The Charlie Kirk Show - The Biggest Generational Shift in Memory

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here, live from the Bitcoin.com studio.

00:00:04.000 Turning Point USA is moving the dial.

00:00:06.000 A shocking and breathtaking new Yale Youth Poll.

00:00:10.000 Wait till you see this.

00:00:11.000 A new Yale Youth Poll tells the entire story of what we are doing at Turning Point USA.

00:00:16.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:19.000 That is freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:21.000 And subscribe to our podcast.

00:00:23.000 That is the Charlie Kirk Show podcast page.

00:00:25.000 So check it out right now.

00:00:27.000 Charlie Kirk Show podcast page and subscribe.

00:00:29.000 Get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.

00:00:32.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:34.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:35.000 Here we go.

00:00:36.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:38.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:40.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:43.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:46.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:48.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:49.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:00:57.000 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.

00:01:06.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:09.000 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.

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00:01:25.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

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00:01:34.000 They told us nearly 13 years ago it was impossible.

00:01:39.000 They told us nearly 13 years ago it was not possible.

00:01:43.000 It can't happen.

00:01:45.000 I remember when I first started Turning Point USA and this journey began.

00:01:50.000 I was told, the college Republicans are doing this thing.

00:01:54.000 What do you need this Turning Point thing for?

00:01:56.000 I was told that there was already well-built, multi-decade campus infrastructure on these college campuses.

00:02:02.000 That there was no need to organize or...

00:02:06.000 Try to add a little bit of a spark to the youth dynamic of this country.

00:02:09.000 I was told that that's all taken care of.

00:02:12.000 Charlie, mind your own business.

00:02:14.000 Go get an internship.

00:02:15.000 Go to college.

00:02:18.000 Very few people saw the potential of what Turning Point USA would become and what, amazingly, we would help achieve.

00:02:27.000 For nearly 13 years, we've been in the trenches organizing college campus chapters, organizing high school chapters, and it's very difficult for me to demonstrate The infrastructure that is necessary to make that happen.

00:02:39.000 The well over 1,000 full-time people that we have on our staff.

00:02:43.000 I hope you guys internalize that.

00:02:45.000 1,000 full-time people that we have to manage here at Turning Point USA.

00:02:49.000 It's a remarkable machine.

00:02:52.000 We've worked hard as the tip of the spear, both Turning Point Action and Turning Point USA, to try to change a culture.

00:02:58.000 And we know the youth vote results back in November.

00:03:01.000 We know how young people rose up in record numbers, especially young men.

00:03:06.000 And the youth vote moved double digits.

00:03:09.000 But what is surprising and shocking prognosticators and experts.

00:03:13.000 Remember, we must trust the experts.

00:03:16.000 What is shocking them is that this generation is not slowing down.

00:03:19.000 This generation is becoming more conservative.

00:03:23.000 This generation.

00:03:24.000 Is embracing the ideas of freedom and liberty and American exceptionalism at a rapid pace, the likes of which that is stunning, observers.

00:03:31.000 What you are seeing on screen is just in the last week of well over, if you tabulate it all, 12,000 to 15,000 students that have shown up in rain, in cold, in wind, in weather, to go hear me debate college kids across the country.

00:03:50.000 Now you might say, Charlie, what difference does that make?

00:03:53.000 Well, the difference is demonstrated in the latest Yale Youth Poll.

00:03:58.000 Yale begrudgingly published this Youth Poll.

00:04:03.000 And I might add, before I continue, we get billions of online views.

00:04:09.000 No organization.

00:04:11.000 No operation.

00:04:15.000 No team.

00:04:17.000 is as viral as the Charlie Kirk Show and Turning Point USA.

00:04:20.000 It does not exist.

00:04:22.000 It does not exist on the left.

00:04:23.000 It does not exist on the right.

00:04:25.000 If you combine Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk Show, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, it is the most viral operation that is around cultural and political matters and even theological and spiritual matters.

00:04:38.000 So the Yale Youth Poll is very well respected.

