We got breaking news. Trump administration team meets with Iran at the UN. 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, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. That's right. We got all the UN coverage for you.
Will Haynes is in the studio with me, Jeff Balabon, ACLJ Jerusalem, joining us later, talking about. Norway? Throwing a ban on Jewish products. We're going to talk about that coming up. And Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us, also, someone who is very familiar.
With the UN. Phone lines are over for you at 1-800-684-3110. But let's talk about this. President Trump addressed sort of the elephant in the room, which was a multiple-hour meeting between Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the foreign minister of Iran to start talking about, once again, This is life. This is not a repeat, but once again to discuss what it looks like to potentially bring an end to the conflict, or of course, President Trump later on said, you know, kind of the two options.
Either we're going to have a good deal or we're going to be annihilating them. Big words, we've heard it before. But we're back at it once again. He said he thinks that they should have a deal soon because why wouldn't we have a deal soon? And I think that again.
For people to look at this, it's sort of like the Greenland deal, and you go, Oh, well, why wouldn't they have a deal?
Well, Greenland may be in Denmark maybe a little easier to deal with than The Islamic Republic of Iran. That's right. And if you look at today, the President of Iran spoke at the UN. This is kind of what makes the UN so surreal at times when we host the UN, it's on U.S.
soil, and the country that we are in conflict with, their President comes to the UN and speaks and has protection that we protect. When you're within the UN. You're technically right not under any sort of American Jurisdiction legally. Right. There's like that becomes like a no man's land temporarily in these sort of areas.
I know it's weird to think about, but in New York City, essentially, it becomes an autonomous zone. But at the same time, they still are staying in hotels. They still are bringing people.
So those are included. Yeah. And then when you think about it, also, the U.S. guarantees protection on our soil. We don't want an international incident that a foreign diplomat or foreign leader is killed or attacked or assassinated on U.S.
soil. But at the same time, It's also the person we are in conflict with is here. That is the surreal nature of it. But the President of Iran, after we find out, one, President Trump was very direct in his speech. We can play some of that that happened yesterday and contrast it with what the President of Iran said today in his speech before the UN.
At the same time, we're finding out that this meeting happened that was three hours, and it was what are called shuttle talks, where they weren't necessarily sitting in the same room. They use an intermediary that comes in and talks to one side, gets all the information. It's like a live game of high-stakes telephone, and then run back to the other side, tell them that, get more information, and go. And it took three hours, which goes also to show you. And what we talked about yesterday to some degree, where the President does utilize the UN in ways that are actual work, not just show, that both are happening.
There are the very posturing statements of the President's speech and other things that happen, but real work is also going on at the exact same time. That being said, when he was having this discussion in his speech, and I quote, he said, I have a big decision to make. And again, that was to make a deal with Iran or annihilating the Islamic Republic later on. He said, it doesn't make sense, this is the direct quote, for Iran not to essentially make a deal. They are waiting to see how I do in the midterm elections.
What they don't realize, and this is what I want you to call in, how do you feel about this in terms of how the election may change your point of view? What they don't realize is that I'm not running, I'll be here for two and a half years. I give no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran. It doesn't even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
When you hear that from President Trump, Does it make you feel like there will be any swaying him? In terms of, let's say, you know, you lose control of one part of the government. Or will this keep going? What do you think? 1-800-684-3110?
Does it deter? If people essentially are saying, hey, we are voting against in many ways. Is conflict in Iran? And he says, I don't give it any credence. What do you think?
1-800-68-430-110. We're going to keep this conversation rolling. We're going to also give you an update on the work of the ACLJ coming up. Go to aclj.org to be a part of the team today. Welcome back to SecGillo.
I do want to hear from you. A lot of you are watching online, and I appreciate that, but I want to hear your voice today: 1-800-684-30110. We'll have some special guests joining us: Jeff Balabon, ACLJ Jerusalem, Rick Rinnell joining us in the back half of the show. But there's some time there to hear from you, and I'd like to do it in this segment, next segment, 1-800-684-3110. Again, we're talking about President Trump.
Of course, he had his meetings throughout the UN, and we know that the Trump administration had some very direct meetings, multiple-hour meetings with the Iranian delegation that, again, was in New York City, was at the UN, and they were discussing what the future could hold. President Trump had a lot to say about this, including planning out what a future could look like with a beautiful Iran, Iran that is thriving or whatever, or an annihilated Iran. And somewhat is putting it back on them to do this. At the same time, talking about he thinks Iran is waiting until after the midterms to make any kind of decision. Of course, we are only about a month away from the midterms at this point, six weeks from the midterm elections.
And he's personally saying, it means nothing to me, so they can wait it out. That's fine, six more weeks, but it's not going to change my mind on the way Iran is going to be handled.
