Morning Wire - Trump Launches 'Golden Fleet' & Fulton County Concerns Confirmed | 12.23.25

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

President Trump announces a new battleship fleet while clamping down on Venezuelan oil, a tangled web of schemes reveals even more fraud in Minnesota, and ballot-counting errors surface in a state that Joe Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Shopify - Go to https://Shopify.com/morningwire to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period and upgrade your selling today. - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy morning 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

As President Trump tightens the naval blockade on Venezuelan tankers, he announces plans for a new fleet of battleships. They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, December 23rd, and this is Morning Wire.

Officials uncover more shocking evidence on the sprawling Minnesota fraud schemes that have bilked taxpayers of billions. The fraud is not small. It isn't isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated. Industrial scale fraud. And Georgia officials admit to egregious ballot counting errors in the 2020 election.

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selling today at Shopify.com slash morningwire. Head over to Shopify.com slash morning wire. Again, that's Shopify.com slash morning wire. Amid a massive naval buildup in the Caribbean, President Trump announced new efforts to crack down on Venezuela's socialist regime. Daily Wire, Senior editor, Cabot Phillips, is here with more on the escalating tensions. So Cabot, D.C. might be slowing down a bit for the holiday, but the Trump administration is not relenting at all toward Venezuela. What's the latest? Yeah, that is the truth. Now, a quick refresher, Trump's push in Venezuela originally began as a crackdown on illegal drugs flowing into the U.S., but in recent days, the operation has shifted into a full-blown

military blockade, keeping Venezuelan tankers from selling oil. For context, the Venezuelan government has been relying on what the Pentagon calls a, quote, dark fleet of oil tankers sailing under false flags with fraudulent paperwork, trying to evade American sanctions. The Coast Guard and Navy have already seized two of those tankers this month, and on Sunday and Monday were in, quote, hot pursuit of a third. That vessel called the Bella One is one of Venezuela's largest oil tankers. It was returning to the country to fill back up when it was spotted by the Coast Guard. It was allegedly flying without a valid national flag, making it a, quote, stateless vessel.

and subject to search under international law. But when the Coast Guard ordered it to stop, they refused and went on the run. Pentagon has yet to confirm how that chase ended, but did say the fact it was forced to turn around and flee Venezuela was in itself a victory. Now, more broadly, the Trump administration says the crackdown is intended to send a message to the rest of the world, not just Venezuela. Here's DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department oversees the Coast Guard making that case. The illegal activity that Bern Dernel is participating in cannot say.

stand. He needs to be gone, and we will stand up for our people. They're using these dollars to funnel and purchase and proliferate drugs around the world that's killing the next generation of Americans. Now, all of this is part of a broader pressure campaign against the Venezuelan government, and this has been a years-long point of tension. Can you give us some context on the Trump-Maduro conflict? Yeah, there's no doubt the administration is ramping up the pressure on Nicholas Maduro. Again, the socialist strong men leading Venezuela. Trump has repeatedly said that, his days are numbered, and last week issued a new demand calling on Maduro to return all American assets seized over the years. For context, since the 70s, the Venezuelan government has

nationalized the oil industry, taking control of virtually every private company operating there, including a number of American businesses like ExxonMobil. White House advisor Stephen Miller called it the, quote, largest recorded theft of American wealth and property in history. And now Trump says the blockade will continue until Venezuela, quote, returns to the United States of America, all of the oil land and other assets that they previously stole from us. Now, Maduro is highly unlikely to give into those demands as oil revenue is basically the only thing keeping his economy afloat. So the big question now becomes how far Trump is willing to go to make him. There are those who believe this could escalate into a military regime change type

conflict. For example, Moscow was ordered evacuations for their diplomats and families living in Venezuela. So they are fearful of potential conflict, but we'll see again how Trump reacts and if he uses the military further. So let's get to Trump's shipbuilding announcement yesterday that some interpreted as a show of force. What did we hear on that front? Yeah, Teddy Roosevelt famously had his great white fleet and now Trump is christening what he calls the golden fleet. We know Trump he loves his gold. Speaking from Marlago on Monday, the president announced plans to build a next generation fleet of battleships that will protect America's trading vessels and other larger ships around the world. Here he is with more details. They will have 100 times the force of power.

There's never been anything like these ships. These have been under design consideration for a long time. These are the best in the world. The plan is for those ships to be unveiled by 2028. And of course, the timing is probably not a coincidence given everything going on right now as the president continues to exert power in the Southern Hemisphere. He's also sending a message to adversaries like Russia and, of course, China. Well, and some context there. Just in the past 10 years, China's Belt and Road Initiative has drastically expanded in Latin America. Right. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Stunning new details have surfaced in Minnesota's sprawling fraud scandal, which is largely tied to the state's Somali community. Here to break down the latest is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. Hey, Amanda.

So we've been covering this scandal for weeks now. It just keeps getting bigger and sort of more jaw-dropping. First, just how much money do authorities now believe has been stolen? Well, after a shocking press conference from federal prosecutor Joseph Thompson, we've learned that $9 billion or potentially more of taxpayer money could have been stolen. He called this, quote, industrial-scale fraud. There were 14 taxpayer-funded programs in particular that have been rife with fraud since 2018. Those programs cost $18 billion, and Thompson said it's possible that half of that or more could have been fraudulently claimed.

Here's Thompson. I think we're at Alwire in a bad way, yes. You don't see fraud on this scale in other states. And part of that is just we sit here as a team, and it's a relatively small team or a relatively small U.S. Attorney's Office. And every day we look under Iraq and find a new $50 million fraud scheme. That shouldn't be the case in a state of our size. certainly other states have problem with frauds, but I think our problem is unique. Now, building off of that, Thompson actually said scammers became aware that Minnesota was a great place to rip off the government, that it actually created what's called fraud tourism.

