WSJ What’s News - How Trump Allies Plan to Take on Legal Immigration

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

P.M. Edition for Oct. 31. Former President Donald Trump says he wants to eliminate illegal immigration, but WSJ immigration reporter Michelle Hackman tells us how many of his allies want to restrict legal immigration too. And Journal reporter Heather Somerville discusses a California drone startup’s success in Ukraine. Plus, Comcast is considering spinning off its cable networks into a different company. Tracie Hunte hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You let him try violin because you love him. And if you love him that much, love him enough to make sure he's buckled up and in the back seat. Find out more at nhtsa.gov slash the right seat. Brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council. Trump allies are drawing up plans to restrict legal immigration. It really comes from the deep-seated philosophy that immigrants in most ways are sort of bad for the country. And Ford says it's pausing production

of its electric truck, plus how the tech industry is pushing innovation in nuclear power. It's Thursday, October 31st. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump routinely promises he will end illegal

immigration, but behind the scenes, his allies are also drawing up plans that would restrict many forms of legal immigration, including those that give businesses the ability to hire foreign workers. Outside advisors, including Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration's immigration agenda, and groups like the America First Policy Institute have been preparing executive orders, regulations and memos that would narrow legal ways to migrate. That's according to interviews with a dozen former Trump administration officials, a review of the campaign's public plans, and outside

groups aligned with the campaign. Joining us now is Wall Street Journal immigration reporter Michelle Hackman. So Michelle, can you explain some of these plans that these groups have been drafting for a second possible Trump presidency? Sure. So I want to start by saying the first Trump presidency had a very strong point of view on immigration where they were trying to tamp down on illegal immigration by pretty much any means possible. But they did similar things with legal immigration.

And it really comes from the deep-seated philosophy that immigrants in most ways are sort of bad for the country. They are coming in, they're competing with jobs that Americans could be getting, that their visa programs that are specifically structured, they believe, to undercut salaries that could be going to American workers. And so you saw the first Trump administration use really creative means to sort of try to curtail those sorts of legal immigration in any way they could. And I think if Trump is re-elected, we're going to see that happen again and even more so. Have you gotten a response to your story from the Trump campaign?

All they were willing to say was, you know, Trump is the only person who can speak for himself and he supports legal immigration, but didn't engage with any of the specific questions that I posed to them. Limiting legal immigration actually isn't a popular idea with many business leaders, including Trump's new ally, Elon Musk. What kind of pushback might we see to these proposals? —So we saw some of this in Trump's first term, too. The way that I often talked about it was there was the Stephen Miller wing of the Trump administration,

which was restrict immigration at all costs. And then there was Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who was much more friendly with businesses and was advocating business interests. So I'll be curious to see what happens if Trump gets re-elected, that he's going to have Stephen Miller in one ear, who he trusts very deeply, but also people like Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, Bill Ackman, all these people who actually favor legal immigration. So what are those people going to do when they have Trump's ear as well?

Michelle Hackman is an immigration reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much, Michelle. Thank you. And in business news, Ford Motor said today that it is pausing production of its electric F-150 Lightning truck as the outlet for electric vehicles remains downbeat. The pause is expected to last a few weeks between mid-November and early January. The Lightning, a centerpiece of Ford Motors' EV strategy, has been the victim of steep price cuts and waning interest from consumers. The move comes just

days ahead of the presidential election, where government support of EVs has been sharply debated in swing state Michigan. And Comcast says it is exploring the creation of a separate company for its cable networks and will consider partnerships in streaming, a sign of how profound changes in the media business are reshaping the industry landscape. The potential move comes as Comcast is trying to navigate the challenges posed by cable TV cord cutting while also pushing toward profitability in its streaming business. A new cable network company would be owned by Comcast shareholders and wouldn't include

other assets in the company's NBC Universal unit, such as the NBC Broadcast Network, the Universal Studio, or theme parks. Comcast owns several cable channels including MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, USA, and Syfy. In US Markets Stocks fell sharply today with investors assessing earnings season for big tech companies with growing skepticism. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way down, shutting about 3%. The S&P 500 fell about 2%. And the Dow closed down about 1%.

