The Charlie Kirk Show - My Town Hall Conversation With TPUSA Students and Treasury Secretary Bessent

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Tim, The Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:01.000 My conversation with the Treasury Secretary of the United States and thousands of Turning Point USA students.

00:00:06.000 Some of them zoom in for an exclusive conversation on financial literacy that you can only hear here on The Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:13.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and become a member today, members.charliekirk.com.

00:00:18.000 That is members.charliekirk.com and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.

00:00:25.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:27.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:28.000 Here we go.

00:00:29.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:31.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:33.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:37.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:40.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:41.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:42.000 His spirit, his love of this country.

00:00:44.000 He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:00:50.000 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.

00:00:59.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:02.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.

00:01:12.000 Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:19.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:21.000 It's where I buy all of my gold.

00:01:23.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:27.000 We are going to be joined by the Treasury Secretary of the United States and a friend of mine, Scott Besson, and over 1,000 Turning Point USA high school and college chapters across the country to discuss financial literacy.

00:01:43.000 We know with all the economic pressures that are facing the next generation, as you can see, they're populating up on screen all of our amazing turning point leaders.

00:01:51.000 Hey, guys, great to see you.

00:01:52.000 That's the future of America right there.

00:01:53.000 I'll tell you what, with all of the financial pressures facing the next generation, inflation, cost of housing, it's more important than ever to teach financial literacy how to save money, how to invest, how to invest.

00:02:08.000 What is debt?

00:02:09.000 What is good debt versus bad debt?

00:02:11.000 What is consumer debt?

00:02:12.000 What is credit card debt?

00:02:13.000 What is a mortgage?

00:02:14.000 Should you take out two mortgages on your home?

00:02:16.000 What is a reverse mortgage?

00:02:17.000 This stuff needs to be taught in our schools, and we are trying to lead the charge here with our Turning Point USA students.

00:02:22.000 Without any further ado, let me welcome the Secretary of Treasury of the United States who's doing a phenomenal job in the first 100 days here, Scott Besson.

00:02:31.000 Mr. Secretary, great to see you.

00:02:32.000 Thank you for taking the time.

00:02:33.000 Hey, Charlie.

00:02:34.000 Great to see you.

00:02:35.000 And this is part of Financial Literacy Month.

00:02:38.000 And I think that there's nothing more important.

00:02:41.000 Well, thank you.

00:02:41.000 I agree.

00:02:42.000 And what we have here is over a thousand of our Turning Point USA chapters, high school and college chapters, that quite honestly, in the next half an hour to 45 minutes, they're going to learn more about financial literacy because it's not taught in our schools.

00:02:55.000 It's not taught in high school.

00:02:56.000 It's not taught in colleges.

00:02:57.000 And let me just ask you before we go to our first question, which is Trey from University of South Carolina.

00:03:03.000 Why is it, do you think, that financial literacy has not been in our curriculum, Mr. Secretary?

00:03:08.000 Can you comment on that?

00:03:09.000 Because it's a major failing.

00:03:11.000 Yeah, Charlie, I don't know, because somehow I got a bad name.

00:03:17.000 I'm older than all of you.

00:03:18.000 I'm 62, but when I was younger, it actually used to be taught.

00:03:23.000 And everyone used to think home economics was how to cook, how to keep a house, but it was also how to keep a budget.

00:03:32.000 And somehow home economics disappeared, shop disappeared, and all these other kind of strange transgender studies things showed up, and somehow they were more important than teaching people how to be self-sufficient. 0.98

00:03:49.000 You know, I was on the last curve.

00:03:50.000 It's funny.

00:03:51.000 I went to MacArthur Middle School, and we had HOMAC, and they got rid of it a couple years later, and it was very helpful because it was all about how to balance a checkbook, what is saving, what is investing, as well as some of the more basic stuff, how to do laundry, how to...

00:04:04.000 Iron your shirts.

00:04:06.000 And quite honestly, one that I appreciated.

00:04:07.000 Young men, here's how to tie a tie.

00:04:10.000 What a concept, right?

00:04:11.000 It's amazing how many young men don't know how to tie ties.

00:04:14.000 Let's get to our first question here.

00:04:16.000 As I mentioned, we have over 1,000 chapters here on the Zoom call.

00:04:19.000 It's an honor to be speaking to you, Mr. Secretary.

00:04:21.000 The first question here is from Trey.

