Transcript

Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs

From Morning Wire · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 16 min · 2,892 words · 40 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs", an episode of Morning Wire published January 19, 2026 (16 min, about 2,892 words). It mentions 3 people, works and ideas, including Daily Wire (company), Moadishu.

What this episode is about

The Pentagon is deploying troops to Minnesota amid a DOJ investigation into state leaders potentially obstructing federal law enforcement, with calls for better cooperation with ICE to prevent local incidents. In international affairs, President Trump is pressuring Europe with threats of tariffs over Greenland while also cutting aid to Somalia after its government destroyed American food donations, emphasizing a foreign aid strategy aligned with U.S. national interests.

Key takeaways

  • When state leaders obstruct federal law enforcement, it’s like building a wall around a volcano—eventually, it erupts.
  • Trump's Greenland strategy: geopolitical chess or just another game of tariff poker? Either way, it's an icy gamble.
  • Cutting aid to Somalia for food mismanagement raises a question: are we feeding humanitarian crises or just our own egos?
  • In a chaotic Minneapolis, the blame game intensifies—politicians pivot, while the streets erupt in a cry for order.
  • Mobilizing troops over civil unrest is a drastic measure; it’s debatable: peacekeeper or provocateur?

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Daily Wire (company)
  2. – 6:00: Daily Wire (company)
  3. – 9:00: Daily Wire (company)
  4. – 12:00: Daily Wire (company), Moadishu
  5. – 15:00: Moadishu
  6. – 15:57: Daily Wire (company)

Notable quotes from "Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs"

  • Overwhelming, but taking steps to protect your family financially is now easier than ever. Through our sponsor, Ethos, you can get a quote in just seconds and actually apply in…
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  • 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.
    about Daily Wire (company) · at
  • Hey John, thanks for having me. So the US embassy in Somalia recommended that the state department stop foreign aid after on January 3rd quote at the direction of President Hassan Shik.
    about Moadishu · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

Companies & orgs

  • Daily Wire (company) — Company · Business focus · 6 mentions · first at
    The podcast is produced by Daily Wire, discussing current news.

Places & events

  • Moadishu — Place · Setting · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of US embassy activities and corruption in Somalia.

Sponsors

  • Ethos — Sponsor · Sponsor · 2 mentions
    Sponsor of the podcast, offering life insurance services.

Full transcript with timestamps

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 How. 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 aid spiggot to Somalia after its government destroys a warehouse full of food donated by 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.

Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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Daily Wire senior editor Kabat Phillips joins us now with more. Hey, Kabat. So, nearly two weeks since the shooting of Renee Good. The rioting across Minneapolis is not slowing down. and if anything seems to be picking up steam. First, what is the latest from the well 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 Lang was physically dragged from the front steps of a government building by a large mob of leftist agitators. They proceeded to beat him with fists, rocks, and flag poles as some in 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. NOW, THANKFULLY, Lang 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, quote, "Take it off and you won't get hurt.

Take it. Take it the Take it off and you are hurt." Seconds later, as the mob surrounds him, they force him to remove that hoodie, which they ripped from his hands and run off with. And 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 riders demanded they open their doors and trunks to prove they were not ICE. Other videos showed riers 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. And in a remarkable moment Sunday morning, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey essentially blamed the violence across this 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 Frey 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, uh 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 1500 troops to be ready for a possible deployment. A spokesman said they would be quote prepared to execute the orders of the commander-in-chief if called upon. Now, Mayor Frey said the threat of mobilization was an example of the Trump administration trying to quote intimidate Minneapolis. But ICE director Todd Lions said it was only necessary because Frey and other Democrats were not doing their jobs. In my 30 years of law enforcement, I'd 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. And now finally, the White House has opened an investigation into Governor Walls and Mayor Frey. This has really set off a political firestorm. Tell us about that.

Right. 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 Frey 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 quote dangerous authoritarian tactic. He blamed Trump for quoteweaponizing 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."

Yeah, phrase 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 ruffled 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 think that the current posture which uh which I hope will change and abate uh does threaten to

fracture uh 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, the 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 Emanuel Mcronone said in a statement, quote, "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 NBC 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 and if there were an attack on Greenland from Russia from the some other 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? Yeah, it appears that Trump is not quite through with Iran yet. Trump told Politico, quote, "It's time to look for new leadership in Iran." And he said that as reports suggest, more US military assets are headed toward the Middle East. And 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. And and 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 Kamei, his religious dictatorship to end.

Well, what we saw in Venezuela shows President Trump's 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 Rosak obtained diplomatic cables showing corruption in the African nation that mirrors the fraud perpetrated by refugees in Minnesota. He joins us now. Hey Luke. So what exactly did these cables from the embassy in Moadishu say?

Hey John, thanks for having me. So the US embassy in Somalia recommended that the state department stop foreign aid after on January 3rd quote at the direction of President Hassan Shik Muhammad and the federal government of Somalia authorities at Moadishu port demolished the world food program emergency response warehouse with no prior notification or coordination with an international donors including the United States says 76 metric tons of food went missing even as another 1 1650 tons of commodities was on its way.

All right. 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 Somalia ministers who are on the take. The Moadishu port is actually owned by a Turkish company, and the Somali ports minister viewed as being Turkeykey's primary agent in the country. Turkey wanted to expand its port facility. So the Somali let it take over a warehouse that was used by the World Food Program, which is a United Nations group.

And to be clear, this food is gone. Correct. Well, the Somali claimed the food is still quote accessible, but the World Food Program said that isn't true. And quote, "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. And as you said, this is taxpayer money funneled through actually the title 2 food for peace program and the international disaster assistance. So this is taxpayer money from Americans and then it's administered by this UN group.

All right. So 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. Uh, you know, the 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 it not only has aid been paused, but it's going to be permanently turned off and that'll be official by at least May.

So, 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. Abdullahi 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 hoarded 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 sort of laundered through their wives. And the finance department and training unit are both run by different uncles of his. And they they actually supposedly pay Somali's uh who are hungry or starving $5 each to take photos pretending to be receiving these meals as a donation. And then after the pictures are taken, they yank it back

and they sell it at the markets for a profit. And so 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 Somali's inflate the cost of items, charging, for example, $300,000 for ambulances and fire trucks that really only cost $100,000, he said. All right. All right. So 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 and by the way, suddenly Minneapolis's quality learing 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. Well, certainly this gives some insight into why the Trump administration decided to abolish USAID altogether. Luke, thanks so much for reporting.

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

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs"?

John Bickley (Host), Georgia How (Host), Kabat Phillips (Guest), Tim Pierce (Guest), Luke Rosak (Guest), Jacob Frey (Guest), Pam Bondi (Guest), Ted Cruz (Guest).

What is "Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs" about?

The Pentagon is deploying troops to Minnesota amid a DOJ investigation into state leaders potentially obstructing federal law enforcement, with calls for better cooperation with ICE to prevent local incidents. In international affairs, President Trump is pressuring Europe with threats of tariffs over Greenland while also cutting aid to Somalia after its government destroyed American food…

What is mentioned in this Morning Wire episode?

3 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Daily Wire (company), Moadishu. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Feds Eye Minnesota Leadership & Trump’s Greenland Tariffs"?

The episode runs 16 min; the transcript is about 2,892 words in 40 timestamped sections.

More from Morning Wire

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.