In this episode, we dive deep into the intensifying negotiations between the US and Iran. As tensions rise, we examine the statements from Iran’s Supreme Leader and the US response under President Trump’s administration. Our discussion covers potential military implications and the economic impact these negotiations might have on global markets. Join us as we take calls from listeners, providing their insights on how this could mirror or differ from past conflicts like Iraq or the War on Terror.
SPEAKER 07 :
We’ve got breaking news. As negotiations continue, the Iran Supreme Leader taunts the United States.
SPEAKER 15 :
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 Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Got a couple topics and a couple guests joining us today. Rick Grinnell will be on the back half and we have one of our attorneys, Garrett Taylor, who will be joining us as well. To give you an update on the ACLJ, Rick Grinnell will be joining us live from Munich. Of course, we talked about that quite a bit yesterday. You also had words from Gavin Newsom and Gavin Newsom making the rounds not only in Munich, but coming to Nashville, Tennessee and getting into some heated back and forth with Marsha Blackburn. So that’s pretty interesting to follow yesterday. But the breaking news we’re covering right now is certainly about those Iran negotiations, which are currently underway. At the same time, President Trump has made some pretty bold statements. So has the Ayatollah. This is a statement that came from the Ayatollah, again, directed at the United States of America. It said, the U.S. president says their army is the world’s strongest, but the strongest army in the world can sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up. These are, again, comments made to the Iranian media, and you can find it also on X. The dictator, of course, has been… Really obviously leading the charge against the rise up that’s happening there where people are finally feeling like they had enough of being under the rule that they have been under for so many decades. And of course, Iran has had this moment of clarity a few times. And unfortunately, it often seems to fail. It gets to a point where it feels like there’s no turning back and you’re going to see a new leadership take action. But then it stumbles. Something happens and they remain in power. This is once again felt like it was happening. But now President Trump certainly not ruling out a lot of action, potential action militarily. What do you think about that? I want to hear from you. Of course, there is a lot of implications of what a war with Iran would look like, what it could mean for everything from your economic sense of gas prices and so on, or all the way, of course, to the fact that what happens when we start sending troops? What does that mean for Israel? What do we know about Iran’s relationship to Hamas and all of that? I want to hear from you. What do you think about U.S.? Do you feel like this is us getting involved in Iraq 2.0? I know a lot of you have those moments where you feel that way. But what does that look like for you? Give me a call. I want to hear from you. I kind of want to take the pulse of our audience. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. And like I said, we’re also going to be bouncing around. We’re going to hear from one of our ACLJ attorneys, give you an update. One of the big updates in one of those cases out of Colorado. Again, of course, the ACLJ. Always hard in action for your religious freedom rights. That is included in the individual church or individual person basis. We’ll get into that with a big update. And then again, Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us talking about Gavin Newsom as he explores Europe during the Munich Security Conference. So it’s going to be a packed show. I want you to get involved. If you’re watching right now on YouTube, I’m going to ask you to hit that thumbs up button. If you’re listening right now or you’re watching on any of the platforms, I’d love to hear from you. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Do we have time to play this clip? I think we do. Let’s hear this clip. This is President Trump being asked specifically about Iran. Maybe he’ll spur you to call in.
SPEAKER 14 :
What are you expecting from these Iran talks in Geneva tomorrow?
SPEAKER 13 :
So I’ll be involved in those talks, indirectly, and they’ll be very important. We’ll see what can happen. Typically, Iran’s a very tough negotiator. They’re good negotiators, or bad negotiators. I would say they’re bad negotiators because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s into knockout there. nuclear potential. We had to send the V2s. I hope they’re going to be more reasonable. They want to make a deal. I’ve been told that a deal is next to impossible. No. No, I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal. They want to make a deal.
