The Charlie Kirk Show - Donald Trump's DOGE Defunding Rampage

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 Today on the Charlie Kirk Show, the constitutional question that looms in front of us, the importance of Doge and the 100-year fight that we are involved in.

00:00:08.000 Mark Halperin also joins the program.

00:00:10.000 Email me, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to our podcast.

00:00:14.000 Open up your podcast application and type in Charlie Kirk Show and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.

00:00:22.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:25.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:25.000 Here we go.

00:00:26.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:28.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:30.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:34.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:37.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:38.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:39.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:41.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:00:56.000 That's why we are here.

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00:01:24.000 Happy Monday!

00:01:26.000 There is a lot happening.

00:01:28.000 We're not going to lead with the Super Bowl news, which was largely unwatchable.

00:01:32.000 And I think we all agree that halftime show was awful.

00:01:35.000 It was terrible.

00:01:37.000 The Super Bowl, I'm curious to see the viewership numbers, but I can't imagine that it was good.

00:01:47.000 Yeah, Blake says in the chat, Charlie, that was extremely watchable.

00:01:50.000 I enjoyed watching every second of that.

00:01:52.000 I don't know if he's talking about the game or if he's talking about the halftime show.

00:01:57.000 Both is what he said.

00:01:58.000 Oh, he slept through halftime.

00:02:01.000 Look, it's good for the Kansas City faithful to be humble a little bit.

00:02:05.000 Good for a little bit of humility.

00:02:07.000 That's enough.

00:02:08.000 I mean, winning three Super Bowls in a row.

00:02:12.000 Look, us Bears fans, we get to a Super Bowl once every 30 years.

00:02:16.000 We get to a Super Bowl.

00:02:17.000 Last time the Bears were in a Super Bowl, I think Blake proved me wrong on this.

00:02:21.000 I think it was...

00:02:23.000 2008?

00:02:23.000 No, no, we were in a Super Bowl.

00:02:24.000 We lost to the Indianapolis Colts.

00:02:25.000 We won a Super Bowl in 1985. Bears folklore is 2006 season.

00:02:30.000 Thank you, Blake.

00:02:31.000 We're living on the energy of the 1985. Still, if you look at Super Bowl commercials, they still have Ditka, you know, like dressed up.

00:02:40.000 I mean, it's just living on the fumes of 1985, I could say.

00:02:44.000 So we're not going to talk too much about the Super Bowl.

00:02:47.000 Instead, I want to zero in on what's happening with Doge and whether or not it's popular.

00:02:52.000 Doge is forcing a major constitutional issue.

00:02:55.000 Now, I wouldn't call it a crisis, but it certainly is forcing front and center whether or not the executive branch has the power to allocate resources of their choosing, to faithfully exercise the laws, the vesting clause.

00:03:12.000 Now, the Article II supremacists, which we have been mentioning many times on this program, are not happy with this.

00:03:18.000 People like Chris Murphy, people like Ilhan Omar, They live to protect the federal bureaucracy.

00:03:24.000 They exist to protect the standing army.

00:03:28.000 The federal bureaucracy has so many separate and different components.

00:03:34.000 It is far more entrenched than people realize.

00:03:38.000 It is the technocratic class.

00:03:40.000 No one elected these people.

00:03:42.000 No one knows who they are.

00:03:43.000 They are unaccountable, and they have unchecked amounts of power.

00:03:48.000 So the question remains, Do we have any ability to rein them in, or do we serve at the pleasure of the bureaucracy?

00:03:58.000 Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about this in his exit address.

00:04:03.000 And most people think about the military-industrial complex, but that was only one component of Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address.

00:04:11.000 Dwight D. Eisenhower, of course, was the head of the Allied forces.

00:04:15.000 The Allied Supreme Forces also warned extensively.

00:04:19.000 Of an unelected, technocratic, scientific elite running the country.

00:04:24.000 Who is sovereign is the fundamental question.

00:04:29.000 Ilhan Omar believes that we're in the midst of a constitutional crisis, and she isn't totally wrong.

00:04:34.000 I wouldn't use the word crisis, but it is the greatest constitutional question since Woodrow Wilson.

00:04:40.000 We are in this question of what constitutes the federal government?

00:04:45.000 How many branches?

00:04:46.000 Who is in charge?

00:04:47.000 Who gets the consent of the governed?

