Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary Episode: Trump’s Record Pace & Federal Media Contracts Cancelled | 2.7.25
Release Date: February 7, 2025
Hosts: John Bickley & Georgia Howe
Co-Hosts: Cabot Phillips & Megan Basham
Guest: Tim Pierce

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

In this episode of Morning Wire, hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe, alongside co-hosts Cabot Phillips and Megan Basham, delve into President Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to reshape the U.S. government. The episode addresses Trump's unprecedented pace in signing executive orders, the controversy surrounding federal funding to major media outlets, and the administration's stringent immigration enforcement measures.

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2. Trump's Record Pace of Executive Orders

Key Points:

• President Trump is executing a series of executive orders at an unprecedented rate, aiming to overhaul various aspects of the federal government.
• These orders cover a range of issues, including tackling alleged anti-Christian bias and overhauling the tax system.
• Public support for many of these orders remains high, reflecting Trump's strong backing among his constituency.

Notable Quotes:

• John Bickley [00:03]: "Trump continues his fast and furious pace of reshaping the US Government."

• Cabot Phillips [01:36]: "President Trump continues to sign executive orders at a record pace, reshaping the federal government."

• Kevin [01:58]: "Since January 20, Donald Trump has signed executive orders at a faster pace than any president in modern American history."

• Megan Basham [02:28]: "Wow."

• Kevin [02:31]: "Yes, they are. For example, Ipsos polling this week found that 64% of Americans support his plan to investigate FEMA for political bias... 79% of Americans support that plan, including even 67% of Democrats."

• Georgia Howe [03:31]: "The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government."

• Pam Bondi [04:53]: "The AG will also be establishing a new weaponization working group that'll investigate cases of politicized justice within the DOJ over the last four years."

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3. Federal Media Contracts and Their Cancellation

Key Points:

• The Trump administration has ordered the Government Services Agency to cancel all media contracts, targeting legacy media outlets such as Politico, the Associated Press (AP), and The New York Times.
• These contracts involved substantial federal funding, with Politico receiving $8.2 million in the last fiscal year, primarily from non-USAID sources.
• Media outlets defend these payments as legitimate business transactions for premium services, not as subsidies.
• Critics argue that the high cost of these subscriptions ($10,000+ annually) represents an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds and raises concerns about potential bias in media coverage.

Notable Quotes:

• Cabot Phillips [06:48]: "President Trump is ordering the Government Services Agency to cancel all media contracts."

• Megan Basham [07:18]: "Politico has been the main focus because they received $8.2 million from the federal government in just the last fiscal year."

• Megan Basham [08:41]: "Politico's argument is that these agencies were buying subscriptions to its premium news service, Politico Pro... they have, quote, never received any government funding."

• Kevin [10:29]: "A former Politico reporter... has acknowledged that the outlet's editors tended to quash those stories that were unfavorable to Biden."

• Megan Basham [10:25]: "There’s no proof that that editorial bias was influenced by money. But again, the optics aren't great."

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4. Immigration Enforcement and Actions by Attorney General Pam Bondi

Key Points:

• Newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi is spearheading a crackdown on sanctuary cities, initiating lawsuits against Chicago and the state of Illinois for their protection of illegal aliens.
• The Justice Department (DOJ) is intensifying deportation efforts, with current deportation numbers reaching approximately 12,000 since Trump took office less than three weeks prior.
• Operational security issues within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been highlighted, leading to internal measures to prevent leaks and enhance mission focus.
• Local officials contest the federal government's authority to mandate deportations, leading to ongoing legal battles.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Pierce [11:49]: "Here's Bondi on FOX News with Sean Hannity... If you don't comply with federal law, you're going to be next."

• Pam Bondi [12:43]: "For any mayor or governor who doesn't want public safety threats removed from the communities, I find it hard to believe that. But we're going to do it with or without them."

• Tim Pierce [13:24]: "Pam Bondi: This is not a game when we show up these sites. This is a dangerous job for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol..."

• Tim Pierce [14:03]: "Tim Pierce: So operational security has been a problem for ICE. Homan is working on it."

