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 keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr. We inform Religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
>> Jeff Chamblee: We equip
>> Walker Wildmon: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because
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>> 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 today's program and this week's program here on American Family Radio. As a brief reminder, you can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. So just type in the name of the program at the core, click the subscribe or the follow button and the latest episode will be queued up in your library each and every day.
Acts chapter four is where we have been this week. Acts chapter four, looking at verses one through four
Acts chapter four is where we have been this week. Acts chapter four, looking at verses one through four. And then, there's more in this chapter, but as far as the arrest of Peter and Jon for preaching and teaching and healing, that's what happens in the first few verses here. And it says that now, as they spoke, talking about the disciples, as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they have taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, in verse four, many of those who heard the word believed in the number of the men that came to be about 5,000. And so, obviously the disciples and the early church more broadly, experienced heavy persecution. Most of the disciples themselves experienced martyrdom. but the word of God still was powerful. It was effective. It reached the thousands during this time, during this passage. So, we should be encouraged that despite any pressure or persecution, although it may be much lighter and different than what the disciples faced, we should still press on because the word of God does not return. Void. That's Acts chapter four. Looking at the first few verses there in Acts chapter four. Well, our AFA at the Ark is coming up in October. We're looking forward to being at the Ark Encounter in the Creation Museum. That's coming up at the end of October. So if you want to join us there. We're over half full for AFA at the Ark. So if you want to join us, I would recommend signing up in the next few weeks before it fills up. We're over halfway full for our AFA at the ARC trip coming up October 29th and 30th, 2026 are hotel arrangements that are, obviously, booked on your own. But the hotel that will be hosting a lot of the events is the Marriott Cincinnati Airport. The, trips that we'll be taking, the day trips we'll be taking just within a 15 to 30 minute drive is we'll be spending a whole day at the Ark Encounter and then we'll be spending another day, another full day at the Creation Museum. So two full days at those two sites and then in between all of it, we'll have some time of fellowship and share some meals together and have a couple presenters, back at the Airport hotel, conference center there at the Cincinnati Airport. So we're looking forward to that. That's AFA at the Ark and we hope to see you there.
President Trump spoke about the difficulty in negotiating with Iran
Afa.netevents afa.net events turning our attention to the news of the week, I wanted to lead off with this discussion on, on what's going on in Iran per the president in the Oval Office this week. Obviously President Trump's been in China the last few days. We'll cover that as well, with the time we have left this segment. But, President Trump was speaking in the Oval Office about the difficulty in actually negotiating with Iran and how hard headed, so to speak, the Iranians have been. This is going to be clip one.
>> Donald Trump: Look, I've had to deal with them four or five times. They change their mind. They're very dishonorable people, the leadership, don't forget. It's the third level. The first level is God, they were unreasonable. The second level was more reasonable. The third level, nobody wants to be president. You know, they say, who wants to be president? There's, nobody raises their hand. But we're, they just, they change their mind. I've had that in business many times. You know, the mind changers, you call them, these people that you make a deal and then the next day they send you a document that takes, that takes five days to get there when it should have been there in 20 minutes. You know, it's A pretty simple document. They will never have a nuclear weapon.
