Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Trump’s Iran Address, Phil Zuckerman on the Decline of Religion in America, & Federal Judges vs. The Trump Administration

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Hey BillOReilly.com Premium and Concierge Members, welcome to the No Spin News for Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Stand Up for Your Country.  Talking Points Memo: Bill looks ahead to President Trump’s address tonight and what to expect on the situation in Iran. Phil Zuckerman, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, joins the No Spin News to discuss religion in America and why fewer Americans are identifying as religious. US District Judge Randolph Moss permanently blocks the Trump administration from ending federal funding for NPR and PBS. New polling shows that health care is the top domestic concern. The Supreme Court rules against a law banning “conversion therapy" in Colorado. Final Thought: Bill announces his guest for tomorrow's episode of We’ll Do It Live!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey Bill O'Reilly here. Welcome to the Nosed-Bin News Wednesday, April 1st, 2016. Happy Passover to all our Jewish viewers all around the world. You know, I hope there's anti-Semitism madness subsides. This is crazy stuff. It really is. There's no reason for it. And it depresses me. You know, I was raised a lot of Jewish kids. A lot of them are still my friends 70 years after the fact. or whatever. I just don't get it. But anyway, we want you to have a nice Passover tomorrow holy Thursday, good Friday, then the Easter weekend, so I hope we can all relax a little bit. President Trump's not going to be able to relax because he's in the middle of a war with Iran, as everybody knows, and that is the subject of this evening's talking points memo. So tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern, President will address the nation. All three networks will carry it all the cables.

Now, having known Donald Trump for 35 years, he doesn't do this unless he's got something positive to say. I don't know what it is. You know, it goes back and forth and in and out, but he's not taking the time to say, hey, we're losing or he's not working out. He's not going to do that. He's going to put a positive spin on what's happening in Iran. Now, all we have is a truth social this morning that the president believes there will be a ceasefire, but Iran denies that. You've got to put this into perspective. So Iran has to save face to its own people because that government there is tottering.

And they can't say, hey, we're losing, we're going to surrender to America and Israel. Can't. So just keep that in perspective. But Mr. Trump has something that he's going to deliver tonight. I will tweet throughout the whole speech at Bill O'Reilly. Okay, it's the best thing I can do real time and tell you, you know, what's really happening. Because you've got to understand all presidents engage in propaganda. every single man that's held the office.

Everyone. This is the way they do it. And there's a reason for it. They want to rally the troops to use a bad pun in this war situation. But, you know, what Mr. Trump says is going to try to help his administration. Some of it will be valid and others will be a recitation of his greatest hits. We did this, we did that, you've heard it before. But it's well worth listening to.

A couple of reasons. Number one, whatever he says, the Trump haters are going to hate. It doesn't matter what he says. Okay, and number two, you, the American citizen, the honest American citizen, need to know where the government's coming from and what is likely to happen. And that's what I will do. So I'm going to say this is likely to happen. He's got to get out of this the next week or so, maybe two weeks. But it's just taking too much of an economic toll and there's too much dissent.

And on that subject, a new poll, Reuters Ipsos, Soso poll. Not particularly accurate. First question. Overall, do you approve or disapprove the U.S. military strike against Iran? Prove 35, disapproved 60. I don't believe that number, even though we are a soft nation. We are not ready to fight a war psychologically. We're not ready.

We don't want to make any sacrifices at all. And that's true. Second question, thinking about where things stand with the conflict in Iran, which statement comes closer to your own views? Work to annuals involvement in the conflict quickly, even if it's, it means we do not achieve our goals, 66%. I don't believe the number. I think it's too high.

Work to achieve all the goals, even it means U.S. involvement in the combat continues for an extended period, 27%. Nobody wants an extended period. Okay. Final question, would you favor, oppose sending U.S. ground troops? We all know the answer to that.

Favor 18, oppose 76. And it's not gonna happen. And, you know, the people on the internet who whipped the stuff up and on cable news, they're liars. They don't know anything. They just trying to get attention to themselves. All right, so the big winner in all this is in the USA, although down the road, maybe it will be.

It's Putin. So Putin's sitting there in Moscow, he's loving this. Number one, a lot of the sanctions have been listening. that off his oil sales, so he's making money, which he needs to kill people in Ukraine. And the Russian economy is devastated, as I predicted it would be. And number two, NATO is finished. Finished. Because, and this makes no sense to me, and I wrote a message of the day about it on

Bill O'Reilly.com this morning. All the NATO countries have to do was say, we're with you. That's it, because the United States and Israel doing a heavy lifting. France isn't going to send troops. All they have to do is say, we'll help you out. Want to land U.S. planes and refuel? Yeah. If you need us to do some specific things in Hormuz, we're with you.

