The Road to 2024 Begins Now

This is Jay Sekulow.

Apparently the road to 2024 begins now as former President Donald Trump announces his candidacy for President. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, welcome to the broadcast. Well, I think this is a record of starting early as far as Presidential campaigns go. But the 45th President of the United States, former President Trump, has announced yesterday that he is in fact seeking the Republican nomination for President for 2024. What's interesting about this, he did follow the paperwork, so as of last night, the former President is officially a candidate. I want to have a conversation with you today about what you think this means, talking about what's your view on him running, others as well. Rhonda Santas responded to some of the President's comments about Rhonda Santas by just saying, look at the scoreboard, referring to the disappointing results in the Senate and in the House.

Although it does look like the Republicans are on the threshold of getting the House back. But I will say this, so that'll be a sea change actually, that's going to be significant. But what's very interesting to me is the fact that we have a situation right now where in reality, and I think this is what we have to understand, we have never, I don't think, certainly in modern Presidential history, has an announcement been made two full years before the election.

Which means the former President now is under the auspices of the Federal Election Commission, which puts in all this regulatory requirements. So I want to take your calls on this. What do you think about the speech? What do you think about where the whole issue stands right now with the former President running? Let's have a conversation. I'm not going to say here's, I'm going to of course give you my opinion on what I saw in the speech. It was very constrained for the President, for President Trump it was very constrained. But I want to hear what you have to say. We're opening up our phone lines really early.

I'm actually opening them now at 1-800-684-3110. I found it interesting that, I think the word is restrained because I think people are expecting more of a typical, this was not a rally, this was at Mar-a-Lago, it was different. The tone was very different. It was long and I think that is, I've always been concerned about the length of these speeches. But I want to hear what you think.

1-800-684-3110. It was interesting the President, he started his message and I think we should play this. Talking about this will not be just his campaign.

So take a listen, it's number six. This will not be my campaign, this will be our campaign altogether. Because the only force strong enough to defeat the massive corruption we are up against is you, the American people.

It's true, the American people, the greatest people on earth, we love them all and we love both sides. We're going to bring people together, we're going to unify people. So there you have it, that was kind of the tone of the beginning of it.

Our phone lines are jamming up and I think this is why I want to have this conversation with you today. CeCe Howells in the studio with me. What was your reaction? You know, I think it will be interesting just to see how it plays out. Like you said, this is a very early announcement. And then it will also be interesting to see how this announcement plays out with who else throws their hat into the ring. So I think over the next maybe six months we'll see how it plays out.

I think it was a good speech and I think he was maybe more reserved than we typically know him to be. But again, I don't know if we'll know anything until the next coming months. One of our team members said, one speech, long way to go. And you're not kidding, a long way to go. It's two years.

But I want your comments. 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. Hey, don't forget also, support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice at ACLJ.org. We are in our matching challenge campaign. Any amount that you donate, we get a matching gift for if you're able, and only if you're able.

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That's 800-684-3110. We're going to be back with more. Get your comments, your interest on this. We're going to have a nice conversation coming back. Hey, so welcome back. We are taking your phone calls. We're going to make this a very interactive program. Professor Harry Hutchinson is going to join us in the second half hour.

1-800-684-3110. Probably the earliest announcement of a Presidential run, certainly in modern Presidential history, two years before the election. As of last night, when the President filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, he is now under the auspices of the FEC, which does impact a lot of how you fundraise, how money moves around. I mean, so this is a very interesting dynamic. You know, the interesting thing is, and I'm going to get right to the calls in a moment here, is if you look at the kind of the hit points that he gave in the beginning, Donald Trump, he said inflation was basically non-existent. That was true. Southern border was the strongest that it had been. It was still problems on the border, and he acknowledged that, but it was the strongest. We were energy independent, historic tax cuts and regulations. By the way, some of those are going to start expiring pretty soon here.

I was talking with my family about that yesterday, so that's going to be a whole thing. China was paying tariffs to get goods into the United States. ISIS was defeated the caliphate in about a month. North Korea did not launch a single long-range missile, and he bragged about his relationship with Kim Jong-un, and then, of course, the three Supreme Court justices.