>> Walker Wildmon: So President Trump there is very blunt, very frank about the challenge in negotiating at, ah, all with the Iranians. And this is what I've suspected all along. I've actually said this on probably too many occasions that there's really no deal to be had here. And if we're being honest, that's what you read into with the President there. I'm not going to go as far to say there will never be a deal, but you can only make a deal with people that want to make a deal. This is, in any business scenario or diplomatic scenario, there has to be two willing parties to make a deal. Even though one may be forced to the table. you still have to have two parties to make a deal. And I just don't think the Iranians want a deal. I think they're radicalized. I think they're ideologues. I think they're Islamic zealots, and they have no interest in, quote, working with the West. We are the Great Satan. Israel is the little Satan. This is according to Islam, that is. And, there's no deal to be made with the devil, so to speak, according to their viewpoint. And so that's where we are today. But President Trump being honest with us about this challenge in negotiating with Iran, that's why whatever the end of this looks like very well may not, include any sort of grand signing ceremony with the Iranians. I, would actually be surprised if it does. President Trump has spent the last, let's say, 24 to 36 hours in, China on the ground there. And, there's a lot taking place as far as there's an expected trade deal to be announced. This has been, we've been waiting on this since President Trump was sworn in for the second term. That is a major trade deal with China. The benefit to striking such a deal, any deal that we do, whether it be economic or otherwise with China at this juncture in the presidency, is it gives President Trump a minimum of two years to oversee the implementation of said deal. This is how we got burned during the last Trump administration, is China didn't follow through on the majority of the, the, agreed merits and tenets of the deal. China, for example, was supposed to buy billions of dollars in soybeans from American farmers. And that didn't come to pass. And so by President Trump striking whatever kind of deal we get out of this, which I think there's going to be something coming out of this, whatever deal President Trump strikes with The Chinese on the economy, on trade, on tariffs, et cetera. President Trump and his team, including his trade team led by Greer, have two years, two plus years to oversee China following through on their promises on whatever type of agreement is reached, with China economically. So that's good. That's the good side of this, is that there's plenty of time left to make sure that China upholds their end of the bargain. And then as far as the why President Trump took, over nearly two dozen major multibillion dollar tech CEOs and manufacturing CEOs and financial CEOs with him to China, what I think this is, is doing, obviously President Trump wants to get a win, win economically and trade wise with China. There are largest trading partner. We import mass amounts of goods from China. That's known. Just look at the tag on your shirt or on your, whatever product you're using. But I think President Trump is kind of flexing his economic muscles with Xi in that he's taking these CEOs and saying, look, we're the leader of the world. we hold the cards, we hold the dominance economically on manufacturing, on technology and otherwise. And so you need to work with these guys, you need to stop being so cagey and boxy and you need to work with these companies, for the betterment of America and for the betterment of the Chinese people. So we'll see where this goes. Look, make no mistakes about it. China's still one of our number one adversaries, probably our number one, if we're being honest, on the world stage. They're, they're our chief competitor, arch rival if you will. Now, they've been humiliated recently. Look, China, not only are they struggling economically, economically, and they have been post Covid, but China is also, has been utterly humiliated militarily on the world stage. Because let's not forget that much of the military equipment in Venezuela and Iran was Chinese. It was either Russian produced or Chinese military equipment. And we walked over that like nobody's business. It was just a walk in the park. And so China's been humiliated for all practical purposes as far as flexing their military. It's just not there. And I said this right after the Venezuela operation and again after the Iranian operation. This notion that China can hang with the US militarily is just a complete and utter joke. It's a complete and utter joke. Anybody who suggests that China, can hang with the US militarily, meaning in a kinetic conflict, that China could in any way have an advantage over the Us, they either don't know what they're talking about or they're parroting the talking points put out by the military industrial complex. So we can keep pumping trillions of dollars into the military industrial complex to keep producing all these weapons and these systems and these technologies, which I'm not. There's nothing wrong with building up our industrial, our military base and ensuring we're on the cutting edge of military technology and equipment. That's completely fine. That's why we are able to dominate warfare like we do today. But, but, but to, to say with a straight face that China is any viable threat militarily, it's just unserious. It's very much unserious. a chance. China, I ask people, when was the last major war that China fought? And the answer is none. So China has zero experience fighting any major kinetic conflict. And their military hardware and defenses we've utterly neutralized in Venezuela and Iran. And so they're so far behind. They're so far behind. Now, they may have other advantages over us. I do think they have some serious leverage when it comes to pharmaceutical supply chains, when it comes to semiconductors and flexing over, over Taiwan, There are some serious vulnerabilities that China has over us, not to mention our debt that they own much of. And so China does have some leverage. They're not to be, you know, joked around with. They need to be taken seriously. But when it comes to military, there's just no match with the US there's just nobody that's even in the close vicinity with the American military when it comes to capabilities and the ability to win, kinetic wars and win them in a dominant fashion. And let's not forget to put a bow on this. We went into Venezuela in a matter of, I think it was three hours from, from very beginning to very end. In three hours, we flew in multiple helicopters, which is an absolute unrecommended, way to get into a country with air defenses is helicopters, because of how slow they are.
