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>> Walker Wildmon: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character, hope. This is At the core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio focuses on the scripture in this edition of the program
welcome to the corps here on American Family Radio, and this is a Friday edition of the program. Glad to have you with us here on American Family Radio. We'll have Krish Woodward in the last segment. We'll have, my colleague Philip Jauregui with us in the second segment to talk about his new book and a potential vacancy At the Supreme Court and what that means for the future of the country. There's a ton we could talk about. Before we do, we'll turn our attention to the scripture. We've been in Acts chapter one this week, looking At verses nine through eleven here. Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And when they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them, and in white apparel, who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. That's Acts chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. Of course, this is where. This, among other places, is where believers have the biblical understanding of, the manner in which Jesus will return. obviously there's also scripture that talks about how no man knows the day or the hour, and so anyone who tells you they do, well, they're being deceitful. But we do know, according to scripture, the manner in which Jesus will return. And that's the same way that he ascended. Acts, chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. There's a whole lot else, in that chapter that that's beneficial, but that's just, a highlight of a particular passage there. Acts, chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.
American Family association is hosting several events this year
Well, there's several things going on this year that American Family association is hosting. And one of the things coming up, soon is our Activate Summit coming up this summer, July 16th through the 18th. Coming up this summer, July 16th through THE 18th. We, we are excited about our second annual Activate Summit and we hope to see you there. If you go over to afa.net events you can find the Activate Summit 2026 dates, registration, pricing, schedule, everything is [email protected] events. Another thing you're going to find there is our trip to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. Afa.net events you'll see on the left hand side our trip in late October, the 29th and the 30th to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. This will be, I think our fourth trip up there to that, Ark and Creation Museum and it's a fabulous time. We usually fill up. Take over 200 people to the Ark Encounter on the Creation Museum and we hope to see you there. That's also [email protected] forward/events.
The U.S. is currently engaged in a naval blockade of all Iranian ports
Well, let's jump into the news. Let's talk about what's been going on this week. we'll save the economic talk, to Krish in the last segment, but I do want to talk about this blockade of the Iranian coastline because this has been a trendy topic over the last month or so. the U.S. we've covered this briefly earlier this week. The U.S. is currently engaged in a naval blockade of all Iranian ports. Any ship, whether it be energy container or otherwise, that attempts to enter or leave the Iranian ports is being immediately turned around. This blockade has been 100% effective At blocking ships from departing or entering Iranian ports over the last over 72 hours that the US Navy has been engaging in this blockade with the Secretary of War and the Joint Chief of staff along with U.S. central Commander. All three of them gave a briefing earlier in the week in, the Pentagon about the success of this blockade, draining $500 million a day from the Iranian economy. Let's listen to Clip two. This is going to be a one America News Network brief report on this blockade.
>> OANN Reporter: CENTCOM says the blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented. That announcement came in a statement from Admiral Brad Cooper late Tuesday. Within only 36 hours of a blockade being implemented, he said an estimated 90% of Iran's economy is fueled by international trade by sea and that the blockade has now halted economic goods from entering or exiting the country. This comes as President Trump looks to put economic pressure on Iran and prevent the country from profiting off of oil sales amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's a brief update on the background or behind this blockade as far as the success of it. This, I said earlier this week, this is a brilliant move. Look, I've been skeptical of some aspects of this war, whether some of the things we've done in the past have been wise or not, or the threats we've made rather have been wise or not, just from a strategic perspective, because the sentiment amongst voters in America on this conflict, whether you want to call it a war conflict, President Trump calls it an excursion. There's mixed feelings about this, there's mixed reviews of this. obviously what we should all. The common thing we should all share is that we want the United States to be successful. Now, what does success look like? I think it's pretty easy to say success looks like Iran not having nuclear weapons, but success also looks like America not getting entangled in a decades long trillion dollar fight in the Middle east like we've done in the past. So there's multiple things that are involved with quote, unquote, success here. And I think if anyone can deliver it, it's gonna be President Trump. The ceasefire allowed the President to pivot away from kinetic military action to economic action. And that's what's taking place with this blockade. And look, we've been sanctioning Iran for long decades we've been sanctioning Iran, but they've been running this, this black market energy trade fueling China, Venezuela, Russia, all these bad actors have been getting Iranian oil on the black market. And Iran has been making billions on this, avoiding sanctions and avoiding trade and transactions in the US dollar, which ultimately hurts the US dollar. The more countries that avert are that avoid the US dollar and trading it ends up hurting us and lessens our power when it comes to the US dollar. So, this is, this is, as I said early on, in the early days of this conflict, I said this could be about more than just Iran, this could be about China. And if it is, we'll find out sooner or later. And as it turns out, I'm not the only one saying that. There's many people now saying that, hey, this is having an effect on China too. This is sending a signal to China and Russia and others that the US is back, we're back. We're not playing Mr. Nice Guy and we're going to use every tool At our disposal to exert our power. So let's listen to, Senator Sheehy from Montana talking about the strategic significance of this Iranian blockade. Clip 3.
