President Trump was reportedly stunned to find out that the new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may be gay.

According to sources, Trump was so shocked upon hearing the information that he even laughed when he was briefed on the development.

And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck’s reaction isn’t much different.

“Did you see that the ayatollah’s son might be gay?” Glenn asks BlazeTV host Pat Gray on “The Glenn Beck Program.”

“Yes,” Gray answers, adding, “Which is impossible of course, because there’s no gay people in Iran, right?”

And according to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Gray is right.

“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals,” Ahmadinejad claimed in 2007, as homosexual conduct is illegal in Iran.

“He’s not apparently really a devout Muslim, because he’s [allegedly] having sex with men, apparently,” Glenn says.

“And that might be why his dad wasn’t that excited about him taking over,” Gray chimes in, adding, “Because he’s gay.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ayatollah ali khamenei, New ayatollah, Iran war, Iran, Mojtaba khamenei, Pat gray, Pat gray unleashed, Conservative podcast, President trump, The trump administration 

Rene Echevarria broke into show business by penning episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the ’80s.

Now, the versatile writer/director is putting his Christian faith front and center with a limited series unlike any other.

‘Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible.’

“The Faithful: Women of the Bible” debuts at 8 p.m. March 22 on FOX and airs the next day on Hulu. The three-part saga explores the book of Genesis through the eyes of consequential women.

Think Sarah (Minnie Driver), the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac, whose infertility gave way to a spiritual miracle. Or Rebekah (Alexa Davalos), mother of Jacob and Esau and wife of Isaac.

In the beginning

Echevarria’s production partner, veteran TV producer Carol Mendelsohn, came up with the show’s angle.

“She knew I was a believer and loved the Bible,” Echevarria tells Align. “She’s a seeker, with a restless curiosity about spiritual matters.”

The veteran storyteller wasn’t initially convinced that the project would be the perfect fit for him.

“I was a little skeptical … [asking], ‘Is that too limiting?’” he says of the concept, adding that his initial fears were unfounded. “The experience has been great; it opened my eyes to understanding these timeless stories.”

Deeper truth

Echevarria, who has worked with James Cameron (“Dark Angel”) and Steven Spielberg (“Terra Nova”) throughout his expansive career, says he took care to balance creative license with both his faith and the source material.

“I’ve been blessed to have worked in this business a long time. mostly making up stories. interpreting stories,” he says. Not this time.

“I always have to check myself, and sometimes I wish that little piece of Scripture wasn’t there. It would be so much easier,” he says from a dramatic perspective. “I found that if I didn’t try to avoid the challenges but steer into them, … you’ll find something deeper, a deeper truth, … things that I didn’t think of.”

“The Faithful” was shot in Italy, giving the creative team access to lush landscapes, including expanses of olive trees, that created a reasonable facsimile to biblical times. The team decided early in the production to work with mostly British actors and use their vocal cadences in the process.

A new light

The son of Cuban immigrants says making “The Faithful” impacted his personal faith.

“It re-invigorated my love of Scripture. … I’m seeing things I thought I knew in a completely new light,” he says.

Some cast and crew members didn’t necessarily share his faith, which added nuance to the production.

“There’s a lot of downtime on set. So many times, people shared with me stories about why and how this project came to them at the right place in their lives,” he says. “Like people struggling with having lost a parent or having troubles with their kids.”

Others were skeptical about doing a Bible-based project.

“One actor shared that he found himself drawn in and said, ‘Yes, I want to do that,’” he recalls after the performer’s initial reluctance.

RELATED: ‘Last Days’ brings empathy to doomed Sentinel Island missionary’s story

Vertical

No ‘unearned piety’

Still, he turned having actors who didn’t know Scripture into a positive development. It made the humanity of the core players pop.

“Play it like you don’t know you’re in the Bible,” he says of his advice to the cast. That allowed them to avoid an “unearned piety” that brought the figures down to earth. “It’s just ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.”

Echevarria wouldn’t mind telling more tales from the “Faithful” perspective. He cites the book of Ruth and the Samaritan woman at the well as stories ripe for future “Faithful” installments. That’s assuming viewers flock to the show, set to wrap on Easter Sunday.

“That’s my fondest hope, that the show finds an audience,” he says. Those chances are better than ever given the current pop culture climate. Shows like “The Chosen” and “House of David” have connected with Christians the world over, and the first part of Mel Gibson’s “The Resurrection of the Christ” series could be one of 2027’s biggest movie events.