We went in and extracted Maduro with no fatalities, no US casualties
They're just sitting ducks in the air. But we went in. That shows how powerful we were able to display, disable their air defenses. But we went in in three hours and we extracted with no US Casualties. We extracted, I think we had one, one serious injury, one of the pilots. We went in and extracted Maduro out of his military compound with no cat, no fatalities, that is no U.S. fatalities. And we got out in three hours. And then now, fast forward several months later. Now we are pretty much de facto running Venezuela in cooperation with their government. We are de facto running Venezuela. There's oil, assets now on the ground, oil personnel on the ground rebuilding their infrastructure, getting it back online in full cooperation with U.S. government officials. Then we follow up and we go and completely obliterate Iran and take while be it some casualties, not near as many as the so called experts predicted. I mean people were talking about thousands of US Soldiers will die in a conflict with Iran. No, that didn't come to pass, not even close. So the US Military support superiority is something to be reckoned with. But China on the other hand, has a lot of economic and trade leverage over other aspects of the economy. We'll be back.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Eric Adams: New York City's fiscal situation is a complete disaster
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the second segment of today's episode here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us. Well, shifting gears, we talked mostly last segment about President Trump's trip to China, what to expect from that trip. And then we'll have Chris Woodward in with us in the last segment to talk about the news of the week, brought to you by American Family News. Well, I played a clip in recent weeks of Mayor Mamdani and I talked to Newsmax about this about their fiscal situation in NewSong York City. It's a complete and unmitigated disaster. And Eric Adams, the former mayor that the left of the left of the left outed and booted out of office, put out a counter, rebuttal to Mamdami whining about how he inherited this fiscal problem. And so I'm going to read this. This is an audio, this is just a post from Eric Adams, but it says, regarding in response to Mayor mom da me basically throwing former Mayor Adams under the bus in NewSong York City. Here's what Mayor Eric Adams had to say in response to mom dummy's whining and complaining. Mayor Adams, former Mayor Adams said there was never a $12 and $12 billion hole in the budget. That fairy tale was cooked up to justify reckless spending in political theater. I left this incoming administration, the mom dummy administration, with an $8 billion reserve. Not a, not a financial apocalypse. Albany election year bailouts, talking about the state capital. There are not long term economic strategy. The free money dries up after election day. But the bloated quote unquote free programs stay forever. And here's the part the socialist in city hall never want to admit. The millionaires and billionaires they love demonizing already. they love demonizing the folks that pay roughly 40% of NewSong York City's taxes keep demonizing people, the people creating jobs, investing in the city and carrying the tax base, and eventually they'll stop investing here altogether. Facts are stubborn things, even when some politicians aren't. That's, Mayor Eric Adams response to Mamdani blaming the former administration for the fiscal problem that they have. Those are pretty strong words. And remember, this is infighting amongst the Democrat Party. This isn't a conservative person, you know, going after Mom Duming. This is the former Democrat Mayor Eric Adams saying, look, mom, dime, don't blame me. You had $8 billion in reserves when I left. And here you are just several months into your administration and you're whining and complaining about how you don't have enough money. And I predicted this, I predicted, when I talked to Newsmax, that NewSong York City would go upside down. And I said, well, what will happen here? NewSong York City will go upside down. And then, the only options when a city like this, when a municipality goes upside down financially, the only options on the table is the state, the state bailing them out, in this case Albany, NewSong York, are the feds. Washington, D.C. and we've bailed out NewSong York, Washington, D.C. bailed out a lot of Democrat cities and states in under the guise of COVID So the golden or the question here, the million dollar question here is who's going to bail out NewSong York City Now? Is it going to be Albany or is it going to be Washington? And if it's Washington, it's got to be signed by the President. What's President Trump think about this? So this can be very interesting to watch. And I think you just need to let it go upside down. I know that sounds crazy. You know, if I lived there, maybe I wouldn't say this, but I don't live there. You've got to let a city like this go upside down. That way we learn the effects of socialism. We can't keep bailing out these Democrats. We can't keep bailing out the Democrats. So mom dummy's going to have to figure this out. He's the one that signed up for it. He ran for mayor promising everything and anything under the sun as free. And now they can't pay the bills. So that's just tough. That's just tough. I guess they're gonna have to cut, cut programs and raise tax revenue. And the way to get tax revenue is to attract businesses and business leaders, not to demonize them. But that is the tactic of the left is to demonize the Most productive citizens in a society. We.
