Point of View November 13, 2024 – Hour 1 : Today’s Headlines

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:20] Thank you for joining me. It is a Wednesday edition of Point of View and we're going to be talking about a lot of individuals that look like they will be in the Trump administration cabinet.

[00:00:29] Those names and those identities and those announcements are coming fast and furious.

[00:00:35] First of all, again, for some of our younger listeners, let me just say this is really unprecedented.

[00:00:41] You don't want to use the word unique because I'm sure maybe there's been a time in the past where all sorts of cabinet officers were selected quickly.

[00:00:49] But this is, I think, an illustration that the people associated with the future Trump administration had been planning this for some time.

[00:00:59] Matter of fact, I was at a gathering a while back and got up talking with the actually the husband of Pentadexter,

[00:01:04] who was telling me a little bit about some of the behind the scenes and what they were gearing up for and getting ready for.

[00:01:11] But you've got to recognize that it was just a week ago at this time we were announcing that Donald Trump had won and we weren't even sure if he had won all of the swing states.

[00:01:22] Of course, now we know he's won all seven of the swing states.

[00:01:25] And now we have a list that will probably go on for some time.

[00:01:30] I won't try to bore you with all those names, but I did want you to know why there are people who are saying that this might be the dream team.

[00:01:38] I'm sure that's a little bit of an extrapolation, but nevertheless, other people are saying that they can't find too much to be criticizing some of the individuals that will be serving in the cabinet.

[00:01:50] There are a few surprises, obviously.

[00:01:52] But nevertheless, I just wanted you to know that.

[00:01:55] And one of the lines I put out yesterday is for those of you keeping score, you might notice that many of the people we've invited to speak at the point of view banquets are those people that are going to be in the cabinet.

[00:02:09] You can go back about two and a half years.

[00:02:11] And one of our speakers, I think it was on our 49th annual point of view banquet was Mike Huckabee.

[00:02:17] And if you've not heard, Mike Huckabee will now be the ambassador to Israel.

[00:02:22] We'll talk more about him in just a minute.

[00:02:24] Then the 50th anniversary banquet, we had Ben Carson.

[00:02:28] Well, of course, he'd already served in the cabinet.

[00:02:31] And then we also had Michelle Bachman.

[00:02:32] And then we had Charlie Kirk receiving the Marlon Maddox Award.

[00:02:36] And I think it's fair to say that even though maybe none of those three individuals will serve in the cabinet officially, they certainly will possibly be part of what you might call the kitchen cabinet.

[00:02:48] That was a term that goes all the way back to Andrew Jackson, if I remember right, in which there were the unofficial people sometimes gathered in the kitchen to give advice to the president.

[00:02:59] Now, of course, it just means that Charlie Kirk has had an influence.

[00:03:03] Michelle Bachman has.

[00:03:04] And, of course, it's possible Ben Carson would come back.

[00:03:08] I don't think so.

[00:03:09] But, nevertheless, that's the case.

[00:03:10] And then, of course, our most recent banquet was one where we had Pete Hegseth.

[00:03:15] And he has been announced as the Secretary of Defense.

[00:03:18] So it just gives you a little bit of a sense that whether we're talking about Lee Zeldin at EPA or Elise Stefanik at U.N. Ambassador, Christy Noem is the Secretary of Health, excuse me, Department of Homeland Security.

[00:03:34] Susie Weiss, of course, is the White House Chief of Staff, as well as I think I might also point out the Stephen Miller.

[00:03:41] I love the name Steve Miller, by the way.

[00:03:42] Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

[00:03:44] And Tom Holman, I think we did mention him the other day.

[00:03:47] As borders are, you also have the National Security Advisor, Florida Congressman Mike Walsh.

[00:03:52] And, sure, I'm missing a few.

[00:03:54] As a matter of fact, if I don't mention somebody, it's not because they're not important.

[00:03:57] It's just simply because there are so many.

[00:03:59] Oh, yes, John Ratcliffe, of course, will be the Director of National Intelligence.

[00:04:03] And the list goes on and on.

[00:04:05] Because we also suspect, I don't think we've announced that yet.

[00:04:08] I don't think that's been confirmed.

[00:04:10] Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida, might indeed be State Department.

[00:04:13] So this is an incredible list.

[00:04:16] And it is also one that I think answers a few questions.

[00:04:20] So the one question that people have is, what would this look like with this new Trump team on the world stage?

[00:04:28] And so our first article is by Noah Rothman.

[00:04:31] Noah Rothman says that Trump might not lead a U.S. retreat from the world stage after all.

[00:04:36] There have been a lot of things that have been said about Donald Trump, especially during the campaign.

[00:04:41] But even some things said about the incoming president that were said by his friends.

[00:04:48] And one of those is certainly that he was more of an isolationist.

[00:04:54] We might retreat from the world stage.

[00:04:56] And if you want to understand what is going to happen in the next Trump administration, look at the people that are actually going to be put in those positions.

