American Family Radio features special segment on religious freedom this week
>> Walker Wildmon: 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.
>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.
>> Jeff Chamblee: This is at the core on American Family Radio.
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the show. We'll have Chris Woodward in with us in the last segment, as we do each week. And we will also have Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs Radio in with us as well. He's been a guest of the show before. We'll talk about the conversions to Christianity within Iran and how the church is growing very quickly, very fast. Many people, thousands, coming to faith in Jesus within the hostile nation of Iran. So we'll talk with Todd Nettleton about that. Let's turn our attention to the scripture and then we'll get into some of the stories we're going to touch on this segment. Acts chapter 3 is where we are this week. Acts chapter 3, verses 19 and 20. Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you, before whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of things which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. That's actually 19 through 21 there of Acts chapter three, of which we've been highlighting this week as our scripture of the week. Acts chapter three, looking at verses 19 through 21.
American Family Association offers several spiritual heritage trips each year
All right, well, our spiritual, heritage tours that we do each year. My dad and grandfather, my grandfather Don Wildmon started these trips back actually before he started American Family Association. A lot of people don't know that, and I actually didn't realize that until the last few years when I, became more, up to speed and abreast on our history here, doing these trips to places like Washington D.C. israel, and now we've added Boston, Greece, and next year we're adding Italy. as far as these spiritual heritage tours, of course, all of them, we integrate not only God's teachings into these trips, but also God's providence in American history and obviously God's providence in, the history of the Bible, in the land of the Bible that is Israel. And then we do the footsteps of Paul. So we got all these different trips that we go on and we integrate, the word of God and God's providence into all of the trips that we do. And, and my grandfather started these trips back, in the, in the 1960s to Israel. And then of course we've been carrying on ever since. My dad's been doing it for 30 plus years. And then my, brother Wes and I, for the last, let's say five to eight years, we've really been helping my dad lead these trips. So I say all of that to say that the only, trip that we have left with any seats for, for this year is Boston. Just within the last few days, we've completely filled up Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. That registration is closed. And then the Washington D.C. september portion is now full. The only thing left is Boston. And that's filling up very quickly. I would suspect by. It's May now, I would suspect by July 1st we're full on Boston. That's, that's a late September trip. So if you've thought about it, you're thinking about it, you actually want to do it and you just haven't registered yet. I would encourage you to go over to tours.aca.net and go ahead and take care of that because we've already got the first bus full. We're almost halfway through the second bus, so don't procrastinate any longer if you want to go with us to Boston. And we'll be visiting Plymouth Rock, we'll be walking the Freedom Trail, we'll be going to Lexington, Concord, Lexington and Concord and a lot of different places there in the Boston area. Exploring America's early history on this 250th anniversary. And Steven McDowell and Tim Barton will be with us talking about the spiritual dynamics at play during America's early founding. that's Boston. And then, two brand new trips. Well, one of them we've done before, but the other one's new for 2027 is Greece, and Italy. These registrations just came online within the past day or two. Greece and Italy, we're going to take, take a break from Israel, as you can probably understand why we've been had, our trips disrupted three out of the last five years for either Covid or, because of the war with Iran and with Hezbollah and Hamas. So we're taking 2027 off from Israel and instead my parents, Tim and Allison, are going to go to Italy and look at, the biblical history of, the early church there in Italy and the surrounding areas. And then of course My brother and I are going to go back into Greece for the footsteps of Paul trip. Those are back to back tours.uh afa.net to check those out well into the news of the week that I want to make sure we cover.
President Trump appointed Colin McDonald as Associate Attorney General over fraud
One has to do with this fraud division, this brand new fraud division that President Trump appointed within the Department of Justice. We now have an associate or an Assistant Attorney General over fraud in the federal government and with the federal welfare programs. This is being overseen by Vice President J.D. vance. This is a phenomenal, phenomenal appointment, phenomenal move, much needed. Hundreds of billions of dollars at play here when it comes to federal fraud. So let's listen to this clip. This is the brand new, newly appointed Colin Alred McDonald to this associate Attorney General or Assistant Attorney General over fraud at the Department of Justice. CLIP 1 let's listen. First order of business here, how you know, what are day to day operations like? But what was the first thing you did? Because this, this is a mammoth undertaking.
