Verdict with Ted Cruz - Elon is a Trillionaire, Capitalism is Extraordinary & Leftists Lose their Minds

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

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00:00:14.940 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:00:16.000 He's Joe Getty.

00:00:16.640 We're Armstrong and Getty.

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00:00:21.320 How about something about a comedic tone?

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00:00:27.300 Yes.

00:00:27.700 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:00:34.700 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:37.900 We are recording early on Sunday because I got the best phone call this morning.

00:00:42.400 Senator Cruz called me and said, Ben, you're my number one.

00:00:45.120 I got you a ticket. We're going to go to the UFC, and we got to get on the road to make this happen.

00:00:50.300 So I got to say a big shout out, Senator, for you pulling that off.

00:00:53.660 That was amazing. I don't know how you did this.

00:00:55.540 I don't know how you got that ticket, but you know, I feel very, you're plus one.

00:01:00.400 It means more to me than I could have ever imagined.

00:01:02.820 You know, Benjamin, I've just got to say day drinking is a really bad habit and you're

00:01:08.560 a young man.

00:01:09.600 And so if you're 10 AM already drunk as a skunk, um, confused, delusional, imagining

00:01:17.880 things, I really worry how the rest of the afternoon is going to go.

00:01:21.380 It's going to be, I'm groveling in my own knowing that you got the ticket.

00:01:25.200 I didn't get the ticket.

00:01:26.240 I'm just going to, you know, I just want America to know that you will be there.

00:01:30.240 I will not be there as a plus one.

00:01:32.120 I just want everyone to understand just the pure sadness I have in my heart.

00:01:36.400 But with that being said, we will power through in life.

00:01:38.660 You can take some comfort in the fact that rain is predicted in D.C. later this afternoon.

00:01:44.600 So I will be on the South Lawn of the White House for the UFC fight.

00:01:49.600 But there's a very good chance that I and everyone else will be able to lead to wrench.

00:01:52.620 I'm doing my violin for people not watching on video, okay?

00:01:55.800 I'm doing my violin right now.

00:01:56.820 So apparently Ben is now doing visuals in what's primarily a radio and audio show.

00:02:01.640 So that's a good strategy, Ben.

00:02:04.800 That tells you where we are right now, my mental state.

00:02:09.020 But I will power through.

00:02:10.420 So I will say, Ben, this intro is actually quite apropos of the lead story we're going to talk about,

00:02:16.180 which is bitter and envy from small petty people.

00:02:21.140 and also extraordinary freedom and success now thankfully i'm not talking about myself but i am

00:02:28.800 talking about the historic ipo this week uh of spacex and and elon musk and and you and i both

00:02:35.320 know elon well we have had elon as a guest on this podcast by the way if you didn't listen

00:02:40.380 to our interview with elon musk it may be my favorite podcast that we've ever done we did

00:02:45.520 two episodes if you want to go back in the archives and listen to any show that's the

00:02:50.060 one I'd put at the top of the list, Elon and SpaceX this week did their IPO, and it IPO'd at

00:02:57.440 more than $2 trillion. Massive IPO. Incredible. And the immediate result of it is it made Elon Musk

00:03:05.280 the world's first trillionaire. Yep. Now, that is an extraordinary threshold.

00:03:12.240 To give you a sense of just how massive it is, I saw something on Twitter that is actually accurate,

00:03:18.420 which is today Elon Musk is worth more than the nation of Canada. Yes. And it is true that

00:03:27.460 I'm sorry. Trudeau would be very upset about that. No, no, no. I'm sorry. That is a misstatement.

00:03:33.340 Elon is not worth more. SpaceX is worth more than the nation of Canada. So Canada's GDP is just over

00:03:39.880 two trillion. SpaceX's valuation is just over two trillion. But a second tweet I saw that

00:03:45.580 that illustrates the magnitude of just how much Elon has accomplished

00:03:52.180 was the following observation.

00:03:53.920 Ben, today, you and I are closer in net worth to Jeff Bezos

00:04:01.120 than Jeff Bezos is to Elon Musk.

00:04:04.660 Wow.

00:04:05.560 So that's my, is this my consolation prize?

00:04:08.400 Like for, this is you pumping me back up, right?

00:04:11.320 So look, Bezos is worth about $200 billion.

00:04:14.180 That is a ton of money.

00:04:15.580 You and I, if you add our net worths together, are worth $0 billion.

00:04:21.040 So that is a delta of $200 billion.

00:04:23.360 We're not even a rounding error.

00:04:24.620 Like, we're not going to fall.

00:04:26.840 But Elon is at $1.1 trillion.

