President Donald Trump announces a series of executive actions regarding pardons and commutations
Good evening.
Speaker B: We're coming on the air with more breaking news on this historic day. On the evening of his inauguration, President Donald Trump, not wasting any time getting down to business. He has just returned to the White House and assigning a series of executive actions in the Oval Office, where he is pardoning some 1500 January6 rioters who have been convicted for participating in the attack on the Capitol four years ago. The President is speaking now. Let's listen in.
Donald Trump: Yes, sir. First, we have a list of, pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6, 2021.
Donald Trump: Okay. And how many people is this?
Donald Trump: I think this order will apply to approximately 1500 people, sir.
Donald Trump: So this is January 6th. these are the hostages. Approximately 1500 for a pardon?
Donald Trump: Yes.
Donald Trump: Full pardon.
Sandy Rios: Full pardon or commutation?
Donald Trump: Full pardon. We have six commutations in there where we're doing further research. Nice to see you again. So this is a big one. Anything you want to explain about this? We hope they get them. We hope they come out tonight. Frankly, if you're expecting it, approximately 1500 people, six commutations.
Rod Martin: Were there any cases you did not commute or part.
Donald Trump: We're looking at different things. but, the commutations would be the ones that we'll take a look, and maybe it'll stay that way or it'll go to. In a full pardon.
Donald Trump: And the order does require the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons and commutation orders. Sir, this is a.
Donald Trump: Why don't we get that down so they can get them going right now?
Donald Trump: Yes, sir.
Donald Trump: Okay.
Donald Trump: Yep. Absolutely. This is a proclamation guaranteeing, the state's protection against invasion based on the current crisis at the southern border and invokes various executive powers relating to the ongoing invasion at the southern border.
President Trump pardoned 1500 people connected to the January Six riot
Speaker B: All right, President Trump, you heard him pardoning, 1500, people connected to the January Six riot. the, former or the President referencing, that he wants it to happen right away. And the wording that he announced sounds like that would be the requirement. We have a live picture, I believe, from the federal prison, near D.C. here, that the many of those people are being held.
Sandy Rios: All right, that's just partial. Bruce and I were at the inauguration a year ago last January, and, it was bitter, bitter cold, but it was fabulous. And we went to our hotel room. It was actually late at night, and he had just, you know, come back from the balls President Trump had. We turned on the television, and this is what we heard. President Trump pardoning the J6ers. Well, if you listen to me, you know that that's been a huge issue for me on the morning show, when I did the morning show for American Family Radio and then moving into the podcast, because I, was a great defender of many m of the. Most of the J6ers, because it was terrible what happened to them and how they suffered and were imprisoned and, treated really like enemy combatants, you know, deprived of food and deprived of amenities. It was a horrible, horrible things. Some of them were in prison for four years, not even convicted, just, just there held. And so when President Trump did this and he sat there pardoned them, you hear. You hear his signature, that big signature of Donald Trump. and so that went on for hours, that I think he. I think he signed something like 200 orders that night. We didn't hear all of them because we had to go to bed. But that's how it started. That's how it started.
President Trump's administration is greatly threatened by outcome of midterm elections
And today we're going to walk down memory lane a bit, because President Trump has only been president for 18 months, something like that, and we have an election coming up, a midterm, and his administration is greatly threatened by the outcome of this election. It matters, if the Democrats get enough gains in the Senate and in the House, President Trump won't be able to do anything. His hands will be tied. They will sue him at every level. And they're going to come after the justices. Sheldon Whitehouse just made that statement. They're going to, subpoena the justices of the Supreme Court, the conservative justices. They mentioned Clarence Thomas by name. they're going to be, this. The border will be open. Well, not after this particular election, but they will, they will be on their way to winning the whole, the whole thing. It is really important that you vote. And I know some of you are a little bit disgruntled or upset about prices and other things. but this, today, is just a chance to remind you of what President Trump has actually done and the long view of what's happening.
Sandy Rios: Preborn is in the business of saving babies
But before we get into that, our sponsor is preborn. And PreBorn, you know, by now, is in the business of saving babies. And by the way, you know, all those organizations like preborn and crisis pregnancy, there will be hell to pay for them, too. if we have a change, if the Democrats take over, because we are hated Christians and conservatives are hated by them. We don't like the left, but they hate us. And you've got in the mix of that, the Islamists and all of that, this is maybe, you know, you may not hear, people ask for support for preborn and others for very long because there may be great danger in doing that and even writing the check if they take over banking and elect, you know, make all of our banking a federal currency, electronic currency. It's just, the horrors. There's a long list. And so I'm tying it into this because I want you to understand we may not be able to save babies lives for very much longer. It's possible that that may not be possible. And communist countries, they don't care about babies. They used abortion as birth control. And that seems to me where we're headed under, under this kind of surge that we're experiencing right now from the left. So if you'd like to help preborn now while you can. I, mean that in all sincerity. It's $28 for one ultrasound. $28. and that's the mother seeing her baby for the first time. And generally speaking, most of the time she just can't take its life. And so it's a wonderful, wonderful thing that preborn does. If you'd like to help, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy. All right, well, we have a great guest today. His name is Rod Martin. Rod was one of the, early founders of PayPal, but he has got, ah, a resume that's so long I won't be able to get to it. But he's just a brilliant guy. He's been a friend through the years and, and he has written an article about the 25, just 25 of the accomplishments of President Trump during this administration. And I think you'll find it fascinating and actually very helpful as you share it with your friends. And we'll do that on this edition of Sandy Rios, 247 from American Family Radio.
Longtime Fox News contributor Sandy Rios speaks out on pro-life issues
Sandy Rios. We are not called to be nice. We are often called to be confrontational. And here with me in D.C. is Fox News contributor Sandy Rios. I think the most important thing we need to demonstrate to our children is genuineness, that we actually believe what we say we believe. Longtime Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, thanks very much for being with us.
Sandy Rios: Seek justice. Not social justice, but God's justice, what's right and what's wrong. Sandy Rios is with the American Family Association, a pro life radio talk show host.
Sandy Rios: We've got to say, this is the line. Life is sacred. Director of Governmental affairs for the American Family Association. Step up, speak up. Say something, do something. All right, Sandy Rios with you.
Nicole Russell: I don't regret voting for Trump, but I'm disappointed
And, today I'm just going to point to an article that I read. It came out on August 5th. It was from USA Today, and the title is I don't regret voting for Trump, but I'm disappointed. And the points that this author, Nicole Russell makes, she says, I voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 and I don't regret it. In his first year, he delivered on many of his core promises. Lower taxes, lower inflation and a secure border. Migrant crossings at the U. S. Mexico border are now at their lowest levels in 50 years. These are extraordinary feats. But with the Iran war now passing five months, I'm growing disillusioned with Trump. He's chosen to focus on Iran as much as, if not more than, issues that actually affect everyday Americans. It's proving to be an extraordinary unforced error and it's backfiring.
Rod Martin is the founder and CEO of the Martin organization
All right, so that article really triggered something in me because, and it reflects what I'm seeing on social media and online, just so much, complaint about the administration right now. And I recognize things are not perfect, but I thought it was time for us to talk about something different. And then I saw an article by my friend Rod Martin, and it's about, the list every conservative should know and use. And we're going to talk about that today. Rod Martin is with us. Rod is the founder and CEO of the Martin organization. Fox Business News, calls Rod not Rob, a, ah, tech guru. And Britain's Guardian describes him as a philosopher capitalist, while Gawker once described him as another of, of PayPal founder Peter Thiel's brilliant non conformists. He's addressed audiences in four countries, has written extensively for publications such as Forbes, Human Events, Fortune and Fox News, and he's a member of Stratford's Stratfor's board of contributors. And you know what? He's done so many more things. I think he's most famous for kind of setting up the, what became PayPal. They called it the PayPal mafia, which became wildly successful. And that's one of the things he's most known for. But he's done so many other things, I don't have time to read them. So, Rod, thank you so much for joining us. We, we really appreciate you giving us your time this morning.
Rod Martin: Sandy, I always love to spend time with you.
Sandy Rios: Oh, that's what you say to everybody anyway, but thank you, I appreciate it. No, we do have a good friendship and I love talking to you.
Rod Martin wrote a list of President Trump's top 25 achievements
So, Rod, it's interesting you wrote this list, and I didn't say what it is, it's a list of President Trump's accomplishments. It's funny because it tracked with me because I had read this article and started my own list just for my own. I was going to make some of the points on the radio. By the way, I lost my list, so I'm glad you have. I have yours in my hand. But, what made you write this? What was the thing that triggered you to make this list?
Rod Martin: Well, I have to say first, it's been an awfully popular list. Dan Bongino featured it the other day. Roger Stone did a full hour with me on Sunday on his radio show on it. And the answer is really simple. Conservatives, unceasingly black pill. It is just, it's nonsensical. They're getting more of what they wanted in the most compressed time ever than anybody thought was possible. And they're all down at the mouth, oh, everything's terrible. And it doesn't matter what you tell them, they'll come up with some new thing. Well, but he hasn't done this well. He's been in office for a year and a half. What do you want? Nobody has ever moved quicker than this president in this term. He was actually a really good president in the first term, but he was a little bit bedeviled by the entirety of official Washington trying to destroy his presidency and ultimately succeeding, through the pandemic and the 2020 election. But this presidency, it's perfectly obvious this man got together the best and most loyal people at Mar a Lago for four years and planned out every moment of a four year presidency. And they have been executing on it at breakneck speed. And, and for conservatives not to appreciate this honestly deserves defeat. Conservatives deserve the socialist nightmare if they can't cheer for the partial victories that lead to greater ones. We are an ungrateful, ridiculous group of people. And the left is right to mock us. They are right to deride us if we can't recognize progress when we see it. I contend in this article, Trump's top 25 achievements, which you can [email protected] where we do daily geopolitical analysis. Fox Business calls Absolutely phenomenal. Rodmartin.org, trump's top 25 achievements. Honestly, they just scratched the surface. And conservatives should not just be grateful for what's being achieved. And it's the tip of the iceberg. It's a beginning, not an end. conservatives should be proclaiming it to their friends who have felt betrayed or let down for 20 years and don't know how to recognize victory when they finally win it.
Sandy Rios: Well, I am totally tracking with you, Rod, and I hear this all the time. And, you know, especially about the Iran war, which is what this author goes on to talk about. And this is what everybody's talking about because prices are still high, gas prices are still high. And, and I do feel like there's a bit of spoiledness, and I know that's offensive to people who are genuinely struggling. And, you know, they are, Rod. I see, you know, waitresses in restaurants who don't have insurance and they're limping because they have bad knees or hips. You know, just plain people who. They are having a hard time. So you have to be patient and kind with them. But the larger point has to be made, which is what we're going to try to make today. As you said it so well, it's been a short time, and he has. President Trump has accomplished so much, and there's no way anyone with a rational mind could believe that President Donald Trump, who has shown over and over again how much he cares about the American people, is going to leave this the way it is. If any president, could bring m us out of the brink in terms of our debt and give us, bring us into some kind of success and stability and price, better prices, it's him. Who else is going to be. Have that capacity? So that's my speech for today.
Rod Martin: But, well, and Sandy, you said something really important there. I want to distinguish between my criticism of some of us and the waitress down at the diner down the street from me who is struggling. She doesn't know what is happening for her and on her behalf. She needs somebody to explain it to her. But how is anybody going to explain it to her? If the conservatives who ought to know, who have all the information in the world at their fingertips on little supercomputers we carry around in our pockets, how, if they won't explain it, can the president do their work for them? He's actually sleeping, like, four hours a night. He has accomplished more in a year and a half than any other president has ever accomplished in four years. He can't carry all this burden. You and I have to carry some of this burden. We all have to carry some of this burden. We have to explain what's happening, why it's happening, where it's headed, and then get that waitress to the polls.
