We got breaking news. President Trump issues chilling warning hours before the deadline in Iran. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Secular. We want to hear from you.
Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. What a morning, folks. It's Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes is joining me.
Jordan's going to be joining us as well. Rick Rinnell, Packed Show, Packed Show, been taking your calls. Obviously, many of you maybe are dropping your kids off of school like I was. Look down, got to learn on your phone. Oh, President Trump's posted.
What could it be today? And probably the most threatening and maybe chilling post President Trump has made. This comes obviously on the heels of his Easter Sunday post. Which was sort of the profanity-laced threat. This one.
begins a bit differently. And it begins with: again, this is quoting President Trump, who posted this at around 8 a.m. this morning: a whole civilization will die tonight. Never to be brought back again. That's the opening line of President Trump's post on Truth Social.
I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.
However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary and wonderful, revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? in all caps. We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end.
God bless the great people of Iran. Folks, this is a very serious threat, obviously, from President Trump.
Now we know that he is a tough negotiator. who makes these kind of statements, maybe not this extreme. And we've been talking about it in studio or before the show today, and it's like, well, if this works. I guess good job, President Trump. uh for ending this conflict.
If it does not work though Then you are calling for a whole civilization to die tonight, never to be brought back. That is a very strong rhetoric. That is rhetoric I don't think a lot of people are super comfortable with. When you're not referring to the government, when you start using words like civilization, you start inferring civilians. What do you think?
1-800-684-3110. He also. very quickly says that we have complete and total regime change. Again, changing the narrative a little bit to what regime change means. And I think this has been a sticking point for people like me who wanted to see a true regime change in Iran.
When we start claiming that we have total regime change just by replacing members within the same government, that is not the same as a free Iran. It's okay for this to stress you out quite a bit. They are now saying that that timeline is 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight to meet this moment and make a deal with the United States. That is from the White House.
Um Let's talk about it, folks. Let's get into it. I want to hear from you. I want to know your thoughts on this. When you woke up this morning and you read this, do you think this is a negotiation tool?
Do you think this is a threat? Do you think this is something that President Trump is willing to do? To bring a whole civilization, not just to their knees. I mean, the quote is: a whole civilization will die tonight. That is not the kind of words you usually hear from an American President, but he is dealing with a government.
That is not as easy to deal with. It's typical American Presidents. That's right. And we will discuss this at length. As Slogan said, Jordan's joining us in the next segment, as well as Rick Renell later in the broadcast.
But I think it's also key to break down what some of these words mean. What does civilization mean? Because your first thought goes to, oh, that sounds almost like a genocide. That sounds as apocalyptic as you can imagine. But also, he has been referring to today, Tuesday, as Bridges and Power Plants Day.
And if he's also talking about the civilization in the context of what the Islamic Republic has built for 47 years, all the logistics, all of their infrastructure, bringing that and completely wiping it out, needing to be rebuilt as something different, not the Islamic Republic, that has meaning as well. That also still would include a lot of loss of civilian life. Die tonight, right? I don't think you're referring to bridges. You know, and that's not how I take it.
What about you? This is an important conversation. Maybe one of the most important conversations we will have on this broadcast. Give me a call. 1-800-68-431-10.
Throw it in the chat. Hit that like, thumbs up. Let's get this conversation rolling. I want to hear from you. Let me know where you're watching from in the chat.
And we're going to have a brother Jordan joining us in the next segment. We got a lot coming in.
So stay tuned. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. My brother Jordan's joining us in the studio. Will Haynes is here, obviously, as well.
Later on, Rick Rinnell will be with us. Phone lights are rapidly filling up, we will get To your comments, a lot of people have a lot of saying things to say. Obviously, to reset. President Trump made a very, very direct, maybe his most direct and blunt post. And that's saying a lot when we're talking about President Trump, who just over the message just over the weekend, you had the profanity-laced Easter message where you both were going after Islam going after a lot of things.
But this one specifically is about the timeline. The White House has issued a specific statement saying this 8 p.m. Eastern time tonight is the timeline to reach a deal. Again, that post began with a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. That is from President Trump.
He then says, I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. One thing I'm trying to. Devised from this message, and the way it ends, too, is because then he goes and talks about the 47 years of. The corruption, the death, the extortion by the Islamic Republic since the revolution.
So, is it the civilization? Is he talking about the Islamic Revolution? Because he ends with God bless the great people of Iran, or is he saying, because of the extent of their conduct, that um the the people of the nation of Iran will be destroyed. Because of what we are going to have to do, because of their radical leaders. I think you can read it both ways.
