The Eric Metaxas Show - #80 - Rod Martin

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Today on The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric talks with Rod Martin about Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, Europe’s military weakness, Trump’s global strategy, Tucker Carlson’s attacks, and why America may be rethinking the entire alliance system. Later, Eric speaks with Rob Pazienza about the Kingdom Come conference in Fort Lauderdale and the fight for Christian courage in this cultural moment. Subscribe for clips from The Eric Metaxas Show to hear politics and culture from a Christian perspective.

Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. I'm excited. Excited about a lot of things. Actually, maybe over-excited. I need to take a quailude, but I won't do that. I don't believe in drugs. I got a lot of things to share. So let's see. Where do we start? Where do we start? This weekend, I will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Rob Paceenza, the pastor of Coleridge Church down there. I'll speak to him at the end of the program today. guest today. My main guest will be Rod Martin, who is, I don't know, what do you say about somebody like Rod Martin? He's just an absolute genius. And I'm going to be talking to him about everything that's happening around the globe. He really puts it together like almost nobody. But I've got my own thoughts, things that I want to share here. I want to talk about the evil of Islam. I want to talk about Tucker Carlson. I want to talk about Swastika Barbie. I want to talk about about multipolarity. Have you heard that term?

I want to talk about the evil of China and communist atheism. We got to be clear about some stuff. So where do I start? Okay, Chris Himes, my producer, I'm going to start with something just happy. Yes. Happy, happy.

My book on the American Revolution, folks, I can say I've never worked harder on a book in my life. That's saying a lot, because the Bonhofer book just about killed me. But that's a long time ago. And the story of the revolution, let's put it this way. It's as long as the Bonhoffer book,

but it's extremely readable, as you'll see. I hope you'll see. But it's, I think it's the most important book that I've ever written because there is nothing more important than the United States of America. The United States of America, I would say, is God's idea. It was the idea of the founders to create a nation on Christian principles, one of those

principles being religious liberty. In other words, we will let people in, we will let people be citizens who don't believe in the Christian faith. That comes out of the Christian faith. There's so much there. But just telling the story of the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world, I have come to think is monumentally important.

We need to know our story and we're at a moment, a crisis moment where Americans need to know our story, our founding myth, which is not a myth in the sense of something that didn't happen,

but our founding story, who were the heroes that God put into the story? It's all very important. I'll be talking about it in the weeks and months ahead, but I want to ask, you if you watch this show to please pre-order the book and tell your friends to pre-order the book.

It is so important. It is hugely important. So I ask you please to pre-order the book. And I want to be clear, if you pre-order from Amazon, the price that's there, that's the full list price. You will not be charged that price. The price will drop dramatically. Amazon drops price. It's either half price or something like that. They really drop, they discount it. hugely sometime between now and June 2nd when the book releases, but they will charge you the lowest price. So if you order it today at the list price, which is $45,

you will not be charged that. You will be charged the lowest price. So whether that's $25 or $30 or whatever it is, whatever Amazon drops it to the lowest price between June 2nd, between now and June 2nd, I want to make that clear. But the pre-orders are just, You know, I'm going to keep saying it because it matters to the success of the book that we sell as many pre-orders as possible.

So I would just be grateful to you. And I could say this with no hyperbole. I think people are going to love it because, again, not because of me, but because the story, the characters are just, you fall in love with some of these characters. They're just some of the greatest characters in our history. and many of them you're not even going to know and you're going to say, how did I not know this hero? How did I not know that?

The story of Henry Knox, the story of Nathan Hale, John Adams, I mean, other than Washington, who is, you know, like a demi-god, John Adams has not gotten his due. My book, without intending to, ends up being a pan, I never know how to pronounce the word,

P-A-E-A-N, a song of praise for the life of the great John Adams, a dedicated Christian. I mean, it's amazing. He and Abigail, he always called her his dearest friend in their letters to each other. They obviously loved each other, and he always said, my dearest friend. It's really moving. But the whole book ends up being, you know, a love letter to John Adams,

because he's at the center of it from the beginning to the end, and he has not gotten his due. I just had a phone call the other day, a long phone call with Newt Gingrich's daughter, Jackie Cushman. She is one of the key figures in creating a John Adams Memorial in Washington, D.C. When you read my book, you're going to say, how is it possible there is not a John Adams Memorial? Why do we have a memorial to Jefferson?

All you always hear about is Jefferson. Jefferson is practically a cipher compared to John Adams. It's kind of bizarre that we have a memorial to Jefferson and not to John Adams. Of course, we have a Washington monument, Lincoln. But John Adams, it's the greatest hole in our history, in our celebration. of these heroes. Like, it doesn't make any sense that there is not a gigantic memorial to John Adams.

Now, Eric, I'm not a history buff, but I couldn't help but notice that there is a Samuel Adams beer. Yes. What's the relationship of shit, Samuel Adams, to John Adams? Samuel Adams is the second cousin of John Adams. And by the way, Samuel Adams himself

deserves a monument. This is what's so embarrassing. It's, you can't really overstate the importance, America would not exist without Samuel Adams, period. Period. He was a monumental figure, but he was so dedicated that he didn't talk about himself. He was just kind of like, you know, under the radar doing his thing.

