The Eric Metaxas Show - #90 - Rod Martin

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric reflects on Easter, his White House visit, President Trump’s blunt messaging on Iran, and why he believes this war is legitimate and bigger than Israel alone. Later, Eric talks with Rod Martin about the rescue inside Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, Europe’s weakness, NATO freeloading, and why Trump may be forcing America’s allies to finally get serious. Subscribe for clips from The Eric Metaxas Show to hear politics and culture from a Christian perspective.

Hey there, folks. Happy Easter Monday. Today is Monday at April 6th. Chris Heims, my producers here in the studio. Hello. And we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. Like, how did the Easter egg hunt go, Eric? Did you have a good Easter? Greeks don't believe in that. That's not true.

Well, actually, there's a lot I want to share. So let me just see if I can tick off what we want to talk about today. First of all, yesterday was Easter. I preached at King's Church yesterday. I was the preacher yesterday, King's Church here in New York City. A lot of folks came. It was wonderful. I want to talk about that.

I was at the White House a few days ago. I want to talk about that. I sat next to Pam Bondi. I want to talk about Trump cursing up a storm and praising Allah. I want to talk about that. I want to talk about a lot of stuff. And then I want to talk about the controversy. Ken Ham kind of called me out.

Kind of wild. Like, I guess he's upset that I don't believe in the Bible. Yeah, everybody knows. I just, I don't believe in the Bible. So, yeah, it's weird that you got called out by Ham on Easter. And Ham, Jesus never ate Ham because it's not orthodox. It's not kosher. No, I like Kenham.

I like Kenham. So we got to talk about all this stuff. When are we going to get to it? Maybe not today, but I'll try. I'll start. Okay, first of all, Trump and the war. All right. We're in a war.

Nobody likes to be in a war. So the question is, is it a legitimate war or is it Israel's war? The answer to that is it's a legitimate war, not Israel's war. Just thought I clear that up. I got to say that, but it doesn't mean that it's not complicated. and it doesn't mean you don't have naysayers and you don't have people. I think that's what's so fascinating

is that the hatred of Trump is so extraordinary that you can never cleanly sell for X because there's some people if you recurred cancer or do anything tremendous they would snipe. That's their job.

They hate his guts. It's basically a spirit. And I want to say, I have seen this before, because I'm old enough to remember that they did this, to Reagan. They did this to Nixon.

They did this to Reagan. They did this to George W. Bush. They did this to whoever is perceived as the leader of the conservative movement or whatever. They will do that constantly. They will just pick at anything that they do. And it's particularly pronounced with Trump

because he's doing infinitely more than any other previous leader of the conservative movement. He is much more of a disruptor. even than Reagan. But it's fascinating to me. I mean, I even remember back, what was this? Like 1993 or four, must have been 1994,

that my landlady in Connecticut, an older woman, just talking about how she hated, she didn't like this Gingrich guy. And it's an interesting thing, because the news cycle always delivers up the villain, the conservative villain that everybody hates. If you really talk to them about why do you hate them, they're going to repeat the liberal talking points.

but now it's even more complicated because now you have people who were on the right or think of themselves on the right criticizing Trump, criticizing the war. But what happened with the downing of that

the one plane where we had a the pilot was rescued, they both ejected and the but the other, I don't know what it was, what his name was.

He was a weapons specialist who was in the plane, a colonel and obviously he was lost. We didn't know where he was and we had to do a rescue. That is impossible to overstate what a big deal that is. And a lot of times we talk about how America will never leave a man down. Like that's true, but there's more to it. It would be humiliating for the nation.

