>> Walker Wildmon: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, preborn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection and the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the key word baby or visit preborn.com afr. We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
>> Rick Green: We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
>> Walker Wildmon: This is at the Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this Good Friday edition of the radio program. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Greene. We're your host here for at the Core on American Family Radio. As a brief reminder, you can listen live to American Family Radio on our website, afr.net or you can download the American Family Radio app. It's free in your app store. Just type in AFR or American Family Radio, click the download button and you'll have unlimited access to all of our great content here on American Family Radio. And, lastly, we upload the program in the form of a podcast each and every day. You can go to your podcast store, type in at the core and click the follow or the subscribe button and you'll have access to the latest episode each and every day.
John, chapter 20 is where we've been this week
Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture. John, chapter 20 is where we've been this week. John, chapter 20. This, passage here is Mary Magdalene, Starting at verse 11, going to the tomb, what is now an empty tomb. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down, looked into the tomb, saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? She, supposing him to be a gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him, rabboni, which is to say teacher. And Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. So that's verses 11 through 17 here. Of course, the story goes on. Jesus ends up being, seen with and witnessing to over 500 individuals after his resurrection, before his ascension, and does, ministry on earth in between his resurrection and his ascension, which you can later read on in the final, passages and chapters of John, the Book of John. But, this is historical fact that Jesus the Messiah came, lived a sinless life, was crucified, died, raised from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. This is the story of Easter that we celebrate. John, chapter 20, verses 11 through 17.
We're going on some fun and educational trips this year
Well, we're going to be making some fun and educational trips this year to various places. So I'll just mention a couple of these. The first one I want to mention is our June trip to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, also Washington D.C. that's happening in the middle of June. Going to be going back to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown and Washington D.C. in September, in the middle of September. And then at the end of September we're going to be going to our second annual trip to Boston where we visit the Freedom Trail, Plymouth, Lexington, Concord and various other places. The home of John Adams, places like that. All of this is intended to educate you on the providential founding of America, the providential history of America, how God had his hand on this nation and allowed this nation to become what it is today. And out, of all the negatives we could talk about, God has definitively used America as a beacon of hope around the world. And for the largest exporting of the gospel, in modern history has taken place from the mainland of America. Over 85% of mission work originates from America. And we're responsible for the vast majority of not just mission work in humanitarian sense, but also sharing the gospel and making disciples and planting churches all around the world. that is one of many things that America has been responsible for over the last 250 years. So we're going to be going to all of those places this year in June and September. So we look forward to some of you meeting us there. If you want to check out those trips, you can go over to wildmangroup.com wildmangroup.com couple other things I want to mention is our Activate Summit coming up in July, the 16th through the 18th. We look forward to seeing some of you there. That's going to take place here in Tupelo, Mississippi at the Cadence Bank Conference Center. That's the Activate Summit. We've got a great lineup of speakers. And then lastly, we'll be at the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum in the fall October 29th and 30th. Those two events are available at afa.netevents afa.net events well, speaking of Easter and, the what's going on in our country in Washington, D.C. we've got a lot of news that we've been talking about, but President Trump held an Easter, luncheon with Christian leaders earlier in the week. And, it was over an hour long. There's a lot we could say about it. This, these clips, actually, I don't even think they were supposed to be released. This was supposed to be an off the record, lunch. But nonetheless, there's not much off the record anymore. Our good friend, Pastor Robert Jeffress from Dallas, pastor of First Baptist Dallas and heard here on American Family Radio through Pathway to Victory. He, ah, led a prayer, made comments and led a prayer over the President of the United States. And I found it quite encouraging in such a tumultuous time. Let's listen to Dr. Robert Jeffress.
