Morning Wire - Trump’s WEF Warning & CNN’s Newsroom Shakeup | 1.24.25

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Trump gives the WEF both an invitation and a warning, a new Trump ally clashes with an old one over AI, and CNN struggles to adapt to a new Trump era. 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. Shopify: Go to https://Shopify.com/morningwire to start selling with Shopify today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump speaks to the World Economic Forum and gives world leaders an invitation and a warning. Come make your product in America, and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth. But if you don't, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, January 24th, and this is Morning Wire. Trump allies clash as the newly elected president pushes the U.S. toward AI dominance. And chaos at CNN as the 24-hour news network

struggles to adapt to a pro-Trump era. They have completely alienated the audience of people who usually came to television for big news events. That is a existential challenge for them. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned with 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. Payed 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. The important disclosures at Acorns.com slash wire. President Trump addressed the World Economic Forum yesterday, laying out his economic vision for the country. Here to break it all down as Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot, Phillips, A Cabot, a lot to get to related to Trump as usual.

Let's start with that speech to the WEF. What did we hear from Trump there? Yeah, the president was not able to be in Davos for this year's summit, but offered a virtual address, his first to world leaders, since taking office for a second time. The president had a simple message for the gathered dignitaries and elites. America is open for business,

but if you don't make your product here, you will face tariffs. Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA. The economic confidence is soaring like we haven't seen in many, many decades, maybe not at all. Trump went on to demand world leaders begin dropping interest rates and lowering oil prices, warning them that tariffs would be increased on those who resisted. And he also had a specific message for our allies and nation.

NATO demanding that they begin paying their fair share in defense spending. I'm also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago. It was only at 2% and most nations didn't pay until I came along. And it is worth noting here, NATO Secretary General Mark Root, who in the past has classed with Trump, struck a much friendlier tone after yesterday's address saying Trump is right. I hear many people here, whining and complaining about Trump, and I would say the problem is not Trump or the U.S. The problem is Europe.

The problem is Europe because at the moment we are not spending enough. Now, this address comes as the president is quickly reshaping the federal government with a large number of executive orders, as we've documented, particularly on immigration. What's the latest there? Yeah, Trump has already deployed 1,500 active duty service members to secure the southern border. And that is just the start. In the coming weeks, the White House says Trump is plight. planning to send an additional 10,000 troops, along with helicopters and intelligence crews trained in detecting border crossers. They're also reportedly planning on using DOD bases in the area as a holding center for illegal aliens from around the country who are awaiting deportation.

The Trump administration has already arrested more than 1,500 illegal immigrants in cities across the country, most of whom have been charged in the past with violent crimes. One of those arrested was a Haitian gang member with 17 prior convictions. As he was being loaded into a police car, he had this message. I'm not going back to 80s. You feel me? You know, Biden forever, bro. Take Obama for everything that he did for me, bro.

Borders are Tom Homan says they'll focus on locating illegal immigrants with criminal records and then move on to the 1.4 million who have already been given final deportation orders, but remain in the country. To help carry out those plans, Trump is also granting immigration enforcement authorities to agents with the DEA, ATF, and U.S. Marshal Service that will allow them to take part in those looming deportation efforts. Now, for their part, Mexico is bracing for an influx of deported migrants coming back across the border. Officials there have begun building enormous tents, capable of holding thousands

in nine different cities. They're also organizing buses to transport migrants back to their hometowns. Mexican lawmakers have expressed outrage with Trump and concern over how they'll handle the sudden surge. As you can imagine, though, Trump allies have a little bit of sympathy for those logistical concerns, essentially saying you wouldn't have had this problem if you'd done more to stop the millions of folks who entered America legally to begin with. Yeah, hard to argue that. Now, before we go, tell us about some of the other big moves from the president that garnered quite a bit of attention over the last 24 hours. Well, on Thursday, Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret O'Lehann learned exclusively that Trump was

planning to pardon 23 pro-life activists imprisoned by the Biden Justice Department. That news came just ahead of the 52nd annual March for Life, where Trump will appear via video and VP J.D. Vance will appear in person. That last bit is another scoop from Mary Margaret. But perhaps most notably, on Thursday afternoon, Trump signed an executive order declassifying files related to the assassinations

of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, and the big one, John F. Kennedy. In his words, quote, it is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay. Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth. So a lot of folks, myself included, eager to see the contents of Lewis Files. Yeah, that's for sure.

Kevin, thanks so much for reporter. Any time. What's the secret sauce behind wildly successful businesses? It's not just great products or brilliant marketing. It's the unsung hero, the business behind the business. For millions of entrepreneurs, that hero is Shopify. They'll help with details like shipping, taxes, and payments, all from one single dashboard, allowing you to focus in on the important stuff like growing your business.

Established in 2025 has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash morning wire, all lowercase. Head to Shopify.com slash morning wire to start selling with Shopify today. Again, that's Shopify.com slash morning wire. Together, these world-leading technology giants are announcing the formation of Stargate, a new American company that will invest $500 billion at least in a, infrastructure in the United States, creating over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately. That was President Trump announcing this week that his administration will be partnering with three

major technology firms to create $500 billion in new AI infrastructure. But the project already appears to be a point of contention with one of Trump's closest advisors, Elon Musk. Here with the details is Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham. So, Megan, first off, what is the Stargate project and who's going to be leading its implementation? So as President Trump said during his announcement on Tuesday, the primary intent of the Stargate project is to build essential data centers and computing infrastructure that's going to enable more and more importantly faster AI development. So right now, only a few states like Texas and Arizona have the energy grids that are capable of supporting those new data centers.

