In this gripping episode, the team delves deep into President Trump’s recent decision to re-list Nigeria as a country of particular concern due to egregious religious freedom violations. With insights from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the discussion reveals the crucial role of the ACLJ in highlighting the plight of persecuted Christians in Nigeria and the significant international legal implications of this designation. Explore the economic and diplomatic measures the United States could employ to pressure Nigeria’s government into action, and the broader global context of religious persecution.
SPEAKER 07 :
you got breaking news president trump takes a bold step to end a genocide of christians in nigeria keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo we want to hear from you share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110 And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome to Sekulow, another Monday, but today kicks off the month of November. And as I told you last week, November and December are two of the most important weeks to support the work of the ACLJ. And this weekend did not go quietly. There was a lot happening. President Trump made some big declarations, of course. finally as the aclj has been working on this for years what i mean here is you can probably go back five plus years of shows at least longer than that longer than that to go back and hear about us talking about christian persecution in nigeria and around the world and now attention is finally being turned to it so much so that president trump really starting to threaten action If the government of Nigeria does not get it together to stop this genocide of Christians that is happening within their country. And again, I want to make sure people understand that this situation, this is not the government committing this genocide. This is a terrorist regime. This is Boko Haram going in there and doing this, but the government has done very little to stop it. This is a majority Christian country in Nigeria. It’s not like we’re talking about this, but these are threatening sources and America saying, you know what? At some point enough is enough. And president Trump, made a pretty bold statement this weekend Jordan is joining me in studio Will is in studio we’re going to Mike Pompeo joining us a little bit later in the broadcast so it’s going to be a packed show but I think should we go over what President Trump had to say that’s right so President Trump relisted Nigeria as a country of particular concern this is a designation under the United States State Department
SPEAKER 06 :
And it comes from the Religious Freedom Act, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. And it’s for countries that have particularly severe violations of religious freedom, meaning systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. This is torture. This is killing. This is genocide. Things of that nature. And Nigeria was listed as that, much in part with the work that the ACLJ did with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo back in 2020 to get Nigeria on this list. One of the first things that the Anthony Blinken State Department did was remove Nigeria from this list and we have been fighting both at the UN and in the United States to try and have them re-put on that list. We even tried to work with the Blinken State Department But just a little over a week ago, Jordan, on October 24th, we sent this letter to the new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, asking for Nigeria to be redesignated as a country of particular concern. And over the weekend, actually on Friday evening, President Trump did just that by relisting Nigeria as this country of particular concern.
SPEAKER 09 :
Nice. there’s such things as divine timing because those of you who may have heard I mean last week when I joined the show briefly from Washington DC with Logan just for a few minutes it was because we were one announcing a new partnership with CPAC and the American Center for Law and Justice on ending Christian persecution worldwide because we are both organizations that have offices all over the world when you add to that the offices all over the world they have the meetings all over the world so that we can work again to end the persecution and the killing of our brothers and sisters so we start that with us there’s going to be a summit but we have and we have a kickoff event with the ACLJ with a lot of uh current and former members of the government uh and including the Speaker of the House who we played on Friday who stopped by that at the Museum of the Bible that we did this event with CPAC and the ACLJ hosted the reception on ending this persecution But earlier in that day, a smaller group of us met with top White House staff. And I remember Matt Schlapp, he pitched it right to me and said, Jordan, what’s the first thing they need to do? And I said, Nigeria’s got to be back on the CPC. The staff was concerned about doing it because of the oil and gas. That’s all I’ll say. And some of the security risks there. And yet the next day, a day and a half later, after the summit, with 3 million people watched, the CPC is signed.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, that shows you the impact of what’s going on here with our team. Of course, we are kicking off today our Freedom Drive for the month of November. You need to be a part of it, the ACLJ Freedom Drive. All your donations are doubled. If you give today, all your donations are matched and doubled. We’ll get into it a lot more coming up later in the show and throughout the month of how we are going to celebrate and how you’re going to get involved at ACLJ.org or scan the QR code. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are going to take your phone calls about this and other topics, but we’re going to focus on this right now. Of course, tomorrow is the election in New York.
SPEAKER 06 :
We’re 24 hours away. And in Virginia as well and New Jersey.
SPEAKER 08 :
A lot of these go hand in hand. These are very similar conversations that are happening. It’s just in different extremes, whether you’re talking about what’s going on with the Christian and the Jewish communities in New York City and, of course, to the much more extreme level of what’s going on in Nigeria. and other places around the world where christians are being not just uh persecuted if you will but been murdered and uh president trump put out a statement i want to make sure you heard from him and you got to uh hear from him he put out a statement and he made had some audio let’s go ahead and play uh president trump bite two just so you can set this up and then i’ll read to you his official statement they’re killing record numbers of christians I’m not going to allow that to happen. Of course, President Trump is saying that, and I’m guessing on Air Force One. Right. If not, what’s going on with the sound quality here, guys? I’ll be honest. I’m back from China. I’ll be honest. There’s a lot of new technology with sound. We can make this sound better.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know that we’re going through some rough air, actually, at that point.
