The Charlie Kirk Show - The True Meaning of Wealth — My Interview on the Iced Coffee Hour Podcast

00:00:00.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:00.000 My conversation with the iced coffee hour.

00:00:02.000 They interview me about dating, about marriage, about investing, and more.

00:00:07.000 Happy Sunday, everybody.

00:00:08.000 Email us as alwaysfreedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:10.000 Get involved at turningpointusa at tpusa.com.

00:00:14.000 That is tpusa.com.

00:00:15.000 Thanks to Alan Jackson Ministries for your continued support.

00:00:18.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:19.000 Here we go.

00:00:20.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:22.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:24.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:27.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:31.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:32.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:33.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:00:40.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:00:41.000 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.

00:00:50.000 That's why we are here.

00:00:53.000 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.

00:01:03.000 Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:10.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:12.000 It's where I buy all of my gold.

00:01:14.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.

00:01:18.000 Charlie Kirk, thank you so much for coming on the iced coffee hour.

00:01:21.000 Thank you, guys.

00:01:22.000 I'm a big fan.

00:01:22.000 I've seen a lot of your clips, and so it's great to be sitting down.

00:01:25.000 That means a lot.

00:01:26.000 In 2012, when you were just 18 years old at the Republican National Convention, you approached billionaire Foster Freeze.

00:01:33.000 Yes, I did.

00:01:33.000 And you asked him to help you out with your idea, Turning Point USA.

00:01:37.000 What was the conclusion of that conversation?

00:01:39.000 And what did that teach you about life and risk?

00:01:41.000 Wow, it's a great question.

00:01:43.000 So I was just recently graduated from high school.

00:01:47.000 I wanted to go to West Point before that.

00:01:49.000 Didn't get in.

00:01:50.000 And it ended up being one of the greatest things that never happened to me.

00:01:53.000 And so I went to the Republican National Convention.

00:01:56.000 I studied like all the major donors.

00:01:58.000 I had to kind of like sneak my way into the RNC grounds, if you will.

00:02:03.000 And I, after the fourth day, I was so demoralized.

00:02:05.000 I was like, oh, this is not working.

00:02:07.000 I have this idea for Turning Point USA, which basically the idea was to try to win over young people around conservative ideas.

00:02:13.000 And I was in a stairwell, literally a stairwell.

00:02:16.000 And so, and then I saw Foster Freeze doing like a podcast interview with this major cowboy hat on.

00:02:22.000 And I gave him the stairwell pitch.

00:02:24.000 You know, people talk about the elevator pitch.

00:02:25.000 I gave him a stairwell pitch.

00:02:26.000 And he told a couple jokes.

00:02:28.000 He was the sweetest, most godly, incredible person ever.

00:02:31.000 He actually took me seriously because here I was 18 years old, no money, no connections, no idea what I was doing, and no reason that he should be listening to me.

00:02:38.000 And this guy, for the people that know, Foster Freeze started from nothing in rural, I think it was like Rice Lake, Wisconsin, became like the top mutual fund manager for like 30 years, the Brandewine Fund out of Delaware, like legendary stuff, right?

00:02:52.000 So he's someone that gets pitched all the time.

00:02:54.000 His life is to listen to pitches.

00:02:56.000 10 times a day, top companies would come in and try to pitch Foster Freeze.

00:03:00.000 Can you have your couple billion dollars assets under management to buy Coca-Cola or to buy United Airlines?

00:03:05.000 He's constantly getting pitches.

00:03:07.000 So here I am pitching a guy, a legend about, you know, this organization that I wanted to start, Turning Point USA.

00:03:13.000 And he took me so seriously.

00:03:15.000 And he wrote me a $10,000 check.

00:03:17.000 And that was like the seed funding.

00:03:19.000 It wasn't shares.

00:03:20.000 It wasn't like equity.

00:03:21.000 It was just a donation because we were 501c3.

00:03:24.000 And it might as well have been $100 million, right?

00:03:26.000 It finally was enough for me to be able to start a website to have gas in the car.

00:03:31.000 And yeah, then from there, the journey just started and he became a bigger and bigger donor.

00:03:36.000 What do you think he saw in you?

00:03:37.000 Well, he probably saw someone that was passionate enough and crazy enough.

00:03:41.000 And honestly, he probably saw someone that was really like naive to a great extent that I still wanted to get into this like broken political space, but I didn't know any better.

00:03:52.000 And in Foster's own words, he said he saw someone with focus and determination and a Midwestern work ethic.

00:04:00.000 So he was from Wisconsin.

00:04:01.000 I was from Northern Illinois.

00:04:02.000 So we kind of had that in common.

00:04:04.000 And look, I live in Arizona now and I love Arizona, but I have like a huge Midwestern bias.

00:04:07.000 I think Midwestern work ethic is like the best on the planet and nothing against other people in the country, but there is something very special about how we're raised in the Midwest and kind of that idea that we're going to outwork everybody.

00:04:18.000 And that's always been who I am.

00:04:19.000 I'm going to do more events and more speaking and more podcasting, more radio interviews and more donor meetings.

00:04:24.000 And that's kind of been the ethos.

00:04:25.000 So yeah, I mean, I don't want to put words in his mouth.

00:04:27.000 He passed away, unfortunately, a couple of years ago.

00:04:30.000 And so, but no, he was a great friend.

00:04:32.000 And you asked the question, what did it teach me about risk?

00:04:34.000 Risk in life.

00:04:35.000 Yeah.

00:04:36.000 Well, honestly, I had nothing to really risk because I had nothing to lose.

00:04:39.000 And so that's like.

00:04:40.000 Well, it's, I mean, that's a nerve-wracking thing.

00:04:42.000 A lot of people are presented with opportunities to talk with someone, get their foot in the door for some opportunity.

00:04:46.000 So what are you losing, though?

00:04:48.000 Like your own, like getting over the embarrassment of rejection.

00:04:52.000 But like, that's not losing anything, right?

00:04:53.000 I mean, that's in life.

00:04:55.000 If you think about it, like, okay, if you're actually, if you're second mortgaging your house, like some entrepreneurs are, I don't have like one of those stories, right?

00:05:00.000 I'm sure you guys talked to some of these people.

00:05:02.000 I was on the second mortgage in my house and I couldn't feed my kids.

00:05:04.000 That's actually not my story.

00:05:05.000 That is something to lose.

00:05:07.000 This is like the only thing you have to lose is your own sense of comfort.

00:05:10.000 That's kind of weird when you think about it, right?

00:05:12.000 Oh, I'm not going to ask that girl out. 1.00

00:05:14.000 Why?

00:05:14.000 Well, because I'm comfortable in my own corner.

00:05:17.000 Comfort will not bring you success, actually.

00:05:19.000 It won't bring you excellence.

00:05:21.000 Like only in that place of uncomfort and discomfort do you actually get to the next level.

00:05:25.000 So why know this?

00:05:26.000 So why do so many people believe the exact opposite of that?

00:05:28.000 That they feel like that's a big risk for them to go and do that.

00:05:32.000 Like, why don't more people think like you?

00:05:34.000 Because I agree with you, I think.

00:05:35.000 First of all, like, I mean, it is risk in the sense that we as human beings do desire comfort and we want to kind of be in a place where we can have certainty above uncertainty and going and asking a question or going and asking a top billionaire for money, you have the probability of failure.

00:05:53.000 And we are very failure verse as a species.

00:05:56.000 And honestly, we should be.

00:05:57.000 Like you think about 5,000 years ago, you have, you know, two kids and you're living in like Mesopotamia and you're like, well, I hope there's food over that hill.

00:06:08.000 And if you're wrong, your whole family could die.

00:06:11.000 So like that's embedded into our species, right?

00:06:14.000 God designed us in a way where there was not a lot of food all the place.

00:06:18.000 So now you kind of extrapolate that kind of genetic wiring where we used to be in the wilderness to Foster Freeze.

00:06:24.000 And you think you're like, wow, Foster tells me no, my whole life's going to actually, no, you're going to be fine.

00:06:29.000 Like you could go and still eat food and you're not going to die.

00:06:32.000 And so I think we have to overcome our genetic hardwiring where so many people think that it's like a life or death situation.

00:06:39.000 I can't ask this girl out.

00:06:41.000 I can't go ask for a raise.

00:06:42.000 I can't go to my boss.

00:06:43.000 I can't assert myself.

00:06:45.000 And you have to overcome that because it's actually not that much risk.

00:06:49.000 Now, what is risk is like if there's a material or a reputational thing you're putting on the line.

00:06:55.000 Like, for example, if like you're working for a company and they're like, you know, you're not allowed to express your conservative views and you're like, all of a sudden wearing a MAGA hat, that's a risk.

00:07:02.000 Like, I totally get that.

00:07:03.000 But if you're 18 years old and you have no money, no connections, no idea what you're doing, I had nothing to lose.

00:07:08.000 And that's actually one of my main arguments for like why we have so few entrepreneurs nowadays.

00:07:13.000 We have less and less.

00:07:14.000 Entrepreneurship rate, entrepreneurship rates are going down is we're sending all these kids to college and they're telling you to be risk averse.

00:07:19.000 Like the whole incentive structure in college is to not pursue big broad ideas is actually to stay rather cloistered in place.

00:07:26.000 Speaking of that, that's where I first found your content was you on the college campuses Debating.

00:07:31.000 When did that start?

00:07:32.000 And what was the most surprising aspect of that?

00:07:34.000 Yeah, so I've been doing that for 13 years.

00:07:36.000 I haven't been doing that on camera for 13 years.

00:07:38.000 And so, look, the Lord has been so amazing to us and has blessed us in amazing ways.

00:07:43.000 And so I never would have imagined, like, honestly, ever since I met Foster Freeze, that we'd be somewhat of kind of like a household name.

00:07:50.000 I don't want to overextend it, but I mean, there's some serious virality and some real punch behind what we're doing.

00:07:56.000 So I started doing that without even filming it.

00:07:59.000 And so that's what people are like, you have to, and that was before like mass social media is 13 years ago.

00:08:04.000 It was still there.

00:08:04.000 Honestly, I should have filmed it.

00:08:05.000 It would have gone like their trajectory probably would have been even faster.

00:08:08.000 But 2012, right?

00:08:09.000 Yes.

00:08:09.000 I mean, like, because that was like a raw internet and like it would have been really interesting.

00:08:12.000 But that's how you know I actually believe this stuff is I used to go and debate kids when there was no incentive structure for virality.

00:08:19.000 I just did it because I loved it and I love the battle of ideas.

00:08:22.000 And I did it to try to start like a turning point group on campus.

00:08:25.000 And so I've been doing it for 13 years.

00:08:26.000 We started filming it around 2017.

00:08:29.000 We started perfecting the model really around 2021.

00:08:33.000 And then 2023 is when all of a sudden it kind of became a somewhat a culture phenomenon.

00:08:36.000 And then of course the last year seems like I can't get out of people's algorithm.

00:08:40.000 So you mentioned that you like the battle of ideas, but one thing that I tend to notice is that whoever has stronger rhetoric, persuasion skills, you know, quick on their feet, quick on their toes, that's going to be the person to win the argument, the debate.

00:08:54.000 Do you feel like these debates have turned into a battle of ideas or just who has stronger rhetoric?

00:08:58.000 That's a good point.

00:08:59.000 I actually have to think, I think about that a lot.

00:09:02.000 So I try to do a couple things and I fail.

00:09:05.000 But if you notice, I've, in the viral videos, I try to put my microphone down literally physically on the table when the person is asking their question because I want to try to give them uninterrupted time to be able to make their argument.

00:09:18.000 Number two, there is an advantage that the person coming up to the mic has that they're allowed to ask any topic and I don't know what that topic is going to be and they could prepare profusely on it.

00:09:28.000 But you're right.

00:09:29.000 Of course it's advantage to the guy that does it for a living, right?

00:09:32.000 But understand, like I have to go to a college campus and defend ideas that are in the minority of a lot of these kids' worldview.

00:09:40.000 I have to go to college campus and argue against abortion.

00:09:43.000 Most kids are not against abortion.

00:09:45.000 Right.

00:09:46.000 Have you ever had your mind changed from one of these college campuses?

00:09:48.000 Oh, yeah.

00:09:49.000 I mean, so mine changed is in over a period of time, probably, yes.

00:09:54.000 I would say that I definitely have grown respect for like the thoughtfulness of a lot of international students when it has come to the Russian-Ukraine war.

00:10:05.000 Like definitely, like I'm very against U.S. involvement, but like talking to, and they're all public, you can watch them, like very thoughtful German students and like very thoughtful students from Eastern Europe.

00:10:16.000 Like for them, it's a very existential crisis what's happening.

00:10:19.000 And so like to hear that was something that was very, let's just say different than what you would hear just on like the usual American political landscape.

00:10:27.000 But yeah, no, look, I'd say over, I would say that I learn a lot too.

00:10:30.000 And that's what's important.

00:10:31.000 I do 100 hours of this a semester, 100 hours.

00:10:34.000 In addition to two hours of podcasting, radio, right?

00:10:37.000 250 speeches a year.

00:10:38.000 I got to raise $130 million a year and I got a thousand employees.

00:10:41.000 I got a lot going on, right?

00:10:42.000 I still do 100 hours of content a year.

00:10:44.000 So 200 hours of campus content.

00:10:47.000 And I'm not just like, I try and I fail.

00:10:50.000 Everyone would fail at this, but I try not to just be ready to say what I want to say next.

00:10:55.000 I try to really learn and listen.

00:10:57.000 And then I try to listen back to the footage.

00:10:59.000 And so this is one of the reasons why it's a little bit unfair when I go to these campuses because I've been doing it for literally a thousand hours and these kids are like a college, you know, freshman.

00:11:08.000 So I try to have at least somewhat of a teacher role to them and try to be a little bit softer.

00:11:12.000 Unless if they're coming after me and they're like insulting me and you've seen it, right?

00:11:16.000 Like they're just being like totally blitzkrieg.

00:11:19.000 It's nice because I feel like you do tend to do that where they might have a hard time articulating a certain philosophical argument, but then you take it for that strongest, you know, derivative or representation of that strongest philosophy.

00:11:30.000 And I try to do a better job of that.

00:11:31.000 So look, I look, everyone fails, right?

00:11:33.000 I mean, look, sometimes it's like 98 degrees outside and I didn't sleep well because my kids were up all night.

00:11:39.000 And like, it's like the ninth time they're asking me about Israel.

00:11:41.000 And I love Israel, but I'm tired of answering questions in Israel.

00:11:44.000 Okay.

00:11:44.000 Like, I love it.

00:11:45.000 It's fine.

00:11:45.000 Like, it's just, but this is not the debate Charlie Kirk on Israel hour.

00:11:49.000 And I'm like, can we add, can we have another topic here?

00:11:51.000 And I might get a little bit miffed.

00:11:52.000 Who wouldn't, right?

00:11:53.000 I mean, that's just human.

00:11:54.000 But I will say, like, I try to meet you at the frequency you're at.

00:11:58.000 So if they're coming after me and they're like insulting my appearance or whatever, like I'm going to, I'm not going to let myself get run over.

00:12:04.000 But if a liberal student comes and they're like, hey, I really seek to understand this or help me know, or I try to, I try not to like pummel them, if that makes sense, because at least I think that's effective, right?

00:12:18.000 Now, if they come with like a uniquely grotesque idea, then I'm going to try to expose it to the audience and to the online community.

00:12:26.000 But no, look, I learn a lot and I hope the audience does too.

00:12:30.000 And I mean, the physical crowds are now 3, 4,000 people almost every time we do this.

00:12:34.000 Now, in those cases, when have you found that college is really worth it for someone?

00:12:37.000 Yeah, it's a great question.

00:12:38.000 So I'm a big proponent of Hillsdale College.

00:12:40.000 So Hillsdale, I think, is America's greatest college because it's what college should be, which is it's the development of the soul and character.

00:12:48.000 So character is one of the most important things that you can invest in when you're 18, 19, 20, 20 years old.

00:12:53.000 And I guarantee you, if you go to most colleges, they're about preparing you for your career, but they're not about preparing your character.

00:12:59.000 And character is really, really important, right?

00:13:01.000 Character literally comes from the Greek word tattoo or to etch into you.

00:13:04.000 Character will define every decision, right?

00:13:06.000 From what you eat to what you drink, how you communicate to people to the decisions you make, way more important than whatever you have a skill.

00:13:11.000 Having a skill is important.

00:13:12.000 I'm not diminishing that.

00:13:13.000 But wouldn't, I mean, if you guys are building a business, wouldn't you rather have people of high character, high skill?

00:13:18.000 Of course you want people of high character.

00:13:19.000 Skills can come.

00:13:20.000 Character is the hard thing.

00:13:22.000 And so I think that we as the college world has done a really bad job with developing character.

00:13:27.000 They don't even prioritize it instead.

00:13:28.000 Why?

00:13:30.000 Why do you think it's failed so many people?

00:13:32.000 Well, those are two separate questions.

00:13:33.000 So why do they not teach character?

00:13:35.000 Well, first of all, they don't think that's their reason for existing.

00:13:38.000 Most of them, it depends, like the super left-wing colleges, which is most of them, they're all like, we're here to create global citizens for an ever-changing world, like some sort of pablum.

00:13:47.000 Or they're like, we want to have you very specific, you know, skill.

00:13:51.000 Like we want you to be able to like turn a widget, which by the way, if AI replaces that job, what do you have?

00:13:56.000 That's a cool thing about developing character.

00:13:58.000 Like if AI replaces jobs, you still have the most important of all things, which is you know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugly, right?

