In this revealing episode of Sekulow, we dive into the mind-boggling connections between the failed Trump assassination attempt and its unexpected ties to Ukraine. As more evidence emerges, our hosts discuss the implications of Rule 404B in the context of court proceedings. Stay tuned as we break down what this means for the case and how international ties may have played a role in this audacious plot.
SPEAKER 08 :
failed Trump assassin Ryan Routh’s ties to Ukraine exposed.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekula.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to Sekula. We do have some breaking news coming out. It’s very interesting news. A lot of details happening right now. So I want you to join us right now. 1-800-684-3110. If you want to be on the air today, you can call in again at 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got a packed show. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us as well as Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem. But the breaking news item happening right now is more information has come out about that Trump assassination attempt and the Trump potential assassin. This was the one that happened on the golf course in Florida, I believe, right? I’m in Florida.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
Where he was caught just a few weeks after the first attempt, and he was caught, and now the information is coming out of some of the other things he was doing, working on, clearly. Yeah. with real motive to try to take out President Trump. Again, this is not a replay. We are here in the month of April of 2025, but this is the kind of information that is coming out now, Will, and some of it is pretty wild.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So this comes out of a government filing that they have to file within the court proceedings against Ryan Routh. And this is the government’s motion to admit potential Rule 404B evidence. Now, 404B evidence is typically evidence that wouldn’t be admitted in a case because it pertains to potentially other crimes of the individual. They couldn’t just admit it for the purpose of trying to say what type of character the person is, etc., But they can admit this evidence if it pertains to motive and things of that nature. So they’re trying to say this information, while it may point to other crimes this individual may have committed, is pertinent because it goes to the motive and other ways that this individual planned on trying to carry out an assassination attempt against the candidate for president at the time, but now president of the United States. And one of the most interesting facts, as we’ve seen from Ryan Ruth’s history, was we knew that he had been to Ukraine. We knew that there was some sketchy details there. But one of the things that they’re trying to admit is the August 2024 attempted purchase of anti-aircraft weapons. And this goes to show that there was communication between the defendant, the failed assassin, who had been discussing with someone in Ukraine, an associate of his, that it was believed to be a Ukrainian with access to military weapons. They had discussed the prior attempt from Butler, Pennsylvania, and were disheartened by the fact that that person did not actually fulfill wishes, which were to kill the president. But then they go on to talk about that and say that Ralph Ruth told his associate, send me an RPG rocket propelled grenade or stinger missile. And I will see what we can do. Trump is not good for Ukraine, which led the two to discuss Ruth’s purchase options with Ruth, Ruth asking about the price and whether his associate could ship it to him. before explaining his intent, I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected. He also goes on to talk about seeing Trump’s plane and knowing where he gets on and off of it daily. So this was a, he had multiple different plans. There’s other information we get into, but the most shocking is that he was communicating with someone in Ukraine saying Trump is not good for Ukraine and that we need this equipment so he cannot get elected.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right, so this information is coming out, and make sure you share this. Again, I know a lot of people are even asking, there’s people, because you see the comments, you may not remember the name of Ryan, either Ralph or Ruth. You may not remember that name. That, again, was the shooter that had the attempted assassination on President Trump the second time, the one who was captured and was unsuccessful at shooting. That was, again, that was Ryan Ruth. This information now is breaking. We are going to keep this discussion going. We’ll also have a big update in our case in Massachusetts. for our fight to protect pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Of course, you heard about all the campaigns we’ve been rolling for that, and now there has been some progress in the courts. We’ll give you all that information coming up. Jeff Balaban’s joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem, and Rick Grinnell will be joining us a bit later on the broadcast. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Scan the QR code. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110 if you’re just joining us and you’re watching. If you’re watching on YouTube, by the way, hit the thumbs up, get a comment, and that really helps spread the word and the message because this is some really interesting information that’s not necessarily going to be number one mainstream news story, and that’s what we like to provide you here. Sometimes when these information comes out, you’re not going to hear about it anywhere else, and I didn’t hear about this until Will brought it up to me this morning. Again, that is that the attempted Trump assassin from last year, remember the second one who was detained and arrested? Information has come out, his phone messages have come out, his signal messages, and they say specifically that he was dealing with essentially arms dealers, it looks like, in Ukraine. No exact details of who he’s talking about because he said President Trump existing and winning Ukraine. could be very bad for Ukraine. Now, we know he was over in Ukraine multiple times, or at least spent quite a bit of time there. So that’s not necessarily that shocking, but he was willing to go to messaging apps and really be very blunt and very honest. They even talked about how they were upset that the first assassination attempt was not successful. So, I mean, the motive is there. It’s pretty strong. Whether they can add this to his case, I’m sure they’ll figure out some way. And even just getting it out in the media, we all know now.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and here’s what’s interesting as well, is one that it’s not just the RPG attempted purchase from a Ukrainian, but also that he was attempting to buy a .50 caliber sniper rifle and other arms. He was trying to find ways to make this more likely to succeed. And he was a convicted felon. He had a WMD weapon of mass destruction charges for driving around with explosives in his cars from the early 2020s. This was a convicted felon that was not able to own a firearm. So he was having to go through back channels and try to find ways to get these. It actually, he had the ammunition for the 50 caliber, but it turns out that he didn’t have one that became available to him until after he was arrested. According to this evidence, uh, But also, we know that this man was on the FBI’s radar to some extent because of those previous WMD charges. He was a convicted felon. And even that he was driving around with an Uzi submachine gun.