Well, and I think what's also interesting is you had the President of Iran today speaking, and how did the President of Iran open it up? And once again, this is in the entire context of the U.S. being in conflict. Conflict with Iran with giant pictures of the Ayatollah, the dead Ayatollah, by the way, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that was killed in this conflict, as well as bringing up the strike that hit the school that was on a military base that killed young children, young girls. That is how the President of Iran started this, going after the United States.
And obviously, the President didn't hold back yesterday and saying, I will annihilate them.
So you're seeing this dueling speeches on the world stage, back and forth, almost as if the shuttle diplomacy that was happening was happening also on the stage of the General Assembly between the two Presidents, trading these rhetorical strikes against each other. But then you also see that the U.S. performative is what, you know, yesterday you saw the Cuban delegation walk out of the President's speech. Today, the U.S. delegation, Got up and walked out when the Iranian President started speaking.
So there is that theater that goes along with the UN. While they're meeting with them for three and a half hours. And it may seem silly to many because you watch this, these acts that are completely compiled the day before or months in advance of, okay, we're going to send these low-level staffers in so that they can get out because we actually do need like Secretary Rubio to be kind of close by watching and things of that nature. No, they decide we're going to send people in to walk out specifically, to be on film, showing the protest of the United States, but we're still allowing the President of Iran to come to the United Nations and speak. This all, I think, is interesting because the President of Iran is also trying to turn the rhetorical tide, as it were, about Who they are and showcase that we are just a peaceful people.
Change the narrative. And let's listen. This is Bite 11 from the President of Iran just earlier today talking about. terrorism and and things of that nature and and let's hear from him. We live in a world in which the powerful, instead of thinking about humanity, justice, fairness, and democracy, they seem to be the protectors and creators of instability and destruction.
Whomever they wish to discredit, they label them as terrorists. 200 years for the past two centuries, Iran has not attacked any country or any territory, but we've always defended ourselves steadfastly. But now we're being accused of being a source of instability in the region. We're labeled terrorists. How dare they be labeled terrorists?
They only slaughtered, you know, 50,000 of their own people in the streets. But no, don't worry about it. But that's not outside any other country or territory directly. We just funded it. My goodness, the very first day of the conflict.
They started hitting their Gulf neighbors that had done nothing.
Now, let's remember also, I think we have to clarify this because it gets very confusing. This is the President of Iran. This is not the head of the IRGC, which again, it operates in kind of two fronts while still kind of together. That's right. Well, it also is what has made it so complex in the aftermath of not having the supreme leader.
being supreme over Iran anymore.
Now that there is a new Ayatollah, a new supreme leader that no one's heard for, that people question whether or not he's even alive or if he's just a puppet of the IRGC, if he is alive, there is that friction internally now between the President of the country, the legislature of the country. and the IRGC, which is extremely strong, and the cleric class as well. There are many different angles to this, but the President of Iran is who goes and speaks at the UN, not the Ayatollah, not other members, not military leaders. It is the President of the country, but does have the authority to make statements on behalf of the country. All of these things are being showcased at the same time in real time on TV.
But I also think it's interesting of the way that he's talking about this. You know, they just label us as terrorists, but then inferring that they are victims of terrorism later in that speech. And President Trump had a lot to say, too. I think, you know, this is a fairly long bite, and it's some of the stuff I've said already. Maybe we should play it.
I think you should hear for President Trump from his own mouth. Again, you can always kind of read a little bit. When you hear the words of President Trump on paper, it always reads a little different than when you actually hear him.
Sometimes you're like, oh, well, that was clearly a joke or clearly that was something a little more serious or bloviating or whatever it may be.
So let's hear from President Trump again. This is his UN speech from just yesterday. But I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran? that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before.
maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope? of future greatness or generations. But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election.
because it doesn't make sense for them not to. I mean, that is a pretty hardcore language, and you can see the response: do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness? But I believe we'll make a deal. I mean, if there isn't a more direct President Trump kind of quote, I can't imagine one. Let's go to Bill, who is calling in Wyoming online one.
Bill. You're on the air. Thanks for taking my call. I got a two-fold question here. I'm presuming that you guys have actually attended some of those assembly meetings.
And from what you're describing, it sounds kind of like a puppet show that's going on constantly with people getting up and going and coming and all this kind of deal. Protest. And my second part is: how did the other delegates respond to what President Trump said about what he's going to do with Iran? Let's start with the first one. You know, does this happen a lot?
It does. It is very similar. You know, if you watch other nations, if you watch like the United Kingdom Parliament and all this stuff, there is a little bit more showmanship and honestly, sometimes disrespect for the office. That's why when people talk about, oh, President Trump is doing this, like, yeah, I get in America, we have sort of this, like, I don't know, buttoned-up standards. That doesn't quite happen even in the Western world and other places.
