As political headlines sizzle, the Sekulo team discusses the swearing-in of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS Secretary and the surprises of a shifting political landscape. We tackle how the Trump administration’s unexpected appointments are shaking up government norms and what this could mean for domestic and global policies. With listener calls flowing in, we also address concerns around government budgeting and spending, highlighting the critical need for transparency and reform in federal expenditures.
SPEAKER 10 :
we got breaking news doge turns their attention to the irs and the pentagon 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
SPEAKER 07 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We’ve got a great show today as there is some breaking news. But first, I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. It’s Friday. We’ll get a little looser on the phone calls. If you have a question or comment related to any of the topics we’ve talked about the last few weeks, maybe you’ve got a question in general about what’s going on in the world, I’d love to hear from you. This is Logan Sekula, 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice heard on the air. Will Haines is joining me in studio. A little bit later, Harry Hutchinson from the ACLJ is going to be joining us again. A packed show will because there’s been a lot of movement, a lot of talk about Doge, and you’re seeing headlines. And I had to ask you, what does this mean? What do they actually mean when you hear a headline like Doge enters the IRS? That was like breaking news. It was coming in overnight that this was happening from sources saying, hey, this is happening. The Pentagon, Doge enters the Pentagon. This is both physical and theoretical at the same time. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
So what you’re looking at here is the team from Doge will go into the agencies and they’re in layman’s terms, they’re effectively conducting an audit. So they’re going into the IRS. The IRS is getting a little bit of taste of their own medicine by the teams going in there, reviewing the spending, reviewing the contracts, reviewing the outlays and looking for signs of waste, fraud and abuse or just inefficiency. We know the IRS is inefficient. They still use typewriters and fax machines to conduct a lot of their business. So they’re looking for these areas where things can be made better, costs can be cut, where there’s programs that don’t line up with the president’s agenda and the administration’s agenda. And that’s what they’re doing. Last night, they went to the IRS and physically went into the building so they can get into the systems, the storage that’s there as far as like the data and things of that nature. Because these things are stored on site at the headquarters. And then today they’re going over to the Pentagon, which Secretary Hegseth had said, we welcome Doge to the Pentagon. And we’ll get into more of what this looks like practically and what they’re looking for and even some of what they’re finding in the following segments. But it is especially for fiscal conservatives. This is a very exciting time because we have long decried the wasteful spending and the reckless spending and out of control spending of these federal bureaucracies. The entire tea party movement started because they were taxed enough already. They were seeing wasteful, inefficient spending and the government continued to tax more and more. So this is a long time coming for, for these federal bureaucracies from those conservatives that have always been fiscal conservatives concerned about the way the budgets of the U.S. government keep spiraling out of control, snowballing. And even that was back in 2010, 15 years ago. I don’t think a fiscal conservative could have imagined how out of control the spending has been in Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. Of course, you also have the HHS secretary sworn in. That’s, of course, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. If you would have guessed just a number of years ago, maybe just a year ago, that not only would you have RFK Jr. involved in the Trump administration, but at a very high level. I don’t think a lot of people would have taken you seriously, but he caused a groundswell of had a groundswell of support. He is someone that a lot of conservatives were turning to for very specific things, a lot of them regarding health. So President Trump did an unprecedented move, picked what was a Democrat who became an independent and put him in that place and said, you know what? And I believe when he endorsed President Trump and I would put the same with Tulsi Gabbard, who is now also been sworn in. the director of national intelligence i would put both of them as a pretty highly responsible for i would say at least the landslide style victory that came from president trump phone lines are totally jammed right now when you tell people you’ll take anything they will call uh you know do her do your best hey be kind again to our phone screeners and give them a minute because they’re gonna have to get through all these calls so stay on hold if you’re on hold phone lines will still open up at 1-800-684-3110 but you know that there are people ready to wage war, lawfare war, across the country on President Trump’s agenda, which, of course, a lot of that represents your beliefs and your values and a lot of the values of the ACLJ. But just because you have a more favorable administration doesn’t mean the fight stops. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow to restate. We are going through sort of the breaking news that came out overnight where the Doge Department, Department of Government Efficiency, has entered the IRS and the Pentagon. And you have Pete Hegsley saying we welcome it because if there’s government waste, it doesn’t matter if it’s in our department or others. We want to get it taken care of. There are a lot of you calling in right now. We’re going to take those calls coming up in just a few minutes. Again, at 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And when you look at the budget of the Pentagon, it’s $800 billion. We’re getting close to a trillion dollar budget. It’s 12% of the total federal budget. So it’s a big chunk of where our money goes.
