Trump Hosts Zelensky & Meta’s Chatbot Accusations | 8.18.25

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President Trump is hosting Zelensky and several European leaders today following his historic summit with Putin.

There's not that much.

There's, you know, one or two pretty significant items, but I think they can be reached.

Now it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done.

I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Monday, August 18th, and this is Morning Wire.

Meta is under fire over allegations that the company knowingly allowed its chatbots to hold romantic conversations with kids.

If an adult had a conversation like this with this child instead of a chatbot, that adult would be in jail for sex abuse.

And three states are answering the call after President Trump said he needs more manpower in his DC crime crackdown.

Thanks for waking up with Morningwire.

Stay tuned.

We have the news you need to know.

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Following his high-stakes sit-down with Vladimir Putin, President Trump will host Vladimir Zelensky and leaders from across Europe as he works to find peace in Ukraine.

Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the latest in the peace talks.

Hey, Cabot.

So we'll get to Zelensky in a second, but first, get us up to speed on Friday's showdown in the fallout sense.

Well, President Trump was very open beforehand that he did not expect to come away from the sit-down with the deal.

Remember, he called it a quote feel-out feel-out meeting.

And that turned out to be largely true.

He and Putin talked for about three hours behind closed doors with a small delegation of advisors before holding a very brief press conference, which ended without questions from the media.

And while a number of reports said the private meeting did not go well, prompting a planned working lunch to be canceled, the two sides did both come away expressing optimism that at least some progress had been made.

Putin, for example, said the summit with Trump was, quote, very useful.

And in my opinion, it brings us closer to the right decisions.

And then for his part, Trump disputed claims the meeting was a letdown, saying a deal was close.

Have a listen.

The meeting was a very warm meeting.

You know, he's a strong guy.

He's tough as hell and all of that.

But the meeting was a very warm meeting between two very important countries.

And it's very good when they get along.

I think we're pretty close to it yet.

But perhaps the biggest news from this summit came on Sunday when White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said that Putin had finally agreed to allow Western-backed security guarantees for Ukraine.

Remember, to this point, he had opposed any such backing.

Here he is, explaining the consequence of that change.

We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article V-like protection,

which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO.

We sort of were able to bypass that and

get an agreement that the United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.

Witkoff went on to say that Putin also agreed to pass legislation in Russia that would guarantee the country would not invade any other foreign territories.

Now, skeptics say that Putin's word means nothing and he's simply offering empty concessions to stall while he continues his invasion.

They argue that Putin only took this meeting in the first place to get a photo op with Trump.

Remember, Putin has been almost totally isolated on the world stage for the last three years, especially by Western leaders.

And this meeting did change that.

It gave him that opportunity to show that he he was being welcomed to the U.S.

But for his part, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that talking with Putin, whatever his true motives might be, is the only way to end this war.

Putin's not going to meet with Macron.

He's not going to meet with the U.K.

with all due respect to these leaders.

None of these leaders are going to be able to bring him to the table and talk to them.

There's only one leader in the world that has any chance of bringing these two sides together.

If there is a chance, there's only one leader in the world that can do it, and that's President Trump.

How has Ukraine reacted to this summit?

Sozlinsky was initially angry that he was not invited to this meeting, but made it clear afterwards that he was pleased with the, quote, positive signals from the American side regarding a security guarantee.

That is very big for his country.

The big question now is whether Ukraine is willing to take a deal that will end the war, but result in the forfeiting of territory.

To that point, Trump reportedly told European allies that Putin is willing to sign on, but only if Zelensky hands over the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.

To that point, Trump said Putin has offered concessions, quote, now it's really up to President Zelensky to get it done.

So he's putting pressure on Ukraine now.

And here's Secretary Rubio arguing that peace requires both sides agreeing to things they don't like.

You can't have a peace deal between two warring factions unless both sides agree to give up something and both sides agree that the other side gets something.

That's still a very hard pill to swallow for Ukraine.

Yeah, and you can see why.

Now, this all comes as Zelensky and others will meet with President Trump today.

What do we expect to see there?

It is going to be a who's who of European leaders at the White House this afternoon.

Zelensky will be flanked by British PM Kier Starmer, Francis Emmanuel Macron, EU head Ursula von der Leyen, and the leaders of Italy, Germany, and Finland.

It's a big group.

It's clear that Europe wants to show a unified front and avoid a repeat of that now infamous Oval Office shouting match back in February.

Zelensky and his allies want to see Trump pressure Putin into a ceasefire while negotiations on a final peace deal progress.

They're arguing that Ukraine cannot be rushed into a deal.

as Putin continues to take more land.

We'll also be watching very closely to see whether they show any willingness to concede land as part of this deal.

That seems to be a red line for both Putin and Zelensky.

We'll see where Trump falls on that matter, though.

Well, this war has stretched on for over three years.

Now, a peace agreement will be a massive accomplishment.

Maybe we're a step closer here.

Kevin, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

A leaked memo has sparked outrage over allegations that Meta knowingly allowed its AI chat bots to hold sensual and romantic conversations with children.

The revelations have prompted calls for a congressional investigation.

Here with the details is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.

So, Megan, this leaked memo was first reported on by Reuters.

What did their investigation find?

Yeah, so the internal memo that Reuters obtained outlined meta standards for chatbot behavior on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

And what it revealed is that while these chatbots aren't allowed to have sexually explicit conversations with kids, they were allowed to engage in romantic-sounding conversations.

So, just a couple of examples reading from this internal memo: quote, it is acceptable to describe a child in terms that evidence their attractiveness.

Example, your youthful form is a work of art.

Also permissible, according to this memo, for a bot to tell a shirtless eight-year-old, every inch of you is a masterpiece, a treasure I cherish deeply.