Everybody at that time knew he's the, they called him the man of the revolution or whatever. He was the guy that made it all happen. John Adams, I don't want to give it away or I don't want to talk forever about this today, but they were, you know, they were very different, very similar, but it is, it's kind of funny when John Adams, I guess it was in England when he finally goes to meet with King George III. This is after the war is over and we need an ambassador, so John Adams goes over. And King George III was like, so there's another Adams because Samuel Adams was so,

he was the leader of everything way in the beginning, but then anyway. Okay, so other things I want to talk about today, Islam is a false religion. Now, any Christian should believe that and should say that. You don't need to be mean. It doesn't mean that I dislike Muslims any more than I dislike people who are agnostics or atheists or Jews who don't believe in Jesus as Messiah. But I'm going to say what I believe.

And so, yeah, Islam is a false religion. but Islam has also been a force for evil on a scale that if you know history, now as a Greek, this week is going to be March 28th. That is like the July 4th date for Greeks. March 28th, 1821 is the kickoff to the Greek Revolution, where it really can't compare to the American Revolution. But the point is it's when the Greeks threw off the yoke of the Ottoman Empire. These were the absolutely evil, oppressive Muslim invaders of Constantinople where my relatives lived.

My relatives escaped from Constantinople in the 15th century because the Turks, which is to say the Muslims, the Sharia law Muslims, took over. So this week, Greeks all around the world are celebrating our day of independence. And growing up, my dad told me about the brutality of the Ottomans to the Greeks. They were second-class citizens. They were not allowed to teach the Christian faith. Think about this. They were not allowed to teach the Christian faith to their kids. There's all kinds of horror stories, actually.

But Islam is a wicked religion. And we should say this because of our love for Muslim people to say we want to pull you out of this deception. It's not... People have a choice? People have a choice? Well, they don't have a choice if they're holding a scimitar over your head, but that's the point is that Christians say, well, you have a choice

and we want to persuade you to believe in the truth, which is beautiful, which is so beautiful and compelling. We don't need to threaten you with a gun or a bomb or a sword. We could persuade you. But if you don't believe in truth or don't think that what you have, what you're selling

is going to work, well, then you threaten people, which is what Islam has done around the world for centuries and centuries. It's on the record. Let's just be clear. This is true. What I'm saying is true. If it's not true, you know,

but if you don't like the truth, what do you do? Well, you use force. The Democrats don't like certain things. What do they do? They cheat. They steal. You know, that's what you do.

If the truth doesn't, if you don't think the truth is going to be good for you, you know, you become an enemy. the truth. So, but I say that just because, uh, Islam has been in the news a lot lately, Mandani, the mayor of New York has been pushing, uh, this faith. Uh, his wife has been outed as saying vicious things about October 7th, celebrating October 7th. This is the wife of the mayor of New York. He has to resign. He has to resign. Like, people have to talk about this

until he leaves in disgrace. Because what his wife has said, one of the things she said, much less 50 or 100, but any one of those things would get you bounced if you were the mayor of New York, you're gone. But, you know, he's thinking he can ride this out and he is being very aggressive

and allowing during this, you know, month of Ramadan, you know, public expressions of Islamic faith. Like, this is not an Islamic city, right? This is an American city. So we need to talk about that. We also, before we get to our guest, I want to talk a little bit about the dust up with Tucker.

I talked last week with Naomi Wolf. Tucker Carlson, honestly, my heart goes out to him, folks. You want to talk about somebody who's deceived? I don't know what's going on. I do believe, I could be wrong, but I believe that that demonic attack that he talked about was real. Something happened. Nothing can really explain what's going on with him.

It is really, really bizarre. He is trash talking the president of the United States. Now imagine he used to appear at rallies, rah-rah, Tucker, at Trump rallies. He is now saying that the president is being manipulated by Netanyahu. He's saying that, can you imagine? Like, who are you going to trust? Trump or Tucker Carlson? I'm sorry.

I'm going to go with Trump. Trump has earned my trust. He is the president. We elect. him because we we trust his judgment. And when when things get tough and gas prices spike up like they have now, you still trust the president. You go, oh, you know what? I guess because I got to pay a dollar more for gas, I'm going to, I'm going to go with Tucker. No, no, Tucker is not, Tucker has proved himself to be really dramatically ignorant. I have to say of many things.

I've been shocked because I always respected him and liked him, but he's said crazy things. He said crazy things on his podcast with, I don't know, what's her name, Carrie Baller about me. And I laugh because it's so silly. Like it's one thing if you actually have a problem with me, like tell me what the problem is and, you know, we can have a debate or we can have disagreement. He's actually, he said something like I was a, what do you say,

a deeply troubled? It's like, I'm not troubled, Tucker. Trust me. I'm fine. Praise Jesus. I'm fine. but it's like so crazy. But so we're seeing this weird thing going on.

