The Charlie Kirk Show - Mamdani's War on New York Homeowners

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

00:00:05.000 I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic.

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00:01:09.000 All right, welcome back.

00:01:10.000 Hour two of the Charlie Kirk Show is underway.

00:01:12.000 I'm excited about our next guest.

00:01:13.000 Never had her on before, but I have followed her writings for a long time.

00:01:17.000 And that guest is Kirsten Fleming.

00:01:20.000 Features calmness at the New York Post.

00:01:22.000 Welcome to the show, Kirsten.

00:01:24.000 Honored to have you.

00:01:24.000 Yeah, and happy Ash Wednesday.

00:01:26.000 I don't know.

00:01:27.000 Solemn Ash Wednesday.

00:01:28.000 I don't, I don't like, I actually wash it off.

00:01:30.000 It's like a kind of personal quirk of mine.

00:01:32.000 I know.

00:01:32.000 Most people don't.

00:01:33.000 I do.

00:01:34.000 I take, I think, I think always about the Gospel of Matthew, where it says, when you are fasting, wash your face.

00:01:40.000 Oh, well, don't.

00:01:41.000 And it's Kirsten.

00:01:43.000 Most people don't.

00:01:43.000 This is an eccentricity of mine, but it's a thing about mine.

00:01:46.000 I'm throwing you under the solemn Ash Wednesday.

00:01:48.000 I would say a solemn Ash Wednesday.

00:01:50.000 A solemn Ash Wins.

00:01:52.000 I actually, I had made a note to bring it up at the top of the show, and I missed it.

00:01:57.000 So I'm glad that we got reminded here.

00:01:59.000 Kirsten, there is so much going on in the city of New York.

00:02:03.000 And yesterday, Mamdani made a lot of news.

00:02:07.000 Let's go ahead and just start with some of this, and I'll get your reaction on the other side.

00:02:12.000 Oh, here they are.

00:02:13.000 Okay, so he said we're forced to raid our rainy day fund 407.

00:02:19.000 In order to get to this point of closing the gap on both this fiscal year and the next fiscal year, we are forced to raid the rainy day fund, the retiree health benefits trust reserve, and to increase property taxes across these other years.

00:02:33.000 Yikes.

00:02:34.000 He's very casual about that.

00:02:35.000 Oh, we're raiding the rainy day fund, which is it a rainy day?

00:02:38.000 No, it's just the start of his.

00:02:41.000 So yeah.

00:02:42.000 Kirsten, how do we get here?

00:02:44.000 And what is he really saying?

00:02:46.000 And what's the truth?

00:02:47.000 Is he spending like a drunken sailor or is this all make perfect sense to you?

00:02:51.000 He wants to spend like a drunken sailor for sure.

00:02:53.000 I mean, look, it's he, we're a month and a half into his administration and the balloon is already off the rose.

00:03:03.000 The smile is off the social list.

00:03:05.000 This is what he is doing.

00:03:06.000 He is to put this the best way possible, as our front page is always with us.

00:03:11.000 Stick him up.

00:03:12.000 He is trying to force Kathy Hochle's hand to try and make her come up with the cash by taxing the rich.

00:03:17.000 That's what this is.

00:03:19.000 Yeah, okay.

00:03:19.000 So there is this backstory behind this, right?

00:03:22.000 So Kathy Hochul is considered in New York terms, not to all of us out in the real world out here, but in New York terms, she's considered sort of more to the center, a centrist Democrat.

00:03:33.000 And she's saying that these are off the table.

00:03:35.000 We're not going to raise property taxes because, or well, property taxes, Zoron can do all on his own.

00:03:41.000 But the wealth tax, he would need Kathy's help, Hochul's help to do.

00:03:46.000 But she's already given him $1.5 billion from the rest of the state and injected it into the city's budget, which, by the way, Kirsten, is $127 billion.

00:03:56.000 The entire budget of the state of Florida is 117.

00:04:00.000 So like the maths don't math up for me here.

00:04:03.000 Now, Mayor Adams is saying that he left a fund of $9 billion behind.

00:04:08.000 And Mamdani's saying that's not true.

00:04:11.000 And so what's the truth there?

00:04:13.000 And what do New Yorkers make of the rest of the state having to subsidize the city?

00:04:17.000 Well, I mean, I can't say with Adams.

00:04:19.000 I mean, he had some wasteful stuff going on.

00:04:21.000 But the idea is if you do have waste and you have issues going on, you cut spending.

00:04:28.000 You don't keep promising like he's Oprah.

00:04:31.000 He's like, you get more, you get more.

00:04:32.000 And it's like putting more into the freebies, the incentives.

00:04:36.000 And he wants, like, you know, in terms of he's always advertising even to migrants, like he wants to shell out way more money for migrants.

00:04:43.000 He wants to shell out all of this money for things that we don't need.

00:04:45.000 He wants to increase the spending that we're going to be giving to each public school student, decrease the class size, all of these things where it's like, buddy, why don't we start cutting some of the fat?

00:04:56.000 Because we got a lot of fat in this place. 0.95

00:04:58.000 So that's really what it comes down to.

00:05:00.000 He is unwilling to make compromise and he just wants his way and he wants his DSA agenda.

00:05:06.000 Well, this is what's crazy about this.

00:05:08.000 It almost feels like he's holding Kathy Hochle hostage.

