The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses the symbiotic relationship between the POTUS and the press, another medical center halts so-called “transgender care” treatments for minors, and one of the most untrue sentences in American history printed in The Atlantic.Part I (00:14 – 07:20)The President of the United States and the Press Corp Need Each Other: The Modern Presidency and the Press Are Locked in a Combative But Symbiotic RelationshipPart II (07:20 – 14:07)Another Medical Center Shuts Down So-Called “Gender Transgender Care” Treatments for Children and Teenagers: This is a Big Development for the NYU Langone HospitalNYU Langone Ends Care for Trans Youth in Deal With Justice Department by The New York Times (Joseph Goldstein)Part III (14:07 – 18:01)‘Why Do Republicans Keep Talking About Transgenderism?’ – Democrats Try to Shift the SubjectSherrod Brown Tries a New Retort to Criticism on Transgender Issues by The New York Times (Emily Davies)Part IV (18:01 – 26:48)‘I Clung to This Promise As I Became a Man, a Husband, a Father, a CIA Officer, a Wife, a Mother.’ – This is One of the Most Untrue Sentences in American HistoryThe Wrong Kind of American by The Atlantic (Julia Curlee)Sign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Wednesday, September 23, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. We have to start today by going through the continued impasse between the White House and the press corps, in particular between President Donald J. Trump and three significant media outlets, MSNal, and CNN and Politico. All three are them barred from access to the White House press room. Now, this has led to an unexpectedly fast cascade of events. And so yesterday we talked on the briefing about the basic impasse, but here's where we need to look at how this story is unfolding and what's even more basic underneath it. When you talk about the White House and the press, you're talking about what biologically might be described as a symbiotic relationship.

That is, they need each other. They need each other when it comes to access. They need each other just for, well, the operations of each. So you have the White House, which is, of course, the residence of the President of the United States. It is the chief administrative office for the executive branch of the United States. It is powerful. It's beyond powerful in its symbolism. And frankly, it is unprecedented in its access. If you have a White House press pass, if you are allowed to be part of the White House press pool, that is a very, very significant access.

You are within physical proximity to the president of the United States, when, of course, he's in the White House, and the press pool often travels with the president when he's not in the White House. And you have not only the proximity of the president to the press, you have the proximity of the press to the president. Both of those things are absolutely crucial. We talked yesterday about the fact that if you are the president of the United States, you have to continually message to the American people. You could put out press releases, you can have a White House website, you can use all kinds of technologies. But the fact is, every single president, regardless of political disposition or political party,

basically has this symbiotic relationship with the press, and in particular the press designated there in the White House in terms of access. But there's something else going on here, and that is the fact that the press also needs the proximity to power, the proximity to the president of the United States, in order for it to produce its programs and thus to draw an audience. So you're looking at this.

They each need the other. But in this case, President Trump, who has, often been extremely frustrated with the press, and as we discuss, the press is overwhelmingly liberal. Historically, it has leaned left for a very, very long time. It's not a coincidence that a far greater number of Democratic presidents have had, say, positive relations with the press than Republican presidents. And by the way, sometimes Republicans and conservatives forget just how bad the situation was. And so I think many conservatives, many Republicans have forgotten the antagonistic nature of the press during the administration, say, of President George W. Bush,

or going back even further, President Ronald Reagan. Reagan had a special touch with the American people. He was able to communicate that through the press, but the press itself was overwhelmingly on the political left. Now, I think many people in the media would be extremely angry to hear me say that, but the reality is they prove it over and over and over again. Now, one of the changes President Trump has made, especially in his second term, is to certify and credential more conservative, even alternative media. By alternative, I mean podcasters and people who are outside the old mainstream media. But still, the vast majority of Americans are very much influenced by the mainstream media. Now, we talked about the press pool, and the press pool is made up of CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News.

Those are the big five in terms of what used to be called television news. We still refer to them as broadcast news. And the fact is that if you are the president of the United States, you need that audience. You need to be communicating with that audience. So over the course of the last several hours, President Trump has announced Trump TV, which is a dedicated channel on YouTube. And you know, that could be a powerful way for the president to communicate with many. But the president of the United States can't be satisfied to communicate with many, even many, many.

