The Charlie Kirk Show - Remembering "Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams

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.

00:00:11.000 My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.

00:00:14.000 If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable.

00:00:19.000 But if the most important thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful.

00:00:24.000 College is a scam, everybody.

00:00:26.000 You got to stop sending your kids to college.

00:00:27.000 You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible.

00:00:31.000 Go start a Turning Point USA college chapter.

00:00:33.000 Go start a Turning Point USA high school chapter.

00:00:35.000 Go find out how your church can get involved.

00:00:37.000 Sign up and become an activist.

00:00:39.000 I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade.

00:00:41.000 Most important decision I ever made in my life.

00:00:43.000 And I encourage you to do the same.

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord Musem.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

00:00:56.000 The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers.

00:01:09.000 All right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:11.000 It is January 13th, 2026.

00:01:14.000 We are here in studio.

00:01:16.000 I'm Andrew Colvett, executive producer of this show, joined by Blake Neff, the one and only Blake Neff.

00:01:22.000 And today we mourn the loss of another great American, and that is Scott Adams.

00:01:27.000 I just saw that JD Vance actually just tweeted something moments before we came on the air.

00:01:34.000 Scott Adams was a true American original and a great ally to the president of the United States and the entire administration.

00:01:39.000 My prayers go to Scott and all of you who loved him.

00:01:42.000 We lost one of the good ones, but we'll never forget him.

00:01:45.000 And yeah, it's a sad.

00:01:47.000 A lot of newspaper comic artists are not going to get a tribute like that, I don't think.

00:01:51.000 Do you remember when Charles Schultz died?

00:01:54.000 I do, but just vaguely.

00:01:57.000 Yeah, that was the peanut sky, of course.

00:01:59.000 He was a great American icon, but that's the only one I can really think of.

00:02:02.000 Yeah, I mean, so he, Scott Adams, of course, created Dilbert in 1989.

00:02:08.000 And it was incredible because, you know, obviously we were too young to kind of understand, you know, I was too young.

00:02:17.000 Blake wasn't even born yet.

00:02:19.000 You know, was too young to understand this rise of corporate culture and workplace cubicle culture.

00:02:25.000 And he gave voice through this comic to the quiet frustrations of working men and women that were working their way up from frustrations.

00:02:32.000 But also, it was deeply funny.

00:02:34.000 It was deeply funny.

00:02:36.000 It was the hapless engineer protagonist, as it was described, and a bunch of dysfunctional colleagues.

00:02:42.000 And, you know, it was a cultural phenomenon.

00:02:44.000 It became a cultural phenomenon that people would talk about at the workplace or at the water cooler or when they're getting coffee at work, you know, and that's why he ultimately created coffee with Scott Adams.

00:02:55.000 It was originally called Real Coffee with Scott Adams.

00:02:57.000 And it became a phenomenon that many people tuned into daily.

00:03:01.000 And to just get a dose of his, you know, his contrarian thinking, he had a unique blend of insight, humor, wit, and an optimism.

00:03:11.000 He was an optimist.

00:03:12.000 He genuinely was.

00:03:13.000 And he was one of the first people to sort of take President Trump seriously, one of the first mainstream people to take President Trump seriously.

00:03:21.000 And he paid politically for that.

00:03:23.000 And he paid in his career for that as well.

00:03:26.000 A lot of papers around the country ended up removing Scott Adams, the Dilbert cartoon, from their papers.

00:03:32.000 Yeah, and they, you know, and here's what they'll do, by the way, this is what they're going to do is the same thing that they did with Charlie, is they're going to cherry-pick a few things that Scott maybe said or take it out of context.

00:03:44.000 They're going to like remove all the other context and say that Scott Adams was this bad person or whatever.

00:03:50.000 No, Scott Adams was a great person.

00:03:52.000 What he was is he was a man in the arena, just like Charlie.

00:03:54.000 Where, oh, if you go out there and say things, oh, there's a risk someone might not like what you say.

00:03:58.000 You might be inarticulate at some point. 0.97

00:03:59.000 It's just disgusting. 0.99

00:04:00.000 I want us to throw up. 0.88

00:04:01.000 This is one of my favorites.

00:04:03.000 Let's put up 249.

00:04:05.000 This is just, you didn't have comics like this before.

00:04:09.000 They're not comics comics.

00:04:11.000 So it's the pointy-haired boss talking to Dilbert. 0.79

00:04:13.000 My boss says we need some eunuch programmers.

00:04:17.000 I think he means eunuchs, not eunuchs. 0.99

00:04:20.000 And I already know eunuchs. 0.60

00:04:22.000 If the company nurse drops by, tell her I said never mind. 1.00

00:04:26.000 The company nurse.

00:04:27.000 I don't think you would not have seen a comic strip like I keep saying, yeah, a comic strip like that.

00:04:34.000 It was cathartic.