I think you can read it one way saying, this is the end of the Islamic Republic. That might be the nicest way of reading it because he says, God bless the great people of Iran. Or you could read it as this is like the complete and total destruction of the Persian people, as we know it, who are still living in what is known as Iran or the Islamic. The first republic feels like. We have a lot of Persian Americans who are very excited about the opportunity.
It'd be interesting to know, and we have a lot of listeners in California. If they're listening out in Los Angeles, there's plenty of Christians and Jewish Iranians in and Persians living in.
Southern California, I think it's the number one area in the country. I know some of them. I've talked to them before. They were very excited about this initially. I would.
Almost like to see, like, what is their interpretation of a message like this? Yeah, do they think this is the way you have to talk to these guys?
Well, and I think because they're all in times people to Jordan's point as well, I think the word civilization, when you think about the content of it, we do typically think, oh, the people, but the civilization means what the people have built. And I think to that point, when you talk about the fall of the Roman Empire, you talk about the death of that civilization, these are rhetorical things that are said. This isn't like he created the term the civilization will die tonight. And you talk about him also talking about taking them back to the stone ages. To me, that is reading it as the technology, the infrastructure of the entire nation.
It's a civilized part of the world, which is that we have running water and electricity.
Now. With that as well, even if. That is the meaning. Even if it means they have no logistics on the ground, that means food is disrupted. It means power is disrupted.
It means clean water is disrupted. There will be. A very negative effect on the Iranian people. Even if he is talking about civilization as the Islamic Republic of Iran. If it does occur, he still says he hopes it won't.
Hopes the strait will agree to open the strait and protect it from being shot at, let the vessels go through, which, by the way, does not mean the conflict is over. It just means we're not going to take out the power and the bridges and that the strait reopens, which should bring oil prices down and some stability to that for the rest of the world. And you too, because if you're like any of us and you had to refill over the last few days, it's hitting three digits, especially if you drive an SUV like so many Americans do. Tennessee, we're in Tennessee and it's $4 or $4. That's a lot for a low-tax state and a very red state.
But I think, yeah, as Will said, civilization can be the means of civilization, kind of like what's happened in Cuba. Where there's no tower light, but I mean, this is on a much bigger scale, 90 million people. And then the question goes to Logan, because, and, Will, what you said. The Iranian people have said for years they've held up signs in English.
Okay, so you don't do that. Unless you're talking to us, basically, in the Western world. But they know, you know, the number one leader in the world who speaks English is American. Um has been saying, come help us. If this is what it takes.
Are they willing the people there? To go through the hardship of the power and the water and the loss of life potentially. to change Not just a regime by name, by like which Ayatollah is. Yeah, and by taking down the Islamic Republic and turning it back into an Iran that we have never experienced since our lifetime, but that anybody who was old enough to know Iran in the 70s, 60s, 70s, and knew it was the most progressive country in that region of the world. I do have that.
That is what I've said. The first line is very disturbing when you hear a whole civilization will die tonight. Yes. But I think one of the things that though. Is maybe a little bit more disheartening.
Is President Trump already saying that we have complete and total regime change, which he has been saying now for multiple days? Understand, like you said, it's different people in these positions, but it's not a different government. And he says it's a different regime. It's regime change because you go down a different level and they're not as radicalized. There have been other reports, though, that you go down a different level if you're a second to third generation.
Sell that to ISIS.
Well, if you're a second to third generation, you're close to our age. This is all you've known. And so if your family has been the leaders. of this, you're going to fight because you're at the top of the food chain, right? You're probably just as extreme as the guy we killed before, maybe more so.
And so that's what I'm saying. Does it to say this civilization is and again, this is trying to interpreting President Trump.
Now listen, I've spent a lot of time with him, so I think I'm somewhat of an expert in it. I you could interpret it both ways. This Islamic Republic civilization is done tonight if they don't open the strait. It's a pretty easy ask, by the way. We are not asking Iran to stop the conflict.
Or that if you fire at Israel, we're going to take down your bridges. Or if you fire at our troops, It's to let the free flow of goods go through while this conflict continues, and we try to get to some kind of endpoint. There's the other way to look at this as well. And that's the madman theory that was popularized by Richard Nixon trying to bring about an end to the war in Vietnam. It wasn't successful for Richard Nixon, but we know one.