Vice President Vance is leading a welfare fraud task force across the country
Well, speaking of Democrat strongholds, the, welfare fraud task force that Vice President Vance is overseeing that I've introduced recently on the program, is, targeting. This task force is being led by the vice president with an entire team at the DOJ devoted to it. And they are just finding so much fraud, billions of dollars in fraud. Vice President Vance made a trip around the country this week in multiple states, highlighting their efforts on eliminating this fraud. And I want you to listen to what Dr. Mehmet Oz with, he's with Health and Human Services. What? I think he's over the Medicare division, but nonetheless, Dr. Oz announced that, nearly half of the, hospice organizations that focus on home hospice care and end of life care, nearly half of them in the Los Angeles proper area, were completely fraudulent. And let's listen to this clip. This is going to be clip two.
>> Dr. Oz: Unfortunately, we have a reality that again, we got to face a third of all hospices, a third of all these programs in the entire country are in Los Angeles. Ask yourself how is that possible? It's not. There are not that many people dying in Los Angeles. We're not talking about California, just Los Angeles. So Kim and the team with, Jeanina Wugo and a bunch of other great folks went through the list of all the people and we believe that at least half of the hospices in the entire area around Los Angeles are fraudulent. And Today we announce 800 of those hospices have been suspended. That's getting us, close to where we think we should be. 800 hospices that last year charged the federal taxpayer $1.4 billion will no longer be paid. Mr. Vice President, if your core business was shut down by the federal government, would you call. Yes, you would call crickets. We have less than 20 who have complained. We're not even sure Those are legitimate. 800 hospices shut down and we're not hearing much. It's crickets out there. So we believe we're on the right path here. Next is a nationwide moratorium on all new hospice and home health care. Why is that possible? Because when we squeeze the balloon in California and slow their growth of hospice and now take away 800, the payments, 800 hospices. We know what those fraudsters do. They move to nearby Nevada next door. Nevada has a sevenfold increase in hospice already. Arizona, Texas, they're moving across the country. So we today announcing a moratorium nationally, there will be no new hospices or home health care open in this country. If you have the program now you can keep it. You can go to ones that already exist. We're not taking away any services, but there will be no new ones. Licenses granted until we can figure out a better way of working across government.
>> Walker Wildmon: Folks, this is astonishing. This is absolutely, I would say, unbelievable, but when you look at the size of the federal government, it is believable. This is insanity. 800 fraudulent hospice entities in the Los Angeles area. And when the center for Medicaid Services shut them down, they, they cut off the bank account or they cut off the wire transfer, this, this billing, and they stopped the money flow. Only 20 of the 800 called. Only 20 of the 800 even had any concerns enough to call the federal government and, hey, guys, what's going on? We're not getting paid anymore. Only 20 of 800. This is just insane. Over nearly $2 billion, just in Los Angeles area alone. so this is a massive scheme. And the next thing I want to see, and unless we get this, I'm not satisfied at all. I want to see the people that siphoned off $1.8 billion in mine and your tax dollars to be perp walked. I want them cuffed, I want the mug shot, perp walked, maximum sentencing, the whole nine yards. And if we want to do FBI raids, I'm completely in favor of that. We can send a CNN crew to do the FBI raids on their homes. Because let's remember, let's remember the harassment, the embarrassment that happened to quote J6ers, all right, we put the full force of the federal government and law enforcement to go after and harass all the people that were there on January 6, and all the pro lifers that were peacefully protesting outside of these murder mills, these abortion clinics. And so this notion, this is why voters send people like President Trump to the White House and to Washington, D.C. because this system is upside down and it ignores the true injustices, the true wrongdoing get overlooked. Like nearly 2 billion in fraud just in LA county alone. but then we have somebody who doesn't pay $10 in taxes, through the IRS, and they're sending them to collections, they're going after their house. I mean, the system is so messed up, it's so lopsided. And voters are aware of this. This is why you have something like a Trump revolution. You send President Trump to shake things up, and they're doing it. This is phenomenal.