SPEAKER 08 :
But roaming around, this is where the justice system feels a little wonky when these guys are just… willy-nilly able to walk around our country when you know this is what they’re up to.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. And so the fact that he was on the FBI’s radar as far as that charge and having an Uzi submachine gun that sources had told the FBI about back in the early 2000s, as well as him having an AK-47 as late as 2022. This is someone that as a convicted felon that is able to purchase these should have been on the radar earlier. So there’s one. It shows that Kash Patel, I feel like, and those at the FBI, Dan Bongino, need to be looking into this as well as was this person even on the FBI’s radar sooner than when he was arrested in Florida? And if he wasn’t, why not? And if he was, why was nothing done about it with the people that were in charge of the FBI at the time? But then you also go back to this and it opens up so many more questions because the the aura around Ryan Ruth was that he had this tie to Ukraine. clearly uh the people that were very pro-ukraine were concerned about president trump but he was going so far as even using contacts within ukraine to try and procure an rpg or a stinger to go after president trump’s aircraft that is not your typical run-of-the-mill lone wolf at this point this is someone that’s trying to that’s not just a person uh you know who’s crazy Right. They are crazy.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know what I mean? This isn’t just like a one-off thing. This is someone who is having all these plans and conversations and had access to have these conversations. I think most people would not know where to begin to try to obtain a weapon from a foreign country.
SPEAKER 03 :
But he clearly had that background. And I think it also means that that lead needs to be investigated as well. Obviously, the Justice Department is trying to include this evidence in this case against him. But I think that that trail needs to be followed as well. Who in Ukraine was he talking to? Who were they connected to? If this person that he was talking to had access to Stinger missiles and RPGs that he could find a way to try and get back, at least Ruth believed he did, back to the United States, were those weapons that we funded, that we gave Ukrainians? And all of that Is there a larger conspiracy there within a network that he was communicating with to try and put a stop to President Trump’s victory in November? They clearly were communicating that Trump would be bad for Ukraine. We have to make sure he doesn’t get elected. This seems to go beyond just a lone wolf, crazy individual that was clearly… able to stock out a place on the golf course, was able to find a way and felt like he reached a time he had to try to make this happen or it wasn’t going to happen. But he wasn’t just all of a sudden woke up and thought, I’m going to go to a golf course and try to shoot the candidate, the leading candidate for president and then eventually elected president.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Absolutely. I want to take your calls on this 1-800-684-3110. But I wanted to pivot a little bit because as we’ve been sitting here, we’ve been getting some breaking news items that are ACLJ related, including a big update in the Massachusetts campaign. You may have been hurt. Remember hearing us talk about this for months and months, which is the ad campaign being run against pro-life pregnancy resource centers, state sponsored. Buy the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, your taxpayer dollars, if you live there, going to fund these ad campaigns that say, you know, avoid anti-abortion centers. And they are spreading all of this really horrible rhetoric about really the kind and sweet people at the pro-life pregnancy resource centers that often are volunteers, often provide food, provide clothing. We heard from one caller who once called in and said they provided all the funds and threw the first birthday party for the baby. These are what these pro-life pregnancy resource centers are doing there. So we respond in two different ways. Our counter campaign, Choice Begins Here, which has been very successful. You helped support it financially. We were able to take those ads. They’re all over. Maybe we can pull up some of those a little bit later so you can see them. In some of the top areas in Boston, you’ll see these Choice Begins Here ads running, which is really beautiful. It’s happening right now. But the legal side also is happening. And there’s a big update in that. After months and months of waiting, There’s finally been some movement on this case and we’re going to need your support. Really, we’re going to really need your support here to win because look, it’s in Massachusetts. We are not going necessarily into a friendly place for life. And in this breaking development, the judge just scheduled a major hearing and originally was scheduled for just a few weeks. It may be bumped as late as, I don’t know, maybe a month from now. We’re not talking about very long to prep after months and months of waiting for We are now probably less than a month away from this happening. And what it is, is the court is really wanting to think about the abortion industry’s claim. What is their claim? They want this case thrown out. They don’t think we have the right to be doing what we’re doing. It’s moving fast, and our legal team has to be all hands on deck. We need your support, Will, because this is a big moment. We need to make sure that we can capitalize on it, that our team is well-staffed, ready to go, because sometimes things go slow, so it’s the old hurry up and wait. And that’s what’s happening right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So we had this two-tier track of trying to combat this with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One was our campaign, which is not funded by the government, unlike theirs. It’s funded by you to show options and to highlight the good care and resources that PRCs give. But we also filed in court against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for running this campaign. that we think directly discriminated against PRCs, Pregnancy Resource Centers. The defendants in that case, the Commonwealth as well as the organizations, the abortion provider organizations, filed a motion to dismiss back in November. That motion to dismiss is them trying to get this entire case thrown out of court. The judge in this case sat on that motion to dismiss until just yesterday. Five months. When he announced or he or she, the judge announced that there will be in two weeks a hearing on the motion to dismiss. The defendants actually wanted more time to get ready for that, have asked for that. And it looks like it may be a couple weeks later to give them a little bit more time to prepare for their argument with the motion to dismiss, which gives our attorneys a little bit more time because two weeks is a rush when you got a hearing.