00:14:06.000 You know the difference between the most, the high things and the low things.

00:14:10.000 Like that's what we should strive for in higher education.

00:14:13.000 That's why I think Hillsdale does a great job.

00:14:15.000 But yeah, most, I mean, if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer, of course you have to go to college, right?

00:14:19.000 You still have to go through this ridiculous environment of left-wing social indoctrination.

00:14:24.000 But I will say, though, that I've debated all around the world, though, I debated at Cambridge and Oxford, all across the country.

00:14:32.000 The other problem is that they're not in the pursuit of wisdom.

00:14:34.000 And this is one of the more important things.

00:14:36.000 Like if you ask a regular college kid, what is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

00:14:40.000 They like they'll just trip over themselves.

00:14:42.000 And it's not a semantic thing, but semantic means meaning, but it's not a semantic thing.

00:14:45.000 It's actually important.

00:14:46.000 Knowledge is just facts.

00:14:47.000 Like, okay, I know the capital of, you know, California, Sacramento, whatever.

00:14:51.000 Wisdom is the knowledge of things that never change.

00:14:53.000 It's the understanding of things that never change.

00:14:56.000 It's like, what is human nature?

00:14:58.000 What does it mean to be a good person?

00:15:00.000 What is beauty?

00:15:00.000 What is goodness?

00:15:01.000 What is the best way of living?

00:15:03.000 What is a society in its fullest form?

00:15:05.000 Is it good to have children?

00:15:06.000 Wisdom is understanding that is even playing with the idea, like, is there a God?

00:15:11.000 Like, who are we?

00:15:12.000 How did we get here?

00:15:13.000 I think that's what college should be all about, is the cultivation of wisdom.

00:15:16.000 As a Christian, we believe wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord.

00:15:20.000 But yeah, I mean, I don't mean to talk uninterrupted for 10 minutes straight, but yeah, I think that college has completely derailed its purpose.

00:15:26.000 In terms of college as an application for the average person, I think it's really interesting.

00:15:31.000 Ben Shapiro claims to be wealthy in America, you need to do three things: graduate high school, get a full-time job, and get married before you have children.

00:15:39.000 Oh, yeah, and he's right.

00:15:40.000 And that's the Brookings Institution.

00:15:41.000 He's right on all three.

00:15:42.000 Do you think he's missing anything?

00:15:44.000 First of all, I like Ben a lot.

00:15:46.000 We disagree on some big things, but Ben's great and he's been a good friend for a while.

00:15:51.000 Yeah, I would say like become a person of high character.

00:15:53.000 Again, I'm going to kind of go back to a main thing.

00:15:54.000 Do you think that that is essential to be wealthy in America?

00:15:58.000 That's a good question.

00:15:59.000 I don't think being wealthy is that important.

00:16:01.000 Like, do you want to be wealthy of the soul or just have like a bunch of money?

00:16:04.000 Well, that's that would be a different question, but I guess I mean, like, the question is, fine, if you want to be rich, I can tell you how to get rich.

00:16:09.000 Like, that's actually not that hard.

00:16:10.000 I mean, you would get rich, like work relentlessly and solve a problem for people and like dedicate your entire life to it and like become an insane person.

00:16:20.000 Do you think it's possible to still do all of those things, though, and then not become rich?

00:16:24.000 Of course, but like if you, if your whole reason for living is to become rich, you will become rich.

00:16:28.000 Most people that think like most people I meet that want to be rich, they actually don't want to be rich.

00:16:32.000 They want to have the lifestyle of being rich.

00:16:34.000 They don't actually want to be rich.

00:16:35.000 They're like, you have to sacrifice everything to want to become actually rich, unless you're born into it.

00:16:40.000 Like, no nights, few weekends.

00:16:41.000 I traveled 3,000 days over a decade.

00:16:44.000 I'm a million-miler in American Delta United.

00:16:47.000 I'm in all 50 states multiple times.

00:16:49.000 Like, it's thankless, gritty work.

00:16:51.000 Like, Shapiro hosted two radio shows, plus like Breitbart.com and Truth Revolt.

00:16:56.000 Like, not easy.

00:16:56.000 So, if you actually want to be rich, then there is a path for you.

00:17:00.000 You have to like sacrifice immensely.

00:17:03.000 I don't drink alcohol.

00:17:04.000 Like, Tucker Carlson doesn't drink alcohol.

00:17:06.000 Donald Trump doesn't drink alcohol.

00:17:07.000 That doesn't mean that, like, you can't be rich if you don't drink alcohol, but you must sacrifice stuff.

00:17:11.000 Now, it might be that you create a good widget or like you might a good social media app, or you might get good venture funding.

00:17:16.000 But even those guys will tell you you have to fail a lot.

00:17:19.000 You have to sacrifice a lot.

00:17:20.000 You have to be really gritty.

00:17:21.000 I just challenge the premise of like, what is the most important?

00:17:24.000 Like, I think if getting material wealth is the most important thing, I think there actually is a playbook for that.

00:17:31.000 That absent of like committing crimes, like being a really crappy person, being sociopathic, it depends also what you define as rich.

00:17:38.000 Like, there is a way forward for if it's your number one reason for living to earn $500,000 a year.

00:17:45.000 Like, that's very conceivable in America.

00:17:47.000 But if you're like, hey, actually, the most important thing is to have kids, which I think actually think having children is more important than having material success.

00:17:54.000 And I have both.

00:17:54.000 And I can tell you kids are way better than having money.

00:17:56.000 Like, honestly, not being poor is awesome.

00:17:59.000 That's like the best thing I could tell you.

00:18:01.000 Like, being super rich, and I'm not super rich, but I would consider to be successful under American terms is great.

00:18:07.000 But up to a place, it's kind of like, you know, you're blessed.

00:18:10.000 You're wealthy.

00:18:11.000 It's fine.

00:18:12.000 Not being poor is the true blessing.

00:18:13.000 Not worrying about like medical bills or being in debt is like really bad.

00:18:17.000 But yeah, it depends on what you want.

00:18:19.000 If you want to be rich, like actually like have your bank account big, then America, of course, you can do that.

00:18:25.000 How much of people being poor is their fault versus just the circumstances of their life?

00:18:31.000 It's both.

00:18:32.000 It's very case dependent.

00:18:34.000 A lot of it is agency.

00:18:37.000 So we as conservatives tend to blame free will, agency, and the person a lot more than circumstance.

00:18:42.000 But of course, circumstance play a role.

00:18:44.000 Of course it does.

00:18:47.000 We're honored to be partnering with Alan Jackson Ministries.

00:18:49.000 And today I want to tell you about a book by Pastor Allen that you'll want to read.

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00:19:57.000 Why do you think conservatives generally stay silent on wealth inequality?

00:20:01.000 Well, I don't know if we're silent on it.

00:20:02.000 I mean, I think that we're finally starting to talk about it.

00:20:05.000 I'd say that we would say that don't throw rocks at the top of the building, fix the elevator.

00:20:12.000 So the question shouldn't be like how many rich people are.

00:20:15.000 The question is how easy is it to move up the socioeconomic ladder?

00:20:18.000 That's the more important metric.

00:20:19.000 And that's actually becoming harder.

00:20:21.000 So that's a really important conversation.

00:20:23.000 But I could probably agree with a liberal that it's not good to have like an entrenched permanent oligarchy that's running the country and that people have to go into debt and go into credit to pay for their groceries.

00:20:34.000 Like I actually don't want to live in that country.

00:20:35.000 So I can agree that we should talk about it more.

00:20:38.000 But is there anything like inherently wrong with a billionaire?

00:20:40.000 No, like most billionaires actually have solved big problems for us.

00:20:45.000 Like, you know, people love hating on Elon Musk.

00:20:46.000 I like Elon a lot.

00:20:48.000 He's become a friend.

00:20:49.000 I know there's been like a lot of social media talk about it, but I refuse to say anything negative about Elon.

00:20:53.000 Like, okay, you tell me the next time you're able to launch a rocket and land it.

00:20:57.000 Like, actually, that's pretty cool.

00:20:58.000 Like, okay, you're able to revolutionize the electric car industry.

00:21:01.000 Like, you deserve a lot of money if you do that.

00:21:02.000 One of the things that I've been confused about is why financial literacy is never taught in schools.

00:21:06.000 Like, you think that this would be something taught throughout middle school, high school, college.

00:21:11.000 Why is that?

00:21:12.000 I mean, if you want an actual conspiracy theory, that's the best evidence of a conspiracy.

00:21:15.000 If you want to have people remain super poor and dependent on the government, don't teach them financial literacy.

00:21:20.000 It's inexcusable.

00:21:21.000 And who do you think is in charge of that?

00:21:23.000 No, I'm not.

00:21:24.000 Like, I'm just saying, like, I don't know who's like the designer of that conspiracy.

00:21:26.000 Right.

00:21:26.000 The incentives are aligned.

00:21:28.000 But I'm just saying, like, if you want a generation to like have to go to the payday lending people, and if you want to have them like filling out credit cards at 25% interest, don't teach financial literacy.

00:21:40.000 I don't know who, I mean, it's convenient.

00:21:42.000 I'm a big school choice advocate.

00:21:43.000 I think that we need school choice.

00:21:44.000 I think the public sector teacher unions and the public sector cartel have done a huge damage to this country.

00:21:49.000 But yeah, I mean, look, there's how many young kids right now that are 17 can tell you the difference between credit and debit?

00:21:55.000 They can't.

00:21:56.000 It's one of the things I like about Trump's upcoming big, beautiful bill is that every new baby born in America will get a $1,000 loan from the federal government in, I don't know if you guys know about this, but in a investment account that they can't touch.

00:22:08.000 They're 18 invested in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that they'll be able to monitor throughout the 18 years.

00:22:13.000 I think it can be grown by philanthropists, family members, grandparents.

00:22:17.000 So they'll actually be able to see their wealth increase.

00:22:20.000 They're stakeholders.

00:22:21.000 So if we have two kids, if we have another kid, that kid will immediately have an investment account that's only a one-way Dropbox.

00:22:29.000 You can't access this money Until you're 18.

00:22:31.000 So it actually creates ownership units for the next generation.

00:22:34.000 I think it's a funny thing.

00:22:34.000 I wish they did that with Social Security.

00:22:36.000 Oh, of course they should.

00:22:37.000 We were told it was a lockbox and it wasn't.

00:22:40.000 Of course.

00:22:40.000 But no, I mean, look, there's, so if you want like the secret to get rich, it's actually like not super hard.

00:22:47.000 It's like live below your means, save your money, invest in good companies, and then find good ideas and read a lot, like read a lot.

00:22:57.000 If you just read a lot and you understand, like all of a sudden you'll see trends and you'll be well informed.

00:23:03.000 Again, I don't want to make it seem like it's super easy, but it's, it depends what you define by rich.

00:23:08.000 But I'll say one final thing.

00:23:09.000 People are so bad with money.

00:23:11.000 Like, again, if you, if your top priority is getting drunk, okay, then go do that.

00:23:15.000 Like, I know a lot of people, they're like, I want to be rich.

00:23:17.000 I spent $700 going out this weekend.

00:23:19.000 Like, oh, yes, you don't want to be rich.

00:23:20.000 Okay.

00:23:21.000 You want to feel good and you want to have a bunch of, you know, toxins go through your liver, but you actually don't want to live a life of happiness and contentment.

00:23:30.000 And if you want to, if you, I'm not a moralist.

00:23:31.000 If you want to drink, go ahead.

00:23:32.000 It's a free society.

00:23:33.000 Go do that. 0.52

00:23:34.000 But then don't all of a sudden complain to me that you're not materially wealthy.

00:23:37.000 It just seems like it's such low lift to make a huge change in terms of wealth inequality if there was just one course taught in high school about financial literacy.

00:23:47.000 And so like, let's just say hypothetically, I'm just a casual viewer of, I mean, I've been watching for a very long time.

00:23:53.000 How difficult would it be for you to just, you know, reach out to Trump or reach out to someone and be like, what do we got to do to put some incentives into the school system to teach financial literacy?

00:24:04.000 Well, you know what?

00:24:05.000 It might hurt a lot of businesses if people were smart with their money.

00:24:08.000 Oh, it would totally be the credit card companies would freak out.

00:24:11.000 They would freak out.

00:24:12.000 Could you imagine like Visa and Masters?

00:24:14.000 Apple people are asking questions about 25% interest.

00:24:18.000 I mean, how difficult would that be?

00:24:21.000 I mean, is there just way too much interest out there?

00:24:23.000 No, no, no.

00:24:23.000 It would just be difficult.

00:24:24.000 It's very hard for the federal government to control curriculum.

00:24:28.000 But to imply incentives.

00:24:29.000 Yeah, the states should do it. 0.79

00:24:31.000 Like, there have been some ideas to do this.

00:24:34.000 I know that there's big companies that have tried to do this because they're like, oh, yeah, we're giving money towards financial literacy.

00:24:39.000 I'm sorry.

00:24:40.000 Like, it's not working.

00:24:41.000 Whatever you guys are doing, it's not working.

00:24:42.000 Okay.

00:24:42.000 Whatever program you think that's going on in financial literacy, you guys are all a failure.

00:24:46.000 You should all be shut down because it's just not working.

00:24:48.000 Because I deal with the next generation.

00:24:50.000 They know kaputs about financial literacy, like very little to nothing.

00:24:54.000 And this is one of the things that I just want to caution everybody about, which is like, I'm very, very pro-crypto, but I know a lot of people that have lost money on crypto.

00:25:01.000 I'm sure you guys, I'm very, very pro-crypto.

00:25:03.000 I think there's a huge opportunity.

00:25:05.000 I think it's incredible technology more than anything else.

00:25:07.000 But like the best way to build wealth is over long periods of time, saving money and doing boring stuff.

00:25:15.000 It's not get rich quick.

00:25:17.000 It's not big meme coins, right?

00:25:19.000 It's not big spikes.

00:25:21.000 It's just going to work, saving money and living below your means.

00:25:25.000 I know that's not the sexy answer everyone wants, but that's what Warren Buffett did.

00:25:29.000 Warren Buffett's one of the world's wealthiest men.

00:25:31.000 He started with like very little money 70 years ago.

00:25:35.000 And the eighth wonder of the world, you know, the eighth wonder the world is compound interest.

00:25:38.000 Compound interest.

00:25:40.000 And no one wants to hear that, right?

00:25:41.000 They want to hear about like, what's the next NVIDIA?

00:25:44.000 Okay, I don't know, but I can tell you that in 40 years, if you put 100 bucks a week into a moderately managed, you know, wealth account, you're going to be great.

00:25:56.000 100 bucks a week, man.

00:25:58.000 I can't afford that.

00:25:59.000 Okay, well, let's talk about how much money do you make?

00:26:01.000 Oh, I make $91,000.

00:26:02.000 You can afford $100 a week.

00:26:04.000 Stop getting your Frappuccino.

00:26:06.000 Stop going out to drink with your friends, right?

00:26:09.000 I've been saying this.

00:26:09.000 You sound exactly like that.

00:26:11.000 I don't know.

00:26:11.000 I mean, the reason why we're called the iced coffee hour is because he had a joke on his channel called the 20-cent iced coffee, and you could save $3 a day, which is $100 a month.

00:26:21.000 And if you just invest that in $200,000, $120 a year.

00:26:23.000 Yeah, a Roth IRA, you know, assuming 10% interest, you have some inflation.

00:26:27.000 When you're, you know, 60 or whatever, you'll be a millionaire.

00:26:29.000 And it all came from a guy who was spending $500 a month at Starbucks.

00:26:32.000 No, I'm probably that guy.

00:26:34.000 You're that guy?

00:26:35.000 Well, now I am, but like, oh, no, I know.

00:26:38.000 It's terrible.

00:26:38.000 It's, it's not good.

00:26:39.000 But you have amazing coffee makers upstairs.

00:26:41.000 Aren't they incredible?

00:26:42.000 Yeah.

00:26:42.000 Yeah, I know.

00:26:44.000 I also drink a lot of tea.

00:26:45.000 And Starbucks, like, so I need to travel a lot.

00:26:47.000 The one thing about Starbucks is consistency, right?

00:26:49.000 So it's just like, I don't know what mom and pop, you know, place there is in Laramie, Wyoming.

00:26:53.000 I don't just think about it.

00:26:53.000 It's a coin flip if it's good or not.

00:26:54.000 Exactly.

00:26:55.000 So the only argument for like mass proliferation of Starbucks when you travel is.

00:26:58.000 You do the rewards, though, right?

00:27:00.000 Yeah, Mike, you do.

00:27:01.000 It's funny.

00:27:02.000 I actually have coffee socks on, believe it or not.

00:27:04.000 Well, I like coffee is really good for you.

00:27:06.000 I'm very pro-coffee.

00:27:07.000 I think coffee gets a bad rap.

00:27:08.000 It's very, very good for you, actually.

00:27:09.000 Let's talk about the average American.

00:27:11.000 Do you think it's possible to build wealth when you're making $40,000 a year?

00:27:15.000 That's a great question.

00:27:16.000 Boy.

00:27:16.000 First of all, if you're earning $40,000 a year, you're in a tough spot.

00:27:20.000 And I don't envy that.

00:27:21.000 And you might be there because your own choices, you're an agency.

00:27:24.000 That's really, that's a really hard question.

00:27:26.000 Depends where you live.

00:27:27.000 Depends your age.

00:27:28.000 And also depends on your circumstances.

00:27:30.000 And so if you have kids and $40,000 a year, it's very hard to build wealth.

