Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1135 ｜ My Reaction to Lily Collins’ Surrogacy Announcement & Trump’s Tariffs Explained ｜ Guest： Ron Simmons

00:00:00.580 Lily Collins is the latest celebrity to welcome a child via surrogate.

00:00:06.540 We are taking another look at the ethics of not just surrogacy, but all of reproductive

00:00:12.800 technology in the United States and how cultural opinion seems to be changing for the better

00:00:20.780 on this subject.

00:00:22.400 First, I'm going to talk to my dad about this tariff war that is going on.

00:00:27.220 Is there any validity to left-wing criticisms, or is Trump really as victorious as he seems

00:00:34.680 to be?

00:00:35.020 We've got all of this and much more on today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:47.360 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable.

00:00:49.220 Happy Wednesday.

00:00:50.760 Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.

00:00:53.140 We will be with my dad in just a minute talking about tariffs.

00:00:56.700 But I wanted to do a couple things.

00:00:59.360 I wanted to follow up on the topic yesterday that we discussed about USAID, and we just

00:01:05.880 didn't have time to get into this aspect of it, which is perhaps one of the most nefarious

00:01:10.220 aspects of USAID.

00:01:12.420 So I just want to touch on that and highlight just the corrupt function of federal bureaucracy

00:01:18.480 in general, but specifically that institution in a second.

00:01:21.180 I also forgot at the top of yesterday's show to remind you that tickets for Share the Arrows

00:01:27.480 will be on sale February 28th.

00:01:30.860 Y'all, we are so excited about this, the women's event, Share the Arrows, that we did last year.

00:01:35.360 It was our first ever event.

00:01:36.560 We were extremely rushed in planning it, and yet it was a supernaturally powerful day.

00:01:44.700 The teaching, the worship was just so solid.

00:01:47.700 And by the grace of God, it will be just like that this year, hopefully even better, because

00:01:53.140 we learned a lot in planning our first event.

00:01:55.540 We're having it at a new venue outside of Dallas, Texas, and we hope to have even more than 4,000

00:02:03.120 Christian women from across the country and actually around the world come to this event

00:02:08.040 this year.

00:02:08.480 But it's going to be the same kind of solid teaching and powerful worship and fellowship,

00:02:13.140 just the stories of friendship and kindness and hospitality and compassion and conviction

00:02:19.760 that came out of last year's Share the Arrows have just buoyed us and have edified us so much,

00:02:27.260 even months after the event.

00:02:29.180 So it's October 11th outside of Dallas, Texas, 2025.

00:02:33.980 We are so pumped about it.

00:02:36.020 Again, tickets go on sale.

00:02:37.520 Early bird tickets go on sale on February 28th.

00:02:41.360 But if you are a Blaze TV subscriber, then you get access to those early bird tickets.

00:02:47.060 I think it's five days early.

00:02:48.960 The reason that's important is because we have a limited number of those early bird

00:02:53.800 tickets that we can sell.

00:02:55.380 They sold out.

00:02:56.560 The early bird pricing sold out in less than 24 hours last year, and we didn't even have

00:03:02.380 that much time to advertise it.

00:03:04.600 This year, it's probably going to be the same thing.

00:03:07.800 So if you want access to those early bird tickets, if you're a subscriber already, awesome.

00:03:12.900 If you're not a subscriber, you can go to blazetv.com slash Allie.

00:03:16.380 Go ahead and subscribe to Blaze TV.

00:03:17.740 You get access to all my behind-the-scenes stuff, but everyone at Blaze TV is behind-the-scenes

00:03:22.920 stuff.

00:03:23.620 And you get access to those early bird tickets.

00:03:26.960 Or you can just wait until February 28th.

00:03:28.800 They'll be available at sharethearrows.com.

00:03:31.040 We've got a different seating arrangement this time.

00:03:33.200 And so the pricing is going to look different for the different seats that you pick.

00:03:36.500 That's just a heads up.

00:03:37.640 And I will remind you of more details on that as we get closer.

00:03:41.380 But I just wanted to make sure that you mark your calendars because I want you to be able

00:03:45.580 to get that steep discount on early bird pricing, all of you who want to do that.

00:03:51.460 And so, yeah, I'm super excited.

00:03:53.300 So just be praying for that as we prepare over the next few months for the second annual

00:03:58.480 Share the Arrows.

00:03:59.340 All right, the comments I want to make about USAID, if you haven't listened to yesterday's

00:04:04.840 episode on where our tax dollars are actually going and the causes that we are championing

00:04:13.100 across the world, I mean, some of the most evil ideologies and the most evil ideas and

00:04:19.460 the most evil actions have been taken on the taxpayer dime through USAID.

00:04:25.000 And that's why it's good that Trump is dismantling and then reorganizing it to actually advance

00:04:30.320 the interests of the American people and of virtue and the values that we agree with.

00:04:34.760 But also what we need to understand about it is that it has essentially been revealed

00:04:40.160 to be a Democrat money laundering scheme in that the taxpayer dollars that are going to

00:04:50.680 USAID.

00:04:51.860 They might say, USAID might say, we are sending those dollars to, for example, Haiti.

00:04:57.940 But in reality, only 2% of the millions and millions of dollars that is allocated to go

00:05:04.000 toward humanitarian efforts in Haiti are actually going to Haiti.

00:05:09.180 The rest of the money is typically going to these D.C. law firms or other kinds of organizations

00:05:15.720 that claim to be representing the interests and the well-being of the Haitian people.

00:05:21.040 But that money and that aid never actually makes its way to those countries.

00:05:26.860 The D.C. organizations and the nonprofits getting the money from USAID, our taxpayer dollars,

00:05:35.780 are then donating that money back to Democrat politicians and funding their campaigns.

00:05:42.440 And so that is the reason you see Democrats freaking out about this.

00:05:48.620 That is why you have people literally saying they are going to storm the White House over

00:05:54.140 this.

00:05:54.640 I mean, people who literally had no idea what USAID did or that it even existed two days ago

00:06:01.480 now say that they are going to stage a coup over this.

00:06:06.120 That's because Democrats have whipped them into a frenzy because this is the apparatus that

00:06:11.480 they use to fund themselves and to stay in power.

00:06:16.440 And as we will talk about in my dad, the hypocrisy of Democrats right now complaining about the

00:06:22.180 billionaire run shadow government, Doge, being led by Elon Musk when they have been run by

00:06:32.440 George Soros for years for the most nefarious and destructive purpose.

00:06:38.340 I mean, it's wild.

00:06:40.400 It's not surprising at this point, but it's wild.

00:06:42.740 And another area where they are very, very wrong is tariffs.

00:06:46.880 They are, for some reason, laughing at Trump, condemning Trump because of the trade intimidation

00:06:54.460 that he has employed over the past couple of weeks.

00:06:57.280 But the fact of the matter is it's worked and it's worked in American interests because

00:07:01.600 these countries have now bowed down and they've said, sure, we will secure the border.

00:07:05.980 Please don't put your tariffs on us, even after posturing for a couple of days, saying that

00:07:10.920 they're going to fight back against Trump.

00:07:12.500 So my dad is here to explain what tariffs are, why they're used, how long have they been used,

00:07:17.340 what presidents have used them, are they effective, and what is really happening between Trump

00:07:23.500 and these countries right now.

00:07:25.980 It's a very enlightening conversation.

00:07:29.300 And then we'll get into all of the craziness about Hollywood surrogacy.

00:07:32.880 But let me go ahead and pause before we get into the conversation with my dad and tell you about

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00:08:44.580 Dad, welcome back to the program.

00:08:51.240 Yes.

00:08:51.700 Appreciate it.

00:08:51.900 Okay.

00:08:52.200 Today, we are talking about tariffs.

00:08:54.140 I've gotten so many messages saying, can you please explain tariffs?

00:08:57.600 Because just like with everything else, there is a lot of myths and disinformation coming

00:09:02.620 from the media saying, even after it seems like Trump has triumphed and gotten his way

00:09:07.820 through this kind of tariff war, saying, oh, no, this is really bad.

00:09:11.980 He's not really winning.

00:09:13.200 So let's start from the top.

00:09:15.140 What is a tariff and how is Trump using them?

00:09:18.240 Yeah, well, tariff's just another name for tax, okay?

00:09:21.120 But it's a tax on goods that are brought into your country from another country.

00:09:27.420 For example, from Canada, when they sell us goods, we buy stuff from Canada, then that,

00:09:34.720 and we impose a tariff on that or a tax on that.

