SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: Hello, it's June 17th. Welcome to Sekulow. Will Haynes in studio. We're going to be heading over to ACLJ Jerusalem a little later, but right now President Trump is about to speak at the G7 conference about specifically Iran. As the details that were leaked, he has pushed back on and said a lot of these were issues. President Trump looks like he's stepping up to the podium right now, actually as we speak. So make sure we're monitoring that, guys. I'll make sure if there's something we need to jump in on, we will.

That's happening live right now. That being said, there is a lot of misinformation going around, and I don't use that word lightly. I never do. I understand the connotation that comes with it about this deal in Iran. One of the more prominent ones I've been seeing is that we are putting $300 billion into the rebuild of Iran. Yes, sure, saying this is how it's going to work, the US actually is paying Iran $300 billion, etc. I'm seeing that being repeated by even a lot of my liberal friends who are just sharing the articles over and over again. But there's a lot of other details in this deal, including what does that $300 billion look like? Where does it come from? And of course, it's not what they're leading you to believe. $300 billion of essentially non-committed so far, or not signed but committed reinvestment funds from private people that are going to be building because at this point, Iran has not even allowed that kind of private investment for decades and decades.

Will Haynes: Well, one thing you have to be clear on because we haven't seen the full text is when you see this headline from CNN, "Read the 14-point draft agreement between the US and Iran." You can immediately know that it's fake news. And how do we know that? This is even from NBC News saying that the 14-point US-Iran agreement reported by news outlets is not the text signed this past weekend, a diplomat says.

Who is the diplomat? A regional diplomat with knowledge of the details of the US-Iran agreement. So probably someone from Qatar or the UAE or Pakistan, one of those governments that was involved with that entire process. So CNN running around, them and Bloomberg, saying we've got it, folks, we've got it. Apparently, this is a draft from May that they are running out because someone leaked it to them and they buy in the disinformation that is all around. It's ridiculous. President Trump had more to say on this. We'll talk about it in a bit.

Logan Sekulow: And let's remember, President Trump is speaking right now. The deal is not done. They have an understanding, there's some electronic signatures, but it has not been fully executed yet. They asked President Trump specifically about what would happen if that failed. What would it look like? Let's hear Bite 7.

Donald Trump: No, it's not final. It's a memorandum of understanding, and if I don't like it, we'll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their head. If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head. Okay? Because they've misbehaved for 47 years. All right.

Logan Sekulow: "If they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head." So when people have questioned whether this war has come to a conclusion, I think you can say that it's a pretty likely chance because of the big threats that are coming, but there's still this chance. It's still dealing with Iran. President Trump right now says that the deal will prevent Iran from getting any mass weaponry or mass chaos weaponry or nukes. That's what he's saying right now, saying it's achieving all the deals that they want. We're going to go over this again. President Trump is speaking right now at the G7 conference, so we are covering that as well as trying to keep you informed.

Phone lines are open. What do you think about this? And of course, we can talk about the fact that this report, these 14 points that everyone's running with, at least you have Axios who says, "the still secret terms of President Trump's plan." So give me a call. What do you think? 1-800-684-3110. Got a lot to cover today. Again, we're going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem here in just a little bit. It's always important that we have that office there, and we have all our offices around the world, including ACLJ in Europe, which is our European Center for Law and Justice. All of that is because people like you support. When we are exporting our worldwide efforts to protect religious freedom of all kinds, you need to be a part of it as well. That's at ACLJ.org/champions, where you can become a monthly donor to the organization. All right, when we get back, we're going to take your calls and comments and again, just a little bit later heading to ACLJ Jerusalem. We're going to break this down even further. So don't go anywhere. It's a very short break. If you're watching online, you get a special video presentation, so don't leave.

Logan Sekulow: All right, let's slow it down just a little bit here, folks. Phone lines are open. We're going to take your calls. President Trump is speaking right now, and our team is monitoring it at the G7. If there is anything worth cutting into, we will, or if we have any soundbites that we are pulling right now. So don't worry, anything that is new that could come out of this, we'll make sure we have it ready for you. So don't go anywhere if you are considering it. Don't worry, we're monitoring. That being said, I think we need to break this all down because there was, and we discussed some of it yesterday, a 14-point plan, a draft agreement that had leaked and that had come out with what the deal with Iran had looked like, and then President Trump now specifically saying that is not how things are going.

I think one of those big misconceptions, and we can talk about it a little bit more, we talked about it in the first segment because I keep seeing it being repeated, is that somehow the American taxpayers are on the hook for this $300 billion rebuild of the country, and that is just a lie.

Will Haynes: Well, where does that concept come from? Where did they come up with this number? Who leaked it to them? Who's writing a headline that seems...? Exactly. Well, here's where it comes from. This is from when you see this "Read the 14-point draft agreement between the US and Iran" that CNN put out that a regional diplomat has said is not the 14-point plan. This is an older draft, etc.