SPEAKER 07 :
Of course, saying they want to make a deal, they don’t want the consequences of not making a deal. I just want to make sure that you can hear that clearly. What are those consequences? Of course, America gets involved militarily. What do you think about that? What do you think about that for President Trump? He is someone who has been often lauded as someone who could get a deal done. It’s been a little bit different, a little harder maybe this term, as, of course, you still have things like Russia and Ukraine looming. But plenty of wars have been settled. Plenty of issues have been settled under President Trump’s administration this time around. What do you think about getting involved militarily, though? 1-800-684-3110. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your calls, and I would love to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. If you’re calling in, keep trying. I think you’ll be able to get on today. It’ll be a great time to talk about what’s happening in the world stage. At this moment, of course, America is currently in negotiations with Iran. We know that there has been some progress back and forth, and these have been scheduled for a few weeks, that this has been looming. But we also know that that you have moments where you have someone like the ayatollah the leader of the country making statements making statements on x very publicly i’m going to read you some of them tell me how if this feels like someone who’s willing to come to the table says the u.s president keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world the strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again Americans constantly say they’ve sent a warship toward Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than the warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea. Doesn’t really feel like thinly veiled. And of course, to Iranian media said something more to the effect of the president says their army is the world’s strongest, but the strongest army can be sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up. This again, coming directly from the leadership in Iran. At the same time, President Trump said they want a deal. They don’t actually want to go to war. We know what that will look like. And I want to know what you feel about that. What does a war with Iran mean to you? President Trump certainly said, has not ruled out this as he has really taken an interest in the crackdown that they’ve had on the nationwide protests that, of course, have killed thousands of people. And again, President Trump, like I said, has not ruled out military force and somewhat has continued to threaten it, somewhat to the point where you do get concerned that people will start treating it like it’s an empty words, that you’re crying wolf, that you’re actually not going to do it. But we know from this administration that certainly out of nowhere we’ll wake up likely one day without much warning to potentially an attack in Iran. And what does that look like? Of course, we saw that already when they destroyed the nuke facilities in a direct response, really, to what was going on, not only with the nuke deal, but with Israel and Hamas. And a lot of you are calling in right now because I do want to hear from you, the American people. I think it’s important to check where you’re at on this. Some of you have flashbacks to a world in war during the war on terror. of course, in Iraq, which a lot of you may have concerns with now looking back on it. Hindsight’s obviously 20-20. I think there’s some people that still see it as something that was overall a positive. But you also had a President Trump who ran really on a no more wars platform dangling a potential war with a country who’s currently in the middle of an uprising. And an uprising, by the way, you would love to see a regime change there. I think a lot of us grew up in an era where we think of Iran specifically as it is now, but you forget what it was. You forget the technological advances that they had, the great Persian people, people that have come to America who have done amazing things. A lot of the big companies that use Uber and so on, a lot of these were created or co-created by incredible Persian immigrants or families who came from Iran who then, their next generation, delivered some life-changing technology and life improvements, really, for the American people. These are smart, amazing people. And they are sick of it and they’re fed up and they’re in the streets, but they’re getting killed for it. And in moments where you think that finally they have spoken out so loudly that there’s no turning back, The negotiation table seems to reopen with America. And what does that look like? Give me a call. As I said, at 1-800-684-3110. I want to take a call already. Let’s go to Lewis who is calling online one Lewis. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hi, thanks guys for having me on. Um, you know, Iran has been, uh, a problem, a threat, uh, a deadly element to both the United States and Israel and so many other countries, as long as I can remember. And I really feel honestly that now is the time to end this. And I don’t care if my gas is $5 a gallon. I don’t care if my retirement portfolio goes down significantly. I think now is the time. I think that if we don’t act and act completely and decisively, clean house there, that for the next generations, it will get worse and worse.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, Lewis, that’s a big, bold statement. I don’t think a lot of people would feel necessarily, they may agree with you in principle, but there are not a lot of people who are willing to say, yeah, I know my gas is going to go up. I know that there’s going to be issues. Obviously, whatever boots on the ground looks like in 2026, I still think is very different. But you’re talking about risking lives for it to hopefully empower a next generation, a safer, stronger Iran and a safer, stronger America because of it. I am curious if that’s where other people stand. Phone lines are completely jammed right now. So I know you have a lot to say. We’re going to try to get to as many of these as we can. For those who are just tuning in, though, I know a lot of you do. You may be wondering what President Trump has to say. We played this in the first segment. I think it’s important to play it back. Let’s go to bite one once again.
SPEAKER 14 :
What are you expecting from these Iran talks in Geneva tomorrow?
SPEAKER 13 :
So I’ll be involved in those talks indirectly, and they’ll be very important. We’ll see what can happen. Typically, Iran’s a very tough negotiator. They’re good negotiators, or bad negotiators. I would say they’re bad negotiators because we could have had a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. If we had to send the B2s, I hope they’re going to be more reasonable. They want to make a deal. Have you been told that a deal is next to impossible? No. I think they want to make a deal. I don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal. They want to make a deal.
SPEAKER 07 :
They want to make a deal. They don’t want the consequences, as I said earlier. They don’t want the consequences of not making a deal. Of course, while the Ayatollah makes very thinly veiled threats, I think you’d say President Trump also similarly is saying, you know, we are not ruling out any sort of military action right now. And, of course, Iran will say, you know, in terms of their new facilities, they’ll say, you know, we don’t do any of that. None of that actually exists, though we know. I’m trying to find the number. I think I just had it just a moment ago. The number is staggering today. of how much the Iran has denied has been pursuing a nuke weapon despite having at one point enriched at 60% far above the threshold needed for a power plant. Now, that’s from the news. That’s not our sources. So that tells you what you’re actually dealing with here, how you trust them, what does it mean. He said they were good negotiators, then kind of came back and said, well, they’re bad negotiators. But I think I know what he means. They’re… They’re strong negotiators, at least you could say, whether you think that they are being foolish or not. Let’s go ahead and take another call. Let’s go to George in Florida, line three, watching on the Salem News Channel. Go ahead, George.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, my comment is that they have to have their teeth pulled. Otherwise, there’s not going to be any peace. I remember in 79 when they took over the embassy and everything these people do, especially the, I think it’s called the Republican Guard and the mullahs. Boy, I can’t stand those people. They have to be eliminated. The Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, they’re causing all the problems. And just think what this world could be if the Middle East could get it together. And I don’t think Trump is too wrong when he talks about a Mediterranean conflict. an area that would be like the Riviera, because that is possible.
