Trump Considers Pulling Out of NATO

Live from the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite gun totem, Bible-clanging, deplorable America. That's us! That's us! Right. I love Love is American.

Touch start. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen of the Todd Stearns Radio Show, listening audience. I want to get something out of the way right away. And this is.

Well, it's just vitally important for us to have this little conversation before we delve into the big issues of the day. Uh today is April 1st, April Fool's Day. And I am telling you, I forgot about that. And I woke up this morning. And Dylan, you don't know how many times I almost panicked as I'm reading through the Twitter feeds, the X feeds.

But I forgot it was April Fool's Day.

So here on this program for the next three hours, we're not going to be yanking your chain. We're not going to be pulling your leg. We're just going to, we're going to give you everything right down the just right down the middle, ladies and gentlemen, as best we can. Because there is so much stuff going on right now. Dylan, so last night, the White House announced President Trump is addressing the nation on a matter of utmost importance.

And that's happening at 9 o'clock Eastern. You'll be able to listen to that on your local radio station. Then we got word that the Australian prime minister was going to hold a major national address, and the British prime minister was going to hold a national address. And Dylan, I can't tell you, there must have been millions of people annexing. the aliens.

They're going to announce the invasion. We have people that are not earthlings living among us. This Found home eat. I know, people really thought that. And then you've got, remember disgraced Congressman Matt Gates?

Apparently, Americans have been procreating with the alien people.

So now we have, what, human hybrids out there? I just want to know who they are. I have a running list. Many of them I believe to be in Hollywood. And one may, in fact, be a senator from South Carolina who, a grown man, who likes to.

Wander around Disney World, possibly.

So I'm just wondering who are those people? Who are the. who are the offspring of the alien. the alien species.

So I don't think that's it, people.

So I think you can breathe easy. But I'm telling you, people are really getting like riled up over this. And there's a lot of anxiety out there about what the President is going to say tonight. We know that it's going to be something about And Iran update reached out to the White House, and they're keeping the cards close to the vest on this.

So. What was it? Alex Jones is saying that Trump is done, that he's not the guy he used to be. We're going to play this audio a little bit later. It's insane.

But it seems as though MAGA World, you know, the big influencers of MAGA World, and look, let's get real, there are a lot of grifters that have jumped on to, you know, the MAGA agenda, and that's really not it. And they don't believe what you and I believe, even though they may profess to. And I think that's ultimately what we're beginning to see the great. I'm calling it the great unveiling. Because a lot of these people, much like the the aliens who use, I don't know, human skin to disguise themselves, allegedly, that's exactly what these grifters have been doing for many, many years, going all the way back to twenty sixteen.

And it's easy to forget that many of these people hated Donald Trump. They despised Donald Trump. But you know what? When Donald Trump won, all of a sudden, they threw themselves at his feet. And the reason why is they wanted access to power.

They wanted access to. The money? They wanted access to the celebrity. And here are a couple of warning signs about all of that. You know, we had Franklin Graham on the show yesterday.

And I love Franklin Graham. He's a good man. I remember when the word leaked out about my contract not being renewed at Fox. There were two people that called me just to see how I was doing. One of them was Jerry Falwell Jr.

And the other was Franklin Graham. Right away, those were the very first calls I got, and it surprised me. But it was no strings attached to phone calls. saying, How can I help you? What can I do?

And of course, we had already had a plan in place, but man, that meant the world to me. Because that told me those guys were the real deal. You know, they never mentioned in public that they had made a phone call to me. And so when I saw the post from President Trump about Franklin Graham and, you know, President Trump's out there and Again, I've had conversations with the president about this particular matter, and I'm not going to divulge it. But But the President shared a private letter that Franklin had written to him.

About his state of his soul, and where you know, this idea that the president wasn't quite sure where he was going to be spending eternity, and you know, Franklin Graham didn't know. Is that a joke, Mr. President? Were you just being you know, some good-natured humor, or are you serious about that? And if you if you are having doubts, and Franklin sort of laid it out in this letter that President Trump shared.

You know what I respect most about that is that we never would have known that that letter had been written. Had it not been for President Trump sharing it, because Franklin Graham never mentioned it, and he never would have. because it was a private personal matter. Franklin Graham is the real deal. You know who I have a problem with?

All of these preachers, and you know who I'm talking about, and they just rush to the White House so they can publicly say that they counseled and gave spiritual counsel to President Trump, and they held a worship service in the Oval Office, and they spoke in tongues over President Trump and all this kind of thing. And I'm not saying any of that is wrong. I'm just really questioning their motives. That's what I'm doing. Because you know what?

It's all about you, and it's not about the President of the United States at that point. Right. By the way, look at all those folks that are going down to Mar-a-Lago, the business people and the wannabe business people, the grifters trying to get into Mar-a-Lago.

So there's a whole lot of that happening, and I'm trying to get around to To the point here, because we have so much ground to cover today. But point number one, ladies and gentlemen, Is that Donald Trump is still the same man that he was when he came down that golden escalator? To announce that he was running for president the first time around. Donald Trump is the same guy who back in the 1970s and 80s said that we need to go after Iran. That is the same Donald Trump that we have in office today.

His views have not deviated one iota.

So all of these people now. The Grifter Crowd. The reason why they're breaking from Donald Trump is they believe that Trump is losing some sort of status in America. And so they're trying to bolt. They believe that they're not going to be able to grift at the same levels anymore.

So that's why they're beginning to bolt and they're beginning to show their true colors. And it's really despicable, and I have no problem talking about this. Because just like President Trump, our positions have never changed. And I truly do believe that we must have a secure border, and I also believe that every single illegal alien in this country must go back to their home country and apply to come to this nation the right way. That position has never changed and has never wavered.

Period. When President Trump and he's at the Supreme Court this morning and the president is watching the arguments over birthright citizenship, the fact of the matter is, and our U.S.

Solicitor General made an excellent point today when he said, ultimately, do you realize that under the interpretation of the Democrats, 8 billion people in the world, 8 billion people could book an airline flight and they could have a baby on American soil and they would be an American citizen? And that's got to stop. That's not what our founding fathers intended.

So we'll play some audio from the Supreme Court. There's some really riveting stuff going on there. But again, going back to President Trump and what's happening in Iran and the address tonight, and a lot of people are freaked out about this.

Well, I knew it. MTG. No boots on the ground. You know Folks, can we all just take a deep breath here? Donald Trump has not gotten us into a forever war, and Donald Trump is not a war hawk by any stretch of the imagination.

Donald Trump is looking out for what is best for America, period. That's when he wakes up in the morning. After two hours of sleep, And he sits down for breakfast. The most important question of the day for him is: is this good for America? And their President made the determination that a radioactive nuclear cloud, a mushroom cloud, over Chicago or Des Moines or Nashville would not be in the best interest of the nation.

So the president said, we're going to put a stop to this. And that's what's happening in Iran right now.

Now, look, do I believe, am I concerned about that?

Well, of course, who would not be concerned? Because we all know what happened in Afghanistan, we all know what happened in Iraq, but there's one big difference. The difference is that Donald J. Trump is in the Oval Office right now. And Donald Trump has made the determination, he's done the calculations.

And he's determined that this is what needed to happen. And I'm willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt. You say, well, what about all the boots on the ground, the thousands of soldiers and Marines that are being pre-positioned in the Middle East? What about it? What about it?

I'm willing to say this. I don't believe, and look, I may be wrong about this, but I don't believe we're going to see boots on the ground. But the Iranians don't know that. Nobody knows what Trump is going to do right now, and that is the strategy. That's the whole point.

I mean, you had previous presidents who got out there and literally said, All right, Iran, if you don't do this by this date, we're going to do X, Y, and Z, and then we're going to leave. No no well that is such a losing strategy.

So now you have everybody in the world. On edge, and you know why they're on edge because they don't know what Donald Trump's going to do. And that's the exact kind of leader we need in the White House right now. And all of these grifters All these folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly and Candace Owens and Alex Jones, everybody out there. Oh, he's gonna get we're gonna lose thousands of our fighting men and women.

No, well, I don't think we are. Because ultimately, Donald Trump wants Iran and all the rest of the world to see. that we are willing to do what needs to be done, no matter the cost. We can't do that if our fighting men and women are still on military bases in the United States. We are demonstrating a massive, a massive show of force, not only to Iran.

but to the rest of the world. That we will protect American interest no matter what. And I love the president for that.

So, you know, maybe instead of all these people panicking on social media, maybe they should just step back. And we get it. We've heard your opinions. Just step back and watch what President Trump does. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.

That's 901-2622. 260-5926. I mean, the polling data has not changed at all, ladies and gentlemen. An overwhelming number of Americans support what the President is doing here. And I think one of the reasons why the younger people and I'm talking about millennials and Gen Zers why they are not on board is because they simply have not been taught the history.

They are not paying attention to what Iran has done to this nation.

So, look, we're going to get into all of that. We're going to be taking your calls. If you agree or disagree, give me a holler: 901-260-5926. This is the Todd Sterns show. Hey, everybody, Todd Starns here, and I've got to tell you about my friends at PhD Weight Loss, my very good friends at PhD Weight Loss.

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That's PhDWeightloss.com. The phone number, one more time, 864-644-1900. And say Starnes. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Todd Stearns Radio Show.

And again, I folks just. All of you folks that are concerned about Donald Trump, oh, he's off his rocker. He's starting to lose it mentally. I mean, that's what Alex Jones is saying. Folks, take a deep, deep breath.

We want the rest of the world to think President Trump is crazy. Because with that, we take the upper hand. We want people wondering what this guy is going to do next. But ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump has delivered on every single thing that he has promised to us. He has not done anything that is remotely problematic in my estimation.

Now, if we put boots on the ground in Iran, well, I'm going to have a conversation about that if and when that happens. But again, right now, The Iranians, all they need to know is they're getting their butts blown to smithereens, and you've got about, I don't know, four or five thousand, who knows how many troops waiting on ships right off of their coastline. You think they're really sleeping well these days? Not even with a my pillow. The Iranian version.

