The Charlie Kirk Show - The Donroe Doctrine and Venezuela ft. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

What was it like to watch the raid on Venezuela unfold in real time? Secretary of War Pete Hegseth joins to discuss that and far more in an exclusive interview with the show. Then, pollster Rich Barris breaks down the public sentment on President Trump’s military operation. Will this lightning fast blow against and American enemy produce political dividends, or is there too much PTSD from failed interventions of the past? 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.

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam, everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as much.

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All right, welcome back hour two of the Charlie Kirk show. We have Rich Barris, the people's pundit, founder of Big Data Poll, joining us now. I tweeted something yesterday. Welcome, Rich.

I tweeted something yesterday from Harry Enton from CNN. And I saw you get into the comments and I was like, I got to get my boy Rich on. Because I, you know, I tweeted it? I was like, I thought about you in the back of my head. I was like, I know Rich is going to totally disagree. But I kind of disagree with you a little bit. That can make for a fun conversation. So Harry Enton is saying that there is no rift in MAGA that President Trump was at 84% of approval rate within the GOP or his base previous Trump voters. Now he's at 85%. Six months goes by. He goes up one percentage point, which is nominal, obviously. But at least it's not going the other way. It's going presumably.

up. And this is after Venezuela, which raised some questions about our foreign policy, MAGA's America First. So how does this jive with that whole vibe? So, Rich, tell me why Harry Enton is wrong. What am I missing? The floor is yours. So first, and for folks, maybe this was the easiest way to explain it. And as always, by the way, thanks for having me. Think about the MAGA coalition, like a simple Venn diagram, all right? Republican does not equal MAGA. And, And MAGA does not equal Republican. If you looked at it like a Venn diagram, you would see in the middle, you know, all of the various groups that come together. But MAGA is actually made up of several different groups of people.

One, you're going to have those hardcore Republicans. They're Republicans. They vote Republican no matter what. And they also vote MAGA. And Trump has won the argument even with them. And then you have a smaller group of Republicans that they're not MAGA. And by the way, I mean, we have some public figures to pretend like they are. But in truth, in the populace, they've been voting Democrat for a while.

They may vote for a moderate Republican or a traditional rhino or something, but they don't vote for MAGA. But they're overwhelmed and they're more than offset by a group of independents and even a small sliver of orphaned Democrats that only vote for MAGA. And they'll only come out for America. And I don't even know if MAGA is the right way to say it anymore, Andrew, because we've had this like debate over MAGA versus America first. So the messaging is getting muddled there, but for all the time that we have been tracking it, it's, you know, in theory, you know, this is Donald Trump's vision of America first, right? And I know we're debating what that means right now, right? Even with the president off doing things that other people disagree with. But Harry Enten, I would warn all of you. He is a prime actor in what has long been a use of public polls to dupe the right. And the right falls for it every single time. Hold on, hold on, Rich. Now, I remember. Harry Enton in the run-up to the 2024 election showing poll after poll

of Trump winning, of Trump being ahead in the polls, of Trump winning on this issue, that issue. And I, so I'm just saying maybe that's my memory and maybe I'm selectively you know, choosing what I remember and what I don't. But I do remember him like

candidly, it was Charlie's Twitter feed. It was just like clip after clip after clip. And it ended up, you know, proving to be accurate. He's manic. He goes back and forth on a 24 hour basis. The video that you, the video that you reposted, not 24 hours before. He had just posted another video about how awful the strike polled and the public. And then he went back immediately after and did another video within a day of which is the one that you posted. This is what they do, guys, all right? And think about it

in terms of COVID because it's like one of the best examples of what the media does and people like, we call them over here the election mafia, right? So Harry Ent and Nate Silver or the Larry Sabado at the Crystal Ball. These guys we've long called on our side, the election mafia. And what they'll do is they'll understate somebody like Trump's great. They'll understate Trump's approval

rating way below where it really is. And then when he does something stupid that they like, they'll jack his approval rating up like COVID. Shut down the government, right? And then all of a sudden you'll get polls. Trump's at a majority approval for the first time ever in his administration. They did this in the