[00:05:07] Because it's a tired phrase, but it's very accurate.

[00:05:10] Personnel is policy.

[00:05:12] And Noah Rothman puts it this way.

[00:05:14] What is the line that connects Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, Elaine Stefanik, Kristi Noem, Susie Wiles, and Stephen Miller?

[00:05:23] Well, even though on some respects you can say that certainly many of them would be very strong supporters of Israel.

[00:05:31] No surprise there.

[00:05:33] But also it illustrates the fact that they're probably going to have some latitude in U.S. policy.

[00:05:39] Some are going to be certainly America first types of people.

[00:05:43] Stephen Miller, top of that list, of course.

[00:05:46] But others are, like Marco Rubio, maybe not quite as much.

[00:05:50] And so then he goes on to ask, well, okay, what about Ukraine?

[00:05:54] And that is that there are going to be some questions about how all of them will address that.

[00:06:00] And even since the invasion of Ukraine, Marco Rubio, who possibly may indeed be at State Department,

[00:06:09] has been a supporter of Ukraine, but began to shift his outlook a little bit when the war was dragging on.

[00:06:18] And so you've had some individuals, and let me give credit for the moment,

[00:06:23] to Michael Waltz, Congressman Michael Waltz, who kind of put together what he called a three-step policy.

[00:06:28] Step number one, enforcing energy sanctions against Russia and secondary sanctions against entities that do business with Moscow.

[00:06:38] Step two, unleashing American energy.

[00:06:41] You know Donald Trump's going to want to do that.

[00:06:43] And ramping up U.S. exports of liqueur natural gas to drain the Kremlin's coffers.

[00:06:48] And then step number three, if there's a standoff, then use the leverage that we might have.

[00:06:54] The argument that Noah Rothman makes is one and two are good on their merits.

[00:06:58] They might not force Vladimir Putin to the table, but you never know.

[00:07:03] Step three, again, is the dangerous part.

[00:07:06] You know, what will the unpredictability of Vladimir Putin do if indeed we get to a point of there's some kind of a standoff

[00:07:15] or taking the handcuffs off the idea of long-range weapons and some of the things that were not allowed,

[00:07:23] certainly under the Biden administration.

[00:07:26] So we don't have a clear answer from the policies that will develop from this personnel.

[00:07:33] But I think the argument that you heard, which I thought was a pretty fallacious argument,

[00:07:39] that said that Donald Trump is going to be an isolationist and withdraw from the world stage,

[00:07:44] doesn't make any sense.

[00:07:46] But on the other hand, I think it is fair to say that the idea of forever wars is going to be off the table.

[00:07:52] This idea that just because we dislike something that happens in another part of the world,

[00:07:58] even because certain individuals are threatened,

[00:08:01] that we're going to project force and send troops,

[00:08:05] probably less likely under a Trump administration.

[00:08:08] But, of course, you can never make complete predictions because you never know what those contingencies might be in the future.

[00:08:16] We come back, though.

[00:08:17] What about the new CIA director?

[00:08:20] And the real surprise, I think, for the day of Pete Higseth,

[00:08:23] who is going to be the Secretary of Defense.

[00:08:26] And also then we're going to look ahead,

[00:08:29] because we also had a vote yesterday,

[00:08:31] about who would be the Senate majority leader.

[00:08:35] And I'll get into some of those details.

[00:08:37] And then, of course, we're going to talk about other things besides just the campaign and the Trump administration.

[00:08:42] We'll talk about all that right after these important messages.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:04] The U.S. dollar has lost half of its purchasing power in just the last 30 years.

[00:09:08] Put another way, that means that one dollar today can only buy 50 cents worth of goods and services compared to the 1990s.

[00:09:15] In less than a single generation, the dollar in your wallet or purse can only buy half as much.

[00:09:20] Once you understand this depressing statistic,

[00:09:23] you can begin to see why the wealth gap in this country is increasing.

[00:09:27] If you have your wealth sitting in cash, like bank accounts, checking accounts, you're losing ground.

[00:09:32] However, if you have your wealth in investments, like stocks, housing, or land, you're doing much better.

[00:09:38] Thirty years ago, a dollar would allow you to buy two apples.

[00:09:41] Today will bother you only one apple.

[00:09:43] By contrast, if you put that dollar or many others with it to buy stock,

[00:09:47] the value of the stock is worth twice as much because it takes twice as many dollars to purchase it.

[00:09:53] This problem isn't just affecting young Americans who would like to buy a house.

[00:09:56] It is also affecting seniors who put their savings in pensions and retirement plans.

[00:10:01] They are becoming aware that the money they set aside in their retirement plans is not kept up with inflation,

[00:10:06] and there won't be enough for them because of the dollar's declining value.

[00:10:10] The simple illustration helps focus on the real problem facing America in the future.

[00:10:15] The dollar is broken simply because more and more of it is being printed each year.

