Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1293 | Ron Simmons | Can Trump Use the Insurrection Act Against Minnesota Mayhem?

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

Allie’s dad, Ron Simmons, hosts this Saturday’s episode of “Relatable,” breaking down the week’s biggest stories with fatherly wisdom and calm clarity. He explores the Insurrection Act’s history — from George Washington’s Whiskey Rebellion response to its use by Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Kennedy — explaining why President Trump’s potential invocation to protect ICE officers amid escalating Minnesota violence is legally justified and precedented. Ron contrasts Democrats' outrage now with their past calls to remove Maduro, highlights the tragic ICE shooting of Renee Good, and addresses fraud, sanctuary policies, and lawlessness. He answers listener questions on faith, family, voting, housing, and more — plus his “Words from the Wagon” life lesson. Direct, grounded, and hopeful.Email your questions to Ron at ⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠.Buy Ron's book "Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon": ⁠⁠https://shop.blazemedia.com/products/life-lessons-from-the-little-red-wagon⁠⁠Buy Allie's book "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.toxicempathy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---Timecodes:0:00 - Introduction1:58 - The History of the Insurrection Act20:00 - Why Voting Matters30:50 - One-Year Review of Trump's 2nd Term42:57 - Viewer Q&A---Sponsors:Good Ranchers | To support a company that’s committed to honoring America’s past, present, and future, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GoodRanchers.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today. And if you subscribe to any Good Ranchers box of 100% American meat, you’ll save up to $500 a year! Plus, if you use the code ALLIE, you’ll get an additional $25 off your first order.BlazeTV | Go to ⁠⁠BlazeTV.com/Allie⁠⁠ to subscribe today and save $20 with promo code ALLIE.---Episodes you might like:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ep 1291 | Warning to Churches: Here’s What’s Coming Your Way⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000746104225⁠Ep 1287 | Why Your Aunt Hates ICE: A Spiritual Analysis of Liberal Women⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000744895339⁠Ep 1286 | Maduro Detained, Minnesota ICE Altercation, Can Trump Save Single-Family Homes? | Ron Simmons⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000744608458⁠Ep 1265 | Is America Doomed? A Reality Check After the 2025 Elections | Ron Simmons⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/relatable-with-allie-beth-stuckey/id1359249098?i=1000736156445⁠---Buy Allie's book "You're Not Enough (and That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.alliebethstuckey.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Relatable merchandise: Use promo code ALLIE10 for a discount: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819-382. Well, hello everybody. Golly, two weeks goes by fast, doesn't it? It seems like we were just in here doing this. And I appreciate you listening. You know, if you're in the Texas area this weekend when you're watching this or listening to this,

you got plenty of time because we're probably going to be snowed and iced in, which you know in Texas, when that happens, everything shuts down. So I hope that you'll enjoy this session while you're, you know, trying to figure out what your kids are going to do. Maybe they're outside playing in the snow, assuming all that comes. We do record this a little bit early, so we don't know if it's going to come true, but it looks like there's a pretty good chance of that. But wherever you are in the country, we hope you're having a great day,

and we hope that your year is starting out well, and that even though we're getting close to the end of January, I hope you haven't given up on your resolutions yet. You know, a lot of people say that our New Year's resolutions are gone by the end of January. But I'm believing that Allie's audience isn't like that, that they're staying with what they've committed to. and that if you remember on the last session, I encourage you to come up with one word. What's your word for the year? My word is peace.

And I just would be interested to hearing from y'all, which I heard a lot of you on the comments from last show, what's your word is. Well, those are some great ones. So thank you for doing that. I really appreciate that. And again, thank you for supporting Allie and all that she's doing. She's busy. In fact, she's out of town this weekend speaking at a conference. and, you know, just, again, trying to talk about how you intersect culture, faith, and politics.

And all of those things have some intertwinement in them, and they do have effects on each other. And Ali's been a great voice to talk about that from a biblical worldview. We're going to talk about a few things today. And some of it's kind of history. I want you to understand some of the things that are going on out there. one of those is you've heard a lot of talk about the Insurrection Act that President Trump might impose the Insurrection Act. And well, let's first take a little history lesson if you'll go with me down memory lane, so to speak, and talk about what the Insurrection Act, how it came about, what it really is.

Actually, before the Insurrection Act, in 1792, the first president of the United States, George Washington, use what amounts to what is allowed under the Insurrection Act, and he used it to actually under the Militia Acts at the time, to be able to squel the Whiskey Rebellion. I believe it was going on in Pennsylvania primarily, that people that were producing whiskey, there was a tax on that, and they were protesting or unwilling to pay the tax.

And so he called up the militia, the military at the time, to make sure that they were, obeyed that federal law. Now, you can disagree with the law. That's totally what we should do, but we don't have the ability to disobey the law. Disagreeing and disobeying are two different things. When we disagree with the law, we make ourselves known, but we also go about the proper channels to change the law, and that would be through our elected officials. When we disobey the law, we're not really trying to change the law. We're just not willing to obey. We're just not willing to

abide by the law. And there's a big difference between disagreement and disobedience. All right. Now, in 1807, if you will remember some of your old American history, there was a presidential election actually in 1806. And in 1806, President Thomas Jefferson became our third president of the United States. And the way they did it back then is that whoever came in second place in the presidential voting was the vice president. And if you remember that election of Thomas Jefferson, the first election of him, there was very contentious. In fact, it had to go to the House of Representatives, because if there is a electoral vote tie, the House of Representatives breaks the tie

and decide who's going to be president. And it was very contentious. Over several days, they had multiple votes. And finally, Tom, Thomas Jefferson was elected our third president, just barely over vice president, Aaron Burr. So they really weren't buddies, right? It's not like we do now with, you know, with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance where Trump picked his running mate and how that's gone on now for multiple generations. It was the guy that got second place was the vice president. And so they had a clash right off the bat.