Now, those are accomplishments. The question oftentimes, I think, Cece, and then we're going to get right to the phones, is the policies were great. Was the messaging or the messenger the right person to deliver, and is the country ready for that again, which we're going to hear from our folks, but it's hard to argue with the policy part. The policies were great. We see that with the Supreme Court that we have. We see that with everything you just listed. I think America was in a time of, really, greatness under his administration. Again, like you said, the messenger, sometimes he can be polarizing and, you know, attacking people, and I think we didn't see that last night, which maybe was a little bit shocking to people because it wasn't the typical Donald Trump demeanor.

No, it wasn't. All right, so we said we're going to take calls and our phone lines are jammed, and as soon as line and open up, I'm going to let you know. Right now, we don't have any open, but keep calling.

They'll open up. Let's go to Carolyn in Idaho on line three. Hi, Carolyn.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I'm a long time listener and supporter. I do support Trump, but I think from different ones that I visited with, his attacking, his possible opposing people by calling them names, some of us think he's losing about 30%, 25 to 30% of his following. You know, and it's interesting, and he made that, used that, I don't even want to repeat it, the statement about Ron DeSantis, and Ron DeSantis came back yesterday and said, look at the scoreboard, which I thought was actually a pretty effective response. It's interesting you said you think he's losing about 25 or 30% of his base support.

If he does, he would not be the nominee of the Republican Party. That's right. He's got to be thinking about that. That's right, and I think that's what's going to be interesting in these next few months. He's announced very early his candidacy, and we'll just have to see if that is going to play out, you know, in his favor or against him.

And I think probably the people that are going to throw in their hats are waiting to see that as well. I think you're right. Jessica's calling from California. We've got a line open at 800-684-3110. Jessica, welcome to the broadcast. You're on the air.

Thank you for saying hi, Paul. I am beyond thrilled. I'm like in shock in like the best way possible.

This is like my dream. When he lost the election, I've been in denial. I've been so disappointed in what's happened to our country, and I think that Trump has a chance to redeem himself and be the President. He was and can truly be in our country again. He just has to stop being so extra, and with his, you know, Twitter.

Well, you're asking an interesting question. We're having a lot of trouble hearing you, but I think what you're saying was he has a chance to redeem. It's interesting you said he has a chance to redeem himself, because I think there's a sense, and I have this sense, that the way in which he left with January 6 and all of the issues that followed it, and frankly the way the entire post-election litigation was handled, which was not handled well in my view.

I made that clear, and I don't want to go back over that. That he has to reposition himself. The chaos candidates did not do well in this last election. That's what Ron DeSantis I think was saying, was I don't think people have right now the urge or the desire for chaos.

Again, it's not the policies, it's the way in which they're delivered. The caller mentioned the Twitter. The other caller mentioned the name calling.

I mean, I think that's where, I mean, he tried to stay on script yesterday. There was no question about that. But this is what Ron DeSantis said in response to Donald Trump, number 32.

You know, at the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night. The fact of the matter is, the fact of the matter is, it was the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida. I don't think the speech that the President gave last night scares away any of the potential rivals. Now, you want a robust primary process. It's interesting that President Trump has started this primary process so early.

We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. But the question is going to be, can you keep the focus? I mean, we want to litigate. We do cases. Keeping a jury engaged for two weeks is difficult. Keeping a country engaged for two years. Because other folks may not announce folks for six, eight months, a year. I mean, probably not a year, but eight or ten months. Keeping that focus and energy up is going to be a trial. Because again, like you said, it's two years. And to keep energy and excitement about your candidacy going for two years when you don't have other people in the race officially right now, it's going to be a challenge. And again, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out.

All right. Let's go ahead and take Ronald from South Carolina on Line 4. Ronald, go ahead.

You're on the air. Well, thank you for taking my call and showing this segment so far. And my question is, is Trump the likely candidate to run and to, if when, if he wins, to reverse much of the executive orders that Biden and the bad policies that Biden has put out that has literally wrecked this country? I think whoever the Republican nominee is, if they were to win the general election, will reverse those policies.

I think you would see a sea change of, of reversal of policies. Now, so much of that depends, Ronald, on what happens in the House and Senate. Now, as of right now, while we're live today, we still cannot call the House for the Republicans. Although it is very likely that the Republicans are going to end up about 220, 221 seats. So Kevin McCarthy has the votes to be the Speaker of the House. So Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the Speaker come January when the new Congress is sworn in. But in the Senate, it looks like, you know, at best it's going to be, oh, they got control of the Senate. And so all Herschel Walker could do if he wins is get it back to 50-50, but the tiebreaker is still Kamala Harris, the Vice President.