00:27:34.000 And that's a real problem that we have to tackle.

00:27:36.000 But if you're 18 years old earning $40,000 a year and you're you have four roommates, yeah, you can build wealth for sure, actually.

00:27:43.000 Like if you have four roommates and you're living in downtown Phoenix and your rent's a thousand bucks a month because you're splitting it four ways, you absolutely can build wealth.

00:27:51.000 I mean, so it's a very case-dependent answer.

00:27:53.000 But if you have $40,000 a year with two kids, I don't know how you'd support two kids or $40,000.

00:27:58.000 You have to go to government assistance, right?

00:28:00.000 Which by the way, we as conservatives, we bash government assistance a lot.

00:28:02.000 So I'm a huge Oregon Ducks fan, like massive Oregon Ducks fan.

00:28:05.000 My dad went to University of Oregon.

00:28:06.000 My uncle did.

00:28:07.000 My aunt did.

00:28:08.000 Like, I know every player.

00:28:10.000 So Dan Lanning, the coach of, I don't know if you care about a college triple or not, but the coach of University of Oregon, like there was a moment in his life where he was like what they call like not an assistant coach.

00:28:19.000 What do they say?

00:28:19.000 Like you're kind of like a coach's assistant, basically.

00:28:22.000 He was on food stamps as a coach.

00:28:25.000 He's like, and it was like, I was ashamed by it.

00:28:27.000 I felt guilty.

00:28:28.000 But he's like, we needed it.

00:28:29.000 And now he's earning like 11 million bucks a year being the University of Oregon football coach.

00:28:33.000 And so I think that's like a great case story of like, okay, we want this to be a safety net, not a hammock.

00:28:38.000 And like, here's a guy who really needed it.

00:28:40.000 He had two kids.

00:28:42.000 And so if you're earning 40,000 bucks a year, you know, it's a tough, that's a tough spot.

00:28:49.000 So I always think about this study, this data, where the U.S. military during World War II and Vietnam War conducted aptitude and psychological evaluations showing that 10 to 20% of new recruits were only ever positively counterproductive in any sort of work.

00:29:07.000 And then this is also backed by corporate research as well, showing that 10 to 20% of individuals will only ever be toxic and contribute to less efficiency in the work environment than them just being gone in the first place.

00:29:20.000 As someone that runs a massive company, how do you find these people and then seed them out?

00:29:25.000 It's a great question.

00:29:26.000 They kind of reveal themselves.

00:29:28.000 So it's a really, it's a really important question.

00:29:31.000 So we have highly intensive events, the best in the movement, I would say.

00:29:36.000 They are objectively the biggest, 15,000 people, 20,000 people.

00:29:39.000 Last year, we hosted the Bobby Kennedy Donald Trump event where Bobby Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump.

00:29:44.000 We hosted President Trump six times last year.

00:29:47.000 We had our student action summit, our Young Women's Leadership Summit, Amfest, tons of campus stuff.

00:29:52.000 So pressure is a beautiful thing.

00:29:55.000 Pressure will reveal those 20% very quickly.

00:29:57.000 They cannot hide in high-pressure situations.

00:30:00.000 What do you look for specifically?

00:30:01.000 Complaining, asymmetrical behavior, suppressive personality, anti-social personality behavior for sure.

00:30:08.000 Gossiping, leaking, being late, trying to divide, things of that nature, disobeying orders.

00:30:14.000 When do you know?

00:30:15.000 When do you know how to cut and maybe give them a chance?

00:30:18.000 Maybe they just had a bad day.

00:30:19.000 They didn't sleep.

00:30:20.000 Their kids are.

00:30:22.000 So if there's a pattern for sure.

00:30:25.000 I mean, it goes to like levels of defiance, right?

00:30:28.000 If somebody is directly defying orders or if somebody has a really bad attitude, and again, events are a great way to flush this out.

00:30:35.000 I always say when I have our all-staff meeting, I said some of you guys are going to move up in the company in the next four days and some of you guys might not be here in four days.

00:30:42.000 And like there's a lot of silence in the room.

00:30:43.000 But, you know, when you have 700 people in a room, it's just the odds, right?

00:30:47.000 And so, you know, we have very strict policies at turning point USA of certain things that we expect and certain things that drive success.

00:30:53.000 And it's a great way to kind of see what people are made of.

00:30:55.000 Now, when you say disobeying orders, how can you tell if they're truly just being defiant for the sake of being defiant or if they're an entrepreneur at heart and doing what they feel is the best move for the company, even though it's not popular?

00:31:08.000 So let me give you an example.

00:31:09.000 If there is a, if there is a rule, which is like, during these three days, you are not to drink alcohol because you have to be on call and that we're hosting high schoolers, totally appropriate.

00:31:18.000 And we find out that you're at a bar drinking alcohol.

00:31:21.000 That's that's disobedience, right?

00:31:23.000 Defiance.

00:31:25.000 Whereas if they're trying to find a more creative solution, yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, like we kind of run our stuff like the military in a sense where like the four days, we appreciate your creativity.

00:31:34.000 We want you to kind of within bounds.

00:31:37.000 But for example, if I'm hosting President Trump and I need like bike racks up and all of a sudden, you know, you show up with cones, like I didn't need your creativity there.

00:31:46.000 Okay.

00:31:46.000 I need you to follow the orders.

00:31:48.000 Okay.

00:31:48.000 Right.

00:31:49.000 Like, so, you know, if I'm hosting the biggest speakers in the movement and I need an intro video done and all of a sudden I see Dolly Parton, like, no, no, no, I need, I need an intro video.

00:31:59.000 I don't need Jolene.

00:32:00.000 Okay.

00:32:00.000 So like, I appreciate the creativity, but you got to be creative within, you know, by the way, we also have, there's, there's, there's times to be maximally creative, right?

00:32:12.000 But understand our events.

00:32:13.000 Our events team is the greatest in the country in the movement.

00:32:15.000 They deserve so much credit.

00:32:16.000 You guys should come by the way.

00:32:17.000 You'll love it.

00:32:18.000 It's unbelievable.

00:32:18.000 It's life-changing.

00:32:19.000 And just from the audiovisual to the music to the attendees to the experience to the exhibitors to the sponsors, it's unbelievable.

00:32:27.000 What we put on is second to none.

00:32:28.000 It's just one of the many things we do.

00:32:30.000 And like, there's a long lead up, but it's like, it's literally a military operation.

00:32:34.000 It's a 24-hour operation, right?

00:32:36.000 From the security to the students.

00:32:37.000 We have 5,000 students that we have to look after, right?

00:32:40.000 High school kids from McCrotten coming across the country.

00:32:43.000 Yeah, I will say I'm extremely impressed.

00:32:45.000 I mean, we've filmed with a lot of different businesses, corporations, et cetera.

00:32:48.000 I mean, you do run a tight ship.

00:32:49.000 We do run a tight ship.

00:32:50.000 That is a good way to put it.

00:32:52.000 But for those people that aren't able to be a deckhand of a tight ship, those people that 10 to 20% of people that will only ever be positively counterproductive, what do we do with them as a society?

00:33:04.000 Or you can't just let them job hop for their entire life, right?

00:33:08.000 If they're like, if they're never going to make it out of poverty, poverty is just not good for anybody.

00:33:12.000 Some of them end up in prison.

00:33:13.000 I mean, that's an honest answer.

00:33:15.000 Unfortunately, I mean, there is an anti-social component to going to prison.

00:33:20.000 I don't know the answer to that.

00:33:22.000 Honestly, some of them end up getting married and they don't re-enter the workforce.

00:33:26.000 So that's an answer.

00:33:27.000 But look, this is not a problem unique to America.

00:33:30.000 It seems as if it's built into the species, right?

00:33:34.000 I don't know.

00:33:34.000 Now, you've started making quite a lot of money going from the beginning to where you are now.

00:33:39.000 I'm very blessed.

00:33:40.000 Have you handled your own personal finances?

00:33:43.000 Very carefully.

00:33:44.000 I mean, I'm a big investor.

00:33:46.000 I have a great team that does it.

00:33:49.000 So, I mean, just to be clear, I didn't take a salary from Turning Point, you say, the first five years.

00:33:53.000 So, and I didn't want it.

00:33:55.000 I mean, all the money went back into the company.

00:33:56.000 And so my test of a founder is always like, what do you pay yourself the first couple of years?

00:34:00.000 And unless you have kids at home or else you have like a family to support, like, you know, a mom that's sick, you should not be taking money out of the company.

00:34:07.000 Like, it all should be going back in because it's just, it's so precious at that point in that period of time.

00:34:12.000 And so I would say that probably over 75, 75, 80% of all the money I make is invested.

00:34:21.000 What do you invest in?

00:34:22.000 I mean, it's very diversified from private equity, which is great.

00:34:25.000 So once you're able to make enough money, you're able to kind of get access to private equity deals, which is great.

00:34:29.000 I'm super boring with some stuff too.

00:34:31.000 I'm just like, hey, you know, buy this mutual fund, buy, you know, buy the DAO, buy this index and just kind of put it aside.

00:34:38.000 I went all in and bought the dip during the tariff stuff and COVID.

00:34:42.000 Fantastic.

00:34:43.000 During COVID, I bought triple leverage, triple Q. No, you voice.

00:34:46.000 Yes, I did.

00:34:47.000 What do you mean?

00:34:47.000 What do you force you did?

00:34:49.000 I mean, like, what are you doing?

00:34:50.000 You should become a financial advisor, man.

00:34:51.000 You got to start doing fun.

00:34:52.000 Okay, why was that so obvious to you to go triple leverage?

00:34:57.000 It was the easiest bet I've ever made in my life.

00:34:59.000 Why?

00:34:59.000 You're in a bet against America.

00:35:02.000 I think the argument was that it could get a lot worse.

00:35:06.000 If you believe there's going to be $2 trillion printed into the business.

00:35:09.000 Well, first of all, that's true.

00:35:10.000 And I was against that.

00:35:11.000 But I mean, my whole premise at the time was this is so self-inflicted.

00:35:14.000 We decided to shut down the country.

00:35:15.000 A meteor didn't strike.

00:35:16.000 It's not an alien invasion.

00:35:18.000 We could reverse this immediately.

00:35:20.000 And so I said, by the way, I'm investing for the next 30 years.

00:35:23.000 You're trying to tell me the Dow is going to remain about 17,000 points for the next 30 years.

00:35:27.000 So basically, I was like, I'm buying triple Q, triple leverage.

00:35:29.000 I mean, it was like kind of ballsy when you think about it.

00:35:30.000 Yeah.

00:35:31.000 I guess what you don't know is that how far can it go before businesses start flat out.

00:35:36.000 Sure.

00:35:36.000 So to be clear, I started to buy it when I started to see a little bit of signs of hope, right?

00:35:41.000 Like I try to see the bottom.

00:35:43.000 If I remember correctly, it went down to like 17, 18,000.

00:35:47.000 And then, yeah, I just kind of plowed a bunch of money into it.

00:35:50.000 By the way, I was like, fine.

00:35:51.000 I wasn't even married at the time.

00:35:52.000 I had no kids.

00:35:52.000 Do you manage your own money or do you have to do that?

00:35:54.000 No, I have a great guy that does, but I call a lot of shots.

00:35:57.000 Like, I make macro decisions, not micro decisions.

00:36:01.000 That's the way I say.

00:36:02.000 I'm not a good micro investor.

00:36:03.000 Buy this company, not that company.

00:36:05.000 The only thing I'll say is like when Elon's company went on Tesla, I want to buy Tesla just as kind of a symbolic philosophical thing because I thought he was being treated so terribly.

00:36:11.000 But like macro stuff, I'll get involved in.

00:36:13.000 So, for example, if there's like, hey, I want to invest in, you know, more artificial intelligence or, you know, I think that, you know, oil is undervalued, you know, we'll have a conversation.

00:36:24.000 The guy that does it is a guy named Doug DeGroot.

00:36:25.000 He's phenomenal.

00:36:27.000 And so he's just a great family office, really sweet guy.

00:36:30.000 And what about Bitcoin?

00:36:31.000 Oh, yeah, no.

00:36:32.000 So I don't buy individual Bitcoin, but I hadn't, I bet.

00:36:35.000 I'm an investor in a thing called Anagram, which is the fundamental technology below crypto.

00:36:41.000 So it's kind of like buying the plumbing of the crypto industry, if you will.

00:36:45.000 And so like Solana and all these companies, anytime they wanted an ICO, you have to basically have the fundamental technology beneath it.

00:36:52.000 I don't even understand it that well other than you're kind of buying a philosophy, if you will.

00:36:57.000 And then look, I'm in a very unique, blessed place where there is a lot of deal flow that comes my way, where a lot of people want to, you know, have me invest in stuff.

00:37:04.000 And I say no more than I say yes.

00:37:07.000 And then I'll do a little bit of real estate here or there.

00:37:10.000 But no, I mean, look.

00:37:11.000 In terms of rental properties or what?

00:37:12.000 No, like flipping homes and stuff like that.

00:37:16.000 Do you have like guys that you work partner with to flip homes or?

00:37:19.000 Yeah, I mean, I do.

00:37:20.000 I have a couple guys and they've actually been very successful.

00:37:23.000 Did a couple in Chicago trying to do a couple here in Arizona.

00:37:26.000 Where do you have the time for that?

00:37:28.000 Look, I mean, that's the thing.

00:37:28.000 It's like, it seems like it just takes away from everything.

00:37:31.000 It does, but like, I mean, if you, time's a very interesting thing.

00:37:36.000 And if you meticulously plan out your day, there's so much waste in people's schedule, right?

00:37:40.000 How much time do things actually take?

00:37:42.000 Do you really need two hours for a meeting?

00:37:44.000 Do you really need an hour and a half for that?

00:37:46.000 And so I'm like a time efficiency maximalist.

00:37:50.000 And I still get nine to 10 hours of sleep a night, amazingly.

00:37:53.000 So, yeah, I mean, we were talking with your team and they were saying you work crazy hours.

00:37:58.000 And I was like, why does he work so hard?

00:38:00.000 And their answer was he's just extremely mission focused.

00:38:03.000 That's correct.

00:38:04.000 I'm very driven.

00:38:05.000 Does it, does it exhaust you ever to the point of regretting it?

00:38:09.000 Oh, no, no.

00:38:09.000 I mean, so I'm right.

00:38:10.000 I'm actually finishing a book.

00:38:12.000 So I actually don't week.

00:38:13.000 I work one day out of the week.

00:38:14.000 So that's, I take a Sabbath every Saturday.

00:38:16.000 Turn my phone off, no work, just kids, just family.

00:38:19.000 It's an amazing blessing.

00:38:21.000 So every Saturday, totally off.

00:38:23.000 It's amazing how much work you can get done in six days, though.

00:38:26.000 And so I wake up early, you know, wake up around 6:30.

00:38:30.000 You know, again, I usually feel really good in the morning.

00:38:34.000 I don't have any hangover or any of that stuff, right?

00:38:37.000 And I just get straight to work and I do my show from 9 to 11, local time in Arizona.

00:38:42.000 Once I'm done, I try to just kind of, you know, just eat a little bit, maybe take a 10-minute, 15-minute nap, maybe.

00:38:52.000 I try not to do more than that.

00:38:53.000 It's amazing, like the power of like a 12 to 15 minute nap.

00:38:56.000 And then I'll just work all day.

00:38:58.000 And then I'll try to train a little bit, go for a walk.

00:39:01.000 But again, I'm in a very blessed position where things really come to me where I used to have to go to things.

00:39:05.000 Have you always been this way?

00:39:06.000 Like you've had laser, laser sharp focus.

00:39:10.000 You've never felt like you dealt with poor motivation.

00:39:14.000 You've always just been that way.

00:39:16.000 You don't do anything to try to cultivate this motivation and laser focus.

00:39:20.000 No, that's a really good question.

00:39:23.000 No, I've always been very driven, like very, very driven.

00:39:26.000 So that's a really interesting point.

00:39:27.000 I thought when I first started this, everyone wanted to be equally successful.

00:39:32.000 Like everyone had equal drive.

00:39:34.000 So I thought that was like an equal, equally distributed ingredient amongst the population.

00:39:39.000 And that was my nébé.

00:39:41.000 I didn't realize that like motivation and like drive and grit and hustle was actually like an exceptional quality.

00:39:48.000 And so then quickly I realized like, whoa, I'm just going to outwork everybody.

00:39:53.000 Like I'm not the most charismatic person.

00:39:55.000 You know, I can speak.

00:39:56.000 I got a good thing going, but I'm not the most.

00:39:59.000 I'm not the smartest person.

00:40:00.000 I go to Harvard Law.

00:40:02.000 Right.

00:40:03.000 I don't have the highest IQ, but I can compete with the best of them.

00:40:07.000 But I am going to outwork you.

00:40:09.000 Like I'll put in more hours.

00:40:10.000 I'll read more books.

00:40:10.000 I'll listen to more podcasts.

00:40:12.000 Like I will do more meetings.

00:40:13.000 I'll travel to more cities.

00:40:15.000 Like that I can do.

00:40:16.000 Have you done an IQ test?

00:40:18.000 I did when I was young.

00:40:19.000 Yeah.

00:40:19.000 And what did it come back at?

00:40:20.000 It was, it was well above average.

00:40:23.000 I don't want to misspeak on the spec on the, but I think it was like, I don't want to, I don't, I don't want to say a number because it's going to get cut up and all that, but it was.

00:40:30.000 300.

00:40:30.000 No, no, no, it wasn't high.