00:04:40.000 It's Yale, after all.

00:04:42.000 We must trust the experts.

00:04:45.000 And to everyone's surprise and shock, but not to those of us that are actually in the grassroots, the Yale Youth Poll shows the following.

00:04:55.000 The Yale Youth Poll reports that voters 18 to 21, current college kids, lean Republican.

00:05:05.000 That's right.

00:05:07.000 Current college kids, well, it's actually not just lean.

00:05:10.000 It's even more dramatic than that.

00:05:14.000 They find that young people on college campuses are Republican by 11.7 points.

00:05:23.000 This is an incredibly bullish empirical data point.

00:05:29.000 This is your future.

00:05:30.000 This is what is coming next.

00:05:32.000 It is easy to believe that, oh, the next generation is nothing but a bunch of leftists, a bunch of communists, a bunch of Marxists.

00:05:39.000 No, no, no.

00:05:41.000 The work that we have been doing in the trenches.

00:05:44.000 The harvest that we have been waiting for is here.

00:05:46.000 And the Yale Youth Poll is further proving that this was not just a one-time Trump phenomenon in November.

00:05:53.000 It is a bottom-up, youth-led, campus-focused, right-wing revolution.

00:05:59.000 And what is amazing is that the older 20-somethings are actually a little more Democrat.

00:06:06.000 How does that make sense?

00:06:08.000 So now the kids that are on college campuses...

00:06:11.000 Are more conservative, the kids outside of college campuses aren't as conservative.

00:06:15.000 And I've got to be honest, I think there's a lot of answers to it.

00:06:18.000 I think it's being immersed in wokeism, political correctness, the fragility of the cultural campus infrastructure, and also what Turning Point has done is a campus revolution, the likes of which no one could have ever imagined.

00:06:33.000 And understand the 18, 19, and 20, and 20-year-olds on these college campuses, they are the COVID generation.

00:06:39.000 This should be the front page of the New York Times.

00:06:41.000 It should be the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

00:06:43.000 But they are begrudgingly covering this like, oh, it must be an outlier.

00:06:47.000 What you are witnessing, everybody, is the most dramatic generational political swing in history is unfolding before our eyes.

00:06:56.000 This is not a Turning Point USA poll.

00:06:59.000 This is not just Charlie Kirk's opinion.

00:07:02.000 This is Yale.

00:07:05.000 Yale, that has all the incentives in the world to basically say that young people are liberal.

00:07:12.000 18 to 21-year-olds are 11.7 points more in favor of Trump, more in favor of the Republican Party, more in favor of the conservative movement.

00:07:21.000 How did that happen?

00:07:22.000 They are rejecting their professors, they're rejecting the toxicity of the anti-white hatred, they're rejecting DEI, and they're embracing our viewpoint.

00:07:33.000 And we are not just reaching them on the grassroots of the campuses, from Boise State, we're going to Washington State tomorrow, from...

00:07:40.000 University of Southern California, all across the country.

00:07:44.000 We're also reaching them in their smartphones.

00:07:47.000 Dominant on the digital smartphones.

00:07:50.000 But seriously, 22 to 29-year-olds who consume our content are just the same.

00:07:55.000 They're only leaning Democrats by 6.4 points.

00:07:58.000 That's a monumental shift.

00:08:00.000 Everybody, this is such, this is an optimism hurricane.

00:08:07.000 It's an 18-point swing almost overnight.

00:08:10.000 How big is the swing from 30-year-olds to today's 18-year-olds?

00:08:14.000 It's dramatic.

00:08:17.000 What we are witnessing is one of the most hopeful developments that we've been praying for and working for.

00:08:25.000 One that shows you the country that we are about to inherit.

00:08:30.000 And people are starting to notice.

00:08:32.000 There is some people noticing.

00:08:33.000 They're starting to connect the dots.

00:08:35.000 It's not just that, oh, Charlie Kirk shows up to a college campus and he's rallying the MAGA faithful.

00:08:40.000 No, it is penetrating deep into the fibers of these campuses.