What about the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz
What about the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz? You know, Iran was blockading it and now it sounds like the US is going to blockade it. Do you see that working out? Is this a similar strategy to what we're trying to do in Cuba and maybe even Venezuela? Absolutely.
>> Sen Sheehy from MT: I mean, these are tied together. And I think that's another important issue that hasn't been given fair airtime for really anybody is zooming out again and placing the Iranian conflict in this challenge in the context of larger geopolitical players. The Venezuela move was not unrelated to Iran. The cheap sanctioned oil that allowed Venezuela and Iran to fund the Ghost Fleet, the shadow fleet, the underwater, I should say underground global, oil trade that allowed Russia and China to dodge sanctions, that provides 93% of China's discounted oil, literally buying oil At cents on the dollar. China loved the status quo of a sanctioned Iran and a sanctioned Venezuela because that gave them guaranteed access to a captive oil market where they knew they'd get cheap product exclusively for them. So this isn't just about, defeating Islamic extremists. This isn't just about taking out a socialist narco trafficking dictator in South America. This is about removing linchpins that are upholding a world order where this administration is accused of being nice to Xi and nice to Putin, yet we've taken out the two satellite states that exist as the primary economic drivers of the global discounted energy. So these are absolutely connected. I think your specific question about blockading the Straits is a, is a, is a pretty awesome judo move when you have their primary leverage. Let's be clear, when Iran declares we're going to close the Straits, that's the equivalent of them going nuclear because thank God they don't have nukes because if they did, they would be using them when they launch all their missiles to the nearest areas of free people living to try to destroy them. If you don't think that they had nukes, they put them on the tip of those missiles. You're absolutely wrong. They would. Their equivalent of going nuclear is closing the Straits. That's, that's their, it's not their power move, it's their only move. And therefore they did that quick, quickly because their regime, was dismantled so rapidly and so effectively. So us taking that off the table, saying, actually, no, we're going to close it. And the reason we're going to close it is we're going to de mine it. We're going to secure it and we're going to make it safe for passage is, a pretty slick move.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. That's us.
Senator Sheehy assesses effects of US naval blockade against Iran
Ah, Senator Sheehy from Montana on his assessment of the effects of this naval blockade that the US Is currently performing. And I watched the press conference from Secretary of War Hegseth. They were actually showing demonstrations, past demonstrations over the last 48 hours of how the blockade took effect, and they were actually showing the effectiveness of it and their interdiction of multiple ships that turned around. And there's been effectively zero ships that have entered or exited Iranian ports effectively since this blockade began. Once again, we're talking $400 million a day that is being drained from the Iranian economy now. Now there's reports that Iranian, government officials aren't able to, over the next few days, they won't be able to pay, the military won't be able to pay, government workers won't be able to pay the police force, et cetera. So this is having a huge effect. Meanwhile, President Trump, through the military, is opening the strait to other and all commercial traffic, all non Iranian traffic. So if you get the straight unlocked, and this was really their main card that you might say they had other cards, maybe their missile program or their drone program, but those things are gone now. So the straight was their last card and it's currently being taken away. So after this, Iran has nothing left. They have no cards left. Which is why President Trump is signaling that Iran's actually probably closer to a deal now than they were even last week. Because they see once they lose control of the strait and they lose that leverage, they lose everything. They have nothing left. And so right now they kind of have something to trade back and forth. They can say, well, we're keeping the straight closed, so, you know, you got to give us something. But once the strait gets reopened, that that leverage is completely gone. There's almost no incentive for the US to go back to the table. Unless they say they're going to give us the uranium. Then that brings us back to the table. And so the leverage that Iran has or had is dwindling by the day, dwindling by the hour, to where it really gets down to the only thing they'll have left is that uranium. That's bar in the mountains in Iran that obviously President Trump really, really wants to get secured and out of Iran. That's been a key part of the deal that President Trump has proposed. And so we'll continue to track that. I wouldn't Be surprised here, folks. I've said multiple times, a deal here doesn't have to be your traditional two parties meeting, have a big summit and everybody signs the deal. Then we have to babysit it, we have to watch it, we have to track it, we have to make sure they're following it. I think President Trump's version of a deal here is just a straight up victory and he can proclaim the deal. We don't have to have Iran's signature on the dotted line. President Trump can say, I, ah, forced a deal. And here is the deal. The deal is Iran's military has been obliterated. we have blocked their commerce through the ports and their, uranium is a thousand feet buried under rock in the mountains because we bombed it and buried it. And if Iran goes back for the uranium to further enrich it, then we will bomb them again, we will block their ports again, and we will exert maximum pressure once again. It's easy. We did it in 30 days and we can probably do it a whole lot quicker, quicker in the future because there is no military left. So President Trump can de facto declare a victory here in the coming weeks without Iran coming to the table and signing a deal on the dotted lines. So my version of a deal here, folks, is, is not conventional. And I think President Trump should warm up to that idea that he can, he can declare victory At any point here and, and say we'll continue to monitor the situation, but for the time being, we're drawing down our military activities over there. We'll see how it goes and, stick with us. We got a couple segments left. At the Core podcast are [email protected] now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.