00:40:32.000 No, but it was, it was not like quite meant.

00:40:35.000 So, but it was high.

00:40:36.000 Like, I mean, I have a good memory, but like, I'm not like, I'm not like an international chess champion, right?

00:40:41.000 I'm not like a perfect SAT guy.

00:40:43.000 I had good ACT scores, right?

00:40:45.000 We took the ACT where I was from, you know, 31, 32 was it respectable.

00:40:48.000 Was like a 36.

00:40:49.000 But so I'm not dumb.

00:40:50.000 I mean, that's not, but I, I, I, I'm a unique combination now that I'm, I can see it, which is, you know, I'm like a heat-seeking missile towards what I want to achieve.

00:41:01.000 And that and that alone can be an incredible differentiator in this space.

00:41:05.000 So what are some of the sacrifices or compromises that you make because of that heat-seeking missile nature that people may not recognize?

00:41:13.000 My life's configured now in a way where the biggest sacrifice I have to make is not being home with my kids.

00:41:19.000 And that like that's, that sucks.

00:41:21.000 I don't have to do that as much.

00:41:22.000 I get to say no to a lot of stuff.

00:41:23.000 By the way, thank you guys for coming to Phoenix.

00:41:25.000 It's one of the main reasons why this was like.

00:41:26.000 Thank you for doing this.

00:41:27.000 Yeah, absolutely.

00:41:28.000 By the way, I'm going to do this more with more shows.

00:41:29.000 I'm like, you want to interview me?

00:41:30.000 Come to Phoenix.

00:41:31.000 Yeah.

00:41:32.000 Because my kids are my most important thing in my world.

00:41:34.000 My wife, my kids, my relationship with God, top three things, right?

00:41:36.000 God, wife, kids, in that order.

00:41:38.000 And so that's a sacrifice that I just am not willing to make.

00:41:42.000 So I'm just saying no to a lot more stuff.

00:41:44.000 And so, but in the early days, it's so interesting.

00:41:47.000 Like people think like, oh, you know, you had a bunch of donors that wanted to give you money.

00:41:51.000 Like, yeah, that's, that's not the story, actually.

00:41:54.000 The story was I was going to find a lot of donors and tried to have to scrap and hustle and get like elementary funding because we could barely make payroll for the first five to six years, right?

00:42:04.000 We could barely pay the bills.

00:42:05.000 This building that we're sitting in right now was not even open till our sixth year.

00:42:09.000 Okay.

00:42:09.000 We barely had an office the first couple of years.

00:42:12.000 And so, yeah, I mean, like, you want to be successful, you think is easy.

00:42:15.000 Okay, I'll show you my flight logs.

00:42:16.000 200 red eye flights.

00:42:18.000 You want to go do that?

00:42:19.000 200 red eye flights where you have to go sit and perform and give a speech and be on and go all day and be interesting.

00:42:26.000 1,200 cable news interviews, Fox News at 3 o'clock in the morning, Fox News at 3:30 in the morning.

00:42:32.000 Get up, get on a flight, conference calls, remember the donor's name, write a thank you note, show up, report for the donor.

00:42:40.000 They have questions.

00:42:40.000 They're critical.

00:42:41.000 They're skeptical.

00:42:42.000 Like, fine, okay.

00:42:42.000 It sounds easy, right?

00:42:44.000 And I'm not here to like brag on it, but like, there's a lot you have to sacrifice for all this.

00:42:48.000 And it's really easy to look at Turning Point USA because people think they can like recreate it.

00:42:51.000 Like, oh, yeah, I can recreate.

00:42:53.000 Like, it's fine.

00:42:53.000 I mean, look, it's the Lord's blessing and providence of all this.

00:42:56.000 Like, I'm telling you, man, like, there's a hustle behind the scenes.

00:42:58.000 And not just me, it's our team too.

00:42:59.000 Our team works there.

00:43:00.000 Tail off.

00:43:01.000 Because now what's so cool is like my like maniacally driven purpose is now shedding off on people.

00:43:08.000 And like not everyone can sustain it.

00:43:09.000 They're like, this is too much for me.

00:43:11.000 I'm going to go work for an insurance company.

00:43:12.000 I'm like, that's fine.

00:43:13.000 Like, cause the pace here is first class.

00:43:15.000 That's why we get more done.

00:43:17.000 That's why we have more chapters.

00:43:18.000 We have more donors.

00:43:18.000 That's why our budget is bigger.

00:43:20.000 It's because we're just going to keep on growing.

00:43:21.000 We're going to keep on expanding.

00:43:23.000 Because we do not set up for media.

00:43:24.000 We do not settle for mediocrity.

00:43:26.000 Your excellence is the only thing that will settle.

00:43:28.000 What do you do now to save as much time as possible?

00:43:30.000 So I'm a huge scheduler, big time.

00:43:32.000 And so I schedule out days in advance.

00:43:36.000 And so I will block out like, this is when I'm going to have conference call time.

00:43:40.000 This is when I'm going to have, I'm just going to train.

00:43:42.000 This is where I'm going to eat lunch.

00:43:43.000 Like I go down to like the 15 interval, 15 minute interval.

00:43:48.000 And, you know, this is the time that I'm going to go try and, you know, go see this friend.

00:43:52.000 This is the time where I'm going to go just turn my phone off and go for a walk.

00:43:55.000 So I'm very, very precise with time.

00:43:57.000 And then the biggest hack, and you guys know this, nothing new.

00:44:00.000 It's called layering.

00:44:01.000 You know this.

00:44:02.000 So anything you're doing, try to fit two or three things on top of it.

00:44:04.000 So if I'm traveling to go speak, listen to an audio book, right?

00:44:08.000 I mean, obviously.

00:44:09.000 So then all of a sudden I'm getting two things done at once.

00:44:12.000 If I'm training or working out, okay, I'm also going to be trying to listen to a podcast that I need in preparation.

00:44:16.000 I take all my calls on the treadmill.

00:44:18.000 100%.

00:44:18.000 It's amazing, right?

00:44:19.000 Or like, so I try to, you know, do a lot.

00:44:21.000 I'm a big walker.

00:44:22.000 I think there's a couple of health hacks out here that are right in front of us that nobody ever wants to talk about, right?

00:44:27.000 I'm a huge, big, I'm a huge believer in sleep, like massive believer.

00:44:31.000 I think it's totally undervalued.

00:44:32.000 I'm a major believer in walking.

00:44:34.000 I think we don't talk about walking enough, just walking, not running, not deadlifting, not cold punging, just walking, okay?

00:44:40.000 I'm a big believer in fasting.

00:44:41.000 I think fasting is like untapped power.

00:44:43.000 And then I just think like not eating terribly.

00:44:48.000 Those four things, you're actually going to be pretty relatively healthy.

00:44:50.000 Yeah.

00:44:51.000 We used to come up with their best ideas taking walks.

00:44:53.000 Oh, walking is definitely a one, two mile walk.

00:44:56.000 There are studies I think that show if you have forward movement.

00:44:59.000 Like If you're walking, your brain actually functions at a higher capacity than if you're sitting sedentary.

00:45:05.000 My best ideas are when I'm walking.

00:45:06.000 My best ideas are when I'm moving.

00:45:08.000 And I go for walks with my kids.

00:45:10.000 So that's another layering, right?

00:45:11.000 So, I mean, you want to talk about like a triple layering.

00:45:14.000 When my daughter was six months old, she can't yet communicate, but she'd want to go for a walk and she'd fall asleep.

00:45:21.000 So I'd listen to a podcast while getting a walk while spending time with my kid.

00:45:25.000 Like that's that's the trifecta, right?

00:45:28.000 Um, and so I'm really, I'm really big on that.

00:45:31.000 And and so as far as time, you just also have to be able to say no.

00:45:35.000 There's so much wasted time.

00:45:36.000 And look, I'm also in a very blessed position.

00:45:38.000 I'm incredibly blessed.

00:45:40.000 Most people don't have this.

00:45:41.000 A lot of entrepreneurs do.

00:45:42.000 I don't have to sit around at a desk and do just like wait for stuff to come to me.

00:45:46.000 I constantly can set the terms of my own schedule.

00:45:48.000 Now, it comes at great cost and great consequence, right?

00:45:51.000 Because with great freedom comes phenomenal responsibility and enormous responsibility.

00:45:57.000 Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.

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00:46:12.000 Go to whyrefi.com.

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00:46:19.000 So go to whyrefi.com.

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00:46:26.000 Can you imagine being debt-free and not living under this burden anymore?

00:46:30.000 So go to yrefi.com.

00:46:32.000 That is why.com.

00:46:34.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted private student loans, there's no better place to go than whyRefi.

00:46:39.000 They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay.

00:46:42.000 They're not a debt settlement company.

00:46:44.000 So check it out right now at YRefi.com.

00:46:46.000 May not be available in all 50 states.

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00:46:49.000 That is YREFY.com.

00:46:53.000 In terms of your own material success, where is the money coming from in terms of like percentages?

00:46:59.000 Because I know you have like a store, you have a for-profit merchandise company, you have your nonprofit, you have, you know, your YouTube channel, all of these things.

00:47:07.000 Where's the money coming from?

00:47:08.000 Very small percentage is my salary at Turning Point USA.

00:47:11.000 So Turning Point USA is $120,000 USA, Turning Point Action, $120,013 million budget.

00:47:17.000 My salary there is about $300,000 a year, and I donate $350,000 back to Turning Point USA.

00:47:24.000 So it's basically a wash, right?

00:47:25.000 So it literally is a wash.

00:47:27.000 And you might say, well, why do you donate it back?

00:47:28.000 Well, my wife and I, we're, you know, we try to be charitable.

00:47:31.000 We try to give 10% of our income a year.

00:47:33.000 What better place to give it back to Turning Point USA?

00:47:36.000 Why even take a salary?

00:47:37.000 Honestly, that's a really good question.

00:47:39.000 Number one, it's very important from just an IRS standpoint.

00:47:42.000 If the CEO is unpaid, it just kind of looks very weird on the form.

00:47:45.000 But also, I do believe in like different buckets for different things.

00:47:48.000 I still think I should earn a salary for my work here.

00:47:50.000 And then if I want to give it back, then so be it.

00:47:52.000 It's a psychological thing more than anything else.

00:47:54.000 Like it comes in.

00:47:56.000 And then if I want to give it back, I can give it back.

00:47:57.000 I know that might sound like strange to people, but I'm talking just wasted payroll tax.

00:48:02.000 No, it's fine.

00:48:02.000 It's true.

00:48:03.000 I mean, that's a good point.

00:48:04.000 All the FICA tax money going out the window, right?

00:48:06.000 It's better to go back into the company than not.

00:48:09.000 No, the revenue streams is the show.

00:48:11.000 The show is a for-profit entity.

00:48:13.000 Charlie Kirk show podcast.

00:48:15.000 As of the recording right now, we're either number two or number three in all of Apple News.

00:48:19.000 Incredibly blessed.

00:48:20.000 We stream on Rumble every day, on X every day.

00:48:23.000 We're on 250 radio stations on over 400 affiliates.

00:48:29.000 We are on Real America's Voice every single day, which is a great fast channel, which is also on Pluto and Roku.

00:48:36.000 It easily estimates two to three million people a day, tune into some part of the Charlie Kirk show.

00:48:41.000 We cut it up.

00:48:41.000 We socialize it.

00:48:43.000 And then, of course, we have a beast of a YouTube channel.

00:48:46.000 We do very, very well on TikTok.

00:48:49.000 And so you kind of compile that all together.

00:48:51.000 And then, of course, I do speaking.

00:48:52.000 I try to write a book a year, which, you know, I'm able to make personal money on.

00:48:58.000 Has life gotten a lot better since becoming wealthy?

00:49:00.000 Yes.

00:49:01.000 I mean, look, my life has gotten a lot better since I got married and I had kids.

00:49:05.000 I will tell you, the best thing about being wealthy is not being poor and not having to worry about money.

00:49:10.000 Like, just like not get to a place where you don't have to worry about money.

00:49:14.000 It's funny.

00:49:14.000 When you get to a place where you have like billions of dollars, you're actually worrying about money all the time because then you have like lawsuits and it's like your identity.

00:49:20.000 I'm not joking.

00:49:21.000 Like they actually, it's kind of like a weird like horseshoe, which is like you have no money, you worry about money all the time.

00:49:26.000 And you have a ton of money, you worry about money all the time.

00:49:28.000 It's best to be like somewhere in the middle where you have like a lot of cash flow.

00:49:31.000 The best thing is this, I have purpose in what I'm doing and the money is a nice reward.

00:49:35.000 Like it's not, money is not the number one driver for me.

00:49:38.000 It's not like I mean that.

00:49:40.000 Like I have the skill set where if I quit all of this right now, I could probably go start a company right now.

00:49:45.000 And after 10 years, I could probably sell it for like a couple hundred million bucks.

00:49:48.000 That's not, I mean, that's not like a crazy thing for me to say, the fact that we've started Turning Point USA in action.

00:49:54.000 We have $130 million years in revenue, right?

00:49:56.000 I have the Charlie Kirk show.

00:49:57.000 If it was all about getting rich, I could go start some app and probably go be successful.

00:50:02.000 What makes me so happy is I get to impact people's lives.

00:50:06.000 I get to speak truth.

00:50:08.000 I have purpose.

00:50:09.000 I get to help save the civilization.

00:50:11.000 And then I also get to make some money while doing it.

00:50:13.000 And that, quite honestly, is the most enormous blessing.

00:50:16.000 I have the greatest job in the world.

00:50:17.000 I'm the happiest person in the world.

00:50:18.000 I mean that.

00:50:19.000 Now, in terms of disclosures like this and being so open about your finances, AOC recently disclosed that she has no individual stock holdings.

00:50:28.000 Tim Waltz famously said he doesn't have any investments.

00:50:31.000 Do you think this is just financial irresponsibility?

00:50:34.000 Or do you think it's a good thing that they don't have a financial interest in maybe some of the measures that they're putting forward?

00:50:40.000 So, I mean, I'll talk about the Tim Wallace and AOC thing.

00:50:42.000 I don't know enough about it.

00:50:43.000 She's young.

00:50:44.000 But like Tim Wallace, it's very interesting.

00:50:46.000 It's like, so on one hand, you're like, wow, he can't be bought.

00:50:50.000 On the other hand, it's like, wow, you're like really bad with money.

00:50:53.000 Like, you're kind of old and like you don't have any stocks.

00:50:58.000 Well, he has a pension.

00:50:59.000 Okay, fine.

00:51:00.000 But I mean, like, okay, I get it that he was a football coach or whatever.

00:51:04.000 But I mean, is that a good example?

00:51:07.000 I guess.

00:51:08.000 I mean, again, I just kind of the idea, which is you're of that age.

00:51:11.000 You haven't played into compound interest.

00:51:14.000 You haven't like really tried to, I mean, by the way, you could have, you could have blinded trusts and, you know, different ways of building wealth.

00:51:21.000 I don't think you should go as far as Nancy Pelosi and basically like trade stocks after committee hearings.

00:51:26.000 I think that's probably a little ambitious, right?

00:51:28.000 But I actually prefer my politicians to be successful.

00:51:31.000 I know that's a weird statement, but people that own nothing, like own nothing, it might be like really appealing on the surface. 0.68

00:51:41.000 But then I wonder, do they know how wealth is created?

00:51:43.000 It's indicative of something deeper that can be done.

00:51:45.000 I think so.

00:51:46.000 Again, there's plenty of good Republicans, I'm sure, that own nothing and they run for office and that's great.

00:51:51.000 But generally, I do want someone that knows here's the key.

00:51:55.000 Poverty is human norm.

00:51:57.000 Go to any country around the world.

00:51:59.000 Most people are in poverty.

00:52:00.000 Wealth is the exception.

00:52:02.000 How do you get wealthy is the most important economic issue in front of us.

00:52:07.000 It's actually a really hard issue to solve.

00:52:10.000 We know how to solve it.

00:52:11.000 Markets is how you get wealthy.

00:52:12.000 That's it.

00:52:13.000 Okay.

00:52:13.000 Private property, trade, rule of law, can't steal people's stuff.

00:52:18.000 We're going to enforce those laws.

00:52:20.000 It works.

00:52:20.000 Decent, virtuous society.

00:52:22.000 Okay, so we know how to go be poor.

00:52:25.000 Not hard.

00:52:26.000 I actually want people in office that know how to create wealth.

00:52:28.000 I think that's a really important question.

00:52:30.000 And then the opposite of that, though, with tickers like NANC that track the trades of you should totally follow Nancy Pelosi's trade.

00:52:38.000 That is grotesque.

00:52:39.000 That's a totally different thing.

00:52:40.000 So how do we crack down on that?

00:52:42.000 And to what degree.

00:52:43.000 We should make it illegal.

00:52:44.000 Josh Hawley's act is very good.

00:52:45.000 I think it's called the Stock Act or something.

00:52:47.000 See, here's what I think.

00:52:48.000 I made this in a video years ago when the whole Nancy Pelosi tracker came up.

00:52:53.000 I thought it would be a great idea for just anyone in Congress to signal their trades publicly in real time 24 hours before they plan to make them.

00:53:03.000 And that's it.

00:53:03.000 And they could trade whatever they want to, but they just have to signal 24 hours in advance.

00:53:09.000 That's it.

00:53:10.000 I have no issue with that.

00:53:11.000 I think it's great.

00:53:11.000 I would go a step further.

00:53:12.000 I don't think any member of Congress should be trading stock period whatsoever.