Sandy Rios: Good response, Rod. Very good.
An astonishing number of Republican voters cannot name three things President Trump has accomplished
All right. On, your article, this is what you. I want to read your words here, because you say, with the midterms coming, an astonishing number of Republican voters cannot name three things President Trump has accomplished. Which is remarkable when you consider that Donald Trump has accomplished more in a year and a half than any other president ever did in four. And that is kind of part of the problem, isn't it, Rod? He's accomplished so much that people can't keep up.
Rod Martin: It's overload. You're right. But we have all these blessings, and we should actually appreciate them. when we're actually winning, we should notice we've been getting our chops beaten up for decades. Conservatives have let Republicans down. I'm sorry, Republican leaders have let conservatives down for year after year after year. All these broken promises, and we still have some of that in Congress now. I just think that what Jon Thune is doing with the SAVE act so far is unconscionable. That's frustrating. But even there, that's a Trump accomplishment. We have massively upgraded the quality of Republican officeholders under Donald Trump. And part of that is because Donald Trump has done something that Republican leaders really never did before, which is endorse in contested primaries and actually recruit more conservative candidates to run against Rhinos. So, you know, we have had exactly one United States senator defeated in his own primary in the last 20, 25 years, until this year, when Donald Trump took out Jon Cornyn and Bill Cassidy in their own primaries with massively better Republicans and pretty much led to the retirements of Thom Tillis and M. Mitch McConnell. That's two more seats that should be held by much better Republicans. Well, you tell me what happens with four more solid Republican senators who aren't Rhinos and aren't always playing footsie with the socialists. That's a huge, upgrade. And it's a huge upgrade across governorships and state legislatures and countless offices across the fruited plain. And it's because Donald Trump mobilized his war machine on behalf of us against the Rhinos, who have dominated the party for most of our lives. That's a huge accomplishment all by itself, if you want to get into the rest.
Rod Patel: Donald Trump has shut down border crossings since he became president
Oh, my goodness. Where would we even begin? He's absolutely shut down border crossings. There simply haven't been any illegal border crossings pretty much since he became president. It's ridiculous, especially after we heard for four years under Joe Biden that the president doesn't have any legal tools with which to stop border crossings. He must have new legislation. That was a complete lie, and Donald Trump just proved it. we have eliminated Catch and release we have restored remain in Mexico. Releases into the country are down by 99.9%. Mass migration done. We aren't having any caravans coming across the border. Remember all those pictures?
Sandy Rios: Oh, my goodness.
Rod Martin: Now 3 million illegal aliens have left in a year and a half, and only a little under 700,000 of those were forcibly deported, which is expensive and time consuming because the Democrats go to court and try to fight for them to stay. No, no, no. Trump got them to self deport. Whoever even heard of.
Sandy Rios: I know, I know.
Rod Martin: They actually released an app that lets you sign up to leave. And if you do, we'll give you a free plane ticket, some spending money, and you get to get in the line to come back legally. otherwise you're not allowed to ever come back. He has solved the biggest problem in America completely, in a year and a half. It's amazing.
Sandy Rios: It is. You know, and I don't know I'm going to jump into something here, but I don't want to get off the track. Thom Tellis just announced that he's going to, he's going to put a stay or a block. He's going to stop the Save America act and whatever a hole they call it on whatever form that bill takes, I think, reconciliation. And he's saying, that there's just no time. There's no time now. It's not possible. It's a silly endeavor. So he's going to stop it. And that reminds me of President Trump, who does things, amazing things, who thought he could close off that border. We all remember those images, Rod, of people just going, coming across the river, climbing over the fence, masses of people in the field. And he stopped it. And I just want to underscore what you just said.
Rod Martin: that was organized with taxpayer money. Your money was being used against you for the purpose of breaking the law with impunity. And it went on for years. And we discovered that when Elon went in and just shut down USAID with Marco Rubio, they transferred the actual humanitarian aid done at usaid, which turned out to be a small fraction of the budget. USAID is completely unaccountable, completely unfavorable. Leadership was administering a budget larger than the State Department and the CIA combined, most of which was going for wonderful things like overthrowing, foreign governments and forcibly sterilizing 300,000 Native women in Peru and LGBT parades in Africa and, you know, everything in the world except actual humanitarian aid. But it gets worse, because it's very clear from what has emerged as Rubio has Gotten a handle on the former usaid, which, to be clear, Trump closed one of the biggest agencies of our government gone. That's an achievement. Turns out they were spending an awful lot of money indirectly through NGOs, and not just from USAID, even from the Department of Energy, even from the EPA. Grant monies going to NGOs who spent it to recruit. Recruit illegal aliens to come to the United States and pay their way to get here. We put a stop to that. That's over. That's an enormous amount of waste and fraud and honestly, criminal expenditure of taxpayer money. There are people who should go to prison. And the good news is the Justice Department is actually investigating them. The bad news is the Justice Department is still partly controlled by the other teams. So Todd Blanche has his work cut out for him, as Pam Bondi did before, but they're making progress on it. They are actually cleaning up that piece of the swamp. And as we get more decent people in place, we're actually going after these wrongdoers. That raises another point I have to say everybody wants to talk about. There aren't any arrests. Not true. We've arrested a shocking number of pedophiles. We have arrested a shocking number of human traffickers. The administration has found hundreds of thousands of children. The Biden administration just lost. Are you kidding? We've also indicted Jim Comey, twice, the former head of the FBI. He's going to prison. He's going to get indicted a third time in this grand conspiracy investigation going on in the Southern District of Florida, which happened because of a creative legal theory Cash Patel came up with to get that accountability in a federal district that could actually get you a fair trial and a fair jury, unlike the District of Columbia or Northern Virginia. So we're making huge progress on this. These cases take a little time to build because you actually have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And honestly, the Biden team destroyed evidence right and left. So it's hard. It takes a minute, but it's all happening. And this is something conservatives have to actually understand. We're winning, we're getting our way. This president is doing what he promised. But you don't get everything you want on the first day. It just. Life doesn't work that way.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, you would know that. Building a company, and I think George Washington knew that. Building a country. You built a company, he'll build a country. It's not easy.
Donald Trump brought about the largest violent crime drop in American history
The one thing that caught my eye, too, you know, we've had such a problem with crime. it's just Gotten out of control with illegal immigrants, with, in the inner cities. It's been Chicago's, our hometown, and it's just, become a terrible place to go now. And then of course, DC and all this. And so crime is down. Tell us about that.
Rod Martin: Well, as you know, there are about four major metropolitan areas in the United States, all of which have been run by Democrats basically forever. That account for nearly all the violent crime in the country. If you factored those metro areas out, America doesn't have the top murder rate in the world. It's like 137th. If you've got those Democrat cities under some measure of control, everything changes. Well, guess what Donald Trump did. He put the National Guard on the streets. All the liberals called oh, fascism. No, you didn't say it was fascism. When Dwight Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to desegregate Little Rock Central High in Arkansas. You didn't say that. When Bush sent in the national guard in LA during the riots in 92. That was fascism. You didn't say it when any other president ever did it. And they all have from time to time. What's different here is that Donald Trump sent them proactively into key metro areas. The worst of course, being Washington D.C. and here's what they did. They were there to add manpower. They could detain a criminal. What they couldn't do is arrest or charge him. There's no martial law in this. They're just extending the reach of the local police. And then a police officer has to come, determine if the guy detained actually qualifies. You know, is there probable cause, should we arrest him, et cetera. So normal law enforcement actually takes care of all of that and then it goes through the justice system. But the National Guard made Washington one of the safest cities in America instead of the absolute most dangerous. That's extraordinary. And of course, it wasn't just dc, it's Memphis and its other cities. That's on top of what ICE has been doing. And the Democrats refuse to believe that any of these undocumented citizens whom, the law deems illegal aliens could possibly ever do anything wrong. But we know better than that. And that's exactly why Donald Trump got the, Lake and Wriley act passed, requiring detention of criminal illegal aliens. He actually brought about the largest violent crime drop in American history over the last year. A shocking one year decline. And wait, it gets better. We now have the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years. Wow. After just a year and a half of Donald Trump Yeah.
Sandy Rios: You write in your article here that murder alone fell 18.1%. That's huge. Ron. If he, that's all he had done. Yeah. In a year. I know, it's amazing.
Ron DeSantis: Donald Trump has repealed 129 regulations in his first term
So, so let's go on. This is a little bit obscure. People don't understand about, regulations. And let me just. Before you talk about this, let me remind people that during the Obama years, the agencies of the government were able to make regulations that were as binding as law. And people were fined for doing things that they had no idea they shouldn't be doing. I remember the, the, Gipson's guitar factory. Remember this rod was rated by swat, I think in Nashville or somewhere around Tennessee, because they were using, a kind of wood in their guitars. That was against international law and that it was terrible. The SWAT team came in. But this was the kind of thing that was happening to farmers and other people. So, so tell us what he's done on regulations which is even broader than stopping that.
Rod Martin: Well, I just marvel at the people who want to call this president a fascist because, you know, fascists don't normally slash the powers of the federal government. That's not really a big fascist talking point. Donald Trump. This is staggering. There's never been anything like this in history. There's never been anything close. In the first term, Donald Trump promised to repeal two regulations for every one new one. It worked out that in his first year, he actually repealed 22 regulations for every one new one. No president had ever done anything like that. That's amazing. Well, guess what? In the last year and a half, Donald Trump has repealed 129 regulations for every one new one. And nearly all of those one new ones were to repeal the 129 others. It's just staggering. It is a massive rollback of intrusive big government into the lives of regular people and, the prevention of businesses being able to profit enough to hire workers at a good wage. So you were talking about the waitress early on. Here's the thing the waitress needs to know. Donald Trump also, you know, every one of those regulations is functionally a tax. It's something that a business or an individual has to pay for out of their own pocket that isn't technically sent to the, irs, but it's not something they would have paid if someone hadn't forced them to at gunpoint. So this is a massive burden off of the American people. But wait, it gets better because we made the tax cuts from 2017 permanent. That allows businesses to plan, hire, train with More certainty, which is exactly what's happening. And in that bill, that one big, beautiful bill, you know what we did for that waitress? We massively expanded the child tax credit. we maintained the doubled standard deduction. We, did 100% expensing for factories and equipment so that companies can expense things quicker and hire much faster. But wait, we also eliminated taxation on tips. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and in 92% of cases, no tax on Social Security benefits. And I've just got a beef here, because the idea that we would tax a Social Security check is offensive to me. It is morally repugnant. And guess who did it. The Democrats. They're the ones who want to rob Grandma, and they have been for decades. And Donald Trump put a stop to it.
Sandy Rios: And the reason you say that, just to clarify, because some people will say, why would he say that? Is because, people that get Social Security, they get it because they paid in through working, and they've already paid tax on the money that they've earned. So you're taxing them twice. And, so that's why it's worse
Rod Martin: than that, because the Social Security money itself comes from taxes. So they were taxed on the income. They were taxed to put into this broken Social Security system that. That robs people by not giving them a reasonable rate of return. And then we're going to tax them when they're elderly and lived on a fixed income, too. It's just obscene. it's very similar to, although not quite as extreme as, the problem that Ron DeSantis is doing such a great job of dealing with here in Florida. What on earth are we doing making widows tenants, of the state government through property tax when they paid off their house maybe 20, 30 years ago? You shouldn't be a serf. You shouldn't be a renter from Tallahassee or any state government. Primary residences should not face a property tax. That's a Republican agenda, too, and it's happening now. So you can be secure in your home. If you pay it off, it's really yours. And, yeah, we'll still do property tax on businesses and investment properties and all of that. We can do that all day. But we should not be evicting Grandma when she's sick and alone. We should be taking care of our people and letting them have security. And the only way that happens is if you stop putting government's jackboot on their throats and you actually let them live their life in freedom. That's what deregulation and lower taxation means and the net result of it is tremendously greater economic growth. And we saw what that did in the 90s. We had multiple years of over 4% annual GDP growth as opposed to Obama's 1.6%. The new normal, more than 4% meant that we had so much excess tax revenue, even at a lower rate that we actually had four straight years of budget surpluses during which we started paying down the debt instead of running it up. That's what Donald Trump is trying to do today.