00:05:13.000 Yeah, that's exactly like I said.

00:05:15.000 This is like the great meeting.

00:05:17.000 Yes, perfect.

00:05:18.000 Yes, exactly.

00:05:19.000 Yeah.

00:05:19.000 Well, and here's what this is.

00:05:20.000 He's trying to force her hand.

00:05:22.000 And he's trying to use his social media savvy, his the energy of the activist far-left base to really hem her in.

00:05:30.000 And she's trying to say, like, it's fine.

00:05:31.000 We'll figure it out.

00:05:32.000 We'll figure it out.

00:05:33.000 Trying to keep the pressure off.

00:05:34.000 But I think this clip spells it out really well for 11.

00:05:38.000 There are two paths to bridge this gap.

00:05:40.000 The first is the most sustainable and the fairest path.

00:05:44.000 This is the path of ending the drain on our city and raising taxes on the richest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations.

00:05:51.000 The onus for resolving this crisis should not be placed on the backs of working and middle class New Yorkers.

00:05:57.000 If we do not fix this structural imbalance and do not heed the calls of New Yorkers to raise taxes on the wealthy, this crisis will not disappear.

00:06:06.000 It will simply return year after year, forcing harder and harsher choices each time.

00:06:12.000 And if we do not go down the first path, the city will be forced down a second, more harmful path.

00:06:18.000 Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control.

00:06:25.000 We would have to raise property taxes.

00:06:28.000 So if you're raising property taxes, this is just amazing, by the way.

00:06:32.000 He's like, awful decision or even more awful decision.

00:06:36.000 Welcome to the warmth of collectivism.

00:06:38.000 We have no choice other than all of the policies that I have chosen.

00:06:42.000 That are terrible.

00:06:43.000 And so when he's talking about raising the property taxes, who are these people?

00:06:47.000 Are these like all rich fat cats or are these like normal New Yorkers?

00:06:51.000 No, I think people forget that New York is not just Manhattan.

00:06:54.000 It's five boroughs.

00:06:55.000 There's a lot of middle class housing.

00:06:57.000 Immigrants who became homeowners in like South, you know, South Brooklyn and the Bronx and Queens, Staten Island.

00:07:05.000 And the, you know, the, um housing prices keep rising.

00:07:10.000 But the reality is, you know, and it's going to be passed on to the renters as well.

00:07:14.000 So this is not the fix that he's selling it as.

00:07:18.000 And, you know, he's trying to manipulate everything and make it seem like, look, if Kathy doesn't do this, look what the establishment dems did.

00:07:25.000 We need even more radical policies.

00:07:28.000 And that's just, that's, it's a manipulation.

00:07:30.000 So it just feels like this is the same old playbook.

00:07:33.000 It's like, it kind of reminds you of, you know, the problem with socialism, eventually you run out of somebody else's money, Margie Thatcher.

00:07:42.000 But it's like you promise utopia, you fail because, you know, math is math.

00:07:47.000 And then you tax and spend to deliver utopia, you fail again.

00:07:50.000 And then you run out of money to tax and spend.

00:07:53.000 So you scapegoat the last remaining productive people in your society.

00:07:56.000 And then when that fails, you just seize the means of production and you hold them over a barrel until you get what you want.

00:08:01.000 I mean, what, what as a New Yorker, what is ever, like you said, the smell is off the rose or off the socialist.

00:08:08.000 The bloom is off the rose.

00:08:10.000 But I mean, you know, I don't mean to be a pessimist here, but it's hard to have faith in the good common sense of New Yorkers when they keep, you know, it seems like they want to rush down this socialism path.

00:08:23.000 Is it cutting through?

00:08:24.000 I guess is my question.

00:08:25.000 Is it really going to have an impact?

00:08:27.000 This feels very negative.

00:08:28.000 It is.

00:08:29.000 It is.

00:08:29.000 It's scary.

00:08:30.000 It is very scary.

00:08:30.000 And look, a lot of common sense New Yorkers did flee during COVID because the conditions were so filthy.

00:08:35.000 The streets were terrible.

00:08:36.000 The crime was rising.

00:08:38.000 And, you know, so people said, you know what, screw this.

00:08:40.000 I'm going to go someplace else and pay less money and have better access to better services.

00:08:44.000 And so get more bang for my buck.

00:08:47.000 So a lot of reasonable people left.

00:08:49.000 Now, there are still like Mondani did not win by that much.

00:08:53.000 You know, there's still a lot of people who did not vote for him and who were freaking out and people who were prepared.

00:08:58.000 They've got their bags back to go.

00:09:00.000 But not everybody can go.

00:09:01.000 Like someone like me, my mother is here.

00:09:04.000 My cousins are here.

00:09:05.000 My brother's here.

00:09:06.000 My whole family's here.

00:09:07.000 So I don't make a lot of money.

00:09:09.000 What am I going to do?

00:09:10.000 So it really does put pressure on these people who, like me, or like working class New Yorkers, who can't just like pack a bag and buy a place in Florida.

00:09:20.000 It's just not tenable.

00:09:21.000 And also I work here.

00:09:22.000 So it does feel very negative.

00:09:24.000 I am hoping that common sense will prevail and that Kathy Hocha will hold strong.

00:09:29.000 And because either way, it's a, it's a bad, bad outcome.

