Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's a WallBuilders show, taking on the hot topics of the day from the biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. And you can find out more about us at wallbuilders.com. It is time to rebuild the walls. We're all a bunch of bricklayers right now. We are rebuilding the foundations in America and, you know, rebuilding the wall. So we're no longer a reproach. That's what it's all about. And we're going to need some good bricklayers in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump in a landslide victory, going in with a mandate, no question about it. And he's moving quick, David. Tim, it's only been a week and it feels like he's already the president. Maybe that's because Joe Biden stuck on the beach somewhere and clueless, but it feels like the vacuum has been filled immediately and we're still 60 days away from him being sworn in. But man, he's making a well, not official appointments, but letting everybody know what his appointments are going to be. And they're happening so fast. I was thinking about the first time I went to the Barton's house 23 years ago and David said, You want to watch a movie? And I said, Sure. And he said, All right, here's how we pick movies. And he put like five movies on the ground and you could take one away and whatever movie was. And then somebody else got to take one away and somebody else got to add whatever was left. That was the movie that you got to watch. So we're going to play that game today, guys. But this time it's take away an appointment. So so everybody around the horn you get because there was so many appointments the last 24 hours, we're not going to get to all of them. So everybody just pick somebody out. The list doesn't have to be your favorite on the list, but just somebody that you think, you know, initially jumped out at you that President Trump appointed yesterday. And we're just going to go around the horn. The I started to say the most gray hair wins, but I think I almost have as much gray hair as David. Not quite. Nope. He's got more. All right. So, David, out of deference to our founder, you get to go first. Man. 

David Barton [00:01:52] All I'm not going to give you a Trump pick. I'm going to give you a Trump process. And by the way, I'm just going to comment that. 

Tim Barton [00:01:58] I think he misunderstood the game. 

Rick Green [00:02:02] He's going to play a new game.

David Barton [00:02:04] I came up with the game. I change the rules. It's all the Trump right now. I feel like I feel like his term has already started. I feel like the president's he's already going on. He's rolling on things with aggressiveness and with strength and with decisiveness that I just feel like we're not waiting for inauguration. I feel like inaugurations already happened. This is like a week after inauguration is what it feels like. So he's he's way ahead of the curve. And because of that, I want to own hit process as my first one that I pick. And the process that I would go to is what's just recently happened. I was texting with Mike Johnson, but Mike Johnson, the Republican House members, the new ones and the reelected ones had their conference and decided the Mike is the one they're choosing to be the next speaker. So we now know who the next speaker is going to be, which is great, because Mike's been working with President Trump the last several months, getting things ready for his inauguration and moving forward on day one. So there's going to be a lot of stuff the House does on day one, like Trump's already doing it now. And the other one that I think is real significant with that is not just Mike Johnson, but what happens with Mike, because Trump has already taken two of his House members out and so there's such a slim majority there. And so Trump has nominated two House members to be part of his cabinet. And so by taking two of those House members out of the House now, the margin is even tighter. And you don't get to reappoint people into the House. You have to have special elections for them. So they're going to be down somewhat for the next few weeks. Now, granted, those two elections are very safe. Republican districts, one has a plus 25 hour vote and the other has a plus. 30 are votes. So they're going to come back as Republicans, but it might make it a little iffy for Mike there at the beginning. But I don't think you're going to have the disunited House that we had at the end of the last before the election. So I think that's going to be a significant thing. The other thing I would point to is with all these picks he's doing now, how quick can they get in office and do something? And I thought that kind of the shot he fired over the bow. With the Senate having to choose its new Senate leader, he is not saying who is for, but he said whoever it's going to be had better be willing to do the recess appointments because it took me two years to get my guys in office last time and I can't wait two years. I need these guys now and you've got to be willing to recess appointments. And that means throughout, you know, whatever. So that's the process I would point to as my first pick is what happens with Trumpof the House and Senate. 

Tim Barton [00:04:31] Well, guys, are we teased yesterday. We didn't really get to it. But this is where dad to this point, it could be very interesting if it ends up being John Cornyn, which it looks like there might be more votes for Cornyn than for for Scott. But if there is an issue, it could be very interesting to see J.D. Vance come in and say, you know what, I'm going to take over things for now and we're going to do some things because as a vice president, he is a chief officer of the Senate. He's a president of the Senate, and he can step in and do things like John Adams had done previously under George Washington. Where John Adams was arguably the most active, had the most votes of any vice president in the Senate in the history of the nation. Up until Kamala Harris and Kamala Harris unfortunately had more votes because of how close the Senate was. She was a tie breaker on so many votes, so she wanted to be there. She was present. And that that it's really sad that she beat out one of John Adams records. Nonetheless, this is something that J.D. Vance absolutely could show up and say, you know, we're if if they're not getting these through, hey, guys, I'm calling and we're going to meet and we're going to do some things. So I do think there's some work around. And guys, I know that you mean Rick, we've already derailed so much of the game that you were wanting us to play. And I want to play this game and go to. 

