Evening Wire: Vindication for Trump & Nord Stream Sabotage Arrest | 8.21.25

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Commercial Insurance.

Business owners meet Progressive Insurance.

They make it easy to get discounts on commercial auto insurance and find coverages to grow with your business.

Quote in as little as six minutes at progressivecommercial.com.

Progressive Casualty Insurance Company, coverage provided and serviced by affiliated and third-party insurers.

Discounts and coverage selections not available in all states or situations.

A New York appeals court hands Trump a half a billion dollar victory, a Ukrainian man is arrested over the Nord Stream pipeline attacks, and the president gives California schools an ultimatum over transgender policies.

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.

It's Thursday, August 21st, and this is Evening Wire.

In what President Trump's team is celebrating as a resounding victory for the president and his company, a New York appeals court tossed out the $454 million civil fraud penalty handed down last year.

While the appellate division's first department said it agreed that Trump, his eldest sons, and his business inflated values of their real estate, the penalty was excessive.

The court ruled that, quote, while harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that you can justify a nearly half billion-dollar award to the state.

Allies of the president, like Senator John Kennedy, praised the decision.

Unless you catch an audigory from Costco,

I think most attorneys realize that New York was going to lose this on appeal.

They picked a defendant, President Trump, and then went looking for a law to prosecute him on.

I mean, that's what the all said they were going to do, and they did it, but it was the loser from the get-go.

The U.S.

will continue to hit European cars hard until the EU makes good on its pledge to cut tariffs on American goods.

Daily Wire's senior editor Cabot Phillips has the latest.

The announcement comes after President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen locked themselves in a trade framework last month.

Europe agreed to buy more than a trillion dollars worth of U.S.

energy and technology and various other goods.

Washington currently imposes a 27.5% tariff on European cars and parts, but that rate could be cut nearly in half within weeks if and when Brussels introduces the promised tariff legislation.

That framework also includes $40 billion in European purchases of U.S.

artificial intelligence chips and calls on EU nations to boost defense equipment buys from America.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and European leaders are discussing Ukraine's future security today.

Rubio is reportedly pushing for a deal that protects Ukraine without dragging U.S.

troops into another foreign war.

The plan would strengthen Europe's responsibility while ensuring Moscow knows the West is serious.

Rubio's reputation as a seasoned foreign policy hand has earned him trust among allies, something the administration hopes will help bring an end to the bloodshed.

Overnight, Russia launched another massive air assault on Ukraine, killing one and wounding 22.

Authorities say more than 570 drones and 40 missiles were launched.

The attack struck deep in West Ukraine and actually took out a U.S.-founded electronics plant near the EU border.

Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky called it proof that Moscow is willing to attack civilian businesses with U.S.

ties.

The assault comes as President Trump pushes for negotiations to end the conflict.

He's met with both Zelensky and Vladimir Putin in recent days, but admits Russia may not be ready to deal.

Police in Italy have arrested a suspect accused of helping sabotage the Nordstream pipeline nearly three years ago.

Germany's federal prosecutor says the suspect allegedly belonged to a group that planted explosives on the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022.

At the time, the pipelines were offline, but still pressurized, and the blasts sparked political turmoil across the world.

The suspect will be extradited to face a German judge.

The Nordstream blasts remain one of Europe's most controversial acts of sabotage since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The head of ICE is vowing to flood Boston with agents after the city's mayor, Michelle Wu, doubled down on its sanctuary laws.

Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an ultimatum to Boston officials to start complying with immigration authorities by Tuesday or see their federal funding cut.

But Mayor Wu declared Tuesday that she will not comply.

The U.S.

Attorney General asked for a response by today.

So here it is: Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration's failures.

Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law and Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for.

We will not back away from our community that has made us the safest major city in the country.

In response, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said on the Howie Carr show that we better buckle up for a big ICE presence.

We're definitely going to flood the zone, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions.

And obviously, Boston and Massachusetts decided to say that they wanted to stay sanctuary.

Sanctuary does not mean safer streets.

It means more criminal aliens out and about the neighborhoods.

So 100% you will see of the larger ICE presence.

An illegal alien with a troubling history was arrested on the National Mall in Washington.

ICE ID'd the suspect as 36-year-old David Perez Tiofani of Mexico, who has entered the U.S.

illegally at least three times.

He previously faced charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 13 in Virginia.

Agents took him down after a brief struggle.

The arrest is part of President Trump's crime crackdown in D.C., which has led to more than 550 arrests, nearly half of them illegal aliens.

Officials say Perez Tiafani will now face deportation.

CVS Care Mark has been ordered to pay $290 million after a Medicare fraud scheme was exposed.

Daily Wire senior editor Joel Niedler has the latest.

The largest pharmacy benefit manager in the United States was initially found liable in June after an Aetna whistleblower alleged that Carmark allowed false drug reports to be filed as far back as 2010, which resulted in insurers submitting inflated claims for prescription drugs.

In that ruling, Philadelphia Federal Court Chief Judge Mitchell Goldberg ordered Caremark to pay $95 million in damages, but deferred his final ruling.

On Tuesday, however, Goldberg upped the penalty by nearly three times the original amount.

