In this compelling episode, we dive deep into President Trump’s audacious directive to Iranian protesters to reclaim their nation. The panel dissects the evolving geopolitical landscape and how this message aligns with the U.S. foreign policy stance towards Iran thus far. With Logan Sekula steering the conversation, insights are shared on the implications of such bold statements amid ongoing tensions and protests within Iran.
SPEAKER 04 :
We got breaking news. President Trump issued a statement to Iranians telling them to take over and take back their country.
SPEAKER 02 :
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 04 :
Welcome to Sekula. Of course, we’re covering quite a few different breaking news items, but one of them was President Trump coming out and making a pretty loud statement telling the people of Iran, a lot of the protesters that are out there, is happening. As we know, the sort of death toll. that’s happening right now is a bit disputed but we know it’s in the thousands at this point saying to not stop not relent this is summarizing i have the exact words in front of me and essentially to take over their country this came from i believe true social or also on x you put iranian patriots keep protesting take over your institutions save the names of the killers and the abusers They will pay a big price. I’ve canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stopped. Help is on its way. And then he put, make Iran great again. And President Donald J. Trump. So that, again, is the statement from President Trump, obviously coming on the heels of the show we even did yesterday about whether Americans are going to get involved, how America is going to get involved, and how comfortable we are. with America getting involved. At this point, kind of putting out a statement, not saying take care of it yourself, but at least pushing that narrative a bit, saying we’re not coming in here to run this country. You’ve got something good going on. We see what’s happening in the streets. Do what you need to do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Finish the job. That’s right. And as we mentioned, this these protests that have been going on, this is now in the third week, have seemed different. They’ve seen more hopeful than we’ve seen really since 2009. I like the president’s approach here. Also putting it on the people, not like we’re going to go in and cause regime change. It’s saying people continue doing what you’re doing. We’ve got your back. We’re standing with you. Keep the names of those that are killing and abusing you because their reckoning will be coming. But once again, this is at the same time where an Iranian official has told Reuters more than 2,000 people have been killed. So a very large number in and of itself. But the opposition is saying as many as 12,000 have been killed. So you’re seeing this dueling narrative. Either way, a lot of people have been killed. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of that number. Normally, the Iranian officials are going to try and downplay the numbers. But this also comes at a time where… the State Department has put out in order to leave Iran now, if you’re an American citizen. Some people may be like, why are there American citizens there? Well, I mean, there’s a lot of Iranian dual nationals, people that fled or still have family there, that still are able to go to Iran. It’s not as if it is impossible to get there, especially if you have family or are historically from there. And Americans do that. There are Americans there. Like the Cuba situation. exactly so the state department is saying leave iran now have a plan for departing iran that does not rely on u.s government help so they are laying out how you can do this and how you can get out but also not to get flagged by iranian officials that you’re also an american trying to get out of the country american sympathizer i think there’s also uh reading the room a
SPEAKER 04 :
where is the base where are the people that voted for me where are they on this now we’ve seen an overwhelmingly positive response uh phone calls have come in comments have come in some people say of course we shouldn’t be getting involved but many people saying yeah let’s do this let’s help out where we can there are a lot of uh you’d say humanitarian side of americans who are okay with military force if it can lead to a betterment of people’s lives And again, Iran was not what it once was in a lot of our current generation’s lifetime. A little bit outside of ours, but just a little bit outside of ours when things started to change in Iran. If you’re 10 years older than us, you probably remember a time when Iran wasn’t what it is now. Phone lines are open for you right now at 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you. And while our eyes are focused on Iran internationally, our U.S. legal team here in the ACLJ still in court defending the unborn. Of course, you know yesterday’s arguments. We began a trial that become the trial of the century is what they’re calling it against Planned Parenthood. Be a part of that team right now. We also have a large legal team in Missouri to fight alongside the Missouri Attorney General in what is a broadside attack on Missouri’s pro-life laws. break that down a lot more coming up in future segments we want to take your calls and comments but of course you can support that work and sign our new petition at aclj.org slash sign or scan the qr code that you see on the screen let’s just keep that up there through the end of this segment what aclj.org we’ll be right back Welcome back to Secular. We will be taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Got to restate a bit of what’s going on because I know a lot of you joined us here in the second segment. Of course, President Trump making a lot of statements right now. Not only President Trump, but the United States saying, hey, if you’re in Iran and you’re one of the protesters, he’s encouraging you, take back your country. Do this. Put out a big statement. But also saying, I’ve canceled all my meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters stops. And then later on, Will, as you said, they said, if you need to leave, you’re an American there. Find your way out soon. Leave now and do it swiftly and also safely.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So a lot is moving, even since we were live yesterday. And what we’re also seeing is the president proposing a 25% tariff on countries that trade with Iran, but also do business with the United States. There’s a lot of them out there. It may seem in our kind of American bubble like, oh, no one is doing business with Iran, but maybe North Korea and China and bad actors like that. But A lot do. A lot of South American countries. Brazil is a big trading partner with Iran. So big economies still do have economic relationships with Iran. So this is another move. And I actually really like this move to use the economic angle. before jumping to some sort of military action. Because one, that’s what I think a lot of, of president Trump supporters would be in favor of, of sure. Yeah. Put pressure on the regime. Don’t prop them up at a time like this, go after where it’s going to hurt the most. And that is economically. We also know that this entire protest movement actually started off as an economic protest. It started in the bazaars in Iran where they were upset about the economy. Uh, the, the, uh, The real the money in Iran has plummeted in value. And