[00:10:20] Yes, we can lower the cost of living, some, by increasing energy production.

[00:10:25] Yes, protecting American markets will provide more jobs for the American people,

[00:10:29] but we need to fix the money.

[00:10:31] Until we do so, the problem I just illustrated will be worse for the American consumer.

[00:10:36] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on biblical reliability, go to viewpoints.info slash biblical reliability.

[00:10:53] Viewpoints.info slash biblical reliability.

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:04] Back once again, let me just mention that today we're going to look at a number of different issues,

[00:11:08] certainly who is going to be in the cabinet, what that might mean for the future.

[00:11:12] Also, one of the articles I've posted is the lamest duck session of history.

[00:11:18] You know, we always talk about a lame duck session, but this may be the lamest duck

[00:11:21] because we're talking about the fact that the least productive Congress in history

[00:11:26] will now have to wrap up today and the next couple of days before, of course,

[00:11:31] you have a new administration and a new United States Senate.

[00:11:35] Let me real quickly, though, point out that one of the issues had to do with, of course,

[00:11:41] whether or not you were going to have a different minority leader

[00:11:45] and now will become a majority leader in the United States Senate.

[00:11:49] And if you have not been paying attention, the battle was between John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott.

[00:11:57] If you haven't heard the news, John Thune from South Dakota is now going to be the new majority leader

[00:12:06] when the Republicans take control in January, and that will be to replace Mitch McConnell.

[00:12:13] I'll say more about that a little bit later other than just to simply say,

[00:12:17] here's a good example of when you see something in the news, it may not necessarily be true

[00:12:22] because a couple of days ago there were people saying that there were,

[00:12:27] the fix was in and either was going to be John Thune or John Cornyn,

[00:12:31] which, by the way, ended up kind of being somewhat accurate.

[00:12:34] But as you go down the list, it was saying that Ted Cruz was going to support John Cornyn,

[00:12:41] who, of course, both of them are senators from Texas.

[00:12:45] And yet there was a very clear statement by Ted Cruz at one point that he was actually supporting Rick Scott.

[00:12:53] Now, that could have been that behind the scenes he had to do one thing and publicly had to do something else.

[00:13:00] But you can see the pressure that would be on Ted Cruz to support his fellow senator from Texas.

[00:13:08] But if he had done so, the hue and cry and the outrage would have been huge because, of course,

[00:13:15] of the three individuals, Rick Scott was considered to be the most conservative,

[00:13:20] the one that Trump supported, and really, I would have to say probably the one that Ted Cruz in his heart of hearts supported.

[00:13:26] And it's quite possible some people said, look, Ted, we'll give you the freedom to go out and say you're supporting Rick Scott,

[00:13:32] simply because we understand only so well that if you didn't say that,

[00:13:37] it just would make your life even more miserable than it's been under this campaign.

[00:13:42] So anyway, there is a lot to simply learn from that,

[00:13:45] one of which is just because somebody says they have inside information showing that Senator Ted Cruz

[00:13:52] was not going to vote for Rick Scott but instead voted for John Cornyn,

[00:13:57] didn't necessarily turn out to be the case.

[00:13:59] Anyway, it's just a little bit of a footnote.

[00:14:02] We'll get into what that means a little bit later, but that's one of the other articles we will cover.

[00:14:07] And I might just also, as a program note, mention that next hour we're going to be talking with a couple of individuals

[00:14:13] who are part of what is called the F3 initiative, which is tied into First Liberty.

[00:14:19] One of those individuals is Nathan Shackelford.

[00:14:22] And as I've said before, if that name sounds familiar, he's the son of Kelly Shackelford.

[00:14:27] And also Sean Fredrickson, who some of you in California probably know only so well.

[00:14:31] And they are the co-leaders of the F3 initiative.

[00:14:34] We'll talk more about that next hour.

[00:14:37] But those are just a few things to give you an idea of what is coming up.

[00:14:40] But let's, for just a minute, talk about foreign policy and military policy.

[00:14:45] The official director, then, of the Director of National Intelligence is John Ratcliffe.

[00:14:52] This is an individual that spent four terms as a representative here in the state of Texas where we broadcast.

[00:14:58] And Donald Trump said,

[00:15:00] I am pleased to announce that former Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, will serve as the director of the CIA.

[00:15:08] And from exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation to catching the FBI's abuse of civil liberties at the FISA court,

[00:15:18] John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for truth and honesty with the American public.

[00:15:23] When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden's laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American people.

[00:15:32] There was an interesting post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that, just imagine when John Ratcliffe becomes the director of CIA,

[00:15:41] after having been the director of national intelligence, whether the 51 intelligence officers that signed that letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was likely Russian disinformation,

[00:15:57] whether those 51 intelligence officers will lose their security clearance.

[00:16:02] I don't think so.

