Morning Wire - Iran Addresses the World & Inside CA’s Welfare Scandal | 9.24.26

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Global tensions come to a head as the U.S. walks out on Iran at the UN, while the White House hosts China’s Xi Jinping, President Trump blasts the UK’s attempt to make a deal involving a U.S. base while outraged Britons block yet more migrant flotillas, and a new investigative report uncovers California’s “shadow welfare system” for illegal immigrants. We speak with Steve Yates, the Chinese and National Security Expert at the Heritage Foundation, Bev Turner, host of GB News The Late Show Live, & Kenneth Schrupp, Investigative Reporter for City Journal. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 3107- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Beam Dream - Go to https://shopbeam.com/WIRE, use code WIRE, and get up to 42% off during Beam’s Cyber Sale. Vanta - Whether you’re a fast-growing startup or a global enterprise, Vanta is here to help you automate your security and compliance, and earn and prove trust. Get started today at https://vanta.com/morningwire Concerned Women for America - Join CWA’s growing army of fighters for truth and download their free practical guide for engagement and voting at https://ConcernedWomen.org/WIRE. - - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, first, before we give you the facts of the day, run hide fight infidels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s. There's even a love story which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out. Tired of your car insurance rate going up even with a clean driving record, you're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and

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I don't support it. I think it's terrible. They all of a sudden say they have ownership, somebody has ownership that never showed up before. And a new investigative report uncovers California's shadow welfare system for illegal immigrants. We asked a welfare officer if you could sign up for this. They said legal, not legal, doesn't matter just as long as you're not a citizen. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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Here to break down, all the action is Steve Yates, Chinese and national security expert at the Heritage Foundation. Steve, thanks for coming on. My pleasure, thank you. So I want to start with that moment when a U.S. diplomat walked out during the address from Iran's president. What exactly did he say that was so objectionable? Well, to a degree, I think it was turned about his fair play.

The president said some things in his, I think, now famous nuance and subtlety where he told the Iranians that we may have to destroy them or maybe they should make a deal and they walked out. And so I think that at this point, the Iranians, though, were basically setting terms that are truly unacceptable, trying to call us terrorists. I think that's why the American representative got up and walked out to return the favor.

This comes on the heels of President Trump sitting down with leaders from the Gulf region, you know, to discuss the conflict with Iran. Where do things sit after that? walk out? Well, I think that that meeting with the Gulf countries was very strategically important, and it included an expanded list, not just the Gulf Coordinating Council members, but also Turkey and a few others that really matter if Operation Economic Outcast is going to work. And that is the ultimate economic pressure mechanism. I'm sure the president received some

advice and counsel from those who want the U.S. to do more or want the U.S. to do less. Hopefully he and the right kind of allies came out with a clear game plan for the near future. Where it goes next, President Trump is holding his cards close to the chest. He says he's going to take decisive action after the midterm election. Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election because it doesn't make sense for them not to. They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don't realize is that I'm not running.

And so does that mean we won't do anything big before? You don't get to know that either. We're also on day two of Xi Jinping's three-day visit to Washington. The White House has prepared a lot of pomp and circumstance for this visit, but of course there's still a lot of tension around this visit. What are the topics that you expect President Trump and Xi to address? Well, the plate is extremely full for this visit. Really, when you think of anything related to China versus things that happen in the world,

those are overlapping sets. Almost everything we deal with from our border and homeland security to our public health, to dealing with Russia and Ukraine, everything is a China file. And so there's almost nothing the presidents don't need to discuss. I think AI safety is going to be one of the broad themes that is a priority, should be a priority. freedom of navigation in East Asia and China being a little bit more responsible in that front should be a part of the conversation. Where do we land on our economic negotiations? Do we extend the tariff truce of last year? I think that's the most likely measurable outcome, whether it's a one-year extension or an agreement to continue talks.

I think in effect, that's the most likely output of this conversation. But managed competition is the way I would put it, not looking for. for structural breakouts. One other question on the AI front, Trump has been very clear that he is against overregulation on this, kind of any regulation on this. What are we hearing from China? Well, the Chinese favor regulation, and they favor regulation where the ultimate decider is the Communist Party of China.

