Newsom Campaigns for 2028 & Education Dept Downsizes | 7.16.25

Summary

Morning Wire Episode Summary

Title: Newsom Campaigns for 2028 & Education Dept Downsizes
Release Date: July 16, 2025
Hosts: John Bickley and Georgia Howe
Presented by: The Daily Wire

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1. Gavin Newsom’s Push for the 2028 Presidential Race

Timestamp: 00:04 – 06:13

Overview: Governor Gavin Newsom of California is intensifying his efforts toward a potential 2028 presidential bid. Despite ongoing crises within California, Newsom is taking proactive steps to position himself as a leading Democratic contender.

Key Discussions:

• Campaign Activities: Last week, Newsom embarked on a two-day tour in South Carolina, engaging with local Democratic leaders and voters. Officially, he discussed federal healthcare cuts, though the move is widely seen as a strategic political maneuver to secure support in a traditionally red state now pivotal in the Democratic primary landscape.

  Amanda Presa Giacomo (00:32):
  “Governor Newsom visited South Carolina to discuss federal health care cuts, clearly signaling his presidential ambitions.”

• Moderating Stance on Controversial Issues: Newsom is attempting to soften his previous hardline positions to appeal to a broader electorate. He has:

  • Launched a new podcast featuring right-wing figures.
  • Suggested limiting free healthcare for undocumented immigrants.
  • Expressed reservations about transgender participation in girls’ sports.

  Georgia Howe (04:02):
  “Is eight years old too young? That’s a legitimate concern, and Newsom is trying to navigate these complex social issues carefully.”

• Addressing California’s Challenges: While Newsom praises California’s financial contributions to the federal government, he acknowledges the state’s significant problems, including high living costs, rising utilities, and homelessness. He is strategically reframing past controversies, such as the strict COVID-19 policies and the infamous incident at the French Laundry, to mitigate negative perceptions.

  Georgia Howe (05:44):
  “Is the cleanup after Xi’s visit true? Complete bull.”

Insights: Newsom is skillfully balancing his leadership role in California with his national political aspirations. By addressing both successes and shortcomings, he aims to present himself as a pragmatic and adaptable leader ready for the national stage.

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2. Inflation Trends and President Trump’s Interest Rate Strategy

Timestamp: 07:18 – 11:28

Overview: The latest inflation report indicates a slight uptick, prompting President Trump to advocate for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. This segment explores the administration’s perspective on the inflation data and the implications for economic policy.

Key Discussions:

• Inflation Data: Consumer prices increased by 2.7% compared to the previous year, with core inflation at 2.9%. Notably, natural gas, coffee, and beef saw significant price hikes, while gasoline, televisions, and smartphones experienced declines.

  Joe Lavornia (07:33):
  “Consumer prices went up 2.7%, while core inflation was at 2.9%. Natural gas, coffee, and beef are up around 10%.”

• Administration’s Response: The Trump administration views the slight rise in inflation as a manageable anomaly. Economists within the administration argue that the inflation rates remain well below earlier predictions and view the current rise as temporary.

  Linda McMahon (08:26):
  “The core CPI has been well contained, and we believe the trend will improve, leading to even lower inflation going forward.”

• Trump’s Pressure on the Federal Reserve: President Trump is urging Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to reduce interest rates, despite historical precedence where rate cuts occur during low inflation periods. Trump has publicly criticized Powell, suggesting political motivations behind the Fed’s hesitation.

  Donald Trump (10:58):
  “Exactly as anticipated, very low inflation. So what you should do is lower the rate. The Fed should lower the rate immediately.”

Insights: While the Trump administration remains optimistic about the inflation trends, external critics argue that the recent uptick could herald more substantial price increases tied to Trump's tariff policies. The tension between the administration and the Federal Reserve highlights ongoing debates about the best strategies to manage the economy.

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3. Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Education Department Layoffs

Timestamp: 11:28 – 15:42

Overview: The Supreme Court’s decision allows President Trump to proceed with significant layoffs at the Department of Education, aligning with his campaign promise to dismantle the department and devolve educational control to the states.

Key Discussions:

• Supreme Court Ruling: In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s mandate requiring the rehiring of approximately 1,400 Education Department employees. This ruling enables the Trump administration to maintain its workforce reductions pending further legal challenges.

  Justice Sonia Sotomayor (11:46):
  “The Supreme Court decided that Trump can proceed with dismantling the Department of Education without congressional approval.”

• Administration’s Justification: The Trump administration argues that the Department of Education redundantly manages federal funds without direct involvement in curriculum decisions, which are handled at the state and local levels. They contend that reallocating these responsibilities will lead to more efficient and locally tailored educational outcomes.