[00:16:03] As a matter of fact, there are a lot of people suggesting that whether it's Donald Trump, whether it is John Ratcliffe or a number of other individuals,

[00:16:13] there could be a real amount of goodwill gained by being very gracious.

[00:16:19] And if anything, not having a response to some of the things that have actually been brought against not only Donald Trump,

[00:16:28] but some of his associates, rather than tit for tat, simply say, let's forgive and forget.

[00:16:34] Matter of fact, some people are even saying, let's see whether or not Donald Trump might even think about actually issuing a pardon for Hunter Biden

[00:16:43] to just put that off of the table as well.

[00:16:46] They are meeting right now.

[00:16:48] As a matter of fact, if you're not familiar, the fact is Joe Biden and Donald Trump face to face today at the White House.

[00:16:54] Wouldn't you love to hear some of the comments that they're making to each other?

[00:16:59] But nevertheless, it just gives you a little bit of a sense of what might be happening behind the scenes,

[00:17:04] and we'll see where that goes in the future.

[00:17:06] But let's talk about Secretary of Defense.

[00:17:09] Did not see this one coming.

[00:17:11] Many of us actually were hoping that somebody like Mike Pompeo, who's been on the program with us a couple of times,

[00:17:19] might be the person tapped as Secretary of Defense.

[00:17:22] That was put off the table the other day when it was made very clear by Donald Trump that he was not going to bring Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo,

[00:17:31] who had served before, back to his administration.

[00:17:34] And instead, Donald Trump has selected the Fox News host, Pete Hegseth.

[00:17:39] His appointment, of course, as this particular article that I've posted for you to read,

[00:17:44] will bring about some of the reaction from the Democratic Party,

[00:17:49] simply because, number one, his association with Fox News,

[00:17:54] but number two, the fact that he has made it very clear that whoever is the next Secretary of Defense,

[00:18:02] maybe he knew he was going to be, or maybe he wanted to just give advice to the next one,

[00:18:06] needs to get rid of all the woke policies in the Pentagon,

[00:18:10] to get rid of a lot of the woke education in the military academies and the rest.

[00:18:16] And so, again, Donald Trump said,

[00:18:19] Pete is tough and smart and a true believer in America first.

[00:18:22] With Pete at the helm, America's enemies are on notice.

[00:18:25] Our military will be great again.

[00:18:27] America will never back down.

[00:18:29] If you're not familiar with Pete Hegseth, before he served at Fox News,

[00:18:34] he was an Army National Guard captain in Afghanistan.

[00:18:39] He is an individual that graduated both from Princeton and Harvard,

[00:18:43] and has been very focal, really, on the behalf of veterans.

[00:18:48] Matter of fact, many people thought he might have served in the first term under Donald Trump,

[00:18:54] leading the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

[00:18:57] He certainly has spent a fair amount of time talking about the need for us to support our veterans.

[00:19:04] He's the executive director of Vets for Freedom and was there for many years,

[00:19:10] although he stepped down from that as well.

[00:19:13] And, of course, he'll be working with, as I just mentioned a minute ago,

[00:19:16] such people as our CIA director now, who is John Ratcliffe,

[00:19:22] and, again, an individual that served as a member of Congress.

[00:19:26] But as you go through this list, and we'll take a break after this and talk about one of these groups,

[00:19:32] you also have Lee Zeldin.

[00:19:34] He is a former member of Congress in New York, but also ran for governor,

[00:19:39] though he lost because of his enthusiasm in bringing out Republican votes,

[00:19:46] probably helped get a few Republicans elected to the House,

[00:19:50] and thus kept the House or even created a situation in which the House was Republican.

[00:19:56] And so he will serve as EPA director.

[00:19:59] Then you also have Elise Stefanik, who is a member of Congress from New York,

[00:20:06] which will serve as U.N. ambassador,

[00:20:08] which, again, raises a question because if the difference between being a Republican-controlled House

[00:20:15] and a Democratic-controlled House is dependent on a few members of Congress,

[00:20:19] Elise Stefanik, as well as Florida Congressman Mike Walsh, will have to be replaced.

[00:20:25] And I was having a conversation with some people off air about how that would take place.

[00:20:31] In the state of Florida, pretty straightforward.

[00:20:33] You would think Ron DeSantis would appoint somebody, and then they'd have a special election.

[00:20:38] What the governor, that is, the Governor Hochul in New York would do,

[00:20:44] is a little more questionable.

[00:20:46] Would she instead appoint a Democrat in that position?

[00:20:50] And then you'd have a special election.

[00:20:53] So a lot of things on the horizon that will need to be resolved.

[00:20:57] And then Kristi Noem, the governor from South Dakota,

[00:21:01] as the Secretary of Homeland Security and many others that we've talked about just a few minutes ago.

[00:21:07] So, again, there are some remarkable appointments.

[00:21:10] And, of course, many of these cabinet offices will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

[00:21:17] It will be a Republican Senate, but it will be a narrow one.