00:09:38.940 And it's very, very common.

00:09:40.620 And when we send goods to Canada, some of those goods, they impose a tax on us.

00:09:47.540 And the reason for that is really two or threefold.

00:09:51.120 One reason is that it helps protect their local businesses, right?

00:09:56.540 Like Canada has a huge lumber industry.

00:09:59.740 I don't know if you've spent much time in Canada, but I remember when Daniel and I went up for

00:10:05.220 a fishing trip in northern Canada, probably 15 years ago, and we were flying, you know,

00:10:11.640 getting ready to land.

00:10:13.440 And it was just amazing how massive the forest were up there.

00:10:17.980 In fact, we got up there and you could see on the other side of this lake, there were smoke

00:10:22.440 coming out of the forest.

00:10:23.720 And it was fire, force fire that was probably started by lightning or something, but they

00:10:28.580 don't even put them out.

00:10:31.040 I mean, they don't, you know, it's not, it's not affecting the local community or something.

00:10:35.100 And that's just so massive.

00:10:36.940 So they have, that's a lot of their economy.

00:10:39.000 So they want to protect that industry and they don't want other countries flooding their

00:10:45.740 country with low price lumber.

00:10:49.020 Especially if you're talking about countries that like China or dictator type country where

00:10:55.820 they can really control the labor market prices, then they can make stuff a lot cheaper.

00:11:00.720 And if Canada just allowed them to dump it in there cheaper, it's really going to hurt

00:11:04.480 their own citizens.

00:11:05.360 Because when you put a tax on an import, that is going to, those that are importing it will

00:11:14.460 have to raise the price of their product in order to make up for that tax.

00:11:18.600 Either that or they'll lose money.

00:11:20.100 Yes.

00:11:20.540 And so that is how you are saying they protect the local products because the local products,

00:11:25.460 since they don't have that tariff, they don't have that tax, they don't have to raise

00:11:29.080 prices so they can be more competitively priced or a little bit cheaper than the imports.

00:11:34.420 So people who are actually buying the product will prefer the cheaper local product.

00:11:40.100 And that's one of the reasons.

00:11:41.220 Okay.

00:11:41.940 Another reason is that it simply leveraged for something else.

00:11:47.400 And that's the case with Mexico and Canada primarily.

00:11:50.920 Now we have a trade deficit with both of those countries, I believe.

00:11:56.860 I know we have one in Canada, meaning that they sell us more than they buy from us.

00:12:01.640 All right.

00:12:02.080 It's about a $60 billion difference in Canada.

00:12:05.140 I'm not sure what it is in Mexico.

00:12:06.640 And so one of the things that we've always fought for is not only free trade so that there's

00:12:13.120 not very many tariffs at all, but fair trade, meaning you really can't expect us to pay

00:12:19.400 tariffs, you know, and yet you don't want us to do that to you.

00:12:23.500 It doesn't make sense.

00:12:24.400 Canada has tariffs on us and have for a long time on different goods, right?

00:12:28.300 They have them.

00:12:28.780 And that's the way the system works.

00:12:31.120 And Trump has always said that's been Trump's thing for a long time, especially when it

00:12:35.140 comes to China.

00:12:36.380 Like, why do all of these other countries get to put tariffs on the products, but we

00:12:41.440 don't get to.

00:12:42.180 And as soon as we say we're going to do tariffs, people say, oh my gosh, that's so awful and

00:12:46.300 mean of America.

00:12:47.560 Yeah.

00:12:47.780 And the reason that they say that is because they buy so many goods from, we buy so many

00:12:51.620 goods from them, right?

00:12:52.580 That's the reason.

00:12:54.060 The other thing, so leverage, and so in Canada and Mexico, Trump, it really wasn't as much

00:13:00.000 to do with trade, all right?

00:13:02.240 He knew that tariffs that we would put on their products would hurt their economy.

00:13:08.520 And he doesn't want to do that because that eventually makes you and I pay more for whatever

00:13:13.020 we're buying from them.

00:13:14.080 But he needed them to understand about what we wanted to do with the borders.

00:13:18.460 And in Canada, it was primarily fentanyl, all right?

00:13:21.360 Not as much human coming across Canada.

00:13:24.380 That was our worry.

00:13:25.460 In Mexico, it was primarily the human smuggling and whatever, but also fentanyl as well.

00:13:31.980 And both of those countries within hours agreed to do what he wanted to do.

00:13:37.940 So I don't know how you couldn't say Trump's policy didn't win out on that.

00:13:42.560 I mean, Mexico is going to put 10,000 people at their southern border to keep people from

00:13:47.800 just coming through their country. 0.99

00:13:49.760 They've also done a deal related to drugs.

00:13:52.560 And of course, so has Canada.

00:13:55.920 They all came around on that.

00:13:58.400 The other thing that you would use it for, and up until 1913 in the United States, tariffs

00:14:07.560 represented, I think I read 60% of all the tax revenue until we put in the income tax.

00:14:13.340 In fact, do you know when the first tariff started in the United States?

00:14:16.820 I don't.

00:14:17.500 George Washington.

00:14:18.560 Okay.

00:14:19.040 So all the way from the beginning.

00:14:20.240 The very first major bill that passed the first Congress was a tariff on imported goods

00:14:28.300 from Europe, 50 cents a ton.

00:14:31.200 Okay.

00:14:31.980 And explain that.

00:14:33.640 I don't think you've already said like what it means, 50 cents a ton.

00:14:39.140 Like who is paying what, where?

00:14:41.920 The tax has to be paid by, let's say it was England that was sending it over.

00:14:46.240 So, and back then they did it per ton.

00:14:48.300 They didn't look at a specific good so much so that when a ship came over and let's say

00:14:53.260 they had a ton of goods on there, then they had to pay an extra 50 cents.

00:14:58.240 Okay.

00:14:59.560 That, uh, that, that government had to pay us before they got, before they could bring

00:15:04.760 them in.

00:15:05.560 And so therefore, in order to recoup that, they had to raise the price of whatever that

00:15:09.640 was.

00:15:10.300 Which would mean that Americans would be less likely to buy their products.

00:15:13.520 Again, they would prefer the American product.

00:15:15.380 Because, uh, America's U.S. shipping vessels only had to pay six cents a ton.

00:15:20.440 So that's, it started and it's happened in every country, you know, ever since then.

00:15:26.060 Yeah.

00:15:26.280 You said that Canada does that, that China does that.

00:15:29.100 And it's funny because they might not call it Canada first policy or China first policy,

00:15:34.240 but that is what it is.

00:15:35.800 They are protecting the interests of their country at the expense of other countries.

00:15:39.720 And that has always been, not just when it comes to tariffs, but when it comes to all

00:15:43.800 policy, that has been Trump's thing.

00:15:46.200 America first, even at the expense of other countries, we're going to put the well-being

00:15:50.040 of our country first.

00:15:51.200 And yet I hear over and over again that America first is wrong.

00:15:55.100 It's wrong to put your country first.

00:15:57.060 But in a variety of ways, every country does that, even progressive countries like Canada.

00:16:02.220 That's why we have countries, right?

00:16:03.860 That's why it's not one world, no matter what our Dabos people may want us to believe and 1.00

00:16:08.680 what have you, the other thing I think that they do, and this is especially true for the

00:16:12.200 European Union, his comments about tariffs in the European Union are twofold.

00:16:18.040 One, we have a huge trade deficit, okay?

00:16:20.780 We buy about $580 billion worth of stuff from them, and they buy only about $370 billion from

00:16:30.260 us.

00:16:30.600 And a lot of that is because of the tariffs they put on some of our goods that we can't

00:16:34.640 be competitive over there.

00:16:35.940 But even more important, I think, in Trump's mind, and I obviously haven't spoken to him,

00:16:41.260 but I think more important is the leverage to get them to increase their own defense funding.

00:16:45.760 We've talked about that with NATO and other things before.

00:16:49.240 He wants them to defend themselves.

00:16:52.120 They've known for the last probably 60 or 70 years at least, okay, World War II, that eventually

00:16:59.260 we'll come a-running and we'll bail them out.

00:17:01.800 And that's what we did.

00:17:02.720 We did that with England, which was the right thing to do. 1.00

00:17:05.160 We've done that with country after country.

00:17:07.040 And so what they've done is they've taken what they should be spending on defense to

00:17:10.600 protect their own selves and put it in these social policies, right?

00:17:14.260 And they say, well, we can't put more on defense because that means we'll have to, some of

00:17:18.880 these social policies will have to be reduced.