Sandy Rios: You know, I would just, I said it, but you probably didn't hear me. Obama, remember he called that the new normal when the economy went down. This is the new new normal. Yeah. Okay. all right, so a lot of the things that he's doing money wise are things that people don't quite understand because they're not into big money and they don't realize it's not just for people that have money. It helps all of us and that is investments and re industrialization kind of quantify what he's doing there.
Rod Martin: Look, the entire picture, you know, the tariffs are about rectifying an old wrong. After World War II, all of our allies and obviously our enemies were flattened. You know, their industry was destroyed, their people are in poverty. America took a proper but self sacrificing decision to help rebuild all those countries directly, but also to create lopsided trade agreements that benefited their industry so they could grow, making use of the US consumer market to rebuild and become profitable and not need socialism and not fall to the Soviet empire. That was a great decision. It worked. We won the Cold War. And oh wait, the Cold War ended 35 years ago and we didn't change anything. So Trump is using the tariffs as a weapon to bring about freer, more balanced trade with all these countries. And you know what he's really having at because he's told you at the G7, he said, Look, I'm a Wharton guy, I know perfectly well that the ideal trade barrier is 0%. But you guys won't cooperate with us so we're going to make you. That's exactly what he's done. The tariff regime has been designed to rebalance trade, open markets for American businesses. That means they can hire, that means they can put on new supply chain, that means they can train workers and pay them a better wage. Okay. Likewise, Trump went out, he's not going to wait for it to happen naturally.
Donald Trump recruited $18 trillion in investment commitments to re industrialize America
He's a proactive guy. He went out and recruited $18 trillion in investment commitments to re industrialize America, do people understand what $18 trillion is? That's two thirds of the size of the entire American economy. No president's ever done anything like that in history. Donald Trump went and recruited $18 trillion to be invested in in American factories, American chip plants, American energy projects, American steel mills, American shipyards. it's just, there's nothing like it in the world. So we are reassuring and re industrializing America. And again, what that means, aside from national security, we're not going to be dependent on China for rare earths, we're not going to be dependent on China for pharmaceuticals, we're not going to be dependent on Taiwan for chips. we're not going to be dependent on anybody. We're going to trade with them, but we're not going to be dependent on them. So national security, that's awesome. But the bigger point for average working Americans is that every one of those new factories, every one of those new data centers, every one of those new shipyards employs a whole bunch of American workers at a very high rate of pay. And we're going to restore the middle class American dream that was lost starting in the 90s. Starting with Bill Clinton, we're going to reverse that. We're going to bring industry home. We're going to make it possible for a man to take a wife, have some kids, have a great blue collar job at a factory that he works at for 30 years and has enough money to be able to take care of his family on one income. We always were able to do that before. We are about to be able to do it again.
Sandy Rios: Well, that's wonder, wonderful news because one of the great, laments from the younger people, Rod, you know, this is that they can't buy homes and it's impossible. many of them, this is their excuse anyway. And I think it's legitimate in some ways. I think some are maybe just not very ambitious. But many are still living at home and they don't know what to do with themselves. They're just, it's like a lost generation. So this should bring a lot of hope to them, those that are. But it's not going to happen quickly. As you said earlier, it can't happen overnight, but it's happening pretty darn quick, year and a half. As you said, he's been in office.
The Iran war is causing higher gas prices, but the real problem is deindustrialization
So here's the other thing. Now you talk about the global energy, dominance and oil and all of that. This is the sore spot right now for every well, for the people that are complaining is this whole thing about the Iran war, which we don't have to get into, but the resulting, higher prices on gas and all of that. We do need to talk about kind of give us the big picture of what he's doing with that.
Rod Martin: Well, let's start with the fact that we were all paying higher gas prices under Joe Biden and nobody seems to bother to remember it. So it's a little frustrating. But why are we paying high gas prices? It's not primarily because of Iran. Crises come up. Sometimes we choose them, sometimes they choose us. so what is the real problem? Well, the real problem is, that deindustrialization that took place over the last several decades. We haven't built a refinery in this country since 1977.
Sandy Rios: Wow.
Rod Martin: Come on. The population is massively larger, the need for fuel is massively greater, and we haven't built a refinery since the 70s. Wait, it gets worse. Blue states have actively closed refineries that we had. So we are massively increasing the amount of crude oil, but we still have a bottleneck at the point where you refine it into gasoline or diesel or anything else usable. And so the administration is addressing that in all the ways we just described. That will make a big difference. Another big difference will come from changing the structural price of oil. The Iran war is about many things, but one of the things it is doing through short term pain, to be sure, but in the long run, Iran's never going to be able to threaten the Strait of Hormuz again because the Arab countries like to be able to sell their oil. So they are all now building dramatically increased pipeline capacity that routes around anything Iran can control. And the contracts for those pipelines are largely going to American companies employing American workers. So we've got a stake in that too. And as the structural risk premium in the price of oil because of Iran's looming threat over the Strait of Hormuz for the last 40 years, not the last four months, the last 40 years, because that is dissipating and within 18 months won't exist at all no matter how the war comes out. As a result of that, global oil prices ought to drop easily. Another 10 or $20 a barrel beneath pre war prices. And that will dramatically affect the price of gasoline. So there's a comprehensive strategy even in that. But it's bigger than that because the biggest thing of all is you remember. Actually, I'm sure you're no more than about 27, so maybe you don't remember Sandy, but probably don't. I'm old enough to remember I was a kid in the 70s. I remember when we were entirely dependent on foreign oil and I remember how they used that against us as a weapon to cripple the west in multiple oil shocks. That just brought the US and European economies to their knees at the worst of the Cold War and really was an enormous national security threat and put people into mass unemployment and extreme interest rates and everything's terrible. Okay, we didn't solve that problem for the next several decades. I mean, Reagan cut a deal with the Saudis that made it better. Kissinger cut a deal with the Saudis that made it better. But we didn't really solve the problem until American entrepreneurs invented fracking. And now all of a sudden, and the Democrats still tried to constrain it with regulations and fracking bans and everything else and all kinds of dishonest propagand about it. But here's where we are. Donald Trump has deregulated that industry, deregulated those pipelines, deregulated the refineries and LNG terminals necessary so much that we now out produce Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. We're the third largest oil exporter in the world. We are the largest exporter of refined product in the world. And as a result of that, we were sending $700 billion a year in 2008 to our enemies. Now that money's coming to Texas, Louisiana and North Dakota.
Sandy Rios: You know, Rod, it just reminds me of. I. It's hard to say President Trump has such a massive brain. That's not. That's the easiest way. I know it's heavy. Understands so many complexities. It's funny how they, you know, they used people disregarded him, but he's actually brilliant and he thinks about all the layers and the, the ripples of the, the water way beyond what most of us ever, ever think about. I'm sure you're kind of in that category too because of the work you do. But most people, Well, I mean, but most people don't think to that. They just don't have the. The world is not that big and their personal world and so they don't understand all of this. But this is just amazing even to hear you talk about it. It just kind of thrills me and excites me and I just.
Nuclear power is the best, most efficient source of electricity
Anyway, so let's, let's go on because we're not done, nuclear. We have done. Nuclear power is the best, most efficient, but we've had all of this opposition and hatred of nuclear power and we really cut back. So what's happening with that?
Rod Martin: Well, all of that was stupid. I mean, even with 70s technology, we had the famous nuclear accident in 79 at Three Mile Island. Well, the worst radiation exposure anybody got, from that was less radiation than I get every time I fly on an airliner at 30,000ft or every time I walk through Grand Central Station in NewSong York. The radiation exposure was basically non existent. But we had stupid regulations that basically said any radiation is going to kill you and must be prevented. And you know, totally hypocritical about it because we do fly in airliners, we do go to Grand Central Station, and we do live in a world that has a certain amount of ambient radiation and it's not a problem. Okay, so the Trump administration got rid of all the stupid, stupid regulation that Democrats have been piling up since the 70s on this. Why? First of all, like every other technology, nuclear technology has dramatically progressed in those intervening decades. You know, and by analogy, imagine what kind of computer you'd have been using in 1975. Oh wait, you wouldn't have had one. You know, now you carry a supercomputer in your pocket and you know, and everything's computerized. Okay. Nuclear technology has similarly advanced. You can build nuclear reactors now that can't melt down, can't release radiation, can't do anything bad. So if that's the case, why wouldn't you want a bunch of them? And what it does is first of all it meets the power needs that are mushrooming everywhere. The other thing it does is it means you don't have to burn as much natural gases to produce that electricity, which means you can export it and make money for America instead of burning your own stuff. That's why the Saudis want a nuclear power deal with the United States. The President has conditioned on making peace with Israel, but they've agreed in principle on the deal. Saudi Arabia wants to be able to sell more oil and gas, not burn it at home. And so the more we transition to nuclear for elect electrical generation, the more we bring down the price of oil and gas. That's the aim. It also gives us the ability to power the new generation of missile defenses where you instead of shooting down a cheap drone or missile with an interceptor missile that costs anywhere from four to $11 million a shot, you shoot it down with a laser that costs $2 a shot. Well, the enemy can't keep up with that. If you're worried about drone swarms, the answer is lasers. And if that sounds like crazy Star Trek stuff, I got news for you. The Israelis have already deployed a functioning system called Iron Beam, and we jointly developed it with them. and we are testing it on naval vessels now. We've been very successful with it in a bunch of different settings. And that is eventually going to make missiles and drones obsolete. That is a key priority of the President, and that is already funded and in progress. A huge achievement.
Rod Dreier: Trump has restored the warrior ethos of the military
Sandy Rios: Well, and also, of course, I'm skipping here a few things, but you mentioned the restoration of the military, which I have just been thrilled with, and I think you called it the warrior ethos, and I think that's very well said.
Donald Trump: Kind of.
Sandy Rios: this is something that people will understand. Rod, tell people what he's done, at least your perspective capsules, how he's changed the military.
Rod Martin: Well, of course, the biggest thing is, you know, we've actually made the military about the military again instead of a big social engineering experiment by the LGBTQ movement. You know, we're not doing Pride days at the Pentagon. We're not doing, you know, transgender generals. That's hooey. We need people who can actually fight and win, and we need these people because they defend freedom. So. So the Trump administration just came in, got rid of the dei, got rid of the stupid stuff, and immediately started exceeding recruiting goals for every service. For the first time since Joe Biden took office, they were having trouble recruiting people for the military. Trump is having to turn people away. That is a massive difference. And we're also making the country a lot safer. I mentioned Golden Dome. That's going to be transformative over the next.
Sandy Rios: Absolutely, absolutely.
Rod Martin: Over the next three years, but the next 20 years as it gets better and better. But we've also forced our NATO allies to stop freeloading and actually increase their defense expenditures by a massive amount. About 250%. Sandy. It was so bad that a few years ago, the Germans showed up at a NATO training exercise with their. Their soldiers carrying broomsticks because they didn't have enough rifles for their men. This is Germany. This is the third largest economy in the world, and they're acting like that. They're just freeloading on the American taxpayer and using the difference to fund their giant socialist boondoggles at home. No more. Trump has cut it out. So we are not going to let our allies freeload. And in the process, they're going to get stronger, they're going to get better, their sovereignty will increase, their security will increase, and they will become partners, not dependence. That is a massive sea change. It is peace through strength, and it puts America first.
