Walker Wildmon: American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, Preborn
>> 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 af. 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.
>> Jeff Chamblee: We equip
>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
>> Brother Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At The Core on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: welcome to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the show Once again, I'm Walker Wildmon. This is American Family Radio and the show is hosted each week by Rick Green and myself. And we enjoy hosting the program. For this 60 minute program, technically 55 each and every day, Monday through Friday. AFR.net is our website. American Family Radio's website is AFR.net and you can get all of the, podcasts and all of the past episodes of the program [email protected] you can get the same thing, the same content over on the app store, the afr. So whether you're on your browser or on your app store, just type in AFR or American Family Radio and you'll get access to all the great content brought to you here by the American Family Radio Network.
American Family Association will release a 90 minute video celebrating July 4th
Well, coming up on July 4th, we've got a brand new episode of AFA at Home, episode nine coming out to celebrate commemorate America's 250th anniversary. And so this is coming up, very quickly, very rapidly and it's an amazing time in history to be alive. So this episode of AFA at Home is coming up July 4th. It's going to be released and so I'm going to tell you a couple ways to make sure you get access to this. So the easiest thing to do is to create a free account over@stream afa stream.afa.net but also we're going to release this 90 minute video celebrating July 4th on all of our major social media platforms. So if you follow American Family association on Facebook, on YouTube, on X, we're going to release the full length video on those major platforms. On the American Family Association's major platforms on July 4th. So just make sure you follow us on these various channels. And of course, go create a free account [email protected] and, we're looking forward to this release.
Saul went from murdering and persecuting early Christians to becoming an apostle
Well, let's jump into the news of the week and cover as much as we can before our guests come on. Before we do that, let's turn our attention to Acts, chapter nine. Looking at verses one through nine in chapter nine. then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And he, as Saul journeyed, came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, heard a voice saying to him, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Verse 6. So he, trembling and astonished, said, lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. Do. So. Saul ended up, making it into the city, stumbled into the city, lost his sight temporarily, and ended up being, one of the great apostles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the conversion here is nothing short of miraculous. The fact that Saul went from murdering and persecuting and harassing the early church, to being a lead, a chief apostle, and writing much of the NewSong Testament is a miracle in and of itself. So, what I've been saying this week is that if you think that someone is out of reach of the Lord's work in the Lord's hand, think twice. Because if the Lord can redeem Saul, then he can redeem all of us if he so chooses. Acts, chapter nine, verses one through nine.
VP J. D. Vance: As Christians, we ought to be optimistic people
Well, there's a lot we could talk about, but for this segment, I want to, do kind of a reset on where we are politically and even culturally as a Nation this 250th year. Because there's plenty to moan and groan about, and occasionally you'll find me doing that on the program or at least, you know, highlighting some of the problems in our country. There's plenty to talk about, but I want to take, just at least this segment to remind us that, there are reasons for hope There are reasons for optimism, obviously. the gospel, and, the inherent word of God inherently is an optimistic text. It's an optimistic message, obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit, with, eternal redemption happening for those who trust in Jesus. So, as a Christian, we ought to be optimistic people. We ought to be hopeful people. Now, that doesn't mean that we lean into the prosperity gospel or a false teaching, or we're oblivious or naive to the trials that come in life. That's not what I'm talking about. But at the end of the day, despite what happens in the world and what happens in our lives, we should have an eternal hope in Jesus Christ. That's the essence of what it is to be a Christian. and if you're living out your faith according to the scripture, and so that's the biblical vantage point here, looking at America. look, we talk politics, we talk government, we talk civics, and we talk culture, and even what's going on around the country with the Trump administration and what's going on in Iran. And then you've got the domestic politics and the economy and all these different things going on. And we try to cover as much as we can. I just want to remind you that there's so much to be grateful for, specifically when it comes to our elected leaders. And if you think back to where we were under President Obama, or, where we were under President Biden, it was a very shameful period. It was a very unfortunate, very sad period in American history where some of the top officials in American government were shameful of America, they were bashing America, they were undermining America, and they were promoting unrighteousness at the highest levels of government. I mean, I'll never forget two things. The images of the, White House lit up in rainbow colors after oberg fell in 2015. And, which, of course, the complete misuse of the rainbow, and the anti scriptural use of the rainbow that the homosexual and