00:04:22.000 He's a Turning Point USA chapter leader at the University of South Carolina in beautiful Columbia, South Carolina.

00:04:28.000 I was just there for a great event that unfortunately got rained out about an hour into it.

00:04:33.000 Trey, great to see you.

00:04:34.000 My friend, what is your question for the secretary?

00:04:37.000 Well, it's always good to see you, Charlie.

00:04:38.000 We had a blast on April 7th.

00:04:40.000 And Secretary Besson, it's a pleasure to be speaking with you tonight.

00:04:45.000 And I have a question for you, Mr. Secretary.

00:04:47.000 So what practical changes is the Trump administration making that are going to be helping young people, such as, number one, get married, two, own a home, number three, afford kids?

00:05:00.000 For kids, because this is really a big reason why President Trump won back in November.

00:05:05.000 Young people were looking at being the first generation since Washington, where they weren't, you know, expected to be as well off as their parents were.

00:05:14.000 So, my question.

00:05:15.000 Trey, all three excellent points, and I don't know if you know it, I am from South Carolina, so go Gamecocks.

00:05:25.000 And at the Trump administration, We are trying to address this incredible affordability crisis that was created by the last administration and it was a combination of...

00:05:41.000 The out-of-control prices, the out-of-control government debt, and we'll come back to that on why that's very important.

00:05:49.000 If I was a young person, not fair for my generation to pass it down and then bring down interest rates, bring down the energy cost, and also create economic security because one of my...

00:06:07.000 big sayings is that economic security is national security, national security is economic security, and they're really tied together.

00:06:17.000 So, you know, I'll work backwards

00:06:20.000 I think one of the few good things to come from COVID was it was a beta test that if we got into a kinetic war, could the U.S. be self-sufficient?

00:06:33.000 It turns out we're not.

00:06:35.000 Couldn't supply our own medicine.

00:06:38.000 We don't have a lot of rare earths which go into most of our machinery.

00:06:44.000 The semiconductors are all made on the island of Taiwan.

00:06:49.000 Steel.

00:06:50.000 So we're trying to bring all those back home for economic security.

00:06:55.000 One of the reasons I came out from behind my desk in Charleston was I was so alarmed.

00:07:02.000 By the way the Biden administration was just spin, spin, spin.

00:07:06.000 And I thought it was deeply cynical what they were doing.

00:07:09.000 They were running up the debt.

00:07:11.000 And then they were going to come and say, we have to raise taxes.

00:07:14.000 And we were going to become like a European-style social democracy.

00:07:19.000 And in this slow-growth, high-tax environment, that's the worst thing that young people like you could start out in.

00:07:28.000 And then the last thing is the high government debt.

00:07:32.000 The pushes up interest rates, so we have a plan to bring down the government debt and also to make the U.S. energy independent and keep energy prices low.

00:07:44.000 Phenomenal answer.

00:07:45.000 Thank you, Trey, for that.

00:07:47.000 And yes, Mr. Secretary, I did choose the South Carolina question first.

00:07:51.000 There's a little bit of a wink and a nod to the courtesy of you making time.

00:07:54.000 You got to go back home.

00:07:56.000 And I want to add on to that just a second as we get Ryan queued up here from Wichita State University, which is when young people do not own stuff, when young people do not have a stake in the American dream, it can set the prerequisite for radical socialist politics.

00:08:13.000 Ownership of goods, ownership of property is a necessary ingredient for the flourishing of the American middle class.

00:08:22.000 You know, one of the biggest lies being sold to American people right now is that you're in control of your money, especially when it comes to crypto.

00:08:28.000 But the truth, most of these so-called crypto platforms are just banks in disguise, fully capable of freezing your assets the moment some bureaucrat makes a phone call.

00:08:37.000 That is not what Bitcoin was built for.

00:08:39.000 That's why I use Bitcoin.com.

00:08:41.000 I just did a major transaction on it.

00:08:43.000 They offer a self-custodial wallet, which means you hold the keys.

00:08:47.000 You control your assets.

00:08:49.000 No one can touch your crypto.

00:08:50.000 Not the IRS or not a rogue bank.

00:08:53.000 Not some three-letter agency that thinks it knows better than you do.

00:08:56.000 This is how it was intended by the original creators of Bitcoin.

00:08:59.000 Peer-to-peer money, free from centralized control, free from surveillance, and free from arbitrary seizure.