00:08:44.000 It is shaking these islands of totalitarianism to the core.

00:08:49.000 And people are starting to notice.

00:08:51.000 We love noticers.

00:08:52.000 Play Cut 208.

00:08:53.000 It's like, have they met college students?

00:08:55.000 Do they realize that when you're 18, what you think at 18 might change between 18 and 21?

00:08:59.000 Actually, according to the latest polling, 18 to 21-year-olds are some of the most conservative people in the country.

00:09:03.000 I think that is exactly it.

00:09:04.000 So how is it that Harvard finds every non-conservative 18-year-old in the country?

00:09:09.000 And to that woman's point, I don't know her name, as a counterpoint to her.

00:09:14.000 As you get older, you actually tend to get even more conservative.

00:09:18.000 That's Abby Phillips.

00:09:19.000 So if this is the baseline starting point, this is before they're married, before they have a mortgage, this is before they have kids, and they're starting as a baseline data point as the most conservative generation in recorded data in the last 40 years.

00:09:34.000 That's before they have the three M's of a mortgage, marriage, mating.

00:09:39.000 So they're conservative before the three.

00:09:44.000 I am by no means taking credit for this with Turning Point USA or Turning Point Action.

00:09:49.000 I will say we play a substantial role.

00:09:51.000 And President Trump deserves enormous credit for his grit and his fortitude and his resilience and his focus and his stamina.

00:10:00.000 But I will say that what we do on this program, when you guys listen to us, when you download our podcast, when you become a member, when you follow us, you are part of what I believe is the greatest catalyzing We are a catalyst.

00:10:15.000 And boy, this is hopeful, everybody.

00:10:18.000 The next generation, according to Yale, is 11 points more Republican than Democrat.

00:10:23.000 The kids are all right.

00:10:24.000 And the future is increasingly bright.

00:10:27.000 I just got to give glory to God for his grace and his mercy.

00:10:30.000 And we are just getting started.

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00:11:35.000 What does it take to get a Democrat on a plane?

00:11:39.000 Do you know that there's still American citizens being held hostage by Hamas?

00:11:44.000 That's a lesser reported element, that there are American citizens that are still being held hostage by Hamas.

00:11:51.000 It's a real thing, that American passport holders, American citizens.

00:11:55.000 And I do think that is a lesser appreciated element of the entire Hamas situation, is that when Americans are held hostage, Certainly is noteworthy. 0.89

00:12:06.000 So this is a Democrat senator from Maryland.

00:12:11.000 Van Hollen is his name.

00:12:13.000 What gets him worked up?

00:12:16.000 Well, Van Hollen, because he's held captive by the lunatic wing of the Democrat Party, in order for him to get on a plane, he wants to make sure that an MS-13 member can come back to the interior of the United States.

00:12:31.000 Van Hollen is boarding a plane to San Salvador.

00:12:35.000 He's going to El Salvador to talk to the government of El Salvador, advocating, encouraging, and requesting the return of an MS-13 member back to the United States.

00:12:52.000 He wants him back.

00:12:54.000 This guy is willing to go fight.

00:12:57.000 So that the worst of the worst can actually come back to the United States.

00:13:01.000 Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

00:13:04.000 This is 213.

00:13:06.000 This is your Democrat Party.

00:13:07.000 They will fight.

00:13:08.000 They will fly hours on a plane to a foreign nation.

00:13:12.000 Not to go try to get hostages returned from Hamas.

00:13:15.000 No. Instead, they will fight to try to return a non-American in illegal. 0.83

00:13:21.000 This is not a U.S. citizen.

00:13:23.000 This is not a permanent green card holder.

00:13:25.000 This is an illegal.

00:13:27.000 Who, in previous court filings, has said that he's afraid to go back to El Salvador because another gang was going to kill him.

00:13:33.000 Huh. That's something a gang member would say.

00:13:36.000 But hey, Democrats are willing to get in the arena.

00:13:39.000 They're willing to fight, not for you, but for foreign El Salvadorian MS-13 gang members.