All right, let's go to the phone lines here: 901-260-5926. Steve in Little Rock, Arkansas. Steve, what's on your mind? Todd, I believe it is a crying shame. that we finally have a president.

that is trying to do in the Middle East what should have been done back in nineteen seventy three During the first OPEC oil embargo, when they started using oil like a cock gun against the rest of the world's head, to get their way and and push their agenda. And now that f somebody is finally trying to do something about that. And give some stability in that part of the world when it comes to oil, which is. Me, that's just as important as air and water to our civilization. Uh the best weapon Iran has right now Are the American public?

They're so dang wishy wash. They're so dang whiny. They sound like a bunch of four-year-olds that are in a car going on a trip asking every five minutes. When are we going to get there? When are we going to get there?

Steve, there are actually people, I think there are, well, there certainly are people in the media, but I think there are even people on the Republican side of the aisle who are, I don't know, rooting for Iran here. It's, you know what? Where's your patriotism? I'm getting sick and tired. These grifters out there, the Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones, all of that crowd, they are spewing the same talking points that are coming from MSNBC and CNN right now.

Yeah. Is that I I then make any sense to me. Uh only it makes sense is for money. That's the only thing that makes any logical sense. Steve, appreciate the call.

And it's look, it's a valid point you raise. But again, ladies and gentlemen. Whose side are you on here? Do you support the United States of America and our commander-in-chief, or are you with the Iranians? By the way, President Trump is already hinting that he may pull out of NATO.

And the reason why is none, not a single NATO nation is offering to contribute any money to the cause. Then you've got a number of NATO nations that are refusing to allow. our military to use their bases, their runways as staging areas for our operation in Iran right now. You know, at that point, I don't blame the President one bit. NATO comes a screaming every time Russia decides to invade a country.

And we have to come running to their defense.

Well, what's the point? Ladies and gentlemen, the only time the European nations need us is when somebody invades their country. I say, you know what, folks? You're on your own. That's it.

No more money from us. No more support from us. You're on your own. You had a chance and you blew it.

So I don't blame the president one bit for what he's about to do with NATO. And I'm telling you, all of those Europeans, they better be trembling in their boots. All right, coming up. I really don't want to do this, but we got to talk about, we got to talk about Christinomes. husband.

Who would have thought he was the bigger boob in the relationship?

Alright, we'll be right back. The very latest coming up. Here's something most people don't know. When Warren Buffett was just 13 years old, he didn't put his money into a savings account. While other kids were earning next to nothing at local banks, Buffett put $114 into a little-known investment.

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Buffett understood early: banks are great businesses, just not for savers. If you'd like to see what some investors call the 29% account, go now to secretaccount29.com. That's secret accountthenumbers29.com. SecretAccount twenty nine dot com All right, welcome back to the Todd Stearns Radio Show. Coming up tonight, 9 o'clock Eastern, President Trump addresses the nation on Iran.

And also, it's pretty exciting. We've got a huge space launch coming up tonight around 6 o'clock Eastern. We understand Artemis II is going to be launching from the Kennedy Space Center. We're going to talk about that a little bit later on. You know, we've been talking, pardon me, a lot about fraud.

Across the nation, uh we've been focusing on Minneapolis and the just the the millions and millions of dollars in in fraudulent spending. The Grift. The waste, the abuse, but it's not just Minneapolis. As a matter of fact, earlier today in the state of Tennessee, They released a partial audit of the state's largest school district, that would be in Memphis and Shelby County. And they say it is the worst example of fraud.

And abuse and wasteful spending they have ever, ever seen. One of the people spearheading all of this joins us on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. He has also spearheaded the effort that led to President Trump sending in the National Guard. He is Senator, State Senator Brent Taylor, and he joins us on our Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line today. Senator, good to have you with us.

And wow, what a shock today. Tell us about some of what you guys have discovered so far.

Well, it's great to be with you, Todd. Thank you for allowing me to come on and talk about this issue because you're right. I believe on the scale of the Minnesota Uh type fraud. And what this audit, and this is a forensic audit, so this is different than just a run of the mill financial audit. They're doing a deep dive They've uncovered a lot of things.

Just to give you a good example, Um this shows that that uh the Memphis Shelby County School District They bought a building. for six million dollars and spent thirty three million dollars renovating it. And then they sold the building for $5 million, a million dollars less than they paid for it. And then they sold it to a Group called New Day Tennessee, I believe is the name. And it is headed by a former school board member.

And the building they bought the building with uh with they were the only bidder. And so that's an example. It also gets into the Oh, I think we lost the senator there.

Sorry about that, folks. But it is shocking, shocking the amount of fraud. And get this: the worst part about all of this is not the entire school board made up of Democrats, not a single Republican on the school board at all. You also have this little nugget that's 70%, 70%. of the children in Memphis schools cannot read at at grade level.

They simply cannot read at grade level. It's unacceptable. And by the way, when you talk about what is broken in many of our major American cities, that's a common denominator. Every single one of them. Take a look at the top two issues: crime and education.

And every single major American city that is controlled by Democrats, this is what we get. I think we've got the senator back with us. Senator, this is just shocking.

So you're telling me that they bought this building, it was worth what?

So, what, $30-some odd million dollars, and then they sold it to a nonprofit run by a former school board member for what, pennies on the dollar? That's right. The building, they bought it for five million. I'm sorry, bought it for six million, made thirty three million dollars in improvements and then sold it for five million dollars. And another example is the operations.

There are no internal controls. They basically have a computer program or a computer system that they manage all their contracts. And as people came and went from the school district, they never removed them from access to the computer.

So Technically A former employee could have set up a fake company, send in a contract, Then sent in invoices and paid the invoice all from outside the district. And we don't know that that happened, but there are a lot of shady things going on with this school district. And the thing that this audit revealed, Todd, is that the Memphis Sheby Can School District. there is organized as a five dollar bin at Walmart. And we have to get control of it.

Well, that's not very well organized, Senator. No, I've seen those bins. You know, I think it's just shocking for a lot of people to realize that there has been an intentional dumbing down of our society through the education system. And when you've got a situation where 70% of the kids are not reading at grade level, what do you make of that?

Well, that's that's what's that's the reason we're doing this. I mean, Memphis has had a lot of things going wrong for a long time. And crime was rampant. Our education system, only a quarter of the kids that graduate are reading at proficiency. And it took President Trump, and by the way, you played a huge role.

in getting the president To send the Memphis Safe Task Force to Memphis. It was from a radio interview that you had a conversation with the President, first planted that seed in his mind. And it was Senator Marcia Blackburn who ran with it and ultimately got the President to send the Memphis State Task Force to Memphis. And they have cut crime in half. The other thing that's been holding Memphis back has been our education system.

And what we're going to do at the state level is really a Memphis education. Task force where we're going to take over the school district, we're going to put in people who know how to manage large organizations to get this thing turned around. And if we solve crime and education, Memphis could be the next southern it city, much like Dallas, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Nashville. Memphis could be that next city. You know, it's interesting.

We have a lot of listeners in Houston, Texas, and my understanding is the same thing happened there where there was a takeover of the public school system there. And we're actually using the Houston model, it's the Houston Independent School District. We're using their model here in Memphis. And we have the superintendent there in Houston has been to Nashville and met with lawmakers. We are borrowing all the things that they did in Houston.

The one thing that the Houston district said that they wish they had done differently is what we're doing. They should have started with a forensic audit of the school district, and they think it would have helped avoid a lot of the lawsuits that resulted in that takeover. But they have done a phenomenal job, and we hope to replicate that in Memphis.

Well, I know I'd love to hear from some of our Houston listeners to know how that's worked out. You know, because again, what we've seen happen in the Memphis area, you've had a lot of moms and dads, and many of them have been voting Democrat. And all of a sudden, they're waking up and they're realizing that the Democrat Party has failed them, and the people they put on that school board have failed them as well. They have failed them miserably. And matter of fact, the clown cartel that is in charge of the Memphis Shelby County School System.

The if If they had led the Israelites out of Egypt instead of Moses, they would have ended up in a cornfield in Indiana somewhere. Wow. It's insane to think about, Senator. But again, this is where we are. And it's not right.

And we've got to make sure these kids are learning and that the money is going to where it's supposed to be going.

Now, I understand it's only, what, 25% of the audit has been completed.

So the level of fraud, how much, I mean, dollar, have you guys been able to put a dollar amount so far just on that 25%? Yes, so they have identified one point one million dollars of the that the auditors deem is waste and abuse there's an additional one point seven million dollars that's separate From the 1.1, that is contracts that they have entered into that were outside board policy. And I mean, there are a slew of $99,000 contracts, which there's a reason they're $99,000. you're trying to escape having to go out to bid. And so they're only twenty five percent of the way through There is a lot of waste and abuse in this.

Matter of fact, I had dinner last night with our friend, Congressman Tim Burchick of Tennessee. who is now the chairman of the Doge Committee in Congress. And I plan on sending him a copy of this audit when it's complete. Because the Doge committee needs to know what federal dollars have been wasted by this group of NF. Clown cartel that's running the school system here.

Wow. All right. Senator, one final comment here. I know you've been so tough on crime. We had the No Kings protest over the weekend.

Now we understand that the Memphis Police Department has placed a number of officers on leave because they simply enforce the law. You had a mob that they were blocking roadways, which is illegal. 45 minutes, the officers told them you've got to move, and they didn't move. And so finally, they moved them for them. And it looks as though City Hall not exactly standing alongside the police officers here.

They're not. And I sent a letter to the Memphis mayor yesterday. Which prompted a phone call from him, and he indicated that they are on paid leave and. that they will do the investigation, but But I shared with the mayor, I said, look, everything that's going on with crime, we finally have things turned around and headed in the right direction. And the police and law enforcement have done that, and we have to stand behind our law enforcement.