00:09:05.000 So if you're serious about financial sovereignty, go to Bitcoin.com, set up your wallet, take back control, because if you don't hold the keys, you don't own your money.

00:09:13.000 Bitcoin.com.

00:09:14.000 Freedom starts here.

00:09:18.000 Ryan, great chapter leader for us at Wichita State University.

00:09:22.000 Ryan, great to see you.

00:09:23.000 What question do you have for the secretary?

00:09:25.000 And you got a great chapter there.

00:09:26.000 I think you got almost 10 people there.

00:09:28.000 And so say hello to the secretary from Wichita, Kansas.

00:09:31.000 Well, thank you, Charlie, and Secretary Besson.

00:09:34.000 And our question is, what advice do you have to young people listening on how they should approach wealth building?

00:09:40.000 Another good question.

00:09:41.000 And I'm going to give you an...

00:09:43.000 Answer that I think is not obvious.

00:09:46.000 Everyone wants to be a great investor, and that's super helpful in terms of how you manage your assets.

00:09:56.000 But the other way, and Charlie alluded to it earlier, is how do you manage your personal balance sheet?

00:10:04.000 How do you manage your personal finances?

00:10:07.000 And how aware are you of your risk tolerance?

00:10:11.000 And a good thing about being a young person is you should have more risk tolerance.

00:10:16.000 There used to be, and I'm not...

00:10:20.000 I'm a proponent of this, but there used to be a very easy rule of thumb.

00:10:25.000 You took 100, subtracted your age, and then that's the percent of your net worth that should be allocated to equities.

00:10:34.000 And then over time, as you got closer to retirement, you'd have more fixed income, fewer equities.

00:10:41.000 But one thing that I would really...

00:10:43.000 Tell everyone to think about is like personal tax planning.

00:10:48.000 There's so many things that you can do in terms of do you want to live in a low tax state?

00:10:54.000 Do you want to live in a high tax state?

00:10:57.000 The savings plans, when do you want to start?

00:11:00.000 When are you able to start putting money away?

00:11:03.000 Even if it's $100 a month, it makes a big difference.

00:11:09.000 I would echo what Charlie says, is we want to have stakeholders in the system.

00:11:15.000 You want everybody to be part of the system, and you also want people to believe in the system.

00:11:22.000 You want to be smart about your insurance.

00:11:30.000 Is it a good idea when you're very young?

00:11:33.000 You can buy very cheap.

00:11:35.000 The life insurance, that's a great tax-advantaged savings product over your life.

00:11:44.000 Where do you keep your money?

00:11:47.000 You want your money to be in a safe and sound bank, but many people get very lazy, and if you have a money market account and a checking account...

00:11:58.000 The money market account is probably going to pay a lot more.

00:12:01.000 It can be a little bit of a pain every week or every month, but keep the money in the high-earning account and then just move it over to checking or debit as you need it.

00:12:13.000 And the main thing, too, is just when you're young, don't get over your head in debt.

00:12:20.000 College of Charleston.

00:12:22.000 Where I live has a great program for kids.

00:12:26.000 I'm sure all of you have seen freshman year, American Express, all the other credit card companies are out on campus.

00:12:34.000 Here, sign up.

00:12:36.000 This is going to be great.

00:12:37.000 And before you know it, you're into the semester, you're two semesters, you're over your head in debt, you're having trouble making ends meet, maybe have to drop out of school for a while, get a job, your grades.

00:12:49.000 go down.

00:12:50.000 So, as Charlie said, having smart debt and normally credit card debt is not smart debt.

00:12:57.000 Excellent.

00:12:59.000 Excellent answer.

00:13:00.000 And that's really important, guys, to understand also, and I'm sure we'll get to this at some point in the conversation, but if we don't, learn the tax laws now.

00:13:07.000 Mr. Secretary's working on a phenomenal tax bill with the president that will hopefully go no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and all that other stuff.

00:13:14.000 But understand that a mortgage actually has some tax benefits to it to a home.

00:13:19.000 So understand that credit card debt has no such advantages in the tax code system.

00:13:25.000 In fact, you want to try to borrow money on something that gets more valuable.

00:13:30.000 By the way, that was the argument for student loan debt in a year past, right?

00:13:34.000 Years past.

00:13:34.000 Well, you're going to get more valuable over the next 30 years, so you might as well borrow money on yourself.

00:13:39.000 We'll understand that, you know, going...