00:04:50.000 Who is the sovereign?

00:04:53.000 Let's play cut 12. Yeah, I mean, what we are witnessing is a constitutional crisis.

00:04:58.000 We are seeing an executive branch that has decided that they are no longer going to abide by the Constitution in honoring Congress's role in the creation of the agencies, in their role in deciding where money is allocated.

00:05:15.000 You see, this is Article I supremacy.

00:05:18.000 We have been hypnotized to believe that only the legislative branch has power.

00:05:24.000 No, it is designed so that there's tension between the branches.

00:05:26.000 The executive branch can tell the first branch to go pound sand, and then the third branch will hopefully reconcile the differences.

00:05:34.000 Here is Chris Murphy saying this is one of those constitutional crises the country's ever faced.

00:05:38.000 I think it is the greatest constitutional question in 100 years.

00:05:42.000 But it is all based on this idea that there is a small group of elites that know what is better for you than you do.

00:05:49.000 That there is a technocratic class, the managers, the desk workers, and they will remain permanent regardless of who is in control.

00:05:59.000 They will remain in power regardless of who is elected.

00:06:03.000 They want to turn the presidency into a ceremonial job that cuts ribbons, takes pictures.

00:06:11.000 Gets people that win Super Bowls to come and visit the White House.

00:06:14.000 Thanks so much for playing.

00:06:16.000 That's it.

00:06:17.000 That's what they want the presidency to be.

00:06:19.000 Ceremonial in nature.

00:06:20.000 Let's play cut 13. Listen, I think this is the most serious constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly since Watergate.

00:06:27.000 The president is attempting to seize control of power and for corrupt purposes.

00:06:33.000 The president wants to be able to decide how and where money is spent so that he can reward his political friends, he can punish his political enemies.

00:06:42.000 That is the evisceration of democracy.

00:06:45.000 Well, hold on a second.

00:06:46.000 The American people voted for Donald Trump and...

00:06:49.000 The presidency, the executive branch, is an equal branch to your branch, Chris Murphy.

00:06:53.000 So he can tell the legislative branch, no, I'm not going to spend this.

00:06:57.000 And then the impoundment act issue comes front and center.

00:07:00.000 And that is why Russ's vote matters so much.

00:07:02.000 And the Supreme Court is going to have to think deeply about this.

00:07:06.000 Can the executive branch say no to appropriated money?

00:07:12.000 What are the limitations of that?

00:07:13.000 I don't even know the answer.

00:07:16.000 The impoundment act...

00:07:17.000 Is this question, which I think we need to just put down a flag and this needs to be the fight in front of us.

00:07:23.000 It is the existential question in front of us.

00:07:27.000 Is that, can the executive branch, the presidency, challenge and send money back to Congress if they don't want to spend it?

00:07:36.000 I want you to think about if the answer is no.

00:07:38.000 If the answer is no, then the presidency is subservient to the House and the Senate.

00:07:46.000 We have been telling our kids our entire life they are equal branches.

00:07:51.000 They are equal branches.

00:07:54.000 Stephen Miller perfectly addressed this in his interview with Maria Bartiromo, Play Cut 40. What we continue to see here is the idea that rogue bureaucrats who are elected by no one, who answer to no one, who have lifetime tenure jobs, who we would be told can never be fired, which of course is not true.

00:08:14.000 The power has been cemented and accumulated for years, whether it be with the Treasury bureaucrats or the FBI bureaucrats or the CIA bureaucrats or the USAID bureaucrats, with this unelected shadow force that is running our government and running our country.

00:08:29.000 Donald Trump is engaging in the most important restoration of democracy in over a century.

00:08:37.000 By saying that we are going to restore power to the people through their elected president and his appointed officers.

00:08:45.000 That is the only way we can have true democracy in this country.

00:08:49.000 This is exactly right.

00:08:50.000 When Chris Murphy says democracy, he means technocratic oligarchy.

00:08:54.000 When Stephen Miller says it again, I don't like the word democracy, but let's just play it out for what he means.

00:08:58.000 He means will of the American people, the consent of the governed.

00:09:01.000 He means that you are in charge of your government.

00:09:05.000 He means that you get to call the shots.

00:09:08.000 That's what Stephen Miller means.

00:09:10.000 And he's exactly right.

00:09:10.000 The people want, the people get.

