Labor Market Stumbles & Trump Primes Subs | 8.4.25

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Speaker 4 President Trump fires the chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the jobs numbers are revised down dramatically.

Speaker 6 She came out with these beautiful numbers trying to get somebody else elected. Then, right after the election, I think on the 15th, she had an $800,000 or $900,000 massive reduction.

Speaker 4 I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, August 4th, and this is Morning Wire.

Speaker 7 Trump sends more nuclear subs as Russia defies his calls for peace and his deadline for Putin fast approaches.

Speaker 4 And Vice President Vance weighs in on the racial debate surrounding Sidney Sweeney and the Trump-era shift away from DEI and cancel culture.

Speaker 3 So you have a pretty girl doing a jeans ad, and they can't help but freak out. It reveals a lot more about them than it does us.
No question.

Speaker 7 Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned.
We have the news you need to know.

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Speaker 7 A dismal jobs report has rattled stock markets and raised new concerns over the strength of the labor market.

Speaker 4 Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it down for us. Hey, Cabot, so let's get to these numbers first, and we'll talk about the drama that unfolded when they were released.

Speaker 4 What are we looking at?

Speaker 9 Yeah, coming into last weekend, President Trump was really riding high. Massive trade deals were being knocked out.
Consumer confidence was on the rise and inflation was remaining low.

Speaker 9 But on Friday, the Labor Department released a bombshell jobs report that showed the U.S. economy added just 73,000 jobs in July.

Speaker 9 And even more alarming, they announced enormous revisions for the last two reports before that. So if you look back, originally, the department said we added 291,000 jobs between May and June.

Speaker 9 When those numbers came out, they were celebrated by the White House and Wall Street alike as proof that the labor market was humming. People were fired up.

Speaker 9 But on Friday, we learned those reports had been revised. And instead of nearly 300,000 jobs being added over those two months, the real number was just 33,000.
So they overestimated by 90%.

Speaker 9 Now, to be fair, it's not uncommon for the initial report to be revised down later on after the fact, but this is among the largest single-month revisions that we've ever seen.

Speaker 4 Yeah, it really is stunning, to say the least. So how could they be so inaccurate this time?

Speaker 9 Yeah, it's helpful to note the initial jobs reports are essentially based on a giant poll of employers and households.

Speaker 9 The labor department surveys thousands of businesses and households and extrapolates that data out to get their number. But usually, it takes a few weeks for the hard data to come in.

Speaker 9 And oftentimes, there are then big discrepancies between the survey and the final numbers.

Speaker 4 Right. And we reported on that during the Biden administration.
We saw some major discrepancies, but not to this extent. Correct.
There's been a strong response from Trump to this report.

Speaker 4 Tell us about that.

Speaker 9 So almost immediately, the president responded with a statement saying, quote, the jobs were rigged in order to make the Republicans and me look bad.

Speaker 9 He then went a step further, firing Erica McIntarfur. That's the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which conducts these reports.

Speaker 9 According to Trump, McIntarfur had released similarly inaccurate jobs reports just before the 2024 election, quote, in the hopes of getting Kamala elected.

Speaker 9 Here's National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett explaining Trump's decision yesterday.

Speaker 3 When the data are unreliable, when they keep being revised all over the place, then there are going to be people that wonder if there's a partisan pattern in the data.

Speaker 3 What we need is a fresh set of eyes at the BLS, somebody who can clean this thing up.

Speaker 9 Now, for their part, Democrats say that Trump didn't seem to have a problem with these reports when they showed good news, and he's only changing his tune now because they're bad for him.

Speaker 9 Other critics, like former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, argue that jobs reports are impossible to manipulate.

Speaker 10 These numbers are put together by teams of literally hundreds of people following detailed procedures that are in manuals. There's no conceivable way that the head of the BLS could have manipulated

Speaker 10 this number.

Speaker 4 So let's get to the health of the labor market more broadly.

Speaker 9 What are the takeaways here? Well, we'll start with the bad news. First, the sluggish job growth is really raising concerns that U.S.

Speaker 9 employers are more pessimistic about the economy than we thought, and they could be waiting to see how Trump's tariffs will impact their business long term.

Speaker 9 We also learned that in July, the number of Americans who've been unemployed long term, that's at least 27 weeks, reached 1.8 million, excluding the pandemic, that is the highest number in almost a decade.

Speaker 9 But the White House says that important aspects of the labor market are being overlooked.