00:13:41.000 And spending money on experiences, going out to eat or going on vacations, those are very diminishing returns over a long period of time.

00:13:47.000 And so understand the different types of debt is critically important.

00:13:51.000 Okay, next, we have a high school chapter here.

00:13:54.000 We know we have more high school chapters than college chapters at Turning Point USA.

00:13:58.000 It is Andrew, Nick, and Knox from Fort Worth Country Day High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

00:14:05.000 Great to see you guys.

00:14:06.000 What is your question for the secretary?

00:14:08.000 And I love the hat.

00:14:10.000 Hello?

00:14:11.000 Yes, you are on.

00:14:12.000 I don't know if it's Andrew, Nick, or Knox.

00:14:14.000 What is up, and what is your question for the Secretary?

00:14:17.000 A three-part question.

00:14:19.000 The first part is, can you explain why the dollar is the world reserve currency?

00:14:23.000 The second part is, how does that help America?

00:14:27.000 And then the third part is, are we at a risk of losing that?

00:14:31.000 So, Nick, good questions.

00:14:35.000 I'll work backwards there.

00:14:37.000 We are not at...

00:14:39.000 We are not at risk of losing it now.

00:14:42.000 I think if we'd continued with the Biden administration's reckless policies, there's a chance that we might.

00:14:52.000 I don't believe we are.

00:14:56.000 What President Trump has instructed me to do is to put in great economic policies that makes the United States the best place to invest, the best place to compound your capital, best place for innovation, best place for upward social mobility,

00:15:14.000 wealth accumulation, to be able to keep more of what you make.

00:15:21.000 But a very attractive destination for foreigners to bring in their money. 0.96

00:15:26.000 Because we take the stability that we have here for granted.

00:15:30.000 We take the fact that our markets are free and fair.

00:15:35.000 Around the world, it's not like that.

00:15:40.000 That I just visited three weeks ago has a very dynamic president.

00:15:44.000 You may have seen him, President the Malay.

00:15:47.000 And he is having to save his country.

00:15:50.000 But Argentina, 100 years ago, was the ninth richest country in the world.

00:15:56.000 Now I think it's something like 120th.

00:15:58.000 So everyone...

00:16:03.000 People, like Argentinians, want to put their money here. 1.00

00:16:06.000 And then why is it important to be the reserve currency?

00:16:10.000 Because it gives us low-cost borrowing, gives us...

00:16:17.000 The authority over the rest of the world in terms of issuing debt, in terms of the world is priced in dollars, so it gives U.S. companies an advantage, gives the U.S. government an advantage for borrowing,

00:16:33.000 and really helps us.

00:16:38.000 Maintain our defense posture and our foreign presence.

00:16:43.000 Everybody wants to be in the dollar.

00:16:46.000 Commodities are priced in dollars.

00:16:49.000 Oil is the most important commodity in the world.

00:16:52.000 It's priced in dollars.

00:16:53.000 So we've got to work hard to maintain our reserve currency status.

00:16:59.000 I'm sure that we are going to do it.

00:17:04.000 President Trump did an incredible job in his first term.

00:17:08.000 There was some bad behavior by the U.S. government in terms of fundamentals, and now we're going to be back on a good track.

00:17:17.000 And I can tell you, everybody in the world wants to come here now.

00:17:22.000 And I will add on top of that as well, everybody in this audience, you guys have inherited.

00:17:27.000 Really, what is a birthright, which is the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency status?

00:17:31.000 We do not want to lose that.

00:17:34.000 Look at that right here.

00:17:35.000 Losing that would be detrimental and potentially catastrophic.

00:17:38.000 And President Trump wants to try to decouple the BRICS.

00:17:42.000 Joe Biden did nothing when it came to BRICS.

00:17:43.000 He couldn't care less.

00:17:44.000 The fact that these countries were trying to assemble an alternative to the dollar, a big problem.

00:17:51.000 What does a mechanic and auto shop owner in Georgia, a taco restaurant operator in Arizona, and a life-saving medical innovator in Tennessee have in common?

00:18:00.000 They're all small business owners, and they're all thriving on TikTok.

00:18:04.000 Across the U.S., over 7.5 million businesses, from family-owned shops to entrepreneurs, are using TikTok to compete and grow.

00:18:10.000 We use TikTok all the time on The Charlie Kirk Show.

00:18:13.000 In fact, 74% of businesses on TikTok say TikTok has allowed them to scale their operations, increasing sales, and expanding to new locations.