00:09:12.000 Now, if Chris Murphy and Ilhan Omar are correct, I want you to play that out to its furthest possible conclusion.

00:09:19.000 It means that we have one branch of government, not three.

00:09:25.000 It means that Article 2 means absolutely nothing.

00:09:29.000 There are supposed to be fights between the branches.

00:09:32.000 There's supposed to be feuds between the branches.

00:09:35.000 The founders spoke about this.

00:09:37.000 And we have weakened the executive branch so significantly.

00:09:41.000 We have dulled the impact of the executive branch tremendously.

00:09:47.000 And it is the will of the people that matters most.

00:09:53.000 And we are seeing in great detail this constitutional question finally play out.

00:09:59.000 And they also are arguing that the fourth branch of government is superior, a branch not even outlined in the Constitution.

00:10:05.000 And they're saying that the fourth branch, which isn't in the Constitution, is in charge of the president, which is in the Constitution.

00:10:12.000 This, everybody, is the most exciting, high-stakes, constitutional fight in a century.

00:10:17.000 President Trump is saving the idea of the will of the people, saving we the people.

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00:11:27.000 Understand that at the height of what they call democracy is to make elections irrelevant.

00:11:34.000 Real democracy is bureaucrats calling all the shots, is what they say, because they're experts.

00:11:40.000 By democracy, they mean give us power and you guys sit down and shut up.

00:11:44.000 The last time a federal purge was tried was actually during the Eisenhower administration.

00:11:50.000 And they said, oh, you're purging all these communists.

00:11:52.000 So they're trying to reckon back to this.

00:11:53.000 But it was Eisenhower in his farewell address who warned about this.

00:11:57.000 Now, people know about the military-industrial complex.

00:12:01.000 Component of this speech.

00:12:02.000 What you forget about is the unelected technocratic scientific elite.

00:12:06.000 This is Dwight D. Eisenhower who warned us, and his warning has now come to surface.

00:12:12.000 This is the fight that he predicted.

00:12:14.000 Is it the people, or is it the technocrats?

00:12:17.000 Is it the people, or is it the scientific elite?

00:12:21.000 Is the same people that said six feet to slow the spread?

00:12:24.000 The same people that tried to require you to take a vaccine that you didn't need?

00:12:28.000 Play Cut 39. Yet in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.

00:12:48.000 is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system, ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.

00:13:04.000 I mean, this is so prussian.

00:13:06.000 He saw this entire fight coming.

00:13:10.000 He saw the forces that were gathering beneath the surface.

00:13:15.000 This was a largely subterranean threat.

00:13:18.000 And with every new department that we approved, Department of Education, Health and Human Services, we strengthened this unelected.

00:13:26.000 Scientific managerial elite.

00:13:29.000 It is the cult of the managers.

00:13:31.000 Mid-level managers.

00:13:33.000 They're not overly imposing when you meet them.

00:13:36.000 You'll never know their names.

00:13:38.000 They don't work necessarily very hard.

00:13:41.000 But they slow down the spirit of America.

00:13:44.000 They waste a lot of money.

00:13:46.000 And I'm not even saying they're evil people.

00:13:48.000 The Fauci's of the world are a separate category. 0.96

00:13:52.000 But these are the enforcers of the regime.

00:13:56.000 And it really makes you wonder, who won the Cold War?

00:14:01.000 This is a very Soviet-style way of running your government.

00:14:06.000 Bureaucratic, entrenched, centralized, lethargic.

00:14:11.000 It is the malaise of the bureaucratic class.

00:14:16.000 For decades, we have ignored this problem.

00:14:18.000 For decades, we've acted as if we've had a president and we didn't.

00:14:23.000 And that is why when Joe Biden was basically brain dead the last two years of his presidency, things continued to move on because he didn't actually have duties or responsibilities.

00:14:33.000 It was senior White House staff.

00:14:35.000 It was middle management workers.

00:14:37.000 People would say, who was running the country?

00:14:39.000 It's never been the president.

00:14:41.000 Donald Trump tried to exert this power in his first term and...

00:14:45.000 As you remember, he was attacked from every possible direction for that.

00:14:50.000 Barack Obama was a ceremonial president.

00:14:53.000 And he enjoyed it.

00:14:54.000 He was able to do his March Madness picks.

00:14:56.000 He was able to kind of go to the Oscars.

00:14:58.000 Be a popular guy.

