WSJ What’s News - A Second Apparent Attempt on Trump’s Life

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

A.M. Edition for Sept. 16. Donald Trump is safe after Secret Service agents opened fire on a gunman yesterday at the former president’s West Palm Beach golf club. Plus, the WSJ’s Quentin Webb details a dramatic shift in investor expectations of how big a rate cut the Fed will make this week. And Rupert Murdoch’s children prepare to face off over control of his media empire. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And Rupert Murdoch's children face off over control of his media empire. What's at stake here is control over not just one or two newspapers, right? This empire has much influence over politics, over the discourse, over elections, arguably. So what happens here will have ramifications. It's Monday, September 16th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

A man is in custody in connection with an apparent attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump yesterday at his West Palm Beach, Florida golf course. The incident occurred when at least one Secret Service agent fired on a gunman after spotting him pointing a rifle through a fence before a witness saw him dart out of the bushes and take off in a car that was later tracked down by police. Trump, who was golfing a few holes away, was unhurt, and investigators said they didn't know if the gunman himself had fired a shot during the encounter. 58-year-old Ryan Ruth, the suspected gunman, has a lengthy police record that includes

weapons offenses and spent years trying to link himself to overseas causes, including mobilizing volunteers to fight in Ukraine. Posting on Truth Social, Trump pledged that, quote, nothing will slow me down, end quote, and he praised the work of the Secret Service, a sentiment echoed by Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw. Here he was speaking to reporters courtesy of WPBF. I would imagine the next time he comes to the golf course, there'll probably be a little more people around the perimeter.

But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done. They provided exactly what the protection should have been. And their agent did a fantastic job. Law enforcement authorities have warned that threats of politically motivated violence have spiked online in the last two months since a gunman tried to kill Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing a widening political crisis after several high-profile resignations by top officials in recent days and as at least four federal agencies are involved in investigations swirling around his administration.

On Thursday, New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned after news broke the prior week that agents seized his phone as part of a probe examining nightclubs and payments for security, according to people familiar with the matter, though he's not been accused of wrongdoing. And on Saturday, New York City Hall's chief counsel stepped down, saying she could no longer serve effectively in her position. At least four agencies now have probes going on, and while it's not clear exactly which potential crimes the investigations are focused on, Adams hasn't been accused of wrongdoing

and has said he's cooperating. Yemen's Houthi rebels say they fired a missile at central Israel over the weekend, marking a sharp escalation in the Iran-backed group's attacks. The missile didn't strike its target, and no casualties were reported, with Israel's military saying the missile slipped through the country's air defense systems despite several attempts to down it. The rebel group's military spokesman said Israel should expect more strikes and quote advanced operations in the future.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to respond, saying the Houthis quote should have already known that we extract a heavy price from every attempt to hurt us. For months, Houthi rebels have been firing missiles and drones at Israel over its war in Gaza, which has been going on for nearly a year. And with that milestone coming up, we want to know your questions about the conflict and where it may be headed. To weigh in, send a voice memo to wnpod at wsj.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328, and we just might use it on the show.

Let's turn to markets now, ahead of a big week set to be capped by a Federal Reserve rate cut on Wednesday. Fed meetings have consistently been under the microscope lately, but as journal deputy finance editor Quinton Webb is here to discuss, this one is the subject of added focus, with traders increasingly predicting that the Fed could go big to avoid an economic downturn. Quinton, the question of how fast and by how much the Fed should cut rates once it gets around to the task of doing so isn't a new one, and yet debate around this, especially among investors, has really heated up in recent days, leading to some dramatic shifts in predictions.

That's right, there have been some dramatic swings. So it's partly to do with new data. So if you think back to the middle of last week, we had some inflation data. Core inflation on a monthly basis came in a little bit hotter than expected. And so that sort of solidified bets that the Fed would start generally with a quarter point cut.

At one point, a large cut was seen as just a 14% probability. Then a day later we got a different reading, the producer price index, which also helps feed into the Fed's preferred inflation gauge. That was actually a bit softer, so suddenly people started recalibrating, thinking maybe 50 basis points or half a percentage point cut is still on the table. maybe 50 basis points or half a percentage point cut is still on the table. And then the journal put out an article kind of laying out the dilemma for the Fed. And so we're now at the point where recent futures pricing is sort of 60-40 in favor of a large cut on Wednesday. But that suggests that people aren't fully decided either way. Not fully decided, though. 14 to 60 percent in the span of a few days.

