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Join Tony Perkins for a compelling exploration of international religious freedom, where we bring Hungary’s efforts to the forefront in protecting persecuted Christians globally. In a poignant dialogue, we consider how Christian values influence today’s geopolitical climate and public policy. Additionally, tune in to learn about efforts to restore traditional military readiness by curbing unwarranted diversity initiatives in the ranks, setting a new precedent for strategic defense establishments.
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from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
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The Mexican government understands this, that this is a drug war, not a trade war. This is a drug war, not a trade war. We have an unprecedented amount of Americans dying every year from fentanyl alone. What we are trying to do here is stop the killing of Americans by these deadly drugs.
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That was Peter Navarro, President Trump’s senior trade counselor, explaining the tariffs placed on Mexico, Canada and China earlier today. Welcome to Washington Watch. Thank you for tuning in. President Trump is using the threat of tariffs to reshape the policies of foreign governments. It appears to be working, but is there a downside? We’ll talk about it with economist Jerry Bauer, president of Bauer Research. Last night I joined about a dozen evangelical leaders in a private meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Dr. Jim Garlow, who was also in that meeting, is co-hosting tomorrow’s National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. He’ll join me later here on this edition of Washington Watch. And meanwhile, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are meeting at the White House as we speak. This is President Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader as he begins his second term in office. Certain to be among the topics they are discussing is Iran.
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They cannot have a nuclear weapon. With me, it’s very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want to be tough on Iran. We don’t want to be tough on anybody, but they just can’t have a nuclear weapon.
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That was President Trump earlier today. We’ll get a readout on the meeting from Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, and we’ll also discuss the reversal of the Biden administration’s pro-abortion policies in the military under the Trump administration. As we mentioned on yesterday’s program, the International Religious Freedom Summit is underway this week here in Washington, D.C. Its focus is precisely what the name suggests, religious freedom. One country that has prioritized defending persecuted Christians is Hungary, and the Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians, Tristan Ásberg, will join me to talk about what his country is doing to aid Christians around the world. All of that and a bit more coming up on this edition of Washington Watch. All right, the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance will be held tomorrow morning, 7 a.m. Eastern Time at the Museum of the Bible, but it’s sold out. However, not to worry, you can still participate no matter where you may live. The event will be broadcast live on the Stand Firm app, so if you don’t have the app, download the Stand Firm app, or you can register, and we’ll send you a link. Register at PrayDC.org. That’s PrayDC.org, and we’ll send you a link. As I mentioned, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to emerge pretty soon from their meeting at the White House. Among the topics that were discussed was the plan for the second phase of the hostage and ceasefire deal that Israel and Hamas agreed to last month. Other expected discussion points include Iran’s nuclear ambitions and normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia. Now, with Trump back in the White House, I can share from my meeting with the prime minister that optimism for man-managed peace in the Middle East has returned. Joining me now to talk about this and much more, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He serves on four Senate committees, including the Armed Services Committee. Coach Tuberville, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you.
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You too, Tony.
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So President Trump, his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu is the first with a foreign leader since his second term in office. What do you think this communicates to Israelis and to the rest of the world?
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Well, basically, at the end of the day, President Trump’s trying to find out the game plan of Netanyahu and what the future holds for them, whether it’s Lebanon or whether it’s Gaza. He has to have the whole picture and just not part of it. And then, of course, President Trump’s going to give his thoughts on the game plan and maybe give him his game plan or what he thinks the American people and President Trump in the White House should do for Israel. Israel is our greatest ally, Tony. We need to help them. But we need to have a game plan to get this thing over with because it is a – a bomb that could go off any second. And to me, that’s the most volatile area in the world. Now, we’ve got Ukraine and Russia. We’ve got China and all those things. But right now, the biggest threat to world peace is the Middle East. And President Trump has got a lot of great ideas about this. Pete Hegseth, he and I talked for hours about this. I think we’ve got a good opportunity to help Israel. But we’ve got to make sure we’re all on the same page. And I think that’s what Netanyahu and President Trump are doing.
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Well, we’ll soon find out when they emerge from their meeting. Today, the president withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Your reaction to that?
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Well, it’s run by dictators, and we don’t deal with dictators, and President Trump’s exactly right here. Again, he’s been putting all these things together for the last two or three years, and now they’re all coming to fruition. I call it picking low-hanging fruit, and this is picking low-hanging fruit right here with the U.N., The whole entity might need to go, but at the end of the day, he’s going to start picking out the areas that really don’t support the American people and things that we believe in. And he’s starting with this group, and it could even go other places. But I’m glad President Trump’s stepping up early in this four years and getting this done.