00:04:29.840 So there's $900 billion between Bezos and Elon.

00:04:34.300 And listen, there's a reason about that, a reason we're going to talk about at greater length.

00:04:39.400 But I think equally important is the reaction of the left.

00:04:45.580 which is seething rage, hatred, envy, and avarice.

00:04:51.880 They want his money.

00:04:54.400 They want to seize it.

00:04:55.860 They want to confiscate it.

00:04:57.480 They want to control it.

00:04:58.680 They want to spend it.

00:05:00.100 They hate it.

00:05:02.100 We're going to break that down,

00:05:03.440 but I really do think it is a testament of why America is the most extraordinary country on the face of the planet

00:05:08.820 and why today's Marxist left is a party fundamentally built on envy and built on hate.

00:05:16.120 We're going to break that down for you today.

00:05:18.020 Yeah, it really is an incredible story.

00:05:19.920 Also, for a moment, I want to talk to you about our really incredible friends at the IFCJ

00:05:24.600 working right now on the ground for all those in need.

00:05:28.240 From America's Revolutionary War to Israel's fight for survival in 1948,

00:05:34.720 both nations have faced moments that tested their courage,

00:05:38.020 yet freedom endured. In October of 1985, President Ronald Reagan delivered these remarks

00:05:44.040 about America's commitment to stand with Israel. In our talks, we paid special attention to two

00:05:49.120 issues, our commitment to Israel's security and well-being and our shared desire to move forward

00:05:54.280 together toward a just and lasting peace between Israel and all its Arab neighbors. A strong,

00:05:59.640 secure Israel is a shared interest. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, the International

00:06:06.280 Fellowship of Christians and Jews, reflects on the friendship between the United States

00:06:10.920 and Israel, two democracies built on faith, liberty, and hope.

00:06:16.420 Sign up to receive a free USA-Israel flag pin when you go online to flagpinifcj.org.

00:06:25.460 That's flagpinifcj.org.

00:06:29.840 All right, so Senator, you look at this story, it breaks, and immediately you could see the

00:06:35.760 left, they knew when the moment happened, they were going to go all in to not celebrate

00:06:41.160 that the first trillionaire lives in the United States of America, that the first trillionaire

00:06:45.400 employs an incredible number of Americans in this country, and also just created a whole

00:06:51.520 lot of millionaires for the first time for people that started SpaceX.

00:06:55.400 We're talking about welders.

00:06:56.460 We're talking about people that were on the waitstaff.

00:06:59.540 We're talking about people that were janitors at SpaceX.

00:07:03.440 They were there early.

00:07:04.640 they were able to get a piece of the pie and there were some interviews that came out of

00:07:09.420 actually talking to these people. There was a welder, for example, there was an interview with

00:07:12.920 him and he was talking about he instantly was worth about $880,000 for what he did 10 years ago

00:07:19.180 when he was a welder, just a welder. He's like, I didn't know what SpaceX was. I got a job.

00:07:23.500 I started welding for them and they said, hey, you're going to get some of these options in

00:07:27.320 the company. We're going to give you some stock and now he's a millionaire. That is an amazing

00:07:31.800 story. There was a janitor, same thing, that was literally house cleaning of SpaceX. And they

00:07:37.500 didn't celebrate that. No, no, no. It was an orchestrated effort. Elizabeth Warren was one

00:07:42.200 of those. And I want to play what she said from the back of her car. By the way, she's worth

00:07:45.740 millions and millions of dollars. And this is her excitement for all those that were brought up

00:07:51.140 because of SpaceX and Elon Musk. Take a listen. Elon Musk is officially the world's first

00:07:56.680 trillionaire. Think about that. We're living in a time when more and more people are just hanging

00:08:01.940 on by their fingernails to survive in this economy. And Elon Musk has more money and more

00:08:08.580 wealth than anyone in human history. I want to be clear, this is not just some fluke. It is a feature

00:08:17.120 of a rigged economy. Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill cut health care for millions of Americans

00:08:23.560 to give guys like Elon bigger tax breaks.

00:08:28.060 The tax code rewards CEOs for firing workers and replacing them with AI.

00:08:34.220 Loopholes have allowed Jeff Bezos to pay an effective tax rate

00:08:38.120 lower than a Boston public school teacher.

00:08:41.460 And we are left with a country where a handful of billionaires at the top

00:08:45.560 pop champagne in their $300 million yachts

00:08:49.560 while working people take on even more shifts to try to pay off their student loan debt.

00:08:55.780 The top 1% of U.S. earners now have more wealth than the entire middle class.

00:09:03.040 We need to overhaul our tax code.