00:13:46.000 That's what gets them fired up.

00:13:48.000 Play cut 213.

00:13:49.000 I'm here at the airport.

00:13:50.000 I'm about to board my flight for San Salvador.

00:13:54.000 The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Albrego Garcia home until he returns to his family.

00:14:08.000 I hope to meet with representatives of the government.

00:14:11.000 I hope to have the chance to actually see Kilmar and see what his condition is.

00:14:17.000 We are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice.

00:14:21.000 The Supreme Court has ruled 9-0, 9-0, that he was illegally taken out of the country and put in a prison in El Salvador.

00:14:33.000 And this is about due process.

00:14:35.000 This is about rule of law.

00:14:37.000 What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable.

00:14:42.000 But if we get rid of the rule of law, due process, the United States, it's a short road.

00:14:48.000 Okay, time out.

00:14:49.000 Why is it that the Democrat Party seems to be filled with these 65-year-old men that walk around in cargo shorts and New Balance sneakers and that are slightly effeminate in their approach?

00:15:04.000 That's like the new caricature.

00:15:06.000 It's like the Tim Waltz, Van Hollen beta energy.

00:15:12.000 No, let's just be clear.

00:15:15.000 The illegal act was not by the U.S. government.

00:15:18.000 The illegal act was when he came into our country. 0.51

00:15:22.000 Van Hollen, this guy who thinks that jogging once a year is a fitness plan, that's the type of guy that he is, he never tweeted once about Rachel Morin.

00:15:33.000 Not once.

00:15:37.000 A Maryland mother and an actual constituent of Chris Van Hollen.

00:15:43.000 Who was killed by another violent illegal.

00:15:46.000 Remember the first commandment of the left.

00:15:49.000 We should do an entire show of the Ten Commandments of the left.

00:15:52.000 The first commandment is very important.

00:15:55.000 Thou shalt have open borders.

00:15:59.000 They would like this Maryland dad a lot less if he were a U.S. citizen.

00:16:06.000 If he weren't a gang member.

00:16:08.000 If he wasn't a person who obviously should be here.

00:16:12.000 Did you know the wife of the deported MS-13 gangbanger dad, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, petitioned for a domestic violence protective order against him in 2021?

00:16:24.000 Looks like the Maryland father also liked to beat up his Maryland wife. 0.99

00:16:29.000 This is the person that Van Hollen is getting on a plane to go fight for.

00:16:35.000 This is the type of individual that he feels is worthy of his advocacy, not American citizens.

00:16:42.000 Not U.S. passport holders, not members of our nation, but foreigners who broke in, committed crimes, part of MS-13, and he could not be even bothered to tweet or mention the name of Rachel Morin.

00:16:56.000 That is the Democrat Party. 0.61

00:16:58.000 Foreign gangbangers first and America last. 1.00

00:17:03.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.

00:17:05.000 Asked 10 people to define the word capitalism.

00:17:07.000 How many different responses do you think we'll get?

00:17:09.000 This is a word that comes up all the time, but does anyone know what it really means?

00:17:14.000 Do you?

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00:18:06.000 Maria Bartiromo is with us, legendary in the financial space and broadcasting, an all-around amazing person.

00:18:13.000 Maria, thank you so much for joining the program.

00:18:16.000 Charlie, thank you so much for having me.

00:18:18.000 So, Maria, there's a lot of confusion, some could say, around the tariff issue.

00:18:23.000 You understand financial markets.

00:18:25.000 You talk to more CEOs than anybody and lawmakers.

00:18:28.000 What is the latest with the tariff situation as of today, Wednesday, April 16th, as we are talking, Maria?

00:18:35.000 Well, you know, I mean, it's interesting.

00:18:37.000 It's funny that, you know, you're saying, what is the situation today?

00:18:39.000 Because, of course, we know that it appears and it feels like it's constantly changing.

00:18:44.000 But the truth is, you know, President Trump has had plans in place from day one.

