Transcript of Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs | 1.19.26

As the Pentagon prepares to send troops to Minnesota, the DOJ investigates whether state leaders impeded federal law enforcement.

They should be cooperating with ICE.

And if they did, we probably wouldn't have a lot of these incidents that we're seeing now.

It's inviting tragedy.

I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, January 19th. This is Morning Wire.

President Trump ratchets up the pressure on Europe over Greenland, threatening new tariffs unless allies support US control of the island.

What President Trump is trying to do is prevent a taking or Russian-Chinese action in Greenland in the future. So why not be strategic?

And the US cuts off the AIDS spigot to Somalia after its government destroys a warehouse full of food donated Americans. We have a limited amount of money that we can dedicate to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance, and that has to be applied in a way that furthers our national interest.

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Daily WIRE senior editor, Kabbit Phillips, joins us now with more Hey, Kabbit. So nearly two weeks since the shooting of Renee Good, the rioting across Minneapolis is not slowing down. If anything, it seems to be picking up steam. First, what is the latest from the front lines there?

So last week, Minnesota Governor Tim Walls urged President Trump to turn down the temperature. But over the weekend, violent left-wing agitators in his state did anything but. They continued to riot. Large groups of protesters clashed with law enforcement outside of federal buildings and ICE facilities, and a number of conservative demonstrators were brutally attacked in broad daylight. In one instance, right-wing activist Jake Lange was physically dragged from the front steps of a government building by a large mob of leftist agitators. They proceeded to beat him with fist, rocks, and flagpoles, as some of the crowd could be heard yelling, Kill him. All it's worth pointing out with police nowhere to be seen. The video is pretty disturbing. We're going to warn folks, but we're going to play some of it here for our audience watching on the Daily Wire website. Kill Now, thankfully, Lange was eventually able to make it to a car, which sped to safety, but not before he was left with severe gashes to his face and head, which left him hospitalized. Other footage from the scene showed a different man wearing an American flag hoodie. That man was surrounded by another mob who demanded, take it off and you won't get hurt.

Take it. Take it the fuck off.

No, don't hit me. Take it off. No, don't take it.

No, take it off. Take it off and you won't get hurt.

Seconds later, as The mob surrounds him. They force him to remove that hoodie, which they rip from his hands and run off with. Then elsewhere, footage showed protesters surrounding innocent people who were driving SUVs because they were suspected of being ICE agents because of the cars they were driving. Masked rioters demanded they open their doors and trunks to prove they were not ICE. Other videos showed rioters surrounding random white men in the city who they said, quote, looked like ICE. They were told to yell F-word ICE, you get the idea, to supposedly prove they were not with the agency. In a remarkable moment, Sunday morning, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Fray essentially blamed the violence across the city on the Trump administration, saying that if ICE agents left Minneapolis, there would be peace.

The second these ICE agents leave the city, I'm telling you, you're going to have calm in Minneapolis, and you will continue to see the great comeback that we had been experiencing. Let us get back to that comeback. Let us live in peace.

Yeah, stunning statement there from Fray, and as you said, pretty shocking footage that we're seeing streaming out of Minneapolis. What is Trump doing now in response?

Well, as we mentioned last week, President Trump, in response to the violence, did consider invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy the military to Minneapolis and grant them the authority to perform law enforcement duties. The Pentagon has ordered 1,500 troops to be ready for a possible deployment. A spokesman said they would be, prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon. Now, Mayor Fray said the threat of mobilization was an an example of the Trump administration trying to, quote, intimidate Minneapolis. But ICE Director Todd Lyons said it was only necessary because Fray and other Democrats were not doing their jobs.

In my 30 years of law enforcement, I never thought we would have to send law enforcement to protect law enforcement.

You would not see this many ICE agents and special agents on the street if they would just turn people over to us.

Now, finally, the White House has opened an investigation into Governor Walls and Mayor Fray. This has really set off a political fire Storm. Tell us about that.