transgender movement uses it for. And then the other image that I just can't get out of my mind is when President Biden hosted transgender activists, at the White House. And they were half dressed, some of them not dressed at all. And it was just, I just look at those images, and number one, I want to get them out of my mind. But number two, it just brings about shame. It brings about unrighteousness. And fast forward to today to 2026 as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country. I want to remind you that we have Professing. Christians, born again believers, preaching, teaching and proclaiming the name of Christ in righteousness at the highest levels of government. I mean, Secretary of War Pete Heckseth, he's hosting weekly or monthly Bible studies and worship services at the Pentagon. And he's not bringing in these multicultural, multi religion, groups to try to make everybody happy. No, he's bringing in evangelical and orthodox Christians into the Pentagon. And they are worshiping the God of the Bible. They are worshiping Jesus Christ in the Pentagon in the War Department, the largest agency in the federal government. You look at vice, President J.D. vance, like every few weeks, he's talking about his faith, talking about Christianity, talking about the Bible, talking about God. I looked on the Department of Homeland Security social media handles, and they're sending out bible verses, Jon 3:16. They're sending out, scriptures on Easter through official government channels, talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I can go on and on and on and talk about how the word of God and the truth of God is being proclaimed from our current government at varying levels and how that's something to be thankful for. And I've got this clip here of Vice President Vance, who was doing a book tour. He's got his latest book out. the Vice President does, but he was on with Allie Beth Stuckey, on her podcast. And she asked him, look, you know, what gives you hope for people who are down, people who are down and out? Maybe they don't want to have a family, they don't want to have children, because of what's going on in our country. What gives you hope? Let's listen to the Vice President.
>> VP Vance: Some people are scared to have children. They're worried about the future.
>> Allie Beth Stuckey: But you just wrote a book about your faith and hope, so why should people have hope?
>> JD Vance: Well, because Jesus Christ is the son of God. He came down from heaven and is ultimately the author of history. And one of the things that I just think that if you actually believe that, if you actually believe that God himself became man and died to give grace to human beings, you just have to have hope. You don't always have to be happy, right? Sometimes you can be very depressed and still be hopeful. But I do think that I just fundamentally, because I believe that God is the author of history, things are going to work out. By the way, they may work out long after I'm gone. And I think about this all the time. I mean, Charlie, I probably watched this video a dozen times, and it's heartbreaking. But it's the night of the election, he. He's live on air. And you see this sort of reaction in his face when we won, right? And then eight months later, nine months later, he's dead. And I try to remind myself that for every pro life activist who phone banked for Republicans and called and worked largely her butt off because it was the moms more than the dads, a lot of them never lived to see some of the big pro life victories of the last 10 years. And a lot of the people who worked for anything never saw the outcome. I write about this in the book that I try to put myself in the perspective of. You know, obviously Catholics think that St. Peter is the founder of the church, but everybody agrees he's one of the most important apostles in the early church. Everything that we believe historically is that he was crucified upside down. So he's the leader of a fledgling church in a city with a hostile emperor. He is literally tortured to death. And with his dying breath, I think that he had to have known that God will triumph in the end. And ultimately, if you go to anywhere in Europe right now, you see the signs of that triumph anywhere in the United States, anywhere in South America, you see the signs of that triumph, that the church that God created is still preaching the gospel despite the fact that many of its early members were quite literally tortured to death. So how can you not have hope if that's the story? It's not the hope that you're going to see temporal victory in this life. It's the hope that God is in control. You have a role to play. Work as hard as you can in that role and trust in God. And that's the, ah, way that I try to do it.
>> Allie Beth Stuckey: Amen.
American Family Radio celebrates America's 250th birthday with patriotic apparel
>> Walker Wildmon: So that's the vice president there. That's not just a podcaster, that's not just a governor or an elected official at the state level. That's the vice President of the United States. And so, I wanted to play that obviously to give kudos to the vice president for being very openly open about his faith. but more importantly, the fact that we have, I want this to be an encouragement to you, that we have professing, Christians all across the highest levels of government and the name of God is being lifted high. You may not agree with every political decision, with every policy decision. You may not like the economy or think we should or shouldn't be in Iran or whatever we debate day in and day out on the policy front. the fact of the matter is, we have people who care about God, they care about his word, they care about righteous ruling. And they're at the highest levels of American government. And they're restoring a sense of reverence and respect for the authority of God's Word. And that is a very, very important thing that we just should not lose sight of as we look for signs for hope. We'll be back in a few minutes.
