Trump Scores Legal Win & Texas Abortion Pill Pushback | 8.22.25

Summary

Morning Wire | Trump Scores Legal Win & Texas Abortion Pill Pushback | 8.22.25

Hosts: John Bickley & Georgia Howe
Date: August 22, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Morning Wire covers three major news developments: a major legal victory for former President Donald Trump in New York, increasing state-level pushback against abortion pill distribution, and the escalation of deportations and immigration enforcement in the U.S. The hosts are joined by Daily Wire reporters and expert guests to break down these stories, analyze implications, and provide insights into the shifting political and legal landscape.

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1. Trump’s Legal Victory in New York

Segment Start: 02:33

Key Points

• Background: Trump faced a $465 million civil fraud penalty in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging he inflated net worth for better loan and insurance terms.
• Appellate Ruling: A New York appeals court threw out the penalty, calling it excessive and unconstitutional.
• Ongoing Legal Process: While the fine is vacated, the court process is not over; further appeals are likely.
• Political and Business Repercussions: The court rejected the idea that Trump's business should be destroyed for the alleged actions.
• Attorney General Response: Letitia James is expected to continue legal efforts, claiming at least a partial judicial vindication.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Excessive Penalty:
  “It means that the hundreds of millions of dollars that he was supposed to pay to Letitia James, he no longer has to pay. That is vacated completely... but the amount is wiped off.”
  — Ilya Shapiro, 03:35

• Judicial Rebuke of Political Motives:
  “Letitia James’ ultimate goal was not market hygiene, but political hygiene, ending with a derailment of President Trump’s political career and the destruction of his real estate business.”
  — Cabot Phillips quoting Judge David Friedman, 04:35

• Trump’s Response:
  Trump called it a “total victory in the fake New York State Attorney General Letitia James case” and a “political witch hunt in a business sense the likes of which no one has ever seen before.” (03:58)

• Next Steps:
  “This ruling allows Trump the option of taking the initial fraud ruling to New York’s highest court on appeal, where they could seek to have the entire case thrown out.”
  — Cabot Phillips, 05:27

• Strategic Outlook:
  “I imagine the Trump team wants to run out the clock... at a certain point... the business interests involved have been sold and resold and sliced and diced...”
  — Ilya Shapiro, 05:44

Timestamps

• Trump’s Legal Win Announced: 02:33
• Detailed Legal Explanation: 02:54–06:38

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2. Texas & Abortion Pill Pushback

Segment Start: 07:17

Key Points

• Texas Targeting Providers:
  Texas AG Ken Paxton is issuing cease-and-desist letters to organizations shipping abortion pills into Texas, threatening lawsuits to enforce state law even against out-of-state actors.
• Legislation in the Works:
  Texas considering a bill allowing individuals to sue manufacturers and distributors in other states, potentially testing the limits of ‘shield laws’ meant to protect providers elsewhere.
• Broader Legal Uncertainty:
  Legal experts suggest national implications and anticipate Supreme Court involvement.
• Tennessee’s Angle:
  Sen. Marsha Blackburn urging DOJ to investigate whether manufacturers misled the FDA about the risks of abortion pills, citing new studies showing significantly higher risks.
• Retailer Actions:
  Costco ends sale of mifepristone in all its pharmacies, while pro-life groups push CVS and Walgreens to do the same. Walgreens will not sell in litigation-prone states.
• Democrat Response:
  States like California and New York vow to shield providers and urge FDA to ease restrictions rather than tighten them.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Legal Reach Concerns:
  “That is a national implication. And there are plenty of legal questions about whether or not a state can do that.”
  — Jessica Levinson, 08:36

• Retailer Reaction – Costco’s Move:
  “Costco is where you go to buy in bulk, not to buy pills or death in a bottle. And so this is a major victory for pro life Americans... because Costco has chosen not to sell these deadly pills and to actually do what they do best, which is actually help families.”
  — Lila Rose, 10:51 (Live Action)

• Pro-Life Pressures:
  “Pro life groups are trying to bring the same kind of pressure to bear on other stores like CVS and Walgreens. But so far, both retailers say they are going to continue carrying the pill... Walgreens will not do so in states that are threatening lawsuits.”
  — Megan Basham, 11:24

Timestamps

• Abortion Pills in Texas and Tennessee: 07:17–09:45
• Retailer & Political Responses: 09:45–11:45

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3. Deportations Surge & Immigration Enforcement