Walker: We bring back Phillip Jauregui for multiple reasons
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the second segment of today's program here on American Family Radio. Well, a, friend and colleague of mine, Philip Draghi's been on the program multiple times before talking about the judiciary, the Supreme Court, the role of judges. And, we brought him back today for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is a brand new book just in the last few weeks was released, that Philip authored titled the Parable of the Prodigal Invitation to Shift a Nation Back to God, obviously written by Philip Jauregui, foreword by Dutch Sheets, and I wrote an endorsement within the first few pages of the book. I've got it on my desk and it's phenomenal. Philip, welcome back.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Yes, thanks a ton, Walker. I appreciate you.
Walker: Phillip's work on the Supreme Court started about 21 years ago
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Philip, this book, has been, my guess is it's been years in the Making just because of your history working on the courts, on this topic and your heart for the courts and God's role in righteous ruling, if you will. And so give us a little background and tell us At what point you decided. Let's put this work that I've been doing over the last several decades. Let's put it, in a readable format. Sure.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Well, work on the court started about 21 years ago, Walker. But then my perspective changed. I would say more than my perspective, my heart changed. About eight years ago, we had a prayer meeting, and we were praying for the court. And I won't go into all the detail. It's in the opening of the book. But God did something for me that was supernatural and really showed me that my heart for the court was, kind of like the older brother, how mad he was At that young brother who disrespected the family. And, you know, what the court has done to this nation over the last five decades. It really is horrible. Horrible is an understatement. So there's a lot of reasons to be upset. But what I sensed from the Lord as we were praying for the court was, hey, Philip, just like the prodigal son had done all those horrible things, you remember the heart of the father who wanted them home. And what if I want to bring the Supreme Court home? And you can't pray for it because you're too mad about what they've done? So it's okay to be upset with what happened, but let's have a vision for the future and what can be more than what can be what I think God wants. And so it really changed, Walker, how we pray for the court. We've started praying for them by using the parable of the prodigal son as a pattern. And interestingly, you know, when you focus in on things like that, you tend to see things. And so the things we're seeing with the court and answered priority prayer according to the parable, it's pretty amazing. And if you think about, too, where they were 10 years ago and where they are now, it's incredible. But they're not home yet. We have to keep praying and keep working. But I do believe it's God's heart to see the court fully restored back in the father's house.
>> Walker Wildmon: M. Amen.
Phillip Jauregui: Christians sometimes have detached worldview of church and government
Philip, the court system and really all of government, oftentimes in America in this context, because of the type of government that our founders set up, Christians sometimes have this detached worldview of the church and government and the two don't really mix, they don't mingle, they don't cross over each other. They're just two distinct institutions that are completely unrelated. And in fact some Christians would say, well, what does government have to do with the Bible or Christianity, etc. Obviously we can spend just about three minutes and, and fill people in on how God himself instituted government. But nonetheless, the court specifically as a branch of civil government, the courts were God's idea, judges were God's idea. And so talk a little bit about that and how this isn't some man made institution that can serve man's purposes and ignore God's purposes.