So, you know, and who knows who they're going to put up. But I think any Republican is, if you run on policy points, and I think that's where, you know, you got to take a look at like the stock market, for instance, and this was a point he made yesterday. The Dow closed, when Donald Trump went to office, the Dow was like at 17,000 or 16,000. It closed for the first time at 20,000 and topped 30,000 in 2020. Two years later, we're still barely staying above 30,000.

We've been down in the 28,000 range. So you asked the right questions, Ronald, when it comes to policy. I again question, I'm not a political scientist, but I question whether you can keep the enthusiasm and the focus in place for the next two years.

I think the giant rallies, you know, these are very expensive things to put off. You don't get money from the RNC anymore as a candidate. It's just a whole different ballgame.

It is a whole different ballgame. And I think maybe the one advantage that Trump would have getting back into office is that he has, he had been there for four years. So he knows the pitfalls. He knows, you know, where the blockages are and what he can and cannot do, which there is, I'm sure, a learning curve for any person who, you know, takes the office of President in those first few months. So that would be, I think the one advantage he would have is that he already has that learning curve done.

But again, it's going to be keeping the energy and the focus and the messaging out for two full years. All right. Dave's calling from California. Go ahead, Dave. You're on the air. Hey, thank you for taking my call.

I appreciate the last couple of callers. They've covered everything, but I guess my question now would be, do you think, do you think Donald Trump can re, you know, ignite himself? Can he change and make the changes? Because he, you know, I'm a conservative, I'm a, you know, I love Donald Trump, but I just, I think so many people that I talk to, he's toxic and they're concerned about the future of the country and what he's putting off to the young voter that he's just too aggressive and he's brutal to people. And, and so my question would be, do you think, you know, and probably as good as any of us calling, so can he be cool? And second would be, um, DeSantis, I think, I think he's, he represents everything that Trump is, but he doesn't have that toxicity about him.

And so a lot of the people that I'm talking to, conservative people are leaning DeSantis at this point. So you asked a great question. Could he, could the President change his tone? Could he change the way in which he delivers a message? Could he? Yes.

He was a TV star. Could he? Yes.

Will he? That's a very different question. And that's where I think the issue is. Uh, the toxicity issue, as you mentioned, uh, look, I think there are people that's why we're having a conversation. Um, this is, I think an important day to have a conversation because like I said, historically never had a Presidential race starting this early.

I mean, this is, this is totally unprecedented. We're taking your calls on this at 800-684-3110. But let me encourage you also to support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice. As you know, I can't believe we're in the middle of November already, uh, but November, December are our biggest months of the year for the ACLJ. So your support for the ACLJ is going to make a huge difference. Let me encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, if you're able, is doubled because of our matching challenge campaign.

That's ACLJ.org. Back with more in a moment. Music.

Music. I'm not going to be shocked, um, if Joe Biden now waits because, you know, a lot of people, one of the strategies may be here folks is wait if you're a Republican too, and see how he plays out over the next two or three, four, five, six months. And, you know, like some people called in saying, I'm all for him.

Some are saying, I think he's alienated a lot of people. So anyways, we're going to get your comments on this, but I think that, you know, it's the one thing that we have to say is this is a unique moment in American history, CC, in the sense that it's so early in the process. I mean, basically the midterm just ended. I mean, they're still counting. And look, for instance, in Arizona, I don't think they have the final count for the attorney general yet. I think, um, our friend is down, I think like 600 votes, uh, is very, very close. So, you know, it's just, you know, this is an unusual political city. It really is.

It really is. And like you said, again, being so early, I think the problem will be to just find out, can he carry the energy? Can he carry the attention and keep the attention for two full years? I mean, really, you know, attention span is very short. You see TikTok videos or whatever, it's like, you know, 30 seconds. Like that's, that's people's attention span.

And so two years is a long time to have to keep that energy going and the attention on you. I want to play, uh, well, let's, let's, let's take Robin's call from Nevada first on line five. Hi Robin. Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to say that the Republican party...

I think, I think we totally, Robin, we totally lost you there for a moment. So if you would go ahead and, um, and repeat, please. Yes. I changed from independent party to Republican party because of Trump. Okay. Was it policies that were interesting to you?

Yes. His policies, his passion to protect our country, to protect our borders, to be a strong leader in the, in the world. Here's what the President said about that last night.

Number three. Together we will be taking on the most corrupt forces and entrenched interests imaginable. Our country is in a horrible state.