Certainly not in the Middle East, certainly not in the United Kingdom. They'll get up, they'll walk out, they'll protest, they'll yell, they'll scream. They're wearing wigs. It's getting wild in there. And then you come to America and that we are so, you know.
Prudish that we get sort of like you know, clutching our pearls over this person didn't clap. Yeah, but at the same time, you see Congress most of the time, it's completely empty when people are giving their floor speeches to Congress. I'm even talking about something like the Strait of the Union or something like that, where it's like we have our own theater. Our theater is maybe just not as loud and obnoxious. And maybe that's changed now in the last few years.
But yeah, it is a bit of a show. But as Rick said yesterday, or the day before, Into which is, that part could be a show, but then there's real work happening. Off screen. And that's when you see a three-hour meeting. With the Iran delegation, they're not doing that just for fun.
They're not doing that for show. There's no one to see it. They're doing that to hopefully get some work done. And sometimes that's not with the top-tier leaders.
Sometimes that is with, you know, the team that is there, the top-tier leaders, but not the Presidents. And that's where real work gets done. On the other hand, when you talk about how did other delegates respond to Trump's speech.
Well, when the President mentioned like they'll never have a nuclear weapon, et cetera, you heard applause from the assembly, from those in the hall at the UN General Assembly.
So there was some support of that. At the other hand, you also have to think we focus a lot of times on like the big names here. We watch President Trump. Obviously, the Iranian President is always an interesting one because of the history between the U.S. and Iran, especially currently.
But then you also think of if someone from Russia, when someone from Russia speaks or someone from China, that those are ones that kind of make headlines. But you also think about. Every single UN country has the ability to speak at this.
So there's also moments where there's going to be. Shade thrown between countries about conflicts that we don't even know about. And there are walkouts and things of that nature that because it is the entire world on display there, I mean, there are still speeches going on right now as we speak. And so, but that's not what's being broadcast every single moment on every single channel. It's just the big ones.
So, we'll break it down. We'll continue. And we've got a lot more ahead. All right. As Will said, a lot more ahead.
Phone lines are open, 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, we're heading over to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Valabon. Interesting update in Europe. about Israeli products. and some consequences for owning them.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. We have a pretty interesting update, and I wanted you to call in about this as well because we'll be taking calls. This is the last segment for this first half hour. In the second half hour, though, I'm gonna be taking calls about this.
Because this could spread, by the way, and we've seen it happen in other countries. And this is coming out of Norway, of course. This is not coming out of, again, Iran. This is not coming out of the Middle East. This is coming out of...
What is a very kind of Western-you European country, something we don't even really think about as a country that would be any issue to the Jewish people or wouldn't really weigh in that heavily in the Middle East conflict. But now we're joined by Jeff Balabon, by the way, from ACLJ Jerusalem.
Now we see a pretty big Essentially proposal. Yeah. That would really punish. their own citizens for engaging in any kind of commerce, if you will, with who they feel are the occupying forces in the Palestinian territories. Jeff, why don't you kind of give us a little bit of backstory on this?
Because we have seen Companies back out of bringing their products into Israel. We've seen that kind of. you know, thing happen, but really not this, I feel like, as much. We've heard the calls for the BDS movement over the last decades, but when it comes to a country penalizing their own people, it does feel like that's something that would be coming out of a not so friendly neighbor to Israel. Right, so what's happened now, and this is spreading, it's already officially as of yesterday illegal for citizens of Denmark, meaning it's a crime for them to purchase goods, let's say to buy a bottle of wine from, that was, that was sold by or was, you know, what was made by Jews who live in Judean Samaria, which the world likes to call the West Bank, but for thousands of years has always been known as Judean Samaria, and the irony is very deep.
This is an extraordinary move, which is to say they're saying it's a crime for their citizen to buy not from the state of Israel, not from anything governmental, but from individual Jews.
So the premise is that Jews should not be allowed to live in Judea. Jews should not be allowed to live in parts of Jerusalem.
Now, this is, again, not... Punishing Israel at all. It's not punishing the quote settlements, unquote, or all settlements just being a name for Jewish communities. But maybe some of them have incorporations under Israel's law. But if even if a non-citizen, if a Jew happens to have shares in a business or start a business that's that's selling clothes in Efrat, which is a town right outside, not that far from Jerusalem, it's a crime.
And now in Norway, they're proposing the same thing. It should be a crime in Norway, Canada, Switzerland, a bunch of Sweden, other countries, I don't think Switzerland have said that they want to go along with this. The idea that you should punish Jews, right? This is about 850,000 Jews. And they're saying that we will make it a crime in our countries to do business with them because of where they choose to live or do business.