what you’re now looking at is a situation that it has gotten even larger is included this the freedom movement trying to take back the country of Iran, but it started primarily as economic. So this other angle that the president is saying is proposing 25% tariff on countries trading with Iran could be another way to really go after the mullahs that have really just strangled the country’s economy for so long. I, I like this angle, but that’s also something that could take a little bit longer for it to really feel the pain with the mullus of saying, okay, you’re going to implement it. Then demand drops in these other countries. They start pulling back. That could take a little while. So it’s not an immediate thing. thing that you can get results from, but it is a more outside the box novel way to go about this. This is at the same time that we know that the Biden administration and the Obama administration almost gave some global legitimacy to the Ayatollah and his regime by doing these deals, by doing the Iran nuclear deal, trying to get back into that under the Biden administration. Because it won, it relieved sanctions. So it gave more money for them to fund their terror around the world. I think you can draw a through line from those deals straight to October 7th. Because they had the funds to do it. We also know the Iranians helped, the IRGC helped Hamas plan it. So once again, by strangling their economy at home, they are creating pain. But… by the outsiders, the United States being able to put some economic pain on the actual mullahs, those running things, it could be a thing that drives them into more chaos and allows the protesters to really break through here.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. happens we’re obviously staying attuned to it you know this isn’t the first time Iran has had one of these uprisings it seems like every couple years there is something different in tone we’re going to talk to Mike Pompeo coming up here shortly about that about that difference in tone and why this feels different he’s a great person to always hear from in these situations and then Rick Grinnell will be joining us again a little bit later I do want to take a quick phone call let’s go to Wendy in Florida online one hopefully this inspires you to call in as well at 1-800-684-3110 because we do have some phone lines open right now go ahead Wendy
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, um, you just forgot this part about saying the best state in the union, Florida, but that’s okay.
SPEAKER 04 :
One of my favorites.
SPEAKER 07 :
So anyways, I, I’m not a big social media person. I’m firsthand experience and I wanted to share with you guys that 19 mid eighties, 86 or so. Very good. Thank you. Sorry. I’m going on to a base here and I’m good to go. Um, I worked at a bank, investment banking, and one of the gentlemen whose only first name I’ll use was Pasha. Pasha was there because he and his family had to flee Iran. And I have a lot of stories that he had talked about how everything had just changed, and not for the better, due to Ayatollah and whoever was being put in place. And so the danger there is, And then my dad worked in petroleum engineering. He worked in 1980s, very beginning when all the stuff was going on and Venezuela was prospering, starting up, you know, with all the oil industry. He was there and he left there working, left it. The country was awesome. I had visited. I spent time there. Everything was going well for the people, okay? Government was democracy, okay? And the next one was Kuwait. My dad worked there in the early 90s. Fortunately, he left before Kuwait was invaded. And so firsthand experience, people have to understand, don’t get riled up based on all the false, all the, you know, hey, opinions, whatever. Firsthand knowledge or factual knowledge, okay? And so we’re trying to look out for people, people in the United States who are here legitimately, people who are in those countries. that are just trying to look out for their families and health and those kinds of things. So that’s just kind of what I wanted to share.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that is a common story. A lot of us have worked with people, Iranian people who have, Persian people who have escaped or families escaped. You see a lot of thriving businesses here in the United States. You see a lot of the biggest companies in the world founded by the people who escaped and got their families out during that time or were forced out even during the revolution.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. I mean, even in this Nashville area, there’s a large community of people that are a Persian community, very strong, proud community, is wonderful in our area, has assimilated, but also brings strong cultural things to the area, which is wonderful to see. But many of them, you see people that were doctors in Iran, that had great lives, that were prosperous and successful families. fled because of the oppression, came to the United States and had to start over with nothing and have worked very hard here and are really a testament to what the hardworking people of Iran are and the pride they have in the Persian people. But what we’ve seen, as Wendy pointed out, whether it be Venezuela, whether it be Cuba, that’s getting a lot of attention now because of its ties with Venezuela, whether it be Iran, is that these dictatorial regimes that hijacked the Marxist movement, which was taking over the world and hybridize that in places like Iran. where they took the Marxist sentiment but then slapped on it their genocidal apocalyptic death cult theology and took over a country and oppressed people since the 70s. This is something that everyone around the world should be cheering on the people of Iran. And I think you’re starting to actually see that, interestingly, in some of the people on the left that are all of a sudden, we talked about yesterday, them condemning Hamas. You’re also seeing people like AOC saying, I stand with the people of Iran that are in the streets. It’s her party that propped up this dictatorship for even longer when the people in the streets in 2009 had a real opportunity to Her president, Barack Obama, and her later president, Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time, did nothing like she is doing. Did not say, I support the people in the street taking over their country, taking control of their lives. Instead, they let it play out, and then they rewarded the mullahs and the ayatollah with that Iranian nuclear deal, which gave them lots and lots of money. not to restore their economy but to further degrade the dollar their their value of their currency and what did they do with that money they funded terror around the world houthi rebels we’re talking about hezbollah we’re talking about hamas on october 7th we’re talking about all the things that those groups do not just in the middle east but in central america south america assassination attempts on U.S. soil that’s what they did with the money that the Biden and Obama administrations gave back to them and allowed them to use the president now is saying no more is looking at further ways to cause economic pain on the Iranians the Iranians were running to President Trump saying let’s have a meeting Because of the rhetoric that President Trump was saying, hey, you got to knock it off. Don’t be killing protesters. And at first he’s like, maybe we’ll meet with them. Now he’s saying no. Yeah. And we’re going for them.
