Valuetainment - February 19, 2026


“Charlie Had To Make These Guys Happy” - Heritage Foundation CEO REVEALS TPUSA Donor Power Struggles

Hosted by
Patrick Bet-David
Mentioned
Charlie Trump DeSantis Kevin Roberts Helen Kennedy Tuscaneiro Reagan David
“The Brain Workout Nobody Talks About” - Dr Rhonda Patrick BREAKS DOWN The SECRET Alzheimers Defense “I Will F#cking Kill You” - Epstein Friend Les Wexner THREATENED By His Lawyer

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

184.22

Word count

1,515

Sentence count

140

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Ron DeSantis sits down with Heritage Foundation President and CEO David Axelrod to discuss his life and career in politics and public policy, and how he and his wife, Pam, are dedicated to making a difference in the world.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm at an event. Charlie's doing the big fundraiser two years ago, three years ago at Mar-a-Lago.
00:00:04.960 And I would say exactly when this is.
00:00:06.940 This is, you know how the annual one he does at the end of the year at Mar-a-Lago?
00:00:10.880 It's got to be end of 21 or end of 22.
00:00:12.900 It's when DeSantis is doing well.
00:00:15.860 When would that be? When did DeSantis launch his book?
00:00:18.200 Five months before he launched his book.
00:00:21.100 It could be December of 21.
00:00:25.280 Can you put, he launched in March or May of 22.
00:00:30.000 23. Okay, so then that's February 20, 2023.
00:00:33.700 Two months prior to that. So December of 2022, we're at Mar-a-Lago.
00:00:37.920 And Charlie's up there, the great late Charlie, which we both love.
00:00:42.440 I've seen what you said about him as well.
00:00:44.620 May he rest in peace. He's up there doing his thing.
00:00:47.580 And he raises some $41 million.
00:00:50.200 And I'm just sitting there watching everybody.
00:00:52.760 And all I'm paying attention to, I'm not in this space.
00:00:55.060 I'm a business guy. So I'm new to the political space the last five years.
00:00:58.400 And just because I have opinions, it's not like I'm somebody that's, you know, can run.
00:01:03.280 I'm not born here. So it's not like I don't have any interest for governor whatsoever.
00:01:06.840 I just, I'm interested because it's combat sport and that excites me, right?
00:01:12.320 I'm just sitting, I'm like, okay.
00:01:14.100 One lady gets up and says, we want to know if some of you guys who usually give, 0.86
00:01:18.780 you know who you are. I've been watching you every year when you come to the TPUSA event.
00:01:21.960 And you're not giving any money here because you're worried whether Charlie's going to be Team Trump or Team DeSantis.
00:01:28.220 You guys should give because you trust Charlie, not whether he's going to support Trump or DeSantis.
00:01:33.800 And I said, okay, that's exactly what I came here for.
00:01:37.260 And then I sat there and I saw the other person.
00:01:39.980 And because of that, we're deciding to give, I don't know what the number was, $2 million.
00:01:44.200 Probably in her late 70s, early 80s, this lady. 1.00
00:01:48.640 Very attractive, very well put together, strong presence, great.
00:01:53.580 And then I said, huh, Charlie has to deal with making all of these guys happy.
00:02:00.620 Some are Christians.
00:02:02.880 Many are Jews.
00:02:04.700 Some are pro-Trump, pro-business.
00:02:08.480 Some are G3 money, which means they didn't build the money, so they want to give the money away.
00:02:12.520 So they're probably more liberal than conservative.
00:02:15.040 Some are G1 money.
00:02:16.220 G1 money are probably going to be more Trump than DeSantis.
00:02:19.160 And then some are more hardcore conservative, like old-school conservative Reagan.
00:02:23.780 And Trump's a disruptor.
00:02:25.380 And I said, what a tough job to have.
00:02:27.380 So that's why when I watch and see what you guys have to do, how do you manage all these personalities that may or may not agree with you?
00:02:33.600 What do you tell them?
00:02:34.180 Do you call them?
00:02:35.320 Do you have the one-on-one conversations?
00:02:36.680 How do you manage these relationships?
00:02:37.780 Man, I can't tell you how 100% accurate and astute that is.
00:02:42.800 In fact, Charlie and I would occasionally, two or three times a year, commiserate on that.
00:02:46.960 Not complaining.
00:02:48.640 We're grateful, truly, for all of those people.
00:02:51.200 And not just because of the material resources that they would give our respective organizations.
00:02:55.160 Because every single one of those people is a patriot, right?
00:02:58.560 And we're grateful for them.
00:02:59.940 And so the way I manage it, I know that he did an exceptional job.
00:03:03.700 The way that I attempt to manage that is to have conversations with people.
00:03:06.940 I have an open-door policy at Heritage.
00:03:09.260 I am on the phone a lot with a lot of different people, policymakers, donors, donor prospects, friends out in the movement.
00:03:17.380 But I will tell you that there are two things that are really key.
00:03:20.060 Actually, three, I would say.
00:03:21.320 The first is, and I try to lead with this, articulate a very clear vision about where we're going.