first administration. And it was not the smart political thing to do it exposed him politically then when that vulnerability hits they'll crash him into the 30s and the right falls for it all yeah no that's fair so would you would you say rich though that trump's uh i guess his political backing from his supporters is pretty like resilient it's pretty stable uh but it's been challenged in this first year and even even with the Venezuela strike, in new ways, I think, you know, because, again, foreign policy seems to be the hot button topic, right? It's like, we don't want to focus on it. We want to focus domestically. And then when we do, everybody's scared of the neocon intervention, you know,

foreign abstractions, rabbit holes that we've trails what we've followed in years past. So where are we at right now? So Harry Enten says that actually the strike is more popular than we previously thought. What do you think? It's historically, it's basically the most unpopular military action of its kind. Grenada had 82 percent, even 57 percent approved of the military action against Syria that Donald Trump took in his first administration in response to what we now probably, you know, almost assuredly know were false flag attacks, right? So historically, compared to other, including Iran last year, by the way, which was very even, you know, very evenly, you know, very evenly divided among the, the American public. So where is this at, according to your numbers,

Rich? It's not good. It's negative. It's not horribly negative, but it is negative. And the reason why, and this is where, like, you know, Republicans should, like, snap out of this, like, haze that they're in, Democrats are never going to believe anything that the Trump administration says that Nicholas Maduro did. We're asking people not just about the strike, but whether or not they even believe the charges against Nicholas Maduro. And Democrats don't even believe the charges. So So this idea that you could get into a solid majority who opposes this is ridiculous. I hate to say it, but we're actually really close to the Washington Post, Andrew. Unlike everybody else, we didn't drop the numbers right away.

And there's a reason for that. The war drums, at the time they're beating, war propaganda is one of the most powerful forms of propaganda you can get. And when you initially polled, you will get the strongest level of support, typically, then you're ever going to see. And then that support will decline over time. It happened with Iran as well. Iran initial, even in some polls, the strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities were pretty popular, not in ours, and I think we were right and they were wrong, but you can even see in those

polls that that were more favorable to that, it dips over time. So we didn't want to snap poll it. We wanted to get an accurate reflection of how the public digested everything. The question is, what comes after this? So people are going to be okay. And just so people understand, my own personal views are very different from what I think the how I think the public sees this or what they're telling us right now my own personal views if you can get a if you can get a guy like that out of there Andrew with a limited strike like this you know in a limited operation Intel led operation get them out of there and then bring the regime to heal

take the gold and the oil go ahead because we're 40 trillion dollars in debt and you need to back the petro dollar that's my view that's rich Barris's view that's not the public's view unfortunately they're like Like, they have PTSD over this, brother. You understand? Like, they have PTSD over this. And the administration sold it like garbage. This was the easiest sell.

Look, they stole our oil a few years ago. You know, Joe, Joe, you know, the Democrats were two, you know, George Bush actually was the weaner here. But they were too weak to do anything about it. I'm not. I'm taking it back because China and Iran can't have it. Period. End of story. And we're not going to nation build.

That's what we're going to do. Don't give the public some garbage rehatch version of the failed war on drugs, which they laugh at and think is ridiculous. Don't, and don't insult their intelligence like that. Come out and just say, be the strong man that you were elected to be. You know, we talked about this at the conference quite a bit. And especially voters under 45, they don't care if he acts like a Franco. They don't care. They want it.

They want. So be that guy. And don't explain, you know, that's it. I'm not going to explain myself. I personally want Greenland. Don't explain yourself over Greenland. We have to colonize space and the United States has to lead that effort. Guess what?

We need Greenland to do it. Tough. End of story. And you don't even have to do that when military action. So the public wouldn't even care. I don't think that much about that because the question of what comes next is less of a, you know, a very concerning question, right? I mean, you can leave people in charge there that obviously Western values, hold

our same belief systems, right? have been in the international order for a long time. So there's no, there, there's less of a danger of this, this crisis and destabilization. So again, I think that's, I think that's well said. I think that's well said, Rich. My Pillow wants to say a heartfelt thank you to our listeners for your continued support. To show their appreciation, they're offering an incredible after Christmas sale with some of the best prices that they've ever had. and all when you use promo code Kirk, K-I-R-K.

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and don't forget to use promo code kirk these offers won't last long call 800 8750425 or visit my pillow today and use promo code kirk i just want to i i guess i want to ask a little more on this as you say you say harry nton and others they directly manipulate the polls to manipulate Trump, I guess that struck me as a very strong claim. Like, how many people are involved in this decision? How do they do it? And because that's like a big swing. And I just feel, among other things, I feel like there'd probably be whistleblowers from these organizations who would pop to this.