  Donald Trump (13:29):
  “We are going to move education into the states so that the states can run education without bureaucrats in Washington.”

• Criticism and Dissent: Justice Sotomayor’s dissent criticized the ruling as an overreach, emphasizing that dismantling the department without legislative backing undermines constitutional checks and balances. The dissent was joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, highlighting the contentious nature of the decision.

  Justice Sonia Sotomayor (13:02):
  “Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval.”

• Impact on Education: The reduction in staff is expected to focus on eliminating positions deemed unnecessary, such as those involved in training teachers in what the administration considers divisive ideologies. The administration believes this move will streamline educational governance and reduce federal overreach.

  Ketanji Brown Jackson (14:09):
  “States like Louisiana and Mississippi have shown significant improvements without the need for a centralized Department of Education.”

Insights: The Supreme Court’s decision marks a significant victory for the Trump administration’s education policy agenda. By approving the layoffs, the Court has set the stage for a potential restructuring of federal involvement in education, though ongoing legal challenges may further shape the outcome.

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Conclusion

In this episode of Morning Wire, hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe delve into significant political developments, focusing on Governor Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions and President Trump’s economic and educational policies. The discussions highlight the strategic maneuvers of key political figures as they navigate complex issues within and beyond California. Notable quotes and detailed analyses provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape, emphasizing The Daily Wire’s commitment to delivering unfiltered news coverage.

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For more detailed insights and daily updates, wake up with Morning Wire and stay informed with the latest news you need to know.

Transcript

[John Vickley]

With 2028 in his sights, Gavin Newsom goes on offense, attacking red states and defending his leadership in California.

[Georgia Howe]

You're hitting me right there, man. The California exit, by the way. Complete bull. Now.

[John Vickley]

I'm Daily Wire Executive editor John Vickley with Georgia Howe. It's Wednesday, July 16, and this is Morning Wire.

[Cabot Phillips]

Inflation ticks up, fueling President Trump's calls for an interest.

[Mairead Elordi]

They've had some big forecasting errors and this may be one now.

[John Vickley]

And Trump gets the go ahead for layoffs at the Department of Education. What happens next?

[Cabot Phillips]

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

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[Cabot Phillips]

Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom appears to be ramping up for a presidential run while his state of California continues to battle a number of crises.

[John Vickley]

Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presa Giacomo. Hey, Amanda. So there's been long speculation that Newsom is eyeing a 2028 run for the White House. And over the last month, he's made that really clear that this is his intention. So catch us up to speed. What have we seen from him lately?

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

Yeah, well, just last week, Governor Newsom visited South Carolina for a two day tour. He met with local Democrat leaders and voters. He said he was there to discuss federal health care cuts, but it's pretty clear this was political. So South Carolina might be a red state, but it's become the Democrats first primary state and therefore it's significant if you're looking to become the Democrats guy in 2028. Here's Newsom talking to South Carolina voters, hitting on cultural issues and sounding a lot like a candidate.

[Georgia Howe]

They're banning speech in classrooms, but also in the boardrooms. DEI, ESG, CRT. They're trying to bring us back to pre1960s.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

In addition to launching his own new podcast where he's hosted a number of right wing figures, Newsom is moderating his views. He's proposed limiting free health care coverage for illegals. And he's suggested that he's not totally on board with males who identify as transgender in girls sports. More recently, he appeared on the Sean Ryan podcast, which is generally viewed as right of center. During the four hour long episode, Newsom said he was directing an objective review of California COVID policies. California had some of the strictest lockdown orders in the nation. And you know, politically this was pretty bad for Newsom. It sparked a significant exodus out of California. And you know, famously he was caught dining at the very posh French Laundry while Californians were locked down.

[John Vickley]

Yeah, hard to forget that moment. So he's trying to get out ahead of all that Covid controversy.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

Yeah, that's pretty clear. And you know, he's also trying to back away from the increasingly unpopular position of supporting trans procedures for minors. Remember, Noosa made California the first sanctuary temporary state for minors who are seeking these life altering surgeries. Here's Ryan asking newsom if an 8 year old is too young to transition.

[Georgia Howe]

I mean, is eight years old too young? Yeah, I mean, look, I, I, now that I have a nine year old, just became nine. Come on man, I get it. So those are legit. You know, it's, it's interesting just the issue of age. I haven't as I. And as someone that's been so focused on, on equality, broadly LGBT rights, particularly gay marriage. The trans issue for me is also novel. It's, it's over the last few years I'm trying to understand as much as anyone else.