He has to communicate with a large segment of the United States of America. He has to communicate with the American public regularly. And honestly, no president can do that without CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News. The White House press corps has also been told that the president, that is president, Donald J. Trump, has considered moving the press. indeed, some of the language would say removing the press from the White House itself and putting the press in an alternative location. I can just say that would make his own job much more difficult. I think he probably knows that.

The President of the United States and the press corps, well, they're just locked in a situation in which they need each other. Now, President Trump has lobbed a very significant charge against the media, and especially when it comes to CNN, MS now, and Politico, they are now barred. from the White House press room. But the other four members of that common press pool, remember, that would be NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox News. In support of CNN and over against the White House decision, they've shut down the press pool. And effectively, that means that the president of the United States is now not being recorded. He's not being documented in terms of the video access that the White House basically counts on. So we're looking at an impasse. I make no prediction about how this impasse is going to break. But I will simply say this. Symbiosis, a symbiotic relationship means they need each other.

And one of the reasons why this impasse really matters is because the White House will be significantly hampered if it is not able to get its message out. And the press is going to be significantly hampered if it doesn't have access to the president of the United States. I think a pretty sure bet is that this situation will not last, but exactly how it's resolved, well, time will tell. I think it's important for Christians to understand this is a big story. It's a big story because in the shaping of worldview, you do have at least in this conversation these two major parties, each with its own interest. You have the president of the United States and behind him the entire executive branch of the U.S.

government. And then you have the media, which includes many upstarts and that includes all kinds of conservative alternatives that really didn't exist before. But even then you're looking at that press pool of a big five networks still making a big difference. The fact is, many millions of Americans will never make it to Trump TV. Eventually, Trump's going to have to find a way to talk to, well, a larger segment of the TV audience. And those networks that are right now standing in solidarity with each other, given the action against CNN, the fact is that their audience will also dry up

if they don't have some pretty important video to show. This story is going to break. The is exactly how and exactly when. Okay, now we're going to switch to some very recent developments on the transgender issue. And there are really four different developments, but each one of them deserves our attention. First of all, you have the news coming in the New York Times that the big medical center known as NYU, that's New York University Langone, is now ending its, quote, youth trans care in deal, we are told, with the United States. So once again, you have a major Medical Center that is backing down, given the pressure from the Trump administration. And I'm very thankful for that pressure coming from President Trump and his administration, basically saying

that it is a misuse of federal tax monies, that's the way they have to put it, for any money to go, any federal tax money to go towards what are defined as transgender treatments or care regimens when it comes to children and teenagers. Now, there's a bigger moral point here, but the government of the United States, and in particular, the White House, the executive branch, has the most immediate opportunity to affect change when it comes to funding. And trust me, if you are NYU Langone, you care about that funding. You're talking about funding that cumulatively is in the billions of dollars. And so with all that at stake, it is interesting that this medical center becomes the latest to back down. So here's the headline, quote, a second major Manhattan health system has struck a deal with

the Trump administration to no long. provide gender transition care to adolescents and pay a penalty to the federal government, the Justice Department announced on Friday. Okay, so I want us to pay attention to that lead paragraph. And I want us to notice something. We're told, again, a second major Manhattan health system, okay, that's important, this is number two, has struck a deal with the Trump administration, well, that makes sense, to no longer provide gender transition care. Okay, did you hear that? no longer provide gender transition care. Now, in terms of journalism, that's a big tell. That's a big reveal. So here you have in the lead paragraph of this article, an admission that the medical center

was doing just that. In other words, this isn't a hypothetical issue. This is a medical center, in this case, one of the most influential in the nation, that was providing so-called gender transition care, put that in quotation marks, to adolescents and also, at least to some children, it is argued. We are then told, quote, NYU Langone Health will pay $8.5 million as part of an agreement that ends a Justice Department investigation that had focused on the hospital's transgender youth health program. We are also reminded that Mount Sinai health system also in New York had adopted a very similar agreement with the Justice Department just a matter of weeks ago. Okay, this is really big. This is huge. You know, at the political level, it tells us, once again, just underlines in an unmistakable way that it really matters who is sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office. The person who's serving as president of the United States has the power to set the policies that will determine whether or not, eventually, whether or not these so-called gender transition treatments are applied to children and teenagers. And, you know, in this case, you could say, well, it wasn't a direct order. Stop it. Nonetheless, it had the effect, and that's the whole point. The president, the administration's pressure, had the