00:18:21.000 And that growth means jobs.

00:18:22.000 Today, there's over 7.5 million U.S. businesses on TikTok employing more than 28 million people.

00:18:27.000 And that number keeps growing.

00:18:29.000 small businesses thrive on TikTok.

00:18:30.000 Learn more about TikTok's contribution to the U.S. economy at TikTokEconomicImpact.com.

00:18:39.000 Jack is the next question from Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

00:18:43.000 Jack, what is your question for the Secretary?

00:18:45.000 Hello from Towson University.

00:18:48.000 Thank you, Mr. Kirk.

00:18:48.000 We hope to have you sometime down here in the future.

00:18:51.000 And thank you, Mr. Secretary, for taking our question.

00:18:54.000 So, our question is, there is a lot of concern that the Trump tariffs may increase product prices sometime in the near future.

00:19:01.000 So, when can we expect prices to decrease, and how will that benefit college students in the long run who are already broke?

00:19:11.000 So, the tariffs, we'll see where the negotiations come out.

00:19:18.000 Tariffs are more like a one-time price change.

00:19:23.000 We could see a price adjustment over the coming months, but at the same time, we're seeing rents go down.

00:19:31.000 We're seeing energy prices go down.

00:19:35.000 My cousin from Daytona Beach, Florida, if you could believe it, gas in Daytona Beach is $1.92 a gallon.

00:19:43.000 So we've seen about a 20% decrease in energy prices.

00:19:48.000 President Trump is committed to lowering taxes.

00:19:52.000 So the way to think about it, the price on the shelf may go up slightly, but your take-home pay will go up.

00:20:01.000 What we would call the after-tax earnings for whether you're single or for a household will go up.

00:20:11.000 And then the other big tax that is really...

00:20:16.000 An invisible tax is regulation.

00:20:18.000 So the average household in America, the cost of regulation increased by about $3,000 per year under President Biden, and we are working on cutting that back.

00:20:34.000 So you should be able to see a substantial decrease in regulatory burden.

00:20:44.000 Phenomenal.

00:20:44.000 And I believe we're going to have a conversation a little bit about inflation.

00:20:48.000 And I do want to get into that because the number one primary driver of inflation is government spending.

00:20:54.000 We have a debt-financed government spending cheap money spigot.

00:20:59.000 And it's a tough thing to decouple there.

00:21:01.000 But we have a lot of advantages.

00:21:03.000 And one of the advantages we have is our people, our obviously World Reserve currency status, the entrepreneurial capacity of America, also artificial intelligence.

00:21:12.000 It's massive.

00:21:13.000 We are going to become the AI capital of the world.

00:21:16.000 Jacob is here.

00:21:17.000 Jacob is from Green Valley High School in beautiful Henderson, Nevada.

00:21:22.000 Jacob, what is on your mind and what is your question for Secretary Bussin?

00:21:26.000 How's it going, guys?

00:21:28.000 I just wanted to say I'm a super big fan.

00:21:30.000 Thank you guys for taking the time to answer my question.

00:21:34.000 My question, I wrote it down.

00:21:36.000 Can you explain what causes inflation?

00:21:38.000 People claim COVID disrupted supply chains all around the world, and that's what really caused inflation.

00:21:43.000 Is that true, or did Biden directly spark it through bad official and monetary policies?

00:21:49.000 The very nuanced and important question.

00:21:54.000 Prices can go up during...

00:21:57.000 You know, over the short term during periods of shortages, but they want to come right back down.

00:22:02.000 What happened was this terrible combination of what the Biden administration did, and it was exactly the opposite of what President Trump did under his first administration.

00:22:14.000 So he cut taxes.

00:22:16.000 And deregulated.

00:22:19.000 So when you deregulate, there's more supply of something.

00:22:23.000 There's more supply of energy.

00:22:24.000 There's more supply of housing.

00:22:26.000 There's more supply of goods and services.

00:22:29.000 So there was a demand shock for goods because people had more disposable income.

00:22:38.000 At the same time, there was a supply response, so there was a greater supply of everything, and there was very low inflation, about 2%, which is the long-term average.

00:22:50.000 Under the Biden administration, they were playing with fire anyway, and there were the COVID shortages, but they had a federal spending shock that was, as Charlie said, debt-financed.

00:23:04.000 And then they put in more regulations.