00:53:15.000 Individual stocks, but they could buy ETFs.

00:53:17.000 Sure.

00:53:18.000 I think, yes, fine.

00:53:19.000 I think it should be complete moratorium on individual stocks.

00:53:22.000 They know way more than they're telling.

00:53:24.000 I think that would be impossible to enforce because they would claim that, well, I don't trade.

00:53:29.000 I have a financial advisor who's trading on my behalf in an irrevocable trust that I don't own.

00:53:35.000 And they just happened to buy all these defense stocks before Iran started bombing his.

00:53:40.000 Yeah, I know.

00:53:42.000 That was coincidence.

00:53:42.000 I bought all the pharmaceutical stocks before COVID, right?

00:53:45.000 Exactly.

00:53:45.000 I don't know the enforcement.

00:53:47.000 I just, I spent a lot of time in D.C. It's a disgusting city.

00:53:50.000 It's repulsive.

00:53:51.000 There's a lot more information that these people know than they're ever letting on.

00:53:55.000 And they're getting wealthier while most Americans don't have access to that information.

00:53:58.000 I think your idea is great.

00:54:00.000 The kind of public beacon, if you will.

00:54:03.000 We have insider trading laws for a reason.

00:54:05.000 And what these congressmen do is like the definition of insider rights.

00:54:10.000 But the penalty is so small.

00:54:11.000 Like if they don't report their trades, they have 30 days to report them.

00:54:15.000 And if they don't do that, the fee, I think, is either 200 bucks or it's $1,000.

00:54:21.000 It's pennies, basically.

00:54:22.000 It needs to be severe criminal penalties, in my opinion.

00:54:25.000 I'm very populist on this question because, look, most people in this audience, they would love to know what's going on in a skiff.

00:54:31.000 They would love, which is a secure compartmentalized information facility where there's no phones and just a bunch of generals giving you class and information about, I don't know, a new Wuhan leak or a new war, or they would love to know whether or not an electric vehicle mandate is going to be attached to the reconciliation bill or not.

00:54:46.000 And then they're able to make trades on that information.

00:54:48.000 So I don't know.

00:54:48.000 I'm very populist on this thing.

00:54:50.000 I think we should just put an end to all of it.

00:54:52.000 What do you think about things like Trump's meme coin?

00:54:54.000 Do you think something like that was an overall smart or not?

00:54:58.000 I don't know.

00:54:59.000 I know Eric really well.

00:55:00.000 He's the one that's pushing it.

00:55:01.000 I mean, look, I know the Trump family, so I'm not going to speak against them.

00:55:04.000 They're all friends of mine.

00:55:05.000 I don't know enough about it.

00:55:07.000 I get a lot of questions about it on college campuses.

00:55:10.000 I know people that have made money on it.

00:55:11.000 Like, I don't know.

00:55:12.000 Like, I'll say this, when it comes to like crypto in general, I'm very supportive of it.

00:55:18.000 I know it's largely like a Trump family endeavor.

00:55:20.000 Technically, he did promote it before he came president.

00:55:23.000 I know a lot of people kind of rolled their eyes at it.

00:55:25.000 Here's my statement, and people can laugh at it.

00:55:27.000 He got shot, so he's allowed to launch a meme coin.

00:55:31.000 That's my statement.

00:55:33.000 So anybody who gets shot.

00:55:34.000 No, I'm half kidding.

00:55:35.000 It's sarcasm.

00:55:36.000 Look, I'm not going to get into the details of defining it.

00:55:39.000 That's a question for Eric or Don.

00:55:40.000 What are your thoughts on Bitcoin?

00:55:42.000 I'm a big fan of Bitcoin.

00:55:43.000 Should the U.S. do a Bitcoin reserve?

00:55:44.000 Absolutely, yes.

00:55:45.000 Yes.

00:55:45.000 The United States should have a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

00:55:48.000 And who should pay for the Bitcoin reserve?

00:55:50.000 That's a good question.

00:55:51.000 Hopefully, some of the tariff money could potentially be that.

00:55:54.000 The reason why I think we should have a strategic Bitcoin reserve, I know you guys had Michael Saylor on your show, and I think he's onto something.

00:56:00.000 There is something called like the mass adoption theory, which is over a period of time, like the English language U.S. dollar, things just catch on and they're just kind of volitional and there's no stopping it.

00:56:11.000 I think Bitcoin is that.

00:56:12.000 You got to watch out, though.

00:56:13.000 Quantum computing could potentially crack cryptography.

00:56:17.000 If they do that, then they're also cracking bank accounts.

00:56:19.000 Right.

00:56:20.000 Stock trading.

00:56:20.000 Yeah.

00:56:20.000 So Quantum is the only asterisk on all this.

00:56:23.000 But I think Saylor is onto something very profound, which is that because Bitcoin is a scarce, legitimately scarce resource, that it's probably going to go nowhere but up.

00:56:33.000 So Saylor makes a very provocative argument that Bitcoin could go up 10X over the next 10 years or something like that, which therefore, if we start a Bitcoin strategic reserve, it could pay for the national debt and basically cover our losses on the deficit.

00:56:46.000 But I think that we should, I think the United States government should be invested in crypto without a doubt.

00:56:50.000 I tend to agree with Michael Saylor that it's more likely to go to a million than zero.

00:56:54.000 Yes, I think that's right.

00:56:56.000 And by the way, so you have a problem with the world's richest people.

00:56:59.000 They don't know where to put their money.

00:57:00.000 So there's only so many penthouses in London and Paris that they could buy.

00:57:03.000 There's only so many ranches in Wyoming that they could buy.

00:57:06.000 And so we've had this problem.

00:57:07.000 So you create all this money.

00:57:09.000 The money goes upwards to wealth inequality point to your earlier point.

00:57:13.000 The question is then, well, what do rich people do with money?

00:57:14.000 There's only so many equities they can buy.

00:57:16.000 There's only so many shares in NVIDIA and Apple and Microsoft that they could justify.

00:57:20.000 Well, money needs to find a home and it's found a home in Bitcoin.

00:57:24.000 And so once it has mass adoption and literally the wealthiest families on the planet are starting to park serious monies in Bitcoin.

00:57:31.000 And because it's scarce, it's easy to transfer and it's just a winner.

00:57:35.000 Sometimes there's a mass adoption and it just rises to the surface.

00:57:38.000 And I think Bitcoin is that.

00:57:40.000 Speaking of the national debt, at what point do you think it's going to become a major problem?

00:57:44.000 I think it already is.

00:57:45.000 I think it already is.

00:57:46.000 Do you see any solvable way that we could address this?

00:57:50.000 Because it seems as though if Trump's big beautiful bill passes, it's just going to get $2 trillion higher.

00:57:56.000 Yeah, so that's over 10 years.

00:57:58.000 So I do find issue with some of those estimates.

00:58:00.000 I don't want to get too deep into that.

00:58:01.000 That's kind of a wonky.

00:58:03.000 We'll lose the audience on CBO estimates, congressional budget office estimates.

00:58:08.000 I think we need to cut a lot more spending.

00:58:09.000 I wish more Republicans wanted to agree.

00:58:11.000 I know Donald Trump agrees.

00:58:12.000 He's just very frustrated with some of the Republicans on Capitol Hill that don't want to cut it.

00:58:16.000 So here's the worst thing we could do, though.

00:58:18.000 The worst thing we could do out of all the options is not grow.

00:58:23.000 So the worst of all the options is not grow.

00:58:25.000 So when you have a big debt, that's bad.

00:58:28.000 Not growing with a big debt is catastrophic.

00:58:31.000 Growing with a big debt is somewhat manageable.

00:58:35.000 Growing with cutting your debt is awesome.

00:58:38.000 That would be the best possible scenario.

00:58:40.000 So the calculus is, okay, we have a big debt.

00:58:42.000 Let's at least try to have the debt outpace two things.

00:58:46.000 The rate of the increase of the debt to GDP ratio and the rate of inflation.

00:58:51.000 If GDP can grow faster than inflation and grow faster than the rate of the debt to GDP ratio, then we're in a manageable place.

00:59:01.000 So that's what the premise of a lot of these tax cuts of the bill is, right?

00:59:04.000 No tax on tips, no tax and overtime, right?

00:59:07.000 The depreciation, the extension of the Trump tax cuts, all of which I support because you need a pro-growth agenda because when you're a debtor nation and you have no growth, then you're going to be in a really bad spot.

00:59:17.000 What happened to Doge?

00:59:18.000 It's just a lot.

00:59:19.000 I think it's done.

00:59:20.000 But first of all, I think Elon did a lot of good work.

00:59:23.000 I really did.

00:59:23.000 First of all, I think Elon's greatest contribution was a philosophical one.

00:59:27.000 I think Elon made us all realize how much waste there is and how much we really need to kind of get into the details of how much the government is inefficient from a technological standpoint, from a efficiency standpoint.

00:59:41.000 So I don't think it's over by any means.

00:59:42.000 I think Doge is a cultural mindset that is going to be hopefully around the Republican Party for years to come.

00:59:48.000 It just seemed like Congress didn't really have that big of an incentive to do anything about it.

00:59:53.000 What was most surprising, Elon said that he just wanted people to code and write in a description of where the money went, because right now you could basically just leave it blank, send money, and not write what the purpose of the money is for.

01:00:07.000 And he just puts something in there.

01:00:09.000 And he said he was up against just a wall that they didn't even mandate that.

01:00:15.000 It's a very complicated, so yeah, that's right.

01:00:17.000 And so there's common sense to just type what it's for.

01:00:21.000 There is so much waste in the federal government.

01:00:23.000 And my hope is that we can start to rein it in in the next, you know, couple of months and couple of years.

01:00:28.000 It's a beast, though, guys.

01:00:30.000 I mean, this is a, it is a wild monster that is hard to rein in.

01:00:34.000 And I know that sounds like cope and an excuse, but you have an entrenched permanent bureaucracy of millions of people.

01:00:40.000 And then you have judges that are preventing literally the Trump administration from doing some of this stuff.

01:00:44.000 You have federal judges that are coming in and preventing, you know, President Donald Trump from being like, nope, I want to lay off these workers.

01:00:50.000 Nope, I want to cut this aid.

01:00:52.000 Nope, I want to cut this, which of course is unconstitutional.

01:00:54.000 So, yes, I mean, like, it would be nice.

01:00:56.000 Here is the goal.

01:00:57.000 The goal would be we need to blockchain the entire federal government, put the entire federal government on blockchain.

01:01:02.000 And then, number two, every dime of federal spending online in real time.

01:01:06.000 We should know what everybody is spending in real time, no different than a transparent federal database.

01:01:11.000 Could that be a national security risk in any way?

01:01:13.000 There are certain things you could blockbox for sure.

01:01:15.000 But, like, I think that people deserve to know on a day-by-day, month-by-month basis, like, what is the Department of Interior spending?

01:01:21.000 Like, are they going, what is the Department?

01:01:23.000 What are the Veterans Affairs spending money on?

01:01:25.000 We should know.

01:01:26.000 Like, are they buying $50 hammers?

01:01:28.000 Like, are they buying $200 bandages?

01:01:31.000 Like, I think it's our money.

01:01:33.000 This is the whole problem I have with this whole thing.

01:01:35.000 This is our money.

01:01:36.000 It is you watching money.

01:01:38.000 We are the ones that earn the money.

01:01:40.000 It is not the government's money.

01:01:42.000 We are the sovereign.

01:01:43.000 We create the government.

01:01:45.000 We earn the money.

01:01:46.000 And then the government extract it from us with our consent, right?

01:01:49.000 Because we vote, we have elections, whatever.

01:01:51.000 So we have a right to know where that money goes.

01:01:53.000 It doesn't magically become the government's money.

01:01:55.000 I guess part of the problem is that there's no penalty for overspending.

01:01:58.000 It's like a credit card.

01:01:59.000 The limit just keeps getting higher and higher and higher.

01:02:01.000 So why is it?

01:02:02.000 No, it's actually even worse than that.

01:02:04.000 There's an incentive to keep spending more.

01:02:07.000 In fact, the incentive in Washington, D.C. is that you have one wing that wants to spend money on more war, which is the Republican Party warmongering caucus, which I'm at war with.

01:02:16.000 And then you have a whole nother thing, which is the welfare caucus.

01:02:18.000 So you have the warfare welfare caucuses.

01:02:20.000 So the warfare guys want to go invade the world.

01:02:23.000 The welfare caucus wants to go put the entire world on welfare.

01:02:26.000 What can they both agree on?

01:02:28.000 We'll authorize your warfare if you authorize our welfare. 0.66

01:02:31.000 We all spend more money and we get our pet projects done.

01:02:34.000 And then we're going to go invade the world.

01:02:36.000 And they're like, oh, so the war, the welfare people say, don't invade the world.

01:02:39.000 But if you invade the world, can we invite the world?

01:02:41.000 They say it's okay if you go invade the country, but then we can have a couple million more people into the country.

01:02:44.000 And then the warfare people are like, ah, we don't like that.

01:02:47.000 We'll do that.

01:02:48.000 But the welfare people, but then we got to put them on welfare.

01:02:50.000 And literally, this is the uniparty bipartisan agreement last 30 years.

01:02:53.000 Every major public policy budgetary debate comes down to an agreement between the warfare and the welfare wing of the two parties.

01:03:01.000 No, there's no, there's no way to do it.

01:03:02.000 on that, right?

01:03:03.000 First of all, I would not, no.

01:03:08.000 I agree with you completely.

01:03:10.000 The reason I say no, no, no, is that I am not a cynic.

01:03:14.000 I'm like a super optimist.

01:03:15.000 I've never been more optimistic on the country.

01:03:17.000 Let me tell you why.

01:03:18.000 I saw insane doomerism like a year ago.

01:03:21.000 They're never going to let Trump win.

01:03:23.000 They're going to try to take him out.

01:03:25.000 And like, I saw doomerism die.

01:03:27.000 And so I think what Trump's, one of his greatest contributions is he's really pushed the art of the possible.

01:03:33.000 Like, actually, no, you can do dramatic things.

01:03:35.000 You can change stuff.

01:03:36.000 But yes, to your answer, it's going to be very big.

01:03:38.000 It is climbing a major mountain.

01:03:40.000 Massive.

01:03:41.000 Do you worry about the U.S. dollar?

01:03:43.000 Of course, absolutely.

01:03:44.000 And what do you think is the most likely outcome?

01:03:46.000 Because I would like to think positively, but at the same time, I think realistically it's just going to be pressure.

01:03:51.000 As one of my friends and heroes, Tony Robbins would say, I don't tell you to go to your garden and say, there's no weeds, there's no weeds, there's no weeds.

01:03:58.000 I tell you to spot the weeds and pull them out.

01:03:59.000 So I'm not like delusional.

01:04:01.000 I'm an optimist.

01:04:02.000 I try to find the best case story of how things can be told.

01:04:06.000 Then have us have human agency and action to actually do it.

01:04:10.000 So with the U.S. dollar, look, the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency has gone down dramatically in the last 20 years.

01:04:16.000 President Donald Trump is focused on breaking up BRICS.

01:04:20.000 So BRICS is Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

01:04:24.000 South Africa is the DEI pick.

01:04:25.000 Why South Africa is considered to be some sort of world, that's a joke for the record.

01:04:29.000 Some sort of like world currency power.

01:04:31.000 It's like a freaking joke.

01:04:32.000 Okay.

01:04:32.000 All right.

01:04:32.000 India.

01:04:33.000 Easy to peel away.

01:04:34.000 We already have great relations with India.

01:04:35.000 J.D. Vance did a state visit to India that was very, not very reported.

01:04:39.000 Donald Trump, by the way, he stopped the India-Pakistan war.

01:04:42.000 He deserves huge credit for that.

01:04:43.000 That thing was like simmering up and was going to be incredible and big.

01:04:47.000 And so then Brazil.

01:04:48.000 Brazil's a disaster. 1.00

01:04:49.000 Lula is a complete Marxist and communist.

01:04:51.000 Bolsonaro should still be prime minister.

01:04:53.000 So then you have Russia and China.

01:04:56.000 That's a, so Brazil, Russia, China.

01:04:58.000 The best case telling is we can end this Russian-Ukrainian war and hopefully try to create a little bit of separation in daylight between the ever-growing marriage of Russia and China, which is bad for America. 0.86

01:05:08.000 It's bad for the West.

01:05:09.000 It's bad for the world.

01:05:10.000 And so we should want the U.S. dollar to remain the world reserve's currency status.

01:05:14.000 It is imperative.

01:05:16.000 Our, I think, reckless involvement in the United States with the Russian-Ukrainian war has only led to de-dollarization.

01:05:22.000 We took Russia out of the SWIFT banking system.

01:05:25.000 Basically, we took their dollars out of their bank accounts.

01:05:29.000 We confiscated their dollars.

01:05:30.000 What does that do to every other nation that uses dollars as their world reserve currency status?

01:05:35.000 We're no longer a safe haven.

01:05:37.000 We never should have done that, guys.

01:05:40.000 Regardless of how bad Putin is for invading Ukraine and all that stuff, basically we de-incentivized people to trust the dollar as a safe haven.

01:05:48.000 Basically, we said, oh, if you misbehave, we might take away your dollars, which then has led to an incentive structure away from the U.S. dollar, which is very destructive.

01:05:56.000 It seems like we're always facing several cataclysmic level issues at the exact same time.

01:06:01.000 Welcome the modernity.

01:06:02.000 And so I'm just curious, what would you say are the top three issues that if they could be immediately addressed and fixed, we would be leagues, leagues better off.