>> Colin McDonald: I think the estimates, the conservative estimates, are somewhere around $230 billion in fraud against the taxpayer every year. So it is a, it's a mammoth problem that requires a mammoth response and that includes the processes, the procedures, it includes the personnel, it includes our relationships with our state and local partners to ensure that we have the capacity to truly reach all edges of our country. Because the fraud is happening across the entire map. Just a couple weeks ago, everyone did their civic duty and they filed and they paid their taxes. And it cannot be that on April 15th those taxes are paid and on April 16th those taxes then immediately are exploited by those who see our government programs and our government agencies the softest target in their desire to have money and to get rich quick.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's M. Colin Alred McDonald who is now over this, this fraud division within Department of Justice. Very big deal to get this appointment. Now there's an entire division in the DoJ with, with devoted assets and personnel solely responsible for investigating and prosecuting this fraud all around the country. Very much needed. We've all seen the stories on the fraud in Minnesota. Now there are stories and reports out of Columbus, Ohio. And a lot of these fraud stories that have been highlighted have to do with immigrants, most of them actually legal immigrants, whether it's the Somali population or others, these immigrant communities come in through these refugee or these resettlement programs and they immediately start latching onto the federal government's litany of welfare programs and just begin absolutely draining the federal Government of resources and money, through these various programs that are out there. They've got all these sophisticated ways to set up these shell corporations, set up these fake daycares, set up these fake schools, and just get grant after grant, money after money through these various programs. And so this DOJ division is going to be solely focused on that. So, very good move by President Trump, very good move by the Vice President and the Department of Justice to put a focus on this and have an entire Assistant Attorney General position devoted to, just to the fraud. You may ask the question, well, how much is there? How much is there? Well, the conservative estimates are roughly 200 billion. That was according to Mr. McDonald, who we just played the clip from. Those are the. Those are the very, very conservative estimates. Some of the estimates go up to 500 billion annually in fraud. And let me differentiate the difference between fraud and, for example, improper payments, because there's a difference here. Fraud is intentional deceit. This is when people lie on applications, they make up these shell corporations. They claim, to be running daycares that don't exist. That's fraud. That's deceit. That's lying. But then there's a whole other category that's basically called improper payments. And that's where you're making payments to the wrong people. Maybe you've got the wrong Social Security number, or you're making payments to someone who has already passed away, or checks get lost in the mail. There's all kinds of improper payments, that happen as well. When it comes to improper payments, we're looking at roughly between 150 and $180 billion just in fiscal year 2025. So between the conservative side of the fraud losses and the improper payments, you're at a minimum, you're looking at a half a trillion dollars, $500 billion annually. I don't know about you, but there's a lot that we can do with $500 billion, including not adding it to our deficit, which is, to me, is the big selling point here. And, so kudos to President Trump and the DOJ for honing in on this. And indictments are flying and people are going to jail, because of these fraudulent schemes that are happening around the country. So good for them, and good for the DOJ for honing in on this.
Secretary Rubio says any deal with Iran has to include nuclear material and reopening the Strait of Hormuz
The second clip I wanted to play in the last few minutes we have left is of Marco, Rubio, Secretary of State. And this is to go along with the clip and the topic we talked about earlier in the week about, the Iran situation, Reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Is there going to be a deal? Secretary, Rubio did held a White House press briefing because Caroline Levitt is out on maternity leave. So Secretary Rubio stepped up to the podium in the White House and made it abundantly clear that any, quote, deal with Iran has to include the nuclear material and the reopening of the strait of Hormuz.
>> Marco Rubio: Clip 2 I think you're linking it. The operation is over. Epic Fury. President notified Congress we're done with that stage of it. Okay. We're now onto this project of freedom as far as a negotiation is concerned. I think the President has been clear that part of the negotiation process has to be not just the enrichment, but what happens to this material that's buried deep somewhere that they still have access to if they ever wanted to dig it out. That has to be addressed, and that's being addressed in the negotiation. I'm not going to go further on what progress has been made on that topic because I don't want to endanger the negotiations. But suffice it to say that the President and this entire team is aware of the centrality of that question, and that will have to be addressed one way or the other.