Why is that moral? Why is that not exactly what, in fact, it is exactly what the Nazis did when they created a boycott against Jews, except the Nazis only did it. Within territory they control, starting in Germany. These are countries who are chiming, and these are Western countries saying that we are going to make it an basically outlaw, we're going to boycott. Jews for living where Jews want to live.
There is not another race or nationality or ethnicity or religion or any group or identity that would be treated this way anywhere in the world. And yet that's what they're proposing to do. And in fact, it became one now in the Netherlands and they're proposing it in Norway. With real consequences, I think this is the kind of wild part, too. Is that it's not just like, hey, a slap on the wrist if we cut you with a bottle of wine.
Some of the proposed consequences are again, now, not just for obviously the people selling, we're talking about for the people who just would, let's say, like you said, bought that bottle of wine from this area. We're talking about Proposed jail time. That's right. I mean, this is from the proposal in Norway. Norwegian citizens and companies would get prison up to three years for buying from, selling to, building for, or investing in businesses owned by Jews who live in Judea and Samaria, including in the most ancient, revered, Jewishly significant parts of Jerusalem.
So, once again, you also remember, they don't consider all of Jerusalem Israel. They consider East Jerusalem a part of the West Bank, as they want to call it, Judea and Samaria. But then you also see negligent violators.
So you accidentally bought the bottle of wine? Six months. I mean, Jeff, it. In also a part of the world that is notorious for going light on criminals. They are now saying if you make a purchase by accident, six months in jail.
You know, and this already now, it's six years in jail for under Dutch law starting on September 22nd, starting yesterday. It is six years in prison if you are traveling, let's say, through the United States and you stop at the duty free shop or you're in America and you go to a wine store, you buy a bottle of wine, and it happens to be made by a Jew and it happens to be made by, but over the Green Line, you know, in territory that that country decides Jews should have no right to exist there. Their citizens can go to jail for that.
So they're essentially, they're not punishing Israel at all. What they're doing is they're trying this anti-Semitic, and it really is not about Israel, it's anti-Semitic, saying a Jew can't live somewhere. Why is it? Instead of talking about human rights and saying, you know what, we believe that there should be a state of Palestine in addition to the state of Jordan, and that state of Palestine should be in, well, they don't call it the Judean Samaria, but it is Judean Samaria, that should be West Bank. Instead of saying, but you know what?
In order to get there, the Palestinian authorities have to accept Jews living there the same way Israel has tons of Arabs and Muslims living in Israel as full citizens doing business there comfortably, being on its Supreme Court, being in its Knesset, being movie stars and TV stars. Instead of saying, We want you to, until you normalize that, until you learn how to live with Jews, we're not interested in supporting your territory. They're saying the opposite. They're saying we have to already punish Jews just for living there. Yeah, Jeff.
There's a comment that just came in. It said this isn't, because again, we have people in our chat from all sides and they go, hey, this is not about banning Jews, but banning settlers, the land occupiers.
So how do you respond to that?
Well, okay, so first of all, settler is just another word for Jew in this case because it's saying that right now that this is, even according to them, this is disputed territory. That's all it is, right? And I believe that Israel legally has far more rights than anybody else to that territory. Let's say you don't believe that. Let's say you think Israel doesn't have the rights.
That has nothing to do with Jews living there. Why can't a Jew live in a state of Palestine? Why is that normalized? Why is that accepted? Why are they criminalizing people for buying a product from a Jew?
No, again, it has nothing to do with the state of Israel and has nothing to do with, quote, settlements unquote. It's saying that a Jew should not be allowed to live in certain areas of the world. And oh, by the way, those areas have to be known as Judean Samaria. If I went to the Midwest right now, I could go get uh a Danish in Wisconsin. A Denmark product from someone who has Danish heritage.
I don't see another country saying six years in prison for buying that Danish. I mean, that is kind of the absurd analogy here is that, yeah, people can live places. It isn't about the government. It isn't saying the government of Denmark should not exist or should not have territory. It is saying the person who is Jewish cannot sell you a product, and we're going to punish you with jail time, not even a fine.
And Jeff, I'll let you wrap up. We only have about a minute, but you have an article right now. It's on the website on aclj.org where people can read this. Or we'll get it on AC.org. Yeah, I mean, look, the problem is that this is coming out of countries who, within living memory, right, in memories of our grandparents, you know, they banned Jews.
They did this exact same thing. They boycotted Jews. They banned Jews.
Now Norway's proposing it. Norway, in its constitution, which is hailed as this big liberal constitution in 1814, which modeled after America, it had a clause in it. Jews are still not allowed in the kingdom because there was already a ban on Jews in the kingdom.
So this country understands that Israel came into being after the destruction of European Jewry by laws just like this. And now they're proposing to these same countries to move those laws to Israel and to the Jewish homeland itself. All right. Thank you, Jeff, for joining us. I'm sure you'll be on later this week or next week.
