Morning Wire - Trump’s Economic Line & Minnesota Tactic Shift | 1.28.26

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

President Trump touts his first-year economic wins as U.S. allies make trade deals behind the scenes, the White House switches things up in Minnesota, and another government shutdown looms as Senate Dems hold up a funding bill. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. As hundreds of thousands remain affected by this week’s winter storm, Morning Wire is coming to you as audio-only. We look forward to coming back to video as soon as safely possible! - - - Ep. 2603 - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsors: Goldbelly - Go to https://goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code WIRE. HelloFresh - Go to https://HelloFresh.com/morningwire10fm to get 10 free meals + a FREE Zwilling Knife (a $144.99 value) on your third box. Offer valid while supplies last. - - - 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

President Trump touts his first-year economic wins in a rally in Iowa as U.S. allies look elsewhere for trade deals. Under my leadership, economic growth is exploding to numbers unheard of, and we're just getting started. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Hal. It's Wednesday, January 28th. This is Morning Wire. The White House is recalibrating their approach in Minnesota, shifting both personnel and rhetoric on the unrest. Mr. Holman has been working alongside Secretary Noem, and again, he's uniquely positioned to continue this correspondence with state and local authorities, and that's what he's going to be doing. And the countdown to another shutdown is on as Senate Democrats hold up a House-passed budget bill over Homeland Security funding. I hate shutdowns. I'm one of the people that help negotiate the end of the last shutdown, but I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding out of these circumstances. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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So let's start with the president's address in Iowa yesterday. What did we hear from him? Yeah, as we've talked about on the show, Trump has been traveling the country in recent months, really working to convince the American people that he is making progress on the economy. While the president himself won't be on the ballot again, he's essentially campaigning for Republican control of the Senate come November. And Iowa Senate seat is going to be up for grabs. So these speeches are basically campaign stops and tell us a lot about the message we're going to hear from the GOP over the next nine months.

It always comes back to the midterms. It really does, John. Now, remember, polling shows that most Americans are still pessimistic about the state of things, economically speaking, and the White House is convinced that it's all just a messaging problem. So here is the message that President Trump is going with. Just after one year of President Trump, our economy is booming, incomes are rising, investment is soaring, inflation has been defeated. Our border is closed, totally closed. And America is respected all over the world. Now, as expected, the president remains bullish on his tariff policies, which he says are just now starting to really pay dividends. Have a listen. We recently issued $12 billion in farm relief. We gave him far because you were screwed by other countries.

I said, how much is the number to our great secretary of agriculture, Brooke Rollins? She's doing a great job. I said, Brooke, what's the number? And she said, $12 billion. And I wrote a check for $12 billion because we have so much. money from the tariffs coming in. So you couldn't have done that before. We're a rich country now. Now, on that topic, we've seen some major developments abroad in response to Trump's tariffs. Let's get into that. What's going on? Right. Since beginning the White House, Trump has used tariffs to spur

domestic manufacturing, open up new markets for American products, and importantly, reduce our reliance on China. He says, for national security purposes, and more broadly, to send a message that we're not going to be bullied by their unfair trade policies. Well, amid this ongoing trade war, much of Europe now considers the U.S. a trade adversary, and they're basically looking to do the same thing, except in this scenario, we are there China. Remember, the EU is furious with Trump over his hardball tactics on Greenland, NATO funding, the war in Ukraine, and tariffs. He's essentially told them, we're the number one economy, you need us. If you don't like the deals I'm offering, go find another partner. And now the EU is trying to do just that. On

Tuesday, the European Union announced the framework of a massive trade deal with India, the world's most populous nation. That agreement will eliminate or greatly reduce nearly all tariffs between the two sides, mostly on agricultural products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. It'll also allow Europe to finally sell their cars on the Indian market. EU head Ursula Vandrelane called this the, quote, mother of all deals. Here she is on Tuesday with some comments that a lot of people viewed as veiled shots at Trump. The European Union and India are natural strategic partners, because we have so much in common. Pluralism and respect for human dignity is at our core.