They say within MAGA, it's not within MAGA folks. These people have left MAGA, and they want to drag MAGA down. They want to drag the country down. They don't know that. But basically, recently there was an event where,

some of you know, Candice Owens got an award. Matt Walsh was supposed to be there. he realized what a nightmare it was and he decided I'm out of here I'm not going to pay so he sent in a video and the video it the whole thing the introduction of the video was hilarious because the guy said the guy who was reporting that oh met walsh is not here he said suddenly this is this is logically impossible he says suddenly he had a previous commitment in other words if it's a previous commitment it didn't it you didn't just find out suddenly it was a previous commitment it was a previous commitment it The whole thing is great. So he didn't show up. But Candace Owens, of course, was there. She talked about herself a lot.

I think she's just crazy. That's another story. Swastika Barbie made an appearance. There was just a raft of anti-Semites. And it's actually a sad thing. So we'll be talking about that more. Roger Stone, some of you know, President Trump made a comment about the death of Robert Mueller that he was glad that he was dead.

And at first, most of us would say, oh, that's, he shouldn't say that. When you know the evil that Robert Mueller did, the evil that Robert Mueller did, if you don't believe it, follow me on X. Read, I posted something about Roger Stone wrote all about what Robert Mueller did. It is evil. Robert Mueller was a very, very bad person. And there are plenty of people sort of defending him. Well, you're probably a bad person if you're defending Robert Mueller. Anyway, there's so much more to say.

I just want to... I'll be talking to Rod Martin about it in a minute. So we'll end here. God bless you. God bless America. I don't like alarmism. I don't like fear-mongering. I especially don't like people who profit from panic.

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Wisdom matters more than optimism. Folks, if you don't know who my next guest is, buckle your seatbelt. It's going to be a bumpy show. Rod, Martin is my guest, Rod, the problem with you is I don't even know where to start. Where do we start? I want to talk about everything. There's a lot going on in the news. I'll let you figure out where to start because you write about everything.

Well, we've put out a couple of deep dives in the last few days at rodmartin.org. Rodmartin.org, if your guests don't know it, we've got tens of thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of social media followers for daily geopolitical analysis. Fox business calls absolutely phenomenal. So what we do is largely, obviously, geopolitical analysis. And we have had a couple things out in the past few days on, first of all, whether Donald Trump is even in a hurry to open the straight of hormones, because there's actually a lot of benefit to it not being open.

Okay. And stack that to Israel's key role as a U.S. ally and how Donald Trump means to take that why to our whole alliance system well okay so i want to talk about the straits of hormuz i never thought i would say that in my lifetime but i just said it i want to talk about the straits of hermuse the strait of remus we all know if anybody's paying any attention that this is where uh all of the oil um gets moved out you know into the uh what is it there the indian ocean by the time you get out illustrates and into the rest of the world. So China, all kinds of people dependent on the oil coming through there.

Now, the president has, I mean, I cannot say how much I love his honesty. He is calling out Kier-Starmer, all of the NATO cowards. And let's face it, folks, these people have not been our allies in any true sense. It's really, really pathetic, the bar of when we say, oh, there are our allies. NATO allies. They are, you know, Kier Starrmer is for Kier Starmer. I don't even think he's for Great Britain

at this point. Definitely not. Trump is saying to them, hey, how come America has to be the one dealing with this? What about you guys? And I wonder, and I'm just curious, I want to hear what your take is on this because you're leaning in this

direction, but why don't we just say, you know what? We don't want your help. We've got it. And we will get paid for it. We're going to, we'll, we'll take care of the, of this. And we're going to get a gigantic, I don't know if it's a tax or if we're going to own the Iranian oil or what we're going to do. But you wonder, why are we even inviting these other powers? I mean, at some point, he was inviting China to say, hey, you know, you want your oil?

Why don't you get involved and police this area? What do you make of it? Well, from a military perspective, he actually has. done that. You know, he was very clear, we've got this. We don't need your combat troops. We don't need your fighter jets. We don't need your naval vessels for the most part. However, this is Europe's oil. 20% of the oil that flow, and not just Europe, our East Asian allies, too, but it's the European ones who are being a pill. 20% of the world's oil flows out of the Persian Gulf. So how much of that comes to America?

Virtually none. And we don't need what does come here except in California. And that's their fault. California has done everything it could to make it impossible to produce oil and refined product on the West Coast. So they still import oil from the Middle East like it's 1973, which is just absurd. But the rest of the country doesn't need it. And we can replace it from Alberta. and from Venezuela, especially now that Venezuela is an option.

So all these things being the case, the president really sets Starmor up and not just Starmer, Macron, Mertz, the rest of them, by saying, look, this is your oil. You're dependent on this. You shouldn't be. You should be buying from the United States, but you are. And you also shouldn't be dependent on Russia, but you are. We told you not to. You went and you became dependent on the Russians.

You have actually sent twice as much money to Moscow in energy purchases as you have to Ukraine for aid since the outbreak of the war. You're really kind of cruddy allies, honestly, but here's something you can do. And it won't put you in any meaningful harm's way. Just send some mine sweepers. Just send a few frigates to escort oil tankers. Nothing big. We'll protect you. We just need a few more boats.

Okay. So they all say no. They say no. Okay. Estonia says yes. Tiny Estonia with like three people. But their tiny Navy is specialized in mind sweeping. And they're like, sure, we're happy to help.