>> : America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 at the core podcasts are [email protected] now back to at the The Core on American Family Radio.
Dr. George Barna conducts research on Christianity and faith in America
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. Well, a guest that we have on, relatively frequently compared to others is Dr. George Barna with the Cultural resource, Research center over at Arizona Christian University. And Dr. Barna and his team are conducting nearly, monthly, research and, and surveys and polling on various worldview aspects when it comes to Christianity and faith in America and some of these trend lines. And so Dr. Barna is with us now. Dr. Barna, welcome back to the program.
>> George Barna: Oh, thanks for having me, Walker. Good to be with you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Well, these results that your team puts out are always fascinating and some of it follows a similar trend line. but at the same time, there's always some of these nuggets in these surveys, that you put out that are very fascinating to talk about on occasion. this was what you put out In Mid June, June 16th is this press release date. And, you looked at a lot of different things through 14 different questions on human life and the supernatural. And just jumping right into some of these highlights, part of this finding found that just 30% of adults hold the biblical view, that people are born into sin and can only be saved by Jesus Christ. So tell us a little bit about the background to hear what your audience is and this 30% number because that if you don't have the sin and the need for a savior. Right on the biblical worldview, that undermines, I mean, quite literally the rest of scripture. Right. If you, if there's no need for Jesus and there's no sin. Right. Why don't we have the law? Why don't we have the Ten Commandments? And why do we have Jesus?
>> George Barna: Yeah, it's a great point, Walker. And you know, it kind of fits in with some of the other things that we're finding here when we evaluated people's beliefs about Jesus. We'll get to that in a moment. But this idea of the fact that only 3 out of 10 adults believe that people are born into sin almost perfectly coincides with the fact that close to seven out of ten believe that people are basically good. And that's one of the things that we're fighting against in our culture here is people saying, you know, I'm a good person, people in my family are good people. I pick friends who are good people. That makes us Christians, which, by the way, is how many people define Christianity. You think you're a good person, and so if you are, then you take on that label of Christian. So we've got to, break that down for them so that they understand it's not an either or. You are born a sinner. Those sins have consequences. There's only one way to deal with that sin that ultimately is going to be in your best interests. Even though the culture is constantly telling you things otherwise. There's a 2000 year tradition and history of information that helps you understand that. Or like Paul talks about Romans 1, you could just open your eyes and see what's going on, see what God's done, see how God works with people and the world that they inhabit. So, yeah, I mean, in this study we're finding that most people think they're good, don't think they're sinners. Oh, and by the way, we believe that when Jesus was on earth, he was a sinner too. Now, that's a difficult one to wrap your arms around, because if we're saying, no, wait a minute, Jesus is God, God is perfect. God can't be in the presence of sin. God hates sin. God loves you, so he wants to save you from your sin. That just doesn't square with the idea that God himself came to earth to save us from our sins. And and to do that, he became a sinner. So there's so much confusion in people's minds. And when you look at the media that we're exposed to, we know that media has the dominant impact on people's ideas about truth and faith and purpose and success. Everything that's part of a worldview. So, you know, we've got to get People paying less attention to that kind of media, more attention to their Bibles.