00:09:32.000 But it's funny because, you know, all these, you know, he had this, his tenant advisor who has called homeownership white supremacy and you have weaver just go through her Twitter account.

00:09:45.000 So you have all these people and you're like, wow, they're really radical.

00:09:48.000 But what they've done, they're already working.

00:09:50.000 They're already like crafting the machine to be in place for when this stuff falls apart.

00:09:54.000 Well, and you, you did a great piece, by the way.

00:09:56.000 I recommend everybody read it about the Champagne Socialist.

00:09:59.000 There's that one guy, the one guy that you find all his old tweets like complaining about American Airlines and France Air and all this stuff.

00:10:08.000 And he's a total raging party.

00:10:10.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:10:11.000 And by the way, just so we're clear, Momdani let 18 people die on the streets of New York just in the cold, refused to move out the homeless people.

00:10:19.000 So there's that too.

00:10:21.000 Kirsten, this was so fun to have you.

00:10:22.000 We're going to have you on back again soon because this story is not going anywhere.

00:10:27.000 Thank you for joining.

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00:12:00.000 All right, so we have a great clip from Charlie on Mamdani.

00:12:03.000 Yes, we do.

00:12:04.000 We've got it.

00:12:05.000 It is, it's really laying out exactly what's going to happen.

00:12:08.000 Let's play 459.

00:12:09.000 Coleman Young was the mayor of Detroit, and his stated goal, well, not stated, but his whole idea that it would get revealed later, was that kick every basically make it so unpleasant, but I hold on to power.

00:12:22.000 I will rule over the ashes.

00:12:24.000 I will be the mayor over a destroyed city.

00:12:28.000 I will be a mayor over Dresden after the bombing.

00:12:31.000 It will be a terrible place to live, but I'm in charge.

00:12:33.000 I'm the mayor.

00:12:34.000 And that's what Mamdani will do.

00:12:36.000 He'll make it so unpleasant.

00:12:37.000 He'll make it so awful of a place to live.

00:12:40.000 And then he'll end up being the king.

00:12:43.000 Some people want to be the king of the ashes, and that is Mamdani.

00:12:46.000 It's a true story.

00:12:48.000 It's so unbearable.

00:12:48.000 It's so funny.

00:12:49.000 I wish I could have told Charlie about this before I remembered it.

00:12:52.000 Well, you know, more before everything that happened, which there was a mayor of Boston about 100 years ago, also a Democrat.

00:13:01.000 And there's literally a study that creates a hypothetical effect where it's in the political interest of a ruling elite to make a city worse with the knowledge that your opponents will move out faster and your base will stick around or will move out last.

00:13:16.000 And so you deliberately make a city worse to make sure that you keep control of it.

00:13:21.000 It happened in California.

00:13:22.000 Yes, it's what happens in California.

00:13:24.000 It's what happens in so many Democrat jurisdictions. 0.51

00:13:27.000 You're seeing people flee from Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, California.

00:13:33.000 And they're going to the Sunbelt.

00:13:34.000 So it's going to completely alter electoral politics at a national level.

00:13:38.000 People shouldn't have to leave their homes.

00:13:38.000 But it's really sad.

00:13:41.000 We should not live in a country where one state becomes so unbearably, so poorly run that they have to leave their family homes where they were born, where they were raised, where their grandparents were born and raised.

00:13:50.000 That shouldn't be an America that we allow to happen.

00:13:52.000 This is why we have people like Steve Hilton on this show, because it's still important to fight for California.

00:13:56.000 It's still important to fight for New York.

00:13:58.000 It's still important to call out the commies.

00:14:00.000 And by the way, Charlie raged against this, and I completely agree. 0.79

00:14:03.000 You had George Will go on and say, well, maybe New York needs a tough dose of socialist medicine and then they're going to correct course.

00:14:10.000 Do you have any idea what Mamdani, the damage that Mamdani and his apparatches can do in a city like New York, the systems that they can set up, the processes, the personnel, the budget shortfalls, the taxes? 0.54

00:14:10.000 No. 0.54

00:14:22.000 It's incredibly difficult to roll that back once it's instituted.

00:14:26.000 Yeah, it is never the winning play to say, oh, let my opponent win.

00:14:31.000 There's always a scope.

00:14:31.000 I saw it with Obama when he took office.

00:14:34.000 Everyone said, oh, well, Obama will do socialism.

00:14:36.000 He'll do his thing and he'll fail and then we'll roll it back.

00:14:39.000 And no, all that happened is you got a lot of Obama's stuff has been around ever since.

00:14:45.000 Why is healthcare super expensive?

00:14:46.000 Well, Obamacare is still here.

00:14:48.000 It's still the law.

00:14:49.000 It was never fully replaced.

00:14:51.000 Why do we have like, I mean, like DEI, that all went into overdrive Obama's second term.

00:14:59.000 We're still rooting that out.

00:15:01.000 Even if things aren't popular anymore, even if you have a new government in place, their judges are there for life.

00:15:07.000 The bureaucrats are there.

00:15:07.000 Elections.

00:15:08.000 It's so hard to eradicate.

00:15:09.000 Elections have consequences.

00:15:11.000 But thankfully, we have a great vice president who is in the White House and a great president, of course.

00:15:15.000 But JD Vance went on with Martha McCallum, did a wide-ranging interview.

00:15:19.000 Lots of great clips there.

00:15:20.000 And it's actually going to set up our next segment with HUD Secretary Scott Turner.