So part of this public-private partnership between the government and the Stargate companies is going to be to increase available electricity so that those centers can get built more quickly. This is what Trump told the World Economic Forum yesterday. The big problem is we need double the energy we currently have in the United States. Can you imagine for AI to really be as big as we want to have it because it's very competitive. It'll be very competitive with China and others. so I'm going to give emergency declarations so that they can start building them almost immediately. It's also about creating jobs, as Trump said there at the top of the story,

but also that AI infrastructure has innumerable applications from health to military development. Open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank, three of the companies funding this project, are promising that Stargate is going to allow the United States to do that. Now, a point of intrigue in all of this is Trump's embrace of AI is completely contrary to Elon Musk's warnings about it. How significant is that rift? Well, you know, I don't think it would be an understatement to say that Musk is not a fan of OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman,

and Trump has cozied up to him for this project. So Musk has been pretty public about his displeasure about that on X recently. And this isn't new. Late last year, Musk made this comment to Tucker Carlson. I don't trust Sam Altman. I don't think we want to have the most powerful AI in the world controlled by someone who is not trustworthy. And immediately after OpenAI's X account posted Wednesday that it would begin deploying the first 100 billion of the project, Musk replied, quoting here, they don't actually have the money. SoftBank has well under 10 billion secured. I have that on good authority. And Altman eventually responded, wrong, as you surely know, I realize what is great for the country isn't

always what's optimal for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you'll mostly put America first. So some pretty sharp exchanges there. So why does Musk not think Altman is trustworthy? Well, you know, Musk and Altman have had something of a feud going on for what you have to say is a number of years. They co-founded Open AI as a nonprofit way back in 2015. And then Musk later cut ties with the company when it transitioned to a for-profit model after partnering with Microsoft. And at that point, Musk sued. Essentially, he says that Altman has moved completely away from the original ideal of OpenAI, which was transparency and benefiting humanity, not profit.

He's also accused Altman of, again quoting, deceit of Shakespearean proportions. The other company heads involved in Stargate are not commenting so far. Well, it sounds like Trump is trusting Altman for now, but certainly a lot of reasons to be wary about how we approach AI and who we put in charge. Yes, and Musk has also been pretty public about Altman's not being a Trump fan in the past, so we'll see how that plays out. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. CNN has announced it will lay off more than 200 employees as the cable network struggles to adjust to the second Trump presidency and the rise of new media. Who with a look at the layoffs and which big names could be affected as DailyWire Deputy Managing Editor Tim Rise. So what are we looking at here with CNN?

Yeah, good morning, John. According to reports, CNN is going to announce layoffs that will affect 210 employees, about 6% of its total staff. This news broke just days after NBC announced the pretty big round of layoffs itself, and it seems like both companies are scrambling to adjust as people turn away from cable news in favor of podcasts and other digital media. CNN CEO Mark Thompson told his staff in a memo that the process of change is essential if we're to thrive in the future, but I both acknowledge and regret its very real human consequences. He also said the cuts were necessary because CNN was going to invest $70 million in new digital ventures. Now, in addition to these layoffs, it seems like CNN is doing some pretty major program reshuffling, which shows and anchors will be affected? The network's biggest stars, Anderson Cooper and Caitlin Collins, are both keeping their time slots.

But Jake Tapper's show is being pushed an hour later, and Wolf Blitzer's show is being moved to the morning. So those two are basically switching places. Former MSNBC host Casey Hunt is getting a new afternoon show, but the big news is that Jim Acosta, famous for his clashes with Trump in the White House press room, is being moved from his hour-long spot at 10 a.m. to a two-hour block beginning at midnight. One source close to the situation described this as effectively exiling Acosta to the Siberia of television news. Acosta is reportedly furious about this move and might leave the network altogether rather than take the graveyard shift. Certainly a big demotion for Acosta who still seems to want to present himself as sort of the Trump resistance. So it's hard to see moves like this as anything other than a response to the network's changing attitude or approach at least toward Trump.

Yeah, that's absolutely right. Morning Wire spoke about that with Dylan Byers, a CNN alum and founder of Puck News. He is the establishment in many ways. He won the popular vote. He had a first term. We all saw what that was, and the American people voted him back in. It is harder to program resistance-style programming. He added that the network's attempt to suddenly shift from railing against Trump to less hyperbolic coverage of him has resulted in some awkward moments and some pretty ugly conclusions about the network's on-air personalities. Either all of that hair-on-fire grandstanding of the first term was performative. And as a CNN anchor, you should be auditioning for, you know, an Oscar for Best Actor rather than a News Emmy. Or it suggests that you can be bought off and that in order to keep your business and to continue to go on TV, that you are willing to forego whatever concerns you had the last time around. Byers suggested that in the end, this shift away from resistance programming combined with the rise of new media sources means, quote, there's no real reason for people to go to CNN. Pretty tough verdict from someone who definitely knows what he's talking about with this network.

Tim, thanks for reporting. Anytime. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.