SPEAKER 07 :
George, it’s a beautiful area of the world if you take away what you’re having to deal with from a political, and really it’s political. I wouldn’t even say it’s religious. A lot of this is people who are striving for power dictatorships. When you’re dealing with these kind of regimes, you see suffering. Iran, from what I’ve seen, like you said, pre-70s, these were beautiful places. Israel is beautiful. I’m sure there are areas that can be rebuilt as this amazing area. What does it look like long-term? I think it’s very difficult. The Middle East has never been easy since the dawn of time. But is it possible, George? I think we can at least strive for it. I think we can at least look to it. There is hope that this leadership will change over, that you would have a change of hands. Now, to me, the longer it goes… And the more issues that come up and the more negotiations that happen, the less I think that’s likely. And that’s unfortunate, but it’s also because of the way the American media works. As I’ve been saying and preaching for the last couple of weeks, as we’ve seen, the American media has decided for some reason, today may be the one day, maybe they changed their mind, but it feels like for the last three months, four months, they have championed the idea that the American people can think about one story at a time. They can think about Minnesota. they can think about uh iran for a minute then they can think about uh nancy guthrie then they can think about you know fill in the blank one story wall to wall 24 hours a day i simply don’t believe that’s true for the american people and for the people of the world and i want to give you the opportunity to hear from other stories and hear other perspectives of what’s happening around the world even in the world of the ACLJ and all the work that we’re doing. You’re going to hear from one of our attorneys coming up in the next segment. Because these are big global moments. And though they may not be as, this is talking about the President of the United States and the Ayatollah of Iran, the Supreme Leader of Iran, having essentially an online Twitter war that could lead to real war. but your eyes are supposed to be focused on another topic or only one other topic. And I don’t, I don’t play that game. Phone lines are jammed right now. They will open up 1-800-684-3110. As we head to the next segment, we are going to get back to this topic, but I do want you to hear some of the important work the ACLJ is doing. And today is one of those days. So I’m going to ask you also to sign our new petition. Go to aclj.org slash sign. Be a part of it. It’s a great way to engage with the work of the ACLJ. Even if you can’t give financially right now, sign a petition. Get involved in the email list and be part of the journey of being an ACLJ supporter, whether that’s financially or just as a prayer warrior or just someone who wants to get involved on a petition level or read our incredible content. None of it has a paywall. It’s all available at aclj.org. Again, ACLJ attorney Garrett Taylor joining us next. Rick Riddell is joining us in the back half. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Seculo. We are going to take more phone calls. We have two lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Look, always within the show, if I have the opportunity, I want to showcase not only one of our ACLJ attorneys, but also updates on some of these cases that you’ve been following now. Some of them for years, it feels like, but some of them just for months. Garrett Taylor’s joining us right now. Garrett, I want you to kind of give us, first, we’ve got to kind of take a step back. Give me a background on this specific case. I know a lot of our audience remembers it as soon as you jog their memory, but they’ll maybe need a little bit of a refresher on what we’re talking about here because there are some updates.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and this is a case out of Colorado, North Glen, Colorado, to be exact. If you remember, we filed a lawsuit back in November against the city of North Glen on behalf of pastors and members of three local churches out there who regularly minister in a local park. They have a ministry that worships and serves the local homeless population there.
SPEAKER 07 :
The food, everything.
SPEAKER 06 :
They take care of them. Exactly. And the city took issue with this. They subjected our clients to private meetings with city officials, which they have not done with other groups. They passed an ordinance which prohibits our clients from simply gathering in the park to exercise their faith and eventually cited them under that ordinance. And we fought the city on the criminal side of things. And eventually, as you may remember, those charges were dismissed by the city.