01:06:11.000 I'm going to give you probably some unexpected answers.

01:06:13.000 I have some answers here.

01:06:14.000 Let's see if you can answer what I have here.

01:06:16.000 Okay, so the question is cataclysmic actual like what you would say are the biggest issues facing America right now.

01:06:23.000 And if you could provide three answers.

01:06:25.000 Yeah.

01:06:25.000 So number one, it's the fertility crisis.

01:06:27.000 Interesting.

01:06:28.000 Yeah, we're having less children ever before.

01:06:30.000 We're mating less.

01:06:31.000 It's a major problem.

01:06:32.000 We're on the verge of a population collapse.

01:06:35.000 It's a huge issue.

01:06:36.000 No one wants to talk about it.

01:06:37.000 Everyone's like, oh, I'm single and 32 without kids.

01:06:41.000 Like, no, you have a moral obligation to get married and have kids, actually.

01:06:44.000 And if you don't, that's fine.

01:06:45.000 If you don't want to, you have to make the case that we're doing is more important.

01:06:48.000 And there is a case for that.

01:06:49.000 Like, if you're a Catholic father, like a priest, I'm not Catholic.

01:06:51.000 Okay.

01:06:52.000 You're actually helping society.

01:06:53.000 You're doing something.

01:06:54.000 But I come from a worldview that you have a moral obligation to help society and to help people through something that you do.

01:07:01.000 It's not just all about yourself and pursuing your own self-interest.

01:07:03.000 I mean, that's the death, the death of modernity.

01:07:06.000 I think part of it is getting married and having children.

01:07:08.000 I'm a very traditionalist in that way.

01:07:09.000 So that's number one.

01:07:10.000 Other cataclysmic things.

01:07:13.000 We are incredibly sick in this country.

01:07:15.000 And this is why I love Bobby Kennedy.

01:07:17.000 Like, I'm a huge Bobby Kennedy fan.

01:07:19.000 We're a fat country.

01:07:20.000 We're a sick country.

01:07:21.000 We're an obese country.

01:07:22.000 We're a depressed country.

01:07:23.000 We're a poisoned country.

01:07:25.000 We are not physically fit to fight a war, let alone be able to stand up and even go for a walk for two miles.

01:07:33.000 We are a fat country and it's a major problem.

01:07:37.000 And so I actually think that physiology is directly related with how you act and how you feel.

01:07:43.000 I got that again from Tony Robbins.

01:07:46.000 And so if all of a sudden you're kind of this like obate, obese, sad country, of course you're going to kind of just fall apart and you're going to collapse. 1.00

01:07:55.000 The last one is the most provocative of the three is that we have a major issue of this country that we become a nation of foreigners and we're strangers in our own country.

01:08:06.000 We have not assimilated the third world well into our country. 1.00

01:08:09.000 We have 20 million illegals that I believe invaded the country under Joe Biden.

01:08:13.000 And so you kind of come, I could go to 456 if you want me to, but we are increasingly not a nation or a country.

01:08:21.000 We look more like a colony where no one talks to their neighbor and we have to lock our doors at night.

01:08:26.000 We're like a high, our cities are all super high crime.

01:08:28.000 So people say, Charlie, what does success look like?

01:08:30.000 I get asked all the time.

01:08:31.000 Very easy.

01:08:32.000 I want fertility rates to go up. 0.99

01:08:33.000 I want church attendance to go up.

01:08:35.000 I want people to be less fat.

01:08:37.000 And I want to be able to not have to lock my doors at night.

01:08:40.000 I want to be able to talk to my neighbors and really have a connective bond with them.

01:08:44.000 My final one, I want to feel safe that my daughter can walk the streets of LA unaccompanied at night.

01:08:50.000 That's it.

01:08:51.000 Can you walk LA at night?

01:08:53.000 She can walk Tokyo at night.

01:08:55.000 Why can't you walk New York at night or LA or San Francisco or Denver?

01:08:59.000 We are a failed country.

01:09:01.000 What did Newsom say to that?

01:09:02.000 I loved your debate with him.

01:09:03.000 Thank you.

01:09:03.000 Yeah, it was something.

01:09:04.000 Why did he agree to do that?

01:09:06.000 It seems so weird.

01:09:08.000 It was maximally entertaining.

01:09:09.000 Yeah.

01:09:10.000 It did very, very well.

01:09:11.000 It got millions and millions of views.

01:09:13.000 And so I don't really know what his incentive was, to be honest.

01:09:16.000 I think he wants to be president, obviously.

01:09:19.000 But he just, so to the left, he looked weak and to the right, he looked fraudulent.

01:09:24.000 And so who did he win over exactly?

01:09:27.000 Because the right's not going to believe.

01:09:28.000 I mean, we can't stand him for obvious reasons.

01:09:31.000 And to the left, they're like, look at this weak guy who's trying to find common ground with Charlie Kirk, who they think I'm terrible.

01:09:36.000 So, but to his credit, I mean, there were no gotchas.

01:09:39.000 But I mean, look, I'll kind of go back to the point I say, like, it's a failure of governance if you cannot walk your greatest cities at night.

01:09:46.000 That's my politics.

01:09:47.000 I know that sounds like, I don't care if it's Republican or Democrat.

01:09:50.000 I want to be able to walk America's greatest cities at night.

01:09:52.000 The five greatest cities in America are New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, and what's you, maybe Miami, okay?

01:09:58.000 It's fine.

01:09:59.000 Whatever.

01:10:00.000 And people in Dallas are going to like email us.

01:10:02.000 Sorry, Dallas is not one of America's greatest cities.

01:10:04.000 Dallas is fine, but it's not one of America's greatest cities, right?

01:10:06.000 And no, Seattle's not.

01:10:07.000 But Seattle used to be one of America's like most interesting cities.

01:10:10.000 But you should be able to walk your major cities at night.

01:10:14.000 This is insane.

01:10:15.000 You go to Seoul, South Korea.

01:10:17.000 Amazing.

01:10:17.000 You can eat off the streets.

01:10:18.000 You go to Tokyo.

01:10:19.000 Go to Singapore.

01:10:20.000 This is a choice.

01:10:22.000 We are deciding to have our cities dangerous and we shouldn't put up with it.

01:10:25.000 I think it's really just being tough on crime.

01:10:27.000 And people know they could get away with it.

01:10:29.000 We're choosing to be soft on crime, though.

01:10:30.000 We're choosing that.

01:10:31.000 It's a choice.

01:10:32.000 Yeah.

01:10:34.000 What was the biggest takeaway from Newsom?

01:10:36.000 His backpedaling on the transports issue was fascinating to me.

01:10:39.000 I did not expect that.

01:10:40.000 Where all of a sudden he kind of agreed with me and then, you know, went super viral where he was saying that, of course, it's deeply unfair for men to compete in female sports.

01:10:48.000 What kind of insane stuff is this, right?

01:10:50.000 Yeah, I think I would say that was probably one of the biggest takeaways.

01:10:53.000 Have you kept in touch with him since then?

01:10:54.000 I've texted him a couple of times.

01:10:56.000 Does he get back to you?

01:10:57.000 He does.

01:10:57.000 Yeah.

01:10:58.000 My biggest text was him was being like, hey, you said that it was no big, you know, you were unfair for trans athletes to win state championships.

01:11:05.000 Why are you not doing anything about it?

01:11:06.000 Because a man just won the girls' championship in the state of California.

01:11:10.000 So you were still poking the bear.

01:11:12.000 Poking the bear, but I was just calling him out.

01:11:13.000 And by the way, I wasn't even publicizing it.

01:11:15.000 Now I'm finally having to publicize it.

01:11:17.000 I was like, why are you not doing like, and by the way, during this whole Trump-Newsome feud, I've just like, you know, I was like, fine.

01:11:22.000 This guy's a total, he's a catastrophic failure.

01:11:24.000 Does he ever reach out to you for help?

01:11:26.000 No, and I wouldn't give him help.

01:11:28.000 You wouldn't?

01:11:29.000 No.

01:11:29.000 Why?

01:11:30.000 He's a Democrat.

01:11:31.000 But what if he wanted your insights in terms of policy and you could somehow eke him a little bit?

01:11:35.000 Colonel, yes.

01:11:36.000 No, no, for sure.

01:11:37.000 Yes, that's right.

01:11:37.000 If he's asking like how to better govern and help people, without a doubt, yes.

01:11:41.000 If he's asking me like how to get political power, I will not have it.

01:11:44.000 What's your advice to him in terms of turning around the state of California?

01:11:48.000 He would argue the state's doing fantastic.

01:11:50.000 They're doing great revenue.

01:11:51.000 So great.

01:11:52.000 We left California in 2020.

01:11:54.000 Unfortunately, the issues just got so bad with homeless, crime, the taxes.

01:11:59.000 We're out of this world.

01:12:01.000 They've just raised the sales tax in the city of Santa Monica.

01:12:04.000 Which is a tax on guys like you.

01:12:06.000 It was really bad.

01:12:07.000 It got to a point where Vegas was so welcoming.

01:12:10.000 I made a video announcing that I was moving to Las Vegas and someone from like the business administration within the city of Vegas found my email and sent me like, hey, we're really happy to have you.

01:12:19.000 If there's anything we could do, like they were happy to get the business.

01:12:23.000 We love it there.

01:12:24.000 So since Gavin Newsom has like no core beliefs, he's just like a slippery politician that wants to be in power.

01:12:31.000 He's literally somebody that could pass a lie detector test easily.

01:12:35.000 Like this guy has no guiding principles at all.

01:12:37.000 Just leave the Democrat Party.

01:12:38.000 That's my advice to him.

01:12:40.000 If you really want to like be an elected office that bad, just leave the Democrat Party and just go run as like a moderate Republican and just have some sort of like conversion story.

01:12:48.000 Like, oh, yeah, I'm some sort of progressive.

01:12:50.000 Like you just want political power.

01:12:51.000 You have no guiding beliefs at all whatsoever.

01:12:54.000 You'll say whatever it takes, whenever you want.

01:12:56.000 You're captured by your left flank, but you won't do that.

01:12:58.000 But and finally, like, I don't know.

01:13:00.000 I mean, I would say that more practically.

01:13:03.000 Don't be afraid, Gavin, to like go lock up a bunch of criminals and make your state better.

01:13:10.000 I just, the whole premise of California is so sad.

01:13:13.000 Every time, I love California.

01:13:15.000 I love California.

01:13:16.000 Every time I land in California, I say the same thing to my team.

01:13:19.000 It is a shame that they messed up heaven on earth.

01:13:23.000 It is without the most, it's the most beautiful place in the world, right?

01:13:26.000 I mean, Orange County, can you think of a better microclimate than that?

01:13:31.000 The mornings are just like gifts from God.

01:13:33.000 They do have pockets.

01:13:34.000 Orange County has gotten gorgeous.

01:13:36.000 It's like Santa Barbara.

01:13:38.000 You have certain cities.

01:13:40.000 61 degrees in the morning.

01:13:41.000 It's just like, you just can like, anything is possible.

01:13:44.000 It's kind of got this miss.

01:13:45.000 But I think they're sending all the people to LA.

01:13:48.000 It seems like LA is kind of like the stomping grounds for a lot of the issues.

01:13:52.000 And then other cities are actually getting better.

01:13:55.000 Yeah, I hope so.

01:13:55.000 I think Orange County has some real some bright spots.

01:13:59.000 But generally, look, LA is the beast of California, right?

01:14:02.000 And LA is just a dump.

01:14:04.000 It is just disgusting.

01:14:06.000 And it's too bad I say that.

01:14:07.000 It never used to be that way.

01:14:08.000 LA used to be a really interesting city 30 to 40 years ago.

01:14:11.000 Yes, it had crime, but a better example of a city that has fallen apart is the city that he was the mayor of, San Francisco.

01:14:17.000 When I was a kid, I could walk the streets of San Francisco.

01:14:20.000 It was gorgeous.

01:14:20.000 It was fun.

01:14:21.000 It was unique.

01:14:22.000 It was interesting.

01:14:22.000 It was artistic.

01:14:23.000 It was boundary pushing, but it was safe.

01:14:27.000 You would, again, Gavin Newsom, if you're listening to this, would you let your son walk the streets of San Francisco unaccompanied at 1 a.m.?

01:14:35.000 No, you wouldn't.

01:14:36.000 Of course not.

01:14:37.000 You're a failure.

01:14:39.000 If your own kids can't walk your city at night, then what have you done?

01:14:42.000 I don't want to hear about like how you oversaw gay weddings or whatever stupid thing that you're talking about.

01:14:48.000 Or, oh, yeah, we're taking you to wreck-it revenues.

01:14:50.000 I'm sorry.

01:14:50.000 Your son can't walk the streets of the city that you were in charge of.

01:14:54.000 You're a disgrace.

01:14:55.000 Like, don't, don't lecture me about like how you're some sort of progressive beacon.

01:15:00.000 How much of that do you think is Gavin Newsom's fault versus other people's fault?

01:15:04.000 He was the mayor of the city.

01:15:05.000 I put a lot of fault on mayors.

01:15:06.000 I think mayors have a lot of power.

01:15:07.000 And I know this because of New York.

01:15:09.000 Look at Bloomberg and Giuliani and how well they did in New York versus de Blasio.

01:15:13.000 New York crime went up.

01:15:14.000 It got dirtier.

01:15:15.000 Homelessness went up.

01:15:16.000 Like mayors are actually some of the most powerful people in the country that we don't spend enough time or attention on.

01:15:21.000 The police are responsive to the mayor.

01:15:23.000 The building codes responsible mayor.

01:15:24.000 The homeless, like mayors are very, very powerful.

01:15:27.000 So he was mayor of San Francisco.

01:15:29.000 Then he ran for lieutenant governor and then he ran for governor.

01:15:31.000 And he was mayor of San Francisco like during the collapse of San Francisco while it started to go down when all this progressive woke stuff started to pop up.

01:15:40.000 If you want to make sense of the change and the chaos happening around us, you're going to need God's help.

01:15:45.000 That's why Alan Jackson Ministries, a friend of mine, created the Culture and Christianity podcast, the Culture and Christianity Conference, and their weeknight news show, Alan Jackson Now.

01:15:57.000 Millions of people also listen to Pastor Alan Jackson's powerful sermons each week.

01:16:01.000 I do on radio, television, satellite, and online.

01:16:04.000 In today's world, there's desperate need for truth.

01:16:07.000 And Alan Jackson Ministries feels a sense of urgency to deliver God's truth and a biblical perspective to anyone who will listen.

01:16:16.000 We can't afford to be complacent.

01:16:18.000 Their mission is to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, which is the most important thing, giving your life to the Lord, including here on the Charlie Kirk show.

01:16:28.000 Go to alanjackson.com/slash Charlie.

01:16:31.000 That is alanjackson.com/slash Charlie to find recent podcasts, shows, and sermons.

01:16:37.000 Be informed, find encouragement, hear the truth delivered in a way that just makes sense.

01:16:43.000 You'll also find books, studies, prayers, and other tools to help you grow in your faith.

01:16:47.000 Again, that's alanjackson.com/slash Charlie, alanjackson.com/slash Charlie.

01:16:52.000 This is our time to make a difference.

01:16:53.000 Check it out right now.

01:16:56.000 Now, you get a lot of people just on the street, and you have a good pulse of what's really going on with younger people.

01:17:02.000 What's something that you've noticed that mainstream media either gets wrong or is just out of touch on?

01:17:07.000 I would say that something that mainstream media really misses with young men, especially, is they desire to be more religious than I think they give them credit for.

01:17:18.000 There is a return to religion. 0.91

01:17:20.000 You're seeing a little bit of these news reports, but there's definitely a curiosity for God and for going back to the church in a very serious and significant way.

01:17:30.000 What's causing that?

01:17:32.000 Well, modernity is a failure.

01:17:33.000 I mean, modernity has given us a lot of great stuff, right?

01:17:36.000 I mean, praise God that we have modern medicine and surgery and that we have antibiotics.

01:17:41.000 Like, these are all amazing things, right?

01:17:43.000 No one debates that.

01:17:45.000 But modernity has like the core of modernity is what?

01:17:49.000 You are in charge of your own life and you could do whatever you want to do, and you're the center of the universe.

01:17:54.000 Sounds good, leads to highest depression ever, highest rates, highest anxiety, and hopelessness.

01:18:02.000 In Victor Frankl's amazing book, Man's Search for Meaning, he said that outside of food and water, the greatest need for man is meaning.

01:18:09.000 And so, we see modernity constantly changing around us at all times.

01:18:14.000 Things are changing, people are changing their genders, there's constant change.

01:18:17.000 And I think young people want to go to a church environment that isn't changing.

01:18:22.000 They want to go to a place that is stable, that is consistent, that is beautiful, that is ancient, that is everlasting, and that is eternal.

01:18:30.000 What would you say is the biggest non-issue that people make out to be a massive issue?

01:18:34.000 You already spoke about the issue that you think is extremely important that people don't really talk about, which is the birth rates.

01:18:40.000 What about that?

01:18:41.000 I mean, by the way, the birth rate's so big.

01:18:43.000 I mean, the fact that no one wants to talk about it-it's just not really discussed.

01:18:47.000 Yeah, so okay, great.

01:18:48.000 So, I would say, it's not a surprise, but I'd say, racism.

01:18:52.000 It's like the most ridiculous.

01:18:54.000 I mean, we are the least racist controversy that exists in the history of the world.

01:18:56.000 I don't like racist.

01:18:57.000 You don't like racist.