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Are you concerned about the absence of a sane voice on the United Nations Human Rights Council with what they may do with that from a propaganda standpoint without the American representation on there?
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Well, you can say that. And, you know, it might would help to have somebody in the room, but they never listen to us. I mean, it’s not our first rodeo. It’s not President Trump’s first rodeo on this situation. He understands the people that the voices are really heard propaganda wise, no matter whether we’re in the room or not. So hopefully. Hopefully they see the writing on the wall here and they come to an agreement and say, hey, if we’re going to have any kind of help from the United States, we might ought to start listening to President Trump and the Americans. But right now, we have really no voice. We might be there, but we really have no voice.
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Now, speaking of presidential actions, President Trump also signed a memorandum that restores his maximum pressure campaign on Iran and aims to deny Iran all paths to nuclear weapons. Now, this is something you and I have talked about. This is in stark contrast to what the Biden administration did. Do you think this will work?
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I think it will. President Trump knows how to handle it. The number one thing for Iran is to cut off their money supply with oil, and that is what will eventually happen. That’s what he did last time. President Trump had them almost broke, Tony. They were down to several billion dollars for the entire country. Their people were just about to start protesting and rioting in the streets against their own government. And then Joe Biden comes in. He lets them start selling oil all over the world, and it’s made them rich again. They got hundreds of billions of dollars. They’ve helped all their proxies with the war in Lebanon and the Houthis and, of course, in Gaza. It’s a total mess. Again, President Trump’s going to have to clean it up. It’s great to have an adult back in the room with President Trump because what has been running this country, especially foreign relation-wise, is not been adults in the room. It has been people from some other planet, it seems like, that have made decisions that have not been for anybody, even the Middle East. So we got adults back in the room and hopefully we get some answers and we start finding ways to get Israel out of this war in Gaza and get peace back in the Middle East.
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Let’s switch gears, Coach. I want to talk a little bit about domestic policy as it pertains to our nation’s military. For the past two years, you’ve been sounding the alarm about the Pentagon’s illegal and immoral practice of using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. Now, you’ve Frankly, you stood along with just a few other members of the Senate standing with you on this, but that has now paid off. It’s been reversed. You mentioned Pete Hegseth. You had conversations with him about this as he was positioning, going through the process to become Secretary of Defense. What can you tell us about those conversations that led to this decision that that’s no longer going to be acceptable in the military?
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Well, first, Tony, thanks to you for standing with me during this long, almost a year. Me and you talked almost monthly on this show, fighting back against the lawless Biden administration, basically doing the work of a dictator. They were just kind of changing everything the way that they wanted it, whether it be forgiving student loans, which the Supreme Court said you can’t do it, and they turned around and kept doing it. And then, of course, the abortion. When Roe Wade went down and kicked everything back to the states for abortion, they were just looking for any way possible to do abortions and pay for abortion in this country. One was the VA, in which I’m still fighting back on that one. We’d never done abortions in the VA, but this is where they were paying for abortions. for military personnel to fly anywhere they wanted to go on the taxpayer’s dime for an abortion was absolutely against the Hyde Amendment. It was against anything that the American people had stood for and voted against. So fortunately, Pete Hegsteth and I, we sat down and talked about it. You know, before the confirmation, he was totally and it was totally with me even before he even thought he was going to be the sec def. So a lot of people on board with this. I want to thank President Trump for doing this very early, helping the American taxpayers really understand that this was not a law. This was just done by a dictator in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that just absolutely just told the American taxpayer, we’re going to do this no matter what you want.
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You know, Coach, I have to say this is one of those examples where, you know, a lone voice kind of crying in the wilderness can make a difference over time. I know there’s a lot of people making kind of victory laps on this now, but the track was pretty, pretty empty yesterday. When it came time to stand for this, I mean, many times you’re down there on the Senate floor and you actually had to go against some of your Republican colleagues. So I just first off, I want to thank you for taking a principled stand for the sanctity of human life and for the taxpayers who have historically not been forced to pay for abortion. But again, I think it’s an example of when you when something is right and you believe in it, you should take a stand for it.
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Well, you’re exactly right. And nobody had ever had holds like that for that long. I held up every promotion in the Pentagon and I was enemy number one. Now I got, you know, I had death threats and things like that. But what got me at the end of the day, you’d think as Republicans, you come together on this issue and you stand behind and say, listen, we’re going to stand beside our fellow Senator. And I had him coming after me. As you just said, I was on the Senate floor one night till two in the morning. fighting back against several of our senators that were basically after me. And at the end of the day, the reason I dropped the holds was because Schumer had enough senators on the Republican side to go around me, to change the rule in the Senate to where we couldn’t have a hold on any promotion in the military. And so at the end of the day, I had to get out of it. And and give it up. I hated to do it, but they were going to do it anyway without my approval. I just hated that Republicans sided with the Democrats on an abortion issue. That is dead wrong.