• Tim Pierce [14:22]: "They're at about 12,000 now since Trump entered office less than three weeks ago."

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5. Conclusion

The episode underscores President Trump's vigorous approach to governance, marked by a flurry of executive orders and significant policy shifts. While his administration garners substantial support for its initiatives, it also faces criticism and legal challenges, particularly concerning media funding and immigration enforcement. Attorney General Pam Bondi's aggressive actions against sanctuary cities exemplify the administration's uncompromising stance on law enforcement and border security.

Listeners are encouraged to stay informed and engaged with the latest developments by tuning into Morning Wire for comprehensive coverage of political and cultural affairs.

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This summary captures the key discussions and insights from the Morning Wire episode on February 7, 2025. For the full conversation and detailed analysis, listening to the episode is recommended.

Transcript

[John Bickley]

Trump continues his fast and furious pace of reshaping the US Government.

[Georgia Howe]

First two weeks have been probably, they say, the most successful two weeks in the history of any presidency.

[Cabot Phillips]

We look at Trump's latest political maneuvers, including tackling anti Christian bias and overhauling the tax system.

[John Bickley]

I'm Daily Wire Editor in Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Friday, February 7th, and this is Morning Wire. How many federal dollars are finding their way into the pockets of media outlets? We dug into the Doge sparked controversy.

[Cabot Phillips]

And illegal border encounters have plummeted since Trump took office. Is the administration living up to its promise to secure the border?

[Pam Bondi]

The crossings on the border are down 93%. 93%.

[Cabot Phillips]

Wow.

[Pam Bondi]

That's a bigger decrease than under the first Trump administration.

[John Bickley]

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

[Brandon]

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[Cabot Phillips]

President Trump continues to sign executive orders at a record pace, reshaping the federal government.

[John Bickley]

Joining us now is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips, who has the latest on another whirlwind day in Washington. Hate gabbit. So Trump has really stunned supporters and critics with the pace of his executive orders. So let's start there. What are we seeing so far from him on executive action?

[Kevin]

Well, he's at a risk of burning a hole in the Resolute desk with how fast he's signing these new orders. Trump officials told me throughout the transition phase that they had the orders ready to go and would hit the ground running. And they were not lying. Since January 20, Donald Trump has signed executive orders at a faster pace than any president in modern American history. For context, in the last century, only two presidents, Joe Biden and Harry Truman, had signed more than 40 orders during their first hundred days. Trump hit that number in his first two weeks.

[Megan Basham]

Wow.

[John Bickley]

But it's not a competition. Just going to clarify.

[Kevin]

Yeah.

[John Bickley]

And many of Those orders are turning out to be really popular with Americans, right?

[Kevin]

Yes, they are. For example, Ipsos polling this week found that 64% of Americans support his plan to investigate FEMA for political bias. 62% favor his order overriding California law to bring in more water to the state. 73% support his declassifying of the RFK, JFK and MLK records, and 59% support reinstating service members discharged for refusal the COVID vaccine. But most popular has been his order to ban biological men from women's sports, which he signed Wednesday. According to a New York Times poll, 79% of Americans support that plan, including even 67% of Democrats. And on Thursday, Trump announced his newest order, this one on religious freedom. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, he said he'd be assigning the Department of Justice to form a task force to, quote, eradicate anti Christian bias around the country, specifically targeting any discrimination of Christians by the federal government.

[Georgia Howe]

The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government. The task force will work to fully prosecute anti Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.

[Kevin]

Newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi will be tasked with overseeing that force. And she's also rolling out a number of DOJ reforms in her first week. In a memo to staffers, Bondi threatened to fire anyone who, quote, undermines the constitutional order and deprives the president of the benefit of his lawyers, AKA anyone subverting orders from the White House. The AG will also be establishing a new weaponization working group that'll investigate cases of politicized justice within the DOJ over the last four years. That group will reportedly prioritize investigations of those who prosecuted Donald Trump, including Special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and New York AG Letitia James. From there, they'll be looking into the January 6th trials, the DOJ's targeting of parents protesting school board meetings and those within the FBI who targeted Catholic churches and charities. So they want answers from the last four years. Trump has long said the DOJ engaged in lawfare against political opponents. And now the head of the DOJ will be searching for that evidence.