00:09:04.980 We need a wealth tax.

00:09:06.880 And it's about time that corporations paid their fair share.

00:09:11.660 Today's marker should be a wake-up call that enough is enough.

00:09:17.120 Time to make change.

00:09:19.300 Now, Senator, time to make a change.

00:09:21.120 Forbes magazine back in 2019 estimated her fortune while serving her country was upwards of $12 million. 0.84

00:09:29.160 That was in 19.

00:09:30.040 I'm assuming she's made more money since 19.

00:09:33.480 Her office tried to downplay it and say it's more around $7 million. 0.98

00:09:36.980 I just wonder, is she a part of the wealth tax now?

00:09:40.240 Look, you got to understand.

00:09:42.800 Marxists want to control you and confiscate everything you own.

00:09:48.400 she is angry that elon musk did not make her his money by using government power to confiscate the

00:09:57.580 assets of others rather he built companies not one company not two company not even three company

00:10:02.520 company after company after company um let's just take spacex which is the the huge driver of of of

00:10:10.700 uh the biggest chunk of that success do you know how many millionaires became millionaires

00:10:17.720 overnight this week because of spacex how many i saw this article it's amazing tell it more than

00:10:23.640 4 400 4 400 millionaires and you know what elizabeth warren wants to do she wants to take 0.97

00:10:30.080 a bunch of the money of all of those millionaires by the way and let me let me ask how many 0.99

00:10:34.380 millionaires has elizabeth warren made and actually there's an answer to it it's not zero 0.77

00:10:38.880 she has made millionaires and they are leftists and progressives who suckle off the teat of

00:10:44.660 government who steal from you and and and and the the the left-wing ngos that she has shoveled 0.83

00:10:50.760 millions and millions of the policies she supports has shoveled they get rich off of exploiting the

00:10:56.560 system what has elon musk done i'll tell you spacex and i've been to spacex multiple times

00:11:01.900 it's based here in texas it is the most extraordinary technology company i've ever seen

00:11:08.140 They took Starbase, Boca Chica, which is the southern tip of Texas, six, seven years ago.

00:11:16.280 That was an empty beach. It was sand dunes. There were some crabs, maybe a few lizards.

00:11:22.480 There was nothing there. Elon came down and built an entire city. He built a city. He built a

00:11:29.720 factory. The factory is producing spaceships, one spaceship a month. The precisions are down to less

00:11:38.960 than 10th of a millimeter. It is extraordinary what they're doing. By the way, that city,

00:11:43.740 he also built housing for all of his workers. He brought in engineers. One of the amazing things

00:11:48.140 I met this week with a lot of civic leaders, government leaders, community leaders, business

00:11:53.000 leaders from South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, Elon's transformed the valley. You know, it used

00:11:58.260 to be 20, 30 years ago, if you're a young person in the Rio Grande Valley, most young people felt

00:12:04.880 they had to leave. They had to go to Houston or Dallas or somewhere else. There was no lack of

00:12:09.980 opportunities there. There was really lack of opportunity there. And that's why people left.

00:12:14.260 And then he brought opportunity, a place that had none of it. I mean, that's the real story here.

00:12:19.360 Massive investment, billions of dollars of investment. And by the way, that billions of

00:12:23.800 of investment. It's not just the employees of SpaceX. It's construction jobs. It's all of the

00:12:30.340 jobs. It's the tax revenue, everything. It's the kids or the employees are going to schools.

00:12:35.940 They're going to churches. They're contributing to charities. They're doing Little League. The

00:12:39.400 impact on the community is massive. Now, one of the things Elon told me is he said initially when

00:12:44.220 they were just building it, he said it was hard to get world-class engineers, many from all over

00:12:49.540 the country to come to South Texas, which was not super well developed. One of the things he did,

00:12:58.400 he built a little city for his employees, and he said their spouses, primarily their wives,

00:13:04.140 didn't like being down there initially. So he built a tiki bar, and it's like a tiki bar out

00:13:10.780 of the South Pacific, and they serve these fruity drinks with umbrellas. And he said the spouses

00:13:16.440 like it and hang out at the tiki bar the impact of what he built was extraordinary and i'll tell

00:13:22.480 you something interesting do you know that a decade ago i predicted this i'm gonna tee this

00:13:29.620 up hold on hold on i gotta tee this up for you so i about a decade ago you were at one of those uh

00:13:35.880 atlantic events where you sit on stage someone interviews you i want to be clear just to put a

00:13:41.020 timestamp on how long a decade ago Ted Cruz did not have a beard then and his hair was just straight

