stopped just short of slamming Elon, instead turning his ire on Rand Paul, saying, quote, Rand votes no on everything, but never has any practical or constructive ideas. His ideas are actually crazy losers. The people of Kentucky can't stand him. This is a big growth bill. Now, there was already a lot of infighting over this, and then yesterday the CBO numbers dropped. What did they say? Right. So yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the big, beautiful bill would add to.

$2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. Now, the Trump administration says this estimate is wrong. The Office of Management and Budget says the CBO is not using a realistic current policy baseline and that the bill would actually reduce the debt by $1.4 trillion over a decade. And on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt chalked the CBO estimate up to political bias. The Congressional Budget Office has been historically wrong. In fact, they predicted the Trump tax cuts from the president's first term in 2017, their prediction was wrong by half a trillion dollars. There hasn't been a single staffer in the entire congressional budget office that has contributed to a Republican since the year 2000.

So it looks like we should gear up for a big fight as this heads to the Senate in the next few weeks. But this wasn't the only budget legislation moving through Congress, correct? Yeah, on top of all of this, the White House sent Congress a $9.4 billion rescission package. This bill codifies a number of doge cuts, including federal funding for PBS and NPR. Members of the House Freedom Caucus are demanding a vote on this package immediately, and both Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Foon say they're eager to call a vote on the bill as quickly as possible. And it seems like their members match their enthusiasm. Here's Congressman Brandon Gill singing the rescission package's praises last week. I don't think that we can get these

rescission bills done fast enough. I think this is something the American people have been demanding that we actually execute on. They don't just want hearings. They don't just want talk. They want this money clawed back. We're going to get a rescission bill Monday that will pull back money from NPR and PBS to left-wing propaganda outlets that get over $500 million every year. We're also going to claw back money from USAID. I think that's a great start, but we've got a lot more to do after that. Well, this is going to be a major fault line for the GOP this summer. Tim, thanks for reporting. Anytime. an interesting time for business, with tariff and trade policies shifting constantly, supply chains,

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is costing you, and figure out how to pivot fast when you need to make changes. Tame the chaos with NetSuite. If your revenues are at least in the seven figures, download the free ebook at navigating global trade, three insights for leaders at netsuite.com slash morningwire. That's netsuite.com slash morningwire. During the Biden administration, the White House put a heavy emphasis on Pride Month, but this year, under Trump, things are looking a lot different. Joining us to discuss the new approach is Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret O'Lahan.

Hey, Mary Margaret. So major changes this go around as it relates to the month of June. How is Washington responding to Pride Month this year? Well, good morning, John. It is indeed June here in Washington, D.C., the month where you will see pretty much every office building and restaurant littered with Pride flags all month. Under President Joe Biden's administration, the White House issued a big pride proclamation celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex Pride Month. And as part of those efforts to promote gender ideology, they hosted a now infamous pride celebration on the White House lawn where trans-identifying activists drew some serious backlash for posing for topless photos and videos right there on the White House lawn as they mingled with former President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden.

This year, however, things are looking a little different. We broke the news earlier this week that the Department of Education is declaring June Title IX month instead of Pride Month. And that's not all. We also exclusively broke that the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights is investigating two huge cases that developed under Biden. Here's Secretary McMahon breaking down these investigations. We've opened investigations into the state of Wyoming and into Colorado for violations of their Title IX program in Wyoming. It was relative to a sorority in college. and the sorority was allowing female identifying members to be part of their sorority. We've also opened an investigation into Colorado into Jefferson Public Schools

because on field trips, they were gender identifying females staying with girls in their rooms, actually sleeping in the same bed without parents having any notification about this. And that's just wrong. So two big investigations to sort of kick off the month from the education department or any other agencies following suit? Well, the Pentagon announced in January that quote unquote identity months are dead at the Defense Department. And they specifically named Pride Month as one of those months that they're no longer going to be celebrating. And this week, we're hearing that Defense Secretary Pete Higset will be ordering the renaming of a U.S. Navy ship that was named after San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk, who's been repeatedly accused of grooming young boys.

And also, the FBI startled the world on Monday when it announced that it's looking for tips on any hospitals, clinics, or practitioners who are performing transgender surgeries on children. Now, that's obviously a very far cry from the old DOJ practices. Under the Biden DOJ, they actually targeted whistleblowers,

Eton Haim and Vanessa Savage, for trying to blow the whistle on transgender procedures in Texas. Right. And then there's that effort from Republicans to rename the month. What's going on there? Right. So they're aggressively messaging against Pride Month and for celebrating traditional values. We reported on Tuesday that Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller introduced a resolution declaring June as Family Month in a bid to reclaim the month from gender ideology.