>> Walker Wildmon: well, there you, have it. That's the Secretary of State making it clear that Operation this was interesting to hear. And this has probably been said before, I just haven't heard it. But the Secretary of State there, Rubio, who's doing a phenomenal job by the way, says that, Operation Epic Fury, which was primarily a military campaign against Iran, that's over. That season is over. That chapter is over. Now we're moving into what we have with the blockade, with the economic pressure, with the diplomatic pressure, with the escorting of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which is trying to be worked out as we speak. this is a different phase of the war, a different phase of the operation. And so the question though, from the reporter was directly in regards to the War Powers act and the 60 day limit and the need for congressional approval, et cetera, et cetera. And so, this I understand, the War Powers act, but I also understand the Constitution and the thoughts there. Secretary Rubio, his position was during this same hearing was that the War Powers act as unconstitutional. He, he has his reasons for stating that, but just practically speaking, not broaching the constitutional topic, just practically speaking, looking in on this, I can't imagine in 2026 having to get Congress to consent to anything, especially diplomatic or military Operations. it's just that we can't get, we can't get Democrats and Republicans to agree on what a woman is. So we think we're going to get, you know, the majority of both chambers to consent on military operations. I just don't think it's going to happen. So that's the practical side of that discussion. We'll be back.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core Podcasts are [email protected] now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.
Todd Nettleton discusses Christianity in Iran on American Family Radio
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Well, speaking of what's going on in Iran, which we wrapped up the last segment on, we talked a little bit about Secretary of State Rubio's statements, about the ending of the military operation and shifting into this different phase of economic pressure and diplomatic pressure, etc. One thing we've talked about in passing on the program is the amount of, Christians that are in Iran and the amount of converts, to Christianity within Iran. And we have on with us now a good friend of the ministry and a guest, a previous guest of the program, Todd Nettleton is with us. He's a vice president over there at Voice, of the Martyrs and also hosts a radio program with VOM Radio. Todd's back with us. Hey, Todd Nettleton, welcome back to the program.
>> Todd Nettleton: Thanks so much. Good to be with you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Todd, you and, Voice of the Martyrs, focus heavily, have a primary focus on reaching, the persecuted church around the world and Iran. We've most people who've paid attention to the Middle east have seen the headlines and the stories about the number of converts to Christianity within Iran, how the church is growing very quickly within Iran. So bring us up to speed on that topic. Yeah.
>> Todd Nettleton: We have said for several years the fastest growing church in the world is in the Islamic Republic of Iran. And, I have talked with Iranian Christians who estimate over a million Christians in Iran. and as you say, most of those are converts. They are people who are born in a Muslim family and they are not Muslim anymore. They are followers of Jesus Christ. And one of the things for us to understand as Americans is the government in Iran is Islam. The government is the mullahs, it's the Islamic leaders. So if you don't like your government, you don't like Islam because Islam is the government. and so as you have seen, and we saw this in January, we saw it in February, protest in the streets, thousands of Iranians in the streets saying, hey, we don't like our government. Well, the reality is the government is Islam. And so they are saying, we don't like Islam. We're open to something else. That's really the seeds of the revival that we've seen in Iran over the last number of years is the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and the mullahs saying, hey, we're going to run our country according to Islamic principles. Well, the people there say, if this is what it looks like to follow Islamic principles, we want to follow something else. And so that really is the seeds of the revival.
Todd: There have been anti-Christian protests in Iran since December
>> Walker Wildmon: M. Todd, let's talk about what it's like to be a believer in a nation like Iran, because, here in America, generally speaking, we have it pretty good. obviously our founding fathers set it up in a way to protect religious freedom, to protect various viewpoints, and so we have constitutionally protected rights, but not much of the world, not much of the rest of the world, benefits from and is able to enjoy the level of protections that we have from a civil standpoint and a government standpoint. And so talk about what the stories you guys hear and just the hostility out there, for Christians when they are in these, specifically these Muslim majority nations.