00:17:20.700 Well, that's an issue you have to deal with.

00:17:23.440 And so I believe he is very strong on that.

00:17:26.800 And I believe that will, you know, will have an impact.

00:17:29.580 The other thing that's a misnomer that nobody's talking about is what President Biden did.

00:17:35.520 You know, Trump put some tariffs on when he was in his first term in various countries.

00:17:40.800 In fact, at the time, during Trump's administration, we had an actual trade surplus with Canada because

00:17:46.800 of that.

00:17:47.360 And explain what that means.

00:17:49.600 Yeah, that means that they bought more from us than we bought from them.

00:17:53.180 Okay.

00:17:54.420 And but going to China, he put in some tariffs.

00:17:58.100 And of course, you know, the Democrats in their 2020 election decried those, how bad they were

00:18:03.600 and all that.

00:18:04.280 But Biden left those in place.

00:18:06.300 In fact, not even a year ago, he actually increased some of those tariffs, which were somewhere

00:18:12.660 between 10 and 25 percent.

00:18:14.180 He increased those between 50 and 100 percent.

00:18:17.260 There's some goods coming from China right now that like electric cars.

00:18:21.480 Okay.

00:18:22.240 Now, you know what?

00:18:23.800 You know why Biden did that?

00:18:25.160 Because he he trying to bolster the electric car industry here.

00:18:28.060 So the theory was the same, but 100 percent tariff he put on China electric cars.

00:18:32.920 So all that did was not allow the U.S. population to buy cheaper electric cars.

00:18:38.700 And I mean, how can you have it both ways?

00:18:41.480 You know what I'm saying?

00:18:42.220 I mean, I don't blame him for doing it because his belief was he wanted the U.S.

00:18:47.480 electric car industry to be bolstered.

00:18:49.640 Okay.

00:18:49.760 Now, I don't agree with that, but that was his belief.

00:18:52.500 And one of the ways to make sure that happened was that nobody's flooding the market, which

00:18:56.360 is exactly what Trump's doing as well, plus some other leverage things that are that are

00:19:00.740 going on.

00:19:01.300 And so I just found that to be really, you know, one of the things about Canada and the

00:19:06.680 reason it the reason this leverage stuff works, Ali, is because so when we when Canada sells

00:19:14.160 goods to us, all right, when they sell goods to us, that $480 billion, all right?

00:19:19.820 Now, if that goes down, that obviously has a negative effect on their economy because $480

00:19:27.640 billion that we buy from them today represents 20%, 20% of their entire gross domestic product

00:19:35.380 of their entire economy's value.

00:19:38.080 It's 20%.

00:19:38.880 So that's a big hit, right?

00:19:41.320 If that, if that thing, let's say that our, what we buy from them drops to 300 billion

00:19:45.340 because of this, well, that hurts Canada for sure.

00:19:48.340 However, what, what they buy from us, 420 billion only represents 2% of our economy.

00:19:56.440 So we can last a lot longer than they can last.

00:19:59.880 And that's what Trump knows.

00:20:01.260 And that's what their leaders know.

00:20:03.080 And that's why they agree to negotiate and come up with an agreement for that.

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00:21:46.160 Okay, let me just outline the specifics of what happened because it's crazy how many politicians

00:21:53.680 and how many left-wing people in America seem to have just forgotten exactly what you said,

00:21:59.620 the power that America has, and that we still have the ability to flex our muscles,

00:22:03.860 and that almost every other country is going to just back away.

00:22:08.340 Even if they posture for a little bit, like Mexico and Canada did, they're going to say,

00:22:13.800 okay, so on February 1st, President Trump announced that he was imposing tariffs on imports

00:22:18.260 from Canada, Mexico, and China.

00:22:20.120 He issued the tariff citing an extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs,

00:22:24.020 including deadly fentanyl.

00:22:26.240 So that's the, he implemented the 25% additional tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico,

00:22:31.400 10% additional tariff on imports from China.

00:22:34.100 Energy resources from Canada will still have a lower 10% tariff.

00:22:39.500 There were some exemptions to that.

00:22:41.800 They were set to take effect on Tuesday.

00:22:44.060 He basically said, look, you got to take control of your borders,

00:22:46.520 all of this deadly stuff that you're importing over here,

00:22:50.360 or else it's going to be really hard for us to trade together,

00:22:53.760 and your economy is really going to suffer.

00:22:56.620 He pointed out that trade accounts for 67% of Canada's GDP,

00:23:01.600 73% of Mexico's GDP, and 37% of China's GDP.

00:23:08.900 So that's kind of like our buying power.

00:23:11.720 He said this on X, he said, we need to protect Americans.

00:23:16.160 It is my duty as president to ensure, or not on X, it's on Truth Social,

00:23:20.460 to ensure the safety of all.

00:23:22.320 I made a promise on my campaign to stop the flood of illegal aliens and drugs 1.00

00:23:25.220 from pouring across our borders.

00:23:27.020 Americans have overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.

00:23:31.720 Claudia Scheinbaum-Pardo, she is the president of Mexico.

00:23:37.560 Mexico, she at first said, you know, she's going to retaliate. 0.95

00:23:41.680 Well, she's going to use her own tariffs, 1.00

00:23:43.540 and you're not going to be able to intimidate me.

00:23:45.980 You're not going to be able to push back against me.

00:23:49.800 And then she said, after talking to President Trump two days later,

00:23:54.120 she says, I had a great conversation with President Trump.

00:23:57.720 And you know what?

00:23:59.100 He's right.

00:24:00.380 Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border

00:24:03.620 with 10,000 members of the National Guard.

00:24:07.720 The United States is committing to working with Mexico to prevent trafficking.

00:24:13.520 Our teams will begin working today on two fronts, security and trade.

00:24:17.600 So they're going to pause those tariffs for 30 days,

00:24:21.840 and I guess Trump will reassess after the end of the month.

00:24:24.480 And then Justin Trudeau, who also said, you know what?

00:24:28.140 We're not going to back down, and we're going to boycott your products.

00:24:31.220 And Canadians, do not buy your whiskey from Kentucky and all of that stuff.

00:24:35.600 Justin Trudeau also said two days after these tariffs were announced on X,

00:24:40.460 I just had a good call with President Trump.

00:24:42.700 Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan,

00:24:46.220 reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel.

00:24:49.940 I mean, this is the guy who came to Mar-a-Lago too.

00:24:52.560 And after his conversation with President Trump,

00:24:54.580 President Trump was like, oh, the governor of Canada,

00:24:57.340 and joked about invading Canada and taking over Canada.

00:25:01.580 So Justin Trudeau can act tough.

00:25:03.600 He's not.

00:25:04.640 By the end of the day, on Monday,

00:25:06.220 President Trump announced deals with both North American countries

00:25:08.680 to delay tariffs 30 days after the nations agreed to help with border security.

00:25:12.520 China announced retaliatory tariffs on select American imports on Tuesday,

00:25:17.900 shortly after Trump's tariffs.

00:25:19.800 And China took a fact.

00:25:22.600 And so that affects a variety of products.

00:25:27.320 They said that they will challenge the tariffs at the World Trade Organization.

00:25:30.920 So this apparently sets off a 60-day period for the two sides to resolve their differences.

00:25:35.800 What is your thought about what's going to happen with China,

00:25:38.620 since they are not so easily backing down?

00:25:40.640 First of all, Trump's not going to pay one bit of attention to the WTO at the end of the day.

00:25:46.140 He's going to do what he wants with that.

00:25:48.500 But he may use the 60-day cooling-off period to try to get something done.

00:25:52.760 I think this will be negotiated between he and Xi.

00:25:57.380 And I think there will be tariffs left on both sides.

00:26:00.100 He'll probably reduce some of the Biden tariffs, you know,

00:26:02.900 which would be easy for him to do because he didn't do them to start with, right?

00:26:06.540 And so he could claim victory in that to Xi.

00:26:09.360 And then I think Xi will do something as well.

00:26:11.660 This is more about negotiating global power and Xi spreading their money all around the world,

00:26:23.140 like they were doing in Panama and other countries in Africa, for sure.

00:26:27.220 And so that's probably what all of this is about.

00:26:31.460 It may have something to do with Taiwan as well.

00:26:34.160 It's a much bigger picture than goods.

00:26:36.540 Now, also remember, you know, you've heard of these websites, like you've heard this website,

00:26:42.980 TEMU, T-E-M-U, it's a China website.