SPEAKER 07 :
So it started with a success. We moved forward. Things were great. But then it doesn’t seem to, all these cases always, they never seem to just wrap up in a bow and it’s over for at least the beginning stages. So, so far the battle has shaped to, we’ve got to the point where criminally,
SPEAKER 06 :
we’re all good but it’s not over right and the the rules this the ordinance is still there you know and and that’s what we’re challenging the ordinance bans groups of five or more people from gathering in the park on a recurring basis um and so we filed the lawsuit in um november The defendants filed their answer, and now we’ll be in court next month for a scheduling conference to go over some deadlines for this next phase of the case, which is discovery. And here, this is the critical aspect of the case, critical phase in the case, where we will gather all the facts and evidence, including requesting all sorts of documents and sitting these city officials down in depositions to shed light on what exactly happened here.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, because we’ll find out in these situations. Like you said, criminally, a charge could get dropped. But like you said, the law is still in the books. The rule is still in the books. Just because our client is taken care of from that point of view, we want to make sure that in the future… everyone so when you support the work of the aclj you understand that we’re not just representing one client of course we are representing clients but we are representing communities we’re representing the country and make sure that these kind of rules don’t stand why do you think though i mean the city was very i mean you don’t even think the city seemed to be specifically targeting this group um and now you’re at the point of going okay like you said sit them down and say uh how can we get this changed that’s really what the next step is
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. And we’re trying to figure out exactly why this rule was passed, why they haven’t gone after other similar groups. And our clients were the only ones that were cited under this ordinance. And we’re going to try to figure out exactly why that happened here. And that’s so important. As you mentioned, it doesn’t only help… our clients in this case individual but it but it helps um you know the whole city of north glen colorado it’ll set precedent for cities all around the country um that you know will try if they try to enact a similar role um you know they’ll be faced with the same opposition
SPEAKER 07 :
So, I mean, that’s why we have people like Garrett who are able to go on the ground to be a part of these journeys with our clients, but also help impact what the future of really America can look like. And we always want to shed, you know, when I, when I start this show and we talk about negotiating with Iran and we’re talking about big picture, uh, things will come war you know all of these these moments we’re going to go next over to rick grinnell in munich you know he’s over at the security council these are big worldwide events and i understand sometimes those feel like yeah that’s why i support the work of the aclj they’re on these global stages and look that is very very important but what is just as important is that people like garrett can go with this group in Colorado and take care of a church that wants to meet in a public park. Or you heard yesterday of the fifth grader who just wanted to bring their Bible to school for quiet time, to read whatever they wanted to read. Of course, a lot of this is ACLJ cases that feels like we’ve been arguing for 35, 40 years. But people need reminders that this is not how it all works, and that is why we have such an incredible team. So I always want to tell you, when you’re supporting the work of the ACLJ, you’re not just supporting these big lofty dreams that we talk about and these big goals and going to the UN. You are doing that. Because trust me, a flight to Geneva is a little more expensive than a flight to Denver. However, both are expensive. Both have real costs, but the cost never is incurred by the client. And I know I always reiterate that, but I want to make sure you understand that. That when one of these church groups comes to the ACLJ and says, we need help. We are being told we can’t be in this public park anymore and we don’t know what to do. They don’t have to incur a bunch of outside legal fees. because people like you support and you support on a financial basis. And we appreciate all of you that do that. We appreciate everyone who prays for the organization, for our team, for people like Garrett who are out there in the field doing the hard work. We appreciate everyone who just even watches this show each and every day. But of course, if you can support financially, I encourage you to do that. You know, as we wrap up this first half hour of the show, it is important that I always let you know, because some of you lose us here. We are available live every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time, throughout the world on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, on X, on Salem News Channel. We are available on all those outlets for the full hour live. Many of your stations do carry it, SiriusXM and others, but if you don’t, that’s a great way to do it. You can also find us archived later on as our podcast feed. However you get your podcast, you’re smart enough to figure that out. You can go to ACLJ.org, though, for all that content that’s available there. But what I’m asking you to do right now, is when you hear about these cases, maybe one day it will be your church, maybe one day it will be you, and you want to have us be there for you. And we’re only here, we’re able to only go and hire the incredible team that we have here, whether it’s senior attorneys that have been here for 30 years or people like Garrett who have been here a handful of years who are just starting their legal journey, but we’re able to put them in the field, in places, like I said, like going to Colorado and handling these situations or in states where you maybe not even think, Texas and some of these others where you’ve had issues. You never would assume that you’d be having the issues that you’re having, but it’s currently the climate of America right now. So as we wrap up this first half hour, I want you to think about supporting the work of the ACLJ. We are going to take you from Garrett here in our media center here in Tennessee, who’s representing this church group, this ministry group out of Colorado. And then in 20 minutes or so, 10 minutes or so, we’re going to be heading over to Munich. And you’re going to be hearing from Rick Grinnell, who is there at the Munich Security Council. And we’re going to be talking about the current governor of California, who’s, by the way, making his way to Nashville this weekend, who’s also in Munich. We have so much to cover. The scope of the organization is just tremendous at this point. And we had groups in yesterday from all over the world who want to partner with us here at the ACLJ. But to me, the most important voice has always