>> Todd Nettleton: You know, oftentimes in a Muslim country, a, person who leaves Islam to follow Jesus, the first line of persecution is their own family. and the family member, a dad or a big brother or an uncle, will come along and say, listen, we're a Muslim family. And now you say you're not a Muslim anymore. Well, then you can't be part of our family. You're not one of us anymore. Interestingly, Iran is a little bit different. And I mentioned the number of people in Iran who have given up on Islam because of the Islamic Islamic government, because of the chaos and the corruption and the ruin that they see around them. What often happens in Iran, sometimes the family will say, hey, we're a Muslim family. You shouldn't be a Christian. But oftentimes in Iran, we've heard many stories of the family saying, well, hey, if that works for you, that's great, because we know Islam doesn't work. We've seen that since 1979. So if you found something that works, that's great, we're happy for you. Where persecution does come from is from the police, from the Revolutionary Guard Core, from the Islamic authorities who say, now you've left Islam, you're an apostate, and you deserve to be killed. Ah. Or at the very least, you deserve to be put in prison. And so we have had some very high profile cases, I think of Mariam and Marzia, the two young ladies that were put in prison for apostasy, eventually released and allowed to leave Iran. Many people have been harassed, beaten, tortured inside the jail cells because it is the police who are attacking the growth of the church and are attacking new Christians.
>> Walker Wildmon: Todd, what do you think, just from a outsider, but understanding what's going on in Iran? There is a lot of talk. There's often debate when we're talking about Iran and the war and the diplomatic, approach about whether there is enough people basically to support a more Western friendly government. And clearly the Mallahs, clearly the more, committed, if you will, or orthodox Islamic, folks are in charge there because they're, they're still keeping kind of this repressive regime going, even though it may be on its last leg. But what are you, what's just your opinion of whether there's enough people? Because it has to be more than just the Christians. There has to be maybe even Muslims there that don't like the regime. What's your opinion on whether there's enough people there to support any type of, like, liberation or freedom movement or support any type of western friendly government like there was before the revolution?
>> Todd Nettleton: That's a hard question for me to answer. one of the things that I heard from an Iranian Christian after the protest began in December, because I asked the question, you know, we've seen these protests before. We saw these when the young lady was killed in police custody. We've seen them around election time, is, is this the one that could finally topple the government? And the thing that he pointed out to me, which was new information to me, is, the protests that began in late December, spread into January and February, began in the bazaars, among what he called the bazaaris or the business owners in the bazaars. And the reason he said that's so important is because since 1979, the Bizaeris have always supported the government. They have always stood with the, the Islamic government. They have kind of been the firewall as these protests have happened. So the fact that now the bizarre are the ones leading the protest, they're starting the protest. He said, that is a very big deal. That's very significant. So that gives me a sense that maybe we're at the tipping point where, the bulk of Iranian people are saying, we're done with the Islamic government. We want something else. There are many Iranians who remember time before 1979, when Iran was a quite open country, when it was quite a prosperous country. When education was available for women as well as men, opportunities for women as well as men. And so I think there is a cultural memory of what that looked like, and there is a hunger to have more of that. I, don't know if we're at the point where the majority says that or we're still at a large minority or where we're at in that. And the other part of this that plays into this is, of course, the war. And does the country unite behind the government? Because now they're being attacked. And so we have to come together to come against this attack. I don't know the answers to those questions.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah, it's hard to tell. and that's what I've talked to other believers about this, and some of them have kind of this simplistic view of, you know, let's just arm the Christians and arm the revolutionaries and let's, you know, have this counter revolution and this liberation movement. And it all sounds good on paper. But. But I, But I always kind of pause and tell them, well, let's play this out. because. And once again, I'm not talking about whether or not to share the gospel in Iran, whether or not to aid the church. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the military side of it and the overthrowing the government via arms side of it. I just think it's, from this far off. Some Christians in America view it as overly simple, right? They're going to have their 1776. but it's way more complicated than that. And the factions there are so splintered, and the government and the regime is so oppressive that it's a very fragile situation, that it's not as easy as, let's just ship them arms and boom, we're going to have a free Iran in 24 hours.
"Voice of the Martyrs" focuses on highlighting persecuted Christians around the world
hey, Todd, tell our folks about your radio program, about the website, about your publication that you guys do. Tell us about a couple of those things and how folks can check out more about your work.
>> Todd Nettleton: Well, you can learn more about Voice of the [email protected] it's an easy website to remember. Persecution.com there's links to VOM radio. There's. There is also a button right at the top of the page that says Free Magazine. And if you click on that, we will take, your name and address. We will send you our free monthly magazine. Every month we tell the stories of persecuted Christians and kind of tell you what's happening around the world so that you can Pray effectively and stand with the body of Christ in Iran, in Nigeria and China and North Korea and other nations around the world.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Hey, Todd, thank you so much for the work you guys do for highlighting the persecuted church around the world. And, keep up the good work.
