Morning Wire - Trump’s Good and Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis | 5.5.25

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

U.S. job growth fuels a market rebound with all major stock indexes on the rise, President Trump announces an end to taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS, and political unrest brews in Canada despite a fresh Liberal Party election win. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. 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. ZocDoc: Find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Visit https://Zocdoc.com/WIRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Look, Air Canada F.A. Canada, a sold Worldial. Super, an offer for the assort. Station Thermal,

Volcan. Parlant of Volcan. You've seen the price for Japan? Mepargue and sushi. Wow,

the sold are good for Mayork also. We could go to the beach and make a a

long march on the sea-sile. Mm, I'd adore the canol the carol I'm

a lot. DECDiv this sold is a new unurred limited, reserved to RKanda

com or to your agent of voyage. The conditions can President Trump takes a victory lap as the economy shows signs of improvement. The good parts of the Trump economy and the bad parts of the Biden economy because he's done a terrible job.

He did a terrible job on everything. I'm Georgia Howe. John Bickley is off today. It's Monday, May 5th, and this is Morning Wire. NPR and PBS threaten legal action after Trump ends their taxpayer funding. There will be a shrinking of the system. Will it die? Absolutely not. And is Canada's new liberal government already showing signs of weakness? Canada is in crisis. Mark Carney is in, but the country is on the edge. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Hey guys, producer Brandon here. Balance of nature, fruits and veggies provide a convenient way to get your daily whole fruits and vegetables. Using a special freeze drying process, they transform fresh produce in the easy-to-take capsules that you can bring anywhere. While not replacing a healthy diet, balance. The Balance of Nature works alongside your other healthy habits to support your wellness journey. I take these capsules whenever I'm traveling to ensure I get my daily fruits and veggies. Head to Balance of Nature.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. That's Balance of Nature.com promo code Wire. After a tumultuous month, stocks are rallying following a better than expected jobs report and optimism about trade deals. Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips joins us. now to discuss. So Cabot, Wall Street, has had a wild few weeks. Where did things stand now? Yeah, wild to say the least. After a tough few weeks, markets have now taken a bullish turn. On Friday, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all jumped about a point in a half. The S&P saw its ninth straight day of gains.

That's its longest winning streak in 20 years. Overall, the Dow is now within 2% of where it was when Trump kicked off his Liberation Day tariffs. and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ are actually higher than they were before. Now, markets have been fickle. There's always a good chance those gains are erased in a day or two, but there's no doubt this is a remarkable recovery we've seen. And the administration is touting this as a success. Yeah. So what caused that turnaround?

So first, the April jobs report came out Friday and showed a lot more growth than we'd expected. Initially, economists had predicted there'd be 133,000 jobs added in April. But that number came in at 177,000. So 33% higher. than expected. Unemployment also held steady and hourly wages saw a 4% increase from the same month last year. So all good news for investors. And zooming out, it's worth noting who exactly those jobs are going to. Remember, under President Biden, foreign-born workers added nearly

four-and-a-half million jobs. But for that same four-year time frame, the number of American-born workers actually fell. So all of the net job growth from 2021 to 2024 in the U.S. was concentrated among folks born outside of the U.S. But in April, the number of foreign-born workers decreased, meaning all of the net job growth we saw last month was among American-born workers. And it was also concentrated in the private sector. As government employment declined for its third straight month,

you can see Doe's really kicking the gear. So it sounds like employers are hiring despite the tariffs. Yeah, at least more than we were expecting. And it's Americans, it looks like. Yes, exactly. Now, there's also been some movement on the China front. What's happening there? So at the start of last week, China was projecting a clear willingness to dig in for a long trade war and weather the economic storm.

They were trying to force the U.S. to blink first. The Communist Party said they were prepared to increase payouts for the unemployed, subsidized new housing projects, and incentivize their own people to buy more domestic products. But on Friday, we saw our first real sign that Beijing was open to de-escalation, with the country's commerce ministry saying, quote, if the U.S. wants to talk, our door is wide open. As a sign of that new willingness to strike a deal, the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing is weighing a potential crackdown on fentanyl production as a show of goodwill to the U.S.