Well, there was, Aaron Burr basically didn't spend any time in D.C. In fact, there was a strong belief, and I believe facts back it up, that Vice President Burr wanted to overthrow the government, essentially, and to have a militarized rebellion or a violent rebellion against the government. And so Congress hearing of this got together and passed what's called the Insurrection Act. because one of the things that our country was set up on is not having our military be our police force and that military actions inside the United States were something that were very much frowned upon. In fact, there is another act which we'll hear one of our scholars talk about a little bit later that prevented that. And the Insurrection Act was put into place in 1807 to provide an exception to that doctrine and that belief.

And what it basically allowed was it allowed the president, okay, under his discretion, doesn't have to have approval from the Congress because the approval came through the act itself. The discretion to be able to put, use military forces to protect the country against people inside the U.S. who were breaking federal laws and unwilling to abide by federal laws. and that's what that President Jefferson was doing against Aaron Burr. And that's really what George Washington did even before the Act came about in the Whiskey Rebellion. Now, the interesting thing is, is that we act like that President Trump, this is something nobody's ever done before or nobody's ever even thought about before. But you may not know, but 30 different times in the history of America has the Insurrection Act been utilized.

And it's been done by both Republican and Democrat president. The Insurrection Act, of course, was used by President Lincoln. He certainly believed that the South had broken federal law by seceding and doing other things. And so he used the Insurrection Act to be able to put military inside the United States. And, of course, we know what occurred. The Civil War occurred as a result of that. Also, there have been others that have used it. President Kennedy used it in a couple of different times.

he used it to allow students in the South, African-American students, to be able to attend universities at Ole Miss and at Alabama. He had to put the National Guard down there to make sure that those young people were allowed to enter and participate in those schools. We also had President Bush 41 used it. some of you will remember this in 1993, I think, or 92 maybe. There was a case in California called the Rodney King case, and it was about police brutality. And these policemen were on trial using excessive force against Rodney King.

And after the trial was over, there was all sorts of riots that were going on in the Los Angeles area and in other cities as well. And so President Bush, the first President Bush, called in the National Guard to be able to quell those riots. And so it's not something that is that unusual to be used. It's something that has been used multiple times. A couple of other times that it was used. There was a cold, Phil War that Woodrow Wilson used it on. There, Dwight Eisenhower used it. You know, I was born and grew up in Arkansas, and I remember reading about this in my history books. And when they were trying to integrate public schools in Arkansas, Central High School in Little Rock, Dwight Eisenhower had to send the National Guard down there to make

sure that happened because the governor at the time wasn't willing to allow integration. Same thing we talked about with the schools and whether. Linden Johnson actually used it three different times. He used it for some riots that were going on in Detroit, which they probably called them protests back then, just like they called the Minneapolis stuff with ICE protests. Those are actually riots, in my opinion. And then also after the MLK assassination, Martin Luther King assassination, there was a lot of unrest in D.C., Chicago and Baltimore. In order for that to be calmed down and to come back to be peaceful, we had President Johnson had to send the National Guard in. So it's not really something that is that, yes, it hasn't been used a lot, but it has been used 30 different times.

So it's not like it's something that's never been used before. And, you know, what is it going to look like if President Trump used in Minnesota? Now, remember, he's not going to use it to go find illegals. He's going to use it to protect the federal law enforcement people, the ICE that are already there. And I would absolutely encourage him to be able to do that. In fact, let's put up, we have a statement from President Trump on true social that we're going to put up on the screen now. And I'll just read that for those of you that are listening to this. If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrections from attacking the patriots of ICE,

they're only trying to do their job. I will institute the Insurrection Act, which many presidents have done before me, which we just talked about, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great state. So, I mean, he's made it pretty simple, and I 100% agree with him. In fact, Christy Noam said in an interview that she spoke to the president about the Insurrection Act, and this is what she comments on it on this site, SOT 1. I discussed with the president this morning, several things that we are dealing with under the department in different operations.

We did discuss the Insurrection Act. he certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that. My hope is that this leadership team in Minnesota will start to work with us to get criminals off the streets. Remember, we are there in surged operations because of the largest fraud scheme in American history. Yeah, let's don't forget kind of how this got started in Minnesota. And I know that Ali episode came out this week that you probably have already listened to about what happened at the church.

But even before all that, it's because of the huge fraud screen. fraud scheme that went on in the Somalian community there. And ISIS is just in there doing their job. And I appreciate what Secretary Nome has said as well as what President Trump is willing to do. We have to have order in our country. And if it takes us putting in the military National Guard to protect our federal officers, then I 100% support that. Chad Wolf, who is the American First Policy Institute's chair of Homeland Security

and immigration, which is a think tank in Washington, says this about what's going on. The situation on the ground in Minnesota continues to grow violent with ICE officers being targeted and injured as well as other violent acts. And Governor Walsh and Mayor Fry continue to restrict local law enforcement. You just can't do that from doing their job and they're encouraging their residents to resist ICE. That is a definition of insurrection. when you encourage people to break federal laws, that in itself is a definition.