And you cannot allow this this group of weathered purple-haired hippies Waving their signs, no kings. And blocking roadways and preventing people from getting down the road. Look, everyone has the the First Amendment right to to protest. and freedom of expression, but it does not give you the right to break the law in doing that. And so that's the police acted appropriately, and they need to be put back on the street.

And more importantly, we have to stand behind our law enforcement because we have a recruitment problem in Memphis, and that does nothing to help with recruitment. When they think the political leadership won't be behind them, when they have to make tough decisions. Yeah. All right, Senator, we're going to leave it there. Wow.

What an amazing day and really a breathtaking day for the city of Memphis as we now understand just we're getting a glimpse of because again, just 25%, when it's all said and done, I mean, you could be looking at millions and millions more, right? That's correct. And we've reduced crime, we're now focused on education, and these are the two things we have to do to make Memphis matter. All right, State Senator Brent Taylor from Nashville at the State Capitol. Senator, thank you.

And folks, again, it's a great example. Memphis is a great example here. Everybody thought Memphis was a lost cause. Donald Trump sent in the National Guard. Created the Memphis Safe Task Force, and in under six months, crime down 43 percent.

And now, with the education situation, your tax dollars were being squandered and abused in Memphis, and the Republicans are all over this, and they're going to get it fixed. And if Memphis can, if we can turn around Memphis, this is a blueprint for every other major American city controlled by the Democrats. I mean, it really is that simple. All right, 901-260-5926, our number, that's 901-260-5926. Coming up, I've got a few things to say about this Christy Noam story that broke yesterday.

It's pretty wild, folks, just pretty wild. But It should not be surprising to anybody and I'll explain why coming up next. All right, so look, I know everybody is feigning surprise here that Christy Noam's husband. was um Was a cross-dresser who preferred big-bosomed women. I mean, that was the worst-kept secret in Washington, D.C.

And President, I mean, look, the White House knew about it. My biggest concern about all of that is that this posed a significant national security risk. And the reason why is that Christine Ohm could have been blackmailed over this, or anybody else in, you know, connected could have been blackmailed. Her husband could have been blackmailed. We're dealing with very high-profile positions here.

And I know where it's funny, I'm getting a lot of blowback from you guys on social media saying, Todd, this is nobody's business. That there's nothing wrong, there's nothing illegal with wearing big-bosomed appendages. There's nothing wrong with men wearing Pink hot pants. It's their business. And I get it.

I understand why people are saying that, but the reality of it. It's kind of weird, man. It's really kinda weird. And I don't know many people in my circle of friends that run around on social media. and on fetish websites.

displaying big bosoms. Let's go to the phone line here, 901-260-5926. Mark from the villages. America's friendliest home town. Hey, Mark, what's your take on all of that?

Hey, Todd, you're not going to believe who I'm standing next to right now. I I've all ears. Christine Gnomes is a husband. Wait, what? An April Fruit.

Oh, he's at the I thought Grace probably told you because you brought up her name up. I thought she told you. Oh, no, no, no. Did not did not know that. I'm very, very clever.

Very well. You know, Mark, it's interesting. It seems as though the cons the Republican Party at large. Is just kind of like, what's the big deal? It's their private life.

And, you know, if the guy wants to, you know, dress up like a woman, that's his business. Yeah, but it was a security risk. Like you said, off the subject a second, what you're not talking much about March Madness. No, I'm not. And there's a reason for that.

And you know the reason why. And you are about to be banned from this program. I told you to get on the UConn wagon, but you just didn't listen. But boy, I'll tell you what. See, I'm close to UConn because Rebecca Lobo, who's the commentator for ESPN, her mom and dad are, I know them well.

And so I've always been a UConn fan because of that. And uh It's just incredible. I think they're on a good mission now. And I'm looking forward to Pride and Saggy because the girls are in the final four and the guys. And usually.

When they get to this point, they usually win. And the last thing I wanted to tell you is happy Easter. I hope you have a blessed Easter, you and your family and your staff.

Well, Mark, that's very kind of you. And likewise, thank you. And yes, of course, we've got Good Friday coming up. I feel like I'm a day ahead all week for some reason, but we have Good Friday coming up. And, of course, Easter Sunday, and a lot of churches around the nation are going to be filled to overflowing.

It is really the most important time of the year for Christians as we remember the sacrifice made and the prophecy fulfilled.

So, Mark, God bless you, and thank you for calling in. And certainly wish all of you great folks there a very, very Happy Easter.

So but yes, so it's it was really interesting. I was going through a lot of the messages last night, and people are just really upset. They're saying that we have no business talking about Christiano. That we um We have no business talking about their personal life. But the reality is, when you're the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that is a very, very important question.

Mm-hmm. Gilbert writes in, Todd, how are you even asking that question? How do you miss it in a background check?

Well, I think it's very clear to me the FBI was not doing what they were supposed to be doing. Derek weighing in.

Well, he had a nice rack, though, huh? Nancy says, as someone else pointed out, there are cross-dressers in Congress.

So, as Hillary Clinton would say, what difference does it make? You know, here's the problem. Here's the problem. The Republicans have lost their moral center. Right.

And the Republicans are in grave danger of becoming just like the Democrats.

So it's wrong if their people do it, but it's okay if our people do it. That's no. If you're going to go after the Democrats or something, you've got to go after the Republicans. Are there rep are there Well, yeah, you got the Democrat, the dude from Delaware. I guess he would be, but he's a transgender dude.

So that takes it up a notch.

So anyway, there Paul Shanklin send me a time. I can't read this on the air, Shanklin. Jeez a Lou. All right, hour two of the big show coming up. Liz Pete, Congressman John Rose, and your calls.

We'll be right back. Live. From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. It's common sense, conservative commentary from Todd Starn. Shutters!

That's right. I love This American All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Todd Stearns Radio Show hour two. And tonight, any space fans in the crowd.

Very excited about the launch of Artemis II. This is going to be the first time in more than 50 years. That humans have traveled beyond low Earth orbit and they're going to loop around the moon. And they're going to get to see the far side of the moon. Maybe we'll finally understand where all the alien ships are located.

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Anyway, all of this is happening later tonight at the Kennedy Space Center, and we've got four astronauts on board. They're going to be up there for about 10 days.

So, this is pretty darn exciting, and we'll see how all of that plays out.

So, remember, I don't, Dylan, this may have been before your time. Any of you old-timers out there, remember? Remember the stomp rocket? Any of you guys have the Stomp Rocket when you were a kid?

So, as a way to celebrate Artemis II, the family-owned brand called Stomp Rocket, so it's a mom-and-pop business. They have these kid-powered rockets and toys, and they're doing a version just for Artemis II, which is pretty awesome.

So these are rocket launching toys where you have the rocket and you have this thing and you stomp on it. And the harder you stomp, the higher up your rocket goes. And they've got them at Walmart and some of the other toy stores around town. I think that's pretty cool. $24.99.

Not too bad. You know, the stomp records have been around for what, more than 30 years. And they're based in Minden, Nevada. I'm sure some of our Nevada listeners know where Minden is, and made by the DL Company.

So, locally, a locally owned, family-run company there.

So, how about that stomp rocket?

So, you do want to, you know, it's interesting back in the day, even when I remember when, if you go all the way back to when the space shuttles were launched. And that's all anybody could talk about. Everybody had the big NASA logo. It was plastered on everything. Your school books, your cars.

Everybody was all about space and astronauts. And now it just I guess after a while it became ho-hum. And even now, I'm not seeing a lot of excitement or energy about the launch today, but I'm really fascinated by this. And it will be our first voyage toward the moon in over fifty Years. That's pretty awesome.

By the way, the rocket ship is as tall as the Statue of Liberty. That is one big Rocket.

So 901-260-5926 is our telephone number. That's 901-2606. 260-5926. The Supreme Court hearing arguments today. Over birthright citizenship.

So the controversy comes from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That says that anybody born on American soil. Is automatically a citizen, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

Now, there are a few exceptions to that. For example, children of foreign-born diplomats.

So, President Trump is his argument: the policy creates incentives for illegal immigration and what they call birth tourism. And that children of illegal aliens should not automatically receive U.S. citizenship. And I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that.

So, the Supreme Court talking about it today, here is Justice Sam Alito, one of the good guys. And he says that just because illegal aliens were not a problem at the time of the 14th Amendment does not mean that this should not be addressed today. Take a listen. That they had in mind when they adopted the general rule, or do we? Say they adopted a general rule, they meant for that to apply to later applications that might come up.

Justice Scalia had an example that dealt with this situation. uh imagined an old theft statute. That was enacted well before anybody conceived of a microwave oven. And then afterwards, someone is charged with the crime of stealing a microwave oven. And this fellow says, well, I can't be convicted under this because the microwave oven didn't exist at that time.

And he dismissed that. There's a general rule there, and you apply it to future applications. And what we're dealing with here is something that was basically unknown at the time when the 14th Amendment was adopted, which is illegal immigration.

So how did we deal with that situation when we have a general rule? Yeah, I strongly agree with the way that you framed it, that there is a general principle, that's a broad principle that's adopted in the phrase under the jurisdiction thereof. And we submit that our theory of allegiance and domicile-based allegiance, what explains those specific exceptions that everybody was aware of, but it is broad enough to sweep in future situations. And as you pointed out, illegal immigration did not exist then.

Now, the problem of temporary visitors did exist. And it's very interesting that as you look at pages 26 and 28 of our brief, Commentators going from 1881 until 1922 are uniformly saying that children of temporary visitors are not included.

Now, that logic, we say, it's naturally extends. It's really an a forciori case. If you have someone who enters illegally by the 1880s, there are restrictions on immigration. If you've entered illegally, it's kind of a well-established principle of law going back to the code of Justinian that says you're not allowed to be there. You don't have the legal capacity to create domicile there.

All right there. The Solicitor General sounds like he's got a little chest cold.