00:15:00.000 That's what they want the presidency to be.

00:15:02.000 Celebrity.

00:15:03.000 Nice smile.

00:15:06.000 Good to the media.

00:15:08.000 Say a couple things.

00:15:09.000 Not an ultimate decision maker.

00:15:12.000 They want to turn the presidency.

00:15:14.000 Into the King of England.

00:15:16.000 Has a lot of history, but no actual power.

00:15:20.000 They want to turn the presidency into the monarchy of Europe.

00:15:26.000 Oh, remember when the Queen or the King ruled over these lands?

00:15:30.000 And instead, their version is the Cass Sunstein model of government.

00:15:37.000 Is that there will be conference rooms of people that know better than you.

00:15:43.000 And by definition, this belief system, this version of government minimizes the citizen.

00:15:51.000 The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen, as Dennis Prager would always say.

00:15:54.000 But you can't have big government without big bureaucracy.

00:15:58.000 Bureaucracy is the middle fat of government.

00:16:00.000 It is the beer belly.

00:16:03.000 It's very hard to get rid of.

00:16:06.000 It is sluggishly annoying against all of your aims and your ambitions.

00:16:11.000 And it works against what Alexander Hamilton would talk about in the Federalist Papers.

00:16:14.000 I think Federalist 70, if I'm not mistaken, the energetic executive.

00:16:18.000 If you want an executive with energy and spunk and vigor and spirit and vitality, how are you supposed to do that if you have this permanent bureaucracy?

00:16:27.000 And the permanent bureaucracy, which we used to call the deep state, but it is better described as the administrative state, is against almost every single objective of the current administration.

00:16:39.000 And the example this weekend was from the Treasury Department.

00:16:41.000 An activist judge granted more power to bureaucracy than actually Scott Besson.

00:16:47.000 Who is in charge is the fundamental question.

00:16:50.000 Who is sovereign?

00:16:51.000 This is why, citizens, we need to step up and continue to stay in the game.

00:16:56.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

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00:17:58.000 Joining us now is Mark Halperin, political reporter of Mark Halperin's Wide World of News, which we just became a paid subscriber of.

00:18:05.000 I encourage you guys to do the same.

00:18:07.000 And also Two-Way TV. That is twoway.tv.

00:18:10.000 Mark, welcome back to the program.

00:18:12.000 Very nice to be here.

00:18:13.000 Although, Charlie, I got to admit I almost canceled for two reasons.

00:18:15.000 Do you want to know what they are?

00:18:16.000 Yes, you do.

00:18:17.000 Oh, boy.

00:18:18.000 Here we go.

00:18:18.000 Number one, you still haven't come on two-way.

00:18:23.000 And number two, there is a new glowing profile of you in the fake news New York Times today.

00:18:28.000 So how can I trust you when you are, like, giving unlimited access to the New York Times?

00:18:34.000 Very questionable.

00:18:35.000 Very sus.

00:18:37.000 People seem to like that article.

00:18:39.000 Yes, it's very favorable.

00:18:42.000 Yes.

00:18:42.000 Thank you, Mark, for that.

00:18:44.000 And so, Mark, I have several questions.

00:18:46.000 I want to start with this CBS report that shows that President Trump's approval rating seems to be rather significant for him and for other presidents.

00:18:56.000 How does this compare with his first term?

00:18:58.000 And can you give us some presidential history and perspective?

00:19:01.000 How do approval ratings tend to trend the first six months, 100 days of a presidency?

00:19:08.000 Give us some perspective because from my recollection, they start high and then they tend to taper.

00:19:14.000 Yeah.

00:19:14.000 Look, this is Donald Trump's high point in most polls compared to his first term.

00:19:19.000 But this is such an unusual situation.

00:19:21.000 It's in some ways a second term, but of course in some ways it's a first term.

00:19:25.000 The energy, the mandate, the fact that he won the popular vote this time, but not the first time.

00:19:31.000 Most people who run for president and win twice.

00:19:34.000 Do worse the second time.

00:19:36.000 Trump did better the second time.

00:19:37.000 Okay?

00:19:38.000 So more of a mandate.

00:19:40.000 Four years off to think about how to do the job.

00:19:42.000 More activity.

00:19:43.000 You think about the early days of the second Obama term or the second Bush term or the second Biden term or second Clinton term.

00:19:50.000 It wasn't like this at all.