00:26:46.340 Well, I think I read the other day, if it's like under $800, okay, let's say you order something

00:26:53.940 from that site and it's under $800, there's no tariff on that.

00:26:57.740 There's a de minimis type thing is how they do that.

00:27:00.600 So there are ways around some of that.

00:27:02.160 Most of us, honestly, most of us aren't buying things that are the super expensive things

00:27:09.440 anyway.

00:27:10.140 Yeah.

00:27:10.620 You know.

00:27:11.580 Tariffs also worked, this was a couple weeks ago now, on Columbia because the Colombian president,

00:27:18.500 who according to the Daily Wire is a former literal Marxist terrorist, not an exaggeration,

00:27:23.820 like he was apparently a terrorist who did so in the name of communism and Marxism.

00:27:28.560 So he blocked two repatriation flights in late January, filled with criminal illegal 0.99

00:27:34.180 aliens from the U.S.

00:27:35.580 The U.S. said, hey, we don't want your people anymore. 0.98

00:27:38.160 You can deal with these criminals.

00:27:39.680 We're not going to.

00:27:40.960 We're going to fly in back.

00:27:42.000 Here you go.

00:27:42.900 They blocked the flight.

00:27:43.800 So President Trump said, okay, well, 25 percent tariffs on all Colombian goods.

00:27:48.660 And it's so funny.

00:27:49.860 Leftists on X were like, oh, no, some of our flowers and our coffee comes from Colombia.

00:27:55.560 It's okay.

00:27:56.740 We're going to be fine.

00:27:57.780 Um, and the Colombian president, again, he puffed up and he said, we're not scared of

00:28:04.220 you.

00:28:04.700 We're going to retaliate.

00:28:06.420 And, uh, you know what?

00:28:08.880 You know what?

00:28:09.580 We're not going to back down.

00:28:10.920 The State Department said, well, we're going to continue to enforce and prioritize our America

00:28:16.520 first agenda.

00:28:17.500 We are not backing down.

00:28:19.480 There will be travel sanctions on individuals and their families.

00:28:23.140 Anyone who was responsible for the interference of these repatriation flights.

00:28:29.120 Um, and then the Colombian president, uh, he said the same thing.

00:28:35.160 Great conversation that I had with President Trump.

00:28:38.120 And this is the statement from the White House after that conversation.

00:28:41.560 Very quickly, by the way, this is like all in a matter of 24 hours.

00:28:44.680 The government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted

00:28:48.860 acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States.

00:28:53.260 Um, it goes on, uh, today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again,

00:28:59.000 which I just agree with.

00:29:00.440 And what's crazy about this, dad, is that for years we were told from Biden administration

00:29:06.040 that he is doing everything he possibly can to protect our border.

00:29:09.820 His hands are tied.

00:29:11.260 It's just Congress.

00:29:12.680 Congress isn't doing anything.

00:29:14.260 Republicans are stopping him and he's trying as hard as he can, but there's nothing that can

00:29:18.400 be done.

00:29:19.460 Trump is proving that you can just do things.

00:29:22.240 You can just flex your muscles and things actually get done.

00:29:26.120 Yeah.

00:29:26.680 And you know, the other thing that happened in that Colombia thing is the president sent

00:29:30.580 his plane to pick those people up so that he had to pay for it, which was even, even

00:29:36.660 better.

00:29:37.100 So yeah, you know, and I'll tell you something else that's going to happen, kind of unrelated

00:29:40.940 to this, but it's the same type of thing where we should be following it.

00:29:44.520 You know, George Soros bought all those radio stations and there's a radio station in San

00:29:49.880 Francisco or Sacramento, one of the two that was announcing where border ice people were

00:29:57.480 and what cars they were in and all that type of stuff.

00:30:01.400 And when you endanger law enforcement, I believe that you're breaking the law.

00:30:07.200 You can watch the FCC is going to come way down on that.

00:30:11.160 Yeah.

00:30:11.440 May pull some licenses and whatever.

00:30:13.240 I mean, that's just evil.

00:30:14.880 It's so evil.

00:30:15.800 It's so evil.

00:30:16.720 And what's incredible, and George Soros, who has funded the most disastrous, deadly policies

00:30:23.160 and politicians in this country, just has wrought chaos everywhere his money goes.

00:30:28.000 He just got the, you know, the presidential freedom medal from Joe Biden.

00:30:33.160 Alex Soros is his son who now runs Open Society and all of his foundations continuing to fund

00:30:38.420 the disasters and Chuck Schumer posted on X that we have, you know, a billionaire run shadow

00:30:45.380 government that is taking over the federal government.

00:30:47.880 And of course, he's referring to Elon Musk.

00:30:49.880 And who retweeted that sentiment?

00:30:53.600 Alex Soros, which is just an irony because George Soros is a billionaire.

00:30:58.980 They have no shame.

00:31:00.200 None.

00:31:00.940 No shame whatsoever.

00:31:01.800 Which is exactly why we can't worry, I think, on the Republican side of, well, like, what

00:31:08.520 are they going to do, you know, when they're in power, if we do this, not saying that they

00:31:12.880 shouldn't act in integrity, but some people are worried, oh, if Trump does this, maybe

00:31:17.040 Democrats are going to do that next time. 0.99

00:31:18.640 Democrats are going to do it. 0.99

00:31:19.940 They're always going to do the worst thing that they possibly can.

00:31:23.200 No question about it.

00:31:23.660 And so Trump's job isn't to worry about what Democrats are going to do next.

00:31:27.260 His job is to worry about what he can get done right now.

00:31:29.440 He will not, yeah, and I think he learned that from his first, I think he tried to make

00:31:33.240 friends his first time.

00:31:34.800 Yes.

00:31:35.300 He's not in the friend making business right now.

00:31:37.040 Nope.

00:31:37.520 And of course, for Chuck Schumer, that's a better statement to retweet than his tweet

00:31:42.440 that he put out about, you know, here's why you need to be against tariffs.

00:31:46.180 Yeah.

00:31:46.640 Your guacamole and your beer are going to be more expensive.

00:31:50.220 And guacamole, you know, comes from avocados.

00:31:52.280 He had to explain that to people, too.

00:31:53.760 I mean, well, yeah, in New York, they have the fake stuff that they just have to mush together.

00:31:58.360 Yeah, I know.

00:31:59.820 It's crazy.

00:32:00.880 Okay.

00:32:01.520 Speaking of lawmakers, I saw this clip of Jasmine Crockett. 1.00

00:32:05.540 She is from the great state of Texas. 0.97

00:32:07.500 She's in Congress now going around again talking about mediocre white men. 0.94

00:32:16.000 I don't know. 0.95

00:32:16.940 I'm not really sure what she's referencing.

00:32:18.380 Everything for her goes back to white supremacy. 0.95

00:32:20.300 The white man, because she's clearly so oppressed.

00:32:22.700 Okay, let's play that clip of Jasmine.

00:32:24.180 I know that I had to work 10 times as hard as they did just to get into the seat.

00:32:29.300 When you look and you compare me to Marjorie Taylor Greene or me to Lauren Boebert, there

00:32:33.720 is no comparison.

00:32:35.080 And that is the life that we have always lived. 0.96

00:32:37.560 So the only people that are crying are the mediocre white boys that have been beaten out 0.98

00:32:41.980 by people that historically have had to work so much harder. 0.96

00:32:46.160 Oh, she's so oppressed. 1.00

00:32:49.240 She's such a victim. 0.94

00:32:50.620 Okay.

00:32:51.040 So were you in the Texas legislature with her or was she there after you?

00:32:54.720 No, she came in right after me. 1.00

00:32:57.400 And, you know, she wasn't even well liked within her own party in the Texas legislature. 0.90

00:33:03.760 I had several Democrat people that I, colleagues that I'd worked with down there.

00:33:08.580 If you talk to them about her, they just roll their eyes because it's all about her.

00:33:13.780 I mean, she's all about, you know, making a show. 0.96

00:33:16.200 She is in my book.

00:33:17.240 I talk about, you know, workhorses and show horses.

00:33:20.520 She's a show horse. 1.00

00:33:21.820 She would someone that would get up in the middle of the legislative session when they're

00:33:26.320 trying to discuss bills and make some type of lambasted speech and statement and stuff

00:33:31.300 like that.

00:33:31.880 And I mean, just, and she never accomplished anything either, by the way, if you look at

00:33:36.300 the record of the bill, she passed almost nothing.

00:33:39.640 She did very little.

00:33:40.900 I'll tell you what she did do.