SPEAKER 04 :
We know that’s been President Trump’s kind of MO is he’s happy to sit down with anybody, even if it’s people he vehemently disagrees with or people who are dictators, whether it’s him meeting with him or some people on his team. That is not uncommon for President Trump. It’s actually probably more uncommon for him to say, I’m canceling everything and I’m not doing it anymore. What that means is there’s probably no wiggle room here. And he also can read what the American people are saying. The American people want this push to happen. They would like to see a thriving Iran. You know, Israel would like to see a thriving Iran. A lot of the Middle East would. With that, phone lines are open, as I said, at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Get in line to get on the show today. We’re going to take a lot of great calls. We do have segments coming up with Mike Pompeo later on with Rick Grinnell. So we’ll take calls in between those segments. So if you want to get on, now’s the time to call. We do have a lot more coming up. Make sure you support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Check out our new pro-life petition also at ACLJ.org. Be a part of that right now. We’re scanning the QR code. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We do have some phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. If we hear from Secretary Pompeo, we’re going to take calls in the next segment or two. So make sure you are getting in line right now if you want to be on air. 1-800-684-3110. Of course, reporting out all the news coming out of Iran. And Will, it has been a very busy morning, obviously, and we’ve been following it very closely. But it’s always great to have people like Secretary Pompeo on.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right, Mr. Secretary. Since we spoke last week, it seems like the protests have not died off. They have not gone back and left since the forces of the Ayatollah clearly are showing their force against it with death tolls anywhere from 2,000 to 12,000, depending on which reports you’re reading. The State Department has now warned any Americans that are still there to get out of Iran, giving details on how to get out safely and not be using American channels, as well as the president this morning put on True Social telling the protesters to take over their institutions. As he said, he will not meet with Iranian officials. I know, once again, we’re still at that same point where we’re hopeful, but it does seem to be that things are progressing even further in a way that we’ve not seen and that it could be getting to a point potentially where the regime is ousted. I just want to get your thoughts on even the developments that we’ve seen over the past few days.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, the last 72 hours have absolutely escalated the protests, not only in their violence and their seriousness and the Ayatollah and his henchmen’s willingness to kill their fellow citizens, but the breadth and the scope and the scale and even more diverse communities, even over a broader part of Iran. So there’s no sign of abatement. One of the things we talked about when I was on last was, hey, these things often escalate. rise up and then they die down this one has not taken that course so we are in a fundamentally different place uh second you have a u.s administration that is operating against the backdrop of uh the crushing of hamas the defeat of hezbollah uh the assad regime falling in syria uh this all is in the minds of the iranian people and they too are looking for their moment their chance to take back uh their rightful place in iranian uh economy and with their families where it’s just a normal nation again. And so President Trump’s statement from the last few hours about his continued support, the fact that he said he wasn’t going to talk to the leadership in Iran, I think is kind of just a throwaway. That was, in my judgment, just a red herring. Silly, the Iranian regime is not going to negotiate a solution here. I think the Iranian people will see that and that these protests will continue and that we are reaching a point of no return where we’ll never be back to where we were before.