>> Todd Nettleton: Thanks so much for having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. That's Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs and Voice of the Martyrs Radio. Todd's a vice president there and, we appreciate him coming on the program. Frequent, relatively frequent, guest here on. At the Core with Voice of the Martyrs, one of the, I would say one of the leading organizations highlighting, the persecuted church around the world. Very good work that they do over at vom. Voice of the Martyrs. yeah, it's a very interesting topic to discuss and debate with others, about what the solution in Iran is. But when I have these discussions with people, the reason what causes me, hesitation in this liberate Iran movement or this Free Iran and arm the, you know, the insurgency kind of, approach is, number one. We have done this in the past. We have done this in the past with other factions in other parts of the world and in other parts of the Middle East. And in the majority, if not the overwhelming majority of instances of doing that in the long run, it just doesn't bode well for the US it doesn't work out very well. Oftentimes, we end up creating our own enemy. this is what happened with isis, and with other factions of Islamic terror groups. They ended up maybe starting out as some kind of CIA splinter, some kind of CIA asset. And then, boom, before you know it, we're sending our troops to fight the guys over in that region because they morph into some power faction, and fill some vacuum. But also what it would look like on the ground to arm, an insurgency or a freedom movement in Iran, to arm them with weapons, you're enabling a civil war. And the toll of the lives that would be taken there, would be very hard to calculate, very hard to comprehend. It would make the 40,000 protesters look like nothing, because of the regime and their oppressive nature. So, those are just things that you have to factor in. The humanitarian side of it. When you start talking about, arming factions within a country like Iran and what the end result would look like, unfortunately, the casualty count would just be astronomical. very difficult to stomach and comprehend. So we'll see where that goes. Obviously, the president and his administration are doing everything possible that they can to reach a diplomatic solution on that front. So we'll keep tracking it and highlighting, these type stories.
There could be a vacancy on the Supreme Court under the Trump administration
Well, another story I wanted to get to before we wrap up this segment, and then of course we'll have Chris Woodward back with us in the last is the Supreme Court and the potential that there could be a vacancy under the Trump administration. In the last two and a half, years of the Trump administration and this term of President Trump, the makeup of the court is a 6:3 Republican majority on paper. But from a practical ideological standpoint, it's really more of a 5, 4 court, because whether it's Justice Jon Roberts or one of the others, maybe, Amy Coney Barrett or, Gorsuch, those three, Kavanaugh even for sometimes they'll side with the liberals. And so it's not really a rock solid six, three court. It's more of a six three or five, four, depending on the day of the week. And but the reason I bring this up is because the two oldest members of the court are also the two most conservative. That's Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. They have been just absolute rock stars on the Supreme Court. And President Trump has a couple years left. But right now, at least guaranteed until January, President Trump has the 53 seat majority in the U.S. senate. And the U.S. senate is the, the advise and consent, chamber, per the Constitution that approves federal judicial nominations, including Supreme Court justices. So my point in bringing all of this up is that if there's going to be a retirement in the more conservative wing of the court, I would suspect it would probably be this summer. I actually think it most likely will be. It just makes sense. I don't have any inside information, I don't have any breaking news, but I'm just telling you, looking at the court, looking at the ages of the conservative justices, and looking at the fact that President Trump has two and a half years left, he has a 53 seat majority in the Senate. It would make sense, it would make sense if some of these justices were really interested in making sure someone of their likeness is, is nominated and approved to take their place. then you would do it in an environment like this. It just makes the most sense. Ruth, Bader Ginsburg, historically, notoriously refused under Obama to step down and allow her replacement to be chosen. And she ended up passing away under President Trump's first term. And President Trump was able to nominate Amy Coney Barrett. So, we've seen how this plays out in the past when justices don't step down at the best time and instead wait it out for a longer, term. So we'll keep tracking that and, I'll share my latest opinion piece on that.