We're in grave trouble. This is not a task for a politician or a conventional candidate. This is a task for a great movement that embodies the courage, confidence, and the spirit of the American people. This is a movement.

This is not for any one individual. This is a job... It's very interesting to me. He said that this is not, um, a task for a politician or a conventional candidate, which he's acknowledging again. So if we think that we're going to see Donald Trump conventional candidate, I don't think that's the case. No, I don't think so. I don't think that's who he is. I mean, I know him pretty well from representing over four years.

I just don't think that's where it is. Yeah. And I think we have seen maybe he is able to change because everybody's comment has been, he was more reserved last night. It was not the typical Donald Trump high energy attack, you know, everyone kind of speech. It was more, you know, just him speaking as someone who really loves this country. He said, the reason he's running, I'm running because I believe the world has not yet seen the true glory of what this nation can be. And I think that resonates with a lot of people, but he's going to have to keep that messaging up and the energy up for two years. That is a, I mean, think about that folks.

That is a long time. Naomi's calling from Alabama on line one. Naomi, welcome to the broadcast. You're on the air. Thank you for taking my call.

Um, I was, this is exactly why I was calling in. I think that he's announcing early so that he can take the next two years to repair his image. He knows this Santos is a force to be reckoned with and he wants to show everyone that he is not the person that he's been for the past four, those four years. He was trying to be the person we wanted him to be, a fighter and he is someone, a uniter.

Well, this is going to be the, I think this is going to be the great challenge. So last night was a very different moment of the way in which he delivered the speech. I think it was way too long.

I'll be honest. I think an hour and 15 minutes speeches are not the way it works in politics. Networks were pulling off, including networks that are friendly to him because it just got too long. Um, but the tone was very different.

The atmosphere was very different. I, but he's going to be out there. This is the risk he's taken.

I just want to give you this analysis for a moment. One of the risks he's taken is he is the one out there by himself for, could be six months. That could be a very dangerous position to be in politically. Now he's a big, big guy. He knows how to, you know, he's been through these, but this is an unusual thing to be, like you said, Cece, to keep the kind of energy up that you have to do to run for President. And now he's under the FEC jurisdiction. It's a whole new ballgame for him.

Yeah. And, and again, I think all eyes are on him. Like you said, uh, definitely it's going to be who, who else in the Republican side is going to throw their hat into the ring. They're going to be watching, but also Biden and the Democrat side are going to be watching.

So, you know, what he does in these next, you said, you know, two, three, four, six months, uh, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Yeah. Um, let's go ahead and take Mike's call from New York on line six, and we're going to keep moving phone lines open for you folks at 800-684-3110. Mike, go ahead. All right. Thank you.

Sure. Uh, let me just spell out real quick. Uh, although DeSantis, they're throwing his name around a lot, he did very successful in his Florida election. Let's remember that that is Florida. It is not Ohio, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming.

He may not be perceived on a national scale in the same fashion. So, you know, strong numbers in Florida, but we can't make presumptions and transpose those numbers across the United States. I think it would be presumptuous for anybody to do that because if you look at the states you just mentioned, the candidates did not fare very well, the Republicans, let's just be honest.

Okay. Republican candidates did not do well in those states. So that tells me that nobody better be presumptuous here and we better redefine. It can't be the party of what we're against. It better be the party of what we're for.

I mean, we need to be able to see a vision cast. And I think at the beginning of the speech, the President did that and then, you know, it kind of trailed as it went on, but this is where the challenge is going to be for anybody that's running. And this, this is not going to be a no contest Republican primary.

There are going to be people running. That's just the nature of the way this works. And that's how it's going to come down. And then we'll see at the end of the day where it leads, but we've got another 30 minutes of this broadcast ahead and we're going to be continuing to take your calls. I want it today to be a conversation that I could have, that we could have with you about this. We're not taking sides. We're just kind of giving you analysis of where we think things are.

And I think, you know, this is a very, very interesting moment in history. Like I said, it's very rare that you have this early on, the fight for the Republican nomination commencing, maybe fighting against himself right now. I don't see Ron DeSantis making an announcement in four weeks.

I don't see the others that may be candidates and there will be others. So we'll see what happens, but we're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. But as we go to break, let me encourage you to do this. November and December are the two most important months for the ACLJ for budgeting. We've been in budgeting meetings the last two days. What we're doing is we look at our budget and we say, okay, based on November and December and how our year ends, what do we plan for next year? And we made some major, I can't announce them yet.