been yours. So I’m going to ask you to take this opportunity as we head to break to think about, pray about supporting the work of the ACLJ. Usually this is where I want to say I really need your phone calls. Right now our phone lines are completely jammed. Where were you yesterday? Okay? I was sitting here by myself. Could have used you, but no. Stay on hold. We’re going to get to you. Again, we appreciate all of the support here at the ACLJ. Garrett, thanks for popping on. We’ll have you back on here soon, I’m sure, whenever there’s an update. We’ll be right back on Sekulo, but again, stay tuned. Second half hour coming up. Find it at ACLJ.org or wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 15 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo. And now your host, Logan Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Seculo. We have a pact. Second half hour of the broadcast right now. A lot of you have called in with your thoughts on Iran and how Trump is going to get involved in Iran. The Trump administration could get involved to just reset. There are ongoing meetings, ongoing negotiations. President Trump had some pretty bold words saying, you know what, I think they do want a deal. We need to make sure we try to work towards a deal. At the same time, Iran’s Supreme Leader essentially taunting America once again. Not uncommon for the Ayatollah. But here’s what he said on X and, of course, through foreign media, which I think you kind of need to hear both translations because I think they’re both a little different. On X, in English, but the U.S. president keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world. The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard it cannot get up again. The version that was published by Iranian media said the U.S. president says their army is the strongest in the world, but the strongest army in the world could sometimes be slapped so hard it cannot get up. Subtly different, but maybe a bit more extreme, a bit more propagandist on the second one. And of course, he also said that the Americans constantly say they’ve sent a warship towards Iran. Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware. However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea. And again, this is just today. All of those posts were made on X. So where do we lay right now? A lot of you have called in. There are concerns. In the next segment, we’re going to be joined by Rick Grinnell. We’re going to be pivoting a little bit, talking about what’s going on in the Munich Security Council. Also talking about how Gavin Newsom has gotten involved in that situation. Rick’s going to be joining us live from there, so that’ll be pretty interesting. Let’s go ahead and at least take one phone call. A lot of you have called in, and I want to make sure we get to you appropriately. We do have an ACLJ champion, George, from Georgia. On line five, let’s go to George, because when you’re an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a monthly basis, I want to make sure you get a little bit of a preferential treatment. I know some people don’t like that, but you know what? It’s part of the perks here. George, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate all you do. Listening to this… Talk about Iran takes me back to two things. One, when President Obama did not support the uprising in Iran, a lot of conservatives really spoke out against them. But now we seem to have a very similar type of situation, and it seems to be totally different. I don’t think the Iranian people in power right now are people that we can trust anyway. I just wonder where your thoughts are on that.
SPEAKER 07 :
George, yeah, I think the Green Revolution and all that, it does give you flashbacks to that as well, where you thought there would be a moment and the United States just simply didn’t maybe get involved as well as we could have. And we still see the Ayatollah in control. The uprising over the last few weeks felt like it had hit a point of no return. And I can’t say necessarily I feel that same way. I am conflicted, as a lot of people are, on how far you get involved in this. Now I’m probably more on the side of getting involved. Let’s just do it. But I understand the global impact of it. We had one caller called in and said, I don’t care if my prices go up. I don’t care if my oil hits $5 a gallon. I don’t care if I go through some financial hardships, if it means a better free world and a better Middle East, which will be a better thing for the entire planet. And while I agree with the sentiment, I think you have to judge some of this based on the American people and how it affects us and how it will affect us in a bigger, broader scale. We only have one minute in this segment, but if you are on hold right now, I want you to stay on hold because I will get to you coming up in the final segment of the show. We just opened up one line, though, at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us in the next segment. Rick is joining us live. He is in the Munich Security Council area, so we’re going to talk about that, security conference, and security. We’re going to talk about his favorite person, the governor of California, who is making his rounds right now in Munich and then making his way to Nashville, Tennessee. Right down the street. If you’d like to be on the show, by the way, I’d love to have him. If you’re in the area, Gavin, come on by. The door is open. Not literally, but if you reach out, we will let you in because I actually would love to hear from you. And based on this event that you’re having here in Nashville, I actually would have liked to. Because I would have liked to have heard what you have to say. However, there’s some interesting quirks about that event that I find pretty funny and pretty on brand for Gavin Newsom. Who wants to go to a book signing? But don’t get it signed. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We did open up two lines at 1-800-684-3110. Rick Grinnell’s joining us live from Europe. I do want to quickly, before we get to Rick, kind of set the stage here. That’s right, Governor Gavin Newsom of California. He was at that Munich Security Conference, had a lot to say. I want to play you Governor Newsom, and then we’re going to hear a little bit of Donald Trump’s response, and then I’m sure Rick’s got a lot to say. Let’s go, Governor Newsom, at the Munich Security Conference.
SPEAKER 02 :
I hope if there’s nothing else I can communicate today, Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years. California is a stable and reliable partner in this space. And it’s important for folks to understand the temporary nature of this current administration in relationship to the issue of climate change and climate policy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Clearly starting to make his rounds. We’ve known that he even said it would be disingenuous for me to not say that I’m not running for president. Now let’s hear from President Trump’s response. He’s also talking about AOC, who, as we remember, had that stumbling response in talking about Taiwan and China. Let’s go take a listen. President Trump.