Cato Institute representative claims 20% of Fairfax County residents are illegal immigrants
Led by the Vice President, speaking of fraudulent things and injustices, the, there was a hearing in the House of Representatives this week where Democrats get to invite their witnesses, talking about Immigration and Customs enforcement, talking about ICE and Border Patrol, etc. Well, the Democrats invited this. This gentleman from the Cato Institute to talk about the effects of mass deportations. And, boy, did this clip backfire. This Cato Institute, representative admitted and claimed that one in five individuals in Fairfax County, Virginia, are in the country illegally. 20% of individuals in Fairfax county shouldn't even be here. This is quite an admission. I'm not sure it went how I thought it was going to go. This is going to be clip three.
>> CATO Institute: The first step would be to give up on the mass deportation fantasy. About one in five Fairfax residents is someone who could be deported or who lives with them. It would destroy neighborhoods, rip Americans away from their spouses, parents, friends, families, customers, employees, employers, nurses, nannies, and teachers. What? Let me be clear. Okay? So we have illegal immigrants working in all those sectors. Quite an admission. So, Bobby, we talk about jobless claims, we talk about the economy with Chris and, you know, the unemployment rate. And according to the Cato Institute representative, we got 20% of residents in Fairfax county here illegally that are working our jobs. And so they know that there's 20% of the population that's here illegally. And now how many of them are registered voters? Exactly. Yeah. Because you can get a driver's license. Absolutely. And if you've got an address and you got a driver's license, you can vote. Right. There's no step. No step against it, which is why we need to Save America Act. but, folks, you can't have it both ways, okay? You can't say, well, illegal immigration isn't really a problem. It's not that big of a deal. and then on the other hand, say, oh, mass deportations are terrible. 20% of our city's gonna be gone. You just can't have it both ways. All right? Either. Either illegal immigration is a problem or it's not, which we know it is. Right, but your talking points can't go both ways. You gotta pick a side here. And if I were them, I would claim that illegal immigration isn't a problem. It's not that many people. Y' all are overstating it. Blah, blah, blah. We don't need to spend our resources on this. Like, if I were gonna just lie and make stuff up for political purposes, that's what I would do. But instead, they're doing it both ways. They're hopping over the fence, back and forth, back and forth. All right? They're saying, oh, mass deportations. This is A disaster. you know, one in five citizens, residents of Fairfax county, they're gonna be gone, they're gonna vanish. And then on the other hand, they're going, oh, y' all are just mean spirited. Y' all just don't want to welcome people and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I hope President Trump leans into, and continues to lean into this mass deportation strategy. I don't know what the status of it is. It definitely hasn't been trending in the news like it was several months ago. I'm hopeful that President Trump hasn't eased off of this approach in this campaign promise. I'm sure that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security is still carrying out deportations. The news media just isn't obsessing over it like they were several months ago. but nonetheless, we've got to keep this strategy up because, not only was it a promise to the American people, but there's so much benefit from deportations, from proper, legal mass deportations. There are so many societal benefits here. To the contrary of what you hear in the media and from the Democrats about how you're tearing families apart and you're tearing communities apart, et cetera, et cetera. it's actually the opposite. This is part of rebuilding a civilized society, is we restore order, we restore lawlessness, and we restore law and order, and that's what's happening here. And you eliminate lawlessness, not to mention some of the downstream benefits to deportations and mass deportations and what I would suggest, a complete moratorium on all legal immigration for, I would say, two to four years minimum. But we're freeing up housing. That's a fact. All right. That's a fact. I know it sounds bizarre. We don't have a lot of hard data on this, but when you have the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the representative I had earlier this week, he mentioned that his numbers show about 18 million illegal immigrants in the country. Look, my personal opinion is it's higher than that. I think it's higher than that because they've been saying 12 million, 15 million. We're going back to pre Obama days when they ran those studies. And you had millions coming under Biden and Obama. So I just think it's more than that. But, but either way it goes. Either way it goes. Let's just say, Conservatively speaking, there's 18 million illegal immigrants in this country right now. That's 18 million people that shouldn't be here that are using housing. I mean, where do we think these people are sleeping now, granted, some of them are, you know, overcrowding houses and rental apartments and hotel rooms, et cetera. There's all kind of crazy stuff going on. But nonetheless, when you have 18 million people here who shouldn't be, there's no doubt that they're occupying both apartments and housing. There's just no doubt about it. And we already have a housing shortage on a home ownership level. Not the rental side. The rental sides actually in a predicament because they've overbuilt, these, these rental units. And we're not having babies like we should. So there's a demographic problem on that front, which they're going to have to deal with. But on the housing front, we got to have more houses. Well, how do you get more houses? In the immediate term, you deport the illegal immigrants and open it up for the American taxpayer and voter, to have those houses back on the market for American citizens to purchase and utilize very good approach to the housing issue in the immediate term. We'll be back in a few minutes.