Sandy Rios: Yeah.
Rod Martin: People are disgruntled because the Republican platform didn't address pro life issues
All right. In our last few minutes, Here, let's talk about some of these family issues because especially on the pro life issue, people are disgruntled because the Republican platform, didn't do much about the issue of pro life. And there's a kind of a concern about that. But President Trump has actually done some things that would kind of solidify, pro life issues. Can you talk about that?
Rod Martin: I want to start with the obvious. Donald Trump gave us the judges who overturned Roe v. Wade. You know, for my entire lifetime we've been saying that is the pro life goal and we get it. And it's like, okay, what have you done for me lately? I mean, it's obscene. It is just a complete lack of gratitude and appreciation. All these Republicans have been telling us they were going to do that since I was a three year old. Donald Trump actually got it done. That's amazing. So now it's on us to actually pass abortion restrictions in our states. And here in Florida, we've got a six week ban. And that's amazing. It's not perfect, but it is massively better than abortion on demand through the ninth month under Roe. We're going to have to win that state by state. We always knew that nothing has changed. But what Trump has done for us in this term, he's enforced the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. He's reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy that prohibits federal funding for foreign abortions. He's ended the federal fetal tissue research program. He's strengthened conscience protections, protected Medicaid from funding large abortion providers, and pardoned 23 pro life activists who were prosecuted for peaceful protests and even just prayer by Biden's weaponized Justice Department. And I want to add to that, it's not just the unborn. He's also taken huge steps to prevent the chemical castration of children by the transgender movement that owns all these blue states. He has gotten men out of women's sports, which is just an, obscenity, because the truth is, you got a little girl. we know statistically girls in sports perform better in school, don't get pregnant out of wedlock, go to college, have a good life. And the left has done everything to make it impossible for girls to be involved in sports in the name of Title 9, which I just marvel at. And they've done it by actually doing the opposite of feminism. We're going to call men women and we're going to let them dominate girls sports. It's just the height of evil. It's just Satanic Donald Trump has fought it and actually done the things necessary to end it. He's also given us America's first nationwide school choice program. He's launched these Trump accounts that are just amazing. He's targeted anti Christian bias and discrimination. He's just a, ah, rock star. I marvel at how much has happened. And the truth is we're not going to cover half of it on this interview, which has run for a little while now.
Sandy Rios: No, I know. in fact, I've got, you know, my list is probably completely different for the most part. But this is just great stuff, Rod, because it is a great reminder. And you're suggesting that those of us that get this list and by you can get it at rodmartin.org, rodmartin.org to learn, memorize at least three of them so that you can make the case to your friends. And that's a really good point, that we need to do our part, to turn around this sour disposition on what's happening in the country, by just reminding them of what is reality and the larger picture. So thank you for that. Any last remarks, Mr. Martin?
Rod Martin: Well, I would just remind your audience in particular that even Jesus doesn't go and personally evangelize everybody. He actually told us to go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. Okay, well, is Donald Trump supposed to go do what Jesus doesn't? If we have to evangelize for our faith, we also have to evangelize for its practical application in public policy, to restrain evil and extend good. Politics isn't, some separate thing from our faith. Politics is the application of our faith to public policy. This president has earned our support. He has upgraded the Republican office holders who are on the ballot this week. Fall. We need to elect him, those people. We need to give him the tools to do more and better. And we need to be engaged. If we don't, we're just ceding our nation to the enemy.
Sandy Rios: I can't say it better. And it's absolutely true, Rod. That's why I ask you to join me, because I have the same feeling. And we just have to kind of wake up our troops, wake up, especially the Christian community, to what is really true here. if you'd like to get this list, go to rodmartin.org, rodmartin.org, rod. Thank you so much. This has been a great offering. And I know this list is being, circulated widely. It's on my list. I keep seeing it in my list of people. So it's being passed around by lots of people. So I know it's going to bear some really good fruit. So thank you so much.
Rod Martin: Wonderful. Thank you.
Sandy Rios: Okay, Rod, see you soon. All right.
Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood among top four leading causes of death
Sandy rios on Sandy Rios 247 this is Sandy Rios 247 on American Family Radio.
Sandy Rios: Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood were among the top leading causes of death in America, revealing the terrifying truth of the left's anti life agenda. According to Planned Parenthood's 2022 annual report, Abortions performed by the organization accounted for the top four leading causes of death. Think about that. Paid for by our tax dollars. And honestly, this freight train is going down the track so fast and so powerfully. It's really hard. It's going to be hard for us to stop this. And I think one of the best ways I've said before, I'll say again, is preborn. PreBorn, who was not part of the government, not part of the public debate or campaigns, but an organization that's simply providing ultrasounds for moms who are pregnant and doubting whether they should carry the baby to allow them to see their baby through ultrasound. It's an amazing process and it actually works. When, the moms see their babies, I think it doubles the chance that they will not take the life of their baby. You know, you can't beat those odds. If you'd like to help, $28 pays for one ultrasound, just one. And you can send however much you can afford, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy the Sandy Rios 24. 7 podcast are available at afr.net back to Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Trump making good on some campaign promises, signing more than 200 executive actions, unraveling the work of his predecessor. He also withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, rescinded diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and ended federal recognition of transgender identity. On immigration, Trump declared an end to to birthright citizenship, which is already facing challenges in court as it is protected by the 14th amendment.
Donald Trump: We think we have good grounds, but you could be right. I mean, you'll find out it's ridiculous. We're the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know.
President Trump has fired 300,000 federal workers, Bruce says
Sandy Rios: Okay, well, Bruce, has joined me now because we often talk about this, but we've never itemized the things that we think, should be. President Trump should be remembered for or thanked for. One of the things that I, read just recently is that he has. They've gotten rid of, in one way or another, 300,000 federal workers. Either they have been paid to leave, or they, they left or they were. They were fired. Most of those. Many of them didn't even come into work during Cove and they stayed home even afterwards. So there were reasons. We had a lot of dead weight, so that saved a lot of money.
Bruce Bennett says conservatives have a duty to energize themselves ahead of midterm elections
But, Bruce, you've been kind of thinking. I asked you to be thinking about things that you, thought needed to be mentioned that he'd accomplished, because we certainly, even in that list of 25, didn't get to it. So what are some other things that come to your mind?
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Well, first off, it's good to be back from suspension.
Sandy Rios: Yes. He was over in the corner with his nose up against the wall. You know, it's good to have you back, Hunter.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): I'm glad to be back. President, Trump, he, reminds me of a road grader. as Rod said, even Jesus did not do all the work that had, to be done because he wanted us to join with him and do some of the work he could have, but he chose not to. And it reminds me of President Trump. He's like a road grader to me. Like, he just levels the impediments to things, but he can't do all the work on his own. We need to follow behind him. And look, I have my issues with President Trump at times, but if you think about the great things he's doing, you know, we as conservatives tend to always pick out the negative. We never pick out all the positive. And we, tend to be like, you know, if President Trump cured cancer, people would, complain that now the chemotherapy drugs are going to go to waste. I mean, that's the kind of attitude a lot of our people have. And to listen to Rod, enumerate so many of these things, I mean, it just buoys me up. I've been a little bit down as we reach the midterms, because there's been a lot of negativity. But I, think we all have a duty to, either read this list of rods or listen to this, broadcast and re, energize ourselves. Let's get out there. Let's let people know what's good and what's going on.
Sandy Rios: Well said, honey. I think that's very well said.
You know, I think one thing you've been excited about is the Trump accounts
You know, I think one thing you've been excited about, I know, is the Trump accounts Yes. That is just amazing. These kids, these little children, children, ah, invested properly, and they're not going to have to make those decisions about where to invest, but they could be. Have hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time they're grown up.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): You know, we've heard for years that, Social Security may have. May be outmoded now. it takes so much overhead to administer it, and that the return on the investment really isn't what it could be if it was, put into.
Sandy Rios: Invested privately.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Yeah, privately invested. And these Trump accounts, to me, are the closest thing you can get to now, privately. Well, I mean, they're being overseen, obviously, by the government, but it's going to be people that know how to make money. It's not going to be a bureaucracy that just goes along the way we always have, like Social Security does.
Sandy Rios: It's a way to build wealth for your children. And, and, you know, that's these, you, those of you that are younger, you know that you've come to a place where you don't have a lot of wealth and you feel hopeless. And this is something looking forward. It may not help you, but it will help your children. And it's just an amazing thing that he came up with. It really is. So I think we could go on and on. But, honey, thank you. I'm glad I voted for President Trump. I would vote for him again. I'm so grateful to him.
Only consequential presidents get shot or shot at, Trump says
In fact, I want to play one more clip because it reminded me of something else. and that is the price that he's paying for being our president. This was an interview he did just recently. And this is clip five.
Donald Trump: I think bull riding looks pretty dangerous to me. I wouldn't want to do that. I think I'd rather be in a race car. 110 of 1%. Same number. Just about the same number die president. 5.2% next of it. So many times it's a dangerous profession. But if you think about it, you're not going to do a very good job. Yes, and I really am. I'm surrounded by very good people. Secret Service has been great. Law enforcement's been great. The military has been. I'm surrounded by a lot of people. The only thing I can say about it, though, is, and if you look at it, it's true. It's, I guess, a compliment, but a very strange form of compliment. only consequential presidents get shot or shot at. And I am very consequential. We've changed this whole world. We've saved this country this country. Had our opponent, my opponent gotten elected, instead of having 19.2 trillion coming into the country, you would have had 10 trillion going out. Your welfare would have doubled or tripled, and you would have had a country that was a failed country. We were very close. We were right on the tipping edge. And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. This is the hottest country in the world right now, Trey. Every country respects us more than any other country. Nobody's close.
Sandy Rios: So this is a billionaire with a wonderful family who's had his family threatened. Last week, I told you, the Iranians are putting up posters that they're going to assassinate Barron Trump. they've had, fatwa. Whatever they call. I think it's fatwa against Melania. And, this price, you know, his business has been targeted. He's paid a huge price, and yet he's in there swinging. Why is he doing that? You think it's because of his vanity? I really don't think so. I realize he has a very big ego, but I don't think he wants to die. And he's been. The attempts to assassinate him have been amazing. They've come so close. And yet. And yet he continues to move and do as much as he can for this country. So, with that, I think we need to say goodbye.
If we cede power to the Democrats in this midterm election, President Trump will be neutered
Bruce, do you have any final thoughts?
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Well, just to, amplify what you said earlier, we really have to vote in these midterms and in the coming election, because, as Sandy said, if we cede power to the Democrats in this midterm election, President Trump will be neutered. And we mean that almost literally. He will have no power. They will, The left will start the impeachments probably the day that they're sworn in as a Congress. And we. All this progress that we're talking about, because a lot of this progress is not fully manifested. We need some more time for it, like the foreign investment, things like that. We're on the way, but we need time to finish it. And if President Trump, if his power base is removed, we will not see those things come to fruition.
Sandy Rios: Very, very well said, honey. Thank you so much.
Preborn is our sponsor and makes this show possible to Continue
All right, well, I think we've said enough today. remember that that list can be [email protected] rodmartin.org and I want to remind you that PreBorn is our sponsor. If you would like to help and make. Make this show possible to Continue, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy. Thank you for listening to this edition of Sandy Rios 24 7. It.
President Donald Trump announces a series of executive actions regarding pardons and commutations
Good evening.
Speaker B: We're coming on the air with more breaking news on this historic day. On the evening of his inauguration, President Donald Trump, not wasting any time getting down to business. He has just returned to the White House and assigning a series of executive actions in the Oval Office, where he is pardoning some 1500 January6 rioters who have been convicted for participating in the attack on the Capitol four years ago. The President is speaking now. Let's listen in.