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Do that at ACLJ.org. Like our social media feeds, share that. We're going to be back with more in just a minute.

We'll take your calls at 800-684-3110. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. So a bit of history last night. As far as I can tell, this is the earliest of a Presidential announcement in modern political times for a Presidential candidate to make an announcement two years, really right after the midterm elections, to seek the office in this case of the Republican nomination for President.

So Donald Trump filed his papers with the FEC, the Federal Election Commission yesterday, which means his campaign is now governed by the rules and regulations of the Federal Election Commission. So that's an interesting dynamic. He's put himself in that spot. And also, as Cece said, and I think this is true, it's two years. Now, granted, one of those two years gets to be a real race. But that's another year from now where it gets to be a real race. I mean, really, it's the summer before the election in November that is the real race. So the attention span to keep the attention on this is going to be very, very challenging, I think. And the only thing I can think is maybe that, you know, after this midterm election, some Republicans are a little bit discouraged.

They should be. And maybe he thinks announcing early kind of sweeps in at this point when people are frustrated and, you know, where's our hope? And maybe he thinks he's going to be the person for the next several months that has the sole stage to be saying, you know, I can fix this.

But he does have to repair. He's got an image issue. Let's be, you know, I'm a lawyer.

I call it like I see it. Okay. So he's got an image issue. And that is the end of his administration was not pleasant. Can we be honest about that? It just wasn't pleasant.

It wasn't the way to, it was a mess on 100 different levels. But he's got a long time to fix it. I'm not saying he's not a viable candidate. I think he's a formidable candidate. You'd be kidding. You're kidding. To write him off, I told this to some friends of mine in the media last night, writing him off, ridiculous. Okay. He'll be at the top of the pack on the polling as soon as they start really doing polling.

But that normally doesn't mean anything for about a year. So, you know, it seems like this will be the interesting time on this. Let's take Mike from Colorado. And again, we're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. Mike?

Thank you for taking my call. I don't think there is any candidate on the Democratic side of things that can beat Trump. Mike, are you talking about in a general election? You said on the Democratic side of things. No, no.

Let me back up. I don't think there's another candidate in the GOP that can beat Donald. Okay, you're talking about during the primary. Yeah. Yes, to the nomination. For a couple reasons. One, he has a great platform to start with, his accomplishments in the first two years, and he's a tremendous campaigner. I get the image issue. Like you said, he toned it down a little last night.

That might just be a blip. He's not going to change. But he is going to be tough to beat by any other Republican, including DeSantis, to the nomination. Listen, I don't disagree with you that he's a formidable candidate, because he's going to be a formidable candidate.

He's not fair to say he's a candidate. Mary Beth on YouTube had an interesting comment. She said, well, the media is going to be happy for the next two years for ratings. You know, it's interesting. I'd be very interested to see what the ratings were last night. I don't know if we have any of those yet.

I don't think we probably have them yet, because a lot of the networks pulled away from it. It just got too long. And this is something, he's going to have to be more disciplined in this, in my view. But you raise a very, look, Mike, you raise a very interesting point. I think ignoring him as a candidate is a fool's errand. I mean, I think that's, you can't ignore him, but there are going to be other people running in the Republican Party that are well-respected, taking a different tack. Very similar policies, but a different tack. That is going to happen. And frankly, that's healthy for the political process.

Yeah. I mean, Trump's a force to be reckoned with. He always has been. I mean, even before he was President, he was basically a, you know, entertainment force to be reckoned with. And I do believe that he can change his persona, and that's maybe what needs to happen, because we see from the callers, that's the one thing they dislike the most.

I think the, I think that his challenge is the delivery of the message and the tone. And nobody liked that statement he made about Ron DeSantis. That was not right. And you can't fall back into that.

I just think that chaos candidates did not do well in the midterm elections. So learn from that. We're taking your calls.

This is a conversation. 800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Don't forget, support the work of the ACLJ Matching Challenge Campaign. ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. We've got a couple phone lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Welcome back to the broadcast. We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110.

C.C. Heil, our senior counsel, is with me, our director of policy. Harry Hutchinson has joined us as well.

We're going to take your calls and comments. Interesting, Carol on Facebook said, people may be surprised at Trump's early announcement, but no one should be surprised that he's running. I think that's fair. I think the early announcement is historically early. That is for sure.