I mean, these defendants came here not to enjoy our lakes, our beautiful summers or our warm people. They came here because they knew and understood that Minnesota was a place for taxpayer money could be taken with little risk. and few consequences. Thompson added that people in the state or those traveling there would create companies entirely dedicated to fraud. This wasn't upcharging for services, which is typical with Medicaid fraud. This was something entirely new and bigger. And as for new indictments, Thompson laid out many, including that of Hassan Ahmed Hussein

and Ahmed, and Ahmed, they're accused of stealing $750,000 from a housing program, falsely claiming that they were helping addicts who were leading treatment facilities. Camille Omar Salah is accused of stealing more than $1 million in that same housing scheme. He's apparently now fled the country. And Asha Faran Hassan, who was charged with stealing $14 million in funds to help children with autism, she recently pleaded guilty. Now, there were initial reports that this money was going back to Somalia and potentially even funding terrorist operations.

Have we learned anything more about that? So Thompson said that this is a nuanced issue. and I would guess that's because the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, al-Shabaab, controls large portions of territory in Somalia. Here's Thompson. Well, there's no indication that the defendants that we've charged were radicalized or seeking to fund al-Shabaab or other terrorist groups. Some money went to Somalia, indirectly some money might have gotten to the hands of al-Shabaab,

which controls significant parts of Somalia and imposes attacks there. Now, with all this new information coming out, what have we heard from state leaders? So Democrat Governor Tim Walls, who's really in the hot seat over this scandal, he's claiming Thompson is engaging in sensationalism and says that there's no evidence that the scope of this scandal is $9 billion or more. Then we have the state's Democrat AG Keith Ellison. He actually put out a video over the weekend praising his own efforts to stop scammers in the state. No surprise here that generated a lot of criticism online given the circumstances. Yeah, when industrial scale fraud and fraud tourism are being used to disqual.

your state. It's hard to see this as evidence of a job. Well done. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Election officials in Georgia say that Fulton County violated state election rules when it certified some 315,000 ballots in the 2020 election. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the admission and what it means for election integrity. So Tim, what exactly have these election officials admitted happened here and how significant was this error? Well, essentially there is a chain of custody issue that affected hundreds of thousands of ballots in the 2020 election. The issue is over tabulation tapes and zero tapes. State election rules say that these tapes have to be signed by election workers to certify

their authenticity, but for most of the polls across Fulton County, the tapes weren't certified. Those tapes account for essentially every early in person vote cast in Fulton County in 2020. That's about 315,000 votes in total. All this was revealed publicly in a December 9th, Georgia state election board meeting and reported on by the Federalist. Here's the attorney for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections and Brumbah admitting the mistake. I've not seen the tapes myself, but we do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule.

We have new leadership and a new building and a new board and new standard operating procedures. And since then, the training has been enhanced. The poll watchers are trained specifically. They've got to sign the tapes in the. the morning and they've got to sign the tapes when they're run at the end of the day. When the tapes come back to the hub for, you know, with all the documentation, they are checked again. And if somebody forgot to sign a tape, then Fulton initiates an investigation.

We don't dispute the allegation from the 2020 election. Tabulation tapes are printed for each ballot scanner at the end of each day. And the tape is basically a summary of the ballots that machine processed on that day. Those tapes are supposed to be signed and then cataloged as part of the process to track the work of vote counting. Zero tapes are just tabulation tapes made at the start of the day, and those have to be certified, too, to ensure that each machine is starting the day from zero. That ensures no extra ballots from tests or prior elections are being counted as well. Here's state elections board vice chair, Janice Johnston, on what missing that certification means.

That is the one document that promises what's in the ballot box. that we don't count the ballots, you know, but what's in the ballot box is the right number. So if you open on a tabulator but you close on a different tabulator, not going to work. It's a break in the chain of custody. Correct. So I find this case very troubling. All this was uncovered by David Cross. He's a local election integrity activist who said he paid nearly $16,000 to receive about 77

megabytes worth of election records through an open records request. So these admissions from officials have released that off a lot of alarm bells. How consequential was this to the 2020 election results? Well, there's no way to retroactively change the outcome. Though if those votes from Fulton County were thrown out, President Trump would have won Georgia but still lost the 2020 election. Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who was now running for Georgia governor, downplayed the findings. He said in a statement, quote, Georgia has the most secure election. in the country, and all voters were verified with photo ID and lawfully cast their ballots. A clerical error at the end of the day does not erase valid legal votes.

And others have pointed out that Fulton County's votes were recounted and recounted again, so while the process may have been shoddy, every ballot was eventually individually certified. Cross has a different opinion, however. Because no tape was ever legally certified, Fulton County had no lawful authority to certify its advanced voting results to the Secretary of State. Yet it did. The Secretary Raffensberger accepted and folded those uncertified numbers into Georgia's official total without questioning them. This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.

Now, the Department of Justice has filed suit against Georgia and a host of other states for voter information. The Trump administration has said this is part of its efforts to enhance election security ahead of 2026 and 28. And with these new revelations, we'll see if the administration puts even more scrutiny on Fulton County in particular. Well, fortunately, it sounds like Georgia has made significant efforts to clean up their systems. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Before you go, some programming notes. As we go into the Christmas holidays, we will be teaching.

changing up a few things. We won't have evening wires for the next couple of weeks, but no worries, we will continue to offer fresh content every morning. That includes our regular news show for the first half of this week, followed by some original interviews and special episodes. And as always, if there's any massive breaking news, we won't hesitate to drop a special episode. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news you need to know.