Morning Wire - Defense Summit Drama & Trump’s Steel Revival | 6.2.25

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Tensions flare up between the U.S. and China amid a major defense summit in Asia. The political and legal battle over males competing in female sports ramps up in California. Plus Trump inks what’s being called the biggest steel deal in history. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Shopify: Go to Shopify.com/morningwire to sign up for your $1 per month trial period today. ZocDoc: Go to Zocdoc.com/WIRE to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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tensions flare between the U.S. and China amid a major defense summit in Asia. We talked to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who's helping lead

the U.S. delegation. These are complicated problems and not ones that are easily solved. I'm DailyWire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, June 2nd, and this is Winnie Wire. The battle over males competing in female sports explodes in California after the state certified a trans athlete as the winner of two women's state track and field titles. We are not transphoto! And President Trump hammers out a massive steel deal that Pennsylvania officials say

could transform the industry. There will be no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever. And every U.S. Steel worker will soon receive a well-deserved $5,000 bonus. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. If you run a small business, you know there's nothing small about it. Even the smallest decisions can feel massive. That's where Shopify comes in. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world,

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Thank you. Great to join you here today from the other side of the planet. Yeah, literally the other side of the world. So first, there were immediately some major headlines coming out of the Shangri-La dialogue. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a speech Saturday. Delivered some rather ominous warnings about the threat of China. Any attempt by communist China to conquer Taiwan by force would result in devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific. and the world. There's no reason to sugarcoat it.

So is China about to take military action? I think it's important to take a step back and look at the full context of Pete Hegseth comments there. You know, the indications show us that the answer to your question is no. And really the overwhelming message that Pete delivered is the message that we hear from President Trump, which is that he is the president of peace. and the goal here within this region as well as others around the world is to be able to achieve that. And that's really why these kinds of conferences, this one in particular is so important, because it provides the opportunity for leaders to come together and engage in dialogue,

engage in diplomacy. Once again, with that goal of how do we find areas where we can best pursue our goal of peace and stability, best our respective peoples in our countries and around the world. This is a significant summit, hundreds of delegates representing dozens of nations, as you've said. How much has China been the focus of this summit so far? Obviously, it's a topic of conversation, but I won't say it has not been the sole focus. Counterterrorism has been a really common topic that has come up from countries from across the region. the issue of transnational criminal organizations has been a predominant concern as well.

And there's been a lot of questions coming from other countries about some of the actions that we are taking under President Trump's leadership, not only to secure our own borders, but to deal with the cartels who are trafficking in Sentinel and other narcotics that are dealing in human trafficking and sex trafficking. these are very common issues that we're seeing both across this region, but as well as from some of the other countries who are here from the Middle East and in Europe as well. You mentioned fentanyl trafficking there. It's a massive focus here in the U.S., of course. How much of a focus has there been on fentanyl in the summit?

Fentanyl has been a topic, but it's not just fentanyl. We've heard from some other countries that the drug of choice that's being trafficked is meth, for example. So it's interesting again and a great opportunity for us to understand how these different drugs or these different, you know, illegal trafficking of weapons, of course, sex trafficking and human trafficking, how ultimately the driver of these illegal activities that are harming the American people in our country and the people in these other countries. and especially when we look at the Biden administration's last four years of essentially open borders, how that really rolled out the red carpet for these cartels to be able to not only come in and out of our country and conduct their illegal activities, but unfortunately what we are seeing more and more is how deeply the entrenched they already are in our communities and not just those that sit along our southern border, but throughout states across our country. So this is obviously an area where in my organization, as the Director of National Intelligence.

We're working closely with the Attorney General with the FBI, with the Department of Homeland Security across the board, towards getting after these threats that already exist within our country, and of course making sure that we are securing our border and which it is more secure now than it has been in a very, very long time. Yeah, indeed, record lows for crossings on the border now. Well, I know you're a very busy woman. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us today.

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a top-rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C dot com slash wire. Zock.com slash wire. The debate over transgender athletes in women's sports is flaring up again this time in California. We're in defiance of federal policy, a 16-year-old male won two state track and field titles. Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham joins us now with the details. So, Megan, what happened in Clovis, California this weekend where this championship took place? Yeah, Georgia.

So what happened is it was certainly a very charged atmosphere. On Friday, you had protesters gathering outside the stadium. Some of them were holding save girls' sports signs, while others supported Hernandez with pro-LGBQ messages. An airplane even flew overhead with a banner reading, no boys in girls' sports. And that was funded by groups like the Independent Council on Women's Sports. Meanwhile, a pro-trans protester was arrested for assaulting a Save Our Girls Sports protester. And this was all because at the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships, A.B. Hernandez, a junior male athlete, took first place in girls' high jump and triple jump and second in the long jump.