Segment Start: 11:54

Key Points

• Deportation Numbers:
  Daily deportations now near 1,500, with ICE arrests dipping below 1,000/day (from 1,200/day in June). Detention populating at nearly 60,000.
• New Detention Centers:
  New centers opened across the U.S., including private and state-cooperative facilities like Alligator Alcatraz (Florida) and Cornhusker Clink (Nebraska).
• International Cooperation:
  More countries, including Uganda, agreeing to accept deported non-violent illegal aliens.
• Urban Enforcement Impact:
  In D.C., after Trump ‘takes over’ city law enforcement, nearly half of recent arrests are of illegal aliens. Other cities, like Boston and L.A., are strongly resisting federal enforcement, with local officials backing sanctuary policies.
• Public and Political Pushback:
  Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and others denounce the federal crackdown as being out of touch with their communities, while ICE officials hold firm.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Difference from Obama Era:
  “The Obama era deportations really consisted of aliens arrested at the border and turned back. In Trump’s case, the border has been effectively closed… so the current numbers really reflect people arrested in the interior and sent out of the country.”
  — Tim Pierce, 12:13

• Boston Mayor’s Response:
  "To all the federal officials attacking communities that embody diversity, creativity and moral clarity... You are wrong on the law and you are wrong on safety. Most of all, you are wrong on cities.”
  — Megan Basham quoting Mayor Michelle Wu, 14:24

• ICE Official’s Rebuttal:
  “The men and women of ICE are not backing down. Unlike Mayor Wu, I was born and raised in Massachusetts. I grew up in Boston and I know what a safe Boston looks like and this isn’t it.”
  — Patricia Hyde, Boston ICE director, 14:55

Timestamps

• Deportations Update: 11:54–13:38
• Urban Enforcement & Political Pushback: 13:38–15:11

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Memorable Quotes & Soundbites

• “Very strong words there indeed from this New York judge in support of Trump.” (Cabot Phillips, 04:35)
• “Costco is where you go to buy in bulk, not to buy pills or death in a bottle.” (Lila Rose, 10:51)
• “If you’re here illegally, you’ve already shown a predisposition to not respect the laws of the country.” (Lila Rose, 01:22)
• “You are wrong on cities. The cities that live in your minds are totally foreign to the residents living in our cities.” (Mayor Michelle Wu, 14:24)

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Conclusion

This episode delivers fact-focused commentary on three top news issues: Trump’s legal turnaround in New York, the intensifying state-level battle over abortion pills, and the rapidly shifting landscape of immigration enforcement and deportations. The hosts and guests provide clear explanations of legal, political, and social implications, with memorable quotes highlighting the sharp divides and high stakes in each area. Listeners gain a comprehensive, up-to-date understanding of high-impact national stories shaping politics, law, and culture today.

Transcript

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[John Bickley]

A New York Court of Appeals hands President Trump a massive victory, wiping out his half billion dollar fine wherever the.

[Ilya Shapiro]

Line is for what's an excessive fine for these bookkeeping errors. Whatever the allegations were, I think it was up to $600 million. That does seem excessive.

[John Bickley]

I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, August 22nd, and this is Morning Wire.

[Host/Anchor]

Texas is putting abortion pill providers on notice. Don't advertise, sell or ship pills to the Lone Star State.

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I think that Texas will win this battle and I hope other states enforce it.

[John Bickley]

And flush with new cash, ICE is ramping up deportations, hiring agents and adding detention centers.

[Pro-Life Advocate (Lila Rose)]

It's just common sense. If you're here illegally, you've already shown a predisposition to not respect the laws of the country.

[Host/Anchor]

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

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[Host/Anchor]

In a stunning legal victory for Donald Trump, a New York appeals court has tossed out the $465 million civil fraud penalty against him.

[John Bickley]

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down this massive reversal and what comes next. Cabot. So a big win in the courts for Trump, this one worth half a billion dollars. What did we see yesterday?

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, this is yet another remarkable turnaround for a man who last year was facing four separate indictments, hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and legal fees at, oh, yeah, life in prison. So, quick refresher on this particular ruling. This case centers on the civil trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accused Trump of inflating his net worth to obtain better loan rates and insurance terms. Ultimately, a judge found Trump liable for fraud in that case, ordering Trump to pay nearly half a billion dollars in fines to the state. On Thursday, a New York appeals court threw out the fine, saying it was excessive and unconstitutional. For more on the ruling, I spoke with Ilya Shapiro, the director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute.

[Ilya Shapiro]

It means that the hundreds of millions of dollars that he was supposed to pay to Letitia James, he no longer has to pay. That is vacated completely and there's further process. There are going to be appeals still up in the air whether he's ultimately liable for his organization is liable for it, but the amount is wiped off.

[Cabot Phillips]

So in his opinion Thursday, Justice Peter Moulton wrote that, quote, while harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half billion dollar award to the state. Now, as you can imagine, Trump was thrilled by this ruling, writing on Truth Social, calling it a, quote, total victory in the fake New York State Attorney General Letitia James case. He went on to call it a, quote, political witch hunt in a business sense the likes of which no one has ever seen before. And one of the judges, David Friedman, went a step further, agreeing with Trump's assessment, writing that Letitia James, quote, ultimate goal was not market hygiene, but political hygiene, ending with a derailment of President Trump's political career and the destruction of his real estate business. The voters have obviously rendered a verdict on his political career. This bench today unanimously derails the effort to destroy his business. Very strong words there indeed from this New York judge in support of Trump. But for his part, Shapiro said he does not expect Attorney General James to be deterred by this ruling.