A stark reminder of how important each of these final economic readings has been, despite the fact there have been really so many since the last time the Fed met. Yeah, exactly. It just really shows that market participants aren't quite sure how the Fed is going to kick things off. And there will be lots of other kind of market moving potential in Wednesday's news as well. So not just the cut, but don't forget, this is one of these Fed

meetings where they also issue a summary of economic projections. So you can see all of the policymakers forecasts for interest rates, inflation, unemployment, et cetera, in the near future. So that too could kind of help reshape expectations for where rates are headed. Quinton Webb, thank you as always for the update. Thanks a lot. And in other markets news today, a crypto project backed by Donald Trump and his two eldest sons, which we talked about on the podcast last week, is set to go live later

today. The former president is due to host a livestream on Xspaces, previously known as TwitterSpaces, for the launch of World Liberty Financial at 8pm Eastern. Coming up, the Murdoch family gets ready for a legal clash over control of a media empire after the break. I'm not going back to university to be your friend. I'm going so I can get Uber One for students. It saves you on Uber and Uber Eats. I'm there for zero dollar delivery fee on cheeseburgers,

up to five percent off smoothies, and five percent Uber cash back on rides. Just to be clear, I'm there for savings, not whatever you think university is for. Get Uber One for students, a membership-long succession drama is going to trial in Nevada probate court involving a cast of characters that TV lovers are uncannily familiar. I'm talking, of course, about the rift at the center of the Murdoch family, whose patriarch Rupert Murdoch is seeking to amend his trust, which holds big stakes in Fox News owner Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp. So that when he dies, his son Lachlan will inherit control of the media empire. But it is a plan that Lachlan's brother James, and lately his sisters Elizabeth and Prudence, are resisting.

And here to talk about how we ended up here and the stakes of the trial to come, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal Deputy Media Editor Jessica Tunkel. Jessica, Rupert Murdoch is 93 years old. He began assembling his global media empire in the mid-20th century and for decades now really the topic of who would have a future ownership of that empire has been a focus within the family with a trust formed in 1999 to sort out some of those questions until there was a push by Rupert to change the trust. And I will say just quickly for listeners who want all of the details of your excellent

reporting we've left a link to your story in our show notes. But at a top level, could you just walk us through generally what's happened through the years here? Sure. As you point out, this court case is the culmination of years of rising tensions between Rupert Murdoch and his son James. The two are not on speaking terms, our sources have told us. Rupert wants to change his irrevocable trust in part because he was concerned that when he dies, James, with the support of his sisters Elizabeth and Prudence, would team up to block Loughlin's management

of News Corp, as well as Fox News. And specifically Rupert was concerned that James, who's been vocally critical of the cable news network, would try to moderate the content or even sell the channel our sources have told us. So that is where we are now. It is important to note that what's at stake is their voting control. They will remain economic stakeholders in the company

after Rupert dies, no matter what the outcome of this trial is. And Jessica, we should remind listeners that the trust has roughly 40% voting stakes in both Fox and News Corp, which means it exercises considerable influence over the companies. And at the end of the day, that is why we and the broader public care about this case

beyond the family drama of it all, because the question of who oversees this media empire affects the US media ecosystem, even beyond the US actually, and politics by extension. For instance, activist investor Starboard last week called for the dual class share structure of News Corp to be scrapped, saying in a letter to its shareholders that it gives the family too much influence and that the siblings are quote, reported to have widely differing worldviews, which collectively could be paralyzing to the strategic direction of the company. Yes, James and his wife, Katherine, are ardent environmentalists. They have designed their

philanthropy and investing to fight climate change and stop hyper-partisanship. James has made it no secret of his differing worldviews from his father's. And when he resigned a few years ago from the News Corp board, he cited disagreements over editorial content published by the news outlets. Our view from sources is that Elizabeth is more of a middleman. She's still close to her father. She was trying to remain in relations with all her family, but she also has concerns and is uncomfortable with Fox News content. Our sources have told us that Rupert Murdoch's concern is that without Loughlin running the company, there's a lack of stability. There's not one vision.

Fox News, whatever people think of the editorial content, is a huge cash generator for this media empire. And so once you start playing around with that, the concern is what does it become and does it continue to generate the same kind of revenue as it does today? And finally, Jessica, given that both Fox Corp and News Corp are publicly traded companies, do we have a sense of what major investors feel about this whole thing? Outside of Starboard, which has made its concerns known, we do not have a sense yet of how investors feel. A couple years ago, Rupert Murdoch pushed to merge News Corp and Fox, which was the

first iteration of trying to give Loughlin more control over both companies in a different way, according to people familiar with the matter. And top shareholders pushed back very hard and he failed to merge the companies. That was Wall Street Journal Deputy Media Editor Jessica Tunkel. Jessica, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And finally, oral arguments are set to get underway today at a federal appeals court in

Washington pitting the US government against TikTok's Chinese parent bite dance in a trial that could determine how or if the platform continues to operate in the US. TikTok and bite dance are challenging a law signed by President Biden in April requiring that they sever ties or face a ban in the U.S. by mid-January. The legal battle over the platform, which is used by almost half of Americans, is expected to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And that's it for What's News for Monday morning.

Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach with supervising producer Christina Rocca, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show, and until then, thanks for listening.