effect. The Justice Department's investigation had the effect of leading these medical centers, two of the biggest and most powerful in the nation, to back down in a hurry. And then in this case, even pay fines. What we're looking at here is something else that we need to note carefully. So at the political level, this is just massive. It's huge. But at the cultural level, there's something else we need to note. There is a changing landscape on this issue. I think both sides simply have to recognize that the American people, when they hear about teenagers and adolescents, they hear about these gender transition treatments and gender affirming treatments and all the rest. They just don't want it to happen. They don't want it to happen

when it comes to minors, to children, adolescents, teenagers. They don't want that to happen. They certainly don't want it to happen with their tax monies. So it is very, very interesting that now you have this turn. And at the cultural level, you know, this is something that doesn't just have the support of the explicit supporters of President Donald Trump, even people who voted for. a very large number of Americans, indeed almost by every survey, a majority of Americans think that this kind of treatment, at the very least, should not be available to children and teenagers. And at least a lot of the American people, a significant portion, understand that if it is available, there is a moral imperative in terms of many medical circles that it be used.

Okay, so one of the things that those who support a biblical worldview in terms of gender and sexuality. One of the things we have to be very watchful about is just the usual and customary care assumptions of modern medicine. And that really does make a huge difference. This is just another reminder. The article, by the way, also tells us, quote, Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the Justice Department, quote, is fighting to protect our nation's children and working tirelessly to reach agreements with hospitals to end the so-called gender affirming care for minors, end quote. Now, at this level, I just want to point out the General of the United States, Todd Blanche, has put his name on this development. He is now saying it is a matter of the official policy, not only the Trump administration, but specifically of the Justice Department, the Department of Justice, to force this kind of agreement. That is also just really big, because now we're talking about the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice is saying this is a matter of justice. It is a matter of right and wrong. It is a matter not only of the Trump,

administration's policy, it is a matter of the administration of justice. Now, we also know that all of that, I don't mean justice will change, but the claims made and the policies implemented will change. If you have a liberal Democrat in office, you could have a Democratic administration who comes in right behind and tries to undo everything the Trump administration has done. Now, by the way, that doesn't mean that these particular changes, this announcement coming just with this medical center is meaningless. It's not meaningless. And I want to say, first of all, it's not meaningless because we're dealing with children, young people, adolescents who deserve our protection.

But it is also not meaningless because, you know, this is a teaching moment for the American people. And at the very least, even as we're looking at the fact that you could have a more liberal president who could try to force more liberal policies, the fact is that this has been a teaching moment for the people of the United States. And I think Bible-believing Christians just have to fervently hope in pray that that's a lesson that will grow a lesson that will last. Okay, another part of the issue here we should address is what's going on in the midterm elections on this issue. The transgender issue is playing out, at least in some races, and very importantly, is playing out

in the Senate race, the race for the United States Senate in the state of Ohio. So Emily Davies in the Times reports, Sherrod Brown, now remember, he's a former rather liberal Democratic Senator. He lost his seat just a few years ago. He's now running in this election to try to regain his seat, but he's now the outsider running against the incumbent Senator John Husted. But listen to this. Quote, the ad opens with voters identified as Beth and Warren in Johnstown, Ohio, an agricultural hub northeast of Columbus that has historically leaned Republican. Warren speaks first, looking directly at the camera and says, here they go again, those same attacks against Sherrod Brown. The ad then pans to a a voter in Granville, a Democratic island and a conservative part of the state who says,

with everything going on, that's what they're talking about? Okay, so what this news article's talking about is the fact that this campaign for Sherrod Brown on the left, the Democratic Party, running here against an incumbent Republican, they're saying, you know, here's what the Republicans are talking about, the transgender issue. When the big issue is affordability, or you look at the fact that prices are going up, quote, A series of voters in different parts of the state then denounce Senator John Hustead, Mr. Brown's Republican opponent, accusing him of voting to increase the cost of groceries, kicking hundreds of thousands of Ohioans off health care, writing a law, letting utility companies jack up our electric bills,

and failing to address the cost of gas. And then one voter looks at the camera and says, quote, Senator, why don't you start working for us? End quote. Okay, so here's the whole point. there are all kinds of claims made in there about economic policies, and quite frankly, if we had time, we could really start taking those apart. But the point is, the big moral point, is that Sherrod Brown isn't shifting from his very pro-transgender position. He's not shifting from it. He's basically saying that's not the right thing to talk about.

