Military Recruitment Up & RFK Targets Food Dyes | 4.24.25

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to take fire, but the Commander-in-Chief is standing by him.

Pete's doing a great job.

Everybody's happy with it.

Meanwhile, military recruitment rebounds after years of decline.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.

It's Thursday, April 24th, and this is Morningwire.

The Trump administration is taking steps to phase out eight synthetic food dyes and issuing warnings about a popular ingredient.

Sugar is poison, and Americans need to know that.

It is poisoning us.

And Trump de-escalates, backing off tariffs and his attacks on the Fed, sending stocks surging.

I would like to see him lower interest rates.

It's a perfect time to lower interest rates.

But no, I have no intention to fire him.

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President Trump is standing by embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as new data shows soaring military recruitment after years of decline.

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down the trend and what's behind it.

Hey, Cabot.

So we'll get to these recruitment numbers in a second, but let's start with Secretary of Defense Hegseth, who is once again facing public pressure.

What's the latest, sir?

Well, there's no doubt his tenure at DOD has been tumultuous so far.

First, there was what Democrats refer to as Signal Gate.

Then last week, a number of senior advisors at the Pentagon were fired after an investigation allegedly found they'd been leaking sensitive information to the press.

And this week, the negative stories continued after the New York Times reported Hegseth had allegedly shared details of airstrikes on Yemen in a separate signal chat that included his wife and brother.

Now, Hegseth's team says his wife is a trusted confidant and that his brother works at the Pentagon, but the story gave yet more fodder to those who want him let go.

But importantly, Donald Trump and J.D.

Vance have stood by Hegseth's side, offering their support publicly.

We have the highest recruitment numbers I think we've had in 28 years.

It's just fake news.

They just bring up stories.

I guess it sounds like this grunt old employees, you know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that's what he's doing.

So you don't always have friends when you do that.

Now, Trump mentioned there, those recruitment numbers.

What are we seeing on that front?

Well, John, we're seeing a stunning turnaround.

Overall recruitment started to dip in 2021 and 22.

And by 2023, the Pentagon was in a full-blown crisis.

That year, the Army fell 25% short of their recruitment goal.

The Navy was 20% below target.

And the Air Force failed to reach their goal for the first time in nearly 25 years, falling 10% short.

2024 did see a slight rebound with the Air Force and Army hitting their target numbers, but it's worth noting the Army lowered their goal that year by 15%.

So the numbers are a bit deceiving.

And the Navy still fell about 10% short of their target.

But that all appears to be really changing now.

Tell us what we've seen so far this year.

Yeah, six months into fiscal year 2025, every single branch is on pace to smash their recruiting goals.

The Navy is tracking towards their best year in two decades.

The Air Force has seen a 20% spike compared to last year.

And the Army, their only problem is finding enough space for all their new recruits.

Last year, they had 55,000 enlistments.

With six months to go, they're already at 52,000.

After years of falling short, they could now double their target in 2025.

According to Army Vice Chief of Staff James Mingus, quote, we've seen momentum unlike anything in a decade.

And it really isn't remarkable.

What's behind this dramatic spike?

Well, it depends on who you ask.

Some say it's a reflection of larger enlistment bonuses and Pentagon efforts to work with potential recruits who in years past may have been rejected.

For example, the Army and Navy each implemented prep courses to help enlistees get in better shape physically or prepare for the entrance exam.

The White House says the explanation, though, is simple.

Young people are rallying around President Trump's patriotic outlook and are responding to his reorienting of the military.

Here he is this week from the White House.

Since November 5th, it's all happened.

Enrollment in the military is at a record.

We're setting records.

And six months ago, we couldn't get anybody.

And now we're setting records.

That's sort of testament to what's happening in terms of the spirit of our country.

Now, Hexeth has been adamant for years that young people were being turned off by the military's embrace of wokeness and that the Pentagon was more focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion than they were creating warfighters.

Here he is on Fox this week.

These recruiting numbers don't surprise me.

They don't surprise me one bit.

They're a reflection of a yearning from the American public, of young people to be proud of their country, to be proud of their military, to make sure when they serve, they're given everything they need.

And look, it makes sense that politics would play a role, given the fact that Republicans are far more likely to enlist.

According to virtually every poll we have over the last decade, Republicans outnumber Democrats by about two to one in our military.

Pew, for example, reports that just 26% of active duty service members are Democrats.

So you can see why a more conservative message coming from the White House and Pentagon could have an impact on folks wanting to sign up.

To give you an idea of that new message, have a listen to this video featuring J.D.

Vance, which the White House called the newest Marine recruitment ad.

No

And again, that message does seem to be resonating.

The latest numbers from the Reagan National Defense Survey showed that this year, Americans' confidence in the military jumped up 6%.

That represents the first time that number has gone up since 2018.

Wow, remarkable to see that trend reversing so quickly.

Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

Absolutely.

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hhs secretary robert f kennedy jr wants to phase out numerous artificial food dyes and colorings by the end of 2026.

here to explain the plan is daily wire reporter amanda press degiacomo so amanda rfk is moving very quickly to implement the make america healthy again agenda starting with american food so first what exactly is he trying to ban Right.

So the Department of Health and Human Services is banning petroleum-based synthetic dyes.

That would be red dye number three in red 40, blue one and two, yellow five and six, and green three.

Now, those are very common in cereals, candy, baked goods, soft drinks, and other junk foods that are commonly consumed by children.

HHS is implementing a number of steps to make this happen.

First, they're going to work with food companies to establish a national standard and a timeline to move away from these petrochemical-based dyes.

