The Charlie Kirk Show - Does New York Have a Cuban Future?

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Zohran Mamdani has vowed to build government-owned grocery stores for New Yorkers if elected. Of course, one place near America already has those: The communist nation of Cuba. How is that going for them? Benny Johnson has been to Cuba and explains his experiences there. Plus, Mark Halperin lays out the political ramifications of the Big Beautiful Bill passing, and he and Charlie discuss would happen if the GOP changed its mind about raising taxes on high earners.   Watch every episode ad-free on members.charliekirk.com!  Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com! Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody. It's the end of the Charlie Kirk Show. We're here at the Bitcoin.com studio. It's the Bitcoin.com studio. What do communist run grocery stores look like? Benny Johnson joins us as we remember what happened in Cuba when he visited there and what Mom Donnie wants to bring to the Big Apple, the city so nice that you name it twice. And then we start with Mark Halperin. We ask, what is the politics of raising taxes? What can we expect from the big, beautiful bill? And does the rise of Mom Donnie, what does it mean for what is coming next in this country? Email us as always, freedom at CharlieKirk.com and subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast. Get involved. Attorney Point USA, America's most important organization at tpusa.com. That is tpusa.com. Starting high school and

college chapter today at tpusa.com. Subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast. And as always, you guys become a member today, members.charliekirk.com. That is members.charliekirk.com. Okay, everybody, it is the event of the summer. Coming up in Tampa, Florida, it's an event unlike any other. It is our Student Action Summit. All ages are welcome.

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That is SAS2025.com for this game-changing, life-changing event. So take a look at it right now at SAS2025.com, SAS2025.com. Buckle up everybody here we go. Charlie what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House folks. I want to thank Charlie he's an incredible guy guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com. That is noblegoldinvestments.com. It's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. It's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. Joining us is one of my favorite guests, Mark Halperin. Mark has an amazing thing going. He's got two-way TV.

He's got the Mark Halperin Show. Is that what it's called, Mark? I want to make sure I get it correct. Next up on the Megyn Kelly Network, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Phenomenal. It's editor-in-chief of two-way. So Mark, I want to pick your brain here for a second and take a step back and talk about mandate first piece of legislation.

George W. Bush, he tried to get Medicare done. Obama most famously, of course, he put all of his chips on healthcare and Obamacare right out of the gate. What can we learn historically about how popular these bills end up being and also how they end up taking a different final form than the original intent once they work through the Senate and the House? Yeah, great question. I'll just politely and respectfully annotate what you said about Obama. Obama actually passed two pretty big pieces of legislation before the four stimulus and the auto bailout, saving Detroit.

And I think while he didn't get as much credit from those as he thought he deserved, those were pretty significant. And certainly, maybe some would say net-net weren't positive, but I think they had a lot of positives to them. And I think it's arguably true that the stimulus kept the world from going into a deep recession or depression. After that, it was kind of downhill after he passed those three things in terms of domestic achievements. I think that, you know, as you know, first hundred days is an overrated thing. It doesn't really mean much. It's the first year and a couple of months.

And these bills, the ones you talked about and what President Trump reconciliation, there's no greater thing in life to which you can apply the expression, don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. These bills are not perfect. There's no one in Congress and probably no one in the administration

who would write these bills exactly as they're written in the case of the previous presidents, in the case of President Trump, you can't fail. And again, remember, Trump is hybrid. He's part first term new president with the energy and momentum and 100-day agenda that that implies. But he's also second term. He's term limited.

He's going to have decreasing power after the midterms, even if Republicans keep majority in the Congress. And so I think if you look at the fact that he's a lame doc and this is his second term, this is extraordinary, to be able to have the oomph in a partisan way through reconciliation to get something this big passed, and I do think it will pass. There's no talk of bipartisanship, right?

And that's different. In the beginning of a first term, Obama, I think, made a mistake by doing things in a partisan way, but he talked about bipartisan projects. There's no bipartisan project being talked about, at least not yet. And I'll be curious to see when you talk about how does history view them.