SPEAKER 07 :
And of all the places, you would like the Pentagon. You would like our defense. To be well funded.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right. And they are very well funded. But here is the problem. They failed their seventh audit in a row last year at the Pentagon. So they can’t even account for where all this money is going. We have seen all these stories about how the unaccounted for money that was sent to Ukraine, that, you know, hundreds of millions and billions of dollars have gone probably to grift in that country, to corruption of taking it. It’s not going where it actually was meant to go. What Pete Hegs has said, and I want to point people to this, during his confirmation hearing, was he said, as I’ve said to you in many of our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s it. That’s my job. When you have a bureaucracy, which is what the Pentagon is, that has failed seven audits in a row, meaning they can’t account for where all of this $800 billion is going. then you have a culture problem. And that is what Pete Hegseth is tasked with changing, making the military focused back on protecting America and the relationship with many of the contractors that continually build things for the government and continually bill them for projects. It’s out of control. And I have a prediction. I think you’re going to see that Elon Musk, Doge and Pete Hegseth have done the impossible. They are miracle workers.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’re working together.
SPEAKER 08 :
What they are going to do is they are going to make those on the left all of a sudden be the biggest supporters of our troops. Because now the headline and spin you’re going to see is that they’re making it more dangerous for our troops. They are making it so that we aren’t going to be protected here at home when they are the ones that have been forcing DEI and all these pet projects on the military. But when you have a bureaucracy, we’ve seen how many of the generals have become so political instead of remaining generals within the Pentagon. You have a situation where it becomes just like any other bureaucracy. And when you have $800 billion and you know that the lethality of the military isn’t where it has been. What we need is a culture change and people want their money spent wisely. And so that’s what this is doing. It is using the funds that they have to redirect and make it more effective. It’s not saying let’s just slash the money and not do anything about it. They are going after waste fraud and abuse as they’ve said many times, to make sure that every dollar spent is for that purpose of being laser focused on war fighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That’s the job and the role of the Pentagon and their budget.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, let’s go ahead. I want to take a call. Let’s go to Art, who’s calling, watching on the Salem News Channel, which, by the way, is a great place to watch us live each and every day now from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on the Salem News Channel, which is available on your TV on Pluto, which is absolutely free, or if you have a Samsung TV, I believe it’s on Samsung Plus and other places. Art, welcome.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, how we doing, guys? Just wanted to make a little comment here. It’s amazing where our money’s going. You know, you got that $2 million or whatever it was going down for transsexual stuff down there in South America. $59 million going to the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Twice the rent, twice the price that the rooms rent for it. And then they get all their food and everything. It’s just amazing, you know, that people in our government put our money out for something like that. I worked hard, man, and I’m sure there’s a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do. You know what I mean? I’m retired now. But it’s just amazing what our government, our supposedly government, did with all our money.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Art, I think when it’s being exposed, it’s really interesting because it’s not just the things that are kind of on the top of our head that we know is happening. It’s so much that’s happening, sometimes literally underground, but it’s happening sort of on the underground of spending, whether that is things that are just, like you said, government efficiency. Some of it is that, is just things that have not been kept up to date. We’re running on old technology. We’re spending ridiculous amounts of money on that. It’s not all just going in and going, okay, we don’t need these employees. It’s going, we are behind the times.
SPEAKER 08 :
And when you look at with the way the government operates with budgets, it’s an inefficient program. This isn’t like a business where if you have a down year, you find places to cut immediately. Or if you don’t spend all your budget that gets rolled over with the government spending, if you don’t spend all your budget, then Congress thinks you don’t need that much, so they lower your allocation the next year. So you see spending sprees where they just start buying stuff. There’s these infamous $10,000 toilet seats that are talked about. That’s kind of a highlight from the Pentagon of some of the wasteful spending. It’s many times because bureaucrats see at the end of the year that they have more budget to spend.
SPEAKER 07 :
What does a $10,000 toilet seat get you?
