Could the United States add a 51st state? President Donald Trump jokingly told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that his country should consider becoming the 51st state if he won’t improve the U.S. trade deficit with Canada or stop the influx of illegal immigration across the northern border. The Sekulow team discusses Trump’s threat of imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico to improve border security, Trump’s economic policies, the ACLJ’s latest legal victory, U.S. foreign policy, the fallout of President Joe Biden pardoning Hunter Biden – and much more.
SPEAKER 05 :
As Trump takes control, he tells Trudeau, maybe Canada should become the 51st state.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 05 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes is joining us in studio, executive producer of this broadcast. We also have joining us a little bit later in the show, Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem, Christy Campagnone, one of our senior counsels, as well as Mike Pompeo, who will be joining us, breaking down all the breaking news. But also, it’s Giving Tuesday. And Giving Tuesday is one of the most important days of the year for anyone who has a nonprofit organization. If you don’t know about it, which I know most of you do by now, it is sort of the Black Friday equivalent for nonprofits. And we’re doing a special thing right now. All your donations are doubled. We are in that faith and freedom year-end drive. But it is Giving Tuesday. And historically, you all have turned up at the right time. And you’ve done it. We’ve seen the numbers. So I’m going to encourage you right now, right off the bat, if you can support the ACLJ. We’re going to get into the breaking news. We’re going to get into the conversation. But I am going to remind you. to please support the organization when you can we are in such high level meetings we are having so much going on and one of the things that’s happening right now is president trump and i have to give it to him for this uh he is playing an interesting game in terms of the way his social media presence has been where it is and even his presence where there’s almost um a level of comedy to it in a way that has felt like it has brought them the the vitriol down, the tone down, even when he’s still saying on Thanksgiving, you know, the leftists and all that, because it’s almost done in a way that feels very tongue in cheek. He put up a funny video where it was Christmas vacation and the car from the bird with all of the Democrats. And he popped out doing the Trump dance at the YMCA. There is a comedy element that’s happening right now. What I think you all need to understand is while I believe that that is a good way to go and being strong still like he is with Israel. We’re talking about that later on. You can’t forget that these fights aren’t over because whoever is in the White House. We have so many ACLJ things happening and we’re going to have a big one, a big win, one you’ve been hearing about for years. You’re going to hear about that one coming up in just a few segments. So stay tuned for that. If you were just joining us and you saw the headline where it says Trump takes control, is Canada to become a U.S. state? Well, that was because Justin Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago already making waves because obviously Trump put out the statement that they’re going to tariff them uh to smithereens essentially all the countries and all the world leaders now feel like they got to fly to mar-a-lago and uh you know do the kiss the ring tour if you will as rosie o’donnell would call it uh i think it’s what she said that joe and mika did they went down and they kissed the ring and how dare they i’ll never watch msnbc again uh but that happened and in that meeting a very interesting tidbit came out
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So they were talking about these tariffs because President Trump is threatening 25 percent tariffs on both Canada and Mexico. And in this discussion at Mar-a-Lago with Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, Trump told him that, you know, Canada has failed the United States being a neighbor by allowing their border to be porous. We’ve heard that from Claudia Tenney, representative for New York, that They have a big issue with the border in New York from Canada with similar issues. People going to Canada and then illegally entering the United States or smuggling things like drugs and other illegal activities.
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We hear a lot about the southern border, but there is stuff happening.
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Right. And so President Trump said fix it or 25% tariffs day one.
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Which is wild.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. I mean, it’s a hefty thing. There’s going to be some interesting responses to all of that. But Justin Trudeau said, listen, if you do that. Our country can’t survive. That will cripple Canada. To which President Trump responded with, basically, if you can’t handle it, maybe you should become the 51st state. And don’t worry, you can run for governor there. I know prime minister is a better title, but you could be Governor Trudeau of America’s 51st state. He’s already… putting things forward that are America first and not just doing what the past four years have happened of quiet diplomacy.
SPEAKER 05 :
It’s being funny but strong. Right. Because obviously we don’t want Canada to be the 51st state. One, I mean the electoral votes they would get probably just from population. We’d have to figure something out. We’d have to figure something out. Maybe they don’t get… Yeah, that kind of representation. It could be a commonwealth. Yeah, exactly. We’ll put them in with the others. They’re like, oh yeah, we own that too. We’re going to be taking your calls also at 1-800-684-3110. Mike Pompeo joins us in the next segment and support the work of the ACLJ now. Welcome back to Seculo. Mike Pompeo is joining us today on the phone. So, Mike, I wanted to break down some of the more recent headlines that have come out. We heard about the Trudeau meeting where tariffs took center stage with President Trump or President-elect Trump. Do you think we’ve successfully sent that message now that there’s a new sheriff in town when even you have threats? I mean, kind of in jest of Canada becoming the 51st state if they don’t like what we have to present.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think it’s absolutely the case that the whole world is unnoticed that what’s been happening for the last four years, weakness, folks walking all over America, wars breaking out in different places. You saw the president’s statement about the hostages. We still have Americans being held in the Middle East today. I think every one of these cases, the president is signaling that. that it’s going to be back to where we were four years ago when President Trump was in office previously, where there’s serious American leadership that will protect American interests, that will do the right thing for the American people. And when we do that, we’ll have great partners and friends around the world. I think that’s very clear. And I do, in fact, think you see foreign leaders and frankly, not just their leaders, people all across the world saying, hey, this is refreshing. This is different. struggle to figure their way through it. But I think they will all recognize that this will be a very different American leadership team than the one that they’ve been walking all over. And frankly, with respect to the wars, advancing their own interest at American costs with almost no cost to their country.