>> Pastor Jeffress: I remember so well January of 2016, before one vote had been cast anywhere. I was flying around with then businessman Donald Trump at different primaries and we had just finished a Wendy's cheeseburger he served on that plane. And I said, Mr. President, I believe you're going to beat Mr. President. I said, Mr. Trump, I believe God has appointed you to be the next President of the United States. And if that happens, it's because he has a plan for you and for our country. He said, do you really believe that, Robert? And I said, yes, sir, I do believe it. And God brought this to happen. I mean, who would have ever thought, who would have ever thought that a billionaire real estate tycoon from NewSong York City would usher in a spiritual revival of the United States? So I want us to pray for him. Father, we thank you that you are a sovereign God. your word says you are the one who selects kings and removes kings. And, in your plan, you have given us a great president not just once, but twice. Father, we, every one of us in this room, first of all, want to pray for President Trump. We want to Pray for his physical safety, for the safety of our first lady of Barron and all of the family. For Vice President Vance. Father, we pray that you would protect them from those who would do evil against them. We realize this is not just a political battle we're in. It's a spiritual battle, a battle between light and darkness, A battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. And we know you're going to prevail. And I just pray you would help us be an encouragement to this great president that you would continue to use him in a mighty way. And we focus on you, especially at this Easter time. Thank you, for sending the one who came and died and rose again that we might have eternal life. Jesus our Lord. It's in his saving name that we pray. Amen.
Robert Jeffress: God is using church to bring about spiritual awakening in America
>> Walker Wildmon: M powerful prayer by Dr. Robert Jeffress out of Dallas, Texas, at the White House earlier this week. I hope that's an encouragement to you. Well, there's a lot of places, a lot of directions we can go. this segment with the news. I could talk about Iran. I could probably talk about Iran for hours. But, I want to remind you, despite all the noise, all the news, and some of it pretty discouraging that, God has been. And God is using, the church of Jesus Christ in this country to hopefully bring about what will be looked back on as a spiritual awakening. There's study after study coming out. Some of these from our good friend George Barna, some of these from Pew Research and others. We'll actually have Dr. Barna on in the coming days. But nonetheless, people, especially young people, are flocking to church. And this is across denominational lines, but young men specifically are flocking to church. There's this realization that the ways of the world and the ways of the flesh are empty. And a lot of this is just practical, common sense understanding. But obviously this level of awakening has to be spiritual in nature. There's no logic that can lead you to denying yourself. It's only through the Holy Spirit. but Christians have been praying for awakening and for conviction in our land for a long time now, for years and years and years. And it just seems as though it seemed as though godliness was just, you know, on the rise. Godliness, godlessness rather was on the rise with, you know, government institutions, education, entertainment, Hollywood, Washington, D.C. all just turning their back on God. I mean, I'll never Forget during the 2008, 2000-2008 DNC convention, I'll never forget the sound of God being booed at the Democrat National Convention. I'll never forget that. And it was like this turning point. Not in a good way, but it was this turning point where elected officials thought that it was comfortable enough to openly rebel against God. And of course the Obama administration, there was so much wrong with it. There was so much ungodliness being fostered, and really fostered from the White House, from the bully pulpit they call it. but people, folks are just tired of the emptiness. They're tired of the godlessness and the depravity and they want something meaningful in their life. And the answer to that is Jesus Christ. And so that's what's going on in our country right now. And may the Lord continue to bless it. May the Lord continue to, water it and allow it to grow. Because, I look at, I just wrote an article that's going to run here in the next month or two in our magazine, but I was looking at all of the societal problems that we have across all levels of society. Whether it's, you know, marriage, divorce rates or high school dropout rates or crime rates. Right. All of these different statistics that we gather are indicative of the direction the trajectory of our country and the spiritual and moral well being and all of it. I mean every single, every single negative headline or negative statistic can be tethered back to a spiritual underpinning. And when you have divorce as rampant as it has been in the past, although there are some encouraging signs on these numbers, and you see fatherlessness on the rise, all of this leads to spiritual darkness and it leads to people not having purpose. And we can fix so much in our country if we will address the spiritual side of what's going on. And where this starts primarily is not only within the churches, but also within our homes. And we've got to rebuild the family. We have to rebuild the nuclear family as God designed it, as God intended it. That is the primary institution outside of the church that can lead to spiritual renewal, awakening, and a rebuilding of a civilized society that has some semblance of righteousness and godly standards. We'll be back in a few. At the Core podcasts are [email protected] now
>> Jeff Chamblee: back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Brian Mullins is director of the National Bible Bee program
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to this edition of at the Core here on American Family Radio. I pray that you're having a good Friday and remembering that this is the day we celebrate the crucifixion, Jesus. And thankfully the story doesn't end there. I, want to Jump to our next guest. Brian Mullins is with us. Brian is director at the National Bible Bee, otherwise known as Biblebee.org and we've worked with them for several years, highlighting their National Bible Bee competition. It's a phenomenal program that they have every year, and we want to be sure to highlight it this year as well. Brian, welcome to the program.