So anyway, this is going to ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. And the issue is whether or not the president could outright end birthright citizenship or limit birthright citizenship via the executive order. And again, the president and the point of this is the president says illegal aliens are abusing this. They're coming to America to have their babies on American soil. They have absolutely no allegiance to America.

They just want all of our welfare.

So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. Do you believe that we should have limitations on birthright citizenship? 901 2605926 is our number. That's 9012605926. I want to go back to Alex Jones for just a moment, and Alex Jones has now turned on the president.

And he is, Alex Jones is saying that he's talking to people inside the administration that Trump is gone. He's really having some health problems. He said that Pete Hegseth and Caroline Levitt are freaked out, but they're being loyal. I don't know where he's getting any of this intel. But he said that Trump is aging quickly.

and is no longer Up for the job. And he says that the Trump we all knew and loved. Is Well, no longer there. Do we have the? Let's take a listen to that audio.

When your ankles swell up three times the size they were before, that means heart failure. And he does look sick. He doesn't babble and you know Uh Sound like the brain's not doing too hot. And so We just cut bait on Trump. And we just mobilize against the Democrats.

And we mobilize against neocons, we primary them, and we just fight even harder. Because, look at how. We've turned the tide. Look at all the good we've done. There's a fourth turning.

Populists, nationalists, conservatives are winning everywhere. There's a Christian reawakening. And Trump is just a minor figure in all of that now. And we have to be appreciative of the old Trump. That went through so much and got so much done.

And that's the Trump we remember. And we're just sad because that happens. We need to be sad about Trump. This is not funny. This is not good.

But he's gone. And that's it. And all the people rallied around him. You can see Heg says freaked out. You can see the Presbyteries freaked out.

They're being loyal. They think it's the lesser of two evils, and I okay, but I just Trump needs intervention. He's taking some time off. We need to pray for his rump that the Holy Spirit touches his heart. And loose him from whatever evil control he's under.

I'm serious. And I think that's the answer. We need to pray for President Trump. We need to We need to Pray for other people to be awakened. But you pray for justice and peace.

All right. So I'm just curious, do you believe, as Alex Jones just said, that President Trump is what, possessed perhaps by some sort of an evil spirit? Do you believe that President Trump is not doing well, that his health has taken a turn? I'm just not seeing that. In the conversations I've had with him, as a matter of fact, I was with the President a couple of weeks ago when he was in Memphis and got to spend a very, very brief time, but he he put out that hand and had a good firm handshake.

The president was in good spirits and he was cognizant. He seemed to be just fine to me. I'm not seeing the kind of person that Alex Jones is describing here.

So are you seeing what Alex Jones is seeing? And if not, what do you think Jones is up to here? Why do you think that he is making this turn against the President? And it's I mean, you can't the guy did not mince any words by what he just said there. 901 260 5926.

That's 9012605926. I mean, the president's taking questions. You know, he doesn't ask for the questions in advance from the press corps. Whenever they're around, yesterday, the president signing executive orders, and he was doing QA off the cuff. With reporters.

He was giving and taking. And I mean, he seemed pretty cognizant to me. But it does appear. That the populist wing of the Republican Party is trying to make a break now, and maybe they're trying to set themselves up for 2028. and putting out a candidate, whether that be J.D.

Vance or whoever. I think the Republican nominee in 2028 is going to be Marco Rubio, but we'll talk about that another day. Let's go to Charles in North Carolina. Charles, what's on your mind today? Hey, good afternoon, Todd.

So, Todd, I listened to the entire two hours of what was going on at the Supreme Court today. And I heard both sides. I'm not a lawyer, uh but to me, Ty, it just seemed like They were really overthinking this. To me, it's a very simple issue. You break in you break in this country illegally.

Uh You're subject to the jurisdiction of the country from which you came. As are your children. The Fourteenth Amendment, in my opinion, was very specific. It was ratified right after the Civil War. And it dealt with slaves and children of slaves to make them citizens because.

of the Dred Scott decision going back to the eighteen fifties. and also the three fifth clause of the Constitution. Um But I I just it to me, it just sounded like they were losing sight of that. And I didn't know if you had a chance to listen to it, but Did she get a sense of where you think the justices are on this?

Well, I know where the rock-solid conservatives are. I got the impression from Amy Coney Barrett. that she may be waffling on this.

So, I didn't get a good read there. And John Roberts, it was hard to understand what sign he was coming down. I think the argument could be made that he actually. I don't know, supports the change or cracking down, but I'm not sure. What are you getting at?

Well, so You know, they were talking about how Back during the eighteen fifties and sixties, they never could have foreseen. illegal immigration like we have today, which is true. And I would also argue, we don't know what's going to happen 50 or 100 years from now. I mean, let's say that fifty years from now, we have a spaceship that enters the atmosphere and it lands in Wyoming or someplace. and it's got ten million people on it and they all have children.

Are they going to be considered citizens of the United States? Do they act Do they think that that's what the little interpretation of the 14th Amendment is? I'm going to argue not. Again, it is very specific. the slaves and children of of uh of freed slaves.

So Uh I hope the Supreme Court rules. Uh and block that. I'm not sure where this executive order is going to go or if that has much force, but There's just no way we can let these babies be considered citizens of the United States because it's just going to, in my opinion, it's just going to destroy the country. I mean, what do you think?

Well, it will lead to, I mean, and we've already seen this happen. I think it would lead to even more millions of people crossing the border, illegals, coming into this country so they can have a baby on American soil and immediately get all the resources of the American taxpayers because that's what has been happening for years. Yes. And that was not the that's not the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. I think if the people that authored that, if they could come back to date and hear the arguments and see what's going on in this country, They would say absolutely not.

This is not what we meant when we pinned the 14th Amendment. It was to deal with the aftermath of the Civil War and to make citizens of slaves Who through no fault of their own, came here. And they and their children are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. They have allegiance to the United States. These illegal islands have no allegiance to the United States.

And just to put this in perspective, Charles, we're going to have to run here for a break. But just to put this in perspective, according to the last census data we have, which is from 2023, there are right now 22.8 million foreignborn non-U. S. citizens living in the country.

So let that sink in. That's a lot of folks. Got to take a break. We'll be right back. All right, coming up tonight on the Todd Stern Show on Newsmax 2, which you can watch on Newsmax's Facebook page.

You can also watch on Newsmax's YouTube channel, the Newsmax 2 Live YouTube channel. We have some great guests. Congressman Scott Perry is going to drop by. Congressman Chuck Fleischman. Also, our good buddy, Air Force Retired Air Force Brigadier General John Tykard, will be with us as well to give us the latest on Iran.

All of that taking place at 5 o'clock Eastern. By the way, this segment of the program, brought to you by our friends at Newsmax. You may not be aware of this, but 70% of Americans are not getting the full Social Security benefits they deserve. That's right. But thanks to some great work and research by Michael Allen, a social security expert, you could increase your benefits by as much as $188,000 over a lifetime.

Now, Newsmax wants to give you these five key strategies. All you have to do to get the Social Security report is to give Newsmax a call right now: 800-999-9690. That's 800-999-9690. That number one more time: 800-999-9690. Text and data rates may apply.

All right, let's go right to our phones: 901-260-5926. Andre in Memphis, Tennessee, listening to us on K-Wham. Hi, Andre. What's on your mind? Hey, Todd, how are you today?

I'm good. Thanks for asking. Look, coming from a man that I don't classify myself as black. I classify myself by the content of my character, but I am classified as black. It is frustrating to me.

that black people are not outraged. About these people trying to make illegal citizens citizens when black had to go through getting. Enslaved in order for them to get the right to vote and citizenship, to go through Jim Crow to get the right to vote in citizenship. And now you're basically saying that all you got to do now is just break into the country and we're going to reward you with citizenship. Anytime you start rewarding illegal behavior, you encourage illegal behavior.

And it is frustrating to me. That how black people have been hypnotized by the Democratic Party to where no matter what platform they put out there. You go along with it because they've convinced you from back. I grew up in the 60s.

So we grew up in the 60s. Andre, here's what I want to do. We've got to take a quick break, but I want you to be able to finish your thought. Can you stick around and hold on till after the break? I will.

All right, don't go anywhere. We're going to finish up with Andre. 901-260-5926. Our number. This is the Todd Starden Show.

All right, this segment of the Todd Starns Radio Show brought to you by our friend Mike Lindell and MyPillow, and they have some mega sale opportunities for our listeners. MyPillows, normally $49.98, now just $14.98. I have many, many MyPillows. Love them. Begeeza Dream Sheets, mattress hoppers, you name it.

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So, my apologies, I wasn't watching the clock, and Dylan's already hollered at me, so I won't do it again. We have Andre, who's listening to us from Memphis, Tennessee. And Andre, you're pretty upset about this whole birthright citizenship. Before we finish our conversation here, I want to share some numbers, Andre. Do you realize the number of unauthorized immigrants in the United States, go back to 1990, that number was 3.5 million.

In 2023, that number was 14 million. And when you look at the, we call them anchor babies. These are the babies of the illegals, all right? Just in one year alone, the numbers we're working with are from 2023, so they're a little bit old, but it gives you an idea of what we're dealing with here. We're talking about 9% of all the births in America, Andre, are coming from anchor babies.

And every single one of those anchor babies is eligible for welfare, food stamps, whatever resources they need the American taxpayers have to provide for. That's what's frustrating me. You know, Todd, I grew up in the sixties.

So I was a part of what those those real peaceful protests But when you got through protesting, you didn't see buildings on fire, you didn't see police officers being attacked, you didn't see people getting murdered, you didn't see graffiti everywhere, and you're sitting around here letting a Democratic Party hypnotize black people to wear whatever agenda we're putting out there. Who do you think when they give away all that welfare and all that, who what group do you think is going to affect the most and affect first other than black people? And it's so sad because they're so busy caught up on the color of their skin. When are we going to get to the content of my character part? But we're going to get back to loving America.