We appreciate it. Look, second half hour is coming up. Don't go anywhere. Less than a minute break. If you're watching online, you should be.
That's on aclj.org, YouTube, Rumble, or however you get your podcast live each and every day, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Again, don't go anywhere. This break is very short.
Keeping you informed and engaged.
Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110.
This is the second half hour of the show. We got a lot to cover. Rick Rinnell's gonna be joining us in the next segment. The last segment got a little wild. We were talking with our head of ACLJ Jerusalem about how Denmark has already put in this law.
Norway is proposing it right now of banning ownership of products that were developed specifically by Jewish people. In what they considered the West Bank.
So, again, if you had a bottle of wine, as he suggested, that was purchased, again, that was developed in the West Bank and Judea and Samaria. By Jewish people. Again, it's not even just like, hey, we're no longer doing business with Cuba. We're no longer doing business with Russia. Which, by the way, I have some personal conflicts with that myself.
Like, I think there are some punishments of people who have nothing to do with the business of the government that's going on in those countries that sometimes I feel like we maybe over. State that.
However, especially when we do so much business with China and other places.
However, take that aside, this is specifically calling out like a race and an ethnicity. That being said, on the other side, President Trump and the Trump administration, Kushner, Witkoff, they had a three-hour plus meeting with the Iranian delegation at the UN, calling again, once again, for maybe the end to this conflict. And they are thinking it's going to happen sometime post-midterm elections. But very soon, if not, we annihilate them to hell. That's pretty much what he said.
There's pretty much two options.
Now, we've heard this from President Trump quite a bit.
So, do you feel like this is a real? Game plan, do you feel like this is a threat? An empty threat? What do you think? Give me a call at 1-800-684-30110.
Because after we hear from Rick, I want to hear from you. Phone lines, I need them to light up right now. 1-800-684-3110. That's right. And once again, I can't, the more I think about the story that we just talked about with Jeff, the more absurd it gets.
And even the saying, oh, it's just trying to, you know, end settlements. It's like that goes and shows what we talk about all the time. In Palestine, that they want their aspirational land, which from the river to the sea, they talk about it being a Palestinian state. The inference there. is genocidal.
Right? It is genocidal. It is that there will be no Jews. From the river to the sea. That is why we push back on that language when it is said on college campuses or by candidates and surrogates of political candidates.
So, when you think about that as well, even the European countries are buying into that idea. It isn't that the West Bank is Palestinian and therefore the government must be recognized and we must do all these things at the UN and during the General Assembly this week. The inference is that you are an illegitimate person living in a place because you're a Jew, not because you're an Israeli.
So never let them lie to you. And tell you that it's not about them being Jewish, it's not about race. Only about Netanyahu, only about the government. We can criticize the government. No, the governments in Europe.
are penalizing their citizens for doing commerce. with Jewish people. That is what the end game is.
So when they say from the river to the sea, you better believe it, because they're making this plan go through Europe, through Canada. They are doing it now economically. But at the end of the day, their goal is to obliterate the Jewish people. Yeah, I mean, if the Jewish people decide here in America to boycott Danishes. The Danish industry is going down.
Completely. Completely. I mean, let's just be honest here, okay? Who buys more Danishes than the American Jewish community? You have a very good point.
Okay?
So, you know what? An eye for an eye, Danish.
So, Logan's calling for a big boycott, not big Danish. No, maybe we need a new name for it. Like they say that for Zionism. We need a new name for the Danish. A crumpet.
Yeah. Pastry. Nice. Come up with that. Phone lines are open for you.
1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We get back right here from Rick Rinnell. Again, Rick has been very involved in the UN throughout the years. Whether you think that it's good that we're involved in the UN or not, it's always important to be there. The ACLJ is there too, through our European Center.
Again, we're always there making the case for our side of these global situations. And sometimes we're the only voice. Yeah. We gotta be there, folks. You can't just ignore it.
It doesn't go away. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Rick Renell's joining us right now. Two lines are still open.
Give me a call. We'll take your calls in the next segment: 1-800-68-430-110. Of course, our top line story today is the Trump administration. You had Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner spending multiple-hour meetings with the Iranian delegation. President Trump now calls for what could be another agreement that could end this conflict or.
Total annihilation. Of course, that is very big President Trump language when you hear it, though. Does it sound like he's bluffing? But of course, I wanted to hear from someone who's been in those rooms at the UN. As we said last time we spoke, Rick, sometimes the big speeches happen and then the real work gets done outside of that hall.
So, what do you think about this when you have these multiple-hour meetings with our officials?
Well, look, first of all, I love the fact that the President is actually doing these meetings. He's not stopping the diplomacy, and that's what we want. You need to always have an off-ramp of diplomacy and talks. That's how you're going to solve things. You can pressure through military action.
