Morning Wire - Trump's Call-To-Arms & California Bleeds Billionaires | 3.17.26

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

The war in Iran shifts focus from the skies to the seas, California loses its luster as locals exit en masse, and “homebrewed” hormone cocktails make their way to the States. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 2685- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsor:Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text 'WIRE' to 83848 to learn more.- - -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

As the war in Iran grinds on, the fight shifts from the skies to the seas. We strongly encourage other nations whose economies depend on the strait far more than ours to come and help us with the strait. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 17th. Happy St. Patrick's Day. And this is Morning Wire. A growing number of Californians plan their golden state exit, including even more billionaires. There's a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here. And experts sound the alarm over groups around the world mailing home-brewed hormone cocktails into the U.S.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Let me tell you about one of the most concerning threats to your free speech. One that our friends that allies defending freedom are tackling right now. It's called the Digital Services Act. It's an EU censorship law, but it's having real consequences for free speech all over the globe, including in the U.S.

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Visit join ADF.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to have your gift to protect free speech doubled. That's join ADF.com slash wire or text wire to 8348 to have your gift matched. As the war in Iran continues, President Trump is calling on allies and adversaries alike to help the U.S. reopened the crucial strait of Hormuz. Wired and live host Cabot Phillips is here to break down Trump's call to arms and how the world is responding. So Cabot, President Trump, addressed a variety of things in his press conference this week. What did we learn?

Well, first, at the start of the day, sent com offered a new update on the war effort, announcing that U.S. forces have now flown more than 6,000 combat missions, destroying more than 100 Iranian naval vessels, and further degrading the regime's missile stores and manufacturing capabilities. So there's no question that from a military standpoint this operation has been successful so far. But the biggest challenge remains the Strait of Hormuz, which is still effectively blocked. Numerous reports in the legacy media this week claimed that the White House was supposedly caught off guard by Iran's decision to close the strait.

But on Monday, the president and his team slammed those claims, saying the Pentagon was preparing for this reality from day one. Here's Trump. I knew about the strait that it would be a weapon. which I predicted a long time ago, predicted all of this stuff. Now, as you reported yesterday, President Trump also called on some of our allies to assist with reopening at the Strait of Hormuz. How have they responded? Well, so far, most countries have outright refused that call or been just noncommittal. Germany, Australia, and Japan, among others, said they had no plans to send any ships to the strait,

while France and the U.K. said they were, quote, exploring options to help open the strait. But for his part, President Trump once again insisted that help was on the way. though he declined to say who exactly was coming. Here he is, for example, responding to a question from Daily Wire White House correspondent, Mary Margaret Ollahan. I have to tell you, we have some that are really enthusiastic. They're coming already. They've already started to get there.

It takes a little while to get there. They should be jumping to help us, because we've helped them for years stay out of words. But look, to be frank here, the president's messaging on this call to arms has been a bit scattered. At times Monday, he expressed anger than more allies had not volunteered to join.

Why are we protecting countries that don't protect us? And I've always felt that was a weakness of NATO. And still again, at other points, he implied that his request for aid was simply a loyalty test. I'm almost doing it in some cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react. Now, what about diplomatic avenues? Has there been any attempt to end the war on those terms? Yeah, the White House is adamant that the one and only offer they'll take from Iran is unconditional surrender. They say the fighting will continue until then.

But there are reports that Iranian officials have been attempting to make some back-channel conversations work with the White House. But one issue complicating potential negotiations is that it's unclear who exactly is in charge right now with the regime. With the success of those U.S. strikes, scores of military leaders and government officials have been killed. And that's created a lot of diplomatic confusion. Here's President Trump elaborating on that point yesterday. We don't know who their leader is. We have people wanting to negotiate. We have no idea who they are.

And on the topic of Iranian leadership, there was a report Monday that turned more than a few heads in Washington. It's been widely known for years now that the late Ayatollah Ali Hameini was hesitant to name his son Mostaba as heir apparent. As CBS put at the elder Homanie was concerned about, quote, issues in Mostba's personal life. And now we might know why. According to a New York Post report, President Trump was briefed this week by senior officials who shared intelligence reports that Mostuba may be homosexual and engaged in an affair with a male-man. member of his family staff, reportedly a former childhood tutor. As one intelligence official put it, the allegation is credible and, quote, derived from one of the most protected sources that the government has. Now, some might question why this story really matters, but keep in mind,

homosexuality is entirely illegal in Iran, and the regime routinely executes those engaging in same-sex activity. So if true, this revelation could provide some leverage for the White House. Well, an unexpected wrinkle in this story. Cabot, thanks for reporting. 60% of the vans on Amazon come to vander independent like Sac Magic. Hello,

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different like on-o- on-o- Amazon.C. California has long enjoyed an image of glamour and prosperity. But in recent years, middle-class Californians are joining the

billionaires in fleeing the state. Here with more on the problems in the Golden State is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Bash and Morning Megan. So let's start big picture. We've reported for the last few years, data showing more people leaving California than moving there. First, is that still happening? Yeah, it is, John. It has slowed a little bit, but not much. And just to rattle off some numbers here for you. California lost roughly 200,000 residents last year alone. Now, Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration has played a role in that, as we have seen some California residents deported either willingly or unwillingly, but that has caused the state's population to go down somewhat, but that's not the key driver here.