[John Vickley]

So again, seeming to moderate though not really going on the record and saying anything directly there.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

Right, right. That's pretty common with Newsom. And then we have Newsom praising California and other Democrat run areas, revenue surpluses.

[Georgia Howe]

And we're by the way, a donor state. We provided $83.1 billion more than we received from the federal government. Texas took $71.1 billion.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

Now California is a top state when it comes to tax revenue to the federal governments. That's, of course, no surprise. The state is huge and there are a lot of very wealthy people who live there. However, California has a lot of major problems. The cost of living is one of the highest in the nation and typically so are gas prices. Electricity costs are rising. Insurance costs are at a crisis point. Homelessness is worse in California than any other state. Nearly 25% of all homeless people reside in California. There have been issues with drugs and human feces on the streets, especially in San Francisco. Newsom was asked about that specifically about how this was all very quickly cleaned up for a short amount of time when California hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping.

[Mairead Elordi]

And it seemed like all of that.

[John Vickley]

Was cleaned up when Xi came to town.

[Georgia Howe]

Yeah. Is that true? Complete bull.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

Here's Newsom in 2023.

[Georgia Howe]

I know folks say, oh, they're just cleaning up this place because all those fancy leaders are coming into town. That's true because it's true.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

So a lot of moderating and reframing past controversies and unfavorable positions. And it's also clear that Newsom is trying to be the lead figure in this resistance effort against Trump.

[John Vickley]

Well, a lot said there and suggested more alike, but the actions are what matter. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

[Amanda Presa Giacomo]

You're welcome.

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[John Vickley]

Inflation ticked up slightly last month as President Trump continues to pressure the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

[Cabot Phillips]

Daily Wire Senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the numbers. So, Cabot, first tell us what new numbers came out, and then we're going to talk about what's behind these trends.

[Joe Lavornia]

Yeah. Economists and investors alike wait with bated breath each month for these reports to come out as they provide a helpful snapshot of the overall of the economy. Now, when President Trump first took office, economists had offered really apocalyptic warnings that his trade policy, specifically tariffs, would cause inflation to spike. Month after month, though, inflation fell significantly below expectations, defying all of their warnings. But on Tuesday, the latest inflation report showed that rates were going up, even if ever so slightly. Consumer prices went up 2.7% compared to the same month last year, while core inflation was at 2.9%. The goods most impacted were natural gas, coffee and beef, all of which were up around 10% compared to last year, while gasoline, televisions and smartphones were all down around 10% on average. For more on the report, I spoke with Joe Lavornia, a senior advisor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett.

[Linda McMahon]

The numbers met expectations, so they were not hardly bad at all. And on the cpi, the core cpi, that was weaker than expected. In fact, every month that President Trump's been in office, the core cpi, which some consider to be the underlying trend in inflation, has either met or the price of the downside. But if you look in the CPI and you look at goods prices broadly defined, excluding food and energy, which is the way you probably should look at it, prices are up only up a couple of tenths, and they've been very well contained.

[Cabot Phillips]

So it sounds like the Trump administration isn't too worried about this.

[Joe Lavornia]

They are not. They're confident this is just a blip on the radar. And to their point, the context is important. Remember, from 2021 to 2024, people would have done anything to have a 2.7% rate. Inflation peaked at 9%, and there was a two year span where it was AB every single month. But this is really the first step we've seen in the wrong direction since Trump took office. And now his critics say that his tariffs are to blame.

[Cabot Phillips]

So let's get into that. What's their argument?

[Joe Lavornia]

Well, they say that there's simply no way for businesses to pay a 20% tariff without passing at least some of that cost on to consumers. To that point, last month, furniture, toys and clothing all saw relatively significant price increases, and those are all items particularly sensitive to tariffs. Critics say this is just the start. They believe companies are trying to hold off on full price increases until President Trump sets his final rates in September, at which point, they say prices will really take off. But again, for the time being, we've really only seen a modest uptick. That is nowhere near what economists have been projecting. Here's Livornia's take on that.

[Linda McMahon]

I would say that in general, the inflation numbers have been absolutely fantastic, meaning they've been much lower than virtually everybody perhaps outside the administration had thought. There's really been no noticeable impact of tariffs at all. In fact, a lot of the imported goods the CEA had done analysis on showed that at least through May, you actually had disinflation or deflation in many of these categories. So the inflation news has been great, and we believe the trend will actually get better, meaning you'll see even lower inflation going forward.

[Cabot Phillips]

Now, how has President Trump responded to these latest numbers?