SPEAKER 04 :
Secretary Pompeo, one of the things that’s also come out of this, President Trump inferring they may put a 25 or impose a 25% tariff on any country doing business with Iran. And when we talk about the military point of view, but you also talk about the strategic financial economic pressure. Do you think the economic pressure in working in these countries before, in some of your previous roles, do you think economic pressure is enough? or do you think military is where this has to go? Because you have the economic side, but I feel like if the Iranian people really cared about that, I mean, maybe the other countries do, that would have been something that would have been handled long ago.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, look, I think the economic pressure alone is insufficient, but the cumulative pressure… on other nations to tell the Ayatollah, hey, you got to get out of there. You’ve made life really hard for us. These are the allies, the folks who do trade with Iran. There aren’t that many, but they may find it’s costly for them and they’ll throw their buddy, the Ayatollah, overboard. So it’s important that we keep the economic pressure up. But in the end, this will be an uprising from the Iranian people. This will not happen because of intervention from some third party. There are things the United States can absolutely do. Make sure the Iranians can continue to communicate. We’ve seen Starlink opened up there. Make sure, too, that the targets that we choose, if President Trump decides to go that direction, actually deliver strategic defeat to the regime. Think of their ballistic missile program, the basis from which their terror organization, the IRGC, operates. There are legitimate military targets that can, A, make sure the Iranian people know that the world is with them, and second, can diminish the capacity of the Iranians to strike into the Gulf or into Israel. One of the things that everyone worries about when a regime falls is that they’ll have this last gasp of firing off their missiles and rockets and the like, and the United States could do a lot to reduce that risk.
SPEAKER 03 :
One thing that I wanted to ask you about, because as we see this progress, we obviously know that the actions of both the Obama administration and then the Biden administration helped in some ways prop up the leadership of Iran. The failed Iranian nuclear deal under Obama provided them with lots of economic relief. with lots of pallets of cash is what we talk about all the time, but as well as all the sanctions relief that the Mullahs and the Ayatollah were able to gain in order then to go and sow terror around the world instead of helping their people. We now see that the party that helped prop up that regime, people like AOC, other Democrats are coming out and saying they are showing solidarity with the protesters, saying they support the protesters in the street. That is something that President Obama would not do during the Green Revolution in 2009. I know that it’s hard to read the minds of those on the left, but it does seem that at least there is a little bit of a change in the way that they are approaching this, whether that be trying to be on the right side of history, being opportunistic, or they are genuinely supporting those in Iran. Even that, the way that with all the noise online about what’s going on there, that fundamental difference seems to tell something a little bit different about the way they internally see that these protests are going. And I want to get your thoughts on that.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think this is a little bit of getting getting in front of the parade when they can see the near inevitable. I think in their hearts they do care about the Iranian people. They don’t want to see people slaughtered. But I must say, you know, we we watched as Hamas killed a couple thousand people in Israel and then the Israelis simply defended themselves and they they got on the wrong side of that human rights violation. I’m happy to see that they understand that the oppressed here, the victims here are the Iranian people and the bad guys are the Ayatollah and his henchmen in the IRGC and then his brutal internal police force known as the Basij. I’m glad they’re getting it right. They were instrumental in behaving in a way that allowed these regimes to gain the very power that we’re now watching the Iranian protesters suffer from. That is, if we hadn’t given them these billions of dollars, their capacity to inflict thousands of losses of lives inside of their own country would have been diminished. So the history will reflect they got it wrong, and the Iranian people are now getting it right alongside President Trump.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you so much for joining us today, Secretary Pompeo. I think it’s always good to hear from you and hear your point of view because these are very big topics. They’re also topics that sometimes need a lot of explaining to us and to our audience here. So I always appreciate you joining us with that. We have a second half hour of the show coming up and I want you to be a part of it as well. If you don’t get us on your local radio station, if you’re not watching online, I encourage you to do so. Go to aclj.org. or find us broadcasting live each and every day, YouTube, Rumble, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Of course, you can find us podcasts later on, or if you’re hearing this even later on, preempted in your local area, you can find the rest of the show on our YouTube channel or on a podcast feed, but all of it’s at aclj.org. Want you to go there. And while you’re there, one of the topics we haven’t really talked a whole lot about is our fight for life that we continue here at the ACLJ. And right now, there’s a brand new petition. You can read all about it. Yesterday, arguments began at a trial with the ACLJ that some people are calling the trial of the century against Planned Parenthood. And while our eyes on this show right now are focused on what’s happening in Iran, we need to make sure that we are still there. supporting our children, our future children, and the future children of America. So be a part of it right now. Go to aclj.org slash sign. Scan the QR code. Also, if you’re able to support the work of the ACLJ, consider becoming an ACLJ champion today. That is a monthly recurring donor, someone who just sets it, forgets it, and all of a sudden the donations come in and we really appreciate it. Of course, you can cancel it at any time. That’s at aclj.org. Become an ACLJ champion. We’re back with the second half hour coming right up.
SPEAKER 02 :
keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We have a second half hour of the broadcast coming up right now. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the next segment. We do have some phone lines open if you want to be on air, 1-800-684-3110. I know a lot of you are watching right now, wondering about the news coming out of Iran. You may not have a specific question or comment. The question I posed last week, and I think I’m going to pose it again today, which is how do you feel about the U.S. potentially getting involved? Military wise. Now, obviously, they’ve said not necessarily boots on the ground military. And President Trump has certainly inferred that could still be on the table and also has inferred, hey, Iran, first, try to do it yourself. You know, if you’re all about revolution right now, let’s see if they can do it. But he’s also said there’s red lines that could be crossed here.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And what you’ve seen take place in the reporting out of Iran is that even an Iranian source from within the government told Reuters that as many as 2,000 have been killed already. Some opposition sources are saying that it could be at least 12,000.