Rick Green [00:05:54] A terrible game show host. Terrible. I'm a terrible game. Show us. The contestants have taken over and changed all the rules. 

Tim Barton [00:06:00] That's all right. Yes. Mostly just the Barton's fault right now. Right. But it we didn't really talk about it yesterday, guys, but it could be very interesting to see JD Vance step in, which is in the realm of possibility. You have Mike Lee. You already floated that idea. Charlie Kirk has been wrote that idea. There are several very strong conservative voices out there that I don't think J.D. Vance has to. But I do think if if there is a stonewalling or things slow down in the Senate, I think it's certainly in the realm of possibility that J.D. Vance shows up and takes some leadership ownership and helps get President Trump's agenda accomplished. It'll be very interesting to see. 

Rick Green [00:06:43] Well, since neither of these games are guys are playing the game, I'm going to play the game and and I'm just going to go ahead and pick two. No, no, no, no. I take that back. I'm going to pick one and it's going to be somebody that spoke at the very first WallBuilders Pro-family Legislators conference. This I had been out of the house for like 3 or 4 years, and I was telling David how all of these people I'd met across the country said I ran for legislature because of David Barton's book, Original Tech. I said, Man, if we had our own conference, I bet they'd all come. Well, we had one. The first one, I think 100 came and Mike Huckabee came to be our special speaker. And now Mike Huckabee has been named to be ambassador to Israel. I think you guys have probably been to Israel with Mike. I know you've been to Israel a million times and he's been a million that well, maybe not a million anyway. I know he loves Israel and and you guys are very good friends with him, so I thought that'd be a fun one to talk about for a little bit before we hit all the other ones. 

Tim Barton [00:07:37] Yeah, Mike really is a great pick because not only is he incredibly pro-Israel, he also is very pro national strength and national security. And so he's very much a fan of the U.S. military, which doesn't have a direct correlation necessarily, other than he is very understanding of. In order to be a nation, you need borders, you need boundaries, you need a military to defend and protect your nation. And one of the things that that certainly is going to be important because we don't know exactly what's going to happen, especially in the next couple of months with some of the Hezbollah on says we know Hamas is already, hey, you know guys, we're maybe the cease fire. We want something different because they recognize if they continue this DOD said to President Trump gets in, President Trump is going to Green Greenlight all kinds of stuff that will be their extermination, the end of them as terrorists at which not to derail. But even seeing him acknowledge he's going to say the drug cartels and Mexico are terrorist organizations and therefore can be targets for elimination. I mean, just so many things about Trump. You don't want to be on that side of the list. It'll be interesting to see what happens. But no matter what happens the next couple of months, having a guy like Mike Huckabee who will defend Israel's right to protect themselves, to defend themselves against these terrorists, and who understands, obviously, the faith connection, where I think that you would know better. And Mike Huckabee used to be a Baptist pastor. I think he was a Baptist pastor. He was a pastor of some kind, I think was a Baptist church many, many years ago before he was governor of Arkansas, before he ran for U.S. president a couple times. He is just an incredible man, someone who loves God, loves people with, certainly is so pro-Israel. And it's quite refreshing to have someone in that position who loves Israel, loves God, sees a connection, wants America to have the right position with Israel and believes in national security, national strength and secure borders. Overall. Incredible position and pick

David Barton [00:09:39] I want to jump in on the Huckabee thing, because I'm just I tell you, I'm thrilled for Mike. This is kind of going back to the old Disney movie, the Song of the South, which was based on the the kid's book. The Uncle Remus told these stories. And among the heroes of the stories, you had the bear and you had the fox and you had the rabbit, and they were called Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox and Brother Bear and the Rabbit. When they'd catch the rabbit, he was, I don't care what you do to me. I don't care how you kill me. Please don't remain the brier patch. And he finally convinced them that that would be the worst torture for him. And of course, that's where he wanted to be because that's where he had grown up. Know it best. And so when they threw him there, that's how he escaped. But for Mike, it's like, please don't make me be ambassador to Israel, please. And I don't think there's anything Mike would rather do that be part of Israel, be He loves being over there. He loves the people. He loves the policies that he can do to help Israel. This has got to be for him. This has got to be man. This has got to be the thing that would be like bro rabbit, if you're going to put me somewhere, put me here. And I'm just I'm really glad for him. I just really think that he's going to have a lot of fun as well as be really, really, really effective. And the people over there really like him. They know that he had America's back all the time. He was governor all the time. He's running for president. They've loved him. And so I just can't think of a better, stronger relationship than that with Mike and Trump because he's got Trump's ear. He's the guy that Trump really trusts. And Israel, I mean, it's just all going to be really good, I think. 