SPEAKER 07 :
Mr. Secretary, the fact that these meetings are happening, the world leaders are going to Mar-a-Lago and meeting with President Trump and discussing really some of the campaign promises of President Trump about putting America first and how that would affect these foreign nations. If President Trump can get these leaders on board, whether it be through the tough tool of tariffs or if they decide to play ball and fix things like the poorest southern and northern border that is at center stage in many of these discussions. If this can happen, and there’s almost a Reagan-esque Iranian hostage moment for President Trump, where all the work is going forward in these discussions, and then when he takes office, we immediately see big reversals of the Biden policy. Where do you think that lands us in the world and looking forward to the future?
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I think you’ve got it exactly right. I think you’ll see big, big shifts. I think you’ll see big shifts very quickly. Frankly, I think you’ve seen many of them already. I think you see Putin already reacting to the new leadership in the United States, trying to figure out how to gain leverage in the conversation. I think you see Hezbollah saying, you know, maybe it’s best if we just sign up for a ceasefire deal before President Trump takes office. Hamas saying, hey, maybe this is in our best interest. Iranians saying, you know, we can have it. I think I think this is already ongoing. I think these these shifts are already taking place, much like we saw the hostages returned on President Reagan’s first day. It wouldn’t surprise me about what we see more things like that. And then I give you one other thought. That’s also something that I think presents real risk for what do we have? Forty days, 45 days before President Trump takes office. You know, who’s the commander in chief today? Who’s actually structuring America’s responses to global threats as we sit here for what is another month and a half? And we should be mindful that the fellow with the nuclear codes, the fellow who’s still running the U.S. bureaucracy is Joe Biden. And President Trump’s doing his level best to get a running start, but that we still have a period here where he’s not in complete control of what happens.
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And Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the hostages in Hamas just a moment ago. And we’ve had some tragic news that one of the Americans that was believed to be a hostage was actually killed on October 7th. The IDF released that yesterday. But we also saw a hostage proof of life, if you will, video that was released from Hamas with one of the hostages, Eden Alexander. And… In that video, he even was making pleas to the incoming president of the United States to get these hostages home and secure their freedom. And there’s kind of a stark difference between what we saw with dueling statements out yesterday after this video came out. One was from President Trump. that was very strongly worded on True Social in saying that there will be hell to pay if the hostages are not released before he gets into office on January 20th. But we saw from the White House, from the National Security Council spokesperson, he said the hostage video released today of American Israeli citizen Idan Alexander is a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own. I don’t think that there could be a more stark difference between the weakness of the statement from the Biden administration and the strength of President Trump’s. But just the fact that they even have to say it’s a cruel reminder instead of being forceful in saying, we won’t take this anymore. I think there’s a lot of hope that comes in the way that President Trump will conduct foreign policy, especially with Hamas and the hostages that they still hold.
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We have lost Secretary Pompeo. We’ll try to reconnect with him here in a moment. This is a great time, though. Oh, here you are.
SPEAKER 03 :
Sorry. I’m sorry. So you couldn’t see a starker difference in the two statements. I agree completely. But both are true. It is a cruel reminder. And it’s also true that there will be hell to pay when President Trump is in office. I think those statements are both true. But your point is exactly right. The deterrence model, the thing that actually keeps Americans safe and keep us from having to send the 82nd Airborne and our soldiers all over the world is a deterrence model. And when the President Trump executed effectively and you saw that difference in those two statements, one is one of, oh, my gosh, there’s nothing we can do. These guys are bad actors and they’re still holding American society. Everyone’s saying it. I’m going to take action to fix this problem. I think that is an important distinction. I think it will lead to much greater deterrence and a lot more safety for the American people when President Trump takes office on January 20th.
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Secretary Pompeo, before we let you go, I did want to take a moment because this is Giving Tuesday, a very important day for all of us in the nonprofit world. As today, a lot of people decide to give their year-end giving during Giving Tuesday. We currently have a Faith and Freedom Year-end drive happening right now where donations are doubled. And you have seen firsthand, not only been a part of our team now for three or four years now, you’ve seen firsthand the work of the ACLJ and what it can do even inside administrations. I know a lot of people see, hey, Trump presidency is here, Senate and the House. What do we have to be fighting for? We know the fight does not even slow down. In some ways, come January 20th, it gets even harder.