>> Phillip Jauregui: That's right. And it's based on Walker, as you know, the view of man and our nature. And some people think man is inherently good. The Bible teaches that man is inherently sinful, that if you leave a man or woman to their own devices, they drift towards sin. And so the founders understood that that was the underpinning for everything, for the entire system of government. They understood that if you give one person power like a king, you give him legislative, executive and judicial power, he'll abuse it. And they knew that from their own experience. It was tyranny what they were experiencing 250 years ago. And so when they formed our government, they divided power up between the three branches. And then they said, okay, that's separation of powers. But then under checks and balances, they said, because people will still tend to usurp power from the other branches, let's give the three branches ways to keep the others accountable. And that's why we have a judiciary that has a distinct role that decides cases. They don't make policy. And when they do, when they try to make policy, it's the duty of the other branches and of the people to check and balance them and get them back into their proper lane. And that's what's been happening for the last, I would say five years, but increasingly over the last five years.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, once again we're talking to Philip Jauregui on his new book, just out in the last few weeks, the Parable of the Prodigal Invitation to Shift a Nation Back to God. Philip's new book can be found where all major books, all major bookstores, where all books are sold, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc. Etc. And so if you just search in Google Parable of the Prodigal Court, R. Philip Jauregui, any of those keywords, you can find his latest book and order it for yourself.
Walker: When justices pass away or retire, there's a vacancy
Philip, speaking of the book and the Courts, the courts are obviously this ongoing process. It's not as if we appoint judges and then we're done and they'll forever, serve. Obviously, they do have lifetime appointments in many instances, but nonetheless, when justices pass away or retire, there's a vacancy. And we saw President Trump get three appointments his first term, which is historical, At least in a modern sense. Historical. To get three appointments in four years, it's amazing. Now, Philip, we're looking At two of the top, conservative constitutional justices, Alito and Thomas, are in that kind of retirement window, if you will, when it comes to their age and their time on the bench. so tell us what your thoughts are on the next few years, next two and a half years, and the likelihood that a vacancy would occur.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Sure. Well, and we'll start, Walker, by saying, I know you and I agree on this. we love Justices Thomas and Alito. They're American heroes, treasures. And I, you know, a big part of me doesn't want them going anywhere because replacing them would be incredibly difficult, both in terms of finding someone of that quality, but then also getting them onto the court and getting them confirmed. But, you know, we. We all have our time, and, how much longer they'll be on the court, we don't know. There's been a lot of talk over the last year about the possibility. But it has heated up massively this week, Walker, because, back on, I think it was March 20th, if I remember correctly, justice, Samuel Alito was in Philadelphia giving a speech, and the reports are that he fell ill, went by the hospital, he was checked out, he didn't stay the night, but At least it was a bit of a scare. You know, something that will get you to the hospital is something to pay attention to. And so then, yesterday, President Trump was being interviewed by Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business, and he brought up the topic, or they addressed the topic of a potential vacancy with Justice Alito. And then there's been talk in the Senate this week. I mean, we have friends in the Senate, and we hear what's happening, but the senators are preparing for it. They're talking about the possibility. Matter of fact, I would say it's gone from a possibility to a probability in their eyes. By probability, I mean greater than 50%, more likely than not. Justice Alito is the one that knows whether he'll. Whether he'll leave, and of course, the Lord God knows, but we have to be ready. And so it looks like the Senate is preparing for that possibility. Probability Whatever you want to call it. And we are too, because we cannot afford to trade someone, like Justice Alito for, with all due respect, someone like Chief Justice Roberts. that would be a net loss on the court. And we've gained so much ground. If one of these guys, Thomas or Alito, leaves, we have to be ready to replace them with someone as good as they are.