Germany, France, Spain, Britain, all. Oh, no, no, we can't do that. Now, why? Now, why? I just have to ask, why? Are they afraid of their own immigrant Muslim populations? What could be behind their malfeasance, their laziness? What is behind this? I think in England, that's true. I think Starmers government is very much either fearful of or beholden to the Muslim minority. In Germany, it's probably a little bit different. And, you know, the German chancellor says this isn't our war. well, yeah, it's your oil.

We're trying to protect you. Your oil supply, it very much is. But never mind that. The German defense minister then comes back and laughs. I mean, just mockingly and says, what could a handful of European frigates possibly do compared to the mighty U.S. Navy? And, you know, he's just laughing at this.

This was Trump's trap. Trump was setting them up. You'll remember a couple months ago, he said, we'll be there for Europe. I'm not sure they'll be there for us. Well, he just proved they won't even be there for Europe. And it's even worse than that. The defense minister told the truth in his sort of humorous statement. The truth is they don't have the ability to meaningfully help.

One of the reasons Starmer doesn't want to send Furgits and Minesweepers, aside from just not really having much any, is that they can't even operate in warm water. They actually break down if they're in water as warm as the Arabian Sea, which is just amazing. I mean, this used to be the greatest Navy in the world. It now has twice as many admirals as it has warships. It's a joke.

And this is Trump's point. If Europe won't step up and actually build real militaries, as Israel has, then they're not allies, they're not partners, they're just dependents that we spend money on while they hectare us. And it's completely absurd. So they're going to have to get with the program, or we're going to rethink NATO.

Well, listen, I mean, I've been saying this for a long time, little old me. What the heck is NATO? I mean, I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what this is. It's a relic of the Cold War. It doesn't make any sense. and we have been until Trump, they've been playing us basically and taking our free effort and free money.

So I guess the question is what Trump is doing. He's recalibrating everything. And he's basically, he's doing a market correction around the whole world and saying, okay, Germany, England, France, what are you willing to pay? Because we're not going to pay for you anymore. We're not going to cover you anymore.

So let's make, let's do a deal here. So what is the deal? Do we basically take care of the strait of Hormuz and then say to them, but we're going to charge you? Since you didn't step up, we're not going to do it for free. If you want oil, you know, you have to come to us. Well, the most fundamental deal, you know, aspect of the deal is what Trump already achieved last year, because he now has all of them spending 2% of GDP on defense, which is absurdly low, but it's infinitely better than they were.

Germany at one point was spending 1.4. They're the heart of Europe. They're the richest country on the continent. These are countries that collectively have an economy bigger than the United States, but they're paying less than 30% of the bill to defend, wait for it, them, their oil in the Persian Gulf, their borders in the east with Russia. And we also have to be realistic about the Russian threats, such as it is. Do we trust Putin? No. Is he hostile? Yes. But he also has spent four years not getting to Kiv,

not meeting his war ains in a war he picked with a relatively small country. Forget the entire NATO alliance. There's no chance Vladimir Putin has any possibility of marching on Berlin. That's just not going to happen. So there are threats in the world. We just saw that with the Iranians firing missiles they claimed they didn't have at Diego Garcia, which means that London is in range of Iranian missiles if they decide to hit the city or hit Westminster, that is a real thing. And I'm sure that sets shockwaves through Europe.

But it also means they're about one step away from an ICBM that can hit New York or Washington or Dallas. So Iran is a real threat. They won't do anything about it. They haven't deployed any missile defenses to deal with that sort of thing, as the Israelis have. They won't help us secure the oil. They are sending more money to Russia than they are to Ukraine.

What are they for? And this is Trump's point. And this is actually the point of the beat dive this morning on Israel. Israel is a real partner. They've got a real military. They actually fight a bunch of fights that we don't have to. And what Trump wants is for all our allies to be like that. So Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia,

NATO, all these guys would be in a position to police their own backyard so we don't have to be the policemen of the world. And when there's a crisis, that allows America to deliver sharp, decisive force at the point of crisis instead of having troops spread out all over the planet as we did in the Bush and Obama years. This is a huge model shift and we're pioneering it before your eyes in the Middle East. Well, I have a few questions. First of all, I guess I keep getting surprised that Iran is still alive and kicking. You know, it's like the night in, you know, Monty Python's and the Holy Grail, you know, I figure it's over, but they keep saying, no, it's just a scratch. It's just a scratch.

And they keep going. I mean, the fact that they were able to fire these missiles, I guess I would have thought that they would have. weren't able to do that. What do you suppose is actually going on? I mean, you know, every day I'm expecting that the people are going to rise up and the mullers are going to be thrown out. And every day I get news in the opposite direction. So I find a little bit confusing. No, this is going to take a minute because, you know, they're not going to give up until they have to give up for the very good reason that they have nowhere to go. I mean, these are people who are clinging to life. And if, if the people in the streets were to take over the country,

their life expectancy would be about three minutes. It would be like Chowcesters. And there's not a really good way to just evacuate to Russia. They don't want to go to China. They don't want to live in exile. They want to wait out the United States. And their entire assessment of U.S. policy historically is if you can just take the blows long enough, America will get tired of it and go away.