The number of people professing Christianity drops rapidly in surveys
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. this siphoning, sorting out, if you will, or this kind of, you start out, for example, with, 70% of people professing Christianity. but from that. And this is what makes your surveys the most helpful of them all, more than Pew and others, is that you don't just say, hey, check this box. Christian or non, Christian or Muslim or whatever faith you believe in, but you actually go deeper than that and ask leading questions that really gauge, hey, is this person really like a practicing Christian? Do they live out their faith, or are they just checking a box? So when you go past the Are you a Christian? Yes or no? the level of the number of people that truly hold a biblically orthodox view of Christianity according to the scripture and historical teachings, it just starts to dwindle. I mean, the more questions that are asked, the lower the number goes. And for example, you just mentioned how one in four adults, believe that Jesus Christ sinned while on earth, which is totally antithetical to scripture, and it's blatantly against Scripture. but the question is, how do you. And you've been doing this a long time, and you've known about this failure of people to hold a true biblical worldview at scale. How do you make sense of that? I mean, is it just. It's obviously cultural. Christianity is a thing. But are, people just not reading the Bible? Are they not being taught the whole counsel of God? How can you possibly explain people raising their hand to say, I'm a Christian? And when they actually have to fill out the questions about Christianity, they flunk the test.
>> George Barna: Well, I think a lot of it, Walker, has to do with the fact that, we're essentially narcissistic in our culture, so everything revolves around us. And one of the implications of that is if and when somebody actually opens up the Bible and begins to read it, they read it through their lens, they interpret it through the way that they view the world. That's why worldview is so critical, and that's why I'm always harping on, we've got to get this into children. Because, any person's worldview is developed by the age of 13, and then they carry that with them for the rest of their life. And so even if they start going to church and even if they hear a good sermon, it's going to go through this filter that they've already developed that helps them interpret it, maybe reject it, maybe accept it. Maybe adopt parts of it, but it's got to go through that filter, which is what a worldview is. It's an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual filter that helps us make decisions that coincide with who we believe we are, what we believe is right and good and proper, what our purpose on Earth is, all of those things that a worldview answers. So I think that's a lot of what we're dealing with here.
>> : Ah.
>> George Barna: And when I do this kind of research and put it out, one of the things that really concerns me the most is the velocity of change that we've been seeing in the last 15 years. Where, you know, when I started doing this work, you know, George Gallup and I were friends, and I, used to go and check out his father's research and his research, you know, and back in the 70s, they were showing that 90% of Americans believed in the God of the Bible. We've dropped to 50% now, you know, and it's going lower a little bit. A, point or two lower every year or two. And so we're losing altitude too quickly for comfort. I mean, we don't ever want to lose altitude on those kind of things. But. But when they're moving that quickly and people say, oh, one or two points, what's the big deal? Well, in a decade, you're looking at a 10 to 20 percentage point drop. That's huge. I mean, that's. That's like a complete turnaround. So that. That, I think, is one of the things that scares me. And, and people often ask me, what do we do about it? and I can't tell you exactly what to do, but for the most part, I can tell you whatever we've been doing ain't working. And so we want to sit back and rethink what's the model that we've been using? Why doesn't it work in this kind of a culture? Remember, the model that we're using, we've been using for what, 15, 1600 years? And, and so it was developed in a particular cultural context. We don't live in that context anymore, so we don't ever want to compromise Scripture. That's a loss from square one. But we want to be able to take the scriptures, God's truth, and make it real and relevant to people in this day and age without compromising anything. But recognizing that the model can change, the message which was given to us by God can never change m. This,
>> Walker Wildmon: this statistic is just baffling to me. And once again, you and I do we're in this stuff, in this kind of, cultural, civic realm every day. So I don't know why I get surprised by stuff. But, but one of the, one of the findings in your survey, once again, we're talking to Dr. D. George Barna with Arizona Christian University, who heads up their cultural research center. And this mid June report states, that a majority of Americans, 52%, consider abortion morally acceptable, and only one in three, about 33%, describe themselves as passionately pro life. Dr. Barna, the pro life movement has been doing work for decades on this topic. I mean, to such an extent that we were able to get Roe v. Wada returned, which was a legal victory, although abortion is still, you know, rampant by the millions, unfortunately. But, nonetheless, that was a legal victory. Getting over that hurdle and allowing states to outlaw abortion was a very big victory. So I don't want to undermine that or downplay it, but to have 52% of Americans not say, I'm indifferent, or live and let live, or I don't care, but they definitively state they view abortion as morally acceptable, that's just baffling to me. And we wonder why the Republican Party doesn't like to talk about this. Because half of the country is okay with it.
>> George Barna: Yeah.