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But sometimes you regroup for another day. And by bringing attention to this issue and being willing to fight on this issue, you have now seen it resolved with a new administration coming in. We just have about 45 seconds left, Senator Tuberville. What else do you hope to see coming out of the Pentagon under Pete Hexeth?
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Well, I think you’ve already seen all the DEI woke nonsense that’s been kicked out of the military. I want to get back to training our warfighters. And I think that’s one thing that Pete and I really agreed on. Me being in education, I saw what they were doing. And a lot of our bases and the training of our young people, they weren’t training warfighters. They were indoctrinating them into a military that wasn’t ready to fight. And so we’re putting more emphasis and a more amount of time that they’re learning to shoot. They’re jumping out of helicopters, planes, learning how to protect themselves and learning how to protect the American people. That’s what our military is about. It’s not about a woke indoctrination.
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Well, and it’s about time they get back to that business. Coach Tuberville, always great to see you. Thanks for joining us today.
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Thank you, Tony. God bless you.
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All right. Coach Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. All right. Hungary is doing some notable work to protect persecuted Christians around the globe. After the break, we’re going to be talking about that, so don’t go away.
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During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we’re making an eternal impact. 2024 was a year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, DC. Last fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC’s outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with the community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God’s intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel’s peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government, Launching early this year in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us, and we look forward to 2025 and standing for faith, family, and freedom.
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Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC’s Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into Scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God’s Word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us on this Tuesday. The website, TonyPerkins.com. Be sure and check out PrayDC.org. That’s a link to tomorrow’s prayer event here in our nation’s capital. Well, speaking of that, the International Religious Freedom Summit is taking place this week as well here in our nation’s capital. I’ll be speaking on Thursday at the summit. Yesterday, we had on the program the co-chair of the summit, Sam Brownback, the FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR AT LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. AND AS HE TOLD US, THEY’RE EXPECTING A RECORD ATTENDANCE THIS YEAR. A LOT OF FOCUS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. AND I WOULD SAY THAT HAS A LOT TO DO WITH THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION THAT BACK WHEN THEY WERE HERE LAST TIME, THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUT A PRIORITY ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, AND THEY’RE BACK. AND WE’RE HOPEFUL THAT THAT ONCE AGAIN WILL BE A FOCUS. BUT THIS EVENT DRAWS LEADERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. And, you know, among the leaders speaking at the summit on behalf of the persecuted church is Tristan Ajbe. He is the state secretary for the aid of persecuted Christians. His government, the Hungarian government, has been at the forefront of protecting Christians around the world. And he joins me now in studio. Secretary Ajbe, thanks for joining us. Always great to see you. Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you. It is great to be back with your show. Now, when we spoke last, we touched on your government’s focus on defending Christians around the world. Now, you make no, I mean, you don’t hesitate to say that you’re focused on Christians. This is not just everybody. Your government has taken it upon themselves to help Christians wherever they’re persecuted.
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Well, first we met, it was seven years ago, at a religious freedom summit in D.C. And then I remember I went on the stage and introduced myself with my title, State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians. And even though it was a group of people concerned with religious freedom, what I have seen was surprise, shock, and immediately criticism. Back in the time, these religious freedom discussions weren’t focusing on Christians or not even mentioning Christians. It wasn’t politically correct to show the reality of Christian persecution.
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But you have, and you’ve actually changed the conversation somewhat about this, that even internationally there’s more of a recognition of the persecution of Christians. Let’s talk a little bit about the advancement that has been made in the last seven years as Hungary has continued to do this work.