SPEAKER 13 :
By the way, I watched AOC answering questions in Munich. This was not a good look for the United States. I watched Gavin Newsom answering questions for… in Munich. And this was a bad look for our country. This was a bad… These two people are incompetent. And at least Hillary’s competent. She’s just Trump deranged. She was so deranged. She is an angry woman. But I watched the other two speaking and answering basic questions. Look, Gavin has destroyed California. And AOC, I never really got her to… I never heard her speak very much. And They started answering questions. She had no idea what was happening. She had no idea how to answer, you know, very important questions concerning the world. But she can’t answer questions concerning New York City either because New York City has got some problems.
SPEAKER 07 :
Again, that was President Trump, his response to this. Rick, we also know, I want to get your read of the room as you were there in terms of Gavin Newsom’s response and how he did there. But we also know Gavin Newsom’s going to be still making the rounds and actually making his way to Nashville here in just a couple days. But from your global perspective, what are your thoughts?
SPEAKER 12 :
Oh, Logan, there’s so much there. I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, let me just say that I was at the Munich Security Conference. I saw Gavin Newsom walking around. He was the, you know, we’ve all been to those conferences where someone is just kind of walking around to the crowd looking for a camera. He didn’t really have appointments. He was just you know, looking to see if he could talk to people. It made me very uncomfortable as a Californian to see our governor just really, you know, floundering in Munich. And then when he started to speak, He went to this crazy radical climate change talk in Munich, and he just doesn’t know how to read the room of Europe because the Europeans are waking up, realizing that all of their green energy under Chancellor Merkel in Germany and some other leaders, they’re waking up to realize that the green energy focus is of getting rid of nuclear energy, getting rid of coal, was really a disaster for them. And to be honest, it is a very short link to the push for green energy and the over-reliance on climate change policy to run a government. It’s not that far to say that the problems that we have in Ukraine are simply because of leaders like Chancellor Merkel relying on green energy, relying on this climate change activism, which created the problem for the Ukraine war. Germany became dependent upon Russian gas because it was getting rid of its own ability to find large scale manufacturing based energy needed for a manufacturing based economy. And it created this dependence. And so Gavin is over there talking about going backwards. And I think it really made a lot of Europeans uncomfortable. And finally, I’ll just finish with The point that he’s making is about climate change and these new environmental policies is a terrible issue for the car industry. The car industry does not want to make two different types of automobiles, one for California, one for the rest of the world. That’s exactly what Gavin is pushing. And doing that in Germany with the German car manufacturers is a disaster.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it seems like he can’t read the room in those moments. And that’s been maybe a problem with Gavin Newsom in general is when you get to these moments where he could have be a maybe be that shining star that he wants to be. You look at what’s going on in Europe, it’s not dissimilar to America. There are people who are even on the side of him in terms of green energy and all the changes that can be made who go, you know what? That is not the number one problem right now. We have a lot of issues to be dealing with in Europe. We have a lot of issues, obviously, to be dealing with California. We’ve seen so much disaster happen in California. Start cleaning up your own backyard, if you will. But we also know that there’s a lot of big issues that are not dissimilar to where America is right now, where even those who care about green energy, and it may be a little bit down their list of priorities right now, when you feel like your city is burning.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, one thing is clear is that I think President Trump has done a very good job of reminding the world that Republicans want responsible energy policies, responsible environmental policies. Nobody wants dirty water, dirty air. But having… California demands that a car is uniquely manufactured just for California, which is what Gavin has demanded and what is happening right now, a completely different car to be shipped to California. I don’t think that California is so unique that it needs different cars manufactured in Germany. That’s exactly what’s been demanded of Gavin Newsom.
SPEAKER 07 :
And he’s been obviously positioning himself as this sort of antidote to Trump. You saw that in that statement that he made saying, you know, just give it three years. You know, it is what it is. And then he signed like a really like on paper statement. a response to Ukraine saying, you know, I will be your champion here. It feels very much as he has done in California, which is a lot of, even the way he’s handled with, I will be the friend to conservatives. It’s a lot of paper and it’s a lot of fluff.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s a lot of spending, too. Let’s be really clear. He has never been able to get a handle on a budget because he doesn’t care. He just spends taxpayer money. And I hope the Democrats nominate him because his spending habits, his crazy radical ideas do not work in the Midwest. They don’t work in swing states.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and he’s coming here to Nashville. I texted you last night because they made a big deal. Go see Gavin Newsom. He’s doing a book event with one of our local bookstores here. And look, as someone who is just curious and curious specifically with politics, I’m like, hmm, let’s see what he has to say. Maybe I’ll check in what’s going on. Gavin Newsom is coming here. Why not? And I look it up and I go, it is the most on-brand Gavin Newsom trying to be man of the people but somehow disconnected, which is he’s coming to Middle Tennessee. He’s getting in an ex-battle, a Twitter battle with Marsha Blackburn. about you know coming to Tennessee and the great policies that we’re going to turn Tennessee blue and then you start reading about this book event and unlike any other book event I’ve ever been to on this scale where you spend 50 75 dollars whatever it is to go to this book of it usually okay there’s either a line where you get your book signed you get a picture okay they don’t do that they pre-sign the books they give them to you what they tell you this one is not only are you getting the book you can pick it up later Gavin does not have time to sign these hundred books so sorry unsigned man of the people as you are
SPEAKER 12 :
I hope I get to see a picture of you and Gavin at that book signing. I hope you go.