>> Brian Mullins: Thank you, Walker. I appreciate you having us.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. When I saw you guys send this over, made, sure we highlighted this because it's such a worthwhile program that you guys offer. Brian, for those who don't know about the National Bible Bee program, give us a little bit of background or a little bit of context as to how you guys got to where you are today.
>> Brian Mullins: Sure. National, Bible Bee has been around since 2009. That's when we were founded. And it was founded by a group of people that wanted to honor the life of a young lady named Shelby Kennedy, who had a very difficult struggle with cancer and ultimately succumbed to that cancer. But through that difficulty, she was tethered to, anchored to her hope, which was Jesus. Right. That's our hope as believers. And just that courage that she showed, that joy she found even through struggling through such a difficult time, anchored in scripture, just meditating on God's word, that really just sparked a desire to see young people to be engaged with that scripture. And so, that's how Bible be was birthed. And that was back in 2009 when we first started. And we've been going ever since. This is our 18th season and thousands of people from all over the country, young people ages 5 to 18, register every year, to become part of the summer study. And that's kind of like the on ramp. And we focus on Bible literacy for young people. And that's really what our goal is to young people engaged with the scriptures.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I've listened to, we've hosted some of the young people here on our campus in the past. And then of course I've listened to the competition in the past as well. And it's just phenomenal the level of knowledge and memorization that these young people have. Ages, the ten week, curriculum or program that you guys offer is for, ah, age 5 to 18. So these are all levels, all grades. I mean you're going from first, second grade all the way up to, high school students. And just the sheer number of verses memorized is just phenomenal. Such a blessing. And the eternal impact here is hard, to calculate. Tell us how this works. So if you're a parent, you've got young people, you've got children, and you're thinking to yourself, this sounds like a really good idea. Tell us how it works from a parent standpoint.
>> Brian Mullins: Yeah, so obviously when you, you smite of people might be exposed to national Bible be through the on stage stuff, which is like the culmination. Right. That's the, the capstone. But for the parent that's looking and saying, man, I really want to get my kids involved in Scripture, it's very really simple. I mean we, we have a summer program that we call this summer study. And for us that's focused on just the basic beginnings of getting kids getting their toes Wet, whether they're five years old or whether they're 18, but just kind of starting out their Bible study journey. we just want to get them involved and engaged early. And so, we've developed a summer study program where we select a passage of scripture and we write a curriculum around that passage of scripture. This summer we're studying the book of James and we walk through. It's an inductive style study. And so it teaches kids how to study the Bible for themselves. It gives them the tools that they need to be able to be successful Bible students at this age, but for the rest of their lives, really. And so if you're a parent that's looking to get your, your child on that path towards biblical literacy, towards building a love for God's word, and then ultimately, obviously we want them to live God's word. Right. I'd encourage you just take that step. I know it might seem daunting. You might feel like, I don't know if I can do that. It's a lot of Bible memory, but really it's geared towards those that are just, even just beginning. And so, the on ramp for us is a summer study and that, that registration is open right now all the way to the end of May.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. My son, ah, this past Christmas memorized the majority of Luke chapter two. and I actually had him on the program on my show to recite it. And it was just, wow. I'm thinking to myself, could I have done that at 8 years old? And I probably could have if I put myself to it. But seeing that when you challenge young people and yourself as well to do things that seem very difficult, the Lord will bless it and, we can. The Lord gives us abilities that we need to utilize and scripture memorization is just one of those.