SPEAKER 08 :
Don’t know. All the features. But once again, a lot of times you don’t get anything special. It’s because the military contractors just overcharge for these things. And then they use up their budget so that the next year they can get an increase in budget. So that’s how the spending snowballs. They are literally wasting your money. just to ensure that their budget doesn’t get reduced the next year. Because if they get their budget reduced, then they see that they’re not doing their job. Washington is addicted to spending. Every bureaucracy, even the ones that keep us safe like the Pentagon, is addicted to spending and wasteful spending at that. If every dollar of the $800 billion was accounted for and shown how it goes to protect America, and we felt really secure right now in the way that our military is prepared to protect us under the last four years, I think everyone would be like, okay, that’s fine, move on. But we know that’s not the case. And what would the traditional Washington modus operandi be? It would be just give them more money so that they can make you more prepared.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s talk about that. There’s a caller coming in, Freddie from Florida. And look, as someone whose family was involved in some of these government contract works over the years, I’ve heard these kind of horror stories, Freddie. But go ahead with your comment.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, sir. I work in the state of Florida. I’m a roofing contractor and a general contractor. And I work in the field of roofing at the VA hospitals and the government facilities in the state of Florida. And they literally waste so much money on these projects. I could literally do the jobs probably for a third of what they make them out to be.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, Freddie, I’ve heard those stories over and over again. So this isn’t just you saying this. Again, I have friends and family who’ve worked directly with this and they have complained. They’ve pushed back and said, we don’t need to spend this. We don’t need to do this. And sometimes they’re saying, no, you’re going to do it. I don’t care if we’re going to give you the best materials and you’re going to cover it up with drywall. We don’t care.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And that’s why getting into these agencies to find this and to restructure the way this goes. We talk about the government spending, but we also have to be looking at the businesses that are so comfortable with this. They are going to push back egregiously. You can’t do this. Because so many businesses in America and NGOs, which we’ll talk about as well, non-governmental organizations are fully dependent on government dollars. They can’t survive without it. And they’re turning record profits because of the way they build the government. And the bureaucrats are more than happy to sign it over because they’re not interested in saving the American taxpayer money. They are interested in maxing out their budget so they can ask for more the next year. It’s out of control.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, absolutely. We’re going to take as many of these calls as we possibly can coming up in the next few segments, so stay on hold. Harry Hutchins is going to be joining us also in the next segment to talk about how… The Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk will go in and scrutinize the IRS, what they can do to make sure things are taken care of. And of course, as well, the Pentagon and everywhere, really, because I think this is one of the big pushes that President Trump has made, which is to make things better in terms of where your money is being spent. If we’re going to pay money to taxes, we’re going to have these big taxes in a lot of areas. Let’s make sure our country is taken care of. I know there is some concern, and I think there should be, about the humanitarian needs of other places, including around the world. What does that look like? But I also think we have to turn our attention to what’s happening inside our own country as well. If we’re going to fund a lot of these countries outside of America for humanitarian reasons, that’s fine. I’m not necessarily opposed to that. What I am opposed to first is also not take care of our own. So how many times have you gone the streets of New York right now or San Francisco, seen the homeless crisis that’s happening right now? Seen the way that we’re treating our veterans? This is not an uncommon trend happening right now. So maybe those funds can be reallocated. We also know that there will be funds that will be specifically still held and give. But right now, we just want to keep you updated and engaged. Because the ACLJ keeps fighting back. We keep fighting back for you. We’ve heard about so many pushbacks to a lot of these plans, and we’re getting involved in the legal level. We can’t do it without you. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back with Harry Hutchinson. Welcome back to Seculo. It is a packed phone bank right now. So stay on hold if you’re on hold. A lot of you have already been on hold 15 minutes, 17 minutes. Stay on hold. In the next segments, we’re going to get to you. I’m going to get through as many of these calls as we possibly can. But Harry Hutchinson’s joining us. Will, we’re continuing this conversation about what’s going on in the IRS. And also, we can briefly mention the ACLJ is involved. We’ve got a new filing that just happened. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
We filed three briefs on Wednesday of this week. two of which were about the funding freeze, one of which was specifically about Doge. We have a second one today that we have filed about Doge as well. This is our fourth case this week. That’s right. So these all are related because it’s all about President Trump’s ability to direct the executive branch to follow the policy and the prerogatives of this president. And the left special interest groups are all fighting back. We now our brief has been accepted by three out of the four judges, two in D.C., one in New York. The one that has not that was rejected was the judge out of Rhode Island that took it upon himself to go way above and beyond in his order on his temporary restraining order, saying that all funding freezes, not just a blanket one, any spending freezes. has to be paused. And this judge, who took it upon himself to go that broad, also says, I don’t want to hear from anyone else on this. So no amicus briefs. But we have filed in these, so our lawyers have worked very hard. And the one in D.C. that we filed today that was on the funding freeze was accepted immediately by that judge in D.C.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s take a quick call real quick and then we’ll get to Harry because it’s connected. Let’s go to Robert in Alabama on line three who’s watching on Salem News Channel. Robert, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, if we don’t, if these judges can tie our president’s hand, our great president’s hands, we have no representative government.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Robert, I think this is a conversation that now is happening. People are seeing this in action. Harry’s joining us. I’d love to get your response to that and then we’ll move on to the IRS situation.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, one of the things that we should remember is that during the last campaign, the Democrats said that our democracy was at risk. And now we are seeing, first and foremost, that yes, our democracy is at risk when Article 3 judges ignore the Article 2 power of the President of the United States. And so I think the caller essentially is correct.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, that’s great. I think that those are the questions people have, because what has been interesting to see over the last few weeks now, I mean, we’re almost to a month now of a Trump presidency, three and a half weeks or so, is all of these new moments that people are not used to seeing. They’re not necessarily used to paying attention to all of the confirmation hearings. They’re not used to all these executive orders going out and then to see how the pushback works. to see how the pardoning process works. These are, a lot of this is new to a lot of Americans and it’s becoming, it’s not unlike Elon going through and saying, look at all of the waste. It’s similar in to say, look at your law, your government at work in terms of the judges and the legal system. But now we have a new sheriff in town, but we also have this new department going in to take care of business. And I think it’s pretty enlightening for a lot of Americans to see what we’re wasting money on and how you can get involved and actually make changes within organizations that do maybe need to exist in some form. I don’t know if the IRS needs to exist in the form it’s in right now, but you understand why there are these departments, but the waste is out of control.
