President Donald Trump pivots from the Middle East to peace in Ukraine, Trump intervenes to protect military paychecks amid the Democrat shutdown, and drug cartels declare “open season” on federal agents. It’s Thursday, October 16, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here: If you would rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below: After Middle East Peace, Trump Turns Toward Russia Topline: After securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Trump has shifted his focus to the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will make his third trip to the White House on Friday since Trump began his second term. The two are expected to discuss supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons, such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, as well as additional air defenses to counter Russian bombardments. Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout!  The United States has reportedly started to share intelligence on Russian energy infrastructure with Ukraine, increasing Ukraine’s ability to strike deep inside Russian territory. Trump pushes Putin: The U.S. president has made clear in recent months that he sees Russian President Vladimir Putin as the main obstacle to peace in the Ukraine war. The president is reportedly considering additional sanctions on Russia to increase pressure on Putin to negotiate. “I’m very disappointed because Vladimir and I had a good relationship,” said Trump on Tuesday. “He just doesn’t want to end that war.” View from Moscow: Moscow has said that even if Tomahawks were provided to Ukraine, that would not “change the dynamic” of the war. A Kremlin spokesman later added that the missiles would be an “extreme concern.” Putin said that he would increase Russia’s air defense, but he did not mention escalation on his end. Trump Shuffles Funds In Dem Shutdown To Pay Military Topline: Two weeks into a Democrat shutdown, and now federal employees are starting to feel the effects. On Wednesday, military personnel were set to miss their first paychecks, but President Trump ordered War Secretary Pete Hegseth to find a way to keep the troops paid. Morning Wire spoke with Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), chairman of the Republican Study Committee. (The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.) Morning Wire: Now we’ve crossed one of the first thresholds for missed pay of this shutdown. There were fears that the military would miss a paycheck this week, but then Trump intervened. How did that go down?  Pfluger: As a veteran and as somebody who served for over 20 years, this is personal to me because I saw it firsthand during previous shutdowns, where you had especially the junior enlisted personnel, those with families and young kids, some of them on food stamps. This puts them in a terrible position, and commanders, instead of focusing on the mission and the threat, readiness and lethality now have to focus on how are their men and women in uniform going to put food on the table? Thankfully, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth came up with a plan to pay the troops and that is happening mid-month. But it doesn’t last forever, so if Democrats keep up their shenanigans and keep up the shameful approach that they’re using and showing why they don’t really like the military, then I’m not sure that they’re going to get a paycheck on the next pay period. Morning Wire: To be clear – they managed to pay everyone this time, but this isn’t something that can continue for weeks.  Pfluger: Yeah, they’re pulling money out of other areas. I mean, the money that they’re using to pay the troops was probably intended to go to operations or readiness or things like that. It was not the bucket that Congress appropriated for military pay, personnel pay, so this isn’t going to last forever. Morning Wire: Is there any way that Congress could ensure going forward that this doesn’t happen again, particularly with the military? Can we put in place emergency measures for how government shutdowns affect military members? Pfluger: I sure hope so. I think there’s an appetite for that. And I’d go a step further. I would include Border Patrol. I would include law enforcement, federal law enforcement, all the agencies that are charged with keeping us safe, national security level agencies. I’d go a step further on that. But let me just say this. Where are my Democrat colleagues on the other side of the aisle who served in uniform? Where are they right now? Why are they not standing up and taking the stand and saying enough is enough? … I’d like to see a country where we come back together and we unite and do the right thing. I thought that was going to happen after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and, obviously, it hasn’t. DHS Says Cartels Threaten Federal Immigration Agents Topline: Federal immigration agents carrying out President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in Chicago are facing mounting threats stemming from drug cartels in Mexico, according to the Department of Homeland Security.  Intelligence on threats is coming into federal immigration agencies daily, an agent on the ground in Chicago told The Daily Wire. Mexican drug cartels are recruiting and operating within the city of Chicago to go after ICE and Border Patrol agents.  DHS says cartels are offering up to $50,000 in bounties for the heads of federal officers. On top of that, they are recruiting leftist, anti-ICE agitators who have already been out in the streets, and they’re asking them to help. According to DHS, cartels are placing armed spotters on top of rooftops in areas where ICE agents are making arrests, and the spotters mark the coordinates of ICE officers and Border Patrol agents and relay their whereabouts. The threats: The latest allegedly involved a Latin Kings gang member. A leader of that gang was nabbed by the federal authorities in Chicago. He is accused of placing a bounty on the head of Operation Midway Blitz, Chief Gregory Bovino. On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents were rammed by an illegal alien driver who also had an illegal alien passenger in his car. That brought an anti-ICE riot mob to one of the quiet neighborhoods in Chicago. The riot forced federal authorities to deploy tear gas. Federal officials were targeted with rocks and other objects.  