[00:21:22] So, again, some of these individuals might have some tough sledding.

[00:21:25] So we'll talk more about that right after this.

[00:21:31] The Bible tells us not to worry.

[00:21:34] And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today.

[00:21:38] Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry.

[00:21:44] God gives us a next step.

[00:21:46] He says we need to pray.

[00:21:48] But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult.

[00:21:53] And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement,

[00:21:58] a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation.

[00:22:03] Each week you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans,

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[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:52] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:10] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] Back once again, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212.

[00:23:18] As I mentioned, we're going to be talking about the F3 initiative at the top of the hour.

[00:23:22] And we'll be talking with Nathan Shackelford and Sean Fredrickson.

[00:23:27] But since we went to a break, we were having a conversation off air.

[00:23:30] But I think it's worth mentioning on air as well that there are a couple of other principles here.

[00:23:36] We're mentioning a lot of names and trying to give you a sense of who some of these individuals are and all through the week.

[00:23:41] And all through the next couple of weeks, because what do we still have?

[00:23:44] Was it 68 days left before Donald Trump even takes the oath of office?

[00:23:49] But nevertheless, these many of them require Senate confirmation.

[00:23:53] I'm going to talk about that issue in just a minute, because some of these individuals that are put in other positions will not require Senate confirmation.

[00:24:02] And one of those is an individual I talked about the other day, Tom Homan.

[00:24:06] And I'll explain that.

[00:24:07] But first of all, what I think is intriguing is to recognize that many of these individuals being placed in positions are relatively young.

[00:24:17] We do have some questions as to whether or not the Senate will confirm Pete Hegseth.

[00:24:22] Whether they do or not recognize he's all of 44 years of age.

[00:24:26] I remember when I was much younger, that seemed pretty old, but it doesn't seem as old now.

[00:24:31] Elise Stefanik, I mentioned her just a minute ago.

[00:24:34] She is going to be the U.N. ambassador.

[00:24:36] She's all of 40 years of age.

[00:24:38] Elise Zeldin, who will be the head of EPA, 44 years of age.

[00:24:43] Even some that are considered a little bit older, like the South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, 52 years of age.

[00:24:50] And it's interesting because she's the governor of South Dakota.

[00:24:53] If she's confirmed, then they'll have to have a special election for the governor of South Dakota.

[00:24:56] There's some rumor about whether or not the governor of North Dakota would be the secretary of energy.

[00:25:02] So you might have a number of special elections for governors in North Dakota, South Dakota,

[00:25:08] members of Congress in New York and Florida, and other places along the way.

[00:25:13] So we'll see how this all plays out.

[00:25:15] But you do see a sense in which the Trump administration, and maybe even Donald Trump himself,

[00:25:23] is saying, if I want to leave a legacy, I want to make sure I don't bring in a lot of people that are 60-something, 70-something,

[00:25:30] like me or some of the people I had in my cabinet in the past.

[00:25:34] I want to bring in people that have the potential to actually be the next generation of leaders,

[00:25:40] either to run for Congress, to run for the presidency, to be a future vice president, to serve in other cabinets.

[00:25:49] And that is certainly the case.

[00:25:51] So one of the themes I'm seeing so far, of course, I've already mentioned one theme,

[00:25:55] that is this has been one of the fastest deployments of a cabinet I think I've ever seen before.

[00:26:02] Number two, it does seem to be a real definite emphasis on younger, which, of course, we talk about here.

[00:26:11] If you think about this, yesterday we had the Millennial Roundtable, and then we're going to have Nathan Shackelford.

[00:26:17] I won't ask his age, but I know it's pretty young.

[00:26:20] Matter of fact, he's going to be on Friday, and Liberty is going to be the host while I'm speaking

[00:26:23] and teaching at some college events and things like that.

[00:26:27] And so we certainly have wanted to have a younger set of voices on air.

[00:26:31] And certainly the Trump administration seems to be dedicated to getting some younger faces and voices there as well.

[00:26:39] And then one other thing is that there are some individuals who you might have thought would have taken a policy position

[00:26:47] or a cabinet position that were not.

[00:26:49] And a good illustration of that would be Tom Homan, H-O-M-A-N.

[00:26:55] He has been tapped as future President Donald Trump's border czar,

[00:27:00] and he is an individual that has worked with ICE for many years.

[00:27:04] We talked about him on Monday.

[00:27:06] But he's been tapped as a border czar because that will not require Senate confirmation,

[00:27:12] which is probably good because he is probably best known for having mixed it up when he was the head of ICE with AOC

[00:27:21] and the head of the Progressive Caucus in the House and a number of others.

[00:27:26] Almost every one of his confrontations with members, Democratic members of the House, have gone viral.

[00:27:32] And so he is, of course, taking on a very controversial position as border czar because he is going to be involved in deportation.