00:18:49.000 And he's trying right now to categorize things in different buckets, frankly.

00:18:54.000 I mean, to make it as simple as possible, he started this, you know, this exercise out.

00:18:59.000 By focusing on the fentanyl coming into the country, killing 100,000 Americans a year.

00:19:07.000 To the countries that, you know, he was looking to help.

00:19:10.000 And he put a 20% tariff on them for failing to really stop the problem.

00:19:17.000 And, you know, that was initially the first reason.

00:19:21.000 And then, you know, it's also a revenue generator.

00:19:23.000 He's also raising money into U.S. coffers.

00:19:26.000 So there's that.

00:19:27.000 He's talking about $2 billion a day.

00:19:29.000 Of course, that's terrific, knowing our debt and deficits.

00:19:33.000 Then he's talking about bringing manufacturing to America, and that's another reason that he's looking at tariffs.

00:19:39.000 So today, we've got tariffs on fentanyl, which is under the international emergency economic powers that the president is using, which of course allows the president to regulate foreign and business activity internationally.

00:19:59.000 And place those tariffs on partners or wherever.

00:20:04.000 And then he's got the tariffs having to do with aluminum and steel.

00:20:08.000 And he's talking about tariffs there being a national security issue.

00:20:12.000 So you know what, Charlie?

00:20:13.000 I think this whole thing is not just an economic issue, but it is a national security issue.

00:20:18.000 And that's what I wish corporate America would understand.

00:20:21.000 I wish most people would understand.

00:20:23.000 These people that are trading stocks and selling their portfolio and putting pressure on the markets, it's really not a good idea.

00:20:32.000 When I say not a good idea, it's not a good idea for them.

00:20:36.000 The stock market is the best place long-term for wealth creation.

00:20:41.000 If you really want to make money over the long-term, decide where you want to invest.

00:20:48.000 We can get to that later.

00:20:49.000 That's another conversation.

00:20:51.000 Stay there.

00:20:53.000 Trade in and out of it, okay?

00:20:55.000 So you stay there long-term.

00:20:56.000 If you didn't sell anything, you're fine.

00:20:57.000 Okay, so you saw lots of volatility on Wall Street in the last couple of weeks.

00:21:01.000 But again, this is a national security issue.

00:21:03.000 And I really don't care how much, you know, it cuts into people's profits right now.

00:21:08.000 It's not the priority.

00:21:09.000 The priority is that communist China is undermining America at every turn. 0.99

00:21:15.000 Whether it be, you know, okay, you could start with COVID.

00:21:18.000 Why don't we start there?

00:21:20.000 Okay, COVID, we all know where it came from.

00:21:21.000 And we knew that actually very early on.

00:21:23.000 Secondly, there was a COVID cover-up.

00:21:25.000 They cornered the market on things, you know, like masks and gloves and this and that.

00:21:29.000 And I remember reporting that at the time because I had my hospital sources call me and say, Maria, ships were on their way to America with all this stuff that we need.

00:21:35.000 They were told, turn around, go back to China.

00:21:37.000 So they totally cornered the market on PPE and the products that we needed.

00:21:42.000 And then they basically...

00:21:44.000 Stopped, you know, stopped flights going out.

00:21:47.000 I'm sorry, stopped flights coming in, but allowed people to go out of China, out of Wuhan, right to Italy, where they had their Belt and Road Initiative.

00:21:55.000 All those people were working in Italy, and then it spread globally.

00:21:58.000 So there's a COVID cover-up.

00:21:59.000 There's also obviously massive, massive surveillance.

00:22:02.000 They're surveilling us at every turn.

00:22:05.000 Not to mention the spy balloon that travels the country, thanks Joe Biden, for the whole week of having the surveillance balloon send information back to the Chinese Communist Party in real time.

00:22:15.000 But you also have spies galore coming in all the time.

00:22:18.000 They have exploited the student visa process.

00:22:21.000 They have exploited and capitalized on anything they can.

00:22:24.000 And it's because the Communist Party of China wants to overtake the United States as the number one superpower.

