Morning Wire - Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud | 12.29.25

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

President Trump presses on for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, a fraudulent daycare scheme adds to the scandals coming out of Minnesota, and multiple major cities tighten security for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Get the facts first with Morning Wire. - - - Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3 - - - Today's Sponsor: Daily Wire Shop - Visit https://dailywire.com/shop today! - - - 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

Hours after a, quote, productive call with Putin, President Trump hosts Zelensky in hopes of hammering out a war-ending deal. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley, with Georgia Howl. It's Monday, December 29. This is Morning Wire. A new investigative report on massive fraud in Minnesota daycares prompts a congressional probe and demands for Governor Walls to resign. There's a little nickname for him going around Minnesota. He's the fraud father, and that's exactly what it is. And the Trump administration cracks down on criminal illegals and terror threats as major cities ramp up security for New Year's Eve celebrations.

Americans are going to continue to go out and celebrate. That's what we want. We're Americans. We don't bend the knee to these terrorist organizations. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. The DailyWar Shop's best deals of the year are still live and you can get up to 70% off.

Save big on items like the Golden Leftist Tears Tumblr, truth bomb golf club covers, the collected poems of Donald J. Trump, plus hats, t-shirts, hoodies, and a whole lot more. And if you order tops a hundred bucks, free shipping. Head over to dailywire. dot com slash shop right now. That's dailywire.com slash shop. President Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin and hosted Vladimir Zelenskyy on Sunday, hoping to finalize a peace deal to end the war. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the highlights of this high-stakes sit down. Hey, Cabot. Hey, John, I know you missed me. Merry Christmas.

I don't know how I've made it through, Kevin. So let's start with an overview of where things stand coming into this meeting. What do we need to know coming into this? So a quick refresher, last month after weeks of negotiating, the U.S. came to Ukraine with the outlines of a 28-point peace plan. That draft included an immediate ceasefire, but also major concessions from Ukraine. Putin understandably expressed openness to that agreement, saying it could pave the way for peace. But Zelensky and the EU were appalled. Over the last month, they have really pushed the White House to.

eliminate a number of those original concessions and ultimately have whittled the draft down to a 20-point plan, which still leaves the door open for the seating of some Ukrainian territory, but offers a lot stronger security guarantees from the West. Ahead of this sit-down, Zelensky said the deal is, quote, 90% ready, but did make clear that he needs support from the U.S. to give him leverage with Putin. Right. This brings us to Putin. Where is he in all of this?

Well, he sent a message of his own in the hours before the meeting, hammering Kiev with one of the largest airstrikes from Russia in months that killed four, wounded dozens of others, and knocked out power to a third of the city. And in his effort to try and get the countries talking again, Trump did hold an impromptu phone call with Putin on Sunday right before sitting down with Zelensky. He described the call as, quote, good and very productive. Russian officials say the two men did agree that a long-term peace deal is preferred to a temporary ceasefire while a longer deal is ironed out. Putin also reportedly made clear once again that he won't leave Ukraine empty-handed, saying he would only sign on to an agreement that includes

Ukrainian territories in the Donbass region. Trump has repeatedly expressed anger with Putin in the past, essentially calling him two-faced when it came to negotiations. But on Sunday, it had this to say when asked if he thought that Putin was serious about peace. I do. I think he is. I think they both. Now, remember, Zelensky has vowed to never give up land to Russia, but it did offer a new compromise. the idea of turning some Ukrainian land in the east into a demilitarized zone. As the apparent show of good faith to Trump, Zelensky also expressed a new willingness to hold nationwide elections. That's something the White House has long called for.

And much of Sunday's meeting was also spent discussing Ukraine's post-war rebuilding efforts. The deal currently on the table would include hundreds of billions of dollars, almost a trillion dollars in U.S. investments there, including new rare earth mineral partnerships. And it is worth noting while Trump at times expressed optimism on Sunday, saying a piece of Steel is in the, quote, final stages, he was also very open about the fact that it's all taking much longer than he imagined. At one point, he told the press that he initially thought ending the war would be no harder than peace deals he struck with other countries. And now, instead of promising to end the war imminently, as he's done repeatedly in the past, Trump had this to say when asked if he would give the two sides a deadline.