Only 27% of adults believe that human life is sacred, survey finds
And Walker, I think it comes back to something else that's in this survey where every year when we do the American Worldview Inventory, we ask people about six dozen questions that relate to their worldview, same six dozen or so every year. And one of the questions in there has to do with their perspectives on human life. And what we found is that only 27% of adults believe that human life is sacred. So to me, this goes back to the argument about strategy and tactics. How are we approaching this? And I think so often what we're doing is we're attacking the symptoms, we're not attacking the cause. The cause of the problems we have in the life movement, I believe, is that people don't think life is significant. Of course they're willing to murder a baby because they don't think the life, even of an adult, is all that meaningful. The reigning perspective among people in our country is if your life has value, it's because you brought value to it. You've made it valuable by how you think, what you accomplish, what you produce, who you know, how you live, those kinds of things, as opposed to recognizing, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's a sideshow. Your life has value because it's God's gift to you. He made you, therefore it means something to him. It's got to mean that much or more to you. But we're not attacking that, that issue right there. And I think until we get to the point where people recognize, oh yeah, this really is something significant, I can't take it for granted, I can't discard it, I can't, disregard it. It's meaningful. I've got to protect it, I've got to build it, I've got to grow and nurture it. And let's start doing that with children from the moment they're conceived.
Walker: Development of worldview happens at such a young age, Dr. Barna
>> Walker Wildmon: M. One thing that I want to get your thoughts on, and this isn't directly in this survey, but the, the, the development of worldview happens at such a young age. To your point, about, about treating symptoms, you know, we think, well, maybe in college kids are going to the wayside, or maybe in high school they're going to the wayside based on what they're being taught. And don't get me wrong, that does happen. But so much is happening at such younger years. To your point, the reality is that our movement, our evangelical Christian movement in America, and I'm speaking to myself here, I'm not, you know, we're all responsible for this, we haven't properly been targeting children and families at younger ages enough to head off some of this waywardness. And so talk about that and the age at which worldview begins to firm up and how when you get in your 20s and 30s and even 40s, the percentage of being able to turn. But once again, barring a miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit, being able to influence and turn someone's worldview back in the right direction, barring an intervention of God is just statistically improbable. So talk about that.
>> George Barna: Yeah, what we know, Walker, is that a, person's worldview starts developing at 15 to 18 months of age, not years of age, months of age. And it's almost fully developed, if not completely developed before they reach the age of 13. M. Now the reason for that is because of what a worldview is. It's a decision making filter. And so you start making decisions for yourself at 15, 18 months of age. You start to make those choices. They're simple. But nevertheless, you're starting that process of thinking for yourself, whether it's through your feelings, your experiences, reading expressions, you know, sensitivity on your skin, whatever it may be that's causing you to make the decision, decision. You're starting that process. And so what we found in one of the longitudinal studies, I Did where we had the same group of a few thousand people and tracked their spiritual journey for about 30 years. And what we discovered is that people tend to die with essentially the same worldview they had at the age of 12 or 13. It rarely changes. Can it change? Holy Spirit can change anybody at any moment. But you know, I'm a sociologist, I look at numbers and I can tell you you're absolutely right. It's very rare that somebody's worldview changes after the age of 12. We found that there are four different periods of worldview in people's lives between birth and the age of 12. What we find is that's when they're experiencing life. They're experimenting, they're developing their sense of who, who am I? Why am I here? What's the world about? What do I want to invest my life in? You know? During their teens and twenties, does their worldview change because now they're getting a higher education?
>> George Barna: No.
>> George Barna: What happens is they figure out how to articulate it better. They figure out how to apply what they decided before the age of 13. They do that better, but they don't change it. And then our 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, that's when Americans become evangelists.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> George Barna: And some people say, oh, hooray. But sadly, we're not evangelizing for Jesus. We're evangelizing for ourselves. We want other people to imitate us.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Hey, Dr. Barna, thank you so much for coming on. And thank you. give your website, we got 15 seconds. Give your website real quick.
>> George Barna: Yeah, georgebarna.com or you could also go to culturalresearchcenter.com Excellent.
>> Walker Wildmon: Thanks so much.
Ministry of Preborn helps rescue babies in high abortion areas
In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election. And there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the Ministry of PreBorn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies. Preborn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life saving machines cost $15,000 each, more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound and now through a match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate? Just dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.comm afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating.