SPEAKER 08 :
You may wonder why. Why is it now? Well, I don’t have a definitive reason for why it’s now, but is it convenient that our ad campaign started running all throughout these hot areas in the Boston, Massachusetts area? Where all of a sudden our billboards are showing up, our digital ads are showing up. The heat is on. They see what we’re doing. And now they’re going to try to squash it. They’re going to try to end it. And we got to be there. And the ACLJ team is going to be there. But we’re only there because of you. Whether that is the campaign, which only happened because you funded it. And look, there’s still, I think, another month left in that campaign running. And hopefully it can go even longer if necessary. And if you deem it to be of importance with your financial support. But the legal side is just heating up right now. gonna ask you as we head to the break we are still in our life and liberty drive for the rest of this month and i want you to make a donation we know our team is ready to go we’ve got a great team locally got a great team on the ground also that will have to be in massachusetts so go to aclj.org life and liberty or scan the qr code on your screen right now let’s beat the abortion industry together into these smear campaigns for some really sweet people Just go to ACLJ.org. Have your gifts doubled. That means every time you make a donation this month, another ACLJ member is ready to unlock. And look, I met a champion in person last night. It was amazing to talk to people who support the work of the ACLJ face-to-face. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I want to move our attention to the Middle East and we are joined by Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, over the last few days, there have been a lot of conversations brewing about the talks going on with Iran right now, direct talks to hopefully you know, in some of their nuclear ambitions, if you will. Now, this has obviously brought a lot of controversy. You’re dealing with face to face with Iran, who has been no friend to Israel, no friend to the United States. But sometimes you got to sit down and meet with people to actually get things done. But here we are. So I’m curious what your thoughts are on that. And then we also want to talk about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the White House over the last couple of days as well. But let’s start with Iran. Let’s know what you think.
SPEAKER 02 :
Look, it’s greatly concerning. There’s obviously a lot of voices on all sides in the United States that are trying to avoid a war. And we all want that. But there’s a reality. Iran, you know, there are many videos of burning American flags in the parliament calling death to America. They are threshold nuclear and they have been working on intercontinental ballistic missiles. Now, they do not need ICBMs to reach Israel. They need ICBMs to reach Chicago. So the truth is that they are and have been making direct threats, nuclear threats, to eliminate the United States of America. This is America’s concern. And there’s some concern that there are voices in America, not just on the left, who have been pushing back and saying this is Israel’s fight, not America’s. That’s wrong. And so it is very important that Israel and America are engaging directly, but that Americans understand the threat that Iran poses to us here at the homeland.
