Trump Defends Hegseth & Duffy’s Minnesota Ultimatum | 12.3.25

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President Trump convenes his cabinet while further rallying behind War Secretary Hegseth and his strikes on narco-terrorists.

We've only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe.
It's Wednesday, December 3rd.

This is Morning Wire.

The Trump administration hands Minnesota a stark ultimatum. Revoke the licenses of non-citizen truck drivers or lose millions in federal funding.

They've gone through sham schools and they're not safe on American roadways. And the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of New Jersey's sweeping probe into a pro-life pregnancy center.

We speak to one of the attorneys in the case. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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President Trump gathered his cabinet Tuesday and defended Secretary of War Pete Hagseth, vowing to continue his strikes against narco-terrorists.

Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the highlights. Hey, Cabot, so the president assembling his team yesterday for another cabinet meeting.

A lot of eyes, a lot of cameras in the room for this one. What did we hear? Well, first, it's worth pointing out this is now the ninth cabinet meeting of President Trump's first year back.

President Biden had nine cabinet meetings in his entire four-year term, so Trump moving fast here.

Coming in, all eyes, though, were on Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who has come under a lot of fire, as we've talked about on the show, for allegedly ordering airstrikes that targeted a number of drug smugglers who had survived an initial strike on their boat.

The White House has really rallied around Hexeth in the last few days, reiterating that these alleged cartel members have been designated as terrorists and essentially enemy combatants of the U.S.

And on Tuesday, Hegseth really struck a defiant tone, vowing to continue the strikes. We've only just begun striking Narco boats.

We've had a bit of a pause because it's hard to find boats to strike right now.

Which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to matter, not arrest and hand over and then do it again.

And big picture here, it is worth noting, the original reporting on this story against Hexeth is now facing a flood of scrutiny.

The New York Times, of all places, came out with a new story this week refuting the main allegation against Hexeth that he specifically ordered a second strike to kill survivors.

The Times cited five anonymous U.S.

officials, each of whom said separately that Hexeth did order a strike to kill the drug smugglers, but, and this is the important part: quote, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people had survived, and he did not address what should be done if there were survivors.

So looks like a lot of vindication there for Hexeth. Now, Trump also asked for updates about the National Guardsmen that were targeted in D.C.
What did we learn? Right.

In one of the more somber moments, Attorney General Pambondi honored the life of Sarah Beckstrom and then offered an update on Andrew Wolfe.

That's the guardsman fighting for his life right now in a D.C. hospital.
I was there when the surgeons came in and they wanted you to know this. He's a miracle.

And if everyone in this country can continue to pray for that family, he's got a long road ahead of him, but he is a miracle.

Now, the alleged shooter in that case did appear virtually in court yesterday from a hospital bed where he was formally charged with murder and then a slew of other charges.

The suspect pleaded not guilty on all of those charges. He'll be held without bond throughout the trial.
And Bondi also said the Justice Department will be seeking the death penalty.

Now, one person notably absent from that cabinet meeting was Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. He was in Moscow.
What's the latest there?

Yeah, Witkoff and Jared Kushner both were meeting with Putin directly in Moscow. And Putin made clear to them that he was not happy with the latest changes made to the U.S.

peace plan that's on the table right now, specifically the changes that came from Europe and Ukrainian officials. He said that the two were, quote, aimed at only one thing.

to block the entire peace process. He then went on to accuse Europe of being, quote, on the side of war.

Now, Russian officials say that Putin reiterated his demands to Witkoff and Kushner about what he wanted to see to end the war.

He wants Russian control of the Donbass region, a limit of Ukraine's armed forces in the future, and importantly, international recognition of the territory seized by Russia.

Zelensky, though, has been strongly opposed to each of those aspects, particularly the land swap. So this could be a long process.
We're probably still a ways off from a deal.

Yeah, I'm sure you're right there. Now, before you go, the special election in Tennessee, we've been following that very closely here.

What happened?

Yeah, as Trump put it, the eyes of the world were on Tennessee as Democrats poured in millions of dollars, hoping to pick up a seat in a deep red district that Trump won by 22 points just last year.

But ultimately, Trump-backed Republican Matt Van Epps did prevail, defeating far-left Democrat Afton Bain, though it was a bit closer than the GOP would have liked.

Democrats are already looking to spin these results as a victory and proof that they have the momentum ahead of the midterms. Republicans say they're going to hold their majorities in D.C.
next year.

But if last night was any indication, it is going to be a tough battle. It looks like Democrat voters are very fired up right now.

Well, midterms and off-year elections like this one are always tough for the party in power. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting.
Absolutely.

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Minnesota is facing federal pressure after an audit found widespread improper licensing of foreign drivers underscoring broader immigration oversight issues.

Here with more is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Press to Giacomo. So Amanda, more troubling immigration news coming out of Minnesota, this time relating to commercial driver's licenses.

What is the Trump administration claiming is happening there? Well, they presented some really jaw-dropping findings and now they're taking action.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced that the federal government, they're going to withhold more than $30 million in highway funding from Minnesota.

That's unless Democrat Governor Tim Walls revokes a large number of commercial driver's licenses that were issued illegally to drivers whose immigration or residency status did not comply with federal law.

Duffy gave Walls 30 days to fix this or the funding is going to be withheld. Governor Tim Wals of Minnesota gave 33% of these licenses unlawfully.

People that should never have a driver's license driving a big rig on American roads, endangering the American people.

Shameful. Officials in the Walls administration, they say they're reviewing this letter from the Department of Transportation, and they claim that they take safety on their roads seriously.

Now, commercial driver's licenses for illegals or people with improper status have been a focus for months now, and that's due to some really devastating crashes that have killed Americans.