And they believe that because that's what Bush, Obama, and Biden taught them. They're not crazy to think it. It's just they're not dealing with Bush Obama or Biden. This is just a completely different thing. And Trump isn't going to let up. So the most important thing that happened in the last week, and it's been going on for just over a week now, is the Israelis and the Americans have been hitting individual revolutionary guard members, like at Trump.

traffic stops, you know, various places in the middle of major cities like Tehran, taking out individual guys, we are decimating the IRGC in detail. And the old canard about how, you know, you can't possibly win a war from the air. Well, that's true in 1940 technology. That's absolutely true. But when I can effectively send a bunch of unmanned snipers, to every part of a country and take out only the guys I want to take out and leave all of the good people, that's a revolution in warfare. So I think this will take a minute, but we're going to get to a point where there's a critical mass of depressed Iranian power that allows the suppressed Iranian people to rise and take back their country.

here's another question that I've been dying to ask anybody but you especially I thought when we hit however many months ago those three major nuclear sites that we had wiped out their ability you know into the future and then suddenly I hear you know a few weeks ago well no they're an imminent threat they have the ability to do this and this and this what am I missing nobody really has explained that to me. How can we have wiped them out and then suddenly they reconstitute in five minutes and they're an imminent threat? What is that? Well, I wish the president had explained this a little better, but it's actually not that complicated. They were able to salvage a bunch of enriched uranium in the process of all that happening. So they were able to exfiltrate all this enriched uranium. And they

come into the talks with Trump's people, Whitkoff and Kushner and the rest, and say, you know, look, we've got enough here to make 11 bombs in a matter of weeks. You know, and they're bragging. You know, like, this is going to help them? Because their whole model is first, the U.S. will back down. If it doesn't back down, we can wait them out. And above all, if we invade with a big army like we did in Iraq twice, Iran will chew it up.

The geography is just completely different. It's a much larger country. It's got a lot more people. And that would make Vietnam look like a child's tea party. So they're like, hey, we can lend this. We can hold them out and we can mine the straight and everything will be fine. Okay, so they're bragging. You didn't get it all.

And of course, to Trump, that's a red flag in front of a bull. So there's that piece of it. But the other piece is the missile information we all got this weekend that the Trump administration knew. They had good intelligence on this. The public didn't know. And Iran has lied about it consistently. So when they say, oh, we promulgated a fatwa against ever having nuclear weapons. Yeah, you said you didn't have our BMs, too.

So you're just lying. Well, first of all, all they do is lie. And again, this gets to the really, this is the liberal problem. And this goes way back, you know, to the 1930s and before that an inability to deal with evil, constantly believing the lies, not understanding that there are people who don't believe in telling the truth. They believe in lying. So whether you're dealing with the former Soviet Union, whether you're dealing with, you know, the people heading up Iraq during the Iraq wars, whether you're dealing with it. Whenever you're dealing with these folks, they'll say anything,

but I'm fascinated that there are people who believe them. I mean, it's just amazing to me that people who would, oh, okay, Iran said this. So I guess that means it's true. We know that that's not true. They want to believe because it contradicts Donald Trump. And there is a very real TDS aspect to it. But the truth is, if it were Bush or it were Reagan or it were George Washington, or it were George Washington, for that matter, they would still believe the Iranians because they're fundamentally anti-America, you know, at their core. I mean, they might choose to live here. They might pledge allegiance if they have to. But these are people who just fundamentally think that America is bad. And if you don't believe it, just go to a gender studies class, just go to a political science seminar.

They teach that America is the focus of evil in the world, and then we're supposed to believe they're patriotic. No. So they want to believe anything the American government says is a lie. And to be fair, a lot of things the American government has said in the last several years have been lies. So they're not entirely wrong. They seem to have missed the part where we have a little change of management here, on the conservative side at least. They should know better. if Cash Patel tells you something, that's meaningfully different than if Merrick Garland tells you

something or Bob Mueller tells you something. But some on the right have lost track of that. And the left is completely, completely all in on China as an unstoppable, superpowered, world-dominant force. And Iran as having infinitely more power than it ever, ever had. And at the the same time not taking their very serious threats seriously. The biggest one is the missile capability. I guarantee you that is the thing more than any other from the threat perspective that push the administration's buttons. They realized that they actually had intermediate range ballistic missiles that could go 4,000 kilometers. That puts London in range, Paris in range, Berlin and range, Diego Garcia.

But why would they not have hit those sites first? Because they only have a few. But they had a huge production capacity. They were ramping up to build thousands and thousands of these. And again, you're just one half step from having an ICBM that hits New York or Dallas when you're at that point. They have orbited a satellite. They are capable of Earth orbit. If you're capable of Earth orbit, you're capable of an ICBM.

They just haven't quite gotten there yet. And in fact, the very first satellite ever orbited around the Earth. Sputnik 1 was launched on the first ever Soviet ICBM, which had just actually come into production in August of 57, and then they launched Sputnik in October. This is what they're doing. They have tested all the parts. They're ready to ramp this up.