It would cost the nation dramatically if the Iranian regime captured one of our men. And so anything and everything had to be done to see if it's possible to rescue him. And there was no guarantee. It's, again, impossible to overstate the difficulty of this, the importance of this. But what struck me is Suzanne and I,

on, I guess it was Saturday, we were praying that he would be, found and that it would come out well. And I thought how fascinating that we have a nation of people praying for this kind of stuff. Now, there are a lot of people who say our thoughts and prayers are with you. Let me just say officially, that's garbage talk. It's meaningless garbage talk. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you is like New Age garbage talk. I don't want anybody's prayers to be with me. I want you to pray for me. Pray for the nation. but when people use this confusing language,

I'm a writer, so I'm going to sound off on this. When people say our thoughts and prayers are with you, it is completely meaningless and stupid. Or people will also say, I'm going to keep you in my prayers. Are you praying for me? Because if you're not praying for me, don't get me some line about

how you're going to keep me in your prayers. These are meaningless statements, and I really get obviously upset about it because it's sloppy. It's worse than sloppy. it's borderline blasphemous. Speaking of which Trump has been swearing up a storm, we're going to get to that in a minute.

But people genuinely prayed for this rescue and for all this kind of stuff. And I thought, Suzanne and I were talking about this, that there's something beautiful about this nation because this nation always has had people, not all, but a lot of people who pray and who want God's will to be done. Not that we win, but that God wins,

that we are on God's side and that whatever we do would have his blessing. We're not interested in merely winning because many people in America are sincere Christians who are wise enough to know, you don't want to win if you're not on God's side. You don't want to just win. And I actually write about that quite a bit

in my Revolution book, how Washington and the, and the Americans really, really truly believed it was a sacred cause and they were praying for God's favor constantly. The British just wanted to win. And when you just want to win, you lose. Or at least usually you lose. So the idea that this pilot was lost, not the pilot,

but that the plane went down on Good Friday and that on Easter Sunday the good news came that he was found and safe. you know, it seems like a fairy tale just seems beautiful, and we have to thank God. And I think that... Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any day now?

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I believe in this president. He's a good man. I love this president. I really love him. And, you know, I guess I have to say, that doesn't mean I agree with everything he says and does. But isn't that what love is? You know, he don't love somebody because they do everything perfect. You know, you, there's something deeper going on there.

But I think most of what this president does is absolutely spectacular. And which brings us to, well, I want to talk about his tweet or his truth social post yesterday where he uses the F bomb. Now, tons of presidents have used the F bomb, but not publicly. So this is a first. I don't think it's a good thing. Neither do I think it's the worst thing. What I loved, if you read the president, I don't have it in front of me,

but if you read the president's truth social, he's basically trash talking the mullahs. He calls them, Chris, do you remember what he says? He calls them lunatics or, You crazy lunatics or something like that. He's trash talking them and he uses the F-bomb. But then the piece de resistance, he says, praise be to Allah. And I thought, that is magnificent.

That is a magnificent level of trollery, a magnificent level of mockery. Because he knows, as much as Elijah Nure, that whatever God these bloodthirsty monsters are worshipping, it is not the God of the Bible. It is Bail. It is Ashteroth. It is anything but the God of the Bible.

These are bloodthirsty, death cultist lunatics. And they, you know, if you don't know this, look it up. The way they treat women, the way they advocate for raping children. as they call it marriage. This is wicked, wicked stuff. So for the president in his truth, social, as they praise be to Allah. He's mocking them the way Elijah is mocking the priests of bail.

And I just thought, we need more of this. We need way more of this than we need pious Mike Penceisms or whatever, you know, safe, respectable thing. a lot of these, you know, Christian politicians. No, we need, you know, President of the United States right now, we need somebody who really does understand the score and is going to bat for what is right and good and true and freeing the people of Iran.

That's not our first goal, but, boy, would that be a wonderful thing if that were to happen? I got a lot more to say. I preached yesterday at Kings. I talked to Pam Bondi. on Wednesday. And I saw the president in the White House. When we come back, I'll tell you about that.

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We love Rod Martin. He's amazing. We're going to talk to him about the news of the day. there are very few people who I feel give me something new because I feel like I've read it all, I've seen it all. Rod Martin, fantastic. Most of the folks we have in this book I'm talking about the news are like Rod Martin.