American Family Radio is sponsoring ultrasounds to help preborns
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 £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr
>> Jeff Chamblee: at the core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the core on American Family Radio.
Chris Woodward: I don't see evidence that Donald Trump is ruining America economically
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's program. Well, Chris Woodward is with us as he is each Friday. Chris welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: We Made it again.
>> Walker Wildmon: We did. We're here. And President Trump is in China, or at this point, possibly returning from China, depending on the length of his stay. Nonetheless, this is a major trip, Chris and it's on the. On the heels of, or happening during major, market news this week. I mean, this market, you and I ended the show talking a little bit about the incoming jobs report that we ended up getting on Friday of last week, which we'll talk about. But, whatever's going on, whether it be in Iran or in China or in the U.S. the market is really liking it.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. If it's true what Democrats and other critics are saying, that Donald Trump is ruining America, I don't see evidence of that economically. this is like the weirdest demolition of an American economy I've ever seen. Where the Dow, for example, closes at 50,000 on Thursday, Nasdaq S and P also had record highs. and that's just one day of good trading. I mean, even in a situation where the US And Iran have not come to terms yet, and you've got the President in China talking about Taiwan, all these things that could cause somebody to manipulate the markets by fear mongering or whatnot, it's not happening. yes, gas may be outrageously expensive, and that's being kind, but there are very positive things going on. And even in the jobs market, as you mentioned, the jobs market, the ap. I laughed when I saw how the AP put it. The Associated Press, which is left leaning, says it was a surprising number of jobs created. And, I just, I'm sure it pained that person to write that sentence.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. That's another way of saying that the experts got it wrong, the predictors got it wrong.
Chris: Money stimulates the markets and the asset prices. Um, for example, if economic downturn
Chris I want to give our audience a little bit of background or on what, what in part fuels the markets. because the markets aren't the economy and the two are interrelated, but one can do well and the other cannot do well. That's very possible, at least in the, in the, I'm talking in, in the short term, in the long term, they do tend to trend together.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: for example, if you have an economic downturn, you're likely going to have some sort of a market downturn nonetheless. the, the debt cycle that America is in and has been in for a long time, meaning the, the annual printing of money to offset the deficit and the lack of cash that we have to operate the government.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: is. The market likes that. The market likes that. So when you Pump in, trillions or billions of dollars into the economy through the treasury and through the printing press, then the markets, that money stimulates the markets and the asset prices. And so some of that's going on here. And so you have this continual market rise throughout its history. And in part that's why the market over time is always going to be going up naturally, despite. You hear a lot of fear mongers out there about Great Depression and market crash and all this. Look, the market may have struggles, it could drop 30% tomorrow maybe, I don't know. But it always finds its way back. That's just naturally how asset prices work. Unless some of these stocks just go upside down. Some of these companies just go bankrupt and then dissolve. But that's, that's an exception to the rule. M And so that's a little bit of background on how this works and why we do seem to just see this market go up and up and up. And speaking of up, Chris tell us about the Dow and the S and P because we're at record levels here.