[John Bickley]

Lots of interest in what they find there. Now, the White House also laid out new plans for overhauling the tax system on Thursday. What are they proposing?

[Kevin]

Yeah, so that'll take more than an executive order, as tax policy requires an act of Congress. So on Thursday, the White House sat down with House GOP leaders to lay out the reforms they want passed into law. Among those are the elimination of taxes on Social Security benefits and overtime pay. And the big one, an end to taxes on tips. That idea gained a lot of steam on the campaign trail, really becoming a rallying cry for supporters. The White House is also pushing for the renewal of Trump's 2017 tax cuts, the elimination of the carried interest loophole, and new tax breaks for Made in America products. Here's press secretary Caroline Levitt.

[Megan Basham]

This will be the largest tax cut in history for middle class working Americans. The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done.

[Kevin]

Now, House Republicans expressed support for most of those policies during the campaign, but but passing them into law will be a challenge, especially given their slim majority and the unlikelihood of any Democratic support. GOP lawmakers don't get on board, though. We can certainly expect to see the president using his bully pulpit to exert some pressure.

[John Bickley]

Yeah, he's not shy about using that, that's for sure. Kevin, thanks so much for recording.

[Kevin]

Anytime.

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[Cabot Phillips]

President Trump is ordering the Government Services Agency to cancel all media contracts. That's according to Axios. Controversy erupted this week over allegations that the federal government has been funding legacy media outlets like Politico, the Associated Press and the New York Times. But the outlets say the spending is legitimate. Here with the details is Daily Wire Culture reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, a lot of opposing claims over this issue. First off, how much federal money are we talking about and which media outlets are receiving it?

[Megan Basham]

So, as we reported yesterday, this really started with the Trump administration's announcement that it was effectively shutting down usaid. And that's the United States Agency for International Development. Now, that led to a lot of scrutiny over what exactly USAID has been spending money on. And that's when data analysts found millions of taxpayer dollars from various federal agencies flowing into legacy outlets like Politico. And ap. Now, Politico has been the main focus because they received 8.2 million from the federal government in just the last fiscal year. Some initial reports falsely claimed that all of that money was coming from USAID, but in reality, only 24,000 came from that group. But what that did was the discovery got a lot more people looking into these payments, and millions more was discovered coming from other government agencies. So now we're seeing a similar debate around the AP, the New York Times, and Reuters. AP has received 620,000, primarily coming from the State Department. The times was paid 378,000 last fiscal year for its various subscriptions, and Reuters received 13.6 million, with the majority coming from the Department of Defense for a premium data analysis product called Thomas Reuters Special Services.

[Cabot Phillips]

And how are these outlets explaining those payments?

[Megan Basham]

Well, they argue that these are legitimate business transactions, not subsidies. Politico's argument is that these agencies were buying subscriptions to its premium news service, Politico Pro, and some annual subscriptions could cost over $10,000. So POLITICO CEO and editor in chief issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the company has, quoting here, never received any government funding. No subsidies, no grants, not one dime in 18 years. And they also underscored that Politico Pro is a different product than their general news program. And they say that most of their subscribers are in the private sector. Now, AP also doesn't deny that they've received millions in payments, but they made a point of noting that both Republican and Democratic administrations have been their customers. But a lot of critics, particularly those on the right, counter that these premium subscriptions like Politico Pro are pretty exorbitantly priced over 10k a year, and that this is effectively a racket that relies on government agencies greenlighting these high expenditures. And they also worry about how these large sums of money might influence news coverage. Molly Hemingway at the Federalist shared a post that called it payola, quoting like when a Labor Union buys 250k copies of a hack politician's book no one wants to read. Sure, they technically paid for a book, but the union was purchasing something else. And then political talk show host Eric Erickson argued that if any Republican were using federal tax dollars to pay for subscriptions to a conservative news service that cost $10,000, the very press outlets defending this would assail that.

[Cabot Phillips]

Now, is there evidence that this cash flow has skewed their coverage?