And that is why ultimately, I think strategically coupling is the direction we are going to have to go. I don't think that's the president's near-term preferred approach, But I think that's what the system is forcing us, because I don't think America or our allies can be dependent to bond and integrated with a system where the Communist Party of China is our safety monitor. They didn't keep us safe from COVID. They won't keep us safe from a breakout AI. Well, certainly a key issue for a lot of Americans. It's on a lot of people's minds right now. It'll be interesting to see if they do come to some kind of agreement. Steve, thanks for coming on. Pleasure. Thank you. There is a point in every growing company where you realize the systems that worked when you were small don't work anymore. Suddenly, you've got controls in one place, vendor risks somewhere else, customer commitments buried in contracts,

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Biological differences matter in sports, and women deserve competitions, teams, records, scholarships, and athletic spaces of their own. Concerned Women for America, the largest Christian women's policy. organization in America is standing up for female athletes and calling on organizations like the WNBA to remember what the W stands for. Women's sports are for women only. Join Concerned Women for America and add your name to the petition today. Go to www.comcernedwomen.org slash wire. Tensions between the U.S. and the U.K. over a deal involving a joint military base have come to a head this week as the U.K.'s prime minister was in New York. The U.K. wants to transfer authority for the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. But President Trump has slammed that deal as terrible.

Meanwhile, back in England, yet more boats full of illegal immigrants have sparked a strong response from citizens. Joining us to discuss all this is Bev Turner, host of GB News Late Show Live. Great to have you on again. Hi, guys. So let's start with your new prime minister here in the U.S. for the U.N. He's come at a crucial time. He gave a big speech. He sat down with Trump. First, how did it go for him here in New York? Very good in terms of their meeting. I was there in the room. President Trump came to me as part of the American press for a question.

I got to ask both of them, Prime Minister Andy Burnham in question and also Trump. Between them, the atmosphere was exactly as I predicted. They get along very well on the surface. 10 out of 10, said Downing Street in terms of the success. They want to reset the relationship between our two countries after the relationship with Kier Stama was not great. However, later in the day, Andy Burnham went on stage and delivered his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

And it was like a globalist's dream. It was polar opposite to everything that President Trump had said in the morning, literally every issue, whether it's about net zero, about Russia, about DEI, about globalism, about working together, about bureaucracy. I mean, it was so far from what Trump had said in the morning that I really wished that Andy Burnham had done his speech before they'd met, because I think that meeting would have had a very different tone. Now that we know more about Andy Burnham and his vision for the UK, watch this space because that relationship, I believe, is not going to maintain in such a happy way. Now, as to this Diego Garcia base blow up in the Chegos Islands, it does appear the UK may be backing down after Trump's, you know, hard pushing. back on this. What is the situation currently? This is a really complex story. And I was very interested to see that all the British newspapers the day after these two met led with this story.

I was in the room. It was a throwaway line from President Trump about Chagos. He says this terrible deal. And it is a terrible deal. But I don't genuinely think President Trump truly understands it. Why? Because nobody in the UK either really truly understands it. Effectively, in the most simplistic terms, we are giving the Chegos Islands to Mauritius for colonial reparations. There's nothing in it for us to give it back, but it was decided by an international court that that's what we would do. The deal means that we rent back the military base there, Diego Garcia. That is critical to America as well, particularly in relation to China. It's a very complicated situation.

We understand that President Trump can veto this deal. He can literally say, no. Will he do that? It will cause a diplomatic war between our two countries if he does that. But Andy Vernon will say, I didn't inherit this even from Kirstama. I inherited this deal from the conservative government that we're in power for 14 years. And there is some truth to that. But it's incredibly difficult to get a clear definition from either side what the right thing is to do

and what legally we can do. I fear that the UK is tied into this. And unless President Trump steps in, we are going to give these islands away. Now, we've also been tracking with you for several weeks now. This ongoing saga of flotillas of illegal immigrants arriving in places like Portsmouth. There's also been some more even coming in from France, along with more protests. What's the latest on that front? This story is getting stranger and stranger by the day.

And many of us who are British are trying to work out what exactly is going on behind the scenes. We've had, as you know, legions of illegal migrants that have been coming to our shores for 10 years or more. The numbers have gone down. Andy Burn and Braggs that they're down by 50% on what they were last year, but they are still coming over in huge numbers. What we've seen recently, which is a change, is that protesters are being proactive. They're not passively standing maybe outside a hotel with banners. They're going to the beach. They're going to the shores. We even saw one incident of a protester taking a knife to one of the dinghies as it was taking off in France. They are going after them. There's a kind of vigilante protesting going on in the UK.