Donald Trump: Yes, sir. First, we have a list of, pardons and commutations relating to events that occurred on January 6, 2021.
Donald Trump: Okay. And how many people is this?
Donald Trump: I think this order will apply to approximately 1500 people, sir.
Donald Trump: So this is January 6th. these are the hostages. Approximately 1500 for a pardon?
Donald Trump: Yes.
Donald Trump: Full pardon.
Sandy Rios: Full pardon or commutation?
Donald Trump: Full pardon. We have six commutations in there where we're doing further research. Nice to see you again. So this is a big one. Anything you want to explain about this? We hope they get them. We hope they come out tonight. Frankly, if you're expecting it, approximately 1500 people, six commutations.
Rod Martin: Were there any cases you did not commute or part.
Donald Trump: We're looking at different things. but, the commutations would be the ones that we'll take a look, and maybe it'll stay that way or it'll go to. In a full pardon.
Donald Trump: And the order does require the Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons and commutation orders. Sir, this is a.
Donald Trump: Why don't we get that down so they can get them going right now?
Donald Trump: Yes, sir.
Donald Trump: Okay.
Donald Trump: Yep. Absolutely. This is a proclamation guaranteeing, the state's protection against invasion based on the current crisis at the southern border and invokes various executive powers relating to the ongoing invasion at the southern border.
President Trump pardoned 1500 people connected to the January Six riot
Speaker B: All right, President Trump, you heard him pardoning, 1500, people connected to the January Six riot. the, former or the President referencing, that he wants it to happen right away. And the wording that he announced sounds like that would be the requirement. We have a live picture, I believe, from the federal prison, near D.C. here, that the many of those people are being held.
Sandy Rios: All right, that's just partial. Bruce and I were at the inauguration a year ago last January, and, it was bitter, bitter cold, but it was fabulous. And we went to our hotel room. It was actually late at night, and he had just, you know, come back from the balls President Trump had. We turned on the television, and this is what we heard. President Trump pardoning the J6ers. Well, if you listen to me, you know that that's been a huge issue for me on the morning show, when I did the morning show for American Family Radio and then moving into the podcast, because I, was a great defender of many m of the. Most of the J6ers, because it was terrible what happened to them and how they suffered and were imprisoned and, treated really like enemy combatants, you know, deprived of food and deprived of amenities. It was a horrible, horrible things. Some of them were in prison for four years, not even convicted, just, just there held. And so when President Trump did this and he sat there pardoned them, you hear. You hear his signature, that big signature of Donald Trump. and so that went on for hours, that I think he. I think he signed something like 200 orders that night. We didn't hear all of them because we had to go to bed. But that's how it started. That's how it started.
President Trump's administration is greatly threatened by outcome of midterm elections
And today we're going to walk down memory lane a bit, because President Trump has only been president for 18 months, something like that, and we have an election coming up, a midterm, and his administration is greatly threatened by the outcome of this election. It matters, if the Democrats get enough gains in the Senate and in the House, President Trump won't be able to do anything. His hands will be tied. They will sue him at every level. And they're going to come after the justices. Sheldon Whitehouse just made that statement. They're going to, subpoena the justices of the Supreme Court, the conservative justices. They mentioned Clarence Thomas by name. they're going to be, this. The border will be open. Well, not after this particular election, but they will, they will be on their way to winning the whole, the whole thing. It is really important that you vote. And I know some of you are a little bit disgruntled or upset about prices and other things. but this, today, is just a chance to remind you of what President Trump has actually done and the long view of what's happening.
Sandy Rios: Preborn is in the business of saving babies
But before we get into that, our sponsor is preborn. And PreBorn, you know, by now, is in the business of saving babies. And by the way, you know, all those organizations like preborn and crisis pregnancy, there will be hell to pay for them, too. if we have a change, if the Democrats take over, because we are hated Christians and conservatives are hated by them. We don't like the left, but they hate us. And you've got in the mix of that, the Islamists and all of that, this is maybe, you know, you may not hear, people ask for support for preborn and others for very long because there may be great danger in doing that and even writing the check if they take over banking and elect, you know, make all of our banking a federal currency, electronic currency. It's just, the horrors. There's a long list. And so I'm tying it into this because I want you to understand we may not be able to save babies lives for very much longer. It's possible that that may not be possible. And communist countries, they don't care about babies. They used abortion as birth control. And that seems to me where we're headed under, under this kind of surge that we're experiencing right now from the left. So if you'd like to help preborn now while you can. I, mean that in all sincerity. It's $28 for one ultrasound. $28. and that's the mother seeing her baby for the first time. And generally speaking, most of the time she just can't take its life. And so it's a wonderful, wonderful thing that preborn does. If you'd like to help, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy. All right, well, we have a great guest today. His name is Rod Martin. Rod was one of the, early founders of PayPal, but he has got, ah, a resume that's so long I won't be able to get to it. But he's just a brilliant guy. He's been a friend through the years and, and he has written an article about the 25, just 25 of the accomplishments of President Trump during this administration. And I think you'll find it fascinating and actually very helpful as you share it with your friends. And we'll do that on this edition of Sandy Rios, 247 from American Family Radio.
Longtime Fox News contributor Sandy Rios speaks out on pro-life issues
Sandy Rios. We are not called to be nice. We are often called to be confrontational. And here with me in D.C. is Fox News contributor Sandy Rios. I think the most important thing we need to demonstrate to our children is genuineness, that we actually believe what we say we believe. Longtime Fox News contributor Sandy Rios, thanks very much for being with us.
Sandy Rios: Seek justice. Not social justice, but God's justice, what's right and what's wrong. Sandy Rios is with the American Family Association, a pro life radio talk show host.
Sandy Rios: We've got to say, this is the line. Life is sacred. Director of Governmental affairs for the American Family Association. Step up, speak up. Say something, do something. All right, Sandy Rios with you.
Nicole Russell: I don't regret voting for Trump, but I'm disappointed
And, today I'm just going to point to an article that I read. It came out on August 5th. It was from USA Today, and the title is I don't regret voting for Trump, but I'm disappointed. And the points that this author, Nicole Russell makes, she says, I voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 and I don't regret it. In his first year, he delivered on many of his core promises. Lower taxes, lower inflation and a secure border. Migrant crossings at the U. S. Mexico border are now at their lowest levels in 50 years. These are extraordinary feats. But with the Iran war now passing five months, I'm growing disillusioned with Trump. He's chosen to focus on Iran as much as, if not more than, issues that actually affect everyday Americans. It's proving to be an extraordinary unforced error and it's backfiring.
Rod Martin is the founder and CEO of the Martin organization
All right, so that article really triggered something in me because, and it reflects what I'm seeing on social media and online, just so much, complaint about the administration right now. And I recognize things are not perfect, but I thought it was time for us to talk about something different. And then I saw an article by my friend Rod Martin, and it's about, the list every conservative should know and use. And we're going to talk about that today. Rod Martin is with us. Rod is the founder and CEO of the Martin organization. Fox Business News, calls Rod not Rob, a, ah, tech guru. And Britain's Guardian describes him as a philosopher capitalist, while Gawker once described him as another of, of PayPal founder Peter Thiel's brilliant non conformists. He's addressed audiences in four countries, has written extensively for publications such as Forbes, Human Events, Fortune and Fox News, and he's a member of Stratford's Stratfor's board of contributors. And you know what? He's done so many more things. I think he's most famous for kind of setting up the, what became PayPal. They called it the PayPal mafia, which became wildly successful. And that's one of the things he's most known for. But he's done so many other things, I don't have time to read them. So, Rod, thank you so much for joining us. We, we really appreciate you giving us your time this morning.
Rod Martin: Sandy, I always love to spend time with you.
Sandy Rios: Oh, that's what you say to everybody anyway, but thank you, I appreciate it. No, we do have a good friendship and I love talking to you.
Rod Martin wrote a list of President Trump's top 25 achievements
So, Rod, it's interesting you wrote this list, and I didn't say what it is, it's a list of President Trump's accomplishments. It's funny because it tracked with me because I had read this article and started my own list just for my own. I was going to make some of the points on the radio. By the way, I lost my list, so I'm glad you have. I have yours in my hand. But, what made you write this? What was the thing that triggered you to make this list?
Rod Martin: Well, I have to say first, it's been an awfully popular list. Dan Bongino featured it the other day. Roger Stone did a full hour with me on Sunday on his radio show on it. And the answer is really simple. Conservatives, unceasingly black pill. It is just, it's nonsensical. They're getting more of what they wanted in the most compressed time ever than anybody thought was possible. And they're all down at the mouth, oh, everything's terrible. And it doesn't matter what you tell them, they'll come up with some new thing. Well, but he hasn't done this well. He's been in office for a year and a half. What do you want? Nobody has ever moved quicker than this president in this term. He was actually a really good president in the first term, but he was a little bit bedeviled by the entirety of official Washington trying to destroy his presidency and ultimately succeeding, through the pandemic and the 2020 election. But this presidency, it's perfectly obvious this man got together the best and most loyal people at Mar a Lago for four years and planned out every moment of a four year presidency. And they have been executing on it at breakneck speed. And, and for conservatives not to appreciate this honestly deserves defeat. Conservatives deserve the socialist nightmare if they can't cheer for the partial victories that lead to greater ones. We are an ungrateful, ridiculous group of people. And the left is right to mock us. They are right to deride us if we can't recognize progress when we see it. I contend in this article, Trump's top 25 achievements, which you can [email protected] where we do daily geopolitical analysis. Fox Business calls Absolutely phenomenal. Rodmartin.org, trump's top 25 achievements. Honestly, they just scratched the surface. And conservatives should not just be grateful for what's being achieved. And it's the tip of the iceberg. It's a beginning, not an end. conservatives should be proclaiming it to their friends who have felt betrayed or let down for 20 years and don't know how to recognize victory when they finally win it.
Sandy Rios: Well, I am totally tracking with you, Rod, and I hear this all the time. And, you know, especially about the Iran war, which is what this author goes on to talk about. And this is what everybody's talking about because prices are still high, gas prices are still high. And, and I do feel like there's a bit of spoiledness, and I know that's offensive to people who are genuinely struggling. And, you know, they are, Rod. I see, you know, waitresses in restaurants who don't have insurance and they're limping because they have bad knees or hips. You know, just plain people who. They are having a hard time. So you have to be patient and kind with them. But the larger point has to be made, which is what we're going to try to make today. As you said it so well, it's been a short time, and he has. President Trump has accomplished so much, and there's no way anyone with a rational mind could believe that President Donald Trump, who has shown over and over again how much he cares about the American people, is going to leave this the way it is. If any president, could bring m us out of the brink in terms of our debt and give us, bring us into some kind of success and stability and price, better prices, it's him. Who else is going to be. Have that capacity? So that's my speech for today.
Rod Martin: But, well, and Sandy, you said something really important there. I want to distinguish between my criticism of some of us and the waitress down at the diner down the street from me who is struggling. She doesn't know what is happening for her and on her behalf. She needs somebody to explain it to her. But how is anybody going to explain it to her? If the conservatives who ought to know, who have all the information in the world at their fingertips on little supercomputers we carry around in our pockets, how, if they won't explain it, can the president do their work for them? He's actually sleeping, like, four hours a night. He has accomplished more in a year and a half than any other president has ever accomplished in four years. He can't carry all this burden. You and I have to carry some of this burden. We all have to carry some of this burden. We have to explain what's happening, why it's happening, where it's headed, and then get that waitress to the polls.
Sandy Rios: Good response, Rod. Very good.