You can get them to the table. You can get them to understand how serious you are. You can punish them when they're not talking. But I'm a big believer that having the alternative for diplomacy always is the key. And that's what I love about this President.
He is very serious about diplomacy. He doesn't want to do war, but he's willing to do it. He doesn't have this philosophy that's like, I'm never going to do war. And he doesn't have this philosophy that is like, war is always the answer and let's make it the first option. I love how he's able to float very seamlessly, sometimes within a 12-hour period, and he can float.
Between the different options. It's truly amazing. And he's monitoring it in real time, unlike any other President we've ever seen.
Well, I also love that for our audience, you kind of gave almost an unexpected preview of this: that yes, the UN can be very performative, but at the same time, it's also where real work can get done.
So, what did we see in 24 hours? We saw the President very strong, and not performative in a fake way, but in a posturing way of showing this is the United States. We are strong. This is the world stage. We're not afraid to say this to your face.
At the same time as allowing the diplomatic side to play out at the UN behind the scenes. It was the perfect example of what you kind of previewed for us yesterday. But I also think the commitment here of the United States. Go ahead. I just want to add one point to that because I think you're exactly right, but I want to clarify one point so that people understand is that when President Trump is speaking in that room to 191 countries, he's giving the vision and he's giving the major points.
It's because he cannot have an individual meeting with 191 countries.
So you give the vision to everyone, and then you follow it up with individual conversations for the relevant regional conflicts. That's right. And we even discussed earlier in this broadcast, too, that every other country is trying to do that same thing as well. Not all of them are getting primetime coverage or even live coverage on TV, but this is the place where their leaders can outlay a vision or try to settle some scores with other countries that they may be neighbors with that we are not so attuned to. I know, Rick, you know every regional conflict around the world.
So it's, I'm sure, very fun to watch for your edification. But at the same time, we also had the Iranian President today, which in the entire context of what's going on, not knowing his real hierarchy within the leadership of the country. Get up there and make claims that, you know, we are the victims of terrorism in Iran. In 200 years, we have never attacked another country. We've only acted in our self-defense.
The absurdity of it is there. But at the same time, that President is probably trying to score points at home with the IRGC leadership, as well as try and spin a narrative using our own, one, the United Nations protection, but also the protection that the U.S. affords the United Nations to come here and have freedom of speech and say what they want. Yeah, look, he does not get nearly this much media attention except in this moment. There are thousands of reporters based at the UN.
And just to touch on this, is that your point about every country is looking to do this and they're having meetings and they're trying to push their own foreign policy agenda. It is totally true. And they do all bring a couple of their reporters from whatever country.
So you have those reporters reporting on what's going on from a specific country. Plus, they're trying to keep up with what other countries are doing. And the media have a difficult time trying to report on everything. But the reality is, for the Iranians, this is a big moment because they get to speak directly. To the media in a free and fair way.
They're not used to that.
However, they love it and they always utilize it. Look, one of the key people that the Iranian leader is talking to is the religious leaders, is the religious leader who clearly is blurring the lines between religion and running a country. And that therein lies the problem. If we could just deal with the government, so to speak, then it would be much easier. But this Iranian government has to pay attention to their religious leaders because the religious leaders are really running the show.
I want to get your reaction to this bite. This is from Secretary Rubio, who was obviously at the UN for meetings and other things. He's the Secretary of State. But so much talk has been made about the midterms and the Iranian conflict. Even the President himself is saying, you know, I believe that they'll be done with this.
Trying to hang on after the midterms, but I think it was an interesting take, and I want to hear what your thoughts are as well. Let's play bite three for Rick.
So I think that the Iranians are fundamentally misreading our political system. And I think the President made it very clear yesterday. For him, the Iranian issue is not a political issue. It is the fact that for generations now, for almost 50 years, every American President and frankly every country in the world for the most part agrees that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. But ultimately, no one ever does anything about it.
And he's going to do something about it. And he's doing something about it. And it comes at a price and at a cost, there's no doubt about it. But the cost of not doing something about it is substantially higher, especially for future generations. And Rick, for everyone in our audience, many people, we talk about the fact that the midterms are looming large around this.
But to Secretary Rubio's point, he's saying the Iranians, they're not good political analysts of American politics because clearly the President isn't just doing this for poll numbers. If he were, he would have probably done what most Presidents do, and that's nothing. I saw that clip, that beginning clip, and I was so pleased to see our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, confront that issue because he is exactly right.
Now, look, President Trump in his speech also did it. What he first said is: look, I'm going to be around for another two and a half years. And then Secretary Rubio came in and said, look, these. These other countries are misreading our political system. And by the way, as an aside, we misread other countries' political systems.