A lot of independent editorial decisions, too. But yeah, go ahead, Rich. Yeah. I mean, the fact is that my industry is completely dominated by leftists. I mean, guys, I literally created the polling critic industry. It was like me and that was it. for years that has grown over the years now and thank God it has but if you're somebody like me and you come up like look I think you're understating Republican shares of the vote you get ostracized right so

these guys the Enten average for instance or the Enten aggregate that he pushed the entire cycle excluded most of the polls that got the election correct including ours so you know when he you got watch that little writing when he puts up on the screen underneath the entian aggregate or whatever poll he's talking about you better look damn close at what he's citing and what he's citing and where he's getting it from because all of the people who not fairly but accurately have predicted the outcome of elections and the Trump era are excluded from most of Enton stuff. You will never see him cite, you know, one of the guys who are part of our association. That will never happen on CNN, right? So go back and look at how some of these pollsters fared in 24. They know it.

The evidence of what they have been. Look, even if you were pretending that this was just a you know, a difference of opinion on who should be cited and who should not be or what kind of data collection modes make the poll more accurate, make that pollster more accurate and it's a methodological, you know, discussion or debate, even if we were going to pretend for a second that that was true, which it's not anymore. I pretended for the first five years of my career. It's not true. But even if we were to, the evidence built up over many years and it became overwhelming. They continue to do it intentionally, and no one's going to call them on it because, I mean, there's various things going on. It's group think. There's being afraid to get contracts, losing a contract with the media outlet.

And in the industry, post-24, they've consolidated a lot. So, Reuters, Yahoo, CBS, they're all using the same online panel and same data set as UGov. I believe, I believe it, Rich. I believe it absolutely that they, they, they, you know, I think Harry Enton's, Not as bad as you think he is, but I do think he probably, you know, he plays both sides. That much I can see until it's very true. All right, Rich, the, you know, I, Blake and I have taken a pretty, I would say, middle of the road approach on the Venezuela thing. I'm going to show my cards. There is something, and I, and I, I, I watched

Mike Cernovich, who's a friend of the show, kind of give his take, why he, why he supported it. I support it. I support it. Yeah, it was great energy. I support it. Yeah. I support it. And I'm surprised that I support it because Charlie and I spent years railing against the military industrial complex. We're going to have Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth on next. We're going to talk about this. I've devoted basically the majority of my adult political life to railing against the war machine. But this is different. This is the Monroe Doctrine. And the way you boil it down. Donro Doctrine. Donroo doctrine. The way you boiled it down, I thought was brilliant. we want our oil back i'm not making excuses for it iran china russia you have no place in this hemisphere get the hell out this is our this is our backyard we're not going to be suffering fools any longer we're not going to be playing patty cake get out this is our oil we're going to take the revenues we're enriching the homeland we're securing our defenses that's why i like it you know obviously the proof is in the pudding how this plays out but is there a chance based on you know where

you see the base at, where you see Trump voters at, that we can turn this into a win politically from a polling standpoint. I do. I think there's a way to really give the American people a vision because right now, Republicans, one of the main reasons they're losing, and we can get into some of the gripes that certain factions within the coalition have. But one of the, I would say the main reason that they have, they lost in 25 and we go into 26 with them being the underdog here is that they don't have a vision. They haven't given the American public an idea of what's the agenda for this year? What's the agenda for the country? And I think this is actually a really good opportunity. And I think the interview with Cernovich on Tucker was just great because

I think Mike, whether you agree with them right now or not, guys, I think what Mike started to do was lay out what kind of a vision you could give to the American public and give, you know, which could, look, Americans are dying for something to believe in. again, guys. They really are. And I'm not saying that we should start toppling governments one by one in the Western Hemisphere. But Reagan understood something about the unique identity of Americans and, you know, what it meant to be an American. It's optimistic. It's forward thinking. And for so many years, one of the reasons for Trump's success is that forget about a malaise. They've been in the gutter thinking, you know, hopelessness with hopelessness and despair, right? And some,

Some people look at, you know, especially younger people, they look at the situation you just brought up during the break, you know, student loan debt, we have national debt, we have credit card debt, we can't afford homes, right? Our country is getting invaded, Rich. That's the time. I mean, I tell you, that is the single most demoralizing aspect of modern American life is that you look at, you look across the street and you don't recognize your neighbors. You go to the DMV, you don't recognize your neighbors. You go to, on an airplane, you don't recognize your neighbors. and there is something insidious about this. Blake, I would love to build this out from a data standpoint at some point.

