Morning Wire - Trump-Macron Ukraine Meeting & Colony Ridge Raided | 2.25.25

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Trump and Macron discuss Ukraine, Colony Ridge gets raided by ICE, and Apple refuses to let the UK spy on its users. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Jeremy’s Razors: Visit https://jeremysrazors.com to get your Precision 5 Razor + Precision 5 Razor Box today. Shopify: Go to https://Shopify.com/morningwire to sign up for your $1 per month trial period and upgrade your selling today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The conditions can't apply. President Trump meets with French President Macron in the Oval Office about ending the Ukraine war. We're working on deals right now, in particular. The big one is to get the war stopped. How did the meeting go and will Ukraine pay the U.S. back for the aid given? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, February 25th, and this is Morning Wire.

Federal and state agents team up to raid illegal immigrant haven Colony Ridge. For years, Colony Ridge was a no-go zone for federal ICE agents and federal officers. Today, that is not the case. It is a go-zone. And Apple pledges a $500 billion investment in the U.S. and refuses to spy on its users. This is a British government asking a American company to undermine the privacy and security of users who might not even be American or British. It's a very bizarre situation. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.

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You get 20% off to do it. Great men shave boldly. Get 20% off now at jeremy's raisers.com. On the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Donald Trump hosted French president, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss Europe's role in ending the conflict. Daily Wire, senior editor, Cabot Phillips, is here with more. So, Cabot, Trump hosted Macron at the White House yesterday, but just last week, Macron convened a meeting of European leaders about how to handle Trump. So how did yesterday's meeting go?

Yeah, it's definitely worth noting the meeting. comes at a tumultuous time for America-Europe relations. But on Monday, Macron, who in the past has called Trump brain dead, struck a much friender tone, calling him a personal friend and commending him for working on a deal to end the war. Trump, for his part, called McCrone a very special man in my book and assured him that any peace deal would benefit Europe. Now, one of the president's biggest gripes with Europe is that they have not done enough to fund their own defense as well as Ukraine's. But on Monday, Macron said he and other leaders were ready to step up. Europe is willing to step up, to be a stronger partner,

to do more in defense and security for its continents. As part of that effort, Macron said he and other European leaders would be willing to send troops to Ukraine to serve as peacekeepers once a deal is presumably reached. Russian President Vladimir Putin had initially expressed opposition to the idea of more European boots on the ground than Ukraine, but Trump said Monday that Putin would accept those terms. Yeah, he will accept.

I've asked him that question. If we do this deal, he's not looking for war war. He doesn't mind. But I've specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with him. Well, and Trump also says that he's close to a deal with Ukraine that would offer some economic reparations. What's the latest there? Yeah, Trump says once a deal is reached with Moscow, the Ukrainians must find a way to pay the U.S.

back for the $100 billion plus dollars we've poured into protecting them. He wants access primarily to the country's vast oil and mineral reserves. along with the cut of revenue from future energy deals there. Zelensky was initially opposed to that idea, saying, quote, I cannot sell our country. But now he's apparently on board as long as the U.S. will offer Ukraine security guarantees in the future. Trump says the final agreement there could be signed as early as this week. I will be meeting with President Zelensky.

In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement. So the agreement's being worked on now. They're very close to a final deal. For more on that deal, I spoke with Nile Gardner, a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher and current fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Such an agreement, if it is struck, would be beneficial to both the United States and to Ukraine. This would also, in my view, enhance the long-term security of the Ukrainian people. So the more U.S. investment there is in Ukraine, I think the better it is for the future of Ukraine. Now, switching gears, another topic that Trump brought up at Monday's meeting was that much-discussed email to federal employees.

What did he have to say on that front? Yeah, for those who missed it over the weekend, tens of thousands of federal workers began receiving an email from the Office of Personnel Management, asking them to justify their employment by listing off what they had accomplished the previous week. Those emails came with the subject line, What did you do last week? And read, please reply to this email with approximately five bullets of what you accomplished last week, and CC your manager.

That message came shortly after an ex post from Elon Musk saying, quote, failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. Now, Democrats expressed outrage at the email saying it was a form of intimidation against the federal workforce, but Trump stood by it. I thought it was great. By asking the question, tell us what you did this week. What he's doing is saying, are you actually working? And then if you don't answer, like, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired,

because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist. It's worth noting there were a number of agencies which directed their employees not to respond, including the Defense Department, State Department, and FBI. New Director Cash Patel sent a bureau-wide email telling employees to, quote, pause any responses, saying they'll handle reviews internally. Trump says those working on confidential matters like the FBI and State Department would be exempt. All right. Well, Cabot, thanks for reporting. Anytime.

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Shopify.com slash morning wire. Several federal and state agencies rated the Colony Ridge Housing Development on Monday. The development is known for catering to illegal immigrants by offering loans with no U.S. documentation. Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist who's been reporting on Colony Ridge for over a year now is here with the details, Spencer. So tell us a bit about Abbott's announcement yesterday. So Abbott announced yesterday that the Department of Homeland Security and the Texas Department of Public Safety were teaming up in a joint operation targeting the development. The governor wrote on X yesterday that, quote, Colony Ridge is being targeted, adding that, quote, Texas DPS troopers and special agents are assisting Homeland Security investigations with an operation in Colony Ridge.