SPEAKER 03 :
Logan, that is absolutely true statement. The work now begins, the work for the conservative movement and the work for the ACLJ. And I saw this when I was a secretary of state. I saw it when I was a CIA director as well. I saw the remarkable thought leadership. I saw the litigation that took place around the world, helping keep Americans free, protecting religious freedom. honoring our founding ideas. The work that was done was so valuable. It costs real money to do that. And I am so appreciative and was so appreciative when I was in government service of the work that you all at the ACLJ did. And it has been pretty special, pretty cool to be a small part of that for the last few years. And so I hope folks will continue to help the ACLJ be successful at delivering on the things that we care about for ourselves and for our families in America.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so much, Secretary Pompeo, for joining us again. Go to ACLJ.org and make that donation today. You know, it is Giving Tuesday, the biggest charitable giving day of the year, and it couldn’t come at a more important time, as he was saying. Have your gift doubled today at ACLJ.org. We’ve been expanding our efforts as the radical left. It goes after faith and freedom and family. And they may have lost at the ballot box. And that’s a pretty big referendum. But they are still entrenched across the countries. There’s still plenty of places where this is happening. We’re going to have a big win that you’re going to hear about in the next segment. I’m excited. You’ve heard about this case for years now. We’ve been working at it. And it has come to a successful conclusion. And you know what’s strange? This is just the truth. When we do these fundraising drives, I’ll talk to my team and say, okay, what are people reacting to? And one of the sort of sad realities is when you have a big win, the fundraising to continue to fight and represent the next person sometimes is harder. It’s easier to see the threat than to see the victories. But God is moving in a very interesting way right now here at the ACLJ. And we are making some big, big moves that I’d be so excited to share with you later this month and early next year into the first quarter of next year. And we can’t do that without financial support. It is Giving Tuesday. It’s a crucial time. It’s one of our biggest days of the year. If you want to defend Israel, if you want to defend pro-life values, you want to defend your Christian faith, We are doing that right now for so many people, and it could be you who needs it next. And you want to make sure that we’re here. So have your tax deductible gift doubled before our midnight Giving Tuesday deadline right now. Go to ACLJ.org. Scan the QR code that’s on the screen. Well, in the next segment, we are going to bring on one of our attorneys here at the ACLJ, Christy Campagnone, who you’ve all heard many times. She’s in our Washington, D.C. office today. Because we have a fun resolution. You know, sometimes… The law or whatever happens works in your favor, and I don’t want to give away too much, but you’ve heard about this one. It’s probably going to be in the video you’re about to see if you’re watching online, I have a feeling.
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we’ll be right back with her uh but well it’s just important time that’s right and as you mentioned this is a case that we have been engaged in for multiple years so you’ve heard about it many times on the broadcast but that doesn’t mean when you weren’t hearing about it that our attorneys weren’t working diligently fighting for justice for our clients and for americans to live out their faith, to live out their freedom. And that is what we saw. After years of fighting, we have a victory that we’ll announce in this next segment. But it is because of the ACLJ members and supporters that we can fight for those years to bring justice for our client. Faith and Freedom year-end drive is going on now. Donate today, ACLJ.org.
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Welcome back to Seculo. Christy Campagnone, Senior Managing Counsel with the ACLJ, is joining us. And if you were just watching, which I encourage you all should watch, we do a full television-style broadcast. You can find it on YouTube, on Rumble, on ACLJ.org, and on the Salem News Channel. We’re there as well. There may be some news coming up for that coming up in the new year as well. So make sure you stay tuned for that. But in those breaks… If you’re watching on one of the streaming platforms, you got to see a video leading up to how we got involved in this case, Christy. And I think you need to kind of back everybody up a little bit because it is nice when the ACLJ can put things to bed, can finish and say, we have completed this assignment and it has happened. It has happened in a great way, but let’s back it up. Give us a brief background on this case and how we got involved.
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Absolutely. So as you saw in this clip, we had a 15-year-old minor required to read a monologue in her acting class that contained explicit sexual material. And once her parent found out that this happened, she was absolutely appalled and actually went first to the school board meeting and And her microphone was turned off because of the curse words that were used in that explicit material while she was trying to raise the alarm as to what happened to her daughter. So naturally, they went ahead to pursue a lawsuit. And we came in after her local council initially started the complaint. And we helped amend the complaint to survive the motion to dismiss. And I think the big, wonderful victory came after we had a hard fight during discovery, which is where we took depositions of all of the administrators of that school. And of course, we’re pleased to announce that we were able to get a victory for our client in She received a monetary settlement fund, and she also is going to have teaching and training for the teachers at this school to make sure that this never happens again. And it was all as a result of the depositions where we were able to get admissions from the administrators that this material was absolutely inappropriate and should have never been in the classroom.