SPEAKER 03 :
Jeff, yesterday, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was in the White House. He was in Washington speaking with the president. And one was about many topics. But I thought showing the president announcing that there was going to be talks with Iran with Prime Minister Netanyahu there, I think, showed something very important, that this wasn’t America necessarily doing this on our own, but that there was consultation with the needs of both our ally and us as well. But we even talked about how Israel was the media in Israel and the ways that things are being reported in Israel, because it’s in Hebrew. We don’t always get the best translations here when we read things. But I wanted to get from you. So our audience knows that, you know, we watch both sides of this. We see how this comes together and what kind of the takeaway from that meeting with President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu was playing out in Israel.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure. It’s very important. In Israel, there’s always tremendous concern about the relationship between the prime minister and the president. The prime minister of Israel and the president of the United States. It’s actually a political factor in Israeli elections. And so it’s very important that the prime minister have a good relationship. And so when we had Biden in office, even though he was really not very friendly to Israel, and harmed them a lot in this war, Israel kept on having to talk about Biden as being a friend. Well, now we have Donald Trump, who’s much more favorable. But still, Donald Trump is not the prime minister of Israel. He’s the president of the United States. And there are, as we just said, many voices here who don’t support Israel. But Donald Trump does. So the way this is being reported in Israel is Bibi took to the air and I’m sorry, Prime Minister Netanyahu, commonly known as Bibi, took to the air here and he said that there are basically five major topics of conversation with the president. He said one topic was that Iran must not have nuclear weapons and that both America and Israel agree that that must not happen. And so while there is clearly concern about what the negotiations might mean, the idea that the military option remains on the table if there’s not an absolute destruction of their entire nuclear infrastructure is is something that Bibi was stressing on Israeli television. The second is the hostages in Gaza. It’s very important, again, there are people, including money from America, to claim that Netanyahu doesn’t care about the hostages, which is an absurdity. The fact that the president went out of his way to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu is working day and night to free the hostages and he sees it, that’s something that Netanyahu also focused on in Israel to say, look, I do care about this. I’ve been working nonstop to try and return the hostages. And Donald Trump has been a tremendous friend in helping us get back hostages. And hostages in Israel, so Americans will understand, does not just mean the live hostages. Dead bodies also. They talk about the live bodies and dead bodies. They want them all back. Number three, Turkey. Turkey is—now that Syria has essentially collapsed, Turkey, which is no friend to Israel under the current leader Erdogan, is trying to establish a military base there. That’s very dangerous for Israel. And because Erdogan and Bibi both have good relationships with President Trump, that’s become an issue of discussion where they’re hoping that the United States can help mediate a resolution where Turkey gets what it wants on some level, but Israel is protected from having a Turkish military base that threatens Israel and Syria. And then, of course, what to do with the Gazans population and the possibility of mass population transfer is something which is the topic being discussed both in America and in Israel and other countries. Now, there’s been some reporting that that’s unclear. I know for a fact that there are other countries that have been discussing this about taking in some of the Gazans, which is absolutely necessary. And finally, tariffs. That was the most important issue, the biggest issue. Bibi was the first world leader to come and talk about tariffs, and they resulted in some in some agreements here at least uh that was and even the visuals of him coming and being accepted and embraced the way he was by the president in a positive way all of that is being played out in israel in a very positive way well and i think that’s very well report i
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think into that point as well, that Bibi Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who came to America and not only said, you know, we’re dropping our tariffs, but wanted to get that trade deficit more in line and even was saying because of all America has done for us, that realization that is was kind of the point of a lot of the tariff tariffs. threats to many of the countries that some people are like these are allies why are we doing this but showing that like let’s let’s get things back to a net zero if we can because of how much america does for these other countries especially with defense in many of the european countries and so i think israel can actually be a real leader on this in showing like okay we get it and let’s let’s try to work on this and that that can stabilize things
SPEAKER 02 :
That is obviously the trade, the tariff issue now is a major issue in domestic politics here in America. It’s affecting our markets. It’s affecting all kinds of people who have been Trump supporters who are now questioning it. Others are stronger on this. Bottom line is here’s a world leader and saying, no, we see that President Trump and the United States have been tremendous allies to us. it will be no problem for us to reduce our trade deficit to zero as the president was requested. And that was a message that Netanyahu also broadcast on Israeli television. So that is very important. I think it is a good win for Trump in that regard as well. And it’s the right way to handle it. Just compare this, if you will, with the disaster with Zelensky, right, a while back, who did not know how to deal with the president. And it’s very opposite. Israel is extremely grateful for the support that it gets from America.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you, Jeff, for joining us today. We really appreciate your point of view. Obviously, supporting the ACLJ also supports ACLJ Jerusalem, which is important for us to have a voice there. And Jeff is there often. And we have an office there to make sure that your voice is being heard all over the world, but specifically in Israel. As we know, as he said, sometimes the translation doesn’t come through right. You got to make sure our translation gets there. Right, as well. Because you want to make sure that the American media doesn’t spin exactly what the American people actually believe. Look, we’ve got a second half hour coming up on the broadcast. If you lose us on your local radio station, we’re broadcasting live right now for another half hour on ACLJ.org, on Facebook, on YouTube, on Rumble. We’re there. You can find us there live. That’s noon to 1 p.m. everyday Eastern time. You can work your way back from there. But I’m going to encourage you in the next 45 seconds before we lose some of you Think about supporting the work of the ACLJ. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Scan the QR code if you’re watching on screen. We only got about a minute break coming up, and then Rick Grinnell’s gonna be joining us in just a few minutes. We’re gonna talk about the tariff fight going on with China. As we know, it has gone up and up. And what does it mean? Is this just more negotiation from President Trump? And no one knows better. than rick grinnell so he’ll be joining us coming up in the second half hour of the broadcast but right now again i want to encourage you you heard about what we’re doing in massachusetts it is time okay it is time to get involved this could be our last shot for this case and we need your help go to aclj.org and have your gifts doubled today again aclj.org we’ll be right back give us a call if you’d like as well
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We’ve got a second half hour of the broadcast coming up. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us. And of course, we’re going to be talking about not only the work of the ACLJ, as we do have a big update as the case in Massachusetts against the pro-life pregnancy resource centers that we are involved in right now could escalate. be headed to court in just a few weeks and the abortion industry is trying to get it thrown out so we need your support to make sure our team is on the ground ready to go because it went from zero to 100 it went from hey it’s kind of on hold as it always is in courts takes time to then the judge saying hey we’re going to get this done in a couple weeks it’s what we need right now so i’m going to encourage you To support the work of the ACLJ, why you can’t aclj.org. I also wanted to talk about the major breaking news. And though it’s not something that’s going to show up on all of your television networks, it is something that you should think about and know about. And that is that people like Ryan Routh, the attempted Trump assassin, sometimes these are more than they look. You know, at first they were like, oh, maybe he’s just a crazy guy. We arrested him. And then we find out, oh, he’s been in all of these protests. Oh, he’s been living in Ukraine. Oh, now he’s got text messages that are released about two people in Ukraine to try to acquire a rocket launcher, essentially, to take out President Trump’s plane.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And once again, remember, we still don’t know a ton about the failed assassin from Butler, Pennsylvania. That, I think, should be concerning. There is a lot more we need to know about that. Just like this case, the American people deserve some answers about motive, planning, things of that nature, how these individuals were able to get so close to carrying out their mission. Not once, but twice this almost happened. in the United States of America during a presidential election. And what is so concerning here is from this evidence filing from the Department of Justice against this individual in Florida, we find out that he was specifically talking with an individual in Ukraine about obtaining an RPG or a Stinger missile to take down an aircraft. That would be the point of having this. And he even mentioned that he sent his associate an image of President Trump’s plane. and wrote, Trump’s plane, he gets on and off it daily. He was scoping out the airport, knew where to do this, and was asking for an RPG or a stinger so he could, quote, I will see what we can do. Trump is not good for Ukraine. I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected. The motivation behind this is, was to try and have someone that would be better for Ukraine in the White House. And that’s throwing aside everything that President Trump is doing right now to try and stop the war between Russia and Ukraine. But this was a deranged individual, but not just deranged, had access to people and potentially access to much more weaponry than I think would ever go into the average American’s mind that a potential assassin would be able to obtain.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, absolutely. Again, I want to hear from you and your thoughts on this. And we’re going to be joining Rick Grinnell in the next segment. He’s going to talk to us about the global tariff situation that’s happening and how that is really escalating in China and what that means for the future. I know there are many of my friends who get things manufactured in China, and some of them are temporarily at least closing up shop. because the tariffs are coming in at over 100% on their goods. We’re going to talk about what that means and if this is just another Trump negotiation tactic and how long that could last. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Not many of you called today, and I really would love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. We always try to take as many calls as we can in the final segment of the broadcast, which is only a few minutes away. So stay tuned for that. Again, it’s Wednesday, April 9th. We are halfway through almost the month. But gosh, we’re close. We’re close to 10 days in already, nine days in of this month. Can you believe it, folks? That means we are headed towards the halfway mark of our life at Liberty Drive for the month of April. So I’m gonna encourage you. Scan the QR code. Go to aclj.org. Make that donation today. We need your help to fight back, specifically what’s going on in Massachusetts. I’d love to hear some response today because that is a big news ACLJ item. Get involved. Go to ACLJ.org. Incredible group of ACLJ champions are ready to unlock a donation with whatever donation you can make. And if you want to become a champion, your first donation will be doubled. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are now joined by our friend Rick Grinnell, who is always on our broadcast every week because of people like you who support the work of the ACLJ. And Rick, typically, you know, we got a headshot of you. We get to see what you’re looking at right now. We got to go to this camera because I said, what is happening here? Here is Rick Grinnell live. I guess. Is this your office at the Kennedy Center?
SPEAKER 01 :
It is. It is. It is the office. You’ll notice that it’s pretty empty because of the shelves. No, no. We’re trying to do the work without decorating the office at this point. So I got a lot of work to do on doing that, but we’re too busy trying to fix this place. I believe in the Kennedy Center, President Trump believes in the Kennedy Center, but the financial situation and the programming have been really broken. So we’re trying to fix it. I’m hopeful, and I got one announcement that I can make on that. June 11th, the opening of Les Mis, and President Trump and Melania Trump will be here for the opening on June 11th. It will be a big night. That’s amazing. One of Will’s favorites is Les Mis.