Walker: National Bible Bee is a great summer program to memorize scripture
Brian, tell us how it Works from a user standpoint. Like you guys got a great website, it looks like very user friendly. Most of this 10 week program, if not all of it is online, correct?
>> Brian Mullins: Yes. So you know, for the, the time you register, you know, your parent, register as, register your kids, however old they are, you'll get a dashboard and all the resources that you need will be delivered through that dashboard, just like you would expect in any other kind of back end, you know, user interface. but you'll get a printed book sent to you and so that's the discovery journal and the kids will be able to work through that. You know, it's a curriculum, like I said, it's inductive style. And so it's not just teaching them about the scripture, it's teaching them how to study the scripture. And so, but you'll have all the resources that you need right there on your dashboard. we'll provide memory, scripture memory sort of flashcards for them, all the answers so you know, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to help your children work through it. and then a bunch of other stuff. We've got host groups all over the country for those that might want to, you know, go through the study with other people around them. we've got, I think it's 340 host groups in 48 states and so there's most likely one near you and if there's not, there's online groups as well. So just, you know, the goal is of course to, to get kids involved in the scripture, get them building that habit, but also building Christian community. You know, it's a great way, you know, to sort of just build relationships and get to know some people that sort of hold those same similar values that you do around God's word and the truth that's contained there.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. We've been talking to Brian Mullins, director of Biblebee.org or otherwise known as the National Bible Bee program and curriculum. Brian, tell our aud, the URL, the website they can go to register.
>> Brian Mullins: Yeah, so if you want to register for the summer study, you can Visit it@uh, 2026bibleb.org and you can go there and walk through the registration. and for all of your listeners, Walker, we've got a special discount code for them. If they enter code afr26 at checkout, just enter that promo code. That'll give you 10% off your registration card.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. 2026biblebee.org and then when you go to check out, type in afr26, is that right Brian?
>> Brian Mullins: Yes sir, that's correct.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Hey Brian, thanks so much for your work. Appreciate you highlighting this and we'll keep track on this.
>> Brian Mullins: Thanks Walker. I appreciate you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. That's uh,2026biblebee.org and then if you want a discount code you can use afr26. And this is a great summer option summer program. It's a 10 week program, all online, based and the parents can create the account and register their children and go through it. It's a phenomenal program to memorize scripture. And memorizing scripture isn't just a good idea. It's actually told us in scripture to do, to hide the word of God in our heart and memorize it so we can recall it just as Jesus did when facing temptation to combat these schemes of the enemy.
Fox Report: Pam Bondi will soon leave her job as United States Attorney General
That's2026bibleb.org well, a, breaking story just late this week on Thursday was the resignation of Attorney General Pam Bondi. whether it was a resignation or a termination, that's really unclear. but nonetheless I wanted to play this Fox Report real quick, that announcing that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out at the doj.
>> Peter Doocy: Kayleigh, I just got off the phone with President Trump. We have a big scoop. Pam Bondi will soon leave her job as the Attorney General. She is going to get a different job within the administration. It doesn't sound like there is any bad blood between her and President Trump, but it does seem like they want her to go and do something else. And in an interim role she will be replaced by Todd Blanche, who is currently her name deputy at the Justice Department. So it doesn't sound like Blanche is being elevated long term to the Attorney General. There might be somebody else that the President wants to go in there, but President Trump soon will announce to the entire world that it is the end of Pam Bondi's time as the Attorney General. He still thinks that she is a great person and that she did a good job, and he still wants her in the full because she will still be an important part of the administration, he tells me, but no longer as the top law enforcement officer, of the United States.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's Fox's Peter Doocy on Attorney General Pondi no longer being at the doj. I think this, this brings up a good opportunity and just you know, some people have been throwing a lot of shade on Pam Bondi which it's, it's Debatable. The job she did. I'll say this, I think she did a pretty good job. I'll give her a B to a B plus. I think she did a pretty good job. These folks that are just throwing full shade on her, she's terrible. She did a terrible job. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with that. There's a lot of successes that have happened under the DOJ, including 24 Supreme Court victories in the matter of 14 months, lowest crime rate at the FBI, which is under the DOJ in 100 years. There's, there's a lot that has been done that is positive, including the capture of Maduro, which took place in partnership with the doj. So, and there's a long laundry list of successes at the DOJ under Bondi. And she was a good Attorney General in Florida, by the way. So, I just don't like this, this completely throwing people under the bus when they, they get done at the DOJ or under any, anywhere under President Trump. I just don't think it's fair. Now, did she make some mistakes? Yeah, she did. I mean definitively she made a mistake with the handling of the Epstein files. She went on, she went on Sean Hannity's show and Fox News way too much bragging about how she's going to release these bombshells, that ended up not being bombshells. And then she was caught, in an undercover, microphone at a D.C. restaurant talking about how there's all this Epstein stuff of illegality and stuff I'm not even going to mention on the radio that it turns out that none of that was true, or at least it wasn't revealed. So she, she, she over promised and under delivered on a few topics. All right? And that was really, I think, her, her biggest fault. But all in all, she did a pretty good job and I think she'll continue to do a good job wherever she moves on.