But we respect this diversity. Unity in diversity is the motto on your side and on our side. Bondoland went on to say that, quote, India and Europe have made a clear choice, the choice of strategic partnership, dialogue, and openness. we are showing a fractured world that another way is possible. Again, maybe a vilt shot there at Trump. Now, for Europe, while this deal is massive, it still reportedly only makes up for about a quarter of export losses

caused by American tariffs. But again, it's clear proof that they are trying to find other dance partners besides the U.S. Right. And as we've been tracking, the EU isn't the only ally of the U.S. who's taking this approach. I'm talking about Canada. Of course, tell us about what's going on there. Yeah, China has been open about their desire to take advantage of this trade war

and the volatility it might be causing and use it as a chance to cozy up with Western nations who are frustrated with the U.S. And it looks like Canada is now willing to take them up on the offer. This month, Prime Minister Mark Carney traveled to Beijing for a series of meetings

with Xi Jinping and emerged with a, quote, strategic partnership that will lower tariffs between the two countries and open up the Canadian market for cheap Chinese electric vehicles. As you can imagine, outraged Trump who accused the Canadians of violating the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement,

He responded by threatening them with additional 100% tariffs. Trump told us for years now that his favorite word is tariffs, so not surprised to see that response. Yeah, exactly. Kevin, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. Start the new year with meals that actually make you feel good. Our sponsor, HelloFresh, takes the stress right out of cooking so you can enjoy delicious

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and GLP-1-friendly options, all made with wholesome ingredients like sustained, sourced seafood, and 100% antibiotic in hormone-free chicken. And when it comes to taste, HelloFresh knocks it out of the park with steak and seafood options. Go to Hellofresh.com slash MorningWire 10 FM to get 10 free meals and a free is willing knife on your third box. Offer only valid while supplies last. Free meals applied as a discount on first box. New subscribers only varies by plan. President Trump is shuffling his personnel and changing his administration's message after the death of Alex Preddy in Minneapolis. But he remains committed to deporting dangerous illegals in Minnesota. Here to talk about the latest

on the pushback from Minnesota to President Trump's immigration agenda is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, President Trump seems to be attempting a reset of sorts here. What's he doing? Yeah, the president is moving around his personnel on immigration. And as our immigration reporter, Ginny Tehr reported yesterday, that seems to be about a change in approach to deportations. The president had a two-hour meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem as part of this restructuring. Here's Jenny with the latest. As President Trump looks to shift his strategy on mass deportations, Noam is facing criticism for making immigration raids more aggressive and for appearing to get ahead of the investigation

into the fatal shooting of Freddie by calling him a domestic terrorist and suggesting he showed up armed to massacre federal agents. Some congressional Democrats, including moderate Democratic Senator John Federman, have called on Trump to oust know him. Trump, however, appears to be standing his ground, listen to his response to the mounting pressure. I think he's doing a very good job. I think he's doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget, we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Trump's border czar Tom Homan has started to get settled and meet

with state and local officials, including Governor Tim Walls, and they agreed to an ongoing dialogue over continued federal immigration operations. And now, as we've already reported, this really blew up because of the death of Alex Predi, who we've since learned may have had a previous run-in with law enforcement. What do we know about Predi's history? Right. According to CNN, Preddy was known to federal officers already. A week before his fatal confrontation with Border Patrol, Preddy was involved in a prior violent confrontation with federal officers. He actually broke a rib after officers tackled him while he was protesting

or obstructing immigration enforcement while they attempted to arrest an illegal alien. The Department of Homeland Security, though, has said it has no record. of the incident. Now, on the ground in Minnesota, tensions seem to be about as high as ever with a very large crowd of protesters invading the state Capitol building yesterday. What do we know about that incident? It was a pretty wild sight. Demonstrators crowded into the state capital to protest against ICE. Here's what that sounded like. And this came after walls and the federal government seemed to be reaching toward an agreement of some sort. But if this is any indication, it doesn't appear that Minnesota's anti-ice activist community will be okay with anything short of a complete stop to federal immigration operations in the state.

