Trump Eyes Funding Cuts & British Synagogue Attacked | 10.3.25

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It's day three of the government shutdown, and there's still no end in sight.

Well, there could be firings, and that's their fault, and it could also be other things.

President Trump meets with budget officials to discuss which Democrat agencies to cut amid the deadlock.

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

It's Friday, October 3rd.

This is Morning Wire.

Multiple Jewish worshipers are murdered and more severely wounded in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England.

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day for the Jewish community, a vile individual committed a terrorist attack.

Plus, does Hollywood's hottest new movie glorify left-wing violence?

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Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

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The government shutdown enters its third day as the blame game continues and President Trump gears up for mass layoffs of federal employees.

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here to break it all down for us.

Hey, Cabot, so day three, do we have any movement at all?

No, we don't, John.

So remember, in order to end end this shutdown, 60 senators must vote yes on the Republicans' continuing resolution.

At the moment, there are only three members who've crossed party lines.

Democrats John Fetterman and Catherine Cortez-Masto, along with Independent Angus King, are the only members to support the measure.

So that leaves Majority Leader John Thune searching for at least five more votes on the left.

He'll make another run at it on the floor today, but by all accounts, it's expected to once again fail.

Thune says that he has had some productive back channel conversations with Democrats, specifically the moderate ones, who have expressed some willingness to budge if they get assurances on health care subsidies being added or at least debated more substantively in the future when the full budget's passed.

But those members, again, are facing enormous pressure from their left-wing base to stand firm.

To that point, the White House put out a post reminding Americans that under President Biden, Democrats voted 13 separate times to pass continuing resolutions, very similar to the one that's being debated right now.

They argue that Democrats are allowing the federal government to essentially essentially be held hostage by the far-left base, who was furious by their going along with Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, or at least not stopping it completely.

Here's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant making that point yesterday.

Chuck Schumer did the right thing in the spring and led the Senate to a clean CR.

What's changed since then is it's his poll numbers, Ocasio-Cortez, because she's nipping at his heels.

The American people are being held hostage by Chuck Schumer's poll numbers.

Now, as we've discussed, the White House is doing everything in their power to make this shutdown solely focused on Democrats and their insistence to add funding for health care for illegal immigrants.

They say the Democratic proposal would result in about $200 billion in taxpayer funding over the next decade going for, again, health care for illegal immigrants, primarily through Medicaid and mandatory emergency care.

They argue the American people elected Donald Trump on a promise to do away with those policies and that by fighting to keep them, they're blocking the will of the people.

Here's Press Secretary Caroline Levitt making that point.

President Trump ran on the promise to end taxpayer-funded benefits going to illegal aliens, and tens of millions of Americans across the country voted him back to this beautiful White House to implement that promise, and he did.

And now Democrats want to undo it, and they are holding our country hostage.

They are holding the American people hostage.

Now, the White House says that this shutdown will cost the U.S.

economy about $15 billion in GDP every week that it drags on.

And again, they want to make sure Democrats get the blame.

And to give you an idea of how confident they are that that's going to happen, the White House posted news clip after news clip all week long describing National Guardsmen now going unpaid, food assistance for low-income single mothers drying up, etc.

A number of federal websites also had new banners on Thursday.

The official DOJ website, for example, read, quote, Democrats have shut down the government.

Websites are not currently updated.

And then the Department of Housing and Urban Development's banner went even further, saying, quote, the radical left in Congress shut down the government.

HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.

So clearly, the administration is not shying away from the shutdown.

They want people to know it is happening.

All right.

So they're not exactly being subtle about this.

What about this move to lay off federal employees?

What's the latest on that?

Yeah, Trump, again, is targeting non-essential federal employees for termination as part of his broader government efficiency efforts.

He posted Thursday that he, quote, had a meeting today with Russ Vogt, he of Project 2025 fame, to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam, he recommends to be cut.

I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.

So you can see Trump almost excited by this opportunity.

On Wednesday, Vogt began making some of those cuts, withholding $18 billion for a tunnel project in New York and New Jersey that was, again, being spearheaded by Democrats like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

Vogt also moved to cancel $8 billion worth of green energy products that were previously awarded to blue states.

For more on that effort, we spoke with Dan Bishop, deputy director of the OMB.

There are opportunities that this situation unlocks and they are and they go in a lot of different directions and you know I will say that folks on the Hill have had suggestions that we look into that are productive as well.

So yes, the rifts are imminent as the director has said.

Exactly where they will be and how deep, all those things are under consideration, and the president will make the decisions.

And then there's sort of the man of the hour right now, Republican Majority Leader John Thune.

He had a message to Democrats about these ongoing cuts from OMB saying, quote, we don't control what he's going to do, he being Trump.

So essentially telling Democrats, if you want the cuts to stop, end the shutdown.

All right.

So a unified and very forceful message from Republicans and the administration in lockstep there.

Kevin, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

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A knife-wielding man targeted a synagogue in England on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda PrestiGiacomo.

So, Amanda, a horrifying event in Manchester, England.

What do we know so far about this attack?

Yeah, well, first of all, we know that this has been deemed a terrorist attack by the UK's counter-terrorism police.

This was very obviously a targeted attack.

As far as timeline goes, we know that authorities first received calls at around 9.30 a.m.

local time about a man driving his vehicle into pedestrians outside of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.

The suspect then got out of his vehicle and began stabbing people around him.

Authorities have confirmed that two people have been killed and at least four others were injured.

The suspect himself was shot and killed by police about seven or eight minutes after authorities were first called.