SPEAKER 06 :
Absolutely. So for too long, all American people have been squirming under the arbitrary bureaucratic power of the IRS. America’s most feared agency has been the IRS. Now it’s the IRS’s turn to squirm under the scrutiny of Doge. And all American people have never been happier. You can hear champagne corks popping in Maine, in Florida, in Chicago, and Los Angeles. Because this is, I think, a fantastic day for the American people. We can… now finally see what is under the hood of the IRS, and I think it will ultimately prove very, very ugly.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, and Professor Hutchison, the IRS is an organization, a government agency that the ACLJ had to fight aggressively against when it came to their targeting of the Tea Party, as well as many other times they’ve gone after Christian organizations. They’ve gone after people that lean right politically. So it was a department that was infected with politics and using one of the most scary powers of the government, the ability to get in and mess with your finances, to either imprison you or audit you or all of these things that the IRS has the power to do. We’ve had to fight head on with the IRS. But now, they’re getting a taste of the medicine they have been giving to the American people by having an audit. And the left wants you to think that every bureaucracy, every dollar in that bureaucracy is essential. And we know that isn’t the case because of the way budgets and allocations from Congress work and discretionary spending, that there is so much baked in. Like, even if you didn’t go after fraud, if you just went after waste, You could save the American taxpayer so much money. And instead of looking at it being a taxing problem, as the left wants it to be, that we need more of the American people’s money. In reality, it is their own spending problem in every one of these bureaucracies that has gotten the American people into the crisis of financial stability of our country that we see.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think you’re absolutely correct. And it’s important for listeners to remember that the Biden administration guesstimated that the waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government reached up to $500 billion. That’s the Biden administration.
SPEAKER 07 :
The Biden number.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s not Doge. That’s not Donald Trump. And who can forget what the IRS has done in targeting and harassing the Tea Party, harassing conservatives, harassing religious organizations. and then arbitrarily denying these organizations their 501c3 status, and the ACLJ has had to fight on behalf of these organizations again and again. And so the IRS continues to engage in this harassing, repetitive behavior, and I think at the end of the day, the chickens have now come home to roost, and again, the American people are very happy about it.
SPEAKER 07 :
And the ACLJ has been involved in these kinds of situations since our founding, since the early nineties. And you need to be involved as well, because we do that. We take up these clients, absolutely no cost. We can’t do that without you because that’s how it works. We can offer it to no cost to the clients because people like you, individual supporters and ACLJ champions, people that give on a monthly recurring basis, create the budget to hire the best of the best, whether it’s incredible legal minds like Fred Hutchinson, you just heard or, whether it’s this broadcast team, whether it’s who you don’t get to see, who’s on the other side of this glass right now that I’m looking at, incredible crew that puts together this show each and every day, puts together all this incredible content. None of it exists without you, the ACLJ supporter. So I’m going to encourage you right now to become an ACLJ champion if you can. But either way, make a tax-deductible gift. We urgently need your support. We’re filing in court today. We’re creating new broadcasts today. And we have a second half hour coming up So if you don’t get us on your local radio station that maybe only carries the first half hour, you can find us right now live from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Work your way back at ACLJ.org and find us later on archived YouTube, Rumble, podcast feed. You can find us on all those places in the new ACLJ app that’s available now in the app store or at ACLJ.org slash app. Again, make your donation today. Stay on hold. If you’re on hold, we’re going to get to your calls coming right up.
SPEAKER 10 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haines is joining me in studio today. We have a slammed phone bank right now. So many of you have called in. So many are waiting. We’re going to take those in just a moment. There’s also questions and comments coming in about updates with Planned Parenthood and the pro-life movement. In the next segment, we’re going to discuss that as well as preview some of the upcoming new things that we are doing here to support that. As you know, sure, we have a more pro-life administration, but what that means is actually a large pushback from other states, the individual states. As we know, president Trump said, send it back to the states. Roe versus Wade was overturned. And now you’re dealing with somewhat the repercussions of that. The good in certain states where it has gone to the point where abortions are not legal anymore in these states. Some of them would just minor exceptions or our life of the mother kind of exceptions, which is, you know, we, we agree with, however, There are other states, more liberal states, that are pushing back so aggressively, and it’s working. But the ACLJ is involved in that. So we’re going to talk about that in the next segment at 1-800-684-3110. One line just opened up. Let’s go ahead and take a few of these calls. Some of them are related. Some are unrelated. Let’s first go to John in California, who’s watching on the Salem News Channel, having a little fun. John, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Oh, all right. First of all, I’m full on Trump, so we don’t have to discuss any of the things he’s for. But my situation was the naming of the border from Gulf of Mexico to America. You know, everything from America down to the tip of… of South America is America.