How that plays out, can you keep the interest of the American people for two years is going to be very, very interesting. We're going to go right to the phones. Let's take Sienna's call from Indiana on Line 2. Hi, Sienna.

Hey there. Thank you very much for taking my call and letting me join the conversation. As I'm listening to a lot of people's opinions, I do understand why they're concerned about Trump being our candidate. I'm a fan of DeSantis also, but I still believe that Trump is the best candidate because we have seen his track record. We know that he stands behind what he says, and we all know that there are plenty of rhinos out there and people who pretend to be what they say they are, but then when they get in a position, then they don't always follow through with conservative policies. The known quantity issue is a double-edged sword here. You do know the policies, and I'm going to play a bite in a moment about the energy policy. I mean, our country's in a totally different situation right now energy-wise, but on the other hand, tone is going to matter here in this election because if we cannot get suburban women, if we cannot get independents, you're not going to win a general election. That's true for the Democrats. It's true for the Republicans. It doesn't matter which side you're on. That's just fact.

So let me play. This was in the speech yesterday, number eight. On day one, we will end Joe Biden's war on American energy, and you will see, when that happens, you will see energy costs come down, and because energy is so big and so important, you will see inflation dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping. You will see it come down.

It's a thing of beauty. So you tied in energy and inflation, which Professor Hutchinson has talked about. Harry, first, before we get to the specifics on that, your kind of reaction to the early announcement? Well, I thought President Trump was very, very restrained, and I think for many people, he was surprisingly restrained. I think he will face some headwinds because of his early announcement and the timing. And I think at the end of the day, we should never underestimate his capacity to prevail against the odds. Certainly, if you go back to 2016, he surprised a lot of people. He may surprise a lot of people again. Yeah, interestingly, I do not think that the tactic of 2016, though, works in 2024, eight years later. You have to be adaptive, and that's going to be the question for any of these candidates.

Can you adapt to a very different world that we're going to be facing politically and globally? I mean, look what's going on. Right, and his policies were great, but I really think his personality has to be great, too, because we do care about that, and we see that.

Like, when you said, you know, the chaos candidates didn't win, I mean, there is something to be said about a demeanor and personality that is more reserved and professional. So here's what we've got. I'm going to take two calls, like back-to-back here, because this gives you a good perspective of two very different views. We're going to start with Jack, and then I'm going to go to Josephine, but let's start with Jack calling from Illinois on Line 6. Jack, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Jay, for taking my call. First of all, I'd like to concur with you that he's starting the campaign much too early. At the end of two years, people are going to be so sick of Donald Trump and his braggadocious demeanor that he's not going to win the nomination. He must come across as a team player. This is something that I don't know if he's capable of doing. I mean, you look at his track record, the people that he's fired and fired and fired and hired, the chaos that he created while he was in office, and I am a Donald Trump supporter, by the way, but he needs to enlist other supporters to do his campaigning for him and to extol the virtues and the great things that he did, not himself.

It seems like he always has to be the center of attention. Okay, Jack, I appreciate those points. I'm going to go right to Josephine. This is a kind of different way of doing the radio broadcast, because Josephine has a different view. Josephine from Wisconsin, Line 5, go ahead, you're on the air.

Thank you for taking my call. Well, my point is, I'm in my 80s, and I was a kid in Europe in World War Two, and I saw what was happening then. And I tell you, if I want a guard at the door, if it's my front door, or if it's America, I would want to have somebody like Trump and I don't know anyone else that would be as durable and as steady and he has proven what he can do for us. And if anybody wants to attack his character, I don't like his character either. However, we all qualify for that. You can take me down and I'm a wonderful person. But I think they shouldn't look at the things that the way he is and doing what he did for us.

All right, so this is very interesting, because I don't know if we have this bite, and if not, maybe we can get it. And it talked about the situation in Ukraine, because I think it's fair to say, it was fair to say, and I appreciate that comment, Josephine, both of you were great. I don't think we would be looking at, Harry, right now from a policy perspective, but also from a military perspective, I don't think we would be looking at a situation in Ukraine that we're now facing. I mean, they deescalated the situation with Poland yesterday, whether it was a Ukrainian defense missile that went awry or whether everybody decided that's what we're going to say, so we don't have World War Three here.

I get that too. But it's very interesting kind of disposition of the two callers and then Josephine coming out of Europe during World War Two in their 80s. So it's very interesting to me that that perspective, the Guardian at the door.