00:15:25.000 But we will get to that clip in just a second.

00:15:26.000 Let's start with this one, him praising Marco Ruby.

00:15:29.000 A lot of chatter about their relationship because people keep wondering, is JD going to run?

00:15:34.000 Is Marco going to run?

00:15:34.000 Are they going to run against each other in the primary?

00:15:36.000 416.

00:15:37.000 He's my vice president.

00:15:38.000 Of course he's going to be at the top of the ticket.

00:15:40.000 Well, I think the president is very smartly saying we've got three years to go.

00:15:44.000 Marco is my closest friend in the administration.

00:15:46.000 I think he's doing a great job for the American people.

00:15:49.000 But most importantly, we all have to continue doing a good job for the American people from the president on down.

00:15:54.000 And that's what we're focused on.

00:15:56.000 Surely, as vice president, you'd like to be president.

00:16:00.000 Well, look, I think, again, I'm going to try to do as good of a job as I can right now.

00:16:05.000 So, one of the things that I don't like about this question and this entire perspective is I've been in this job for all of a year.

00:16:13.000 About six months ago, or sorry, a year and six months ago, I asked the American people to give me this job that I have right now.

00:16:18.000 Why don't I do as good of a job as I can in this job?

00:16:21.000 We'll worry about the next job sometime in the future.

00:16:23.000 And I, you know, listen, I think he did, that's the only possible answer for that.

00:16:27.000 If he was to say, yeah, I do want to be president.

00:16:29.000 That would be like months of headlines.

00:16:31.000 President Trump would see him.

00:16:32.000 It would cause all kinds.

00:16:33.000 I mean, it's the only right answer to give in that instance.

00:16:37.000 He was also asked about the midterms, and I thought he had another great answer, 413.

00:16:42.000 The question we're going to put to the American people is: do you want to give the government back over to the people who frankly burned down the house and made most Americans much less wealthy and much less safe?

00:16:53.000 Or do you want to double down on the president's leadership, which has helped us recover from some of the problems caused by Joe Biden and then has built a lot on top of it?

00:17:03.000 Because so much of what we've done over the last year are things that are going to pay long-term dividends for the American people.

00:17:09.000 I completely agree with this.

00:17:11.000 There's a lot of doomerism.

00:17:12.000 There's a lot of blackpilling that says, well, they're not doing enough on all these issues.

00:17:16.000 And so I hope they lose.

00:17:17.000 And I hope we just get a Democrat elected into office and they pay for their sins and we get a real radical in there.

00:17:24.000 Folks, let Mamdani be an example of what we're talking about.

00:17:28.000 Let the only Boston mayor. 1.00

00:17:31.000 And if defeats allow you to win in the future, that's a blessing.

00:17:31.000 To win.

00:17:36.000 I think a lot of us believe this administration has been more successful because of the setback of 2020.

00:17:42.000 But I mean, the Biden years were still really bad and caused permanent damage to this.

00:17:46.000 We have still millions of illegals in this country that are flooding your DMVs and your hospitals and your schools and your roadways that should not be here, that are flooding your jails, frankly. 1.00

00:17:55.000 Incredibly enough, the best way to win is to win.

00:17:58.000 Well, and by the way, this there, okay, and I wonder if JD's answer would have been different on the midterms after the Fabrizio, because I think this happened before the Fabrizio slides.

00:18:06.000 Maybe he'd already seen them.

00:18:08.000 But it's so true.

00:18:11.000 The economic numbers are increasing.

00:18:12.000 The GDP numbers are increasing.

00:18:14.000 I mean, the foreign direct investment is increasing.

00:18:16.000 We're getting people out of the country. 0.96

00:18:18.000 It's sometimes messy.

00:18:19.000 It's sometimes not a direct line, but there's so much good happening.

00:18:23.000 Can you imagine Kamala Harris in office right now? 0.99

00:18:26.000 The DEI hellscape we would be living through, the judges that would get appointed.

00:18:31.000 There is no substitute for success.

00:18:34.000 And by the way, JD Vance talked about one of Charlie's most critical issues for Charlie, and that was housing affordability for Gen Z.

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00:19:55.000 We get more young people under the age of 35 to have equity in the system, not the Democrat version of equity where they want to have redistribution, but actually, are they paying a mortgage?

00:20:05.000 Do they own stuff or are they permanent renters?

00:20:08.000 A permanent renting class in this country is the prerequisite, is the leading ingredient for radical politics that nobody wants to see.

00:20:16.000 We need to reinvigorate the ownership economy, and then all of a sudden, when you own stuff, you're less likely to burn down a Wendy's and vote for candidates like Zilron Mamdani.

00:20:26.000 Well said from Charlie there.

00:20:28.000 A little throwback.

00:20:29.000 And anyways, JD Vance gave an absolute amazing interview on Martha McCallum yesterday.

00:20:36.000 We played some of those clips.

00:20:37.000 And we've got a clip that I think really, really sets up the Secretary very well here.

00:20:42.000 And this is Vice President Vance, and we'll welcome the Secretary on 414.

00:20:46.000 We're going to make it easier to build and create homes.

00:20:49.000 We're going to make it easier for Americans rather than Wall Street to buy those homes.

00:20:53.000 But we also need to get interest rates lower.

00:20:55.000 That's a critical part of the president's job.