It's mixed, it depends on the overall impact they seem to have had, particularly on the economy. But I think it'll be interesting to see what's the next project. The speaker's already talking about another reconciliation bill, which would be another purely partisan project. Is there anything in these polarized times, given the animosity that exists, that they can follow on after this? Because this bill will have a positive effect on the economy, I believe, at least on the macro economy. But it's going to be a dominant part of our politics now, between now and the midterms. The Democrats have a much different point of view about this bill. And I think the proof will be in the pudding. If rural hospitals

and red states are put out of business because of this bill, it's going to be hard for the president to explain that. It is a difficult riddle to solve when you have a government that is so big as ours and you have debts in debt. It's just there is no, there is no easy approach. Now, President Trump's original solution was, look, we should raise taxes on high income earners. But Mark, just remind remind our audience that was so dead on arrival once it hit. The House in the Senate mean president trump proposed it now whether or not it was a political proposition I actually think he's okay with it he talked about it a lot like hey just go to 40% but why is it that that was so do a why was that so dead on arrival which by the way I said on I said many times my show but Charlie Kirk show does great we're at the top income bracket don't want my taxes raised. But if it means we go to 40% and I also get a ton of spending cuts, I'll suck it up. My life is not going to be considerably, you know, materially impacted. And no, I'm not a socialist for saying that. But why

is it that was so dead on arrival once that hit the house? Yeah, it's a great question. And just to clarify something I said, I'm not predicting that this reconciliation bill will put rural hospitals out of business. It could. So I'm not predicting it. I'm not rooting for it. But my point is some of the things the Democrats say about the bill are whack, but some might be true.

We just don't know. So a highly covered but under covered story is the way Donald Trump has changed the Republican Party. Free Trade Party to protectionist party. Party of military engagements overseas to a party that's about America first and no endless wars. A party that on some cultural issues was more conservative, has become more moderate or libertarian.

Taxes and taxes on the wealthy is one that he hasn't changed. And in part, he hasn't changed it because he's got mixed feelings about it, right? He's not all in on it. If he were, he would have fought for it. There's nothing magical about the current rates. And this is where I'm sure some of your viewers and listeners will say Halpern's a communist. There's nothing magical about the current rates. And this is where I'm sure some of your viewers and listeners will say Halpern's a communist. There's nothing magical about the top rate. There's no there's no science to it. The difference between 36 and 31 or 40 and 20.

It's so arbitrary. You know, it's just arbitrary. And it's arbitrary in terms of fairness and it's arbitrary in terms of impact it'll have on the economy. We all want taxes to be as low as possible on everyone. But unless you think no one should pay any taxes, rich people are going to have to pay more in taxes. Maybe not a higher rate, if you don't believe in that, but at the same rate, they're going to pay more because they make more.

I think that this was something that House members and senators just feel, we are the low tax party. We just, we cannot deviate. You know, many of your audience will know Grover Norquist, the Republican who said, who's led a movement at his organization, Americans for Tax Reform saying,

there can never be a net tax increase, not no tax increases, but no net tax increase. Had they raised the top rate, it wouldn't have been a net tax increase, not no tax increases, but no net tax increase. Had they raised the top rate, it wouldn't have been a net tax increase, but that's how strongly the party's identity is still wedded to the notion of, we don't raise taxes on anyone, we're in the business of cutting taxes, and Donald Trump's administration's divided,

I think he's divided in his own head. It would have been brilliant politics and the right thing to do economically, I believe, but the party's just still, that's too much of the identity is still tied up there. Yeah, and that was my argument that, look, again, no one's going to be like, yay, celebrating it, but look, guys, if you want to try to make a deal, here's the one thing, that when you're at the top income, you pay your taxes, so you get a very, very high collection rate,

so you don't have to spend a ton of money collection. Now, there'll be some scamming, but it's much higher than on the lower side. So therefore, when you raise every percentage, you're actually getting a higher return of revenue as per than you would if you're raising it on lower, which we shouldn't raise on lower. But if you would have said, hey, we're

going to do more spending cuts, but hey, we're also going to just say, we're going to go from 37 to 40, it conceivably could have raised hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. It would have been a death blow political talking point against the Democrats, right? It just would have been a gut punch. But the response I got, again, I'm not ideological on this.

