Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ & ‘Tesla Takedown’ Protests | 3.31.25

World leaders brace for President Trump's tariffs as he continues to shake up economic policies

and the federal workforce. Call it Liberation Day.
April 2nd is Liberation Day. We discuss

Trump's Liberation Day and his move to take unionizing off the table for many federal

workers. I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
It's Monday, March 31st, and this is Money Wire. Left-wing activists are ramping up their Tesla takedown protests as new investigations detail the powerful entities behind the anti-Musk movement.
And is Trump's self-deportation messaging for illegal immigrants working? We have the data. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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Terms and conditions may apply. President Trump has signed an executive order targeting federal unions.
Meanwhile, his sweeping tariffs are set to take effect this week for the first time. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break down another packed weekend in the White House at Cabot.
So lots to catch up with as usual to start this week. Let's start with the president's actions against federal unions.
What happened there? Yeah, we have another significant executive order coming down this weekend. It strips collective bargaining rights from a wide swath of federal employees, essentially abolishing their right to unionize.
Now, the order will not apply to all federal workers, just those whose work has links to national security. That includes the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.
For context, a number of large federal unions have made clear that they're going to do everything possible to slow Donald Trump's agenda. They've launched dozens of lawsuits to block his efforts to cut spending through Doge.
And other unions negotiated deals with the Biden administration that are still in effect, but Trump says run contrary to his administration's policy. He added that while he does, quote, support constructive partnerships with unions who work with him, he will not tolerate mass obstruction that jeopardizes his ability to manage agencies with vital national security missions.
So again, the focus here is on those who are involved with national security efforts, but there are broader implications. There are.
What sort of impact could it have? Well, it'll likely give the administration more legal footing to dissolve previous collective bargaining agreements between unions and the federal government. To that point, hours after the order was signed, eight federal agencies filed a lawsuit in Texas calling for a judge to void their existing contracts with those unions.
They'll remain in place while the case is heard, but we could see action quickly. More broadly, the biggest federal workers union, the American Federation of Government Employees, said over the weekend that hundreds of thousands of their 800,000 members could soon be stripped of their memberships.
They vowed in response to file countersuits of their own. If the courts rule in Trump's favor, though, it'll give him considerable power to cut the federal workforce and really follow through on his promise to slash spending in Washington.
Right. Now, another key development is those long-discussed tariffs, which will go into effect this week for the first time.
What are we expecting to see there? Yeah, on Wednesday, a slew of new tariffs will go into effect on everything from auto imports to appliances, agricultural products. The list goes on.
Trump is calling it, quote, liberation day, writing on Truth Social, quote, for decades, we've been ripped off and abused by every nation in the world, both friend and foe. Now, we are still waiting on the full list of products that will be impacted, but we know Canada and Mexico will be among the hardest hit.
They're facing 25% tariffs on all imports. From there will come those worldwide reciprocal tariffs.
Those will match existing rates on countries we trade with. The White House says if a trading partner wants a lower tariff, all they have to do is reduce the rates imposed on our exports.
The president will also slap an additional 25% rate on oil and gas from Venezuela in response to the, quote, criminals who he says they've sent here to the U.S. illegally.
That tariff, it's worth noting, will apply as well to those countries who continue buying oil and gas from the Venezuelans. So the president clearly looking to use these tariffs as a means of really driving his agenda.
Exactly. And the White House has been adamant from the start that they view tariffs not just as an economic tool, though they do say they're confident they'll help secure more favorable trade deals.
They also view them as a means of combating illegal immigration, and they think they will incentivize military cooperation abroad and, importantly, spur domestic manufacturing at home. Trump points to the trillions of dollars worth of investments foreign companies have made since he took office as proof that tariffs will push companies to onshore and bring their supply chains to America.
And now he's going even further to encourage folks to buy American-made goods, specifically cars. On Friday, he proposed a revolutionary tax deduction that would allow Americans to write off interest payments on auto loans for cars made in America.
Here he is detailing that plan from the White House. We're trying to get approved if we can.
If you borrow money to buy a car, you're allowed to deduct interest payments for purposes of income tax, but only if the car is made in America. And House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly drafting legislation that would codify that proposal.
If passed, it could have a major impact on consumer habits in the auto industry.

It could really impact the car buying landscape.

For sure.

Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.

Anytime.

