SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: We got breaking news. President Trump to address the nation tonight on Iran. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow, April 1st. No April Fool's Day jokes for us today, though. We do have some big breaking news we're going to discuss. President Trump, who is currently at a Supreme Court case, but will be addressing the nation for the first time since the start of the war in Iran tonight at 9:00 PM.

Now, we don't know the details of it, but we do know that it will be specifically about what is going on in Iran. So a lot of us will be watching. That is for sure. With that, I want to hear from you. What do you hope this is? Do you hope this is the decision to keep going? Do you hope this is a decision to wrap things up? Maybe that it is over? There's a lot of rumblings of that. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110.

I also wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who donated during the double-your-impact drive. We were able to beat the month, be able to actually exceed our budget by just a little bit. But that little bit matters, and I wanted to thank you all for being a part of that. We will have other opportunities. Of course, you can keep donating, but we'll have other opportunities very soon on how you can be a part of the ACLJ.

With that, like I said, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Later in the show, senior attorney here CC Heil will be joining us to talk about what's going on, some of the work we're doing in Israel. Then later on, my dad Jay Sekulow will be joining us to discuss the Supreme Court case that is happening right now. A lot of you are maybe watching it. We decided to provide you some alternative programming, as we know that most of the news is covering currently the birthright citizenship case that is up right now. My dad will be on with his expert Supreme Court analysis a little bit later in the broadcast. So again, it's going to be a packed show, and I want you to be a part of it.

But with that, let's address what's going on again tonight, and that is President Trump is planning to deliver a prime-time address across all the networks. They'll be everywhere, of course, on social media and online. And at the same time, maybe not so ironically, this is when Passover begins this evening. So again, in God's timing, and all very interesting to see this all play out in real time.

Will: And that's why this is so interesting, Logan, because I expected a prime-time address, actually, when we launched the incursion into Iran. I expected at that time that the President would address the nation of, "This morning, we took action to decisively go after the regime in Iran," especially after finding out that the Ayatollah had been killed in those actions. But we didn't see that. We saw the President use news conferences, do things. He isn't unavailable to the press.

But the prime-time Oval Office address from a President is something that you only see with very serious things. I don't expect this to be from the President just a, "We are in the middle of this and we will continue in the same path." There is going to be something different about what he will deliver to the American people tonight. Once again, when you give an address like this, and we are assuming it's Oval Office, but it could be in one of the other rooms, it doesn't necessarily have to be that, though the typical setting, but that he is requesting all the networks to cover him live. That means he is interrupting all programming. That is typically reserved for something that is of great importance that they want as many people to hear it directly from the President himself. And we'll get more into that later.

Logan Sekulow: I could see them waiting on this specifically to not infer that we are at war. They've been very careful to not use the W-word, if you will, in this situation in Iran. Of course, we all have because, honestly, it's the easiest way to describe what's going on. Let's not pretend here. But I understand there's legality in terms of using the word "war." And when you have the President making an Oval Office address, that kind of feels like you're starting a war.

But maybe this is an Oval Office address to announce the end of the current attacks in Iran. What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. Do you think the President comes on tonight? Do you think he makes a statement that says we are wrapping up? Maybe we're done in Iran. Do you hope that's the case? Or do you want to see the push still towards real regime change? As President Trump is starting to kind of slow-roll out that the current people in charge are a lot better. That's also been some of his Truth Social posts. We'll discuss that coming up in just a moment. Again, on Sekulow, we'll be right back in just a moment.

Guest (Male): Let's be honest. There's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might worry about the country you'll leave behind for your kids or your grandkids. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference. Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference.

Our legal teams are fighting in courtrooms across the country, defending your rights to speak, to pray, even how to educate your kids. Right now, when you go to ACLJ.org/difference, your tax-deductible gift will be doubled, dollar for dollar, to defend your most essential liberties. You're not just supporting the critical work of the ACLJ, you're doubling your impact to defend our constitutional rights. To double the difference, go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.