SPEAKER 07 :
And Christy, I think that that’s an important part of this as well, is that this is a victory. But our attorneys that have been working for a long time, I mean, the school board meeting where the mother spoke was two and a half years ago. And we’ve been telling our audience about it for a very long time as well. But this victory wasn’t all of a sudden, the school board got a demand letter like sometimes we send and they’re like, oh, or the school administration said, let’s fix this, this isn’t right. And then it went to the lawsuit phase and it wasn’t like, ah, maybe now they’re serious, we’ll walk away. But it took our attorneys going out there and you joined us from Nevada on a broadcast where you had just completed a deposition. You’ve been doing depositions the day before with our team of attorneys out there. And it took that that level of getting to discovery, which many people in many lawsuits try to avoid that phase. even beyond the trial phase because of how invasive and intense a deposition can be in that discovery process. But that, when we got there and got those depositions, is what finally made this district realize, you know what? We don’t need to go to trial. We’re on a losing course here. We need to find a way out of this and settle with this client.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. So we had the school realizing, OK, we’ve had at least three of our administrators admit to several of the elements that we would have to prove in court that the material had no pedagogical interest, meaning there was no reason that it should have been found in a classroom. They also found that one of the administrators admitted that even if there had been parental consent, it still should have not had a place in the classroom. So, I mean, we’re talking beyond just the books where we require parents to sign permission slips to read. This material did not have an educational interest and should have never been in their schools. So once we have those admissions coming from their administrators, they realized, OK, we’re going to not want to fight this in court anymore.
SPEAKER 05 :
time in the country where this is what is happening, where you have such a sensitive culture and it really is a very sensitive culture. But when you actually call these things out and making kids do this type of material in high school, by the way, I teach a screen acting course in university level. And I have way stricter rules than this. I have wild rules because of the way we are right now. And by the way, I’m all for that. I want everyone to feel comfortable. I’m not going in there and make anyone uncomfortable. This is on a high school level. This is happening. Like that is wild. And we were able to get in there and stop this. And what I do like about this, and I think our audience needs to know this, Christy, is though you hear settlement and I think your mind goes to, So for some people, they may go, OK, they just it’s not really a victory. It’s a settlement. And a lot of times people think of a settlement as something that happens very quickly. It happens when no one wants to go to court. But this was not that process. Went to court, took years of time, took all the effort, the travel, the money that’s being spent, the money that has to be raised to then be able to be spent for the ACLJ. Because, again, of course, this mother and her family did not pay a dollar for our representation and for our work.
SPEAKER 02 :
I think it’s really important for the clients, the fact that it’s in their best interest to wrap this up and get justice for their child, but to not have this draw out for years and years and years. And like you’ve mentioned, we’ve already been in this for two years. And so I think it’s a victory for them in that the school paid up. I mean, the school had to pay. There is going to be training for those teachers. This is getting national attention. And now the spotlight is on this school to make sure that this never happens again. And then I think most importantly, and this is key, is that even when you have a settlement, you still have created precedent so that if this happens to any other student, they can now pull this case and say, look. These are the facts. This is what happened in this case. And the school had to pay. So my my child needs to be protected because this was inappropriate. And we have it on the record as precedent in the courts now that the school had to pay for this kind of action.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Christy, thank you so much for joining us and going through this because it is a very important time. This is Giving Tuesday. So what that means is that is the biggest charitable giving day of the year for a lot of people. This is the big promotional day. Obviously, a lot of you wait until the end of the year, post-Christmas bonus, that kind of thing happens. But we encourage you right now, it is one of our biggest days of the year. And it historically has been since Giving Tuesday kind of was founded. So I encourage you right now, if you hear the work that Christy is doing and her team, amazing work for people because now this is settled, doesn’t mean those kind of fights don’t come in each and every day. Every day we’re going through the intake, legal intake. If you go to aclj.org slash help, you fill out a form, a very simple form. If it’s within the scope of what we do here, you get assigned to attorney for absolutely free for you. But someone does have to pay those attorneys. Someone does have to pay for that travel. And thankfully, There are thousands of people like you who are watching this or listening to this today who either decided to become an ACLJ champion, that’s someone that gives on a monthly level, or someone that can make a big one-time-a-year single donation. We are built on the backbone of people giving $50, $70, $40. So don’t think if you give that your impact is not doing anything. All donations are doubled right now. Whatever you can give, there is an ACLJ champion. There’s a fund there that’s ready to be unlocked right now. Because as I said, it is not just the occasion where one is complete. Like I said, it is hard for us sometimes to fundraise on victories, but understand that a victory means that also frees up these lawyers to spend more time on the next one. And that next one is probably coming today because that’s just how it works, especially around Christmas time. And we know this. I know it feels like it’s old news, the sort of quote unquote war on Christmas, But you are shocked at how many things we get, how many legal queries we get every year from people who want to put up a nativity scene, who want to sing Oh Holy Night at their event and are getting told no. And we’re going to be there for them as well and take care of that. And maybe that’s you. And if it is, go to our website right now. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. We’re going to be joined by Jeff Balabana, ACLJ Jerusalem. And again, I can’t encourage you more. Right now, do it. ACLJ.org. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