00:20:57.000 Welcome to the show, Secretary Turner of Housing and Urban Development.

00:20:57.000 All right.

00:21:01.000 Welcome back, sir.

00:21:02.000 Good to see you.

00:21:02.000 Hey, great to see you guys.

00:21:03.000 Thanks for having me.

00:21:05.000 Absolutely.

00:21:06.000 What did you make of the fact that you saw both those clips together?

00:21:09.000 You saw Charlie talking about we need young people to own a stake in this economy. 1.00

00:21:13.000 They need to own homes. 0.91

00:21:14.000 You do not want a nation of renters.

00:21:15.000 And then to see the vice president of the United States messaging directly on that issue.

00:21:21.000 Well, absolutely.

00:21:22.000 You know, we all love Charlie and so thankful for him and his legacy.

00:21:26.000 You know, he was spot on in talking about young people wanting to own a home.

00:21:30.000 You heard the vice president yesterday talking about what the Trump administration has done thus far to help first-time home buyers to help Americans achieve the American dream in owning a home.

00:21:42.000 You know, so many things have happened so far.

00:21:45.000 You know, just in January of 2026, over 5 million Americans were able to refinance their home, making their monthly payments go down.

00:21:54.000 The sales of single-family homes have gone up.

00:21:57.000 Mortgage affordability has gone up.

00:21:59.000 The amount of money that you need to afford your home has gone down, which is at a five-month high.

00:22:05.000 And so if you look at President Trump, he's making and taking bold actions to help American people to be able to afford and buy a home.

00:22:13.000 You saw with banning institutional, large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

00:22:19.000 These homes are for the American people and not for corporations.

00:22:22.000 I know at HUD, you know, last year we helped 1 million people in America be able to afford a home, including 500,000 first-time home buyers.

00:22:31.000 We also made it so that FHA-backed mortgages no longer will go to illegal aliens coming in our country. 1.00

00:22:39.000 And so under President Trump's leadership, American people are a priority and the only priority in home affordability is at the top of mind.

00:22:47.000 Yeah, and it's interesting this, you know, and I've seen it debated, Mr. Secretary, about, you know, the impact of illegal immigration on the housing supply and the affordability of homes, right?

00:22:59.000 So to what extent does undocumented immigration contribute to the strains on the housing supply?

00:23:06.000 Well, that's a great question.

00:23:07.000 You think about during the Biden administration, you know, the immigration policies were extremely weak.

00:23:12.000 And so you have tens of millions of illegal immigrants coming across our border.

00:23:18.000 This put a strain on housing apply.

00:23:21.000 It caused housing costs to go up.

00:23:24.000 And I have some interesting stats for you.

00:23:26.000 About 59% of illegal alien families use one or more welfare programs here in America, costing us about $42 billion a year. 0.93

00:23:36.000 And if you look at some of the blue states around our country, nearly 100% of the increase in rental demand in New York and California is because of illegal immigration.

00:23:48.000 But since we have President Trump and this administration and Secretary Noam and others, since our border is secured now, you look at rent prices have gone down in the last five or six months because our border is secure.

00:24:02.000 And so the impact of illegals coming across our border unchecked, unvetted, not only strains our housing supply, not only takes it up, but these are houses and spaces that should be used by the American people.

00:24:14.000 And so under President Trump's leadership, you see these numbers coming down.

00:24:18.000 You see affordability going up.

00:24:20.000 You see housing supply going up.

00:24:22.000 And it is because we have secured our border.

00:24:25.000 I'm looking at the map.

00:24:26.000 In Phoenix area, I know housing prices are actually going down.

00:24:29.000 They've gone down about 2% here.

00:24:31.000 And I just mentally link that with a tent I would always see outside the Home Depot that was selling torta sandwiches that only spoke Spanish.

00:24:40.000 And that disappeared as soon as ICE operations thought or began.

00:24:44.000 And I suspect that there's a link between those two things.

00:24:47.000 Charlie had a tweet that he said.

00:24:49.000 He said, in this administration, we need to deport 20 million illegals and build 10 million homes. 0.63

00:24:54.000 And that's a good platform to have.

00:24:56.000 But I think he also understood there is a direct link between those two things.

00:25:01.000 Well, absolutely.

00:25:02.000 It's a pure supply and demand issue.

00:25:04.000 I think the liberal economists, they don't want to admit this, but when you flood the nation with millions of people and we're building, what, like a million new homes a year, and you flood it with, you know, 10, 15, 20 million people, whatever that number is, of course you're going to see prices go up.

00:25:19.000 And it's not like all these people are living in destitute lives.

00:25:22.000 Some of them have actually pretty good incomes and they can afford a pretty decent home.

00:25:26.000 Look at this graph here, Mr. Secretary, 448.

00:25:29.000 This is the average income needed to buy a home versus the medium income in the country.

00:25:35.000 This is 448.

00:25:37.000 And you see this giant leap starting right around when Joe Biden entered office in 2020.

00:25:45.000 And you see that yellow line shoot up.

00:25:47.000 Now the average income needed to buy a home is almost $110,000 a year and the median income is only $83,000 a year.

00:25:58.000 That gap is the politics of our moment.

00:26:04.000 And so how does that intersect with what you're doing at HUD?

00:26:09.000 What levers can you pull?