00:22:29.000 President Trump is aware of this.

00:22:32.000 So he needs to protect the country.

00:22:34.000 And one of the most important ways and direct ways to do that is to ensure that America is independent of its own production. 0.71

00:22:40.000 There is no way in hell anybody would believe that we are completely reliant on Communist China for our prescription drugs.

00:22:48.000 It's outrageous.

00:22:49.000 We can't have it any longer.

00:22:50.000 We need to change that immediately.

00:22:52.000 Advanced semiconductor chips, same thing.

00:22:54.000 We are reliant on Taiwan. 0.68

00:22:56.000 We all know that China wants to reunite with Taiwan.

00:22:58.000 So in three seconds, China will be able to shut the lights off and on in the world if they go in and get all of those 90% of advanced semiconductor chips.

00:23:06.000 These are serious issues.

00:23:08.000 So President Trump is making it so expensive and so hard for companies not to want to produce in America, not to want to manufacture in America, They're all going to immediately start talking like patriots, and that's what should happen.

00:23:23.000 I want to play a piece of tape here.

00:23:25.000 Thank you for that, Maria.

00:23:27.000 Cut 118.

00:23:27.000 It's the NVIDIA clip from Stuart Varney.

00:23:30.000 Let's play Cut 118.

00:23:31.000 Look at NVIDIA on the left-hand side of the screen.

00:23:33.000 They've announced they will manufacture AI supercomputers in the United States.

00:23:39.000 They'll be building more than a million square feet of manufacturing space in Texas and in Arizona.

00:23:45.000 So we're seeing more and more investment here domestically, Maria.

00:23:48.000 When you're talking to the CEOs, both on your great program or privately, how are they internalizing all of this?

00:23:55.000 Some say they're panicking, but are they understanding that they have probably indulged the Chinese beast far too much? 1.00

00:24:04.000 Is there a private admission by the corporate class that they have made a mistake, they've made an error?

00:24:12.000 And even for their own best interest as a company, they should start to decouple their marriage with the Chinese Communist Party. 0.52

00:24:24.000 Companies are going to do whatever is lawful.

00:24:26.000 And they may very well push it to the edge because it's quote-unquote lawful.

00:24:31.000 Now what happened was, you know, when Clinton and, well, when Nixon first went to China and then Clinton, you know, supported China into the World Trade Organization, it was a pivotal moment for America.

00:24:45.000 And what happened then was the Americans felt, well, maybe, you know, we open up the world to trade with China.

00:24:53.000 You know, maybe they'll recognize how great democracy and capitalism is, and they'll sort of come to the middle.

00:24:58.000 That's not what happened.

00:24:59.000 What happened when they went more nationalistic, and you've got Xi Jinping right now modeling himself after Mao Zedong.

00:25:06.000 So they went completely the other way.

00:25:09.000 So yes, people recognize that it went the other way.

00:25:11.000 It wasn't just corporations making the mistake.

00:25:13.000 It was, you know, the world at large.

00:25:16.000 And so now they've gone too far.

00:25:20.000 Companies, I think, are talking about it, and they do know privately.

00:25:24.000 One CEO of a financial services company said to me, well, I told my people, make sure you're always ready to leave the keys and walk out the door.

00:25:33.000 Don't leave too much stuff.

00:25:35.000 Don't leave too much behind.

00:25:36.000 Make sure you're always ready to, I'm out of here, and get out when you need to.

00:25:42.000 China has been very smart and very aggressive with its Belt and Road strategy, taking it all over the world and aggressively utilizing shipping lanes across the world to, you know, producing products for the world at very cheap prices and taking over, 0.82

00:25:59.000 you know, complete huge infrastructure projects with various countries across the world, knowing that they'll never be able to pay the debt.

00:26:06.000 And then ultimately the Chinese saying, well, then we're going to just acquire this, acquire this port, take over that.

00:26:11.000 And so the good news is that President Trump understands all of this.