Here's more from Miller on that resolution. Sadly, the left hijacked June to, you know, present perversion to present, you know, cause gender confusion. and basically to give license for individuals to be indecent in public. And, you know, I'm taking it back for the American family. And finally, during Tuesday's White House press briefing, press secretary Caroline Levitt said the White House has no plans to issue any kind of proclamation this month. So we shouldn't be expecting to see anything coming out of the White House.

Well, a major political and cultural shift taking place here, no doubt. Mary Margaret, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me. Two Chinese nationals have been charged with attempting to smuggle a dangerous pathogen into the U.S. Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips has more. So Cabot, a potential case of what the FBI is calling agricultural terrorism. What do we know? Yeah, potentially explosive story here.

This week, we learned that the FBI has arrested two Chinese nationals who attempted to smuggle fusarium Grimmonerum, a dangerous biological pathogen, into the United States. One of those individuals, Young Quinn Gian, worked as a researcher at the University of of Michigan. The FBI says she has expressed loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and has in the past received funding from Beijing to study similar pathogens back in China. The other individual, her boyfriend, Zungyang Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducted similar research. According to the DOJ, when detained at customs, Liu made, quote, false statements to CBP officers about the purpose of his visit to the United States and his knowledge of the existence of the biological

pathogen in his possession. But he later admitted that he planned on using his girlfriend's access at the University of Michigan to conduct research on that pathogen. The two have now been charged with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the United States, false statements, and visa fraud. Now, what do we know about this pathogen that they brought in? Well, fusarium granonirum is a noxious fungus considered by scientists to be a potential agro-terrorism weapon. That's because it causes head blight, a fungal disease that spreads among wheat, barley, maize, and rice crops, causing plants to shrivel and die, leaving behind infected kernels that can blow away and then spread to the next field. So you can see the danger there. The fungus is responsible for billions

of dollars in ruined crops each year, and it also poses a significant risk to humans and animals. Causes vomiting, liver damage, and reproductive defects if accidentally ingested. FBI director Cash Patel called the incident a, quote, sobering reminder that the the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences, putting American lives in our economy at serious risk. And it's worth noting, according to this criminal complaint, past communications between Leo and Gianne indicate she may have smuggled other materials into the U.S. during past trips, one time in her shoe and another time in a book. At one point,

Leo wrote to his partner ahead of his flight, quote, everything else will be easy once we get this done. Now, this isn't the first arrest of a Chinese academic in the United States even just recently. Yeah, exactly. While it's not yet clear if this was part of a broader effort to, you know, unleash some sort of bioweapon in the U.S., it is clear that China is using students and researchers to steal American research from universities. For example, back in 2019, a Chinese professor at UCLA was convicted of trying to illegally obtain semiconductors with military applications so that he could then smuggle them back to China. Then a year later, a Chinese national at Harvard was caught attempting to smuggle 21 vials of sensitive cancer research from a medical lab again back to China. Similar arrests

have been made at universities in Arkansas, Kansas, Texas A&M, the list, it goes on and on. And it's not just Chinese nationals who have taken part in this scheme. Beijing has also made brazen efforts to pay Americans to secretly share sensitive research data from universities. We've seen professors from Harvard, the Cleveland Clinic, West Virginia, and Tennessee, charged with selling medical and military secrets to the CCP. So this is part of the Trump administration's broader crackdown on Chinese academics. Exactly. Now, some folks might not see a problem with these researchers bringing in a fungus.

But given Beijing's recent history, you can see why the DOJ is not messing around. It's also part of why the State Department is moving to revoke the visas of Chinese students with ties to the Communist Party. The administration says it's simply foolish to open up our labs, and other facilities to researchers who will turn around and hand it back to Beijing. Keep in mind, while nearly 300,000 Chinese students are currently enrolled in American universities, fewer than 1,000 American students are enrolled at Chinese universities. A big reason is that Beijing is highly restrictive when it comes to student visas for Americans.

Trump administration says that discrepancy should tell you all you need to know. Well, this has been a sleeper issue for a while. I'm glad it's being addressed. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news you need to know.