We got a school system that's indoctrinate these children. If they're hating America, what I got news for y'all, once they get rid of this America, they gonna have another one out there. And I don't know no place in the world that's looking to recruit black Americans because they don't want your mentality.

Well, I would push back just a bit on that, Andre, because I think white people actually, there are more white people just by the sheer numbers of white people in America on welfare than there are blacks or Hispanics. But to your point, every dollar that is going to an illegal is one less dollar going to a law-abiding American citizen, no matter the color of their skin.

Well, you can see it in Chicago. Oh, yeah. Libraries and community center projects that they had to put off because they had to provide resources for the illegal immigrants coming in. And it's so sad and for somebody who's classified as a black people, I want people in America to know all black people don't think like the majority of them. There are some of us out here that are waking up and they'll realize that the Democratic Party has never been a friend of black people, is not a friend of black people, it would never be a friend of black people.

What is it going to take to change voter because you know how it is in Memphis? I mean, everybody sees the problems and yet people still vote for the same folks, the same political party. How do we break that cycle?

Well, the first thing, Republicans do a poor job of marketing. They need to start pointing out to black America these areas where we're like, I'll give you an example. This woman, Jay a Paul, that went up there yesterday and she's talking about she wants to get reparation for illegal, right, for illegal immigrants. And every time Barack Obama had a stupid majority in the Congress and the Senate and the President said they never brought up the conversation of reparation for black people, somebody's got to expose the black people that Democrats are using that carrot in front of a muse head to food them, and the Republicans need to do a better job of marketing to the black community. I do not disagree with that.

I'll give you an example of that. Here in the Memphis area, you guys are about to elect a county mayor, and you have a gentleman by the name of John G. Berry. He was a longtime Democrat, kicked out of his party, among other things, because of his position on pro-life. And now he is the Republican nominee.

They announced his campaign from a high-end car dealership, and I got no problem with that. But imagine what kind of a statement they could have made had they made that announcement in Robert Church Park, a park that was named after the black man who founded the Republican Party in Shelby County because Democrats were preventing blacks from getting the vote. I mean, what kind of a statement would that have been? Again, going back to the marketing of it, because I guarantee you, most black children in Memphis don't realize that the first millionaires, the people who owned the first baseball team in Memphis all happen to be black people who were also Republicans. Republican.

And don't leave out. Robert Church was born a slave, but died a millionaire. And it's funny you brought up John D. Berry because John was on my show. And when John came up and said that he was doing that abortion bill that they were pushing in the Tennessee legislature, I told John this.

I said, you can get ready to find yourself another party because they're coming after you. And they did. They sure did. They kicked him right out. I gave him right out the door.

My goodness. Pastor Andre, it's always good hearing from you, my friend. And I appreciate your now. Look, you're spot on. And it all goes back to putting the needs of the American people first.

And if we can just get rid of all of this fraud and all of this waste and abuse in our country, like I think it was Stephen Miller said, we're going to be able to balance our budget without having to make any cuts.

So there you go. Andre, thank you for that call. Great to hear from you. By the way, I just want you to hear me on this. And all these numbers I'm sharing with you, they're low ball and probably are double, probably double, but right now.

There are about 5.3 million children in American public schools. Almost, well, and again, that number is about 11% of the total enrollment. All right. They don't speak a lick of English. You say, well, well, what does that mean?

Well, it means that a lot of public schools are having to hire ESL teachers.

So they're having to hire teachers to teach these kids how to speak English. And as a result of that, that means that if Look, budgets are tight in these school districts. And so if let's just say You know, you've got a couple of hundred kids in your local elementary school and they don't speak English. That tells me they're going to have to. They'll have to sacrifice somewhere else.

That may mean no reading teacher, no math teacher. No PE teacher because they've got to use those resources to hire teachers to teach these kids how to speak English. That's what we're dealing with here.

So it's not just a matter of you're born here, that makes you an American citizen. That's not what this is about. This is about people coming here to this country illegally, having a baby, so they can take advantage of the welfare of the great taxpayers of America. That's what is really going on here. 901-260-5926 is our telephone number.

That's 901-260-5926. Last night had a great conversation. On Newsmax with our good buddy Ben Ferguson. You see him on CNN a lot, but he also comes on my Newsmax show. And Ben is really fired up over a couple of things.

First of all, what's happening with Jaden Ivey? And boy, has that story just exploded. There's a lot of controversy over the NBA. People are now calling for us to boycott the Chicago Bulls and the NBA in general. A lot of sportscasters are now saying that this guy is mentally off his rocker.

So, Ferguson joined us to talk about that. Also, he had some things to say about Jon Thune as well. Let's take a listen. Your take on what we've seen take place over the past 24 hours. Yeah, I thought the LGBTQ plus IIE plus plus AA community was supposed to be all about tolerance, right?

Well, there's no tolerance here for someone that disagrees with what you're demanding. And what the NBA has done is they basically now sanctioned. political speech and you must agree with what the NBA says you have to believe in. You know, I challenge every single Christian, every single person that believes differently than someone else in Chicago, don't go to the game. Don't sell your ticket, by the way.

Have an empty stadium. I assume there's a lot of people that identify as being people of faith that go to Chicago Bulls teams. There's a lot of churches in Chicago. And if you are watching this right now, They will do this to you. This is how you silence people.

This is what happens in other countries around the world. This individual did not attack anyone. What he said was he was being persecuted. For his beliefs during a mandate by the NBA when it comes to Pride Month and everything else that goes along with it. I also hope, by the way, there's a lawsuit here.

I hope he gets amazing lawyers, and I hope there's a real lawsuit here so that he can stand up for what he believes in. And clearly, they fired him for his religious beliefs. This attack on Christians, this attack on anybody that has faith in God in general. And so I go back to the NBA, and let's be clear. This is the same NBA that put Black Lives Matter all over their stadiums and on their courts, and they talk about tolerance, and they say, look, if we tell you you can believe in it, we'll allow you to believe in it.

But if you do something we don't like, we will fire you. That's not religious freedom in America. And I hope he sues and I hope he gets a lot of money. Yeah, and the great irony here is you've got players out there doing all sorts of terrible things. They've attacked women.

They've broken the law. And yet those guys are given a second chance. They keep those guys around, but they're going to give the Christian guy the heave-ho, Ben. Yeah, look, I have no problem with second chances. I want to be clear about that, but you shouldn't be able to buy your way back on a team after you abuse women.

And we have multiple cases of that happening of wife beaters and girlfriend beaters who were given a pathway right back to play because they were good. The difference here is this, Todd. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't beat up a woman in an elevator. He didn't beat up a girlfriend in a hotel room or a wife in a hotel room.

He didn't beat up a kid. He didn't take drugs. He didn't have a gun on him. For example, we've seen Jay Moran in Memphis, Tennessee, for example. I had a lot of problems with guns in his hands.

And they found a pathway for him to come back. This individual did nothing wrong but to say, this is what I believe, because of my faith. And now he's been fired because he believes in God more than he believes in the NBA and their propaganda. The NBA is a liberal organization. Look at their courts.

Look at what's on their uniforms. Look at their hypocrisy when they have no problem being in business with China. Look at the shoes that are played by many of the NBA players that are done in sweatshops of children in China and the slave labor that goes on there.

So don't lecture me, NBA, about human rights when you guys are in business with China and they're enslaving children who are making almost all of your sneakers. Like spare me the fake outrage here. What this really is, is a persecution by the NBA of Christians. And they were telling every Christian on every team in that league, you better shut up and sit down during Pride Month and any other propaganda politically we want to put on your uniform or on the court you play on, you better stand proud and loud when it happens or we'll get rid of you as well. Ben, I want to move on real quick.

Get your take on what we're watching take place up in Capitol Kill right now. In Congress, you've got the Senate out on what, spring break, two-week vacation, Lindsey Graham town at Disney World, doing Lord knows what. And the American people, Ben, they're sick and tired of this nonsense. And I'm telling you, if we don't get it together, we're going to have some big problems come the midterms. Yeah, I agree with you.

And look, I think what you've witnessed now is the president saying it's time for them to get back to work. I want to be clear. I do not think the Senate's going to come back early. John Thune doesn't give a crap as long as he has power. Even if he's a minority and he's still in charge, he's happy with that, right?

Lindsey Graham is the same way. He's the guy that's like, hey, I've had a good year. I've gotten us into a couple wars. I'm advocating for some more. I'm going to go down to Disneyland and walk around with some sort of kids toy.

Like that's a whole nother level of weird. We can deal with that another day. But what I do think the American people need to do here is they need to be calling their senators and saying, do your damn job. Get back to work and pay the people that protect and defend this country. Pay the TSA agents.

Do not hold them hostage. And also, just, I think, to Thune, like, I'm, I'm. I'm sorry, grow a pear to be blunt, and do your job. Like the American people gave you the majority, act like it. If you need to have a talking filibuster to get them paid, then do it.

Because I promise you, Democrats would do it. And Jon Thune is a wuss. He's a useful idiot for the left, and he's useless for the Republican Party and conservatives right now, including Donald Trump. Uh All right, welcome back. Welcome back to the Tonsterns Radio Show.

Trust you're doing well today. Our telephone number, 901-260-5926, coming up in the next hour. Congressman John Rose from Tennessee joins us in the studio. Also, we're going to be taking your questions about finances from our good buddies at Strategic Financial Partners. They drop by every Wednesday.

That will be a fun, fun conversation. All right. Also, I want to tell you about, you know what, Dylan, I feel like we should do a fun trivia question. I agree we should. And this is going to be, this is, I'm calling an audible here.

And this is a good trivia question. I need you to tell me. Why the following people are making headlines today. These are the names: Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch. And Jeremy Hansen Why are these four individuals making headlines today?

If you know the answer, give us a call. We're going to throw in an older copy of my book. We got The Deplorables Guy to Making America Great Again. That's the book on the line here for trivia. Why are these people making headlines today?

Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen. Our telephone number: 901-260-5926. That's 901-260. five nine two six And uh that's it's a it's a head scratcher, isn't it, Dylan? It is because I'm assuming I don't know any of these people.

That's the problem here. Interesting. All right. 901-260-5926. By the way, um Let me give you an update on how the book is going.

And we are literally in final edits. I am making some changes, and then it's off to the printers, and it'll be in bookstores in the spring. I believe in May is when the book is coming out. But we have had a number of people that have now officially endorsed the book. It's called The Golden Age: How Trump Saved America.

And I want to read what President Trump had to say. This is kind of cool. President Trump saying this about the Golden Age, how he saved America. It's a lousy book. No, he didn't say that.

Todd Starnes is a fierce defender of freedom and a great patriot. He has seen and understands what is happening to our country like few others.

Well, I certainly appreciate that, Mr. President. Also, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, writing this: as President Trump leads our nation into its golden age, Todd Starnes has delivered a powerful and timely book that challenges us to be that shining city on a hill. Read and share this with friends and family who believe in America and want to help keep our extraordinary republic. And, ladies and gentlemen, that's what it's really all about: making sure that we carry the torch.

President Trump has shown us the way. And we have to rise up, and we have got to carry on that task. And that's the reason why I wrote The Golden Age. And you're going to love it. It's also a fun read.

There are some chapters that are going to really make you laugh. You can get a copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, pre-order. And we encourage you to do that so we get a pretty good estimate of how many books we're going to need to order for launch day. All right, let's go to the phones real quick. Jim in North Carolina.

All right, we mentioned four names. Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. Who are these individuals? Why are they in the news? Astronauts.

Jim, congratulations. They are the four astronauts on board the Artemis II spaceship, and they'll be blasting off a little bit later tonight. And congratulations, because you just won yourself a copy of my book. The Deplorables Guide to Making America Great Again.

So hang tight, we're going to get your info. Jim, well played, sir. All right, hour three of the big show coming up next. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Live. From the Liberty University Studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

It's America's conservative blowtorch. That's right, I love. Love is American.

Well, hello everybody. Welcome. Welcome to hour three of the Touchstarns Radio Show broadcasting border to border, coast to coast across the fruited plain. 132 radio stations now broadcasting this program. What an honor to have you guys with us.

We have got a lot of ground to cover. Of course, the big news tonight, 9 o'clock Eastern, the president will be addressing the nation when it comes to Iran. We're going to get the very latest there. Also, we're expecting Artemis II to blast off into space, the first trip around the moon in over 50 years. That's going to be a lot of fun.

And we'll be sharing more information about that as well. But right now, more pressing matters. It's always fun when we have a guest in studio. And we do have a guest, a great American patriot. He is a longtime congressman and wants to be the next governor of the state of Tennessee.

We're talking about Congressman John Rose. Good to see you here in Memphis today. Thank you, Todd. It's a great honor and privilege to be on the show today. You know, I'm just curious here.

And this is not a gotcha question. Did you have to stand in a line at the airport to get here? Or did you get the special security escort?

Well, I've always stood in the line.

Sometimes there isn't one, and that's a great thing, but very often there is.

So remarkably, flying out of Memphis, flying out of Nashville and into Nashville and Memphis from D.C., there haven't been particularly long lines, even in the heart of the shutdown. And so been thankful for that. Because you know, I don't know if you heard the news, TMZ, they're kind of like the gotcha magazine of Hollywood. They're launching a political division.

So I guess they're setting up shop in our nation's capital now. And they're already like naming and cataloging which lawmakers are getting that special walk around the long lines. I've seen the video. You have seen the video. Yes.

All right. Okay. All right. I won't go any further than that. But, Congressman, there is a lot of turmoil right now.

I know you were the very first, the very first lawmaker to say the senators need to do something about their leadership over on the Senate side. And now a lot of the people. A lot of other lawmakers are saying the same thing. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Absolutely. I think there's no question about it.

And the more that I think this rests from their really inexplicable action last the wee hours of Of Thursday night, Friday morning, last week, it I think becomes clearer and clearer that. Leader Thune is not providing the kind of conservative leadership that we need right now as a country that we need from the Republican Party and the senators in the In the United States Senate. My concern is that this is just really demoralizing the base of the party. And it's not so much you're going to have Republicans vote Democrat, you're just going to have a lot of Republicans stay home in November. And I'm concerned about that.

I am as well. And I think for good reason at some level, I mean, I would argue they shouldn't because. This is essentially a binary choice, as we so often face in Congress and technically the voters face. And so it's not as though if you don't vote for Republicans that you're going to get something better, you're going to get something far worse. You're going to get Democrats.

Democratic control of the House or Senate will take us down a very dark road. We know if they get control of the House, the very first thing they will do is to impeach the President and then start chasing other people in his administration. And that's where they'll spend all of their time and energy. I have been impressed with Speaker Johnson. It seems like he has changed, maybe going from a timid leader to one who is really out there speaking truth to the powers that be.

What's your assessment of how he is leading the Republicans?

Well, I think you're right. I think he really sized up the moment last Friday and understood that. Going along with what the Senate had done was a non-starter. It was a non-starter among those of us who are conservative in the Republican conference, but it was a non-starter for the Republican Party and the Republican voters across the country. What would you recommend people do, Hammy?

Because people are frustrated. They want to be able to do something, and they don't feel like the Senate is listening to them. And before you answer that, though, I think the broader issue is, where are all of the other Republican senators calling out their leadership? That's my concern. Absolutely.

And I think that's what I was going to recommend to the listeners is you need to be calling your senator, whoever that is, whatever state you're in. Here in Tennessee, Senator Blackburn, Senator Haggerty, you need to let them know that you expect them to call their leader, John Thune, to task for what happened. And as we know and we alluded to earlier, they left town.

Some of them left town even before the vote at 3 a.m. on Friday morning. And so they clearly knew what the deal was. We didn't know. Speaker Johnson didn't know.

But clearly the Republican senators in the majority knew what was coming, and they left town knowing that they didn't need to be there. I have already endorsed early, early on, and I endorsed Marcia Blackburn. I think that's important for people to know in the gubernatorial race. But I want to hear your reaction. When you saw her, leaving early and at that airport, getting the private escort.

What was going through your mind? I mean, you're not only a candidate, but you're a constituent. Yeah, so I think it's a pattern. We saw this with the payday provision that was pushed through last fall from the Senate to the House to give her and other members of the Senate a chance to reap potentially millions of dollars from taxpayers at taxpayers' expense. We saw it again with this example of her leaving town, bypassing security, leaving her post before the job was done.

And we saw it in Nashville when the ice storm came, and she requested to get put to the head of the line. For having her home electricity put back on. And I think that's exactly backwards. I think we need leaders who understand that leaders eat last. We should put the people that we represent first.

And so I think it's just a troubling pattern. No, as a business owner, and the radio business, they're going to be great years and not so great years. And to your point, the owner of the station is the last person that gets paid. That's a part of leadership: putting the needs of others ahead of yours. And I know that as a business owner and a person who's built businesses, you get paid last.

Sometimes you get paid the most if things go really well, but oftentimes you don't get paid at all. Exactly, which is why we love President Trump coming on the show. It boosts our ratings. I'm just kidding. Well, it does boost our ratings.

We have Congressman John Rose from Tennessee joining us, weighing in on the chaos in our nation's capital. Of course, another part of that is getting DHS funded. And again, as much as we focus on the Republicans, this is a Democrat issue. They're the ones that want DHS shut down. That's right.

And we need to remember. all the way back to last fall.

So now three times. Uh leader Schumer, minority leader Chuck Schumer in the Senate has led a Democrat. Instigated shutdown of the government, this time partial, just affecting the Department of Homeland Security. But in each case, they were putting illegal immigrants above American citizens. Last fall, it was health care for free health care for illegal immigrants.

Now it is stopping ICE and the Customs and Border Protection from protecting Americans from criminal illegal aliens. They're putting them ahead of American citizens, and it's shameful. And it should stop, and we should call it out. And frankly, the Senate should have stayed in Washington, and I believe they might have capitulated. with all of the news that was bearing down on them, I think had leader Thune said, we're staying here until we get the job done, I suspect there might have been some Democratic senators who would have said, maybe it's time to make a deal.

I'm curious, Congressman, about boots on the ground. There's been a lot of talk about that. One of the things I've realized about President Trump, he has really never changed his position on any of his issues. He knows what he believes in, and it's been that way since the 1980s when he first said we've got to go after Iran. And now here we are so many years later.

Look, I think the president is just sending a message. I don't know if he's going to put boots on the ground or not, but I think Iran doesn't know that. And the enemy has to be very concerned about the president because they can't read his mind. But I am curious about in your congressional district, what are people telling you about boots on the ground?

Well, I think generally the American people are tired of forever wars, and we saw that with many who supported the president because I think he correctly identified that concern among the American populace. But I think this is a different situation. And I hope and I believe that Americans understand that for 47 years Iran has terrorized the world, including the United States. They've been the primary state sponsor of terrorism. They've killed literally thousands of Americans, maimed and injured others, many countless others.

And so we can't allow them to get their hands on a nuclear weapon. And the President recognized that, and I think he is the master negotiator. And sometimes he makes threats. But what we know is he's willing to follow through on those. And the Iranians would be well advised to take note of what he's saying.

So will there be boots on the ground? I think most Americans hope there will not. But if it is what is required to get this enriched uranium out of the country and ensure that it doesn't fall into the hands of some new despotic leader there in Iran, I think it's worth it. I want to get to your run for the governor's office in just a moment. But I'm curious about what's going on in Washington.

It seems like, I mean, it's always sort of a Have been chaos. But we're seeing really unusually large numbers of even Republicans saying, you know what, I'm retiring. I'm done here. We can't get anything done. What's going on?