No. They won't do it. So what good is NATO? And that's exactly what Donald Trump believes. We don't need them. Putin loves this. Loves it. So down the road, Putin's got his eye on the Baltic states,

okay, Latvia, and then other Eastern European countries, Moldova, weak governments, where he can just walk in and take over. That's what he wants to do. And if there's no alliance between Europe and U.S. It's a lot easier to do that. And there's no alliance. Trump's really mad.

I mean, as angry as I've seen them in quite some time. Because there is no excuse for France, Spain, Italy, Germany. Not only do they refuse to help us, but they're mocking us by saying, oh, it's an immoral war, it's illegal war. I'll never go to Spain again as long as I live, ever. And it's a beautiful country. I've been all over it. I wrote a motorcycle all over that country. Beautiful.

Never going again. And the reason that Spain is doing is a socialist country now. And they don't like the United States. They don't like capitalism. And they hate Trump. That's the reason. And when you think about it, Europe is in the kill zone.

So if the Mullahs ever did get the ability to deliver a nuke, Paris is going, Madrid is going, Rome is going. And these pinheads over there, they're not worried about that? Pope's not worried about the Vatican going boom? I think I might be a little more circumspect. So Putin's a big winner. Now, China's a huge player and all this, and this gets no publicity.

but of course I know I went to Beijing. You know all about that. So May 14th, Donald Trump's supposed to go to Beijing. Big conference with Xi. China gets 80% of its oil from Iran. 8-0. Can't survive without that oil.

Unless Donald Trump makes a deal with China to sell them American oil and Venezuelan oil, which is possible. But Hormuz is a big thing for China. Kind of can't go very long without that oil. So China behind the scenes, I don't know what they're doing specifically. I wish I did. I might be able to find out.

Hey, this is Mike Slater. I have a podcast called Politics by Faith. I would love for you to listen. We take the news of the day, and we run it through the Bible. What does the Bible have to say about this? Because there's nothing new under the sun. Read the headlines, everything's all crazy. world's coming, doing it in, it's all in the Bible. And after every episode, hopefully you leave

with a proper perspective and a biblical piece. Please join us wherever you listen to podcasts, and we also have a YouTube page as well. YouTube.com slash at Politics by Faith. Hey, podcast listeners, Jillian Michaels here. If the world is feeling unstable right now, and the noise and the chaos is overwhelming, if you're looking for clarity and truth, good or bad, I invite you to check out my podcast, keeping it real. with Jillian Michaels. Twice a week, I break down the biggest issues shaping our lives and I sit down with bold guests for fearless, honest conversations. There are no talking points. There's no agenda, just real discussions that challenge assumptions and demand clarity. Subscribe to keeping it real

with Jillian Michaels today anywhere you get your podcasts. I'm going to D.C. in a couple of weeks, but believe me, China's much more powerful than Putin. And they're just sitting back and I watch, but that's a big, big factor in all of this. And finally, America First Movement's going to take off now because we're a soft nation. So I'm going to Hannity on the radio program, on his radio program today.

And he goes, well, what about D-Day? No D-Day. not in America, not in contemporary America, no D-Day. We're not willing to make sacrifices in this country. If we got to pay a buck more a gallon at the pump, we're screaming. Now, I know times are tough. I understand the economics of it. But we're not a nation any longer that's disciplined

and going to go do the right thing. We're not going to do the right thing anymore. because we're so divided. And most people don't even care about what the right thing is. Surely denying a theocracy who is said we want to kill Americans and Jews a nuclear weapon is the right thing, surely, right? No, Trump's war.