They've also been reaching out for details from the White House on what they're looking for. Remember, China produces the vast majority of the chemicals used in making fentanyl. They then ship it over to Mexico and other countries where it is trafficked in by cartels and others. Investors took that report as evidence that Beijing was looking for an off-ramp and markets responded accordingly. Here's Trump speaking to Chinese tariffs on Meet the Press Sunday. At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise you could never do business with them. And do they want to do business very much.

Look, their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing. But it hasn't been all good news on the economic front. What are some of the concerning signs that came out of that jobs report? Yeah, it's certainly been a mixed bag on the economic front. Those labor numbers did show that the median duration of unemployment for those out of work rose last month, while consumer spending dipped from 4% last quarter to 1.8% this quarter. So folks getting a little tighter with their money.

And most concerning, we learned that last week, the U.S. economy shrank in quarter one by 0.3%. That is the first quarterly contraction we've seen since 2021. That decline was driven by a surge in imports, as American companies were rushing to try and bring in as many goods as possible before Liberation Day took place. And typically a higher ratio of imports to exports leads to a falling GDP. Now, for his part, President Trump continued to express optimism that this is a minor disruption for a major economic revolution.

Here he is again Sunday. Stock market, look at what's happened in the last short period of time. Didn't it have nine or ten days in a row or eleven days where it's gone up? And the tariffs have just started kicking in. And we're doing really well psychologically. I mean, the fake news was giving me such press on the tariffs. tariffs are going to make us rich. We're going to be a very rich country. And while we're talking about Wall Street, we have to mention the legendary investor Warren Buffett

did announce his retirement this weekend. He'll be stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. The 94-year-old says he'll still be hanging around, but we'll pass his responsibilities to Greg Abel. We'll now take over the trillion-dollar investment fund. So big shoes to fill. Well, and Buffett has been famously anti-tariff, so we'll have to see if his last predictions come true. Yeah. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely. We've all been there. The nagging pain or persistent symptom that we know probably deserves medical attention, but somehow we keep putting it off. Luckily, Zock Doc is there to help. Zoc Doc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors and click to instantly book an appointment. They connect you with over 100,000 doctors across every specialty. And you can easily filter for physicians who accept your insurance, practice near you, specialize in your specific needs, and come highly recommended by verified patients.

Stop putting off those doctor appointments and go to Zockdoc.com slash wire to find it instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's ZOC-D-O-C dot com slash wire. Zock-Doc dot com slash wire. President Trump signed an executive order Thursday defunding public broadcasting giants NPR and PBS. Both outlets are promising to fight the order in court. Joining us with the details is Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, first, why is Trump pulling funding from these organizations? Well, you know, President Trump has made it very clear for some time that he's no fan of public broadcasting.

Just recently, he posted that Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS, the radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country. So close quote, of course, there. And he said that taxpayer funding of media networks is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. Well, on Thursday, he made. made that policy official. The president signed an executive order to eliminate about 535 million annually to NPR and PBS and other public media. But in a statement Friday, Patricia Harris, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, immediately shot back at this, saying that the company is not subject to the president's authority. She says Congress authorized the funding so only Congress can end it.

Paula Kerger, president of PBS, also put out a statement. She called Trump's order blatantly unlawful. This is what she told PBS News Hour last week. This is probably the most difficult and serious threat in the time that I've been in public broadcasting, this idea that funds that had already been put aside for public broadcasting would be taken away. One of PBS's star personalities, writer David Brooks, has also been out defending his employer. This is what he said Friday.

If you think PBS is biased, compared to who? Name one news organization in America, and I shouldn't be defending us. I get paid by PBS, but I'm going to do it. Who's more straight down the line than we are? Both PBS and CPB say that they are going to pursue all legal options to block Trump's order. So both threatening legal action. Now, NPR's CEO, Catherine Marr has kind of been the public face of Republicans' argument for defunding. What is she saying? Yeah, and the administration and its allies have really zeroed in on her past statements, like a 2018 ex post that called Donald Trump a racist. Now, she later deleted that, but in 2022, in a TED talk, she also suggested that a reverence for the truth can be a distraction from positive social change.