It was for Ronald Reagan. We also know that through Roger Stone, through a lot of the people he has built his entire political career around. Comes from that Nixonian background and that kind of the madman theory basically says your adversaries don't know if you're crazy enough to do what you say. He's talked about that. He's talked about it.
He even talked about how John Bolton, no friend of his, was good in the room. Because of this madman theory of with world leaders. And he's talked about this when he was running again. Like, I don't like the guy, he's crazy. I'd take his advice to have in the room because the world leaders, he's like, I don't even have to be tough.
Because they see him and they go, that's the guy that will just go in and say, let's bomb your country.
So there is that other way to look at this as people say he knows he's speaking to an audience. Here's what we know. We'll know in six hours. And I will tell you this too: the fact that this is an administration that has Pete Hagseth, the Secretary of War. And renaming it, and has got rid of a lot of military leaders the past 24 hours, even.
Some top leaders and some not some next down. And Tulsi Gabbard, who works with, who has an extremely different view, and presents acknowledged that. And a lot of people said she must be on the way out. And the White House actually said no. And she's still briefing the President every single day on intelligence issues.
He's admitted that she does have a different view.
So, like you said, with Bolton, all that, when you yourself put out this message and your adversaries see you've got a Tulsi Gabbard advising you in the morning, you know, with your intelligence briefing, you got a Pete Hagseth running your secretary as your Secretary of War. I mean, it's really tough to make a, like you said, the theory is tough because. You really can't. You want to play like a chicken with him on this? See if he's bluffing?
Because as we talked about before the show, though, we got these fair to say: you can't say this, and then 8 p.m. comes, and if the strait's not open. Unless you've got a deal that, okay, we're going to give 48 hours because they've agreed to negotiate opening the straight.
Something like that? You have to hit the bridges now and the infrastructure, or your madman theory has failed, and you've now lost your biggest chip. He did think this was going to work with Putin and it did not. Remember, Putin did not pull back out of Ukraine because of the theory of what would Donald Trump do. And in fact, it's been kind of the opposite there.
Yep. And as we know also that it has been so successful in Iran. And the fact that on the very first day of this war, they took out the Ayatollah. That was something that had been kind of hands-off last summer was for all sort of military operations, even the United States even telling Israel in previous things, like, don't go after the Ayatollah. They've known where he was.
And I guess so much for Israel controlling us, right? As they like to say, we were able to say, no, in your previous conflicts with Iran, don't take out the Ayatollah. We don't want to destabilize it to that point.
Now we are here. And the very first day they took out the leadership. These are serious when my nine-year-old daughter comes to me about it because I try to shield her from a lot of the moves and stuff. Because, again, one of the tweets, I don't want her to look at that and the statements, but also, you know, living around war. But we talked about the pilot who was shot down, the rescue, some of these positive things.
So, I mean, she's asking that, what is world war? What does that mean? Is this, are we at war? And I said, we're at war. She's like, but they're not here.
I was like, well, that's one thing nice about being the United States of America is that usually we're not the ones having to get hit, but our troops are. Yeah. Look, we'll be back in 20 seconds. We'll be taking a quick break.
So just get online. A few lines opened up. We just, some people hung up. 1-800-684-30110. We do want to hear from you.
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We are going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. There are a lot of calls coming in that we did should absolutely take. Take the line for you. I think the industry call from Kim.
She's watching on YouTube in Michigan. Kim, welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Thank you. I wanted to make note of something that I thought of.
I know that President Trump has said something very extreme, but we don't necessarily know what is being said and stated behind closed doors. We know there are bad actors in our own nation that they are in touch with. We know that they slaughtered tens of thousands of their own people. And President Trump may very well have said something that is proportionate to what they are threatening. Yeah, yeah, listen.
We do know Iran puts out a lot of propaganda that's absurd. Like, you know, it'll be the White House exploding, and they don't even have the capability of it, it'll be a missile coming in. Yeah, they don't even have that missile yet. Uh, and we know that.
So, they will put out a lot of uh propaganda that is not even technically possible, uh, that is just intense, and is more just kind of this is how much we hate America. Uh, this is what we ultimately want to do to you is destroy you all.
So, when they do it, and it doesn't happen, it's not like They've lost credibility. Here's why. They're still going to fund Hezbollah. They're still going to shoot at our troops as they did even when we were both fighting ISIS, because ISIS was anti-Shia Muslims as well. They used, that's what, you know, how we got Sulaimani was that he was on the ground there in those battles.