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A new report finds that the Tesla takedown protests that continued all over North America and Europe this weekend are not grassroots, but instead are being paid for by powerful left-wing political organizations. Meanwhile, the Doge team gave its first interview.
Here with the latest is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham. So Megan, more demonstrations against Tesla.
How extensive are they at this point? Well, you know, on Saturday, we saw over 500 protests worldwide, everywhere from Australia to Germany to Chicago. And these turnouts were pretty mixed, I would say.
On one hand, in Michigan, you had what looked like fairly pitiful, small crowds, gray-haired, maybe people in their 60s and 70s. And they were chanting and carrying signs, saying things like, no one elected Musk and drive Tesla out of business.
But then in other areas like Manhattan, I would say the crowds were much more robust, much younger, much more energetic, and they were easily in the hundreds. And I'd say the key aim of these protests and this entire movement is to hit Musk where it hurts.
They want to take down his electrical vehicle empire so that he backs off of all of these activities that he's been engaged in on behalf of the political right, especially his work cutting government waste with the Department of Government Efficiency. And you have to acknowledge they are having some success with that.
Tesla sales are down. The value of used vehicles for Teslas are also down.
But I do want to say for context, Tesla stock is up overall since the election. Now, could Musk step back to protect his business? You know, no evidence of that yet, but I would say that it looks like Musk realizes that he might be losing something of a PR battle here, and he's stepping up his game on that front.
So originally, he said that he wanted to keep Doge analysts out of the spotlight to protect their privacy and safety. But on Friday, Doge leaders sat down with Fox News and they made their case to the American people.
This gave Musk a chance to dispel this image of Doge as just a bunch of young, inexperienced tech bros. What we saw instead were highly seasoned CEOs, scientists, people who took up the call to stop government spending out of patriotism.
I want you to listen to this exchange between anchor Brett Baer and one of Doge's key leaders. Steve Davis, you are a rocket scientist.
Used to be. Now, essentially, you're the chief operating officer of Doge.
So how did you end up here? What's the biggest challenge you see? The reason I'm here, which is probably for many, is that I think the goal is incredibly inspiring. I think most of the taxpayers in the country would agree that in order to have the country going bankrupt would be a very bad thing.
And therefore the country going not bankrupt is a good thing that all of us are willing to kind of put our lives on hold in order to do. I think the thing that's special right now is we actually believe there's a chance to succeed.
And then another person on that Doge interview was Joe Gebbia, billionaire founder of Airbnb. I bumped into Anthony and Elon probably back in February.
And they told me something about a mine that was dealt with retirement. And they said they needed somebody to help out to fix retirement in the government.
I love the challenge, so I jumped on board. So really just emphasizing that these are people who are highly experienced at streamlining very large budgets.
So getting back to the protests at the top, John mentioned that there's evidence that they're very well funded. First, how do we know that and who's funding them? Right.
You know, so there's been a number of reports coming out about this, and the latest is a new one from the Fairfax Times in Virginia. What they have found is that this movement has been almost entirely bankrolled by professional protest organizations, firms like the Indivisible Project, which organized around 30% of these protests.
Also, MoveOn.org, the Disruption Project, local Democratic Party chapters. And they're getting their funding from well-known left-wing operatives like George Soros.
So, emphasizing the very partisan nature of this. And look, this is a very typical play from the left when they are out of power.
But I would say we're seeing some things that are a little unusual on the right, as we're seeing some pro-Doge rallies starting now. And those do seem to be organic.
For example, you're even seeing some pastors of the more charismatic type holding sort of prayer rallies on behalf of Elon Musk and Doge. Elon, we're standing together with you.
We're standing together. We'll pray for you in the name of you.
We'll cast off every attack to the enemy. Very interesting.
And I'm interested to see if that Brett Baer interview ends up moving the needle. Yes, same.
Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime.
With an estimated 14 million people in the U.S. illegally, the Trump administration wants to convince many of them to self-deport.
But is the message working? A new report suggests it is. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about who is most likely to self-deport.
Hey, Tim. So this new report from The New York Times admits that the administration's self-deport messaging might actually be working.
What's the report say? That's right. It looks like the biggest factor is time spent in the United States.
Those who have been here illegally for a long time are still unlikely to leave. But aliens who are more recent arrivals, such as all those who crossed the border under Biden, appear more likely to be swayed by the administration's message.
And remember Biden's CBP One app, which allowed immigrants to immediately make an appointment at ports of entry? That's now the CBP Home app, and its purpose is to help immigrants go back home so that they can try to return legally. So the most recent in are more likely to get out.
Yeah. What's motivating them to leave? For one, the administration has earned a tough reputation.
Those recent deportation flights to El Salvador seem to have had an effect. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently posted a video shot at El Salvador's state-of-the-art prison complex, the message being that violent, illegal aliens in the U.S.
will be found and imprisoned here. Here's some of that.
First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted.
But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people. And then border czar Tom Homan has been active on all the networks with his tough on immigration message.
Here's him on Fox News. I think illegal aliens, most vulnerable, are not going to spend their life savings to hand it to a criminal cartel to come to the United States knowing we ended up catching release.
You're not going to be released to the United States. You're going to be deported immediately.
And as the secretary said, we got a lot of tools in toolbox. El Salvador prisons won.
We got Gitmo. For those countries who push back on taking their criminal nationals back, we'll send them to another country.
The administration has been clear that its priorities are violent criminals, but some aliens don't want to risk arrest anyway. Others believe that it's only a matter of time before ICE catches them, so they want to leave before they're forced out.
The administration's message is pretty unambiguous at this point. Now, it's not just these deportations.
We have hundreds of foreign students are now being told to leave the country. What's the State Department up to here? Yeah, basically any foreign national that has voiced support for Hamas or some other radical group is being told their time in the U.S.
is up. Here's Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week.
If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student and you tell us that the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we're not going to give you a visa. If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa.
So it's just that simple. Rubio said that the green cards or visas of about 300 students have been revoked so far.
These are students such as Syrian national Mahmoud Khalil, who led pro-Hamas protests at Columbia University, or Turkish national Rumisa Ozturk, whose visa was revoked after the State Department found she, quote, engaged in activities in support of Hamas protests at Columbia University, or Turkish national Rumisa Ozturk, whose visa was revoked

after the State Department found she, quote, engaged in activities in support of Hamas.

All right, those two have been headline news in many outlets. Tim, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.