00:26:11.000 I mean, I love that you've taken illegal immigrants off the eligibility for certain loans and housing subsidies. 1.00

00:26:19.000 What other things can we do at HUD, or what are you working on right now to address that gap?

00:26:24.000 Well, well, thank you.

00:26:25.000 Sorry to interrupt you.

00:26:26.000 Thank you for that and thank you for showing that graft and that chart.

00:26:30.000 I think that all of the policies that we've talked about under President Trump and the vice president alluded to this yesterday, when you bring down cost and you raise supply, more people in America can afford a home.

00:26:46.000 There was a stat that I read the other day that the income of Americans is increasing.

00:26:52.000 And because that income is increasing and housing affordability little by little, tick by tick, really is coming down, you'll see that gap on your chart, you know, even be tighter.

00:27:04.000 And so I know from a HUD standpoint with our FHA and our Ginnie Mae programs helping first-time homebuyers where generally you have to have less of a down payment.

00:27:16.000 Like I said, last year we helped over a million people, 500,000 first-time homebuyers.

00:27:21.000 And if you look at these things all working in concert together, that gap will close as incomes go up, as affordability and costs go down.

00:27:31.000 You know, the American people, and I think because of the One Big Beautiful Bill, and I'm kind of going to, you know, go aside here, the One Big Beautiful Bill and the policies inside, I think this year in 2026, you hear Secretary Basson talking about a lot.

00:27:44.000 The American people will benefit from this policy and more money will be in the pockets of American people across our country as it pertains to housing affordability, energy, taxes, and things of this nature.

00:27:57.000 So I am very encouraged that this year, not just for housing affordability, but across the board from an economic standpoint, that the American people will benefit and thrive this year coming.

00:28:10.000 You have a Charlie clip.

00:28:11.000 Yeah, well, we have another clip that they're telling us is really great.

00:28:13.000 This is specifically about the Sunbelt, which we were just talking about.

00:28:16.000 Let's do 437.

00:28:17.000 If the average age of a homebuyer is 38 years old, that's probably only going to go up.

00:28:24.000 And so how do we fix it?

00:28:26.000 Well, again, we need more supply of homes.

00:28:28.000 We need less people that are buying homes.

00:28:30.000 So deport 20 million people, build 10 million homes. 0.85

00:28:34.000 We need to fix all the regulation around the homes.

00:28:36.000 We also need to use more automation and more robotics and how we actually build the homes, which will bring down the price of homes.

00:28:42.000 But also, we need to cut rates.

00:28:44.000 Now, cutting rates is not everything.

00:28:46.000 Cutting rates is not the entire picture.

00:28:48.000 Cutting rates is not the whole thing because the price is still high, but it will unlock more capital for people that are right on the edge of purchasing a home.

00:28:58.000 Pretty spot on.

00:28:58.000 Yeah, I mean, that sounds like it's basically the president's plan, for example.

00:29:02.000 Secretary Turner, you're not the Fed chair.

00:29:04.000 We got Warsh coming in in, I believe, May, and I think the market is basically anticipating a rate cut in May.

00:29:12.000 We'll see how deep it is and if that materializes.

00:29:16.000 But this idea that we've got to get first-time homebuyers and bring that medium age down, I saw a stat actually that real incomes have gone up about $1,200 under the Trump administration, but people don't feel it yet.

00:29:28.000 And by the way, your tax return is going to be 11% higher than it was the year before on average.

00:29:33.000 So you've got all of these indicators that people are going to have more money in their pocket.

00:29:37.000 They're going to be able to afford more, but they're still living, they're still digging out of four years of Biden inflation.

00:29:43.000 And it just, you know, I don't, I think sometimes the market doesn't feel it yet.

00:29:46.000 The voters don't feel it yet.

00:29:48.000 But it sounds like what you're seeing, what you're seeing at HUD, the indications are positive moving forward.

00:29:54.000 Absolutely.

00:29:55.000 And thank you for bringing that forward and to our attention.

00:29:58.000 You know, and thank you for sharing the good news.

00:30:01.000 You know, people in America during the Biden administration, you know, suffered greatly as it pertains to economically.

00:30:09.000 Interest rates were high.

00:30:11.000 Mortgage rates were high.

00:30:13.000 Inflation was high.

00:30:14.000 And so President Trump and his administration really inherited a fiscal mess, if you will.

00:30:20.000 But just in a short period of time over this last year with the One Big Beautiful Bill, which is the largest working family tax cut in American history, the policies therein will be a big benefit to Americans throughout this calendar year of 2026 as you see home supply going up and costs going down.

00:30:41.000 You know, for the median age of a homebuyer to be 40, that is way too high.

00:30:47.000 Owning a home in America really is the greatest step to creating wealth and generational wealth for a family.

00:30:54.000 And so that is a top priority.

00:30:56.000 And so getting people in our country who are not supposed to be here, getting them out of our country, increasing the supply, bringing the price down. 1.00

00:31:06.000 Andrew and Blake, I mean, this is a great formula for American prosperity.

00:31:11.000 And I believe that we're on track to do it day by day and step by step.

00:31:14.000 I mean, we've done a lot of things.

00:31:15.000 There's a lot to do.

00:31:17.000 But I'm encouraged and I would encourage your viewers and others to continue to be faithful, continue to work hard, continue to pay attention to what's going on in our economy, the good things that are happening, and know that with great anticipation, there's more to come.