SPEAKER 08 :
News outlets. I’m sorry. We can get it better. I know we can.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’ve got it myself.
SPEAKER 08 :
Oh, it’s CNN, Logan. There’s budget cuts. Yeah, I know they’re trying to turn it around fast, but it’s real time. You can get rid of a lot of that sound, okay? Here’s the actual official statement that came out from President Trump on truth. Social Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I’m hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern. That was in all caps, but that is the least of it. When Christians or any such group is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria, 3100 versus 476 worldwide, something must be done. I am asking Congressman Riley Moore together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee to immediately look into this matter and report back to me. The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria and numerous other countries. We stand ready. willing and able to save our great Christian population around the world. I’m going to restate that one again so our editors can use it for later on. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America. That is the official statement that again came out on Truth Social. I know there was a follow-up as well, but understand how strong these words are. These words are essentially saying, you better watch out. If we don’t get this together, that America is taking notice and not only going to take notice, but is going to take action. And that could be more than just some sanctions.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and that’s exactly where that second statement comes in. I know, Jordan, you want to read that as well. But I wanted to point out before we even get to the second one that. It started to get some attention from places you wouldn’t expect when President Trump put this out. Nicki Minaj, who is a rap star, an artist and very popular, not someone that you would normally think of as a President Trump supporter or fan. But she tweeted this on or put this out on X. Logan will correct me. with a screenshot of President Trump’s first statement from True Social and said, reading this made me feel a deep sense of gratitude. We live in a country where we can freely worship God. No group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion. We don’t have to share the same beliefs in order for us to respect each other. Numerous countries around the world are being affected by this horror, and it’s dangerous to pretend we don’t notice. Thank you to the president and his team for taking this seriously. God bless every persecuted Christian. Let’s remember to lift them up in prayer.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Nicki Minaj is actually very interesting because she has kind of flirted with conservative and Christian views throughout her career. Obviously, someone, if you listen to and maybe a fan of, you may go, well, how does that connect? You know what? That’s not for me to judge or say. We should be happy that there are people out there willing to actually write so eloquently these kind of statements. Let’s just be honest. That is probably a more… I would think that statement would come out of the President of the United States more than the statement he made. I love the statement President Trump made because he’s so aggressive. But you know what I’m saying? That was a very eloquently beautiful written. But of course, you know what Newsmax did? Or not Newsmax, I’m sorry, Newsweek. I just saw their article because I was like, what are people saying? The big question they’re raising is, is Nicki Minaj a Republican? That is the headline. And they say they have reached out to her representative for email to confirm whether or not she is a Republican. Why it matters? Because she has 43 million social views on her social media posts. And, you know, she’s drawn significant attention for it goes on this whole thing. It’s like not about the topic at hand.
SPEAKER 06 :
The fact that the president of the United States is calling out what is a genocide, 70% of Christians that are killed worldwide for their faith happens in one place, Nigeria. So 70% of people being killed for their Christian faith in the world is happening in Nigeria, Jordan.
SPEAKER 09 :
The statistic that I think is all you have to kind of keep in your mind. Just last year and the killing has not gotten better. It’s only gotten worse Just last year in 2025 There’s an average of 32 to 35 Christians killed each day in Nigeria Because they were Christians 35 a day throughout the entire year of 2025 Then when you look at the next report What does that amount to so far in this year? 7,000 Christians have already been killed in this year alone. I mean, so we are talking about persecution at its, again, highest level. And there’s got to be action taken on the ground. The Nigerian government has the resources to do it if the world puts that pressure on. The first step in the world putting that pressure on is the leader of the free world, the United States of America.
SPEAKER 08 :
So what does that action look like for Nigeria? And then if they don’t, what does that action look like for America?
SPEAKER 09 :
So there’s two things that come with being on a country of particular concern unless they’re important. One, companies now who do business there also now have an interest in making sure you get your act together. Because let’s say you are one of those big oil and gas companies with corporations and activities in Nigeria. The worst thing that could happen to you as a company… for that part of your company is for Nigerian oil or gas to be sanctioned. That means that it cannot be sold to the United States or purchased by US-based businesses. CPC designation allows the president to take just one step. to institute that kind of restriction on their ability to impact trade. But that doesn’t just affect Nigeria, Logan. Like I said, that then means that big oil and gas companies based in America that do work in Nigeria now also need to go to the Nigerian government and say, get this under control or else we will no longer be able to do business with you and we’ll have to stop our operations in Nigeria. But everyone who does business in the United States on notice that you’re a step away if you don’t get your act together from being cut off from the world’s economy.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well and Jordan you also brought up that there’s a second step as well and that’s what President Trump alluded to in his second statement on this. I know you wanted to read that as well to the audience.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think the second step is what he talks about here in his second remark just a day later. If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria. That’s also something you can do under the CPC. So you’re not just saying you might be sanctioned. We’re also going to stop giving you money if you’re going to tell us that you don’t have the resources to better protect these communities. First of all, that’s not the truth. The truth is… these soldiers don’t want to protect certain areas because there may be though religious similarities they may both be christians they could come from different tribal backgrounds and tribal backgrounds and so they don’t want to be the ones sent to defend this other tribe Also, the government wants to keep its military from fighting out with Boko Haram. They want to keep them around them to keep them safe so that their major cities are able to operate. And this is just kind of happening off in the hinterlands, away from major cities. But when 35 people are being killed a day in a country we do business with like this, President Trump is going to go further. So he said, again, the assistance would cut off and it may go into that now disgraced country. Guns a-blazing. That we may go in. to that now-disgraced country, guns a-blazing to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists. I was with Eric Prince, actually, famous for founding Blackwater. On Thursday, he was at our summit. He is trying to work right now with the Nigerian government and could play a role with this U.S. action in contracting it out for them to go in and protect these communities.