[00:27:42] Now, he's already made it very clear that the focus initially is going to be on work sites, illegal work sites,

[00:27:51] because he has said, and I'm now quoting him,

[00:27:53] work sites are where we find many victims of forced labor and sex trafficking.

[00:27:58] The raids are to actually protect victims while, of course, cracking down illegal practices.

[00:28:05] He also has made a big deal about the fact that he is convinced that the cartels have been exploiting young people,

[00:28:13] and the fact is that we've had 300,000 children that are unaccounted for due to lax enforcement policies.

[00:28:24] And so he's made it very clear he wants to look for them.

[00:28:27] And he also says when it comes to deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records,

[00:28:33] even if they're in sanctuary cities, he's coming after them.

[00:28:37] Again, quoting from him, sanctuary cities won't shield anyone from enforcement.

[00:28:42] So I did want to give you a little bit of an idea sort of of how the reaction to this has come.

[00:28:49] So you will notice if you go to our website today, I'm quoting from some sources that are already going to be more hostile to some of the policies of Donald Trump.

[00:28:59] One of these is an article here that appeared in The Hill in which the argument was,

[00:29:06] is that this was an attempt to deal with the issue of trafficking.

[00:29:12] And the critics are already saying that trying to focus on these work sites are not necessarily going to help combat trafficking.

[00:29:21] We'll see where that goes.

[00:29:23] And, of course, he is best known, as they point out, of having the zero tolerance policy about the separating of those 1,000, 4,000 children from their parents.

[00:29:34] Because he says, first of all, if the parents have engaged in some kind of illegal activity, that's what we do.

[00:29:41] He says when I was in New York, that's what we did.

[00:29:44] If somebody was taken in for DUI, that's what we do when individuals have broken the law.

[00:29:49] That's where you get the pushback from people like AOC saying, well, they haven't broken the law.

[00:29:53] He says, yes, they have.

[00:29:54] They've broken the law by coming to this country illegally.

[00:29:57] Well, no, they're seeking asylum.

[00:29:59] No, they did not follow the procedures of asylum.

[00:30:02] They're actually breaking the law.

[00:30:04] But then, of course, it gets back to this question of the 300,000 children.

[00:30:09] You've had some individuals that have simply said, this is not a missing kids problem.

[00:30:15] It's a missing paperwork problem.

[00:30:18] So I want you to see that's the pushback.

[00:30:21] My argument would be this.

[00:30:23] Anybody who is convinced that these 300,000 children are safe and this is merely a missing paperwork problem,

[00:30:32] is unbelievably naive and really needs to be called out.

[00:30:36] But anybody that believes that the 300,000 and now it's down to 291,000.

[00:30:44] So what's 10,000 amongst friends?

[00:30:45] I guess that these are all individuals that are in sexual trafficking.

[00:30:52] Well, that's not right either.

[00:30:53] But I think it is amazing how very quickly, if this was under the Biden administration, there's very little concern and mostly just an argument that this is a paperwork problem.

[00:31:06] And just remember that little argument because I guarantee you three months from now, four months from now, when we still can't find some of the children,

[00:31:16] we'll now say that that's a Trump problem, right?

[00:31:18] And that's a Tom Holman problem.

[00:31:20] And that is probably a homeland security problem.

[00:31:26] So it's amazing how if you like the Biden administration, well, it's just a paperwork problem.

[00:31:32] But I guarantee you, if you dislike the Trump administration, it will be a real crisis at the border.

[00:31:41] So, again, we know how that game is played.

[00:31:43] I mentioned Charlie Kirk.

[00:31:44] He said Tom Holman announces he will begin workplace immigration raids.

[00:31:50] And Charlie Kirk, in his ex-account, said if you're illegal, get out of the country now.

[00:31:55] It will save you.

[00:31:57] First of all, it will save us time and energy.

[00:31:59] It will also spare you humiliation.

[00:32:01] The days of gaming America's immigration system with impunity are over.

[00:32:07] So you're starting to see that there is going to be quite a push and a pushback on this issue of deportation.

[00:32:15] But there is some belief that once that first bus pulls out of people being deported,

[00:32:23] once that first plane pulls out of people being deported,

[00:32:27] there will be other people who will self-deport rather than wait for somebody to come knocking at the door.

[00:32:33] So we'll see how that unfolds when we begin to see those actions being taken.

[00:32:39] We come back from the break real quickly.

[00:32:41] I do want to mention the fact that we also have the announcement from Donald Trump

[00:32:46] that Elon Musk and Vivek Rameshwamy will now work together to establish a new Department of Government Efficiency.

[00:32:55] Elon Musk, of course, is wanting to try to slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures,

[00:33:03] and even restructure federal agencies.

[00:33:06] Vivek Rameshwamy, I've got his book, and I'm probably going to do some commentaries based upon his book

[00:33:12] because he has a whole chapter on the federal government is three branches, not four,

[00:33:16] and goes on to talk about the fact that he used to refer to this as the administrative state,

[00:33:22] and he had everybody from, well, Charlie Kirk to a variety of other people say,

[00:33:27] stop mentioning the administrative state,

[00:33:29] and now he starts talking about the ministerial or the management class, the managerial class.

