Trump’s Economic Upset & D.C. Takeover Tensions | 8.13.25

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The Trump economy holds strong, fueled by flatlining inflation and transformative trade deals.

Overall, inflation has run at a 1.9 average annual pace in President Trump's first six months in office.

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

It's Wednesday, August 13th, and this is Morning Wire.

It's not okay because it's down from last year.

It's bad.

This is the nation's capital.

This is a shining city on the hill.

We're not going to tolerate it.

The fallout over Trump's DC takeover intensifies, but the White House is standing firm.

And the U.S.

continues to back Israel despite a growing pressure campaign from Europe.

We condemn the government of Israel's decision to further expand its military operations in Gaza.

This plan risks violating international humanitarian law.

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New inflation numbers have surprised many in the media and expert class, with energy and gas costs falling, grocery prices flat, and new tariffs and trade deals already paying dividends.

Here to discuss all this and more is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips A.

Cabot.

So a lot of interconnected pieces to this economic puzzle here.

Let's start with the inflation numbers.

They're raising eyebrows in a pretty good way right now.

What are we seeing?

Yeah, we learned that inflation continues to hold steady at lower than expected rates.

As we've talked about here, there's been a lot of concern about how Trump's various trade deals would impact not only our relationships with our trading partners, but just as importantly, inflation.

We've seen a few signs that maybe that is happening in a few sectors, but so far, more broadly, fears of major inflation spikes have simply been unfounded.

In fact, the new inflation numbers show that it is either flat or falling in key areas.

According to the latest numbers, in July, inflation held steady at 2.7%.

That was below the 2.8 number predicted by economists.

At the same time, real wages, let's take inflation into account, were up 1.3% compared to last year, while the price of gasoline was down 10%, smartphones 14%, and egg prices 20%.

So there are some certain signs of optimism there.

And this has all really kind of shocked many media outlets and experts, correct?

It certainly has.

Nearly every month this year, inflation continues to come in lower than expected, despite those dire warnings that it would explode once Trump's tariffs took effect.

But for the moment, at least, that simply has not happened.

You mentioned the media reaction.

The New York Times, for example, tried to frame the new numbers in a negative light, saying there were, quote, some signs that the tariffs are having an impact on some items, but they can't get around the fact that the consumer price index is holding steady at 2.7.

Here's CNN, no friend of Trump, being forced to acknowledge just how good things were in many sectors when it comes to energy and grocery prices.

The two biggest concerns for a lot of Americans.

Energy fell by 1.1%.

That was largely driven because of gas prices falling in the month of July by 2.2%.

Look at that food.

I mean, this is where people spend their money, right?

Food every single day.

Food flat, 0%, and actually down at the grocery store.

All right.

So again, while we do expect that the tariffs will impact some sectors so far, the economy is really looking pretty healthy here.

Exactly.

Now, there's still plenty of folks saying we're not out of the woods yet.

There are signs that some businesses stockpiled goods last quarter, making big orders before tariffs went into effect.

So it is certainly possible that once they run out and have to deal with the tariffs, prices could go up.

But that, again, has not happened yet, at least not in any meaningful way.

And the Trump team is making sure that that good news is not glossed over.

Here's Press Secretary Caroline Levitt touting the numbers from the White House yesterday.

In January, when this president showed up to the White House, the six-month annualized core inflation rate was 3.7%.

Today, six months later, the six-month annualized core inflation rate is 2.4%.

So we are trending in the right direction.

Small business optimism has reached a five-month high.

Now, tied to all of this, as we've said, are the tariffs and these trade deals.

There's a new development with China that's important, and we've also seen a couple of new deals just come in recently.

Tell us about that.

Right.

So we've been in this trade truce, as the White House calls it, with Beijing for months now, and it's now going to be at least three months more.

The two countries agreed to an extension on that truce for another 90 days.

So it'll go until November 10th.

So for context, Trump is threatening 145% tariffs on all goods from Beijing.

China says they'll use 125% tariffs.

So really crippling numbers.

But for the time being, the two sides have agreed on a 30% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% on U.S.

goods while these negotiations take place.

At a pretty steep discount for now with China.

Now, as for the other trade deals that Trump has worked out already, hopefully some of those start paying off.

In fact, the White House says that they are, correct?

Yeah, the White House says those main trade deals with the EU, UK, South Korea, and Japan are already bringing in massive revenue.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, for example, says $100 billion in revenue has so far come in.

He expects that number to reach 300 billion by the end of this year.

And that's, again, not including the hundreds of billions of dollars in pledged investments in the American private sector as part of those trade deals.

Again, lots of moving parts here, but so far, lots of reasons for optimism to this point.

Kev, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

President Trump took over law enforcement in Washington, D.C.

on Monday.

The move has ignited furious debate over safety and crime data in the nation's capital.

Here to break down the fallout from Trump's announcement is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.

So, Tim, what have we heard from city leaders since Monday?

It's been a mixture of resignation and indignation.

Mayor Muriel Bowser has pretty much admitted that she has no legal recourse here, but she says that the crime wave that Trump sites is just in his mind.

Here's Bowser on Monday.

It is also true that we experienced a crime spike post-COVID,

but

we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools, which is why we have seen a huge decrease in crime because of those efforts.

This year, crime isn't just down from 2023,

it's also down from 2019 before the pandemic.

And we're at a 30-year violent crime low.

Trump now has a little less than 30 days to direct D.C.'s police.

And there's a political risk here for Democrats in that if this works, what does that mean for other deep blue cities?

Places such as Los Angeles, St.