00:26:15.000 And the fact that he came in swinging with, you know, the Panama Canal, the Greenland idea, just shows you how in tune and brilliant he is about this issue.

00:26:26.000 You know, on the one hand, he's saying, oh, Xi Jinping's my friend, blah, blah, blah.

00:26:29.000 On the other hand, he's putting 145% tariffs on the nation.

00:26:32.000 So, look, it's not going to be easy.

00:26:35.000 President said we're going to see disruption, and I agree with that, because these things should have happened a long time ago.

00:26:40.000 We should not, like I said, we should not be reliant on these supply chains.

00:26:43.000 What companies are also saying, however, in addition...

00:26:47.000 They get privately that, yes, we need to decouple.

00:26:50.000 We need to bring more manufacturing outside of China and depend less on China.

00:26:57.000 They're also very unnerved by a lack of clarity.

00:27:00.000 And that's really the issue.

00:27:02.000 And when I spoke with President Trump a month ago, I asked him this, and I pushed him on it.

00:27:06.000 That's not clarity.

00:27:07.000 Where's the clarity?

00:27:07.000 We need clarity because these companies are public companies.

00:27:11.000 Their CEOs need to communicate to shareholders.

00:27:13.000 They need to communicate to their business partners about how much money they're going to put into IT and how much money they're going to do R&D and make capital projections.

00:27:22.000 And they can't because they don't know how much it's going to cost them on tariffs.

00:27:26.000 So the lack of clarity is what is undermining the confidence in this.

00:27:31.000 But I think slowly but surely people are recognizing that this is not just an economic issue.

00:27:37.000 This is a national security issue and everybody needs to get on board.

00:27:41.000 I completely and totally agree.

00:27:43.000 In closing here, Maria, Would you say that we are heading towards a recession?

00:27:50.000 How would you look at the current economic environment?

00:27:53.000 How does the one big beautiful bill play into that?

00:27:57.000 The consensus amongst CEOs, 60 plus percent say that they think a recession is coming.

00:28:03.000 What do you think, Maria?

00:28:04.000 Nah, I don't think so.

00:28:05.000 Look, I see a lot of good things in the economy.

00:28:07.000 I do think that the big beautiful bill takes on much more importance than ever before.

00:28:12.000 Congress needs to get to work. 0.84

00:28:13.000 The GOP needs to get in line and ensure that they get those tax cuts extended because the markets and the economy need some good news.

00:28:20.000 I don't think a recession is a definite outcome at all.

00:28:24.000 I see growth.

00:28:25.000 I don't want to hear this talk about raising taxes on the rich.

00:28:30.000 That's exactly who you should not raise taxes on because that encapsulates business, and businesses are the job creators.

00:28:36.000 So I think they need to stick to their principles.

00:28:38.000 Extend the tax cuts.

00:28:40.000 Ensure that people have confidence in that.

00:28:42.000 Confidence in Trump's deregulatory plans.

00:28:46.000 That's also very important.

00:28:47.000 Confidence in the energy plan.

00:28:49.000 And I think they'll get over tariffs soon enough.

00:28:52.000 And yeah, okay, maybe it takes a hit to earnings next couple of quarters, but they'll get over it.

00:28:56.000 Everyone, Maria is the greatest.

00:28:58.000 Every Sunday morning, I'm watching Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News.

00:29:02.000 Maria, thank you so much for your time.

00:29:04.000 God bless.

00:29:04.000 Talk to you soon.

00:29:05.000 Thank you, Carl.

00:29:06.000 You too.

00:29:06.000 Bye-bye.

00:29:07.000 Great analysis.

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00:30:16.000 Okay, everybody, email us freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:30:20.000 There's so much news happening right here.

00:30:21.000 I want to focus on a story that has not received nearly enough attention, which is the fact that President Trump is dialoguing with Iran.

00:30:33.000 Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, period.

00:30:35.000 Hard stop.

00:30:36.000 That's a non-negotiable.

00:30:39.000 America has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:40.000 France has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:42.000 Russia has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:44.000 China has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:45.000 India has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:47.000 Pakistan has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:49.000 Israel has a nuclear weapon.