00:04:35.000 It was syndicated worldwide, by the way.

00:04:38.000 That's what's amazing about it.

00:04:40.000 Syndicated worldwide.

00:04:41.000 So it was a phenomenon of the workplace that emerged in the 80s and 90s, probably in the 70s.

00:04:46.000 And what people also probably don't know about Scott is he authored a bunch of best-selling books on persuasion, systems thinking, personal success.

00:04:56.000 Just really great comments.

00:04:58.000 I actually talked to Scott on the phone.

00:05:00.000 I never met him in person.

00:05:01.000 I talked to him on the phone a couple of times.

00:05:03.000 I was on the phone with Scott and Charlie, believe it or not.

00:05:07.000 We were talking about maybe getting him on the show, how we could work together.

00:05:10.000 Nothing ended up becoming of those conversations.

00:05:13.000 But, you know, Scott did honor Charlie when Charlie was killed.

00:05:19.000 And we have that clip.

00:05:20.000 He did.

00:05:20.000 We have that clip.

00:05:21.000 Let's make sure we have the right one here because there were a few.

00:05:25.000 Yeah, so this was, he was on Tucker's program shortly after, and he was commenting on it.

00:05:30.000 So this is, I can't imagine Adams ever thought he would outlive Charlie, but this is what he had to say.

00:05:35.000 Clip 239.

00:05:37.000 When Charlie Kirk died, you could almost feel this massive energy being released.

00:05:46.000 You know, he sort of controlled it, but when it was released, you know, his mortal coil was no more.

00:05:54.000 I feel like that energy just went into people.

00:05:58.000 And suddenly, tens of millions of people simultaneously said, What can I do?

00:06:04.000 What can I do right now?

00:06:07.000 That's different.

00:06:08.000 People don't say, I'm going to stop everything.

00:06:11.000 Tell me what to do.

00:06:12.000 I'm going to go to church.

00:06:14.000 A lot of people did.

00:06:16.000 I'm going to say stuff on social media.

00:06:18.000 I'm going to hunt down the people who said bad things and cancel them.

00:06:22.000 But I'm going to do something.

00:06:24.000 We're going to figure out how to start another chapter of TPUSA.

00:06:30.000 And all of that's happening.

00:06:32.000 And it doesn't seem to be slowing down.

00:06:35.000 The vigils, et cetera.

00:06:37.000 If anything, the energy, it might be growing.

00:06:41.000 And I've never seen anything like it in my life.

00:06:43.000 I've never seen the Republicans turn into their own machine.

00:06:47.000 And now it is a.

00:06:49.000 And what's most important, I think, as well is that Scott was wrestling with his own mortality towards the end.

00:06:55.000 You know, C.S. Lewis would talk about how a soldier in a foxhole actually, you know, because he was reflecting on World War I.

00:07:03.000 He was a veteran of World War I, and he was doing a lot of his writings and his thinking in World War II.

00:07:08.000 And he said that it can be a blessing to be faced with your own mortality and to understand that as a soldier, you might die and to confront the Almighty and to make peace.

00:07:19.000 And Scott was sort of that soldier on a field in a cultural sense, in a media sense, and he was staring down the sickness.

00:07:27.000 He had metastatic prostate cancer.

00:07:29.000 Prostate cancer that spread to his bones.

00:07:30.000 Yeah, and so he was dealing with the fact that he knew he was probably going to die.

00:07:35.000 He said it, I'm going to die.

00:07:36.000 We're all going to die. 0.71

00:07:37.000 Yes, but imminently, right?

00:07:39.000 And so, and that could be a real blessing.

00:07:41.000 And so Scott was wrestling with his own mortality and was never a believer, was never a Christian.

00:07:46.000 He had great respect for Christians, but he was not himself.

00:07:49.000 And so we have two clips where he himself was describing this.

00:07:52.000 237.

00:07:54.000 Many of my Christian friends and Christian followers say to me, Scott, you still have time.

00:08:00.000 You should convert to Christianity. 1.00

00:08:03.000 And I usually just let that sit because that's not an argument I want to have.

00:08:11.000 I've not been a believer.

00:08:14.000 But I also have respect for any Christian who goes out of their way to try to convert me.

00:08:20.000 Because how would I believe you believe your own religion if you're not trying to convert me?

00:08:27.000 So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me.

00:08:38.000 So you're going to hear for the first time today that it is my plan to convert.

00:08:44.000 And that's a very Scott Adams way to do it.

00:08:47.000 It's such an I'm a tech autist kind of guy.

00:08:49.000 Exactly.

00:08:50.000 It's like an engineer, you know, doing it in only the way he can.

00:08:56.000 And my word to everybody that's like, you know, that might think that, you know, this isn't, that's not an authentic way to convert.

00:09:04.000 I would just say everybody's different.

00:09:06.000 God makes us in mysterious ways.