I want a country. I want a US dollar that's strong. It's, Mark, they say, but HW Bush was crushed because he raised taxes. Separate fact from fiction for us on this. Yeah. In terms of Bush metaphor? No, just that one. And like, is it true? Is it like every time that you raise taxes, does it necessarily mean that's built into the mythology of the storytelling around this stuff? Right. Bill Clinton raised taxes and he thrived as president.

And raising taxes on the wealthiest is extremely popular, including amongst a lot of Republicans. I will say this, and I would love to have dinner with you sometime and talk about this topic at length. We have income inequality in this country. We do. And the rich, since COVID, have done extremely well. OK?

So I don't care if you're Rand Paul or Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders or AOC or my next mayor, Mr. Ondami, you need a plan for that. It is immoral and it's bad politics and bad economics. We need people in the lower spheres to have more money to spend because rich people don't spend as much. So, and it's immoral.

And so I'm not saying the solution should be higher taxes or, you know, unlike my incoming mayor, I'm not against billionaires. But no matter where you are in the ideological spectrum, you need a position on how we're going to have less income inequality. By the way, it's just my advice is don't be ideological, guys. There's stuff you can be ideological on. I get it. I'm very ideological on can be ideological on. I get it. I'm very ideological on pro-life stuff.

I get it. But economics should be a means towards a national end. Totally agree. And again, I'm in a unique spot because it's someone like, OK, fine, I'll pay 3% more. If I can get spending cuts and all of a sudden we can balance the budget, that's good. By the way, that's good for high-income earners purchasing power over the next 20 years. It actually benefits you anyway I think that we're a little bit too fanatical in my opinion over time about well, we can't raise taxes Okay, come on guys. We're a new movement

America is getting more unequal over time and that is bad for our stability It's bad for our national unity and it makes us more vulnerable to mom Donnie's for our national unity and it makes us more vulnerable to mom Donnie's. Private student loan debt in America totals over $300 billion. About $45 billion of that is labeled as distressed. Why ReFi refinances distressed or defaulted private student loans that others will not touch. Why ReFi can reduce your monthly payment and guarantees interest rates under 6% ensuring affordability and financial relief. Go to whyrefi.com that is whyrefi.com. Do you have a co-borrower? Why ReFi can get them released from the loan and you can give mom or dad a break. Just call 888-WYREFI34

that is 888-WYREFI34 and may not be available in all 50 states. Can you imagine being debt-free and not living under this burden anymore we'll go to why refi.com that is why refi.com that is why refi.com bad credit is accepted and it do you have a co-borrower well why refi can get them released from the loan that is why refi.com so mark there the mom donnie story in new york is notorthy. I do want to get your take on it, but I think this is largely driven by economics. And I think that if the Republican Party fails to understand that we're becoming more unequal and that things cost a lot more than they should, I think President Trump is addressing it. I think he's doing a great job of it.

But we're still early in the administration. We are going to get more Mamdani's if we do not address ownership economics. His kind of genre of politics is made possible when people cannot afford basic necessities. Your take, Mark Halperin. As is often the case, we agree. I did a monologue the other day on Next Stop comparing Donald Trump's political skills, Mamdani's to Donald Trump, and for my trouble, I've been called a communist. Just for the record, I'm more free market than Ted Cruz. I'm a big believer in capitalism.

I believe his success is based in part on what you said. I'd say that's number one. Number two would be his skills using social media to drive that message. Third is it's a very liberal city. And I think people like his liberal policies. But I agree with you. It's more identification with the frustration. And in that way, he's exactly like Trump.

He's talking about the forgotten men and women, working class people who simply feel they're being left behind, that the system's rigged against them. President Trump's prescriptions for that are different, but the analysis of the issue and the connection with working class voters, I think, is pretty much the same. I've said this before, I may have even said it to you.

The only thing more disgraceful than the mismanagement of our cities by extreme liberals is the Republican parties and the conservative movement's failure to offer credible alternatives. This should be a mismatch. Every American city should be electing a conservative to try something different because the record of failure for our kids on education, for our cities in terms of safety, for our economies of our cities and housing prices, etc. The record couldn't, it couldn't be more embarrassing what the record of failure is and yet the city, this city is now almost certainly going to turn to a guy

who's not just promising more of the same, but more extreme liberal policies, but he's in a position to do that for the reason you said, which is like Donald Trump, he's saying to people, you don't like the status quo? You're right. The status quo for you is horrible. You can't afford bus fare. You can't afford to send your kid to soccer, a soccer league. You can't rent a house or buy a house.