Walker: Philip Jauregui says there hasn't been enough research on Supreme Court nominees
>> Walker Wildmon: Philip, tell our audience about, some of the mistakes of the past. I know you alluded to them, but this is, President Trump's three appointments, and you might have briefly passed this by President Trump's appointment. Previous three appointments, whether it be Kavanaugh, whether it be Gorsuch or Barrett, have been what? I would, I would say they've been pretty good, but that's far from really good. There's a huge gap there. for example, Gorsuch wrote, drafted the majority opinion on the Bostic case, which was a disaster of a case about a cross dressing funeral home worker. Really bad case, really bad ruling. you and others did some research even before Gorsuch was nominated and when he was nominated and saw some red flags in his history there, but nonetheless, talk about the stakes and how in the past there just hasn't been a lot of true research and knowledge, on nominees.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Yep. It is shocking when you think about it, Walker, because when we have a House seat, you know, U.S. house seat for two years, you know, a Supreme Court seat can be for 30 years, a generation or more, but a House seat for two years, people get very intense about researching records and looking into it, as they should. But for some reason, when it comes to Supreme Court seats, people haven't done that. And so you and American Family association have seen the importance of this and invested early and said, look, we don't have a vacancy right now, you know, three, three and a half years ago. But let's start the work. Because you can't start this type of intense research, right? When a vacancy happens, you have to have done it in advance. And so we've done that. We've spent, gosh, thousands of hours, maybe over 10,000 hours researching different prospects, over 35 of them. These are names that different people talk about. And rather than just throw out an opinion, anyone can do that, right? We've said, no, let's go do the research. Let's generate 20, 40, 60, 80 pages of research. Let's boil it down to a summary. Some of Those summaries are 15 to 20 pages. And then let's really decide, is this person someone that would Make a great justice. We've done that. And we have, you know, six people that we put on a green list, others that we have concerns about. But, that's the type of thing that needs to happen because with the Supreme Court, it's a body of nine. It's a majority of five. One vote from Alito to someone else can make all the difference. And then we'll have to live with that, for a generation or more. So it's really important.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. Philip, tell our folks, once again the name of your book and the various places they can find it.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Thank you. Thank you, Walker, for that softball pitch. It's the parable of the prodigal corporate court. You can remember that better than they can remember spelling my last name. Right.
>> Walker Wildmon: There you go.
>> Phillip Jauregui: The Parable of the prodigal court. And you can get it At Amazon or any major bookseller.
>> Walker Wildmon: Hey, Philip, you're the only one that gets softballs on the show.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Thank you. Thank you.
>> Walker Wildmon: Congratulations. Appreciate, it. Philip. Hey, thanks for making time this afternoon at a short notice and, we'll be in touch.
>> Phillip Jauregui: Thanks a ton.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's Philip Jauregui. The Parable of the Prodigal Court is his brand new book, just out in the last few weeks. You can find it where all, books are sold, most major book sellers, bookstores. You can find it. The Parable of the Prodigal Court. Your Invitation to Shift a Nation back to God by Philip Juregi. We're going to link to that. Bobby's, going to link to that on the show. Notes under today's episode At least linked to the Barnes and Noble version, so you can get the full title and everything there.
The potential of a Supreme Court vacancy is in the news
this is, folks, this is, in the news. The potential of a Supreme Court vacancy is in the news. It's been talked about. President Trump answered a question on it with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business earlier this week. And we're ready, folks. We're ready. We've got six green listers. We've been doing this for three years. We are, the most prepared as an evangelical Christian movement that we've ever been in modern history when it comes to a future Supreme Court vacancy in the past, as Philip alluded to, we've been flat footed. We've been on our heels. We've been unprepared. We wait until there's a vacancy and then we start scrambling. But folks, we've done. He said 10,000. The latest number, that 10,000 hours of research is about a year old. We're At 15,000 hours of research FAR AFA action in the center for Judicial Renewal. And, and all of this is public. See, this is what makes what we're doing here different than what other groups do. What other groups do is they do research. Probably not as good as our research, but they do research, but they don't publish it. Nobody can read it. It's internal research. It's highly confidential and they don't share it. And so what we're doing, and then some people don't even do research and they recommend people for the courts and don't do research. But what we're doing here is not only are we doing the research, as Philip mentioned, Sometimes we're producing 60 to 80 page research papers on one judge, but we're publishing it. It's publicly available information on our website. And so no, no secrets, no confidentiality. This is our research. And we stand by our research and our green list. On our green list we have six individuals. We have Andrew Bailey, who is currently co deputy Director At the FBI. He also, was former Attorney General for the State of Missouri. We have the Honorable Kyle Duncan, who is currently on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We have the Honorable James Ho, who is also currently on the U.S. circuit, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. We have John Sauer, who is the current Solicitor General. He was the one actually just argued the birthright citizenship case before SCOTUS a couple weeks ago. We brought his clip in. He's on our green list. We have the honorable Lawrence Vanliere Dyke. He's on the 9th Circuit. And then Kristin Wagner, the CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom, otherwise known as ADF. Kristin Wagner is on our green list as well. Those are our six green listers. It's on the website over At afaaction.net if you click on the center for Government Renewal. I'm sorry, the center for Judicial Renewal, CJR. The center for Judicial Renewal tab right there. You'll see, the nominee tabs and you can click on Supreme Court Prospects and then click on the individual and you can see our research. All you have to do is enter your email and zip code, to get the research. It'll be downloaded as a PDF, PDF and you can read through it, examine it and fact check it if you would like. we put a lot of time into this with our law clerks and Phillip's team there over At CJR At AFA Action. So we'll keep tracking it. If there's a vacancy, it's going to be At the end of June or early July. And we have to get this right. These stakes are so high, it's very hard to even explain and convince or rather articulate how high the stakes are with having the two oldest justices also being the most conservative and the best. We have to get this right. We have to have the best of the best to replace them. We'll be back. 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 £250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com AFR At the Core podcast are available At afr.net now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon welcomes back Chris Woodward on American Family Radio
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. Walker Wildmon here. American Family Radio, afr.net is our website. You can also download the American Family Radio app for free At your app Store AFR app. You can also subscribe to this show's podcast and all the major podcast libraries. Just type in At the Core and click the subscribe or the Follow button and the latest episode will be ready to go, downloaded queued up in your library each and every afternoon. Chris Woodward is with us. Hey, Chris welcome back.