Preborn network clinics offer free ultrasounds to women facing unplanned pregnancies
Right now, the voices in our culture are loud, but truth is often silent. And today preborns need you to help speak that truth. Women facing unplanned pregnancies are often pressured to act quickly before they have time to pause, breathe, or, hear the truth about life, dignity and hope. But I refuse to be silent, and I'm asking you to join me. At preborn network clinics, a woman is welcomed with compassion and given a free ultrasound. She sees the life growing inside her, often for the very first time. And in that sacred moment, fear gives way to clarity. And she's offered something abortion industry will never provide. The hope of Jesus Christ. This April, our goal is to have 11,000 gospel conversations in preborn network clinics, trusting God to bring the increase as we remain faithful to speak. You can help make that possible by sponsoring ultrasounds. Just $28 provides one ultrasound and $140 provides five free ultrasounds for mothers in crisis. Every dollar helps save babies and share the hope of the gospel. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 and say the keyword baby dot or visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr at the core podcast are [email protected] now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio podcast is now available on iTunes and elsewhere
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to this last segment of today's, program here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon. Here on this edition, the show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Greene. The name of the show is at the Core. And once again, you're listening to American Family Radio. You can subscribe to our show podcast. Wherever you listen to podcast, just type in the name of the program, click the subscribe or the follow button and the latest episode will be queued up in your podcast library each and every day. Of course, we've got the video up on Facebook, on all the major AFR social media handles, and over@stream afa.net Chris welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much.
Chris: Iran war has not had dire economic effects predicted before it occurred
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Chris I've got a, start out as a, as a, an admission or rather a, a note to our audience that the Iran war that it, that it was or that it is, has not had the dire economic effect that economists would have predicted and have had predicted before this actually occurred. There's been years, decades of studies on what would an Iran war look like, what would the effects on the markets be et CETERA et cetera. What would energy prices do? And I've got to kind of give it to President Trump and his economic team and all that they're doing in the Energy Department. this Iran war, while it has had an effect, it has made energy markets rather volatile. It hasn't had a devastating, unforgivable, downturn effect on the markets or the economy that we've seen thus far. And energy, while nobody likes four to five dollars gas, the predictors before this happened would have said it would have been eight or ten dollars a gallon for gas with the Strait of Hormuz completely shut down. So all that to say we've gone through two months of the Iran war and it hasn't been nearly as bad as it could have been.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, very true, very true. And one has to wonder how much longer will Americans just fall for whatever they hear somebody say on television? And this is not the first time that doom and gloom predictions have been, put out there for things Trump has done.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, the tariffs.
>> Chris Woodward: Oh, yeah, yeah, the tariffs. Fantastic example. And then you go back to like the first term, I remember when there was a three week period where Trump was gonna start World War Three and every, you know, people were getting drafted, we were all going to die, and here we are, praise God, with, you know, laughing about it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: And unfortunately, people will continue to watch talking heads that are in the business of scaring everybody and keeping them hooked on the television, to where unfortunately, a lot of people get their news. There's nothing wrong, with, you know, getting, watching television and all that. I worked in television for a long time, but there are a lot of cable television channels and streaming options, where people get addicted to them. And because those people are freaking out or wanting you to freak out, therefore people are in the streets freaking out.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
Chris: The markets and the economy appear unaffected by Middle East conflict
So with that all being said, setting the stage with that note there, the economy before the war was in a recovery from Biden. We were on the mend, we were making a comeback, and we still are. I mean, the markets and the economy, Chris just appear that they want to continue their momentum and really they don't care in some regard what's going on in the Middle East.
>> Chris Woodward: No, they really don't. For example, I have Thursday's numbers. The Dow was down 313, but still at 1549,596. The Nasdaq was down 32, but around 26,000. The S& P doing gangbusters as well. So even though there is a war going on. And some people, ah, call it conflict, whatever, skirmish, excursion. Yeah. Even though there's something going down in the Middle east, people are not freaking out about it, and nobody's lost their retirement. and if Trump does bring it into this, somehow get us out, all these other things as we have talked about on the show, the president, I believe, is correct. Energy prices will come down once that happens, and then we're all focused on, I don't know, college football in June or July. And nobody's talking about this anymore.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right. And I do think that. I do think this will come to pass at some point, in the next few months. I don't know. Some of us will have hoped it would happen quicker, but nonetheless. M. The economic data is looking very good. Chris you mentioned the markets. I mean, the markets have just been on absolute fire. They've more than recouped all the losses from the Iran conflict. M. Now, the positive, based on where we were before the Iran conflict, and, the earnings from some of these companies look pretty solid in the latest earnings round.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And meanwhile, President Trump, we haven't even talked about this, but he's about to have, the beginning of a few meetings, with his Chinese counterpart to talk about things involving trade. In the event they announce some sort of deal or framework of a deal, things in the markets are going to be even better. We think I might actually be able to retire before I'm 95. So, you know, I mean, come on. yeah, don't, you know, be patient. It's very difficult, and Lord knows I have not always been patient. but we do need to be patient and not, pull our hair out and shake our fist to the sky as of yet.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. I mean, President Trump has a very good track record on the economic front, so I think that's going to bear itself out. And to your point, it does take time, and we are seeing a lot of positive trends.