An astonishing number of Republican voters cannot name three things President Trump has accomplished
All right. On, your article, this is what you. I want to read your words here, because you say, with the midterms coming, an astonishing number of Republican voters cannot name three things President Trump has accomplished. Which is remarkable when you consider that Donald Trump has accomplished more in a year and a half than any other president ever did in four. And that is kind of part of the problem, isn't it, Rod? He's accomplished so much that people can't keep up.
Rod Martin: It's overload. You're right. But we have all these blessings, and we should actually appreciate them. when we're actually winning, we should notice we've been getting our chops beaten up for decades. Conservatives have let Republicans down. I'm sorry, Republican leaders have let conservatives down for year after year after year. All these broken promises, and we still have some of that in Congress now. I just think that what Jon Thune is doing with the SAVE act so far is unconscionable. That's frustrating. But even there, that's a Trump accomplishment. We have massively upgraded the quality of Republican officeholders under Donald Trump. And part of that is because Donald Trump has done something that Republican leaders really never did before, which is endorse in contested primaries and actually recruit more conservative candidates to run against Rhinos. So, you know, we have had exactly one United States senator defeated in his own primary in the last 20, 25 years, until this year, when Donald Trump took out Jon Cornyn and Bill Cassidy in their own primaries with massively better Republicans and pretty much led to the retirements of Thom Tillis and M. Mitch McConnell. That's two more seats that should be held by much better Republicans. Well, you tell me what happens with four more solid Republican senators who aren't Rhinos and aren't always playing footsie with the socialists. That's a huge, upgrade. And it's a huge upgrade across governorships and state legislatures and countless offices across the fruited plain. And it's because Donald Trump mobilized his war machine on behalf of us against the Rhinos, who have dominated the party for most of our lives. That's a huge accomplishment all by itself, if you want to get into the rest.
Rod Patel: Donald Trump has shut down border crossings since he became president
Oh, my goodness. Where would we even begin? He's absolutely shut down border crossings. There simply haven't been any illegal border crossings pretty much since he became president. It's ridiculous, especially after we heard for four years under Joe Biden that the president doesn't have any legal tools with which to stop border crossings. He must have new legislation. That was a complete lie, and Donald Trump just proved it. we have eliminated Catch and release we have restored remain in Mexico. Releases into the country are down by 99.9%. Mass migration done. We aren't having any caravans coming across the border. Remember all those pictures?
Sandy Rios: Oh, my goodness.
Rod Martin: Now 3 million illegal aliens have left in a year and a half, and only a little under 700,000 of those were forcibly deported, which is expensive and time consuming because the Democrats go to court and try to fight for them to stay. No, no, no. Trump got them to self deport. Whoever even heard of.
Sandy Rios: I know, I know.
Rod Martin: They actually released an app that lets you sign up to leave. And if you do, we'll give you a free plane ticket, some spending money, and you get to get in the line to come back legally. otherwise you're not allowed to ever come back. He has solved the biggest problem in America completely, in a year and a half. It's amazing.
Sandy Rios: It is. You know, and I don't know I'm going to jump into something here, but I don't want to get off the track. Thom Tellis just announced that he's going to, he's going to put a stay or a block. He's going to stop the Save America act and whatever a hole they call it on whatever form that bill takes, I think, reconciliation. And he's saying, that there's just no time. There's no time now. It's not possible. It's a silly endeavor. So he's going to stop it. And that reminds me of President Trump, who does things, amazing things, who thought he could close off that border. We all remember those images, Rod, of people just going, coming across the river, climbing over the fence, masses of people in the field. And he stopped it. And I just want to underscore what you just said.
Rod Martin: that was organized with taxpayer money. Your money was being used against you for the purpose of breaking the law with impunity. And it went on for years. And we discovered that when Elon went in and just shut down USAID with Marco Rubio, they transferred the actual humanitarian aid done at usaid, which turned out to be a small fraction of the budget. USAID is completely unaccountable, completely unfavorable. Leadership was administering a budget larger than the State Department and the CIA combined, most of which was going for wonderful things like overthrowing, foreign governments and forcibly sterilizing 300,000 Native women in Peru and LGBT parades in Africa and, you know, everything in the world except actual humanitarian aid. But it gets worse, because it's very clear from what has emerged as Rubio has Gotten a handle on the former usaid, which, to be clear, Trump closed one of the biggest agencies of our government gone. That's an achievement. Turns out they were spending an awful lot of money indirectly through NGOs, and not just from USAID, even from the Department of Energy, even from the EPA. Grant monies going to NGOs who spent it to recruit. Recruit illegal aliens to come to the United States and pay their way to get here. We put a stop to that. That's over. That's an enormous amount of waste and fraud and honestly, criminal expenditure of taxpayer money. There are people who should go to prison. And the good news is the Justice Department is actually investigating them. The bad news is the Justice Department is still partly controlled by the other teams. So Todd Blanche has his work cut out for him, as Pam Bondi did before, but they're making progress on it. They are actually cleaning up that piece of the swamp. And as we get more decent people in place, we're actually going after these wrongdoers. That raises another point I have to say everybody wants to talk about. There aren't any arrests. Not true. We've arrested a shocking number of pedophiles. We have arrested a shocking number of human traffickers. The administration has found hundreds of thousands of children. The Biden administration just lost. Are you kidding? We've also indicted Jim Comey, twice, the former head of the FBI. He's going to prison. He's going to get indicted a third time in this grand conspiracy investigation going on in the Southern District of Florida, which happened because of a creative legal theory Cash Patel came up with to get that accountability in a federal district that could actually get you a fair trial and a fair jury, unlike the District of Columbia or Northern Virginia. So we're making huge progress on this. These cases take a little time to build because you actually have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And honestly, the Biden team destroyed evidence right and left. So it's hard. It takes a minute, but it's all happening. And this is something conservatives have to actually understand. We're winning, we're getting our way. This president is doing what he promised. But you don't get everything you want on the first day. It just. Life doesn't work that way.
Sandy Rios: Yeah, well, you would know that. Building a company, and I think George Washington knew that. Building a country. You built a company, he'll build a country. It's not easy.
Donald Trump brought about the largest violent crime drop in American history
The one thing that caught my eye, too, you know, we've had such a problem with crime. it's just Gotten out of control with illegal immigrants, with, in the inner cities. It's been Chicago's, our hometown, and it's just, become a terrible place to go now. And then of course, DC and all this. And so crime is down. Tell us about that.
Rod Martin: Well, as you know, there are about four major metropolitan areas in the United States, all of which have been run by Democrats basically forever. That account for nearly all the violent crime in the country. If you factored those metro areas out, America doesn't have the top murder rate in the world. It's like 137th. If you've got those Democrat cities under some measure of control, everything changes. Well, guess what Donald Trump did. He put the National Guard on the streets. All the liberals called oh, fascism. No, you didn't say it was fascism. When Dwight Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to desegregate Little Rock Central High in Arkansas. You didn't say that. When Bush sent in the national guard in LA during the riots in 92. That was fascism. You didn't say it when any other president ever did it. And they all have from time to time. What's different here is that Donald Trump sent them proactively into key metro areas. The worst of course, being Washington D.C. and here's what they did. They were there to add manpower. They could detain a criminal. What they couldn't do is arrest or charge him. There's no martial law in this. They're just extending the reach of the local police. And then a police officer has to come, determine if the guy detained actually qualifies. You know, is there probable cause, should we arrest him, et cetera. So normal law enforcement actually takes care of all of that and then it goes through the justice system. But the National Guard made Washington one of the safest cities in America instead of the absolute most dangerous. That's extraordinary. And of course, it wasn't just dc, it's Memphis and its other cities. That's on top of what ICE has been doing. And the Democrats refuse to believe that any of these undocumented citizens whom, the law deems illegal aliens could possibly ever do anything wrong. But we know better than that. And that's exactly why Donald Trump got the, Lake and Wriley act passed, requiring detention of criminal illegal aliens. He actually brought about the largest violent crime drop in American history over the last year. A shocking one year decline. And wait, it gets better. We now have the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years. Wow. After just a year and a half of Donald Trump Yeah.
Sandy Rios: You write in your article here that murder alone fell 18.1%. That's huge. Ron. If he, that's all he had done. Yeah. In a year. I know, it's amazing.
Ron DeSantis: Donald Trump has repealed 129 regulations in his first term
So, so let's go on. This is a little bit obscure. People don't understand about, regulations. And let me just. Before you talk about this, let me remind people that during the Obama years, the agencies of the government were able to make regulations that were as binding as law. And people were fined for doing things that they had no idea they shouldn't be doing. I remember the, the, Gipson's guitar factory. Remember this rod was rated by swat, I think in Nashville or somewhere around Tennessee, because they were using, a kind of wood in their guitars. That was against international law and that it was terrible. The SWAT team came in. But this was the kind of thing that was happening to farmers and other people. So, so tell us what he's done on regulations which is even broader than stopping that.
Rod Martin: Well, I just marvel at the people who want to call this president a fascist because, you know, fascists don't normally slash the powers of the federal government. That's not really a big fascist talking point. Donald Trump. This is staggering. There's never been anything like this in history. There's never been anything close. In the first term, Donald Trump promised to repeal two regulations for every one new one. It worked out that in his first year, he actually repealed 22 regulations for every one new one. No president had ever done anything like that. That's amazing. Well, guess what? In the last year and a half, Donald Trump has repealed 129 regulations for every one new one. And nearly all of those one new ones were to repeal the 129 others. It's just staggering. It is a massive rollback of intrusive big government into the lives of regular people and, the prevention of businesses being able to profit enough to hire workers at a good wage. So you were talking about the waitress early on. Here's the thing the waitress needs to know. Donald Trump also, you know, every one of those regulations is functionally a tax. It's something that a business or an individual has to pay for out of their own pocket that isn't technically sent to the, irs, but it's not something they would have paid if someone hadn't forced them to at gunpoint. So this is a massive burden off of the American people. But wait, it gets better because we made the tax cuts from 2017 permanent. That allows businesses to plan, hire, train with More certainty, which is exactly what's happening. And in that bill, that one big, beautiful bill, you know what we did for that waitress? We massively expanded the child tax credit. we maintained the doubled standard deduction. We, did 100% expensing for factories and equipment so that companies can expense things quicker and hire much faster. But wait, we also eliminated taxation on tips. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and in 92% of cases, no tax on Social Security benefits. And I've just got a beef here, because the idea that we would tax a Social Security check is offensive to me. It is morally repugnant. And guess who did it. The Democrats. They're the ones who want to rob Grandma, and they have been for decades. And Donald Trump put a stop to it.
Sandy Rios: And the reason you say that, just to clarify, because some people will say, why would he say that? Is because, people that get Social Security, they get it because they paid in through working, and they've already paid tax on the money that they've earned. So you're taxing them twice. And, so that's why it's worse
Rod Martin: than that, because the Social Security money itself comes from taxes. So they were taxed on the income. They were taxed to put into this broken Social Security system that. That robs people by not giving them a reasonable rate of return. And then we're going to tax them when they're elderly and lived on a fixed income, too. It's just obscene. it's very similar to, although not quite as extreme as, the problem that Ron DeSantis is doing such a great job of dealing with here in Florida. What on earth are we doing making widows tenants, of the state government through property tax when they paid off their house maybe 20, 30 years ago? You shouldn't be a serf. You shouldn't be a renter from Tallahassee or any state government. Primary residences should not face a property tax. That's a Republican agenda, too, and it's happening now. So you can be secure in your home. If you pay it off, it's really yours. And, yeah, we'll still do property tax on businesses and investment properties and all of that. We can do that all day. But we should not be evicting Grandma when she's sick and alone. We should be taking care of our people and letting them have security. And the only way that happens is if you stop putting government's jackboot on their throats and you actually let them live their life in freedom. That's what deregulation and lower taxation means and the net result of it is tremendously greater economic growth. And we saw what that did in the 90s. We had multiple years of over 4% annual GDP growth as opposed to Obama's 1.6%. The new normal, more than 4% meant that we had so much excess tax revenue, even at a lower rate that we actually had four straight years of budget surpluses during which we started paying down the debt instead of running it up. That's what Donald Trump is trying to do today.
