Car Maker Invests Big & Snow White Bombs | 3.25.25

Another foreign company makes a massive investment in the U.S., bringing manufacturing and jobs back to the States.

With this, our U.S. vehicle production will exceed 1 million units per year.

How have Trump's tariffs played into these decisions?

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley.

It's Tuesday, March 25th, and this is Morning Wire. The White House and Congress ramp up pressure on a judge standing between the Trump administration and its deportation agenda.
He's the judge who was part of the whole Trump-Russia FISA court, granting those warrants that allowed the Comey FBI to spy on President Trump's campaign. And audiences across the country are disenchanted by Disney's live-action Snow White as the remake bombs at the box office.
Disney shareholders ought to be infuriated and demanding answers on where nearly $400 million of capital went for Snow White. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai announced Monday that they'd be investing more than $20 billion in the U.S. to build new steel and auto plants.
Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips is here with the details. So Cabot, a story that's become a little bit routine recently, foreign companies investing in the United States.
What's the latest? Yeah, Hyundai joining the long list of companies pouring billions of dollars into American manufacturing, otherwise known as on-shoring. On Monday, the South Korean auto giant announced a nearly $21 billion investment in the US.
For context, that is equal to the total amount they've invested here since 1986. As part of that effort, they'll be building a $6 billion steel plant in Louisiana.
That'll employ more than 1,400 Americans. The company currently has two major auto plants on American soil.
Now it will be three. They're opening a third in Georgia, which will create another 8,000 jobs.
Hyundai's executive chair, Yu Sun Chung, appeared alongside President Trump at the White House Monday to break the news. With your leadership, Mr.
President, Hyundai Motor Group is proud to be a stronger partner in America's industrial future. As we've discussed, President Trump has already implemented 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and additional levies are coming on Asian auto imports.
So Hyundai is certainly looking to save money. As Hyundai Motor CEO Jose Munoz put it, the best way for Hyundai to navigate tariffs is to increase localization, aka manufacturing cars here in America.
For his part, President Trump has argued all along that his tariffs were intended to pressure foreign businesses to do just that. Here he is yesterday.
This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work, and I hope other things also, but the tariffs are bringing them in at levels that have not been witnessed. Last month, Apple announced it was pouring $500 billion into new American manufacturing projects.
Before that, Japan's SoftBank announced $100 billion investment. Asian chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor is pouring $100 billion of their own to build high-tech chips in America.
United Arab Emirates announced a 10-year $1.4 trillion investment. The list goes on and on.
Again, that's all in the last three months. According to the president, there have been up to $4 trillion worth of new investments in the U.S.
since Inauguration Day. Here he is to that point during a cabinet meeting yesterday.
Many companies are now moving into the United States. We have probably identified maybe $4 trillion worth of companies moving back or going to move back.
Remember, there are no tariffs if you build here, and that's a big factor. Now, that cabinet meeting also got some extra attention yesterday for totally separate reasons.
There was a wild story involving a national security group chat. What happened? Yeah, one of the crazier stories you'll hear out of Washington, and that's saying something.
On Monday, Atlantic Editor-in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story titled, quote, The Trump administration accidentally texted me its war plans. And that is exactly what happened.
Two weeks ago, Goldberg was mistakenly added to a group chat on the messaging app Signal. Chat included VP Vance, SecDef Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, along with the heads of the CIA, DNI, etc.
Over the course of multiple days, the group debated whether or not to launch airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen who've been attacking ships in the Suez Canal for years. Goldberg published a number of those messages.
In one, VP Vance weighs the potential risks of airstrikes, writing, quote, 3% of U.S. trade runs to the Suez, 40% of European trade does.
There is a real risk that the public does not understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this, as POTUS said, to send a message.
Later, Vance said that he, quote, hates bailing Europe out again, but would support the strikes if the team was in agreement. Ultimately, the group led by Hegseth did opt to push for those strikes, which were carried out successfully on March 15th.
So what sort of response have we seen in Washington to that story? So while there were no real incriminating messages published, it's obviously an embarrassing mishap for the administration, and there could be consequences. A number of prominent Democrats on the Hill have called for heads to roll and vowed to investigate why sensitive national security conversations were being held in such a manner.
For their part, the White House did confirm the legitimacy of that group chat, telling our own Mary Margaret Olihan, quote, we were reviewing how an inverted number was added to the chain. They added, quote, the thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.
Well, we'll certainly be tracking the fallout. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
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Enjoy fresh fragrance collaborations. The Trump administration has been blocked again from deporting aliens under the 1798 invasion law.
The judge said the Trump administration misapplied the law and violated the due process rights of dozens of suspected gang members flown to El Salvador. Here to talk about the challenges Trump's immigration agenda is facing is Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce.
Say, Tim, so a lot happened yesterday with this case. What did we see in Judge Boasberg's court on Monday? Well, Boasberg decided not to lift a temporary restraining order he placed on the Trump administration to block its use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
The administration used it to move dozens of illegal aliens with gang ties to El Salvador. The U.S.
struck a deal with El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, earlier this year to hold illegal aliens in its modern prison system. Now, Boesberg believes that shipping the aliens to El Salvador without a court hearing violated their due process rights.
He also said that the administration's use of the act to move the gang members is likely an abuse of the law because, in his interpretation, it's only applicable in wartime. The administration's interpretation is a bit different.
Trump's team points out that the text of the law says that it can be used in wartime or when, quote, any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated against the territory of the United States. All right, so very different interpretations of the law.
No surprise there. Now, we've seen reports that Congress is taking action to counter these lawsuits.
What are we seeing there?

