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Morning Wire

A 'More Reasonable Regime' & NASA's Next Moonshot | 3.31.26

31 Mar 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What peace deal is President Trump seeking with Iran?

4.418 - 11.088 John Bickley

President Trump says talks are underway with a more reasonable group inside Iran, but warns time is running out.

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11.749 - 17.057 Unknown

But you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.

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17.778 - 24.688 John Bickley

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 31st, and this is Morning Wire.

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31.655 - 39.587 Tim Pearce

As Cuba's energy grid remains on the brink of collapse, a Russian oil tanker heads toward the island. Does this signal the end of the Trump blockade?

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Chapter 2: How is Cuba's energy crisis being addressed with Russian aid?

40.027 - 48.48 Sandy Acosta

This tanker is basically just a bandaid on an aging energy infrastructure that is basically the government's own doing to itself.

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48.5 - 53.848 John Bickley

And for the first time since the Apollo era, NASA is sending astronauts back to the moon.

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53.98 - 64.935 Tim Pearce

The astronauts will be the farthest humans ever from the Earth on any flight. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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68.088 - 82.022 Unknown

Let me tell you about one of the most concerning threats to your free speech, one that our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom are tackling right now. It's called the Digital Services Act. It's an EU censorship law, but it's having real consequences for free speech all over the globe, including in the US.

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Chapter 3: What implications does the Russian oil tanker have for Cuba's future?

82.682 - 98.84 Unknown

The DSA essentially gives European bureaucrats the power to shut down online speech, including Americans' online speech, in the name of fighting hate speech and misinformation. It coerces American tech platforms like X to censor you, or else face crushing fines and penalties. Alliance Defending Freedom is sounding the alarm on the DSA.

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99.241 - 118.15 Unknown

ADF is also supporting a historic lawsuit from X that challenges the DSA in court. Your gift to ADF now helps fight the growing threat of censorship and advance your free speech. For a limited time, your gift will be matched. Visit joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to have your gift to protect free speech doubled.

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118.49 - 126.624 Unknown

That's joinadf.com slash wire or text wire to 83848 to have your gift matched.

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126.644 - 132.233 Tim Pearce

As the White House weighs the potential for boots on the ground, President Trump is offering new threats to Iran.

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Chapter 4: What are the latest developments regarding military action in Iran?

132.365 - 145.429 John Bickley

Wired and live host Cabot Phillips joins us now with the latest on Operation Epic Fury. So Cabot, we just reached day 31 in this mission. President Trump just issued the latest ultimatum. What is he saying now?

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145.595 - 158.594 Cabot Phillips

Well, first, the president and his top advisors are no doubt going to be meeting today to review those plans for Iran as they continue debating whether or not to deploy ground troops. We mentioned yesterday that Trump is weighing using ground forces to open the Strait of Hormuz.

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158.874 - 179.322 Cabot Phillips

And now The Wall Street Journal says he's also considering deploying special forces and other infantry elements to locate and then bring back 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium and deep within Iran. That would obviously be a highly complex and risky move, but some in the White House say it could be the only way to fully ensure the regime never attains a nuclear weapon.

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179.342 - 189.034 Cabot Phillips

As he weighs his options, the president said Monday that his administration is engaged in, quote, serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran.

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Chapter 5: What are President Trump's objectives in the conflict with Iran?

189.014 - 212.322 Cabot Phillips

He also adds that, quote, great progress has been made. However, he did say that if a deal is not reached and the Strait of Hormuz is not opened very soon, quote, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Karg Island and possibly all desalinization plants, which we have purposely not yet touched.

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212.538 - 214.941 John Bickley

So that represents what would be a massive escalation.

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214.961 - 215.642 Cabot Phillips

A huge one.

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215.662 - 221.51 John Bickley

Now, President Trump is claiming that these talks are proceeding successfully. What are we hearing from the Iranians?

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221.77 - 236.511 Cabot Phillips

Well, they continue to maintain that no direct talks have taken place and that they're not interested in a deal. Iran's Speaker of the Parliament went as far as issuing a statement implying President Trump's claims of peace talks were... were little more than a ruse to give markets a boost.

236.531 - 248.408 Cabot Phillips

And to that point, it is true that stocks have typically jumped whenever Trump makes a post about peace talks. But the White House said Monday that despite their public defiance, behind closed doors, the Iranians are much more receptive to a deal. Have a listen.

249.049 - 261.748 Leroy Chow

Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well. What is said publicly is, of course, much different than what's being communicated to us privately.

261.931 - 271.703 Cabot Phillips

And we also heard yesterday from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in a fiery interview responded to critics claiming that President Trump does not have a clear set of objectives for this conflict.