00:19:52.000 So when I talk to Democrats, strategists, about why Donald Trump is doing well, why the voters like him, where I look at the data, it's pretty clear he's being active.

00:20:03.000 He's being authentic, and he's getting very much of the attention, the three A's.

00:20:10.000 So I'm not surprised his numbers are where they are.

00:20:12.000 I wonder if they can go higher or if he's at his ceiling.

00:20:15.000 But I think the key to why he's doing well, compared to a lot of second-term presidents, is probably the thing the press has gotten the most wrong about Donald Trump for a decade now.

00:20:25.000 His agenda is popular.

00:20:27.000 Not everything, but most of what he's done for the first three weeks.

00:20:30.000 Test 70-30.

00:20:32.000 It's very popular.

00:20:33.000 If people were just going on his policies, his approval rating would be even higher.

00:20:37.000 So I'm not surprised.

00:20:38.000 And again, it's apples to tangerines compared to a normal second term that it's hard to put these numbers in context.

00:20:47.000 What we can say is they're higher than most second-term presidents at this phase, and they're certainly higher than Donald Trump was in term one.

00:20:54.000 So, and this is an important point.

00:20:57.000 What typically starts to crater approval ratings?

00:21:00.000 Biden started pretty high, and then it just went down and never recovered.

00:21:05.000 The economy is obviously a major one, or one could say a scandal.

00:21:09.000 President Trump is operating at such a rapid pace, even for him, it's hard to even be able to have the media apparatus or his opposition emphasize and focus.

00:21:20.000 Let me ask it this way, Mark.

00:21:22.000 Have his critics decided on the best way to define and oppose this now three-week-old presidency?

00:21:30.000 Biden's numbers went down after Afghanistan had never recovered.

00:21:33.000 You could call that a scandal or just an example of mass incompetence.

00:21:37.000 And it was in the context of what people were already sensing about the incompetence of the wrong-handed policy on immigration.

00:21:43.000 I think the Democrats have not settled on three things.

00:21:46.000 You say, have they decided how to respond?

00:21:47.000 I think there are three elements to responding.

00:21:49.000 One is, who are the people?

00:21:50.000 Who are the personalities?

00:21:52.000 You can't fight a personality like Donald Trump with...

00:21:55.000 Ken Martin, the new chair of the Democratic Party, right?

00:21:58.000 It's going to have to be one or two big personalities.

00:22:00.000 Second is, what are the issues?

00:22:03.000 There's a rough consensus, I think, that people think the best issue for them is cuts in programs that benefit the middle class and working class people at the expense of tax cuts for the wealthiest.

00:22:14.000 I think that's the theme they want.

00:22:16.000 But there's a number of complexities with that from a practical point of view we can talk about.

00:22:20.000 And the last thing is, where is it going to be?

00:22:23.000 Right?

00:22:23.000 You'd think, well, the DNC, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, maybe some of the prominent Democratic governors.

00:22:29.000 But what I heard this weekend in my reporting, and I wrote about this a little bit in the newsletter today, is the grassroots says, you know what?

00:22:36.000 We can't rely on those institutions.

00:22:38.000 They have no clue what they're doing.

00:22:40.000 They don't have the energy or the vitality or the verve to go after Donald Trump.

00:22:45.000 So they're thinking, where's our tea party?

00:22:47.000 And I say this again, and sometimes I kid you, I'm not kidding about this.

00:22:50.000 Where's our Charlie Kirk?

00:22:51.000 Where's our guy or gal who's on email and texting every minute, who has a huge platform and a huge megaphone, but also is out there engaging like voter registration and organizing and activism?

00:23:03.000 They're trying to find that.

00:23:05.000 And you hear that from some of the donors, too.

00:23:06.000 They're saying, why should I write a check to the DNC or to Cory Booker when I don't think those folks have an idea of how to stop Trump?

00:23:14.000 Where's my Charlie Kirk of the left that I can write a check to, to start something that's got energy and newness and digital vitality?

00:23:21.000 I will accept that praise, and thank you.

00:23:26.000 And I don't want to dive too deep into that, but it does seem as if, from an ecosystem standpoint, there has been a lack of, let's just say, political entrepreneurs on the left.

00:23:37.000 I don't know if that's the right way to word it.

00:23:40.000 Is that a fair assessment?

00:23:41.000 I mean, again, I don't want to get too high on my own supply.