So they actually, Governor Walsh and Mayor Fry are making the case even stronger for President Trump to be able to use that. So we'll see what happens in that. You know, there is some concern that, you know, he shouldn't be able to do this or what have you. We have on here a law professor from George Washington University. A lot of you know Jonathan Turley, and he talks about why there would be a good legal case for this. So under the Insurrection Act, the President has a great deal of authority. What it gives the President is essentially a way around the Positicomatatus Act, which prevents him from using the military domestically.

The Insurrection Act removes that barrier and allows him to close him to close. haulout troops, as did Eisenhower and Kennedy. So let me go back, and I couldn't remember what the actual act was. I'm glad we listened to this video clip. Possecomitatis was an act that was in place even before the Insurrection Act that essentially says you can't put the military against U.S. citizens within the United States. And the exception to that was developed through the Insurrection Act, which is what Mr.

Turley's talking about. And so I don't see any, I mean, obviously you don't want to do that. You want it to be the very last thing you have to do, but you have to protect your federal officers. I'm sorry. People can protest all they want. And I don't mind them, you know, standing outside, yelling, whatever they want to yell, but they can't impede officers doing their jobs.

And that's where the line has been crossed many, many times. They're throwing objects. This officer, whatever you think about the Renee Good situation, I mean, the officer was hit. Now, whether she was trying to turn away from, I don't know. But she shouldn't have been in there to start with. And yeah, I wish he wouldn't have shot her or had felt he had to shoot her. But you put yourself in those situations. It's very heightened. Emotions are running high, no matter who you are. You don't know where these people are willing to go. Obviously, with the violence that we've had, we know that there are people on the far extremes of both our

parties, both our parties that going from talking to violence is a very small step. We saw that in the Charlie Kirk assassination. We saw that in the attempted assassinations on President Trump. We saw that in what they did to Justice Kavanaugh a few years ago. So don't tell me that the ICE people are supposed to, oh, these people were going to be peaceful. We knew that all along. You don't know what these people are going to do. And you have to protect yourself and we have to protect our officers. There have also been other conservatives that have come out in favor of implementing the Insurrection Act. Let's look at some of that. Dustin Grage, Justin Grage, is that his name?

Yeah, obviously saying let's invoke the Insurrection Act. Absolutely, no question about it. And then Nick Sorter, I think is his name. Yeah. He also said the rioters are attempting to break down the fence. outside the Minnesota Ice Facility. Now, the Minneapolis Ice Facility. Now, I'm sorry, that's violence.

And somebody already jumped it and said, we don't have the numbers yet, so let's don't do it. But we still have to respect the laws of this country. And if we don't respect them, then we try to get them changed. But we don't go and commit violence against our federal officers who are doing their job. Now, if someone goes out of line, if an officer's out of line and does their job improperly,

then they have to be investigated and they have to be punished or handled or reprimanded in whatever way that is set up to be able to do that. Now, let's the Florida Congressman Greg Stubb says the situation of Minnesota has escalated beyond the need for any other measure. Let's listen to him. We have SOT three. You have officials and leaders of their state, the governor and the mayor of Minneapolis basically saying, we are not going to follow federal law,

basically telling their citizens to stand up and fight against federal law enforcement. The president has every right when you have leadership that's refusing to follow the law and then encouraging their constituents and their people to fight back against lawful law enforcement functions and obstructing justice. That's every justification I think he would need to go in and assess. establish justice and peace in those regions. Congressman Stu put it together as well as anybody, and that's exactly what has happened and exactly what needs to happen.

Now, hopefully it will get under control without doing that, but I would not hesitate if I was the president to do that. We have to show that we stand for law and order. And in Minnesota, it has definitely gotten out of control, and hopefully it will come to a peaceful conclusion. But President Trump's not going to give up on removing illegal immigrants in here. And he's certainly not going to give up on the fraud that's been going on in Minnesota. So folks, I'll just tell you, if you're thinking that you're going to be able to scare this president away, you should know by now that's not going to happen, right? And he's

certainly not concerned about the next election. He's not going to have another election for him. Now, will it have an effect on Republicans in 26? We don't know. But it doesn't matter. if it does or not, you still have to do the right thing. But speaking of voting, let's go on and talk about another subject. But if you have any questions on the Insurrection Act, please feel free to email me, Ron at Ron Simmons.com. I'll give you my opinion on it and whatever information that I can find on that we haven't talked about today. Quick break from that amazing episode with my dad to tell you about Good Ranchers. Y'all, I love Good Ranchers so much. And maybe you're sitting there on a Saturday. Maybe you're in the middle of a winter storm and

