Morning Wire - Trump’s ‘Golden Age of America’ Begins | 1.21.25

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Trump vows to eliminate federal corruption in inaugural address, the 47th President makes good on promises regarding immigration reform, and hits the ground running with a flurry of executive orders. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. Acorns: Sign up now and join over 13 million all-time customers. Head to https://acorns.com/wire or download the Acorns app to get started. Babbel: Start learning a language today! Get up to 60% off subscriptions at https://Babbel.com/WIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump has inaugurated the 47th president of the United States and vows to weed out corruption and restore trust in the federal government. The golden age of America begins right now. It's tired of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world. From this moment on, America's decline is over. I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Tuesday, January 21st. And this is Morning Wire.

Trump takes sweeping action day one on his key promise, declaring a national emergency at the border, and deporting criminal illegal aliens. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. And a series of shock and awe executive orders look to transform the nation on everything from gender to free speech to energy. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. This episode is sponsored by Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future. You don't need to be rich or an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that matches you and your money goals. Sign up now and join the over 13 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over $22 billion with Acorns. Head to Acorns.com slash wire or download the Acorns app to get started. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns.

Tier 1 compensation provided. Investing involves risk. Acorn advisors LLC and SEC registered investment advisor. Do you important disclosures at Acorns.com slash wire. President Trump addressed the nation yesterday in his second inaugural speech, laying out his transformative vision for the next four years. Reporting from D.C. is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips, who braved the cold along with the rest of the Daily Wire team there. Hey, Cabot. So quite a day yesterday with Trump headlining not just the inaugural ceremony, but multiple events. First, what were the takeaways from the inauguration? Yeah, I experienced firsthand why they chose to move the ceremony indoors. It was absolutely frigid. I am still thawing out.

I met folks from around the country and world, for that matter, who would come to D.C. to celebrate and they certainly got their chance. The entire city felt like a giant Trump party, and because the ceremony was not on the national mall, impromptu viewing parties formed all across the city all day long. When Trump gave his inaugural address after taking the oath of office, he struck an optimistic but defiant tone, saying the golden age of America was about to begin. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any long. longer during every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our

government will end. Along with presenting that extremely optimistic view of the country's future under his administration, Trump also did not shy away from a key theme of his campaign, widespread government corruption. He vowed to immediately begin taking action to rip it out, root and stem. As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly incomplete. disrepair. We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same

time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders or, more importantly, its own people. And we should note that Trump supporters say the timing of that declaration could not be more appropriate. As the now former president, Joe Biden, a series of extremely controversial preemptive pardons in his literal final hour in office. Those included open-ended pardons for five members of his immediate family. Also among those pardons before any charges have been brought were Dr. Anthony Fauci, former U.S. Army General Mark Millie, and members of the J6 committee, including Liz Cheney

and Adam Kinsinger. There was a lot of blowback over those, but even more so over Biden's decision to pardon his own brother James and his wife, his sister Valerie and her husband, and his brother Francis. This all comes, of course, amid a number of allegations against the Biden's for corruption, as well as fears on the left that Trump will pursue charges. Right. Serious allegations they're now shielded from. Yeah. Now, Trump also laid out some of his key executive actions, which we'll get to next segment. But in his post-annogeral rally yesterday evening, he announced some pardons of his own. Tell us about that. Right. A lot of anticipation about how he would handle the January 6

pardons and Trump did not disappoint his base in his first moves on this. He announced to the crowd at the Capitol One Arena that he was about to sign some of his initial pardons of what he called the J6 hostages and teased a lot more to come. You know, tonight I'm going to be signing on the J6 hostages. Partons get them out. And as soon as I leave, I'm going to the Oval Office and we'll be signing pardons for a lot of people, a lot of people. As we reported, the Biden Minister, administration slapped over 1,400 people with charges and convicted more than 900. Trump has so far already signed pardons for all but a handful. He's commuted those final sentences and will do, quote, further research on them.

So we'll be tracking how he handles those cases going forward. Right. And one final note before we go, another memorable moment from the day came during the swearing in when the music in the venue malfunctioned right as Carrie Underwood was supposed to sing America the Beautiful. After a long, an awkward moment of confusion, Underwood stepped up with a beautiful Acapella rendition and the crowd joined in. Really a remarkable moment and day. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

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Spencer Lindquist. So Spencer, arguably Trump's biggest priority issue here. So as expected, we've seen a series of actions immediately on the border. First off, tell us what does this national emergency declaration actually do? This is a major step in his effort to secure the border. The declaration allows the executive branch to take some immediate action by enabling Trump to use the military, including both the armed forces and the National Guard, and they'll be able to construct physical barriers and repel migrant invasions. Trump previewed some of his immigration actions in his inaugural address yesterday. First, I will declare a national emergency. at our southern border.