SPEAKER 04 :
Explain what that means. What do you mean? Like, which sources should we even be listening to here?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, once again, this is very I don’t feel like either side is probably giving you the whole truth. The Iranian sources are probably going to try to minimize the amount.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, they are Iranian sources. We’re talking about the current within the regime.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Now, they are trying to say that these are terrorists. that have been killed, that are trying to take over the country and they are backed by the United States. The way that they are spinning this is that they have put down a rebellion and 2,000 people are included in the death toll of that. The opposition sources, so a lot of these are out of the country that have set up networks that have been doing this for years. There’s many different groups that are kind of the separatist groups that want to overthrow the regime. They have different motivations, different ideologies, but they all still want kind of the same goal. some of those groups are saying it could be as many as 12 000 killed we know that with the internet down with uh starlink being limited because of they need to have the actual um kits to be able to connect that the internet and the information coming out of iran isn’t going to be uh Pure or perfect information coming out to the people. So therefore, you do need to take these things with a grain of salt and knowing that there is a fog of war or fog of revolution that is going on. So these numbers aren’t going to be the true numbers at this point. I would assume it is probably more than the Iranians are willing to admit. but maybe not as many as the opposition sources are putting out there right now. But thousands of people have been killed by the regime at this point. It is turning violent. We know that that was a red line of the president. He has said he will not meet with Iranian officials, even though they were trying to, as a stall tactic, get a meeting with the president, as well as he has told protesters, President Trump has said, take over your institutions and remember the names, save the names of the killers and abusers. uh as well as this this idea of a 25 tariff going on countries that do business with iran to try to inflict some more economic pain as secretary pompeo said it does feel like these last 72 hours have moved into a new realm almost a new reality that may not even be able to go back to how it was uh prior to these protests just a few weeks ago it’s not necessarily the number one story on the news it hasn’t been i feel
SPEAKER 04 :
Which is shocking to some degree. At least you’d think it’d be like top three. I feel like it’s sometimes in the rotation and often not. I mean, today I’ve seen almost none on the major broadcasters. That’s why when we do this show, we try to decide what we talk about. Some of it is monitoring, going, okay, what’s everyone else talking about? What can we provide that’s maybe different? Because we have experts in certain areas, and this is something we can focus on. Maybe you’re not going to hear about it in other places. You’re still hearing about Minnesota. You’re hearing about what’s going on. Look, we talked about the Supreme Court yesterday. You’re going to have the coverage, of course. But you’d think this would at least be on the radar, as President Trump has spoken about it quite a bit. And he’s making a lot of statements. It’s not like he’s not making the news for you. So I don’t really understand. Maybe it’s just a ratings thing. Maybe they just don’t see it as something the American people are interested in. We surely are. You can give me a call. Ask me a question about that as well. Or maybe you have a statement. Maybe you’re not interested in it. Maybe you want us to be focused on other things. We’ll take some calls and comments coming up. 1-800-684-3110. We’ll also have Rick Grinnell joining us in the next segment. But once again, 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard today. Another great way to have your voice heard. Sign our petition right now at aclj.org slash sign protecting life. That’s at aclj.org. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We’ve got Rick Grinnell joining us right now. And we have some phone lines open for you if you want to be on the air in the next segment. We will take some calls to wrap up the show. That’s at 1-800-684-3110. And it’s been a packed show today, Rick. We’ve been talking a lot about what’s going on in Iran as President Trump has made some pretty aggressive statements. But it’s not necessarily the only thing we’re covering here. We’re talking about a lot that’s happening, Will.