[00:33:35] But I'll come back and talk a little bit about what that new Department of Government Efficiency might look like,

[00:33:40] and then next hour we're going to spend some time talking about a new initiative

[00:33:44] to reach out to young people about the issue of religious liberty.

[00:33:48] I'll be right back.

[00:33:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] Back once again, you know, one of the ways in which you can balance a budget is increase income or decrease expenses.

[00:34:07] Let's talk about both of those.

[00:34:09] Decreasing expenses.

[00:34:10] Well, that was, of course, the announcement that came yesterday from President-elect Donald Trump

[00:34:15] that he is going to put Elon Musk and Vivek Rameshwamy in the Department of Government Efficiency.

[00:34:21] He said, I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the federal bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency

[00:34:29] and at the same time make life better for all Americans.

[00:34:33] Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 trillion of government spending.

[00:34:43] Elon Musk took the time to also talk about that and in a statement that was included with the press release by Donald Trump said,

[00:34:51] this will send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people.

[00:34:57] That's Elon Musk saying that as well.

[00:35:00] He says, I mean, at the end of the day, you're being taxed.

[00:35:02] You're being taxed.

[00:35:03] All government spending is taxation.

[00:35:05] So whether it's direct taxation or all government spending, either it becomes inflation or it's direct taxation.

[00:35:12] Elon Musk concludes by saying, your money is being wasted and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that.

[00:35:19] We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook.

[00:35:22] And, of course, we talked about some of that on Monday with a good friend, Chuck Bentley.

[00:35:27] And so one way to certainly balance a budget is to decrease expenses.

[00:35:33] And the goal of Elon Musk eventually might be to try to eliminate $2 trillion, almost one-third of government spending with various kinds of efficiencies.

[00:35:47] We'll see how that goes.

[00:35:49] The other way, of course, is to increase income.

[00:35:53] And that income sometimes comes because you then get the economy running.

[00:35:59] And as a result, people are doing better.

[00:36:01] And that's, I think, the most important thing right now.

[00:36:05] It is very clear that both inflation and immigration, what happened at the border and what happens in the pocketbooks of individuals,

[00:36:13] is what certainly has fueled this mandate.

[00:36:17] And so I also provide to you today an article by Glenn Hubbard calling the Trump Economic Awakening,

[00:36:26] recognizing that if you're going to address this issue,

[00:36:30] there are going to have to be some ways to deal with the kind of strains on the economy.

[00:36:36] So Congress probably will try to, as he says, build on the successes of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

[00:36:44] And it's more likely that that might be renewed in 2025.

[00:36:51] So we'll see how that goes.

[00:36:53] Then also the development of opportunity, ways in which jobs can generate income.

[00:37:00] And thus, as you lower taxes, you actually increase income because there's more opportunity for income making its way into the coffers of the federal government.

[00:37:10] So we'll see how that plays out.

[00:37:13] And so those are the issues, reducing the possible size and scope and inefficiencies of the federal government.

[00:37:21] And at the same time, coming up with policies, whether they're tax cuts, targeted aid, or even just responsible spending cuts

[00:37:31] that are going to make a difference in the lives of the American people.

[00:37:34] But my last article is what is entitled The Lamest Duck Session.

[00:37:39] It's from American Prospect.

[00:37:41] That's written by an individual that would not agree with many of us around the table.

[00:37:45] But I use it just to help you understand that even individuals who would identify themselves as left of center

[00:37:52] are making these kinds of statements.

[00:37:54] He says, one of the least productive congresses in history will wrap up starting today with a unified Republican government likely looming on the other side.

[00:38:03] Since Republicans will perceive any bill proposing now as inferior to the better deal they can get later,

[00:38:10] expect a level of inactivity over the next couple of months.

[00:38:13] There are some things Congress will have to do.

[00:38:16] And it will be interesting to see whether or not Chuck Schumer, who is again the Senate majority leader at the moment,

[00:38:22] will allow any of those to take place.

[00:38:25] Because, first of all, government funding only lasts until December 20th.

[00:38:30] So something has to be done there, especially if there needs to be any additional spending for Hurricanes Helene and Hurricane Milton.

[00:38:39] The Small Business Administration, Small Business Association Disaster Fund is completely out of money.

[00:38:45] The Defense Authorization Bill probably will pass, if there are no other reasons.

[00:38:51] There's usually bipartisan support for that as well.

[00:38:54] And it would be probably helpful to an incoming Trump administration to not have to deal with some of these leftover issues.

[00:39:03] So on the one hand, there might be a real push, even on the part of Democrats and Republicans, to get that done.

[00:39:09] One, Democrats to finish the season.

[00:39:13] The Republicans, so they don't have to deal with it later.