SPEAKER 08 :
When you hear about that, whether that’s through them or whether that’s through American military force, what do you think? I know there’s been a lot of push, a lot of recent, especially when we’ve had Israel and Gaza and everything that’s happened over the last, Russia and Ukraine over the last few years. How do you feel about the U.S. getting involved in this? Obviously, here at the ACLJ, we’re very supportive of what President Trump is saying. That’s something we have been fighting for for years. Yes, and somewhat it’s a breath of fresh air to have these kind of moments happening. But I want to hear from you and your thoughts next segment. Mike Pompeo is joining us. But then after that, I’m going to take as many calls as I can. So 1-800-684-3110. Are you in favor of this? I know right now, especially in this first half hour, a lot of you are listening on Christian radio. You want to get involved in where you want to support Christians. And maybe… Your heart is being pulled a little bit differently right now. And you’re going, this is where we need to be talking about what’s happening here. Maybe not just some of the sort of fluff that’s happening throughout the country and throughout the world. This is where people are being murdered for their faith. This is where, you know, this feels like biblical times happening in Nigeria. Do you want us to get involved as the United States of America? Well, I’ll take both sides here. Or any side. 1-800-684-3110. That being said, 25 seconds left in this segment. It is the kickoff day. Help us launch strong of the ACLJ Freedom Drive. The two most important months of the year are right now. November. We’re here. We all know freedom isn’t free, folks. And we know that we need to be there to fight for your freedom. And we need your support. Have your gift doubled today. That’s right. If you give $10, it becomes $20. If you give $100, it becomes $200. That’s at ACLJ.org or scan the QR code. Welcome back to Secula. We’re now joined by Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, obviously a lot in the news this week about Nigeria. President Trump announced online the relisting of Nigeria as a country of particular concern. This is something we’ve worked with you on when you were Secretary of State to achieve even during the first Trump administration. What’s this designation mean for those who are watching and how can it help those who are suffering in Nigeria? Because again, it’s been something that’s been the top of our minds, including yours for many, many years. And though it took time, it’s finally getting the attention it deserves.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, this has taken far too long. You’ll recall that when I was Secretary of State, I designated with the President’s approval, Nigeria is a country of particular concern. That’s a kind of a fancy term for violating a legal requirement to protect adherence to the Christian faith, whatever country, whatever place you may be. The International Religious Freedom Act requires that. And when the Secretary of State determines that the country is not upholding that standard, it designates them as a country of particular concern. What does it mean? It means that now the full weight of the United States in many diplomatic ways and many economic ways can now be brought to bear to convince the Nigerian government to do the basic thing that we asked them to be tolerant of religious freedom inside of their own country and to protect those persons in Nigeria, mostly in the north, who are Christian, who are simply trying to live their lives and practice their faith and are being murdered by their fellow Nigerians.
