Transcript of Evening Wire: Trump Meets With Iraq’s PM & Mamdani Holds The Line On His Rent Freeze | 7.14.26

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The police has been told to cease pulling vehicles over following recent shootings, and New York City is setting records for high rent as Mamdani holds the line on his controversial freeze. I'm Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Tuesday, July 14th. This is Evening Wire.

The US unleashed another round of attacks on Iran. Meanwhile, Trump has ended the Hormuz tolls after just one day and is now meeting with Iraq's Prime Minister. Daily Wire foreign affairs reporter Kassia Kiva has the latest.

U.S. Central Command launched another round of strikes Monday night, saying the attacks are designed to further damage Iran's military capabilities and ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump also confirmed the U.S. will maintain a blockade on vessels traveling to or from Iranian ports, but has dropped a proposed 20% toll after Gulf leaders offered to increase investments in the United States instead. Trump also warned Iran that its deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site remains a potential target as the conflict continues to escalate. Today, Trump met with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and announced that any U.S. troops remaining in Iraq will leave at the end of September.

Federal immigration officers across the country have been told to stop pulling over vehicles after recent shootings in Maine and Texas. Daily Wire immigration reporter Jenny Ter has the details.

3 Homeland Security sources told The Daily Wire that the new mandate was, quote, no more vehicle stops for now. This directive has the potential to massively impact ICE's ability to make arrests, as officers often prefer to catch targets during traffic stops rather than at suspects' homes where illegal immigrants could have access to weapons. Officers also need a judicial warrant to enter a suspect's home without their permission, but no such restriction exists for traffic stops. An agency source confirmed that arrest numbers will decrease as a result, while an ICE spokesperson said the agency is, quote, "always evaluating procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets," but added, quote, "we will not disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics." Secretary of State Marco Rubio is continuing the Trump administration's effort to protect American sovereignty from international organizations.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Rubio accused the International Criminal Court of being a cabal of, quote, unelected globalist bureaucrats who assert nearly limitless authority under the guise of international law. Secretary Rubio slammed the court for its attempts to drag U.S. officials and service members before foreign judges thousands of miles away. The State Department announced several measures to limit the court's power, along with pushing visa bans, travel restrictions, and new sanctions on ICC personnel or affiliated groups.

2 years after a would-be assassin was inches away from killing him in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump reflected on the Secret Service failures that almost ended his life. Speaking to Fox Friends this week, Trump said the agency blew Butler, pointing to an unsecured building that 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks used to fire 8 rounds, grazing the president's ear and killing a rally participant. The president's remarks follow a scathing Inspector General report on the incident released last month, which found that agents missed nearly 102 radio transmissions from local police and were severely understaffed at the venue. But President Trump gave credit to the Secret Service counter-sniper who took out Crooks in under 4 seconds, praising him for potentially saving many more lives, including his own.

According to a study acquired by Fox News Digital, Apple and Google spent months actively suppressing negative news stories about Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Plattner. Associate editor Zach Jewell has the details.

Conservative watchdog group the Media Research Center found that both tech giants' news divisions posted zero stories about Plattner's controversies between November 2025 and May of this year. The MRC says the blackout began after an October 2025 poll signaled Plattner was the strongest challenger to incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins. It ended only after The New York Times reported on Plattner's sexting controversy on May 30th. During that span, Apple and Google failed to fairly promote more than 100 stories scrutinizing Plattner's increasingly catastrophic behavior. Google rejected the findings, arguing the MRC mistook, quote, "volume for news bias." The company also said its algorithm tailors news by user and location. But because the MRC researchers are openly conservative, critics argue that raises even more questions about why Google failed to surface conservative news to conservative users.

A new docu-series is attempting to cast doubt on the guilt of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2002. Culture reporter Megan Basham has more.

A new documentary titled Scott Peterson: The New Evidence is scheduled to air this week. According to Chris Pixley, a legal analyst and host of the documentary, The two-part series is meant to serve as a quote-unquote stress test of the new evidence. The documentary claims to have new evidence undercutting many of the prosecution's claims, as well as alternative theories bolstered by police revelations more than a decade after the incident. Peterson is currently serving a life sentence in California.

New York City rent hits its highest level in history while Mom Donny moves forward with the rent freeze. Daily Wire lifestyle reporter Lauren Baer has more.

In 2024, median rent prices in Manhattan were sitting around $4,400 a month. Today, the median price is a staggering $5,300 a month. That's an increase of almost $1,000 in just 2 years. Tackling the rising cost of rent has been a hallmark issue for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, but critics are pointing out that his solutions may in fact be a big part of the problem. Mamdani pushed for a rent freeze in over a million rent-controlled units. The proposal was passed 7 to 1 by the Rent Guidelines Board, which had just recently been packed with Mamdani loyalists. While rent increases will be stopped in those units, the move has disrupted the rest of the market, causing the price of non-rent-controlled units to rise even more sharply. Mamdani has made his intentions clear to continue combating the rising rents through government intervention, But critics question the feasibility or even legality of his proposals. In any case, as the market remains unstable, renters can most likely expect prices to continue rising for the immediate future.

The Pentagon has identified the 8 people killed from the B-52 crash in California last month. The victims were Colonel Gregory Watson, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Estrella, retired Lieutenant Colonel Miles Middleton, Major Alexander Davis, Major Robert D., Major Brad Hovey, Defense Department Flight Test Engineer Jeremy Smith, and JT-4 Flight Test Engineer Christopher Richard. Colonel Thomas Tower, commander of the 412th Test Wing, called the victims, quote, dedicated professionals, beloved family members, and irreplaceable teammates. The Air Force said the bomber was flying a routine test mission when it crashed moments after takeoff. Officials expect the investigation of the incident to take up to 6 months.

Inflation plunged in the biggest monthly drop since 2020. Year-over-year inflation fell for the first time since January, dropping down to 3.5% in June, according to data released yesterday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was the steepest monthly drop since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer prices fell 0.4% in June after rising 0.5% in May, beating expectations. The better-than-expected inflation report lowered the chances that the Fed Reserve will increase rates this year, but as tensions in the Middle East continue to rise and fall, shaky oil costs have left traders uneasy.

And the numbers are in, and Disney's live-action Moana has officially bombed at the box office. It's now projected to lose the studio around $100 million. The remake, which stars Dwayne Johnson in a muscle suit and wig, brought in $43 million across nearly 4,000 North American theaters, barely making a dent in its massive $250 million production budget. That also, by the way, doesn't include the astronomical cost of marketing efforts. One reviewer pointed out that, quote, "Virtually every line, beat, and song in the new movie is identical to the 2016 version," with the film's one newly added song only finding a place in the credits. It also didn't help that the supposed live-action remake is mostly a few human actors in an entirely CGI-animated world, leaving most to wonder, why did this need to exist at all?

Those are your drive home updates this evening. To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com. And in case you missed it earlier today, we covered some major stories including the US using sea drones in combat for the first time, the temporary Senate replacement for Lindsey Graham being announced, and the casting controversy surrounding the release of Christopher Nolan's new epic film The Odyssey. Thanks for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow morning with another full edition of Morning Wire.