And now your host, Logan Secular. This is Logan Secular. Will Haines is joining us in studio. Jeff Balaban from ACLJ Jerusalem is going to be joining us a little bit later to talk about President Trump’s response to the hostage situation still happening over 400 days, close to 500 days, in Israel right now, where American hostages, sadly, it’s reported that one of them that was believed to be alive has passed away and was murdered on October 7th. But that doesn’t mean we have to give up hope because there are proof of life videos that are coming out. We’re going to discuss that a little bit later. You just heard about a big victory in the ACLJ. And look, you may say, Logan, I’ve heard your big victories before. Sometimes they’re for the president of the United States. Well, yeah, sometimes they are. But sometimes they’re for a mom. They’re for a mom and their daughter. Daughter, by the way, mom and daughter, by the way, of a deployed, you may say, where’s the dad in this situation? A deployed service member. We were there and we worked for two years to make sure this was finished. They got paid. It’s nice. And they got some guarantees that teachers would all be taught, reassigned. But trust me, as I said before, I’ve taught some of these classes before. Those are no joke. You got to sit there all day and be taught about what you have to do and can and can’t do. And it’s shocking that they didn’t have that to begin with. But the ACLJ stepped in for free. and helped out and we secured a big victory. I love hearing those stories. It’s easy to forget about the good that happens. And right now, when we are in sort of this season of Christmas and it does feel good and the world feels like it’s turning around a little bit, we need to remember there are still fights happening each and every day. And I don’t mean to scare you. And I don’t mean to do some sort of clickbait situation where I’m telling you need to do something right now because there’s an emergency. It is an incredibly important time. The ACLJ is fighting at the highest levels right now. And then we are taking over the media wherever we can. And we are making those waves. And we’re going to continue to do that. And we’re going to continue to do that in brand new ways. Ways that contracts are being signed right now. And I’m excited to share that information when I can with you. Because there’s going to be some great new things in 2025. But none of those happen without you. Go to ACLJ.org right now. It is Giving Tuesday. If you are tuning in, Right now, and you saw the headline, which was, as Trump takes control, will Canada become a U.S. state? You may say, Logan, that does sound like clickbait. Oddly enough, it’s not. President Trump has, in some ways, I don’t want to say threatened, but at least, you know, thrown it out there saying, if you don’t like what I’m doing here… you leave this long-haired country boy alone. If you don’t like the way we’re living here in America, where he says we’re going to tariff you if you don’t stop the drug trafficking that’s coming in and all the issues that are coming in from our northern border.
SPEAKER 07 :
And the trade deficit as well, which is a very large problem with our neighbor to the north. And this, while, yes, it was in jest, but it makes world leaders uneasy because that’s not what you’re expecting to hear from the president-elect of, fine, if you can’t handle it, Just become 51st state. We’ll take care of you. But I love the strength that he shows. I love that he puts world leaders off their guard after four years with a Biden presidency, not knowing what he was saying many times. Now you have someone who throws you off your guard, is a strong leader. but also is, like you said, able to do things in jest in some ways that people don’t necessarily know if it’s a joke or not. But what we didn’t get was this Trump for a long time in the first presidency because of the Russia hoax and the Mueller. If this is his leadership style and it can continue without all the distractions, I think we’re in for a much brighter America First agenda.
SPEAKER 05 :
He always talked about, you know, you’ll throw stuff out there and if they believe it 10% that you may do it, it’s enough to change the world. And that’s kind of paraphrasing, but it’s true. Phone lines are open. I’d love to hear from you as well at 1-800-684-3110. And if you’re watching on YouTube right now, I encourage you to hit that thumbs up, hit that subscribe. And if you put in a comment, I’m reading them right now. Thank you for all the kind words that came in during the last segment. And thank you again. We can’t do any of this without you here at the ACLJ. If you don’t have anything to say, just put in where you’re watching from. I love to look at that. People watch this show all over the world. The world. It’s amazing. So put that in. And if you want to send in those clowns, that’s okay. Send them on in. We’ll be right back with Jeff Balaban at ACLJ Jerusalem. Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. And Jeff, there’s been actually a lot of movement happening in the state of Israel right now and all the situations happening with even the American hostages. Sadly, one was confirmed to be deceased. However, there have been some proof of life videos that come out. There have been a lot of movement as President Trump has started to make some pretty bold declarations. And this is why even, I think it’s important, it’s Giving Tuesday here in the States. This is why it’s important there is an ACLJ Jerusalem. This is why we’re there. Because these are the moments where tides can be turned.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Look, we, and we talk about this often here, Logan, this is not the Israel Center for Law and Justice. This is the American Center for Law and Justice in Israel. And we are known for our access in Washington, our understanding of Washington. I mean, just look at the people who we have on staff with us. people who know intimately how Washington works. And this is so important because in Israel, it really lives in a very treacherous neighborhood. It’s like the forward outpost of our Western civilization. Something which, by the way, President Trump said a few months ago. He said that the United States and Israel represent the pinnacle of Western civilization. He says that’s what these people want to destroy. So he understands it with great clarity. And they look to us the leaders in Israel, many of them, look to us to understand what’s going on in America, what to anticipate either way this election would have come out. And now, with this statement, Donald Trump has made another bold and very clear statement. By the way, a simple moral statement about who America is going to stand with going forward, because America has not really been standing with the hostages, hasn’t really been protecting even the American hostages. America has not really been standing with Israel. America has been pressuring Israel and trying to use this horrific attack against the Jewish state as a way to try and force the creation of a terrorist state. And they’ve been, you know, they keep on promoting the Gaza Health Ministry, which we know is a Hamas operation. Their lies, their liables about what Israel is doing. And here comes President Trump, and he is saying it’s an entirely new ballgame here. And now everyone’s scrambling to understand what the future holds. And that’s one of the reasons we’re there. It’s a major reason we’re there.