Louis, New York City.

If Trump solves the crime problem in D.C., a lot of people may feel it fair to expect leaders in those cities to solve their crime problems as well.

Now, there seems to be a bit of a divide in the media as to whether this crime wave actually exists.

So what are we seeing from left and right media?

There's not a consistent message in the mainstream outlets on this.

For instance, here's an ex post from the New York Times as Peter Baker.

He says, citing a non-existent crime crisis, Trump plans to take over the Washington, D.C.

police and put troops in the streets of the nation's capital.

Baker added that violent crime in D.C.

is at a 30-year low.

And because we know that context is important at the New York Times, Baker noted that Trump is the first convicted felon to be U.S.

president.

So look at that coverage and then flip on ABC News and you hear this from anchor Kyra Phillips.

I can tell you firsthand here in downtown D.C., where we work, right here around our bureau,

just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot.

One person died literally two blocks down here from the bureau.

It was within the last two years that I actually was jumped walking just two blocks down from here.

And then just this morning, one of my coworkers said her car was stolen a block away from the bureau.

So we can talk about the numbers

going down, but crime is happening every single day because we're all experiencing it firsthand while working and living down here.

Scott Jennings on CNN said said he actually witnessed a murder in the middle of Union Station.

I was going to get a tie, and I heard the shots and saw the body hit the floor.

So I've been listening all day long to people trying to make some argument that Washington, D.C.

is a safe place.

It's not a safe place.

And we can argue about statistics and numbers.

There's a police commander right now on suspension because there's some allegation that the statistics have been altered.

We can argue about that all day long.

Now, what do the D.C.

police say about the crime stats?

The D.C.

police union is backing Trump's play.

Here's Union President Gregory Pemberton saying police are stretched thin and the laws in the city have been working against cops since 2020.

And now five years later, our authorized sworn strength is 4,000 sworn police officers.

We currently have 3,180.

So we have more than 800 vacancies for the position of police officer.

And the way the department makes up for that gap is through 2 million hours of mandatory overtime every year.

So in order to fix this problem and make sure that it doesn't ebb and flow and that the feds come in and we lower crime and then they leave and we're left holding the the bag.

It's very important that people know that there is underlying legislation that needs to be corrected so that we can actually properly staff this police department in order to properly police the city.

So whether you agree with Trump on this or not, a lot of people in the district believe something has to be done.

Well, we just reported yesterday that there was a murder just on Monday night in D.C.

Tim, thanks for reporting.

Good to be on.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has laid out his latest plans for Gaza, while Europe mounts a building pressure campaign against Israel over humanitarian concerns.

Here with the latest is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo Hanmanda.

So there's been a lot going on in regard to Gaza, including a press conference from Netanyahu.

Let's start there.

That's gained a lot of attention.

What did he say about Israel's future plans?

Yeah, Netanyahu said that Israel right now has no choice but to defeat Hamas.

Currently, the terrorist organization has 20 Israeli hostages who are believed to be alive.

These are people who were kidnapped on October 7th back in 2023.

There are another 30 bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza and Israel is working to get those bodies back.

Now while he said that Hamas must be defeated, Netyahu also emphasized that he doesn't want to, quote, occupy Gaza.

Here he is laying out his five-point vision for concluding the war.

The war can end tomorrow.

if Gaza, or rather if Hamas lays down its arms and releases all the remaining hostages.

Gaza Gaza will be demilitarized.

Israel will have overriding security responsibility.

A security zone will be established on Gaza's border with Israel to prevent future terrorist incursions.

A civilian administration will be established in Gaza that will seek to live in peace with Israel.

Now, as we've reported, there's been a lot of backlash against Israel over humanitarian concerns in Gaza, including from allies now.

How is Israel responding?

Yeah, Nanyahu addressed that head He said that Israel has been the subject of a global campaign of lies.

There have been reports of starvation in Gaza, and the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, says that in total, including Hamas militants, about 60,000 people have been killed since the war started.

Israel disputes that number.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has led in close to 2 million tons of aid.

I know of no other army that

has enabled such aid to go to the civilian population in enemy territory.

Now, if we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war.

But our policy has been the exact opposite.

To that point about conflicting information and media narratives, Daily Wire investigative reporter Cassie Akiva on Monday released new evidence that calls into question one of these viral stories out of Gaza.

The press recently ran with a story about a Gazan child named Amir who was allegedly killed by Israel's military at an aid distribution site.

However, footage obtained by Akiva disputes the account that was given by a former and disgruntled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation contractor named Tony Aguilar.

Additionally, the boy's stepmother says that she was with the child for two months after this incident where he was allegedly killed.

According to Akiva's report, Aguilar even got the location where he met the boy incorrect and the boy's name.

blamed for coming bloodshed.

Also, we have EU commission staffers protesting and even considering a strike because they say European leaders aren't being anti-Israel enough.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized some of these actions over the weekend.

Here he is on the world over.

Well, have you noticed that the talks with Hamas fell apart on the day Macron made the unilateral decision that he's going to recognize a Palestinian state?

And then you have other people come forward, other countries say, well, if there's not a ceasefire by September, we're going to recognize a Palestinian state.

Well, if I'm Hamas, I basically conclude, let's not do a ceasefire because we can be rewarded and we can claim it as a victory.

So, those messages, while largely symbolic in their minds, actually have made it harder to get peace and harder to achieve a deal with Hamas.

They feel emboldened.

With the Trump administration continuing to stand firm behind Israel despite this growing pressure campaign, Amanda, thanks so much for reporting.

You're welcome.

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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