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Yes, we had and have two major objectives. One is to save as many persecuted Christian lives as it is possible. One is to rebuild the Christian towns, the ancient Christian towns in the Middle East and the Holy Land that was destroyed by jihadists. One is to save Christians in northern Nigeria and I could go on. But the other one is to inspire the rest of the world, culturally or historically formerly Christian world big, more powerful governments than Hungary and international organizations stand by the Christians. So if you ask me about how we advance with that regarding the humanitarian aid, I am proud to report that we have provided aid to more than 2 million persecuted Christians or Christians in need in more than 50 countries, more than 2 million. Well, that is something for a small country to be proud of, but recent studies shows that there are more than 380 million followers of Christ who are persecuted. So if you subtract two million from that, there is still hundreds of millions who need help. So therefore, another important question is that how we, how successful we were to convince other governments. And unfortunately, not very successful. And the reason for that is that when you try to partner up, for example, with Western European governments who are governed by liberal parties, or when we try to partner up with the Biden administration, you see a hostile type of indifference or neglecting, tendency to neglect Christian persecution. Our major breakthrough was during the first Trump administration. when the US, with all the almost infinite resources compared to Hungary, signed a cooperation agreement with us, who is only a 10 million strong country, and together we rebuilt Iraqi Christian towns on the Nineveh Plains. We supported Christian communities who still pray in and speak in Aramaic. But it was Right away, it was canceled, this cooperation with the Biden administration. So that part is sometimes even more difficult than what we do through the Hungary Helps program.
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Why is this a priority for the Hungarian government?
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Two reasons, and both of those reasons have to do with who we are. We are a 1,000-year-old Christian nation, and we are proud of that. And I can say this, that we are a Christian nation as a government official, and I’m not going to be fired tomorrow because of not being politically correct. The way we look at it is that we are a small nation who somehow survived between the big empires for 1,000 years, and we achieved this to the fact that our first king, King Saint Stephen, offered Hungary to the Virgin Mary. So it has to do with our Christian heritage and understanding our moral obligation to support our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East and in other places where they are persecuted. We also understand as a fact, not as a theory, that the moment the last Christian will disappear from the Holy Land, that will be the end of all of the Christian civilization. And the other one is humanitarian, because Christianity tells us that we should not focus only on Christians. Christian solidarity is universal solidarity. But if we see the facts, today Christianity is the most persecuted religious group in the world. By numbers, because of their faith, Christians are persecuted in the largest numbers. So not only our Christianity, but our general humanitarian sense, our general universal solidarity dictates that the Western countries should not abandon the Christians like they did when ISIS committed genocidal attacks against them in 2014, or like they do when Boko Haram commits genocidal attacks against them in Nigeria in these days and years.
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Well we don’t have time to go into it today but the Hungarian government also doing a lot of innovative policy work to encourage family development. They actually want kids born to Hungarian families and they like big families which I’m really excited about as a father of five. I should have went to Hungary because you’ve got all kinds of programs for those. But. We’re out of time. Can’t talk about that today, but we will. But let me say on behalf of the Christian community, thank you to Hungary for taking a stand for the persecuted Christians.
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Thank you for your support. Thank you for your fight for religious freedom. And thank you for your friendship and support towards us Hungarians.
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All right, folks, stick with us. We’re back right after this.
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Have you ever been to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC? Well, now you have a special reason to be there on Wednesday, February 5. First, you can take part in the third annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. God’s ways are higher than our ways. The Lord clearly reveals in scripture any nation that genuinely worships him is a nation with leaders willing to repent and ask forgiveness for sins. The NGPR is a unique public gathering where scores of congressional leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, join with international leaders representing more than 50 nations for one sole purpose.
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Forgive our nations against you and you alone have we sinned.
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You can be there in the room to pray along with members of Congress, dignitaries from other nations, and Christian leaders from across the U.S. The NGPR is hosted by Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Dr. Jim Garlow, founder of Well-Versed World, along with Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and former Congresswoman Michelle Buchman. Right after the prayer and repentance gathering, participants will move to the World Stage Theater for a private update on important events happening in Israel. and watch a preview of the historic new documentary on the Megiddo Mosaic, the most remarkable archeological find in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is truly one of a kind opportunity to learn what’s going on behind the scenes in Israel and how it could affect the whole world. Both of these Bible honoring events require tickets. Go to PrayDC.org, register today to attend in person on February 5th. As a bonus, your ticket grants you a free admission to experience the rest of the Museum of the Bible. Seating is limited for both events. Go to PrayDC.org to get tickets today.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us. All right. Earlier today, President Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House for his first meeting with a foreign leader since the start of his second term. The prime minister’s visit, which will reportedly be through Saturday here in the United States, comes as Israel’s fragile hostage and ceasefire deal with Hamas continues to hold. Well, ahead of his meeting with President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu last night met with a group of evangelicals, leaders, that included myself and my next guest. Joining me now to discuss this and more is Dr. Jim Garlow, founder and CEO of the ministry. Well-versed and together with me and him, he and I are going to do the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance tomorrow. Pastor Jim, welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to see you. Thank you. Good to be with you, Tony. All right, before we jump into tomorrow’s event at the Museum of the Bible, which I can see that you are standing there and over your head is the Capitol itself. Sun is shining there. Let’s talk about last night’s meeting with the prime ministers. About a dozen of us met with him. What was your major takeaway from that meeting?