Chris: I think inflation is largely behind us
talk about the jobs numbers, and then I know you've got some wage data as well.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes, jobs have been. Well, yes. there are people out there saying that the tariffs impacted the jobs market in 2025. Things could have been better than they were. but when you really look at the numbers and you go beyond the headlines and beyond the talking heads, that we all know and watch and listen to, you really start to see that things have been good, and they've actually been better once they've done revisions. For example, there have been a Couple of months in recent months where we got some positive numbers, but then you got revisions that made it even better. Meanwhile, construction, has been doing very well. And as we've talked about on the show, it's been a while. but you want construction to be hiring because that means things are being built. And what is allowing things to be built? Financial wheeling and dealing, loans and all these other things. Meanwhile, manufacturing. Could it be better? Yes. but we're still a superpower because we are manufacturing things. Construction, manufacturing. You got hiring. You have less federal government jobs, which means fewer federal dollars going out to pay for all kinds of things. It causes positive things in the, economy. And speaking of positive things in the economy, it's safe to say that average hourly earnings, They've risen about 4% over the past year. you've had, adjusted for inflation, real weekly paychecks are up about 2% since the inauguration. Yes. People are paying more for gas. God bless the people out in California, some of which are paying, like, seven,
>> Walker Wildmon: eight bucks a gallon.
>> Chris Woodward: Bucks, especially if they're a diesel customer. So, yeah, people might be spending more of the money they now have because of Trump's policies. Again, if you can bring it into the war in Iran and you get the price of energy back down, then you can have Caroline Levitt's temporary replacement while she's away on maternity leave coming out there and correctly saying Trump solved all these problems.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. We have the new FAIR chairman coming in, Kevan Warsh, and you and I have talked about that. I, think, Chris I think we get rate cuts in the next few months. Oh, yeah. I think at the latest, we get them in the fall. if we don't get them in the fall, I'm going to be kicking and screaming because of how Powell lowered them in the fall in 2024, to give, a hat tip to Vice President Harris for her reelection or her election bid. So I think Kevan Worse should return the favor and lower them for President Trump and Republicans in the fall, no later than September. But, Chris the inflation is largely behind us. I mean, I just don't think that the Fed can keep blaming inflation for not raising, not lowering rates. I think we're, we're like 12 plus months removed from the inflation topic.
>> Chris Woodward: Oh, yeah, for sure, for sure. And you know, when, when Levitt came out months ago before she went on maternity leave, and she declared that Biden inflation was over and Trump had solved it, she was correct, based on the policies he put in place.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And we were largely below 3% in most categories. I think, I think maybe energy and rent. I think a couple of those were lingering, for various factors. But in large part, most of these core Items were below 3%. And honestly, you can't expect much less than 3% giving the amount of money we pump into the economy. You just can't, you can't run a deficit that we run and have 37 trillion. We're going towards 40 trillion in debt and expect inflation not to run at 3%. I mean, what world are they living in where you can run a trillion, trillion and a half dollar deficit and print money using an Excel sheet and not have 3% inflation? So part of that's expectation, I think below 2% is like 4. Fairy tale land.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, you're.
>> Walker Wildmon: And unless you, unless you eliminate the deficit or run a very low deficit,
>> Chris Woodward: if that happens, we have a new lead for this, for this segment. Yeah, I mean, that would be great if we were to get rid of that and actually bring down debt. it would be great if people in Congress did a lot of the things that they promised on the campaign trail.