Just yesterday, the Daily Wire's Jenny Terror reported that a newlywed couple was tragically killed in a collision allegedly caused by an illegal immigrant truck driver with a California license.

The Indian national involved in this crash has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.

The Department of Transportation has found that California authorities have issued more than 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses to foreign drivers.

The Trump administration is similarly threatening to withhold tens of millions of federal dollars from California.

And a number of other states, including red states, are being scrutinized over this issue too.

Now, speaking of immigration issues in Minnesota, this is the second major scandal in just a few days related to immigration.

A few days ago, we reported on a very widespread fraud scandal in the state that's been connected to the Somali community there. And there have been some updates.
Can you tell us what's happened?

Yeah, so now the Treasury Department is looking into this scandal. As you said, Georgia, billions of Minnesota tax dollars were allegedly stolen by fraudsters.

And shockingly, some of that money was funneled to al-Shabaab terrorists.

This, again, happened under Tim Walls' tenure, so putting a spotlight back on him, particularly when it comes to oversight of foreigners.

Now, President Trump was asked about this scandal yesterday during a cabinet meeting. Here's his very frank reaction.
Waltz is a grossly incompetent man. There's something wrong with him.

Somalians ripped off that state for billions of dollars. This beautiful place.
And I see these people ripping it off. The welfare is like 88%.

They contribute nothing. I don't want them in our country, I'll be honest with you.

Now, all of this immigration news and scandal does seem to tie back to a very fiery statement from Homeland Security Secretary Christine Noam.

She posted on X this week that she asked President Trump for a travel ban on all countries that have been, quote, flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.

She said that our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom, not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to Americans.

We don't want them, not one. Now, Noam's statement there does seem to reference the recent fatal targeting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
That was allegedly done by an Afghan national.

And in the wake of that incident, President Trump already paused asylum claims from 19 different countries.

Well, just in case people didn't catch it, that was billions with a B for that fraud scandal just in Minnesota. Amanda, thanks for reporting.
You're welcome.

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The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on a case involving a state allegedly intimidating and harassing a pregnancy center for not conducting abortions.

The case, First Choice Women's Resource Centers v. Platkin, could set precedent on states' ability to similarly target pregnancy centers and pro-life organizations.

Joining us now to discuss is Aaron Hawley, general counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the attorneys arguing the case for First Choice and who successfully argued to overturn Roe v.

Wade in 2022. Thanks for joining us.
So this case stems from New Jersey's Democrat Attorney General targeting pregnancy resource centers. That's the claim from your client, First Choice.

He created a strike force. He issued a consumer alert against them.
and then issued a subpoena to first choice that was extremely intrusive.

That included asking for donor information going back 10 years. So we've just heard oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

By the line of questioning from the justices, do you have a sense of how they appear to be leaning? So I'll have to paraphrase an old boss of mine.

And after arguing, he would say, you know, I would rather be our side than their side. And I think that's definitely true after this oral argument.

If you think about some of the questions the justices were asking, Justice Barrett, for example, pointed out the hostility that New Jersey has shown toward pregnancy care centers.

You had this project strike on the pregnancy centers. You know, the Attorney General had essentially, you know, what your friends on the other side would say, declared war on pregnancy centers.

So if it is true that the non-self-executing subpoena is enough if it's in the context of other government statements, why wouldn't that be satisfied here?

Justice Jackson seemed very concerned about this idea that you never get into federal court.

Not only does it shut you out initially, but even once you go to state court because of various legal doctrines, you can never come back to federal court.

In cases like Whole Women's Health, for instance, this court noted that there may not always be available a federal forum for a federal constitutional claim challenging state court.

So you're not saying they wouldn't be precluding, you're just saying there are times when it's too bad. Justice Kagan took a really practical view of the case.

She's not one that you would maybe expect to be ideologically aligned with first choice. And yet she made the common sense point.

If I receive a subpoena that demands donor names, like, A, I don't want my name and address and phone number out there.

And so she was saying that this is going to chill the First Amendment rights of recipients in sort of a common sense way. And it seemed like a majority or certainly several members of the court were

really

understanding the effect the subpoena had both on First Choice Women's Resource Center as well as its donors. So that seems pretty promising for First Choice.

Were there any particularly surprising moments to you in the arguments anything you weren't anticipating so one kind of highlight of the oral argument um was the fact that the new jersey attorney general has never said that he received a single complaint against first choice by anyone um and so justice thomas uh really leaned into that and asked the new jersey attorney did you have complaints that formed the basis of your concern about uh

the fundraising activities here

we certainly had complaints about crisis pregnancy centers that petitioned. No, about this crisis pregnancy center.

So I think we've been clear from the outset that we haven't had complaints about this specific.

So you had no basis to think that they were deceiving any of their contributors.

Now, it's worth noting many of the arguments we heard related to sort of procedural issues in terms of access to the Supreme Court in New Jersey and then the proper use of subpoenas.

If we do see a ruling in favor of first choice, how could that impact specifically pregnancy centers across the country?

So the particular legal issue is sort of an access to federal courts issue and what is required if you have to have chilling, which we think happens when you're served a subpoena demanding your donor names, or if you have to have something else.

But I think it could broadly impact pregnancy centers in one particular way. And that's because the New Jersey Attorney General has really shown a lot of hostility toward these pregnancy care centers.

Again, issuing consumer alerts, telling New Jersey to beware of them, you know, partnering with Planned Parenthood to issue a consumer alert.

And so I would hope that at least a justice or some justices would point out that that sort of harassment can contribute to a chill.

And that should protect pregnancy centers across the nation, not just in New Jersey. All right, so a potentially significant impact there across the country.

Erin Hawley, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, now you can watch the show for free on Daily Wire Plus.
We'll be back later this evening with more news you need to know.

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