The Charlie Kirk Show - Why President Trump Trusted Charlie ft. Donald Trump Jr.

00:00:03.000 My name is Charlie Kirk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

00:00:45.000 Here I am.

00:00:46.000 Lord Museman.

00:00:48.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:00:49.000 Here we go.

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

00:01:09.000 All right, everybody, we're going to get started here.

00:01:11.000 Without further ado, we'd like to welcome to the stage the one and only Don Jr.

00:01:25.000 So, Don, your popularity is waning here.

00:01:29.000 I know.

00:01:31.000 I've never not filled a room at Turning Point.

00:01:33.000 This is a little bit scary.

00:01:34.000 I hope this isn't an Umen of. 1.00

00:01:36.000 Yeah, complicated business, as they say.

00:01:39.000 We have obviously pretty tight security, so we might manage to smuggle in a few folks here.

00:01:45.000 So they wrote a bigger check.

00:01:48.000 Listen, this is the members leave.

00:01:50.000 You get to do it.

00:01:50.000 That's what it is.

00:01:52.000 So thank you for making the time.

00:01:54.000 And, you know, making the time to come to Amfest, obviously, you know, weighs heavy on all of us.

00:02:00.000 This is our first Amfest without Charlie.

00:02:03.000 You were one of Charlie's closest relationships, friends.

00:02:07.000 You guys spent a lot of time together in the early days, 2016, you know, on that campaign.

00:02:13.000 So I just want to make this about Charlie and you, the time you spent together, the memories you have of him.

00:02:20.000 And so when I ask you, who is Charlie Kirk to Don Jr.?

00:02:23.000 Oh, man.

00:02:25.000 Wow.

00:02:26.000 Listen, he was just honestly a generational talent.

00:02:30.000 I think we've all probably heard the story right now, you know, already about how we met.

00:02:34.000 I've said it many times.

00:02:36.000 This guy is the smartest guy in politics.

00:02:38.000 He knows everything.

00:02:39.000 And I was like, okay, this is great because we don't know anything.

00:02:43.000 Tell me more.

00:02:44.000 It's like, well, he's 20 years old.

00:02:46.000 I go, stop.

00:02:47.000 Just, you know, if there's one thing we had no shortage of, it was guys that didn't know anything.

00:02:53.000 So I was like, there's no chance.

00:02:55.000 20-year-old is like, we got plenty of that.

00:02:57.000 We got plenty of people that don't know what they're doing.

00:02:58.000 That's the only thing we don't have a shortage of.

00:03:01.000 And he said, no, no, no, you got to sit down.

00:03:04.000 And I remember Charlie came up to my office.

00:03:06.000 We met the first time in my office in Trump Tower back when that was the war room.

00:03:11.000 And we sat down.

00:03:12.000 And in five minutes, I'm like, congratulations, like you're on the road with me.

00:03:15.000 And, you know, six months straight, just, you know, campaigning everything from, you know, fundraising to literally carrying bags.

00:03:24.000 Like, we had no infrastructure.

00:03:25.000 We had no team.

00:03:26.000 We had no logistical help.

00:03:28.000 We were literally just in the wild.

00:03:32.000 And it was amazing.

00:03:32.000 And I remember speaking at the first Amfest.

00:03:35.000 And it was literally a room, I think smaller than this.

00:03:38.000 It's like 200 people.

00:03:40.000 And it was like, he's like, whoa, look, we got 200 people in a room.

00:03:42.000 I'm like, that's really good.

00:03:43.000 Because we're used to the political room where this would be a very large crowd.

00:03:48.000 And so we're like, we're overperforming.

00:03:51.000 So to see the crowd build over the last few years has just been epic.

00:03:56.000 And then just seeing what I've seen right now on social out there, knowing that it didn't just wane with him not being here is amazing.

00:04:06.000 And I mean, that's his legacy, and we got to protect it at all costs.

00:04:10.000 Yeah, we had people lining up at 10, 11 o'clock last night.

00:04:14.000 Well, they were really loud at about 4 o'clock in the morning.

00:04:16.000 I know because they woke me up.

00:04:19.000 Just people chanting USA, which was great.

00:04:21.000 I don't know if I needed the car honking at 4 o'clock in the morning.

00:04:25.000 It was an early wake-up call.

00:04:27.000 Yeah, it was a lot worse than New York, actually.

00:04:30.000 Although maybe under Mandani, it'll be worse or comparable.

00:04:35.000 But to see that, people still piling in.

00:04:38.000 Obviously, Charlie's not here.

00:04:40.000 My dad's not making it this one.

00:04:42.000 It's like, wow, to see 30,000 people in the crowd like that, that's just, he really started a movement.

00:04:50.000 You said.

00:04:54.000 You said in five minutes you knew, okay, you're on the team.

00:04:58.000 Do you remember what was in that conversation?

00:05:00.000 Honestly, I have no idea.

00:05:01.000 You know, I have no idea, but you just, the way he carried himself, I was like, you know, this isn't a 20-year-old.

00:05:07.000 You know, what he was able to accomplish, you know, in his 31 years is what would be a crowning achievement of someone's life that got to see it through old age.