SPEAKER 06 :
Mr. Secretary, when you look at the statistics of what’s going on in Nigeria, and I know, once again, this is something that has a place in your heart as you did the work while you were Secretary of State, but you hear things like, on average, 32 Christians were killed every day in Nigeria as the latest statistic. You talk about 70%. of Christians that are killed for their faith in the world are being killed in Nigeria. You hear that 12 million Christians have been displaced since 2009. You talk about almost 8,000 abductions. This is something that when you actually see the statistics is shocking and clearly a genocide that’s going on against Christians. Why do you think that something that is as egregious as this is that’s happening in Nigeria doesn’t really break into the mainstream? It’s not something we hear about. It takes people like the president and people like you and the current secretary of state who are willing to put it out there and take these steps because it’s clearly not the popular cause on college campuses in this country.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, isn’t it ironic that these folks who profess to be tolerant in defending freedom are completely intolerant and say nothing about what’s happening to Christians in Nigeria in the same way that they often don’t protect Jews that are living in Israel, right? They just have their own favored religion. religion their own favorite faith their own favorite people uh you’re right i think what you started with here is really important the scale of what’s taking place here is enormous nigeria seems like a long ways away i get it for many americans but for us as believers this is a major country that has islamist murderers killing christians in the northern part of nigeria and we ought to at the very least call it out identify it raise it as a systemic problem We should support the Nigerian government and tell them, no, you’ve got to go fix it. If you can’t, we will help you. And if they don’t, we need to do the necessary to protect and defend those Christians, just as we do for people of every faith in every country all across the world. It’s been at the center of American policy. I was appalled when the Biden administration under Secretary Blinken undid the designation as soon as they came into office. And I’m very proud of America that once again, Secretary Rubio has done something the righteous thing and designated them as a country of particular concern and now offered our support to protect these Christian believers in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Secretary Pompeo, I’m looking at the comments here and I’m actually very pleased to see a lot of the calls calling in saying, yeah, we’re happy to help. We think America should get involved. I was a little concerned, to be honest, because of sort of the rhetoric that has come out over the last handful of years, some even from the right, with our, you know, the relationships we’ve had with Ukraine and getting involved there or with Israel and getting involved there or how we could obviously we haven’t had boots on the ground in either of those but of course there’s been a lot of pushback even within the conservative movement on what America first really means but I’m glad to see that the comments here are saying hey So yeah, we need to get involved. We know what this means. We know when we see these numbers that Christians are being persecuted. And when we say persecuted, it’s not even what’s happening in America or in the streets here at all. We’re talking about mass slaughter. And if the government can’t get involved, can’t do enough for them, we should step in.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m heartened by that as well. Although I must say, I don’t think I’m surprised. American people are good at heart. They understand that basic Judeo-Christian traditions in America and the ability to practice our faith wherever we are in the world is important. It’s important to every American. And so I’m glad to see that. There are so many things that we can do. One of them is to support this organization, our team here. the aclj does amazing work and has done so to protect people of every faith including christians all around the world when i was a secretary of state this institution you and your team did so much to support the american effort there i hope we’ll all stay at it hope we’ll all do our part this is an important part of who we are as americans an important part of protecting our own nation as well
SPEAKER 06 :
And when you also see the president of the United States who clearly listens to people that bring him this this type of information and cares about it as well, that he doubled down and said that if the government of Nigeria won’t do something that that basically the United States will, that, you know, when you have these Islamist groups that are tied to ISIS, that are. still able to have their roots down and really the government hasn’t been able to push them back or to put an end to what’s going on. Does this seem like a real moment for change for those suffering in Nigeria that how much attention even the president of the United States is giving this issue?
SPEAKER 03 :
Boy, I hope so. It’s deserved and it’s necessary. I do recall these conversations on Nigeria in particular, but more broadly on religious freedom with President Trump. He would see these things. We show him pictures, we show him the terrible tragedies that were taking place against the Muslim Uighurs in China, against the persecuted peoples in other parts of Africa as well. And we would show him, or the Christians who were in Northern Iraq, And he would truly feel that there was something that America must do. And so he gave us all, as his team, the green light to do what I am confident he has told Secretary Rubio, that is go out, make the case, make the argument, demonstrate to the American people why this matters, and then deliver a wider swath for people who are simply trying to practice their faith in their own countries.
SPEAKER 08 :
Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for joining us today. I’m glad you also talked about how the ACLJ has been involved in this and you as well for so many years. And that’s why when today we kick off our Freedom Drive for the month of November, obviously a lot of you are headed towards the holidays right now, headed towards Thanksgiving. You’re starting to think about all the different ways you can support different organizations, where your finances can go towards the end of the year. And look, we know things are tight right now. We know there’s a lot of uncertainty in this world, but one of the certainties you can have is that the ACLJ team is hard at action always, never sleeping, always going 24 hours a day around the world. So when you hear about what’s happening in Nigeria, when you hear what’s happening in Europe, the ACLJ has our European center. We have our offices in Jerusalem. We have offices around the country. And of course, Jordan has been in Washington, D.C. And Jordan, you’ve been talking about that expansion significantly. And we’ve already seen now the fruits of that labor happening within the last few days.