So who replaces Attorney General Bondi? That's the magic question
So who replaces Attorney General Bondi? That's the magic question or the golden question. Here's who I would love to see, since we're naming names. I would love to see Governor Ron DeSantis as Attorney General. His legal knowledge of the Constitution and the process of litigating is unmatched. It's unmatched. And you know, he is a serious actor who can deliver in this time. And his term is actually coming up in Florida and in January, and what better time to transition than now to the Attorney General position? I think he can go through Senate confirmation I think he could be confirmed, and we know he would not be playing games. Now, there's other names, one of which is running for Senate in Texas. Ken Paxton. Other names have come up. Actually, from, a professional standpoint, I like Ken Paxton. I don't like his personal life because he's got some issues or has had some issues in the past. But nonetheless, his, name has come up, but I don't think he could make it through Senate confirmation with his personal baggage. That's, just the reality. Also, he's in the middle of a heated Senate race with John Cornyn, of which he very well could win this primary runoff. His name has come up, and there's some others as well. But I think Ron DeSantis is, is the, the best of the ones that are being discussed. So we'll see where that goes. We'll see who President Trump picks. But I think Governor DeSantis would do a phenomenal job at the Attorney General position, and there would be no doubt that he would do anything and everything he could to enforce, and carry out President Trump's agenda that he campaigned on in 2024.
How this Iran conflict comes to an end could be a defining moment for Trump
The Iran, conflict is obviously still ongoing. President Trump gave a speech on Thursday evening, just actually, Wednesday evening of this week, about a 20 to 25 minute speech, really reiterating his previous messages and reiterating his previous positions on the conflict. Didn't reveal any new information, any new timeline, any new strategy. And this, I think, personally, and I could be overstating this because things change, time goes fast, and new things come up in the world of politics. But I think this Iran situation has the potential to be a defining moment in the presidency, because here we are. And granted, there's still a lot of time left, but if the Democrats take over even one chamber of the House, I'm sorry, one chamber of Congress, which would be the House, a lot of the Trump agenda from a legislative standpoint will come to a halt. He will still be able to do a lot from an executive standpoint. He'll still be able to appoint federal judges, things like that. But how this Iran conflict comes to an end, to me, could either bode very well for President Trump or not bode well for President Trump. And obviously, I hope that it's the latter, that it does bode well for President Trump, but only time will tell. And I'll admit I've become a little impatient with this timeline of when we're going to wrap up in Iran. But at the same time, this is a very complicated situation. So I think speaking to myself and others, I think some of these expectations that we can finish the job with Iran in a matter of weeks, this probably unrealistic. This is a very complicated situation over there. So I think with all of that being said, I think President Trump needs the benefit of the doubt here. I think he needs to be given a little bit more time, maybe another two to four weeks to figure out how he wants to end this conflict with Iran and hopefully put Iran and their nuclear program to rest for a long time. And we should all wish and pray for the best for President Trump in the United States, because if he can put Iran and their threats and their nuclear program to bed for several decades and bring long standing stability to the region, that will be a huge legacy maker. We'll be back in a few.