SPEAKER 07 :
I would love to do it. I opened door. I said that already. I said, you know what? If he’s in town, he is the man of the people. I’m happy to hear from him. I’m happy to talk with him because I think, uh, you know, I, I believed like you, Rick, that California and New York city and these places, um, They are shining stars, if you will, in this country. They can be at least once again. And they were at one point, and I’m not abandoning ship on California, and I’m not abandoning ship on New York. These are places that everyone in the world wants to visit, and there’s a reason. Just because they have bad leadership right now doesn’t mean things can’t get turned around. I know you’ve been championing that charge for a long time.
SPEAKER 12 :
I’m so glad that you say that Logan, because the reality is, is that there are millions of Californians who are filled with common sense, want to vote for, uh, conservative policies. They just have to be encouraged one to get out there. And then we need a few more people who are sitting on the sidelines to register to vote. Remember 50% of your neighbors are not even registered to vote. And out of the 50% that are registered, uh, 40 percent show up for the polls. So the the number of people that are electing politicians is so small that if we just have enough people say, you know what, I want to get involved. I want to do what I can do. I’m going to go vote. I’m going to make it a priority. But to vote, you’ve got to register to vote first. If we had enough people do that, you could really swing voters. California. And remember, Los Angeles County is the largest county, not only in California, but in the entire country. You could flip a presidential race by flipping Los Angeles County.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s wonderful, Rick. Thank you so much for joining us. Enjoy Europe. Enjoy your time as much as you can there when we get back. Now it’s time to hear from you. did open up three lines i want you to be one of those people give me a call right now if you want to be on the air this is the time to do it probably last call to get on the airs right now 1-800-684-3110 see in the chat you say sometimes logan you say it too fast 1-800-684-3110 and while you wait or if you don’t want to call in great way to get involved with the aclj let’s go to aclj.org right now but aclj.org nothing is behind a paywall incredible content posted each and every day because people like you support the work financially again at aclj.org we’ll be taking your calls and comments when we get back for the last segment of secular Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Probably last chance to call in for the day. 1-800-684-3110. Stay on hold if you’re on hold right now. To set the stage, though, of course, a lot of this is in response to President Trump and the Ayatollah of Iran having their not only negotiations, but having a bit of a sparring match online and through the media. heard from the ayatollah essentially saying those big threats those big threats saying you know if they keep talking about this they may have the world’s strongest military but we’ll slap them in the face so hard they can’t stand up president trump responded to that take a listen then we’ll take straight to your calls bite one what are you expecting from these iran talks in geneva tomorrow so i’ll be uh
SPEAKER 13 :
involved in those talks, indirectly, and they’ll be very important. We’ll see what can happen. But typically, Iran’s a very tough negotiator. They’re good negotiators, or bad negotiators. I would say they’re bad negotiators because we could add a deal instead of sending the B2s in to knock out their nuclear potential. If we had to send the B2s, I hope they’re going to be more reasonable. They want to make a deal. Have you been told that a deal is next to impossible?
SPEAKER 1 :
No.