It comes from point six of that where it says the United States undertakes together with its regional partners to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan as a part of the final agreement will be formulated within 60 days. Also remember, even this, if it were the point, is the memorandum of understanding. The memorandum of understanding is the governing document while they are trying to get to a final deal in 60 days, which if you know how this is operating, 60 days is probably a fluid number that will be agreed upon to extend as the talks continue.

But even that, when you read that, the left and the media have run with it and said US to give $300 billion to Iran. You're seeing the headlines. You thought the pallets full of cash was a scandal under Obama, now we're giving them $300 billion, etc. Well, the Vice President actually addressed it directly with Fox News yesterday and told them that the money would not come from US taxpayers. It is specifically a prosperity fund, as mentioned. This concept that was in that earlier draft would include a fund supporting Iran's reconstruction and economic development, but it is not from the US taxpayer. It is not our money. It was an idea that Qatar floated and has been discussed for a while that would seek a private sector investment from Gulf states and East Asian countries. Now, when you start to look at that and you go, okay, well then it's still money pouring into Iran. Why would $300 billion of investment be important for Iran but for the region?

If you get to a deal where Iran is agreeing to not have a nuclear weapon, which even the Vice President said this concept wouldn't even begin until they had finally agreed upon all the nuclear stuff.

Logan Sekulow: That is number one, is what we've been told is the number one thing. Everything else is secondary. That was President Trump's MO at the very beginning of this, which was that was the goal. Now, again, for a lot of us, there may have been other goals, but President Trump's goal, and he stated it many times, was a denuclearization of Iran, and that seems like that would be line item number one. A deal would not be going anywhere if that wasn't line item number one.

Will Haynes: And when you read this and you see what it is, why would foreign investment from regional partners, why would that be a thing that would be in a deal like this? I understand why people would want to make money off the redevelopment of Iran, but I'm talking about why would the United States and Iran want this? Well, Iran would want people investing in their country. But we also heard that from the Vice President, something that concerns me and concerned me when he said it, was the bringing Iran into the world economy. Because if they haven't changed, etc., then why would you ever want them to be freely able to operate in the world economy?

Because they've been shut out for a long time. So if this type of thing happens and they truly believe that the nuclear issue is dealt with, this is how you from within start to change Iran because you're having Gulf states have real buy-in to the future of Iran. And what do those Gulf states and those East Asian countries that would be partners in this as well, what would they want? Not the Iran of the last 47 years. So it starts to put economic checks on the Islamic Republic in a different way. What does the UAE not want if they're pouring billions of dollars into investments? Bad headlines about ayatollahs hanging people in the middle of the street.

Logan Sekulow: I actually found this to be probably one of the more promising parts of this story, where of course, when you have a mainstream media that wants to run on headlines that are not accurate and you see that $300 billion and they go, "Oh, we spent $80 billion to then spend $300 billion to rebuild." It's like, that's not what's happening right now. And if what Will is right, if we are seeing major players on the global stage saying we want to invest in what could be a future Iran, great.

From the inside out, that is how things can be changed. Again, for a lot of us that thought we'd have full regime change and all of that, maybe this is what it looks like. As Will said, this is not what it's looked like in the UAE. It's not what it's looked like in Saudi Arabia. It's not what it's looked like in other Middle Eastern countries that have come around to at least some form, and again, these are not, I don't want to pretend they're Western areas, but what they are are economic hubs where people are investing billions and billions of dollars into them to get tourism, to get new real estate investments, to get all of that. If we can get there, I find that to be a little bit more enticing into why this deal would make sense.

Will Haynes: Well, and I want to address something. This is from a longtime watcher of the broadcast on Rumble says, "I'm sorry, but no one should be giving any money to Iran for anything." I traditionally agree with that and am still not sold, one, because I haven't seen the text of the deal or how it'd be implemented. So I'm not going to go off of CNN's fake news reporting in old drafts to make a judgment on this. I am skeptical, I am optimistic, because things are being done differently.

And here's why even this component of which it makes me nervous, but why if it is able to succeed, why it would be able to succeed? Because it is different than the way that this has gone down earlier. With the Obama administration, it was sanctions relief, giving, freeing up their own assets, letting them still control the entirety of their economy. So when their economy, their GDP produces revenue for the country, what did Iran use it for? Terror, October 7th, Middle East and regional adventurism that messed with the global economy and made us get to this point.