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, that’s right. I mean, when you actually look at just what we did last week, and again, I’m not going to name names. I don’t think it was anyone’s fault. They would just say, when we went into the White House and said, listen, the first thing that needs to be done is Nigeria’s got to be back on the CPC. It wasn’t like that’s going to be easy. It was like, that could take some work. Now, did any of the audience in that group or room say, we’re not going to do that work? Absolutely not. We said, okay, that work starts today. And we came back, we kind of got together. We hosted this big reception the night before the summit, all talking about these issues in front of people like Speaker Johnson. We’re on board with it. And then the next day had a summit at the Kennedy Center with all these different folks. But Nigeria was at the top of everyone’s mind. And then we get, after this message gets out from the White House and to all the others, we get the statement on Truth Social that Nigeria’s back on the CPC. And even with a bigger kicker from President Trump. But I will tell you, that’s the ACLJ’s work at hand since 2011.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. Go to ACLJ.org. Scan that QR code you see right now. Join us in Freedom Drive. Second of hour coming up. If you don’t get us, find us on ACLJ.org or however you get your podcasts. We’ll be right back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 08 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Second half hour coming up. We’ve got a packed show. Will Haynes, thank you to the producers joining me in studio, as well as Jordan Sekulow, who just got back from Washington, D.C. And obviously we are seeing what he’s been up to and how it’s already impacting our world here. The ACLJ just kicked off our Freedom Drive. That is for the month of November. There’s going to be a lot of different ways you can get involved throughout this month. But of course, right now, this is just the very beginning. Help us start really strong. It gives a lot of confidence to our team, and we know we’ve got a big opening day. Help us have a big opening day here for this drive. All donations are doubled, so that’s right. If you give $20, it becomes $40 at Impact, and you know, so on and so on. And we’re doing a lot of work also in Washington, D.C., and of course, you’re going to hear about Jack Smith and some of those things always, but now the ACLJ is getting involved, and we’re going to break that down for you next. in the next segment, how we’re getting involved. And of course, the main topic of today is a topic that has been on the minds and hearts of ACLJ supporters and champions for years and years now. And that is our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria and around the world who are being persecuted. When we say persecuted, we mean it. We don’t mean it in terms of, oh, you couldn’t have your Bible club. Of course, that’s bad. You couldn’t have your Christmas display. Of course, that’s bad. We’re going to always support you. We’re always going to be there for that. We’re talking about people that are losing their lives and not a few people. We’re talking about dozens a day that are losing their lives because of their faith. And again, this isn’t the government of Nigeria doing it. These are terrorist organizations. But the government could be doing more to stop it. They simply aren’t. So President Trump is getting involved and saying, you know what, if they don’t, we are going to help. We can’t let this happen. It’s a big moment. You know, I don’t think we should be celebrating. That’s the wrong word. But no, the ACLJ action that you have been working at for years is really starting to pay off. And as the Washington, D.C. office expands, this is a big deal. And none of that happens without you. None of that happens without all of your support financially. And of course, those who just watch, that helps a lot too. If you just subscribe, if you just put in the comments, look, I’m always looking for comments and I know people are like, well, I got nothing to say. I don’t know what to do. Here’s what I like to do. And as I take this next call, I’d like you to do it. Just put in the comment where you’re watching from. If you’re watching on YouTube or rumble right now, or any of the outlets that have a chat live chat, if you’re watching us live, because know that that really helps what helps us know where you’re you’re you care about. Like if we see, Hey, we got this many people from Texas. That’s great. We’re monitoring all of it. But then we see people from around the world because if you were able to reach. Every point with the internet and free internet in terms of a freedom of speech, you will find us there. If they have YouTube, we’re there. And it’s really been amazing.
SPEAKER 06 :
Look, I did want to bring up a point that you’re talking about how long we’ve been fighting for this. We had our team pull together a list of the actions that we’ve taken on Nigeria since 2011. And it’s six pages long.
SPEAKER 1 :
2011.
SPEAKER 06 :
2011. So just shy because it was January of 2011 is the first thing on here. So just shy of 16 years that we have been or 15 years that we have been working on this. And when you also look at the fact that it took nine years jordan for us to get the first designation of country of particular concern it was towards the end of the trump term uh the first term why is that because like you said there are there’s a lot of voices in dc and it takes a long time to break through on some of these issues fortunately uh that was a great move because we’ve been working since the obama administration to get there however What did the Biden administration do? Overturned it. One of the first things that Secretary Blinken did as Secretary of State was overturn this designation. We’ve got it again from the president, from Marco Rubio, early. in this administration, which means that there’s a real chance that something can be done about it because it’s not like all of a sudden there’s going to be a change in administrations and they’re going to undo it and take away all the teeth of what the US government did. It was so incredible that Secretary Pompeo was able to get it done. But when it was taken away, all the teeth went away. Now we have it early. Now what we’ve been fighting for since 2011 in this six-page document of actions around the world, we’re hopefully going to start seeing some real action to get this genocide to stop in Nigeria.
SPEAKER 08 :
And we’ll be involved in it. We’ll be expanding our efforts. We’re going to get involved as much as we can. Of course, at ACLJ.org, you can help us get there. Because none of this happens because of you. If you hear ads in your local market, that doesn’t go to us. That goes to the network. If you get ads on YouTube, know that that is so little in terms of our budget. That just maybe will pay off maybe, maybe half a salary of someone who does our YouTube productions. I mean, this is what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about things that are moving the needle here. What moves the needle is you getting involved on an individual level. Do it today. When we get back, we’re going to kick it off with some calls. Michael, stay on hold. You’re next as an ACLJ champion. You’ll be up first. Welcome back to Secular. We only move on to another topic, but I quickly wanted to hop to phone calls, and if you want to call in 1-800-684-3110 in the next segment, we’ll take as many calls as we can. Let’s go to Michael, though, because he’s an ACLJ champion calling from Texas. When you’re a champion, you give on a monthly basis, automatically, like a membership. But one of the little perks I always give, it’s not like all listed on the perks, is I like to, if you tell our phone screener, I bump you up to the front, because you know what? You’re the backbone of the organization. You are creating that baseline for us, and I appreciate it. Michael in Texas, go ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yes, thank you for taking my call. I’m listening on SiriusXM. My question is dealing with the persecution of the Christians. Where is the UN, and why haven’t they done something about this long ago?