00:05:21.000 He just did so much.

00:05:22.000 He just knew there was a confidence there.

00:05:23.000 There was an understanding there.

00:05:25.000 He understood politics.

00:05:28.000 He understood Washington.

00:05:30.000 And most importantly, and this is what's generally lost with all of those people, is he understood our people and he genuinely cared.

00:05:39.000 And I think that was the difference.

00:05:40.000 I mean, I've always said sort of authenticity is everything in politics.

00:05:44.000 And if you're not real, if you're phoning it in, if you're fake, man, they smell you quickly and you just go nowhere.

00:05:51.000 And so when you are real, it's a rarity, but it's why you're able to do what he was able to accomplish.

00:05:57.000 I have a question about Charlie's growth, right?

00:06:01.000 So you got to see him 2016, 2025.

00:06:07.000 How did he change?

00:06:08.000 You know, honestly, he didn't change that much.

00:06:11.000 It just, he was afforded more opportunities.

00:06:14.000 You know, people started giving him the same shot that perhaps I gave him early.

00:06:19.000 You know, it took a little longer for them to sort of recognize that talent, I guess.

00:06:23.000 But he was just an absolute workhorse.

00:06:26.000 He always got it.

00:06:28.000 And I think that's what people miss.

00:06:29.000 They're like, oh, he's great on stage with a mic.

00:06:31.000 It's like, yeah, but then he gets off the stage and he's doing a podcast.

00:06:34.000 Then he's in there with donors.

00:06:35.000 And I mean, the guy just worked harder than anyone else.

00:06:41.000 And he was so passionate about it that it didn't matter.

00:06:44.000 I mean, his energy was perhaps second only to my father, who's also sort of a similar animal that.

00:06:52.000 Charlie sleeps more than your dad does.

00:06:54.000 Yeah, he was a great night guy.

00:06:56.000 Yeah.

00:06:57.000 But he cared so much.

00:06:58.000 I mean, he took care of himself at an age where, you know, I mean, I used to, you know, if you have dinner with Charlie, you're like, you're eating grilled chicken and salad again.

00:07:07.000 I'm like, you got to like hot sauce.

00:07:08.000 Yeah, with occasionally hot sauce, add a little spice.

00:07:13.000 But, you know, he just knew that he was on a mission and he was going to do whatever he could to make sure he fulfilled that.

00:07:22.000 Yeah.

00:07:23.000 So, you know, Charlie doesn't get enough credit for being funny and how much fun he was behind closed doors.

00:07:29.000 Blake knows this well.

00:07:30.000 Blake was traveling with Charlie internationally the last couple trips he took.

00:07:36.000 You know, what are some things about Charlie that you saw that you either want people to understand about him or that you just know the world didn't really get about him?

00:07:46.000 Well, I mean, I think that's certainly one of them.

00:07:48.000 I mean, his humor.

00:07:49.000 You know, again, Charlie, you know, always try to do like the prim and proper evangelical thing.

00:07:53.000 And so that is totally not me.

00:07:56.000 I say all the stuff that maybe some are thinking but are unwilling to actually articulate.

00:08:01.000 So, you know, you could put him in an uncomfortable position, but then he'd chime in.

00:08:04.000 And it was so, you know, for me, I do it all the time.

00:08:06.000 For him, when he chimed in on those kinds of things, it was like, whoa, where'd that come from?

00:08:12.000 So, you know, it was just honestly, like I said, a generational talent.

00:08:17.000 And so, you know, as part of this movement, you know, there's not one person that's going to replace Charlie Kirk.

00:08:22.000 There's not one person that would be capable of doing that.

00:08:25.000 But if we all sort of band together, if we all have that same passion, enthusiasm, energy, and try, maybe a few thousand of us can fill those little percentage points and try to get to that 100 and keep the movement rolling.

00:08:40.000 Can you tell us a bit about the relationship he developed with your dad as the president and as a candidate, too?

00:08:47.000 Yeah, you know, my father, he's a unique guy.

00:08:49.000 He'll listen to everyone and he sort of weighs those things equally.

00:08:52.000 I mean, I think how he was able to relate to regular blue-collar Americans, people like, how is it possible? 0.99

00:08:57.000 He's a trash billionaire from New York. 0.96

00:08:59.000 It's like, well, he grew up on construction sites. 1.00

00:09:01.000 He knew how to talk to those guys.

00:09:04.000 He was a better developer, not because he listened to the guy behind a computer screen on Excel in like a gilded office, but because he spent time on the job sites with real people.

00:09:12.000 And Charlie was like that.

00:09:14.000 So, you know, they understood each other.

00:09:16.000 I mean, there's not many people in the inner sanctum of my father's sort of political circle that he sort of gets even when perhaps he's being delivered news that he needs to hear but doesn't want to hear.

00:09:31.000 You know, politics that there's plenty of sycophants out there.

00:09:34.000 There's plenty of people who tell you, oh, you know, they show up for the wins and they hide from the losses or the losses are someone else's fault and the wins that they had nothing to do with.