00:09:07.000 I actually, the last DM I sent to Scott was the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

00:09:11.000 And we wanted to read this really quick.

00:09:12.000 For the kingdom of heaven is like the landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

00:09:18.000 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

00:09:23.000 About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

00:09:26.000 He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right.

00:09:30.000 So they went.

00:09:31.000 He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.

00:09:35.000 About five in the afternoon, he went out and found still others standing around.

00:09:38.000 He asked them, why have you been standing here all day doing nothing?

00:09:40.000 Because no one has hired us, they answered.

00:09:42.000 He said to them, you also go and work in my vineyard.

00:09:45.000 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going to the first.

00:09:53.000 The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius.

00:09:57.000 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more, but each one of them also received a denarius.

00:10:03.000 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner.

00:10:06.000 These who were hired last worked only one hour, they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of work for the heat of the day.

00:10:14.000 But he answered to them, I am not being unfair to you, friend.

00:10:16.000 Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 0.99

00:10:18.000 Take your pay and go.

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00:11:37.000 I want to finish reading that scripture, but I'm just, I have to share this.

00:11:42.000 This is really upsetting me.

00:11:43.000 I just was sent this, and this is how People Magazine is choosing to remember Scott Adams.

00:11:51.000 Scott Adams, disgraced Dilbert creator, dies at 68.

00:11:56.000 That's disgusting.

00:11:58.000 There it is. 0.97

00:12:00.000 Disgrace.

00:12:01.000 But I'm telling you, this is the exact same playbook. 0.99

00:12:03.000 Parasite.

00:12:04.000 Can you take the people?

00:12:06.000 The banner off the bottom there for a second so people can see it.

00:12:09.000 Yeah.

00:12:09.000 So Scott, yeah, Scott Adams, disgraced Dilbert creator, dies at 68.

00:12:14.000 Dilbert was pulled from wide circulation after Adams' racist rant in 2023. 0.96

00:12:20.000 It's such a garbage thing to do to somebody. 0.83

00:12:22.000 And, you know, this is what they did with Charlie. 0.98

00:12:24.000 It's the same exact playbook where, you know, they take something that Charlie said out of context about Black Pilot or Martin Luther King, and they strip it of all of the buildup, all of the context. 0.99

00:12:37.000 It's just hateful garbage. 0.99

00:12:39.000 And then they use it to smear somebody, even in death. 0.99

00:12:40.000 You know, somebody retweeted my tweet on it on X and basically, or quote tweeted it and said, you know, you can tell a lot about the way somebody, you know, a group of people by who they lionize and who their heroes are.

00:12:53.000 And I'm like, you can tell a lot about somebody that even in death, they refuse to be gracious and kind or at least neutral or just keep your mouth shut.

00:13:04.000 So People magazine, shame on you. 0.94

00:13:07.000 Absolute disgrace.

00:13:08.000 We got someone who sent in their favorite Dilbert.

00:13:11.000 They have a Dilbert strip hanging in their cubicle.

00:13:14.000 Yeah.

00:13:14.000 And it's Dilbert talking to the pointy-haired boss.

00:13:17.000 May I talk to you after the mandatory meeting?

00:13:19.000 Whoa, whoa, I didn't give you approval to attend that meeting.

00:13:22.000 The meeting is mandatory.

00:13:24.000 Approval is mandatory, too.

00:13:26.000 Okay, whatever.

00:13:27.000 May I go to the mandatory meeting?

00:13:29.000 All requests must be in writing.

00:13:31.000 It's mandatory.

00:13:33.000 It's mandatory.

00:13:35.000 If people start bending the rules before long, murder will be legal.

00:13:38.000 And then it shows him talking to his coworker afterwards.

00:13:41.000 That was the best mandatory meeting I've ever been to.

00:13:43.000 They handed out free cash. 1.00

00:13:44.000 Shut up. 1.00

00:13:46.000 It's funny. 1.00

00:13:47.000 It's good.

00:13:49.000 I was never really that into cartoons, but I was really into like, you know, read like three of them, and that was one of them.

00:13:55.000 Yeah.

00:13:56.000 Well, there's not a lot.

00:13:58.000 A lot of them are really bad.

00:13:59.000 Do they still exist, I guess?

00:14:01.000 Do newspapers still exist?

00:14:03.000 They do.

00:14:04.000 They do exist, Blake.

00:14:07.000 Yeah, there are newspapers.

00:14:09.000 Listen, I just want to remember that Scott took a great personal toll for this.

00:14:16.000 And, you know, the way the verse ends with the parable of the workers in the vineyard is that, you know, the first will be last and the last will be first.

00:14:29.000 And so Scott came to his faith at the end, almost as like Pascal's wager.

00:14:35.000 And maybe, Blake, if you want to describe that for the audience who's going to be able to do that, and there's another clip where he's more forthright about it, even that, so Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician who laid out an argument that basically you should embrace theism, you should embrace Christianity because the rewards of eternal life are great.