And that's a memo. OK, so all this turbulence overseas and the economic turbulence here in the United States and other countries comes right into Holy Week in Passover. And there is a poll from Gallup about religion in America, very interesting poll. So in 2015, not so long ago, 66% of Americans said that religion was important part

of their daily lives. Now that number has fallen to 49%. That's a pretty big drop. Second question, Pew. In 2007, 78% of Americans identified as Christian. Now that number is 62%. Another big drop. Finally, Pew, religion in America,

29% of all of us say we don't have any religion. And that's on the rise. Faces growing theology in America is not really a theology. Nothing. So why is this happening? Why? And joining us now from Claremont, California, is Dr. Phil Zuckerman, professor of sociology at Pitzer College, part of the Claremont College system. If there's one thing you had to point to, doctor, that has made religion on the decline in this country, what would it be? I'd say the internet actually a lot of evidence that as countries as populations spend more time online one of the casualties there is being religiously involved if I had to pick one okay so explain then why so I'm fairly I wouldn't say I'm a religious fanatic but I'm engaged in the Catholicism and I have

have to use the internet every day for my work. It hasn't really impacted on that. Yeah. I'd say that it happens in three ways working simultaneously. At least this is what we find when we ask people these questions in studies, qualitative and quantitative. So number one, the internet has created connections for people that are nonbelievers. In the past, if you were living in a very religious part of the country and you were a 16 or 17 year old and you were doubted, you were skeptical, you had questions. That was a very solitary, lonely experience, and you really couldn't do much about it. If your whole family was religious and you're everybody at school and you weren't feeling that way, you just kind of had to suck it up or,

you know, swallow it or whatever. Now you just go online and say, hey, am I the only one who thinks, you know, this speaking in tongues is not really legit? Or am I the only one who doubts this or that? My prayers haven't been answered. And you find instant community, instant social support and validation of your worldview. So that's just connecting non-believers in a way that's never happened before. Number two. So it's easier to be an atheist because you have other atheist pals on social media. You could say that. It's easy to be, I don't know about an atheist, but it's easier to be indifferent, a skeptic, a doubter, a humanist, because you find that social support, which, you know, having a worldview that no one else shares is hard to sustain when

you're lonely. But when you have others there, it's a little bit more plausible. and more acceptable. Secondly, unlike in the past, you know, in the past, if I wanted to learn something about religion, I walked to the library. If I wanted to learn about Mary's assumption or I want to learn about what's Yom Kipper or something, I go to a library, take out a book and I can read. Now, if I Google that, I am immediately bombarded with critiques and debunking inadvertently, even if I don't want to, if I just, and I, one of my favorite studies is about clergy who have lost their faith. And what they found was more often than not, the clergy said, hey, I was, I was looking something up that I hadn't studied a while. It's been a while since I was in seminary and I had to plan for a seminar,

I mean, sorry for a sermon. And I started looking something up. But next thing I know, it's three in the morning and I'm reading all about, you know, how the gospels are critiquable or maybe they're forged or maybe they're this or that. So we are exposed to ex-Mormons, ex-Catholics, X, everything, just by searching for religion. And that can chip away at people's shirty. And then the third factor, of course, is just how the internet interfaces in our lives, the shopping, the simultaneous, the scrolling, the porn, it's just become such a fixture. It depleted our connections, not just in religion, but to other people in many ways.

So it's a sort of community sapper, as it were. It makes us more individualized. It makes us more self-obsessed. It makes us less social. And so it makes things like church a little less compelling or more alienating that it used to be in the past. I see it almost the same way as I see the, will to fight evil. You know, I wrote a book called Confronting Evil. And America's motivation to deal with real evil has dropped along with the belief in God or the practice of

religion. And I think it's because we are an undisciplined, selfish society, generally speaking. Am I wrong? You know, that's something you and I probably don't see eye to eye on. You know, I'm a sociologist by training and I'm happy to talk about these trends of secularization. But from what you just said, we probably, I would probably

disagree. I mean, I can explain why if you want, but... Well, I mean, where do you disagree with me? Do you think we are a self-sacrificing nation? It depends how you classify that and what you mean by that, but I guess the reason I would disagree is when I you know people evil means different things to different people obviously you know

somebody might think gay marriage is evil another person might think it's just and good and denying gay marriage is evil so it's very subjective and what I can tell you is those society you know many there I'm happy to talk about all the ways in which a decline in religion negatively affects our society and our culture but on this one I don't see it that way because I'm not I'm not coming at it from that point of view I don't really it doesn't matter to me what the things theology or religious tenet that you embrace, that doesn't matter. It's the overall belief in a higher power and a right or a wrong. And that's what we're seeing now.

We're seeing that, okay, we know it's wrong for people to try to develop a nuclear weapon who are sworn to kill Jews. We know that's wrong, even if you're the biggest pagan in the world. You know it's wrong, but we're not willing to do anything about it. Interesting. I appreciate that. By the way, I also really appreciated your sentiments at the outset. Thank you for those words.