00:09:42.000 You know, Charlie was one of the true people that could call him in the middle of the day and break through and be like, hey, man, this is actually a problem.

00:09:50.000 And I know no one's telling you this, but it is.

00:09:53.000 And so for my father to let in, even back in the day, a 25-year-old into that circle and have sort of full confidence in what he was saying and really change his views, perhaps change the way he delivered a message, was truly unique to see.

00:10:11.000 I don't think there was anyone else that he listened to that way.

00:10:16.000 And maybe period, but certainly not age-adjusted.

00:10:20.000 And so it's interesting.

00:10:22.000 I always, when I knew Charlie was, perhaps I'd accomplished what I wanted, just to get him there was when we'd be in a random place and Charlie's calling and he's picking up on the first ring or 11 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock at night on something.

00:10:35.000 And you get the call from Charlie.

00:10:36.000 He always took that call as opposed to a lot of people where he's like, yeah, no, I'm going to send that one to voicemail.

00:10:42.000 He really broke through and he understood how to talk with and deal with my father.

00:10:46.000 He was an interesting guy and not always the easiest person to do that with.

00:10:51.000 So he got it.

00:10:52.000 He understood how to do that.

00:10:53.000 And so they had a really unique relationship.

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00:12:01.000 And that hard work you mentioned, I just think of before the election.

00:12:04.000 We're working in several states, but our biggest one is Arizona.

00:12:08.000 And I was asking, we're just talking to Charlie, are we going to win?

00:12:11.000 And he says, I can't promise we're going to win the election.

00:12:14.000 We're going to win Arizona.

00:12:16.000 I promised the president I would win Arizona for him.

00:12:19.000 And that hard work element.

00:12:21.000 A friend of mine who'd worked in the admin said one of Charlie's best traits is if he says he'll take care of something, it really does.

00:12:27.000 Yeah, yeah, no.

00:12:28.000 If he said he was going to do something, there was no, hey, by the way, did you get it done?

00:12:32.000 Are you working on this?

00:12:33.000 You just knew it was handled.

00:12:35.000 And so I remember, I'm in Arizona.

00:12:38.000 I was out here a couple days before the election with Charlie, one of the basically the last live political events I had done with him prior to the election.

00:12:48.000 And even then, we almost had to cancel event because we got called in.

00:12:53.000 Some lunatic was, I guess, threatening me.

00:12:57.000 You remember that one? 0.63

00:12:58.000 You're like, hey, we don't think we can do this.

00:12:59.000 One's like, no, we're doing it.

00:13:00.000 And I mean, we've had that so many times.

00:13:03.000 I mean, Charlie understood there was a mark out there for either one of us.

00:13:08.000 We said the things that needed to be said.

00:13:11.000 We were willing to articulate things that may not have been popular, certainly not to the radical left, even though they really resonated with real Americans.

00:13:21.000 And that was an event.

00:13:22.000 Yeah, you were there.

00:13:22.000 I mean, it was like, hey, you guys got to cancel this.

00:13:24.000 This guy's on the loose.

00:13:25.000 He's threatening your life.

00:13:26.000 And it's like, yeah, no, we're just going to go do it.

00:13:28.000 And we had no, my father wasn't in office.

00:13:30.000 We didn't have the Secret Service.

00:13:32.000 We didn't have anything, but we were just unwilling to take the loss.

00:13:35.000 That was a consistent theme.

00:13:36.000 I remember even in 16, I guess we were at Michigan State University, and it was the same thing.

00:13:43.000 You've seen this a thousand times, right?

00:13:45.000 You sell 5,000 tickets, the school gives you a room that can hold 1,000 because they don't want you to be able to get it out there.

00:13:50.000 They don't want you to be able to speak.

00:13:52.000 And then they have to make sure to let in all the radicals just to try to shut it down.

00:13:56.000 I mean, it was an active attempt to thwart whatever it is that whatever movement was sort of building.

00:14:03.000 And we got into a room, I think, probably 1,000, 1,500 people, and we're about to go on stage.

00:14:08.000 And the Michigan State Police literally pulled us aside and said, hey, we can't stop you from going, but we also can't guarantee your safety.

00:14:16.000 It's pretty rowdy out there. 0.81

00:14:17.000 And we both looked at each other and basically said, I think we'd rather get our asses kicked than give them the win and not go out there. 0.97

00:14:24.000 And we did. 0.99

00:14:25.000 And we went out and we spoke.

00:14:26.000 And we won over so much of the room that they just, it was one of the most energetic of the many college events that we had done together because there was that sort of lunacy from the left.

00:14:38.000 And Charlie did such a good job of being able to talk to them.

00:14:42.000 And I run a little hotter, I guess.

00:14:46.000 But for him to be able to start having that conversation and even the people who were reasonable.

00:14:51.000 If you went into that room with an open mind, he was able to win you over.

00:14:54.000 Everyone was not going in there with an open mind.

00:14:56.000 That didn't matter.