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their profits are donated to paralyzed veterans of America. So important. Go to good ranchers.com. Use code Allie. You'll get $25 off your first order. Goodrachers.com code Alley. here's what I want to do. Allie talks about this all the time, but I just cannot emphasize how much voting matters. And I know that a lot of you think that, well, my vote doesn't count because it's just one vote and all that. It's just not the truth. We just talked about the Thomas Jefferson Aaron Burr battle in 1806 where it came, it was a tied electoral college, and it came down to the votes in the House of Representatives. and, you know, there were probably some backroom deals done in order for Jefferson to win that,

but it does matter. Your vote matters very much. And if you don't believe me, we're going to go through a couple of things here that talk about that, especially Christians. It's very disappointing that in 2024, 56% of self-identified Christians voted, and that was an eight-point drop from 2020. Christians among any group should vote. You should know that if you want to have the Judeo-Christian moral ethics implemented in this country, that we're going to have to vote for people that agree with us on that. And this country was founded on those moral principles. And we have to do our part by putting those people in positions of,

political power to be able to make sure that our rules and regulations and how our government works follows those things. And so just very disappointed that the Christian block went down. It should have been, it should have gone up, not gone down after four years of Joe Biden and their, you know, far, far left policies that they put in place that President Trump and his team are spending most of their time just trying to undo the bad stuff they did. But If you remember here just a few weeks ago or maybe a couple months ago now, Virginia had a governor election and election for their what they call House of Delegates or General Assembly. We call it the legislature.

And Democrats took control of that. So they control the legislature and they control the governorship now. And if you don't think that voting matters, let's look at some of the laws that have been proposed in Virginia since the Democrats took control. I'll just go over a couple of them. They've introduced a bill that would eliminate mandatory minimum sentenceings for rape, manslaughter, assaulting a law enforcement officer,

possession and distribution of child pornography, and all repeat violent felonies. Can you imagine that? That they want a bill that would eliminate mandatory minimum sentence, meaning a far-left judge could essentially say, well, I'm just going to give promotion, probation to you if you're convicted of rape or manslaughter or assaulting a law enforcement officer. There's no mandatory sentencing. That is as far left crazy George Soros as you can get.

And the activist group, Justice Ford, Virginia, has designated this bill as one of its top legislative priorities. So do you think if the Republican lady would have won, winsome serious? would have won that this bill would have a chance? No. Do you think it has a chance today? Yes. And that's why voting so much matters. They also aim to enshrine abortion as a right in their state constitution. They tried this last year, but of course, Republicans killed it. I mean, there's some crazy stuff going on, not just in Virginia. In Maryland, they've got a bill called the Icebreaker Act of 2026. And this would bar, listen to this. This is how hateful people are. It would bar individuals who worked for U.S. immigration and customs enforcement ice during President Donald Trump's

administration from later joining local law enforcement agencies in the state. I mean, can you imagine that? A person, a man or a woman that was a federal officer is going to be banned in Maryland, proposed, banned in Maryland from getting a law enforcement job there. I mean, it's just crazy. But of course, the craziest state is, guess what? California, of course. Our friends, what would we do if we didn't have California? I mean, that's how you can determine.

The way you determine what's normal is determine what's abnormal. And so California gives us the abnormal so that we know what's normal, and it's whatever the opposite is of our friends in California. Newsom and state Democrats approved Assembly Bill 1078, which described as a measure to prevent book banning in public schools, but it infringes on local control over curriculum and reduces the ability of parents and communities to influence what materials are used or taught in their schools. They also require that all K through 12 public schools and charters have at least one all gender restroom on each site. So they're promoting, you know, the gender stuff that we've talked about a lot. Allie's talked about a lot. They want all companies and doing business in California that are large companies have to report their greenhouse emissions.

Of course, they have the highest emission standards in the country, which have proven not to be effective. They also would have bills to tighten energy regulations by placing restrictions on out-of-strictions. natural gas so that we couldn't, they would restrict the amount of, say, natural gas that Texas could send to California. Just crazy. And then they would also, Assembly Bill 315 would empower prosecutors at the state and local level as well as private citizens to file lawsuits against crisis pregnancy centers accused of providing information about abortion services. I'm just telling you, folks, if you don't believe voting matters, then you are listening to the wrong people because voting does matter.

And having a Republican House or Senate or governor is so important. When the entire legislative body and governorship is controlled by the Democrats, things can get off the rail pretty quick. Another bill would force hospitals to prioritize purchasing from companies owned by LBGGQ individuals. I mean, it's just unbelievable. So we have primaries coming up all over the country. And again, the primary is where if you're a Republican, you go vote for which Republican candidate that you think is the best in your particular area for whatever it is you're voting on.

If you're a Democrat, you do the same thing on the Democrat side. And it's in the primaries where you should, one of the decisions and one of the questions you have to ask yourself is, which of these candidates has the best opportunity, if you're a Republican, to beat the Democrat in November. If you're a Democrat, obviously you think the opposite. But that's the decision. It's not always who you might even agree with the most.

I know, and some of you don't want to hear this. I'm sorry, okay, but take a pill. It's okay. Just relax. Because it's all about winning in November. And if you pick a candidate that, in your primary that doesn't really have a chance to win in November, then you've just wasted your vote and you've actually caused a lot more trouble

if that Democrats elected for what you want to really have done. We have to elect people in our primaries that obviously have our value system. We may not agree with them on 100% of every little detail of everything, but they have our value system and they can win in November. somebody could have our value system, but just be a bad candidate, that there's no way they're going to win, right? And so we have to make sure that we make those decisions. And I'm sorry if that doesn't sit well with some people, but I've been in the arena. I know how it looks. I've been what they call inside the rails when I served in the Texas house. And I saw some people who I probably agreed with on 90-something percent of the things, policy issues. But, they were so ineffective in the as far as being able to really help us get all the right things done that probably they shouldn't have been in there now they got elected but they really were not effective like they should have been and that's that doesn't work out very well so I would just

encourage you if you if you don't want to happen in your state what we saw in these papers it's happened in Virginia Maryland you know California I'm sure Illinois other states New York all those, then get out there and vote, okay, and get active in the local campaigns. Don't just show up on election day. If there's something that you can do, maybe it's just calling some neighbors and you're minding them when it's time to vote, those types of things, then please do that. You know, that's how Ali got her whole career started is she, when she left college and she moved to a small, she moved to Athens, Georgia, and was working there at a PR firm, it was during the 2015-16 election cycle.