What is broken in Washington, D.C.?

Well, so I would argue that I don't think there's anything broken. It is very frustrating, and I will personally attest to that. Being in Congress is very frustrating. I certainly wouldn't say enjoyable. But I think if the founders, if the framers of the Constitution came back and they saw how Congress operates, I actually think they'd be pretty tickled about it because they distrusted government.

They wanted to tie government in knots, and they achieved the purpose that they had.

So I think they would appreciate the rancor and the debate that's going on. And I think that's what they hoped that they were creating. I suppose, you know, if you're looking at the brighter side, there are no canings and there are no duels that we know of. That's right. And so, you know, I mean, if you view it through the full lens of history, I think Congress is working kind of like it always has with lots of angst and lots of disagreement.

But ultimately, that's leading to the consensus of what we should do. And sometimes that's very dissatisfying the way that that works out. I want to play some audio. There are three Republicans running to be the next governor of Tennessee. And Tennessee is a very important state for the entire conservative movement.

Senator Marshall Blackburn's running. You are running. And there's a state representative by Monty Fritz, and he's upset with you and Senator Blackburn. I want to take a listen. Dylan, let's play this audio.

Well, Dina, you were talking about man's refusing to debate. Was it just Marcia or is John Marsh confusing to debate? No, it's absolutely both of them. It's John and Marcia. Early on, I thought he was going to be willing to debate, but then he backed out.

I think what I heard from their campaigns, he wasn't willing to debate unless she was there. And so that's what brought my football coach phrase of one of them scared and the other one's glad of it. And, you know, there's a big Libertarian thing in Chattanooga in a few weeks. Everybody should go. Both barns.

Let's put everything out on the table and talk about. positions and platforms. I think the people deserve that. What do you think about the fact that he complained about her not debating and now he wants to debate you? Again, one of them's scared and the other's glad of it.

Wouldn't it help you both to have some sort of forum where there's an empty chair where she would be sitting? I think it's an awesome idea. I think most of the forums we're going to have, there'll be two empty chairs. The people of Tennessee deserve to know, you know, what would she do as governor? Why does she want to be governor?

And I think a debate, debates would be the way to get at that. All right. So he's saying you don't want to debate. Do you want to debate? Absolutely.

We want to debate. But I think we have to remember this is the Republican primary, and Republican voters deserve to hear from all the candidates. I mean, it's obvious what Representative Fritz is doing. He's hoping that he might get a lucky swipe in at me if I debate just him. But if we don't have Senator Blackburn there, then we're not really presenting the options to the people of Tennessee.

So she should come out. We should have a full-fledged debate. We should have all the Republican candidates there for the Republican primary. I will absolutely be there and hope that that happens.

So on the record, you are willing to debate Marsha Blackburn and Monty Friends. Absolutely. Oh, well, that settles that then.

So, all right, we'll have to try to make that happen. And I think the Republican voters deserve that debate. They ought to demand it. How do you address the polling data? There are polls out there and they're showing her with a decisive lead over both of you.

How do you interpret that data? It's still driven almost entirely by name identification.

So if you ask Tennessee voters, have you heard of the following people, and you throw names in front of them, if you put in Marshall Blackburn's name in front of them, 90, 95 percent of Tennesseans are going to say, yes, I know who that is. If you put John Rose's name in front of them, 15, 20 percent are going to say they've heard who I am at this point. And then so the results of those Polls reflect that lack of awareness. We're going to fix that, but we have to wait until the voters are really ready to hear that message. And so that's coming, it's soon now.

And when we do that, our polling data shows us that the Tennessee voters will come out, the Republican voters in the primary will come our way. All right. Where can people go, Congressman, if they want to get more information about your platform? It's simple, johnrose.com, J-O-H-N-R-O-S-E dot com. All right.

Congressman, good to see you. And I know you were hanging out with the Republican women of purpose earlier today, and they always throw a great shindig. Yes, great meal and great people and great patriots. All right. We got to leave it there.

Congressman, good to see you. Good luck out there on the campaign trail. Thank you. All right. We'll be right back, everybody.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. Welcome back, everybody. Good to have you with us.

And we're going to be doing our best to get a number of candidates from around the nation on the show. And we, you know, this is important. We need to talk about the midterms. And you heard Congressman Rose just a few moments ago, and he is rightfully concerned that the lack of action in the Senate could very well doom the entire Republican Party in the midterm elections. Let's go to the phone lines here: 901-260-5926, Anna, Dahlonega, Georgia, listening to us on WDUN.

Hi, Anna. What's on your mind today? Yeah, Todd, I'm really concerned. I mean, after hearing Alex Joan and his obfennies about the President, but We get right down to the bottom. uh of this whole thing Why is Obama and why are Obama and Biden not being considered in this mix.

They what they did contributed to a lot of the problems we're realizing now. a country of buy-in for the people. That is the government. But it seems like of volume for the politicians or their political parties. Trump, so I don't use that term mostly, but Trump's everything.

And No one No one seemed to care. Um I'm concerned that our polit not all of them, but our some of our politicians Are treated like celebrities. They show up on late night. They don't have any kind of integrity uh discipline And none of that. And it's just a big game show to them.

And we're we're hurting out here. You know, we're the ones who have to deal with all these Illegals You know, I remember I came from a long line of Of Democrats back in the day. I mean, I'm seventy-five years old, so it's been a long time. But my grandparents came here from France And Yeah, they they paid their dues, but now people just stroll through. And I'll tell you, the bottom line is Obama and Biden are the reasons for this.

and they should pay restitution for this. But they're not. No, no, they're not. And you're right, Anna. And I would even contend that George W.

Bush was responsible for a lot of this, got us involved in two wars that we had no business.

Well, we had Afghanistan, I can understand, but Iraq, we had no business going in there. And we lost a lot of American treasure as a result of that. And Donald Trump is undoing all of this damage. Anna, thanks for the call. I'll have more to say about that on the other side of the break.

All right, welcome back to the Todd Cearns Radio Show. Busy, busy News Day. And I love this time of the week, Wednesday hump day. That means it's time for our good friends from Strategic Financial Partners to join us. They do that every Wednesday, just again, answering your questions, giving you some guidance as you're putting together your financial portfolio.

You're making plans for retirement or investment. And we love having our good friends from Strategic Financial Partners.com. That's strategicfinancialpartners.com. Adam Martin flying solo today. Adam, good to see you, my friend.

It's good seeing you. And I'll give a shout out to Chris. I hope you're feeling better, bud. And we'll see you tomorrow. Oh, we see you under the weather.

Yes. I think the pollen and all the stuff falling from the trees has gotten that pollen is insane. It is. You know, I was getting last Saturday. I was getting ready and I had to drop out of the office.

And I'm like, this is where I wash my car. I like spending money in the car washes, so I wash it here. And I worked around the clock. I mean, it took me 45 minutes to get the Cadillac sparkly, you know, because you want to. You want to represent the Lord in the church parking lot.

You don't want the guys, you know, the deacons looking at you funny.

So anyway, Sunday morning, I get up for church. It's covered in pollen again. My wife and I went through. What the heck? We went through a car wash over the weekend, and I literally looked at her and I said, I might as well take that $12 and lit it on fire.

Oh, my gosh. That's it. That's it. All right. Let's talk about investment strategy.

And a lot of people are maybe even unfamiliar with that term, investment strategy. What do you mean by that? Investment strategy is literally thinking about how do we need to deploy your capital to work for your goals.

So is that a combination of Growth investments? Is it conservative investments? Is it a combination of market-based investments and insurance products?

So a lot of people, I would have to imagine, think one size fits all. Is that correct or is that a big mistake? I would say if it seems like a one-size-fits-all, it's not a good fit for you because each person is different and your strategy should reflect what your goals are and not be the same as what somebody else's is. Again, folks, by the way, if you have questions, give us a call, 901-260-5926, 901-260-5926.

So we're putting together an investment strategy. What are some of the common mistakes that you see people making as they try to go through the procedure? That's a great question. And one of the most common things that we see on a regular basis is somebody's just keeping their foot on the gas well beyond the years they should be keeping their foot on the gas and they're too aggressive. Or we see some people are just.

Very scared of the market. They don't want to have the risk of a correction and it wipe out what they've saved.

So they keep their money invested in like cash or low-yielding investments. And so, what are the risks there? The risk is. If you're too aggressive and we're not aligned with the time frame for when you need those dollars, we could see a big market correction, and that could be detrimental to the success of your plan. Or if we're too conservative, Things like inflation erodes the purchasing power of the dollar, and we need to outpace inflation.

So if that number is 3.5%, Maybe we should be looking at five, six percent.

So it's talking really, it's really about tailoring a, you know, whatever your strategy is to what you are and where you are at in life. Yeah, and I think that's what an advisor or financial professional, you know, provides the most value. There's a lot of misconceptions. You know, they see things like Wolf of Wall Street or they hear other people talk bad about financial advisors. And what I really want people to understand is the best thing that we can do is build a plan first and then we develop the investment strategy after that.

I'm lying. I actually don't know why that movie was on somewhere. And I just, just the other day, and it's such an awful movie. But it is. It is.

They're not all good people. No, no, they're not. But fortunately, our friends at Strategic Financial Partners are the good guys. And if you have a question, give us a call, 901-260-5926. Even if you don't want to come on air, we'll take your question off air and we'll make sure the guys reach out to you.

You know, a lot of people, I I think in our audience, we have maybe a 401k or an IRA. From maybe an old job, and there's really no plan to tie it together because some people may have multiple plans out there. What should they do? What advice do you give those folks?

Well, I would say if you're somebody who's in that position where you know you had a retirement plan at a previous employer and you're working at a new place and contributing to the new plan, You've got a couple options. And it could be: let's move the old 401k to an IRA, which is an individual retirement account, which has got what we call open architecture.

So the investment universe is wide open, and we sit down and ask you how you want to be allocated and come up with an investment strategy. Or it could be simply as if your new employer plan offers rollovers, you can move it into your new employer plan.