Rick Green [00:11:14] Well, I feel like I stole David's pick for the the pick that he wanted to talk about. So it's only fair to go back to David and David, who's your other who's another one that jumps out at you off that list of so many that were appointed yesterday? 

David Barton [00:11:26] I got to. 

Rick Green [00:11:27] Keep saying appointed guys, but of course, we know these are he's saying these are the people he's going to be. 

David Barton [00:11:32] They should the actually. 

Rick Green [00:11:33] And. 

David Barton [00:11:34] These are the nominations. We won't have appointees until the Senate confirms that. But for for a question throughout all of American history, who has the record for the most deportations of illegal immigrants? 

Tim Barton [00:11:49] Donald Trump. 

Rick Green [00:11:51] Wrong? There's probably been more than a million leave in the week that Donald Trump has been president. 

David Barton [00:11:58] Voluntary deportation. 

Rick Green [00:12:00] Deportations. I'm going to guess Eisenhower. 

David Barton [00:12:04] You're wrong. It was Barack Obama. Washington, not Barack Obama. 

Rick Green [00:12:08] Are you kidding. 

David Barton [00:12:09] Me? It was Barack Obama. And, you know. Wow. Do you know who is border czar was for Barack Obama? 

Rick Green [00:12:17] I'm not Kamala Harris. 

David Barton [00:12:19] It was Tom Hallman. Do you know you're not me? No. Do you know who Trump has nominated to be his border czar? 

Tim Barton [00:12:25] Yeah. Tom Holder. 

Tim Barton [00:12:26] My. 

David Barton [00:12:27] That's right. So try that on and wear that for size. I mean, that's just that's unbelievably amazing. And I'm just looking for some best quotes. But, you know, he's a Border Patrol agent. He was their eyes and he was actually Trump had him really put in this position when Trump was there before, but the Senate refused to confirm him. So he was the acting director, the acting director, the acting director, the acting director. And the Senate wouldn't confirm him, so he just withdrew. He got out of it. But he's coming back now and this time with the Republican Senate. That should be the nomination goes right through really fast. But he he's he's already I mean, he's on record. He says wait until 2025. He says no one is off the table. If you're here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder. You've got my word. Trump comes back in January and I'll be on his heels coming back and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever seen. So he is really serious about this. Some of the states have started saying, well, they won't be able to do that because we're a sanctuary state. And his response was, well, every top you won't put out there, I'll send in more federal agents that will find these people and take them out. So he is absolutely committed, dedicated to the rule of law. We've got laws. We're going to follow those laws. We're going to uphold immigration laws. We're not going to short circuit the process. This is what Reagan faced back in this time when there were so many legal certainly did the amnesty stuff and none of it worked out the way they thought. And so Olmert is going after enforcing the law. And I think that's a really great pick. And I think it says a lot about Trump that even when he made Hallman, the acting director of Ice, he was an Obama nominee. He was an Obama official, and Trump brought him over because he's just good at what he does. This is this is who you want. And so I love the fact that already we've seen with Trump he's not doing this retaliation stuff. You know, the other side was saying he's going to get revenge and do revenge. This is not revenge type stuff. This is America first and we're going to make America great again. And I'm not going to have political agendas other than doing constitutional and great things, but I'm not after an enemy. And I think that's really, really good. And I think this nominee is one of the great examples of that. 

Tim Barton [00:14:36] Yeah. America first assumes that you're not party first. That doesn't mean Republican first doesn't mean Democrat first. It means who's going to get results? Who's going to do what's best for America. So great point, man. I had no idea. I've loved watching clips of this guy talk about what needs to be done. And even on the question of, you know, what do you do if you have to, Do you have two separate families to deport? And he's like, no, you just deport the whole family. So I thought that was great answer. Anyway, we get two quick break. Guys will be right back with Tim's first pick out of the list of appointees from yesterday. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:16:15] Welcome back to theWallBuilders Show We are talking about some of the Donald Trump picks announced yesterday. A lot of them we won't get to all of them. To David Timm, who's the first one that jumps out to you that we haven't already talked about? 