If there are other players, if it is foreign investment, even from the regional allies of the United States that start to pour money in and private sector investment that isn't all controlled by the Islamic Republic, that is $300 billion going into rebuild a country in a way that's not, "hey, let's give this money to the mullahs," as Obama did. This is saying, yeah, free it up for private investment because you know what they are going to want? A return on their investment. They're not going to want a return to the terror that Iran has been sowing around the region. So I, once again, I don't trust the Iranians. I'm not sold on this deal because I haven't seen the deal. But just hearing these things, when there's a knee-jerk reaction that it shouldn't happen, I'm not so sure because this isn't the same as just turning over $300 billion to the ayatollah. This would be $300 billion of people investing in a country, wanting to make more than $300 billion. That's the entire goal of investing that money into a place is to make $300 billion and $1. That's the minimum goal of these people.

Logan Sekulow: It's not about rebuilding as much as it is investing. Investing into what you consider almost new land, new property availability, new things that can actually come from a region that has been revolutionized and maybe that's still on the table in this more creative economic way. Again, I want to make sure this is clear: this is not $300 billion that is coming from you, the taxpayers, because I think that is something that is being very, very, very highly shared as a misleading headline or as an Instagram post or whatever it may be. I see it over and over and over again, so much so that I had to do my own digging and find out the real details.

Will Haynes: Well, and once again, we would have had a lot more viewers on this broadcast if we had led with a title that was fake, that said Trump to give $300 billion to Iran. A lot of people will watch that. When you go with the truth and the nuance, it doesn't get the eyeballs as many times, but it's so important to know that we don't know everything on this. Maybe we should take up lying.

Logan Sekulow: I'm not a fan of it personally. I fight against it most days. I know that, I see you in those meetings. I'm proud of you. Phone lines are open. 1-800-684-3110. Russ is on hold, we'll get to him when we get back. We're going to take some other phone calls too. Give me a call right now, 1-800-684-3110. And then later in the show, we're going to head over to ACLJ Jerusalem with Jeff Ballabon. If you got any questions related to how Israel ties into this and the entire Middle East, it'd be a great time to call in and get those questions on deck as well. 1-800-684-3110. We'll cover President Trump speaking at the G7 right now.

Logan Sekulow: Phone lines are lighting up, so give us some time to get through those. If you're on hold, stay on hold. We got a couple lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Let's go ahead and take a call from Russ in New York on line two, who's watching on the Salem News Channel, which by the way is a way you can watch us each and every day on your television, smart TVs. It's on things like Pluto, free TV options, it's available there. It's a 24/7 network, but we're live on there, which is always great. Another great option for you. Russ in New York, go ahead.

Guest (Russ): And on Roku. You fellows are now destination radio at noon for me. I really appreciate your show. Yeah, I'm a lot older. I remember Nixon and the quagmire of Vietnam, at peace with honor. I think Trump has obviously avoided that. It's important to be able to admit a mistake, a foreign policy blunder, and move forward. But I want to ask you a separate question about those fellows at the UFC event. Am I getting the message that they're Christian nationalists, like Second Amendment people? I don't know if you've looked into that. But I want to say that I voted for Trump twice. Bless his heart, he's trying to do the best he can. I think he's jumped the shark. It takes strength to sign this agreement, but I mean, is Congress going to have to agree to it? I mean, the Iranians have to wonder who is actually in charge, Trump, Rubio, Netanyahu? And when you talk about denuking, there's one nation that attacks its neighbors that has 200 nukes they got from spying on us, and I think we should look at defanging Israel. Remember the Liberty. Thanks a lot, fellows. I really love the show. Bye-bye.

Logan Sekulow: I figured where it was going. It was fine though, Russ. I appreciate, look, I'll be honest with you even when I disagree with you. There's a lot to unpack there. A lot of questions or comments coming in there. And look, let's maybe start at the beginning of your questions. Specifically, I don't even know where was the first question? The first question was just about...

Will Haynes: Well, it had to do with peace through honor or honorable peace like Vietnam War. Once again, remember the Vietnam War was almost 20 years long as well. So this is not a comparable situation. There was a long ground war in Vietnam, huge loss of life for America. The fact that anyone is trying to draw any sort of connections of Operation Epic Fury and that, and many people are, it's absurd because we're talking about several months that was mostly an air and naval campaign as compared to, if you want to talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, or if you want to talk about Vietnam, these were 20-year engagements.

Logan Sekulow: With extreme loss of life. Not that there wasn't loss of life. I don't want to diminish anyone who sacrificed during this war. And look, who knows if this is over or not over? President Trump right now though is even saying they're claiming a regime change win, they're claiming this as a big victory. But you're right, the timeline and the amount of American lives can't even be compared.

Will Haynes: Well, especially when you consider how many American lives Iran has killed directly over the last 47 years. That is what you have to look at as a whole. I do want to address something real quick that's off-topic that Russ brought up because he did something remarkable there that I think we can't let go, right? I don't know if he watched the show yesterday, but I want him to. I really want him to. Because he did two things simultaneously. He talked about the individuals yesterday that was the UFC attack that was thwarted and he tried to say look they were conservative, Second Amendment people, etc.

Logan Sekulow: Which may be the case.