I mean, whether it's John Zmirach or somebody, they're giving us something that I hadn't thought him before, which is kind of the goal, right? He's got a great perspective, and he's also got a great piece of Panama hat. I was going to say, in a great Panama hat. See, we went right to the same place in my mind. I went right there.

Okay. So I was a great place. at the White House on Wednesday. And I was seated. I mean, basically it was a luncheon for faith leaders. And somehow they put me in that category. And I'm, so I was in the room. And I got to see so many friends.

I got to see sweet Erica Kirk. God bless her. And God shut the mouth of the people attacking her. the president said to her, you know, I'd sue their blanks off. He says this in, you know, in front of the whole room. And it was hilarious because Franklin Graham is sitting next to Erica Kirk. And Franklin Graham wrote President Trump a whole letter asking him not to use foul language. So the president kind of catches himself.

And then he tells the whole story in front of everybody, including Franklin Graham, of how Franklin Graham wrote him this letter and say, you know, Mr. President, you know, I love your speeches. They're the greatest speeches, but they could be even better, you know, if you didn't use a certain language or something. The whole thing was a comedy routine. The president was, he just is endlessly hilarious. He said, you know, they call me a king. Yeah, I'm such a king.

I can't even get a ballroom built. It was just constant, you know, rim shot information. But so I was sitting there. and a few things. First of all, I was seated next to Pam Bondi, and I said to her, so Pam,

you know, and I'm kind of saying this for the whole table to hear. I said, so Pam, you know, this is a group of, you know, there's a bunch of men of God here.

You know, nothing leaves the table. Can you share anything with us that, you know, we haven't, whatever? And she cheated everything, you know,

big news to share. And I don't know if she knew already that the next day she would be, you know, given a new job. Let's put it that way. But I have to say, I'm glad she's out.

I don't think she's some kind of wicked person, but she wasn't doing what the base demands, what we need. We need all of the folks in the deep state who did all of these wicked things to be held accountable. It's not retribution. Don't listen to the leftist idiots who say it's retribute. They say this because they're afraid of it's called justice. Yes, justice. If you try to subvert the will of the American people,

you try to subvert the will of the American people by attacking. the man they elected in 2016 and undermining him, which is what Obama and Hillary Clinton and on and on and on what they all did. That is not just wrong. That is treasonous. We must, we must deal with this, folks. And everyone involved in that, Comey, Clapper Brennan, the whole gang of wicked people, Susan Rice, on and on and on. They have to be held accountable. They were given tremendous power, which they abused. That has to be dealt with. And so Pim Bondi, I don't know what did. I'm sure she did some of this stuff, but I think most of us look forward to somebody who's going to do more and do it more quickly. Vice President Vance was in the room. When he saw me,

he said, hey, Eric, how are you? And I was shocked that he remembered me. I'm not being falsely humble. I'm actually shocked, but he was super friendly. But the president referred to me in his remarks. For some reason, he sees me and he kind of lights up, which of course makes me happy, because I, as I mentioned, I love this man. I think he's God's man for this hour. And there are people, you know, the left like goes crazy when you say stuff like that. But they're already kind of crazy. They just express it when you say stuff like that.

But I think he, you know, he's kind of the mad genius that we need right now. And so I do ask everyone in the country, pray for him every day. because I think what he's going through right now is really difficult. I don't think he has ever faced anything like this. This is a level of pressure, which is unimaginable, but I believe God made him for this. And I think that, you know, his anger comes out and his emotions come out.

And I think that's a really healthy thing. I think we've had a lot of pious nonsense. And again, you know, it's kind of the Mike Pence thing. And again, I owe Mike Pence no ill will. But we need justice in America. Tremendous evils have been done. I don't need to enumerate them, but you know what they are. And I want to be clear, we need somebody who understands that and who is upset by it and

who wants to deal with it. And that's President Trump. So I thank God for him. When we come back, we're talking to Rod Martin. A lot more ahead, folks. Don't go away. While the corrupt federal elites have been quietly building wealth through cryptocurrency, hardworking American patriots have been left behind.