SPEAKER 08 :
Love Les Mis. Yeah, exactly. We talk about it all the time. Maybe too much, really. Right. Arguably too much. Arguably too much. Rick, we wanted to discuss, though, what’s going on because people are concerned and they’re seeing what’s happening. Really, they’re seeing the mainstream media reports of what’s happening with the tariffs, specifically in China. We saw that now that the tariffs have hit over 100% as they’ve gone back and forth, back and forth. Is this just clever negotiation or where are we at? How should the American people be feeling right now?
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I think President Trump is doing the right thing by tackling this issue, right? What we’ve seen over the last, really, five, 10 years is other countries tariffing, putting huge tariffs on America. And it hasn’t been fair. We’ve complained about it. Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, have called it out and said it’s not right. Let me give you an example. There’s a 10% tariff that the Europeans put on cars in America. We have a tariff on European cars of 2.5%. So they do 10%. We do 2.5%. This has gone on for years. We’ve complained about it. And it’s always the same thing of, you know, we’re going to try to fix that. We’re going to do something. President Trump was just saying, look, we’re… we’ve gotta fight for the American people. We have too many young people in America that can’t afford homes. And I think that there’s, somebody called it the barbell effect, where the very wealthy are doing really well, and a lot of the programs are for the poor, but the middle class, the people in the middle, who haven’t really benefited from Wall Street or government programs, are the ones who are suffering. And so we’ve got to be able to fix these problems. And Donald Trump is focused on that. It’s, you know, Wall Street is doing just fine. Main Street, middle America is what we have to try to fix. And the way to do that is to tariff so that it’s more fair, get back some of that tariff money for a little while, and at the same time, figure out are there ways to go and fix it immediately so that you can get tariffs down to zero in some cases. But what President Trump is gonna do is take each country and look at it individually to say, what have they done to us in the past? How bad is this difference? And how do we fix it over time? And what I love about the president is that he’s willing to roll up his sleeves, dig in, look at the details of every country and make a different type of decision accordingly, not have one size fits all for the whole world. I love that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rick, we just had a comment on YouTube that says, wow, Rick is actually at an office and in real time saying five things he has accomplished in the past week. So I don’t think you’re going to get dozed anytime soon because you’re actually there doing the work. But when it comes to these tariffs, and we know that politics in Washington, D.C. is all a game, but what has surprised me the most is how readily available clips from not that long ago from Chuck Schumer, from Nancy Pelosi, from Bernie Sanders, from literally any leading Democrat that were calling for high punitive tariffs against people like China, People like any adversary in global trade war. And yet all of a sudden now they have become the most free trade libertarian I think I’ve ever seen when it comes to how to operate this just because of who the messenger is. Does that surprise you that they can’t find common ground here and at least try to say, Look, we did call for this. Let’s try to work together and maybe not cause everyone to freak out and see how we can, as the United States, operate efficiently.
SPEAKER 01 :
Look, I think you hit it on the head. It’s the typical Washington DC messaging, but they can’t run from their exact words. And what I would like to emphasize is the fact that Republicans and Democrats totally agree that the tariff situation is out of control against us. You even see the words of Barack Obama, that they’ve got to fix this. And Donald Trump is the one that’s fixing it. And so we’re doing what the Democrats over the years have asked, which is to fix this injustice that we have, you know, the pay your fair share type of language. But the injustices that we’ve seen, currency manipulation, all sorts of games that other countries play, including when they give subsidies to their airlines or subsidies to the companies that they own. That’s not a level playing field and that’s against the WTO, the World Trade Organization rules, but they’ve never been held to account. And what I love about President Trump is he’s unafraid to fight for the American people and say, this doesn’t work for us and we’re not gonna go along with it anymore.
SPEAKER 08 :
What it also does, Rick, is it actually exposes what’s going on because most people are not thinking and have not been thinking about how the tariff situation has been previously handled. That has not been a number one news story. That has not been something that’s even been on the minds of the American people. Of course, now it is. Look, it may send them into a little bit of panic here and there, but at least we’re educating people now. It’s even what you’re doing at the Kennedy Center, educating people on really how their money is being spent, where money is going and how it’s not coming in. This is actually kind of a good opportunity for people to dig in and to really understand how the government works.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, for sure. Look, the Kennedy Center, let me give you an example. We have zero dollars in the bank. We have zero in reserves. And for the last six, seven, eight months, the previous leadership decided that we had to pay for staff through debt reserves. And yet there’s around 40 plus million that go to the building of the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center is a monument to John F. Kennedy. And so Congress and federal dollars give money to the building. But we have a responsibility as the premier arts institution here to be able to have a programing that doesn’t lose money. that doesn’t alienate people. I don’t want Republicans coming here and being booed. I don’t want Democrats feeling like they are not welcome. This is a place, the arts is a place, is a institution here at the Kennedy Center that should be welcoming of everyone. It’s not just people on the left that get to come to the Kennedy Center. It’s not people just on the right. But we have to have a place where music, dance, theater brings everyone together. And we all sit in a theater and enjoy the arts without booing or trying to cancel someone.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and Rick, I think that is the Kennedy Center sounds like the microcosm of the federal government in and of itself. Zero dollars in the bank, zero reserves and just having to go to debt to try to fund itself. That in and of itself is the problem, not just with the Kennedy Center, but with the federal government writ large right now that President Trump is trying to fix.