00:23:44.000 Yeah.

00:23:44.000 No, I know you don't.

00:23:46.000 And I'm speaking objectively.

00:23:48.000 In the New York Times story, I joked about it.

00:23:50.000 It validates what some people on the left are now seeing, which is you.

00:23:54.000 And, you know, Steve Bannon could be put in this category.

00:23:57.000 There are some others.

00:23:58.000 It's a different model.

00:23:59.000 You think about Rachel Maddow, or you think about, what are those bros called?

00:24:05.000 Pod Save America.

00:24:07.000 Pod Save America.

00:24:09.000 They're doing a content, and they're doing events to make money.

00:24:12.000 Like, you know, you do those two things, too.

00:24:14.000 But they're not doing the other stuff you do, and Steve does, and some other folks on the right do.

00:24:20.000 And that's not a small thing.

00:24:22.000 It's the combination.

00:24:23.000 Entrepreneurship is the right word, I think.

00:24:25.000 And they don't have that.

00:24:27.000 And the other problem they have is you all have a huge head start.

00:24:32.000 And I guarantee you, if there were some liberal entrepreneur, Charlie Kirk analog on the left, I guarantee you that that person...

00:24:40.000 Would face a lot of scrutiny and a lot of friction and tacks on the sidewalk in front of them as they tried to get a running start.

00:24:48.000 It's very difficult.

00:24:50.000 Nobody really impeded the Tea Party on the left.

00:24:52.000 They didn't see it coming.

00:24:53.000 They didn't take it seriously.

00:24:55.000 So they face a challenge not only to identify the people who have the multidisciplinary abilities that you have.

00:25:01.000 And again, I happen to be talking to you, but I would say this to anyone.

00:25:04.000 I just said it on Two Way a few minutes ago.

00:25:06.000 I'd say it to anybody.

00:25:08.000 They don't have that person.

00:25:09.000 And again, launching is quite difficult.

00:25:12.000 And part of the challenge, as you know, as a student of this, they still have CBS News.

00:25:17.000 They still have the Washington Post.

00:25:19.000 Even though those places are diminished and even though those places are in some ways being a little bit fairer to the right than they've been historically, it's very difficult to find the...

00:25:29.000 The incentives that you found and others found to rise up and say, we need all new forms of things.

00:25:35.000 And of course, Rush Limbaugh and Talk Radio did this before you did.

00:25:38.000 You stand on their shoulders.

00:25:39.000 It's easier to get that energy, that vitality, that determination, and to find a market when you see out there, well, half the country's got their market.

00:25:50.000 It's a supposedly fair media, and they're there.

00:25:55.000 So if you're trying to launch Charlie Kirk of the left...

00:25:58.000 You're competing with the Washington Post, and that's the hard thing to compete with because they've got a big head start.

00:26:04.000 That's a really smart point, and it's something that Rush would talk about, may he rest in peace, a lot, which is where is left-wing talk radio?

00:26:11.000 And one of his theories was that I got nothing but content because I just criticized the media all day long.

00:26:16.000 He says, I'm responding to their stuff all day long.

00:26:20.000 And so I guess there could be a left-wing equivalent that responds to shows like ours, and there are people that try to do that.

00:26:27.000 But it just doesn't have the same sort of fly because, again, you're responding to kind of upstart grassroots types, whereas we, you know, we're responding to palatial regime, multi-billion dollar media.

00:26:41.000 Is that right?

00:26:41.000 Yeah.

00:26:42.000 With declined but still huge audiences and whose corruptness is manifest to tens of millions of Americans because of their...

00:26:55.000 The combination of bias and denial.

00:26:57.000 And again, the same organizations that denied for many years Joe Biden's loss of mental acuity, who denied the plain as a nose on your face reality of Biden, Inc.

00:27:12.000 Those same organizations are covering the Trump White House.

00:27:15.000 Those same organizations are covering the fights on Capitol Hill.

00:27:19.000 Not just the same organizations, many of the same people.

00:27:22.000 And so you cannot be, it is not a symmetrical thing.

00:27:27.000 They have some asymmetrical advantages because they've got the establishment media, what I call the dominant media.

00:27:32.000 But the right has some asymmetrical advantages because, as you said, you all, as Rush did, can play off of it.

00:27:38.000 And that's an extremely valuable thing.