00:31:31.000 I have to ask you, Secretary, did you watch the halftime show?

00:31:35.000 You are a former professional football player, defensive back.

00:31:39.000 You played for the Washington Redskins, the Chargers, the Denver Broncos.

00:31:43.000 You were a standout at the University of Illinois.

00:31:46.000 Did you tune in?

00:31:46.000 I just have to ask.

00:31:48.000 I did not.

00:31:49.000 Oh, no, not to ours, to ours.

00:31:52.000 Yeah, we had the all-American halftime show.

00:31:55.000 It's okay.

00:31:55.000 Oh, you didn't do the other way, dude.

00:31:57.000 That's great.

00:31:58.000 Well, listen, when you said the halftime show, the first thing I thought about was the Super Bowl halftime show.

00:32:03.000 I did get to see many of the highlights from your halftime show, and I'm so grateful for you all that you made the investment in time and talent and resources and energy.

00:32:16.000 I was on the plane.

00:32:17.000 Good pivot.

00:32:18.000 Good pivot.

00:32:20.000 Yeah, I did.

00:32:21.000 I watched it.

00:32:22.000 I was on the plane, but I saw great highlights.

00:32:25.000 So thank y'all.

00:32:25.000 God bless you.

00:32:26.000 God bless you, Secretary Turner.

00:32:28.000 Keep up the great work.

00:32:28.000 Okay, brother.

00:32:29.000 Okay, thank you.

00:32:32.000 Hi, folks.

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00:33:31.000 Secretary Turner's a great guy.

00:33:33.000 Actually, one of the most godly, kind, good-natured men in the administration.

00:33:39.000 So I just wanted to give him a shout out because they're just I just feel like there is this pall of negativity.

00:33:48.000 And then you talk to somebody like Secretary Turner and you're like, you're a fantastic person and you're really based.

00:33:55.000 You're really conservative.

00:33:56.000 You're getting illegals out of the programs. 0.99

00:33:58.000 You're getting rid of all this DEI stuff.

00:34:00.000 And, you know, are we even like, are people aware?

00:34:05.000 So I love having him on.

00:34:06.000 But that's a bit of an aside.

00:34:07.000 I want to we just have to take a moment to reflect on the Olympics, Blake.

00:34:15.000 We are not winning the medal count.

00:34:16.000 Unfortunately, that's one more win.

00:34:18.000 That's the Winter Olympic medal count in Asia.

00:34:20.000 So it's all kind of, it's like, have you ever seen how China maxes its medal count in the Summer Olympics?

00:34:26.000 They just, it's such a like a, like the stereotype of like Asians studying for an exam or something where they figure out like, what are the sports that have tons of medals and not a ton of people do them?

00:34:38.000 And so they went really hard at diving because there's a ton of diving medals and it's not a big sport that, you know, gazillions of people do.

00:34:46.000 And similar for other events.

00:34:48.000 And so for the Winter Olympics, that's basically what cross-country skiing is.

00:34:53.000 I think there's 12 different events in cross-country skiing.

00:34:56.000 Serious ones where you're cross-country skiing and then you shoot things.

00:35:00.000 Biathlon.

00:35:00.000 Biathlon has a ton.

00:35:01.000 So yeah, there's a million biathlon events and a million cross-country events.

00:35:04.000 And so the Norwegians have got to dominate it because they all ski to school every winter and whatever.

00:35:10.000 Well, listen, we brought her up before Amber Glenn.

00:35:14.000 She's an American figure skater. 1.00

00:35:16.000 We'll remind you of the insanity here of what she said.

00:35:22.000 421.

00:35:23.000 It's been a hard time for the community overall under this administration.

00:35:28.000 It isn't the first time that we've had to come together as a community and try and fight for our human rights.

00:35:37.000 And now, especially, it's not just affecting the queer community, but many other communities.

00:35:43.000 I hope I can use my platform and my voice throughout these games to try and encourage people to stay strong in these hard times.

00:35:54.000 I know that a lot of people say, you're just an athlete, like stick to your job, shut up about politics, but politics affect us all.

00:36:03.000 It is something that I will not just be quiet about because it is something that affects us in our everyday lives.

00:36:12.000 Okay, none of that made any sense because President Trump is not coming for the queer community, and it was dumb.

00:36:18.000 She's also been kind of just terrible in general during the media circuit that goes on at the Olympics. 0.92

00:36:26.000 442, American Olympic medalist Amber Glenn fires direct message at critics.

00:36:31.000 They hate to see two woke BI, you know, the B-word winning.

00:36:37.000 Well, that's really nice of you, Amber Glenn.

00:36:39.000 There you go.

00:36:40.000 See, two woke.

00:36:41.000 So she admits she's woke.

00:36:42.000 That's great.

00:36:43.000 Well, so she was, I think, anticipated to get a medal.

00:36:48.000 Unfortunately, listen, I always root for America, even when they're awful, like this person, Amber Glenn.

00:36:57.000 But unfortunately for her, it didn't go that well, and she fell during her routine.

00:37:03.000 She is now, I think, going into the second round, she's 13th in the middle.

00:37:08.000 I think she's just no medal.

00:37:09.000 Well, she's basically out of the medal running now.

00:37:12.000 She's ranked number 13 in the, yeah, see, there you go. 0.98

00:37:15.000 Number 13 right there.

00:37:16.000 But there is an American that is primed for a potential medal.