SPEAKER 07 :
The continent of America. North America and South America. John, you bring this up, and you know what? I think that this one, look, when President Trump made some of these announcements, not unlike the Gaza announcement in a very interesting way, which is these are kind of shocking moments, and then when you stop and think about it, You go, oh, maybe that’s what it should have been the whole time. Now, will it be weird to be like, it’s not the Gulf of Mexico anymore because we’re used to saying the Gulf of Mexico our entire lives, going to Florida, going to these areas? Yes, it’s strange. And honestly, calling it the Gulf of Mexico sometimes made me feel a little bit better, Will. Because instead of just being like, I’m in the Florida panhandle, I can be like, we’re going to the Gulf of Mexico. It sounded fancier than just going to Panama City Beach, which I love. That’s why you say the Emerald Coast of the Gulf of Mexico. It sounded a little cooler than the Gulf of America. But now things have changed. Times have changed. What I did find interesting is how quickly big tech…
SPEAKER 08 :
responded and said all right change it now apparently if you’re not in america it’s not changed in the uk it has both on google maps if you’re in the uk it has gulf of mexico and then in parentheses gulf of america if you’re here it says gulf of america and i do believe if you’re in other countries it just says gulf of mexico yeah so i mean it’s already on your maps if you go look on your google map your apple maps however you whatever you use you’ll see gulf of america and he did that
SPEAKER 07 :
made it official while flying over the gulf of formerly mexico and now to the gulf of america right before the super bowl so you can see some of that video footage they’ve put out it’s pretty fun hey we’re going to take as many calls as we can we do have one line open at 1-800-684-3110 because it is friday we’re going to take more calls on whatever topic you want to talk about as long as it’s sort of within our scope at least, will bring it up because the ACLJ is involved in so many high-level issues. Sometimes you’ve got to have a little fun. I’m glad you called in with that Gulf of America comment because, honestly, sometimes you’ve got to break it up. When you’re talking about big spending, what’s happening with your tax dollars, you’re talking about the next segment, we’re going to be talking about life. Not always the most fun topic to talk about. But you know what? It’s important. It’s important the ACLJ is there fighting for the unborn still each and every day. Even when it’s not as popular, we’re always going to be there. And we’ve got a really cool campaign about to roll out. You’ve heard us talk about it for the last eight months or so as we’ve been working really hard on making sure that we counteract what’s going on around the country. You may have seen some breaking news items with some of those things that are happening right now. It’s pretty disturbing. But we’re going to keep fighting and fighting for the unborn. We can’t do that without you, though. Whether it’s supporting these pro-life pregnancy resource centers or individuals that need our help, these are not organizations that have huge budgets ready to spend the money on high-level attorneys. or get the media attention that we get. We’re able to provide those services at absolutely no cost. And that’s because of you. So right now, while we’re in this break, I encourage you, make a donation at ACLJ.org. Do it right now. Welcome back to Secular. We’ve got two lines open for you right now. So 1-800-684-3110. I did want to give you an update on our fight for life. Someone commented, Will, I think just a little bit ago on YouTube asking for where are things happening with the defunding of Planned Parenthood. We do have some updates on that as well as updates on what the ACLJ is working on.
SPEAKER 08 :
That’s right. And I think right off the top, I should let everyone know that on Monday of this week, our lawyers have been very busy here at the ACLJ. One of the four that happened this week. This is a fifth. This is a fifth. The four were just on Doge and government spending. But also related to spending, on Monday of this week, our attorneys filed a brief at the Supreme Court of the United States. A case there that… that is arguing whether or not states can defund Planned Parenthood. When they receive federal dollars, do they have discretion at which groups get these Medicaid dollars, these federal funds? Can they decide not to give it to Planned Parenthood? Planned Parenthood obviously is trying to say, no, you cannot discriminate against us and not give us money. But the states want to have that flexibility with the federal dollars that come in if they want to defund Planned Parenthood themselves. But there’s also articles now that we have Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr. in as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He even said that he will have the president’s agenda is a pro-life agenda. And so that is how HHS will be run. He mentioned and President Trump have mentioned the funding of Planned Parenthood, whether or not that’s a good thing. That’s An article came out yesterday in Politico. Knives are out for Planned Parenthood in all three branches of government, showing that it is a holistic effort. I like knives are out. Well, the first line, death by a thousand cuts. They’re trying to say that this is how much the liberal media is trying to go after Planned Parenthood.
SPEAKER 07 :
It also shows you how grossly disconnected they are.
SPEAKER 08 :
Exactly. They are trying to say that a butcher organization, Planned Parenthood, they will use this terminology to And what they will do is use this holistic approach with the executive branch, congressional funding.
