Investment Up, GDP Down & Drill, Baby, Drill | 5.1.25

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary: "Investment Up, GDP Down & Drill, Baby, Drill | 5.1.25"

Release Date: May 1, 2025
Hosts: John Bickley and Georgia Howe
Podcast: Morning Wire by The Daily Wire

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1. Economic Overview: GDP Decline and Investment Surge

The episode begins with Georgia Howe highlighting the current economic landscape: "Inflation drops, but so does gross domestic product" ([00:04]). John Bickley follows up with a pressing question, "Will U.S. investment be able to reshape the U.S. economy?" ([00:07]).

Daily Wire reporter Mairead Elordi provides a nuanced analysis, explaining that while the GDP shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter and the Dow Jones fell by approximately 200 points ([01:34]), there are underlying positive signs. President Trump, during a live Cabinet meeting, countered negative media narratives by emphasizing improvements in core GDP: "core GDP is actually up" ([02:22]).

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro adds optimism, stating, "We really like where we are at now when it comes to the economy" ([02:54]). A significant highlight is the 22% surge in domestic investment, which Navarro underscores: "We have a 22% increase in domestic investment that is off the charts" ([03:53]). Despite the slight GDP decline, robust consumer spending and heightened investment indicate potential resilience and growth in the economy.

2. Trump Administration’s Energy Independence Efforts

Central to the episode is the Trump administration's commitment to energy independence, encapsulated in the slogan "drill, baby, drill." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is at the forefront of this initiative.

a. Drilling and Mining Initiatives

John Bickley reports on Secretary Burgum’s dedication: "We're going to mine, baby, mine so we can build, baby, build" ([00:38], [06:27]). Mairead Elordi elaborates on the administration’s efforts to reverse previous policies that hindered mining and drilling. Donald Trump highlights the administration’s success: "If we didn't do the tariffs, they wouldn't be doing that" and mentions nearly $8 trillion in new U.S. investments ([02:49], [04:44]).

b. Securing Natural Resources from China

The administration aims to reduce reliance on Chinese natural resources. Secretary Burgum emphasizes the strategic importance of domestic mining: "China was happy to have the rest of the western world stop mining so that they could take control of the markets around these critical minerals" ([09:24]). Efforts to fast-track mining permits have reduced processing times from years to just two weeks ([08:25]).

Burgum argues that domestic production is environmentally superior: "We do it cleaner, better, safer, smarter and healthier here in the US" ([09:24]). This strategy not only strengthens the economy but also enhances national security by decreasing dependence on foreign suppliers.

3. Trade Relations with China

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the evolving trade dynamics between the U.S. and China.

a. Tariff Exemptions and Concessions

Amanda Presto Giacomo reports that China has exempted certain U.S. products from retaliatory 125% tariffs, including pharmaceuticals, microchips, and aircraft engines ([11:34]). These exemptions are communicated privately, indicating potential behind-the-scenes compromises despite China's public stance. A propaganda video titled "Never Kneel Down" signifies China’s continued resistance to U.S. policies.

Peter Navarro reinforces the administration's stance, stating, "We really like where we are at now when it comes to the economy" ([03:02]). Doug Burgum likens yielding to Chinese pressure to "drinking poison to quench thirst," affirming that the U.S. "will stand firm no matter how hard" ([12:11]-[12:28]).

b. China’s Cancellation of US Agricultural Orders

China has made significant withdrawals in agricultural imports, canceling approximately 12,000 tons of U.S. pork and reducing soybean orders by 97% compared to two weeks prior ([12:25]-[12:49]). This impacts American farmers who rely on Chinese markets for nearly 10% of their exports.

An Iowa farmer voices the agricultural community's concerns: "We want fair trade, and we want to make a living doing it. So whether that's to China, whether that's Mexico, Canada, we want to be able to sell it" ([13:20]-[13:38]). Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins echoes this sentiment, focusing on expanding market access to countries like Japan, Vietnam, India, and Brazil to ensure American farmers thrive despite trade tensions ([13:47]-[14:26]).

4. Agriculture Sector: Seeking Fair Trade

The administration is actively working to mitigate the impact of China’s cancellations by diversifying export markets. Brooke Rollins discusses efforts to renegotiate existing trade deals and establish new markets, aiming for an "era of prosperity" for American farmers and ranchers ([13:47]-[14:26]). President Trump’s earlier commitment to boosting domestic agricultural production to reduce dependence on foreign markets is reiterated, ensuring farmers have multiple avenues to sell their products globally.