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Chris Woodward says White House messaging on Iran has been confusing
Welcome back to this last segment on, this Good Friday edition of at the Core on American Family Radio. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green. It's good to be with you today and we pray that you had a blessed Easter weekend with your family and your church and you celebrate on Sunday the resurrection of our Savior Jesus. Chris Woodward's in with us. Chris welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Chris I've, admittedly, tried, taming my commentary on this Iran situation. I did, did do a pretty lengthy rant earlier in the week on it, because I was just not having good vibes about it. and I will say that the messaging from the White House has been somewhat confusing. Now, is it intentionally confusing because this is part of the war strategy? Probably so. but it's kind of frustrating when you're a news person and you're trying to track what's going on and, like, see where everything's going, but you can't because you don't know what to believe. For example, before President Trump spoke Wednesday night, there were multiple leaks. once. Once again, all of this is probably approved by the White House comms team, but. So I wouldn't call it. Maybe it's not a leak, but it was an approved leak of, like, hey, we're going to get the uranium. We're boots on the ground, or we're ending it now. Like, there was all this messaging. Some of it was, like, through Fox News. And Peter Doocy was, like, parroting these talking points about what President Trump was going to reveal Wednesday night, of which none of it he did. Right. So I'm thinking, well, these journalists are getting duped, they're being fed these talking points, and then they're. It's just lies. so complete misdirection. So I'm frustrated at that. But I think, Chris this has the potential. I still think there's a window for President Trump to land this plane, to use a metaphor. I think if he finds a way to obviously set Iran back decades, which I think he's pretty much there, and ensure they don't build a nuclear warhead, this has the potential to be positive from a legacy standpoint.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I would agree with all that. And certainly I feel, that there has been a lot of mixed messages from the president and people that work for him, people that are involved in Operation Epic Fury, for example. the day that the strikes happen, in the days immediately following it was all about, making sure that Iran does not or cannot have a nuclear weapon. And they stayed on that for a while. And the president in those early days called, on the Iranian people, now's your chance. Take over this government, and make Iran great again. And the people were celebrating in the streets. And then it became, like, about the Strait of Hormuz and oil and energy. We didn't hear so much about nuclear energy or nuclear weapons at that point. now we're back to that. And the administration continues to say that, they're in talks with somebody there about regime change and things are going well, somebody wants to have talks, they've won a truce, all these kinds of things.
>> Walker Wildmon: Five day ceasefire. Right.
>> Chris Woodward: To which, like the, you know, the Daily Mail comes out with a story saying Iran says, we don't know what you're talking about, Mr. President. Now I am not inclined to believe a radical Islamist terrorist hurting people and harming his neighbors. so I'm not saying I'm believing what the Iranians have to say, but certainly there's been all kinds of things said by the President. And quite frankly, when I watched that, speech on Wednesday night, it was almost like blowing up a huge balloon. And then all of a sudden the air just went out of the balloon. Like I thought we were going to be like, we're getting out April 17th.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: All these other things. Not that that would have been a good idea.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right. But if you're going to do a White House address to the nation. On primetime television, you would expect something novel, something new.
>> Chris Woodward: So we're having a meeting about this the day after the speech, the national address, and pretty much everybody was in agreement that if you've heard anything from President Trump about Operation Epic Fury, that's the same stuff he said, correct?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it was a reiteration of his previous messaging. Chris On the economic front, all that has happened economically for the negative, which m. It's not all negative, but all that has happened from a negative standpoint. Energy prices going up, trade being disrupted temporarily. All of this can be recovered in a relatively short time frame. we can be fully reset in three to six months. you can see energy prices drop in days drastically because of the sheer volume of production that the world is producing right now and the long term optimism that Iran is no longer a problem. but in the interim, Chris it just is what it is. We still have a pretty high level of instability in the markets.