And she noticed that most of her friends, her age, which she would have been in her early 20s at the time, weren't interested in voting at all. They just, you know, they were sorority doing, whatever they were doing. So she called around to all the sororities at the University of Georgia and said, can I come talk to your chapter about why it's important to vote?

She wasn't there to tell them who to vote for, although obviously she was conservative. She by that time named herself the conservative millennial. But why it was important. And so that's how she got engaged. And of course, she's much, much more engaged today. But there are things like that that you can do. Why it's important to vote?

You know, if they have your same conservative values, they're going to figure out probably who to vote for. But getting them off the couch, I mean, only 56% of self-identified Christians voted in 2024. That's ridiculous. It ought to be, you know, 90-something percent. So if you just get everybody in your church to vote, then I promise you that we'll have big conservative victories.

So anyway, let's move on, talk a little bit about something that's going to be pretty fun. Let's talk about, you know, let's talk about President Trump. It was one year ago this week that he was inaugurated. Now, I don't know about you, but that guy's so busy, it feels like four years to me already, doesn't it to you? And that's not a negative. It's just, gosh, oh, they've been busy and been doing a lot of things. And, of course, the media has been, you know, hating on him almost every step of the way.

But he's undeterred. And I thought it was pretty cool to take a look back at what's happened this year. But before we do that, let's kind of go back and remember what happened, you know, just kind of what happened a year ago this past week on Sot 4. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute. That I will faithfully execute.

The Office of President of the United States. The Office of President of the United States. And will, to the best of my ability, and will to the best of my ability. Preserve, protect, and defend. Preserve, protect, and defend. The Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

So help me God. Congratulations. Well, I'll tell you, I don't know if you noticed it or not, but that Baron Trump is one tall dude. I mean, see him behind President Trump in that video clip. He is one tall guy. But yeah, so a year ago, it's really even hard to believe. But let's go over some of the things that have occurred since that time. Of course, the one that's probably most in the news is immigration and border enforcement.

They've had record apprehensions. They reached the lowest levels by late 2025, December. saw a 96% decrease in apprehensions compared to the previous year. That means people weren't coming across the border illegally. 96%. That's pretty incredible. Also, mass deportation. We talked about this in an earlier episode where we had the administrations deported

620,000 illegals. But that's actually a small number or it's a smaller percentage, minority percentage of how many have actually left the country. 1.9 million have self-deported by the end of 25. So almost 2.6 million illegals have left this country. And what that means is that they've, they're not using our services. They're not in our emergency rooms.

They're not, you know, on some of our entitlement systems, which they're not eligible for anyway, but some states kind of went around the law to be able to grant them that. Yeah, I get it. There are probably some of those that self-deported that were honest, hardworking people, but they came here illegally. And so they went home. We encouraged them to go home.

I think there was a deal where we'd give them like a $1,000 voucher or something. They went home and pay for their plane fare to go home. But that's what a, he said that's what he was going to do, and that's what he did. Now, the people that are mad about that just weren't paying attention. to what he said in his campaign. He was going to fix immigration. And now I call upon Congress. I call upon Congress to let's get a new immigration bill done.

Let's make it easier for good people to come here legally. And let's make it harder and much more penal for people to come here illegally. But we have to reform our immigration laws. And that's up to Congress to do that. And if we can't get together on that, if we're going to continue to use that as a political wedge, then shame on us. Just remember, when you go to vote, especially for your U.S. congressman or senator, I would make sure that I understood where they stood on immigration reform, legislation.

And what are they going to do about it? Are they going to be willing to lead it? Again, somebody's got to lead. Who's going to lead on this? But I would encourage us to make sure that we do that. The other, the next, another thing that we did was, you remember the one big, beautiful bill, which we probably all got tired of hearing that phrase, but it was formerly known as the Working Families Tax Cut Act.

Essentially what that did is allow the tax cuts that President Trump and the legislature put in place in 2017 to stay in place because they were going to expire at the end of 2025, but they stayed in place. So that gave tax relief to middle class families and corporations, which is good. Also, you know, through executive. orders Trump unleashed American energy production. Gas prices falling to $3 per gallon or less, and it's less here in Texas, and in 43 states, it's less than that.

Now, California, sorry, you know, you get what you pay for out there, and you pay for that governor and crazy legislature, similarly you got out there. So, but less than $3 a gallon, that is something like a 40% decrease than when Biden was there. So that is something that's felt in every one of our pockets. And I think it can even go down lower than it is today. It can't go down too far because you still have to have a profitable oil and gas industry. Foreign policy feats.

Obviously, we remember what happened with Maduro. We talked about that last time. That's a big deal. He was able to do that. He also got, this is something that, again, should be talked about more. You know, one of the problems we've had in the past is our friends in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, is made up of a bunch of European countries, and we agree that we're going to support each other.