So, I always say when you make a career change or a big life event happens, just like when you go see your doctor, you go see a dentist, go see your financial professional and see does this apply to me and what are my options? We had last night on the show, my good friend Tracy Burns, she was at Fox Business forever, and she has a brand new book out called Deduct Everything, talking about your taxes. And we were, and she said it's important for people to reach out to a professional expert. I'm getting around to the point here, but that because, for example, she said a lot of people may not be aware, but last year, if you purchased a brand new car, an American-made car, you can actually deduct a huge chunk of the price of that car. Many people may not be aware of that.

So, again, that's why it's important to reach out to professionals like you guys at Strategic Financial Partners. And one of the things that we recommend the most is to go and see your CPA because we know in the investment world, And we know enough about the taxes to be dangerous, so we always defer. Go see your CPA because that's what they specialize in. You know, you wouldn't go to a podiatrist to ask about your heart, you know, and that's why we have certain specialties.

Well, that's a it's a great point. Um, you, when, you know, to that, we were talking with Tracy, and she also made another interesting point. For example, when they say no tax on tips, everybody thinks, oh, great, I don't have to declare my tips. No, you do. You can deduct them, but you still have to declare.

So she said there's just so much, you know, so much information, which again is why it's so important for all of us to go and get help. And we need advice, which is why Adam is here and Chris are here every Wednesday. You know, I want to talk about risk tolerance. There's a great other horrible movie people, well, that kids should not watch. Casino.

Remember Casino? I love Casino. Oh, my gosh. Remember the scene? There's a scene in the movie where Joe Pesci decides to go to the bank and the.

The bank die was like, well, you know, there may be some risk here. And Pesci was like, I better not lose anybody. But th th a lot of people are afraid you know, that's a big thing is, you know, they they maybe are risk intolerant. That's right. Um and that's why we always when I say we we build a plan first and then we figure out the investment piece second.

Is in our conversations, we're going to ask you about what do you want to do in retirement, or what are we saving these dollars for, and what is that timeline? That timeline is the most important piece because. We have to know when we need to scale back the risk to avoid a sell-off and we lose a lot of what we saved for. That conversation helps us build the foundation for your plan, and then we put an investment strategy in place that matches what you're trying to accomplish.

So that whole one size fits all, it can't be possible if we're talking to 10 different people because it's like a game of telephone. It starts with one thing and it ends with a totally different thing.

So, 10 different people, they're going to have 10 different solves that we need to come up with. How often should you go back and look at things or maybe adjust what your strategy is?

Well, just like the tax we were talking about earlier, every year, same time of year, it's the tax deadline, it's the time to go see your CPA. Think about it the same way with your financial advisor. No doubt, every year, this time of year, I'm going to go and talk to him, regardless if you have anything to talk about or not. We will. We will go over and say, This is how you performed over the last year.

This is what you incurred in the way of fees. And if there's any pressing things that we see just from the market standpoint, we may say, hey, You're getting five years away from that retirement date. I think now would be a good time to transition from being aggressive to being more moderate or moderate conservative, just so that we add a layer of downside protection. Adam Martin is a financial adviser with Strategic Financial Partners. Their website address, folks, strategicfinancialpartners.com.

Our number, 901-260-5926. That's 901-260-5926. Somebody's probably right now at lunch, and they're at Poach English, Wadaburger. I don't know, great restaurants. And they're thinking, you know, I don't have a strategy here, I just have accounts.

That's unfortunately more common than most. And that's okay. Having accounts is a good problem to have. And it's not too late. Go speak with somebody, whether it's us or whether it's a professional in your area that you're close to or you know about.

Just get organized. That's what it all boils down to: is have a plan. Because when we see volatility like we have here recently, I mean, the markets have had a little bit of turbulence lately. It's those people that just have the accounts that are panicking and saying sell, sell, sell, instead of, hey, I have a plan. We talked about we would see some turbulence like this, and let's just hold.

Let's hold the line because what goes down goes back up. Those people have more of a Tranquil vibe to them whenever it comes to their finances because they planned proactively. I love that. And again, Strategic Financial Partners.com.

So you got, I mean, we've got people listening to us all over the nation, and you guys can take those calls. We can. Yeah, we can be licensed in any state determining on what we have to do.

So if that's just investing, we could get a securities license. If it's an insurance solve, we can get an insurance license. But that's why we're here, Todd. I want to help as many people come up with a plan and feel confident about their future. I love that.

And folks, you need to go and check them out. They're the good guys, and they are very, very effective at what they do. Strategicfinancialpartners.com. Be sure to ask for Adam Martin, a financial advisor. I want you to write down Adam's number, 901-260-2438.

That's 901-260-2438. All right, Adam, good to see you, my friend. Great seeing you. How are your brackets? I didn't even fill one out.

I'm a Memphis. Tiger fan, we weren't in it, so I had no involvement in the CAA tournament. Tennessee Voltsman right here.

Well, they I fortunately didn't make it to the Final Four yet again, and I'm sorry. It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate. Thank you for that, Adam. Yeah, my condolences.

All right, we'll be right back. All right, welcome back, everybody. This is the Tom Cearns Radio Show. By the way, California Gamba Newscub. Man, are they, you know, if you think the fraud is bad in Minneapolis, what's happening in California?

They haven't even begun to really do a deep dive into the amount of fraud. But I want you to listen to this Fox News report.

So they found out. that just one building Allegedly housed nearly 200 hospice and healthcare companies. You can't make this up. Take a listen. I did not see a single person coming in or out of the building.

Neither did we in January. Lots of offices, but no people. Three floors, no employees or patients. Yet look at the dozens of providers licensed at this one address. Five years ago, state auditors flagged this location for potential fraud.

They say they found non-working phones, locked doors, and stolen Medicare numbers. In LA County, California, 89 hospice companies are registered to a single address. Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill say California's weak oversight helped perpetuate fraud. A charge Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom denies. We've been very aggressive.

As it relates to going after the fraud and abuse. He also says hospice fraud involving Medicare falls under federal jurisdiction. That's misleading. State law says California is responsible for licensing, inspecting, and investigating hospice complaints and can deny, suspend, or revoke licenses. This problem is on his hands, and he's refusing to put in rules and regulations that lawmakers mandated take effect by January this year, including better background checks, a ban on multiple hospices sharing a single office, more comprehensive on-site inspections, and face-to-face meetings before awarding a license.

We asked Newsom why his administration missed the deadline. We've eliminated over 280 licenses. We've been on this since late 2021.

So, what the governor does not say is the sweeping reforms that auditors want have largely not been imposed, and LA County still has. 1,500 more hospices, Dana, than New York and Florida combined, including 503-mile radius. Makes no sense. And they're billing Medicare double the national average. There you go.

And this is the fraud that, folks, again, we have got to get a handle on this. And if we do, you're going to, heck, we may not even have to have an income tax. If we can expose all of the fraud. Dylan, I want to do another trivia question. Oh.

This is a tough one. I'm ready. The last one was tough for me. It was tough. Can you name the very first sitting president to attend an oral argument?

At the U.S. Supreme Court. You know, President Trump was there earlier today. Can you name the first sitting president to attend an oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court?

Are you going to give options for this one? This is hard. No.

Okay. Are you telling me a lot of people know this answer? They should. 901-260-5926, if you know the answer. The first sitting president to attend an oral argument at the U.S.

Supreme Court. That's 901-2600. two six zero 5926. Dylan, did you ever use a typewriter? Yeah.

Yeah. The keyboard, you mean?

Well, they were called typewriters, and they weren't attached to a computer back when I was in school. You actually had to take a typing class. I do like how they sound. It's like a vintage thing. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

Yeah. Yeah. So An Ivy League teacher is at Cornell University. is now making students Peck away at manual typewriters. This is great.

No screens, no online dictionaries, no spell check, no delete keys. And you know why she's doing that? to fight against AI, the AI work, you know, the chat GPT. Interesting. It's a brilliant strategy.

I guess so. You know what's funny? They actually make keyboards now that sound like typewriters. That's how far we're going now. Jesus, Lord, that's terrible.

All right, Professor Matthias Phelps, a German language instructor. Started this in 2023, 2023, frustrated. By the fact that students were using AI and online translation platforms to turn out grammatically perfect assignments. And so, anyway, the professor said she wanted students to understand what writing, thinking, and classrooms were like before everything turned digital. I love this idea.

They're calling it an analog assignment. That's brilliant. All right, let's go to the phone lines here. Let's go to John in Georgia, which is like our trivia capital of the show. John, how are you today?

Great, Todd. You're a great American. How are you doing?

Well, thank you very much for that. I appreciate that. We're going to try to see if you can't win a prize here. Can you tell us the very first president in American history to attend an oral argument at the US Supreme Court. I think that would be Donald Trump.

Ah, yes, you are correct. John, did you have to look that one up or did you know that, John?

Well, I've been hearing it all day that he was the first one, so That's right. Donald Trump making American history today became the first sitting president to attend an oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court. No April Fool's joke. Mm-hmm.

How about that? Sat there on the front row. That's pretty cool. All right. John, we're going to hook you up with a copy of The Deplorable's Guide to Making America Great Again, so don't go anywhere.

Congratulations. Wow, what a that's that is scene telling. I told you that's a great tribute. I feel dumb. Maybe I just haven't been listening to your show.

I feel like you've said it at least once already. You got to listen, man. I do. You got to listen. All right, folks, this has been a lot of fun today.

We've got to get out of here tonight, 5 o'clock Eastern. We're going to be looking at whatever the president is going to tell the nation tonight. 9 o'clock Eastern. Also, Artemis 2 blasting off to the moon. That's at 6 o'clock.

Busy, busy News Day, which is why you need to listen to the radio. Get out there and have a great one, everybody. We'll be back tomorrow, noon o'clock, right here on the Todd Stern Show.