[Megan Basham]

Well, we can see that these pricey Politico accounts did ramp up during the Biden years. They went from 6.5 million during the Trump administration to 26 million between 2021 and 2024 under President Biden. And that does present some problematic optics, if nothing else. And then a former Politico reporter, Mark Caputo, has acknowledged that the outlet's editors tended to quash those stories that were unfavorable to Biden. He said they wouldn't run coverage on Joe Biden's cognitive or on the Hunter Biden laptop story. In fact, he said that staff were instructed to not even talk or tweet about that laptop story. So there's no proof that that editorial bias was influenced by money. But again, the optics aren't great.

[Cabot Phillips]

Well, at the very least, it's worth knowing which outlets have lucrative government contracts. Megan, thanks for reporting.

[Megan Basham]

Anytime.

[Cabot Phillips]

Pam Bondi, just recently confirmed as attorney general, has wasted no time in cracking down on sanctuary cities. But some local leaders have pushed back.

[John Bickley]

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce joins us to talk about the latest on immigration and deportations. Hey, Tim. So Attorney General Bondi already taking action here. Where is she focusing her attention right now?

[Tim Pierce]

Yeah. Chicago is the first city to be hit with a lawsuit over its rules designed to protect illegal aliens from federal immigration officers. Here's Bondi on FOX News with Sean Hannity.

[Megan Basham]

Last night, not only did we sue, today the city of Chicago, we sued the state of Illinois, we sued the mayor, we sued the governor, and we sued others. And let me be very clear, if you don't comply with federal law, you're going to be next.

[Tim Pierce]

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday. As far as the state is concerned, state law forbids local law enforcement from holding someone over an ICE detainer. City ordinance adds to that, officials are barred from helping ICE officials arrest illegal aliens. Of course, many more places than Chicago, Chicago, have these types of rules or guidance. This is only the start of the Trump administration's crackdown.

[John Bickley]

Right now, local officials say that the federal government does not have the authority to force their hands on deportations. Who is in the right here?

[Tim Pierce]

Well, it's a good question and it's going to be litigated. One of the tools that the Trump administration has used to pressure sanctuary cities is to cut them off from federal funds. Opponents say that's an overreach of executive authority. Legally, it's an open question. The first Trump administration also used this leverage and it spawned numerous lawsuits and court rulings. But when President President Joe Biden took over, his administration dropped the policy before it was brought before the Supreme Court. The other lever that the White House is using to get its way is through direct legal action, like the lawsuit against Chicago. The lawsuit alleges essentially that the city is aiding and abetting criminals. White House border czar Tom Homan appeared on Fox News Thursday and was militant that local officials should get out of ice's way.

[Pam Bondi]

For any mayor or governor who doesn't want public safety threats removed from the communities, I find it hard to believe that. But we're going to do it with or without them. If they're not going to help, get out of the way. But don't cross that line. Do not impede our operations.

[John Bickley]

Well, whether or not local officials are on board, deportations are happening. As we've reported, ICE even started using space at Guantanamo Bay to hold some deportees. Now, there were some kinks in the operation early on, some leaks that got out. Have those been ironed out?

[Tim Pierce]

Maybe. ICE did have another instance where its plans for a raid against suspected Trend members were leaked. Homan was pretty furious about it, and he wants Bondi and the DOJ involved here, too.

[Pam Bondi]

This is not a game when we show up these sites. This is a dangerous job for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol and all the DOJ agencies to have this type of interference puts our officer at great risk. Not only the officers, it puts the aliens at great risk because anything can happen when we take our eyes off the goal here. So we're addressing that immediately today.

[Tim Pierce]

So operational security has been a problem for ice. Homan is working on it. He said Thursday he'll probably stop ride alongs for the media to control more variables. But deportations have moved forward. They're at about 12,000 now since Trump entered office less than three weeks ago.

[John Bickley]

The number keeps ticking up every week. Tim, thanks for joining us.

[Tim Pierce]

Good to be on.

[Cabot Phillips]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you enjoyed listening today, please share this episode with a friend.