00:14:58.000 But we did such a good job of just swaying that tide that they basically drowned out all the hatred, all of this, and just frankly energized not just the people on our side, but the people in the middle who were saying, this is actually a really reasonable guy, and this actually makes a lot of sense.

00:15:16.000 There's been a lot of speculation after Charlie's death, and you see this kind of some infighting.

00:15:24.000 And I think people respect in a whole new way what Charlie was actually doing and kind of the glue.

00:15:31.000 I take kind of a middle approach to it, that I think we saw some of these fissures coming on the horizon.

00:15:36.000 Maybe it accelerated some of the disagreements.

00:15:39.000 Maybe he was really holding it back.

00:15:41.000 It's tough to understand.

00:15:42.000 What do you make of that?

00:15:44.000 Do you have a new appreciation for it?

00:15:46.000 Did you understand?

00:15:46.000 Oh, 100%.

00:15:47.000 I mean, listen, I'm used to the fissures.

00:15:50.000 I'm used to people doing things for clicks.

00:15:53.000 I get it.

00:15:54.000 Politics has become a business for a lot of people.

00:15:57.000 So I get that.

00:15:58.000 But I probably didn't fully appreciate just how fragile some of it actually is and how much he was able to hold that together or just put a stop to it.

00:16:10.000 But the reality is Steve Bannon, Ben Shapiro, Tucker, Megan, Candace, they're not the enemy.

00:16:19.000 I think we have an enemy that's truly out to change the structure of our country.

00:16:26.000 They want to manipulate our children.

00:16:29.000 Charlie understood the bigger picture.

00:16:30.000 And what's nice about our movement is that we are actually willing to hear other opinions.

00:16:38.000 We don't have to sort of blindly agree on everything.

00:16:41.000 We can have those conversations.

00:16:42.000 I'm not sure I love the way some of those conversations have unfolded, certainly in the last couple of months.

00:16:48.000 But that's the difference between us and the Democrat Party.

00:16:50.000 Whereas you've seen it a thousand times.

00:16:53.000 If you're not 100% with everything, you could be a thought leader of their movement for decades and you went away on this one issue, 1%.

00:17:03.000 And you're out.

00:17:03.000 You're persona non grata.

00:17:04.000 You're cast aside despite decades of work in that movement.

00:17:09.000 We're a little different.

00:17:10.000 I think why we're able to get to things that make sense is by actually having that conversation and that dialogue.

00:17:17.000 And I thought Charlie did that so well, not just within the movement, which I think we all probably recognize he was holding together or at least stopping perhaps some of the insanity from spreading, but by literally every day opening up one of the largest platforms in the world, whether it's his podcast, whether it was just being out there in public for social, to those who hated him most and giving them the opportunity to speak, giving them the mic.

00:17:46.000 And when people heard both sides of that argument, they realized, oh, wait a second.

00:17:50.000 I mean, it's why he was so effective on college campuses, which when he's like, hey, we've got a new college campus tour since 16, I was like, are you out of your mind?

00:17:57.000 That's lost.

00:18:01.000 That's over.

00:18:02.000 We'll get them when they're 30 and they start paying taxes.

00:18:06.000 But he was able to do that and have those conversations.

00:18:09.000 And again, once people heard both sides, then they could sort of pick a lane and run with it.

00:18:14.000 And I think that was perhaps his biggest threat to the other side. 0.71

00:18:19.000 Not that he was a radical, because Charlie was like the least radical guy I know.

00:18:23.000 Not that he was a wild man because that too was not his thing.

00:18:27.000 But his threat was that he was actually so effective at winning over and changing hearts and minds that he became much more of a target.

00:18:38.000 Yeah, so one of the things that I think is really interesting about in the aftermath of Charlie's assassination is that we had Ali Bestucci here and her initial reaction was, I don't want to do this anymore.

00:18:54.000 She was like, this isn't worth it.

00:18:56.000 This isn't worth it.

00:18:57.000 She just saw her friend get assassinated.

00:18:59.000 She pulled back.

00:19:01.000 And now she's doubling down. 0.95

00:19:03.000 She's had a complete reversal on that and she's all in.

00:19:07.000 But you have gone through a lot of the same stuff.

00:19:10.000 I mean, you've been interrogated.

00:19:12.000 You've been brought before committee hearings.

00:19:15.000 You got embroiled in the whole Russia hoax.

00:19:17.000 Your dad was almost assassinated.

00:19:18.000 Now Charlie.

00:19:21.000 You've been kind of not as vocal in the aftermath of the 2024 election.

00:19:27.000 You've been doing business stuff.

00:19:29.000 And I guess what do you make of that for people that are kind of maybe they feel a bit afraid, right?

00:19:37.000 They feel a bit scared.

00:19:38.000 What is that dynamic?

00:19:39.000 What's your advice?

00:19:40.000 You know, I get it.

00:19:42.000 I guess perhaps I've been a little bit more grown accustomed to sort of the threats or the lawfare or the political persecution side of stuff, doing 50 hours of congressional testimony for treason.

00:19:53.000 It's like, oh, it's a crime punishable but death.

00:19:55.000 That's like my average Tuesday at this point.