We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. Now, yesterday you were on a press call with incoming White House officials where this issue was discussed. What did you learn?

Right. Some of these actions reinstate policies that Trump rolled out during his first administration. but others are completely new. Just like you heard there in his inaugural address, he will reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy from his first term. He'll also resume the construction of the border wall. In another big move, Trump brought an end to the CBP 1 app. That's the controversial app that allowed migrants to remotely schedule their asylum applications

and then easily entered the United States. In total, about 1 million migrants were allowed into the country under Biden through this program. And more than a quarter million of those are believed to have been inadmissible migrants that should have never been allowed in. So that program is now already gone under Trump. Now, so far, these were mostly campaign trail promises. What are some of the newer and possibly controversial orders? Right.

Some of these executive orders are much more wide-reaching and have the potential to totally transform the state of play on this issue. The new White House will attempt to end a birthright citizenship for illegal aliens, and that's an effort that's likely to be challenged in court. If it's successful, it alters the incentive structure behind illegal immigration. When I was on the border, ranchers and law enforcement told me stories of pregnant women who illegally entered the country and gave birth less than a mile into the United States, just so that their children would become American citizens. Trump is also designating cartels as terrorist organizations. The White House officials say that much of the folks will be on Trendy, Aragua, the violent Venezuelan gang that infamously took over apartment buildings in Colorado under the Biden administration.

Now, Trump's borders are Tom Homan laid out some of his week one priorities. What are those? That's right. Homan talked to Daily Wire's new White House correspondent, Mary Margaret O'Lean. Here's what he had to say. We're going to start the deportation operation focusing on criminals and public safety threats. And we're going to start looking for over 300,000 missing children. It isn't just Trump will be focusing on immigration, however. We exclusively reported last week that the Judiciary Committee's first hearing of the year will take place on January 22nd, and it'll be titled Restoring Immigration Enforcement in America.

It'll focus on the Biden administration's failures on the border and the steps that the Trump administration and the legislature can take to secure it. Well, clearly a very unified effort by Republicans on this issue. Spencer, thanks for reporting. Thank you. Trump wasted no time on day one, signing numerous executive orders in a matter of hours of his swearing-in ceremony. Here to discuss Trump's executive orders is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. So Amanda, we just heard about Trump's action on the border. that's arguably been his biggest priority.

What other issues has he addressed so far? Yeah, where to begin? Trump has signed executive orders, memos, and proclamations right away, and those targeted the gender issue, free speech, energy, TikTok, government weaponization, and he even renamed the Gulf of Mexico. Trump is no longer a Washington, D.C. rookie, and he's had four years to identify high-impact changes,

and that's what he's trying to do with these orders. Now, on gender, Trump officially defines sex as male and female. The order requires federal agencies to reflect biological sex and it bans gender marker changes on passports and IDs. It also aims to block taxpayer-funded gender transition treatments for federal prisoners while increasing privacy protections in women's spaces. And the order bans compelled speech in the form of preferred pronouns and government facilities, workplaces in schools. MorningWair spoke to Alliance Defending Freedom President and CEO Kristen Wagner about just how significant this order is in terms of putting the weight of the

federal government against these progressive policies. The difference here is they can no longer say that federal law requires this in terms of the agency action. And now the power of the federal government in all of the places that it shows up is actually on the opposite side of this fight. And in addition, the Trump administration can go a step further and it can deprive institutions as well as state governments of federal funding when they refuse to recognize biological reality and common sense. certainly that's been a major campaign issue. What else did the executive orders cover? Trump also signed an EO to, quote, immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. The Daily Wire has been particularly interested in this topic as we found ourselves specifically targeted by government entities for censorship. Also on the chopping block were federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and initiatives within the federal government.

The order will ask any equity initiatives that have been pushed under former President Biden, and it slashes so-called environmental justice programs. Here's Trump discussing that. I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. Additionally, Trump declared a national energy emergency. Those orders will allow more drilling in Alaska

and the electric vehicle mandate in lease. to wind farms, and it withdraws us from the Paris Climate Accords. It will also stop federal efforts to limit gas stoves and certain showerheads and dishwashers. Trump also took on the weaponization of the federal government, which was a major theme of his campaign for obvious reasons. This order directs Trump's AG to dig into government records to uncover any action that was taken to punish perceived political opponents. While obviously looking into numerous prosecutions of Trump himself,

the order will zero in on the Biden administration's apparent targeting of parents speaking out at school board meetings, the prosecution of more than 1,500 people associated with January 6th, and other Americans seemingly targeted over politics. Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And finally, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And he renamed Mount Denali, a mountain in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley. In 2015, President Obama had changed the name to Denali.

to reflect the Alaska native name, but Trump maintains that America should proudly embrace its own history. So again, that's very on theme with the Make America Great Again agenda. Amanda, thanks for reporting. You're welcome. Thanks for waking up with us.

We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.