00:14:52.000 And if you're wrong, you're just worm food, so you lose nothing.

00:14:57.000 Now, the funny thing is, is Pascal, a very logical man himself, did not convert for that reason.

00:15:01.000 He had a religious experience one night, like just had a divine vision, and he was a super Christian after that.

00:15:05.000 But it's an argument that has a lot of, it's debated a lot, certainly among computer programmer types who are not.

00:15:12.000 Well, this is exactly what Scott Adams is.

00:15:15.000 Exactly.

00:15:15.000 Sort of an engineering brain, a contrarian thinker.

00:15:18.000 And so he did sort of wrestle with the risk-reward analysis.

00:15:21.000 And some people might say that's not authentic.

00:15:24.000 I think it was the most authentic way Scott could approach faith that he struggled to embrace his whole life.

00:15:30.000 And so I would just say, welcome to the fold.

00:15:34.000 We're honored to have you, Scott.

00:15:36.000 And may you rest in peace.

00:15:38.000 And we expect to see you someday.

00:15:40.000 And I hope you say hi to Charlie for us up there.

00:15:43.000 He was the man in the arena.

00:15:44.000 That's all those attacks on him.

00:15:46.000 You think of that Theodore Roosevelt quote.

00:15:48.000 I know Charlie was a fan of it.

00:15:49.000 It's not the critic who counts.

00:15:51.000 It's the man who's in the arena, the man who is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly.

00:15:57.000 That's the man who matters.

00:15:59.000 And that's what he was doing.

00:16:00.000 He could be attacked by people because he bothered to say something that was relevant and controversial.

00:16:06.000 Period.

00:16:07.000 Yep, exactly.

00:16:08.000 And, you know, I think it was Matt Walsh who said, you know, especially in the aftermath of Charlie's death, and he was reflecting on all the attacks against Charlie from the left or whatever.

00:16:18.000 And he basically was just like, may we all experience, may our enemies rejoice when we die because that means we were truly effective.

00:16:26.000 And the fact that they just like the pettiness of it, I think just makes this disgraced Dilbert creator.

00:16:32.000 I think it makes them look disgraceful.

00:16:34.000 The only party disgraced in this instance is people.

00:16:37.000 All right.

00:16:37.000 That is it.

00:16:38.000 The fact that you could just say Dilbert creator Scott Adams dies at 68.

00:16:42.000 Why couldn't you just go with that?

00:16:45.000 Guess not.

00:16:46.000 Infamous cartoonist.

00:16:47.000 Famous cultural commentator.

00:16:50.000 Well, yeah.

00:16:51.000 I mean, like, for real.

00:16:52.000 And obviously he means a lot to a lot of people.

00:16:54.000 We're mourning him.

00:16:56.000 The whole, you know, of X is mourning him.

00:16:58.000 The vice president is sending out tweets.

00:17:01.000 I feel we're actually underselling this just because it's been a long time.

00:17:04.000 And what really made him super notable with our faction is in 2015, 2016, he was one of the first guys to really take Trump seriously as a political candidate who would lay out an argument, okay, what Trump is doing when he's on stage where it's unpredictable and silly and he's saying stuff that seems outlandish.

00:17:24.000 He's actually doing something powerfully persuasive to people and he could win the election doing this. 0.98

00:17:30.000 And he was just saying this back when everyone else on television was saying, oh, he's just a dumb clone. 0.97

00:17:35.000 It's never going to go anywhere. 0.98

00:17:37.000 He was saying, no, you guys are wrong about this.

00:17:39.000 And he put his, well, he put his reputation where his mouth was.

00:17:42.000 And he was proved right.

00:17:43.000 Trump actually did win that election.

00:17:45.000 Yeah, well said.

00:17:46.000 I think you're right.

00:17:47.000 And there is kind of this cast of like OG MAGA originals, like the, you know, Mike Cernovich, the Jack Basovics, the Charlie Kirks, the Scott Adams, the people that saw early on.

00:17:57.000 I don't even know that he was a Trump supporter.

00:17:59.000 He was just actually willing to say, this guy is effective at what he does, and it's going to be persuasive to people.

00:18:05.000 It was that master persuader line he used.

00:18:07.000 I remember that one.

00:18:09.000 Yeah, well, no, absolutely.

00:18:10.000 And, you know, his wife read a statement this morning and they did a coffee with Scott Adams, you know, after his passing.

00:18:19.000 We had heard that he went to hospice, but his wife confirmed that, you know, he was of sound mind and that, you know, that he did accept Jesus Christ.

00:18:28.000 And so, you know, God bless Scott and thank you for your contribution.

00:18:33.000 We honor you on this show because we honor brave men and women that stand up for what's right, that are the men in the arena, that do take the slings and arrows for the rest of us.