00:19:59.000 We've seen the threats.

00:20:00.000 I've opened the sort of exploding white powder envelopes at my house on multiple occasions.

00:20:06.000 I guess what I tell those people is, I get it, I understand, but think of what the alternative is.

00:20:13.000 That's what they want, right?

00:20:15.000 They want us afraid.

00:20:17.000 They want us silenced.

00:20:18.000 They want us unwilling to speak.

00:20:19.000 They want to turn us from the unsilent majority back to the silent majority.

00:20:26.000 And you could see for the last few years, if those people with the persecutions, and I get it, when you lose your bank accounts and you lose your this and you're being investigated, it certainly, the natural tendency would be to run from some of that.

00:20:43.000 But if you actually have these feelings and you want your children to grow up in a country that they recognize, you actually don't have a choice because as rough as it can be, I think the alternative is of just giving up and ceding this to the most radical factions of our country.

00:21:01.000 I think the end result of that is far worse than any of this.

00:21:05.000 And we've seen it can go very extreme.

00:21:08.000 So I understand, I'm not being glib about that, but we don't have a choice, and we just have to keep going and do it.

00:21:17.000 That's a great word, Don.

00:21:18.000 And actually, I've been grateful to your family for a long time, but in the aftermath of what happened with Charlie, that gratitude has reached new heights because I see it in three dimensions.

00:21:30.000 Thank you.

00:21:32.000 You guys have literally put up with unimaginable circumstances and threats and lawfare and trying to bankrupt the Trump org.

00:21:39.000 I mean, it's just, what haven't they thrown at you is where we're at.

00:21:43.000 Yeah, that's a much shorter list.

00:21:44.000 Yeah, it's a much shorter list.

00:21:45.000 But, you know, again, I think for us, you know, we have that same sort of mentality.

00:21:49.000 You know, if you have to choose between fight or flight, we just fight.

00:21:52.000 And, you know, we were lucky enough to, you know, when they went after us with the banks, we sort of went all in on crypto.

00:21:58.000 We came up with solutions to the problems that we were facing.

00:22:02.000 And I think a lot of people realized that if they can do it to Trump, they can do it to anyone.

00:22:07.000 But if they will do it to Trump and they will do it so flagrantly and so obviously, who won't they do it to?

00:22:12.000 And I think that brought a lot of people out of the woodwork.

00:22:16.000 I get it.

00:22:17.000 If you don't have that platform, if you don't have that balance sheet to be able to fight back financially, if you don't have any of those things, I could see that being much more daunting to the average person.

00:22:27.000 But again, I think they realize that if you don't fight now, there's no coming back.

00:22:32.000 There's no coming back from a communist takeover.

00:22:35.000 That's just degrees of bad at that point.

00:22:39.000 And so I think you almost needed to see that because when I started this and I was a business guy from New York City and it was great and I used to get invited to the cool person parties and you're like, well, America, I realized pretty quickly that initially I was sort of fighting for the America I believed in and always thought existed.

00:23:02.000 And this is just a little bit of something.

00:23:04.000 And I realized fairly quickly, and I know Charlie and I had this conversation a lot.

00:23:08.000 It's like, we weren't actually fighting to preserve an America that existed.

00:23:11.000 We were fighting to create an America that should have existed, the idea of our founding fathers, the things that they wanted.

00:23:18.000 That had been gone and bastardized for far too long.

00:23:21.000 And so everyone has this notion of their country.

00:23:23.000 It's like, no, no, no, man. 0.91

00:23:24.000 We're so far beyond that and so far gone.

00:23:28.000 We're not fighting to preserve something.

00:23:29.000 We're fighting to create something that should have always been.

00:23:34.000 This is Lane Schoenberger, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of YReFi.

00:23:39.000 It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us.

00:23:44.000 His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Turning Point for years to come.

00:23:50.000 Now, hear Charlie in his own words tell you about YReFi.

00:23:54.000 I'm going to tell you guys about whyRefi.com.

00:23:56.000 That is YREFY.com.

00:23:58.000 WhyReFi is incredible.

00:23:59.000 Private student loan debt in America totals about $300 billion.

00:24:02.000 WhyReFi is refinancing distress or defaulted private student loans?

00:24:06.000 You can finally take control of your student loan situation with a plan that works for your monthly budget.

00:24:11.000 Go to whyrefi.com.

00:24:12.000 That is whyrefi.com.

00:24:13.000 Do you have a co-borrower?

00:24:15.000 WhyReFi can get them released from the loan?

00:24:17.000 You're going to skip a payment up to 12 times without penalty.

00:24:20.000 It may not be available in all 50 states.

00:24:22.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:24:23.000 That is why.com.

00:24:26.000 Let's face it, if you have distress or defaulted student loans, it can be overwhelming.

00:24:30.000 Because of private student loan debt, so many people feel stuck.

00:24:33.000 Go to yrefi.com.

00:24:35.000 That is why.com.

00:24:38.000 Private student loan debt relief, yrefi.com.

00:24:42.000 We have 10 minutes.

00:24:44.000 We can take questions.

00:24:45.000 So this is your opportunity.