Will Haynes: Right, but this is why I want him and everyone to go back and watch yesterday's show. Because then he also tied in some of the very conspiracy theories that we warned about that those individuals were spouting. We were calling out the rhetoric on the right and under Republicans so much so that people that love our broadcast were saying, "I don't know if I'm comfortable with how you guys are talking." So Russ, go back and watch that. Because yes, what those individuals, we didn't say they were radical leftists. We saw what they saw.

A lot of the language that was in the affidavit is stuff that is so toxic on the right. And some of the very things I talked about, the ridiculousness of Thomas Massie talking about the USS Liberty. And who brought that up? Our friend Russ from New York brought up that very conspiracy theory, which of all conspiracy theories, unfortunately I think it hasn't gotten enough attention to debunk because it's the most ridiculous. It is a tragedy. Yeah, it was an accident. But if you go through the litany of them, and Jeff Ballabon actually has a piece about this on Substack that goes through all the potential outcomes of a conspiracy theory, and not a single one makes sense.

So of them, it is the most weaponized of tragedies that has no real gain for any of the people that they say conspired to do this. So I encourage you, Russ, if you're still listening, you're not on the line anymore, please go back and watch yesterday. You said you watch it on Roku. It's appointment television, you said it's Salem News. I don't know if any of that's true. But you know where to find us today, so you know where to find yesterday's show. And I encourage you to go back and watch, go to YouTube and listen to me and Logan for an hour battle with a lot of the people that we agree with on 99% of things about how this rhetoric on the right leads to those type of people planning something so horrific and disgusting, and you have to call it out.

Logan Sekulow: We did a very exhaustive hour on it. And look, today I was kind of hoping to move away from that for most of it, but this is what happens when you have open phone calls. It's his fault, he brought you back. But it's okay, he's calling back right now. But it's okay, you know, I tell Russ unless there's some specific reason, I don't mind by the way him coming in and having, at least he was nice and had his thoughts. He didn't swear. Yeah, he stayed on the rules. So you know what, I'm good with that. If you do that, I'll always have respectful disagreements or debates with you.

And look, I'm not blind to the fact that people have issues with Israel. You also have Israel at this point by the way saying, "Look, we'd love a 10-year plan to be financially independent from the United States of America." I know that is something that even Jeff Ballabon, our team in ACLJ Jerusalem, has been pushing for for many years. Many more years than I've been pushing for, saying that Israel needs to have that kind of freedom and flexibility. Now they're not there yet, they're just very reliant on a country. Look, a very small country. We spend an awful lot of time talking about a very, very, very small country. They always say the size of New Jersey. But I think you got to think about it in those global terms. If New Jersey was surrounded by just enemy states, what it would look like if you had the same kind of values coming in from the United States of America in the Middle East.

President Trump is speaking right now. In the next segment, we are going to play some of the sound from what he is talking about right now, him and Marco Rubio addressing the G7 conference right now in France, talking about the Iranian deal. We're going to have some brand new fresh clips from President Trump coming up in the next segment. Now for some of you, you lose us here. Not many, but if you're listening on terrestrial radio, maybe you're listening on Christian Talk Radio, some of them only carry a half hour of the show. That being said, there's a whole hour show, we do it the full hour every day, 12:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern time live, or catch us archived wherever you want.

But you can always join us live. That is on YouTube, that is on Facebook, Rumble, really wherever there's livestreaming video, a lot of times we are there. The Salem News Channel. Probably the easiest thing is just to go to ACLJ.org and pick your preferred platform. When you do it on something like a YouTube, you get to interact and put your comments in as well. But it's great to go to ACLJ.org not only during the show, but later on because there's so much content that's available there, so many ways you can engage. And I'm not just talking about becoming a donor and supporter of the ACLJ, which of course I'd love you to do.

We really push back a lot of times on our organization and people like even within our membership groups and all that say, "Hey, you need to be providing a lot more exclusive content for people that donate, put that paywall up." And it's been something I have been hesitant to do. It's not something I'm saying we can't ever do in some time in the future, but I want to make sure that as of right now, all of our content is available for free to you without any sort of financial commitment, without any sort of paywall between you and getting to take this content into your own brain and then share it with your friends, share it with people who are like-minded, share it with people that are not like-minded. I want to make sure our content's available to everyone.

But that only happens, it's not like we don't pay our incredible media staff, it's not like we don't pay our lawyers, of course we do. It's not like we don't have to pay for the set and this building, the streaming capabilities, all the things that we do here, the radio time. None of that happens without you. So I encourage you, as we only take a 30-second or one-minute break, feels like 30 seconds, one-minute break here, over the next few seconds I want you to go to ACLJ.org, consider becoming an ACLJ Champion. That's someone that gives on a monthly basis. If you can't become a champion, make a one-time donation. That's totally fine as well. And just experience all the content we have available for you at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.