00:18:43.000 Charlie was one of these men.

00:18:44.000 Scott was one of these men.

00:18:46.000 And, you know, it's really sad to lose two great Americans in such quick order.

00:18:55.000 It really is.

00:18:55.000 And that was the first thought I had when I saw the news this morning that it breaks my heart that we've lost another one.

00:19:01.000 It really does.

00:19:02.000 Because, listen, people are going to come and they're going to fill the ranks.

00:19:06.000 You know, I'm loving the, you know, some of these people like Nick Shirley that are coming and doing great things.

00:19:12.000 And we want more.

00:19:14.000 We need more in this space.

00:19:15.000 We need more sane actors, more rational actors, more persuasive actors and good faith actors.

00:19:21.000 And Scott was one of those people that...

00:19:24.000 And talented ones, too, because he wasn't just a political guy.

00:19:27.000 He was a hugely, he had something funny and interesting to say.

00:19:31.000 And millions of people are going to remember him for that.

00:19:34.000 And that's a good thing to aspire to as well.

00:19:36.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:19:39.000 This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of Y ReFi.

00:19:43.000 It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.

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00:20:52.000 Thecharlikirkshowstore.com.

00:20:56.000 You can also just go to charliekirk.com and link to it.

00:20:59.000 But thecharlikirkshowstore.com, we have a new vintage collection of some of Charlie's original t-shirts that he had made when we started the show.

00:21:09.000 And there's been a lot of people that email us and ask for all of this stuff.

00:21:13.000 So I wanted to make sure I did that because they've been asking me for like three or four days and I keep forgetting.

00:21:18.000 So Charlie Kirk Show store, the Charlie Kirk Show store, or just go to charliekirk.com and we have it on the main page.

00:21:24.000 You can link over to it.

00:21:25.000 But we have the vintage collection.

00:21:27.000 God is Real.

00:21:28.000 Be better, work harder, Patriot.

00:21:30.000 We have the bracelets that Charlie would wear, the be better, work harder there.

00:21:36.000 And it's all the original stuff.

00:21:38.000 So please check it out and support the team here.

00:21:40.000 We'd love for you to do that.

00:21:42.000 And another thing I wanted to address, Blake and I were talking about in the break.

00:21:46.000 A lot of you have emailed us at freedom at charliekirk.com wanting the entire catalog of past Charlie Kirk shows.

00:21:54.000 We are working on that.

00:21:55.000 We're going to get it up.

00:21:56.000 And I don't have a timeline yet or when we can get that done, but we are working on it.

00:22:00.000 Please rest assured.

00:22:01.000 We want to make it really easy for you all to just access all the old episodes of Charlie directly.

00:22:07.000 And so we are working on that.

00:22:08.000 Please be rest assured.

00:22:09.000 And we've got, there's projects at the turning point side to get a bunch of Charlie's content, also like AI searchable.

00:22:17.000 And until then, I just know if you want to find something now, all of our old live streams are on Rumble.

00:22:21.000 It can be annoying to scroll through them.

00:22:23.000 But you can find them.

00:22:24.000 And you can see our episodes have a pretty formulaic date listing.

00:22:27.000 So if you go to, if you search Charlie Kirk Show on Rumble with that format, you can probably find that old episode very easily.

00:22:34.000 Yeah.

00:22:34.000 So again, thecharlikirkshowstore.com.

00:22:37.000 Check it out there.

00:22:40.000 Great work from the team, by the way, getting all those up.

00:22:42.000 And it's a lot of work that the merch team does, and I'm really proud of it.

00:22:46.000 Okay.

00:22:46.000 Without further ado, we have John Carney.

00:22:48.000 He's the economist editor, I believe.

00:22:53.000 I got that right.

00:22:54.000 I was doing Breitbart Economics Editor.

00:22:56.000 There you go.

00:22:57.000 From Breitbart News.

00:23:00.000 He has been fantastic on specifically tariffs, but there's other economic news we want to get to, but we'll start there.

00:23:06.000 So, John, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:23:08.000 It's great to have you.

00:23:09.000 Yeah, thanks for having me back.

00:23:11.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:23:12.000 So, you know, Trump has this 25% tariff announcement for anybody doing business with Iran.

00:23:19.000 Simultaneously, there is a SCOTUS ruling that we're eagerly awaiting probably tomorrow whether or not he's even lawfully legally able to do this.

00:23:27.000 Give us the update, please.

00:23:29.000 So, yeah, we're waiting, and it could come tomorrow.

00:23:32.000 The Supreme Court never tells us in advance what decisions are going to announce.

00:23:37.000 We think they want to get to this one pretty quickly.

00:23:40.000 A lot of people thought it was going to be the end of last week or this, it could be on Wednesday or Thursday, or it could be anytime in the next couple of weeks.

