Morning Wire - Trump Shuffles Pentagon & Cartel Terror Designation | 2.24.25

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

Trump reorganizes the Pentagon, cartels are officially dubbed terrorist organizations, and Trump tells Maine to get with the picture and stop letting men into women's sports. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Lumen: Head to http://lumen.me/WIRE for 20% off your purchase. Balance of Nature: Go to https://balanceofnature.com and use promo code WIRE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer PLUS get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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on the world entire. Trouvee de petitions like another. So, Amazon.com President Trump reshapes the Pentagon as he shows several top defense officials the door.

Why are the officials being removed and who's in line to take over? I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, February, 24th, and Mrs. Morning Wire. The Trump administration labels several cartels terrorist organizations as the border czar vows to wipe

them off the face of the earth. You have killed more Americans, every terrorist organization in the world combined. And the state of Maine is refusing to keep men out of women's sports, teeing up a major legal battle with Trump. Every state has a responsibility to comply with Title IX, and we'll be enforcing aggressively, and we're going to be protecting our citizens. Thank you for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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Take the next step in improving your health. Go to Lumen.combe. slash wire to get 20% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N. dot me slash wire to get 20% off your purchase. Thank you, Lumen for sponsoring this episode. This weekend, President Trump again shook up Washington after firing a number of top Pentagon officials,

including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it all down a Cabot. So the president has already removed the heads of numerous government agencies. Now he's made his way to the Pentagon. obviously a lot of scrutiny over this. What can he tell us? Yeah, Trump believes that his first term was held back

by government bureaucrats who weren't fully bought into his mission or were openly hostile to his worldview. He clearly feels institutional change can only take place if the people running those institutions are all in. As part of that effort,

the president this weekend removed three key figures at the Pentagon. Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Frenchetti, she was the Navy's top officer. Vice Chief of Staff, General Jim Slife, he was number two at the Air Force, and the big one,

chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown. All right, so several members of the top rest, most notably Brown. Exactly. So for context, the chairman serves as a top advisor to the president and SEC Def.

They serve a sort of a middleman, relaying information and concerns from the heads of each service branch. In a statement announcing the firing, Trump was surprisingly cordial, thanking General Brown for his 40 years of service, saying, quote, he is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader,

and I wish a great future for him and his family. He'll be replaced by Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Cain, who served most recently as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA. Now, under law, the chairman of the joint chiefs technically must have served as either the vice chairman, a service chief, or a combatant commander. Positions Kane has not held, but Trump can waive that requirement if he, quote, determines such action as necessary in the national interest. And clearly he feels it is.

Trump said Kane was integral in the destruction. of ISIS during his first term, and will quote, restore peace through strength, put America first, and rebuild our military. So what was the president's rationale for replacing Brown in particular? Well, he's long drawn the ire of Republicans who say he's been overly focused on DEI initiatives during his time as chairman. In the past, for example, he touted the fact that he, quote, purposely built his office with diversity as a core priority. He supported racial quotas for Air Force hiring, and he was a vocal supporter of Black Lives Matter throughout 2020. Here he is, for example, in a video posted following the death of George Floyd.

Most of my mentors could not relate to my experience as an African American. I'm thinking about the pressure I felt to perform error-free, especially for supervisors I perceived had expected less from me as an African-American. I think about having to represent by working twice as hard to prove their expectations and perceptions of African-Americans were invalid. Pete Hedgeseth had strong words for Brown last year, saying, quote, he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards. Now, for their part, Democrats across Washington said the move was supposedly fueled by racism.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of Trump, quote, for his administration, if you are black, qualifications don't matter. They only see people of color as DEI hires. Others on the left said Trump's Pentagon sweep reeked of authoritarianism. But Defense Secretary Hexeth was quick to point out the historical precedent for moving. like this. Here he is on Fox Sunday. Nothing about this is unprecedented. The president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who've made changes from FDR to

Eisenhower to H.W. Bush to Barack Obama who fired or dismissed hundreds of militaries during his term. There were six three and four star generals that were moved into different positions or retired on Friday night. Of 160, three and four star generals. This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take. So despite all the hand-wringing, Trump is really just doing what other presidents have done at this stage. Right. That is their argument. Well, the new administration taking shape more every week.

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The State Department officially designated eight international cartels as terrorist organizations last week, a move long sought by Donald Trump. Here to break down what the new designation means is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, practically speaking, what does it mean for the U.S. to approach these cartels as terrorist organizations? It's a big deal. One way to think about it is that these cartels, groups such as Venezuela's Trend de Aragua and Mexico's Halisco cartel, will now be treated similar. to al-Qaeda. Practically, that means more latitude to use tools such as sanctions and criminal charges. The biggest change, though, is that the U.S. can now crack down on people and organizations deemed to have given material support to the cartels, such as cash, a phone, or an apartment. That could be gangs that work with the cartels in the U.S. or it could be businesses that have

deals with the cartels outside of the country. Here's Borders'ar, Tom Homan, talking about it at CPAC last week. The other thing I said I stayed at the RNC that President Trump, is going to designate the criminal cartels of Mexico is a terrorist organization. He's going to wipe you off the face of the earth. So word out to anybody that assists them. Anybody sells your drugs on the street. Anybody assist these cartels in any way. You will help in a terrorist organization and the weight of the world is coming down on you.