“There’s a hunger out there for this kind of storytelling,” he says. “They’re resonating. People are taking notice.”

And he hasn’t forgotten how he entered show business several decades ago. He dreams of rejoining the “Star Trek” universe after penning 30-plus episodes across “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine.” He’s been noodling with an idea “out of left field” to share in that franchise.

“I’m waiting for the right moment to bring it over there,” he says.

​Faith, Movies, The faithful, Genesis, Women of the bible, Television, Christianity, Minnie driver, Rene echevarria, Entertainment 

After nominating James Talarico for the Senate in Texas, are Democrats now racists and misogynists?

It’s a reasonable question. Democrats chose James Talarico, a white man, over Jasmine Crockett, a black woman. That choice also collides head-on with what Democrats told the country after Kamala Harris lost the presidency: that racism and misogyny decided the outcome.

Democrats can’t keep changing the rules depending on who wins.

In Texas’ recent Democratic Senate primary, Talarico, a member of the Texas House since 2018, faced Crockett, a two-term member of Congress from Texas’ 30th District. On paper, Crockett looked like the stronger Democrat brand: a young, outspoken black woman with far left-wing views and national visibility.

Yet Talarico won handily, 53% to 45%, after a primary season marked by intraparty drama — including fights that centered on race.

If identity politics commands the party, the result looks odd. Even sympathetic Democratic observers described the two candidates as ideologically similar. MSNBC analyst John Heilemann said Talarico is “not a moderate” and that he and Crockett held “basically the same positions on almost every issue.” In other words, voters didn’t choose a centrist over a firebrand. They chose one firebrand over another — and they chose the white male.

Democrats will reply that the answer is “electability.” They’ll say Talarico gives them a better shot in November. Maybe that’s what many primary voters believed. But Democrats have spent years insisting that “electability” talk is often a cover for bias, a way to push women and minorities aside while keeping the old hierarchies intact.

That’s why the question won’t go away.

Democrats routinely portray themselves as the party most attuned to race and sex. The 2024 numbers underline that self-image: Exit polls showed Harris won overwhelming support from black voters and strong support from women, including black women. Democrats treat those blocs as moral proof of the party’s mission.

They also treated Harris’ loss as moral proof of the country’s failure.

Former President Joe Biden blamed the 2024 defeat on sexism and racism, saying voters “went the sexist route” and wouldn’t accept “a woman of mixed race.” When candidates for DNC chairman were asked whether racism and misogyny played a role in Harris’ defeat, all eight raised their hands. David Axelrod said bluntly that the campaign included appeals to racism and that “anybody” who thinks bias didn’t affect the outcome is wrong.

Rank-and-file Democrats echoed the claim. NBC News’ post-election interviews featured Democrat voters attributing Harris’ loss to the country’s unwillingness to elect a woman, with race layered on top. “Regardless of race,” one black Democrat from Pittsburgh said, “they didn’t want her to win.”

RELATED: James Talarico found a verse — and twisted the meaning

Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images

So Democrats have made this argument, loudly and repeatedly: When a woman loses at the top of the ticket, the country’s sexism and racism bear much of the blame.

Then Texas Democrats faced their own test. They could nominate the black woman — especially in a race where ideology wasn’t the separating line — and they didn’t.

Democrats might point out that Harris flamed out early in the crowded 2020 presidential primary and that the party still elevated her to vice president and then the 2024 nomination. That’s true. But that history cuts both ways. It suggests Democrats will showcase race and sex when it serves the coalition — and set it aside when it doesn’t.

And this time, they aren’t even pretending they didn’t set it aside.

Talarico’s profile rose fast, aided by a national media moment. Stephen Colbert posted an interview online after CBS declined to air it over “equal time” concerns, and the clip drew millions of views. The controversy boosted Talarico’s visibility and fundraising — and helped turn a state primary into a national narrative.

Democrats are now framing their choice as pragmatic. They’re saying: We picked the candidate who can win.

Fine. But Democrats don’t get to treat “electability” as an illegitimate dog whistle when Republicans use it — then invoke it as a clean, neutral justification when Democrats do.

Here’s the bottom line: When America chose Trump over Harris in 2024 — in a race with major policy contrasts — Democrats blamed racism and misogyny. When Texas Democrats chose a white male over a black woman in 2026 — in a race Democrats say offered little substantive contrast — the party expects everyone to treat it as smart strategy.