And the question is, are you going to wait until they invite Poland? Are you going to deal with this when they enter the Rhineland? Pick one. Ladies and gentlemen, that was a World War II reference in case you're scoring at home. Okay, so where are we now? What do you think is going to happen? What do you think Europe's responses? I mean, it sounds to me like you think Europe will step up now that even Kirstarmer

realizes, oh, maybe we need to do something since they have missiles that could hit us in London. Or, I mean, I want to say that if you're trying to, you know, psychoanalyze the liberals, and by the liberals, I mean Europe or the Democrats, they are basically cowards. They don't believe in fighting. So anytime they can take a deal, even if that deal means we'll be your slaves one way or the other, they're happy to take that deal, you know, whether it's the loyalists, in the American Revolution, which I've been writing about in my book, or that there are people that just like, well, we'll just take the deal.

We don't want to fight. We don't have enough courage. We don't even know what we believe in, really. So why are we going to risk our lives when we're not sure what we believe in? That's to me where Western Europe is today. They don't really have any robust sense of who they are, of any Christian civilization, which they used to. So they kind of think, well, we just want to make peace with whoever the invaders are,

whether it's Muslim immigrants into our countries here, or whether it's, you know, playing patty cake with Iran or whomever, they just don't have a sense of what is right and wrong and are therefore not willing to fight and die for what is right and good and true. And if you're dealing with folks like that, I don't understand why President Trump thinks he can get them to change. That's what I don't really understand. Well, I think he can, and I think,

he already has to a degree. And by the way, it's worth noting, the Europeans did a huge about-face on Friday. And all of a sudden, the same governments I was just lambasting, put out a joint statement, interestingly, including Japan, saying, oh, yeah, we're absolutely going to help. Friggins and mine sweepers, you bet you, all you want. And so they got the message.

But the message is twofold. First, if NATO isn't an alliance, if it's just a social club where you pick on America and they pay all your bills, then we're going to rethink that. There's no overwhelming reason we couldn't piece together a much more potent alliance consisting of friends like Poland and the Baltic states. And I know this will sound crazy to some of this audience, but Ukraine, they've actually proven to be pretty amazing going to be. to toe with the Russians and Israel and Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Japan and Korea. There's no need to put up with this trash out of Macron.

So that's part of it. But the other piece, and I can't stress this enough, Eric, the other piece is financial. We have allowed the British to continue being the center of maritime insurance without which global trade is impossible for decades. Actually, nearly a century after the U.S. Navy took over from the Royal Navy policing the seas. And that's absurd. We've got the expense. They've got the profit. I'm sorry, the insurance policy underlying every ship that sails is the United States Navy. So why shouldn't we get the profit from the insurance policy? Okay, so is that happening? Have we bumped, Have we bumped Lloyds of London out and we're in? Are we doing this?

Yeah, to a degree. Now, it's not so done that it can't be undone. But Trump's got a loaded gun to Starmor's head on this. Because what he did, and it's been two weeks ago now, he announced, and it was clear Scott Bessent had this teed up for a year before he did it. he announced that the United States Development Finance Corporation will henceforth guarantee policies at a substantial discount to make sure that you can get insurance to get through the straight and foremost. Well, they have to roll out the facility.

We have to do the mine sweeping. All those things have to happen. So there's a little bit of delay in it. What does that do? Well, it immediately forced Lloyds to rethink, canceling coverage, which was a huge problem for what we're trying to do over there. If anything, it was kind of pro-A-Ramp. And second, it's a message, a gun to the head of the British government.

The last big profitable thing that you still have from the British Empire, we can take it to Washington and New York, and you can do without if you don't start playing ball. And, you know, nobody's been willing to do that before. But Trump is like, look, we don't want to coerce you. We want you to step up and be a partner. We're in this together or we're not. I guess I just wonder if Trump can use these tactics on Mayor Mamdani here in New York. It's just fascinating what he is doing everywhere and what we're facing, what we're dealing with.

What about Cuba right now? What do you think is going on? There's so much happening at once. What do you suppose it could happen with Cuba? And what's the timeline? Timeline's a little hard to say, but I wouldn't give them long. These are, you know, we're talking a matter of months. They don't have fuel.

You know, they don't have money. A lot of them. But is there anybody to run that country? I mean, if the communist regime goes down, who, who runs it? What happens? Well, that is the, that's the big question, of course. But Trump has been very clear. He intends to pick the next leader.

And that doesn't mean he's going to install Marco Rubio as governor general, although he mine, you never know. But it does mean there's going to be a transition because there always has to be a transition. And we're going to have a say. And I'm sure the current Cuban regime is horrified by that, but they also have nowhere to go. We're starting to see unrest in the country. They simply can't keep the lights on. that literally can't keep the lights on.

Well, I was going to say, this is about the Venezuelan oil is that some of that was going to fuel Cuba. A lot of that was getting resold by the Cubans or the hard currency to run their country. No, no, no, this is, I'm so sorry we're out of time. I just love talking to you. Rod Martin, God bless you. We'll talk to you next week. Outstanding.