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jeff, that video that Hamas released of an American hostage. He was born in New Jersey and he went to Israel and joined the IDF. 19 years old when he was taken on October 7th. They put this video out. It’s a propaganda video. We’re not showing the video because it is a propaganda video. But his message was clear because he spoke to President-elect Trump saying, help bring us home, help secure our freedom. And I think the reaction from the two statements, it’s dueling statements, as I’ve called it, between what the National Security Council’s spokesperson of the current White House said and what President Trump had to say. The statement from the White House said, the hostage video released today of American Israeli citizen, Idan Alexander, is a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own. And then you contrast that language, which is very soft. And yes, it is a cruel reminder, but the White House shouldn’t need cruel reminders that Americans are still held over a year by Hamas, a terrorist organization. But President Trump… mentions there’s all talk and no action and says, if the hostages are not released prior to January 20th, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as president of the United States, there will be all hell to pay in the Middle East and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity. There’s so much hope in that statement to me that instead of just a year and a half of talk from an administration that is weak, has diminished America on the world stage, and has let the terrorists run wild while hamstringing our greatest ally in the region. I see so much hope in what can happen in a Trump presidency in just a few weeks.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. Look, there’s a terrible danger zone over the next few weeks when people are waiting to see what kind of damage the outgoing administration might do to Israel, either directly or diplomatically at the UN, etc. We know they did it when Obama-Biden were on the way out. They did terrible damage at the UN, and there’s a lot of fear what they might do now. But The big picture is that, you’re right, the tone here, William, is exactly the opposite. It’s not the sort of middle of the road, yeah, terrorism is bad, but we’re not going to do anything about it. And by the way, it’s against a backdrop of a year and a half almost of statements essentially equating Israel to… to Hamas on a regular basis, accusing them of literal blood libels. You know, the ancient historical, you know, you have an excuse for why you have to eat the Jews. Now there’s an excuse why you have to eat the Jewish state. Literal lies about a false humanitarian problem in Gaza, false stories about starving in Gaza, none of which are true. Israel’s sending in over a billion pounds of food. Israel’s sending in massive aid, which, by the way, I personally don’t think they should be doing. They’re doing it anyway because they’re an incredibly, incredibly decent, even to their enemies, even to these horrible enemies. But Donald Trump is making it very clear there is no moral equivalence. The good guys and the bad guys in America going forward will stand with the good guys and against the bad guys. That message, I believe, is resounding with the good guys, not just in Israel, with the bad guys, not just in Gaza, but around the globe.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I think you’re seeing that change. When you have moments like President Biden walking out of a bookstore in Nantucket on Black Friday, and he’s holding the Hundred Years War on Palestine, a history of settler colonialism and resistance, one of really the the bedrocks of this movement of this sadly anti-israel movement in a photo op making those statements like you said sometimes it’s not direct but sometimes it’s indirect and i saw an interesting comment now i don’t agree with this because as you know i don’t necessarily lean to the more liberal side but i saw this from one of the um jewish zionist accounts that i follow and they put out a quote and sort of a meme that said i’m not sure how i will ever forgive the democratic party for making me choose between my zionist jewish identity and my liberal values And I thought that was a pretty stark reminder of how things are changing.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, there’s no question. This has become a real moment, a crossroads for a lot of Americans. And for Jewish Americans, there’s, and people who, especially not just Jews, who relate especially to Israel and see and understand Israel’s greatness and the unique bonds, not just the material alliances and the strategic alliances, but the true spiritual bonds between the United States of America and the state of Israel, the people of Israel, people will see that, recognize that they have to make a real choice now. And so there are a lot of people who are really confronting this. Others, by the way, I’ve seen things even more bizarre where people are saying, well, that’s it, I’m moving to England. And I’m thinking, I’m talking about Jews who are on the left. You’re going to move to England, you do not see what’s going on in the streets there. But the vast majority of people are recognizing that this past year plus has shown a true difference between not just the parties, but the mentalities that are driving them. And so while the future holds both promises, also peril, I mean, Israel needs to take advantage of this as well. And Israel needs to understand how Americans work and how deep the support is among the true supporters and not just the people who spend their time gaslighting. And that’s also an important role that we play to help them while we’re there, understand the nature and trend. Remember Israel is all in all said and done. It’s, In the news a lot, it’s a small country. It’s a small country and they’re not America. And they have to deal with the entire world. And they don’t really always get to see the true heart of those Americans who do support them, the most important alliances in the world. And that’s really an important role that ACLJ Jerusalem plays to help them understand it.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s where I want to wrap up with you, Jeff. It is Giving Tuesday, again, one of those most important times. And I want you to explain why, you said it a little bit earlier as well, but why ACLJ Jerusalem exists, why we need to be there, why we need to have a presence there, and why do we need to have a presence on behalf of Americans? Sure, we can be there. We always had a presence there. A lot of great organizations, a lot of great Christian ministries have always had a place in Israel, and even some that take on that more, you’d say, Israeli moniker and made that. We have that with the ECLJ, European Center. We have all these others. But when we moved into Jerusalem, we decided it was going to be a different point of view because we need to show the Jewish people in Israel and all the people in Israel, not just Jewish people, that we are there for them on behalf of the American people.