SPEAKER 03 :
know it has been a a wild weekend it’s only tuesday that’s right so rick what we’re seeing coming out of uh iran the images it’s very hopeful um it feels especially in these last 72 hours i’d say it feels like it has reached another level as the brutality of the regime has not caused the people to back down even though we’re seeing reports of thousands of deaths of protesters in iran But when we look at this, I just want to get your take, just top line. How does this feel to you as someone who has studied this a long time, has studied the Middle East and understands these? To me, it feels like something is different and we’re on the brink and we see the president supporting the people of Iran, unlike what we’ve seen from some other administrations.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, just to give a little context here, one of my first jobs in 2001 was at the UN. I was the top political appointee and spokesman for the US at the UN. And we’ve been talking about Iran ever since, ever since 2001 and even before. The one thing I think people need to understand is that this is not a easy situation. It’s incredibly difficult. Remember that Iran is the number one funder of terrorism. They fund the Houthis in Yemen. They fund Hezbollah in Lebanon. They fund Hamas in multiple places. And we know very clearly that this Iranian regime is Always looking to wreak havoc and terror, especially on Americans. And so this is a threat that we see very clearly. We’ve been talking about for a long time. Thank God President Trump is somebody who is seeing this over and over and is not having it. And I believe that we are getting very close to the Iranian regime, seeing the wrath of the United States finally come to it. Now, I don’t say those words lightly. I am somebody who believes in the America first policy and no war and we’ve got enough. to concentrate on in the United States. But this issue clearly impacts Americans, our men and women overseas, and the terrorism issue that we’ve been fighting for a long time. So I see the Iran issue very differently than any other issue.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think a lot of people feel that way. You know, we’ve kind of been trying to read the room here, even with our own audience, to say, OK, well, how do you feel about this? You know, President Trump certainly ran on no new wars and trying to keep ourselves out of those kind of situations. But this is different. And what I’ve seen massively from a responsible look, there’s some people on the other side, of course, but the mass majority of people say, yeah, yeah, this we understand. We understand why this is different. Like we’ve said many times, it’s easy, maybe if you are of a certain age, including even our age, to say, you know, I don’t remember a time when Iran wasn’t what it is now. But for those just slightly older, they do remember a time when Iran was a thriving nation. And you have other countries, you have Israel, you have a lot of people on board saying, look, There would be nothing greater than for us to have this return back to what it once was. And most people have had incredible interactions with Iranian people, with the Persian people in America, people that had to flee. So I think what we are seeing is a very different point of view to even some of the other ways America has gotten involved in the foreign stages in recent years. We’re seeing a pretty overwhelmingly positive response.
SPEAKER 08 :
Look, I want to speak to that a little bit because I’m in that camp of really understanding that the America First mentality and the no new wars is the reason we voted for President Trump, is the reason I’ve been with him for so long. I love that. I spent too many years in the Bush administration where we tried to export democracy. And I’ve rejected that. President Trump has rejected that. And I have been the guy that’s been trying to do diplomacy in every single issue. But I think this is different. I think the Iranian issue is the only one that is different. And I’m super sensitive to not wanting to do wars and to always do the diplomatic solution. We’ve tried diplomacy. I know President Trump has tried diplomacy with the Iranians, but the reason it is different is because they have taken billions of dollars from Americans through bad diplomatic deals, the Iranian regime, And they have funded terror. I think that October 7th is one of the reasons. And that’s not the only reason that I look at this issue and say enough is enough. It’s because we are constantly fighting against the Iranian regime money. And remember, the Obama team gave them six billion dollars. They still have a lot of that money. We are we are faced with. 20 years of more Iranian funded terror because of the money that they have received from the Obama and the Biden administrations. So we are faced with a very real threat going forward. We know that they’ve constantly wanted to do terror and and terrorism against Americans. This is going to get worse unless we deal with it. This Iranian regime has demonstrated over and over. They are a threat to Americans. And I see it very clearly. We’ve tried diplomacy. I’ve been a part of the JCPOA. I’ve tried doing the diplomatic push. I am not somebody who has advocated for any type of military action over the last 20 years. And I’m not suggesting that we immediately do that with Iran. But I am suggesting that President Trump is right to confront this issue because of the terrorism. And I fully support that he is losing his patience on the diplomatic end.
SPEAKER 03 :
Rick, one of the interesting things about this story, too, is how little I feel like attention it’s getting from the media. And we are starting to see some on the left, even AOC, coming out and saying, I stand with the protesters. They deserve to be able to protest their regime there. It’s something that… is a lot further than President Obama went with the protesters in 2009, at least saying that she supports them. So we’re at a time, though, where it’s not getting that much coverage in traditional venues. If you look back at the revolution in 79, it was front page in every newspaper in America every single day. Now, obviously, there was also a hostage crisis that followed that that that did have American interest right on the front page as well. But then even with the JCPOA, that was endlessly discussed, endlessly given ink on the newspapers of America. And I feel like maybe there is protest fatigue within Iran, but I don’t know. It just it feels different from an observer. Yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. I think we’ve had 25 years of talking about the Iranian issue, even longer, right? For those who remember the Iranian hostage crisis. But in terms of the nuclear issue, in terms of the terror, it feels like my entire adult life in foreign policy, that’s all we’ve ever talked about is the Iranian issue. And I think the media is probably getting bored or they don’t know the new angle. I think you’re right about that. However, my mother would tell you that I am a great contrarian to authority. And I’ve been that way my whole life. So when you tell me that AOC is supporting the protesters, it immediately makes me want to rethink my position and say, what am I missing here? Because I’m supposed to be the great contrarian. I certainly don’t want to be agreeing with AOC.