00:13:47.820 black I didn't see any gray in it and you even had an old school tie with the with the cross

00:13:53.320 the cross stripes on it that is how old this this how long ago a decade is ago I just there was no

00:14:00.180 Ben you're yet again showing the envy I'm wondering if you're like a closet Elizabeth

00:14:05.460 warren you know but go ahead go ahead don't let me get it so so so i will play for you a decade

00:14:12.480 old no beard facial hair pure dark hair no gray in it ted cruz saying this an event this is in hd

00:14:19.680 or in sd i should say standard definition television that's how long ago it was

00:14:23.320 take a listen to this i'll make a prediction right now the first trillionaire will be made in space

00:14:31.960 will be the entrepreneur who invests and makes discoveries in space

00:14:38.260 that we cannot even envision.

00:14:40.380 Right now we have billionaires.

00:14:42.460 The prediction I'm making, the first trillionaire,

00:14:45.080 will be in the space exploration world,

00:14:48.900 and that is a wonderful incentive for a whole bunch of folks to invest

00:14:52.480 and help us develop this new and great frontier.

00:14:58.600 I mean, a decade ago, that's a pretty strong, bold prediction.

00:15:01.960 it became true. I'm just mad you didn't tell me that prediction back then because I would have

00:15:07.540 put a lot of money into SpaceX. I would have found a way to invest, Senator, but I, you know,

00:15:12.940 I guess insider trading is only for the left. I will say something. A decade ago,

00:15:18.940 Elon Musk was not a household name. He was already having significant success,

00:15:23.300 but I actually first met Elon 14 years ago. So it was when I was newly elected to the Senate

00:15:29.920 And baby senators, they stick you in a basement office.

00:15:33.440 It's sort of like hazing.

00:15:34.340 For the first four or five months, you're in a tiny little office in the basement before you move into a real Senate office.

00:15:39.780 And when I was there, Elon came to meet me, and he just started SpaceX.

00:15:44.400 SpaceX was this brand-new company.

00:15:47.380 And at the time, SpaceX was not allowed to bid and compete to launch Air Force rockets and Air Force satellites.

00:15:59.040 Yeah, they weren't allowed to.

00:15:59.880 And so Boeing and Lockheed had it completely locked down.

00:16:03.340 They were the only two contractors, and they launched all of the government satellites.

00:16:07.800 And Elon's pitched to me.

00:16:09.000 He wasn't saying, hey, I want to get these contracts.

00:16:11.860 Yeah.

00:16:12.200 He said, hey, let me compete.

00:16:13.800 I think I can produce a better product at a lower price.

00:16:17.200 I can launch the Air Force's satellites cheaper than they're paying right now, and I can do it more reliably.

00:16:22.840 And I actually spoke out in favor of it, not because I wanted them to get the contract, but because I believe in competition.

00:16:29.320 And that's been my approach to space and everything else.

00:16:31.740 Let's have lots of competition. 0.98

00:16:33.680 That helps the taxpayers.

00:16:35.040 It produces better quality.

00:16:37.120 So SpaceX at the time was a brand new company.

00:16:41.220 And the innovation, like when I was saying the first trillionaire would be made in space, I wasn't necessarily thinking Elon Musk.

00:16:47.720 I wasn't necessarily thinking Jeff Bezos.

00:16:49.720 Actually, the comment I made, which is the incentive to become a trillionaire is going to cause people to invest a lot and innovate. That's exactly what happened over the last decade. You've had multiple, the two biggest have been Musk and Bezos, but you've also got Robert Bigelow. You've got others who've invested and innovated in space because, look, the upsides, if you look at SpaceX, you've got a couple of drivers of it.

00:17:18.460 One is Starlink, and more than 90% of the satellites that are in orbit right now, SpaceX put up there.

00:17:24.440 I mean, that's a staggering statistic, and Starlink is now giving internet connectivity all over the world.

00:17:29.700 And like the most remote wilderness in Africa, you can get Starlink.

00:17:33.860 That's an innovation that has improved the lives of millions.

00:17:37.780 You look at SpaceX.

00:17:39.480 Listen, at the time I said that, the concept of a reusable rocket, no one had really thought of that.

00:17:45.400 At the time, everyone accepted you fire a rocket to the air.