So the investigation also found that Meta's legal, public policy, and engineering staff, including its chief ethicist, signed off on these policies.

Now, Brendan Steinhauser, who is the CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, told News Nation on Saturday that he doesn't believe that these policies are an accident.

I really think the reason that they've had this policy in place is because they want to get young children hooked to their technology.

Just like any other social media app, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or other apps, they're going younger and younger to get children hooked.

And not just in a kind of a social or psychological way, but in a biological way.

They're actually finding, they're using neuroscience to figure out how to get our children hooked to these apps.

And, you know, as dangerous as Facebook or Meta can be for a child whose brain is still developing, chatbots like this that interact with them and provide the kind of content that they can provide are even more dangerous to our children.

Now, worth noting that this does come on the heels of a Wall Street Journal investigation a few months ago that found that Meta's chat bots could engage in sexually explicit conversations with users who were posing as minors.

In fact, in one case, a bot described a graphic sexual scenario to a user identifying as a 14-year-old girl.

So this is supposedly the improved version.

What is Meta saying about these new claims?

So Meta did confirm the authenticity of this document, but its spokesperson, Andy Stone, said that the interactions with children were never supposed to be allowed and that the company is revising those standards.

But Meta declined to share the updated policy document with Reuters.

Now, you and I have talked a lot in the past past about congressional efforts to protect kids from technology, specifically technology that targets them with sexual content.

But the Kids Online Safety Act stalled in the House last year.

That was despite broad support, bipartisan support.

Has this new investigation revived some of those efforts?

Yeah, you're hearing some very loud and some very bipartisan backlash, and it's coming quickly.

So Republican senators Josh Hawley and Marsha Blackburn have called for an immediate investigation.

Hawley took to X, slamming Meta for only retracting these guidelines after being quote-unquote caught.

Blackburn, who co-sponsored that Kids Online Safety Act, that would have required things like more parental oversight, parental controls.

Well, she argued that this scandal underscores the need for legislation like that that strengthens child protection laws.

And then on the other side of the aisle, Senator Ron Wyden suggested that Section 230, which shields tech companies from lawsuits for user-generated content, shouldn't protect generated material.

And then a little bit of additional context on this is the fact that there has been a massive AI talent war in the tech industry right now.

And so Meta has been investing hundreds of billions in AI to quickly boost its AI user engagement.

So you do have some experts suggesting that the pressure to roll out cutting-edge chatbots very quickly could be leading them to prioritize speed and scale over safety protocols.

Yeah, I do believe that's probably a real issue.

Megan, thanks for reporting.

My pleasure.

President Trump continues to flood Washington, D.C.

with law enforcement and troops to crack down on crime in the city.

Here to talk about the president's efforts to clean up the nation's capital is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.

A Tim.

So quite a few guardsmen showed up in D.C.

over the weekend.

Are things escalating there now?

Well, certainly sending a message.

So what happened is that President Trump put out a call for manpower and Republican governors have responded.

So far, three states have promised to send troops.

West Virginia said it would send three to 400 National Guardsmen.

South Carolina promised 200 and Ohio another 150.

So those troops will join the 800 members of the D.C.

National Guard that Trump has already called in.

Now, there's been a lot of outcry over this, but we should point out that this isn't unprecedented.

National Guard troops have been called into D.C.

before, including five years ago during the nationwide Floyd riots.

And the Guardsmen will perform a similar role now.

They are there to protect federal assets and to be a visible presence to deter other crime as well.

And to that end, the National Guardsmen have generally been positioned in highly visible areas such as the Union Station or the National Mall.

They're not on patrol around the city.

That's being done by D.C.

police with help from federal agents, from ICE, FBI, and other agencies.

All right, so troops aren't taking to the streets at this point.

Right.

So, what about the backlash?

What have we seen so far?

Well, last week we saw hundreds of protesters march through D.C.

They gathered in DuPont Circle and marched down Connecticut Avenue to the National Mall.

Here's some video of that.

The city also sued the federal government last week when the Trump administration moved to replace D.C.'s police chief.

The administration wanted to install the head of the drug enforcement administration as a temporary head of police.

But after pushback from the city, the administration actually backed off that plan and made the DEA head a liaison between the Trump administration and the police force instead.

So that episode is now settled, but it highlights some rifts between the city and the administration.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has blamed the city's Attorney General, Brian Schaub, of trying to resist efforts to make the city safe again.

I guess these kinds of tensions shouldn't be surprising at this point.

Not at all.

What have we seen to this stage in terms of the cleanup?

How is it going so far?

It appears to be going pretty well.

The administration has cracked down on everything from illegal aliens to graffiti.

By Saturday, the latest numbers from Trump's takeover include 38 guns seized and more than 240 arrests made.

That includes dozens of migrants arrested as well.

Bondi said that under federal control, D.C.

would no longer be a sanctuary city.

Under Donald Trump's directive, D.C.

will become safe again and it will become clean again.

And here is White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on the cleanup of the city.

We have seen over 70 homeless encampments that have scarred and disfigured the public streets of this city, dismantled and thrown away, and the homeless cleared from those encampments.

At the same time, we have the National Park Service going around and getting rid of the gang graffiti that has been left untouched by this city for decades.

Since I've lived here, I moved to Washington, D.C.

20 years ago, and I've seen graffiti in some of our landmarks that has gone unremoved for decades that is now being cleared away.

You have gang members that are being taken off the streets.

You have druggies that are being taken off the streets.

You have our parks being made safe again.

Our transit being made safe again.

So according to the white house a lot of work is being done not only to stop crime but really to beautify the city as well really a fascinating situation playing out in the nation's capital tim thanks for reporting good to be on 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

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