Yes, I think it is. And I think it's unmistakable that Donald Trump was better in terms of strategically positioning the United States in terms of geopolitical affairs than virtually any President we've had in the last 20 years. In other words, he was restrained, but he was willing to respond. However, I still think in terms of domestic politics, people that do not necessarily have Josephine's perspective, they are going to focus on personality. And the American people, for whatever reason, often focus on an individual's personality. And I think at the end of the day, that could be a huge negative unless, for instance, we're facing a heightened prospect of World War Three.

And I think most Americans would prefer Trump to many of the other candidates. I think from, I mean, we were very close to a major crisis yesterday. I mean, this could have escalated very, very quickly. And unfortunately, it looks like it's not going to because it implicated Article Five of the NATO agreement, which is an attack on one is an attack on all. I mean, it was Poland.

We were afraid of this was going to happen. Russia said it wasn't them. Then others reports that it may have been a Ukrainian missile that kind of went awry from their self-defense system, whatever.

It's been deescalated. But it's an interesting perspective. But I think that this is not so much just a Donald Trump thing either. This is also a very different vision between conservative engagement in foreign policy and a more progressive engagement in foreign policy. It's two different worlds.

Yeah. And I think another thing that we're maybe discounting is the young voters, because I don't know that the foreign policy resonates really too much with them at all. The things that they're interested in, the things that they're concerned about might not be the economy. And I mean, it should be because they're putting gas in their car too. But a lot of times they're like, well, they're going to forgive my debt to college. And those are the things that I think whoever's running this time needs to focus on a message that resonates with young voters as well.

Even if it's education, educating young voters. Yeah. I'm going to grab one more call here for this segment. Let's go to Sheila in Virginia. Hey, Sheila. Hi.

I want to thank you for taking my call. I think Trump's announced his running because two years from now, we have to look at what's going to happen. We have to project ourselves into what's going to happen. We could be in a depression, a recession, the stocks falling, possible war. And I think by him running gives people hope. He wants us to know he's still available to pull us out of this. I'm in my seventies.

I agree with Josephine in her eighties. He has endurance. He's the only one who can handle this. And I don't think the young, I think they're all looking for freebies. This is their lifestyle.

Their parents has given it to them. You know, it just goes on and on. So I really think... Sheila, these are really good points.

And Harry, I wanted to follow up on what you said. We don't know what the economy is going to do in the next 24 months. I mean, you study economics.

I mean, it's titular. It could go either way. I think that's true.

And the other issue that's out there is President Biden may lack the flexibility that he had with respect to the midterms because if it is true that the Republicans are taking the House, he will not necessarily be able to pass as much in terms of legislation and giveaways. Talking about budgets and talking about economy, I need to take the next moment here to ask for your support for the American Center for Law and Justice. November and December are our two biggest months of the year. We are going from this studio into a series of meetings for a couple hours more. We did them yesterday.

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That's ACLJ.org. When you come back, I'm going to take your phone calls. Hey, welcome back. Last segment of the broadcast. We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. I'm going to go ahead and play by 29. This is Harry. He's talking about businesses we're pouring back into the U.S. Let's talk about this for a moment.

Number 29. Businesses were pouring back because of our historic tax and regulation cuts, the biggest in both categories in history, bigger even than what Ronald Reagan was able to produce. And he produced a lot. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea were in check and respected. They respected the United States.

And quite honestly, they respected me. The truth of that point is I don't think that the conflicts we're seeing today, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's China making aggressive moves again towards Taiwan or doing what they're doing globally, would have happened with his leadership. The question is going to be, can that leadership now transfer many years later? I mean, you're talking about a President that was elected in 2016 coming back in 2024. By the way, it's not the first time that's happened where you've had President wins, then loses, then comes back.

I mean, and historically Winston Churchill in England in their system of governance. But the businesses were coming back. I mean, it was a historic change, but those tax cuts are now fading out. And so the next President that comes in either makes those tax cuts longer or permanent or they're gone.

I think that is correct. And I also think whoever the next President will be, it will be difficult to extend those tax cuts because for many people, this is an ideological issue. They don't necessarily focus on the practical implications of tax cuts driving job growth and driving the economy. And so, I mean, I think it's going to be challenging for Mr. Trump to make his case to the American people.

And I think you are absolutely correct that people have short memories and they will not necessarily give him credit for what he's accomplished. We have a very interesting call coming in from Dimitrov from Washington State. Dimitrov, welcome to the broadcaster on the air. Hello, sir.