5. Border Security Initiatives

Enhancing border security is another focal point of the episode. Doug Burgum discusses transferring a significant strip of borderland from the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense, empowering the U.S. Military to protect the border:

"We have a 60-foot strip that's been transferred to the US DOD. If someone sets foot on that, they're trespassing on a military installation" ([10:06]).

This move aims to curb human trafficking, smuggling, and the flow of illegal fentanyl, facilitating better collaboration between the military and border patrol. Burgum elaborates on the benefits: "We've had human trafficking, smuggling, we've had fentanyl flowing in... Now, they can detain someone for that trespassing until the border patrol... can arrest them" ([10:19]-[10:53]).

6. Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode concludes with a reaffirmation of the Trump administration's strategies to foster economic growth, ensure energy independence, manage trade relations, and secure national borders. Despite facing challenges such as GDP decline and trade tensions with China, the administration remains optimistic about the positive trends in domestic investment and consumer spending.

John Bickley encourages listeners to stay informed with Morning Wire for ongoing coverage of these developments: "Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know" ([00:53], [11:43]).

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This comprehensive summary captures all key points, discussions, insights, and conclusions from the "Investment Up, GDP Down & Drill, Baby, Drill | 5.1.25" episode of Morning Wire, providing a clear and engaging overview for those who haven't listened.

Transcript

[Georgia Howe]

Inflation drops, but so does gross domestic product.

[John Bickley]

Will U.S. investment be able to reshape the U.S. economy?

[Peter Navarro]

You have 3% growth, so we really like where we're at now.

[Georgia Howe]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, May 1st, and this is Morning Wire.

[John Bickley]

Trump vowed to drill, baby drill to make America energy independent. We go on location with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who's making good on Trump's promise.

[Doug Burgum]

We're going to mine, baby, mine so we can build, baby, build.

[Georgia Howe]

And China is quietly backing off on some tariffs, but slams the brakes on US Farm orders. We're fully committed to raising pork, not only domestically, but globally.

[John Bickley]

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[John Bickley]

American investment is surging despite turmoil around Trump's tariffs and the GDP slightly slipping.

[Georgia Howe]

Joining us to lay out the data is Daily Wire reporter Mairead Elordi. So, Mairead, how are economists interpreting this latest data?

[Mairead Elordi]

Hi, Georgia. So there's a lot of catastrophizing going on right now around the economy. The GDP shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter and the Dow dropped about 200 points yesterday at that news. But if we dig into the numbers a little bit, the truth is that the data is mixed and there are actually some significant positives in the latest numbers. During President Trump's Wednesday Cabinet meeting, which was broadcast live, Trump and other administration officials poked holes in the media's narrative about the economy. Trump said they are turning Biden's economy around and explained that core GDP is actually up.

[Donald Trump]

That's Biden. That's not Trump. I was very against everything that Biden was doing in terms of the economy destroying our country. But we took over his mess. Yes, in so many different ways. Core gdp, removing distortions from imports, inventories and government spending was up plus 3%. When you add it, we had numbers that despite what we were handed, we turned them around.

[Georgia Howe]

So the Trump administration is feeling Somewhat positive. How are they responding to critics?

[Mairead Elordi]

Well, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro broke down how the administration crunched the numbers. And he said, we really like where we are at now when it comes to the economy.

[Peter Navarro]

The Trump program, with the deregulation, with the, with the tax cuts that's coming, which will be retroactive to January, which was going to allow, which will allow complete expensing. It surged. It surged like, what is it, 22%? 22%. And then consumption, despite the soft data, with the confidence being down, consumption has been robust. So that number is a really good number when you sort out all of that stuff. And we should be celebrating Trump policy and that number.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, we've also heard the Trump administration say that more companies are coming back to US Soil. What do we know about that?

[Mairead Elordi]

Well, that's also another thing. The media is downplaying the surge in domestic investment in response to the tariffs. Here's Navarro again.

[Peter Navarro]

The markets need to look beneath the surface of that. We had a 22% increase in domestic investment that is off the charts.

[Mairead Elordi]

In that same cabinet meeting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick laid out details about how another semiconductor company, which is the main chip supplier for Apple, is building a major manufacturing plant in Arizona. Here's Lutnick.