01:18:58.000 I don't like running into them.

01:18:59.000 I have no tolerance for it.

01:19:01.000 I would put it as like issue number 22,800 on issues of like what's pressing facing America.

01:19:09.000 How about the fact that our public schools can't educate our kids and we can't find a single kid that can read at grade level in Maryland or Chicago?

01:19:17.000 Probably a bigger deal than racism.

01:19:19.000 How about the fact that in this country that we have an average family cannot afford to go buy groceries in major cities and have to go into debt?

01:19:30.000 Like, these are much major problems.

01:19:31.000 Young people can't buy homes. 1.00

01:19:33.000 Like, the dollar is being deteriorated.

01:19:36.000 We have 110,000 drug overdoses every year.

01:19:38.000 That's a much bigger problem than racism.

01:19:40.000 Like, woo.

01:19:41.000 And, like, we have like entire social and cultural institutions that are trying to propagandize us.

01:19:46.000 That racism is like the biggest problem.

01:19:48.000 I'm sorry, it's not.

01:19:49.000 In fact, I would argue that not only is it not a problem, it's a massive psychological operation against us to not actually talk about the major economic, cultural, and political forces that should be addressed in this country.

01:20:01.000 And what do you think makes someone conservative or liberal in the first place?

01:20:04.000 Do you think it's rich or nurture?

01:20:06.000 It's both, obviously.

01:20:07.000 Again, I'm actually, the older I get, I do give a little bit more, I give a little bit more weight to community than I did probably 10 years ago, just because I see how much my daughter and my son absorb around me and my wife.

01:20:23.000 So, I get kind of how you're a product of your environment, but it's not, you're not solely a product of your environment.

01:20:26.000 You're not.

01:20:26.000 You have agency, you have decision, you have free will.

01:20:29.000 You could break free of your environment.

01:20:31.000 You're not only your environment.

01:20:32.000 That's very important.

01:20:33.000 You're not only your upbringing.

01:20:35.000 So, conservative, it's just a worldview difference.

01:20:37.000 So, left-wingers generally look at things through a prism of what they look at a prism of oppressor-oppressed, whereas we look at prisms of things versus just and unjust,

01:20:54.000 right and wrong, and good and evil, and moral and immoral, where they look at things as more as like who's in power and who is not in power, which group wants sympathy, deserves sympathy, and what other group deserves sympathy.

01:21:09.000 But look, we know that people that tend to be liberal tend to have temperament that is far more on kind of the openness and acceptance of, you know, how people are and how they act.

01:21:22.000 We're conservatives, we tend to be much more order and discipline and let's just say structure-driven.

01:21:32.000 A great example of this is crime.

01:21:34.000 So, when we as conservatives see someone that commits a crime and we don't think they're necessarily a product of their environment, we say, you shouldn't have committed that crime.

01:21:42.000 You're being an idiot.

01:21:43.000 You're going to jail.

01:21:44.000 Whereas liberals are like, well, we must have sympathy for them because the schools are broken.

01:21:48.000 And of course, there is some truth to that.

01:21:49.000 You still decided to commit the crime.

01:21:51.000 It's an insult to every other person that's not committing a crime that comes out of that environment to act as if that person should be given an exception.

01:21:58.000 As someone who works very closely with young voters, do you think that we should change the rights for who can vote?

01:22:04.000 Should we increase the age? 0.71

01:22:05.000 Should we apply a civics test to it?

01:22:08.000 I mean, probably not.

01:22:11.000 I'll say this, like we won the youth vote this last cycle.

01:22:14.000 And it's funny, like we in certain states, not across the country.

01:22:18.000 And it's just an amazing thing that you can actually win the youth vote and you could do it with mass virality and mass popularity and reaching out in ways that people would never have imagined.

01:22:29.000 And so, No, I probably wouldn't put any more restrictions on it.

01:22:33.000 You mentioned earlier in this podcast that one of the biggest sacrifices that you have to make is running this massive business at the same time as trying to be the leader in a family.

01:22:42.000 Yes.

01:22:42.000 I'm curious, what do you think is the biggest issue with modern dating?

01:22:47.000 As a single guy, I would love some advice.

01:22:50.000 You know, Graham, he got married a year or so.

01:22:52.000 Congratulations.

01:22:53.000 So he's looking to start a family.

01:22:54.000 Have as many kids as you can afford.

01:22:56.000 Probably two.

01:22:57.000 Have more than you can afford.

01:22:58.000 That's what I should say.

01:22:59.000 I'll stick with you.

01:23:00.000 What is wrong with modern dating?

01:23:02.000 Yeah.

01:23:02.000 The biggest problem with modern dating is very interesting.

01:23:06.000 We had a women's summit.

01:23:07.000 The young ladies all raised their hands.

01:23:09.000 They're like, how many of you are unhappy with the dating pool?

01:23:11.000 Every woman raises their hand.

01:23:12.000 I'm like, funny.

01:23:13.000 All the young men I talked to are unhappy with you too.

01:23:15.000 So who's wrong?

01:23:16.000 Those seem like kind of select groups of people, though.

01:23:19.000 You know, like if you're asking women that are attending a women's summit, they might be in a very specific situation.

01:23:25.000 Yeah, I mean, like, I would say generally, I hear more complaints about the dating pool than, you know, like, wow, there's so many options.

01:23:32.000 Maybe you're right.

01:23:32.000 I don't know.

01:23:33.000 I think it's more of an options issue is that you could go online and just, if you, if you, if you don't like someone, instead of working through it, it's just you go back and you start swiping again.

01:23:43.000 So there's, so let me, what's the problem with women? 1.00

01:23:45.000 And then I'll go to the problem with men.

01:23:46.000 The problem with women is that many of them, A, have unrealistic expectations of the man that they want, a lot of them. 1.00

01:23:53.000 And I deal with this all the time.

01:23:54.000 I'm like, I want a guy that's earning a million dollars a year and he's six foot four and I want him to have a, you know, a perfect jaw.

01:24:02.000 And I'm like, yeah, that's never going to happen.

01:24:04.000 How about, by the way, you know where on your list is like, I want someone who will be a good father or someone with good character.

01:24:10.000 So I guess like really disgusting, actually, that you just want someone that's like super rich and looks good.

01:24:15.000 Like, why don't you want someone that's going to be loyal to you, not cheat on you?

01:24:18.000 Like, oh yeah, I want that too.

01:24:20.000 Oh, okay.

01:24:20.000 Got it.

01:24:21.000 So basically, you want like Ken Barbie doll, and then you'll have like all the good virtues.

01:24:26.000 Notice they don't, they don't lead with the virtue.

01:24:29.000 And a lot of things lead to that.

01:24:30.000 But number two is women need to be very clear that we need to tell women more clearly that if you do not have children before the age of 30, there's only a 50% chance that you will have children. 0.61

01:24:42.000 That's a fact.

01:24:42.000 It's a fact.

01:24:43.000 You can fact check me on that.

01:24:45.000 Isn't that, though, that women are becoming very intentional about whether or not they want to have kids and just it's it's more socially acceptable miserable because of it though I mean it's not just mine you go fact check me put the numbers up the most depressed people in America are women without children they're the most likely to be on antidepressants they're the most likely to be anxious again people that experience severe depression are people people that say they are very unhappy are people young single women in their early 30s without children who are the happiest women in America married women with children I 0.62

01:25:15.000 I think there is a, and by the way, of course they have the agency to do that.

01:25:17.000 I'm not trying to like make a law like you must get married and have kids. 0.86

01:25:20.000 But I think that we've gone wrong here, that women should prioritize family and children way above career, that they should try to find their husband before they're 25, that they should try to get married way younger. 1.00

01:25:32.000 But then that also goes back to just finances.

01:25:36.000 No, that's a huge one.

01:25:37.000 You can't quite have a husband going out making a salary to have a stay-at-home.

01:25:41.000 I completely agree with that.

01:25:42.000 That's the best argument.

01:25:43.000 It's not a winner argument, but it's the best argument.

01:25:46.000 Because at some point, you go to like sub-Saharan Africa, they have like eight kids and they live in like a dirt hut. 0.96

01:25:51.000 You can figure it out.

01:25:51.000 Having children, I believe, is a blessing of the Lord.

01:25:54.000 It's the most amazing thing.

01:25:55.000 You should try to have as many children as you can.

01:25:57.000 Much more important than traveling to Thailand or having a big apartment or a bunch of cats.

01:26:01.000 Having children are a gift from the Lord.

01:26:03.000 But as far as like the dating pool problem.

01:26:06.000 So young ladies, they need to be very clear about what they're expecting in a man and date with the intent to marry. 0.98

01:26:12.000 And not just date to, you know, have a good time.

01:26:15.000 And quite honestly, both need to do this.

01:26:18.000 But young women need to do a much better job of saving themselves for marriage. 0.97

01:26:21.000 They need to prioritize purity again.

01:26:23.000 Young men need to too.

01:26:24.000 But if young women do it, then young men will. 0.98

01:26:27.000 So if that's what the women need to do in order to make themselves worthy of dating, what do you think is the main thing men need to do to make themselves worthy? 0.99

01:26:34.000 The most attractive quality in a young man that young women can't ever articulate is self-control. 1.00

01:26:39.000 So how does this look in application?

01:26:42.000 A woman needs to be able to know that you can control your impulses when things get really crazy. 1.00

01:26:46.000 They can't articulate it, but that's what they want.

01:26:48.000 So, for example, they want to be able, when you go on a date, can you control your mouth?

01:26:52.000 Can you control your tongue?

01:26:53.000 Can you control your eye?

01:26:54.000 Are you going to cheat on her? 0.99

01:26:56.000 Are you going to have a wandering eye?

01:26:57.000 Are you going to get drunk every night?

01:26:58.000 Are you going to kind of go into like a drug, you know, abyss?

01:27:02.000 Women can't always put that into words, but that differentiates a boy from a man. 1.00

01:27:06.000 A boy is someone that has no self-control.

01:27:07.000 I would argue it's confidence and ambition.

01:27:10.000 And if you had those qualities, I think everything else falls into place because you have to have self-control if you're going to be ambitious.

01:27:17.000 Sure.

01:27:17.000 To have a North Star that you fly.

01:27:19.000 I totally agree.

01:27:19.000 Confidence is true.

01:27:20.000 Look, again, it's just if you look at it, though, you can be very confident, ambitious, but you could also then cheat on your wife like 10 years later, right?

01:27:29.000 So you have to be able to control your flesh.

01:27:31.000 We have we as men have very different problems than women, right? 1.00

01:27:34.000 Different temptations as men.

01:27:36.000 We have problems controlling our flesh.

01:27:38.000 That's why adultery is literally in the Ten Commandments.

01:27:39.000 You had to command an entire people not to cheat on their wives.

01:27:42.000 It was easy.

01:27:43.000 God would not have to command us not to do it.

01:27:44.000 And so when women are when men are dating, if you want to make yourself more attractive to a woman.

01:27:50.000 First of all, like demonstrate self-control and also women want to be able they want to be taken care of. 0.97

01:27:57.000 I know this like super provocative, but like deep down, they want a man to be able to provide.

01:28:01.000 Provide for them financially.

01:28:02.000 Should a man pay on the first date? 0.70

01:28:04.000 A hundred percent.

01:28:05.000 Like what kind of a wuss beta male is splitting the check?

01:28:08.000 Like, who are you?

01:28:10.000 Do you agree with me?

01:28:11.000 Listen, with Macy, I pay for the check.

01:28:14.000 On the first.

01:28:15.000 Yeah, the first.

01:28:15.000 It's like, I'm just sorry.

01:28:16.000 It's so.

01:28:17.000 I would go into debt and like scrub dishes before a woman. 1.00

01:28:21.000 Let's see.

01:28:22.000 Let's see.

01:28:23.000 Yeah.

01:28:23.000 Let's see.

01:28:24.000 Let's see.

01:28:24.000 What is this?

01:28:25.000 So didn't you go on a date like years ago, like a decade ago with this woman whose mom gave you $20 to take her to the movie theater?

01:28:35.000 Yes.

01:28:36.000 Yeah.

01:28:37.000 I made money on that date, actually.

01:28:38.000 Well, so there's a good financial deal for you.

01:28:39.000 No, no, no.

01:28:39.000 Explain how you made money on a date.

01:28:41.000 That sounds different, though.

01:28:42.000 That's not what we're talking about, though.

01:28:44.000 Yeah.

01:28:44.000 Her mom gave her.

01:28:45.000 And by the way, this was in high school.

01:28:46.000 Okay.

01:28:47.000 So that's not what we're talking about here.

01:28:49.000 We're talking about like 24 years old, like serious dating.

01:28:51.000 Right?

01:28:52.000 I split the check quite a lot.

01:28:54.000 Quite a lot.

01:28:55.000 I'm sorry.

01:28:56.000 I don't mean to offend you.

01:28:57.000 You guys are great.

01:28:58.000 That's incomprehensible to me.

01:28:59.000 I think that's-To me, I thought it was a great financial decision.

01:29:02.000 Okay.

01:29:03.000 So from your prism, I totally get that.

01:29:05.000 And like you have really good financial discipline.

01:29:07.000 I'm sorry.

01:29:08.000 Like I would be so humiliated if I-I'm more-I did not care.

01:29:13.000 No, no.

01:29:13.000 I mean, I find that to be like the greatest beta male like humiliation.

01:29:18.000 To save money?

01:29:19.000 No, no.

01:29:19.000 To like the idea that a woman that you're trying to court.

01:29:23.000 Now, if it's like a friend thing or-As a first date, you don't even know if she's like the quality.

01:29:28.000 It doesn't matter.

01:29:28.000 It does not matter.

01:29:29.000 I'm sorry.

01:29:29.000 I was-By the way, that money you save is not worth the honor that you compromise.

01:29:34.000 It's such a big deal.

01:29:36.000 It's a massive deal.

01:29:37.000 I'm not trying to give it a hard time.

01:29:38.000 But no-I don't know.

01:29:39.000 I'm sorry.

01:29:40.000 But here's the thing.

01:29:41.000 In fairness, for your point with Macy, I paid for the whole first date.

01:29:45.000 Well, hold on.

01:29:45.000 Why'd you do that one though?

01:29:46.000 I think I was- was at a level where like that felt like the right choice to make but throughout my early 20s was it because you felt more serious with her or i was also in a point where i was ready to be able to like financially yes legit i get that early 20s like i still think saving five bucks here and there i would do it i would go to save you're you're manic with saving money.

01:30:07.000 I am.

01:30:07.000 We have Blake on my team is like you.

01:30:09.000 Yeah, no, he goes and he'll eat like the snacks for lunch to save money here at the end.

01:30:16.000 You know, it's funny.

01:30:16.000 I brought food from home.

01:30:17.000 No, no, that's by the way.

01:30:18.000 And coffee from home.

01:30:19.000 Frugality is a virtue.

01:30:21.000 Yeah.

01:30:22.000 But so we as Christians believe that there is an order of virtues and above frugality is honor.

01:30:29.000 And so we as men must lead.

01:30:32.000 We must provide.

01:30:33.000 Under no circumstance ever should a man ever let a woman pay for a date or you should have ever, ever. 0.84

01:30:38.000 No, even on the third, fourth, fifth.

01:30:39.000 What if it's the first date and you're just not paying for anything?

01:30:42.000 Okay, well, let me, period.

01:30:43.000 Well, let me, okay, so what kind of world are we living in?

01:30:45.000 Well, hold on a second.

01:30:46.000 I agree with you.

01:30:48.000 If I'm dating a girl, I would pay for everything. 1.00

01:30:51.000 Everything.

01:30:51.000 Yeah, everything.

01:30:52.000 However, I could see for other people that might be in a different financial position.

01:30:57.000 You know, you pay for 10 dates and then she's like, you know what? 0.99

01:30:59.000 I want to treat you.

01:31:00.000 Well, that's totally different.

01:31:02.000 No, no, what we're told what we're talking about is like, oh, we're going to alternate.

01:31:06.000 Like, once you're serious and she wants to take you out to something for a nice dinner.

01:31:10.000 And you might, by the way, if you have the intent to marry, you're already like kind of blending finances.

01:31:14.000 Like, I get that psychologically.

01:31:16.000 But like, if you're like, oh, we'll take turns.

01:31:18.000 Like, oh, well, you know, you pay this time.

01:31:20.000 I pay this time.

01:31:21.000 What's your advice to a girl who's who the guy she's currently seeing?

01:31:24.000 He says that.

01:31:25.000 Oh, do not marry that man.

01:31:26.000 But here's the thing.

01:31:27.000 I feel like they should always break it off.

01:31:30.000 But they should offer.

01:31:30.000 They should pull out the credit card.

01:31:32.000 The woman? 0.87

01:31:32.000 Of course not. 0.87

01:31:33.000 Just to offer.

01:31:34.000 No.

01:31:35.000 It's a nice gesture.

01:31:35.000 No, no, by the way, no, no, no.

01:31:37.000 This is feminism. 1.00

01:31:39.000 Feminism is that you have to be this like self-independent. 1.00

01:31:41.000 This is not a nice gesture.

01:31:42.000 It's you trying to be like egalitarian.

01:31:44.000 No, you as women should want to be provided for. 1.00

01:31:47.000 In fact, you should have an expectation that you as a woman are so important and so critical and so necessary and beautiful that it shouldn't even be a question that if you're in a date.

01:31:59.000 Now, if it's a business lunch or like friends-owned stuff, 50-50.

01:32:02.000 We're not talking about that, right?