Yeah, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says that the number of court injunctions the administration is facing is extraordinary. Here's Johnson on Fox News over the weekend.
62 percent, for example, of the federal injunctions that have been handed down in the last century were handed down against President Trump. And 92 percent of those were done by partisan Democrat appointed judges.
GOP Congressman Jim Jordan chairs the Judiciary Committee in the House, and he plans to have a hearing next week on what Republicans have called judicial activism. Jordan wants to focus on Bozberg's cases in particular.
Here's Jordan on Fox News. So when you look at all that, coupled with this judge's history with the FISA court, it really starts to look like Judge Boesberg is operating purely political against the president.
And that's what we want to have hearings on. So we're going to start those next week.
And we think Senator Grassley is going to do the same. So Republicans want to find a way to speed up the process instead of letting the president's agenda suffer because this really unprecedented amount of court interference.
Right. We've never seen a flood of injunctions like we've seen against the Trump administration at this point.
Now, Trump's agenda continues to be hampered by sanctuary city laws as well. Homan seems to be particularly angry with Massachusetts.
Tell us what's going on in that state. Sure.
So last week, Homan went to Boston and tagged along with federal agents on a lot of deportation raids. He recapped his experience yesterday on X.
According to Homan, agents arrested 370 illegal aliens, with a majority being what Homan described as significant criminals. That includes fugitives wanted for murder, drug traffickers, and child predators.
Homan and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have accused the state of releasing aliens like these back onto the streets after having them in custody. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu denied that during an appearance to Congress, but a local news investigation turned up evidence to support Homan and ICE's claims.
According to CBS Boston, multiple violent felons have been released from custody despite having ICE detainers placed on them. That includes a Guatemalan national charged with three counts of aggravated child rape and a Honduran charged with assault to rape, battery, and other counts.
Really shocking that these characters were released back into the streets in Massachusetts. Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
Thanks for having me. After a year of delays, Disney's latest live-action remake Snow White has disappointed has disappointed at the box office.
The film, once poised to be a crown jewel in Disney's lineup, has instead become a cautionary tale. Here with more is Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham.
So Megan, first off, the box office. Just how bad were the numbers for Snow White? Well, I'll tell you, the words epic flop come to mind.
It opened to a dismal $43 million domestically and only $87 million worldwide. And that's against a reported $270 million budget.
So the numbers are still being finalized. But what that means is it's vying for the title of worst opening for a Disney live action remake ever.
All weekend, people were posting viral videos of empty theaters for this film, and investors seemed to be watching closely. Disney's stock dipped 3% Monday morning.
So why did audiences reject it? Well, I would say that the overarching theme here is that Disney took a classic tale of romance and true love, and they turned it into one of self-empowerment. Now, a lot of people have been pointing the finger at lead actress Rachel Zegler for her political commentary, things like saying after the election that she hopes Trump supporters never know peace, and then also comments on the red carpet like this from last year.
You know, the original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so. There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her.
Weird, weird. So we didn't do that this time.
But I want to defend her a little bit because while this was off-putting to a lot of people, it is actually the content of the film, so she wasn't't misrepresenting it one of the most iconic songs of the original someday my prince will come that was cut instead

disney offered a new song that's about not needing a prince for rescue No more sending whispers to the water

Cause you're everything you were wishing and waiting for. So the lyrics there, if you couldn't quite make them out, no more sending whispers to the water cause you were everything you were wishing and waiting for someone fearless, someone fair, someone brave.
It's worth noting that Prince Charming is quite literally not Prince Charming here because he's not a prince. He's been swapped out for a Robin Hood style bandit who steals from the evil monarchy.
I saw one comment from a woman online who said, I can't help but think that people, not just women, are growing weary of stories where they have to be their own hero because dang, life is hard. And that really captured it for me.
And I'll also add that the movie performed pretty evenly in both red and blue counties. So it wasn't just conservatives who didn't like it.
Critics and audiences across the political spectrum have been giving it low marks. Reviews sit at a tepid 42% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Opening weekend exit polls from ordinary moviegoers showed only a C-plus cinema score. So really, hardly a ringing endorsement.
So how do you think Disney is going to respond to this feedback? Well, I think to start, they're going to be less willing to reimagine these classic films. Because for the most part, these live-action remakes have been a cash cow.
The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, for instance, each raked in over a billion dollars, but they stayed very true to the originals. Those where Disney tries to update for modern sensibilities tend to get rejected by audiences.
And there we can look at not just Snow White, but also the underwhelming performance of last year's Little Mermaid. But I also think while there's a lot of talk about the politics of Snow White, I also think there's an element here of fans simply getting tired of remakes.
So this could push Disney to rethink its strategy. Now, do you think it might play better with international audiences? It's possible.
China and Europe are still rolling out, but the early projections right now suggest that Snow White is not even going to break even. Disney Plus could be a lifeline, but streaming success isn't going to erase the narrative of a theatrical failure.
And that's the biggest concern, brand damage. If audiences start doubting Disney's magic touch, I think future projects like the upcoming Lilo and Stitch are going to become a tougher sell.

Well, no question. It's been a tough season for Disney.

Yeah.

Megan, thanks for reporting.

Anytime.

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