SPEAKER 07 :
It’s like using demonic imagery right in your own press. It’s very bizarre. Of course, Politico is not happy because they also got slashed with $8 million in funding that they had that looks like it won’t be coming.
SPEAKER 08 :
Here’s a second liberal media hot take about pro-life movement or abortion in Salon. Not a conservative publication by any means, but this is their hot take they had yesterday. infant deaths continue to rise as more abortion bans are put in place, studies find. With a sub-headline, states with abortion bans were also shown to experience an increase in births, according to a pair of studies. One, someone got paid to do those studies. It probably was coming from USAID. I can’t confirm that. Because more babies were born. Because there’s fewer abortions, more babies are born.
SPEAKER 07 :
And then some have complications.
SPEAKER 08 :
There are more infant deaths because more have been born. It’s also so wrong because if you were to do straight infant deaths when there’s fewer abortions, there are fewer infant deaths, but they don’t believe that’s an infant. But that’s where we are. that we have the media trying to spin this as grotesque language from Politico, Salon, trying to report a study that I’m shocked someone was paid to actually study because it was more common sense. But we at the ACLJ are fighting. We are filing, we filed at the Supreme Court on Monday, but we also, just to remind people, we talked about at the end of last year, that campaign, to actually tell the truth in many of these states that are going after pro-life pregnancy resource centers and that hasn’t gone away. Our team has been equally working as hard on that as our lawyers have to get that ready and we’ll have more information about that in the next coming weeks with a big launch but we do want to remind you that that is coming and we are going to be pushing back in a big way.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. You’ve heard us talk about this since last summer. And we are finally really close. It’s all been created. It’s all been scheduled. It’s all about to launch coming next month. And none of that could have happened without our ACLJ supporters. And also, there’s still time to get involved in that campaign. Our Choice Begins Here campaign, which will launch… Like we said, very, very soon. And what’s really great about that is it really comes with a great heart and a great mind. This is not something that you’ll be turned off by or turned away from. If you are a pregnant person, if you are looking at options, you’re not going to look at this and immediately be grotesque or think that there’s some issues. It’s not the 80s kind of pro-life campaign. I think it’s wonderful. It’s beautiful. It’s put together by our incredible team here. So you’re going to find that in a few weeks. We couldn’t do that. Take these cases on. Take on these campaigns. As we know, the state of Massachusetts during that time, still currently right now, and by the way, it’s working. And that’s sort of the sad part is we’re actually able to see that their campaign has worked. They have taken out a completely ridiculous attack on pro-life pregnancy resource centers. Resource centers that provide a lot of great services. Ultrasounds. Often they provide food, formula, clothing, So many things for mothers and for parents who need it. But the state of Massachusetts decided to call them anti-abortion centers and to really do their best to shut them down in any way they can. And if they can’t do it in the law, they’re going to spend the taxpayers of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. They’re going to spend their tax paying money as well as grants from big abortion to run a smear campaign against these resource centers. If you’ve ever met these people, they’re the sweetest people. They are doing it out of the kindness of their heart. Most of them are volunteer run. But the ACLJ, we’re not going to stand for that. We’re fighting back not only in the law, but we are fighting back. We are fighting back with our own counter campaign. If you think this is something you’d be interested in supporting, I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org right now and make the donation. We’ll be able to kind of just see what issues you guys care about and know this is something that’s really important to us. But sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s hard to get you all engaged on these kind of campaigns because I know it’s different. but different is what is going to change the hearts and minds of people moving forward because now the president Trump put in the Supreme court justices that helped reverse Roe versus Wade and went back to the States. And now you have some States where abortion is completely illegal. Uh, with except some exceptions, there are States where, uh, the laws are kind of in the middle, it’s kind of a gray area. And then you have States where it’s extreme or it’s a partial birth post birth that’s happening. And we have to be able to take those on because you may not be able to win them always in the courts. Sometimes you can’t. And look, we’re taking on Massachusetts saying you’re unfairly targeting a business. You’re running a smear campaign against these organizations, these Christian conservative organizations. But we’re able to fight back. I do see, Will, and I want to make sure we do this, because a lot of people join us mid-show. And you may have seen the title that you clicked on, and you’re like, well, what is this? You watch it on YouTube. Why are they talking about life? Look, the life issue is incredibly important to me personally. I want you to go to aclj.org and donate about it. But let’s give a little bit of reset before we head into the next segment and give our calls about what’s going on when it comes to government efficiency, when it comes to cutting funds. Because we know, as of just in the last few days, just the last few hours, you had the Doge department I’ve said literally and figuratively going into the Pentagon and to the IRS and ready to slash what your money is going to and making sure it is taken care of in the best possible way. That’s right.