00:37:20.000 She's number three.

00:37:21.000 As far as I know, she hasn't been spouting off at the media and drawing negative attention to herself in Milan.

00:37:28.000 So there, there you go.

00:37:30.000 What is her name's Alyssa Liu, and she just seems to be very happy and excited about that.

00:37:36.000 Isabelle, Isabeau Levito is ranked eighth in the competition.

00:37:40.000 These are the standings currently.

00:37:42.000 And so I think there's one more round to oh, she did not fall.

00:37:44.000 She just messed up one of her jumps, but then she cried.

00:37:48.000 And that's all the headlines that I've seen.

00:37:50.000 So she lost a bunch of points because she messed up one of her jumps, which is, you know, you know all about figure skating. 1.00

00:37:56.000 But I'm just going to say it.

00:37:58.000 It couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

00:38:03.000 I'm reading from experts who actually follow figure skating outside of the Olympics.

00:38:08.000 And because it was a clarification, she didn't fall, but apparently it was worse than falling.

00:38:13.000 Like she just failed to even complete some part of her program.

00:38:18.000 And it literally would have been better to do it and then just face plant right on the ice.

00:38:23.000 Really?

00:38:24.000 Yes.

00:38:24.000 Than what she did.

00:38:25.000 Yeah.

00:38:25.000 So she screwed up.

00:38:26.000 But I don't watch figure skating.

00:38:28.000 All right.

00:38:29.000 We have to do the medal count because this is the only thing I actually care about.

00:38:32.000 486 is the medal count.

00:38:34.000 Norway with 15 golds, eight silvers, 10 bronze, and 33 total medals.

00:38:40.000 Italy, which you'd think like Italy has like 1.2 children, you know, they are the host, so they get a free entrant in every event.

00:38:48.000 Yeah, but it's still, I mean, they think they historically do well in the medal count.

00:38:51.000 Yeah, well, they have the Alps.

00:38:53.000 Anyone that touches the Alps does pretty decently.

00:38:55.000 It does pretty well in these.

00:38:56.000 But it's just like they have like no people.

00:38:58.000 And yet here they are.

00:38:59.000 They have nine gold, four silver, 12 bronze.

00:39:01.000 And then finally, the United States in third position with only seven golds, 11 silvers.

00:39:07.000 I mean, we're really crushing it.

00:39:09.000 We're like the kings of runners up.

00:39:12.000 Yeah, well, 11 silvers.

00:39:14.000 We love that silver.

00:39:15.000 We had the sponsors in the other day, and they brought their giant brick of silver.

00:39:19.000 Yeah, well, unfortunately, then it's France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

00:39:23.000 And, you know, unfortunately for Sweden, they still don't have a lot of black slalom racers, apparently.

00:39:29.000 That was a criticism made by the AP about the Swedish Olympic team.

00:39:34.000 Let's put it up.

00:39:35.000 Let's put up 4:33.

00:39:36.000 This is Amber Glenn again.

00:39:38.000 And it's going to be difficult.

00:39:39.000 Obviously, you can't see it if you're on podcast, but if you're watching us now, you'll be able to see she's crying there after what happened.

00:39:45.000 And if you zoom in on that top image, I don't know if they can, but it's circled.

00:39:50.000 She is wearing a trans kind of pride flag heart pin.

00:39:58.000 So she'll have that form of pride, if not the same.

00:40:00.000 That was her waiting for the score to come in.

00:40:02.000 So she's sitting there crying, knowing that she messed up her jump.

00:40:05.000 Oh, these do they do it so much?

00:40:06.000 They know exactly how it is, whether they've nailed it.

00:40:08.000 Oh, yeah, she knew.

00:40:09.000 She knew.

00:40:10.000 You know, but listen, all due respect.

00:40:13.000 You're an Olympic athlete.

00:40:14.000 You've put the time in.

00:40:16.000 I can only hate you so much, hate on you so much, but you are very hatable, Amber Glenn.

00:40:21.000 And I regret that your media appearances have been so abysmal and awful and disgraceful to the country.

00:40:28.000 But you're still an American, and I would still have rooted for you and been like, well, at least she can back up her big talk.

00:40:33.000 That's what I would have been.

00:40:34.000 All right.

00:40:35.000 One last piece of breaking news here before we leave you for the rest of the show.

00:40:40.000 It looks like we mentioned the potential war in Iran.

00:40:44.000 Breaking news, Justin, is Israeli emergency services and the Home Front Command have been instructed to prepare for war as officials assess imminent, and that is a quote, imminent U.S. strike on Iran.

00:40:57.000 And that is according to Yenet News Service.

00:41:01.000 Imminent.

00:41:02.000 Imminent is a scary word.

00:41:04.000 So we've been here before.

00:41:07.000 We'll see.

00:41:08.000 We will see what happens.

00:41:09.000 Yeah.

00:41:09.000 If what happens, I imagine we'll probably.

00:41:11.000 I did check with some sources in the break, and it does appear that, you know, historically, yes, you could conclude that a kinetic strike would be imminent, but there does not look to be enough resources for a ground invasion or holding land or something like that.

00:41:26.000 So we're going to have to wait and see and see what happens.

00:41:29.000 We'll have more on that tomorrow.

00:41:30.000 We'll see you then.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 19, 2026

Mamdani's War on New York Homeowners

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