Tim Barton [00:16:25] Well, I think of some of the big names that we heard. And to me, there are some really big question marks on this. When you have an Office of Government Efficiency withElon and Vivek, I'm super curious about this, because when you are talking about a government that's out of control, bureaucracy out of control, to create something new, to try to rein in something out of control, I get why you need something new. Just it seems like a little bit of an irony there. Nonetheless, I think given Elon track record, what he has shown he could do going into Twitter and obviously with his creativity with StarLink and taking things into space and. Right. I mean, catching things. I mean, just unbelievable the things we've seen even over the last couple weeks alone from Elon Musk. But also then if you have that on this together, what their role is going to be and what that's going to look like. So to me, this is incredibly encouraging. It's fascinating and there's a lot of question marks surrounding it in my mind, but how it's going to work, what authority are they going to have, or are they just going to present things back to the leaders of the different agencies and say, hey, here's what we think. Or go to President Trump and say this agency not need it. It's redundant from what this should do over here or it's not constitutional, whatever it is, I am very, very curious in what now is a little bit of an undefined position and undefined agency slash organization. But Elon and Vivek are incredibly bright, brilliant, articulate individuals and I am looking forward to watching the show. 

Rick Green [00:18:06] I had the same thought, Tim, and it's actually let's have a little fun here. So constitutionally, you know, we're always talking about which agencies, which programs are in Article one, Section eight or somewhere else in the Constitution. So I've been thinking about this one in the last few minutes is when we saw this AI What about, you know, faithfully execute the laws, right? So if you're going to faithfully execute the laws, you need to do that in the most efficient way possible. So it seems to fit as even just advisors to the President. So I don't know if it'll be an official agency, but certainly fits with it with regard to and I even kind of like the idea that it's not like Office of Budget and Management, He didn't put them into one of those, you know, machines that already exists. He's basically saying, go clean house everywhere and come back and tell me what I need to do to make this more efficient. 

David Barton [00:18:51] Now I say this is the irony. He's growing government to shrink government. He's creating a new agency in a new department to be able to say, let's get rid of two thirds of the government's functions right now and go back to the enumerated powers. So this really is a limited government type office. But I was thinking about it today and we've all all talked about this. Every time you create a new government agency, you create eternal life for it. And so what's going to happen in about 16 years when progressives get this agency and they're after government? Well, you can't have government efficiency unless everyone on our agencies, a die person. You can't have government efficiency unless everyone in our agency is a R person. And so right now it's a really good idea. But that's only because Trump's in there right now. And so we've created a new agency and this is like 187 agencies under Obamacare. You know, you got all those agencies and now you can't get rid of them. And so I'm curious now in the short term, but they get rid two thirds. The agencies absolutely love this. I just wonder how you keep it under control going forward. 

Rick Green [00:19:54] Well, Eric, one of your questions I think is worth exploring is this constitutional? And, guys, my take would be because the president is in charge of the executive branch and because this is something really to have information and accountability over things under the executive's power and authority. It certainly seems to be constitutional. It's like an executive order applying to the executive departments that are under the executive branch that that is certainly a constitutional use and application of an executive order. It seems like this agency also would be constitutional if it's not doing more things that restrict people, but rather it's doing things that hold other government agencies accountable that are part of the executive branch. So in my mind, it is constitutional. Do y'all see it a different way? 

David Barton [00:20:45] No, I don't think it's unconstitutional because I think this is within the scope of the government to be able to limit itself, limit its outreach, have limited government. That was the idea. And this is doing that now. I think here's my curiosity is they can identify all the stuff. How do you rid of what you identify? 

Rick Green [00:21:01] That's right. With that, I was thinking, say, David, what's the power mechanism? Right. He can name them. They go do the research. They're basically going to bring back a report that either he can do something with an executive order if it's within the law that was actually passed by Congress whenever that agency was created that they're trying to cut or they're going to have to get it through Congress. Right. I mean, they can't just cut 80%. They've got to make sure it's constitutional, how it gets cut. 