[Donald Trump]

So they're investing $165 billion in 1100 acres in Arizona, and they're building the highest tech chip manufacturing, semiconductors, and 4,000 employees. You know, American tradecraft, right? Technicians doing every kind of work. The classic foundation of America.

[Mairead Elordi]

Trump also said he has gotten $8 trillion in new investments in the United States since taking office.

[Donald Trump]

If we didn't do the tariffs, they wouldn't be doing that. So it takes a little while to get those facilities built. But they're coming in with big, big numbers. They're all coming in with big numbers. We have more money's being spent than any at any time in the history of our country. We're up to close to $8 trillion, I think I can say, and really, it's going to be a lot higher than that.

[Mairead Elordi]

There are also other good economic markers right now. Inflation slowed to its lowest rate since September and consumer spending surged 135 billion, or 0.7%. Much of that was Americans buying cars and other big ticket items, partly to get ahead of Trump's tariffs. Meanwhile, prices stayed the same in March and personal incomes rose by 116.8 billion, or 0.5%. These are all healthy markers. Of course, we can't predict everything with the volatility of the tariffs, but it's certainly not all doom and gloom.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, a lot to watch here and we're going to continue watching each of these markers. Mairead, thanks for reporting.

[Mairead Elordi]

Thanks, Georgia.

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[Georgia Howe]

The Trump administration is looking to break America's reliance on Chinese natural resources by expanding domestic mining and drilling. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is playing a key role in that effort.

[John Bickley]

As part of our Trump's 100 day special coverage, Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips spent the day with the secretary in a cave.

[Cabot Phillips]

Right.

[John Bickley]

Part of that time. What is he focused on?

[Cabot Phillips]

Two words, energy independence. I know when a lot of people think of the most powerful cabinet positions, it can be easy to overlook the secretary of Interior. But it's a crucial role, especially for this administration.

[Doug Burgum]

Yeah.

[Cabot Phillips]

The department oversees billions of acres of federal lands and waterways and all of our national parks. I met the secretary at one of those parks, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. It's actually the longest cave system in the world. It was a lot of fun. But beyond parks, Burgum also has the power to open up new land for mining and drilling operations. And he's doing just that. This month, when China announced a new ban on the export of several rare earth minerals, Secretary Burgum announced that he would be reversing President Biden's so called war on mining to ensure that America could begin producing those minerals on our own.

[Doug Burgum]

Obama, Biden, you know, their whole approach was we're going to shut down mining, we're going to shut down oil and gas development. They really, I'm going to say, crushed the mining industry, both the extraction of these resources, but also the processing of that. China was happy to have the rest of the western world stop mining so that they could take control of the markets around these critical minerals which we need for defense, for Technology for electronics, really for everything today in modern life depends on it. So now in the United States, we've got to get back in the game. There's a capability called fast tracking where you can speed up. There's only been two mining operations in the US History that had never been put on that list. To accelerate their permitting, President Trump added 10 more mining projects last week. There's going to be dozens more in the weeks ahead that'll be announced that are being added to that list. So we're getting, we're getting back in the game.

[Cabot Phillips]

And because President Trump made an emergency energy declaration, Secretary Burgum, who's also the chair of the National Energy Dominance Council, was able to bypass regulations that typically result in years long delays on new mining projects. Now they're going to be taking just two weeks. Burgum told me that over regulation of the mining industry here in America has driven businesses elsewhere, forcing us to be more reliant on places like China.

[Doug Burgum]

The tool that's been used to kill all of these natural resource industries in America has, has been permitting. I mean, permitting has been just drag on, drag on, years, decades. Then finally a permit's issued, then a lawsuit is filed and it drags on in court. And that uncertainty has driven the capital formation out of these industries and it's caused actually even American companies to say, well, if I'm going to do, I better do it overseas.

[Cabot Phillips]

And it's worth noting, Burgum says that bringing mining operations back to the US Will actually be better for the environment globally as a whole. Here he is making that case.

[Doug Burgum]

We do it cleaner, better, safer, smarter and healthier here in the US because when we attack these resource based industries, we don't reduce the demand, we just shift the supply to overseas and then shift it to China, who might be extracting this from the DRC in the middle of Africa. And they're doing it without reclamation. They're doing it with sometimes, you know, slave labor, prisoner labor. I mean, they're doing it with no emissions control on what they're doing. So it's worse for the global environment, it helps our adversaries, it hurts our economy, and it's horrible for national security.