So let's say that Russia decides that they're going to invade one of our NATO fellow NATO members, then we have an agreement where we're going to defend them and support them. But a lot of those countries had agreed to put a certain percentage of their gross domestic product into defense spending, and they didn't do it, and we didn't do anything about it over the last 50 years. Well, President Trump says no more of that. And he has got a historic commitment from NATO members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP. Some of them are well below 1%. Because they were just depending on us and Great Britain to take care of them.

And so that is a huge accomplishment. Also, we've gotten ceasefires, a framework between Israel and Amos, and leading to release of all the living Israeli hostages. It doesn't make what Hamas did right. and it doesn't make them not guilty for the October 7th invasion that they did and terrorist act, but at least we've got the hostilities quieted down, whether they'll, you know, be able to be kissing cousins. I doubt that ever. But we have got, we did go in there and get the hostages released in a lot of the bodies of the people that passed away. We got those released as well.

We also did some other things. I had some other notes on that that, that we, oh yeah, I got those right here that we did on the international scene is that we oh yeah we brokered the ceasefire in multiple conflicts the Armenia as as Azerbaijan war the India Pakistan and the Ukraine Russian frameworks we've worked on those now we certainly don't have the Russia-Ukraine thing finished yet but we've done a lot of work on that and you know hopefully we're moving moving towards that also and part of the part of the big beautiful bill which I forgot to mention no tax on tips. Those of you that work in that tip economy, that's got to be a big plus for you, you know, especially now since every time you go into any store, I swear pretty soon the grocery

store, when you get to pay, they're going to say, would you, do you want to tip? That really bothers me all that tipping for no service. But for service, I'm a big tipper, but no service, I'm sorry. I've gotten to where I just, no tip. And that's just a little bit over the top that they're asking for that. And there's no, there's tax relief on Social Security benefits. benefits, and of course, we talked about the tax cut package already. We are working on getting a health initiative like Most Favored Nation drug pricing to lower cost. What that means is that some drug companies will sell drugs to Canada at a cheaper price and they sell them to us. And what we're working on is trying to get a most favored nation status, meaning that we'll always get the

lowest drug price. And I don't think we're there yet, but that's being worked on. And I am confident that that'll get that'll get done. And what, you know, what RFK Jr. is doing at HHS, I mean, they're making some major, major steps in that to when it comes to vaccinations and how those are administered and what we should be doing, what we shouldn't be doing, our new, the whole food pyramids changing, you know, looking into the particular causes of autism and what have you. We are doing more in that arena to really try to make America healthy again. that we've ever done. What we've been trying to do in the past is really just give out more

entitlements, more entitlements, more entitlements, which we, which have proven doesn't make us healthier at all. In fact, we've become a less healthy society over the last 50 years and a more healthy society, but I believe that we're changing that. Another thing that President Trump has done is he has slash DEI programs, which were nothing but discrimination programs under another name. and I don't care who you discriminate against, it's discrimination, whether that person's, you know, skin color is different than yours or whether their sex is different than yours. Discrimination is discrimination. And when you put one group over another, that's discrimination. He's gotten rid of those programs. And obviously, when Doge came in, the money that they saved and continued to be after that, I know that Schumer's trying to put a lot of that back in there. but those were billions and billions of dollars of savings.

We don't like what happened in the tariffs and things like that. And I get that that we don't like that. They have produced revenue for this country. And so they have worked in some ways. I wish we would get to the end of that. And actually, I think you remember me saying, I thought we would have that pretty much settled by the end of last summer. We did not get where I thought we would get.

But we're closer. We are closer. Now this new, about I'm going to use tariffs to make sure that, you know, we can, you know, control Greenland. You know, maybe there'll be some of that, but I think most of that is just trying to get them to the negotiating table. But it's been a good year. And I hope it's been a busy year. And I assume the next three years are going to be the same way. But President Trump hit the ground running. I just have no idea how that man does all that he does. There's no way he sleeps more than three or four

hours a night because the guy is incredibly busy. And I've got a couple of friends that are cabinet secretaries. And they just both say, and they're much younger than him, say, he just runs circles around all of us in his thought process and what he wants to get done. It's like he says, you know, he knows I've got a timeline, so I want to get stuff done. That's, that's so cool to be able to do that. Okay, another quick pause to tell you to subscribe to Blaze TV. If you love Relatable. If you love other shows on the Blaze, then you can see even more of us if you are a Blaze TV subscriber. Maybe you couldn't make it to share the arrows last year or the year before. That's completely available to you if you are a subscriber. Plus, everything else from all of the

other Blaze TV hosts like documentaries, debates, all kinds of good stuff. Go to blazattstv.com slash Allie. When you use code Alley, you'll get $20 off your subscription. BlazTV.com slash Ali. Now, as we get ready to finish up, I always like to take questions from the audience, and you always have such great questions. And I just appreciate that so much. I know Ali does as well. And while we can't answer every single question, I do encourage you that you have some specifically. You want me to answer you on privately. Then just email me, Ron at Ron Simmons.com. I've got a few emails in my inbox now that I haven't responded to yet, because some of them I just need to think about.

I want to talk to Allie about them. I talk to my wife about some of them. But I'll get back to you. And if I haven't gotten back to you and it's been more in a couple of weeks, email me again just to make sure it didn't slip down in my inbox somewhere. But we've got some good questions today. So let's talk about those. We'll go over several of these.