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I was struck more than the content, the demeanor in the room. The prime minister, he spoke very quietly, remarkably quiet, but a bold resolve. He’s a man who’s been tested. He’s been through the fire. And he is still under fire, under enormous pressure. But he wasn’t blustery. He was quiet. It was a quiet resolve. I was taken by the authority and force of his words. That really kind of captured me in the moment. But the issue is they are going forward. Israel is going to do what the Bible says to do. It is their land, and they are not backing down in any way, though the pressures on Israel right now are absolutely astounding. Seven or eight, eight front war. How many nations, tiny nations, have faced attack from eight different directions at the same time, and they’re still standing, and they will.
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Why is Israel, why should it be, I should say, an issue for Christians? Why should Christians care?
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Because God cares. I guess I reframe the question a little bit. Why is Israel constantly attacked? The most consistently persecuted people group in all of history. And the answer is because they represent God. They brought us the Torah. They brought us the Tanakh. They brought us the teaching. They brought us the prophets. They brought us the teaching on the Messiah. They brought us the Messiah. And because of that, the Messiah comes through them. That is why they are so hated and persecuted by so many groups around the world. And because God has moved through them, chooses to work through them. He could have chosen some other location. He could have chosen some other people group. But he chose the Jewish people, and he chose that piece of real estate of the entire earth. All the earth belongs to him, and he loves all nations. But the fact he chose that nation be the one to bless the rest of us with the truth of himself and his own son. And that being the case, we stand with Israel because God stands with Israel and the Bible clearly commands it.
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There’s no other explanation for the hatred for this small group of people other than they represent God. They’re God’s chosen people. And I think that is what anti-Semitism is, is a hatred for God. And we also see that kind of bleeding over to the church. You know, it’s the Jews and the Christians that the world hates. People of the book, and that was actually discussed last night, is that what we share in common is that we are people of the book, the Bible. We believe that. God’s Word. And that’s going to be center stage tomorrow at the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. We’re going to be talking about Israel and the second part of that in particular. But we’re going to be gathering to pray for the nations, pray for America, but we’re going to do something that is not normally done at these prayer events like that are taking place in our nation’s capital this week. We’re going to repent. We’re going to take ownership for what we have done in failing and falling short of what God has called us to be as a people.
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Now, this is a very sacred time that we’ll be having Museum of the Bible. This is an altar of the Lord. Tony and I have been working on this and talking about this the last three years of this annual event. And we you and I share a deep connection. a deep concern for our nation. So this is an altar of the Lord, which means this is where God and humans transact, agree. And so we come before God in repentance of sins, whether they’re personal sins or if they’re faith leaders repenting of sin in the church. or if government leaders repenting of the national sins. And then we’ll go on a roll call of nations where other nations have an opportunity to repent before holy and righteous and just God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. But that blessing starts when we walk in his ways. We acknowledge him, who he is. And so my desire and your desire, Tony, I know, is for America to be on our knees before God, asking His ways, following His commands, and then we can expect His blessings.
SPEAKER 05 :
Jim, we just have about a minute left. It’s sold out tomorrow, so folks can watch online, dcpray.org. But share a little bit about the program for tomorrow. Mostly prayer, but a few words of exhortation.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I think that site is PrayDC.org. I believe it is. PrayDC.org, I think.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, it is. I may have misstated. PrayDC.
SPEAKER 06 :
Part one at 7 a.m. is sold out. But part two, if you live in the area, You can still get tickets. You can go online and get tickets for part two. That’s at 10 a.m. That’s the focus on Israel. But what they can expect if they come, they’ll be interspersed with worship. In fact, in the background, you might be able to hear the worship being rehearsed even right now as I’m with you. And in prayer by quite a few members of Congress, the most number of members of Congress we have ever had, come and pray at this. And they all know. They only have a minute to pray in their prayers of repentance. And then we go to national leaders, faith leaders, and members of government from many, many other countries. There’s some prime ministers who are going to be here, all standing before a holy and righteous God.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do tomorrow. Jim, thanks for joining us. Folks, stick with us. We’re back after this.
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As President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration approached, a powerful prayer gathering took place in Washington, D.C., drawing Christians together to intercede for our nation.
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The church does not recapture its prophetic zeal. It will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority. God help us to recapture that prophetic zeal.
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This is not an inter-religious service. We will not be praying to Allah or Buddha. We’ll be praying to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We’re talking to God, a holy, righteous, just God from a nation that desperately needs the touch of this God.