>> : At the The Core podcast are [email protected] now back to At The Core on American Family Radio.
Chris Woodward joins American Family Radio to discuss the Iran conflict and gas prices
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. Chris Woodward is with us on this edition. Hey Chris Welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much. It's, Merry Christmas. Happy NewSong Year. I hope you had a good Easter. It's been a while since we were, we were. I, can't think of the last time we did this show. it was probably in the, in maybe in May, I don't know.
>> Bobby Roza: The war.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it's been, been a, little too long. Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: Chris, let's talk a couple things. Mostly economics. That seems to be what you and I like to focus in on on our Fridays. But nonetheless, and I think our audience. I've heard some good feedback on, the Iran, conflict has somewhat leveled off. We, have the 60 day memorandum of understanding. there's different narratives coming out of Iran, the different messages coming out. But all in all it seems to be holding on pretty well. and there seems to be a cessation of hostilities for the time being. the energy markets seem to like that, right?
>> Chris Woodward: Oh, yeah, yeah. Things have been going very well and will presumably get even better, in the coming weeks. I say weeks because it does take a while still for things to get around the world, on a boat in 2026. But gas prices in recent days, the national average fell under $4. It's still falling, thank goodness. that includes, even people in California are seeing some relief on their still high gas prices. I'm not saying we're, you know, saving a lot of money now and we're able to eat, rib eyes instead of ramen noodles. but, you know, it is cheaper to drive a vehicle now, than it was just, ah, a couple of weeks ago when things were presumably getting only higher. so that's a good news. That's good news, I should say. And it will, I think, help bring down the cost of other things like food and dry goods, the usual stuff we need for our Every day to day living.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. the, Chris And some of this is speculation. We'll just have to wait and see. the Strait of Hormuz needed to reopen for many reasons, but mostly economic and livelihoods, because you're talking energy and food and etc. and that seems to have been Iran's main leverage point. I know there's a lot of narratives out there, but the fact of the matter is, just based on the evidence before us, Iran had a lot of leverage over the strait. There was a lot of fear factor there, like, what are they going to do? What can they do? And they've done some damage in the Strait of Hormuz. but some of the talk, when you read some of these analysts and commentators, that the only true way to secure the Strait of Hormuz, should it need to happen, is to secure, the mountains on the shores of Iran.
>> Chris Woodward: Right.
>> Walker Wildmon: that would be to the east of the strait, which obviously. There you go. You got boots on the ground. Obviously, President Trump hasn't done that yet. But, Chris just looking at it from here, President Trump's growing pretty impatient with the Iranians because they keep playing games. They want to kick the can down the road. I wouldn't put it past the president if they want to try to close the straight down again. And we've got energy reserves dwindling by the week, and this is a, national or really a worldwide emergency. I could see President Trump reopening that straight by force.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I definitely could. he has talked about how there will be consequences, which I know is something he has said, a lot over the past four months or so. If Iran doesn't play ball, there will be consequences. Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who basically speaks for the president in other countries, he talked about how there are options on the table. Let's face it, presidents, I don't care who's in office, they have a bunch of, like, contingency plans and manila envelopes that they go to, for, for things like this. So they do. They are prepared. and it's safe to say they have given Iran a lot of time to get right here and do the right thing. I would not be shocked if at some point, we don't get back to that. Should Iran, like you say, shut down the strait or, you know, really cause problems again, like they were doing in the last couple of weeks?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's not. Obviously, putting boots on the ground does not poll very well politically.
>> Chris Woodward: It does not.
>> Walker Wildmon: and I understand why, and I sympathize with that position. but, Chris the president, number one, you've got the real life, the, real world problem of energy shortages that could come in the future. I'm not trying to be apocalyptic or, you know, scare people, but if you have a long term closure of the strait and no oil is flowing back and forth, that could create serious supply problems. but I think the president, the options are, are narrowing, and reopening that straight for the long haul is something that the president wants done. and so if he has to do that, I don't know whether you wait till after the midterms, if you can afford to wait till after the midterms. but. And then, and then how long do you do that? I mean, there's all that at play. But, but the President was at Camp David with General Cain, the, the Joint Chief of Staff Chairman, and heck, Seth, and with Rubio last weekend during Father's Day. This has to be talked about. I mean, I think this is being talked about.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. This is also one of the reasons why I will never, ever run for president. Because I don't want to be that guy. Those decisions, but, you know, he is, you know, the decisions a president make impact not only Americans, but our allies and other people, based on the fact that we all, for whatever reason, generations ago, decided to basically make a global economy. so we really need to be mindful of what we do, and we need to make sure that we actually get it done.