The Trump administration has also ramped up its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels. According to the Los Angeles Times, the CIA has increased drone surveillance flights over Mexico. The U.S. officials said that those drones could easily be upgraded to carry lethal payloads. Now, Trump first raised doing this during his first term, and even before that, the Obama administration considered doing the same thing, but they backed off. Why have these administrations been hesitant up to now? Yeah, Mexico has always opposed the designation. President Claudia Shinebaum and before her, President Lopez Obrador were against it because they thought the designation could be destructive to Mexico's sovereignty.

There's a fear that the designation increases the likelihood that the U.S. could use military force against the cartels, many of which operate in Mexico. Now that it's done, though, it may force Mexico and other Latin American countries to take their cartel problems more seriously. You could see more countries act like El Salvador under Naïbe Buckele, and that could have some pretty drastic consequences. For instance, a crackdown on the cartels in Mexico could look a lot like a civil war, Like President Trump's executive order said, the cartels function as quasi-governmental entities

and control nearly all aspects of society in parts of Mexico. Now, how far is President Trump expected to go? Would he use the military? He hasn't ruled it out. Over the weekend, though, he seemed more focused on handling the cartels that were operating in the U.S. first. Here's Trump at CPAC. Their members and their leaders in the United States will be hunted down. I'm talking about MS-13.

they're hunting them down. We removed tens of thousands, MS-13, Tren D'Iragua, rooted out, arrested, and expelled from our soil like the savage monsters that they are. As he noted in his speech, he has sent more National Guard troops down to the border, in part to help defend it against the cartels. It's worth pointing out that the cartels are incredibly well-equipped. Reports say that cartels in Mexico have military-grade rocket launchers and grenades, and have even used submarines to smuggle drugs.

Well, a very dangerous adversary for sure. Tim, thanks for joining. Thanks for having me on. The state of Maine has gone to war with the White House over President Trump's executive order banning males from women's sports and spaces, with Governor Janet Mills threatening to take legal action

to allow boys in girls' sports. Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Olahan, who's been closely following these developments and reporting online for us. Hey, Mary Margaret. So this showdown has quickly escalated. Catch us up to speed if you would. Good morning, John. And hello from D.C. So as we've reported on Morning Wire, Donald Trump signed an executive order February 5th, banning men from women's sports and promising to revoke all funding from educational programs that deprive girls of fair athletic opportunities.

Now, Maine's Department of Education quickly said it would not comply with this, and Mayor days after Trump signed this executive order, as our Amanda Presto Giacomo reported, a high school boy who said he identifies as a girl took first place in the girls' poll vaulting at Maine's Class B state championship. And just one year earlier, this boy had competed as a male. The real drama began when Maine's Governor Janet Mills went to the White House on Friday for the governor's working session. Trump challenged the governor to her face for refusing to defend the integrity of women's sports.

Here's the audio of that moment. Are you not going to comply with it? I'm complying with state federal law. Well, we are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports.

So you better comply because otherwise you're, you better comply because otherwise you're You're not getting any federal funding. Every state, good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics. All right, so things getting pretty spicy there.

Yes, indeed. And the next day, a White House official told me that Jeremy Kennedy, the governor of Maine's chief of staff, melted down a White House director of intergovernmental affairs named Alex Meyer. My source says when Meyer told Kennedy that Maine needs to follow the law, Kennedy cursed at him allegedly saying, F you a-hole, and stormed out of the room. Now, the governor's office is denying to me that Kennedy cursed, but they did not deny that there is an altercation, and they also did not deny that he stormed out of the room.

Kennedy, who's worked in the past for Planned Parenthood and the human rights campaign, hasn't responded to my request for comment. And I should note that Maine House Republicans have called for an investigation into his behavior after we reported on his alleged meltdown, citing a quote, troubling pattern of intimidation and unprofessional conduct by Kennedy. I spoke with state rep Laurel Libby, and she explained to me that the state is completely controlled by Democrat lawmakers and that the governor's office is reportedly furious at our reporting. It's unacceptable for Mills to use our tax dollars in support of these extreme

policies, especially when our federal funding for Maine students is at risk. There's a simple solution, reverse course, remove boys from girls sports in Maine, and there will be no further to our state's federal funding. Okay, so lots of tension here. What's next in this fight? Well, Governor Mills released a statement on Friday night, declaring that if Trump pulls the funds, her administration in the state's AG will, quote,

take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. And I think it's worth pointing out that no school has ever actually lost federal funding due to a Title IX violation. They usually end up complying. Maine is set to receive a bystander. $175 million this year for the main Department of Education alone, and that's no small sum of money.

The state also does have a Human Rights Act that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. And so Mills and her allies say that she's upholding state law by allowing boys in girls' sports. As we've documented, this is an issue that Trump really leaned into during his campaign, and he knows that the majority of Americans are on his side, so I don't see him backing down for a second. It appears the ball is really in the governor of Maine's court interested to see what she does next. Mary Margaret, thanks so much for reporting. Thanks for having me. Another story we're tracking this week.

Trump is letting go another 2,000 USAID employees and putting all but a few of the thousands of personnel worldwide on leave. In a notice to employees sent over the weekend, the administration said that as of midnight, all USAID direct hire personnel with the exception of death. designated personnel responsible for mission critical functions, core leadership, and or special designated programs will be placed on administrative leave globally. The department has come under intense scrutiny as Doge has highlighted what it says is USAID's largely wasteful and leftist programs. Thanks for waking up with us. And if you liked what you heard this morning, share this episode with a friend.