We've witnessed monumental legal victories—from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world.

This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We know a bunch of you are just joining us right now, so I want to give you a still pretty brief kind of breakdown of what this show is going to be about today. Of course, we are all covering that tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern Time, President Trump will be making a statement to the nation, a prime-time address. What does it look like? What's it about? We know it's about Iran. We don't know the details behind it.

So we don't know whether this is to say, "Hey, we're going in, boots on the ground." It could be that, it could be the opposite. It could be saying we're done, we've wrapped up. The stock market's rallying today with kind of hopes, it seems, that we're wrapping things up. And what we kind of can infer from President Trump is a bit of that, though still with some pretty major caveats. On Truth Social, just this morning, he put, "Iran's new regime president, much less radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a ceasefire. We will consider when the Hormuz Strait is open, free and clear. Until then..."—then he has to—"he keeps..."—it goes a little President Trump here—"Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion, or as they say, back to the stone ages." That's a quote, by the way, President Donald J. Trump. "As they say. Back to the stone ages."

Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We also know, if you're watching right now, a lot of the other networks are carrying the live audio as President Trump is actually sitting at Supreme Court right now, listening to the arguments over birthright citizenship. Now, this is a highly contested topic, even among conservatives, even amongst our listener base and our viewership base, and we understand that. And I thought the best way to give you a real legal understanding of this is my dad Jay Sekulow will be joining us later on in the broadcast. You're going to want to stay for that. That's going to be in the back half of the show. We also have CC Heil with an update coming in, one of our other ACLJ attorneys, to talk about some of the work we're doing right now in Israel.

But the big topic on everyone's mind is what this 9:00 address is going to look like. And we have some calls coming in about that. Let's go first to—let's go to Phillip first, actually, in South Carolina. Phillip, you're on the air.

Phillip: Logan, my friend, I love listening to your father and co-host. One question: I agree with the President's goals, but couldn't he have waited as a tactical thing till after November? Because right now, with the money drying up because of the war effort, prices, gas—he puts all of these people running for office at risk if this thing goes south.

Will: Well, I also feel like, Phillip, that would be more of a political error rather than a tactical error. I think the tactical mission and doing it at the right timing is doing it when the military advisors, the intelligence advisors, and the President believes is the right time to do that. Now, yes, I understand the political issue, that if President Trump was purely a political machine, would have probably thought, "Yeah, let's do this after the midterms. This could harm the party, could harm my agenda."

But I think that should almost showcase that it wasn't a political move to do this. That they had reasons, and he believed this was in the best interest of the United States to go ahead and do this now. But yes, once again, also ending it can have major strategic implications for both the operation itself but as well as the politics back home. Giving the markets some time to recover if that is what's needed. Showing victory, showing that there is not a threat from Iran. Those type of things can also calm down and kind of the fog of war in the political sphere has time to clear before the election as well. But I think only thinking about it in a political calendar is part of the problem that so many previous presidents have fallen to, is that we're going to do this only when it's politically expedient. President Trump here didn't do that. And I feel like because of people like the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, that are also saying, "Look, this is something we've been saying is a problem for a long time. Now is a very explicit time we can take action and get most, if not all, of our goals taken care of right now."

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, I mean, look, I think what Will said is right. We complained all the time about politicians being politicians, about people switching sides on their own issue just to get a vote, or to wait and hold something till a very specific time. Look, we all are pumping gas right now. We all feel it. Let's not pretend we don't. You go and fill up your gas tank, it's not great, okay? We're all looking at it ourselves. We can all be on equal playing field here and going, "Whew, it is tough." Now, do I think the ends justify the means in this situation? I do. I believe there was also a massive humanitarian crisis where tens of thousands of people were being killed in the streets and we said, "You know what? Enough is enough." We've been talking a big game against Iran for a long time, and we have Israel and we have us, and we can go in and we can take care of this.