Speaker 4 Yeah, the White House has its own take on these numbers.

Speaker 5 What are they saying?

Speaker 9 Well, first, 100% of the net job growth under President Trump so far has been among American-born workers. Under President Biden, the exact opposite was true.

Speaker 9 100% of the net job growth was among foreign-born workers, while the number of American-born workers in the workplace plunged by more than a million.

Speaker 9 The White House says that the reversal is due in large part to Trump's mass deportation efforts, which they say have opened up jobs for American citizens.

Speaker 9 And second, all of the job growth so far under Trump has been in the private sector. Now, for context, from 2023 to 24, about 25% of all jobs added were in the government.

Speaker 9 Since Trump took office, the number of government jobs overall has actually fallen by 3%,

Speaker 9 meaning 100% of jobs added have been in the private sector.

Speaker 4 All right, so some silver lining there, but still a lot of concerning numbers to keep an eye on in the coming months. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

Speaker 5 Absolutely.

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Speaker 4 President Trump has ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to the appropriate regions after inflammatory comments from former Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev.

Speaker 7 Here to break down the escalation between the United States and Russia is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. So Tim, some concerning statements from Russia.

Speaker 7 First, what did Medvedev say and what is President Trump doing in response?

Speaker 5 Yeah, Medvedev made some pretty provocative comments and made reference to the N-word, as Trump calls it. He means nuclear.

Speaker 5 Anyway, Trump on True Social said he ordered the submarines into position just in case Medvedev's foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.

Speaker 5 The president added that words are very important and can often lead to unintended consequences. And here he was talking to reporters on Friday.

Speaker 3 We had to do that.

Speaker 6 We just have to be careful.

Speaker 11 And a threat was made.

Speaker 6 What did Medvedev say to you? That things are really bad. Well, you just have to read what he said.

Speaker 5 Medvedev often serves as a provocateur of sorts for the Kremlin.

Speaker 5 Last week, he recommended Trump watch the post-apocalyptic show The Walking Dead, and then he made a reference to a last-ditch nuclear weapons response that could be triggered even if a country's leadership is destroyed.

Speaker 7 So, some saber-rattling at the very least from a former Russian president. Now, do we know where Trump is sending these subs?

Speaker 5 We don't know where they are or really what kind they are, and that actually means quite a bit for their capabilities. The U.S.
Navy only has three types types of submarines.

Speaker 5 They're all nuclear-powered, but just one of them is loaded with nuclear weapons. And that one would be the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines.
The U.S.

Speaker 5 has 14 of them, and each can carry up to 20 trident ballistic missiles with multiple nuclear warheads.

Speaker 5 A trident has a range of about 4,600 miles, so it's unlikely one would have had the move to be able to strike Russia.

Speaker 5 With that range, one of those subs could hit Moscow from the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, or Arctic oceans.

Speaker 5 The other two types of subs are guided missile submarines and fast attack submarines, both deadly, but neither has nearly the range or firepower that the ballistic missile subs have.

Speaker 5 But setting aside what we don't know, this is clearly a signal from Trump that he won't tolerate threats from Russia, serious or otherwise.

Speaker 5 He's taken a much harsher stance to Russia's provocations than former President Biden did. Biden was always concerned with escalation, the potential for a nuclear shootout between the U.S.
and Russia.

Speaker 5 So Biden was hesitant to respond to certain threats. Trump seems to think a harder line will better hem Russia in rather than a more accommodating posture.

Speaker 7 Now, speaking of that harder line, Trump recently moved up the deadline for Russia to enter negotiations with Ukraine. What happens if Russia doesn't meet that deadline?

Speaker 5 Right. Trump has given Russian President Vladimir Putin until August 8th to come to the negotiating table.
Here's Trump last week talking about that.

Speaker 11 I'm going to make a new deadline of about

Speaker 11 10 or 12 days from today.

Speaker 11 There's no reason in waiting.

Speaker 11 There's no reason in waiting. It's 50 days.
I want to be generous, but

Speaker 11 we just don't see any progress being made.

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Speaker 5 Trump has clearly grown frustrated with Putin. If Russia misses the deadline for peace talks, Congress just gave Trump massive sanctions authority that Trump could slap on Russia.

Speaker 5 There's also the chance that the United States could increase weapon shipments to Ukraine and make this an even more deadly war for Russia.