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$200 million in insurance. Don't wait, visit metaxis crypto.com and find out how they can help you join the Trump crusade financial revolution that's finally giving forgotten Americans access to the greatest crypto wealth opportunity in history. For a limited time, they're offering my viewers up to $2,500 in bonus crypto when you open an account. Crypto created 80,000 new millionaires last year under Trump's phenomenal economic leadership. Why not you next? Hey, the folks, welcome back. As promised, I have as my guest right now, Rod Martin. Rod, welcome back. Great to be here. There's so much to talk about. Where do we begin? Miraculous rescue yesterday. I don't use the word miraculous lightly. It was a very, very, very big deal that we rescued that officer, that colonel in the mountains of Iran for many reasons. Any thoughts on that?

Well, it's the difference between our military and basically. anybody we might fight. You know, our ethos is we don't care if we lose $300 million worth of equipment. We're going to get our guy. And we did, and we do, and we will continue to. It also is really telling that we've flown 13,000 sorties over Iran, 20,000 when you add in the IDF, and this is the first plane they're. been able to shoot now.

You know, that's just, as you said, miraculous. All the more so when you consider, this was an airplane that wouldn't have been operating in Iranian airspace if virtually all of their air defenses hadn't already been taken out. This is an F-15E. This isn't even an F-15-E-X. This is the E. It was built in 1989. I mean, it's been flying for most of the most of the-year-s.

people's whole lifetime. And, yeah, no stealth, no fancy electronics package, none of the things that you're used to seeing in American forces. It's only able to fly over their airspace because we've taken out all the Russian and Chinese air defenses. That's all gone. So they're down to a few things that you've got to take out in the tail, like manpads. You know, if you've got what amounts to a stinger missile that a single guy,

fires off his shoulder. Yeah, I mean, we haven't taken all that out. But it is just unbelievable that we're at a point where we can fly 20,000 missions over Iran and only lose a single fighter jet. And the course of this rescue, we also lost an A-10, but the guy parachuted to safety. We also lost a couple of C-130s. We blew those up ourselves because they got stuck in the, in the ground, wherever it was they landed.

It's just remarkable. We basically invaded and fought a mini-war to get one guy out of the mountains of Iran, and we're completely successful. And it's just a marvel. And I've been seeing people on social media from Europe in particular who are just mocking the idea that we would waste all this money to go after just one pilot. But yeah, that's why you guys are losers. This is who we are.

And this is why our military fights better than any military in the history of the world. These guys know we have their back no matter what. Well, now, tomorrow, President Trump has set a deadline. And he underscored it with some colorful language. And then mocked Allah, praise to Allah. He's mocking them and the demon god that they worship as they do these wicked things inspired by hell. But I guess the question is, I think a lot of people, and again, this is part of what I love about Trump is the trash talking and the confusion so that they don't know what to think. I mean, they know some of what to think.

They know this guy means business and it's scary and we better take it seriously. But he's also playing a game that it's the art of the deal. Where do you suppose this goes? Because I think most of us would love it if the Shah's son took over and the mullahs went away forever and ever amen. Where do you think it goes? What do you think is happening? Well, first, I want to second your point about him just mocking their false God because we had a bunch of our friends who were just horrified by this on social media over the last day. If you don't have a sense of humor, folks, you're going to have some trouble. If you don't have a sense of humor, you're going to be in big trouble, especially with this president, because he's nonstop, you know, winking and joking. And it's a way of communicating that appeals to me in particular.

I love that. I tend to communicate in that way. And if you don't get that, if you're kind of flat-footed, the liberal left secularists are totally that way. They're just like old-school marms. it's sad. But many Christians can be that way as well. They really don't, they don't seem to appreciate the edge. You would think they would have read their Bible.