It's very difficult when they have elections. Are they parliamentary elections? Are they electing the President? Are they electing a group that he then votes on? Everybody has a different system, and it can get very, very crazy.
But what Secretary Rubio did. Was literally say to the Iranians, you don't understand our system. This is not about Presidential power, Presidential cabinet, or shifting in any way of the President of the United States strategy. This is about our parliament, so to speak, our Congress. And there's only a certain number of Senate seats and all of Congress.
Regardless of what happens there, the President of the United States is not in any danger. He is not going to change his cabinet because the Democrats take over the House, for instance. And that does happen in another. Countries. And so Secretary Rubio is exactly right to confront this and say, don't misread our system.
President Trump is here for a very long time.
Well, and once again, I mean, that's what you see DSA candidates, why they're pushing for a more parliamentary system. They want the executive to be the function of the legislature. Our founders saw through that and decided to not make that our system. We have competing systems, right? You have Congress and then you have the executive branch.
Congress is the legislative branch. And then we have this crazy thing called the judiciary branch, which comes in and puts a check on everybody. And so it's really a brilliant system. designed exactly that way to kind of keep the power in check. All right, Rick, thank you so much for joining us this week.
We always appreciate your guide, especially when it comes to the UN, these international conflicts. I think you have to weigh in with people who know what they're talking about. Rick's obviously one of those people. And check out all his work that he does. Look at our website at aclj.org.
Great content there. Phone lines are open for you. We got two lines open still as we head into the final segment of the day.
Some great calls lined up. Greg, Camilla, Edith Martin, don't go anywhere. I'm going to get to you. And if we have time, I'm going to get to two more.
So give me a call: 1-800-684-3110. You know, we would spend a lot of time about the work of the ACLJ, but it all ties in. Of course, whether it's our offices in ACLJ Jerusalem or our work directly at the UN, You get to go with us to the UN to help fight and be part of this critical work here. I mean, look, just yesterday we delivered a critical oral intervention on the genocide of Christians in Nigeria at the UN Human Rights Council. Yesterday we filed again a MICA's brief at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals defending the U.S.
sanctions against the UN official who advocated for essentially attacks against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We're working at the UN on Capitol Hill this week to bring Pastor Saw home. And of course, that's just some top line items.
So much is happening, and all of that is because you support the work. Again, fully funded. By people like you who give.
Some give $10, some give $20, some give $100. Do it today at aclj.org. Become a champion if you can, a monthly supporter. When we get back, we're going to hear from you. at aclj.org.
Give us a call though, right now. Welcome back to Suck Hillo. Still a couple lines open: 1-800-68-430-110, but let's jump right into it.
Some of you have been a hold for the better part of an hour, including Edith in Wisconsin on line two. Edith, go ahead. Oh, thank you for having me. Hallelujah.
So I just want to say I'm listening to both sides, everything that's going on. First point is First you know, the first section when we were talking about the, um the the the you know, what we were talking about.
So, my thing with that is And I'm just going to s speak quickly on that. Yeah, yeah, because I because this other part we also talking is God giving us something. The Lord woke me up this morning and he was telling me about that oneness, the one thing our country is known for. was separate. foundation on the one God that we serve, okay?
God bless America. And because God is blessing America, He's putting His self out there.
So what I God told me that eventually we're going to have to decide which side we're going to be on regardless of who's doing what. in order to get the the the the the laws of God executed. And God said that because I'm from Wisconsin. And I our Packers are it, okay? Green Bay Packers.
I'm from Wisconsin. The Buers are it. Pray that's it. And that's the team we're with. But here's the thing.
One thing about the Packers, when they were back in the day when Reggie White. was known as Minister of Defense. He would always put God. It was like we didn't have a problem in recognizing our God. And every game we have now, we sing God Bless America.
So, the whole thing is about God blessing us and we executing his thing, okay? But here's the thing. I don't know how God's going to do it, but we're going to begin to petition and poll for. If you own the lower side, which is we're getting, we're not putting abortion back on the table, which means that I've got to change who I vote for. I don't care what they're going to do.
Yeah, Edith, I think that that's important. There's a lot of people who feel the same way, that they feel like they have to finally make those decisions and shift based on some of those really important issues. And I appreciate your prayers, appreciate your support. And of course, you know, I love your football talk. I can't believe she got on here and talked politics like football teams.
Yeah, exactly. That's the most advisable. People start to say mean things on the internet. I mean, we're here in Nashville. You know, this is the Tennessee Titans territory.
But you got no threat there right now. Phone lines, again, are open for you. Thank you, Edith. I appreciate your call. Thanks for waiting, 1-800-684-3110.
Let's kick over to Martin, ACLJ champion of North Carolina. Go ahead. How are you doing? Can you all hear me? We got you, buddy.