SPEAKER 04 :
We had a statement she made just the other day that was like, people walk into your city and start uh chanting that they stand with hamas that is purely anti-semitic and i’m like okay what’s happening now and i think i put that you know i i retweeted it with a reposted it with a kenneth copeland saying you know it’s about time uh because there are those moments where you go okay are they just reading the political tea leaves are they just saying that oh we can’t be you know the the we can’t go against everything happening in the middle east
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, let me tell you something about Rick Grenell. As soon as I hear somebody like AOC agreeing with me, it makes me immediately go down into my intellectual bunker to say, what am I missing?
SPEAKER 04 :
All right. Well, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, in the next segment, we are going to be taking your phone calls. I want to hear from you. We’re also going to give you a preview of some of the work the ACLJ is doing on the pro-life front. You’re not going to want to miss that. That’s something that, you know, while we’re talking about Iran, we’re talking about what’s happening around the world. This is some of the work the ACLJ does from a legal perspective that you need to make sure you’re paying attention to. And you can also get involved in many different ways, including brand new petitions that have just been launched over on ACLJ.org. So don’t miss that. But right now, I do want to encourage you, if you haven’t seen what we’re doing in the pro-life sphere, there’s a lot going on, and I want you to be a part of it. Last thing, though. I want to hear from you. There’s thousands of you listening right now. Thousands of you just watching on YouTube right now. But there are thousands of you, maybe millions of you, who are listening to this throughout the day. I want you to give me a call. 1-800-684-3110. Get in line real quick. If you can call in the next minute or two. We’ll likely get to hear from you on air today. I want your point of view when it comes to Iran. Should we get involved? Do you want the U.S., as Rick said, do you feel like there’s some reasons that we should not be there? Same with what is going on on all these fronts. If you have any questions or comments, good time to call in. We’ll do our best to get to you. And that being said, I want you to go to ACLJ.org. I want you to sign that petition. I want you to scan the QR code that you see in front of you if you’re watching on YouTube, Rumble, the Salem News Channel, however you get this video feed. By the way, you should be watching the video feed. Well, you get to see your pretty face, which is good. But also, you get full television-style production. It’s a great, more interactive way. And of course, if you watch on YouTube or on Rumble, there’s a chat function. You can be a part of that whole community that has broken out there. And it’s really always fun to see some familiar names pop up. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. A couple lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. I’d like to hear from you in this segment. Let’s go ahead and kick it to Martin in North Carolina, who is an ACLJ champion. And by the way, before we get to you, Martin, I want to say thank you. Because those that are ACLJ champions, those are people that support the ACLJ on a monthly basis that are already recurring ACLJ members. We call them ACLJ champions because they are champions for everything that we stand for here. And they really create an incredible baseline for us. And that’s whether you give $5 a month, or whether you give $500 a month or whatever it may be, we know we really appreciate it. We really obviously want to celebrate our ACLJ champions. And those who call in usually get bumped up to the front if you tell the phone screener, which is always good. That’s why we’re going to Martin in North Carolina. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, guys. I appreciate the thank you. I was listening. I believe her name was Wendy in the earlier segments. And it brought back to mind, my wife and I went to a restaurant, had refugees from Venezuela, who he told us about what was happening out there and why he left there. And that was eye-opening. But I say this to your point, Logan. I don’t know that we need to be saturated 24 seven with stuff that’s going on in Iran, but we need to be cognizant of what’s going on. Cause that could so easily be here when we need, when we vote, we need to know who we’re voting for and what we’re voting for in reference to the Mondavis and everything else is a declared socialistic Democrat. Because when you look at history in the forties, Germany, Italy and Russia, All those things the dictators then didn’t happen overnight. And we could be in that position real easy and then having to fight like Iran is doing now to get back our freedoms. Be careful, folks. Watch what’s going on.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Michael, I think you bring up a very good point, which is we get very centered on one topic here in this country. or like a one-topic news cycle. And I don’t really understand why necessarily. I think there’s a lot happening around this world. There’s Venezuela. There’s obviously everything that’s happening within our own country. There is still what’s happening in Israel. I mean, the whole world is a bit in chaos 24-7. But I feel like we get stuck on one topic and it’ll be, you know, Minnesota for a week and then it’ll be Venezuela for a week and we’ll quickly forget and we move on and things then don’t reenter the news cycle. Sometimes they do if something big happens, but it becomes like we wall to wall. Every channel is just giving you their spouting, their version of the same story. We try to circumvent that a little bit here. We try to change that narrative. Sometimes, of course, you’re going to be talking about the biggest story of the day. Sometimes that’s just what the truth is, and that’s what’s happening here. But go flip on any of your channels right now. Tell me if you see Iran being what’s coming covered. It’s not. It’s one of the most important stories happening right now. That’s why here on Sekula, we’re a completely independent broadcast. Martin’s an ACLJ champion because he’s a champion. We’re able to do that. We’re not funded by major sponsors. We’re not funded by major advertisers. You hear advertising, that’s going to the network. That’s going to the station. That’s not going to us. That’s not how we pay the bills. If you get an ad on YouTube, it is minuscule compared to what it costs to put on this broadcast. all of it is independent because people like you support the work. And when you support the work, you’re not only supporting the legal work or the radio show and the media side of this and our broadcast, you’re also supporting the legal work. And I want to give you a little bit of a preview of some of the work the ACLJ is doing right now. If you were watching on YouTube and rubble, you may have seen a bit of this video before. It’s only a two minute video. And if you’re listening, it’s, it works on audio as well. gives you a preview of what we’ll be doing in court and why the fighting for life is still such an important topic right now and how you can get involved. So let’s take just two minutes out of the show real quick and take a look at our team in action.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hi, I’m here in Missouri. The ACLJ has been deputized by the Missouri Attorney General to defend its lawsuit against Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood, in light of a constitutional amendment allowing unfettered access to abortion, is trying to say that sex-selective abortions are okay, that abortions for fetal diagnosis are okay, and that their clinics shouldn’t have to sit and stand by the same rules that other medical clinics do in Missouri.