They want them phased out at the latest by the end of next year.

And the department is also going to revoke authorization for two synthetic food colorings, citrus red number two and orange B.

That will happen even sooner in the coming months.

Now, red dye number three was banned by the FDA at the very end of the Biden administration, but the timeline on that phase out is years from now.

Kennedy said he's looking to speed that up.

HHS will also be partnering with the National Institutes of Health to conduct comprehensive research on how these dyes impact children's health and development.

So what are the main concerns with these synthetic dyes?

Yeah, so obviously more research is now underway, but we already know that red dye number three, for example, that caused cancer in lab rats.

It was also banned from cosmetic products 35 years ago over cancer risks.

The dye was recently banned in California and the FDA moved on it nationally in January.

Most of these dyes have long been banned in places like Europe and Canada.

FDA Commissioner Dr.

Marty McCary, who joined Kennedy at a press conference on Tuesday, he spoke about the risk tied to these dyes.

For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals.

The scientific community has conducted a number of studies raising concerns about the correlation between petroleum-based synthetic dyes and several health conditions, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, genomic disruption, GI issues, as I've seen in the hospital, and allergic reactions.

Secretary Kennedy said that there are shockingly few studies on food additives and food dyes specifically, and he suggested that that was because of conflicts of interest suppressing the science.

RFK also warned the public about sugar.

He said he's not able to ban that, but he wants parents to understand how harmful and addictive it is.

He said it's addictive as crack, and he called it poison.

So strong words there.

Now, what kind of response have we seen from the food industry?

Well, Kennedy did say that food companies are coming to the table to work out timelines on these bans.

Now, that is going to cost them money to phase this stuff out, but having inconsistent standards in different states would be even worse for these companies.

It would be challenging to market nationally and to adhere to different state regulations.

But Kennedy said that it was actually those local bans that brought these food companies to the table.

It gave HHS leverage to make demands of these companies at the national level.

Kennedy, as well as Dr.

McCary, also acknowledged that it was moms across the country who were really the engine of the Maha movement, and they're responsible for a lot of this swift change.

The warrior moms who have powered the Maha movement.

It's not the time to stop.

It's the time to redouble your efforts because we have them on the run now and we are going to win this battle.

And four years from now, we're going to have most of these products off the market or you will know about them when you own the grocery store.

Well, this was a huge campaign promise and I'm glad to see it happening.

Amanda, thanks for reporting.

You're welcome.

Stocks soared Wednesday after reports that President Trump has no intention of removing Fed chair Jerome Powell.

The S ⁇ P, Dow, and NASDAQ closing the day up multiple points.

Joining us now to discuss the latest on the market and how trade deals and the Fed factor in is economist E.J.

Antoni of the Heritage Foundation.

EJ, thank you so much for joining us.

Oh, my pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

Look, we've seen a clear de-escalation in terms of tariffs from the Trump administration.

There's been a lot of public negotiating going on from Trump and his team, including some mixed messages over the last few weeks.

First, what are you seeing right now with the Trump trade policies?

Well, a couple of things.

One is, I think, a resolution to a lot of that mixed messaging that you mentioned, right?

I mean, it was frankly chaos to start.

A lot of that is getting resolved, not all of it, but a lot of it.

So that's really good.

It's a very welcome development to have Trump and Besson really taking the lead in terms of negotiations.

So less so Greer, Navarro, Lutnik.

That's all a really welcome development again.

In terms of the de-escalation.

I think what we're looking for there is essentially agreements one by one just getting hammered out and eventually signed.

It looks like trade deals reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, which is very, very important.

And so as those deals get done, as the details get ironed out, we can look for more free trade, not less.

We can look for fairer trade.

In other words, not only are American consumer markets still open to foreign producers, but finally, foreign consumer markets will be open to our domestic producers.

Now, as Georgia mentioned, after the president said he's not interested in removing the Fed share, the stock market surged yesterday.

Are there signs of more confidence now in the approach of the Trump administration or not?

Well, at the end of the day, markets really hate uncertainty, full stop.

Even if you're going to get bad news, if it's at least certain,

you can prepare, you can plan, whether on the consumer side or the firm side, it doesn't matter.

So the real problem has been the uncertainty.

The market doesn't really like Jerome Powell, but the idea of removing him creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty.

And that's the last thing markets need right now on top of the uncertainty they already have.

And so once Trump dropped the rhetoric about removing Powell, the Dow rallied.

How important is this tug of war between Trump and Powell?

How directly are the Fed's actions actually tied to the markets?

Well, unfortunately, the Fed really has just been putting politics before policy.

They talk about how they're data dependent.

As far as I can tell, the only data they're really paying attention to is whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat.

When the Fed cut interest rates last year, again, right around the election, we saw 100 basis points of cuts, and then the yield on treasuries moved exactly the opposite direction.

It went up 100 basis points.

So as markets increasingly don't believe the Fed, whether that's looking at inflation predictions or employment predictions, what the Fed does is mattering less and less.

And so markets, I think, are much more today focused on.

what's happening with tariffs, what's happening with the tax cut package.

Is that actually going to get across the finish line?

Because don't forget, that's 10 times the size of the tariffs if we're looking at impact on the consumer.

So there's a whole lot up in the air right now.

And although the Fed is one of those balls being juggled by the market, it's not the only thing.

And I would say it's not even the biggest.

EJ and Tony, thanks so much for joining us.

Yeah, absolutely.

My pleasure.

Thanks for waking up with us.

We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.