And I've got some ideas that seem appealing to address that. And I believe that this city and others need alternatives to address the same issues. So, how are Democrats privately processing Mom Donnie? Publicly, I don't care. Privately, what is your reporting showing? Even people like Leader Jeffries in the House, who have been terrified of the liberal base and largely dance to their tune, recognize that Donald Trump will make this guy the face of the Democratic Party every day between now and the midterms.

And some people around Jeffrey say he thinks it will cost them the House, that literally they can't win the House if this guy's the mayor of New York City. Wow. But again, it's one city, it's a big city, Gotham City, city that never sleeps, city I say twice, my home, I care a lot about it.

But he's not gonna be the mayor of the United States or the mayor of every city. And they've got some nominees like Spanberger and, uh, um, uh, uh, Cheryl in a gubernatorial races who are more moderate, who have national security experience, et cetera. This guy is so talented. He's so talented. He'll, and he's not shying away from being a national figure. We know when president Trump attacked him, he could say, well, I'm just running for mayor of New York city. He's so talented. And he's not shying away from being a national figure. We know when President Trump attacked him, he could say, well, I'm just running for mayor of New York

City. He's loving it. He's right in it. And that's going to make it easier for Donald Trump. And I'll say again to people who are listeners to the show, most of whom don't prefer the politics of Bernie Sanders and AOC. Tens of millions of Americans agree with this guy.

100%? Of course. And so he's not some outlier for all Americans. Tens of millions of Americans agree with him. And that's what he has to be reckoned with. By the way, Bernie won the primary in 2016. It was stolen from him, legit. We're talking about a stolen primary.

And maybe 2020 too. No, if it wasn't for COVID. And by the way, the Democrats have had a decade-long Mom-Donnie base that has not been realized. They have suppressed that base 22. No, if it wasn't for COVID. And by the way, the Democrats have had a decade long Mom Donnie base that has not been realized. They have suppressed that base where we as Republicans, I mean, it's just a complete circus, right? It means whatever and we win and it's all that there's there's no rules. And by the way, we like it. It's the Wild West. The Democrats, they're Stalinists where they have they've done their the corporate

Democrats like we got to keep this base under control. 45 seconds, Mark, is this a harbinger that the most radical elements of the Democrat base are going to consume all the way up to the Democrat nominee in 2028? I think there's no indication that there's anyone who's filling the vacuum, that the party has so far left. The national chairman isn't doing it. Schumer isn't doing it. I don't think these presidential candidates are. You know, Gavin took a tentative step with you and then that was that. And I'll just and I'll just say, Democrats haven't acknowledged what you and I can see so clearly. And Bernie acknowledges and shouts about they stole an election from the progressive base and they thought and they thought it had no impact. And what it did was make the

progressive base even angrier and more empowered. And I don't see how I don't see anything on the horizon that's going to stop that for 26 or 28. And that don't see how I don't see anything on the horizon that's going to stop that for 26 or 28. And that's a big problem for the party. Mark Halpern. Excellent. As always, check out next up with Mark Halpern on the Megyn Kelly Network and also two way.tv. Mark, thanks so much. Thank you. Good to see you. Ingredients. When I flip a container around and cannot pronounce nor recognize the ingredients, I put it back. That's why you'll find balance of nature fruits and veggies supplements on a shelf in my home. Every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil.

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Com use discount code Charlie to get 35% off plus free shipping Joining us now is a great American and a great friend, Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show. Benny, welcome to the program. There's lots to discuss, but I was moved because one of my family members says, Charlie, do you remember that amazing documentary you did when you sent Benny down to Cuba? You should remind people about it with the rise of Mr. Mom Donnie. So Benny, you know, has done many, many projects with us. I want to play this piece of tape here.

And I believe this is from the, yeah, this is from the Benny Cuba documentary, but I'm going to play this and then I'll allow you to kind of narrate it. This is a cut 368, people rushing into a grocery store cause they only open them at certain times and have a set supply. This is what government run grocery stores get you.