There is something about when your country gets invaded by foreigners where American families stop, or whatever the country is, stop having babies and stop believing in the country. 100% like mass immigration lowers fertility rates. It's not the cure all because Japan doesn't have a lot. South Korea doesn't have a lot and they're lower than us. Switzerland. So it's not the only factor. Yeah. There's something insidious about it and demoralizing about it. And this is why I constantly harp on the issue of immigration. I think it is visceral. I think there is a, you know, we talk about illegal and you still get these boomer cons that say, you know, oh, I support legal immigration and I'm just anti-league. No, like, nope. We've had too much. We've had too much. And we are watching the eraser of American culture before our eyes. We are watching the communities that. that remind us of America shrink and get like these enclaves get shrunk.

It's not about skin color, by the way. I think it's about pre-modern and post-modern. I'm going to build this idea out too. It's people that see the economic system as an opportunity to get ahead and those who view it as an extraction tool to oppress people. That's the dividing line. Because if you look at the American opportunity as a chance to enrich yourself and your family and the future generations that come after you,

then you will be a contributing member of this society. If you look at America as an extraction machine operation like the Somalis do pre-modern, then you're going to treat us as oppressors and you're going to try and take back the wealth that you think was wrongly stolen by the white man. Rich Barris, final word. Yeah, if you look at just the chart or the graphic that Donald Trump put out on truth the other day about these populations and how much they take, right? What are the percentage, what are the household percentages receiving benefits from the country?

And there is this feeling, and if you're a domestic population, it does give you this sense of, you know, I'm just losing. We're just losing because you can see that people come in here and they don't have the attitude you have. You want to thrive, right, where these populations want to come in. They want to survive and they want to, like you said, they want to extract, right? So it just adds. They want to fleece the system. They want to build. Yeah, that's right.

Well, well, domestic U.S. born citizens don't because it, well, of course, we all have criminal populations. criminal elements but that largely that's not what we're talking about here right we're talking about people who are trying to be good citizens and then just constantly beat it and down by the system that they're fleecing it just come on i mean it's not hard to understand why people had this sense it's like cloud this dark blanket come over them that the future is bleak so again i think this is this can be used as an opportunity to turn this into like an american resurgence it just has to be done right exactly i mean there is a sense i even looked at blake in that one of the breaks. I said, I'm loving this sort of unapologetic. Yeah, we're going to take Greenland. Yeah,

we're going to, we're going to seize a rush of oil. I'm just saying, I like the vibe. I like the energy. It's resurgent. Thank you, Rich Beres. You're the man. This is Lane Schoenberger, chief investment officer and founding partner of Y Reefi. It has been an honor and a privilege to partner with Turning Point and for Charlie to endorse us. His endorsement means the world to us, and we look forward to continuing our partner. partnership with Turning Point for years to come. Now, hear Charlie, in his own words, tell you about why refi. I'm going to tell you guys about whyrefi.com. That is yR-R-E-F-Y-F-Y.com. Why refi is incredible. Private student loan debt in America total is about $300 billion. Why refi is

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Because of private-sident loan debt, so many people feel stuck. Go to y-refi.com. That is y-re-refi.com. Private student loan debt relief, y-refi.com. We are waiting on Secretary Peggsef to join us. We are monitoring. Busy man. We're monitoring the feed. I will see him as soon as he sits down. Got the video up there. As soon as he sits down, we're going to take him. You have sent over a lot of questions. Blake has been filtering through them. We've added them to the list. We're going to get it to me as many of them as we can. As we can. Yeah. So Secretary Hegg said, obviously, a busy, busy man. Lots of questions about Venezuela. Lots of questions about what's going on with Greenland. There's been rumors that the U.S. is open to military force to take. take Greenland.