00:03:29.580 Because that means that in almost every gathering of the center right of conservatives, libertarians, people like free market, people who are social conservatives, almost every gathering, there's going to be 80% to 90% agreement on that aspirational vision.
00:03:43.860 And so at Heritage, what we're doing to that end is focusing on the American family, on the dignity of work, on free enterprise, on national security, on citizenship, what it means to be an American, including an American who immigrates and assimilates here into our culture, right?
00:04:00.000 And so that aspirational vision is key.
00:04:01.720 But the second thing is to be transparent.
00:04:03.860 And I think the new cycle that Heritage went through over the last few months, which we didn't just weather, but we flourished through, is because of that ethos we have of transparency.
00:04:12.860 But the third thing is we have to recognize that leaning on not just my particular faith, but I think almost anyone of faith would say this, we're called to do what we do, not just to win elections, not just to have our favorite policy enacted.
00:04:29.560 You, you're called.
00:04:30.300 Yes.
00:04:30.760 When you say we who is we, we as Heritage.
00:04:32.660 We at Heritage are called.
00:04:33.900 Every single one of us, we're non-sectarian, but almost every single person at Heritage is a deep faith.
00:04:38.100 Of course, we respect them all, but every one of us is called to wake up every day and not just help good policy get implemented, however we're going to do that, but to be cheerful warriors because we love that aspirational vision so much.
00:04:51.060 And I say all of that because it makes those relatively infrequent conversations of differences of opinion be put in context.
00:05:00.480 And I'll give you a story, an example.
00:05:02.900 I've got a friend now.
00:05:04.080 He's a longtime Heritage donor.
00:05:06.000 He's a friend who's a retired OBGYN.
00:05:08.160 And he sent me a, I won't use his name because it sounds like I'm being nasty to him.
00:05:13.120 It's quite the opposite, as you will see.
00:05:14.500 But he sent me this email about a year or two into my tenure at Heritage.
00:05:17.360 And he said, Kevin Roberts, I know that you are a big pro-lifer and I know that pro-life is a big issue for Heritage.
00:05:25.060 We work on every issue.
00:05:26.120 We're one of the few entities that does.
00:05:28.160 And he said, but you emphasize it so much for reasons I can't understand.
00:05:32.140 Yeah, I'm reading this the way I think he's writing it.
00:05:33.760 Um, that I'm just thinking we're not going to be donors.
00:05:37.240 Well, I called him.
00:05:38.840 And I said, um, I said, David.
00:05:42.800 It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart.
00:05:45.780 Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise.
00:05:49.100 Two days only.
00:05:50.200 Tuesday, February 24th and Wednesday, February 25th.
00:05:53.480 Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon.
00:06:00.080 I'm Kelly Kennedy.
00:06:01.520 I've been called a hope dealer for leader.
00:06:03.760 And with over 300 episodes of the Business Development Podcast, we'll guide you and we'll always be in your corner.
00:06:11.840 Follow the Business Development Podcast on Spotify and let's make 2026 your best year yet.
00:06:25.220 I'm not calling to restore your gift.
00:06:28.080 I'm calling to listen.
00:06:30.240 He said, well, I'm surprised that you called me.
00:06:32.000 I said, why?
00:06:32.580 He said, because the email was a little hot.
00:06:34.140 I said, no, talk to me.
00:06:35.520 I genuinely want to listen.
00:06:38.300 You and I, going back to transparency, this guy and I, you and I have a difference of opinion on this issue.
00:06:43.400 You have a difference of opinion with Heritage.
00:06:45.220 We're not going to change our position because you have this difference of opinion.
00:06:48.680 But I'm wondering if maybe you can remember that we agree 100% on all of these other issues that we work on.
00:06:54.720 And I'll tell you, up until this very moment that I tell this story, not only did he continue to be a donor and has expanded his giving, but more importantly than that.
00:07:04.380 Was he Christian or Jewish?
00:07:05.320 Christian.
00:07:05.820 Okay.
00:07:06.000 Although there are stories like that with Jewish friends, especially over the last few months.
00:07:11.480 But the second thing is we've become good friends.
00:07:13.460 And while we still have a difference of opinion on that issue, that's not a deal breaker for him or for us in Heritage.
00:07:18.320 I love that.
00:07:18.840 That's how we operate.
00:07:19.500 Yeah, and I foresee being like that, right?
00:07:22.740 Because when we set out to create a shoe that blends comfort, function, and luxury, we had the choice to make it fast.
00:07:31.540 We had the choice to make it cheap.
00:07:33.500 We chose neither.
00:07:35.100 Instead, we chose Tuscaneiro.
00:07:37.280 We chose true Italian craftsmanship.
00:07:40.060 Each pair touched by 50 skilled hands.
00:07:42.400 We chose patience, spending two years perfecting every detail, and we chose the finest quality at every step.
00:07:50.500 Introducing the Future Looks Bright collection.
00:07:54.020 Not rushed.
00:07:55.440 Not disposable.
00:07:56.900 Not ordinary.
00:07:58.280 Rather intentional, luxurious, timeless.
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