Playcut 368. All of a sudden the guards come to the gate and they open the gate and that's when I've never seen this before but everyone swarmed. People started running, even people that weren't in line that were just like in the area just started sprinting in there because this is their only chance to get their essentials

and the necessities to feed their families Benny what did you learn we went to Cuba we have more place a piece of tape to play it But Benny you went to Cuba. What did you learn about government run grocery stores? Yeah, I mean I you know, I understand why people would flee Cuba and risk being interned in alligator Alcatraz because it is truly hell on Earth. It's like a bizarre world video game, Charlie is like when you see a post apocalyptic scene inside of a Hollywood movie where there was once a thriving society. There was once a functional people, a functional architecture of the city, but it's all been rotted and it's all been crumbled down to its lowest common criminal denominator. It's very sad to go through Havana.

It's very sad to see these old, beautiful Spanish castles that have just decayed and of this ideology to potentially migrate here into the states. It's horrible. We had the mayor of Miami on who's himself a son of Cuban dissidents that had to flee Castro's regime. And he said, this is American Castro. Zorhan Mondami is American Castro and he will do to New York what he's done to Havana. Inside of that grocery store, by the way, every single item, there was just government owned stamps on everything. So like a can of beans, a piece of frozen chicken, there was mainly empty shelves,

but everything just comes from the same processing plant. It's unbelievable. And the quality is terrible. There you go. It's weird. Let's play cut 370. The effects of socialism are everywhere. Crumbling infrastructure and disgusting living conditions. That is what socialism has brought to Cuba.

Maybe the socialists in America should take a short trip, a short 90 mile trip and come here and say they want this in America. It was like going through ruins. The horrific thing is that no one is living in the Pantheon right now. No one lives in the Acropolis. It's a ruin. These are ruins that people are living in. Socialism is popular in America now. What do you think of socialism? It's very ruin. These are ruins that people are living in Socialism is popular in America. Now. What do you think of socialism? I very popular. Yeah Wow, but now for us no, it's good for people now not good. No, my friend. No, it's possible a petroleum

Yeah, nothing for this the people noise possible go for the walking and one more here This is the grocery store one before I put the grocery store one remind people Benny This is how cute this is what Mondani wants to do in New York. I'm gonna play it in a second, but walk us through. So you went to Cuba. How did you even get cameras in it? Remind the audience about all of it. Well, they confiscated our drones when we got into Cuba. We had to sit there for six hours while they went through all of our bags. And then they eventually raided the Airbnb that we were staying at federal agents from the communist regime raided the Airbnb that we were staying at federal agents from the communist regime raided the Airbnb and tried to take our SD cards, tried to take the

footage that we were filming there. So we had to actually flee the country. Thank God that President Trump was president. If Joe Biden were president, I assume that we would be potentially incarcerated to this day. I want to go back to Cuba. I want to head back there and show because it's just gotten worse. It hasn't gotten any better. It's gotten far worse than when we were there. This the footage that you're showing is five years old. And so I would actually like to head back and show people because it seems like this is now making again a resurgence. They want to bring Havana to New York 373. So I really hope that you like Conchita Mango Marmalade because we have a whole aisle. Here in Cuba, you can get an individually wrapped hamburger. And that's as fresh as it actually gets. Oh, this one's all melty. But my god, can you get a lot of the exact same grand brand of garbanzo beans.

And then after you're done buying all these incredible products, you can stand in line for literally an hour, which is as long as we've been standing in line. an hour, which is as long as we've been standing in line. And I'm telling you, you probably are not going to like Cuba that much. There was literally no fresh fruit, no fresh meat, no fresh vegetables, nothing. There was one brand of the things they did have and the things they didn't have. Well, screw you. I'm actually glad that I've glad that I've gone on. I'm glad I've gone on the communist Cuba diet.