I don't know how else you want to put that. But we, Blake, why don't you set up the next clip for us here as a lead in to the secretary? We'll have this ready to go so we can ask him about it once he sits down. But there's this big, obviously there's been a lot of stuff about Greenland after the Venezuela thing. Because there's chatter,

which the administration has encouraged that, okay, we're flexing our muscle in this hemisphere. Could that mean we'll make a bid for Greenland? And there's debate whether it would be just seizing it or now there's also backroom. We really just want to buy. all of that. Anyway, this got a lot of attention because Denmark's prime minister reacted to this

and basically said, if the U.S. goes after Greenland, an effect of this is going to be, it's going to be the end of the NATO alliance. Let's play 246. Firstly, I believe that the American president should be taken seriously when he says that he wants Greenland. But I also want to make it clear that if the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. That is including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War. I believe in democracy and I believe in the international rules. Of course, I also believe that you do not change borders by force either one way or another. It is not only the position of Denmark and the Danish kingdom,

fortunately, of Europe too. So I hope that the people will also take note of the once again significant European support that we are receiving. Yeah, after which Trump trothed that America will always support and have NATO's back, even if they never have our back. And after he bragged that he got them to spend 2% to 5% GDP, which is fair, which is accurate. That's what we wanted. Yeah, absolutely. Like, I think it's worth, because I think some people have responded to this with some chest thumping. Like, there's a lot of attitude.

I think this is part of what Stephen Miller said when he was on CNN. He said, Denmark can't stop us from taking it, which is true. But some people have actually just, un-examously, people have embraced this attitude of that's all that matters, is whether they can stop us or not, and that's all it reduces to. And I guess I would caution people from going really far down that rabbit hole. First of all, it's not ever been America's way, even when we were, you know, the global unquestioned superpower, not in decline anyway. It's not been our way to just bully weaker nations to beat them up. that's not really a great long-term play for America? What's greatly been to America's benefit historically is a lot of nations, far weaker than us,

have been willing to work with us, have been willing to just accede to our leadership. And that led us in a dumb way where we just started to put other countries' interests first over ours, where we just did dumb things, where we're funneling endless foreign aid to crappy countries that don't like us and are taking advantage of us. but I don't think you swing back the other way and you just, for example, dissolve NATO because you feel like making your image on a map bigger.

No, I mean, listen, I think you have to ask the question how would we acquire Greenland? You've got to involve the people. Yeah. Right? It should be done by vote, I think, you know. I think the way you do it is you... Or you buy it?

You just make the pitch. I think one thing that's been an issue is we've been, it's almost been too attractive to just, again, chest thump and say like, we could easily do it, which we could. But I think the way you make it a long-term play is, you point out it is a win-win. You can say Denmark, you just talk about how Denmark is a great ally. They actually have been.

They have spent money. They've ponied up for Ukraine, whereas other countries haven't. They sent troops to Afghanistan. They had more troops die per capita in Afghanistan than I think any of our allies. And they've been a good ally to us. And they're also the European country that restricts immigration. They're good on a lot of ways. And so we talk about how Denmark is a great ally.

And Denmark has taken on this burden. of supporting Greenland. Well, they spend $4 billion a year on Greenland. Yeah, they spend a ton of money. It's not really a very profitable endeavor in any way. It's a loser for them. A big welfare sink for them. They spend a lot on this.

And for us, it would be a far more trivial amount of money to spend. So we could increase the amount of money. So we can say it's good for Greenland. We can develop you more. We can give you more money. It's good for Denmark. You're getting this off of your books. And it's good for America because we have the long-term certainty of owning Greenland.

We have that long-term military security. We can potentially develop the natural resources with more effort in longer. That's the pitch you make. You say win, win, win, win, win for everyone involved. And then we get our oil lands back in Venezuela. And by the way, we have Secretary Wright on the show tomorrow, Energy Secretary of the United States. So we're going to be talking all about Venezuelan oil. What's at stake?

What could we benefit from? How much money could we make? how much money would flow back into the hands of the Venezuelan people. We are monitoring the situation. Secretary Heggseth should be sitting down in just a second. Blake, what are some of the questions that people want to ask Secretary Hegeseth? Someone really wanted to know, what are your thoughts on the Russians sending a submarine to assist the Russian flagged oil tanker? Well, it wasn't much because I think, you know what?