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I mean it's I, I did not get out of bed on Thursday thinking I would be talking about the Dow reclaiming, a 50,000 point level. It's been flirting in that, ballpark for a while, but, past it today. Nasdaq and S and P, also had record highs. And the reason why people are very optimistic about it, one of the reasons I should say is because you have Donald Trump talking to the leader of China for people that don't pay attention to world politics. And that's okay if you don't. That's what we're here for, to help you along in those, journeys. but, for President Trump and the leader of China to be talking about things including trade and artificial intelligence, maybe bringing an end to a war in Iran, getting China to hold off attacking Taiwan, all of those things lead people to believe, that there's positive things to come. for example, China, because they have a population that actually has a little more money in their pocket now than previous generations did. they need things like meat. And that's m. Why the US Is sending things like soybean and pork and other things over to China. Chicken, poultry, because those people, want, our products. And on the flip side of that, like it or not, China also makes a lot of, not only the stuff that the US Wants, consumers want, but also what other countries and their consumers want. And if we can work at a trade deal, it gives China leverage to work out trade deals with the UK or some other place. and based on all of that positive, this might actually happen and benefit everybody. You see positive things going on in the markets, on top of the potential of getting the US And Iran and Israel to get along and stop firing rockets at one another.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. Earlier, when I talked about how the market and the economy are not the same. Here's a prime example, Chris. the American consumer and the middle class has in no way, in no way recovered from the damage that the Biden economy did to the middle class. Not even close. Now, over the last 12 to 18 months, we have seen some positive developments, both in the wage growth, both in the lowering of inflation, et cetera, and a slight easing in interest rates. but those, seem to be coming back up nonetheless. The, and the jobs market seems to be doing okay. inflation is still around, and while President Trump did get it below or at 2% or just below, depending on what you look at, it was moving in the right direction and has been since he was sworn in. But with this Iran conflict, Chris and this temporary surge in energy prices, that does seem to have affected some of the latest inflation data, but not for the good. So that's still lingering, Chris. And so while we have a hot market and if you've got assets and stocks, you're having a party over here on the middle class and the consumer side, the folks that have to fill up their gas tanks at the gas pump, go to the grocery store, et cetera, they haven't felt that excitement, that easing that they were hoping for with the Trump administration, at least not in its entirety.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And for anybody out there that might say, well, you know, you mentioned the Depression. We could very well have one. I'm not saying the Titanic's not going to sink, but just like we've learned what not to do when you're sailing in the ocean, since the Titanic, we've learned some things and we've created some things to make things like the Great Depression less likely in the United States of America. Is it. Is it too much, and should the government pull back some things? Sure, that's a conversation for another day.
>> Walker Wildmon: But.
>> Chris Woodward: But we have learned things and we have put things in place since 1936. I'm just pulling a number out of my head, to make those kinds of things less likely. And, I mention all that because, you know, there's a lot of people at, for example, my age, you're in your 40s. You may not be able to drive your car, but I might be able to actually feed myself 25, 30 years from now based on what's happening in the market now. Which is why you need to listen to this show and others to know what to do with your money and, you know, be there to, have to leave something for your kids and have something for yourself.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. And the Trump administration has done a phenomenal job, probably the best ever. And I'm not exaggerating on highlighting the fact that the middle class needs to get into the markets. And we have seen a surge in independent investors and like retirement accounts coming online into the markets. We're at a record level of number of people getting into the markets, because the president, but President Trump has been doing a good job. Whether it's the Trump accounts or just simply talking about, hey, you need to be investing, you need to be saving for retirement, 401k, Roth, Ira, et cetera. I think driving that home is good because to your point, more people do need to lean into that to prepare for the future. but, Chris on the other hand, we are going to need to have, I believe this true economic, flourishing that I think could be around the corner after this Iran situation. we're going to have to get, in my opinion, on the other side of whatever's going on in Iran and get the strait reopened. Because that's, to me, looking at this. If we get a China deal and all that's left is reopening the strait as far as normalizing global economic trade again, trade again, then if you drive energy prices back down and you've got gas down to $2 a gallon again, and then you got to deal with China, that could just set us up and the middle class up for success.