00:30:51.000 I'm sure I'm forgetting it.

00:30:53.000 South Africa used to have nuclear weapons, and they got rid of them.

00:30:57.000 Widespread—oh, North Korea obviously has a nuclear weapon.

00:31:00.000 Widespread nuclear proliferation would be very bad for the world.

00:31:05.000 It would be not good.

00:31:06.000 To have errant, crazy actors, like the Ayatollah of Iran, to have a nuclear weapon, no good. 0.74

00:31:13.000 Iran is one of the fulcrums of Mohammedism. 1.00

00:31:16.000 It's not the only one.

00:31:17.000 It's where the Shias come to live. 1.00

00:31:19.000 About 15% of all Muslims are Shia.

00:31:22.000 Now I'm going to play this piece of tape from Pete Hegseth, and I'm going to also tell you another truth.

00:31:26.000 Because while Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, going to war with Iran would be catastrophic.

00:31:33.000 Going to war with Iran would be a dreadful mistake. 0.62

00:31:36.000 And that includes American military strikes on the interior of Iran.

00:31:41.000 Two things can simultaneously be true.

00:31:43.000 We need to exert maximum leverage while also saying we are not going to go to war with Iran.

00:31:51.000 Doesn't matter if Tom Cotton wants it.

00:31:53.000 Doesn't matter if Lindsey Graham wants it. 1.00

00:31:55.000 It doesn't matter if all the U.S. Senators and the deep state cabal wants it.

00:31:58.000 We will clearly say we are against a war with Iran.

00:32:02.000 Let's play first Cut 99. Well, I can tell you that President Trump is dead serious on this issue.

00:32:09.000 He's dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

00:32:12.000 He's said that for 20 years.

00:32:14.000 He's been consistent.

00:32:15.000 That is clear.

00:32:16.000 He's dead serious that he wants it done at the negotiating table.

00:32:20.000 He wants it done peacefully, and that's why he's going straight to these talks.

00:32:23.000 He set that deadline.

00:32:24.000 These were productive talks yesterday.

00:32:26.000 I don't want to get ahead of our skis.

00:32:28.000 Steve Widkoff does a fantastic job, but it was a good step, and they're going to go at it again on Saturday.

00:32:33.000 But he's also dead serious that if we can't figure this out at the negotiating table, then there are other options to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb.

00:32:42.000 We hope we never get there.

00:32:43.000 I think they have to say that.

00:32:45.000 For the record, I think Pete Hegseth has to say that, or else they're not going to take us seriously.

00:32:50.000 I would strongly oppose any form of military strikes on Iranian nuclear equipment, period.

00:32:55.000 That would be an act of war.

00:32:56.000 I don't care if it's limited.

00:32:58.000 That is an act of war.

00:32:59.000 Ever since the Cold War ended, our elites have made a fetish out of never negotiating with people.

00:33:06.000 Everything is always non-negotiable.

00:33:08.000 The same people who endlessly want to invade Iran are horrified at the idea of trying to get what we want without a war.

00:33:14.000 The last thing America needs is another war.

00:33:19.000 Negotiating is very important.

00:33:20.000 And I will say, the Persian people are some of the greatest untapped potential on the entire planet. 1.00

00:33:27.000 The people of Persia are phenomenal.

00:33:29.000 The young Persians, they follow us on TikTok. 1.00

00:33:32.000 I get messages from kids in Iran.

00:33:35.000 They do not like this government.

00:33:37.000 I think, not maybe in our lifetime, maybe not.

00:33:40.000 I pray this totalitarianism in Iran can end because the Persian youth, I think they want to live in a free society.

00:33:46.000 Who knows?

00:33:48.000 Iran can't get a nuclear weapon, but simultaneously, as true, we cannot go to war with Iran.

00:33:55.000 Resist those calls because the drums of war are beating in Washington, D.C. Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:34:02.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:34:05.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - April 16, 2025

The Biggest Generational Shift in Memory

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