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you very much,
>> Walker Wildmon: The Iran war has entered, a new phase, if you will, while we're still within the ceasefire. President Trump has said, he's not interested in extending the ceasefire, but he also didn't, suggest that he's also interested in going back to bombing Iran. So there's somewhat of an unknown as to exactly what's going to happen. but nonetheless, the markets like what's currently going on, right?
>> Chris Woodward: They do, yeah. I mean, stocks have been doing great. they closed again in positive territory yesterday. I have the numbers from yesterday's record
>> Walker Wildmon: highs for the S and P. Oh, yeah, yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: The S&P 500 rose 0.3% yesterday, a day after, topping its all time high set in January for its 11th gain in 12 days. the Dow added 0.2%. The Nasdaq rose 0.4%. Strong profit reports from several big U.S. companies helped support the market and offset any climb for oil prices. For the doom and gloom, people out there, you need to give it a few days because there's nothing for you to argue.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah. I'll say this, Chris by the way, this is a prerecorded show. Our Friday editions are typically prerecorded and full disclosure. So some of the market news we're giving you is as of the show's recording. but this is Thursday afternoon. I'm just looking At the S and P, looking over At cnbc. Chris today on this Thursday afternoon, the S and P posted a new record, obviously over 7,000, which was the second record day, because Wednesday also closed At a record, and the Nasdaq notched the longest win streak since 2009.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.
I'm skeptical of President Trump's Iran plan
>> Walker Wildmon: So, Chris here's what I want to confess. well, it's not much of a confession, but. But I do want to be honest with our audience. As I said last, in the first segment, I've been a little skeptical with what the overarching plan in Iran is. Oh, yeah, I'm not. I'm not At all At odds with. With Iran. Can't have a nuke. I, 100% agree with that. I'm, not At all At odds, you know, with US Military power and using it when we need to. Completely good with that. But what I've been. What's been concerning to me is just how do we figure out how to wrap this thing up? Because we can't do this forever. And to President Trump's defense, he doesn't have a record At all of getting the US Involved in anything that. Anything that is a conflict for more than weeks or months. Sure. I mean, he just doesn't. He's not interested in that. So President Trump has a very good track record on doing what he has to do and then being done with. He did it with Venezuela, he's done it with Midnight Hammer, he did it with Soleimani, et cetera. So this is probably President Trump ultimately being exonerated from the skeptics here, including myself, if he doesn't go back to the kinetic strikes and the bombing of Iran. now, I'm not suggesting we just throw up our hands and get out. I, think we got to keep an eye on Iran, and I think he will. We've got this naval blockade currently going on, but I think, Chris I think if we don't go back to bombs dropping, missiles flying, drones flying. I think if we don't go back to that, I think the market's pretty good with whatever we do.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I would say so. I would definitely say so. And I mean, to your point that he doesn't get us involved in lengthy wars. It may feel like we've been At this for six months, based on. You're being bombarded by it on the television every day. we're not even two months into Operation Epic Fury. It began the last day in February, and it appears to be nearing an end. And now you've got the reported peace deal between Israel and Lebanon, which is really a deal between Israel and Hezbollah that, runs wild in Lebanon. so that's going to add, stability to the region. Now there was even news that Lebanon might sign on to the Abraham Accords, which would be another feather in the cap of President, Trump and his, foreign policy that began in his first term.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: so if they can reach some sort of, end of the fighting there in Iran, the straits fully open, there's oil flowing for countries that need it, not ours, because we get our own, a lot of it. All of this is going to, help the market. And the market's already been doing well, as I said, like, strong profit. Profit reports, from several big companies, pleased investors and analysts. So things are doing well. And that is coming on the heels of the. I didn't have this because we didn't have a segment last week, but, the jobs numbers for March were fantastic. 178,000 in March. The unemployment rate, 4.3%. And the reason we had job gains was because of construction, transportation and warehousing. What does that mean? People are building things, they're buying things, which means things have to be taken to a store and you don't warehouse things unless there's demand, for them.