SPEAKER 07 :
i think they want to make a deal i don’t think they want the consequences of not making a deal they want to make a deal they want to make a deal they don’t want the consequences now let’s go to the phones there are three calls right now one being screened also for our fourth the three calls all have m names two of them are michael so listen clear carefully we’re going to go to michael we’re going to start with michael on line two in washington watching on rumble michael go ahead michael you there
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, I’m listening on the radio.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, I’m sorry about that. Michael, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, no one wants conflict, but if it happens, I’m sure it will be well-coordinated with allies in the region and otherwise well-planned, because you may only get one shot, maybe two. So hopefully it don’t come to that, but I… So yeah, if it’s coordinated well with allies and everything, like I said, and has to be done, do it right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Michael, I think some people do have those, like I said, those flashbacks to the war on terror. But you’re right. If we can partner with some of our allies, that would be great in these situations. I think there is some hesitancy. Understandably so. There are global impact in terms of going to war with Iran, what it would look like. And what does war look like again in 2026? I don’t know what an on-the-ground war looks like. I think it could be very different with the world of drones and the world of all of these other kind of more strategic strikes. We kind of can look at what happened with Israel and Gaza and go that was more of a traditional on-the-ground kind of war. Now, what does that look like for America and American troops? And what could that be? I think that opens up a lot of doors. Thank you for calling, Michael. I appreciate it. Let’s move on to, let’s go to Mansour, who’s calling in Tennessee. I’ll watch it on Rumble. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hello. Yes, I am second generation Iranian Persian. You have to punch the mullahs in the mouth. It’s hard to negotiate with them. But I think President Trump has made three key mistakes. I list them quickly. The first one is he told the Iranian people he has their back. That was about five or six weeks ago, and tens of thousands of countrymen have been slaughtered. Number two, President Trump said he obliterated the nuclear sites. The Iranians are laughing at him. He did not do so. And then number three, Iranians do not respect people that protect pedophiles.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, Mansoor, I appreciate you calling in. Here’s where I feel actually in your three points. The second point, I think you can kind of see Iranian propaganda in that situation and go, okay, who knows where their uranium enrichment is. Certainly it was taken out quite a bit. The first one being like saying, yeah, they’re back. I actually a hundred percent agree with you on that and go, you know, it’s been weeks now. And if you heard my enthusiasm a month ago, It was much different than it is today. And I said that I think a month ago I was overjoyed with the chance that you were going to see a true revolution happen there. And I feel like as time slips away, that becomes less and less likely. I hope I’m wrong because what president Trump has done before is I’ve woken up in the morning and there’s news alert and something crazy has happened. And all of a sudden they have done what they said they were going to do. It just took a lot of time to get there or it was an element of surprise and So you know what? You often forget even things like, I don’t know, the Maduro situation. We’re still living in that world. But again, it’s not on the news, not the number one story. It’s not even in the top 100 stories, it feels like at this point. We have three minutes, three calls. Let’s see if we can do it. Let’s go to Marion, who’s an ACLJ champion. You’re up first, Marion, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, just one quick comment about that. He also went to Nigeria, and he saved people from being murdered in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 07 :
True, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER 08 :
Go ahead. And he took his time. I hope he goes back soon and does that again. But the main reason I wanted to call was to let people know on the line that you guys are helping people around the world. There are places where injustices are being performed, and a lot of the people there want to hire an attorney to do it, but they don’t have money to hire an attorney. And our money goes to fund some of those locations so that attorneys can be hired and they can protect people around the world. That’s why you’ve got offices in Europe and elsewhere. So I just wanted to commend y’all for that. And I wanted the public to know that was the case.
SPEAKER 07 :
Mary, and I appreciate that. Look, it is sometimes hard, like I said, to pitch our worldwide scope. But we have an ECLJ, the European Center. We have ACLJ Jerusalem. And then we have other offices and places around the world, some of which we’ve talked about in the past, some of which we don’t talk about anymore. Some exist. Some have changed over. We had a great one in Russia for many years. And, of course, now you cannot get funding into those places. That had to wrap up. I hope one day, by the way, we can return to helping respect religious freedom in that area of the world. because it’s very important. But Mary and I appreciate it. The ACLJ, obviously hard at work here from one of our younger attorneys today. And of course, you’ll hear from senior attorneys all the time. Two minutes and three calls. Let’s go quickly to, you know what? I’m going to throw it over to Colleen in Virginia. Colleen, you’re next up. You’re probably my last call. Sorry, Michael and Matt, not gonna be able to get you today. Colleen, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, hello there, Joe. Just wanted to make a quick call and tell you how thrilled I was to hear the entire speech of Marco Rubio in Munich yesterday. I think all Americans felt so proud of him and what he represents of our stance in the world. If ever there was a knitting together, Marco hit the target because he said, we are all, you know, most of us are from Europe and started yet our own country here. And he, so he was very, uh, sure.
SPEAKER 07 :
If you don’t know what, uh, calling, calling only cutting you off for time. Um, if you know what you’re referring to, go back and listen to our show yesterday. We spent a lot of time talking about Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich security council. And she’s right. It was wonderful. The tone was great. The content was great. Getting standing ovations on the world stage from all the different countries. It felt like a moment of, okay, I could see what a future can look like that’s a little bit more unified once again, where Europe actually comes on board and America can work together. I was enthused by it. I know a lot of you have supported Marco Rubio over the years. Many of you probably voted for him at a primary here or there. Maybe you supported him as maybe you’re a Floridian. I know we had a huge Florida audience. But I thought it was a breath of fresh air. Colleen’s right. You wake up into a world of chaos and you have Gavin Newsom saying, you know, President Trump’s temporary. He’s only three years left. Well, then we got to start looking at what the future is. And that will start, by the way, kicking off in just a few months. Get through the midterms and the race to 2028 begins. It’s only a few months away. All right, everybody. What a day. I appreciate all of you joining me. I’m asking you to go to ACLJ.org. Sign that petition if you can. It has to do with Iran. It has to do with all of our work internationally as we defend Christians from persecution around the world and of all religious faiths. Go to ACLJ.org. Do it today. Talk to you tomorrow.