SPEAKER 04 :
Absolutely. And we did. You’re right. We covered during the segment some of the things that we’re doing in Jerusalem. But I want to say there’s another fact to this also. And we’ve talked about this a lot internally. You know, there’s a whole generation that’s been brought up with these horrible lies, these libels about Israel as an oppressor, even this notion of the settler occupier. This is Jewish land. Even by international law, Israel actually has rights to sovereignty. There is no other nationality that has a right to sovereignty there. Israel allowed some kind of a negotiation, and that was picked up by the world, and all of a sudden they’ve inverted reality as though Israel and the Jews are occupiers in Judea. Well, We have such an important role also in America of explaining to Jews and to Christians that this is not the case, that the history is that this is the Jewish homeland and the Jewish national was divided up. Most of it was given to the Arabs. That became Jordan. But this land and the future of this land must be protected to preserve the one space that is supposed to try and protect and preserve Jews around the world. And so the role we have is not just in Israel, but it’s in America also to convey from Israel, because we’re there on the ground, what the situation is to Americans. And I think it’s another aspect of what ACLJ does and what you do on the broadcast all the time. It’s critical for the next generation to understand the truth.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. If you want to help defend Israel and support ACLJ Jerusalem, easy way to do it. Today is Giving Tuesday. All donations are doubled and matched by an incredible ACLJ donor or champion. Right now, scan the QR code or go to ACLJ.org. We’re going to take your calls in the next segment. We’ve got a bunch of lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Call in. Welcome back to Secular. As I said, we have some phone lines open. We haven’t done a lot of big pushes for phones today, but we do have some lines open. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Before we wrap up the Israel discussion, I did want to… Will, you had something you wanted to bring up, and I have one also. Both from the New York Times. So yours is more interesting tidbit. More positive, yeah. And mine is more New York Times-y, as you’d expect.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, yeah, we can’t say something positive coming out of the New York Times without showing the real New York Times. Right, it’s the fairness doctrine, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
All the news that’s fit to print. But this is pretty interesting.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so this is from an article that came out on Thanksgiving Day. So it largely got overlooked. Probably poor timing for that author, that journalist that did this work. But the headline is from the New York Times. With Trump returning and Hezbollah weakened, Iran strikes a conciliatory tone. If you’ll remember, just for a little bit of background, remember Iran, after the attacks on the Hezbollah leadership, launched all those ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes within Iran, and everyone was expecting in late October, early November, for Iran to once again retaliate. This is what the New York Times reporting discovered on this. All the recent diplomacy talking about the shift in the tone in Iran marks a sharp change in tone from late October when Iran was preparing to launch a large retaliatory attack on Israel with a deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warning, we have never left an aggression unanswered in 40 years. Iran’s swing from tough talk to more conciliatory tone in just a few weeks’ time has its roots in developments at home and abroad. Five Iranian officials, one of them a Revolutionary Guard member and two former officials, said the decision to recalibrate… was prompted by Mr. Trump winning the November 5th election with concerns about an unpredictable leader who in his first term pursued a policy of maximum pressure on Iran. So once again, you’re seeing what could have continued to escalate into full war between Israel and Iran because Iran has never left an aggression unanswered in 40 years, decided to not launch an attack in early November on Israel, Because Donald Trump won the election in the United States. I think that’s a powerful testament to the leadership and the security and the peace that can come through his strong leadership. Just by winning the election, Iran decided now’s not the time.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, pretty big statement. And hopefully that means we’re going to see a lot of shifts in the world stage. I think you can feel it. I think you can feel this sort of difference in the air, if you will. I mean, I feel it even here in the States, especially with the overwhelming victory by President Trump and even the Electoral College and the popular vote. I think that shut up a lot of people. that we’re not going to put up with all of this continually. It’s not just going to be one side gets to control the media. That’s why we’re here at the ACLJ. We get to do this show and other outlets to make sure one side isn’t just heard. And then another thing from the New York Times I wanted to bring up, and again, I got to give a shout out to my friend, John Androsik from Five for Fighting. He posted this yesterday. He said, honest question for New York Times subscribers. Are you comfortable funding a platform like this? And this was the headline yesterday. that came out and it’s pretty innocuous at first. This is obviously on the, uh, the, the death of Omar, the, uh, hostage in Gaza, who was believed to be alive American hostage. And this is their headline. American thought to be alive in Gaza was killed on October 7th. Uh, and actually that was an adjusted one. The original one was American thought to be in live in Gaza died, uh, On October 7th. So they went and adjusted it from died to killed. And of course, they didn’t also put in there that he was held hostage by Hamas and was murdered and his body was abducted.