Thank you very much for taking my call. I am a refugee from Ukraine and we're helping to a lot of refugees right now and having a lot of conversations about President Trump. And they will think that if President Trump would be in office that the war would be lost, you know, this fake news perception. But I tell him all the time that, you know, the number one reason we have a war is because of our catastrophic exit from Afghanistan because of the weak leadership that Biden and the Democrat administration brought in us. And I listened to President Zelensky's advisor interview just recently and he confirmed that the first javelin systems that Ukraine got and successfully fought with and won the Kiev battle is actually, they got it from Trump administration.

Yes. I am intimately familiar with that because that was the subject of the first impeachment. And the fact was that the Biden administration would not give, excuse me, the Obama administration, would not provide lethal weapons to Ukraine at the time and the Trump administration did. Everybody that provided these, though, let me tell you, eventually when these are provided, it's not done, I want you to understand this, without fear and trembling. Because these governments, as you know, and you left, Dimitrov, you left Ukraine so you know this, I mean, there's a lot of corruption in these. I'm not talking about Zelensky and I'm not going to get into that right now.

We don't have time for that today. But so when you're giving these kind of weaponry, you have to be very careful on whose hands those weapons, Harry, get into. Absolutely. And so we are in a situation right now where weapons that we left in Afghanistan are now on the black market throughout the world. And we didn't retrieve all of those weapons. And I think that was a huge mistake. Gigantic. I think the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Sisi, also sent a very bad signal to our global partners.

It did. And just like Dimitrov said, had President Trump been in office, we would not be in the situation because there was a much stronger American presence at that time than there is now. And that's not just President Trump. That was also the policy of Republicans or conservatives in foreign policy. And so that's the difference you're seeing there.

But I think that's a fair assessment of it. Let's go ahead and I'm going to take Billy's call from Arkansas on Line 3. Billy, go ahead.

Hi, guys. I just wanted to call in and kind of contrast the idea that Trump's rhetoric is setting him back. And that's what really drawn everybody to his campaign initially was his stiff talk and all the policies that you're talking about that have been overturned or... Yeah, I know.

But let me ask you, I got a question for you, Billy. Okay. So, you know, you like the policies. How was your reaction to the name calling of Ron DeSantis?

Well, I think we all are grownups. Right. And when there's situations like that and Trump is being Trump and DeSantis is being DeSantis, I think we're not looking at what happens after the fact. Yeah, well, that's the thing. But that's where the great distraction comes into all of this. And you've got to be able to evaluate candidates by what their positions actually are and not just... Rhetoric is important because that's how you motivate people. But it's actually important to get the message out. We're going to try to get the next two calls in. I think I can. Let's go to Bill and Marilyn on Line 2.

Yeah, Jay, thanks for your call here. Two things. I watched Trump's speech last night and I saw it in two different parts. The first 50 minutes were an address to the nation.

He identified the problems and his solutions followed. The last 15 minutes were not good for him. He reverted back to his old rhetoric and sort of left some of us down.

But he really fired me up after last night. Well, when he went through the list of the accomplishments, unemployment reached 3.5%, lowest in the half century. Jobless claims hit a 50-year low. 1.2 million manufacturing jobs back in the United States.

Dow was up to its highest points. $3.2 trillion in historic tax cuts. You start thinking to yourself, I did the same thing. I didn't like the tweets. And I had to deal with those tweets, as you know, as a lawyer. But it was like, the policies sure were good. But I think delivery this next time is going to matter. I can get both of your opinions. I do think delivery and how it's done this time matters. Policies are great, but I think he has to focus on personality as well. I think delivery is going to matter.

Delivery will matter and also you have to look at human nature. At some point we can tire of the rhetoric. And two years is just a long time.

I'm sure they calculated this, but it is a long, long time. So this was a great conversation. What I wanted to do today was have a conversation.

And we've had that conversation. I hope it was helpful to you. It certainly was enlightening to us.

Because, again, the policies are important as we discuss the policies, we discuss the rhetoric. It's very interesting historically. I think this is a unique historical moment in the sense that it's not often that you see a Presidential election starting two full years before really the election takes place.

This is unheard of. And hopefully his personality won't distract from his accomplishments and his campaigning. He's got a lot to keep together and to be very disciplined in a very long period of time. Tomorrow's broadcast, by the way, we're going to have a full hour with Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. It's going to be a fascinating program. I encourage you to watch that. As we close this out, let me encourage you to do this also.

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