So I would say that she's not as out front as the others, likely because of her past public comments and associations. but she also put out a statement indicating that NPR is going to fight this in court. Now, besides Mar's comments, what other evidence is the administration pointing to to demonstrate liberal bias? You know, I would say that maybe the most noteworthy item here is Uri Berliner. He exposed NPR's dismissal of the Hunter Biden laptop story and its focus on diversity initiatives over balanced reporting. So Berliner's suspension after his whistleblowing especially fueled that feeling that NPR has been silencing non-leftist voices. This is what he told the free press last year.

I think after a while we started covering Trump in a way that, like a lot of legacy news organizations, that we were trying to damage his presidency. So no doubt, a lot of that evidence is going to end up in court. Well, it'll be very interesting to see how the courts rule. Megan, thanks for reporting. My pleasure. Election season may be over in Canada, but the political drama is just beginning. Last week, Mark Carney led his Liberal Party to a stunning comeback, but fell just short of a majority.

Joining us to make sense of Canada's politics is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So, Tim, what can we learn from Canada's election results? Hey, Georgia, the Liberal Party of Canada has been in power for nearly 10 years. Last week, marked their fourth consecutive win with Mark Carney as prime minister. But they aren't nearly as popular as that showing would lead you to believe. Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was so unpopular that he had to be. to step down to avoid a total electoral blowout. And the liberal surge in the polls happened around the same time that Trump started floating the idea that Canada should become America's 51st state.

Carney will visit the White House Tuesday and is looking forward to a productive conversation. I go there with the expectation of constructive, difficult, but constructive discussions. That's the spirit of the conversations that the president and I had. Many Canadians, particularly on Canada's more densely populated East, rallied around Carney as the best man to take on Trump. But recent polling suggests that some Canadians would rather be a part of the U.S. or their own independent country rather than remain under a liberal government. Three in ten voters from Alberta and roughly one in three from neighboring Saskatchewan

said that they would support leaving the country if Carney won. At least 20% in each province would have supported secession even if he lost. So how seriously, though, should we take those numbers? 30% is not anywhere close to a majority. That's true, but it's also worth noting that Quebec, a province with a large, influential, openly separatist party, also reported that 30% support for separation. Kebacrois separat have existed for centuries and the bloc, Kebacrois, has been a major force in Canadian politics for decades. By contrast, Western separatism is younger, less organized, and so far has been more of a grassroots phenomenon. But as of now, it appears to be

just as intense. So what's driving the divide between the coasts and the interior? There are many factors, but most of them are economic. The interior tends to be more conservative. It's worth noting, though, that Canadian conservatives are not like conservatives in the U.S. In Canada, they're mainly concerned with economics, but are still liberal on social issues. So Canada's prairie provinces are younger, wealthier, less densely populated, and more dependent on resource extraction, mining, drilling, exporting oil.

That's put them into conflict with the federal government, which has taken steps to restrict the construction of pipelines and refineries. Conservative leader Pierre Pollyev made that a major issue during the campaign. Canada is selling oil and gas at a massive price discount to American refineries and LNG plants that are able to massively profit at our expense. It is a rip-off. We're ripping ourselves off with this approach. We, because of fanatical and stupid environmental extremists in the liberal government and throughout,

and throughout the country. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went as far as to argue for phasing out the production of fossil fuels entirely before Western outcry forced him to walk that position back. Carney has also been a vocal advocate for net zero policies and was a leading figure in the ESG movement when he worked in the financial sector.

He also was an economic advisor to Trudeau, leading many skeptics to fear his government would be more of the same. So it sounds like there's a big wedge between some of these provinces and the federal government. Have any of them, taken concrete steps to break away? Right now, not officially.

Last week, Alberta premier Danielle Smith put forward legislation that would significantly lower the signature threshold for citizen-led referendum. As of now, that legislation has been tabled, and Smith and Carney are currently in talks, which are reportedly going well. However, the possibility of secession appears to be a major piece of leverage, and as of now, that's still on the table. Well, we'll have to see how Carney handles it and how his meeting with Trump goes. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more news you need to know.