In response to their refusal to cooperate with ICE officials and also their apparent unwillingness to combat these violent demonstrators, the DOJ has now opened a criminal investigation into both Walls and Fray to determine whether they had conspired to impede federal immigration enforcement. We're still waiting to see the subpoenas for ourselves, but the investigation will center on whether the men's actions constituted criminal interference of legitimate law enforcement operations. Now, in response, Walls called the investigation a dangerous authoritarian tactic. He blamed Trump for, quote, weaponizing the justice system and threatening political opponents. The White House, though, says they are simply enforcing the law and also the will of voters. As attorney general Pam Bondi put it this weekend, quote, no one is above the law.

For his Democrats have long directed at Trump. Now the tables have turned here. Kevin, thanks for reporting.

Absolutely.

Some European leaders want to escalate a trade war with the United States after President Trump threatened to impose up to 25% tariffs on eight countries. Trump has said he will back off the tariffs only when Denmark agrees to sell Greenland.

Daily Wire reporter Tim pierce is here to talk about Trump's Greenland Gamble and the latest on US foreign policy. So Tim, President Trump's tariff threats have raffled feathers in Europe. How are they now responding.

Well, it looks like it could be a return of the trade wars that exploded last year. Trump's threats have angered quite a few in the European Union who now want to freeze the trade agreement that the block struck with the US last year, a deal that Trump had called at the time the biggest ever made. Under that agreement, the EU would lift all levies on US goods, and in exchange, the US would drop its tariffs on EU imports to 15 %. The European Parliament was supposed to move forward on that next week, but instead, the block is now expected to vote Wednesday to put the deal on hold, and may even take additional steps as well. Some think this fracture could threaten not just trade relationships with Europe, but the NATO military Alliance as well. Here was former Vice President Mike Pence on CNN yesterday.

I do I do think that the current posture, which I hope will change and abate, does threaten to fracture that strong relationship, not just with Denmark, but with all of our NATO allies.

Now, this massive turnabout happened because on Saturday, Trump threatened to put up to 25% tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Finland because Denmark has refused US offers to buy Greenland. Now, European leaders have begun to not openly but implicitly compare President Trump's desire for Greenland to Putin's desire for Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron said a statement, No intimidation or threat will influence us, neither in Ukraine nor in Greenland nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations.

So a lot of resistance from Europe so far. How is President Trump responding to that?

Well, it appears that military action has been ruled out, but administration officials are just as stubborn on this. Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson, appeared on BBC News on Sunday and said that it's actually continued Danish ownership of Greenland that is the real threat to NATO.

President Trump strongly believes that we cannot outsource our security Because this fight for the Arctic is real. We would keep our NATO guarantees. If there were an attack on Greenland from Russia, from some other area, we would get dragged in. So better now, peace through strength, make it part of the United States, and there will not be a conflict.

Meanwhile, critics have pointed out that the United States and Denmark already have a treaty in place in which the US may build whatever military installations it wants in Greenland already.

Interesting. Now, shifting gears to Iran, President Trump made some comments over the weekend that reignited some of the speculation that he might be planning a strike. What did he say?

It appears that Trump is not quite through with Iran yet. Trump told Politico, It's time to look for new leadership in Iran. He said that, as reports suggest, more US military assets are headed toward the Middle East. This has kicked off more speculation that Trump may move forward with an attack on Iran after all. The protests that Trump had earlier voiced support for have died down in recent days, but reports suggest that that's only because the Iranian military has moved into cities to crack down on the protests. Here's Senator Ted Cruz, who has repeatedly called for regime change in Iran, yesterday on Fox News on Trump's latest statement. President Trump, I think, has been very strong in telling the regime, number one, we stand with the people, do not target, do not murder the protesters, telling the protesters, America stands with you I got to say, just in the last two days, a really important step occurred where President Trump came out unequivocally and said, It is time for new leadership in Iran. It is time for the Ayatollah Khameini, his religious dictatorship to end.