I mean, he's just doing what Elijah was doing on the mound to, you know, to the priests of bail. And yeah, I imagine that Elijah had more than a few detractors in Israel. So, you know, and for the same reasons. Oh, Trump is mocking this. Theocracy. He is absolutely trying to make them wet their pants and absolutely. So confusion, make them wonder, this guy might do anything. What do we have to prepare for? Every single thing they planned for has been 180 degrees from what we've actually done. And plenty of reports from

Beijing over the last few weeks of how we just thought the Chinese flat-footed. Every single thing they assumed about our approach to Iran turned out to be wrong, which really causes some problems for them and they're planning for something like Taiwan. So, yeah, this is fascinating what we're watching. Trump is being hilarious. I know he was a little irreverent, but not the way you would have heard some of our friends say it. And most of all, we just don't know what he's going to do tomorrow. We don't really know what's going to happen on Tuesday. But all the pearl clutches who are going on about how, oh,

that would be a war crime. No, it wouldn't. And, you know, first of all, there is a treaty that makes some of that a war crime. We refused to sign it. We refused to sign it because it's stupid. and no American administration has signed on to that. We are still governed by two very specific international treaties about what targets are and are not in bounds, and everything the president is saying is within bounds based on the treaties we're actually a party too. And I would just ask some of these people,

are you saying that Lindley blew up Nazi factories and Nazi power plants we were committing? war crimes because nobody says that, although Tucker Carlson might. It's so baffling. I think, you know, with this president, most of the people who trust him, who've learned to trust him, like the crazy. They like the fact that it's crazy working for us. It's crazy working for good against evil. And there has to be basically chaos in whatever's left of the Iranian leadership.

I mean, I cannot imagine that they have any serious plan. They don't have a plan. They're just going to be trash talking back at us because they have nothing else. They're just trying to wait us out. And they've seen that that'll work. You know, Bush just beat the tar out of those guys in Iraq. And for that matter, the Taliban. but they just held on.

And after a while, lo and behold, Biden leaves Afghanistan and $80 billion of U.S. military equipment behind to arm the Taliban. So that's a pretty good object lesson that America won't last. And we saw the same thing in Vietnam. We actually won the Vietnam War. We never lost a single engagement on the ground. We forced the North Vietnamese to sign a peace treaty that basically said, you get to bomb us any time we transgress this.

And then the Democrats cut off all aid to our allies. And so, yeah, the North Vietnamese Army did what it could never do during the war for 20 years. They rolled up all of South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in a month because of the Democrats, cutting off even gasoline for the jeeps of our ally after wasting all that blood and treasure for all those years, apparently for nothing. And that's what these guys are counting on. The problem for them is Trump is going to have this wrapped up long before there's an opportunity for them to get a Democrat president to let them have their way.

That's not happening anymore. There aren't going to be any pallets of cash anymore. And we're taking them out at an extraordinary rate. Drone strikes on individual IRC members in the streets. They are having to bring in Shia militias from Iraq just to man, just to man checkpoints. They are really toast. And I don't know what Trump will do in the next two to three weeks, but it is going to be amazing. Well, that's the question, though.

What is he going to do? What is, you know, he's deliberately keeping people guessing. Yes. And the literalists get uncomfortable. with that. Well, he said this, but what about this? And, you know, this is where I think you have to say, look, we elected him. Basically, we need to trust him. That doesn't mean we don't question things and we don't, you know, we still play a role and we do have, you know, the legislative branch. But basically, what is the complaint? What is the big complaint that people have? People like Tucker Carlson and others

a number of others is disturbing, really seem to be under the impression that he is fighting Israel's war. What do you say to those people? Well, that's just idiotic. This isn't even about Israel. Now, if you're Israel, it's about Israel. Certainly their point of view is that it's about Israel.