00:17:48.080 you launch your payload the rocket falls into the ocean and and and you dispose of the rocket and

00:17:53.500 and elon said well why do we need to do that how about if we have the rocket come back and land

00:17:58.340 and everyone laughed at him and said okay that's crazy it doesn't work that way and he said well

00:18:01.960 what if we have giant arms chopsticks that grab the rocket out of the air pull it down and set it 0.90

00:18:06.380 on the landing pad and people said okay you're nuts you don't know what you're talking about

00:18:09.700 and so he just went out and did it and he's done that over and over and over again that's how you 0.61

00:18:16.440 build a two trillion dollar company uh and and you you know what bernie sanders says

00:18:22.920 he says today elon musk a trillionaire pays the same amount into social security as someone making

00:18:28.200 184 500 if we end that absurdity and lift the cap on taxable income we can make social security

00:18:33.940 solvent for 75 years so what does he want to do he wants to jack up taxes yeah his reaction is

00:18:41.760 anger anger um bernie sanders also uh if if you look at what he tweeted here here's what he

00:18:51.320 tweeted another 900 billion dollar paycheck i can't do his accent sorry uh for elon musk

00:18:57.420 while 60 percent live paycheck to paycheck really this is not only grossly immoral it is insane

00:19:04.900 economics. No society can survive when one man becomes a trillionaire while the working class 0.95

00:19:14.860 struggles to survive. This cannot stand. I want you to hear those words again because they are 1.00

00:19:21.780 ominous and you should hear them. This cannot stand. Bernie Sanders is saying that he intends

00:19:29.840 to destroy Elon Musk, when he says, I will not allow you to be a trillionaire.

00:19:35.320 You cannot succeed in the communist world.

00:19:41.700 And by the way, if you think communist is too strong for Bernie Sanders,

00:19:45.680 Ben, do you know where Bernie Sanders honeymooned?

00:19:48.920 I'm pretty sure it was Russia.

00:19:51.840 Yeah, Moscow.

00:19:52.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:19:53.740 And by the way, it wasn't Russia.

00:19:54.980 Because that's what everybody has on their honeymoon list

00:19:57.040 when you're sitting there looking at your future bride

00:19:59.500 and you're going, honey, where do you want to go?

00:20:00.880 Let's go to Moscow for a honeymoon.

00:20:02.780 It says no one ever.

00:20:04.860 Look, it is incredibly revealing.

00:20:07.960 Heidi and I went to St. Thomas.

00:20:09.360 Look, on our honeymoon, we wanted to walk around barefoot

00:20:12.420 and drink little fruity drinks

00:20:14.040 and get busy on the beach and just have fun

00:20:18.060 and just be a newly married couple. 0.99

00:20:20.100 Where'd you guys do your honeymoon?

00:20:21.660 We went to Mexico.

00:20:22.580 We went to San Juan Tanejo,

00:20:24.300 and then to Cabo.

00:20:27.120 And I suspect you did the same thing

00:20:29.060 and enjoyed sun, beach, relaxation.

00:20:33.300 The umbrella drinks.

00:20:34.380 That's all that you need, right?

00:20:35.600 That and sun.

00:20:36.260 You're good to go.

00:20:37.260 Okay, that's like normal people.

00:20:40.500 If you say, sweetheart,

00:20:42.500 let's go visit the comrades

00:20:44.080 in the Soviet Union.

00:20:45.880 Which by the way, just to be clear,

00:20:47.560 when he got married,

00:20:48.840 literally you're talking old school Russia.

00:20:51.220 Oh yeah, it was the Soviet Union.

00:20:53.120 It was the USSR was the country that he honeymooned in.

00:20:56.120 I don't even think Soviets honeymooned in the Soviet Union.

00:21:01.080 Look, this cannot stand. 0.55

00:21:05.220 They want to destroy it.

00:21:06.540 Understand, it's based on envy.

00:21:08.360 They want to destroy it.

00:21:10.520 Even if they can't take it, they just want to burn it down.

00:21:14.120 Pride is like love.

00:21:15.600 You feel it in your heart.

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00:21:43.820 Why should you listen to Armstrong and Getty On Demand?

00:21:47.280 We're not boring.

00:21:48.260 A lot of news is boring.

00:21:49.160 And tedious.

00:21:50.160 And depressing.

00:21:50.560 And makes you angry.

00:21:52.120 You don't want to live your life like that.

00:21:54.380 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.

00:21:55.440 He's Joe Getty.

00:21:56.080 We're Armstrong and Getty.

00:21:57.200 We try to bring you the truth.

00:21:58.360 And help you figure out this crazy modern world.

00:22:00.740 How about something about a comedic tone?

00:22:05.200 We have a winner.

00:22:06.740 Yes.

00:22:07.760 Listen to Armstrong and Getty on demand on the iHeartRadio app.

00:22:10.840 Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:22:14.400 Tesla should be the icon or a god of the green religion.

00:22:19.820 Like if the Green New Deal, the Green Religion, if you said, who is your idol?