>> Chris Woodward: If I was, one of the people still alive and running Iran, I'd be very concerned that President Trump and the leader of China are talking right now. Because China, which buys a lot of oil from Iran and does things in that part of the world other countries don't. I would be very concerned because now, you have the potential where China is going to come calling you, in your office that still stands somehow in Tehran, and they're going to tell you, hey, you really need to just give up, okay? And you need to lay down your arms and stop fighting and all these other things. China depends on Iran. And we could wheel and deal with the art of the deal president that we have, and cause China, you know, we could say, hey, we're going to, if, if you will agree to call Tehran today and tell him to end this war, we'll do this and this with you. In terms of agriculture, we'll buy things from you, we'll quit complaining so much
>> Walker Wildmon: about you and AI, maybe lower the
>> Chris Woodward: tariffs, all kinds of things. And granted, Trump doesn't have to do any of that. He could leave Beijing and then announce something completely different next week after Beijing's already told Tehran to stop it.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. And to your point, I'm willing, just as a voter, for President Trump to cut a deal with China to get Iran to ease off the Strait of Hormuz. And this Strait of Hormuz. Look, I don't care what the Pentagon says or, what President Trump says. The fact of the matter is Iran's got the thing shut down.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
>> Walker Wildmon: And I know it's probably a couple fast boats and a couple drones, but nonetheless, the thing is shut down. There's, there's thousands of vessels, over 20,000, sailors or passengers, depending on the context, that are stuck in the Gulf, in the Persian Gulf that cannot get out. We tried to escort a few ships out like a week ago and our destroyers got swarmed by boats and drones and it was a near disaster, according to some reports. And that sent the Pentagon back to the table. That's why President Trump within 24 hours said, all right, we're not going to do this anymore, Project Freedom. We're putting it on pause, because the last thing the President wants is a Navy destroyer getting damaged or sunk in the Strait of Hormuz because we can't get it reopened. So I think there's a lot of political calculations, diplomatic calculations going on here. But the fact of the matter is Iran is exercising a lot of leverage on that strict. And as long as that's the case, I don't think we can have an economic breakout. We might have a market breakout, but not an economic breakout that the middle class and voters feel.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, yeah. And you know, when shots are fired or something blows up in the water, that impacts the markets. I mean, there's all kinds of things. If the President sneezes and appears to have a cold, the Dow is going to fall a little bit based on fear.
>> Walker Wildmon: Look, Iran intercepted, just within the last 24 hours, Iran intercepted a UAE vessel, literally hijacked and pirated the vessel and they're taking it to Iran, as we speak. So this I know. We've taken out Iran's missile defense system, we've taken out their anti aircraft system. So we have full air dominance over Iran. I'm not trying to downplay what we've done there, but the threat of the Strait of Hormuz is real and it's still persistent. And to me, that is the challenge left on the Iranian front. We can negotiate the uranium, the uranium enrichment later. We can negotiate how we're going to get the uranium later. But to me, item one on the list is reopening of the Strait.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And the fact that Iran has done that to its neighbors, I think shows you how big of a threat and just a pest they are for the Middle East.
>> Walker Wildmon: To your point, they have no friends over there?
>> Chris Woodward: No.
>> Walker Wildmon: Maybe Pakistan, but that's it. Because to your point, uae, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, all of them, the reports are coming out this week that they actually launched military operations in Iran.
Chris Robertson: The market is on a bull ride under the Trump administration
So like these other. These Arab nations, I know there's the Persians and the Arabs, but these Arab nations don't like Iran and they've actually bombed Iran. So the US Is in a good position. We've got a great alliance there, but we've got to get that trade back going.
>> Chris Woodward: We do, we do. And that's going to impact. You know, look, if we're sitting here talking about $50,000 or 50,000 in the Dow, I never thought I would see this. It is not out of the realm of possibility to talk about more records next week or the week after if they actually, if he comes home from Beijing and announces all kinds of trade deals or whatever. We're going to do this with AI. We're going to do this with our ag. All kinds of stuff. And they bring an end to this. and gas prices go down by, I don't know, his birthday. June 14th is his birthday. we will see some very positive things there. M. And more people will be out on the road.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I'm optimistic about that. I really do. I really do think we're going to get to the other side of this. And the. Look, there's been a lot of people, Chris that have missed out on this bull market because they're just persistently scared of some disaster or some market crash or whatever. but this market has been high, hot. And to your point, we. And we've had, We've had our downs. I mean, we had. We had Liberation Day. we had the Iran war drop. we had the 2022 drop. correction. So the markets had its. Had its downs. Plenty of corrections. but. But it's on a bull ride that under the Trump administration is probably going to ride it out all the way through the Trump administration.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, you definitely. Family can't be fearful. If past generations lived in fear, we wouldn't be sitting here right now.
>> Walker Wildmon: Exactly. Yep. Gotta take risk. And, you gotta stick your neck out. Chris thanks so much for coming on. All right, American Family News afn.net and, we'll see you next week.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