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He is the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale. He's also the CEO and president of Coral Ridge Ministries and many other things. And I am going to be speaking down there at Coal Ridge on March 28th. Rob Passienza, welcome to the program. Thank you so much, Eric.

I don't remember the details of what I'm of what that event is. Tell my audience about this event in in Fort Lauderdale on March 28th. Absolutely. Well, it's actually a part of a larger weekend, March 27th through the 29th, at Coleridge Presbyterian Church, hosted by the Institute for Faith and Culture. It's our annual conference, KingdomCom, where we have thought leaders like Eric Metaxis from all around the country that are talking about the cultural idols, that are talking about how do we push back as a church in North America, in this cultural moment about what's going on.

So many of the pulpits are silent today, unfortunately. So many Christians are not willing to speak truth to power. But that's what Kingdom Come is all about. It's about waking up the church, mobilizing the church, giving them practical resources from God's word to push back against the cultural idols of our day. This year, March 27th through the 29th, the theme is the Christian citizen. And we pick that theme in particularly because of the 250th anniversary of American independence. What does it mean to be the Christian citizen in America to live in the world but not of the world?

And we're grateful to have Eric, you as one of our keynote speakers for this conference. I knew it was a conference to slip my mind as you came on here. But of course it's a conference. So who else will be at the conference? Let's start there as well. Yeah. Eric, you'll be joined by our good friend, Oz Guinness, Rosaria Butterfield, who has an incredible testimony of how God brought her out of the LGBTQ lifestyle and relationship. And now she is pushing back against radical gender ideology.

Natasha Crane, a good friend of mine, and the Institute has written a great book called Why the Culture Hates Us, a cultural apologetic for the next generation. we have individuals like Peter Lulback who wrote, in my opinion, one of the great resources on the faith of George Washington, Bill Federer, who will be talking about the Christian roots of America, Aaron Wren of the American Reformer, going to be talking about Protestant Christian influence in America in the 21st century. So that's just to name just a few of the amazing thought leaders that will be joining us, March 27th through the 29th right here at Corridge Presbyterian Church. I have to say all those names. This is an extraordinary lineup.

And I'm sorry to wreck it by showing up. But you know what? I signed the contract and I'm going to be there. Let me just say, we just found out, Eric, just two days ago, that the senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, will be joining us as well. He will be speaking on Friday night. You're speaking on Saturday. He'll be speaking Friday night.

he's going to be talking about what does it mean to be a Christian statesman in the 21st century and in particularly fighting for legislation and policy that reflects the kingdom of God. So just an incredible lineup. Just heard about Senator Hawley just a couple days ago, so excited to have him on board as well. I read that as well someplace. So you guys are doing good promotion because even I was aware that Senator Josh Hawley is going to be there. I interviewed him for Socrates in the city at an event we did in Palm Beach last year. And I've known him, he is such an impressive figure.

And if you want hope for America, folks, the fact that we have one of our top senators is a profound Christian. It's really, really wonderful. But Josh Hawley is one of the best of the best. It's funny because I keep thinking he should be mentioned for president in the same breath as any of the folks. that I would put forward, J.D. Vans or Marco Rubio or Governor DeSantis, Josh Holly, absolutely without a doubt in that group. So I'm excited that he'll be there. Obviously, you said he's speaking on the 27th. Osgynes has been my friend for, I just did an interview recently because he's getting a big award from the Colson Center. And they interviewed me about

Oz Guinness and I thought I've known Oz Guinness for 27 years I think it's hard to believe but he is so amazing and if during the course of his talk he says we need a Lincoln you owe me $10

Rappesianza I just want to say it right there a Lincoln like leader he said he always says we need a Lincoln it's kind of funny because you know you can't really argue with that but I actually maybe I'll speak about this briefly when I'm with you, but I think we need a Trump. And I mean that.

I think that Trump has been ordained by God for such a time as this, that he's the wrecking ball, the disrupting kind of figure. Great disrupting. That we have really needed in American politics. But what a lineup. Rosaria Butterfield, my goodness, she is a hero. She is such a hero. Her story of coming to faith out of a very intellectual gay background. I mean, it's just an amazing story. I'm assuming she'll tell that story. She's going to tell that story. She's become a great friend of our ministry, a personal friend of mine and my family. What I love about Rosaria, she is such a warrior for truth. And she's not afraid to name names. And I know we take our shots that we have speakers that will name names from the platform. And I loved her answer last year when she answered. the question, why do I name names? And she says, I want you to know who are sending your children

to hell. I want you to know the pastors, the thought leaders that have abandoned biblical truth. And I thought, what a bold but true statement. She said, I don't name names just to embarrass people or to shame them. I name names because people need to know that these were once respected leaders that were either standing in our pulpits or writing magazines like Christianity today. Sorry to name names. But that, oh, please, are you kidding? I have it. No, listen, it's funny you say that, Rob, because I have named names.

Now, I don't, I don't think I make a habit of it, but I think actually there are times when it's important. And I have named names. And I hope all these people will repent, stop doing what they're doing. But, I mean, Christianity today is the classic example. 100%. And in Ravaria really is just given us an incredible model of just exposing the truth. What's really going on behind the curtains? I think we saw a lot of this in 2020 and COVID. And she's just been one of those leaders that have emerged to the forefront of being what we call a happy warrior for biblical truth.