I hope for a full regime change. I don't know where it's going to lead. I think President Trump is kind of almost saying this is a new regime. By already saying "new regime," he is making you at least think that this is a new group of people. And look, for largely, it is a new group of people. Your top leaders have all been wiped out. Now, what that means for the people of Iran, I think is very different than what it means for the United States of America. Those are going to be things that I hope he addresses tonight. What do you think? Do you think he addresses the humanitarian crisis that is going on in Iran where people are being murdered in the streets for their beliefs, where women are being tortured? All of those things that we've heard and we know are happening. Do you think he addresses that tonight, or does he just address things like the actual tactical side of the war—the oil, the Strait of Hormuz? Those type of moments. Do you think that's what it is, or will we get to the heart of the matter? If you think he will, throw a "yes" in the chat. If you think he won't, and it's just going to be focusing on the economy and things like that in relation to the war in Iran, say "no." I'd love to see that in the chat to see what our audience thinks President Trump will do. Not necessarily what you want him to do, what do you think he's going to do?

Will: Well, and here's why this is also a curious timing of this announcement. This was announced and confirmed by Karoline Leavitt yesterday that the President would deliver this prime-time address tonight. When you think about—that's why it's probably—it won't—should not be just something of, "We are going to continue as long as possible." There should be an announcement. Whether that's asking Congress for more authority or whether that is announcing some sort of limited ground troop mission. I don't think it's something like when Barack Obama came on to announce the death of Osama bin Laden—the successful taking out of Osama bin Laden.

The successful killing of Osama bin Laden, finally getting him after a decade plus. I don't think that would be something if it's like, "Oh, we sent ground troops in to recover the uranium," and that's already happened. They wouldn't have announced it yesterday because you know how bad Washington is about leaking things. From yesterday to tonight, everyone would have already known. There'd be no point to it. So it's got to be something strategically, whether it's a drawdown, whether it is—or saying we are going to ramp up and ask Congress for more authority. I feel like it needs to be some sort of strategic change, not an announcement that we have done something, because if it were something that we have done, it would have leaked by the time. Normally, they announce that last minute—"We're going live in one hour, get everybody ready, get the press here, stop all your programming"—because Washington notoriously will tell everybody before the President has a chance to say it.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, usually they'll release what the transcript will be the President Trump will be giving, the written speech, seconds before, maybe minutes before he goes live to make sure the press has the exact quotes ready to go. Now, hopefully, you know what I kind of want? I want President Trump to do the opposite. Don't release it. I like a good surprise, you know? That's part of live television, Will.

Will: That's right. And Maureen on YouTube did ask, "What time is the presidential address?" It is at 9:00 PM Eastern. It will be available to watch just about everywhere that would break into it—any over-the-air broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), as well as all the cable channels will be having it.

Logan Sekulow: And all your YouTube streams. Everyone will have this. I'm sure here on—if you're watching on Salem News Channel, if you're watching on one of our conservative talk stations, I would think that they would likely be playing it. I think a lot of people will have this wherever you need it. President Trump will kind of interrupt the broadcast on everything. And it's Wednesday night, Will. And I think tonight might have been one of the finales of The Masked Singer, so my kids may get a little upset.

Will: Well, I'm sure they will delay broadcasts, they will shift their schedules some. You'll be able to get it on demand later. I know that your kids will be upset.

Logan Sekulow: If President Trump breaks into the final unmasking, oh, I could see a real big turn in the midterms.

Will: Oh, no. Of your non-voting age kids? They will be real upset.

Logan Sekulow: I think there's a lot of voting age kids out there watching The Masked Singer. Yeah, alright. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. CC Heil's going to be joining us in the next segment. I also wanted to take a minute, now that quite a lot more of you are watching right now, I want to say thank you. We had our double-your-impact drive throughout the month of March where donations were doubled, and look, we're going to give you a new opportunity very soon on how you can get involved again.

But right now, I just wanted to take a breath and say thank you. We had a goal. We exceeded that goal—barely, but we did exceed the goal, okay? I want to thank all of you who got involved and supported the work of the ACLJ during the month of March. Now we're into April. First night of Passover, Good Friday two days away, of course, Easter Sunday is just a few days away. So again, it's a great time to be thankful, great time to thank you. Of course, be appreciative for not just your financial support but for the lives we get to live here on this earth.