[Ilya Shapiro]

I expect Letitia James to say, look, the court allowed the convictions some debate over the nomenclature, whether it's actually a conviction or a judgment of liability, but she's going to talk about the convictions are going to stand, and we're just arguing about money. So ultimately, that's fine. The court vindicated this and we'll, we'll have some more legal appeals to figure out exactly how much the Trump Organization owes me.

[John Bickley]

So you've mentioned the appeals process. What does come next in that process?

[Cabot Phillips]

So this ruling allows Trump the option of taking the initial fraud ruling to New York's highest court on appeal, where they could seek to have the entire case thrown out. Now, two of the five judges on Thursday went so far as saying that Trump deserves an entirely new trial. But according to Shapiro, the Trump team may not want to actually start over.

[Ilya Shapiro]

I imagine the Trump team wants to run out the clock, but second best to dismissing it is forcing Letitia James to start over again. And so I think they would take that. But again, they're going to run this out as far as they can go. And at a certain point, it, because it becomes such old, stale news that the, the business interests involved have been sold and resold and sliced and diced that it's unclear whether there's going to be a, a relevant claim to be had in the first place, even if you accept that Letitia Janes is using the, the statute correctly.

[Cabot Phillips]

And as we talk about all of this, it's important to note the Trump administration, for their part, is bringing the fight to Letitia James outside of the courtroom. The Justice Department is currently investigating whether her targeting of Trump violated his civil rights. There's also a separate probe into her personal finances, specifically whether she committed mortgage fraud as part of numerous real estate transactions around the country.

[John Bickley]

And so the plot thickening there. Meanwhile, lots to celebrate from the Trump team. Kevin, thanks for reporting.

[Cabot Phillips]

Absolutely.

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[John Bickley]

Republican led states are ramping up efforts to restrict access to mail order abortion pills like mifepristone, which now account for nearly two thirds of abortions in the U.S. meanwhile, corporate America has become a battleground over the drugs.

[Host/Anchor]

Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So first off, Megan, which states are we talking about and what kind of actions are they taking with regards to these drugs?

[Megan Basham]

Yeah, so we're seeing two major fronts here, Texas and Tennessee. Now, in Texas, distributing abortion pills via the mail is already illegal, but there are some pro abortion groups outside of the state that will still ship abortion pills there. So Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking further steps. He's issuing cease and desist orders to national organizations like Plan C and her Safe harbor. And he's demanding that they stop illegally shipping abortion pills into the state. And if they don't, he says Texas will sue. And then on top of that, the Texas legislature is considering a bill that would also allow individuals who to sue manufacturers and distributors of abortion pills in other states for wrongful death or harm. And that's even if those states have shield laws that are ostensibly meant to protect those abortion groups from those very kind of lawsuits. This is what legal expert Jessica Levinson told cbs.

[Jessica Levinson]

That is a national implication. And there are plenty of legal questions about whether or not a state can do that, can say, we're going to punish people who were otherwise subject to these so called shield laws. I'm talking to you from California. We have one of those shield laws where we essentially try and protect providers who prescribe abortion pills. And those pills eventually will end up in states sometimes where abortion is illegal. So there's a lot of implications about whether or not the reach of this particular bill would in fact be legal.

[Megan Basham]

And then we turn to Tennessee. So their senator, Marsha Blackburn, has sent a letter to the DOJ asking them to investigate whether abortion pill manufacturers misrepresented the potential harm of these drugs to the fda. Her letter, which is joined by two other Republicans, is pointing to a study that shows that mifeprestone carries risks that are 22 times higher than previously thought, including severe complications. So that's potentially opening up the pharmaceutical companies to lawsuits as well.

[Host/Anchor]

How are abortion supporters responding?

[Megan Basham]

So leading Democrats are unsurprisingly resisting this. California and three other states are calling on the FDA to actually ease restrictions on Mifeprestone. They say that it has a proven track record of safety. On Capitol Hill, Democrats are keeping pressure up on retailers. So senators like Patty Murray have asked pharmacies to clarify their positions on dispensing these drugs. And then in New York, Governor Hochul has vow to protect abortion pill providers from any judgments coming from states like Texas, regardless of, you know, what kind of judgments they hand down. So that's the kind of state law clash that would typically end up before the Supreme Court.

[Host/Anchor]

Now, you mentioned retailers. We're seeing them get drawn into this fight as well. Most recently With Costco. What happened there?