[John Bickley]

Now Secretary Bergam is also pitching in on Trump's efforts to secure the border. This is pretty interesting. Tell us about that.

[Doug Burgum]

Yeah.

[Cabot Phillips]

This month, Bergam transferred a long strip of borderland that stretches hundreds of miles from control of the Department of Interior to the Department of Defense. That's important because it'll give the US Military the ability to protect the border themselves.

[Doug Burgum]

On that land, we've had human trafficking, smuggling, we've had fentanyl flowing in. So the mass invasion, mass casualties. Well, now we have a 60 foot strip that's been transferred to the US DOD. If someone sets foot on that, they're trespassing on a military installation. Now, the troops that President Trump, through the border emergency has deployed down there, they can detain someone for that trespassing until the border Patrol, who's got arrest authority, can arrest them. So this is going to help with the collaboration between the border patrol and our dod.

[Cabot Phillips]

We got into a lot more during our day spent together, including the behind the scenes story of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. It was actually Bergam's job. You can watch the full video of our day together on YouTube or daily.

[John Bickley]

Wire.Com it's definitely worth a watch. He's got a lot on his plate. He certainly hit the ground running. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

[Cabot Phillips]

Absolutely.

[John Bickley]

President Trump continues to tout his trade policies as China quietly makes concessions, but also cancels major US Agriculture orders.

[Georgia Howe]

Here with more is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presto Giacomo. So, Amanda, a lot of developments out of China as this trade war progresses. Let's start with the reported concessions out of Beijing. What's happening there?

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Yeah, so there was a report from Reuters yesterday that said that China has created a list of US Made products that they're going to exempt from their retaliatory 125% tariffs. Now, that would be in addition to other exemptions that China has already made on things like pharmaceuticals, microchips, and aircraft engines. Behind the scenes, we have Beijing apparently privately notifying companies about these latest exemptions. Now, that would obviously be to preserve this posture from China that they're going to fight Trump to the end on these tariffs. To that point, just this week, China released a propaganda video about fighting Trump and it's titled never Kneel Down.

[Doug Burgum]

Bowing to a bully is like drinking poison to quench thirst. It only deepens the crisis. Make no mistake, the US Will keep flip flopping and playing hardball, but China.

[John Bickley]

Will stand firm no matter how hard.

[Doug Burgum]

The wind blows, no matter how clouds rage.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

It's also worth noting that Trump has said that he is in trade talks with China and that President Xi actually did call him recently. China, though, has denied that. So perhaps another example of private concessions while China puts on a bold public face.

[Georgia Howe]

So hopefully some quiet compromise behind the scenes there.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Exactly.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, what's going on on the agriculture front?

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Yeah. So just last week, China made Its largest cancellation of pork orders in five years, halting about 12,000 tons of U.S. pork. The nation has also significantly dropped its soybean orders by 97% compared to just two weeks ago. For some context, US farmers export more than $176 billion worth of agricultural products a year. Nearly 10% of that is soybean and pork for China. Here's one farmer from Iowa, a leading pork producing state, discussing her concerns about China and her desire for fair trade.

[Georgia Howe]

And what we really want is fair trade, and we want to make a living doing it. So we want, we want fair prices. We want to be able to sell our product not only within the United States, but globally. So whether that's to China, whether that's Mexico, Canada, we want to be able to sell it.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins addressed potential implications we could see with China during this trade war. And she said that she's looking to open up markets for American farmers.

[Brooke Rollins]

I mean, almost every country in the world treats their farmers better than ours have been treated under the tariff regime of the rest of the world and not of America. That is what is realigning right now. My focus is to expand market access. So while we're renegotiating those deals with current partners, working and moving into Japan and Vietnam and India and Brazil and other countries to make sure that not only do we have the same amount of product that goes in as was done in the last Trump administration, obviously it shrunk under the Biden admin, but that we expand that greatly and that our farmers and ranchers see an era of prosperity that's unprecedented for them.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

In addition to the Department of Agriculture looking to expand the US Export market, Trump said back in March that he really wants to boost agricultural production to be sold right here in the US.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, hopefully over the next few months, we can get all these trade deals sorted out. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

[Amanda Presto Giacomo]

You're welcome.

[John Bickley]

Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow morning with the news. You need to know.