Well, what we saw in Venezuela shows President Trump is not exactly afraid to do it.

Tim, thanks for reporting. Good to be on. The State Department will permanently end foreign aid to Somalia after a warehouse full of US-funded food disappeared.

Daily Wire investigative reporter, Luke Rosiak, obtained diplomatic cables showing corruption in the African nation that mirrors the fraud perpetrated by refugees in Minnesota. He joins us now. Hey, Luc. So what exactly did these cables from the embassy in Mogadishu Hey, John.

Thanks for having me. The US Embassy in Somalia recommended that the State Department stop foreign aid after on January third, quote, At the direction of President Hassan Sheik Mohamed and the federal government of Somalia, authorities at Tissue Port demolished the World Food Program emergency response warehouse with no prior notification or coordination with international donors, including the United States. So 76 metric tons of food went missing, even as another 1,600 150 tons of commodities was on its way.

So what we have here is US tax dollars being used to feed poor people in Somalia, but their government is wasting that aid.

Exactly. So the cable said that the country of Turkey has actually taken over large sectors of the economy in Somalia, which it runs using corrupt contracts with Somalian ministers who are on the take. The Mogadishu Port is actually owned by a Turkish company, and the Somali ports ministers viewed as being Turkey's primary agent in the country. Turkey wanted to expand its port facilities, so the Somalis let it take over a warehouse that was used by the World Food Program, which is a United Nations group.

To be clear, this food is gone, correct?

Well, the Somalis claimed the food is still accessible, but the World Food Program said that isn't true, and the demolition constitutes a breach of UN diplomatic protocols. It said the food has to be carefully stored, so it's hard to see how it's not destroyed at this point. As you said, this is taxpayer money funneled through actually the Title II Food for Peace program and the international disaster assistance. This is taxpayer money from Americans, and then it's administered by this UN group.

We're giving Food for Peace, but not even getting the peace part of it at this point. Is there any chance for Somalia to make amends here?

Well, it doesn't look like it. The embassy said maybe we could see, but a US official told me it's too late for Somalia to say they're sorry, and that not only has aid been paused, but it's going to be permanently turned off, and that'll be official by at least May.

Stepping back a little bit here, why has this been happening? What is the motive for Somalia's government to fail to distribute food intended for its people?

Well, a member of Somalia's Parliament and its Foreign Affairs Committee has been warning about this. Abdelahi Hashi Abib said up to 90% of Somalia's humanitarian assistance comes from America, but that the money isn't distributed to the most needy, but rather horded by relatives of officials in their clans who don't seem to care very much about rival clans. He said the agency that receives most of this aid, the Somali Disaster Management Agency, is run by relatives of the President. Three brothers of the agency's chairman each receive about $15,000 a month in salaries laundered through their wives. The finance department and training unit are both run by different uncles of his. They actually supposedly pay Somalis who are hungry or starving $5 each to take photos pretending to be receiving these meals as a donation. Then after the pictures are taken, they yank it back and they sell it at the markets for a profit. By diverting aid for up to 12,000 families, the clan generates about half a million dollars each month for itself, the member of parliament said. Foreign aid money has also been wasted as Somalias inflate the cost of items, charging, for example, $300,000 for ambulances and fire trucks that really only cost $100,000, he said.

For those saying the US is now contributing to the starvation in Somalia, the money we were spending may never have been used to address hunger, to begin with.

Yeah, I think that's right. And by the way, suddenly, Minneapolis's quality leering center doesn't seem like a fluke. It seems like part of a pattern, right? I mean, Somalia's problems are due to endemic corruption. And what we've got to consider is when we're asked to take in refugees as a result of that corruption, I think it's fair to ask, how are we actually differentiating those who morally reject that whole culture from those who are simply part of it?

Certainly this gives some insight into why the Trump administration decided to abolish USAID altogether. Luke, thanks so much for reporting. Thank you.

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