Morning Wire - Evening Wire: Pot Farm ICE Raids & Merit-Based Investing | 7.11.25

Episode Date: July 11, 2025

Southern California sees more Anti-ICE Chaos, the State Department prepares to send nearly 2000 employees pink slips, and a new index fund is pledging to invest on merit alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Southern California sees more anti-ice chaos. The State Department prepares to send nearly 2,000 employees pink slips, and a new index fund is pledging to invest on merit alone. I'm Georgia Howe. John's on vacation this week. It's Friday, July 11th, and this is Evening Wire. A newly released video appears to show California medical workers interfering with ICE agents making an arrest. In the video, it looks as though the staff at Ontario Advanced Surgery, Center attempt to block ICE agents trying to arrest a Honduran landscaper while shouting,

You don't have a warrant. Homeland Security says the man fled into the building and staff locked the doors, even calling 911 to report a kidnapping. He was later arrested. In more SoCal chaos, federal immigration agents raided two marijuana farms and arrested dozens of undocumented workers. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has more. Protesters rushed to the scene on Thursday, prompting agents to deploy tear gas and smoke bombs. Military helicopters flew low over the area searching for suspects who may have been hiding. Governor Gavin Newsom called the Operation Terror, accusing President Trump's administration

of traumatizing families and tearing communities apart. Customs and Border Protection says 10 minors were found working at the facility, eight of them unaccompanied, triggering a child labor investigation. Federal officials say an unidentified suspect fired a gun at agents, with the FBI now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to that individual. The State Department is beginning the process of showing nearly 2,000 employees the door. Daily Wire Deputy Managing editor Tim Rice has more. In a memo yesterday, Deputy Secretary Michael Regis said affected domestic staff will be notified in the coming days.

The move combined with voluntary departures marks a 15% reduction in the department's workforce. Officials say the cuts target redundant offices and aim to streamline operations by shifting more resources to embassies and regional bureaus. The layoffs come days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration's federal workforce reductions to proceed. The Pentagon has sidelined an admiral who allowed drag queen performances on an aircraft carrier. Daily Wire reports that Rear Admiral Michael Buzz Donnelly was nominated to command the 7th Fleet, the Navy's largest overseas force, but the Defense Department has withdrawn his nomination in light of some controversial entertainment.

Donnelly commanded the USS Ronald Reagan when a sailor who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels performed in drag during a Navy-sanctioned morale, welfare, and recreation event aboard the carrier. Secretary of Defense Pete Higseth is reportedly looking for a new commander for the seventh fleet. President Trump threatened Canada with a 35% tariff on imports, citing an underwhelming response to the fentanyl crisis.

The president outlined the tariffs in a letter posted to Truth Social on Thursday, saying, if Canada works to stop the flow of fentanyl, we will perhaps consider an adjustment to this letter. The announcement comes among a slew of similar letters posted this week, as the administration scheduled tariffs on goods from several countries, including Brazil, South Africa, and Japan. The new levies are scheduled to take effect on August 1st. An anti-Israel agitator from Columbia University is demanding $20 million from the Trump administration over claims that he was falsely imprisoned and, quote, smeared as an anti-Semite.

The Syrian-born activist Mahmood Khalil filed the claim on Thursday that lists DHS, ICE, and the State Department as co-defendants. Kalil was arrested on March 8 as the Trump administration sought to deport him for activities allegedly aligned to Hamas. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Trisha McLaughlin described Khalil's claim as absurd and said that he had participated in and led hateful behavior and rhetoric on Columbia's campus. Khalil's deportation order is still in limbo as it moves through the American court system. The White House is accusing the Federal Reserve of mismanagement. Budget Chief Russell Vote raised concerns over renovation plans for the Fed headquarters. The Fed has run a deficit since

fiscal year 2023 and is over budget on the renovation, vote said on social media. The renovation plans include rooftop gardens, VIP dining rooms, elevators, water features, and premium marble. Federal Reserve Chair Powell denied that the renovations will include those features. Votes concerns come as President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell for not lowering interest rates. He's facing accusations of lying to Congress, which is a potential crime about the opulence. You should resign immediate when he's going to lower interest rates. Why don't you go for his resignation?

Do you want congressional Republicans to investigate? An anti-DEI index fund plans to only invest in companies that hire based on merit. Azoria founder and CEO James Fishback told Fox News Digital, this is the only index fund committed solely to meritocracy. Fishback said that companies with DEI hiring targets underperformed the S&P by 19 percentage points in the last two years. He says investing in companies committed to meritocracy is good business sense. In an ad for the index fund's release, Fishback said the idea behind the index index, Fund is simple. Of the 500 companies in the S&P index, three dozen maintain these anti-meritocratic racial and gender hiring quotas. Companies that hire on skill and ability will outperform those

that do so on race and gender. Bitcoin has hit all-time highs. Bitcoin EFTs saw their biggest day in inflows on Thursday. Stocks tied to Bitcoin gained between 1 and 3%. The increases began after the most recent Federal Reserve meeting. A rally in tech stocks also. boosted Bitcoin. Bitcoin looks to gain nearly 10% for the week. Ferreiro, the company behind Nutella and Ferreiro Roche, is set to give Fruit Loops an Italian twist. In a $3.1 billion deal, Ferreiro is acquiring W.K. Kellogg, the maker of Fruit Loops and other American cereals. Under the agreement, they will purchase an incredible amount of shares in cash for $23 each. And once the deal is finalized, W.K. Kellogg will become a subsidiary of Ferreiro.

Executive chairman of the Ferreiro group, Giovanni Ferreiro, says he's excited to welcome W.K. Kellogg, as well as to celebrate the legacies of both companies. The deal is set to close in the second half of 2025. The Bebes is back, as Beliebers around the world were just treated to an exciting surprise. A new Justin Bieber album called Swag, the Grammy winner, teased the release by posting pictures of himself in a recording studio on Instagram. This is Bieber's first time. album since Justice, and despite the album having multiple hits, he canceled the North American

leg of his tour in 2022 to focus on his mental health. Swag includes 21 new and original songs. Teachers have long made sure that students know how to read, write, and spell, which is why many are poking fun at a recent resolution from the nation's largest teachers union condemning President Donald Trump. In the National Education Association's resolution, the word fascism is misspelled not once but twice. Critics call it ironic, with conservatives mocking the mistake as symbolic of the failures of public education. The NEA, which represents over three million educators, has not commented. Those are your drive home updates this evening. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.