I believe that the Russian submarine, by the way, I looked into this, was basically doing, surveillance ahead of where the tanker. This tanker evaded a blockade probably with the help of additional resources provided by the Russians. I like this question from Evan. What is the Department of War done to correct shipbuilding problems

in the U.S. Navy? We've covered that. We had a guest on at the start of the year. We're not building ships very well. When America won World War II, we could famously build a ship in a single day. We did it once as a publicity stunt. We built a liberty ship from nothing to finished vessel 24 hours. That's

fast and we could literally build ships we could build ships faster than the japanese and the germans could sink them and now china can build ships faster than we would be able to sink them well that's certainly true probably faster than we could build the missiles that would blow them up and they can build missiles faster than us it's not good so we're going to be asking about these seized vessels we're going to be asking about um you know what is the military obligation in venezuela to if we're going to be running venezuela is there a military obligation and what is the extent of that obligation. We're going to be asking about, you know, do we have proof that Iran, China, Russia are still on the ground in Venezuela? Are they fomenting dissent? Are they fomenting factions? You know, we're going to be talking about Greenland. And if we can get to it, we're going to find out how many push-ups and pull-ups Secretary Hegeseth can do, which is what everybody wants to know, obviously, Blake. And I just want to remind everybody one thing here. secretary so we did a flash poll well straw poll at amfest so for our 31,000 attendees of amfest we asked them who was the most popular secretary we have that that graphic i believe secretary hegeseth was our most was the most popular cabinet secretary in trump's administration according to our attendees at america fest which should tell you something 83% strong approval and only point 0.6% strong disapproval.

That's a pretty favorable crowd, however you want to slice it. So again, we looks like we're getting some activity here. We will have Secretary Hegseth on in just a second from an undisclosed location. What other questions do you want us to ask the secretary? Email us, freedom at charliekirk.com. Freedom at Charliekirk.com. I also want to know where our recruitment is at. So there's been a lot of headlines made about the recruiting numbers coming out of the U.S. military that they are through the roof.

I want to know exactly where those numbers are at. All right. So email us your questions. Freedom at charliekirk.com. Freedom at charleykirk.com. By the way, breaking news, there is video now of the shooting incident out of Minneapolis involving an ice agent. It does appear that the woman was attempting to ram the ice agent. That video is now circulating online.

I would show it to you, except we are still eagerly awaiting the secretary. So, Blake, what else you got for us? Well, we were going to do this after, but we might be going right up against the end of the show here. President Trump has announced he's going to be pursuing new measures, not clear yet, but to make it easier for a single family home. He says, for a long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American dream. It was a reward for working hard and doing the right thing, but because of the record high inflation of Joe Biden and the Democrats,

the American dream is increasingly out of reach for many people, especially younger Americans. For that reason, I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations. I will discuss this topic and more at my speech in Davos in two weeks. I don't know what it's going to be.

That is tremendous, and it's exactly what Charlie was fighting for. I was going to say this is a Charlie Kirk special. So we talk about the Gen Z economic moonshot, and it is very clear that President Trump is hearing the pushback. But this is the economic moonshot that Charlie wanted. This is what he said we are in a race against the clock. We have to prove that our ideas work, and we have to clear away from a policy standpoint to make sure that Gen Z, and let's be honest, generations after are not getting blocked out by institutional investors, foreign buyers, and the like. Think about it.

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month of service. That's patriotmobile.com slash Charlie or call 972 Patriot and make the switch today. Secretary Pete Hegseth, Department of War, welcome to the show. It's great to see you. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Secretary, we'll get right into it. Two tankers have been boarded and apprehended by the U.S. military. A senior Russian lawmakers quoted as saying this is outright piracy. What do you call these actions? Outright accountability, actual enforcement. There's been a long-time illicit activity emanating from Venezuela around the world, really. the dark fleet's a global enterprise, but Venezuela has used it to transport sanctioned oil flagless vessels that enrich the regime.

And we have said an oil blockade is in full effect around Venezuela to ensure that that oil on the dark fleet doesn't make it anywhere. So there was one vessel that attempted to move toward Venezuela when we put the blockade and turned around. So we've been pursuing that one for a couple of weeks, frankly, just a reminder that we will follow you. And when we have the opportunity, we'll ensure you are, we seized that vessel, which we did. And then there was another one inside closer to Venezuelan waters this morning at the same time simultaneously that we also confiscated. So this is an ongoing effort. It's in full effect. The pressure is on.