With that, I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110 to be on the air. And you can look at all the great content we put out. You know, all of it's free. None of it's behind a paywall because you support. And it's all at ACLJ.org. Whether that's articles, whether that's videos we put out, movies—so much of it is just available there. If you need legal help, if you need just documentation, so much of it is available on ACLJ.org. Go spend some time on the website. So much—it's a really deep, in-depth site. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow, taking your calls and comments and CC Heil.

Guest (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories—from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world.

This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.

Let's be honest. There's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might worry about the country you'll leave behind for your kids or your grandkids. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference. Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference.

Our legal teams are fighting in courtrooms across the country, defending your rights to speak, to pray, even how to educate your kids. Right now, when you go to ACLJ.org/difference, your tax-deductible gift will be doubled, dollar for dollar, to defend your most essential liberties. You're not just supporting the critical work of the ACLJ, you're doubling your impact to defend our constitutional rights. To double the difference, go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We are going to take some more calls and comments coming up. And like I said, we're going to address the Supreme Court oral argument that just, I believe, concluded on birthright citizenship a little bit later in the show. My dad Jay Sekulow's going to join us, so you're going to want to hear that. Just some analysis. Not even—again, we understand that this is a very nuanced situation. There's some of you on each side of these issues. It is not something that's necessarily falling on a party line. But with that, I wanted to make sure we had top-notch analysis. We'll have that as well.

I also wanted to give you an update, and that's why CC is joining us right now. CC Heil is in studio with us to address what's been going on at the UN because there is some pretty big updates as, of course, our work continues on behalf of the United States and on behalf of the State of Israel. So again, our work continues here at the ACLJ.

CC Heil: Yes, so once again, I talk about this a lot. It's the Universal Periodic Review, which we participate in. There's three sessions each year. And basically, it's the United Nations reviewing the human rights record of every single UN member state. And what's interesting about this year—we will obviously be reporting on all the 14 member states that come up this in this session, this first session. But last year was the United States review period. And if you recall, the United States actually boycotted because they say the UN Human Rights Council obviously is made up of members that don't care about human rights and they're the biggest violators and so they don't want to be a part of that. And we understand that at the ACLJ.

But since the UN Human Rights Council continues to go on, we want to be there and we want to be standing up for what's right and true. And so what's interesting, and I think that our listeners will find this interesting, is we get to update the USA report then. So we get to show what has happened from the Biden administration, which we all know was terrible, attacked Christians every chance they could get through the Treasury Department, through military training. We've talked about those issues on this radio show over and over and over again.

But if you didn't know, just for religious liberty, I'm just going to go through some of these things that has happened since the Trump administration took over. For religious liberty, President Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission. The purpose of creating this new policy is to enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in federal law. President Trump created the White House Faith Office. He issued an executive order that we will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians. He also issued another executive order combating anti-Semitism vigorously.

And then designed Nigeria, as we know, as a country of particular concern, standing up for Christians there and that the United States must address the ongoing persecution and killing of Christians. So that was just what the United States has done for religious freedom. And then we go into life, for protection of life. And I want to read this because it's an amazing statement, a presidential statement, if you've not heard it: "Today we uphold the eternal truth that every human being is created in the holy image and likeness of God, blessed with infinite worth and boundless potential."

And it goes on to say that, "As President, I pledge to always be a voice for the voiceless and to never tire in fighting to protect the intrinsic dignity of every child, born and unborn." And that is from the President of the United States standing up for unborn children. Vice President Vance made a similar statement. The National Institute of Health enacted a new policy that would end the use of aborted human fetal tissue in research. And the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights is going after any hospital that wants to stop doctors from having conscience against performing abortions.