00:22:23.520 You'd be like, what's a Tesla?

00:22:25.360 Look, for more than a decade, they've been saying that that first global warming, now

00:22:30.620 climate change is going to destroy all humanity.

00:22:32.820 We're all going to die.

00:22:33.800 We're all going to die in 12 years.

00:22:35.460 By the way, that's been their mantra for 50 years is we're going to die in 12 years.

00:22:39.160 The 12 never changes.

00:22:40.580 So this year, they'll tell you we're going to die in 12 years.

00:22:43.060 Next year, they're going to tell you we're going to die in 12 years.

00:22:45.060 In 12 years, they'll tell you we're going to die in 12 years.

00:22:47.180 I don't know why 12 is a magic number.

00:22:49.820 but under their basis, what they were saying is we need to all move to electric vehicles. Now,

00:22:57.400 Elon didn't say, like a good comrade, I will just mandate you must all buy electric cars. I don't

00:23:02.940 know where you can find them. He said, no, I'm going to go build a business and make a whole

00:23:05.740 bunch of electric cars. And here's an idea. I'm going to make electric cars that are really damn

00:23:11.500 cool that people actually want to buy. Listen, Tesla's are cool vehicles. Like drive for you

00:23:16.240 kind of cars. Yes. Innovation, not green alternative energy obsession. Look, the self-driving, the

00:23:22.420 technology, the clean, elegant lines. You know, I just just watched the new movie about Steve Jobs

00:23:27.660 and you look at sort of brilliant revolutionary entrepreneurs and Jobs was was one. And you look

00:23:34.280 at Apple, his appreciation for the aesthetics and simplicity. And Elon has very much the same

00:23:40.560 appreciation for, you know, you look at a Tesla where they've removed almost everything unnecessary

00:23:46.700 from the interior, and the interior is very sleek. You look at SpaceX, their dragon capsule that goes

00:23:52.460 to space. The inside almost looks like a Tesla. It's very simple. It's very clean. It's not

00:23:58.100 old, hard, industrial. There's an elegance to it. But if you believed, if Bernie Sanders or AOC or

00:24:08.040 any one of the other Marxist left believed what they had been saying for years. These are the

00:24:12.360 authors of the Green New Deal. They should be carving Elon Musk into Mount Rushmore because

00:24:18.400 there is no human being on planet Earth in the history of mankind. By the way, that's the liberals

00:24:22.600 are all they're going to hear from this show. I want to be very clear 20 minutes in is you said

00:24:27.100 that Elon Musk should be carved into Mount Rushmore. That will be the headline. I just want

00:24:30.640 to predict that right now, but keep going. It may well be. Although what I said is if the leftists

00:24:35.760 believed what they said they should carve a they should be doing it because there is literally no

00:24:41.520 human being who has existed in the history of humanity who has done more for electric vehicles

00:24:47.640 than elon musk but you know what they hate him now you know how he could change that

00:24:52.660 do you know whose wealth they're not calling to confiscate george soros oh of course not

00:24:58.940 no no if you're a leftist if you pay he's a massive billionaire by the way he made his money

00:25:04.740 on arbitraging currency, on essentially betting and bankrupting lots of people.

00:25:09.840 He made his money in a very, very cynical way, shorting the British pound and causing

00:25:15.460 enormous devastation. That's quite different from how Elon made his money building companies

00:25:21.380 that employ thousands of thousands of people, innovating and transforming the world.

00:25:25.860 But you know what? The left loves George Soros because he funds their Marxist ideology.

00:25:30.500 Look at Plattner, who we've talked about.

00:25:33.020 Plattner's biggest donors are four different multi-billionaires.

00:25:37.500 And they'll sit up there saying the oligarchs, no oligarchs is on their sign.

00:25:41.440 And those signs are literally being paid for by billionaires.

00:25:44.580 That's like hypocrisy 101.

00:25:46.740 And by the way, Bernie Sanders and AOC's no oligarch tour, they flew in private jets from stop to stop to stop. 0.89

00:25:54.240 So you get off your private jet and say, oligarchs are terrible.

00:25:58.560 And I don't know if you saw, it was very funny,

00:26:00.700 but Bernie was doing an interview and asked,

00:26:04.120 well, Bernie, how did you become a millionaire?

00:26:06.720 And he said, oh, by writing anti-capitalist books.

00:26:10.420 Yeah, so capitalism caused him to become a millionaire,

00:26:14.900 which he was writing books against.

00:26:16.940 Look, there's a principle here that I think is really important

00:26:20.020 for folks listening to Verdict to understand.