It's reaching boiling point in the UK. And I cannot see where this ends other than things getting pretty messy. Well, as you said, it does appear like this situation is just going to escalate in the near future. Bev, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. A new investigative report into California's taxpayer-funded welfare programs reveals a shadow welfare system benefiting illegal immigrants with benefits including college grants, low-cost car insurance, and smartphones. We're joined by one of the authors of the report, Kenneth Shrup, investigative reporter for

City Journal. Kenneth, thanks for coming on. It's a pleasure being on. Thank you for having. So you've teamed up with Chris Rufo, who our audience knows well, as well as Austin Hufford, to write this piece. All of you all are at City Journal. Can you just tell us what you mean by a shadow welfare system that you guys are

saying is running in California right now? Right. So the federal government prohibits the use of many federal funds for illegal immigrants to receive direct benefits from. To overcome this, California has created a whole slew of 100% state-funded programs that are going directly to illegal immigrants. This includes health care. There's going to be a new food stamp program for people who are over 50 who are illegal immigrants that's opening up in October of next year. We're also looking at programs like you can get free cell phones. You can get subsidized Section 8 housing on behalf of some of your household members. The actual benefits go on and on and on. And they're just adding to these. There's new programs. There's a new program every year. I mean, just recently, Governor Newsom signed a law allowing people to sign up for the free cell phones using their Mexican consular IDs. So these changes are happening all the time and the coverage is only growing. So how did you guys begin to uncover all of this?

At first, you have to look at sort of the available scope of programs. There's the headline, Medi-Cal, of course, which was expanded by Governor Newsom to include all illegal immigrants. There have been some changes and restrictions in that since our state really reached financial breaking point in the last year or so. But again, you have to go into the government offices yourselves and start asking questions. Okay, well, what benefits can people sign up? for, and they're very straightforward about it. Now, as a former California resident, is this something that regular middle class Californians can access, or do you have to be here illegally to get some of these things? Some of these are only available to non-citizens. There's a specific program

that replaces social disability payments called cash assistance program for immigrants. It's quite literally in the name. And when we asked a welfare officer, if you could sign up for this, if you you're here illegally, they said legal, not legal, doesn't matter just as long as you're not a citizen. So this is a cash payment to people who are 65 or older. There's a presumption that people over 65 won't be deported. So that's counting, of course, as a prerequisite to people to start getting some of these benefits. Now, are Californians aware that their tax dollars are going to these initiatives? This is something that people are excited about? Or is this something that is somewhat covered. Look, I don't think people are really aware of this and to the extent to which

you can get these benefits by our estimates, a family of five, let's say two illegal immigrant parents who had the household as an illegal immigrant grandparent and two U.S. born children, they can collect benefits in excess of $100,000 a year in cash and services. If you want that as a middle class California family, you're going to have to make like $160,000 a year to get the same amount of stuff. And meanwhile, that's with zero reported income. They can get all of that without any reported income. So if they're working under the table, that's just cash that goes right to their pockets. And to be clear, is this actually allowed under the California Constitution? Currently, yes. But voters in California approved a proposition in the 1990s, Prop 187,

which actually banned illegal immigrants from getting California services aside from emergency health care. That was overturned and killed essentially when the Democrats new governor, Gray Davis, decided not to continue the appeal to protect the law. And when you're looking at the federal level, of course, you're allowed to create your own state program and fund it with state funds how you like. The one big, beautiful bill act did, in fact, reduce some Medicaid reimbursements or at least the percentage rate if you do enroll illegal immigrants in your Medicaid expansion system. But again, the payment still grew because the expenditures of the program still grew. Just a thumb in the nose of middle class Californians, as usual. Kenneth, thanks so much

for coming on. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because of our Daily Wire subscribers. To enjoy the show, ad-free and join our mission, become a member at Dailywire.com. We'll be back this evening. More news you need to know. with your summer price forecast. Now, unfortunately, we're seeing rising costs across the country with possibility that big wireless hates you 100%. Now, over here at Mint Mobile, we're seeing sunny skies and dropping prices. Every plan to just $15 dollars a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 $1.80 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. New customer

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