Speaker 7 Well, let's hope neither of those are necessary. Tim, thanks for reporting.

Speaker 5 Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 7 As the Trump administration has continued continued to dismantle DEI policies, an ad campaign for retailer American Eagle featuring actress Sidney Sweeney has become a cultural battleground.

Speaker 7 Now, even Vice President J.D. Vance has weighed in.

Speaker 4 Joining us now to discuss the DEI debates and why this ad has become such a hot topic is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. Hey, Megan, it's been a while.

Speaker 1 It has. I missed you guys.
I'm so happy to be back.

Speaker 4 I missed you too. So we all had a healthy debate about whether the Sidney Sweeney saga was segment worthy, but it's it's really become a flashpoint in this larger Trump era shift.

Speaker 4 Let's start with what the Trump administration is doing with DEI, and then we'll get to Sidney Sweeney. What is the latest there?

Speaker 1 Yeah, you know, we've really seen the Trump administration making aggressive moves to dismantle really decades of these DEI policies.

Speaker 1 Immediately after taking office, the president signed an order terminating all illegal DEI mandates in the federal government.

Speaker 1 Another order requires federal contractors to comply with anti-discrimination laws, meaning that they can't show preference on the basis of sex, sexuality, or ethnicity.

Speaker 1 Colleges and universities have also been put on notice that they will lose those federal grants if they employ DEI in admissions or financial aid or hiring.

Speaker 1 And then, just a couple of days ago, the administration successfully challenged a rule that had blocked the government from using skills-based tests for job applicants due to claims of racial bias.

Speaker 4 Right, Daily Wire reporter Luke Roziak has a piece on that on the site right now. So how does this all relate to an ad for denim?

Speaker 1 Well, you know, what I really think is that this desktop highlights the cultural move away from DEI.

Speaker 1 You know, in recent years, we saw all the major fashion brands, everyone from Calvin Klein to Gap, really touting those DEI bona fides.

Speaker 1 Well, then this American Eagle ad came out and it featured a traditionally beautiful actress and included a play on the word jeans.

Speaker 14 Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color.

Speaker 14 My genes are blue.

Speaker 11 Sidney's tweenie has very keen.

Speaker 1 And after that, we saw what I think can only be described as a media freak out. So outlets like The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly accused American Eagle of promoting eugenics.

Speaker 1 MSNBC ran a column saying it signaled a, quote, unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness. Some even called it Nazi propaganda.
So really just some over-the-top responses.

Speaker 1 And that, I think, is what led Vice President J.D. Vance to comment.

Speaker 3 It actually reveals something pretty interesting about the Dems, though, which is that you have like a normal all-American, beautiful girl doing like a normal jeans ad, right?

Speaker 3 They're trying to sell, you know, sell jeans to

Speaker 3 kids in America, and they have managed to so unhinge themselves over this thing. And it's like, you guys, did you learn nothing from the November 2024 election?

Speaker 3 Like, I actually thought that one of the lessons they might take is we're going to be less crazy.

Speaker 3 The lesson they have apparently taken is we're going to attack people as Nazis for thinking Sidney Sweeney is beautiful. Great strategy, guys.

Speaker 3 That's how you're going to win the midterms, especially young American men.

Speaker 1 And then the other reason that I think the media has pushed this controversy to such an extreme degree is that it also highlights their loss of power in controlling some of these cultural norms.

Speaker 1 So in the last few years, when brands like Pepsi or Starbucks or Victoria's Secret were accused of falling afoul of DEI standards, they were pretty quick to apologize.

Speaker 1 American Eagle has not done that. Yesterday afternoon, they posted a new image of Sweeney to their Instagram account.

Speaker 1 And a few days before that, they posted a statement saying they'll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their American Eagle jeans.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, a source inside the company told TMZ that their polling shows that 70% of people like these ads.

Speaker 4 What about Sweeney? Has she actually commented?

Speaker 1 You know, not so far. And that's only led the media to further ratchet up the pressure on her.
And it certainly looks like something of a cancellation attempt.

Speaker 1 So over the weekend, BuzzFeed dug up the fact that she registered as a Republican in 2024. And you now have a lot of media outlets trying to stir up controversy from that.

Speaker 4 Yeah, maybe not so surprising. Meanwhile, if she needs advice on that, maybe she can call up fellow Republicans Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone.
Megan, thanks for reporting.

Speaker 1 My pleasure.

Speaker 7 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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