SPEAKER 08 :
So what the team at Doge has done is they last night went over to IRS and began their work there. And today they went over to the Pentagon and have begun work there. Both of those are much bigger budgets than even USAID, but they’re beginning their work as they go through department by department of the executive branch to identify wasteful spending. If there is fraudulent spending, abuse of government spending and taxpayer dollars, and they’re going department by department. They are doing the mission that President Trump laid out for them. And one thing I think is really interesting, too, is how everyone on the left keeps saying Elon Musk and these people are not elected. Neither are the people that work at every one of these government agencies.
SPEAKER 07 :
It is of all the lies that I feel, the misleading headlines that come out. The appointed or the unelected when it comes to who is in the administration even is the most absurd because it’s not how it’s been done. It’s not how it is going. You elected President Trump. He makes those decisions. And then there’s, you know, for some of them, there’s the confirmation process and other things there’s not because you have to be able to run essentially the White House like a business.
SPEAKER 08 :
And if you look at the structure that they ended up going with for Doge, they repurpose the United States Digital Service, which was created by Barack Obama under Obamacare. It was a part of the law. So it’s statutorily a actual unit within the executive office of the president and the Office of Management and Budget. So Doge is official. It is, through executive order, repurposing of the United States Digital Service, which was tasked with making the government more efficient through digital services. They’re doing exactly what statutorily Doge is supposed to do because of something President Obama got through.
SPEAKER 07 :
By the way, if you think people voted for President Trump and weren’t actually voting also for Elon Musk, for Tulsi Gabbard, for rfk jr for jd vance for uh the essentially what they called what the unity party avengers that came together are you crazy we all knew who was going to get involved and we knew one of them was going to be elon musk who’s going to be a controversial figure who’s going to do controversial things there’s also one of the most brilliant minds in the world in the richest man in the world. Again, another person who doesn’t have to be doing this, but is doing it. Phone lines, one phone line is open at 1-800-684-3110. I’d love to hear from you. If you’re on hold, we’re going to get to you. So stay on hold. Know a lot. You’ve been holding for 45 plus minutes, but we’ll be right back. Go to aclj.org right now. Welcome back to Secular. Let’s take your calls. One line is open. 1-800-684-3110. Let’s go in. We’re just going to go in order. Some of these are on topic. Some are a little out there, but that’s okay. It’s Friday. Let’s go to Norm, who’s calling in DC on line one. Norm, thanks for holding for 50 minutes. I apologize. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, thank you. I’d hold for a long time. Hey, first of all, happy Valentine’s Day to you guys. Thank you. Patriots and Constitutionists. Listen, I’m just curious. I don’t understand the strategy. Why are we suing… Letitia James, Catherine Hochul, and whoever the director of the DMV is, as opposed to targeting them criminally and making a spectacle like they did with President Trump. I don’t understand their strategy, and I was wondering if you could help us out.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, first, before we do that, I did want to say, if you didn’t see the news today, it was revealed that President Trump has hung his mugshot Up in the Oval Office, I think it’s the New York Post cover. In a nice gold frame. Pretty rock and roll. I mean, that is as punk rock as you can get. But let’s try to answer his question.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, Norm, I think, one, we think what they did to President Trump after he left office was egregious.
SPEAKER 07 :
We don’t…
SPEAKER 08 :
We actually don’t want more lawfare in this country. We want the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, when he’s confirmed under the FBI, to actually do a lot less politically motivated prosecutions, which is what they did to President Trump. People in the comments get mad about that.
SPEAKER 07 :
that because they say well we should do exactly what they do but that’s not really how it should work.
SPEAKER 08 :
Especially there because I do think one we need to put it into what they did to President Trump and I think we did pretty definitively when Jack Smith was out of a job and President Trump was re-elected. So I don’t think we need to make that the norm in the United States. The left tried to. They really did. They tried for four years to build a case to make it okay to turn this into a banana republic and go after the former president because they didn’t like him.
SPEAKER 07 :
I get the frustration. but we do have to keep our own standards. I just saw a comment that came in that said, well, it’s because we are not them, and I think that’s true. I think that’s absolutely true. Let’s continue on. Let’s go to Randy, who called yesterday. I’m sorry we didn’t get to you, Randy, in Florida, but you’ve also been holding another 49 minutes, and I appreciate it. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, I just want to say the DEI Democrats don’t want Doge to go into the Treasury Department because the Treasury Department has all the info on all the illegal aliens that cross the border. They gave them visa cards, IDs, plane tickets, so they know how many aliens are here.
SPEAKER 08 :
I mean, I think Randy’s got a point that, one, we know that there was a lot of assistance given out under the last administration to people that came here illegally. And whether they were let go through a parole system or released while they awaited a court date, things of that nature, that they also weren’t just letting them go, but they were providing them government assistance. So he is right. There is a lot of that information. that was going out the door that will be found. We know even that the hotel that it was, I believe, under USAID or one of the similar agencies, it was $59 million that they were paying in New York, New York City, for housing migrants. It’s in the hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, that have been used specifically for housing migrants in this country or giving them assistance, giving them a stipend to be able to eat, to be able to be housed. And the left will come back and say, well, now you’re just causing another housing crisis by not housing migrants in this way. But I think the American people, once again, that is what they voted for, was that by letting it in, you created the crisis.