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. The underlying fundamentals are strong, Chris. And we've got. The manufacturing and industrials and shipping are doing very well. doing very, very well. Which is. Which is an underlying indicator of the entire economy for the most part. I do want to play a, Well, before I play this clip, I made a post about two weeks into this conflict in Iran, and I said, in summary, that if President Trump can find an off ramp, whether it's all out, victory, ceasefire, whatever you want to call it, if President Trump can find an off ramp and then not allow this to impact the economy long term, I'm talking inflation, energy prices, et cetera, then he can quickly get back to rebuilding the economy and the momentum he has going, in plenty of time before the midterms. And that's looking like the pivot he's currently doing. I do want to play this clip here. Scott Bessent.
Chris Woodward: I don't think this war will have long term impact on inflation
Was question on inflation, whether these, this brief spike in energy prices are going to affect inflation and what the post war environment would look like from an economic perspective. Clip one. You're saying we've seen the worst of it here.
>> Scott Bessent: look, I don't make market predictions but I think the market is like the, the sum of all the thinking and you know, it is a group and markets live in the future. And what I've tried to say is that this war will end. I don't know whether it's three days, three weeks, three months, but it will end. We will get on the other side of this and what we've seen in the inflation data, core inflation is coming down. It is noise, the noisy energy component. And we've seen oil, oil prices collapse over the past two weeks. Interest rates are coming back down. I came out and said I think the Fed has been wrong on their inflation projections that it is clear that core is coming down. if they need for their own sanity to wait on interest rate cuts, I understand it, but I think that means they're just going to be able to do more on the other side when it is clear the core, the core is coming down and there is no transmission from the energy price into
>> Walker Wildmon: core goods underlying inflation. So he doesn't think that this war is going to have a long term impact on inflation. I don't think it will either. because Chris this is not a, this is not a fundamentals problem or an embedded problem if you will. It's very temporary.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I would say so. I mean it's got to be nearing some sort of an end. What else does Iran have?
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: we, we. I know that the Trump administration has said we've decimated their navy and their army and all these things and we have like At what, I mean At some point you run out of people and things to what are they going to start throwing rocks? I mean that's not going to do anything.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: So At some point it's going to come into an end, possibly even with help from the Arab countries over there that are tired of Iran, doing things because they're not Arabs, they're a different group of people and they have a different religion compared to the other, Muslims over there in the Middle East. So it's going to end and I do think it's going to help. But you know, he mentioned that noisy energy component. They've got to bring it into it At some point soon.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: Because it's great my 401k is doing, well, all this kind of stuff, but there's a lot of people that can't afford to drive their kids back and forth to practice.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: there's a lot of people that maybe are second guessing vacation plans for this summer. Especially if you live in California, where, Lord help you, you're paying seven bucks a gallon now.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: I mean, it could be 10 bucks a gallon. $10 a gallon in the United States of America when we're sitting on top, all type of stuff. So they do need to bring an end to it. And if they can get it done and start pumping more oil and doing all the things that they are were doing before Operation Epic Fury began, all these things together will help. And really, I would advise Trump to go back on the road and do the energy town hall meetings. Energy economic town hall meetings.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: And don't make it into a MAGA rally. Do some visual aids, explain to the people again what you were, what life was like for you under Biden and Kamala. Yes, and how I've benefited things. Because right now a lot of people are spending the money they got back from the big beautiful bill act on gas.
>> Walker Wildmon: Right.
>> Chris Woodward: And they don't want to do that.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, I agree. And I think that to answer the question I know a lot of people are asking, because I've seen it online, is, you know, if we've got all this energy, why are our gas prices going up even though we import effectively zero energy close to it from the Strait of Hormuz? Well, the reality is, is that we're tethered to the global markets.