00:24:46.000 Right there.

00:24:48.000 Do we have a mic, Emma?

00:24:50.000 All right, she's coming.

00:24:50.000 Let's do it for the mic.

00:24:52.000 So we get in on the pod.

00:24:54.000 Folks at home can hear the questions.

00:24:57.000 Paul Berg, one of my pledge masters from college, so he could ask some serious questions about hazing.

00:25:05.000 My name is Daniel, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything.

00:25:08.000 I come from Chicago, Illinois, 20 minutes from where Charlie was born and raised, from Lake Zurich.

00:25:14.000 As a brother in Christ, I never hurt so much when I heard the news and with you all and pray for you guys.

00:25:20.000 Thank you.

00:25:21.000 As involved with my church and politics locally, words of encouragement for me as I'm not going to back down from evil as it rears its ugly head, especially in Illinois, people say that it's lost, but I want to fight the good fight and the battle there because it's my home as well.

00:25:40.000 God bless you.

00:25:40.000 A little bit for Charlie as well.

00:25:42.000 What could I do there locally?

00:25:45.000 Just words of encouragement, truly.

00:25:47.000 I know I'm going to lie in my hope with God, who is the ruler, but simply.

00:25:52.000 So I think, you know, honestly, anything to stay engaged, right?

00:25:55.000 I mean, I think we've always, we've made this sort of mistake and we're coming up onto midterm cycles.

00:26:00.000 Like, well, Trump's not on the ballot, so I'm going to stay home, and it doesn't really matter.

00:26:03.000 Like, no, it matters.

00:26:04.000 Everything matters.

00:26:05.000 You know, it's not about winning a presidential seat or a Senate seat or even congressional stuff.

00:26:10.000 I mean, we got to win everything down to dog catcher.

00:26:13.000 We've seen what they've tried doing, you know, what's happened to our education system when the radical left control school boards.

00:26:19.000 Get involved in those things.

00:26:20.000 These local elections with a little bit of effort, matter.

00:26:23.000 And we never did that.

00:26:24.000 We were building businesses or something like that.

00:26:26.000 Our mindset was, we want government out of our lives, so we're not going to focus on it.

00:26:30.000 But we've seen how each one of those things has been taken over, subverted, and weaponized against us.

00:26:35.000 That we just have to get involved really across the entire board.

00:26:40.000 The biggest thing is we just can't cede any single aspect of these things.

00:26:45.000 And while Illinois, I came from the People's Republic of New York, there are still these pockets that we can't just give up.

00:26:55.000 If you do that, we can move mountains.

00:26:58.000 If you get involved, you do so effectively.

00:27:01.000 I think so much can actually change.

00:27:03.000 I think that local politics aspect has been something that's forgotten for so long, but frankly, it could be more important than even the bigger picture things that get all perhaps the glitz and the glam and the rallies.

00:27:16.000 But just have to stay involved.

00:27:17.000 You have to get to your friends.

00:27:18.000 You have to be, as we were sort of talking about earlier, you have to essentially become unafraid.

00:27:23.000 When you start talking, when you open up those doors to people, it's even, honestly, even when I was in New York, I mean, the amount of people that would come by, like, hey, great job, you know, sort of thumbs up under the coat.

00:27:32.000 They don't want anyone else to see it.

00:27:34.000 You start having these conversations with people, and they're like, oh, wait, I can actually do that.

00:27:38.000 When they see you actually be able to fight through some of that stuff and come out on top, it changes the mindset.

00:27:47.000 I mean, I talk about my father as being perhaps the most resilient man in the history of American politics.

00:27:52.000 I mean, when he got into this thing, he had no chance of winning a primary.

00:27:55.000 He wasn't going to make it two weeks.

00:27:56.000 It was a marketing stunt.

00:27:57.000 Then he got into a general and he had 0% chance of winning basically onto election day.

00:28:02.000 Then he wins, and then they're going to impeach him.

00:28:04.000 They got him this time, and the walls are in the walls are closing in.

00:28:07.000 The walls are closing in.

00:28:08.000 I was like, I don't know.

00:28:10.000 The walls were closing in three days ago when they released pictures, 95,000 pictures for Jeffrey Epstein.

00:28:15.000 He's in like four of them, and they were all like public pictures at events with adults, but they black out the face to make it seem like it's there.

00:28:21.000 And then, you know, now all of a sudden there's 4,000 pictures of Clinton behind the scenes with minors, and it's like, you know, but people will never even hear those things.

00:28:30.000 You know, they'll never know about those things.

00:28:32.000 It's what you guys are doing on this show, what perhaps I do on my podcast on Rumble.

00:28:36.000 It's just like getting the information out that no one else is going to put out there.

00:28:39.000 Once you start having these conversations and people realize that that stuff is going on, man, just opening that door for them to walk through a little bit.

00:28:47.000 It's not easy to always be the leader, but when you do, so many people will follow.

00:28:51.000 And when they start having that dialogue and they can do so respectfully, like Charlie did so well, you can really change the game.

00:28:58.000 And so the biggest thing is just stay involved, get everyone involved.