That double standard is the point.

Either identity is decisive and bias explains outcomes — or voters, including Democrat voters, sometimes make other calculations and deserve to be treated like adults.

Democrats can’t keep changing the rules depending on who wins.

​James talarico, Jasmine crockett, Texas senate race, Democrats, Gop, Texas, Kamala harris, Identity politics, Texas democrats, Opinion & analysis, Racism, Misogyny, Sexism, Joe biden, 2026 midterms 

In recent years, the national conversation has drifted toward the Arctic and the geopolitical contest unfolding there. Greenland pops into the headlines as a strategic prize for the United States. But the truth is, we already hold the most important ground for early warning, deterrence, and defeat of airborne threats: Alaska.

No other place on American soil combines geography, infrastructure, military capacity, and testing range in a way that can anchor what defense planners call the “Golden Dome” — a multilayered, 21st-century shield against missile and air-launched threats.

From the polar sky to the missile fields below, Alaska stands as the nation’s shield — strong, tested, and ready.

For conservatives who believe in peace through strength, constitutional defense, and American sovereignty, Alaska is not just valuable; it is indispensable.

The geographic high ground

Alaska’s advantage begins with location. At the top of the world, it sits astride the northern approaches that matter in great-power competition. When Russia or China run long-range aviation patrols, they do not approach through Florida or California. They come over polar routes.

For decades, the Alaska NORAD Region has met them first. American and Canadian forces have executed countless intercepts, sending a message that never changes: We see you. You will not approach unnoticed.

That deterrence does real work. It prevents miscalculation. It keeps pressure off the rest of the country. Alaska makes that possible by standing watch on America’s northern frontier.

Building the Golden Dome

Homeland defense now faces threats that do not fit Cold War assumptions. Hypersonic glide vehicles, low-flying cruise missiles, and next-generation systems demand fast detection, precise tracking, and long-range defeat.

A Golden Dome won’t be a single system. It will require an integrated network of sensors, communications, long-range radar, interceptors, and command and control.

Alaska already hosts critical pieces of that architecture: early-warning infrastructure, long-range radar, secure communications, and the operational footprint to integrate new systems quickly. Fort Greely anchors an established missile defense mission, with layered capability aimed at threats inside and outside the atmosphere. That foundation allows faster expansion than any “build-it-from-scratch” option elsewhere.

Closing the gaps

Coastal coverage can track many high-altitude threats. Low-altitude cruise missile detection presents a harder challenge, because adversaries design these systems to fly fast and low and to exploit radar limitations.

The Army’s Long-Range Persistent Surveillance system offers a proven way to close those gaps. Alaska’s geography provides a vantage point no other state can match across northern air corridors.

Detection only matters when response follows. Alaska maintains frontline intercept forces today, including fifth-generation fighter squadrons. A Marine Corps presence in Alaska also supports a mobile ground-based air defense mission that can move to critical nodes and build resilient, flexible layers.

A responsive homeland air defense posture starts with geography. Alaska supplies it.

RELATED: America’s next-gen weapons face a down-to-earth foe: The elements

DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images

The world’s premier testing ground

Missile defense depends on systems tested, refined, and validated under realistic conditions. Alaska offers a unique advantage: the largest live-ordnance range on Earth.

That range supports testing and training at scale — emerging radar and sensor concepts, counter-hypersonic development, and joint-force exercises in conditions that mirror the northern environment where homeland defense may be decided.

Alaska lets the U.S. test what it builds and field what it tests in the same strategic space.

America’s shield, ready today

Alaska is more than a strategic location. Alaska is a living, operating defense ecosystem.

With infrastructure already in place, the latest technologies ready for deployment, multilayered detection systems available, and unmatched training and testing ranges at our disposal, Alaska stands ready to detect and defeat airborne threats long before they reach American cities.

Every investment that strengthens Alaska’s surveillance, detection, and intercept capacity multiplies security across the country. In an era of tight budgets and rising instability, that is exactly the kind of smart national defense conservatives should demand: protect American lives and territory by leveraging American assets that already work.

Other places capture attention. Alaska carries the burden. It remains the geographic high ground of missile defense, the first line of deterrence, and the proving ground for the systems America needs next. From the polar sky to the missile fields below, Alaska stands as the nation’s shield — strong, tested, and ready.

​Alaska, Golden dome, Missile defense, Russia, China, Hypersonic missiles, American defense, Airspace, Opinion & analysis