SPEAKER 07 :
It has that feeling of when the Washington Post did the obituary for al-Baghdadi, the ISIS leader, and called him an austere religious scholar. Their headline is so dry and benign that it’s misleading. It should have said, a man believed to be held hostage by Hamas was murdered on October 7th, and they just can’t bring themselves to tell the truth about what happened. So they mislead, and it’s unethical, honestly. It is absolutely unethical. It violates the Society of Professional Journalism’s guidelines for ethics in journalism because the headline is so vague that it doesn’t tell the true story.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right, and I mean, truth has just been thrown out the window at this point. We know that from these publications. And honestly, I never would have seen this if it wasn’t for the fact that I follow alternate news sites that then commentate on it, or I follow someone like John Adrasek, who I encourage you to follow from Five for Fighting, one of the biggest supporters of Israel in Hollywood. So do that. Let’s go ahead and take a phone call. Annabelle’s calling in California on line four. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi, very grateful champion reporting for duty. We must never let the countless deaths as a shamelessly direct fallout of the president administration’s policies at our border, enriching Iran to fund Hamas, to slaughter Israelis, and likewise Putin to invade Ukraine, be in vain. We chose our general and President Trump. Now we’re called upon to be soldiers in the battle, legislatively, constitutionally, protect life and liberty, the very hallmarks, of the ACLJ for decades. There’s no substitute for the incalculable and far-reaching aid they provide to attain these goals. Please invest your dollars in our nation by coming alongside of me and others and become an ACLJ champion. God bless America, Israel, the unborn, President Trump, and the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you so much, Annabelle. And I want to clarify, you know, Annabelle calls in a lot. She makes these really powerful statements. We don’t know Annabelle. Annabelle just calls in. She’s an ACLJ champion who has these amazing things to say. We want to make sure when we can that we can give her that opportunity. And any of you, if you want to call in with those kind of messages, know that makes us feel good. It makes us want to stay in the fight as well. Because there are, you know, there have been specifically over the last couple of years, there have been some dark, dark times. But because of people like you, ACLJ supporters, ACLJ champions, and look, I see a lot of you commenting and something like, man, they’re doing a lot of fundraising today. It’s Giving Tuesday. It’s one of the biggest days of the year. I am sorry. We’re going to be doing some fundraising today because it is very important. And your donations are doubled right now because we’re part of the Faith and Freedom year-end drive. As we head into the Christmas holiday, which can you believe is right around the corner, we know that things get crazy and get hectic. And maybe you don’t know if you’re going to be able to be by a computer to donate or on your phone. You may not be getting those emails. You may be getting so many emails from so many people that we’re getting lost in the shuffle. Well, I encourage you to give that donation right now at aclj.org. And like I said, I don’t mean to just be a tease here and not tell you what’s happening, but we have some really groundbreaking things happening within the organization and within this broadcast specifically that I am so thrilled to be sharing over the next month or two. Some of it will be by the end of the year. Some of it will be first quarter. But none of that happens overnight. without your financial support. We don’t have big sponsors funding this show. If you listen on the radio and you hear local advertisers in your market, that does not go to us. That’s just the truth. It doesn’t. It goes to the local station or whoever the deal is. So when you hear those, that’s not from us. That’s why when you watch online, the commercials you see are for our projects. So go to ACLJ.org and support the work now. And hey, if you’re looking for something free to do, I’m just going to give you this little plug for myself here. Our Christmas movie we released last year, Jingle Smells, which we released on Rumble, is now available. It’s a Christmas comedy that really supports your values and your kind of messaging. And it’s hilarious. I love it. I did co-write it with my friend Bart Scott, who writes a lot of our great content here. Will’s in it as well. Will’s got a great character. I’m briefly in it. You can hear my voice a few times. Jordan’s in it. And of course, a great cast like John Schneider, James Storm, Eric Roberts. Jim Brewer, Dylan Postle, Victoria Jackson. It’s a terrific movie and it’s available right now for free with ads on Fandango at Home and on the Roku channel. Actually, Fandango at Home you gotta purchase. Free with ads on the Roku channel. Talk to you next time.