00:27:41.000 So, Mark, I want to get into another element of the story here and first compliment you.

00:27:45.000 You were one of the few people that said that Trump was likely to have his entire cabinet confirmed.

00:27:51.000 And you've said that for the entire time, that it was advantaged Trump and people said, no way is Bobby Kennedy to get through.

00:27:57.000 So I don't want to pop the champagne yet from our side, but it looks as if this is almost a certainty.

00:28:02.000 Why do you think that is?

00:28:04.000 Why do you think that he was successful in this, even though he chose some rather unconventional picks by Washington, D.C. standards?

00:28:12.000 Three things.

00:28:13.000 Fidelity to President Trump and a belief that he must get off to a fast start and he's entitled to his picks.

00:28:19.000 Two is the tactical strength of the teams around the controversial nominees.

00:28:24.000 Whether it's Hegseth or Gabbard or Kennedy, very good teams of so-called Sherpas, communications, inside politics, knowing that you and others could pressure these wavering senators in a way, once you were activated, that would really impact them.

00:28:38.000 And then lastly is the performance of the nominees themselves.

00:28:44.000 I think Hegseth in particular saved himself.

00:28:47.000 By going out there and making the case.

00:28:48.000 And I think Kennedy and Gabby did as well.

00:28:51.000 So I'd say those three reasons.

00:28:53.000 Everyone check out Two Way TV and also your newsletter.

00:28:56.000 What is the name of the newsletter again?

00:28:58.000 Is it the Wild World of Politics?

00:29:00.000 It's called Wild World of News Concierge Coverage.

00:29:02.000 I've got two sub-stacks, but you want the concierge coverage one as a daily newsletter.

00:29:09.000 With President Donald Trump now back in the White House, we're all excited about big changes ahead, which will make America great again.

00:29:16.000 But even with the defeat of their supporters last November, Big Pharma is still threatening to derail the Trump agenda, oppose Bobby Kennedy Jr.'s upcoming reforms, and they want to block competition and keep drug prices too high.

00:29:27.000 Big Pharma sets the price of drugs, and already this year, they raised the price on more than 575 of them.

00:29:33.000 Their anti-competitive practices block competition so they can keep prices high.

00:29:38.000 And they spend billions of dollars on ads pushing their high-priced brand-name drugs on working Americans. 0.65

00:29:42.000 But Big Pharma wants more.

00:29:44.000 Now they're urging Congress to undermine incentives in the private healthcare market that help American employers and families secure savings on prescription drugs.

00:29:53.000 conservatives for lower health care costs warns that big pharma is no friend to the trump agenda or the pocketbooks of the american people they opposed solutions to lower drug prices in the president trump's first term and they are after a huge money grab at the expense of everyone else now by seeking more government intervention in the private market go to pharma windfall.com

00:30:15.000 to learn more about how conservatives can stop big pharma prevent higher health care costs and protect pay for performance in our private health care market congress can stop big pharma and you can help Go to pharmawindfall.com today.

00:30:30.000 So, I love having Mark on the program because he has incredible historical context of a couple decades of covering this.

00:30:39.000 So, Mark, have we ever seen anything in the modern era similar to Doge?

00:30:43.000 And how do you think this is going to play out?

00:30:46.000 I know that is a very difficult question.

00:30:48.000 It's a speculative question.

00:30:49.000 But why don't you instead say, what are you seeing that might lead you to believe a certain conclusion is inevitable?

00:30:56.000 because we've never quite seen the world's richest man come in as an SGE, a special government employee, and deploy some of his super geniuses to fix the government.

00:31:05.000 It's unlike anything I've ever seen.

00:31:06.000 Mark, your take on Doge.

00:31:08.000 We could do three hours on the ways that it is unprecedented, not just Musk's involvement, but the way it's being done, the scope and scale of the ambition, the speed with which it's being done.

00:31:20.000 So there's lots that's unprecedented here.

00:31:22.000 I think that it's great to talk about cutting spending.

00:31:26.000 And there's no doubt that it's irresponsible to future generations to run up debt and deficit like this.

00:31:31.000 Here's some realities.

00:31:33.000 You can't either cut or tax your way out of debt and deficit.

00:31:36.000 You have to have robust economic growth.

00:31:38.000 Three, four, five percent.

00:31:40.000 Some people say that's impossible.

00:31:41.000 I say it better be possible.