00:23:07.000 So more regulations meant less supply, higher energy prices, higher house prices.

00:23:13.000 So that was really the recipe for inflation.

00:23:18.000 And what we're trying to do right now is deregulate, get the private sector going again.

00:23:26.000 The Biden administration, with this big spending, it was government jobs, and we are trying to do what I call re-privatizing the economy, bring down government spending, re-leverage the private sector.

00:23:45.000 I think that we are going to be very successful in that.

00:23:49.000 We're already seeing rents go down.

00:23:51.000 We're seeing energy go down.

00:23:52.000 So supply and demand, the more there is of something, the more the price will come down.

00:24:00.000 And we've stopped this crazy money printing, and we're going to get our borrowing under control because, like I said, it is for all of you on this call that it is not fair what has happened.

00:24:13.000 To leave you with this gigantic debt stack that you're going to have to work your way out of.

00:24:19.000 And I want to just piggyback on that, and let's add more context and color, if I could ask a follow-up, Mr. Secretary, which is that in 2008-2009, our leaders had to make a choice.

00:24:30.000 You remember this.

00:24:30.000 You were running very successful businesses at the time, and it was very tempting to turn on the cheap money spigot.

00:24:39.000 And I get it to a certain extent.

00:24:41.000 I think you can make an argument for TARP, Targeted Asset Relief Program.

00:24:45.000 The stimulus was questionable.

00:24:47.000 But what was disturbing is that this prosperity from 2008 onward has, of course, been materially prosperous for some Americans, but it has actually only made the wealthier even wealthier, the wealthy wealthier, and it's been very hard for the middle class to own stuff post-2008 financial crisis because we have a government debt-financed economic system.

00:25:09.000 Turning that off, if not managed correctly, can be very troublesome.

00:25:14.000 Can you speak to the balancing act that you and President Trump have to navigate from the bond markets?

00:25:20.000 Because being able to deal with all that, once you go and you let's just say indulge in cheap money, good luck getting away from it.

00:25:33.000 Talk about that balance.

00:25:35.000 And how you guys now want to get us back to an actual material economy where we make stuff in this country?

00:25:41.000 Charlie, that's the essence of the Trump economy.

00:25:45.000 And it's really two things.

00:25:48.000 Or, you know, I would say three.

00:25:51.000 But one is bringing down this debt and deficits.

00:25:56.000 But we're going to do it slowly.

00:25:57.000 We didn't get here all at once.

00:26:03.000 Tell some of the members of Congress, they're good men and women, and they want to bring the deficit to zero tomorrow.

00:26:12.000 And I said, look, our fiscal situation, we have a 350-pound, two-pack-a-day patient on the ICU table.

00:26:23.000 And he or she is not going to hop out of the hospital bed and run the Hawaiian Ironman.

00:26:30.000 What we're going to do is do it slowly because we didn't get here in one year.

00:26:36.000 We're going to bring down the deficit about a percent every year and during President Trump's term.

00:26:45.000 And if we do that, we'll start paying down debt and creating value.

00:26:50.000 The other thing, too, is I don't want to scare all of you because one great thing that you have to look forward to is this incredible productivity boom.

00:27:02.000 What really creates wealth is productivity.

00:27:06.000 The same number of people working either the same hours or fewer hours for more output.

00:27:16.000 And with this AI boom that's going to be driven by the U.S. lead in technology and the U.S. lead in energy, and that's going to be the real secret sauce that you all are going to see for the next 10,

00:27:32.000 20 years of your lives in the U.S., that no one else has that combination.

00:27:37.000 We have the world's greatest technology sector, and we have the world's...

00:27:43.000 So, you know, if you think about a barbell economy, we have technology on one side, energy on the other, and they're going to meet with AI.

00:27:53.000 And then what President Trump has instructed his cabinet, the econ team like me to do, is to fill in the middle and bring back high-performance manufacturing jobs.

00:28:06.000 So, you know, before, either you had to be in high tech.

00:28:10.000 It had to be in energy, and everything in between just got decimated.

00:28:15.000 We gave up on manufacturing.

00:28:18.000 And look, manufacturing, there's one comedian who said, I don't know about all of you.

00:28:26.000 I want to wear Nikes.

00:28:27.000 I don't want to make them.

00:28:28.000 So we're not going to bring back the jobs of the past.

00:28:32.000 We're going to have the jobs of the future here.