00:33:42.640 What she did do is she ran out on her responsibilities when we were trying to pass, they were trying

00:33:48.840 to pass a bill that would cut down on election fraud and things like that to try to make elections

00:33:56.140 fairer.

00:33:57.100 OK, and she and some of her colleagues led by her ran off to Washington, D.C. and refused

00:34:05.200 to even do their job.

00:34:06.540 That's what that's what type of person she is. 1.00

00:34:09.000 OK, she wants to make it so it's easier to cheat. 1.00

00:34:13.440 And that's why she's, you know, pro open borders, all that type of stuff. 0.95

00:34:18.980 And she's just not she's just not a very good person.

00:34:22.900 She's not a good person.

00:34:23.840 She's not a bright person.

00:34:24.920 And still being a member of Congress who has made her way up from state legislature to

00:34:31.880 Congress, she still thinks that she's oppressed. 1.00

00:34:35.120 She still thinks that it's the mediocre white boy that is somehow in her way. 0.88

00:34:40.740 Look, if that were the case, if like you are so excellent, you are so much better than those

00:34:45.080 mediocre boys, then you shouldn't need DEI programs and the racial quotas that purposely

00:34:51.220 discriminates against white men.

00:34:53.560 If you are so awesome and so excellent, you should be able to rise to the top no matter

00:34:59.380 what skin color you are. 0.97

00:35:00.380 She's the epitome of a racist. 1.00

00:35:01.900 Yeah. 1.00

00:35:02.120 She is a racist bigot. 1.00

00:35:03.300 That's all that she is. 0.99

00:35:04.420 I mean, I'm sorry.

00:35:05.440 And that's the nicest terms I can say.

00:35:07.380 Yeah.

00:35:07.700 And she is a she is everything that's wrong with the whole victimhood in America. 1.00

00:35:14.660 Yeah, we have a lot of Texas legislators that make their way to Congress from Democrat-run 1.00

00:35:23.100 cities that are really stupid. 1.00

00:35:25.080 Yeah. 1.00

00:35:25.500 Oh, I know.

00:35:25.800 And bad.

00:35:26.480 What's the other lady's name from Houston? 1.00

00:35:29.680 Well, she passed away.

00:35:31.120 Oh.

00:35:31.520 Sheila Jackson Lee.

00:35:32.440 Sheila Jackson Lee.

00:35:33.660 Yeah.

00:35:33.720 She passed away.

00:35:35.100 Rest in peace, lady.

00:35:36.200 She was bad, though.

00:35:36.940 Yeah.

00:35:37.120 She was really bad.

00:35:37.860 Now, interestingly enough, the gentleman that took her place, Sylvester Turner, I did serve

00:35:43.800 with, and Sylvester and I had a great relationship.

00:35:48.180 And I often said, at least when I served with him.

00:35:50.760 Oh, didn't I just meet him?

00:35:51.860 You did meet him in D.C.

00:35:53.000 He was so kind.

00:35:55.000 He was so kind.

00:35:55.960 And he spoke.

00:35:56.700 So he was a Democrat in the Texas legislature.

00:35:58.440 Yeah.

00:35:58.980 In the Texas legislature.

00:35:59.940 Now he's in Congress.

00:36:01.520 And he said, oh, your dad was my favorite legislator when we were down there because my dad,

00:36:11.420 as conservative as he is, he, I mean, you really worked with the other side because

00:36:16.100 different than this show horse, you were actually concerned about, okay, what can we

00:36:21.980 actually accomplish?

00:36:23.140 What can we actually get done?

00:36:25.960 Rather than like, how can I just make a name for myself?

00:36:28.800 And I wish that's how all lawmakers were.

00:36:31.880 And there are still some there that try to do that.

00:36:33.860 I'm sure there are some in D.C.

00:36:34.900 But Sylvester and I, we did work together.

00:36:36.440 And I would often say, if you had helicoptered in and didn't know what party he was in, many

00:36:41.700 times you would think, well, this guy's got to be a conservative Republican on this particular

00:36:46.360 issue.

00:36:46.800 Now, there were other things we certainly disagreed on, but it was, yeah, he was, he's

00:36:50.600 a sweet man.

00:36:51.380 Yeah.

00:36:51.760 Very good guy.

00:36:52.220 Well, thank you so much, Dad.

00:36:54.220 And the book that you just referenced, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon.

00:37:00.480 Good.

00:37:00.780 We'll put the link in the, in the description of the episode so people can get it.

00:37:04.880 And we'll just see how things go.

00:37:07.480 We're just going to keep winning.

00:37:08.900 I know.

00:37:09.640 I'm, I'm, I'm loving it.

00:37:10.880 And you just have to like, if you haven't learned anything from the past election, the

00:37:14.420 past four years, the past eight years, the media lies to you and the pictures that they

00:37:19.600 paint just aren't accurate.

00:37:20.880 So you have to dig deeper.

00:37:22.260 You have to ask questions.

00:37:24.180 And sometimes you just have to ignore it and just say, no, what Trump is doing right

00:37:27.860 now is in America's best interest.

00:37:30.800 And I think things are going to work out.

00:37:32.900 I, I, I am so pleasantly surprised.

00:37:35.500 I really thought, I mean, I love Ron DeSantis still and think he would have done a great

00:37:40.220 job.

00:37:40.900 No question.

00:37:41.500 Excellent job.

00:37:42.180 And he, in some ways kind of taught us what it was like to not care about what the other

00:37:47.340 side says and just to do what's right.

00:37:49.300 He kind of set the tone for that.

00:37:51.320 But President Trump has really done that over the past couple of weeks.

00:37:56.060 He has shown he's not just in it for a personal vindictiveness.

00:37:59.120 He is, as you said, not in the friend making business.

00:38:03.440 And that's a good thing right now.

00:38:05.240 Can I give one bit of encouragement to your audience?

00:38:07.300 Yeah.

00:38:07.800 What I would encourage your audience to do is just let President Trump and his people

00:38:12.960 do what they're doing.

00:38:14.180 Okay.

00:38:14.440 They've got that.

00:38:15.720 They know where they're going, but where we need to stay involved is locally.

00:38:20.860 Make sure you're getting involved.

00:38:22.840 And a lot of those are happening this spring, your local school board and city elections.

00:38:29.120 You can have the most impact because it's the least turnout voters.

00:38:33.200 So your vote counts a lot more.

00:38:35.020 And you make sure and interview or either research each candidate.

00:38:40.080 And where can they find that?

00:38:41.480 They can generate.

00:38:42.340 Well, first, what I would first do is find the names of the candidate and then look to

00:38:48.020 see whether or not in the past, you can do this in Texas, in a lot of states, whether

00:38:52.900 they voted in a Democrat or Republican primary in the past.

00:38:56.160 That'll tell you a lot.

00:38:57.220 It won't tell you who they voted for specifically.

00:38:59.140 Can you put in like your zip code or your county and say local elections in this county?

00:39:04.900 Just say, yeah, you can do that.

00:39:07.020 In your county, what are the local elections in 2025?

00:39:10.100 Because a lot of them are nonpartisan.

00:39:11.680 So they don't have an R or D by their name.

00:39:13.780 But believe me, they're partisan.

00:39:15.140 Right.

00:39:15.300 You need to know what their positions are, especially when it comes to school board.

00:39:18.860 And you can also call your local Republican party because they'll know and they can give

00:39:22.520 you information on them as well.

00:39:24.180 And you just have a lot more access to those people that are running.

00:39:27.540 Most of them will be happy to sit down with you over coffee.

00:39:29.960 Oh, yeah.

00:39:30.240 No question.

00:39:30.480 Whereas, you know, your congressman in D.C. just probably won't be able to do that.

00:39:34.060 But they've got a million people they represent.

00:39:35.680 It's harder to do.

00:39:36.580 Exactly.

00:39:37.160 That's a really good piece of advice and advice that I'm taking to heart.

00:39:40.580 So thank you very much.

00:39:41.620 Thank you.

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00:41:25.440 All right.

00:41:26.660 So Lily Collins is an actress and she is the latest person in the news about the birth of

00:41:37.020 her baby via a surrogate.

00:41:39.740 And listen, when we started talking about this on Relatable, I think the first episode

00:41:44.420 that we did on this was 2020, maybe.

00:41:49.360 I think it was four or five years ago.

00:41:52.100 And I did not have all of the knowledge and all of the passion about this subject that

00:41:57.520 I have now.

00:41:58.760 So I'm not trying to say that I was some like trailblazer in general in talking about this.