Sandy Rios: You know, I would just, I said it, but you probably didn't hear me. Obama, remember he called that the new normal when the economy went down. This is the new new normal. Yeah. Okay. all right, so a lot of the things that he's doing money wise are things that people don't quite understand because they're not into big money and they don't realize it's not just for people that have money. It helps all of us and that is investments and re industrialization kind of quantify what he's doing there.
Rod Martin: Look, the entire picture, you know, the tariffs are about rectifying an old wrong. After World War II, all of our allies and obviously our enemies were flattened. You know, their industry was destroyed, their people are in poverty. America took a proper but self sacrificing decision to help rebuild all those countries directly, but also to create lopsided trade agreements that benefited their industry so they could grow, making use of the US consumer market to rebuild and become profitable and not need socialism and not fall to the Soviet empire. That was a great decision. It worked. We won the Cold War. And oh wait, the Cold War ended 35 years ago and we didn't change anything. So Trump is using the tariffs as a weapon to bring about freer, more balanced trade with all these countries. And you know what he's really having at because he's told you at the G7, he said, Look, I'm a Wharton guy, I know perfectly well that the ideal trade barrier is 0%. But you guys won't cooperate with us so we're going to make you. That's exactly what he's done. The tariff regime has been designed to rebalance trade, open markets for American businesses. That means they can hire, that means they can put on new supply chain, that means they can train workers and pay them a better wage. Okay. Likewise, Trump went out, he's not going to wait for it to happen naturally.
Donald Trump recruited $18 trillion in investment commitments to re industrialize America
He's a proactive guy. He went out and recruited $18 trillion in investment commitments to re industrialize America, do people understand what $18 trillion is? That's two thirds of the size of the entire American economy. No president's ever done anything like that in history. Donald Trump went and recruited $18 trillion to be invested in in American factories, American chip plants, American energy projects, American steel mills, American shipyards. it's just, there's nothing like it in the world. So we are reassuring and re industrializing America. And again, what that means, aside from national security, we're not going to be dependent on China for rare earths, we're not going to be dependent on China for pharmaceuticals, we're not going to be dependent on Taiwan for chips. we're not going to be dependent on anybody. We're going to trade with them, but we're not going to be dependent on them. So national security, that's awesome. But the bigger point for average working Americans is that every one of those new factories, every one of those new data centers, every one of those new shipyards employs a whole bunch of American workers at a very high rate of pay. And we're going to restore the middle class American dream that was lost starting in the 90s. Starting with Bill Clinton, we're going to reverse that. We're going to bring industry home. We're going to make it possible for a man to take a wife, have some kids, have a great blue collar job at a factory that he works at for 30 years and has enough money to be able to take care of his family on one income. We always were able to do that before. We are about to be able to do it again.
Sandy Rios: Well, that's wonder, wonderful news because one of the great, laments from the younger people, Rod, you know, this is that they can't buy homes and it's impossible. many of them, this is their excuse anyway. And I think it's legitimate in some ways. I think some are maybe just not very ambitious. But many are still living at home and they don't know what to do with themselves. They're just, it's like a lost generation. So this should bring a lot of hope to them, those that are. But it's not going to happen quickly. As you said earlier, it can't happen overnight, but it's happening pretty darn quick, year and a half. As you said, he's been in office.
The Iran war is causing higher gas prices, but the real problem is deindustrialization
So here's the other thing. Now you talk about the global energy, dominance and oil and all of that. This is the sore spot right now for every well, for the people that are complaining is this whole thing about the Iran war, which we don't have to get into, but the resulting, higher prices on gas and all of that. We do need to talk about kind of give us the big picture of what he's doing with that.
Rod Martin: Well, let's start with the fact that we were all paying higher gas prices under Joe Biden and nobody seems to bother to remember it. So it's a little frustrating. But why are we paying high gas prices? It's not primarily because of Iran. Crises come up. Sometimes we choose them, sometimes they choose us. so what is the real problem? Well, the real problem is, that deindustrialization that took place over the last several decades. We haven't built a refinery in this country since 1977.
Sandy Rios: Wow.
Rod Martin: Come on. The population is massively larger, the need for fuel is massively greater, and we haven't built a refinery since the 70s. Wait, it gets worse. Blue states have actively closed refineries that we had. So we are massively increasing the amount of crude oil, but we still have a bottleneck at the point where you refine it into gasoline or diesel or anything else usable. And so the administration is addressing that in all the ways we just described. That will make a big difference. Another big difference will come from changing the structural price of oil. The Iran war is about many things, but one of the things it is doing through short term pain, to be sure, but in the long run, Iran's never going to be able to threaten the Strait of Hormuz again because the Arab countries like to be able to sell their oil. So they are all now building dramatically increased pipeline capacity that routes around anything Iran can control. And the contracts for those pipelines are largely going to American companies employing American workers. So we've got a stake in that too. And as the structural risk premium in the price of oil because of Iran's looming threat over the Strait of Hormuz for the last 40 years, not the last four months, the last 40 years, because that is dissipating and within 18 months won't exist at all no matter how the war comes out. As a result of that, global oil prices ought to drop easily. Another 10 or $20 a barrel beneath pre war prices. And that will dramatically affect the price of gasoline. So there's a comprehensive strategy even in that. But it's bigger than that because the biggest thing of all is you remember. Actually, I'm sure you're no more than about 27, so maybe you don't remember Sandy, but probably don't. I'm old enough to remember I was a kid in the 70s. I remember when we were entirely dependent on foreign oil and I remember how they used that against us as a weapon to cripple the west in multiple oil shocks. That just brought the US and European economies to their knees at the worst of the Cold War and really was an enormous national security threat and put people into mass unemployment and extreme interest rates and everything's terrible. Okay, we didn't solve that problem for the next several decades. I mean, Reagan cut a deal with the Saudis that made it better. Kissinger cut a deal with the Saudis that made it better. But we didn't really solve the problem until American entrepreneurs invented fracking. And now all of a sudden, and the Democrats still tried to constrain it with regulations and fracking bans and everything else and all kinds of dishonest propagand about it. But here's where we are. Donald Trump has deregulated that industry, deregulated those pipelines, deregulated the refineries and LNG terminals necessary so much that we now out produce Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. We're the third largest oil exporter in the world. We are the largest exporter of refined product in the world. And as a result of that, we were sending $700 billion a year in 2008 to our enemies. Now that money's coming to Texas, Louisiana and North Dakota.
Sandy Rios: You know, Rod, it just reminds me of. I. It's hard to say President Trump has such a massive brain. That's not. That's the easiest way. I know it's heavy. Understands so many complexities. It's funny how they, you know, they used people disregarded him, but he's actually brilliant and he thinks about all the layers and the, the ripples of the, the water way beyond what most of us ever, ever think about. I'm sure you're kind of in that category too because of the work you do. But most people, Well, I mean, but most people don't think to that. They just don't have the. The world is not that big and their personal world and so they don't understand all of this. But this is just amazing even to hear you talk about it. It just kind of thrills me and excites me and I just.
Nuclear power is the best, most efficient source of electricity
Anyway, so let's, let's go on because we're not done, nuclear. We have done. Nuclear power is the best, most efficient, but we've had all of this opposition and hatred of nuclear power and we really cut back. So what's happening with that?
Rod Martin: Well, all of that was stupid. I mean, even with 70s technology, we had the famous nuclear accident in 79 at Three Mile Island. Well, the worst radiation exposure anybody got, from that was less radiation than I get every time I fly on an airliner at 30,000ft or every time I walk through Grand Central Station in NewSong York. The radiation exposure was basically non existent. But we had stupid regulations that basically said any radiation is going to kill you and must be prevented. And you know, totally hypocritical about it because we do fly in airliners, we do go to Grand Central Station, and we do live in a world that has a certain amount of ambient radiation and it's not a problem. Okay, so the Trump administration got rid of all the stupid, stupid regulation that Democrats have been piling up since the 70s on this. Why? First of all, like every other technology, nuclear technology has dramatically progressed in those intervening decades. You know, and by analogy, imagine what kind of computer you'd have been using in 1975. Oh wait, you wouldn't have had one. You know, now you carry a supercomputer in your pocket and you know, and everything's computerized. Okay. Nuclear technology has similarly advanced. You can build nuclear reactors now that can't melt down, can't release radiation, can't do anything bad. So if that's the case, why wouldn't you want a bunch of them? And what it does is first of all it meets the power needs that are mushrooming everywhere. The other thing it does is it means you don't have to burn as much natural gases to produce that electricity, which means you can export it and make money for America instead of burning your own stuff. That's why the Saudis want a nuclear power deal with the United States. The President has conditioned on making peace with Israel, but they've agreed in principle on the deal. Saudi Arabia wants to be able to sell more oil and gas, not burn it at home. And so the more we transition to nuclear for elect electrical generation, the more we bring down the price of oil and gas. That's the aim. It also gives us the ability to power the new generation of missile defenses where you instead of shooting down a cheap drone or missile with an interceptor missile that costs anywhere from four to $11 million a shot, you shoot it down with a laser that costs $2 a shot. Well, the enemy can't keep up with that. If you're worried about drone swarms, the answer is lasers. And if that sounds like crazy Star Trek stuff, I got news for you. The Israelis have already deployed a functioning system called Iron Beam, and we jointly developed it with them. and we are testing it on naval vessels now. We've been very successful with it in a bunch of different settings. And that is eventually going to make missiles and drones obsolete. That is a key priority of the President, and that is already funded and in progress. A huge achievement.
Rod Dreier: Trump has restored the warrior ethos of the military
Sandy Rios: Well, and also, of course, I'm skipping here a few things, but you mentioned the restoration of the military, which I have just been thrilled with, and I think you called it the warrior ethos, and I think that's very well said.
Donald Trump: Kind of.
Sandy Rios: this is something that people will understand. Rod, tell people what he's done, at least your perspective capsules, how he's changed the military.
Rod Martin: Well, of course, the biggest thing is, you know, we've actually made the military about the military again instead of a big social engineering experiment by the LGBTQ movement. You know, we're not doing Pride days at the Pentagon. We're not doing, you know, transgender generals. That's hooey. We need people who can actually fight and win, and we need these people because they defend freedom. So. So the Trump administration just came in, got rid of the dei, got rid of the stupid stuff, and immediately started exceeding recruiting goals for every service. For the first time since Joe Biden took office, they were having trouble recruiting people for the military. Trump is having to turn people away. That is a massive difference. And we're also making the country a lot safer. I mentioned Golden Dome. That's going to be transformative over the next.
Sandy Rios: Absolutely, absolutely.
Rod Martin: Over the next three years, but the next 20 years as it gets better and better. But we've also forced our NATO allies to stop freeloading and actually increase their defense expenditures by a massive amount. About 250%. Sandy. It was so bad that a few years ago, the Germans showed up at a NATO training exercise with their. Their soldiers carrying broomsticks because they didn't have enough rifles for their men. This is Germany. This is the third largest economy in the world, and they're acting like that. They're just freeloading on the American taxpayer and using the difference to fund their giant socialist boondoggles at home. No more. Trump has cut it out. So we are not going to let our allies freeload. And in the process, they're going to get stronger, they're going to get better, their sovereignty will increase, their security will increase, and they will become partners, not dependence. That is a massive sea change. It is peace through strength, and it puts America first.
Sandy Rios: Yeah.