The judge said that, quote, Carmark's conduct broke CMS's trust and as a result, the public's trust in Medicaid and Medicare.

CBS said it plans to appeal the ruling.

As Texas moves to adopt a new congressional map to advantage Republicans in midterm elections, California Democrats are rushing to counter.

Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce has the details.

Democrats want to enact a new map that would favor the party and five more seats to cancel out the additional five seats the new map in Texas should give the GOP.

The plan is complicated, however, because of a 2010 law that hands the power to redistrict California over to an independent commission.

Governor Gavin Newsom is now rallying support for a ballot measure that would temporarily hand that power back to the state legislature.

The effort has picked up support from high-profile Democrats, including Barack Obama.

The former president told a fundraiser of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee that he wants a fair fight, but given President Trump's push to win new seats for Republicans, Obama said he has, quote, tremendous respect for Newsom's plan.

Democratic Party officials are looking for a new Iowa to kick off the party's presidential primaries.

Former President Joe Biden's decision last year to hand the coveted first position to South Carolina has set off a battle within Democrat politics.

State parties want the prestige and resources that come with being the first contest.

Potential Democratic candidates are also looking into which state could give them the best edge.

According to Axios, party officials plan to meet in Minneapolis next week to discuss possible options.

While anything can happen, the top three choices appear to be Nevada, New Hampshire, and Michigan.

Dr.

James Dobson, the influential Christian psychologist and founder of the long-running marriage and parenting program Focus on the Family, died today at age 89.

Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham has more.

A prominent leader for conservative values during the 1980s and 90s, who served as advisor to five presidents, Dobson helped mobilize a movement against abortion and pornography.

Tributes immediately poured in for Dobson, with Samaritan's first president, Franklin Graham, calling him a staunch defender of the family, who stood for morality and biblical values as much as any person in our country's history.

Best-selling Christian author and radio host Eric Metaxas called Dobson a hero and said he was not afraid to bring his faith into the public sphere for God's purposes.

At its peak, Dobson's radio program was carried on more than 4,000 stations across North America.

President Trump issued an ultimatum Thursday to California schools.

They must follow federal transgender policies or face major financial consequences.

Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presasiacomo has the latest.

Trump wrote on Truth Social early Thursday morning: quotes, any California school district that doesn't adhere to our transgender policies will not be funded.

The Trump administration interprets Title IX as requiring schools to maintain separate bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams for males and females.

That stance directly conflicts with California state law, which allows students to use facilities and join teams based on gender identity.

Trump's ultimatum comes after the Justice Department sued California last month for continuing to allow males to compete in female sports.

In other news, a group of outraged parents spoke out at a school district's board meeting in Illinois over a trans-identifying volleyball player.

After a male who identifies as female made a high school volleyball team in Hoffman Estates, taking a spot from a girl, incensed parents flooded the district's school board meeting Wednesday night.

The parent of one of the girls who didn't make the team said the boy ended up quitting the team the next day amid backlash.

The coach reportedly chose to quit too and is now only coaching the boys team.

Here are some of the parents' comments at the meeting.

I see members with daughters of their own and I ask you, would you want your daughter to compete against a boy who is 6'4?

Would you be happy if a boy secured a spot on the team meant for your daughter?

Would you want your daughter to undress in front of him in the locker room?

Would you want him to undress in front of her?

If he wants to pretend to be a girl, that is his choice.

However, it is not society's responsibility to pretend he is one.

It's not a girl's responsibility to feel uncomfortable or unsafe for the sake of a boy pretending to be a girl.

He should be participating in sports designated for boys because he will always be one.

When do the girls in D211 get to feel safe, recognized, and protected?

Convicted killer Brian Koberger is finding life behind bars anything but quiet.

Housed in Idaho's maximum security prison, Koberger says he's enduring non-stop taunts and even threats of sexual assault from fellow inmates.

In handwritten notes to staff, he pleaded to be moved out of J-Block, where death row inmates are kept, into what he called a quieter wing.

But prison officials haven't budged.

Experts say Koberger arrived with a target on his back.

The former criminology PhD student was convicted last month for the killing of four University of Idaho undergrads.

And Nebraska locks arms with ICE with the announcement of a new ICE detention facility.

Daily Wire reporter Spencer Lindquist has the details.

Nebraska is the latest Republican-led state to bolster the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign with a new facility to expand ICE's illegal alien detention capacity.

The state's new facility, which they've dubbed the Cornhusker Clink, will be located in the small town of McCook, Nebraska, just north of the Kansas border.

The detention center will provide ICE with 280 new beds nebraska is the third republican state that has partnered with the trump administration to increase ice detention capacity coming on the heels of the speedway slammer in indiana and florida's now infamous alligator alcatraz all right those are your drive home updates to learn more about these stories go to dailywire.com and in case you missed it this morning we covered some major stories including tulsi gabbard slashing the intelligence bureaucracy california promising to undercut republicans redistricting win in texas and democrats losing millions of registered voters nationwide.

Thanks for tuning in.

We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Moonwire.

These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer.

During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice.

How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility?

How do you repair this kind of damage?

My daughter, Michaela, guides the conversations as we hopefully help people navigate their lives.

Everyone has their own destiny.

Everyone.