They have been surrounded by Iranian proxy armies for decades in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas and now, increasing, the Huthies. And so, yeah, they want rid of the country on the planet that routinely says that it's going to blow them off the map. That's absolutely true. But that's not our perspective. We certainly don't want them to hurt Israel, but that's not why we're doing this. We're doing this because the Iranians just demonstrated that they lie about everything. They claimed they only had ballistic missiles that could reach Israel or whatever. Wrong. Turns out they have ballistic

missiles that they fired at Villago Garcia, which means they're in range of Paris and London. If you are that close to the United States, you add one more stage to that rocket and you're hitting Kansas City, and that's the real issue, because they're also openly telling you they intend to build 20,000 of these ballistic missiles, which is actually more than Russia or China has. So why would they do that? Well, partly to give cover to the nuclear program they have consistently lied about, partly to give cover to Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. There's not a single armed conflict in the Middle East that is an armed directed and funded from Tehran,

and that ties down American forces in the Middle East that shouldn't have to be there, just like they really shouldn't have to be in Germany. They ought to be in Guam and Japan and Korea and the Philippines guarding us against the Chinese. They certainly shouldn't have to be in places where there is a head of the snake you can actually lop off. So that's what we're doing here. This is about China. This is about reducing America's footprint in the Middle East. And in a perfect world, and we'll see if this happens, it may not happen, but

We're hopeful, and I think it can. If Iran is free, it becomes a vastly wealthy country very rapidly. The resources are off the chart. The education level of the people is super high. This is an entrepreneurial people that has been suppressed by socialism now for half a century. Just unleash them. Give them freedom. This will be a beacon to the world.

and a great U.S. ally again. So we won't have to be all over the Middle East, and that's worth all of this by itself. And of course, there are many Christians in Iran who would love to rise up and worship freely, which they certainly cannot do now. Here's a simple question. Maybe there's no answer.

But what I don't understand, if we don't get our oil via the Straits of Hormuz, What, why are gas prices going up? Why have gas prices gone up in the United States? I don't get that. Well, that's a more interesting question than it might seem at first glance, because the simple answer you're going to get from everybody on television is, well, it's a global market.

Well, it is a global market, and that's true. Our prices are affected by what happens to Brent Crude, and that has been true now since the 70s. The problem with that is if the Europeans don't want to protect their oil, or if Trump just decided, you know what, we're going to leave the straight closed. Maybe we'll set up a toll booth. You know, good luck with that. If he were to do that, you would see the global market fracture.

And as a result of that, WTI, West Texas Intermediate, the main, price on this continent would collapse comparatively. Brent would soar. The whole rest of the world would go into a recession or depression very quickly because all those countries are deeply dependent on Middle Eastern supply. Since we aren't, actually the only part of the United States that is still dependent on Middle Eastern supply is California because they've chosen to just stop producing meaningful amounts of energy and building meaningful power plants that aren't just bird

blenders making the hills ugly. So they actually have a problem. Real America doesn't. And if you had that divergence in global oil markets, if you had that fracturing, it would be a catastrophe for the allies who refuse to even send minesweepers to help us with the straight. All right. When we come back, I want to talk to you about the quote unquote allies in quote unquote NATO, which I believe stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The New York Times, oh, they got that wrong, but they've gotten a lot of stuff wrong. We'll be right back. For the first time ever, we're bringing you my pillow mattresses and mattress hoppers for as low as 99.98. Remember, sleep's all about temperature and pressure points. Whatever sleep needs you have, we have the right technology for you.

Like our MyPillow mattress topper, our queen size has over 10,000 individual comfort supports to help relieve your pressure points. And how about our 3-inch hybrid plus mattress topper? It's infused with copper and silver to help your body get the restorative sleep it needs. And our MyPill and Case Coil mattresses, I personally help develop these mattresses to make sure they have everything needs. to give us great sleep. Plus, they're made right here in the USA, and they ship right to your front door, absolutely free. So go to Mypillow.com or call the number on your screen. Use this promo code to get MyPillow mattresses and toppers for as low as 9998 and free shipping. Welcome back talking to Rod Martin. Okay, Rod Martin, did you answer my question about why is oil,

Why are gas prices up? If we don't get oil from the straight of Hormuz, what is it? In layman's language. Well, as things stand, it's a global market. So an effect on supply anywhere affects the prices everywhere to some degree. Certainly not as much in the United States as in China. China has gas lines as we speak. People are having to line up.