00:26:22.360 The beauty of free enterprise is the way you succeed

00:26:26.840 is by making others succeed let's take tesla as an example if elon made crappy cars they didn't work

00:26:34.980 they were ugly if they were slow they broke down a lot uh nobody would buy them and you know what

00:26:42.840 if nobody buys his cars he doesn't make any money he goes broke like like free enterprises is is

00:26:48.220 ruthlessly efficient if you can't solve a problem and improve people's lives not only do you not

00:26:53.700 make money, you go out of business. How do you make a ton of money? You make a product people

00:26:58.120 like that is better than the alternatives on the market that people are willing to pay for and

00:27:02.520 they're happy for. If you look at whether it is SpaceX, whether it is XAI, whether it is Starlink,

00:27:10.600 whether it is Tesla, whether it is the boring company, and the boring company is just getting

00:27:15.140 started, but the ability to build tunnels, I think that's another one that he's filling a need that

00:27:23.520 doesn't exist in the market. And I think for those who, in terms of connecting, say, a busy

00:27:30.020 downtown where there's a ton of traffic, the ability to tunnel down and suddenly double your

00:27:35.500 usable space, that is a transformational technology. Now, Ben, do you remember why he

00:27:40.440 created the Boring Company? Why was that? Because Elon has a unifying theme with all of his

00:27:48.060 companies. And it is going to Mars. He's filling a need that doesn't exist in the market. And I

00:27:56.940 think for those who, in terms of connecting, say, a busy downtown where there's a ton of traffic,

00:28:03.080 the ability to tunnel down and suddenly double your usable space, that is a transformational

00:28:09.320 technology. Now, Ben, do you remember why he created the Boring Company? Why was that?

00:28:14.460 because Elon has a unifying theme with all of his companies and it is going to Mars

00:28:22.940 and he is focused when we interviewed him we talked about this him saying getting a person

00:28:30.060 to Mars was like a life dream goal of his look not just getting a person to Mars building a

00:28:36.620 civilization on Mars because unlike the Marxist who have all of these uh apocalyptic language

00:28:43.200 about how climate change is going to destroy us.

00:28:45.400 Mind you, their solution is,

00:28:47.620 so put us in charge of your life. 0.95

00:28:49.520 Let us be dictators because of climate change.

00:28:51.980 Elon's solution is okay.

00:28:54.320 Elon's solution is okay.

00:28:55.980 If the earth is going to be destroyed,

00:28:58.220 I don't know if it is or not,

00:28:59.020 but if it's going to be,

00:29:00.060 let's go build a new civilization.

00:29:01.740 And that's what he's working to do.

00:29:03.040 And each of his companies,

00:29:04.500 look, SpaceX, Starship is designed

00:29:06.580 to actually get us to Mars,

00:29:08.480 not just get humans to Mars,

00:29:10.660 but get enough equipment,

00:29:11.840 get enough materials

00:29:12.580 that we could build a civilization. Tesla electric vehicles are designed to power

00:29:16.960 transport on Mars. The Boring Company is designed because to build a civilization,

00:29:22.600 to build a city on Mars, you need to dig tunnels. And so he, there wasn't, nobody was doing that.

00:29:27.660 And so he built a whole company to do that. XAI, the AI will be needed to build the Mars

00:29:33.080 civilization. We asked him in the interview, said, what do you want to be remembered for?

00:29:38.260 And he said, and he said, getting mankind to Mars.

00:29:41.260 And I asked him, I said, I said, do you want to die on Mars?

00:29:47.160 And he said, yes.

00:29:49.300 And there was a long pause, by the way, which was really funny.

00:29:51.580 He said on Mars, not getting to Mars, right?

00:29:53.660 There was, he wanted to distinguish that very clearly, if I remember right.

00:29:56.340 Well, what he said, he, what he said is yes, hopefully not on impact.

00:30:00.760 Yes, there you go.

00:30:01.660 Which, which I thought was, was quite good.

00:30:03.720 And that, look, that's how you innovate with capitalism. You create a solution. And what is the reaction of the left? It is envy. And we've heard Bernie Sanders, we've heard Elizabeth Warren. I want you to listen to Jimmy Kimmel to really embody the leftist envy and contempt. Give a listen.