Okay. Um I like what you said, but when you, Logan, and Will had touched on, Mr. Grinnell said a similar thing. When I saw those of bits, bytes From the President, quote unquote, President of Avril, and then President Trump. I saw two different things.
And the Presidency in Iran is convoluted. mister Bunnell made that very clear. But when I heard President Trump say what he said, I firmly one hundred percent believe he's talking about the real enemy, which is the RGC. and the fact that they and y'all both had said that they killed thirty, forty, fifty thousand people who are in citizens. That's who the enemy is.
And the thing about it is, is people need to understand so that we get things in the right mind There's That's the enemy. Not Iran and itself, but the RRGC. And they cannot have the nuclear weapon. Them people have got a weird mind.
Well, and Martin, I want to play this. This is from the President of Iran this morning. This is Byte 7, where he's talking about the defensive nature of Iran, because they've never, in 200 years, have not struck another country. Let's play Byte 7 real quick. Vis-à-vis Iran's defense, our defensive systems have been built.
so that no one can think. That bombing of Iranian cities will go unanswered. That is why we have the military power we do for defense. But we say it clearly: in order to defend our country, we do not seek anyone's permission or approval. Once again, he's talking about all defensive nature.
We know that the IRGC, their big business is terrorism. They have the proxies, they funnel the money to Hezbollah, to Hamas, to the Houthis. They send them the weaponry. Why? To do attacks for them so that the missiles don't fly directly at Tehran.
But that all changed. And what did you also see? You saw maybe the Houthis trying to hang on and survive, but relative calm from Hamas and Hezbollah.
Some early missiles and stuff from the north and Lebanon. But a lot of that was put down. And you saw the world almost coming to the defense of Hezbollah in this. But you start to look at this and you hear it's only defensive. And it is what we talked about.
It is him trying to project something for the world. There was no reason. for them to strike the civilian airport in Kuwait. That was not a defensive move, and they hit it repeatedly. If they had just said the only target was the U.S.
military base in Kuwait, no, they were striking Kuwait International Airport in the middle of Kuwait City. They were striking the UAE. They were striking Qatar. Who, Qatar, has its own set of problems of how close they are with Iran. None of that was defensive.
None of that was just going after the aggressor, America or Israel, and hitting those military targets. They were hitting purely civilian targets in their quote unquote defense.
So don't believe a word of what they say. I know you don't, but once again, that is the entire goal of the President of Iran here is to try and whitewash the history of only this past year and say the only thing we've ever done is strike out a defense. They tried to make more countries get involved and attack them. Yeah, I'll take this last call of the day. Camilla's calling in Oregon.
Move it to actually the talk we had about the Norway and Scandinavian countries deciding to ban Jewish products made in the West Bank slash Judea Samaria. Let's go back to Camilla. Go ahead. Hi, thanks. My grandfather emigrated in about early 1900 to escape World War One draft.
to Montana with five siblings. My heritage My country, Denmark, is the only country in Europe, I believe, that saved all but about 500. of its shoes. They either hid them or they got them out on boats. They actively oppose.
So I'm just saying I'm so disappointed and ashamed. I think we can we can push back. You know, I I think Camilla we you can push back again.
Sometimes things like uh in uh Some of them are already in law. It's happening right now. But then there are other countries that are potentially trying to adopt similar language. And the ACLJ team will be there to push back. And I appreciate you calling in and feeling that way, that it's embarrassing.
And yes, historically, they had some really great things. And maybe the future will hold something very different. You know, we'll see how the future tells this story. I'm not so thrilled with the way the narrative is going right now. But Only time will tell.
Thank you, though, for calling. With that being said, we only got a minute here. I want you to support the work of the ACLJ if you can. We're having a good time here in this month of September. You know, we're able to kind of monitor based on your support.
And thankfully, There are many of you who are deciding that even this month, when it's not one of our specialty months, when it's not something we're offering some kind of double, you know, any kind of thing, that so many of you are still deciding to support the work of the ACLJ. It's a great time to do it. Anytime's a great time as we head into. I mean, it's the fall now, as we head into the last quarter of the year coming up very soon. It's always the most important time.
In the work of the ACLJ, you'll hear a lot in November and December about us pushing these fundraising goals as you do from all organizations. But I want to say thank you to a lot of you who have decided that even though, again, We're not here hammering on it each and every day, but you're still out there supporting the work. And you can consider doing it. Of course, all of our content will always be, as long as you support, available without a paywall. And that's at aclj.org.
We're able to offer all of this content for free. Because people like you have decided to step up. Make it free for everyone. If you're not already a monthly supporter, maybe you're a one-time donor, good time to become an ACLJ champion. That's at aclj.org.
Just opt in. Talk to you tomorrow.