00:23:52.000 One of the things that Trump's recent tariff announcement does, though, is shows how important tariffs can be to foreign policy.

00:24:00.000 And this is one of the arguments for why the president should be able to impose tariffs on countries, because it is really important to our attempt to try to contain Iran and to use the U.S.'s consumer market, which everybody in the world wants access to, to discipline the rest of the world. 0.97

00:24:25.000 If you're going to do business with Iran, you're going to have to pay a lot higher tariff to sell your stuff into the U.S.

00:24:33.000 I think that's, it actually really does strengthen his position that this is a core part of a president's ability to deal with the rest of the world, a core foreign policy power.

00:24:46.000 Yeah, it strikes me, John, is this kind of like Trump's this maverick?

00:24:50.000 He's creative with the way he approaches foreign policy and he implements these new techniques.

00:24:55.000 They're not new, but certainly in modern American, especially presidential history, he's using them in ways others haven't really done before.

00:25:02.000 And he's being more public about it.

00:25:03.000 He's being more brash about it.

00:25:05.000 And because he's been creative with how he's wielded tariffs, he's now getting punished for it.

00:25:11.000 They're coming after him saying, well, now we want to take that away from you because you're doing it in a way that we hadn't thought about before.

00:25:17.000 And so we just want to punish Trump.

00:25:18.000 But to your point, what happens if the Supreme Court rules against the Trump administration in this particular case?

00:25:25.000 I've seen some reports that we have to pay back upwards of $300 billion in tariff revenue.

00:25:31.000 Is this even feasible?

00:25:32.000 Is this possible?

00:25:33.000 Is this going to happen?

00:25:34.000 I don't think the Supreme Court is likely to order the U.S. government to pay back hundreds of billions in tariffs, which is one of the reasons.

00:25:43.000 Look, I listened to the oral arguments.

00:25:47.000 The justices were super skeptical about whether or not Trump really does have the statutory authority.

00:25:54.000 Because as you point out, there's not a lot of precedent for this.

00:25:57.000 The law that they're using, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, is people call it AIPA, has never been used to impose tariffs.

00:26:07.000 Ironically, everybody agrees that the president could sanction a country.

00:26:11.000 You could even embargo countries.

00:26:13.000 You could say you can't sell anything.

00:26:15.000 But apparently their theory is that you can completely shut off a country from access to the U.S. market, but you can't charge a 10% tariff for them to be able to sell into the U.S. market.

00:26:27.000 That seems wrong to me, but the Supreme Court was skeptical that Trump has this much authority.

00:26:32.000 I don't think they rule that it all has to be paid back from the U.S. Treasury.

00:26:38.000 I think what they're most likely to do is come to some sort of compromise where they say, yes, the president can impose some tariffs, but there's a, you know, they might make up a time limit.

00:26:49.000 It's called the Emergency Powers Act.

00:26:50.000 So maybe they say an emergency can't last forever.

00:26:53.000 So you have a year.

00:26:54.000 So that would mean we could keep all the tariffs we have, and it gives the Trump administration some time to, there's a lot of other statutes that allow the president to impose tariffs.

00:27:03.000 So if these ones get struck down or get time limited, I think President Trump can come back with other ways of going of erecting tariffs.

00:27:13.000 And frankly, I think the U.S. Senate and the House should, if the Supreme Court decides this, should actually just completely reverse it and say, no, we think the president does need this power.

00:27:24.000 Yeah, but wasn't there, I mean, pushback even from the Republican side of the aisle.

00:27:29.000 There was Rand Paul, I believe Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski.

00:27:33.000 Question then becomes, you know, you've kind of got these, these tricky uh Republicans in the Senate that we're not.

00:27:41.000 So we talk about this when we're, you know discussing, nuking the filibuster.

00:27:45.000 For example, you've still got Least Murkowski, Susan Collins, Ram Paul and Mitch Mcconnell.

00:27:49.000 That puts you at 49.

00:27:50.000 You're not even at that 50, 50 mark.

00:27:52.000 So Jd Vance can cast a tiebreaking vote.

00:27:55.000 You got to get one of those, those tricky senators on board.

00:27:58.000 And then you got Tom Tillis, who knows what's happening with him right now.

00:28:01.000 He's he's, he's causing a stink with the FED.

00:28:04.000 So traditionally you had a lot of Democrats who would vote in favor of tariffs and supported tariffs.

00:28:11.000 There may still be some hiding out there.

00:28:13.000 The question is whether or not, like their Trump, derangement syndrome has overtaken what used to be their loyalty to the, you know, to American labor and to the working class.

00:28:25.000 Maybe it has, and maybe they cannot, as a Democrat, bring themselves to vote for uh, a you know and a tariff authority for Trump.

00:28:33.000 But they should.

00:28:34.000 It's good for working Americans and Democrats constantly claim that's who they're protecting, and so you know the fact that they won't.