He's trying to turn the issue back on the Republican Party, back on this Republican senator, by saying, you know, the campaign wants to raise the issue of transgender. teenagers, children, whatever, the entire transgender equation. And he's coming back to say, his campaign at least, is coming back to say, that's not what voters really care about. Now, even the New York Times looks at this and says, you know, this is a calculated political risk. And I'll say, it's interesting. When you look at a political risk, it's always interesting. But in this case, Sherrod Brown wants to regain a seat in the United States Senate. He's coming from the left. He has a long history of LGBTQ activism. And he's not backing down. He's not backing down at all. He's saying, I don't think that's the issue that Ohio voters care about.

Now, this means that we are about to see an interesting campaign development. We now have a question. Do the voters of a state like Ohio care about the transgender issue? I think they do. I certainly hope they do. But it is a test. It's a very interesting development. You have some Democrats, at least some, very few actually on the record who are saying maybe we need to rethink it. at least some of this. But the fact is, the Democratic Party, in terms of the mainstream, and certainly someone like former Senator Sherrod Brown, they want full speed ahead on the entire LGBTQ plus, and never forget that plus sign, on that entire agenda. It is really interesting that now, even at the national level, there are those who are looking at this race saying, you know, if Sherrod Brown gets away with this argument, that's going to be a big development.

And I'll simply say it would be a big development. And from our perspective, a development is also very ominous. But wait, there's more. The Atlantic, one of the most influential periodicals in the United States, recently ran an article by a former CIA analyst and intelligence briefer for the White House, and in particular in this case, for the vice president of the United States. And historically, this is during the first Trump term we're talking, and the vice president of the United States was Vice President Mike Pence.

The article is by the former intelligence briefer, and what you need to keep in mind is that this is a biological male. This is a man who is now claiming a transgender identity under the name Julia Curley and is now writing about his own experience in this situation. Quote, at the CIA, they'd started an office pool on when I'd be fired. President Trump would be sworn in for his second term at noon. The smart money had me gone by 1215, but the smart money hadn't counted. on Trump's first pick to run intelligence for the National Security Council, being shredded by an online mob on suspicion of disloyalty. There wasn't yet anyone in place to fire me. Okay, end quote. Now, this is a very contentious article. It's written by this person who claims

to be a transgender woman. And he's saying here that the office pool in the CIA expected him to be fired, this transgender intelligence analyst, to be fired. But there was a delay, but the delay. was explained by political developments. Okay. Now, when you look at this, you'll notice that there's a backstory, and the backstory is that this particular individual, Julia Curley, is the name now by which this individual goes. This individual had been the stated briefer for Mike Pence when he was vice president of the United States. Now, this article is entitled The Wrong Kind of American, and in this case, this former CIA intelligence analyst and an intelligence briefer is saying that, well, in this case, the person is the wrong kind of American, and this means transgender American. That is the claim implicit and explicit in the article.

The writer then says this, that he had carried two dreams for as long as he could remember, quote, the first came true in 2007 when I raised my hand, standing on the agency's marble seal and became a CIA officer. The second dream, I didn't dare speak aloud. It came from an unexplainable conviction that I should have been born a woman. The longing like home sickness grew into an unbearable darkness. The article continues, on a sweltering June morning in 2013, I sat in the CIA parking lot, hands clamped on the wheel, preparing myself to live out my second dream, terrified in my first. day at work as Julia, I'd chosen a blue button down in pants, hoping no one would notice I'd changed genders. At the turnstile, the guard smiled, morning, ma'am, he said, and the badge reader flashed