Well, it really is. I do think it's important because the reason it's important is just what you said as you're quoting her. If somebody's doing harm, there are tons of people, I know this, who just they're not aware. And they go, oh, I read Christianity today or I didn't realize it. It's like, well, I want you to know you shouldn't. It's not the magazine it was 20 years ago or 30 years ago when Chuck Colson had a column in it. It has really, you know, bowed the knee to bail or to whatever dark forces. And again, that's just Christianity today. but the head of it has been Russell Moore

and I think he has done tremendous harm. I think David French has done tremendous harm. These folks have done really tremendous harm. So it ought not to be personal, but I do think that we have to try to warn people and say, if I were you, I wouldn't listen to that one or that one or that one. The new name, of course, is, what is it, James Talarico?

Who's running for office. I don't even remember where. Um, but, but, but, in Texas, pardon me?

In Texas. In Texas. Claiming to be, of course, sorry, claiming to be a Christian. And it's very deceptive. Because if you're not sure of your own theology,

you're not clear on certain things, you can be deceived by somebody like that. He said, well, he says he's a Christian. Well, what he says is not Christian and it needs to be corrected. And,

uh, uh, Megan Basham has been heroic in naming some of these folks. out there. But there are a lot of, there's, there are a lot of confusing voices. And I think we need to speak out against them. But everybody you mentioned, I love Phil Federer, one of the best. He's amazing. Aaron Wren. You mentioned Pete Lillebock. It's very interesting. I think you know that I've spent the last year and a half writing a book in the American Revolution. And whenever I write a book, I go in often quite ignorant. I mean, I know the basics, but I don't know what I'm going to

to discover. And what I discovered about George Washington is exactly what Pete Lillibach wrote about in his book Sacred Fire, which came out, I don't know, 15 plus years ago. But the claim that George Washington is a deist is complete nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. He was a full-throated, fire-breathing Christian. And Pete Lillibach is a, he gets a lot of credit for doing the research on that. He sure does. Pete Lelbeck is my mentor. He was actually my doctorate advisor, and he's going to be talking specifically at the conference about the faith of our founders, going to be talking about the faith of George Washington, going to be talking about the faith of Samuel Adams, to name just a few. But I think that's important history. We're going to have a lot of our students from our ministry

there as well, because they're certainly not learning this in the classroom, unfortunately. Pete has a vision to reclaim civics in America, and one of the ways we reclaim civics is by teaching the true story of America's Christian heritage. Well, it's funny because I don't know what day Pete Littleback is speaking at the conference. And again, folks, the conference is March 27th. Through the 29th. Yep. Through 29th.

And I'll be speaking on the 28th. I don't know when I will arrive or when I will leave, but I will be there for as much as I can just because this is an amazing lineup. But the lie that our founding was, you know, enlightenment. it was it was not christian uh the founders and washington were not christians they were deists most of that is so untrue that i was really stunned and i'm now very excited that i wrote my book because this needs correcting and it's not like i wrote the book to correct anything but the the christian faith of samuel adams uh of john adams uh of almost everyone in the continental congress

is not debatable. And our founding was dramatically Christian. And it needs to be said, this is really a very important point, that if you really want to know if something is truly Christian, real Christians believe in religious liberty. We cannot force our faith.

We don't believe in Sharia law. We don't believe in theocracy. We don't believe in Catholic integralism. We believe in the American, creed that says true Christianity, we want to promote it, we want to bless people with it, but we can't force it, we can't legislate it. And that's such an important point. And that comes out of the deep Christianity of the founders. So it's not a move away from Christianity. It's actually truer Christianity than Christianity, which would seek to impose itself. That's, you know,

that's kind of a conundrum, Rob, and you know this better than anybody. But it's something that's been so misunderstood that idea. Absolutely. It's not opinion. It's fact. Wherever you study history, any societies, nations, kingdoms, empires that have embraced the Judeo-Christian worldview, those societies have flourished wherever Christianity has been suppressed, everyone flounders. It's only Christianity, where it's been embraced, where it's been pervasive in the public square, everyone wins, everyone flourishes. That's the great irony, I call it Providence. the providence of the Christian worldview and the religious liberty that we've experienced in America for the last 250 years, everyone benefits from it regardless of whatever you believe.

And the best formulation of that that I've ever heard is our friend Oz Guinness, who will be there at the conference when he talks about the Golden Triangle of Freedom, which I wrote about in my book, if you can keep it. I learned that from Oz Guinness, that understanding that true Christian faith is necessary, but it cannot be imposed. You have to have religious liberty and Christian faith has to flourish on its own. So it's up to we the people.

So if people want to go to the conference, what's the best website? Where can they find it? Kingdomcomconference.org. Kingdomcomconference.org March 27th through the 29th in Fort Lauderdale at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Kingdomcomconference.

Dot org. Pastor Rob Pesienza, thank you so much for being my guest and thanks for everything you do down there. in Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere. Thanks, Eric. We'll see you soon. Hey, folks, before we get back to our guests,

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