Now, a federal judge in Minnesota has demanded that the head of immigration and customs enforcement appear in court later this week. The judge himself admits this is a, quote, extraordinary step. And the order suggests that acting ICE director Todd Lyons could be held in contempt. Why is this judge so upset with Todd Lyons? Right. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said that the Trump administration violated a court order to give illegal aliens due process. The judge wrote in a three-page order, quote, this court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result. This judge was irritated about one case in particular, that of Juan Hugo to buy Robles. Tobai Robles is from Ecuador and he has lived in the U.S. illegally for the past 30 years. ICE officers with an arrest warrant detained him on January 6th, but Judge Schultz said that he must be released because he was not first served a notice to appear. Now, this seems pretty similar to other suits that we've seen. Is this a unique case?

No, not really. The Tobai Robles case is just one of many over the government's policy of mandatory detention, which is an expansive read on the executive's authority to detain and deport. report illegal immigrants. Under previous administrations, illegal aliens who have been in the U.S. for a long time have been given more due process. But the Trump administration says that that's an arbitrary choice and one not required by federal law since these aliens, no matter how long they've been in the country, should still be considered applicants for admission. The administration has taken a similar approach to illegals who have had prior deportation orders. In some of those cases, the deportation orders are years old, or the aliens' home country has refused to take them back, which has created some complications. But the administration says that its due

process requirements, regardless, have already been fulfilled. So an open legal question for the courts to decide now. Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. In Washington, we're inching closer to a partial government shutdown on Friday as the Senate debates funding for Homeland Security. Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcand has more details on this developing situation. Morning Cameron. So what can we expect to see this week? So funding for the federal government is expected to expire on Friday, but the problem is that the House is out of town this week because they already approved those spending bills and sent them to the Senate. Now, since the shooting that we saw in Minneapolis over the weekend, the tone has

definitely shifted a little bit, and Dems want a shutdown over DHS funding because they want strings attached to it. Now, Fox News reported that the bills could go up for votes in the Senate on Thursday, and there could be some sort of negotiations hashed out, but it is not looking good right now, meaning we could very well be seeing a partial government shutdown headed into this weekend. All right, so we could see votes as early as tomorrow. Have there been any negotiations at this point? Well, things are looking bleak, and it's simply because there's a debate over whether or not that funding should be included and lumped in with other funding bills that already exist. Keep in mind if there was changes made to this DHS funding, it would then have to go back to the House.

Now, you have Democrats like Elizabeth Warren calling for the bill to be separated so that way they can place restraints on ICE and border patrol, as you have people like Federman and House Democrats wanting for Secretary Nome to be fired. That wouldn't necessarily be a leverage point for a shutdown, but we could see something like that emerge. On the flip side, you have people like Senate Republican Conference Chair, Tom Cotton. warning against a mob veto saying this is not going to fly, especially when we see that, you know, the House already approved these bills, and that can make this debate even messier and drag out longer. Right. Now, a lot of critics have said that stopping DHS funding would be pointless and potentially

just create other issues. Tell us about that argument. Yes, so sources I've talked with at DHS and the White House have said that a lot of this would really be impacting funding to FEMA and TSA. say, because the big catchier about this debate and why the Democrats want to use this right now to put restrictions on ICE, even though a lot of that funding for Trump's immigration agenda happened under the one big beautiful bill act. That was already approved. So the massive funding of ICE officers and some of the stuff with the border wall and all that, that was already approved. So using this is a way to see if there could be restrictions put in place. by essentially using those other agencies at this point as a leverage.

Now, there have been bipartisan calls for an investigation into the shooting that we saw in Minneapolis, but we're seeing on the House side and in the Senate site some potential restrictions being floated on some of these immigration operations, such as stopping masking. It's unclear if any of this would have any success at this point. But as we head into a pretty serious shutdown battle, you know, we saw one last year. It will be interesting to see what ends up coming out of it. Yeah, well, we'll be watching very closely in these coming days. Cameron, thank you so much for reporting.

Thank you. Before we sign off, a programming note. As some of you have noticed, we've not been able to do video this week. That is because of the winter storm that's come through Nashville. But no worries, we will be coming back to video as soon as conditions permit. And we will be back this evening with more news you need to know on Evening Wire.