00:28:41.000 That would be a revealing moment, frankly.

00:28:44.000 I totally agree.

00:28:45.000 I totally agree, John.

00:28:46.000 And you've got core consumer prices rise less than expected, so core Cpi is less than expected.

00:28:52.000 You've got a what was it a?

00:28:54.000 Four point?

00:28:55.000 I forget now 4.9 number that we got uh, the revision for q3, and now you know, you've even got the Atlanta FED uh saying that we're expecting 5.3 percent gdp growth in q4.

00:29:07.000 Potentially that's their estimate might be high whatever, but like the point is, it seems like the economic indicators are all going in the right direction right now.

00:29:14.000 Part of the reason that is is because the doomsday errors about tariffs have been proven wrong again and again and again.

00:29:21.000 Yeah no, absolutely been proven wrong.

00:29:23.000 Look, unemployment fell.

00:29:24.000 Inflation is much lower than anybody expected.

00:29:27.000 The economy is growing at rates much faster than anybody expected.

00:29:32.000 I think that uh, everybody's got this wrong when they said that the tariffs were going to somehow derail the economy or push up prices.

00:29:39.000 The opposite has happened.

00:29:41.000 We're having an investment boom in America.

00:29:43.000 The news is good.

00:29:45.000 The Trump administration needs to get that news out there, but frankly, I think it's going to get out to the American people, because you just need to drive by a gas station and see that the Biden inflation crisis is in our rearview mirror.

00:29:58.000 And what's ahead?

00:29:59.000 What's in our front.

00:30:01.000 What's in front of us is very good.

00:30:05.000 Think about it.

00:30:06.000 Every single dollar you spend is either supporting your values or working against them.

00:30:11.000 In today's economy, where you spend your money, it really matters, and that's how we take back our country.

00:30:17.000 Patriot Mobile is leading the way as America's only Christian conservative wireless provider, and you can switch today without sacrificing quality or service.

00:30:27.000 You'll get exceptional nationwide coverage because, unlike most budget wireless providers, Patriot Mobile has access to all three major networks, or you can do what I do, and you could add two numbers on two different networks on one phone, something the big guys can't even do.

00:30:43.000 So stay connected with flexible, unlimited data plans to fit your lifestyle and get high-speed data, mobile hotspots, international roaming, device protection and even internet backup.

00:30:52.000 Here's the best part, when you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're supporting faith, family and freedom.

00:30:57.000 You're supporting a company that supports you and supports this show, supports Turning Point USA.

00:31:02.000 If you believe in our first and second amendment rights, the sanctity of life and supporting our veterans, this is where you belong.

00:31:07.000 Switching is simple, keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade.

00:31:10.000 Patriot Mobile's 100 Us-based team will get you activated in minutes.

00:31:14.000 Call 972 Patriot today or go to Patriotmobile.com slash charlie.

00:31:18.000 Use promo code charlie for a free month of service.

00:31:21.000 That's Patriotmobile.com slash charlie, or call 972 patriot and make the switch today.

00:31:28.000 I'm just checking out, by the way, CharlieKirkstore.com will also get you there.

00:31:32.000 And I love this one.

00:31:33.000 We have this I'm just humbled by God's Grace picture.

00:31:37.000 I didn't even know we had that.

00:31:38.000 And it's Charlie after we won in November, kind of holding his hands to his face.

00:31:45.000 It's beautiful.

00:31:46.000 Anyways, so also other Charlie stuff.

00:31:48.000 One of our team members, Danny, sent us the speaking of tariffs, Charlie being really irate about Chinese-made baseballs.

00:31:56.000 That's right.

00:31:57.000 There is nothing more American than baseball.

00:31:59.000 Baseball should not be made in China, period.

00:32:02.000 Tariff imported baseballs and make them all in America.

00:32:06.000 Made in China on a baseball is a disgrace. 1.00

00:32:09.000 Facts.

00:32:10.000 Facts.

00:32:10.000 One of his best takes.

00:32:11.000 John Carney.

00:32:14.000 You're with us here.

00:32:15.000 We're reacting to all the news here.

00:32:18.000 There's a lot of economic news.

00:32:19.000 It is Breitbart Economics editor.

00:32:22.000 John, so this, you know, the chicken littles, the sky is falling, economist, they have been proven wrong, but they're still going after it.

00:32:31.000 They keep saying there was reports this morning saying that, you know, his Fed approach is already being proven wrong.

00:32:37.000 Can you describe this story?

00:32:40.000 You know, so Judge Janine, I call her Judge Janine still.

00:32:43.000 So she's got charges or she's indicting Jerome Powell, some of these corruption allegations about the federal building that he's been constructing for years.

00:32:52.000 They call him too late, Powell.

00:32:54.000 Just give us the lowdown here with Jerome Powell.

00:32:57.000 So what happened is Jerome Powell did something unprecedented on Sunday night.