Number one is from, this is from blonde diva. So, yeah, everybody's got their own handle names. That's really interesting. Greenland and Trump tweets, implying NATO is our enemy. That's kind of alarming. That's her question. Well, again, if when President Trump took questions in Davos, you know, he was in Davos,

you know, he was in Davos, and gave a speech and he took questions after it. He said unequivocally that he's not going to use force in Greenland. It's not going to do that. We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that. Okay, now everyone's saying, oh, good. That's probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force.

I don't have to use force. I don't want to use force. I won't use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland. But what he said is true in that we are best positioned to protect Greenland. And we need Greenland, uh, that location. to be able to help our security as well. And I believe I talked about this before, maybe the last deal,

there's something called the Monroe Doctrine, President James Monroe in 1823. There was essentially an agreement between the United States and at that time, primarily Great Britain. And the agreement was that in the Western Hemisphere, which is where we in, and Greenland sits on the very north part of the Western Hemisphere, that the U.S. would be primarily in charge of helping with security in those particular areas and that European would not come over and colonize anything else in the Western Hemisphere. And that's why we've been the primary ones that have supported people in Latin America and Central America,

now even South America, that that's something that we're interested in. and that in Europe, we wouldn't go over there and colonize, which you know, we don't have any colonies in the European, in the eastern hemisphere, in that hemisphere. And that, and so what President Trump is saying, and this is part of what we've agreed on. Now, they call it not the Monroe Doctrine, but the Don Roe doctrine, which I think is kind of pretty funny. But I think ultimately what we want to do is be able to have the right type of security presence there. And I think we can work that out with the country of Denmark who legally, you know, it's legally one of their colonies, and also think that having the ability, they have some rare, fine, rare earth minerals

that are under the ground there that we could utilize in some of our industry and have an agreement to be able to have those. Right now, you know, Russia and China have a lot of access to their ports and all that type of stuff. We need to be the one, and we're happy to work with Denmark to do that, but we need to be the one that provides the main security force there. And I believe they'll end up happening. I think it's very bold of the president to come out and talk about that.

Sometimes he says some things about it that I don't agree with. But I think if you'll go back and read what he said today or listen to what he said today on what he intends to do and greening what he won't do, I think you'll be encouraged by that. The next question is, how can adult children maintain a good relationship with their parents? Well, you know, biblically, we are called on as children to honor our father and mother. Sometimes our fathers and mothers aren't very honorable. I mean, that's the way it is. All right.

The emails I get from people, I guarantee you some of the dads that the people talk to me about, not very honorable. But if assuming that someone that your dad or your mom has not had an abusive relationship with you, which if they've had abusive relationship with you, I don't think you owe them anything, right? Now, you can choose to reconcile with them and you can choose. Certainly, we should forgive them in our heart and hopefully they've changed. But I don't think you should continue yourself in, whether it's a, at this case, probably as adult, a verbally abusive or psychologically abusive scenario. That doesn't do anybody any good.

But outside of all that, I think the way you maintain a good relationship with your parents is that you you remain in contact with them and you ask them questions that through their experience can provide benefit to you. Don't think you know everything. Don't think you think you're being an old adult because you don't add questions and you don't need their help or their advice. That's what they're there for. Let them take their experiences that they've had, that they've gone through.

It doesn't mean you're going to follow them, all right? But it means if you have that information from them, that will aid you in making whatever decisions you're making. And I think going out of your way to do things nice for them is important and to thank them for the things they've done for you in the past. But it takes effort. There's no question. And I encourage you to make that effort. And if they live long distance from you, then a lot of that's going to be through the telephone or text or things like that. But I know one thing that Lisa and I always love to hear from our kids, you know, and one of our oldest son, they live hundreds of miles away from us so we don't see them as much.

but I always appreciate it when he calls me and says, hey, dad, what do you think about this? Or hey, dad, what's going on? You know, how's your golf game, whatever, that type of thing. So I think you just staying in touch with them is the main thing. And calling on them to give you their experiences in certain situations. All right. This is a good question here. Thoughts on buying a house versus rent as newlyweds first-time homebuyers at this day and age.

I would start out renting if I was you because I do think there's going to be a better opportunity. to buy over the next, you know, 18 to 24 months. So I would, I would kind of look at that. Depends on where you're living. Obviously, some areas we talked about in the past, real estate is hotter than others. So if you're, you know, you have to just determine where you are in that, in that particular geographic world. But I don't think there's anything wrong with renting and just, you don't have to pay the property taxes already included. Sometimes there's, you know, utilities are included in some scenarios. Your HOA, a lot of times, is already included.

So in some ways, it can be less expensive. But until you know for sure where you want to live and what you can afford, then I would rent for a period of time, especially when you're just getting started. Because y'all are getting started, getting to know each other. You know, you don't know, hey, can you use, can you really live on a double vanity bathroom or does he have to have his own and you have to have your own? Those things are important. You got to figure that out.

Advice for a Christian wife and non-Christian husband. You know, Lisa's mom went through this for a while, although we certainly know that Lisa's dad was saved before he passed a few years ago. But when Lisa was growing up, you know, her dad didn't go to church with them. He was a good man. No question, good man, one of the most honest and respected men by me that I've ever known. But what she did is she didn't make that a bone of contention every single day. She lived her life in Christ.