So they have shown that while their rhetoric. Does not match their actions, they will still take actions which are very deadly, and they will target and kill Americans when they can. Yeah, absolutely. And look, there's a lot of you with varying points of view on this. But my side is this: the U.S., we don't do crazy propaganda.
Yeah. So when we say no, we can do it. We have to follow through. But we have been doing it. Or our people are there.
It's not like we're not, there's nothing to do with it. You know what I mean? Like, if we say we're going to do this to you, if you don't do this, we kind of have to do it to you. And one of the updates you may have missed from last night is the Clarg Island update, which was being hit pretty dramatically over the years. That's right.
And that was the island where a lot of their refineries and kind of the hub of their oil and gas industry in Iran.
So it's really a financial, a financial center of the Iranian regime was something President Trump had been very wary of attacking up until this point. Because of Russia's impact on Russia and China. Almost as a precursor to what could come tonight, they started attacking dozens of attacks, hit it very hard. And I think we should hear this. This is Brett Baer.
Before he went on air, he had just gotten off the phone with the President.
So this is. Isn't the President speaking, but this is his reporting on the call he had just had with the President. Uh related to The the post this morning, this is Byte 11, Brett Baer. But I just got off the phone with the President and um And he called and I said Listen, if you were to put odds on it. What were the odds that this is going to end up being a negotiated deal?
He said he wasn't going to put odds on it, but he said 8 p.m. is happening. That's what he said. He said it is, if we get to that point, there is going to be An attack like they have not seen.
Now he's sticking to that at this point.
Now he said if negotiations move forward today and there is something concrete that could change. But at this hour, he didn't want to put odds on it, but he said it is moving forward with the plans that we have.
So I think what you look for today is Is what I get from that, and I think he obviously shared that with Red Bear to sh get that to the American people. Is that if Iran were to, and if there is someone in Iran that even has the power to make sure this could get done. But if there's someone in Iran who could say a 24-hour ceasefire in the Strait of Hormuz.
So any of the vessels. should be able to go through peacefully. Doesn't matter what country they're flagged. as long as they're there legally, like just normal operations. I think the President's just opened the door to calling it off based off that.
The question is. Is there someone in Iroad right now? That has the power to actually make sure those ships are going to be safe as they pass through the strait.
Well, and I think that's a very good point, and something we discussed in our earlier meetings is that, yes, there may be leadership that they are speaking with that are with the IRGC.
However, if that leadership appears weak to the people within that infrastructure, that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps infrastructure. They could be taken out internally so quickly if they look weird. Even has to come from the IRGC. They have to be the ones that say, Okay, total. The military, the regular Iranian military and the IRGC will not be actively engaging any vessels that are legally passing through the strait as they would have before.
That would include American vessels and European vessels for X period of time. That, I think, would stop. Whatever this 8 p.m. total destruction is. I think it could be that small.
Before we get to that. But As you heard from the President, I mean And the complication there is who can even guarantee that? I want to take this call before we head to the this is our you know the end of our first half hour it's flown by a lot of you are on hold but I do think there's quite a few of you who've called or commented that you know you're concerned And you're worried about what's going to happen tonight. Obviously, we're praying for the people of Iran as well. Pray for our Jewish people.
Yeah, let's go to America, too. Let's go to Cliff in Illinois, who's an ACLJ champion, by the way. That's someone that gives monthlies, which we appreciate so much. Cliff, go ahead. Yes, I get right to it is that I am on pins and needles.
And I think that everyone in the audience there really should be praying for the leadership for President Trump and all those in harm's way that this is really God's will. I mean, I I I really don't know. That's why I don't get paid the big bucks and being there. But Cliff, I think there's There's no reason for you to not feel that way. I think a lot of us woke up.
With, you know, you read a post like this, and you're, you know, it creates sort of a pit in your stomach, and you go, Oh, what are we doing here? Is this what we should be doing? And that's why we're having this discussion. That's why this hour is not dedicated to here's our point of view exclusively. We understand that a lot of people have different points of view, and that a lot of you read something like this and are concerned.
You're concerned for civilians, you're concerned for people in general, because you're good, God-fearing people around the world who, when you wake up to a post from the President essentially saying, you know, tonight is going to be the end of a civilization that can never return. And I don't care what it follows that. There is always going to be that moment of reflection.
Well, and I think this is also important to bring up for Cliff as well, and who to be praying for, specifically on the ground in Iran. The IRGC is sending parents and kids to the power plants. To form human chains. Yeah, human shields. There, essentially.