And as the earnings season for big tech is rolling on, Apple reported today record September quarter revenue propelled by a modest rebound in iPhone sales that came ahead of its release of new AI tools. For Apple's final fiscal quarter that ended in September, total sales were $94.9 billion. That income fell about 35% due to a judicial ruling in Europe that will force Apple to pay more than 14 billion dollars in taxes to Ireland. Amazon recorded robust revenue and profit growth last quarter as demand for its cloud services and e-commerce sales rose, and it continued to build its infrastructure to meet

anticipated demand for artificial intelligence services. Amazon's cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services, grew about 19% to more than $27 billion, becoming the company's main profit driver. And Intel reported write-downs and other charges that led to a stunning $16.6 billion net loss in the latest quarter, as the chipmaker works through a costly turnaround effort that chief executive Pat Gelsinger says is bearing fruit.

Coming up, the American drone industry notches a rare victory in Ukraine. That's after the break. Small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs, long seemed like moonshots with lots of promise but not enough commercial interest. But that changed recently after tech giants like Google Parent Alphabet and Amazon announced that they were backing SMR projects to power their AI ambitions. Both Google and Amazon expect their initial projects to come online by the 2030s at the earliest. With this now to discuss this is heard on the street columnist Jinju Lee. So Jinju in a few words what are small nuclear reactors? So like any other nuclear plant they

generate electricity by splitting atoms, but they are smaller and they're modular, which means the components can be built in factories. The advantages have yet to be proven out because it's still very early, but the thinking is that they have the potential to make nuclear energy cheaper, faster to build, and even safer. So how long will it take to get these SMRs up and running? It's hard to say because none have been built in the US just yet. Some companies have said their first reactors could be operational by 2030. That seems to be a pretty ambitious goal.

Most of these companies haven't even gotten their design license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some industry experts I spoke to thought that it would take at least 10 years for the industry to get there. Is this big tech investment pushing innovation in nuclear power? The fact that these big tech companies are so profitable and they are able and willing to pay premium for always available power is a very powerful driver because it'll probably take some patience and a lot of money to prove the technology out and to get to scale. So far it was lacking that financial backing and tech giants are really providing that now.

Jindulie is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street. We're exclusively reporting that a California drone startup has notched an important victory in Ukraine. After several days testing the Shield AI drone, Ukraine asked for more than 200, each one typically costing about a million dollars. AI drone, Ukraine asked for more than 200, each one typically costing about a million dollars. That's a rare success for the U.S. drone industry that has sent hundreds of drones into Ukraine with the hope of earning the badge of being battle-hardened. But few made the cut. Joining us now is Wall Street Journal reporter Heather Somerville. Heather, what's special about the S.H.I.E.L.D. AI drones?

Heather Somerville Really Heather, what's special about the shield AI drones? Really the thing that has challenged any drone maker trying to fly in Ukraine, but especially American drones that were completely ill prepared for the situation in Ukraine is the electronic warfare. The Russians are using jammers, which makes it impossible for GPS to work in the country. Most American drones have relied on GPS to know where they are, to know where they're going, to know where they are flying. And so this has rendered the vast majority of American drones pretty useless in Ukraine. And what Shield managed to do is they've built AI software and combine that with different hardware like sensors and special antennas that allow the

drone to fly without any communication whatsoever and complete its mission without talking to a pilot, without having any communication with GPS or otherwise. And how does this fit into the US defense industry's drone sector? What was interesting about this to me is it's the bright spot in what has really been a pretty anemic US drone sector. When we look at these smaller drone manufacturers, venture capital backed drone startups, most of them just don't have a lot of revenue. They don't have many customers.

There's a lot of reasons for that. The Pentagon isn't buying large numbers of these drones despite saying they want to. And then with the domination of Chinese drones, there's really not an opportunity for American drone startups to sell to consumers, to hobbyists, or to farmers, or to police, for instance. What Shield AI is hoping, and certainly its investors, is that this victory that has eluded many other American companies will set it apart and help it get more contracts with the Defense Department,

more contracts with NATO militaries and the like. Heather Somerville is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. And that's what's the news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Beyanime with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.