And, you know, as John mentioned, this attack took place on Yom Kippur, a very holy day for the Jewish people.

There were a large number of people inside the synagogue worshiping at the time of the attack.

They were about a half hour into into service.

Now, the attacker was not able to get into the actual synagogue because the entrance was locked and barricaded.

When the suspect got out of his vehicle, he immediately encountered synagogue security and other members who stopped him.

Suffice to say, this attack could have been even more deadly.

Now, there have also been reports that the suspect was strapped with explosives.

Has that been confirmed?

So the suspect does appear to have something strapped to his vest in photos.

Investigators said this appeared to be an explosive device, but authorities later said that that device was not viable.

Now, investigators were quick to say this is being investigated as a terror incident.

What do we know so far about the suspect?

Authorities made clear very early on that they knew who the suspect was, but for hours they refused to release his name.

They cited safety reasons.

We've since learned that the suspect's name is Jihad al-Shami, a 35-year-old British citizen who's of Syrian descent.

Two arrests have also been made in connection to the attack, and the investigation is being led by specialized counter-terrorism teams.

There are about 30,000 Jewish people who reside in Manchester.

Outside of London, it's home to the largest Jewish community in the country.

Anti-Semitic attacks in the UK have hit record levels after the October 7th attack by Hamas in Israel.

And in just the first half of this year, there have been more than 1,500 reported incidents.

Now, less than two weeks ago, Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared to side with Palestinians in the Gaza conflict.

He stated that the UK would recognize a Palestinian state.

That was upsetting to many of his Jewish constituents.

How is he responding to this attack?

Yeah, Starmer called the attack absolutely shocking, and he said he's going to do everything he can to keep the Jewish community safe.

Britain is also a country where Jewish buildings, synagogues, even schools require round-the-clock protection.

where dedicated specialist security is necessary because of the daily threat of anti-Semitic hatred.

After Starmer made those remarks, a violent protest broke out on Downing Street outside of his office.

The crowd has been described as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli, and a number of arrests were made.

Alternatively, there's been a lot of criticism of Starmer and the British authorities more generally for letting anti-Semitism become so normalized and for allowing mass migration without any assimilation.

Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sarr, said that they expect more than words from Starmer.

Well, a very frightening situation for Jews in Manchester.

Amanda, thanks for reporting.

You're welcome.

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Joining us to discuss the new film One Battle After Another is National Review contributor John Carlos Sopo.

John Carlo, thanks for coming on.

Great to be with you guys.

So this film is getting a ton of buzz.

I want to ask you first, what is this film about?

So I think to understand one battle after another, you have to understand the book that it's based on.

And it's Thomas Pynchon's Vineland.

So essentially, it's a story about a bunch of radicals who have gotten burned out, have attempted to attack government installations and institutions using violence.

So it's a satire, right?

So you got radicals on one side, and then on the right, you're going to have a bunch of racist, autocratic thugs essentially coming after them who are part of this paramilitary organization that is also tied, by the way, to a secret society of racists called the Christmas Adventures Club.

The way you're describing it, we have left-wing radicals up against right-wing authoritarian radicals.

It sounds like it's somewhat on the nose politically.

Do you get the sense that it is trying to give a message for today, or do you think it's just maybe some unfortunate timing that it happened to come out right now?

Well, I think that's one of the cool things about Paul Thomas Anderson is that he's a very talented filmmaker.

So he knows how to make a film that's going to have some ambiguity.

I think the film's political sympathies are obviously with the progressive left.

At the same time, though, I wouldn't necessarily call it a political movie.

I would look at it more as Antifa Star Wars, as a friend told me, where the politics and the radicalism is kind of used as a vehicle to tell a father-daughter story.

Do you feel like this actually soft-pedals violence?

Because I know it's basically a weather underground group that he was a part of, correct?

Where they're actually, you know, breaking people out of ICE detention facilities.

Does it gloss over or even glorify violence?

I think it shows political violence as tragic.

However,

the one political aspect of the movie that I had the most problem with is that

one of the lead characters,

a woman by the name of Perfidia Beverly Hills.

So again, all these characters are very on the nose.

There's a guy called Stephen Lockjaw, okay?

So Perfidia Beverly Hills, as they are holding up a bank, she shoots and kills a security officer.

She doesn't do it with joy.

She actually does it with a great deal of anguish.

But even after that fact, the film,

it's ambiguous enough where he can get away with it, but it does still kind of paint her in a sympathetic light as the things that she has to do afterward.

Kind of mirrors.

some of these radicals who who killed people in the 60s and 70s and then went into exile in Cuba.

She kind of follows a similar trajectory.

Is there any sympathy at all for people considered on the right in the film?

Like, do you see any sympathetic elements?

Do you get a sense of that, or is it the sympathies lie when the father and the daughter?

Yeah, the thing with the movie is that no one's really in the center-right, or really the center-left, or even, or much less the middle.

It follows a set of extremists on both sides.

And what the story is telling you on the political side is that these ideologies are pulling people away from what matters most to them in life, which should be their own children.

There are very clear passages in the film that communicate that.

I don't think anyone is portrayed here sympathetically in the film, to be candid with you, with the exception of the teenage girl.

What's interesting is that DiCaprio in some of these interviews that he's been doing promoting the film does say that he sees the film as a critique of both the left and the right.

Well, every year I try to watch the movies that are anticipated to win Best Picture.

So I will definitely add this to my list.

John Carlo, thanks so much for coming on.

It's a pleasure to be here.

Thanks for waking up with us.

And if you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe.

We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.

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