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We’ve not been a secular nation. We don’t want to be a secular nation. We’ve been a nation built around God, and our history shows that.
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A well-versed and family research council led the inauguration praise and prayer convocation, urging attendees to pray for the incoming presidential administration and for the church to embody holiness and righteousness, champion biblical justice, and proclaim truth prophetically.
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Lord, may this not be the end, but may this be the beginning, this convocation, this gathering. And may we commit to pray and to seek you and to walk in your word and in your ways. In Jesus’ name, amen. Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But you know, the Bible talks about four institutions of government. You know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this thing, separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn’t be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
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Download the new Stand Firm app for Apple and Android phones today and join a wonderful community of fellow believers. We’ve created a special place for you to access news from a biblical perspective, read and listen to daily devotionals, pray for current events and more. Share the Stand Firm app with your friends, family and church members and stand firm everywhere you go.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is Washington Watch. I’m Tony Perkins. Glad to have you with us. All right, let me make it very clear. The website PrayDC.org. I’m not sure what I was thinking. PrayDC.org. Now, it is the first part of tomorrow’s prayer event is sold out at the Bible Museum. But if you register, you can participate online. PrayDC.org is the place to go. Our word for today comes from Jeremiah 8. How can you say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? Look, the false pen of the scribes certainly works falsehoods. The wise men are ashamed. They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord. So what wisdom do they have? You see, they thought they were wise, having replaced God’s word with their own words of wisdom, with their own concocted and false science. Think about all the focus that is placed on education today. The key to life is more educational opportunities. Early childhood education, expanded access to post-secondary education, some call for total government funding of college tuition. With all the focus on public education and the tax dollars that flow to it, why do the scores on the national assessment test continue to decline and with them the capabilities of our workforce? Could it be what Jeremiah states in verse 9? Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they have? Maybe it’s time to return to, embrace, and live out the word of God. To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text BIBLE to 67742. Yesterday, the leaders of Mexico and Canada struck last minute deals with President Trump that put a one month pause on the new tariffs that the U.S. plan to implement today on their respective countries exports to the United States. Now, the new tariffs on Chinese products, however, went into effect at 12.01 a.m. this morning, and China, in response, hit back with a broad package of economic measures targeting the U.S. that will take effect February the 10th. While that does give time for the U.S. and China to work out a deal, if one isn’t struck, what could be the impact of that? And what could be the impact on these new tariffs? in all three countries if they happen to go into place. And is this an effective tool for helping shape policy. Joining me now to discuss this is economist Jerry Boyer president and CEO of Boyer Research. Jerry welcome back to Washington Watch. Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER 07 :
My pleasure. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
So first, for our viewers who may not be well versed when it comes to tariffs, can you give us a kind of a brief explainer on what they are and how they work?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I think one of the things that’s confusing about them is that they’re called tariffs when they’re just taxes. So let’s just make it simple. Let’s get rid of the word tariff. So it’s a tax. Well, what is being taxed? What’s being taxed is goods or services that are purchased from overseas producers. So if you buy avocados… that are coming from Mexico, when the avocados are coming into the United States, there’s an extra tax put on them. There is an illusion that somehow you’re taxing the avocados. Well, you’re not paying the… You know, avocados don’t pay taxes. They just become guacamole. So who pays the taxes? What does Mexico pay them? Well, in the end, taxes are paid by consumers. Taxes on business are really paid by consumers in the end. That’s the last transaction in the production and sale of something. In the end, all the goods, all the productivity, all the costs show up in the price.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s what the argument that conservatives make here in the United States domestically, is that when we add taxes, it’s the consumer that ultimately ends up paying for it. Same thing here. But the penalty, I assume, that then flows to the exporting country is that people won’t buy the product because it costs too much.