00:42:04.940 There are people who have been talking about the ethics of surrogacy and IVF for a very

00:42:09.640 long time.

00:42:10.600 Katie Faust comes to mind.

00:42:13.440 Jennifer Law comes to mind. 0.99

00:42:15.260 These are women who have really informed me on the subject and have helped me grow in

00:42:21.060 this over time.

00:42:22.180 And yet most people, I will say in conservative media, simply were not talking about this.

00:42:28.900 And man, when we started talking about this, like if I told you some of the names of the

00:42:33.940 people in the conservative commentariat who messaged me and told me to sit down and to

00:42:42.060 stop talking about this, that my position on this is sad and radical and extreme, who

00:42:49.580 now seem to have moved that direction without ever telling me, hey, like maybe I shouldn't

00:42:54.780 have messaged you that.

00:42:56.320 Like you would be you'd be pretty amazed.

00:42:58.400 Or the people who I know were like, oh, I can't believe that we're talking about this,

00:43:04.180 who actually thought that it was a pro-life position at one point to be for things like

00:43:09.080 surrogacy.

00:43:09.600 I don't blame people for changing their minds.

00:43:11.860 I've changed my mind.

00:43:13.140 Like I also didn't know about like the ethics of surrogacy and the industry and all of that.

00:43:18.240 I would have said at one point, yeah, I don't really care like how the baby comes to the

00:43:23.200 world.

00:43:23.520 If they come to the world, then it's beautiful and it's a blessing and we shouldn't shame someone

00:43:27.420 for that.

00:43:27.920 So it is awesome for people to change their mind.

00:43:30.780 I am also one of those people that as I've gotten more information, my mind has really

00:43:34.920 evolved on this.

00:43:37.140 However, I'm just saying that like it is such a shift.

00:43:42.340 It is such a shift from where it was a few years ago when it was very stigmatized and

00:43:47.080 unpopular to broach this topic at all.

00:43:50.100 And understandably in some ways, because infertility is a very, very, very sad and difficult and sensitive

00:43:56.720 and personal subject that we should approach with compassion.

00:44:00.080 However, what I've realized is that we also have to approach these babies with compassion

00:44:04.720 and how babies are conceived and how they are gestated and how they are born actually matters

00:44:10.080 because they are people made in the image of God.

00:44:12.460 And in all of those arenas, we should be doing everything to maximize not only their chances

00:44:18.420 at physical life, but also their well-being.

00:44:23.660 And so when we look at the process of IVF, we look at the process of sperm donation and

00:44:30.280 egg donation and then surrogacy.

00:44:33.080 None of these things maximize the well-being of the child.

00:44:36.360 They may maximize the satisfaction of the wishes of the parents, but not the well-being of the

00:44:41.360 child.

00:44:41.680 And when we shift our mentality to the needs of the children over the wants of the parent,

00:44:47.680 that changes everything of what we think about these subjects.

00:44:51.060 And as I've realized that, again, crediting so many people that were preaching that message

00:44:56.000 far before I did, that has just really deepened my conviction over this.

00:45:02.400 So no matter how many messages I used to get or still get from people saying I should never

00:45:06.880 talk about IVF again.

00:45:07.840 And I literally had someone threaten me and tell me if I talk about IVF again, she's going 1.00

00:45:12.680 to make sure that I'm mass reported and that I'm deplatformed from Instagram for talking

00:45:18.260 about this.

00:45:18.820 I will continue to talk about reproductive technology because these babies in the womb who are 0.97

00:45:23.360 voiceless, they really matter.

00:45:25.360 They really matter.

00:45:26.480 And not enough people think about this.

00:45:28.220 So I am always grateful when there is a story like this, even though I don't like it.

00:45:34.120 I'm grateful that there's a story like this of a prominent actress going through a

00:45:37.820 And I am so grateful, truly, I'm so grateful that it has shifted so much that now so many

00:45:45.660 conservatives and so many Christians are talking about this and are realizing, like with every

00:45:52.480 story like this that comes out, there are more people who stand up and are like, oh, that

00:45:57.380 seems wrong.

00:45:58.320 And so let me read you the story and I think you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

00:46:01.980 So she's best known, Lily Collins, for the lead role in Netflix's Emily in Paris.

00:46:07.060 She posted a photo to her Instagram account announcing the birth of her daughter via surrogate.

00:46:11.260 Welcome to the center of our world.

00:46:13.260 Words will never express our endless gratitude for our incredible surrogate and everyone who

00:46:18.060 helped us along the way.

00:46:19.220 We love you to the moon and back again.

00:46:21.500 I have absolutely no doubt that she loves her baby very much and that she is grateful to

00:46:26.260 this surrogate.

00:46:27.540 But Lily's post, however, was flooded with critics who were critical that the couple

00:46:32.820 had chosen to hire a surrogate.

00:46:35.240 And again, this is such a shift from what it was a few years ago.

00:46:38.940 And I think also just the breakneck pace of the LGBTQ sexual revolution has also made people 1.00

00:46:46.480 take a step back for a second and say, hang on, how did we get here?

00:46:50.340 Like, how do we get to the point to where we are now renting wombs? 0.99

00:46:53.920 And in some cases, like buying children via egg and sperm donation, like how did we get

00:46:59.040 to this being accepted and celebrated?

00:47:02.580 So one commenter wrote that surrogacy is, end quote, exploitation of impoverished women 1.00

00:47:08.500 that shouldn't be normalized, while another user argued that having babies shouldn't be

00:47:12.680 like placing an order on Amazon.

00:47:17.100 Lily's husband, Charlie McDowell, quickly hopped into the comment section to defend their

00:47:21.100 decision. 0.99

00:47:21.620 He said basically that they are ignorant. 0.99

00:47:25.100 He said, it's OK not to be an expert on surrogacy. 0.98

00:47:27.000 It's OK not to know why someone might need a surrogate to have a child. 0.85

00:47:29.500 It's OK to not know the motivations of a surrogate, regardless of what you assume.

00:47:35.180 And it's OK to spend less time spewing hateful words into the world, especially in regards

00:47:39.540 to a beautiful baby girl.

00:47:41.100 See, this is often the manipulation that happens, the emotional game that is played there, that

00:47:46.380 if you criticize surrogacy, if you show compassion for the surrogate, if you show compassion for

00:47:52.120 the baby who has just been torn away from the only body and smell and heartbeat that she

00:47:57.740 knows that you are being hateful towards the parents who wanted to do this.

00:48:02.340 Because in all of these, in all forms of reproductive technology, what is being prioritized more than

00:48:08.700 the well-being of the child is the wish of the parent.

00:48:11.220 And I am not saying the wish of the parent does not matter at all.

00:48:15.520 I am saying it does not matter as much as the well-being of the child.

00:48:20.860 We do not know why Lily Collins chose a surrogate.

00:48:25.400 And I know that what I will hear is that you don't know why someone has to have a surrogate.

00:48:32.020 This was their only option.

00:48:33.440 Listen, IVF and surrogacy are never someone's only option because adoption is possible.

00:48:39.540 Adoption is available.

00:48:41.880 Yes, it is expensive.

00:48:43.340 So is surrogacy.

00:48:44.600 So is IVF.

00:48:46.240 Yes, it is difficult.

00:48:47.400 And I know that people say that is easy for you to say because you have your own biological

00:48:54.780 children and you do not have to have struggled with infertility yourself to call out the objective

00:49:02.520 reality of the ethical problems with something like surrogacy.

00:49:07.740 Because what we have right here is actually akin to The Handmaid's Tale.

00:49:13.100 For some reason, liberals love to dress up in their red robes and pretend that Margaret Atwood's

00:49:19.240 novel is about abortion, like allowing children who have been conceived to not be murdered and

00:49:26.260 to be born.

00:49:27.060 That's not what it's about.

00:49:29.680 It is actually much closer to the surrogacy industry in which you have rich women, which 1.00

00:49:34.700 I don't know if this is the motivation of Lily Collins, but for a lot of these celebrities 1.00

00:49:39.820 that use surrogates, rich women who want a baby because they're women and they have that 1.00

00:49:45.880 natural instinct to mother, but they don't want to ruin their body and they don't want 0.99

00:49:49.800 to hurt their career and they don't want to go through the sacrifice and they don't want

00:49:54.060 to miss out on a job opportunity.

00:49:57.340 And so they pay a less rich woman, typically an impoverished woman, to do the hard work 1.00

00:50:03.220 of carrying their child.

00:50:05.100 And I know people say, well, it's voluntary.