00:30:24.520 first ever trillionaire in the history of the world. This man, our first trillionaire,

00:30:29.140 the richest man in the world, is also one of the weirdest people we've ever seen on this planet. 0.90

00:30:33.740 This obscenely wealthy weirdo has the ability and means to blow up the moon if he chooses,

00:30:38.620 and also to put a lot of other people's money in his pockets. 0.71

00:30:41.840 You listen to that, just the disdain there. It is a coordinated effort, which goes back to my

00:30:48.500 final question, Senator, and I'll make a prediction here. I believe that the Democratic

00:30:53.460 Party, if they gain power again in the House, Senate, certainly the White House, they will

00:30:59.560 go after Elon Musk and every one of his companies and every one of his government contracts

00:31:05.100 because of what he did with Doge and the fact that he was an ally of President Trump, even

00:31:10.000 though they've had their own little fights, they will move to destroy him and make sure

00:31:16.540 that there's no part of our U.S. government that uses anything that he touches.

00:31:20.280 You are absolutely right. And understand, these are not the Marxists of the sit-in-a-faculty-lounge-and-muse abstract theories. These are the Marxists of the Stalinist kind, of the kind that go and crush their enemies.

00:31:34.520 If the left takes over, if AOC or Gavin Newsom or some other leftist becomes president, you will see every single federal government agency weaponized and targeting Elon Musk.

00:31:48.660 You will see them denying him licenses to launch satellites, denying him canceling his contracts, the EPA shutting down his launches, Tesla being investigated by OSHA, by the IRS.

00:32:00.580 Elon personally, they will make it their mission. This cannot stand is what Bernie said. They want

00:32:08.320 to destroy him for daring to demonstrate that free enterprise works. And I want you to think

00:32:15.640 back again to what Jimmy Kimmel said, which is he makes obscene amounts of money by getting other

00:32:23.700 people's money. And let me just ask a very simple question, Jimmy. How? How does he get other

00:32:30.740 people's money? And he does it one of two ways. One, he does it by running a business that's very

00:32:35.620 profitable. So he builds a car people really like, and they decide, I like this car better than all

00:32:41.540 the other cars, and it's really good, and it's fast, and it's super environmentally clean,

00:32:46.320 and it looks cool, and it's self-driving, so I want to buy it. So he produces a product people

00:32:53.360 really like and want, which, by the way, is also much, much better for the environment which you 0.97

00:32:58.660 hypocrites claim to care about. But there's a second way. How did he make so much money this 0.97

00:33:03.260 week? Well, he sold 550 million shares of stock. And you know what unified every single person

00:33:10.380 who bought that stock? They all wanted to make money. They did so voluntarily. Nobody forced

00:33:16.540 them. 550 million decisions of people who said, I would like to purchase at least a share of

00:33:24.560 SpaceX. I want to buy that. And by the way, it's not just gazillionaires. It's lots of moms and

00:33:32.060 pops, lots of ordinary people. And you know what? You and I, we probably don't know this, but you

00:33:37.920 and I are both probably, and most of our listeners are probably SpaceX stockholders too, because

00:33:43.200 many of the purchasers were pension funds 401k so if you're in a widely diversified mutual fund

00:33:50.120 which most of my retirement savings are in mutual funds yeah many of them bought spacex as part of

00:33:55.800 their portfolio so so the people who purchased he is literally making americans rich all across the

00:34:03.320 country and if you're really good at that you make a bunch of money too leftists hate that they want

00:34:09.580 to destroy you. And they also want to take the money. They want government in charge of it. And

00:34:13.840 they want the only way you can make money is for government to give you a check every month.

00:34:17.400 So you got to go vote to reelect the Marxists and keep them in power. I want to say to Elon Musk,

00:34:22.720 Gwen Shotwell, to everyone at SpaceX, congratulations. This was an historic week.

00:34:29.120 God bless capitalism. God bless liberty. No doubt about it. Don't forget, we do a show

00:34:35.580 Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Go back and download

00:34:37.420 that episode we did with Elon Musk.

00:34:39.440 It's two parts, so you grab both. You're going to like

00:34:41.560 that. You can just search it

00:34:43.520 and easily it'll come up there. And The Center and I

00:34:45.440 will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

00:34:47.700 Why should you listen to Armstrong

00:34:49.460 and Getty on demand?

00:34:51.160 We're not boring. A lot of news is boring. And

00:34:53.300 tedious. And depressing. And makes you angry.

00:34:55.940 You don't want to live your life like

00:34:57.540 that. Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong. He's

00:34:59.500 Joe Getty. We're Armstrong and Getty. We try to

00:35:01.440 bring you the truth. And help you figure out this crazy

00:35:03.740 modern world. How about something about a 0.98

00:35:05.480 comedic tone we have a winner yes listen to armstrong and getty on demand on the

00:35:13.660 iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - June 15, 2026

Elon is a Trillionaire, Capitalism is Extraordinary & Leftists Lose their Minds

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