SPEAKER 08 :
Sure, the ACLJ is really involved in the UN, as you know. They are all the time, whether that is virtually or in person, whether it’s Jordan, whether it’s Cece, our team is involved in the UN and Will reached out and got some answers.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. Well, one, when I mentioned that document that is six pages long from 2011, a lot of the work is the ACLJ’s work at the UN. I mean, starting with UPR, which is Universal Periodic Review, where we And our attorneys and those in our international team write the conditions of human rights, especially as we’re concerned of religious persecution in the country. And that goes back more than 10 years, the work we’ve been doing there and recently giving oral interventions on Nigeria. It is way through here, looking at all these statements to the UN Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Council, all of these actions that we’re taking not just here in the United States but at the UN to raise awareness on this. Now, the UN as a whole has mostly been focused on the issue of the internally displaced persons. I mentioned that since 2009, 12 million people have been displaced in Nigeria as a result of this violence. So In typical fashion, the UN is mostly looking at it not from a Christians are being persecuted issue, but they’re like, there’s refugees, people that are displaced, we need to get humanitarian aid, but not really with the teeth that’s trying to end a genocide.
SPEAKER 09 :
nations and why we’re there always to fight because when I was there on the Congo which we also were working on at the White House and last week on this new coalition we’re part of the ACLJ is when I testified I was the only person who testified on the fact that the UN has been silent unlike the European Parliament which made it clear that those being killed are Christians in eastern Congo and people doing the killings are Muslims and So to leave out that fact is to not fully accept what is happening on the ground, which is Muslim extremist groups feel like they can target these Christian communities who are not prepared to protect themselves against violent offshoots of groups like, again, that are being funded out of Rwanda or, for instance, in Nigeria, groups like Boko Haram, which are part of the Islamic State Network.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. So hopefully that gives you an update. Now I want to move on to another topic. We will take more calls on that topic, so don’t worry. If you’re calling in on that, stay on hold. We will get to it. And if you want to call in about it, 1-800-684-3110. Then, of course, you’ve heard a lot of our updates over the last few weeks on Jack Smith and some of that, I guess you’d say, maybe spying maybe is the wrong word, but it feels like the right word. Going over some of the top conservatives, and now we’re finding out hundreds and hundreds of outlets and all the things that are happening right now spying on phone records, finding out information. And of course, there are some top senators who are getting involved in this. Well, I want to give you a bit of a breakdown that Jordan can take where we’re going with it.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And this also comes with the expansion of our DC office and the way that we are targeting corruption in government or fighting for the persecuted. And Jordan, a lot of your work last week overlapped with needing to get these things in order before we move forward so you’ve had a busy last couple weeks as we’ve gotten to this point but what we are doing is we are going to be going after and investigating the investigators to some degree about what was really going on with that arctic frost investigation that picked up the phone records of think it was 12 senators at the end of the day that had a subpoena issued for their phone records ted cruz notably at t refused to offer it but another thing that’s also come out of that jordan is that the judge that signed off on the subpoena for ted cruz and also signed the document where the phone companies could not tell the target was Judge Boeseberg out of DC, who was the one who was issuing all the nationwide injunctions. So there’s a lot here, but the ACLJ is now taking action on this.
SPEAKER 09 :
So a little bit of a preview for those who watch. and participate in our show because we’ll be getting this out officially tomorrow we’ll be filing a FOIA that is the first step you take that FOIA against various agencies within the Department of Justice that would include of course the FBI as well and to these special prosecutor investigations that emanate out of the Department of Justice we don’t have an independent counsel anymore in the United States that emanates out of Congress this all goes to DOJ request and not only is the ACLJ filing this FOIA. But we, it’s a very cool situation. We thought, you know, we’ve got a lot of close relationships because you said, look, these are like the senators who you hear on this broadcast. The ones that we represent, I mean, we’ve all been on this show before and some are on regularly. Like even as of the last week, while we were talking about different issues that were going on. So what they have done in this initial step is to make sure and endorsed our FOIA. So we filed with court because we’re looking for information about them so that it can also, also that information can be shared with them. And so on behalf of the ACLJ, on behalf of senators, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Cynthia Loomis, Bill Hagerty, and Tommy Tuberville is filing this FOIA demand. They’ve all endorsed it. That’ll be happening tomorrow. We’ll get more into the details on what exact information we’re looking for. And as you know, The Department of Justice, even under the Trump administration, it’ll be backed up. It’ll take time. It might even take filing a lawsuit to get the information. We hope we don’t have to do that. And then you have to look after you get the information and say, you know, were there other wrongs committed here that may need to be righted in a court system?