You know, their cars going down the, block just to get a tank of gas. We're certainly not experiencing anything like that. But those of us were- Well, we did experience that in the United States, but at the same time, we were on the verge of disco fever. So it kind of worked out. It kind of worked out. Yeah. What happened in between is China became the world's largest importer. And we became the world's largest producer. We now produce more oil than Russia and Saudi Arabia combined. So again, as we were saying in the prior segment, if the allies don't want to step up and help protect their own oil supply, one of the decisions that is at Trump's disposal is to just say, okay, fine, you're on

your own. And the result of that would be this divergence in what is currently a global market that would dramatically reduce U.S. prices at the expense of everyone else. Their prices would soar through the roof. But a global depression would also hurt us to some extent, because it's not quite a zero-sum game, as you say, the global market. I'm not advocating it. I'm saying that this is, this is the thing that nobody thinks about because America made it a global market. That was a deliberate choice in the 70s to protect our allies from the Soviets, and we're still doing it, and it's still a good idea. But, But it's also altruistic to a degree that some of our allies don't seem to deserve anymore.

And it might be a little funny to let them figure it out. Well, that's, okay, that's my question. So I have for a long time been saying that NATO, to me, becomes meaningless. The Soviet Union doesn't exist. I don't understand why NATO exists. I also don't understand why these people are our allies, or we call them our allies, when our values are dramatically different from theirs. Western Europe has gone to hell in a hand basket.

The leaders, Starmor and Macron and Mertz. I mean, they, I don't know what they stand for or what they believe, but would it be possible, would it make sense for Trump to officially distance us from NATO, or is that just, you know, typical kind of trash talking to kind of, I don't know, soften them up for whatever we're going to do. I think we're a little beyond trash talking at this point,

not all the way to action, but closer than we have ever been in 80 years. I mean, the reality is we pay more than 70% of the cost of defending the alliance. If anybody can come up with something that Europe adds to our defense, I will be impressed. I can't think of what it would be. Germany from time to time has to train its infantry with brunsticks because they haven't bothered to buy enough rifles. Great Britain now has almost twice as many admirals as warships. We just found out in a parliamentary disclosure that Britain's frigates can't operate in the Middle East because the engine, break down in warm water.

I think you shared that on the program. Well, then explain it to me. There has to be a reason for us. There's at least some reason for us to put up with this nonsense. Yes. But I don't quite get it. In other words, what do we get out of this? Because as a taxpayer, I'd like to know why we are in Europe.

What are we doing there? What's going on? Just in general, it's better to have allies than enemies. and just in general, it's better to have people who are contractually obligated to be with you than not. The problem comes in where they don't mean it, where their word is no good. And that's what just changed. You know, for all these years, we've listened to the Europeans look down on us and treat us like the hillbilly cousins. And, you know, okay, we can put up with that.

We're big boys. We can deal. But now, we're... actually in a major conflict and all we're asking of them is a little bit of help with mine sweeping. We're talking about very minor help escorting a few oil tankers and we would actually have to protect their mine sweepers and their frigates. So there's that too. We just need a few more holes in the water and they're saying no. And it's worse than that. They denied us overflight rights. Well, what kind of... Excuse me. Excuse me. We're going to go to

a break. We'll be right back more with Rod Martin. Hey, folks, before we get back to our guests, I just want to say a lot of people donate when there's a headline, but MDA, Magan David Adom, doesn't get to slow down when the news cycle moves on. MDA is Israel's national EMS system. That means emergencies don't stop today, tomorrow next month, heart attacks, accidents, trauma, surgeries, blood shortages, they're constant. Keeping that system strong requires ongoing support. When you give to the American friends of Magin David Adom, you're funding the basics that make everything else possible. Ambulances on the road, blood banks for trauma and surgery, training for first responders, and equipment that's used every single shift. This is not