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right, exactly. Because you’re increasing the cost of the product, you probably get less of it. And then the idea is that maybe avocado farmers in California, who are not as efficient because California is not super business friendly, maybe they’ll be able to sell more avocados because Mexico loses part of its pricing advantage. So it decreases competition. So really, that’s the intent, is to decrease competition and increase the price for goods that are just produced here in the United States. I mean, but it’s so odd. The argument that I just made, conservatives make that argument all the time, that taxes are paid by consumers. And somehow we think that magically, Well, no, that doesn’t apply when something’s from another country. If it’s a computer chip or an avocado, then the laws of economics don’t apply. They still do. Now, it might be worth paying that price. Let’s say we have a border crisis and Mexico is not helping, and then you threaten a tariff to get them to help stop the illegal crossings for the sake of national security. Okay, great. That’s not an economic argument, and that’s a pretty good argument. And if that’s what we’re doing, if in the end this is just an attempt to get them to stop illegal border crossing and send 10,000 troops, great, sign me up. But sometimes the president also makes just the arguments from 300 years ago about how great it is to have taxes on trade, and history has shown that to not be accurate. It’s not good for the economy. It’s not even good for the, it isn’t good for Americans because then they just counter-tariff us. So if we tax goods coming from China, there might be geopolitical reasons to do so, but then it just goes through Vietnam instead. They find a way around. What do they do? Well, they tax pork. So, you know, what are we doing? We might be helping people here in Pittsburgh who import steel, but we’re hurting hog farmers. So tariffs tend to be treated as siding with us against foreigners. But in reality, historically in America, they’ve always been siding with one kind of American against another kind of American. Typically, tariffs support the Northeast manufacturing centers and hurt the South and the Midwest farming centers.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, Jerry, the scenario you laid out is my understanding of both the tariffs for Canada and Mexico are dealing with border issues, drugs coming across the illegal crossings. And he’s trying to get them to step up to the table and take responsibility for what is happening at the border on their side. Now, so far, it seems to have brought them to that table of of wanting to to deal with this issue and and put off the tariffs. But let’s let’s talk broader economics. If we have these now China’s going forward, possibly we got a couple, you know, a couple of weeks there to work that one out. But let’s say these were in place. What does that do from a macro perspective? You described micro, you know, what it does to the hog farmers, what it does to the steel producers. But what about the overall economy?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it slows down the growth of the overall economy, and it causes prices to rise. Because price competition, going back to Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, is one of the things that’s made capitalism so effective. So there’s this idea of division of labor, that there are some things that are really good, some places, like America’s not really good at growing cocoa, but Sub-Saharan Africa is really good at growing cocoa. We’re really good at making microchips. Sub-Saharan Africa is not so good at that. So I look at this theologically. God has spread out his gifts among the whole human family. And a few hundred years ago, theologians started to come forward to talk about global trade and say in the providence of God, he made us need one another so that we’re less likely to war with one another and it’s better to trade. And I think that’s right. So I think in general, it’s inflationary because it cuts down on that division of labor. This idea, you even find it in the Bible that the body has different organs, right? Different minerals. Yeah, exactly. And that’s actually, that works in economics too. That comes into Adam Smith. So it’s really better if we trade with one another rather than war with one another and that drives prices down. So tariffs tend to be inflationary. The president ran on an anti-inflation program and that’s why he got support. And I’m supporting, that’s one of the reasons I supported him.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right. I’m not sure that Adam- I’m not sure Adam Smith had met Donald Trump, though. When you look at the he’s using Trump had met Adam Smith. I mean, he’s using this as a negotiating gambit. And I mean, he’s he’s he’s unusual. And I think part of the issue here is people don’t they don’t know what he’ll do. And so it does bring them to the table of negotiations. Right. But the reality is this is a double edged sword, is it not?
SPEAKER 07 :
It is, and I’m for what’s been happening so far. I mean, what he did with Colombia was astonishing. Between the third hole and the 18th hole in a golf course, he got Colombia to take back its criminal element. I thought that was amazing. Yay, I’m all for that. But sometimes the president or his supporters talk as though tariffs are good in the long run and that they’re good for the economy. I’m sorry, we have 300 years of experience with this. Maybe we’ve forgotten, but they are not good in the long run. And we need to learn the lessons of history. America moved away from tariffs for a reason. They were part of the Civil War, frankly. The South didn’t want tariffs. The North did want tariffs. Yes, slavery is definitely an issue, but tariffs were an issue as well. They play Americans against one another. So if these are negotiating tactics, for international security, I’m all for it. If this is the new economic program, protectionism, we know it doesn’t work. So I just hope and pray the president is just doing the first and not the second.