271.723 - 287.922 Marco Rubio

Here they are. You should write them down. Number one, the destruction of their Air Force. Number two, the destruction of their Navy. Number three, the severe diminishing of their missile launching capability. And number four, the destruction of their factory so they can't make more missiles and more drones to threaten us in the future.

Chapter 6: What is NASA's plan for the Artemis II mission?

319.486 - 334.384 Benin Ben Taliblu

I don't think we should be putting the cart before the horse when it comes to trying to ask why an unarmed population is not going to go out into the streets while bombs from friendly countries are falling on their own territory. I think that would be a suicide mission for the Iranian people to do that. Unfortunately, they're not doing that.

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334.404 - 347.264 Benin Ben Taliblu

The question is, do they have the resolve and the wherewithal and the willingness to to actually be able to go out once major military operations have concluded. And much of that does depend on political messaging throughout these operations.

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347.865 - 363.549 Cabot Phillips

And on that topic, according to Axios, President Trump even rebuffed Benjamin Netanyahu on a phone call last week when Netanyahu suggested that the White House urge demonstrators to get out in protest. Trump reportedly said, quote, why the hell should we tell people to take to the streets when they'll just get mowed down?

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364.169 - 372.739 Cabot Phillips

But for his part, publicly at least, President Trump is now saying that a so-called regime change has already taken place just because of how many top officials have been killed.

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Chapter 7: How will Artemis II prepare for future moon landings?

373.239 - 383.35 Cabot Phillips

In his words, quote, the one regime was decimated. They're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead. Now there is a, quote, whole different group of people who have been very reasonable.

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383.583 - 388.817 John Bickley

Well, definitely fog of war happening here. Cabot, thanks for reporting. Absolutely.

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390.704 - 404.542 Georgia Howe

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405.303 - 416.577 Georgia Howe

Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and an incredible 10% of all e-commerce in the US, from household names to brands just getting started, including our very own Daily Wire shop.

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416.557 - 429.572 Georgia Howe

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430.053 - 450.919 Georgia Howe

The platform integrates AI capabilities to help you work smarter, automatically generating compelling product descriptions, crafting engaging headlines, and even optimizing your product images to save you valuable time. It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash morningwire. Head over to shopify.com slash morningwire.

Chapter 8: What are the long-term goals of NASA's Artemis program?

451.159 - 453.242 Georgia Howe

Again, that's shopify.com slash morningwire.

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455.445 - 467.522 John Bickley

Cuba will receive much-needed relief today with the arrival of a Russian oil tanker. After enforcing a strict embargo, the Trump administration is easing restrictions to allow for humanitarian aid to the island.

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467.755 - 488.341 Tim Pearce

Joining us now with the latest is Daily Wire contributor Tim Pearce. Tim, so we've been tracking this crisis in Cuba pretty closely. We're now seeing Russia getting involved here. First, how bad are things now in Cuba? Well, Cuba's power grid has never been robust, but this U.S. blockade has pushed it to the breaking point. Blackouts are constant.

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488.422 - 502.538 Tim Pearce

Critical services on the island are severely restricted. And for those who have generators or vehicles, the price of fuel has soared. Warning Wire spoke to Sandy Acosta. She's the director of government affairs at the Wilson Center about the crisis. Here's what she said.

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502.754 - 527.445 Sandy Acosta

Cuba's energy system basically runs near the edge of total collapse on a daily basis. Two and a half years ago, they had total blackouts. They had a total countrywide blackout a few weeks ago. This tanker is basically just a bandaid on an aging and abandoned infrastructure of energy infrastructure that is basically the government's own doing to itself.

527.864 - 537.958 Tim Pearce

Even with this tanker from Russia, the situation in Cuba still looks bleak. The amount of relief that the extra fuel will bring will be gone in a matter of days. Here's Acosta again.

538.225 - 564.57 Sandy Acosta

From my analysis, it'll basically take them three to seven days to process through their refineries. It's Russian crude, which is a lot easier for them to process than Venezuelan crude. And then they'll distribute it out probably a week or so after that, prioritizing their failing medical system, which doesn't provide much anyway to the poor Cuban people, and prioritizing their own facilities.

564.719 - 585.5 Tim Pearce

So this tanker seems to be a very short-term reprieve, and the island will be right back to where it was in less than a couple of weeks. So crisis certainly not averted at this point. We've seen some reports that this Russian tanker could be more than just a humanitarian mission. There could be political purposes here. Can you break down that speculation for us?

585.88 - 594.709 Tim Pearce

Yeah, there are a lot of theories going around that this could be some sort of test or a move by Russia to maintain influence in Cuba. Here's what Acosta made of it.

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