00:28:34.000 And these are going to be high-tech, high-value.

00:28:40.000 And someone on the left took a shot at me the other day that said, oh, Secretary Besant says that all federal workers are all going to work in factories.

00:28:52.000 And I said, you know, that's so reductionist that a factory isn't just someone who works on the factory floor.

00:28:59.000 And by the way, what's wrong with that?

00:29:03.000 Those are great people.

00:29:05.000 But you're going to create marketing jobs.

00:29:08.000 You're going to create accounting jobs.

00:29:11.000 You're going to create the design jobs.

00:29:14.000 We're going to bring all that back.

00:29:16.000 So I just think that the U.S. has just the right combination right now of technology and energy, and then we're going to fill out everything in between.

00:29:30.000 Charlie Kirk here.

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00:30:32.000 Our last question will be here.

00:30:34.000 Colin, Northwood University from Midland, Michigan.

00:30:38.000 Colin, what is on your mind?

00:30:40.000 Hi.

00:30:41.000 We are Northwood University from Midland, Michigan.

00:30:45.000 We are America's Free Enterprise University.

00:30:47.000 First, I want to thank Charlie and Secretary.

00:30:50.000 Our question is, what is your stance, the treasurer's stance, on regulations on data assets, currents, such as Bitcoin?

00:31:04.000 And is the treasurer exploring a central break digital

00:31:09.000 Look, I think...

00:31:17.000 The digital assets are very exciting.

00:31:21.000 I would advise all of you to understand what you're buying.

00:31:26.000 It's not a casino.

00:31:28.000 But to me, the great thing about digital assets, and I think most of you would have been very young.

00:31:39.000 During the great financial crisis, but there was something that was called Occupy Wall Street.

00:31:44.000 And it was a group of people who, you know, they were probably the progressive or left-wing to begin with, but not everybody.

00:31:53.000 There were people on our side of the aisle, and it was people who just thought the system was not working for them.

00:31:59.000 The system had failed.

00:32:00.000 And as Charlie said early on, we want people involved in wealth accumulation.

00:32:06.000 We want people to believe the system works.

00:32:09.000 And I think the great thing about digital assets is it's brought a whole...

00:32:15.000 The new group of young people to the markets or a whole group of people who just weren't invested in the markets.

00:32:25.000 I will share my dirty little secret with all of you.

00:32:30.000 I'm from South Carolina, so I have a Dr. Pepper for breakfast in the morning.

00:32:34.000 Not allowed to do it at home.

00:32:36.000 So I ended up at the Circle K on Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, most mornings.

00:32:43.000 Before I came to D.C., dressed like this, lots of the mostly young working class construction workers, mostly African-American, in there in the morning and buying lottery tickets.

00:32:58.000 And they'd say, Mr., when I win the lottery, will you manage my money for me?

00:33:05.000 And I'd see them again and again.

00:33:08.000 And I was sitting there thinking, if these young men were putting that same $10 or $20 a week into a crypto account, if they'd been buying Bitcoin for five years, they'd own the Circle K. And I think what we're trying to do in the U.S.,

00:33:30.000 the Biden administration really tried to make digital assets extinct.

00:33:36.000 And I speak to...

00:33:40.000 These digital asset entrepreneurs, and they just said it felt like we had a bounty out on our head.

00:33:47.000 A lot of the digital assets went offshore, subject to a lot of scams.

00:33:54.000 And what we're trying to do is apply the U.S. best practices.

00:34:01.000 Rule of law, two digital assets, couple that with American innovation, and make the U.S. the digital asset the capital of the world.

00:34:12.000 And I think we're going to do it.

00:34:15.000 And, you know, so I think it's exciting.

00:34:17.000 I'd encourage all of you to explore it.

00:34:20.000 Over time, stores of value have changed, and they clearly...

00:34:28.000 Bitcoin, Ethereum, they are becoming stores of value.

00:34:33.000 And what I would encourage you to do, though, is think about your own risk tolerance.

00:34:41.000 You probably, depending on your savings, there is some level.

00:34:49.000 Digital assets are very volatile.

00:34:54.000 If they're going to be a good investment for the long term, then you could sit through the volatility.

00:35:01.000 But if you want to be involved, think, what is the right amount that you're willing to risk?

00:35:07.000 Is it 5% of your assets?

00:35:10.000 Is it 10%?

00:35:12.000 Is it 20%?

00:35:13.000 And they really keep it well-researched.