SPEAKER 05 :
I think it is the former, but let’s jump to China. Okay, let’s talk about that for a moment because that’s still an unknown. They’re now slapping some tariffs back on the United States. And there is an imbalance in trade with China. China is, I think, in a category all by itself. It is a threat to the United States. How does tariff play into that bigger relationship with China?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it’s really complicated. It’s a little scary. So China owns a lot of our bonds. They own a lot of dollars. They could dump them and collapse the dollar. I don’t think they’ll do that, but there’s a lot of uncertainty in this. I think China is a grotesquely evil power. The CCP is one of the most evil things in the history of the world. Anything we can do to make sure that the U.S. remains the superpower and China doesn’t replace us, I’m all for. But we need to be smart about it. Maybe the president is surrounded by people who get exactly how to do it with China to stop their rise. That’s great. They’re not letting us in on all their plans on exactly how they’re trying to use this as a geopolitical tool. If it just comes down to, hey, China sells us goods, and they build a middle class, and we don’t want them to sell goods, all I know is the last time that President Trump did this, all China did is it sent intermediate goods to Thailand, and it sent them to Vietnam, and it sent them to Cambodia, and then we bought them. So it just added a… And our trade deficit with China increased after the Trump tariffs. So if the idea is to rebalance trade, it doesn’t work because they’ll just find some intermediary. If the idea is to stop China from rising as a power, that’s fine. I think stuff like more missiles to Taiwan might have a little more bite than importing fewer toys from China and then importing less soybeans from us. So I would focus on the geopolitical. Of course, Of course, you know, the thing that we can do more than anything else that would give us a huge financial and geopolitical advantage over China is simple. Stop running budget deficits. Our budget deficits are the greatest threat to the dollar. It’s not China. It’s us. We’re imposing it on ourselves through overspending. Doge. If anything beats China, it won’t be tariffs. It’ll be doge.
SPEAKER 05 :
Jerry Boyer, let me let me we’ve got a few minutes left. I want to jump to another topic related to finance economy. The president signing an executive order this week creating the American Sovereign Wealth Fund. Explain that.
SPEAKER 07 :
A sovereign wealth fund is a fund that government puts money into, and then it controls how the money is spent. So it’s sort of like on budget, but also a little bit off budget. It’s basically a Nordic thing. Nordic countries have a history of doing that. Some American states do it. In fact, I work with some of them. Like, Texas has a sovereign wealth fund. Alaska has the largest sovereign wealth fund in the United States. The way they work in the United States is, let’s say oil and gas revenues go into them, and it automatically goes to schools. or in Alaska, oil and gas revenues go into them and they automatically go to just Alaska citizens. In the Nordic countries, they’re a little more used as tools of political manipulation. For instance, these Nordic sovereign wealth funds have tried to attack American oil by voting against the Chevron, excuse me, the Exxon board. I don’t know what this sovereign wealth fund is going to be because the president basically did an executive order to come up with a plan. So the executive order isn’t the plan. It’s an executive order to come up with a plan. So there are good and bad ways to do this. And I don’t know quite yet. I kind of trust the people around the president to do it smart. But until I actually see the plan, I don’t know if they’re going to do it the smart way.
SPEAKER 05 :
So we don’t know exactly where the revenues from this would go. Would this go to pay down our debt? I mean, what would this… Any idea what it would do?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, the press release said something about it going to pay down our debt, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. I mean, the way to use revenues to pay down debt, the way to use revenues to pay down debt is to simply stop… Well, simply stop spending and do not have, just have the revenues go into the general budget, right? If you’re putting them off in some side fund, I don’t understand how that pays down the debt. Now, you might want to put it in there to do investment like things like infrastructure. um so don’t do the infrastructure stuff or do the infrastructure stuff and then maybe over the long run that gives us more growth until we have more details i don’t know it could be really smart it could be a way to take some kind of infrastructure investment outside of all those rules for federal procurement rules and privatize it more and make it smarter and more doge-like. If they do that, that’s wonderful. But if they do it so that they can buy TikTok because TikTok helped elect the president and he wants to pay them back, I mean, that to me would be kind of corrupt.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, there’s got to be transparency with this, whatever it is. But there’s some creative minds here in our district, in the District of Columbia here right now. Yes. Now, what are they going to create? That’s the question. Right, right. But that’s why the rules matter. I mean, I think some of the rules become… The thing about government, government is different. It’s not business. And it was created by our founders to be slow so that people couldn’t take it and corrupt it easily. Now, granted, it has been corrupted. We’ve got to clean it up. But it moves slow. And that is by design. Jerry, always great to see you. Thanks so much for taking time to join us today and help educate our viewers and listeners.
SPEAKER 07 :
My pleasure. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, more to pray about. Things are happening so fast here in Washington, moving quickly. And it’s the reason we need to pray. I pray for the president every day. The Lord would guide him, and he would have that relationship with the Lord, and that he would be guided down the right path. And we need to pray and speak into this administration. Invite you to join us tomorrow morning for our national gathering for prayer and repentance. It’ll be at the Bible Museum. To find out more, praydc.org. You can register and be a part of that event. And I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow evening after it’s over. All right, that’s all we have time for today. Thanks so much for joining us. Until next time. I leave you with the encouraging words of the Apostle Paul, found in Ephesians 6, where he says, when you’ve done everything you can do, when you’ve prayed, prepared, and taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
SPEAKER 09 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family, and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