>> Chris Woodward: We do. And the President admitted to that, he acknowledged it and he promised again this week in that address that things are going to go down. I think it is fair to say. certainly if the UK and other, big players get involved here in protecting the strait and making sure that it opens back up and it's flowing for all the countries that do depend on it far more than we do. I mean, we don't really depend on the Strait of Hormuz at all for oil. The reason why it impacts us is because oil. I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but oil is traded globally. there's the dollar involved and there's all kinds of things that, when something happens in another part of the world, it will impact our prices here in the US no matter how much, much we're pumping. And we're pumping far more oil, out of our reserves, and out of our resources than we were certainly under President Biden. But what hurts this administration is when you see a story from even Fox News, Newsmax and other, news outlets is, you know, national average hits $4 or passes $4, highest since 2022. Which only gives people like Gavin Newsom and other people that want to follow President Trump into office.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: As saying, he said he would fix things and things are only getting more expensive.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And that's why I think, there's multiple reasons why this needs to conclude in relatively short order.
President Trump needs to end Iran nuclear crisis by June
I understand this is a major operation and has major national security implications and has major long term economic implications. So I don't want to be flipping about this like we're playing a video game and we need to end it because we got to go to dinner. This military operation has to be done correctly, it has to be done right, it has to finish right. So I understand all that. But back on the home front, Chris to your point, the political effect of this has to also be factored in here. And once again, if President Trump can end this relatively short order and there's some type of success out of it, then what you just said goes back to normal. We go back to record level low gas prices in the last 10 years and President Trump can say, look, I took out the, the Iranian nuclear threat and I've got our economy back on track all within a matter of 60 days.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I would certainly, I think really he needs to have all this done and kind of settled by June because that's when everybody is starting to go on summer vacation. Part of the reason why gas is more expensive today, yes, it's, it's mostly due to the, war, conflict in Iran, but also too, it's, it's, as we've talked about on the show, it's the mix to, it's the changeover to a more expensive blend to help the environment. And also people have been going on spring break. What do people do on spring break? They hit the road and go somewhere. So there are some other factors and into why gas is what is. but part of the real problem, has been the, Operation Epic Fury stuff. If he can bring those things down and, people start to see some lower prices Come June, I think most people will be okay with that. And also, Lord knows there's going to be another big topic between now and the start of summer that everybody's going to be distracted by. And the news media will fix it on that. Instead of Operation Epic Fury. You won't see Trey Youngst on top of a building in Tel Aviv every five minutes.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: And we'll be harping on something else. And he does need all this to be fixed because he said he was going to lower prices and he didn't. Is. Is the messaging for Democrat trying to win back the House?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right, Chris I, mentioned this last week, and I'm standing by it as a prediction. Could be completely wrong, as with half of the predictions on the show. But, I think the ultimate victory from my vantage point on the Iran situation is a snatch and grab of the uranium. and I think we're set up for that. I don't know whether it's going to happen. And this isn't anything, you know, that's, quote, secret, because the media is talking about it, and they have been for three weeks. but a snatch and grab of the uranium, Chris to me, is the ultimate conclusion of the conflict. Of course, if Iran wants to keep firing off missiles, we'll keep. Have to. We'll keep having to subdue them. Yeah. But nonetheless, you do a snatch and grab of the uranium. That is an ultimate victory for President Trump. That will be unquestioned. It will be the ultimate, policy victory from an international standpoint for President Trump. That would go down in the history books.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. I mean, certainly it would be one of the biggest military achievements of all time. I know some people have already put, Maduro. Yeah, Some people have already put, the Maduro operation is up there. Certainly people are trying to, equate Operation Epic Fury to be the same as, if not bigger than, like, the invasion of Normandy, which turned the tide in World War II, stuff like that. No disrespect to the people out there that served in Vietnam, like my dad or Korea. My wife's grandpa served in Korea. He referred to it as the time Truman tried to have him killed. But, you know, there have been some great moments in military battles, of which America has, been successful at. you know, I sleep better at night knowing Iran's not going to nuke me or Israel or whatever. And listen, there's no way to prove this, but I guarantee you, if this had happened under a President Kamala Harris and a Vice President Tim Walz. We may all be dead right now, or there may be a place in, the US that no longer exists because they were successful in doing harm, like we've all known they wanted to do for a long time.