Human shields. Human shields in front of, and there's some imagery that we're showing now. That's out of state media from Iran, by the way. They are getting them there. Whenever you see these types of demonstrations in Iran, they are forced to do that.
It's a propaganda thing.
So they put flags of the Islamic Republic in their hand and they make them wave them because they have family members that they're threatening to kill. And they have also called on all young people, athletes, artists, students, university students, and their professors to form these human chains. As Jordan said, it's human shields. It's the same tactic Hamas uses, their proxy in Gaza, in Hezbollah. They create human shields because they're cowards and they want the PR win because they don't care about their people.
They only care about making the United States look bad. And they're putting them at the places that they know are targets for a reason because they want them to die. The IDF issued a statement saying stay off trains. Right. Like urgent warning, do not travel by train across Iran.
So that's an Iran piece of their infrastructure. That being said, second half hour is coming up. We're going to continue this conversation. I want you to be a part of it. Phone lines are jammed right now, they'll open up.
But also, if you don't get us for the full hour or you're listening to this later on, find the full show always at aclj.org, YouTube, Rumble, however you get your podcast. We are there. But we're live every day from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. You can find all the different sources at aclj.org, Salem News Channel.
Again, we are available at no cost wherever you're at because people like you support. We'll be right back. Yeah. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow.
And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Second half hour of Sekulow. We're live right now, and phone lines are completely jammed. But we're going to continue the conversation, of course, talking about President Trump's extreme deadline tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern Time, the White House has said as President Trump opened up this morning, saying, and I quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.
However, now we have a complete and total regime change where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? We'll find out tonight. And then he went on and on a little bit more and then ended with, God bless the great people of Iran. And then we got the latest from Brett Baer, who spoke to the President.
The President said, I'm not putting odds on it. We are going to do it if there's no, basically, if there's no negotiations and the straits are not open. We're not, we're moving forward with it. You know, plans 8 p.m. You know, look, I am just seeing comments that are coming in.
People who are just joining us right now who have not seen this, who are pretty shocked. We understand that.
Okay, we're not. You may be hearing the second half hour here. We've maybe become numb to it over the second half hour as we've been talking about it. Look, we're all a little we need to explain what the President said he will do at 8 p.m. I think that's important.
There are a ton of you calling in. One of you, we're still one line open. I will take those calls, by the way, either in this segment or the last segment. We will have Rick Renelle joining us who can give us a good understanding also what's going on coming up shortly. But yeah, I think we should give a bit of an overview and then we can talk about it.
It's electricity.
So power plants all over the country. Uh that will be taken out. Bridges, so anywhere that's connected by bridge will not be able to be connected any longer.
So, no power. And now, from the IDF, we've seen the warning to Iranians. See, I mean, this is why Israel and the US do conduct wars differently. They do tell the people, the civilians, Um uh where to stay away from and they said Also, stay away from railway. Do not travel by train.
So, what I'm reading is: this is transportation. This is electricity. If you take out bridges, railways, And electricity, the nation, a nation can't really function in a modern way.
So, Does Iran have the backups necessary as a military? To still govern and maintain control? Or is this how they ultimately lose power? And what we have to. Kind of figure out, I don't think it's clear from the Iranian people because they can't speak freely.
Is would they see this as an opening opportunity that yes, this will be a tough time. But this is our moment to then take back our country because the infrastructure is so crippled that they can't kill us as easily as they used to be able to kill us. And once again, I think also the peril to the Iranian people that could come from this as well. We mentioned in the previous segment that the IRGC is having people go to power plants to become human shields. That tells you a lot about who your enemy is.
They also, this is a statement from General Hossein Yekta, who is the leader of the Basij force. And that is the force, right? That is the police force internally that polices all the religious codes. These are the people that take your family members and throw them in Evan prison for their head covering not perfectly being on, or all of the anything you do to violate their Islamic law. This is the terror force within Iran on their own people.
They're very bad people. Yeah, but this is a statement that he put on Iranian state television. Moms and dads, take your kids' hands and go out to the streets. Do you want your kid to become a real man? Let him feel like a hero standing right at the heart of the battlefield.
Moms and dads at night, send your kids to man checkpoints. They become men. They are recruiting children as young as 12 years old, sending 12-year-old boys to go be human shields. They've been constantly bombarded, by the way. And now they're sending 12-year-olds to power plants to die.
They would use 12-year-olds to cross the field, young children to cross mined fields before they sent their military. Exactly. I want you to get a hold, because in the final segment, which is only one segment away, We're going to take your calls. A bunch of lines actually just opened up. A bunch of people obviously couldn't wait any longer.
