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The Indicator from Planet Money

ICE influencers, a world-record trade surplus, and the moon goes nuclear

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.79.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome back to Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating economic numbers from the news. 

On today’s episode: Influencers for ICE, China’s tremendous trade surplus, and America heads back to the moon. 

Related episodes: 

We resolve to watch these 2026 indicators 

China's trade war perspective 

Who owns the moon?


For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Vito Emanuel. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

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Transcript

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0:00.0

NPR. This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Waylon Wong. I'm Darian Woods, and we're joined

0:17.1

today by Planet Money's Sarah Gonzalez. Sarah, it has been too long.

0:21.5

It always feels too long.

0:23.5

Sarah, you truly could not have picked a more beautiful day to come into the indicator orbit

0:29.2

because today is Indicators of the Week.

0:35.6

This is the day of the week when we talk about the most interesting numbers from the news.

0:40.8

On today's episode, we're talking about the Trump administration's ICE recruitment strategy.

0:46.1

China's world record beating trade surplus.

0:49.1

And pack your dipping dots.

0:51.0

We're going back to the moon.

0:52.7

I'll bring some crackers for the cheese.

1:01.8

Indicators of the week, Sarah, you're first.

1:04.6

All right.

1:05.1

So my indicator of the week is $100 million.

1:08.4

That is how much the Trump administration has set aside to spend on a one-year,

1:13.3

so-called wartime recruitment strategy to hire more immigration and customs enforcement workers.

1:19.3

So this is all according to a document that the Washington Post got a hold of.

1:23.2

It says that immigration officials plan to flood the market with millions of dollars worth of social media ads and to pay pro-ice social media influencers and other online creators to normalize and humanize careers at ICE through storytelling and lived experiences.

1:41.1

That's a quote.

1:42.1

Well, they're already making these, right?

1:44.0

I mean, I've seen footage of

1:45.9

videographers trailing after agents, and then they put together these slick videos and post them on

...

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