Again, then there was another executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment that prevents federal funding from going to elective abortion and reinstated the Mexico City policy that prevents organizations that receive federal global health funding from providing abortions. This is just some of the things that our government under the Trump administration has done to stand up for religious freedom and for life. And we get to say that in a report to the United Nations, and we know we're probably the only organization doing that. But you know, it's a good day when we can say our country is doing the right thing.

Will: That's right. And when you look at these UPRs, when it comes to other countries trying to raise the human rights record of other countries that receive a lot of funding and aid from the UN, it's important for us to weigh in there to make sure that there's a full record when it comes to some of these countries that persecute Christians. With the United States, obviously, we are the ones funding the UN to the vast majority. So there's not like that issue with if there's a human rights violation according to all the other nations of the world. But it is good to have that in the record.

Because we know the adversaries of the United States that have a forum at the UN will be taking this opportunity to try and make the United States look bad, to try to put in the record, "Look how bad the US is." You know they're going to be putting things about ICE and the way—and President Trump being a fascist while they themselves have authoritarian regimes that control their countries. Us being able to do this, as well as highlight things like life. When you think about how many countries that are represented at the UN are much more pro-life than the United States historically when it comes to culturally, that putting that in the record, it may be putting it before people that are representatives there or seeing this for the first time because that's not what everyone wants to hear about the United States. And so it actually gives us an opportunity to explain to other countries the real record of this administration and of the United States during this time.

CC Heil: Absolutely. And you make a good point with the people that are reading this. These are people that work for the United Nations, but the rhetoric, especially around life—we are the one organization that gets to point out, just like you said, a majority—and most people probably don't know this—but a majority of the member states, the UN member states, are pro-life. They do not allow abortion at all. The majority do. But the UN, the people that run it, would make you think the exact opposite—that of course abortion is a right and of course it should be protected. And so it is great that we can point this out and we can point out that the United States is definitely standing for life, that we have our President of the United States making statements and our Vice President defending the life of the unborn, the most innocent victims that we need to speak up for. So that is awesome.

Will: Thanks, CC, for that update. We have more that we'll be getting into as these days go on. The deadline is April 10th, is that correct? So our team working on that right now, just a little bit over a week and a half away before we submit that and some other things at the UN. But even when there are things going on like the conflict in Iran or all the things going on here at home, our team is still working on these reports to the UN—things that most people don't even think about. But they are very important, not only for setting the record straight about what's going on in America but also to put pressure on nations abroad that are violating the religious freedom, the religious rights, and humanitarian rights of their citizens.

And a lot of these countries do get a lot of funding and aid from the UN. And so that is why we at the ACLJ, we file a report, CC, on every single country.

CC Heil: We do. And you know, usually you're exactly right. Usually we are showing every single human rights violation. So most of the reports are, you know, they've done this wrong, they've done this, they kill Christians, they, you know, don't let them have Bible studies. Whatever it is, we point out those rights. So this is a good—it was a good change of pace that we get to say, "Hey, the United States is doing these things right on religious liberty and life."

Will: Thank you so much, CC. We are wrapping up this first half hour of Sekulow. In the next half hour, we've got Logan, your dad joining us to talk about this Supreme Court case that was this hearing, oral argument that was going on just wrapped up. I know he was watching it and is going to give us analysis on what he saw. But a lot more ahead.

Logan Sekulow: That's right. It will be a packed back half of the show. If you don't get us, by the way, on your local station—if you're listening on terrestrial radio or something like that, some of the stations only carry half hour or half hour at a time—find the whole show always live at ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Rumble. However you get your podcasts, we're there. If they have a live streaming option, we're there from noon to 1:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. But if you're catching us later on and you want to hear the rest of the show, maybe you're hearing this tape delayed, find the whole show archived, again, wherever you get your podcast, ACLJ.org, the ACLJ app. Back in less than a minute. Come on back.

Guest (Male): There's a lot happening in America right now. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might feel like you have no say over it, but you make a difference. And right now, you can make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting across the country, defending your rights to speak, pray, and even how to educate your kids. Join the fight. Go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.