[00:39:17] And so that is certainly the case.

[00:39:19] We've already announced, of course, the fact that Senator John Thune of South Dakota is, of course, now the incoming Senate majority leader.

[00:39:29] And so the big question mark is, who will be the Speaker of the House?

[00:39:33] Assuming Republicans are going to vote for Mike Johnson, then that becomes a non-issue.

[00:39:40] But as I certainly would like to point out, you have two individuals right now in Congress and others to come that will leave their positions in Congress

[00:39:51] and thus make it even more difficult to get Republicans to actually support him and put him into that position.

[00:40:00] So we'll see.

[00:40:02] On the other hand, you might say, well, what about the idea of removing Chuck Schumer?

[00:40:07] After all, remember in this article, he was the one that said, for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania,

[00:40:14] we'll pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

[00:40:19] And you can repeat that in Ohio, in Illinois, and in Wisconsin.

[00:40:24] Didn't quite turn out that way.

[00:40:26] But I don't see anybody necessarily at the moment ready to repeal his time as Senate majority leader, soon to become Senate minority leader.

[00:40:38] We have one other issue.

[00:40:39] And, of course, it's related very much to the conversation I'm going to have in just a few minutes with Nathan Shackelford.

[00:40:45] Because so far, Democrats have confirmed 213 judges to the federal judiciary.

[00:40:50] To put that in perspective, Donald Trump confirmed 234.

[00:40:55] About half of the federal bench comes from these two presidents, interestingly enough.

[00:40:59] And there are currently about 47 judicial vacancies.

[00:41:03] And for Biden, about 30 of those are awaiting confirmation.

[00:41:10] Hard to imagine how many of those are going to be rushed through.

[00:41:14] But that may be something we find ourselves talking about over the next few days and even probably about a month and a half.

[00:41:24] You aren't going to probably have many Republicans that are going to want to vote for any of these judges.

[00:41:30] And you would certainly need the support of at least two lame duck Democratic senators.

[00:41:35] That would be Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia.

[00:41:39] Senator Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona.

[00:41:42] And Manchin at one point said he would not vote for any judge.

[00:41:45] You did not get at least one Republican vote.

[00:41:47] He sort of backed off on that.

[00:41:49] But if that's the case, I think those judges will just be sitting around.

[00:41:52] And we'll have to see what happens next year.

[00:41:56] But it is an interesting set of circumstances.

[00:41:59] And again, recognize that we're only talking about a week after we found out last Wednesday for sure who the next president might be.

[00:42:09] And already we know probably half of the cabinet.

[00:42:12] We know who the future Senate majority leader is.

[00:42:15] We have a pretty good idea who the Speaker of the House will remain.

[00:42:18] And we have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the lamest duck session you can possibly imagine.

[00:42:23] So a lot happening every single day.

[00:42:26] So I hope that you'll take the time to listen to Point of View.

[00:42:30] If you find yourself saying, that came pretty fast and furious, I'd like to see a list of some of those cabinet positions.

[00:42:36] I'd like to know a little bit more about some of the people you mentioned.

[00:42:39] Let me just mention that if you go to pointofview.net, click on that button that says See More,

[00:42:44] we have posted many articles that you can read today to learn about what is going to unfold in the Trump administration come January.

[00:42:54] And so if we can be your source for news, information, and commentary, we hope so.

[00:42:59] And again, you can find all of that on the website, pointofview.net.

[00:43:03] When we come back, we're going to talk about the F3 initiative.

[00:43:06] I think you'll want to hear about that.

[00:43:07] We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:43:11] Many years ago, they began saying that we live in the information age.

[00:43:16] Well, today, there is so much information coming at us from every direction.

[00:43:21] The hardest thing is to discern which issues are really important and how can I make a positive impact

[00:43:28] without wasting my time trying to figure out accurate information.

[00:43:32] Let me give you a suggestion to help with that.

[00:43:35] Visit pointofview.net.

[00:43:38] Look at the tabs across the top.

[00:43:40] Find the one named Viewpoints.

[00:43:42] Kirby Anderson and others on our team are constantly watching for news to identify those issues

[00:43:48] that you really need to know about.

[00:43:50] They boil things down in a brief summary,

[00:43:53] and then you can decide if it's something on which you want to learn more and get involved.

[00:43:58] Again, when you go to pointofview.net, click on Viewpoints, you'll see exactly what I mean.

[00:44:04] You'll see the issues that we are covering right now,

[00:44:07] and when you like what you see, I honestly think you will.

[00:44:11] You can slide on over, enter your email, and get them automatically sent to your inbox each day.

[00:44:18] That's it.

[00:44:18] Take a minute now.

[00:44:20] Be informed.

[00:44:21] Pointofview.net.

[00:44:23] Click on Viewpoints.

[00:44:28] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:44:32] Day 1-1-2-0.

[00:44:32] 1-2-0.

[00:44:32] Day 2-1-4.!?