You talked about boots on the ground. That's costing a lot of money. Assuming Democrats win back the House
You talked about boots on the ground. I'm in my 40s. We were in Afghanistan for half my lifetime, and we got absolutely nothing to show for it. No disrespect to the men and women out there in uniform that served in Iraq or Afghanistan, in the days and months and years immediately following 9 11. I totally respect you and still, praying for you, because I know a lot of men, especially, went over there. Some of them didn't come home. many people that served, ended up with major problems that have caused, issues with the VA and having to treat them on top of all the other people out there. That's costing a lot of money. And if you were to wait until after the midterms, it's a question of how long you could do it. Assuming that Democrats do win back the House, and I can't believe I'm saying this, start getting in charge of how much money we spend on things, because they will use that as an opportunity to really ruin the Trump administration and prevent JD Vance or Marco Rubio, whoever it is, that gets the baton to run in 2028.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
Chris Woodward: There's mixed signals out in the economy heading into midterms
let's talk midterms, and interest rates. the economy. By the way, there's mixed signals out in the economy because you look at some of the earnings by companies, you look at some employment metrics, maybe, the hires or the gdp, and some of it's looking pretty positive. I think President Trump's made a lot of headway to recover from the Biden e. But when you look at sentiment, it's still low, Chris. And there's still, when you do, like, man on the street interviews, the economic outlook by the actual people on the ground or the consumers is just not rosy.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: and so there's obviously a disconnect there between, some of the numbers and the data and then what people actually say they feel about the economy. So that's going into the midterms. But President Trump has repeatedly, for the last, you know, year and a half during his presidency, has talked about the need to lower rates. Well, he, he has his own hand picked. Fed Chairman Kevan Warsh now, and he hasn't lowered rates. I think they've only had maybe one meeting. but my question, Chris is how long does Kevan Warsh get the benefit of the doubt before he has to lower rates?
>> Chris Woodward: given the history of the Trump administration going, I would say maybe the fall.
>> Walker Wildmon: Okay.
>> Chris Woodward: now this administrator. There has been far less turnover in Trump 2.0 than there was in Trump 1.0, when it seemed like somebody lost their job every 10 days, beginning, with, like, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who's a trivia answer, to a question. But anyway, I think Warsh probably has until the fall. The one thing with war shear, you know, in recent days, under Federal Reserve Chairman Warsh, the FOMC unanimously voted to hold interest rates steady at 3.5% to 3.75% during his first policy meeting. He didn't vote to make things worse. on top of that, Warsh, said that he was going to be launching what he called an ambitious, sweeping review of the central bank's policy operations. I think, Trump will see what Warsh finds here, what he comes back with. And if what people center, right, economists were telling me when Warsh got nominated is correct, he's going to do a good job. The guy knows what he's doing. He's been the guy making the correct policy points and statements, when he wasn't in this, Fed chair position, he was in a lower ranking position. So I think he, you know, he will do well. News outlets are still going to be like the, oh, Wash is going rogue and he's not the Trump guy.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: Don't pay attention to that so much, actually. I know it's painstaking and there are other things to go on, other things to pay attention to, but if you see a speech from somebody, listen to the entire speech. Don't go for the 10 second clip you might see on a television network that is trying to get you hooked and hot and bothered.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. I've been of the opinion for several years now, going back probably to 21 and 22, that interest rates alone don't, don't dominate, the inflation, don't really drive the inflation up or down. And the reason I say that is sheerly looking at the number of money being printed and the deficits that we're running as a government, as a country, that's in my opinion, contributing more to inflation than whether the rates are at four or three and a half. and the unfortunate reality is that even under a Trump administration, the treasury is still printing a lot of money and putting it into the economy. And so, but, but, but President Trump has brought inflation down drastically compared to where it was under Biden. And so I don't see. So I'm saying all that to say I think raising rates is a mistake in a, in an economy that is still on the mend from what Biden did to it. but secondly, I think lowering rates carries very little risk here. I mean, and we're talking quarter point, half a basis point. We're not talking, you know, lowering it a point per 100 basis points per meeting. but I think you've got to give the American consumer a little bit of hope here because they've been holding those rates steady for the last year or so.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. That's why I think Republicans running for office and President Trump, who's out on the stump endorsing these people in various races, they need to really get together and make sure they have clear, concise messaging, agree on what they've done and how they've made your life better.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes.