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In June, the left launched its “No Kings” protest to denounce the horrific “authoritarian dictatorship” of Donald Trump. Deporting illegal alien gang members, preventing the mutilation of children, and punishing criminals all became proof of Trump’s incipient “fascism.”Now that Trump has deployed National Guard troops to stop violent leftist mobs from attacking ICE officers, Democrats and the left have decided to stage a sequel on Saturday. The whole thing will look like farce — clever signs, bad folk music, and stale slogans — but behind the clown show, the left is radicalizing shock troops preparing to do real violence.The ‘No Kings’ spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage.No myth runs deeper in American life than the idea that peaceful protest drives reform. Boomers grew up believing that singing folk songs, waving witty signs, and smoking pot were powerful tools of change. The media sanctified the calm resolve of civil rights marches and the flower-child theatrics of the anti-war movement as the true engines of progress. As usual, Hollywood left out the ugly parts.Those movements also produced riots, rapes, arson, bombings, and murders. The violence was so widespread that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign ran one of the most famous ads in political history promising to restore law and order. The peaceful demonstrators made for good television, but it was the violence that moved the needle. No one likes to say it aloud, but the violence worked.The first round of “No Kings” protests had respectable turnout but achieved nothing. Leftists filled the streets to mock Trump and chant about freedom, but no policies changed, and no momentum followed. Trump’s approval may have slipped to the mid-40s, but Democrats still wallow in the low-30s. Americans may be weary, but the protests haven’t persuaded them that the Democrats can govern.Violence has been far more effective. The assassination of Charlie Kirk has made conservative campus events nearly impossible. Universities now demand absurd security fees or simply cancel appearances outright, citing “safety concerns.” The threat doesn’t come from the speaker — it comes from the activists university officials refuse to restrain. Several conservative commentators are stepping in to finish Kirk’s tour, but the assassin’s veto has reshaped the landscape.Violence also brought Jimmy Kimmel back to late-night television. After he lied about Kirk’s assassination, sponsors complained, and two major affiliates refused to run his show. Sinclair Broadcasting even planned to air a Kirk tribute in his slot. Then came bomb threats, followed by gunfire targeting an ABC station in California. Sinclair folded, scrapped the tribute, and restored Kimmel to the lineup. Terrorism works. It succeeds where boycotts fail.RELATED: Evil unchecked always spreads — and Democrats are proof Blaze Media IllustrationMob action has disrupted immigration enforcement too. Leftists have assaulted ICE officers, blocked arrests, surrounded vehicles, and tried to plant explosives. One would-be assassin aimed for agents but only killed detainees. Trump’s Justice Department has begun cracking down, but the left keeps escalating. They’ve learned that violence yields results.It’s hard to take Democrats seriously when they wail about “authoritarianism.” They jailed Trump officials, abortion protesters, meme-makers, and even the president himself. They don’t fear power — they crave it. What they hate is losing it.Organizers claim that more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests are set for the weekend. The biggest ones will draw crowds, mostly aging Boomers reliving their youth. They’ll march, sing, and pretend to matter. But the real movement isn’t in the drum circles. It’s with people like Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general candidate who still enjoys Democratic support despite texting fantasies about murdering the children of conservatives. That’s the true face of the modern left. They’re not waving signs — they’re plotting.The “No Kings” spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage. Behind it stands an organized, violent movement convinced that terror is legitimate politics. These people don’t want debate. They want obedience — and they’re willing to bleed us for it.

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