00:33:01.000 He posted a video in which he said that he has received subpoenas from the Justice Department.

00:33:09.000 And he went far beyond denying having done anything wrong with the renovation of what people are calling the Fed Mahal, this $2.5 billion renovation to their headquarters.

00:33:24.000 And he went beyond denying misleading a Senate panel when he testified about it.

00:33:29.000 He actually accused the Trump administration of using this inquiry into these matters into trying to subvert the independence of the Federal Reserve.

00:33:39.000 He has no evidence of that at all.

00:33:41.000 And in fact, the president immediately said, no, that we're not doing that.

00:33:45.000 Judge Janine, Janine Pirro, who is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said that's not what's happening.

00:33:53.000 What happened was we had a bunch of questions about the renovation.

00:33:56.000 We tried to get the Fed to answer them.

00:33:58.000 They wouldn't answer the questions, which is outrageous for any part of the government to not answer inquiries from the Department of Justice.

00:34:06.000 And so we had to issue subpoenas.

00:34:08.000 She pointed out they haven't indicted anyone.

00:34:11.000 What they are doing is just seeking answers to questions.

00:34:14.000 Powell escalated this into a crisis.

00:34:18.000 And then you had, you know, the legacy media freak out, act like, you know, Donald, you know, again, sort of Trump derangement syndrome, assuming the worst possible interpretation of this, that Donald Trump was using the Justice Department to go after Powell to try to seize control of the Fed.

00:34:35.000 None of that is happening.

00:34:37.000 And in fact, that's one of the reasons the markets have reacted to this so calmly, because people aren't seeing this as a power grab by Trump.

00:34:46.000 They're seeing it as actually a very aggressive move by Powell.

00:34:51.000 Look, Powell is out of office as chairman in May.

00:34:56.000 Trump doesn't need to go after anybody.

00:34:58.000 He gets to appoint the next guy.

00:35:00.000 So the idea that Trump would use the Justice Department to pursue Powell now doesn't really make any sense.

00:35:06.000 And that doesn't appear to be what happened.

00:35:09.000 Yeah.

00:35:09.000 So Trump, thank you for that explanation.

00:35:11.000 That's actually really clarifying.

00:35:13.000 Trump is touring a Ford factory right now.

00:35:16.000 He's kind of touting domestic manufacturing.

00:35:20.000 So we hear this number a lot, John, about how many trillions of dollars of investment, foreign direct investment, businesses investing in the United States again.

00:35:29.000 Scott Besson has said that 2025 was setting the table.

00:35:32.000 2026 is the banquet and the feast.

00:35:36.000 How true is that going to be?

00:35:38.000 What can we expect?

00:35:39.000 What are you looking at as far as growth rates in 2026?

00:35:42.000 Because I'm thinking about midterms.

00:35:44.000 So I want to know, are we going to make the deadline?

00:35:47.000 Are people going to feel it financially before the midterms?

00:35:50.000 I do think they will.

00:35:51.000 In fact, if you look at the growth rate, we had 3.8, then 4.1 is 3.8 in the second term, in the second quarter, 4.1 in the second or the third.

00:36:04.000 And now it looks like we may be growing.

00:36:06.000 Again, the Atlanta Fed, as you mentioned, says above 5%.

00:36:10.000 That seems probably an overestimation to me, but we're certainly growing at a very rapid rate.

00:36:17.000 The American people will feel this.

00:36:19.000 One of the probably the biggest way they'll feel this is in their wages going up much faster than inflation.

00:36:25.000 That's great because it means people have more purchasing power.

00:36:29.000 It means that things that they need to buy become more affordable.

00:36:33.000 We're also seeing the price of energy, particularly gasoline, come down dramatically.

00:36:38.000 That will also help a lot going into the midterms.

00:36:41.000 It is one of gasoline is one of those things that people really get upset about.

00:36:46.000 I think the relief on the energy side will actually, and then that filters into all sorts of products you buy.

00:36:53.000 So I think that will indeed actually help us grow really rapidly going into this new year.

00:36:59.000 We sort of have this momentum built up from 2025.

00:37:03.000 2026 looks like it's going to be even stronger.

00:37:07.000 John Carney, great work as always.

00:37:09.000 We'll see what happens with SCOTUS on the tariff rulings, but it's good to hear that President Trump and the Trump administration have other outs, other levers they can pull to kind of exert their tariff agenda because I think it's actually really important from a foreign policy, also a domestic policy standpoint.

00:37:24.000 Thank you for adding a lot of light, a lot of clarity.

00:37:26.000 Thank you, John Carney.

00:37:27.000 Thanks for having me, guys.

00:37:28.000 Absolutely.

00:37:29.000 We'll have you back on again soon because I think this issue is not going away anytime soon.

00:37:38.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - January 13, 2026

Remembering "Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams

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