David Barton [00:21:27] And say part of the I think part of the thing here is to you're not allowed to fire federal employees. So, you know, let's say we identify all these inefficient agencies. All right, What are you going to do with them? You know, we talked to on a recent program about New York's rubber room because they can't fire their people up there that are incompetent. So they just put them in a room, keep them away from people so that they still pay for the incompetence. And, you know, they're getting all the retiree benefits and all their everything else. So if you can't get the laws changed that allow you to hold these people accountable, that's going to be another issue. I think it's a great idea to have that analysis that outside independent look and especially from a guy who's proven that he knows how to run businesses effectively and efficiently and not that government should be a business, but it should be run like a business. It should be, you know, the cost of management, everything else should be there. And so, Rick, I'm with you. How do you implement this? How do you do it? And this is just going to be a bunch of reports that come back and say we need to fix this. And if we're waiting on Congress to fix that with with a divided Congress, we have them with that filibuster rule that we got in the Senate. You can't do a long term fix unless you can really get people behind this. But I think it's a good, good starting place to try. 

Rick Green [00:22:37] All right. I'm going to change the rules on the game since nobody's playing by the rules anyway. And throw out three. You're right. You did. You did. You did. You're right. You're right. I could see your objection coming. Three big names. And you guys tell me what you think. So we got Marco Rubio for Secretary of state, Kristi Noem for Homeland Security. And this is the one that seems surprising to me, but I think in a cool way. Pete Hegseth for a for secretary of defense. Those are probably three biggest names that we heard last night and yesterday. What do you think of those? 

Rick Green [00:23:05] Well, I think it's interesting because all of them well, at least for the two gentlemen, for sure. But I think all three of them there is reasons to be skeptical of of some of the pick. So like Pete Hegseth, for example, definitely has a military background. But if you look at the military background, it wasn't like he was 20 years combat, you know, special forces, something high level. No, he was in for four years. And then he got out and then he re-enlisted. But they've been his National Guard. And so it wasn't even administrative. 

Rick Green [00:23:36] Right. Like in terms of like overseeing the operations of the military. That's really what you're saying. 

Rick Green [00:23:42] Yes. And so I know some military guys that are a little skeptical because also if your most recent and the majority of your experience comes from National Guard. Now, I'm not saying this to belittle or take away from him. I think the reason Trump chose him and there's a lot of positives about him as well. He's an author. He's a student of history, especially military history. And he loves America. He loves the military. He's been fighting and advocating for veterans for years, maybe decades at this point. And so there's a lot of really positive things about him. But I think it's interesting. There is a little bit of of controversy. But what you see is Trump is picking people that are very pro America, that are very pro Trump's agenda. And I think at least at this point, seem like they will they will take the marching orders to an extent from Trump and work to carry them out. But I think all three of them are very talented to an extent. But, you know, we want to take a with a bunch of friends. When Marco Rubio was nominated, a lot of a lot of our friends were going, why would you pick Rubio Like this seems crazy. But Rubio has been really good in some areas. I think sometimes we see where maybe there could be a stronger position or a stronger person in certain areas, and it makes us skeptical. But Rick, one of the things that you texted and the group thread is, look, Donald Trump won and I totally respect his right to choose. Right. His team, especially now this is around two, right? He knows more what he's getting into and he knows more of who is team or who he wants on his team. And so even though we might look and go, I'm not sure that. Right. Governor Noem is the best in this position. But there's a reason that Trump chose those individuals or at least nominated them potentially. We'll see what happens. 

Rick Green [00:25:25] Yeah. And with her, you got somebody that it's going to be homeland Security is going to be closing the border and doing these things are going to be very, you know, controversial and unpopular or whatever. So you actually have her to counter kind of the tough Tom Homan being the border czars. I think that might be part of the strategy there. And then but I like Texas being I like him a lot, by the way. And his book on education was fantastic. And I like the fact that he's not from the swamp at all. So any mix that he can create where you get some of the experience of the people that have been around forever, like like a Rubio or no. But then some of these people that are coming in from outside the swamp I think is good. 

David Barton [00:25:58] Yeah. And guys would like secretary of state and with the defense secretary, I've got some thoughts on that that's a little different than what we were talking about. But I think it may be a whole different approach to both of these agencies and both these cabinet level departments. So we'll talk about that tomorrow. But I think there may be some unforeseen good things coming out of this. 

Rick Green [00:26:17] Yeah, and there's and there's a lot more appointments. I mean, they're just doing they're coming at us quick guys. And we didn't even get, like you said at the beginning, Dave there's like 16 or 17 of them. We didn't even get to a lot of those folks. So there's much more to cover. Don't miss it. Tomorrow we'll get into more of those folks. Make sure you go to our website today. Wallbuilders.com wallbuilders.com. It gives them great tools and resources and WallBuilders.show to catch up on any radio programs you might have missed wallbuilders.com and WallBuilders.show Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilders Show.