00:29:02.000 No task is too small.

00:29:04.000 All right.

00:29:05.000 Next question.

00:29:07.000 My name's Kathleen.

00:29:08.000 I'm from Alaska.

00:29:10.000 And just really appreciate, Don, you, and your family.

00:29:13.000 Don't want you to give up.

00:29:14.000 Stay in the game with us, please.

00:29:16.000 We need you.

00:29:17.000 We don't know how to give up.

00:29:18.000 Okay, good.

00:29:19.000 But I just want to say in answer to his question, so many other people, you don't have to get involved.

00:29:25.000 We need people involved in the electoral process, but I asked someone on the left, a longtime Alaskan, who was the fish czar for Alaska for off-our waters internationally.

00:29:36.000 And I said, if you were king for a day of Alaska, what would you do?

00:29:41.000 Because he served under Governor Wally Hickel.

00:29:44.000 And he said, if I were king for a day, I would stack boards and commissions.

00:29:49.000 Every city, every state has boards and commissions for every subject under the sun.

00:29:55.000 And you don't have to get elected for that.

00:29:57.000 You just have to put your name in the hat.

00:29:59.000 And you can get appointed.

00:30:01.000 And if you stack boards and commissions, which is the ground level of entry to everything else, and it covers the subjects, you can be a voice that gains more voice.

00:30:12.000 We did, I was on a board and a commission for federal overreach in Alaska, and it was amazing what we were able to accomplish.

00:30:19.000 So I just encourage people, that's an entry-level way to get in.

00:30:22.000 100% right.

00:30:23.000 Thank you.

00:30:24.000 Yeah.

00:30:25.000 Thank you, Mr. Trump, for doing all you do.

00:30:29.000 I heard something here at Turning Point USA that was very disturbing about Pastor's son in South Korea.

00:30:36.000 He's been in prison for over 105 days for being a Christian and preaching the gospel.

00:30:43.000 He rose up at mega church from a mud hut. 0.82

00:30:46.000 And I think it would be awesome if you could maybe put some pressure or talk to your father about putting some pressure on South Korea to get him out of prison.

00:30:55.000 I actually just heard about this, Bettina.

00:30:58.000 I bet.

00:30:59.000 Literally just sent it to me yesterday.

00:31:02.000 So, you know, I write about that, but I've actually been over to South Korea a bunch.

00:31:05.000 I've spoken at, I think, one of the largest evangelical church in the world.

00:31:10.000 And obviously, there's, you know, it's not easy to be evangelical in South Korea even.

00:31:17.000 But I know there's a lot of that stuff going on.

00:31:19.000 I just heard about the story yesterday for the first time.

00:31:22.000 So I'll look into it.

00:31:23.000 I've been with Pastor's son probably, it was two weeks before or a week before Charlie was assassinated.

00:31:27.000 It was a week before.

00:31:28.000 Not even.

00:31:29.000 Not even.

00:31:29.000 Four days.

00:31:30.000 I think I may have actually met him when I was in Korea.

00:31:32.000 It was sort of a rapid fire in the sons today.

00:31:34.000 The sons are here.

00:31:35.000 And yeah, we're going to get those notes to the administration for sure.

00:31:41.000 Yeah, we are.

00:31:42.000 And Don, you can help.

00:31:44.000 Yeah, it's a grave injustice what happened to him.

00:31:47.000 He basically said something political.

00:31:50.000 And in South Korea, you're not allowed to do that if you're a Christian.

00:31:54.000 Mr. Trump, how are you today, sir?

00:31:56.000 Doing well.

00:31:57.000 Wonderfully.

00:31:58.000 Like you, I'm also from the People's Republic of New York as well.

00:32:03.000 But putting that to the side, Charlie Kirk absolutely was and still is to this day my hero.

00:32:10.000 And I was just wondering, what advice would you give to a person like me to help uphold the wonderful legacy that he left behind in terms of his pursuit of civil discourse and trying to bridge divides and reach out to people on the other side of the aisle?

00:32:27.000 Just get out there and have the discourse.

00:32:32.000 He wasn't used to doing that when we started in 1916.

00:32:34.000 He just started doing it.

00:32:36.000 It wasn't a thing.

00:32:37.000 It wasn't popular.

00:32:38.000 There wasn't the prove me wrong type tours that didn't exist.

00:32:41.000 We sort of just created it on the fly by having those things.

00:32:44.000 And so again, just that willingness to get out there, the willingness to have those conversations, you can do that respectfully.

00:32:50.000 You don't have to do it from an attack perspective.

00:32:52.000 And I think when people see that and they start, you back things up with actual facts, you'd be surprised.

00:33:00.000 I was frankly surprised how many people you can win over who may not agree on much on a lot of these things, but you've seen it.

00:33:07.000 One of my favorite montages that our team put together was from some of these tours.

00:33:12.000 I think Emma actually put it together where it was like all these people kind of would say, Charlie would give a hat.

00:33:18.000 Do you want a hat?

00:33:19.000 Because you came and you disagreed, and if I convinced you, and you can have a hat if you want.