symbolic giving. This is practical life-saving support. If you want your donation to have direct measurable impact, this is one of the clearest ways to do it. Go to savinglifeisrael.org. That's saving life israel.org. Welcome back talking to Rod Martin. You just said they denied us overflight rights. Is that what you said? Yeah. If we can't even fly over French territory to get where we're going, in what possible sense are they an ally? First of all, why would they do that? And let's look at it from their point of view, even if they're wrong. What would they say? Why? Well, I think the French would probably be pretty straightforward about the fact that they want to make a deal with Tehran. They don't want to poke the bear. Part of that is their own domestic Muslim immigration

problem. Part of that is they just don't want to be in anything that could possibly turn into a conflict for them. They just want the oil to flow. And if that means making a deal with the devil. They're perfectly fine with it. Right. It's like they were willing to do that with Hitler. Nothing's changed. They're cowards. Yeah. How pathetic, honestly. It seems like Starmer in the UK is similar. Yes. And Germany is similar. And that brings us back to the values issue you raised. And we see this across much of Europe. But let's just look at the UK, which is supposedly the birthplace of modern views of liberty. You know, our founding fathers were fighting for their rights as Englishmen under the English Bill of Rights promulgated a century before. And this is absolutely historically a wonderful place

for freedom. And yet, Kirstarmer has arrested 10 times as many people for their free speech expressed online as Vladimir Putin has in Russia, 10 times as many arrests. If you're a grandmother posting a meme about the rape gangs, there's a decent chance that you'll be in jail. The rape gangs never will be. And this is just unconscionable. It's unfathomable. And Canada just topped them.

If you quote the Bible on homosexuality in Canada today, you're a criminal. And so they are actually criminalizing our face. and pretending to be a free country, there's nothing free about that. And I don't know why we'd want to defend it. When West Jet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion.

Inline skates were everywhere. And two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when West Jet welcomes you on board. Here's to West Jetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at Westjet.com

slash 30 years. Where do you see this going? Because I would like to think that, you know, we could help rescue Europe from itself or from its cowardly leaders. I don't know where Greece stands. I know that Maloney in Italy is a hero, Orban and Hungary. There are some good folks over there. Do you think Trump is thinking about this? I guess maybe he's not thinking this far ahead.

He's just thinking about opening up the streets. No, no. And in fact, he's thinking about opening the straits very slowly to bring this issue to a head. That's actually the main reason we haven't already opened the strike. So, you know, we are forcing them to deal with their lack of ability to deal with a crisis that primarily affects them. and we are forcing a rethink of the alliance. And I guarantee you, Donald Trump's aim is not to end NATO, though he might. Donald Trump's aim is to get these guys to wake up and realize we really are better together, but this isn't working for the partner that's actually paying.

This is only working for the freeloaders. Maybe we need to step up and be serious countries again. That's what's happening. And I don't know how that's going to play out, but here's where it ends up. It ends up in eventually a general election in the UK that Nigel Farage probably wins. It ends in an election in Germany that probably destabilizes Mertz's coalition and possibly replaces him with somebody better. It ends in an election in France that is increasingly looking like it's going to Marie-Lapenze.

party. And if you actually start having the equivalent of Gert Wilders in all these other countries, the whole game changes. And suddenly you actually have partners, not dependents, which is the whole aim of the Trump doctrine. I mean, that would just be shocking if some of the names you've mentioned were elected. What an outrageous blessing that would be. It's hard for me even to think about it because it would be so wonderful, but we know it's not going to, none of this good stuff's going to happen under Starmer any more than it's going to happen under Mamdani in New York, that you need new leadership. But it seems like what you're saying is that Trump is allowing them to feel the pain

so that they will get serious. At least that's what it sounds like. Unquestionably. And look, if NIDO really is going to go away, and we hope not, but that's actually a completely valid option at this point. If that were true, then I think that the right course for Trump would be to press the case of the Chagos Islanders, the British ethnically cleansed out of their own islands, send them back, declare them independent, and cut a deal with them to take Diego Garcia. That would be perfect. Okay. We're out of time. I hate to say that. Rod Martin,

always a joy to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.