You can wait. Give me a call: 1-800-684-30-110. We'll start taking calls in about 10 minutes. Rick Rinnell will be joining us in the next segment. Of course, someone who is a very important voice.
Not just our show, but to the world and on the world stage.
So we'll be right back with Rick, followed by comments from you. Our listener base, which we appreciate so much. 1-800-684-30110. Welcome back to Sekulow. We're joined by Rick Rinnell now, Jordan and Will in studios.
We are going to be hearing from you at the next segment.
So we have a one line open right now. Lines are jammed, but they'll keep opening up. Stay on hold if you're on hold, though, because I do want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. Rick You know, obviously, all of us woke up to a very interesting post from President Trump.
And there, obviously, in our comments, we can see there's somewhere between understanding this is President Trump's negotiation tactic to some real concern. I think that's okay when you hear some of the rhetoric that comes in at saying 8 p.m. tonight is a hard deadline. I want to get your thoughts, though, as someone who has been in the room, has been worked with him so much, not unlike Jordan, not like a lot of our team. But what do you feel when you wake up to something like this?
These kind of statements, they don't feel very empty, if you will, in terms of the threat. Look, I think we judge Presidents by what they get accomplished, not their tactics. Gone is the day that we sit by and we just say, Oh, I want a President who has certain tactics or certain personalities. We need to judge the outcome. I don't buy into this whole thing of, you know, oh, act Presidential.
I'm not sure what that means because let me just give you a little brief history. We've tried Presidents and secretaries of state and diplomats who have been nothing but Perfect diplomats saying the exact perfect thing, and they have produced. Zero. Let me just take one example. When it comes to NATO spending.
We've tried the George H.W. Bush way, which is the deputy assistant secretary has a meeting, and then the assistant secretary has a meeting, and they all say the same thing, and it bubbles up to the NSC. Then it goes to the vice President, then it goes to the President, and they all say the same thing to Europe. They say, can you please? Join us, be a good transatlantic partner, and pay more of the burden into NATO by building up to 2% of your GDP into defense.
We've tried that. The other side says, great, thank you. We'll go back, we'll think about it. We've tried the Obama. way where he showed up in Europe.
He gave a speech in Berlin. Millions of people showed up to scream, we love Barack Obama, he's amazing, he's a great person. He asked the same thing, will you please increase your NATO spending? And guess what happened on both occasions? Zero increases.
So I'm tired of critiquing the styles, and I want to critique the performance. Donald Trump has shown us, he knows how to deliver, he knows how to negotiate. He's increased NATO spending to 2% in his first term. He's now increased NATO to 5%. In his second term.
And that's the standard people are raising up and doing it. He holds people to account. He's got a very tough negotiating style, but guess what? He wins. And thank God we have a President who wins.
Rick, one question to you, and it's a serious one. Because you've been part of administrations during wartime. And I think The last time we saw a large-scale operation was called Shock and Awe. In Iraq. And it certainly was.
And it didn't mean it was the end of that concept. There's been a lot of discussions, you know, post that about, but at that moment, it did see.
some very quick changes uh immediately. If President Trump Folllows through on this 8 p.m. deadline, and Iran is not willing to negotiate any kind of safety for the Strait of Hormuz, a reopening, even on a temporary basis, like a ceasefire 24, 48 hours, or negotiation on it. Do you think it'd be that this will be the largest military operation by the U.S. since Shakina?
Look, I'm not a military expert, and I try to always stay away from the Pentagon issues because I've been at the State Department for 13 years, and I love the State Department, which I think we should affectionately call the Department of Peace right now since we have a Department of War. But the reality is that we have serious diplomacy. We have diplomats at the highest level who know President Trump, who have access to President Trump, who can call President Trump in the middle of a meeting or step out of a meeting to check with him. And that's exactly the type of negotiator that you want.
Someone who doesn't have to always go back to Washington and go through weeks of approval process on what they're saying. They can pick up the phone to the decision maker and get information and get approval. They also have the ability, as I know from working with President Trump, he gives you some leeway into what you can negotiate. And so that's what we have now. We have a very serious negotiation.
going on with a very credible threat of a deadline. And that is the best circumstances to test the other side. Let me just say this. If the Iranians are serious about giving up their nuclear weapons to make America safe, to make sure that we don't have terrorist attacks, then they have every opportunity through this serious diplomatic channel at the highest levels to do that. But they're faced with a deadline.
