The Daily Herold: April 8, 2025 – CIA Cover Blown, Dire Wolves Revived & The Tariff War Deepens

Jon Herold returns with a loaded Tuesday edition of The Daily Herold, unpacking everything from tariff tremors to CIA blunders. Special guest Gabrielle Cucci joins early in the episode for an intel-packed conversation about Trump's $1 trillion Pentagon budget and what it might really be funding, including missile defense upgrades, Space Force expansions, and Lockheed’s next-gen fighter jets. They dive into the recent shakeups in military leadership, the quiet chaos inside Cyber Command, and the potential split of the NSA and CyberCom. Gabrielle breaks major news on a forced CIA vaccine program that risked blowing agent cover abroad, leading to the quiet firing of a senior official.

Jon follows with deep analysis on the state of global trade negotiations as 70 countries scramble to adjust to Trump’s shockwave tariff policy, including South Korea’s fast pivot and Israel’s awkward Oval Office moment. Other key stories include the Supreme Court greenlighting Trump’s wartime immigration authority under the Alien Enemies Act, Ripple’s $1.25B acquisition and crypto ascension, and Trump’s 104% tariff punch to China.

The show wraps with a look at weaponized prosecutions, IRS layoffs, revived dire wolves (yes, really), and Jon’s take on how all these stories signal the regime’s unraveling. Buckle up. It’s a wide-ranging episode that proves the Herold always delivers.