SPEAKER 06 :
and i also think it’s fascinating how broadly we are sending this it’s not just to the department of justice we’re sending it to the doj of course but the fbi and all the subdivisions of the doj national security division the executive office of u.s attorneys we’re sending it to the criminal division the office of legal counsel the office of the assistant attorney general the deputy attorney general and all of these different divisions within the DOJ to make sure that this goes as broadly as it can to get as much information as we can. And it’s all regarding the Arctic frost investigation.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that’s right. Look, we have a few minutes here to go through it, but understand as we head into next time, we’re going to take calls at the work of the ACLJ. I mean, this is how deep we’re talking about here. Probably two of the biggest stories that have come out Over the last couple of weeks, we have been involved in either for years when it comes to what’s going on in Nigeria. Of course, Jordan went through some of the pressure points that we’ve been able to put on as an organization. That’s important to understand is being sort of outside. Obviously, our offices are headquarters in Washington, D.C. We are right there. We are really involved there. But we have that outside influence where Jordan and his team. can get in these meetings and not feel like they are pressured to just do what the politicians want them to do or do what they’re being pushed to do and say, no, we know what you, the American people want. And we also know worldwide what’s happening because our team have been in these countries. Our team have been representing people in these countries for so long, including in the United States government. We have been involved in supporting those that are in need around the world. All of that is because after 35 plus years of building this organization, we are constantly evolving and changing and growing. We, if you look at what this show looked like 10 years ago, what looked like five years ago and what it looks like today, there are intentional reasons why things change. There’s an intentional reason why the Washington DC office has, has expanded so aggressively in the last few months. Even there is a reason why we have moved in and out of different countries. Because we are being strategic and we are using all of the funds that come in appropriately because of people like you who support the organization. We know what you want also us to get involved in. We know what’s important to get involved in. We also know where you want us to get involved. And a lot of that happens on the state side and we are very much involved in that. You know some of the cases we’ve been doing. You’re on for street preachers and we’re still involved in all of those things that really were the original pro-life protesters. All those things are still happening. Of course, during many of those were a part of what you were doing in Washington, D.C. You had Pat Mahoney there. You had the team there who those people have been out there getting arrested for being pro-life activists for the better part of 50 years, probably at this point.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right. I mean, these are, I guess, Pat Mahoney has been arrested 112 times. I will tell you, his most prominent arrest, we have been there to make sure he is released, but also win in court on behalf of him, not just for the release, but to, again, sometimes those arrests have led to seminal Supreme Court cases about the freedom of speech on the sidewalk. And now we’re starting to see, for the first time really in my legal career and in my dad’s legal career. So, I mean, think about that. The first time the Supreme Court is actually looking at the free exercise of religion as something that actually means something. Again, when you read these rights that the government says we all inherently have and that they must protect. All of this work going on at the ACLJ right here at home in the United States to protect your freedom of speech, your freedom of worship, your freedom to petition the government. And Logan, of course, engaging around the world to protect and hope save on this earth so many of our Christian brothers and sisters facing persecution.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. When we get back, we’re going to take your calls. But between now and then, support the work of the ACLJ. Scan that QR code you see right now or easily just go to ACLJ.org. Be a part of the Freedom Drive kickoff. Welcome back to Seculo. Take your phone calls now. A lot of you have called in and we have one line still open at 1-800-684-3110. A lot of very specific questions. We’ll do our best to answer as many as we can. Some of you have been also on hold for a very long time. We’ll do our best to get to you. Let’s go to Allison who’s calling first in North Carolina who is watching on X. Allison, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, with all due respect to President Trump and his administration, why exactly are we waiting? My prayers are with all people who are persecuted everywhere. I think it’s up to each one of us to help from wherever God’s placed us.
SPEAKER 09 :
Again, waiting, remember, we’re not even into the first year of this presidency, and we’re talking about military actions. So having to go in and use U.S. resources and ask our allies to use their resources to go into Nigeria to protect these Christian communities. And the first step is to say, we already provide, like President Trump says, in why he’s listing them, we already provide all these resources to… to Nigeria, they need to now go and show the world and the United States so that they don’t get additional sanctions and things like that, that they are actually going to go out and try and protect these communities with their own military. So that’s the first step. Then you look at that and if they continue to fail to do so under this CPC and based on what President Trump said, I like how he said it too because, Logan, I think it speaks to those who don’t want to get into long-term boots-on-the-ground conflict in Nigeria that’s not very well spelled out. Who are we attempting to, who are the bad guys, who are the good guys, and what does victory look like? Those things now need to come together. all at the beginning to really get the American people on board. But what President Trump says in the statement saying that he would go in guns a-blazing, he said, I hereby am instructing our Department of War. He said guns a-blazing, but to prepare for possible action if we attack, it will be fast. vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians. So what he’s saying there is not long-term. We’re going to go in, wipe them out. It’s going to be done fast.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, actually responded to that and said the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria and anywhere must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian government protects Christians or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. And I think it also piggybacks Jordan off of the outrage that we saw at the beginning of the administration over Doge and things like USAID. And when you then start to realize that countries like Nigeria have been receiving USAID grants and money for decades.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 06 :
And it’s done nothing to stop this. And you’ve heard nothing from the people that were so upset about the shuttering of USAID. about this genocide that’s taking place. They didn’t say, but the Christians will suffer because in reality, we know that the USAID money wasn’t really going to end or help or alleviate this at all. That’s right.