They're not going to Barack Obama us by convincing us somehow that they're great and now we have to give them $6 billion in sanctions, relief, cash, and credit. We're not going to go there because President Trump is not messing around. He's fixing the problem. Rick, I want to go back to something you said when you were talking, use the example of NATO spending. We are now seeing a very real case study on NATO's willingness to stand with the United States and with NATO allies.
When you see the differences between Eastern European nations. And Western European nations, it's on full display right now. We also, through the course of this operation, Operation Epic Fury, we have found we discovered the world did. Our intelligence may or may not have known, but They had intermediate. ballistic missiles that could hit London, Paris, Munich.
Also, with that knowledge, seeing how reluctant our NATO allies are. And all of the work that has gone in, all the talk we've had about them paying their fair share. What do you think the state of NATO is today? With everything that has come to light and bubbled up to the top during this conflict, yeah, we have comfortable Europe and we have nervous Europe. Comfortable Europe are those who are very comfortable with Russia and Iran, and they do business with them and they don't see the threats because they've watered down their policy and they're trying to be friends with Russia and with Iran.
Then we have nervous Europe, those who are a little closer to Russia and those who have taken a firm stand against this regime in Iran. Those people, those countries that are in nervous Europe, they want to keep the alliance together. Comfortable Europe is just not producing, you know, it's Spain, it's the UK, it's Germany, it's don't use our bases, we're not going to support you because we're comfortable. Those who are nervous about the threats, the ones who are doing their 5% and being really good members of NATO, they are the ones who are saying, look, you're missing. Missing the threat inside NATO.
And that's two different conversations at the same time. Rick, I think final question here. One of the things that we are seeing concern about is Iran is using the tactics that they have taught their proxies, whether it be Hamas or Hezbollah. They are forcing people into the streets to make human shields around power plants, putting them on bridges, making them wave the flag of the Islamic Republic. When you see the individuals, you know that those are not the individuals that are really, really hoping that the IRGC and the Islamic Republic can hold on to this.
But we know that the besieged police and all of these forces inside Iran, they still have a lot of power over the individuals there. What should our message be as they are being used as human shields really to the world and to the people of Iran at this point?
Well, I think one of the messages that we have to be very clear on is to the NGO community that keeps falling for this.
So many NGOs are like, oh, don't hit this building because there are innocent people standing in front.
Well, first of all, there are innocent people who are being shoved in front. By a regime that's incredibly hostile, that is trying to play this out. And so we don't need NGOs trying to help the regime with their strategy. That's for sure. But we also just need to publicly be telling people: get out.
This is something that is going to happen. I think President Trump has done a good job of articulating that. Certainly, we have a lot of people talking about it because they're nervous about the tactic. But again, I'm proud that the diplomacy today is strong going forward and serious. Thank you, Rick, so much for joining us.
We've had a lot of great commentary today. In the next segment. I want to hear from you. We have two lines still open. They dropped off 1-800-684-3110.
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1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow, last segment of the day. I want to hear from you. Let's just kick it off.
Some of you have been a hold for as long as half an hour.
So let's start with Anthony, who's calling, watching on the Salem News channel, which we're live on each and every day. Thankful to that. Anthony, go ahead. Yeah, my uh my statement is, you know, is that words do matter. And a whole civiliz civilization will die Is a little much.
I am a Trump supporter, always have been, and still am, and I agree with 99% of what he does. But my question really is. They're putting the people around the power plants, bridges, and different things. I would think we would have the capacity or the ability to go in and, like at a power plant, take out all of the. infrastructure surrounding it, not necessarily the plant, Back away from the people, take out the lines, cut off the flow of the energy, do the same thing with.
With the gas. I live in Missouri up close to a power plant. The tornado came through a few years back and took out all the lines, and it took a month to get it all put back. You know, you can go in and do that. Take out the power lines, take out the gas lines, the bridges.
I don't know what you're going to do with the people on it, but then cripple them that way because we are a country of compassion. And if they do get the regime change we want, then we're going to help them rebuild. Yeah, I I do think, by the way, no doubt That if we could see a an Iran that is a peaceful member of the world. That the US and many other countries would contribute to the rebuilding of society there. Um it would be uh, incredible for the the world.
So, I don't think that's an issue. I don't doubt that that occurs. I think what you're talking about is in the short term. Um What the, you know, can you take it down in ways where you could easily then rebuild it? I think technically, there probably is that technology.
I don't know the details on that. Yeah, I'll pretend like I did. That's also a different military strategy because if you could do it that way, they could probably fix it very easily.