I guess what I would say, I'll give you an example. Just off the top of my head, I was reading yesterday in Israel about a troop of Israeli soldiers that is going into the West Bank and brutalizing the civilian population there, burning their homes, burning their cars, terrifying their children. It wasn't surprising to me that that is actually a battalion made up of ultra-Orthodox, strongly believing Jews. And the reason I bring that up as an anecdote is I think there's something, I think it's not demonstrable that people who believe in a higher power somehow, you know, care more about good and bad and wrong and right and evil. I think you can have many strongly religious people devoted to God who

don't care about suffering of others. And you can have a lot of secular humanist people who don't believe in a God but are very, very motivated. There's no doubt about it. But to put it in a historical perspective, the IDF, which is what you're talking about, in Israel, I mean, they are reacting to a daily threat. Hamas. That's what, it's not like they're, okay, it's not like general.

Custer who went into an Indian village where all the braids were gone and wiped out all the women and children. Okay. Well, Bill, I guess what I would say is if you look at both sides of this ugly, ugly situation, the Palestinians and the Israelis, what you'll find is the more religious in both camps. So the more religious Palestinians. Fanatical, sure. There's no doubt about it.

The most of the presser least likely to compromise. And the more secular on both camps, the non-religious Jews and Israel, non-religious Palestinians are the most willing to compromise, see each other's humanity. So even that, it kind of cuts both ways. And I'm not saying this is a universal fact, but I don't agree. That's not true in the Muslim world. That's not true there. Okay. The more secular these Muslims are, the more intent they are in wiping Jews and Americans off the planet. So it's a very complicated issue. Last question for you. Is it good, in your opinion, as a sociologist, for America to be experiencing a decline of religion and belief in God?

Is that a good thing? Yes and no. I can answer to give you both if you like. But I want your opinion. Oh, yeah. I think it's ultimately a good thing. You bet. Why?

Oh, I just think. think we do a better job solving problems rationally and empirically rather than relying on mystical or spiritual or prayer. I mean, you and I are communicating right now and it's got there's nothing supernatural going on. It's all empirical, scientifically driven. You and I, I believe that people solve problems better working together in this world using natural means, using our minds, our intelligence, our empathy and compassion. I don't think we solve much by relying on a deity, prayers don't seem to be as effective as social policy. So I'd rather have more Americans engaging in reality in a sort of empirical way, in an ethical way, rather than saying,

well, we're just going to solve this by praying. We're going to solve all our nation's problems by relying on God. I don't think that's a good approach. And if you look at the most successful democracies on earth today, they are successful, not because they rely on prayer, but because they rely Well, they're not theocracies, that's for sure, but religion does set up a system whereby good is rewarded and evil is punished. Secular does not do that. Doesn't do it. It's worked in my neighborhood, worked at my school, worked in my city. Take a bus ride up to San Francisco where I just did my, my special. Yeah. Well, if that were the case, if that were the case we would find,

the highest violent crime rates in the least believing democracies, but we find just the opposite. So something else is at play. Okay, Professor, very interesting. We appreciate it. I don't know whether you're a believer or not, but if you are at Easter, thank you for taking the time. All right, a lot of judicial activism, President Trump in the middle of all of it. Number one, birthright citizenship. We told you more than a year ago that the president was not going to be able to overturn this,

because it's in the Constitution that if you are born, a baby is born on American soil, that baby is automatically a citizen. Now it came in the slavery years when they were denying blacks citizenship, even though they were born here. That's how that all came, and it was made into part of the Constitution.

This court is not gonna throw that out. There are some arguments on the other side, that it's a con, that people come here to have their kids born here so they can be citizens. Absolutely true. But they're not going to override the Constitution, in my humble opinion. Second one is blocking funding for NPR and PBS. Now, this is Judge Randolph Moss out of D.C. and he's a Barack Obama appointee, very liberal man, and he said the president cannot block the funding out of NPR and PBS,

which Mr. Trump has already done. This is a hard one because the money goes back to Congress. Congress is the one who decides which programs get funded, not the president. There's a separation. Probably Trump will lose this one, too. The third one is Judge Richard Leon, D.C. again. But he's a Bush, W. Bush appointee.

He says that Trump can't build a ballroom, and construction has to stop. That's BS. I have a letter from Harry Truman in my private collection, where Truman just revamped the whole White House because it was falling apart and there was no problem with it. So Trump's going to be able to do what he wants to do because that's under the authority of the executive branch,

not Congress. Leon, who apparently knows nothing, so there's no, no, Congress doesn't get involved. No, they don't. It's private funds. Trump raises the money privately. So that's a win for Trump. And then the final one is very complicated.