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, overall, so now you’re seeing, and you’ve heard from us, that this has been ongoing since 2011. Yeah. and that the Trump administration finally labeled Nigeria as a country of particular concern and Secretary Pompeo had a lot to do with that and the Biden administration immediately removed Nigeria and there are a lot of things at play in Nigeria there’s oil and gas industries it’s a huge country and also China China is operating at a level that is it is really unheard of throughout the continent not just a country in Africa but the continent of Africa so taking a military action is more complicated than just we’ve got the drones and here’s the bad guys it’s also to make sure that the Chinese aren’t too close to those bad guys you’re about to shoot out and you end up know shooting at some kind of Chinese facility so that’s why again he’s saying draw up the plans now so that Nigeria doesn’t start doing its work we can get it done and in this persecution quickly so we’ll have the plans to do that which means who to target who to take out likely without any U.S. boots on the ground in a way that we’ll ever know about.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah let’s go to Timothy in Texas with a question of kind of a follow-up here listening on the radio Timothy you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 05 :
Gentlemen My good brothers, God bless you and your families in your ministry. Thank you. We keep you in our prayers. We really appreciate it. We have, I know my time is short, so I’ll talk fast. We have families from the Sudan, from Nigeria, and the Congo in our family, in our church family. And the lady from Nigeria was in tears yesterday begging the church to pray for what’s going on over there. So what can we do besides supporting you, which we do in prayer and financially? What can we do? Can we call the office of the president and say, yes, go in there? Do whatever it takes.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, Timothy, I mean, those first two things are great. We thank you for the prayers and obviously pray for everyone in Nigeria and pray for guidance of the president and for their own leadership to take action. We know that that is a big concern right now. They are kind of downplaying it, the government in Nigeria. They, of course, this is a country that is majority Christian, but is being overtaken by these extremist terrorist groups and they’re not being taken care of. When it comes to, though, how the American people can get involved beyond Jordan prayer, and support. Are there people they should call? Is there anything that we can do? Or at this point, does President Trump seem like he’s ready to go?
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I mean, I think what you want to do right now is we really, we talked about this in the summit, is go to your local community at your church. And it sounds like some of these folks are at those. Speak out. The President, President Trump, to take any further actions other than the CPC is going to need support. And that means that you need to go into your communities with the information we provide, and it’s all available at ACLJ.org, to make yourself kind of an expert on this persecution in Nigeria and why it might be key that the U.S. take additional steps to protect those Christians. Know those numbers. The fact that 35 Christians will be killed today while you’re hearing my voice, 35 predominantly women and children, are going to die today at the hands of Islamic extremists in Nigeria. Make sure your church knows that and knows that President Trump has pledged that if Nigerian government doesn’t get it done to protect these people, we’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it quickly.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I want to just echo that Jordan as well. And he mentioned other countries like Sudan, Congo, of which the ACLJ has ongoing work. I mean, you have been to South Sudan. You are very familiar with the conflict that has been going on between Sudan and South Sudan as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
So when you look at all this group successfully removed in Africa, I would say when you looked at the groups in Kenya. Initially, remember the attacks that they were carrying out in Nairobi and other places? They were taken out, those kind of ISIS-backed groups during the Arab Spring. It doesn’t mean they can’t prop up again, but what that means is that there is a history of these groups not being quite as supported and as large as some of the groups are in the Middle East. So that if you go in with full force, and I’m not talking about putting U.S. troops on the ground here, but drones and other ways, you can take out these groups and make areas that right now are worse than war zones because they’re genocidal zones into a safe place to live again.
SPEAKER 06 :
And I was going to say that in addition to supporting the ACLJ, call your member of Congress because you know if he does take military action that the Democrats are going to be very upset about it and raise that as an issue. So make sure you call your member of Congress as well and say you support it.
SPEAKER 08 :
Absolutely. Look, this is the day one kickoff of our Freedom Drive. I want you to get involved. Do it right now at ACLJ.org. Unfortunately, Corliss and Marie, we are out of time for you. Please call back tomorrow. Maybe our phone’s going to get your information to make sure. I think, Marie, we answered your phone, your question. But Corliss, I know we did not. We’ll do our best to get to you tomorrow. It’s going to be a big day tomorrow, obviously heading into the New York mayoral election. So we’re going to cover that as well. And so much more here on Seculo. But today, kick us off strong. You know the work we’re doing is important. You’ve heard about it. this entire hour. Now I need you to get engaged. Get involved. We need the resources to keep fighting. These are the most important months of the year coming up as we head into the end of the year. Be involved at ACLJ.org slash freedom or just scan the QR code on your screen. Make your donation. It’ll be doubled today.