00:31:43.000 So that's the key, is the policies that are going to lead to more growth if you want to reduce debt and deficit.

00:31:50.000 But spending cuts are important.

00:31:52.000 I think Democrats have made a huge mistake saying, oh, it's only $25,000.

00:31:55.000 Where it's only $26 million.

00:31:57.000 I think taxpayers feel like every dollar is precious.

00:32:00.000 I totally agree.

00:32:01.000 I think you're exactly right.

00:32:03.000 If it goes for fancy subscriptions to something called Politico Pro or some sort of play, regardless of whether it's a topic they disagree with.

00:32:12.000 So I think they're on the right track there.

00:32:14.000 But the reality is you cannot cut spending that doesn't affect people.

00:32:18.000 And I think they continue to talk about it as cuts as opposed to restraining the rate of growth.

00:32:23.000 I think eventually they'll get around to doing that.

00:32:25.000 But where the money is is in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

00:32:29.000 You could cut every bit of discretionary spending, even cut some defense spending, which most Republicans don't want to do.

00:32:35.000 You will not get to the point where you'll see significant deficit reduction.

00:32:40.000 So I hope that Republicans and Democrats join together to say, these programs are invaluable, and the way to save them, not destroy the programs, the way to save them is to find ways to make them more efficient.

00:32:52.000 To find cost savings, to do things like, say, really rich people maybe shouldn't get the same Social Security benefits as other people.

00:32:59.000 Those are the steps they haven't taken.

00:33:01.000 So while it's great that they're looking to cut a little bit here and a little bit there, and I think that's right, although there needs to be scrutiny about whether they're doing it legally and whether they're doing it in ways that might cut programs that are worthwhile, I think the big question is can they actually make a dent in the deficit by going where the money is, which, again, is in these programs.

00:33:21.000 The President Trump has vowed not to touch.

00:33:24.000 Let's talk about the political dynamic here as we close.

00:33:28.000 Does it present an opportunity for more of the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren wing of the party to say, look, this is the oligarchy we've been warning you about, to kind of have this left-wing populism have a resurgence within the Democrat Party that has been quite muted since Joe Biden became president?

00:33:47.000 Again, as I said before, I think you're right that that theme could get more traction with certain parts of the country, but they don't want to be a party that only is as broadly as appealing as Elizabeth Warren, because that's not a majority party.

00:33:59.000 That's a party with tens of thousands of really passionate people, but it's not a majority party.

00:34:04.000 And so I think what you're seeing is the Democrats trying to figure out how do you take those themes that might be subscribed to by the squad and might even be subscribed to by, you know, Mark Kelly and more moderate Democrats and have a spokesperson who can kind of knit it all together in a critique.

00:34:21.000 They don't have that yet.

00:34:22.000 And they don't have the grassroots organization yet.

00:34:25.000 They have the embers, the green shoots of that.

00:34:27.000 So I think there's no doubt that those themes are where the Democrats currently are putting their energy.

00:34:33.000 But I think it's got it's going to have to be broader than Elizabeth Warren wing of the party or it will not win will not win the midterms.

00:34:39.000 My message to conservatives is we have to operate as if they're going to figure this out.

00:34:45.000 They're going to figure it out.

00:34:46.000 They're not dumb.

00:34:47.000 They'll adjust.

00:34:48.000 They might not be there yet, but we've got to step on the gas and you have to act as if your opponent is going to be the most formidable.

00:34:54.000 Yeah, they might be in the wilderness right now and they might be disorganized.

00:34:58.000 They might be demoralized, but understand they have a lot of money, a lot of experience, a lot of former presidents.

00:35:04.000 I think they're going to reorganize.

00:35:07.000 We have to act as if.

00:35:08.000 Mark, thank you so much.

00:35:10.000 I'll just say real quick, one of your greatest strengths is you are actually not complacent as opposed to faux not complacent.

00:35:18.000 That is correct.

00:35:19.000 I will accept and receive that compliment.

00:35:22.000 Mark, thanks so much.

00:35:23.000 I stepped on the promo.

00:35:24.000 Stepped on my own promo, that's right.

00:35:26.000 Thank you, sir.

00:35:27.000 It's all good.

00:35:27.000 I love it.

00:35:28.000 Thank you, Mark.

00:35:29.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:35:30.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:35:33.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 10, 2025

Donald Trump's DOGE Defunding Rampage

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