And to remind listeners, Colony Ridge is a massive land development just north of Houston, and it's been extensively reported on here at the Daily Wire. The development covers roughly 60 square miles, and we've reported that it systematically attracts illegal aliens through its marketing and shady financial tactics. Abbott also said that he had worked on the operation. with Borders Tsar Tom Homan for months and noted that criminals and illegal aliens would be targeted in the raids. What's brought this action to a head now? Colony Raid has been under a lot of scrutiny for some time now, particularly since we visited the development and released our first investigation on it in September of 2023.

The development encourages people to, quote, own land in the United States and allows buyers to purchase property by using a taxpayer identification number rather than a social security number, a clever loophole if you're looking to attract illegal aliens. Their strategies have come under scrutiny and even provoked lawsuits from the Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. But there's no denying that the development's tactics have sparked rapid growth. And the development has also attracted numerous criminals into the area, with many being caught in the last month. Tell us about that, the criminal activity that we've seen there recently.

There's been a long list of illegal alien crimes in the development. Two illegal alien murder suspects who were wanted by the international police for murder were both caught living there, and a Guatemalan human smuggler, who the Fed say was responsible for a mass casualty event, had purchased multiple properties at the development. Colony Ridge CEO, John Harris, just recently claimed that crime is a non-issue at the development. And then days later, three illegal aliens were arrested, resulting in a major drug bust. Law enforcement found that the previously deported illegal alien had 344 pounds of meth stashed away in a trailer at his Colony Ridge property.

And just before that bust, an illegal alien pled guilty. to luring a woman into the development before shooting and killing her, along with two accomplices. Todd Benzman is a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, and he told me that these raids are particularly significant, given that the area had previously been under-policed. Here's what Benzman had to say. I think that the obvious immediate impact is that illegal aliens are not going to be as interested in buying and investing in that area. If they know that there's a pretty good chance that ICE is going to be lurking around and pick them up and send them home. Now, you've reported

on some developments on the legislative front. What's the latest there? So the area surrounding Colony Ridge is represented in the Texas State House by Representative Janice Holt. She took the seat of Ernest Bales, who was ousted by voters in the primary after we reported on its financial ties to Colony Ridge. Representative Holt recently introduced legislation that would allow the state government to more accurately document land sales. And that bill could help officials track foreign nationals and illegal aliens who purchased Texas land. Spencer, thanks for reporting. We'll definitely have you back on as more details come to light on those reds. Thank you for having me. Apple has pulled its most advanced security feature from the UK market after the British government demanded the company create backdoor access to user data.

Meanwhile, the company is pledging to spend $500 billion on American manufacturing, in part to avoid Trump's tariffs on products made outside the U.S. Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham is here now with more. So, Megan, let's start with the U.K. government pushing Apple to give them access to user data. What specifically were they asking for? Yeah, you know, that was quite something because we're talking about an unprecedented request here, something that really no other Democratic nation has demanded. Essentially, what happened is two years ago, Apple introduced a new ICloud feature for iPhone users, known as Advanced Data Protection, ADP. And what it does is it allows users to encrypt really almost anything they upload to iCloud.

That includes messages, notes, photos, iPhone backups, things like that. ADP renders all of that indecipherable to anyone who isn't the user. But then last month, according to whistleblowers, the British government asked Apple to create a backdoor mechanism to allow them to bypass that encryption in order to access the private user data and, in fact, data that even Apple isn't able to access. And what's key here is that UK officials were not just requesting the right to spy on their own citizens, but this demand included the ability to retrieve content that any Apple user anywhere in the world had uploaded to the ICloud. And that means they were asking to see data of other countries' users without informing the governments of those nations.

Now, this request was reportedly made last month, but Apple hadn't disclosed it until a few days ago when they announced that they weren't going to comply because they say that once a backdoor like this exists, it's only a matter of time before bad actors beyond government agencies learn how to use it. Now, that said, Apple did state that they were dropping the ADP feature from users in the UK, and sources told the New York Times that Apple is hoping that will convince British officials to drop. their demand. Apple put out a statement saying that they are gravely disappointed that they won't be able to offer the security feature to British customers. And they added, quoting here, as we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products and we never will. Now, have British officials come out and said anything one way or the other? You know, only in the sense of saying that they're not going to comment. So the British Home Office, which is the department that oversees national security, told the BBC,

We do not comment on operational matters. So they wouldn't confirm or deny that they made this request of Apple. But if you happen to be listening to us in the UK right now, what this means for you is that you won't have access to ADP. New users won't be able to get it. And there have already been reports that British users who had it are now seeing error messages when they try to open it up. So a little bit of a frosty relationship with the UK government for Apple.

But it sounds like the company is actually warming up to the Trump administration. Tell us about the movement there. Yes. So I think just as we've seen with all the other tech titans like Jeff Bezos, like Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, is now taking friendly meetings with the president. So much so yesterday, President Trump announced that Apple is planning to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years. That money is going to go to hiring 20,000 new workers and to new manufacturing facilities across the country. Yesterday I had Tim Cook in the office from Apple. He's investing hundreds of billions of dollars. I don't know. I hope he's announced it. Hope I didn't announce this. But what the hell?

All I do is tell the truth. That's what he told me. Now he has to do it, right? So it's so good. But he's investing hundreds of billions of dollars and others too. We're going to have a lot of chip makers coming in, a lot of automakers coming in. They stopped two plants in Mexico. They were under construction, starting construction. they just stopped them, they're going to build here instead because they don't want to pay the tariffs. Cook called this Apple's largest ever spend commitment, and he said his company is bullish on the future of American innovation. Well, no doubt there will be some lucky states getting new facilities and new jobs. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime.

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