Well, I think, Jordan, to that point as well, and that is a little bit where we are unclear about. Objective: if it is total collapse of this regime of the civilization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, one to Anthony's point, yes. A lot of innocent people will have issues getting food, having clean water, having, like, there will be civilian deaths as a result of that, not even just the human shields. Like, that is the goal. But, yes, that is probably the one way to really bring about a total regime change where it's no longer the Islamic Republic.
But it is dicey. And I get even in the best of readings of it, which I take the civilization, meaning Islamic Republic, even in the best readings of it. It is catastrophic for millions of innocent people, the people that we are have a long time wanted to retake Iran. And what we don't know is will they, in a sense, suffer through that for to understand the good. Like they have been asking us to get involved in Iran.
And to come fight. for them for uh since 2009. And so when you ask a country to come in and fight for you, that means war and that means people will be put in harm's way and So are they willing to suffer that to get to the Freedom. Or does it re-radicalize a population that has gotten Deradicalized because of the way the regime treats its own people. Let's try to take some more calls.
Yeah, we can't answer that in one though. Let's try to take some more calls. Eric in Pennsylvania, go ahead. Yeah, who are we negotiating with? Because um The uh I told a son Well, I heard he wants to resign, but they garb him and let him resign.
Well, yeah, but there's even a chance. I don't even know if this Ayatollah's son knows that he's the Ayatollah, the supreme leader of Iran. He hasn't done any message by video. He has anything put out by him has only been written and Almost All commentary out has been that he is not so let's talk about then who are we negotiating with when he's talking about making a deal with their parliamentary leader. But I, again, that you go to him, you say, does he have the power to tell the IRGC to open the Strait of Hormuz?
Eric, it's a very valid question. We understand.
Well, and I think to some degree, there's a reason why the administration isn't saying, here are the five people that are the five IRGC guys that will because you don't want to be named that either. If there are IRGC senior leaders negotiating with the United States right now, naming them. Would end the negotiation because they would be taken out. Other members of the IRGC would be opportunistic and take them out. Yeah.
But it is a good question. Is there anyone there right now? Who has the ultimate power to do what the President's asking to be done to prevent this attack from tonight? I can't name that person because it appears the new Ayatollah is in a coma, has not done any video appearances, only written statements that were probably written by the IRGC. There's been some statements from IRGC spokespeople.
There's been some statements from you've also seen from the regular military and from the leader of their parliament. Uh other than that You know, that's what we've seen. That's what Iran has put out. I'm going to try to get to two more calls at least, maybe three if we can, but let's go at least to Marie quickly in Colorado. Line two, go ahead.
Hi, thanks for your show. I get very frustrated sometimes when I listen to your show because people are demanding transparency, but when the President provides it, they say, oh, that's too harsh, oh, that's too critical, and they don't like the way he says something.
Well, you can't govern a nation by committee. You end up with a giraffe, is what I was all, or a zebra, is what I was talking about. I just wanted to make that comment. Maria, I have it both. I understand that.
Marik talks about that a lot, is that part of the issues with the diplomacy of the past was that consensus is a victory for no one. Yeah, what is Presidential at that point? But to counter that, You're waking up to a post saying a whole civilization will die tonight. I think it's okay to have a gut check moment.
Well, but also to say, why I've said this on this broadcast before, why President Biden was the perfect President for the left is they want a President by committee and bureaucrat, not by a single unitary President. All right, last call of the day, George in Maryland. I think this is a good way to take us out. Merle, I'm sorry we're not able to get to you today. George, go ahead.
Thank you very much for taking the call. And anything that happens, we have to keep in mind God is still in control. And he has not given up. Yeah, absolutely, George. I think as we wrap up this broadcast for today.
This will probably be the last time you hear from us until tomorrow. I do want you to take a minute. Obviously. Pray for our own troops. Pray for the President of the United States.
Pray for the people of Iran. Pray for the hearts and minds of even the current Iranian government. That we can avoid Catastrophe tonight that we can avoid. Uh a civilization. That will die tonight, according to the President.
Let's pray that that does not happen and that cooler heads, if you want to say, or more rational heads can prevail and that God is in control. and can make that happen. With that being said, we have one minute left in the broadcast today. This show has been intense, folks. I understand.
I wanted to make sure you didn't just hear from us, that you heard from you as well, because this show is as much yours. And your voice is always incredibly important to us. And it was nice to hear. Voices from around the spectrum today. Because that is justified.
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