00:50:07.660 And so if everyone consents to it, what's the big deal?

00:50:10.660 There are a lot of things that people consent to that are morally wrong.

00:50:15.100 It technically prostitutes, many of them, not all of them, many of them may say that

00:50:21.760 they are consenting to what they do.

00:50:23.840 That does not mean that offering your body for a price is moral.

00:50:30.080 Because again, we don't believe as Christians in consent-based morality.

00:50:33.960 Consent is only one piece of the pie when we are deciding if something is right or wrong.

00:50:39.280 People can consent to being objectified.

00:50:41.700 That doesn't make objectification okay.

00:50:44.280 People can consent to being commodified and commercialized.

00:50:48.380 That does not make the commodification and the commercialization of human beings okay.

00:50:53.880 It is still wrong.

00:50:55.060 And the person who did not consent to any of this was the child.

00:50:59.300 And as we've talked about many times, the primal wound, which some people take issue with

00:51:05.900 this, but it is physiologically true that at the moment of birth, the child longs for the woman

00:51:16.340 who has been carrying him or her.

00:51:19.300 And ideally, like this is the, this is also the biological mother.

00:51:23.700 But in the case of surrogacy, we have a lot of brokenness going on because we've got an egg,

00:51:30.380 typically we have an egg donor or an egg seller.

00:51:34.220 The egg seller is selling their eggs for money.

00:51:36.920 They're called an egg donor, but it's a misnomer.

00:51:39.380 They're selling their eggs for money. 0.90

00:51:41.660 And that egg is being joined with the sperm of another person.

00:51:47.300 And that embryo that is created is implanted to us into a surrogate who is another woman 0.99

00:51:53.280 besides the biological mother.

00:51:56.100 And so that is what happens.

00:51:58.040 For example, in the case of two men, they're actually purchasing the egg seller.

00:52:02.080 They're purchasing a separate surrogate. 0.56

00:52:03.880 They're taking the baby away from the biological mother.

00:52:06.400 They're taking the baby away from the woman who carried that child.

00:52:12.540 And they are intentionally raising a child who is motherless.

00:52:16.240 I mean, what a cruel, draconian, demonic social experiment that we are forcing unconsenting

00:52:22.200 children into in the name of love is love and inclusion.

00:52:25.960 And there are even conservatives who will get on social media and applaud that ruthless and

00:52:33.980 cruel exchange.

00:52:34.820 But in the case of Lily Collins, it is probably her egg. 0.99

00:52:39.240 It is probably her husband's sperm. 0.51

00:52:41.060 This is probably the biological child.

00:52:44.360 And yet, again, we know I didn't totally finish my thought, but I'm coming back to it.

00:52:48.460 There is a physiological reality here that that baby, when that baby is born, wants the

00:52:55.240 woman who carried him, wants who he thinks is his mother. 0.97

00:52:59.920 He has heard that heartbeat for nine months.

00:53:02.900 He knows her voice.

00:53:05.020 He knows her smell.

00:53:07.100 He knows her.

00:53:08.880 And this is all he knows.

00:53:10.420 This has been his home.

00:53:12.140 This is how he feels safe.

00:53:14.160 And the only reason someone would scoff at that and laugh that off and wave that away

00:53:18.620 is because that baby can't talk. 0.99

00:53:21.660 Because that baby cannot articulate that that is what he or she wants.

00:53:26.700 That baby can't tell you that that is what he is crying.

00:53:29.240 And later on in life, 10 and 20 years later, when he still feels that wound of being separated

00:53:36.120 from the only home he has ever known, he still won't be able to verbalize that that's what

00:53:41.980 he has always known he is missing.

00:53:43.800 And yet it's true.

00:53:44.880 And we know that there is still a primal wound with kids who are adopted, who are separated

00:53:51.560 from their mother.

00:53:53.360 Now, I am not at all against adoption.

00:53:55.560 I am for adoption.

00:53:57.700 Because adoption redeems a broken situation, but surrogacy creates the broken situation.

00:54:05.080 Adoption redeems and cares for, in principle, a baby that has already been created, has already

00:54:11.480 been conceived, but surrogacy and even the IVF that always has to accompany surrogacy, you

00:54:17.400 are purposely, from the start, creating a child to be separated from the natural process of

00:54:25.340 conception and gestation.

00:54:27.520 And in the case of surrogacy, in the case of egg and sperm donation, you are purposely creating 0.74

00:54:32.960 that child to be separated from their mother and or father and the woman who created them. 0.90

00:54:38.720 So you are creating the broken situation in service of your wants.

00:54:44.680 And so we know that.

00:54:46.500 We know that the separation that happens at birth for a variety of reasons, whether it's

00:54:51.860 because of surrogacy or not, can actually have a lifelong, indelible, psychological, physiological

00:54:59.480 effect on a child.

00:55:02.260 And we are willing to risk that, especially in the United States, because, well, the parents

00:55:10.460 just wanted it.

00:55:12.260 The parents wanted a child. 0.72

00:55:16.020 And so we think, especially pro-lifers, think that we should take an any means necessary approach

00:55:21.420 to having children because having children is good, but that is not actually the pro-life

00:55:27.420 and moral position.

00:55:29.140 And there's some really good, insightful commentary on this on social media that I'll get into

00:55:34.460 in a second.

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00:56:35.080 So lots of people are upset with this on X, which again, I just love to see Rachel Moselle.

00:56:44.780 I don't know who these people are, by the way.

00:56:47.080 We might not agree on a variety of things.

00:56:48.960 I'm not sure.

00:56:49.480 But these are some popular X posts out there.

00:56:51.360 This person says, I don't know where on the political spectrum this opinion falls,

00:56:54.920 but I think the concept of a womb for hire is egregiously exploitative and exploitative,

00:57:00.880 however you want to pronounce that.

00:57:02.800 It is exploiting.

00:57:05.140 And she's absolutely right.

00:57:06.800 And I do think that there are progressives and conservatives that agree on this.

00:57:12.100 And I think that there are progressives and conservatives that are for this that will

00:57:17.340 not say anything about it because they don't want to upset their gay friends, which is very

00:57:21.060 sad.

00:57:22.800 Someone also said, what is up with this trend of wealthy women paying surrogates to carry 1.00

00:57:26.980 their baby?

00:57:27.540 The most wonderful journey of being parents is the pregnancy.

00:57:29.880 The thought of providing everything the baby needs in your utero is a mother's privilege 1.00

00:57:35.760 and blessing.

00:57:36.700 Absolutely right.

00:57:38.480 Other people are pointing out that basically this is saying pregnancy is just for poor women.

00:57:45.480 Pregnancy is just for women who need the financial help. 1.00

00:57:48.880 This person, Maria, says on X, the future.

00:57:51.320 Pregnancy is for poor women. 1.00

00:57:53.380 Yeah, that's basically the concept of the handmaid's tale.

00:57:56.920 And most progressives are fine with this.

00:57:59.580 Not all, but most progressives are totally fine with this form of trafficking women's 0.97

00:58:04.840 bodies and commercializing children. 1.00

00:58:09.320 Billy Bragg, I follow her on X.

00:58:12.860 She says, just such a coincidence how so many rich women whose careers are built around their 1.00

00:58:16.680 physical attractiveness have to use surrogates, isn't it?

00:58:19.020 Another mystery we'll never get to the bottom of.

00:58:24.100 Now, there are many, even though this is not an LGBTQ story.

00:58:29.580 There are many in the LGBTQ world who are very fiercely defensive of things like surrogacy

00:58:37.320 because, again, they are prioritizing their own wants over the well-being of children.

00:58:42.320 And so they will purposely create fatherless children.

00:58:45.060 They will purposely create motherless children. 0.98

00:58:47.020 They will use the sperm cellars.

00:58:48.680 They will use the egg cellars.

00:58:50.200 And they will create these children.

00:58:51.900 And they will convince themselves their children are fine, that they're not robbing their children

00:58:55.260 of anything.

00:58:56.260 But spoiler, the two people needed to make a baby are also needed to raise a baby and to 0.63

00:59:02.280 purposely create a motherless or fatherless child.

00:59:04.860 It's a social experiment that is extremely new.

00:59:07.720 Those chickens will come home to roost at some point.

00:59:10.220 We don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but I guarantee you it will not be good.

00:59:14.680 We're going to have a lot of lost and lonely and very confused young people.

00:59:19.700 And I hear stories all the time, by the way, that you guys send me.

00:59:23.100 You were a nanny. 1.00

00:59:23.760 You were a teacher.