[Megan Basham]

Yeah, so Costco just announced last week that they are no longer going to be carrying mifeprestone in any of their 500 plus pharmacies. And, and they're citing low customer demand for that. Obviously, as we would expect, pro life groups are applauding that. This is what Lila Rose of Live Action said on Fox News.

[Pro-Life Advocate (Lila Rose)]

Costco is where you go to buy in bulk, not to buy pills or death in a bottle. And so this is a major victory for pro life Americans and for children in the womb and women because Costco has chosen not to sell these deadly pills and to actually do what they do best, which is actually help families. And so we're celebrating this, and I think we also are sending a strong message to the chains that are selling deadly drugs, which are killing 600,000 children every year. And so we're urging CVS and Walgreens and other pharmacies to stop peddling in death and for the fda, Trump's administration, to pull the pill.

[Megan Basham]

Now, Axios is reporting that pro life groups are trying to bring the same kind of pressure to bear on other stores like CVS and Walgreens. But so far, both retailers say that they are going to continue carrying the pill. And, and Walgreens, though, does say that they're not going to do so in states that are threatening lawsuits.

[Host/Anchor]

All right, well, we'll be watching to see what kind of legal action ultimately develops. Megan, thanks for reporting.

[Megan Basham]

My pleasure.

[Host/Anchor]

President Trump is well on his way toward fulfilling his promise of mass deportations. The pace of deportations in August hit a high not seen in years after immigration arrests surged and new detention centers came online.

[John Bickley]

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the state of immigration. Hey, Tim. So let's talk about deportations first.

[Tim Pierce]

What is the latest on that front? Well, the New York Times says that President Trump has started to rival the former deporter in chief, Barack Obama. Of course, that comparison is a little misleading because the Obama era deportations really consisted of aliens arrested at the border and turned back. In Trump's case, the border has been effectively closed to illegal immigration. So the current numbers really reflect people arrested in the interior and sent out of the country.

[John Bickley]

All right, so real deportations. In other words, what kinds of numbers.

[Tim Pierce]

Are we looking at? According to the Times, daily deportations have hit nearly 1500 a day. Daily ICE arrests have fallen a bit under 1000 a day now from a high of around 1200 a day in June. The number of aliens held in detention has continued to tick up and is at a high right now near 60,000. But if deportations continue to outpace arrests, we should see that number tick down, which should be welcome news by the Trump administration. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security have prioritized bringing new detention centers online, from cooperative dropped in Guantanamo Bay to contracting the privately run Delaney Hall. President Trump has also gotten help from the states. GOP governors are behind facilities such as Alligator Alcatraz in Florida and the Cornhusker Clink soon to come online in Nebraska. And the president is having success overseas as well, getting countries to accept illegal aliens being deported from the United States. Uganda this week joined a growing list of African countries willing to take non violent illegal aliens who can't be deported back to their home countries.

[John Bickley]

Now, as we've reported, the lion's share of these arrests do come in major cities, and Trump has just taken over one of them. Dc. How are things going there?

[Tim Pierce]

Yeah. A couple of days ago, the Wall Street Journal actually reported that nearly half of arrests made in D.C. since Trump took it over are of illegal aliens. The arrest numbers are higher now, but according to the Journal through Tuesday, Federal agents and D.C. police had arrested 465 people. 206 of those, or roughly 44%, were illegal aliens. Now, immigration enforcement like that in other cities has gener backlash from local Democrats and activists. Los Angeles is the most stark example there. Trump even called in the National Guard and Marines to protect ICE officers. But you've also got officials such as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, who had this to say on Tuesday to all the.

[Megan Basham]

Federal officials attacking communities that embody diversity, creativity and moral clarity. We mayor said this in D.C. nearly six months ago and I'll say it again today. You are wrong on the law and you are wrong on safety. Most of all, you are wrong on cities. The cities that live in your minds are totally foreign to the residents living in our cities.

[Tim Pierce]

Patricia Hyde, Boston's acting ICE Field office director, was on Fox News on Wednesday and had this to say about wu's.

[Pro-Life Advocate (Lila Rose)]

Comments as far as you know, the city of Boston and Mayor Wu not backing down. The men and women of ICE are not backing down. Unlike Mayor Wu, I was born and raised in Massachusetts. I grew up in Boston and I know what a safe Boston looks like and this isn't it.

[Tim Pierce]

It's just unfortunate for Hyde that Trump can't take control of Boston's police force the way he's taking control of DCs.

[John Bickley]

Meanwhile, as we reported yesterday, ICE ISIS promising to flood Boston with agents. So we'll see how that goes.

[Tim Pierce]

Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on.

[Host/Anchor]

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.

[Tim Pierce]

These are questions that take cultures thousands.

[John Bickley]

Of years to answer.

[Tim Pierce]

During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice. How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility? How do you repair this kind of damage? My daughter, Michaela, guides the conversations as we hopefully help people navigate their lives. Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone.