Transcript

Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud

From Morning Wire · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 15 min · 2,868 words · 47 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud", an episode of Morning Wire published December 29, 2025 (15 min, about 2,868 words). It mentions 7 people, works and ideas, including Daily Wire (company), Nick Shirley, Clarence David, Islamic State, Linda McMahon.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Daily Wire (company)
  2. – 6:00: Islamic State
  3. – 9:00: Nick Shirley, Daily Wire (company), Linda McMahon
  4. – 12:00: Cash Patel, Daily Wire (company), Tulsi Gabbard
  5. – 15:00: Daily Wire (company)

Notable quotes from "Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud"

  • I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia. How it's Monday, December 29th. This is Morning Wire.
    about Daily Wire (company) · at
  • Right. For years now, Islamic State terrorists have been operating with impunity throughout Africa, especially in Nigeria, slaughtering thousands of innocent Christians in the process and.
    about Islamic State · at
  • Daycarees that's racked up tens of millions of views online was done by independent journalist Nick Shirley. His investigative video is over 40 minutes long. And from the time…
    about Nick Shirley · at
  • Right. And well, and he's not the only one. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also called for him to step down.
    about Linda McMahon · at
  • The FBI is on this as well. FBI director Cash Patel said on Sunday that the FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota. However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and.
    about Cash Patel · at
  • As a terrorist and I'm a Hamas fan girl. Now, at the same time, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been ramping up her warning about the threat posed by terror…
    about Tulsi Gabbard · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

Hours after a quote productive call with Putin, President Trump hosts Zinsky in hopes of hammering out a warranting deal. We

said war this is the most difficult part, but we're going to get it done. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia. How it's Monday, December 29th. This is Morning Wire. A new investigative report on massive fraud in Minnesota daycarees prompts a congressional probe and demands for Governor Walls to resign.

There's a little nickname for him going around Minnesota. He's the fraud father and that's exactly what it is.

And the Trump administration cracks down on criminal illegals and terror threats as major cities ramp up security for New Year's Eve celebrations.

Americans are going to continue to go out and celebrate. That's what we want. We're Americans. We don't bend the knee to these terrorist organizations.

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

The Daily Wire Shop's best deals of the year are still live and you can get up to 70% off. Save big on items like the Golden Leftist Tears Tumblr, Truth Bomb Golf Club covers, the collected poems of Donald J. Trump, plus hats, t-shirts, hoodies, and a whole lot more. And if your order tops 100 bucks, free shipping. Head over to dailywire.com/shop right now. That's dailywire.com/shop.

President Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin and hosted Vladimir Zalinsky on Sunday, hoping to finalize a peace deal to end the war.

Daily Wire senior editor Kabat Phillips is here with the highlights of this highstake sitdown. Hey, Kat.

Hey, John. I know you missed me. Merry Christmas. I don't know how I've made it through, Kevin. So, let's start with an an overview of where things stand coming into this meeting. What do we need to know coming into this?

So, quick refresher. Last month, after weeks of negotiating, the US came to Ukraine with the outlines of a 28-point peace plan. That draft included an immediate ceasefire, but also major concessions from Ukraine. Putin understandably expressed openness to that agreement, saying it could pave the way for peace, but Zalinsky and the EU were appalled. Over the last month, they've really pushed the White House to eliminate a number of those original concessions and ultimately have whittleled the draft down to a 20point plan, which still leaves the door open for the seeding of some Ukrainian territory, but offers a lot stronger security guarantees from the West. Ahead of the sitdown, Zalinsky said the deal is quote 90% ready, but did make clear that he needs support from the US to give him leverage with Putin.

Right. This brings us to Putin. Where is he in all of this? Well, he sent a message of his own in the hours before the meeting, hammering Kiev with one of the largest air strikes from Russia in months that killed four, wounded dozens of others and knocked out power to a third of the city. And in his effort to try and get the countries talking again, Trump did hold an impromptu phone call with Putin on Sunday uh right before sitting down with Silinsky. He described the call as quote good and very productive. Russian [clears throat] officials say the two men did agree that a long-term peace deal is preferred to a temporary ceasefire while a longer deal is ironed out. Putin also reportedly made clear once again that he won't leave Ukraine empty-handed, saying he would only sign on to an agreement that includes Ukrainian territories in the Donbass region. Trump has repeatedly expressed anger with Putin in the past,

essentially calling him two-faced when it came to negotiations, but on Sunday had this to say when asked if he thought that Putin was serious about peace. President, do you think Putin is serious about peace this time?

I do. I think he is. I think they both are. Now, remember, Zalinsky has vowed to never give up land to Russia. But it did offer a new compromise. The idea of turning some Ukrainian land in the east into a demilitarized zone.

As an apparent show of good faith to Trump, Slinsky also expressed a new willingness to hold nationwide elections. That's something the White House has long called for. And much of Sunday's meeting was also spent discussing Ukraine's post-war rebuilding efforts. The deal currently on the table would include hundreds of billions of dollars, almost a trillion dollars in US investments there, including new rare earth mineral partnerships. And it is worth noting while Trump at times uh expressed optimism on Sunday, saying a peace deal is in the quote final stages, he was also very open about the fact that it's all taking much longer than he imagined. At one point, he told the press that he initially thought ending the war would be no harder than peace deals he struck with other countries.

And now, instead of promising to end the war imminently, as he's done repeatedly in the past, Trump had this to say when asked if he would give the two sides a deadline.

I don't have deadlines. I said, you know what, my deadline is getting the war end.

Trump later said the war would either end or quote, go on for a long time. So, we might be in the final stages of negotiations, but there's no way of knowing just how long this could all drag out.

All right. Now, this meeting comes just days after President Trump waited into another conflict abroad. This one in Nigeria. What did we see there?

Right. For years now, Islamic State terrorists have been operating with impunity throughout Africa, especially in Nigeria, slaughtering thousands of innocent Christians in the process and drawing out rates from the White House. As those attacks escalated last month, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to launch surveillance flights over the country to identify potential ISIS targets there. And on Christmas Day, he followed through. More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a Navy ship in the region, striking two ISIS camps, killing quote multiple terrorists, according to the Pentagon.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said, quote, I've previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay. And tonight, there was Merry Christmas to all, including the dead terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues. So, a really vintage Trump statement there. Pentagon officials say the strikes were carried out in coordination with the Nigerian government and according to Trump, this is just the start. He says there will quote be more to come.

Well, another overseas situation to keep an eye on for sure. Kevin, thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. New reports of rampant fraud across dozens of Minnesota daycarees have stirred controversy online and even attracted the attention of federal lawmakers and the FBI. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk about the reports of fraud that continue to come out of Minnesota. So Tim, where are these latest revelations coming from?

So this investigation into Minnesota daycarees that's racked up tens of millions of views online was done by independent journalist Nick Shirley. His investigative video is over 40 minutes long. And from the time it was posted on the day after Christmas to Sunday, it had amassed well over 80 million views, not including the views it's gotten from being reaired on places such as Fox News. And the mega verality is well-earned. Shirley claims that he uncovered over 100 million in fraud being run through fraudulent Somalun businesses. To take just one example, Shirley and his co-investigator David found a childcare center that has received millions of taxpayer dollars.

But nobody has seen the children allegedly cared for there. Here's Shirley and David talking to a man who lives near the center.

This year they got 1.9 million. Last year they got 1.5 million of your tax money for 99 children. We just want to know where are the kids,

right? Where are the children? I don't see them. I've been here since 2017. I haven't seen anybody like that.

I haven't seen a child here. Not at And so you've never seen a child here for 8 years?

Nope. Not at all. And how does that make you feel knowing that this place is receiving $1.9 million?

Disgusting. I mean, what the hell? They stealing the money. That's a federal grant, too. That's, you know, if they get caught for that, that's a federal offense. I know. I studied law.

This has all led to more pressure on Governor Tim Walls. Many noted online that in 2023, Walls actually led a push to surge over $300 million in state funding to childcare providers. And it's anyone's guess how much of that actually ended up lost as fraud. Elon Musk with his 230 million exf followers has already called for Walls to resign.

Right. And well, and he's not the only one. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also called for him to step down. And we're also seeing more attention on this from Washington. Correct.

Yeah. This fraud is drawing a lot of eyeballs. Estimates are that something like $9 billion dollar in federal welfare has been lost to fraud, specifically in Minnesota's Somali community. Here's GOP Senator Ron Johnson on Fox News on some of the actions he is taking.

We need to put all kinds of pressure on the state agencies to give us their records. I'm I'm chairman of the permanent subcommittee investigations. This will be a primary focus of ours. We're already reaching out to Nick Shirley and David and other people who can provide testimony for this, but we also need documents. So, you know, these agency heads who fun these the federal money to the state agencies, they have to demand that the state agencies are transparent. And unfortunately, particularly in Democratc controlled states, they're not. I've got subpoena power. I will use that subpoena power to obtain these records because we have have to get the bottom of this.

Understand, Somalians have just been in this country a few years. They're amateurs when it comes to fleecing the federal government. And let's face it, the federal government is probably the easiest consumer, the easiest payer to fleece. and states do it time and time again. So, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The FBI is on this as well. FBI director Cash Patel said on Sunday that the FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota. However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. And the White House is bringing attention to the scandal, too, with posts over the weekend from Vice President J. Vance and labor secretary Lorie Chavez Dreamer. More than that, several federal departments have already taken steps to investigate fraud in Minnesota and potentially cut off taxpayer money from the federal government.

Well, the scale of this is absolutely staggering. Tim, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. While Americans took time to unwind over the last week and unplug from the news cycle as much as possible, the Trump administration remained very active along with its aggressive foreign policy and national security moves abroad. At home, it continued its immigration and anti-terror operations.

Joining us now with the latest on that and more is Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Aran. Morning, Cameron. Hope your Christmas was as blissful as mine.

Thank you. So, we wanted you to help catch us up on a few things. Let's start with reports about the Trump administration and some major cities working to prevent potential terror attacks ahead of New Year's Eve. What's the latest there?

Right. Our listeners will remember that we reported on the FBI thwarting a series of New Year's Eve terror attacks that a radical leftist group was planning to carry out. The group called itself the Turtle Island Liberation Front, and it posed a very serious threat. Members of the group had already begun testing pipe bombs and one of those indicted sent messages to other members saying things like, "I identify as a terrorist and I'm a Hamas fan girl." Now, at the same time, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been ramping up her warning about the threat posed by terror actors, something that's really been heightened since the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia and the attacks on US service members in Syria. Now, here was Gabber during a speech in America Fest on this earlier this month.

There is a threat to our freedom that is not often talked about enough, and it is the greatest near and long-term threat to both our freedom and our security. And that is the threat of Islamist ideology. It is a political ideology that seeks to create a global caliphate that governs us here in America. And if you fail to comply, they will use violence or any means they deem as necessary to silence us. In the wake of all of that, major cities around the world, including here in the US, have alter and even cancelled New Year's Eve celebrations due to security concerns,

right? What cities have we seen make changes because of this? Well, Chicago is one. They've ramped up their security measures. State and local officials released a joint threat assessment last week, warning that crowded celebrations such as the annual New Year's Eve fireworks at Navy Pier could be quote attractive targets for either domestic or foreign terrorists. Now, they plan to go ahead with these events, but it will be increasing security in the area and will be actively monitoring for potential attacks with drones or vehicles to ram crowds, they said. Now, New York has also been put on notice. An FBI threat assessment for the massive Times Square New Year's Eve celebration raised red flags. Now, the assessment noted that the city is symbolically a quote aspirational target for wouldbe terrorists and war specifically about vehicle ramming attacks. Now, officials say the largest concerns are about

potential lonewolf actors as well as small organized groups. So, expect to see even more security this year for that. Right now, related on some levels to this is the administration's continued efforts to crack down on criminal illegal immigrants. That includes those on terror watch lists or suspected violent gang members. What have we seen from the administration on immigration over the last few days?

Sure. So, yes, while most of us were taking it easy, ICE certainly was not. The agency continued to arrest people in the country illegally who are facing additional charges or convictions for other serious crimes. Now, the Daily Wire heard directly from the Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Trisha Mlofflin had this, let's call it a holiday message about what the Department was up to over the last week. She said, quote, "While families across the country joined together for Christmas celebrations, ICE continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of all, getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and protecting our families." She went on to specify that on Christmas Eve and Christmas the officers arrested quote gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and violent thugs.

Now, among those was a Mexican national who crossed the border illegally and was convicted for criminal homicide, thirdderee murder, and criminal conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in Pennsylvania. Another, an individual from Cuba, was convicted for homicide and drug trafficking in Florida. A Somali national was also arrested. He was convicted in New York for a laundry list of crimes including a DUI and possessing a stolen vehicle.

All right. So clearly ICE not taking the holidays off like you said. Now our immigration reporter Jenny Ter has been documenting the assaults on ICE that have really ramped up over the course of the year. There's some new data on that. Correct.

That's right. The center square recently reported that there were 238 assaults on ICE officers from January 21st of last year through November. The previous year there were just 19 in the same period. So that's a stunning 1,153% increase in assaults on ICE. And despite all that, they've kept up their operations even over the holidays. Cameron, thanks so much for reporting.

Thank you. Thanks for waking up with us. And some programming notes for this week. We're not going to be releasing Evening Wires, but we will release another regular episode on Tuesday and original content for the rest of the week. We'll be back tomorrow morning with the news you need to know.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud"?

In order: 0:00 Daily Wire (company); 3:00 Islamic State; 6:00 Nick Shirley, Daily Wire (company), Linda McMahon; 9:00 Cash Patel, Daily Wire (company), Tulsi Gabbard; 12:00 Daily Wire (company).

What is mentioned in this Morning Wire episode?

7 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Daily Wire (company), Nick Shirley, Clarence David, Islamic State, Linda McMahon, Cash Patel. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Zelensky Visits Mar-A-Lago & Minnesota Daycare Fraud"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 2,868 words in 47 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.