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And it doesn't help, Chris you know, people that, that would say they disagree with you on that, on the level of the threat. It doesn't help when Iran comes into the negotiating room with Woodcock and says, yeah, we've got, we've got 60% enriched uranium and we can take it to 90 weapons grade in 10 days. They told us that. Yeah, I think, I think the nuclear program, assuming Iran didn't want to do what you said, which is bomb a US city with a dirty bomb, assuming they didn't want to do that, which clearly some of the leaders did because they openly said it. But, I think at a minimum, the nuclear program and the enriched uranium was Iran's insurance policy to ensure they could continue their murderous regime indefinitely. Yeah, because that's what's going on in North Korea and a few other places. Russia is. Once you get that nuclear program built and you have nuclear warheads that are launchable intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads on the top, then who's going to touch that? I mean, we already question, should we go in and do this now? And they don't even have nukes just because of the ballistic missile and the drone threat. You had a nuclear threat on top of that. Nobody's going to touch Iran. And that's not, obviously, not far from Israel, not far from our allies across the Strait of Hormuz. So there's a lot of problems with Iran getting to that nuclear warhead level, which is what North Korea, unfortunately, has done. And then you've got this rogue regime that, that is just a disaster and you can't do anything about it unless you want to face a potential nuclear war.
>> Chris Woodward: And I'm not even sure that, Europe, the various nations that were like, you started this, you fix it, and didn't want to, help out. I'm not sure that they would even necessarily respond to an attack from Iran like they would have in the past.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, they're weak. Yeah. Ah, we talked about this earlier. NATO, the NATO member countries, which are obviously in Europe, is. They are, they're so weak. And President Trump is right to be frustrated with them here, because even if the NATO member countries disagree with certain parts of the Iran conflict and whether or not we should have done it or not at the End of the day, we're at war with a major hostile actor in the region and we just want to land on your air bases and refuel our planes. I mean, this is. We're not asking you to send your boots over there, and then we're asking them, we've asked them for a couple boats, like the anti mine ships from like, France and other places. We've asked them for a couple of those to come over and they're balking at that. But we send tens of billions of dollars in all kinds of missiles to Ukraine. One of the reports and one of the reasons we allegedly have some munition shortages, to the extent that we actually do, I don't know, but that's the reports, is because of what we've sent to Ukraine. M. And so, like, we're there for Ukraine even though they're not a NATO member country, but we do it for the sake of the rest of NATO. And here we are with Iran taking on a major bad actor in the region. and NATO's like, balking. And we're not even asking for like, hey, send us billions of dollars or anything really fancy.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty clear from the NATO situation and certainly the UN That a lot of countries love us. And to be more specific, they love us sending them money and doing things for them or fighting their battles and not doing things to help us when we have a situation going on. Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And I think, to be fair, I think this is a modern phenomena. I don't think this has been a 30 year problem because NATO, NATO member countries were in Afghanistan with us and a few other places in the region over the last 30 to 40 years. So they've been with us before to a degree, probably a small degree, but this is something more recent where NATO's already been in question. I mean, President Trump, even term one, wasn't really big on NATO. but here we are and it's basically a test of like, hey, guys, are you going to be there for us? And they're not.
>> Chris Woodward: And it really, what does that say to people like Vladimir Putin? We're not all on the same page. So if NATO says, vlad, you should stop that, he goes, what are y' all gonna do?
>> Walker Wildmon: I know, I know. And NATO is obviously designed to combat Russian aggression, former Soviet Union aggression. And, and so for, for us, NATO is really more about them, like European countries, obviously. M. Because of the geographical differences. So they're the ones that really need NATO. We don't really need NATO geographically. but they're not helping their case.
>> Chris Woodward: No, they don't. And quite honestly, like, geographically, we kind of sort of border Russia, too. We do. Alaska.
>> Walker Wildmon: Alaska is very close.
>> Chris Woodward: I mean, like, we're just as close as you, Finland.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right, right. Well, we'll see where this goes. A lot of interesting stuff going on. Appreciate it, Chris All right, folks, we'll see you next week.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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