SPEAKER 01 :
For sure, and I think accountability and transparency are the two key words for me. We want to be accountable to the people that are paying their taxes and giving money to public institutions like the Kennedy Center and tax dollars that are running federal programs. And we want to be very transparent about where that money is spent, how it’s spent. What Doge is doing is amazing because they’re uncovering, I think, waste, fraud, and abuse that these programs never should have been implemented. We shouldn’t be spending money on a whole bunch of these programs. And when you waste the American taxpayer money, that just means that other legitimate programs can’t be paid for. And so we’ve got to fix it so that it’s better for everyone.
SPEAKER 08 :
Thank you so much for joining us, Rick. Educating everyone as usual. Enjoy your new digs there. Hopefully we’ll get some stuff on the shelves. Maybe I’ll send you some things. Be like, hey, we got to get into decorating here. But Rick, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, if you want to be on the air, this is a great time to do it. We got a few lines open at 1-800-684-3110. And if you’re holding right now, I’m going to get to you. But right now we are. Almost in the middle now of our April Life and Liberty Drive. You need to support the work of the ACLJ. We’re going to tell you why a lot more coming up in the next segment. You’re going to see some of that campaign that we’ve been running in Massachusetts. And I want to give you that time to support the work while you can. And again, we may be coming to an end without your support of this Massachusetts campaign as the abortion industry is pushing and pushing and pushing to have our case thrown out, dismissed. we’re going to keep fighting for you and of course we have that media campaign because we know sometimes the courts get it wrong but you know what a lot of these companies these advertising companies they’ve got billboard space they’re going to take your money and we’re able to educate the hearts and minds of people and that’s what we need to be able to do as well all of that comes into the aclj and all of it supports all that all of our projects here whether that’s this broadcast whether that’s our legal work whether it’s aclj jerusalem or the european center All of it comes through. All donations go to everything. And of course, right now, all donations are doubled through the end of the month at the Life and Liberty Drive. You can scan the QR code. We’ll be right back. Last segment of the show coming up. Welcome back to Secular. We’re going to take some phone calls right off the top and then I’m going to tell you more about how you can support our work because we are really in the trenches right now in Massachusetts. Let’s go ahead though and kick it off with Martha, who is an ACLJ champion, which means you get bumped to the front of the line. That’s something that gives on a monthly basis. I met an ACLJ champion in person last night. I was at the We Love Christian Music Awards and we were hanging out and all of a sudden a man approached me and said, Logan, and I turned around and he goes, I’m a champion. And I have to say, it’s an amazing thing to do that, meet these people in person. He’s such a sweet guy. He talked about very specific instances where he called in and even upped his donation, upped his support. Because of what we do here, he was able to turn to one of our video crew guys who was there and say, oh, I love all the content you guys put up on YouTube and shorts. It’s really cool to see. Let’s go to Martha, though, who’s calling in Florida. Again, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. Thank you for taking my call. I was regarding the tariffs. Israel came forward and said they were going to go to zero percent on their tariffs. And the president had said this was reciprocal. So I want to know why is he not reciprocating?
SPEAKER 03 :
So one, Martha, I mean, it’s a very good question. And I think a lot of it also was mentioned in that meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump. But that in many of these cases, too, it’s not just the percentage of tariff, but they may have things in place that are non-monetary barriers to trade, things that stop American products from getting in there. And so that also increases the trade deficit of how much we import as products. as far as how much they import of our goods. And I think what Prime Minister Netanyahu was saying is that they want to eliminate that trade deficit and the tariffs very quickly. So his saying, we want to get to zero, wasn’t necessarily, we’ve already gotten to zero. So I think that these are negotiations and they are saying, look, we’re coming to the table. We’re going to play ball here. We want to get to that. That’s why it wasn’t necessarily immediately, all right, you’re good. Check you off the list. We move on. That’s put in place as kind of a hedge and a check to make sure that that then these negotiations are followed through. So I think that because of Israel’s leadership, though, you’ll see other countries maybe follow that model and probably be able to get down to zero tariffs pretty quickly when it comes to some of those countries.