01:32:04.000 Like it's all of a sudden you're like, hey, I want to buy insurance or like, you know, you're going to, you know, I want to go do business.

01:32:09.000 It's totally different.

01:32:09.000 I still think the man should pay, but that's that's.

01:32:11.000 But see, to me, when I was dating, it would be a huge turnoff if the check comes and she just looks at it and then looks at me and looks at the children. 0.84

01:32:18.000 I totally disagree.

01:32:20.000 I at least want to see like I'm reaching for something and I'm like, no worries.

01:32:23.000 I want a woman that wants to be led by a man. 1.00

01:32:26.000 I don't want a woman that's all of a sudden going to be competing financially in a marriage. 1.00

01:32:29.000 I don't want a woman that's going to be like, oh, you know, questioning financial decisions or a woman that's going to be like, all of a sudden, Jeff. 0.99

01:32:36.000 No, the man is the leader of the household.

01:32:38.000 The man is the leader of all the financial decisions.

01:32:41.000 The man is the, is the primary, should be the primary provider.

01:32:45.000 Again, there's exception to this.

01:32:46.000 That's all, oh, Charlie, you're so sexist.

01:32:47.000 Sorry, it worked for 2,000 years, for 5,000 years, and it should work again.

01:32:51.000 And by the way, what we're doing right now is not working.

01:32:53.000 Let me just repeat again.

01:32:54.000 This is not working.

01:32:55.000 And I'm not trying to like bash you.

01:32:56.000 Like, this is fun.

01:32:57.000 It's in really good state.

01:32:57.000 No, I love the banter.

01:32:58.000 No, it's great.

01:32:59.000 But like this idea, if a woman on a date were to pull out a credit card to go pay for something, like I would be, I would be like, oh, so you're like one of those boss babes. 1.00

01:33:10.000 No, that's, that's not what that's saying for us.

01:33:13.000 That is, no, that is completely messed up.

01:33:15.000 That's catastrophic turnoff.

01:33:16.000 I, I think, no.

01:33:18.000 I think if I'm on a date and she reaches for it, like, I just think, oh, that's really nice.

01:33:22.000 You're trying to be kind here.

01:33:24.000 You're trying to alleviate what you perceive to be a financial burden on me.

01:33:27.000 That's a generous interpretation.

01:33:28.000 And so, so bring me something to the table.

01:33:31.000 And so I think they're not bringing money to the table.

01:33:33.000 They're bringing something else.

01:33:35.000 It's a nice gesture.

01:33:36.000 I agree with Graham.

01:33:37.000 I think it's a nice gesture.

01:33:38.000 However, I agree with you.

01:33:39.000 I think the guy should pay.

01:33:41.000 I think the woman going into that should have an expectation that the man takes care of her. 0.98

01:33:46.000 But should she be grateful if the guy takes 100%?

01:33:48.000 Oh, okay.

01:33:49.000 Because it should be immense gratitude.

01:33:51.000 No, no, no, no.

01:33:52.000 The woman should be like, you know what? 1.00

01:33:53.000 She should say, she's like, thank you so much for doing that and not having to put this unnecessary pressure on me because you have just freed me.

01:34:02.000 That's what women want, by the way. 1.00

01:34:04.000 Freedom?

01:34:05.000 No, no, no.

01:34:06.000 Or like, like, what?

01:34:07.000 Number two at Red Robin.

01:34:08.000 Do you know how many women are secretly miserable that they have to be as financially successful as men?

01:34:14.000 A lot.

01:34:14.000 Like a lot.

01:34:16.000 It drives them insane.

01:34:17.000 Deep down, a lot of women want to be mothers. 1.00

01:34:19.000 They want to be wives. 1.00

01:34:20.000 I tend to agree with that.

01:34:21.000 Not every woman, by the way, if you want to, but if you want to go be a boss maid, go do that. 1.00

01:34:24.000 Like, it's a free society.

01:34:25.000 There's a lot of great people that do that.

01:34:26.000 But generally, we have overcorrected, okay?

01:34:29.000 We have a lot of women that deep down want to go be moms and they would love to have their man come in and just grab the check and be like, no, I got it. 0.99

01:34:40.000 And by the way, you know what they see that as a signal?

01:34:42.000 It's going to be okay.

01:34:43.000 When the bullets start firing and there's chaos and things start falling apart, this man is going to protect the family.

01:34:50.000 Boom.

01:34:51.000 Wallet on the table.

01:34:52.000 Wallet on the table.

01:34:53.000 No, even better.

01:34:54.000 Paying 26% interest on that.

01:34:55.000 It's got to be even more alpha.

01:34:57.000 You go to the waiter before the meal and you just give them the credit card.

01:34:59.000 It's not even a conversation.

01:35:00.000 It's paid for.

01:35:01.000 It's done.

01:35:02.000 Like, you don't even allow it to be a thing that is introduced there.

01:35:05.000 I would agree with that.

01:35:07.000 I actually agree with that.

01:35:08.000 Whole alpha is like, you go straight up where you are like smooth move and the girl is so stunned and she'll be like, oh, don't we have to be like, no, I got it.

01:35:15.000 It's done.

01:35:16.000 Boom.

01:35:17.000 Are you kidding?

01:35:17.000 From a woman's perspective, they'll be like, that's the most attractive thing ever.

01:35:22.000 I would love to hear some woman's perspective in the comments here. 1.00

01:35:24.000 I think they're going to be agreeing with you for the most part.

01:35:26.000 If they disagree, it's fine, but like you'll end up with, by the way, some women want to marry weak men because they are the bosses. 1.00

01:35:31.000 What other tips do you have like that?

01:35:33.000 Like that was a good suggestion.

01:35:34.000 Oh, I have a lot of tips.

01:35:36.000 So for marriage or for dating, I have both.

01:35:39.000 Let's start with dating and then move our way to marriage.

01:35:41.000 So in dating, look, I don't, I do not think you should have sex before marriage.

01:35:44.000 I know, I know that's a provocative take.

01:35:46.000 I think sex is holy. 0.81

01:35:47.000 And by the way, it's not just a religious take.

01:35:49.000 I actually think that if you introduce sex into dating, then all of a sudden there's kind of like a dilution of what exactly will be the ultimate physical crescendo of marriage.

01:36:00.000 You can actually make a rational, reasonable, non-religious argument for that.

01:36:04.000 Anyway, that's like a whole other topic that we could discuss another time, but I will defend that.

01:36:08.000 I actually think bring back purity, bring back segment of yourself for marriage. 0.98

01:36:12.000 Okay, but other top other things is this.

01:36:13.000 You should go on a road trip with the person you're dating.

01:36:16.000 It's very important.

01:36:17.000 So you should find uncomfortable, high-pressure travel situations.

01:36:21.000 That's not just like flying first class to a Ruba.

01:36:24.000 And you should try to be in places of discomfort intentionally with who you are dating.

01:36:29.000 And you'll find out a lot with that person.

01:36:32.000 Number three, this is going to sound incredibly sexist.

01:36:35.000 I don't care.

01:36:36.000 If it is a woman that you want to get married to and she says that she wants to be a traditional wife, see if she's actually up to it. 0.99

01:36:44.000 Say, okay, treat me, cook me a meal.

01:36:47.000 I'm not kidding.

01:36:48.000 No, I think that's like.

01:36:50.000 No, no, no.

01:36:50.000 Honestly, like, she says she wants to be a traditional wife.

01:36:52.000 Like, and by the way, be like, does she enjoy it?

01:36:55.000 This is important, though.

01:36:56.000 Like, and then ask her.

01:36:57.000 No, I'm not even just, is she a good cook?

01:36:58.000 Be like, did you enjoy doing that?

01:37:00.000 Like, was, and she's like, oh, I loved it.

01:37:01.000 I love getting the ingredients.

01:37:02.000 I love looking at the cookbook.

01:37:04.000 I love the recipe.

01:37:05.000 I love thinking about you when I was cooking the food.

01:37:06.000 You're like, okay, this is going to be awesome.

01:37:08.000 Right.

01:37:08.000 Or otherwise she's like, it was a disaster.

01:37:10.000 It was this.

01:37:11.000 I'm like, okay, well, then we might have a little bit, you know.

01:37:13.000 And by the way, I'm not saying that every wife has to cook every meal for husband, but honestly, a lot of women out there want to do that. 0.88

01:37:18.000 A lot of women want to provide for their man in that way. 1.00

01:37:21.000 They want to run the house.

01:37:22.000 They want to shepherd the kids.

01:37:24.000 Going into marriage, though, I'm a big believer in premarital counseling.

01:37:27.000 I think that there are several questions That are not answered when most people go into marriage that should be answered.

01:37:34.000 And I might freak you out with this because I don't know if you can.

01:37:35.000 No, we did this.

01:37:36.000 Yeah, okay, great.

01:37:37.000 I looked at every divorce statistic and we did everything we could to lessen the chances of a divorce.

01:37:42.000 So, yeah, money is number one, right?

01:37:43.000 Who's going to handle the finances?

01:37:44.000 Here's one that you might not have done that you should do while you're still in the honeymoon phase.

01:37:48.000 Are you going to have an open or closed house?

01:37:51.000 I don't even know what that is.

01:37:52.000 See, it's big.

01:37:53.000 So, were you raised in a house where a lot of friends came over all the time, or were you raised in a house where almost no friends came over?

01:37:59.000 A normal amount.

01:38:00.000 It wasn't, you know, open or closed.

01:38:03.000 It was, you know, maybe like once a week.

01:38:05.000 We'd have like a do you know what kind of house your wife was raised in? 1.00

01:38:09.000 Probably about the same.

01:38:10.000 Okay, it's an important question because I was raised in a very closed house, right?

01:38:14.000 I know people that are raised in open houses and it's destroyed their marriages.

01:38:16.000 You know, the type where they're always having people over.

01:38:19.000 Yeah, that was my family.

01:38:20.000 Okay, so you get that.

01:38:21.000 Yeah.

01:38:21.000 Imagine if you were to marry a closed house person and all of a sudden you were like, hey, we're going to constantly have a stream of people and you don't talk about that before marriage.

01:38:29.000 All of a sudden, you're like, it's total chaos for a closed house person because they're raised in a place where evenings are very quiet.

01:38:36.000 Make sure, this is another important thing, make sure that you get along with each other, that you really like each other, not just love each other, that you like spending time with that person.

01:38:45.000 One of my favorite words in the English language is like.

01:38:48.000 It's very unique.

01:38:49.000 Only the English language actually has that.

01:38:50.000 Do you like spending time or do you just love that person?

01:38:54.000 That's because liking is like, hey, do you, can you talk to that person seven hours uninterrupted on a park bench if you needed to?

01:39:01.000 Or is it just kind of like an annoyance and is it just purely physical?

01:39:06.000 Other questions and other pieces of advice that I think are really important.

01:39:08.000 In-laws matter.

01:39:10.000 They really do.

01:39:11.000 They shouldn't always necessarily be deal breakers, but boy, you should know the in-laws because your wife will take the form of the mother more times than not. 1.00

01:39:20.000 So you should at least get along with your in-law, kind of know the in-law.

01:39:24.000 Children, how many children?

01:39:25.000 When are you going to have children?

01:39:26.000 Is it a priority?

01:39:27.000 Will it be early?

01:39:27.000 Will it be late?

01:39:28.000 Religious questions.

01:39:30.000 Are we going to raise them religiously?

01:39:31.000 Are we going to raise them secular? 0.60

01:39:32.000 Other questions that I think are really important that actually don't always get flushed out.

01:39:36.000 How many vacations are we going to take?

01:39:38.000 What type of vacations?

01:39:39.000 Are we an RV family?

01:39:40.000 Are we a go-to-a private, you know, island family?

01:39:43.000 Are we a, are we going to splurge on one vacation a year?

01:39:47.000 Or are we going to do like three or four?

01:39:48.000 This is important before you get married.

01:39:50.000 All of a sudden, you're kind of in the marriage thing and you're like, hey, I just booked us a vacation.

01:39:54.000 Like, what?

01:39:54.000 I didn't want to.

01:39:55.000 That's not because it's different philosophies of time off.

01:39:58.000 Last one, which is the biggest, you want the biggest of all.

01:40:01.000 What are acceptable and unacceptable vices for our marriage?

01:40:04.000 For example, is it acceptable for the husband to smoke a cigar?

01:40:11.000 Has she smelled cigar before you get married?

01:40:14.000 And does she know what that is?

01:40:16.000 Will marijuana be allowed in the marriage?

01:40:17.000 I would say no, of course.

01:40:18.000 Is it okay for alcohol to be around?

01:40:20.000 If yes, how often?

01:40:21.000 Will you drink on weeknights?

01:40:23.000 Are more than one drink acceptable?

01:40:24.000 Will we drink socially?

01:40:26.000 Will you drink once you have kids?

01:40:27.000 Will you drink around the kids?

01:40:29.000 Here's another question: Will you watch TV at night?

01:40:32.000 Will you be okay if there's our rated kind of sexual nudity that your partner is watching?

01:40:38.000 Is completely off limits for your relationship?

01:40:41.000 I think it absolutely should be.

01:40:42.000 You should talk about that because some couples are like perfectly okay with what I think it's kind of weird, to be honest, right?

01:40:47.000 These are questions that honestly, all the time that people do not always flush out before marriage.

01:40:51.000 In the course of dating, though, I could go on for like infinite.

01:40:56.000 No, I really enjoy this.

01:40:57.000 Yeah, like, yeah.

01:40:57.000 Um, again, we have an amazing marriage, my wife and I. Obviously, it's not perfect.

01:41:00.000 No marriage is perfect, but we actually like each other.

01:41:03.000 We prioritize date night.

01:41:04.000 We're actually doing it right after this tonight, which is awesome.

01:41:07.000 Um, but I find so often that people in dating don't date with the intent to marry.

01:41:14.000 And when they end up do wanting to marry, they don't even ask the tough questions before they get married.

01:41:17.000 Could we do a couple rapid-fire questions real quick?

01:41:20.000 Okay, what's your biggest insecurity?

01:41:21.000 Forgetting something I should know.

01:41:23.000 Will you run for president?

01:41:25.000 I'm not running for president.

01:41:26.000 What's more dangerous?

01:41:27.000 Ignorance or apathy in voters?

01:41:29.000 Oh, apathy for sure.

01:41:30.000 Should there be a maximum age to be president?

01:41:33.000 No.

01:41:34.000 What is a worst policy idea?

01:41:36.000 Universal basic income or open borders?

01:41:37.000 Open borders.

01:41:39.000 One government agency you'd shut down right away.

01:41:41.000 That's a great question.

01:41:42.000 Department of Education.

01:41:43.000 Would you rather have dinner with AOC or Bernie?

01:41:45.000 AOC.

01:41:45.000 Is it a sin to fly Spirit Airlines?

01:41:48.000 A sin?

01:41:49.000 No.

01:41:49.000 But whoever started Spirit Airlines is in great defiance to God.

01:41:55.000 Do you think you could win in a fist fight against Gavin Newsom?

01:41:58.000 Probably not.

01:41:59.000 If I'm being honest, I don't think so.

01:42:01.000 Do you believe in aliens?

01:42:03.000 Maybe.

01:42:03.000 Debater a podcast.

01:42:05.000 I like this.

01:42:05.000 I like podcasts.

01:42:06.000 It's way better.

01:42:06.000 It's more human.

01:42:07.000 Censorship or chaos?

01:42:09.000 What's more destructive?

01:42:10.000 Censorship, without a doubt.

01:42:12.000 Absolutely.

01:42:12.000 Do you have a random pet peeve?

01:42:14.000 I have a lot of pet peeves, actually.

01:42:17.000 One of my pet peeves that I can't, I literally cannot stand.

01:42:22.000 And I'm actually a violator of it, is when I'm trying to talk to somebody and then they check their phone.

01:42:26.000 I'm really bad with that with my team.

01:42:28.000 So I'm sure you guys, it bothers you, but I got to be a lot better about that.

01:42:34.000 And finally, oh, sorry.

01:42:35.000 No, no.

01:42:35.000 And then when people say at the end of the day, they don't even know what they're saying when they say it.

01:42:38.000 It's just at the end of the day.

01:42:40.000 It's just literally a linguistic crutch, is all that it is.

01:42:44.000 Linguistic crutches are very annoying, in fairness.

01:42:46.000 Yes.

01:42:46.000 And that is one that drives me nuts.

01:42:48.000 If everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered?

01:42:53.000 If I die?

01:42:54.000 Everything just goes away.

01:42:55.000 How would you, if you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered?

01:43:00.000 I want to be remembered for courage for my faith.

01:43:04.000 That would be the most important thing.

01:43:05.000 Most important thing is my faith in my life.

01:43:07.000 Charlie Kirk, thank you so much for watching.

01:43:08.000 You guys do a great job.

01:43:09.000 I wish it could be longer.

01:43:10.000 This has been amazing.

01:43:11.000 We would love to do this again.

01:43:14.000 We only hit half.

01:43:14.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:43:15.000 Oh, my gosh.

01:43:16.000 We'll have to do a part two sometime.

01:43:17.000 Oh, absolutely.

01:43:18.000 Yeah.

01:43:18.000 And shout out to your crew.

01:43:19.000 Like, seriously, they're incredible.

01:43:21.000 Incredible.

01:43:22.000 Thanks, you guys.

01:43:23.000 Thank you so much.

01:43:24.000 Thank you guys for watching until next time.

01:43:25.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

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The Charlie Kirk Show - August 03, 2025

The True Meaning of Wealth — My Interview on the Iced Coffee Hour Podcast

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