I've probably lost like 35 pounds since we filmed that. And so being there inspired me, Charlie. So I've been eating garbanzo beans for the last five years straight from Havana. It's actually done wonders. The best weight loss program that we have, it's not Ozembic, it's not keto, it's not cold plunging. We will send you to Cuba. You will lose 30 pounds in a month

AOC could use that actually right now. AOC could put on fire. I'm not saying anything More effective than ozambique. You got you see capitalism you tend to gain weight. We got we got nothing but food here You then went to AOC's now origins. We I think we have a piece of tape here But you went to AOC's hometown. She's not a girl from the Bronx. Is that what we're finding out? Oh, no, she's a total fraud. Ever since she was an infant before she could walk or talk AOC has been raised in a leafy clean and beautiful suburb

that is pristine and low on crime. That is one of those places that gets painted in American history by people like Norman Rockwell. This place called Yorktown Heights, the Hamlet of Yorktown Heights. It's 120 minutes from downtown Manhattan. It's a far ways away from the hardscrabble, working class, a Bronx girl persona that AOC tries to project onto the world.

We went and traveled there and exposed AOC for the fraud that she is. You know, a lot of people in MAGA hats. And there's actually a Trump sign right across from AOC's home that she was raised in, Charlie, and it's not that she would just like live there for a little bit. She went to preschool there. Then she went to elementary school, middle school, high school there. And then she graduated and went to Boston University. So she's a total and complete fraud. The working class Bronx girl is a liar.

Let's play cut 363. Yo, what's up guys? Welcome to the Bronx. This is where AOC says she's from. And this is where AOC is actually from. Welcome to Yorktown, the business hamlet of Yorktown Heights. There's mansions everywhere. It's beautiful, it's green, it's pristine, it's clean. I even have a Christopher Columbus society.

I thought AOC got all those statues ripped down. Some structural racism right here in AOC's hometown. Today we're gonna investigate the biggest lie in all of politics, the fraud of AOC. And so Benny, what did you learn in that investigation? Well, me and the 40 million people who have actually seen that video learned that AOC has been lying.

And this is working class stolen valor. It's exactly what Kamala Harris tried to do when she said that she worked at McDonald's. This is something that is going to be used against her if she tries to run in 2028. And Charlie, she is number two, according to some polls in the Democrat positioning for 2028. So this is a major threat to AOC. I don't understand why Democrats can't just accept that America is a beautiful and wonderful country and to be from a place like Yorktown Heights is a major privilege, and you should be thankful for it and

not vengefully hate your country. But here's what we learned from some of the people that went to school with AOC Charlie, we learned that she was a big bully, that she was unhappy and that she was one of the people in high school that you just didn't want to be around. And so maybe she just took all that angst and that lack of fulfillment and that self-deprecation into politics, that self-loathing that you kind of see on the left so often. And she just channeled it into communism like they always do. And so, Benny, kind of taking a step back here and covering socialism for quite some time. What is the driving force of Mamdani and how do we defeat him?

Yeah, well, Trump told me yesterday he's just going to put him in jail. There's that. But that's because Mamdani is proposing multiple policies that are patently illegal. Mom Donnie wants to tax people based on their skin color. He says so. And he doubled down on that, Charlie, in fact, this weekend, saying that white people in New York need to pay more taxes. That's something that obviously drew a rebuke from the Trump Justice Department. But President Trump told me yesterday when I asked him about Mom Donnie, that he's going to be facing serious federal threats for stopping ICE enforcement in the city of New York. This is what he promised to do when he won in his nomination speech last week.

So how do you stop them? I'm not sure. And it begs the question, Charlie, that I don't know the answer to, which is, do we let our great American cities fail? Do we give them what they want? Democracy, of course, is the people know what they want, and they deserve to get it good and hard. So do we give New Yorkers the communism that they wish to live under? Is that the only way to learn? I don't know the answer to that question. The world is waking up to the power of gold. National banks are scrambling to secure it. According to the World Gold Council, central banks added 1,000 tons of gold in 2024,

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in your country and you can see the core of the energy where the nation is heading. And this moment that we're in right now wouldn't surprise you if you were going to these conferences four years ago. And you could see that this was a movement that was durable, that was going to last, and you can't kill an idea. And this is an idea that this country isn't over yet and that we have God's providence here. And it's really wonderful to see it on display and in full motion. Man, we saw it yesterday at Alligator Alcatraz. It was wild. I do want to play that. You asked the question of President Trump at 3.48.

Play cut 3.48. Mr. President, in 2018, you suggested putting alligators in the Rio Grande to prevent crossings in Texas. Is this a dream come true for you, sir? Well, I was thinking about that, I must say. It was meant more as a joke, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it, if you want to know the truth.