>> Chris Woodward: since they've been put into office. I say that because right now, if polls are true, it's gonna look like Democrats might win back the House and again, be the ones to decide spending and monetary policy, stuff like that. So the Trump administration, instead of saying Joe Biden was bad, he made your life terrible, Good for you for voting me in. You need to continue to explain to people how you made their life better. and you need to make sure that you really get this situation in Iran sorted out so that gas prices continue to come down. and you can tell people, I've made the world a better place. I delivered on my promises, I have made things more affordable. All of that was working well prior to Operation epic Fury on February 28th. And since in the past few months, Democrats have been able to say, he ran on making your life more affordable, he lied, vote us back in, that kind of stuff. one thing. This sounds silly to some people. I know one thing that will work in Trump's favor again, if he can get the Iran situation under control and gas continues to come down. In a couple of months, college football is going to be underway. That is a major distractor. And you will see far fewer stories about consumer sentiment because people are focused on whether or not their favorite program is going to make the playoffs again. I know it sounds silly.
>> Walker Wildmon: No, you're right. I mean, the fall brings about a lot of different activities and organizations and things that, that, that pull people away from kind of the grind of politics, if you will.
>> Chris Woodward: Fall also brings cheaper gas prices because of government policies on what has to be added to it to help improve air quality.
>> Walker Wildmon: You know, Chris I think here's what is helping the Republicans is that what's the alternative? Right. We have socialists and communists running in NewSong York and other places, and unfortunately, they're winning their primaries. But the President Trump and the Republicans clearly have a better record, despite what you say now, and you can still point out some negatives. And yes, there's a long way to go for recovery, but, the COVID between Covid and Biden. And I know in 10 years, I can't keep blaming Biden, but for now, I am between Covid and Biden. There was just a number done on our economy. It was just an absolute train wreck. And so I say all that to say President Trump and the Republicans clearly are the best managers of the economy.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: If you look at the hard data.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes. And in addition to that, in addition to the clear, concise messaging that we said they need to have, they need to also explain to people why socialism is bad and not the direction we need to go. Right now, we have basically people, claiming that socialism is the answer to our problems. And to put that in perspective, we basically have a group of people walking into a Texas barbecue joint saying, you should have tofu and only tofu. Because tofu is going to make your life better. When no one in that restaurant wanted the tofu, they went there for the barbecue.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: America is a capitalist country. God bless it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yes.
>> Chris Woodward: And we should stay that way. There is no place on planet earth that has ever operated or went to socialism m and improved its situation.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's funny because we don't have time now, but I actually have a clip in the can. Maybe we'll get to it next week where these this Democrat senators ask like, hey, where does socialism work? And it's just crickets. You can't answer it.
>> Chris Woodward: They just to get the talking point from the person they paid way too much money.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, you're right. The messaging from the Republicans has to be clear, concise and the alternative is here, folks. do you want impeachment 4.0? Do you want budget, budget fights every other week in Congress?
Do you want subpoenas flying? Do you want President Trump harassed
Do you want subpoenas flying? Do you want President Trump harassed? I mean those are the types of things you have to look at and ask the American public, do we want that? And I hope the answer is no, we don't want that. We want continuity of government. We want a unified government and continue advancing the Trump agenda. Chris, thanks so much for coming on.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you.
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>> Walker Wildmon: Alright, afn.net is the website afn.net, american Family News. Check out all that they have going on there. Sign up for their daily newsletter coming directly into your inbox. See you next week.
>> : The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