I don't have to say, you know what my deadline is getting the war ended? Trump later said the war would either end or, quote, go on for a long, time. So we might be in the final stages of negotiations, but there's no way of knowing just how long this could all drag out. Right. Now, this meeting comes just days after President Trump waited into another conflict abroad. This one in Nigeria, what did we see there? Right. For years now, Islamic state terrorists have been operating with impunity throughout Africa, especially in Nigeria, slaughtering thousands of innocent Christians in the process and drawing out rates from the White House. As those attacks escalated last month, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to launch surveillance flights

over the country to identify potential ISIS targets there. And on Christmas Day, he followed through. More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a Navy ship in the region, striking two ISIS camps, killing, quote, multiple terrorists, according to the Pentagon. Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, I've previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay. And tonight, there was.

Merry Christmas to all, including the dead terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians, continues. So a really vintage Trump statement there, Pentagon officials say the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Nigerian government. And according to Trump, this is just the start. He says there will, quote, be more to come. Well, another overseas situation to keep an eye on for sure. Kappa, thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. New reports of rampant fraud across dozens of Minnesota daycares have stirred controversy online and even attracted the attention of federal lawmakers and the FBI.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the reports of fraud that continue to come out of Minnesota. So, Tim, where are these latest revelations coming from? So this investigation into Minnesota daycares that's racked up tens of millions of views online was done by independent journalist Nick Shirley. His investigative video is over 40 minutes long. And from the time it was posted on the day after Christmas to Sunday, it had amassed well over 80 million views, not including the views it's gotten from being re-aired on places such as Fox News. And the mega virality is well-earned. Shirley claims that he uncovered over $100 million in fraud being run through fraudulent Somali-run businesses. To take just one example, Shirley and his co-investigator David found a child care

center that has received millions of taxpayer dollars, but nobody has seen the children allegedly cared for there. Here, Shirley and David, talking to a man who lives near the center. This year, they got $1.9 million. Last year, they got $1.5 million of your tax money for 99 children. We just want to know where are the kids? Right. Where are the children? I don't see them. I've been here since 2017. I haven't seen anybody like that here. I've never seen a child here. No, not at all. And so you've never seen a child here for eight years? Nope, not at all. And how does that make you feel knowing that this place is receiving $1.9 million? Disgusting. I mean, what the hell? They steal the money. That's a federal grant, too. That's

if they get caught for that, it's a federal offense. I don't know. I studied law. This is all led to more pressure on Governor Tim Walls. Many noted on online. line that in 2023, Walls actually led a push to surge over $300 million in state funding to child care providers. And it's anyone's guess how much of that actually ended up lost as fraud. Elon Musk, with his 230 million ex-f followers, has already called for Walls to resign. Right. And he's not the only one. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also called for him to step down. And we're also seeing more attention on this from Washington, correct? Yeah, this fraud is drawing a lot of eyeballs. Estimates are that some

Something like $9 billion in federal welfare has been lost to fraud, specifically in Minnesota's Somali community. Here's GOP Senator Ron Johnson on Fox News on some of the actions he is taking. We need to put all kinds of pressure on the state agencies to give us their records. I'm chairman of the permanent subcommittee investigations. This will be a primary focus of ours. We're already reaching out to Nick Shirley and David and other people who can provide testimony for this, but we also need documents.

So, you know, these agency heads who funnily the federal money, to the state agencies, they have to demand that the state agencies are transparent. And unfortunately, particularly in Democrat-controlled states, they're not. I've got subpoena power. I will use that subpoena power to obtain these records because we have to get the bottom of this. Understand, Somalis have just been in this country a few years. They're amateurs when it comes to fleecing the federal government. And let's face it, the federal government is probably the easiest consumer, the easiest payer to fleece,

and states do it time and time again. So this is just the tip of the iceberg. The FBI is on this as well. FBI director Cash Patel said on Sunday that the FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota. However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. And the White House is bringing attention to the scandal, too, with posts over the weekend from Vice President J.D. Vance and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-D. Reamer. More than that, several federal departments have already taken steps. to investigate fraud in Minnesota and potentially cut off taxpayer money from the federal government.