And they were seriously, they were actually crocodiles. They were crocodiles from Africa. They are a step beyond. But no, that was really meant as a joke, but a lot of people liked it, and a lot of people think we should do it, frankly. Danny, tell us more. What people miss there, Charlie,

what people miss there, Charlie, is that Donald Trump's open to putting African crocodiles in the Rio Grande. So while Joe Biden was putting African criminal aliens into small towns in Ohio, changing forever the culture of those towns and making them unrecognizable, Donald Trump is putting African crocodiles

in the Rio Grande. He's open to it. And you can see Secretary Noem was kind of like, oh, you know what? I haven't thought about that in a while. So, Ben, you're saying we're asking the questions that people want, Charlie. We're asking the questions that people deserve to hear.

You know, so tell us, being there up close and personal, it was kind of like a mini Trump rally at Alligator Alcatraz. Christine Noem was there. We need more of this. What else did you learn, and what did you see at Alligator Alcatraz. Christine Noem was there. We need more of this. What else did you learn and what did you see at Alligator Alcatraz you want our audience to know about? That it's the cleanest and most secure and most sanitary conditions I've seen in any prison that is a higher standard than our federal prison system actually has for inmates

and that it's right there on an airport. As soon as you arrive, as soon as a detainee arrives at Alligator Alcatraz, which is the most dangerous prison in America, not because of the conditions inside, but because of the conditions outside, because it is surrounded by a million alligators and is surrounded by hundreds of millions of mosquitoes about the size of humming birds and also pythons and other venomous snakes. You just can't escape from it, but there is an airstrip there, Charlie, and you can take a plane home. And that's the first thing that's offered,

the criminal aliens that are brought into Alligator Alcatraz. And this is gonna shock you, Charlie. The government can do things. It can, if it wants to. The people who built Alligator Alcatraz here in the state of Florida, they were able to build it in 72 hours.

This is the, it was nothing. It was a slab of concrete and they have a fully functional federal prison in 72 hours. So it can happen with the right leadership. Government can actually work for the people. And the only way out and the best way out of alligator Alcatraz is certainly not to try and escape, but to get on a plane and to go home. Benny Johnson, tell our audience about where they can find you, where they could support you, and what is the best part of the golden age that you are experiencing right now that you want that you think is not getting enough media attention? Well, I think this is the given the past 24 hours, what I'd like to say on that is that we are the media now. And that shows like Charlie's and shows like mine, you can find me at Benny Johnson on all

social media and the Benny show, that we are able to ask the questions that people actually care about. We were able to ask President Trump four questions, all four of them trended globally and worldwide and got major attention. And we were able to run circles around what is the corporate media and that's because we answer to you the American people and it's our great honor to do that is a huge compliment to the team at the White House that allows for independent voices to have access the president and that's how you actually get the truth.

Thank you so much will see you soon will see you at the student action summit a week from, thank you so much. We'll see you soon. We'll see you at the Student Action Summit a week from Friday. Thanks so much. Thanks, Charlie. SAS2025.com. That is the Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida. Let me just remind you, Greg Gutfeld, Tucker Carlson, Kristi Noem, Donald Trump Jr., the biggest speakers in the movement, an all-star lineup.

It is time for unity. It is time for conviction. It is time for energy. It is time for purpose. It is time for action, action, action. Steve Bannon will be doing a show live. I'll be doing my show live. Benny Johnson will be doing his show live. We, I mean, you cannot put together a, a movement or a combination of speakers, even remotely close to this. It's SAS 2025.com that is SAS 2025.com.

Laura Ingram will be there. We're going to have debates. We're going to have breakout sessions. We're going to have 2025.com. Laura Ingram will be there. We're going to have debates. We're going to have breakout sessions. We're going to have vendors. We're going to have exhibitors. You want to find your future husband,

find your future wife. It's an amazing place to do that. SAS 2025.com. A week from Friday. Biggest event in the movement this summer. SAS 2025.com. Get your tickets. Tampa, Florida. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always. Freedom at SAS2025.com. Get your tickets Tampa, Florida. Thanks so much for

listening everybody. Email us as always freedom at charlikirk.com. Thank you so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust go to charlikirk.com.