SPEAKER 05 :
So for ACLJ, fighting for life has always been a foundational principle of the organization. What that looks like now that the decision is being left to every state is that ACLJ is coming alongside those states that desire to protect life and to protect women and provide whatever support they need, whether it is in the form of education, drafting of legislation, and even litigation support, which is what we’re currently doing in Missouri.
SPEAKER 06 :
This is an egregious lawsuit that allows Planned Parenthood to care more about their political clout than it does to care about the patients they claim to serve. Planned Parenthood has to abide by the same sort of medical regulations that every other medical clinic in the state has to. This case may be taking place in Missouri, but it’s important to every single state. Planned Parenthood, if they’re successful here, they’ll go to the next state and then the next state. And each time it’ll be easier and easier for them to circumvent common sense laws and pro-life values. Because of your support, we get to be on the ground in Missouri, defending pro-life values and continuing our mission that we have for 35 years, which is the sanctity of life and religious liberty.
SPEAKER 04 :
Our attorneys are in court these next two weeks taking on Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. Planned Parenthood is attacking pro-life laws nationwide. We’re fighting back in every state. Stand with us now and sign the petition at ACLJ.org. As I just said in that video, sign that petition right now. You can go to ACLJ.org and scan the QR code you see on the screen right now. The fight for life continues on. I know it’s been a topic that a few years ago felt like it was over. Know that it is continue on. It is still a struggle, especially a lot of these states. So make sure you are part of this team that is still fighting for life in states where it’s completely necessary and areas where it’s completely necessary. That’s at ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I think it’s also important to point out what our attorneys say in that video is that the ACLJ attorneys have been deputized by the attorney general of Missouri to work inside the Missouri attorney general’s office. So they recognize how wonderful and talented the ACLJ attorneys are. And they wanted to use our team as a part of this to fight back against Planned Parenthood. So whether it be an individual that is having a Bible study issue or whichever way, all the way up, we have a state that recognizes how important it is to use ACLJ attorneys as well and have deputized them for that.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s right. And look, this is probably going to start to wrap up our broadcast today. I did want to see if it’s possible, if that call is clear, if we could get to it today. We’ll find out here in just a moment because I do feel like it would be a good call to wrap up on. We may not be able to get to you today. We may not be able to take another call. I just want to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ. Then go to ACLJ.org. It is an important day to be a part of the team. And thank you. I want to thank Michael who’s on hold right now. Unfortunately, Michael, we’re not going to be able to get to you as well because I want you to just spend some time on our website, spend some time on our YouTube channel even. There’s hundreds of thousands of you, over 550,000 of you. that have subscribed to our YouTube channel alone. Half a million people. Understand how important that is. That’s bigger than a lot of the shows that you see on major television broadcasts. That’s just on YouTube. Plus we have radio. Plus we have Salem News Channel. Plus we got Rumble. We are available in so many different platforms later on on the podcast feeds. This show has the ability to reach millions of people, and it does reach millions of people because people like you support the work. And again, of course, I want you to just go to the website. I’m not even asking you to donate. If you can, great. You can be a champion, great. What I’m asking you to do is just look at all the incredible free resources we give you. Look at all the news coverage, the blogs that we get. Share those with your friends. Tell them about what we’re doing here at the ACLJ. This is a word-of-mouth kind of independent broadcast. We want you to be a part of that team as well. So once again, if you can, just go to aclj.org, maybe sign up for the email list. Maybe subscribe to YouTube. Maybe subscribe on Rumble. There are great ways to freely get involved in what we’re doing here, and it gets directly to you. Download the ACLJ app, also a great experience, in the App Store. Just search for ACLJ. It’ll pop up right there. That’s going to do it for today’s show. We’ll be back tomorrow, though. We do this show each and every day if you’re brand new, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time Live. Of course, however you get your podcasts, you can find us later on. That’s going to do it. We’ll be right back tomorrow.