Rod Martin: People are disgruntled because the Republican platform didn't address pro life issues
All right. In our last few minutes, Here, let's talk about some of these family issues because especially on the pro life issue, people are disgruntled because the Republican platform, didn't do much about the issue of pro life. And there's a kind of a concern about that. But President Trump has actually done some things that would kind of solidify, pro life issues. Can you talk about that?
Rod Martin: I want to start with the obvious. Donald Trump gave us the judges who overturned Roe v. Wade. You know, for my entire lifetime we've been saying that is the pro life goal and we get it. And it's like, okay, what have you done for me lately? I mean, it's obscene. It is just a complete lack of gratitude and appreciation. All these Republicans have been telling us they were going to do that since I was a three year old. Donald Trump actually got it done. That's amazing. So now it's on us to actually pass abortion restrictions in our states. And here in Florida, we've got a six week ban. And that's amazing. It's not perfect, but it is massively better than abortion on demand through the ninth month under Roe. We're going to have to win that state by state. We always knew that nothing has changed. But what Trump has done for us in this term, he's enforced the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. He's reinstated and expanded the Mexico City policy that prohibits federal funding for foreign abortions. He's ended the federal fetal tissue research program. He's strengthened conscience protections, protected Medicaid from funding large abortion providers, and pardoned 23 pro life activists who were prosecuted for peaceful protests and even just prayer by Biden's weaponized Justice Department. And I want to add to that, it's not just the unborn. He's also taken huge steps to prevent the chemical castration of children by the transgender movement that owns all these blue states. He has gotten men out of women's sports, which is just an, obscenity, because the truth is, you got a little girl. we know statistically girls in sports perform better in school, don't get pregnant out of wedlock, go to college, have a good life. And the left has done everything to make it impossible for girls to be involved in sports in the name of Title 9, which I just marvel at. And they've done it by actually doing the opposite of feminism. We're going to call men women and we're going to let them dominate girls sports. It's just the height of evil. It's just Satanic Donald Trump has fought it and actually done the things necessary to end it. He's also given us America's first nationwide school choice program. He's launched these Trump accounts that are just amazing. He's targeted anti Christian bias and discrimination. He's just a, ah, rock star. I marvel at how much has happened. And the truth is we're not going to cover half of it on this interview, which has run for a little while now.
Sandy Rios: No, I know. in fact, I've got, you know, my list is probably completely different for the most part. But this is just great stuff, Rod, because it is a great reminder. And you're suggesting that those of us that get this list and by you can get it at rodmartin.org, rodmartin.org to learn, memorize at least three of them so that you can make the case to your friends. And that's a really good point, that we need to do our part, to turn around this sour disposition on what's happening in the country, by just reminding them of what is reality and the larger picture. So thank you for that. Any last remarks, Mr. Martin?
Rod Martin: Well, I would just remind your audience in particular that even Jesus doesn't go and personally evangelize everybody. He actually told us to go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. Okay, well, is Donald Trump supposed to go do what Jesus doesn't? If we have to evangelize for our faith, we also have to evangelize for its practical application in public policy, to restrain evil and extend good. Politics isn't, some separate thing from our faith. Politics is the application of our faith to public policy. This president has earned our support. He has upgraded the Republican office holders who are on the ballot this week. Fall. We need to elect him, those people. We need to give him the tools to do more and better. And we need to be engaged. If we don't, we're just ceding our nation to the enemy.
Sandy Rios: I can't say it better. And it's absolutely true, Rod. That's why I ask you to join me, because I have the same feeling. And we just have to kind of wake up our troops, wake up, especially the Christian community, to what is really true here. if you'd like to get this list, go to rodmartin.org, rodmartin.org, rod. Thank you so much. This has been a great offering. And I know this list is being, circulated widely. It's on my list. I keep seeing it in my list of people. So it's being passed around by lots of people. So I know it's going to bear some really good fruit. So thank you so much.
Rod Martin: Wonderful. Thank you.
Sandy Rios: Okay, Rod, see you soon. All right.
Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood among top four leading causes of death
Sandy rios on Sandy Rios 247 this is Sandy Rios 247 on American Family Radio.
Sandy Rios: Abortions performed by Planned Parenthood were among the top leading causes of death in America, revealing the terrifying truth of the left's anti life agenda. According to Planned Parenthood's 2022 annual report, Abortions performed by the organization accounted for the top four leading causes of death. Think about that. Paid for by our tax dollars. And honestly, this freight train is going down the track so fast and so powerfully. It's really hard. It's going to be hard for us to stop this. And I think one of the best ways I've said before, I'll say again, is preborn. PreBorn, who was not part of the government, not part of the public debate or campaigns, but an organization that's simply providing ultrasounds for moms who are pregnant and doubting whether they should carry the baby to allow them to see their baby through ultrasound. It's an amazing process and it actually works. When, the moms see their babies, I think it doubles the chance that they will not take the life of their baby. You know, you can't beat those odds. If you'd like to help, $28 pays for one ultrasound, just one. And you can send however much you can afford, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy the Sandy Rios 24. 7 podcast are available at afr.net back to Sandy Rios 24. 7 on American Family Radio.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Trump making good on some campaign promises, signing more than 200 executive actions, unraveling the work of his predecessor. He also withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, rescinded diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and ended federal recognition of transgender identity. On immigration, Trump declared an end to to birthright citizenship, which is already facing challenges in court as it is protected by the 14th amendment.
Donald Trump: We think we have good grounds, but you could be right. I mean, you'll find out it's ridiculous. We're the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know.
President Trump has fired 300,000 federal workers, Bruce says
Sandy Rios: Okay, well, Bruce, has joined me now because we often talk about this, but we've never itemized the things that we think, should be. President Trump should be remembered for or thanked for. One of the things that I, read just recently is that he has. They've gotten rid of, in one way or another, 300,000 federal workers. Either they have been paid to leave, or they, they left or they were. They were fired. Most of those. Many of them didn't even come into work during Cove and they stayed home even afterwards. So there were reasons. We had a lot of dead weight, so that saved a lot of money.
Bruce Bennett says conservatives have a duty to energize themselves ahead of midterm elections
But, Bruce, you've been kind of thinking. I asked you to be thinking about things that you, thought needed to be mentioned that he'd accomplished, because we certainly, even in that list of 25, didn't get to it. So what are some other things that come to your mind?
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Well, first off, it's good to be back from suspension.
Sandy Rios: Yes. He was over in the corner with his nose up against the wall. You know, it's good to have you back, Hunter.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): I'm glad to be back. President, Trump, he, reminds me of a road grader. as Rod said, even Jesus did not do all the work that had, to be done because he wanted us to join with him and do some of the work he could have, but he chose not to. And it reminds me of President Trump. He's like a road grader to me. Like, he just levels the impediments to things, but he can't do all the work on his own. We need to follow behind him. And look, I have my issues with President Trump at times, but if you think about the great things he's doing, you know, we as conservatives tend to always pick out the negative. We never pick out all the positive. And we, tend to be like, you know, if President Trump cured cancer, people would, complain that now the chemotherapy drugs are going to go to waste. I mean, that's the kind of attitude a lot of our people have. And to listen to Rod, enumerate so many of these things, I mean, it just buoys me up. I've been a little bit down as we reach the midterms, because there's been a lot of negativity. But I, think we all have a duty to, either read this list of rods or listen to this, broadcast and re, energize ourselves. Let's get out there. Let's let people know what's good and what's going on.
Sandy Rios: Well said, honey. I think that's very well said.
You know, I think one thing you've been excited about is the Trump accounts
You know, I think one thing you've been excited about, I know, is the Trump accounts Yes. That is just amazing. These kids, these little children, children, ah, invested properly, and they're not going to have to make those decisions about where to invest, but they could be. Have hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time they're grown up.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): You know, we've heard for years that, Social Security may have. May be outmoded now. it takes so much overhead to administer it, and that the return on the investment really isn't what it could be if it was, put into.
Sandy Rios: Invested privately.
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Yeah, privately invested. And these Trump accounts, to me, are the closest thing you can get to now, privately. Well, I mean, they're being overseen, obviously, by the government, but it's going to be people that know how to make money. It's not going to be a bureaucracy that just goes along the way we always have, like Social Security does.
Sandy Rios: It's a way to build wealth for your children. And, and, you know, that's these, you, those of you that are younger, you know that you've come to a place where you don't have a lot of wealth and you feel hopeless. And this is something looking forward. It may not help you, but it will help your children. And it's just an amazing thing that he came up with. It really is. So I think we could go on and on. But, honey, thank you. I'm glad I voted for President Trump. I would vote for him again. I'm so grateful to him.
Only consequential presidents get shot or shot at, Trump says
In fact, I want to play one more clip because it reminded me of something else. and that is the price that he's paying for being our president. This was an interview he did just recently. And this is clip five.
Donald Trump: I think bull riding looks pretty dangerous to me. I wouldn't want to do that. I think I'd rather be in a race car. 110 of 1%. Same number. Just about the same number die president. 5.2% next of it. So many times it's a dangerous profession. But if you think about it, you're not going to do a very good job. Yes, and I really am. I'm surrounded by very good people. Secret Service has been great. Law enforcement's been great. The military has been. I'm surrounded by a lot of people. The only thing I can say about it, though, is, and if you look at it, it's true. It's, I guess, a compliment, but a very strange form of compliment. only consequential presidents get shot or shot at. And I am very consequential. We've changed this whole world. We've saved this country this country. Had our opponent, my opponent gotten elected, instead of having 19.2 trillion coming into the country, you would have had 10 trillion going out. Your welfare would have doubled or tripled, and you would have had a country that was a failed country. We were very close. We were right on the tipping edge. And now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. This is the hottest country in the world right now, Trey. Every country respects us more than any other country. Nobody's close.
Sandy Rios: So this is a billionaire with a wonderful family who's had his family threatened. Last week, I told you, the Iranians are putting up posters that they're going to assassinate Barron Trump. they've had, fatwa. Whatever they call. I think it's fatwa against Melania. And, this price, you know, his business has been targeted. He's paid a huge price, and yet he's in there swinging. Why is he doing that? You think it's because of his vanity? I really don't think so. I realize he has a very big ego, but I don't think he wants to die. And he's been. The attempts to assassinate him have been amazing. They've come so close. And yet. And yet he continues to move and do as much as he can for this country. So, with that, I think we need to say goodbye.
If we cede power to the Democrats in this midterm election, President Trump will be neutered
Bruce, do you have any final thoughts?
Bruce (Sandy Rios' husband): Well, just to, amplify what you said earlier, we really have to vote in these midterms and in the coming election, because, as Sandy said, if we cede power to the Democrats in this midterm election, President Trump will be neutered. And we mean that almost literally. He will have no power. They will, The left will start the impeachments probably the day that they're sworn in as a Congress. And we. All this progress that we're talking about, because a lot of this progress is not fully manifested. We need some more time for it, like the foreign investment, things like that. We're on the way, but we need time to finish it. And if President Trump, if his power base is removed, we will not see those things come to fruition.
Sandy Rios: Very, very well said, honey. Thank you so much.
Preborn is our sponsor and makes this show possible to Continue
All right, well, I think we've said enough today. remember that that list can be [email protected] rodmartin.org and I want to remind you that PreBorn is our sponsor. If you would like to help and make. Make this show possible to Continue, go to preborn.com sandy that's preborn.com sandy. Thank you for listening to this edition of Sandy Rios 24 7. It.
we cover the significant executive actions taken by President Donald Trump on the evening of his inauguration, including pardons for approximately 1500 individuals involved in the January 6th Capitol riot. Join Sandy Rios and guest Rod Martin as they reflect on Trump's accomplishments, the implications of upcoming elections, and the importance of conservative engagement in politics.
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