[Joe Lavornia]

He has not said anything. He's been totally quiet. No, I'm kidding, of course. You know, he weighed in once again, urging Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Now, historically, the Fed has lowered rates when inflation is low, but Powell has been remarkably hesitant to do so, prompting Trump to accuse him of keeping rates high for political purposes. Here's Trump at the White House yesterday.

[Donald Trump]

Exactly as anticipated, very low inflation. So what you should do is lower the rate. The Fed should lower the rate immediately.

[Joe Lavornia]

Now, President Trump has repeatedly called on Powell to resign, and he's even gone so far as hinting that he might fire him. But he can only do that with cause. So it means he'll likely have to wait until 2026 for a new chairman. That's when Powell's term expires.

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, the markets don't seem to be that concerned about tariffs anymore. Cabot, thanks for reporting.

[Joe Lavornia]

Absolutely.

[Cabot Phillips]

The Supreme Court says President Trump can move forward with mass layoffs at the Education Department.

[John Vickley]

It's the latest in a string of wins for the Trump administration at the high court. And Daily Wire investigative reporter Mairead Elordi is here to tell us what this means for the department going forward. Hey, Marade. So, first, what did the court decide?

[Sonia Sotomayor]

Hi, John. Yes. So the Supreme Court decided Monday that Trump can go ahead with his plans to dismantle the Education Department. This was one of his key campaign promises. The court voted 6 to 3 along ideological lines to block a lower court's order. A federal judge in Boston said in may that about 4, 1400 employees of the Education Department must be allowed to return to work after they were fired in mass layoffs earlier this year. Now the Trump administration will be able to fire them, at least while the rest of the legal Challenge plays out. And Trump said on Truth Social, that's exactly what they'll do. He wrote. The federal government has been running our education system into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the power back to the people. America's students will be the best, brightest, and most highly educated anywhere in the world. Education secretary Linda McMahon reacted to Monday's ruling.

[Ketanji Brown Jackson]

This lifts the handcuffs off of what we've been trying to do, which really is to get education back to the states where the president believes it does belong.

[Sonia Sotomayor]

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a pretty angry dissent, accusing the conservative justices of making an indefensible decision. Sotomayor argued that Trump is trying to illegally shutter the department without congressional approval. The other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, joined Sotomayor's dissent.

[John Vickley]

Now, what will the staff reduction actually look like? Does this entail firing any teachers?

[Sonia Sotomayor]

No. So in March, Trump signed an executive order dismantling the Department of Education at the federal level. As we mentioned, this was one of his key campaign promises to shift more control to local communities and parents. So also in March, Education Secretary Linda McMahon slashed about half of her department's workforce. That's about 1400 staffers. Here's Trump talking about the cuts.

[Donald Trump]

They're, number one, not showing up to work. Number two, they're not doing a good job. We have a dream, and you know what the dream is? We're going to move the Department of Education, we're going to move education into the states so that the states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, so that the states can run education.

[Sonia Sotomayor]

So after that, the administration was hit with two lawsuits. One was filed by a pair of Massachusetts school districts in the American Federation of Teachers Union, and the other was filed by 21 Democratic attorneys general. And eventually this case ended up at the Supreme Court. And Republicans do eventually want Congress to fully shut down the department. Here's Secretary McMahon talking about how this would actually help students.

[Ketanji Brown Jackson]

We just got the NAEP scores at the end of January. That's the nation's report card. And we saw the state of Louisiana come up. You know, I think they were number one in improvement in bringing their scores up. We had the Mississippi miracle, in which those readers and their literacy tests came literally from almost bottom in the country to now reading it at average level, which was an incredible ju. So there are states that have been innovative and aggressive in what they've been doing, and they didn't need the Department of Education to do it.

[John Vickley]

And remind us, what are the criticisms against the Education Department, why is this such a big priority for the administration?

[Sonia Sotomayor]

Well, critics have pointed out that the Education Department doesn't do much educating. Though it spends 80 billion in taxpayer dollars each year, it has no say over public school curriculums, which are decided at the state and local levels. Instead, IT doles out 18.4 billion annually for Title 1, the Low Income School District program, and 15.5 billion for special education. It also enforces certain Title 9 civil rights laws and sets the rules for colleges to participate in the 1.6 trillion federal student loan program. The Trump administration says other departments are better equipped to manage these programs. And by the way, under the Trump administration, the Education Department has terminated over $600 million in grants for training teachers in divisive ideologies, including social justice activism, anti racism, and recruiting teachers based on race.

[John Vickley]

It seems like there's still quite a bit of fat left to cut there. Murray, thanks for reporting.

[Sonia Sotomayor]

Thanks, John.

[Cabot Phillips]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe. We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.