00:33:24.000 And he'd be like, give me the hat, give me the hat.

00:33:25.000 And there's this montage of all these kids getting convinced.

00:33:28.000 And you put that on social media and it was multiply that by probably millions.

00:33:34.000 Thank you, Mr. Trump.

00:33:35.000 Thank you.

00:33:37.000 All right.

00:33:37.000 Last question.

00:33:40.000 Thank you, Mr. Trump.

00:33:41.000 So my name is Matthew.

00:33:43.000 I was born in the Bay Area in 1996.

00:33:46.000 And so I grew up, all these leftist institutions taking over our schools.

00:33:52.000 And I grew up as a young man where I was made to feel evil because of my identity, basically because I, you know, even though I hadn't done anything.

00:34:02.000 And so my question for you is, you know, there are a lot of young men who are angry and frustrated and resentful because of the direction that the messaging has taken and the economy.

00:34:15.000 And, you know, things are just very hard.

00:34:17.000 And so do you have a message for these young men who are angry and struggling?

00:34:22.000 Well, I think you should be.

00:34:23.000 I mean, I spoke about it a lot on social media this week.

00:34:26.000 You saw sort of, you know, for the last 20 years, the implementation of DEI.

00:34:30.000 I mean, if you were a young white male, especially, it's like, didn't matter if you were qualified to go to an Ivy League school, you weren't getting in.

00:34:36.000 You weren't getting the promotion.

00:34:38.000 You know, there's literally a generation or two of men that are going to have a hard time ever achieving that full potential because they were essentially shut out of the workforce.

00:34:47.000 They were shut out of academia.

00:34:49.000 But I think those people still had that potential.

00:34:54.000 It was pulled away from them in many respects.

00:34:57.000 But I think like everything else, you just have to keep going.

00:34:59.000 There's no way to undo that, unfortunately.

00:35:03.000 But I think with that potential that they had, I think there's other ways that you can do things.

00:35:08.000 In the world in which we live right now, there's such a dynamic change with AI and everything going on right now.

00:35:14.000 I think there's opportunities to take those talents and be able to gain back those losses that were so unfairly taken from you.

00:35:21.000 But I get it.

00:35:22.000 We're trying to end that right now.

00:35:24.000 My father signed some EOs this week to stop that sort of essentially reverse racism that was going on against everyone.

00:35:32.000 And you weren't going to get those jobs.

00:35:34.000 You weren't going to get into those schools.

00:35:36.000 You weren't going to get the promotion.

00:35:38.000 But you were privileged. 0.90

00:35:40.000 And if you were pissed about it, then you're a racist or something.

00:35:44.000 It doesn't have to make sense.

00:35:47.000 When they control the media, when they controlled the narrative, when they controlled all of social and tech, it didn't matter that you're just bitter.

00:35:54.000 And you should be, but that doesn't mean you should give up either.

00:35:57.000 I think there's a lot of potential.

00:35:58.000 You just have to get back out there and do it in an unconventional way.

00:36:00.000 And Charlie and the Trump family, you guys are great examples because a lot of people think Charlie was like created in a Petri dish by billionaire donors or something like this, the RNC.

00:36:11.000 Nothing could be further from the truth.

00:36:13.000 He massed.

00:36:15.000 You're going to get me in trouble here, Dan.

00:36:17.000 Too soon?

00:36:18.000 Too soon?

00:36:18.000 I'm sorry.

00:36:19.000 Thanks, John.

00:36:20.000 I've heard it all, man.

00:36:21.000 I've heard it all.

00:36:22.000 Yeah, that was a great interview until then.

00:36:24.000 Yeah, so thanks for derailing us.

00:36:28.000 I'm trying to get you backstage, John.

00:36:30.000 So we, you know, but Charlie basically had the door slammed in his face more times than it was opened for a long, long time.

00:36:38.000 And he just was an entrepreneur about it.

00:36:41.000 He was so disruptive and he worked so hard that eventually he just forced the door to break down in front of him.

00:36:48.000 And you guys, you think about your father's presidential run, I mean, he had to, it was a hostile takeover.

00:36:55.000 You had to force the way into the apparatus of the GOP.

00:37:00.000 And so, whatever those barriers are, I mean, I just believe Charlie is the living embodiment of he was just so dogged and so determined that it wasn't gonna, he wasn't gonna be told no.

00:37:11.000 And I think that's the perspective we have to have in this country.

00:37:15.000 Yeah.

00:37:17.000 Well, we gotta get you backstage.

00:37:19.000 I gotta go give a speech.

00:37:20.000 You're gonna go address about 31,000 people, Don.

00:37:23.000 So don't screw up.

00:37:24.000 I'll try not to blow it.

00:37:25.000 Yeah.

00:37:26.000 And millions watching online.

00:37:28.000 Everybody, ladies and gentlemen, Don Jr.

00:37:30.000 Thank you guys.

00:37:31.000 Thank you very much, Dave.

The Charlie Kirk Show - January 03, 2026

Why President Trump Trusted Charlie ft. Donald Trump Jr.

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