>> Chris Woodward: Right.
>> Walker Wildmon: That's just how this works. So when, even for commodities, when commodities get affected in Ukraine, like I think they were big on wheat or something, it affects commodity markets here in the US because we're on a. There is a global economic system that is all tethered. And so energy, disruptions in other parts of the world affect the markets here domestically.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, what you just said is exactly what a guy told me in a story. I've got several things, coming in the next few days. So, stick with AFN and, AFR for those stories. But I talked to an energy guy today. Like, why is it when something happens, gas shoots up the next day? And why is it it's always really slow to come down when things, are peaceful? Why is it that we're impacted by, what's going on in the Strait even though we don't need the oil? All those things you just Said was literally what he told me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, here's what could happen. This will be like an ultimate victory economically on behalf of President Trump is we've now unlocked because Venezuela wants to play ball. Let's just use that talk, that, jargon. Venezuela, they saw what happened to their quote unquote leader, Maduro, and they don't want it to happen to them. So they did a common sense thing and they said, hey, we'll play ball. So Venezuela is in lockstep with U.S. officials, and their energy is now on the global market. It's not sanctioned anymore. So we're importing Venezuelan oil to the Gulf of America and we're refining it and then we're selling it. So, that's happening now. Venezuela has the largest oil reserve in the world.
Both Venezuela and Iran have vast potential to increase exports if they're unsanctioned
All right, go over to Iran, with the, millions of barrels they can put out through their car, Guyland. If you get Iran to, quote, unquote, play ball, then that oil goes from sanctioned to on the global market. So my point is both Venezuela and Iran have a, have vast potential to increase their exports of oil if they're unsanctioned. But the problem with sanctioned oil, among many things, is the market is limited. We're talking China, m. Russia, North Korea, some of these rogue, nation states that buy this black market energy. So if we put the millions of barrel from Venezuela on the global market, and then you throw Iran and get theirs on the global market because they want to play ball, then not only can those countries make more money on their energy, but Chris that increases the global supply of oil, which drives down prices. So if that can all work together, Chris we could get to that $2 a gallon or less that we've been dreaming.
>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. If that happens, and I hope it does, the president, the energy secretary, Interior Secretary, a whole bunch of.
>> Walker Wildmon: They better get some kind of award.
>> Chris Woodward: They need to do, a live, live hit, outside a gas station. Yeah. Somewhere.
>> Walker Wildmon: $1.75.
>> Chris Woodward: You know, and Trump could do the whole reenactment. I did that. Yeah, except it's in reverse. I brought this down. I said I would fix it, and I did.
>> Walker Wildmon: Exactly.
>> Chris Woodward: It may not. It's. Believe me, it's uncomfortable. I was paying like $2 if I had enough fuel.
>> Walker Wildmon: I paid 100. I paid 100 bucks to fill my truck.
>> Chris Woodward: Oh, man. I mean, I had. Before this conflict began, I had just a little bit of fuel points from the grocery store that we shop At here in our area. Oh, yeah, I was paying like a dollar or something for gas.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: And now it's like $4.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Chris Woodward: You know.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yep. That'll hurt your feelings, my friend. well, look, this President Trump and his, Cabinet, is clearly, obviously, they're on their A game. They're doing everything they can to mitigate, what's going on economically. But in the long run, folks, if the Strait of Hormuz gets reopened, and especially if Iran wants to play ball and play nice and we get that oil on the market, down the road, and when I say down the road, I'm talking 6, 9, 12 months down the road, not only are we fully recovered from this temporary setback, but we're doing even better than we were before. There's a lot of potential here. President Trump is known to move things a whole lot quicker than the experts estimate, and there's just a lot of potential here. And then on the energy side, Chris I know we talk occasionally about this, this modular nuclear energy that is currently, currently being, ah, permitted very quickly, before the end of this term, we could have modular nuclear reactors running cities, running power plants, I mean, running data centers. And, I think there's a, there's a future, Chris in the next five to 10 years where even our home energy prices are drastically more affordable than they are today.
>> Chris Woodward: That would definitely help.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, so, so a lot of upside. If we can keep the right officials in place, that is President Trump, and we can keep moving the ball down the field. Chris thanks for coming on.
American Family News provides Christian news from a Christian perspective
>> Chris Woodward: Thank you.
>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks, check out American Family News. AFN.netAFN.net your news from a Christian perspective. We'll see you next time. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