That was her example. And she loved on her husband. You can't use the fact that they are not with where you are spiritually as a weapon against them. That's never going to convince them. You can somehow figure out maybe how to get. You have couples that y'all are friends with that the husband is a believer, but not a dogmatic person that's, you know, beating on your husband the whole time. But the main thing is just showing him the Christian love that we're supposed to show.

And there will be times where his heart is softened that you'll be able to say more, talk more, do more, and that you have to be patient with that. I mean, you just have to be patient. But if you can get him around guys that like some of the things he likes, but there are believers, then I think that has an opportunity to go a long wage towards helping him become a believer. But the Lord's the one that saves people. You and I don't save them. We are just out there to live like we're supposed to and to be the messenger.

What do you think will happen with Obamacare? I do believe that they'll do something, even though I disagree with. that Congress will do something that will extend some of the enhanced subsidies on lower income levels. I do believe that they'll do something related to that. Now, remember, there are subsidies already for lower income levels, but during COVID, those were enhanced a little bit, and they were supposed to end at the end of 25, but they're still negotiating that.

the feasibility of going down to one household income to be a stay-at-home mom in this economy. You know, I've talked about this at our house before many times. I think it's what you're called to do. Whatever it is that you're called to do, if you're called to be a stay-at-home mom, if you believe that's something that the Lord wants you to do, okay? And I believe that sometimes people are, obviously people are called to be moms and dads. but like, for example, Ali, she does a great job of balancing all that.

She is absolutely called to do what she does with this podcast and other things that she does. But she's also called to be a mom. And she'll tell you she puts mom and, you know, being a mom and wife first. But some of you, like Lisa, after, she was called to be a stay-at-home mom. My wife was called. That was absolutely always her calling. Now, she taught school for a couple years, you know, before we had kids. and she, after our kids got in school, she helped a little bit,

especially with Daniel's special needs school that he went to. But I think it's whatever you're called. If you feel like you're called to be a stay-at-home mom, then I think it's up to you and your husband to figure out how to make that happen. And that could mean lowering some of the things that, what you would call lifestyle-type things. Maybe you can't live in a expensive home, as you do now. Maybe you have to, you know, live in a neighborhood that's not as expensive.

You have to maybe cut back on some things. but if that's what you're called to do, if that's what you believe the Lord's calling you to do for your family, then I think you have to make whatever necessary sacrifices. We did that early on. I didn't like it. I'll tell you, I did not like it. I did not want Lisa to quit teaching school.

But she was right, and our kids, you know, that was the best thing for us to do. She would have not ever been happy if she would not have been able to do that. And we had to make some big sacrifices for that to happen, but it was worth it. And then do I agree with Dave Ramsey's financial method? Yeah, I do. I mean, I think, and again, I don't know what all specifically you're asking me. So if you want to email me, more specific, happy to do that.

But in general, I believe that, you know, we need to abhor most debt and that if we have debt, we need to get in there and get it paid off as quick as possible, pay off the, you know, pay off the ones with, you know, the easiest to pay off first, and then you just keep willing that down. But I believe in doing that. Lisa and I used an envelope method for a long time where we put cash in envelopes for certain expenses. And that's how we did our budget back when we were early married. What type of savings should I start for my babies?

They'll most likely to be homeschooled. I still think you should start one of the 529 education accounts because you can actually use that for some supplies and stuff like that. And they may end up going to college that you'll want to have that. I would put in the, I would use the 529 account if you have that. the opportunity to do that. And again, if you have some specific questions, feel free to email me on those. Now, you see my book back there, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon, which you can now

order on Allie's merchandise site, and we'll put that in the show notes when we're finished today. And of course, her book, Toxic Empathy, you can get that anywhere books are sold. Make sure that you're doing that. I know she, you know, we're already in 26, and I know there's another share of the Aero's conference going to be coming up in the fall. She'll be talking more about that. I just ask you continue to pray for her. She's got a busy schedule coming up. This is a busy time for speaking and things like that for pro-life events and other types of things that she's that she's involved with.

She's working on her third book, which I think is coming along very well. We're very excited about that. I won't tell you any details. I'll let her tell whatever she wants to on that as you go forward. but I really appreciate you tuning in and listen. I've gotten a lot of comments from people at church the other day and one of the ladies in our Bible fellowship class came over. Hey, I listen to your podcast on Saturday. I appreciate that. So I really do.

And, you know, as we talk about words from the wagon as we finish this up, what I would like to say today is that what we need is we need to ask ourselves where we are in our wagon. Where are you in your wagon? And let's focus this week on spiritual life. Are you leading your family? Are you in a position right now where you need somebody else to lead that,

you know, where you need some guidance. And maybe that's through books or maybe a mentor or somebody like that. But, you know, there's four or five different places that you can be in the wagon. You can be on the handle.

You can be cargo sitting in the wagon. Sometimes that's where we have to be because we need to be fed. You can be the back wheels, which are just kind of rolling along, not making any decisions other than moving forward, or you can be the front wheels that helps determine the direction in which you're going. Where are you in your spiritual wagon? I'd encourage you to think about that this week. Thanks for being with us, and we'll look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks.

Don't forget, Allie also puts out an extra episode on the weeks that Saturdays that I'm not on. There'll be an episode from the past that Allie's done that you've really liked that will be coming out. Have a good night.