SPEAKER 08 :
Negotiations have to happen. And of course, you have to then actually get to implementation. This is the government. Nothing moves fast. Thank you so much, Martha, for calling. Thank you again for your support as a champion. Let’s go to Ronald, who’s calling in South Carolina, who is watching on Rumble. Ronald, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you for taking my call. Maybe this is something for your guys in research to kind of follow up on, and that is this. I thought and I heard some time back that America produces roughly about a trillion dollars worth of products, and it’s just that it is very hard for it to sell over in Europe and in Asia because of the tariffs that actually raises the price more and makes it almost out of reach for the consumers over there.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. Importing American goods into the exporting them for us, but them importing them for other countries often is price prohibitive due to those tariffs because they were trying to keep manufacturing and all that within their own countries.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And Ronald, to that point as well. So tariffs that they place on reduce the demand in their own country for the American goods because it raises the price domestically for them. And therefore, their citizens are less likely to want that because the price is raised, so demand goes down. It’s a simple economic equation. But when you talk about the EU, we’ve heard about the absurdity of toaster regulations. And one of the reasons why England left the EU in Brexit was because of the regulations they were wanting to put on their tea kettles. And so when you look at things that are non-tariff barriers as well, they have so many regulations on products that also lower demand of American products that are barriers to us being able to export and trade with these countries. Those are also being targeted. So when President Trump talks about reciprocal. It’s not just the tariffs, it’s the trade. And that’s where he’s wanting to see countries buy more American stuff. At the end of the day, you could drop your tariffs to zero, but if you still have non-monetary barriers to your market, that cause American goods demand to be lower or not able to be sold there. He wants those wiped out as well so that the trade deficit, what we buy from you versus what you buy from us, gets closer to even. So it’s a very good point, Ronald, that we have a lot that other countries won’t buy because of either tariffs or other barriers to their market. And he’s trying to get rid of those.
SPEAKER 08 :
There’s a lot of specific regulations. We talked about even how the movie industry works in some of these countries where they want to make sure they’re still producing things in-house so they only will take a certain percentage of American-made content. Let’s go ahead. Ron in Florida. Ron, go ahead. And you’ll probably be the last call of the day because I wanted to take a minute to talk about our life campaign. Go ahead, Ron.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, no problem. I love you guys. My question or comment was back when Trump was doing his campaigning, he mentioned something, I believe, that he was going to go back after China because releasing the covid virus. And it’s not only the United States that suffered, but I’d say the rest of the world. I think this would be a good time for him to bring that up. And I say that. He has all these other countries that would stay in line with us to get some money back from them and use it as a bargaining chip to get the tariff back for the United States.
SPEAKER 08 :
Sure. Interesting idea, Ron. I’m sure that has come up in conversations. I’m sure that we brought up the fact that that happened as that theory ended up becoming more and more of the reality of which we all kind of knew. But Ron, I appreciate your call and thank you for your comments. And you never know. I did want to take the next two and a half minutes. I want to show you some images at least. This is the ad campaign that we’ve been running in the state of Massachusetts over the last few months. And you’re seeing those are real pictures. We’ve had some renderings that have gone. These are real pictures in the state of Massachusetts. You’ll see some of the iconic buildings behind Finneal Hall and in a lot of these areas. Again, specifically an ad campaign, not for the ACLJ. but for those who are being affected by these anti-pro-life pregnancy resource center ads who think abortion is their only choice. So we have said one choice is not a choice. The choice begins here. Go check out a pro-life pregnancy resource center in your area. A lot of people have scanned that QR code or gone to the website, clicked that locations button. Hundreds and hundreds, if not more, if not thousands, have done that. That ad campaign has been successful. And lo and behold, after five months or six months of waiting, From the legal side, because again, we had to go two-prong here. We had to go media and legal. Media took a little while. You’ve got to get ads placed and all that. It’s not immediate. The ad campaign starts running. Guess what? Four weeks later, the case is being scheduled right now, and the judge has scheduled the major court hearing again, a hearing to potentially dismiss this case, because that is what the abortion industry wants to happen. That is what they want to see happen. Our advertising campaign not only needs your support, but clearly is working, whether that’s to save babies and also to get the attention of the people of Massachusetts, of the political side of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It’s happening and it’s working because of you, the ACLJ supporter. We only got a minute left. So I’m going to ask you to throw that QR code up on the screen right now. This is a really important time. Scan the QR code. Go to ACLJ.org. I’m going to take the next minute just to pray about it, think about it. We need to have our team on the ground ready to go as much as possible. And your donations are doubled through the end of this month, and it’s vitally important. I know it sounds like we’re just talking sometimes, reading scripts, giving you an ad read. This is not. This is breaking news that is happening. I always will tell you when we get updates, and this is a big one. This came out just this morning. Again, they have scheduled it. It looks like it will happen within the next month, and we need your support. And we also want to continue that advertising campaign because they can’t shut us down that way. Go to aclj.org slash lifeandliberty or scan that QR code on your screen. Have your gifts doubled today because amazing ACLJ members and ACLJ champions who are ready to unlock their donation as soon as you make yours. Talk to you tomorrow.