Now, this flies directly in the face of President Trump's February 5th executive order. Now, that order bars boys who believe their girls from competing in women's and girls' sports, and it cites fairness for female athletes. Trump specifically called out this Hernandez situation on social media, claiming that the young male athlete is practically unbeatable. And Trump also threatened to cut federal funding to California if Hernandez competed. So the U.S. Department of Justice has now launched a Title IX investigation into whether these California policies violate girls' rights. And Julie Hamill, president of the California Justice Center, told CNN that California

deserves to lose federal funding over its defiance of Title IX law. And she also believes that Hernandez is actually a victim. here. I view A.B. Hernandez as the victim in this situation. I feel, I feel for him and I feel that he has been lied to for his entire life. He cannot become a girl. What he can do is compete in the male category. Now, how is the state athletic organization responding to that pressure from the Trump administration? Yeah, Georgia. So the CIF, it admitted some last-minute policy changes. One of them was a pilot entry process for this weekend's championships that allows additional girls who would have qualified for the finals had male athletes not been involved to compete and medal.

The CIF called this a way to balance inclusion and fairness, but critics like Sophia Lori of the California Family Council are arguing that it's basically a tacit admission that transgender participation creates an uneven playing field for girls. And Lori was escorted out of the stadium for distributing Save Girls' Sports wristbands, and that really, I think, highlights the tension going on here. Now, what about the governor? Gavin Newsom seemed to disapprove of men in women's sports just recently on a podcast. Has he commented on this? You know, no, he has not commented, and I think that's particularly telling to a lot of people, given that he has started to back away from

his prior position, telling conservative commentators like Charlie Kirk that, based on the experiences of his own daughters, he no longer sees this issue the same way. I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. Now, I'd say that these comments break pretty profoundly from the past Democratic Party line on these issues. And it shows a growing concern within the party that after polls, like a January 2025, New York Times, Ipsos poll showed that 79% of Americans, including 67% of Democrats, oppose transgender female athletes in women's sports. So that's really causing a problem for them. Right. It's definitely an albatross issue for Democrats.

Megan, thanks for reporting. Of course, my pleasure. President Trump announced a blockbuster deal that will bring billions of dollars in new investments for the U.S. steel industry. The news comes as a near record number of Americans say the country is heading in the right direction. Daily Wire senior editor, Cabot Phillips, is here to break it all down for. So, Cabot, let's start with this big steel deal. A lot of people in Pennsylvania are very excited about this. What exactly was hammered out here?

So for context, back in 2023, Japan's Napan Steel offered $15 billion to acquire U.S. steel. That's the second largest steel producer here in America. The company's board and shareholders approved the deal, but President Biden in January blocked the acquisition, saying it was critical to national security to ensure that America maintains ownership of U.S. steel. So the deal seemed dead in the water. But over the weekend,

President Trump announced that after long negotiations, Napan had agreed to a merger that would preserve American ownership of U.S. steel. Specifically, moving forward, the majority of the company's board must be American citizens, while C-suite employees, including the CEO, must be American as well. And the U.S. government itself will still hold a golden share, as they're calling it, giving them veto power over key decisions for U.S. Steel.

Here's President Trump making that announcement in Pennsylvania this weekend. We're going to produce our own medal, unleash our own energy, secure our own future, build our country, control our destiny, and we are once again going to put Pennsylvania steel into the backbone of America, like never before. As part of the agreement, Napan will now invest $14 plus billion

into new steel facilities in Indiana, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Alabama. Some estimates say the deal could result in 150,000 new jobs for Americans. And according to Trump, every U.S. steel employee

will also receive a $5,000 bonus. As part of his effort to protect American steel manufacturing more broadly, Trump also announced that he would be doubling the tariff on foreign steel imports from 25 to 50.

A move that was, as you can imagine, very popular with the steel workers he spoke to in Pennsylvania. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. So a major deal for the steel industry. This all comes as President Trump is seeing some positive numbers in terms of approval and direction of the country as well. Tell us about that. Yeah, this time last month, amid tariff uncertainty and fears of a recession, President Trump's numbers were on the decline, falling on average to 45% approval and 52% disapproval. So he was seven points underwater.

But following this flurry of trade deals we've seen and encouraging jobs and inflation reports, he is gaining ground fast. He's now less than two points underwater with a 48% average approval rating. That's higher than at any point in his entire first term. Remember, when Trump left office last term, he was more than 20 points. underwater. So a remarkable turnaround. Perhaps more importantly, nearly 44% of Americans now say the country is on the right track. For context, over the last three years, the percentage of people saying we were going in the right direction never climbed out of the 20s. That current number of 44% actually marks the highest number we've seen since President Obama's inauguration

back in 2009. Elsewhere, we also saw signs that Americans are more optimistic about the economy following these trade deals. To that point, consumer confidence rose 12 points in May. That's the largest one-month increase in four years. All right, so very positive news for Trump there. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. Another story we're tracking this week. At least six people were injured Sunday afternoon in a firebombing attack at a pro-Israel event in Boulder, Colorado. Police say victims suffered injuries consistent with burns. Officials detained the suspect and have since identified him as Muhammad Sabri Solomon. Three DHS senior officials told Fox that the suspect is an Egyptian national

who illegally overstayed his visa after entering the U.S. during the Biden administration. FBI director Cash Patel said the Bureau is fully investigating what they believe to be a targeted terror attack. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.