>> Walker Wildmon: But that's the trade off with, with, with running a deficit. For those who don't know, just. This is economics 101. When, when you're the reason we have inflation. Inflation is not assumed across all civilizations. This is, this is what happens when you print money and then you pump new monies into the economy. you, you naturally create inflation. So inflation is in some way baked into how the American economy works. Yeah, that's why I say having 3%, 2% is pretty normal.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And this may sound like a knock on, you know, education overall. It's not intended to be what you just said. The reason why a lot of people don't get this is because we're not taught this. and even if there might be an economics class that we're required to take for six weeks or a semester, a quarter or what have you, who knows who's teaching it and what gobbledygook, maybe that teacher or professor is passing it on. So if you have kids, I'm not saying you got to tell them about, you know, Keynesian economics while reading Dino Nuggets, but you need to talk, talk to your kids about these kinds of things and help them understand the value of a dollar, why we need to work, and what made America great.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's, ah, that's what Chris. I think that's Why? I don't think. I know. That's why the middle class, middle class has fallen behind is because they're not the middle class and the lower class, if we want. I'm talking purely economics here. Right. I don't, I don't agree with class warfare. I really don't like putting people in buckets. But nonetheless, there are different levels of income within our economy. And the middle and the lower are not heavily into assets and heavily into equities and growth assets. And so it makes it very difficult to keep up with a 3% inflation, every year. So this is why when we talk about homeownership, we talk about retirement accounts and investments. This is why President Trump has been hammering home, getting these kids in the markets, meaning start them an investment account when they're five years old and just let the money grow. Because that is one of the few ways, only a couple ways to keep up with inflation, to not be losing money, so to speak, on your savings and your assets. And that is to have appreciation. And the markets are one way to do that.
>> Chris Woodward: Another lesson that we should learn from tough economic times, not that we're in one, but we're in some uncertainty. There's some stuff in the news causing people to be anxious. Gas prices, all these things. we need to learn our lesson as a people and really, pay off some debt, sock some money away, don't touch it. and all these things because if the Lord tarries and five years from now something else pops up, people are going to be going, what am I going to do? When you live through 2008 or 20 or whatever.
More people are catching onto the importance of investing in the markets
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And contentment, to your point, contentment is a good thing to learn. But I'll tell you when it clicked for me, Chris the last few years, especially post Covid, it clicked for me when I started actually studying this stuff. And I realized, and more people are catching onto this because the number of individuals not, not brokers, not firms, the number of individuals that are taking position in the markets is skyrocketing. And you want to know why? Because your average Joe out there is figuring out that, that the markets are where it's at. The equities, the markets, these ETFs, all these funds. This is where you can park money. I'm not talking day trading here. I'm talking about long term investments. You can park money in some of these decent investments and just let it sit for years. Because this is how the wealthy build wealth. This is how your Warren Buffets, generate hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth is through the markets. And so I think more people are catching onto this. More kind of middle income people are figuring this out. And overall, Chris I think in the long run it's going to be a positive for the middle class. Right.
>> Chris Woodward: And don't listen to the people out there that are trying to, like, demonize wealth. Are there wealthy people that do immoral things? absolutely. We live in a lost and dying fallen world. but there's nothing wrong with being a wealthy person or making wealth if you do it honestly and you work for it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: and the reason I bring all this up is because. Because I'm kind of going Gavin Newsom with my hand movements. M But anyway, the reason I bring all this up is because I saw what amounted to an op ed hit piece against Kevan Warsh. Talked about how he's going to be the wealthiest Fed chair ever. Here's how much he's worth. I don't care about those kinds of things and I won't care about them until they point out the richest Democrats that are in Congress.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Of which Senator Elizabeth Warren, who always takes to Twitter, who hasn't created anything. Oh, my goodness. But you know what? She has created a lot of money for herself.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, yeah. Through insider trading.
>> Chris Woodward: Yes.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. Folks, this is where the class warfare on the Marxism comes into play. And they don't want people who are successful and honest and are diligent workers with their hands. They don't want them in positions of power and authority. Why? Because they actually know what they're doing. Instead, they want their Marxist friends that haven't created anything like Elizabeth Warren to, be in trouble, charge of our economics. And to that I say absolutely no. Thank you, Chris Thanks for coming on.
>> Chris Woodward: Hm.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks. Hey, check out American Family News. AFN.net Chris Fred Jackson, Steve Jordal, the entire team over there putting out Daily News from a Christian perspective. Afn.net we'll see you next time.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio. M.
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