So Joe Biden, second worst president in our history next to James Buchanan, he led 900,000 foreign nationals in the country unsupervised through an app, APP. All you had to do if you were wanting to come to the United States was apply for asylum using that app. That's not what the law reads. You've got to go to a port of entry to apply for asylum. That's the law, 1952. So this crazy thing, another nutty judge, Allison Burroughs, Massachusetts, Obama appointee. All right, says, no, Trump can't knock that out.

Certainly he could. This is policy. So it's Biden's policy to let everybody in here on supervisors. Trump policy, not to let anybody in unless they had a valid reason they followed the law. So this Judge Burroughs, this is crazy, this how crazy this is. Now, the Supreme Court does not make policy. Doesn't make the laws. It upholds what's already there or throws it out.

Trump's going to win. So it's a 2-2 here. I hope I've explained that, a little complicated. but there you go. Another poll, Gallup. What are Americans most concerned about? Tadda, health care premiums. Look, Congress has got to do something, and they won't.

They won't. They're lazy. They don't care about you and me. But you got to get a lid on this. You can't be bankrupt than people if they get sick. It's all Congress. And Americans know they're getting host. Can't afford it.

Can't afford it. Go to the hospital. Can't afford to even go to the doctor. And Congress has got to go in and make new laws about this. And it got to be constraints on the insurance companies. You can't be doing 1,000% price rises. So, you know, this one, we all get it. This is crazy.

California, this is underwent. Gender secrecy. Do you know what that is? So in California, it was a law, state law, that said, if your kid is in public school and wants to become a girl and he's a boy, you, the parent, are not to be alerted. The law. Gender secrecy.

Well, Thomas Moore, law center. suit on behalf of somebody who said my rights as a parent being violated. U.S. Judge Roger Benitez said, yeah, this law is unconstitutional, Supreme Court ruled that. Okay, you've got to be able to tell the parents. You can't have a law since you can't tell the parents. And now the judge is awarded $4.5 million to the Thomas Law Center. Correct ruling. Crazy Colorado. I've never seen a state and I've lived in Colorado and I visited every state. Change the way Colorado has changed. You can blame it on a Californians. You can blame it on everybody moving there. But this state is nuts now. Crazy. Okay. So conversion therapy, you know what that is?

That's when you're gay, but you don't want to be gay. So you go to a therapist. Try to convince you not to be gay. Conversion therapy. Nobody's forcing you. You just go. So Colorado said, uh-uh. We're banning conversion therapy. And the Supreme Court said, no.

Under the First Amendment, freedom of expression, nobody wants to go in for conversion therapy. They can. That law is gone. Crazy. country. It really is. Tiger Woods.

So he's a drug addict. He finally admits it. He's going into rehab. And a big tabloid story. Tiger Woods, wealthy guy, all of that. And I have a different take on Tiger Woods. And I

was on with Katie Pavlish last night on News Nation. Here's what I said. Go. Well, Tiger Woods is a drug addict. He admitted it tonight. He's going to rehab. And I hope And I would encourage every American to hope that he gets well, because he's a danger to himself and others. So we live in a culture that celebrates the destruction of the famous, which is one of the bad things about the United States. We'd love to see famous people get taken down.

I don't know what that mentality is, but I'm hoping that Mr. Woods cleans it up. Okay, that's true. You know, if you're famous or wealthy and you get hammered, everybody go, yay. Sport. It's a sport. We'll do it live in a moment. So our long form, we'll do it live, is a big success all over the world. And our guest, which drops tomorrow, is Steve Croft, the former CBS correspondent, 60 Minutes guy.

He was Obama's go-to guy. and that's going to be some interview. We will drop it at noon for premium and concierge members on beloworally.com 6 p.m. all over the world, Eastern. You want to watch CROP, honest man. So this is a good one.

And we appreciate you guys not only watching the No Spin News, but watching our long form. I didn't think it was going to be this successful, but it is. And we're going to have great guests coming up and we're trying to keep it one entertaining one newsy obviously Croft is newsy and bring you up the best we can do as far as telling you the

truth what's really happening anyway happy Easter happy Passover enjoy the weekend relax a little bit okay and I will tweet during the president's speech tonight and we'll see you again on Monday Thank you.