00:59:24.760 And you met a child who was especially like little girls who are raised by two men who

00:59:31.800 would always ask if you were their mother, who would have the propensity to go around to

00:59:38.740 different women that they see and ask, are you my are you my mom? 1.00

00:59:42.380 You'll remember this is not surrogacy or LGBTQ related, but Hayden Panettiere, a few years

00:59:47.740 ago, she was separated from her child.

00:59:51.020 I think she was in rehab.

00:59:52.020 She had her own issues going on and her child was very young.

00:59:55.940 And her father told Hayden that while they were apart, their young daughter would approach

01:00:03.040 every woman they saw and ask, are you my mommy?

01:00:05.680 Are you my mommy?

01:00:06.880 Well, of course, because kids want their moms. 0.99

01:00:09.620 Kids need their moms. 1.00

01:00:10.460 Do you remember Lance Bass, the NSYNC singer? 0.99

01:00:13.160 He's gay. 0.99

01:00:14.060 He had his kids via egg cellar and surrogate. 0.98

01:00:18.060 He actually told the media.

01:00:20.180 I think it was People Magazine publicly.

01:00:22.140 He said, I'm so sad because my kids, I think they were toddlers at that point.

01:00:26.640 They won't cuddle with me.

01:00:27.880 But whenever my mom comes over, they always want to cuddle with her.

01:00:31.500 Hmm.

01:00:32.140 Yeah, probably because you robbed your kids of a mom. 1.00

01:00:34.960 And they're wondering, like, like, it's like that Dr. Seuss, actually, I think it's

01:00:38.660 P.D.

01:00:38.980 Eastman, but it's like under the Dr. Seuss umbrella, that that book, like, where is my

01:00:44.920 mother?

01:00:45.300 And you have the little baby bird going around to the cow and to the truck and to all these

01:00:50.980 different objects.

01:00:51.600 Where is my mother?

01:00:53.140 Yeah.

01:00:53.500 Everyone wants to know that.

01:00:54.740 Everyone wants to know whose they are and from where they come.

01:00:59.600 The LGBTQ media world, the progressives, and not everyone who is in this world is OK with 1.00

01:01:06.020 surrogacy.

01:01:06.580 So I just want to say that up front.

01:01:08.080 There are many who say, no, there's something wrong with that.

01:01:10.860 And even though they identify as gay or something else, they understand that it's not their right 1.00

01:01:15.680 to purchase children.

01:01:17.340 But Pink News is like a big LGBTQ media outlet.

01:01:22.220 They're a digital publisher.

01:01:25.060 They responded to the trending conversation with an article celebrating surrogacy for,

01:01:31.120 quote unquote, gay dads.

01:01:33.140 It's worth noting that. 0.94

01:01:35.740 So here's the headline.

01:01:36.840 It says, an outstanding gift, gay dad on the joy of having a child via surrogacy.

01:01:43.480 And so they go through this person's, these people's story, Kevin and Michael.

01:01:47.860 They have a child via surrogate.

01:01:49.900 And this dad says, it's a special kind of relationship without a name.

01:01:56.380 Our surrogate is not a sister, aunt, or cousin, but she is family.

01:02:01.820 And then they are lamenting that there's a massive shortage of surrogates in the UK,

01:02:07.120 and they need women to step up. 1.00

01:02:10.580 They also say that this is an altruistic thing from surrogates.

01:02:14.180 But it's not.

01:02:14.860 It's not altruistic because these surrogates are getting paid tens of thousands of dollars. 1.00

01:02:18.820 And they're typically already mothers who feel strapped for cash. 0.97

01:02:22.200 Do you remember the story of Brittany?

01:02:23.940 The woman who was strapped for cash was already a mother of four who was a surrogate twice. 1.00

01:02:29.160 And the second time she was a surrogate, she was a surrogate for two men.

01:02:32.760 She came on here to tell her story.

01:02:34.480 She was diagnosed with cancer when she was pregnant.

01:02:36.420 They told her, we don't want anything to do with this baby because something bad might happen to it.

01:02:42.300 So abort this baby at 24 weeks.

01:02:44.480 Abort this baby, and we don't want anything to do with you. 1.00

01:02:47.320 We don't want anything to do with the baby.

01:02:48.560 She did not want to abort the baby.

01:02:50.500 The doctor said, hey, you really need to deliver early for your own health.

01:02:54.160 We don't know entirely what happened, but she delivered very early, and the baby did not live.

01:03:00.660 And again, we don't know entirely what happened with that procedure, but the dads that hired her wanted nothing to do with the remains of the baby.

01:03:09.380 They just said they want a new surrogate to, quote, try again.

01:03:12.980 So I'm not saying that at all describes every gay couple and how they treat their surrogate.

01:03:19.080 But again, this like rosy picture of like the friends and everything that is just not always the case.

01:03:26.720 So this person, Helen Prosser, is actually who said there's a massive shortage of surrogates in the UK.

01:03:34.720 Women need to step up. 1.00

01:03:37.520 She points to the desire of women to have children as a way to get women interested in being a surrogate. 0.89

01:03:42.280 It's innate.

01:03:43.320 It's innate, she says, the desire to have children, and we feel it is one of the greatest joys that somebody can have.

01:03:48.000 Yes, to have your own children, to have your own children.

01:03:52.600 And Katie Faust says, do you know how hard it is to make a motherless baby in response to all of this?

01:03:59.100 A mother is required for life to, is required for life to being, is the child's entire emotional, nutritional, physical world for nine and a half months. 0.99

01:04:07.480 And even beyond that, if you're breastfeeding, it's critical to infant bonding, attachment, and soothing.

01:04:13.400 Surrogacy is anti-human, peddled as progress.

01:04:18.020 And the CEO of Pink News is Benjamin Cohen and his partner, former trustee of a UK pro-LGBTQ organization called Mermaids.

01:04:31.680 They have a picture of themselves carrying a newborn baby they obtained via surrogacy away from his mother.

01:04:37.860 Just as a reminder, surrogacy, whether it's two men doing it or whether it's a man or a woman doing it, like we are treating babies worse than we are treating puppies.

01:04:46.800 We say that puppies and kittens need to stay with their mothers for eight to 12 weeks because it is cruel to take them away from their dog mom or their cat mom.

01:04:57.660 And yet for babies, human beings born via surrogacy, we take them away from their mothers and from the woman who gestated them minutes after birth.

01:05:09.380 And I'm telling you that is cruel.

01:05:11.360 It is exploitation.

01:05:12.920 It doesn't, I don't care what the gender are of the people doing this.

01:05:18.400 I care about the children.

01:05:19.840 And no matter how a child is conceived, that child is made in the image of God, has just as much value as my children or anyone else's, and should be cherished and loved and cared for.

01:05:28.960 And I believe these parents do love their kids.

01:05:32.120 But again, the safety, the well-being, the interests of children must supersede the desires of the parents and of grownups.

01:05:42.920 And if you want more information about all of this, I have so many episodes on surrogacy and IVF and sperm and egg selling.

01:05:50.760 We'll put a few of them in the description of this episode.

01:05:53.100 We can't put all of them because there are so many, especially if you want to know more about IVF, because it seems to surprise people, my position on it.

01:06:00.340 We have many conversations about it, compassionate, gentle conversations about it.

01:06:05.460 Some passionate, though, from all different angles.

01:06:08.120 People have struggled with infertility from a doctor's perspective, from an advocate's perspective, like all different kinds of perspectives on it we have covered on this show.

01:06:17.040 So go back and listen to those if you're curious about it.

01:06:20.300 As you can hear, like, I'm very adamant about this subject, and it's not because I have, like, disdain for people who have gone through this or struggled with this.

01:06:28.900 It's because, like, there's just not enough people sticking up for these children.

01:06:33.440 So thank you to those of you who are doing that now and who have done that, because culture is changing.

01:06:39.680 Times they are changing on this in a really, really good way, and praise the Lord for that.

01:06:45.580 The prayer of a righteous person has much power as it is working, and the Lord is using every step of obedience of Christians, private and public, to change the game and to protect these children.

01:06:55.920 So let's keep going.

01:06:56.920 Let's keep raising our respectful ruckus about this.

01:06:59.420 All right, that's all we've got time for today.

01:07:00.820 We'll be back here tomorrow.

01:07:03.440 We'll be back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - February 05, 2025

Ep 1135 ｜ My Reaction to Lily Collins’ Surrogacy Announcement & Trump’s Tariffs Explained ｜ Guest： Ron Simmons

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