What we're actually seeing is that for the first time in modern history, California has become a state that has consistently seen more people leaving than coming into the state. And so we're not talking about a temporary blip here. We're talking about the slowest population growth in California in the last 25 years. And it's not just families, John. Over the last several years, hundreds of companies have relocated their headquarters or major operations out of California. Some of the biggest names here include Tesla, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Chevrovers. The CEO of In-N-Out Burgers said that part of the reason that she was not necessarily entirely moving out of the state, but opening up a second headquarters in Tennessee was because of how she

feels that the state is being mismanaged. We love hearing about in and out moving here in particular. What is driving that? Why are people deciding to pack up and leave a state that was once considered the land of opportunity? Yeah, I mean, the biggest factor is cost of living. So housing in California is among the most. most expensive in the country at nearly 60% higher than the national average. For many middle-class

families, that kind of math just doesn't work. Then there's everyday expenses like gas, groceries, insurance. These are also significantly higher in California than just about any other state in the union. This was something that California Congressman Kevin Kiley addressed on Newsmax just last week. The state is importing gasoline from the Bahamas. If you can believe that, there's just a new regulation that might add another dollar to it. We have the highest electricity prices. It is just way too hard for folks to get by in California. Now, what Congressman Kylie didn't mention there is that there's also a new proposed billionaire tax to try to help shore up some of the state's chronic budget deficits that hit between

$50 and $70 billion over the last couple of years. So it would place a 5% state wealth tax on assets above $1 billion. And what that has done is driven a big tech exodus. So now we have seen Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergei Bryn, moving out. Other big names that are saying audios to California include people like Peter Thiel. And there are reports that Mark Zuckerberg is buying a property in Florida. And then this was a big one, John. Uber co-founder Travis Kalinick hinted that that tax is why he has also left Cali. On December 18th, I move. On December 18th, I move to Texas. Sure.

You know, I don't know what's so specific about December 18th, but let's just say it's prior to January. And it feels like the cultural influence of California just isn't what it once was either. The Oscars were on Sunday, and it feels like it went by largely unnoticed. Yeah, that was true for a lot of people. You know, as recently as a decade ago, we saw Oscar audiences that were drawing around 40 million plus. Now, they're at about half of that.

The ceremony is likely to become even less culturally significant once it moves over to YouTube in a few years. And on Sunday night, I would say that we saw even more reason that it's probably going to continue to lose audience. Once again, Hollywood indicated that they really don't care if they alienate half the audience, the part of the audience is Republicans. This is what Conan O'Brien said about Donald Trump, one of several jokes. We're coming to you live from the Has a Small P penis theater. Let's see him put his name in front of that. So another year, another bright neon reminder from Hollywood that they don't care if Republicans consume their content. And Republicans seem to have similar feelings.

Well, it's hard to see, you know, a once-beloved institution like Hollywood really fall off. And then a great state like California fail on so many levels. Megan, thank you so much for coming on. Yep, my pleasure. Online retailers from around the world are claiming to mail home. homemade hormone cocktails known as home brews into the U.S. Daily Wire investigative reporter Meg Brock is here to discuss the troubling trend that's been on the rise since the Trump administration has cracked down on child sex changes.

Meg, good morning. Good morning. So tell us about this new report. Yeah, this is very troubling. A Daily Wire investigation found that there are groups and individuals mixing these DIY homemade hormone cocktails known as homebrews and selling them online. Domestic and international leftist activists have been connected to these hormone homebrew operations around the U.S. And they're being purchased by trans-identifying individuals, some of whom may be teens who can't access the drugs legally.

Given that this is happening outside of the purview of the law, it's unclear as to exactly how widespread this problem is, but it's on the radar of medical watchdog organizations like Do No Harm. Is there data on who is buying this or where it's being shipped to? Yeah, it's very hard to trace because they're usually person. using cryptocurrency, but looking at the websites, it appears they are being shift without prescription or actual age verification. While many of the sites selling these products claim they don't sell to kids, the age verification process is often just a checkbox, kind of like a name it and claim it. Obviously, these unregulated drugs bring a host of safety concerns. Dr. Jared Ross, an expert

with do no harm, likened estrogen compounds to basement cooked meth, and noted you don't really know what you are getting with these home brews and how they might might. be contaminated. He also mentioned that pharmaceuticals which are meant for animals are being given to humans, which is very dangerous. Dr. Ross told us, quote, this is potentially some of the most dangerous because these are really industrial animal research compounds that are not intended for human use and are being used by humans. Now, is there a black market for gender transition drugs? And if so, do these drugs move through the street drug trade? These drugs are technically legal, so they don't always have to move in the same cloak and dagger ways as illicit drugs,

but certainly there are some very sketchy avenues. Dr. Ross says there are largely three main ways these drugs are bought and sold outside of the legitimate medical system. One is drug diversion, where legitimate prescriptions from doctors are resold or given to a person seeking the treatment. The other is the gray market, where drugs are sent into the U.S. without prescriptions. The third method is black market homebrew, where medications are synthesized and sold out of American homes. Aside from the additional risks of these homemade cocktails, Dr. Ross noted that taking any form of cross-sex hormones carries a high level of risk. For example, estrogen is the main drug being sold, and it comes with a host of risks. Putting men on estrogen can lead to

significant increases in a variety of cancers, as well as stroke and other blood clot-related injuries, all which can be deadly. Well, it's very clear these activists, are determined, and these entrepreneurs want to keep this medicine racket going. Meg, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. And for those listening to the show, you can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire Plus. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.