SPEAKER 07 :
So I think Randy does have a point there. There you go, Randy. I’m glad we got your comments in. Let’s go to Erwin in Alabama who’s listening on SiriusXM. Erwin, welcome.
SPEAKER 13 :
Hey, how you doing there? ACLJ champion reporting in.
SPEAKER 07 :
Erwin, you got to tell the phone screener you’re an ACLJ champion. If they didn’t, they didn’t tell me. I would have bumped you up to the front. That’s one of the benefits. You wouldn’t have waited 40 minutes. I’m sorry. Go ahead, Erwin, and thank you for your support.
SPEAKER 13 :
Oh, yeah, I did. It’s all good. First and foremost.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hold on.
SPEAKER 13 :
I’m calling him out.
SPEAKER 07 :
Sorry. Do better phone screener. All right, go ahead there.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah. I was saying first and foremost, I want to thank you and everybody that works today. So Jay, you guys are doing the people’s work and God’s work. We thank you for that. And, uh, what I wanted to talk about was Doge was exactly what for years and years, you’d hear this through the government, through Congress and through other presidents. Oh, we’re going to go in and find ways. We’re going to save money. Finally, praise the Lord that we have a president that’s actually doing his job. And what I would hope to see is that going forward, once I get a handle on this is when they shoot this money off to these other countries, that maybe somehow, they could send a representative or something to make sure that the money is going where it’s supposed to.
SPEAKER 07 :
Erwin, I think that’s a great idea. Hey, maybe it’ll be our friend Rick Grinnell. You never know. I feel like he gets assigned a lot of these jobs now.
SPEAKER 08 :
He is the envoy for special missions.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s a very special mission. Yeah, I know. He’s all over the world. You know, the way in the world is Rick Grinnell, the hardest working man. uh maybe in washington dc but erwin thank you so much for calling and i also want to say thank you so much for being an aclj champion please call back anytime let’s continue on we have three calls in three minutes i don’t know if we’re able to get all of you but we’re going to go at least get the ones who who have been a hold along as anthony uh in tennessee you’re on the air hey good afternoon uh mine is quick it’s one sentence but it sums up all the people who have who opposed does and everything they’re doing it says a hit dog will holler there’s a lot of dogs hollering right now yeah anthony uh god i love people calling in from the great state of tennessee thank you anthony for calling in i feel like there is that moment a lot of people are just just so shocked
SPEAKER 08 :
at what’s happening right now they can’t believe there’s someone going in and trying to actually stop government waste i think that that’s the southern version of hamlet’s uh the lady doth protest too much uh hit dog will holler but i get the sentiment yeah they’re upset because a lot of the uh the special pet projects and their buddies and the ngos that have been just getting printed money uh are going to see that coming to an end let’s go to mary she’ll be our last call today lisa i’m sorry we didn’t get to you and hold that line
SPEAKER 07 :
long though so at least it’s okay we’ll get to you maybe uh you know maybe next week just give us a call mary you’re on the air
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi, thank you for taking my call and for what you do. I think it’s interesting that the budget will be coming up for review by Congress, both houses, and I think that they really need to take into consideration that the tax cuts that Trump put in in 2017 should be renewed because they shouldn’t say, well, we need extra taxes because the way they’re arguing for saving these wasted monies they should definitely vote for it. And if they don’t, that says a lot for who they’re representing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Mary, I think a lot of people now are taking a much closer look at their representatives.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think also what is deemed essential government functions are really going to be called into question after what is… brought forward when they try to use the scare tactics of a government shutdown which now the democrats are trying to do they’re saying we might have to shut down the government uh even though that was always what they said the republicans wanted to do you’re going to find out a lot of government work is not essential yeah stay on both sides you know what a lot of government work as will said not essential uh look i appreciate you all joining us this week it’s been a packed week of shows
SPEAKER 07 :
We’re going to have great content released over the weekend as well, so make sure you’re subscribing. If you’re watching on YouTube or Rumble or on X or Facebook, whatever you’re getting us right now on Salem News Channel, make sure you stay engaged with the ACLJ. And the easiest way is just go to ACLJ.org and make your donation today. It’s a tax-deductible gift, and we urgently need your support right now. So I encourage you to do that. Take a minute of your day. and make a quick donation. If you can make one as an ACLJ champion, become a recurring member, that really helps us out, helps us out of baseline for this year. We’re a little down right now, so this would be a good time to do that as we start to head towards crazy, isn’t it? Halfway through the month of February, we could use your support at ACLJ.org. And hey, if you have a smartphone, which hopefully you do, ACLJ.org slash app, download our new app right now. It’s a great interactive experience customized just for you.