green. To use the lexicon in my trade, the after-action review would have read nothing significant to report. Okay, so that's presented as the prelude to all this. And then there was CIA experience, quote, in the years ahead, traveling to 35 countries, briefing former President George W. Bush, becoming a mom, being trans would sometimes seem like the most ordinary part of my life, end quote. Okay, to wait, wait, wait, wait, just a minute. Now we're told that this is a CIA analyst, an intelligence briefer, who was hired as a man, has now claimed a female identity. But then notice that sentence. And this is where the world gets turned upside down in which the writer says that these things came as great honors,

basically briefing former President George W. Bush, becoming a mom. Okay, later in the same article, the writer says, I clung to this promise as I became a man, a husband, a father, a CIA officer, a wife, a mother, end quote. Okay, let's just take that sentence for a moment, because I just want to say that this is one of the most divisive sentences I think I've read in all of American history. Now, I know that may sound like a dramatic statement, but I'm asking you to hear that sentence again just the way it's written. quote, I clung to this promise as I became a man, a husband, a father, a CIA officer, a wife, a mother, end quote.

Now, let me just say something here. I don't believe that this individual who is a man could become a woman. I don't believe he can become a wife. Now, there is the legal fiction by which you have the transgender identity, same sex, marriage, and all the rest. Marriage has been destabilized. And so at least some legal jurisdiction may say that he is a wife. but those next two words that in the sentence, a mother. Now, me just say bluntly, explicitly, and I say this without malice, but I say this of moral necessity.

This individual is not, has never been, and can never be a mother. Now, that's why I want us to just pause for a moment and look at that sentence. I clung to this promise as I became a man, a husband, a father, a CIA officer, a wife, a mother. End quote. Sometimes reality comes down to hearing a series of words. saying, that's plausible or that's implausible. That's possible or that's impossible. I want us to think with grieving hearts about the fact that there are millions of Americans who think that sentence makes sense. There are those, especially in the intellectual elites,

and there are those throughout so much of American culture, particularly elite culture, policymaking culture, academic culture, who believe that sentence makes perfect moral sense. I just want to remind Christians, we don't believe that sentence can make any moral sense. we also don't believe it can make any metaphysical sense, any ontological sense. In other words, it just isn't true. It's not even plausibly true. It's not even close to true. It's not even susceptible to misunderstanding. It's either absolutely true. It's absolutely false. And that's really where we stand in so many of the cultural battles we face in this country. In the collision of worldviews, it really has become a matter in which it's absolutely right or it's absolutely

wrong. One statement is true or it is false. It cannot be something in between. In full intellectual honesty, I also have to say that this writer claims that former Vice President Pence was very supportive, saying at one point to this individual's family, quote, you must be very proud of your daughter. And then the writer goes on to say, quote, no one has affirmed my gender identity quite like Mike Pence. On my last day, I gave him a letter. I wrote, I'm a transgender CIA officer, a wife and mother, and I served the vice president, anything is possible in America. I told him many people the CIA hadn't believed that a trans officer like me could serve someone like him. According to the article, the vice president responded, well, I'm glad I passed the test. Now, I must say that I have no

external verification of whether former vice president Mike Pence said any such thing. It's just important to say that it's in this article. And I must say for Christians to maintain consistency, we have to say to people. We have to say to the family of people what we know to be true. That doesn't mean we don't treat every single human being with the respect to do anyone made in the image of God. But it does mean that we cannot subvert the very argument on which we stand, which, after all, is established in biblical authority. This is one place we simply can't go where so many in this culture want to push us to go. We can't accept the categories, including, let's just say, woman, wife, and mother in this state. case without basically giving away Christian conviction, which we are by no means able to give away.

We must express that Christian conviction. We have to find ways to do so in which we guard to the best of our ability, the basic human dignity of every human being we're going to meet. But the one thing we cannot do, we must not do. It is made very clear in this situation is we must not look at a biological male, yes, made in the image of God, and say, I can use the words, woman, why? wife and mother about you. That we simply can't do. Maybe it's just important we remind ourselves of that before we find ourselves in the very same situation. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at Albertbohler.com. You can follow me on X or Twitter

by go to X.com forward slash Albert Moller. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. For informational voice college, just go to voicecollets.com. I'm speaking to you from Franklin, Tennessee, and I'll meet you again tomorrow for the briefing.