00:35:19.000 Decide what your risk tolerance is.

00:35:22.000 That way, you know, you're not buying at the top, selling at the bottom.

00:35:26.000 You can do the opposite and always leave a little room to buy a little more.

00:35:31.000 Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time.

00:35:33.000 We have two minutes remaining of what we're scheduled.

00:35:35.000 The last question I have for you is what do you wish you would have known at age 22?

00:35:40.000 I mean, you ended up being very successful.

00:35:42.000 You're the Treasury Secretary of the United States.

00:35:44.000 Incredible success in finance.

00:35:46.000 What's the one thing that you wish somebody would have taught you?

00:35:49.000 Charlie, I mean, it's going to make me sound like the most boring person in the world.

00:35:57.000 Great tax planning.

00:35:59.000 Like, just sit and think about tax planning, especially.

00:36:04.000 Like, once you have a family, but...

00:36:08.000 When do you want to buy a house?

00:36:10.000 When do you not want to buy a house?

00:36:13.000 How do you manage your finances?

00:36:17.000 As you said, the mortgages are deductible, but you buy a house, but you're locked in one place.

00:36:27.000 And then the other thing, too, is there's a famous baseball player, the only baseball player to bat over 400, Ted Williams.

00:36:36.000 And he was interviewed once, and they said, Ted, how'd you bat 400?

00:36:43.000 And he said, I only swung at strikes.

00:36:46.000 And you're all young people.

00:36:50.000 You are going to see a lot of things happening over your career.

00:36:55.000 There are going to be a lot of great opportunities.

00:36:57.000 And so the other thing I would say is don't be afraid of change.

00:37:04.000 Don't be afraid of...

00:37:07.000 Volatility.

00:37:08.000 Don't be afraid of tough situations.

00:37:12.000 In my career, and then I'll get off, Charlie, is that I graduated from college in the mid-80s.

00:37:19.000 It was a crash of 87. There are these financialists, the savings and loan crisis, the Asia crisis, the dot-com...

00:37:31.000 Let's just say the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

00:37:35.000 I think Amazon stock may have gone from 100 to 3. And Warren Buffett says the biggest mistake that he ever made was not Jeff Bezos came to him and said, you know, would you finance me?

00:37:51.000 And he didn't.

00:37:55.000 Try to have a long-term, when you see a crisis or when you see a dislocation, it's probably a better word, think about the long-term and always have some liquidity on the side.

00:38:09.000 In 1987, stock market crash was down 20-something percent in one day, and I worked for this Middle Eastern family, and I...

00:38:20.000 So I was 25. I was freaking out.

00:38:23.000 I was like, oh my God, what are we going to do?

00:38:26.000 And the daughter of the family, who's only, if I was 25, she was 35. She came over calmly and she said, we've been saving up for a rainy day and this is a great time to get involved.

00:38:41.000 So have enough liquidity for a rainy day.

00:38:49.000 Over the course of your life, be prepared to take advantage of very interesting situations and always know your risk tolerance.

00:39:00.000 That's phenomenal advice.

00:39:01.000 And remember that if you can figure out how to send the government less money, no offense, Mr. Secretary.

00:39:07.000 You're going to be in a great spot.

00:39:08.000 In fact, you're working to make it so that people send less money to the government.

00:39:12.000 Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Secretary.

00:39:14.000 Let's have all the students on screen.

00:39:16.000 Can you see that, Mr. Secretary?

00:39:17.000 Thousands and thousands of students.

00:39:19.000 They're all waving and thanking you for your time.

00:39:22.000 Good.

00:39:23.000 And Charlie, why don't you organize a visit for some of the Turning Point crew here sometime in the next couple of months?

00:39:33.000 We'd love to host them here at Treasury.

00:39:35.000 We would love that.

00:39:36.000 Thank you.

00:39:36.000 We will do that this summer.

00:39:37.000 We'll send a special group of students to the Treasury Building, which is now open for business.

00:39:43.000 Believe it or not, it was closed during Biden's entire term, which is just insane.

00:39:48.000 Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary.

00:39:49.000 Thank you to all of our great students and everyone that helped.

00:39:52.000 Put this together.

00:39:52.000 Talk to you guys soon.

00:39:53.000 Thanks so much.

00:39:54.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:39:55.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - April 29, 2025

My Town Hall Conversation With TPUSA Students and Treasury Secretary Bessent

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