Well, the scale of this is absolutely staggering. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. While Americans took time to unwind over the last week and unplug from the new cycle as much as possible, the Trump administration remained very active, along with its aggressive foreign policy and national security moves abroad. At home, it continued its immigration and anti-terror operations. Joining us now with the latest on that and more is Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron. Morning Cameron. Hope your Christmas was as blissful as mine. Thank you.

So we wanted you to help catch us up on a few things. Let's start with reports about the Trump administration and some major cities working to prevent potential terror attacks ahead of New Year's Eve. What's the latest there? Right. Our listeners will remember that we reported on the FBI thwarting a series of New Year's Eve terror attacks that a radical leftist group was planning to carry out. The group called itself the Turtle Island Liberation Front and opposed a very serious threat.

Members of the group had already begun testing pipe bombs and one of those indicted sent messages to other members saying things like, I identify as a terrorist and I'm a Hamas fan girl. Now, at the same time, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard has been ramping up her warning about the threat posed by terror actors, something that's really been heightened since the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia and the attacks on U.S. service members. in Syria. Now, here was Gabber during a speech in America Fest on this earlier this month. There is a threat to our freedom that is not often talked about enough. And it is the greatest near and long-term threat to both our freedom and our security. And that is the threat of Islamist ideology. It is a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America, and if you fail to comply, they will use violence or any means they deem as necessary to silence us. In the wake of all of that major cities around the world,

including here in the U.S., have altered and even cancel New Year's Eve celebrations due to security concerns. Right. What cities have we seen make changes because of this? Well, Chicago is one. They've ramped up their security measures. State and local officials released a joint threat assessment last week, wondering that crowded celebration, such as the annual New Year's Eve fireworks at Navy Pier, could be, quote, attractive targets for either domestic or foreign terrorists. Now, they plan to go ahead with these events, but it will be increasing security in the area and will be actively monitoring for potential attacks with drones or vehicles to ram crowds, they said. Now, New York has also been put on notice, an FBI threat assessment for the massive Times Square New Year's Eve celebration raised red flags.

Now, the assessment noted that the city is symbolically a, quote, aspirational target for would-be terrorists and warned specifically about vehicle ramming attacks. Now, officials say the largest concerns are about potential lone wolf actors, as well small, organized groups. So expect to see even more security this year for that. Right. Now, related on some levels to this as the administration's continued efforts to crack down on criminal illegal immigrants, that includes those on terror watch lists or suspected violent gang members. What have we seen from the administration on immigration over the last few days? Sure. So yes, while most of us who were taking it easy, I certainly was not. The agency continued to arrest people in the country illegally who are facing additional charges or convictions for other serious crimes.

Now, the Daily Wire heard directly from the Department of Homeland Security. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin had this, let's call it a holiday message about what the department was up to over the last week. She said, quote, while families across the country joined together for Christmas celebrations, ICE continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of all, getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and protecting our families. She wanted to specify that on Christmas, even Christmas, the officers arrested, quote, gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and violent thugs. Now, among those was a Mexican national who crossed the border illegally and was convicted for criminal homicide, third-degree murder, and criminal conspiracy to commit

criminal homicide in Pennsylvania. Another, an individual from Cuba, was convicted for homicide and drug trafficking in Florida. A Somali National was also arrested. He was convicted in New York for a laundry list of crimes, including a DUI and possessing a stolen vehicle. All right, so clearly, ICE not taking the holidays off, like you said. Now, our immigration reporter, Jenny Tehr, has been documenting the assaults on ICE that have really ramped up. over the course of the year. There's some new data on that, correct? That's right. The Center Square recently reported that there were 238 assaults on ICE officers from January 21st of last year through November. The previous year, there were just 19 in the same period. So that's a stunning

1,153% increase in assaults on ice. And despite all that, they've kept up their operations even over the holidays. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. and some programming notes for this week. We're not going to be releasing evening wires, but we will release another regular episode on Tuesday and original content for the rest of the week. We'll be back tomorrow morning with the news you need to know.