And as Marco has laid out, we're working with the Venezuelan government to ensure that there's a new way by which they can process that oil, partnering with the United States. and we're going to continue and enforce it, this blockade as necessary. So far, Secretary, we haven't had any U.S. boots on the ground in Venezuela, but President Trump has said we're going to run the country in some capacity. Is there any possibility that that will take place? And if so, how many, what could that situation look like? Well, I think in these cases, what the president is so good about is we're not closing doors here, we're not opening doors, we're not revealing to anybody what we will or will not do.

I mean, strategic ambiguity is a really important thing. Leveraged properly, it creates opportunities that did not exist before, just like that raid on Maduro that no one in the world anticipated, the most sophisticated raid maybe that's ever happened in military history, changed the entire dynamic. We didn't talk about whether something like that was possible. So what happens next depends a lot on the decisions that are made inside Caracas and by leadership. The blockade remains in full effect.

The strikes on narco-terrorists and boats full effect. The pressure continues to ensure that they work with the United States to ensure that that oil. And Marco made it clear. The president put out a statement yesterday, 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to be brought to the United States to be processed, to be used properly by the Venezuelans to ensure that that transition happens the way that it should. You could see scenarios where, hey, maybe we reopened the embassy, and you've got Marines there to guard the embassy. You could look at scenarios where there's cooperation. But I wouldn't foreclose anything, and I think it's important not to foreclose anything to make sure that the outcome is one that benefits the interests of the United States in our own hemisphere.

This is the Don Roe doctrine. This is, you know, Russia, Iran, Cuba, others had their tentacles all over Venezuela to exploit it and also to leverage their opportunity to be closer to us and pull those energy assets out. We're flipping the script, putting America first, controlling our hemisphere, and that action. action taken on Nicholas Maduro was the star of it, but it's certainly not the end. Secretary, you watched the raid happen live as it was happening. And you mentioned that this was the most sophisticated raid of its kind, probably in, who knows, living memory. What was it like watching it happened, the apprehension of Maduro and his wife? Like, what's the memory that stands out from that moment?

The memory that stands out the most for me was watching the drone feed at the end when you could see the, I won't reveal the exact number, but the helicopters leaving Venezuelan territory over the water, and they looked like little ants, little dots on their way out of the country. They have Maduro and his wife, indicted individuals, and all the Americans are out safely. We had some wounded, but no KIA. That was the enduring image, because everything in between, you know, yes, these are the best of the best. They're trained for it. In fact, the commanders have said they've never been more supported. They've never felt like they've had better intelligence. They've never had clearer and better authorities. They've never been given

everything that they need. That's one of the things we're very proud of here at the War Department. We're going to support our fighters, back them up 100%. Give them whatever they need, give them the authorities and rules of engagement to be successful, and they had all of that. Still, the enemy in the other side gets a vote, and it was a contested raid, even with the sophistication that went into it. And we watched them hover over. We watched the actions on. We watched, you know, Venezuelan manpads get shot while. They could potentially try to shoot at helicopters. I mean, it was all in real time, but it wasn't until we saw those birds floating out that any of us could really exhale.

The courage it took for the president to authorize it, the sheer courage and competency of our men and women in the military, those assaulters, that extraction force, incredible, the best in the world. They went downtown without being heard, without being seen, with no notice, extracted that indicted individual and brought them back to the United States. the United States of America could do this mission second to none no doubt and you even saw that on CNN Mr. Secretary where they were you had analysts saying that even China and Russia were looking at this going like wow this is incredible so to your point they've never felt that your men and women in the military have never felt more support more backup I mean I know this is hard to quantify but you came in with a mandate to make the military more lethal the lethality you said it again and again, fitness, excellence, meritocracy. You know, two-part question, where are we at now?

How much more excellent? How much more lethal are we now than when you took over? And I also am curious about where recruitment stands right now for the U.S. military. Well, we've always had great Americans, right? Our job has been to unleash them, to allow them to do their job without tinkering in the way they operate, without more burdensome rules of engagement, without more political caveats while actually giving them the authorities we need. And a lot of that emanated out of the speech I gave at Quantico to generals and senior enlisted saying, I'm putting commanders back in charge. It's not my job to tell that extraction force exactly how to do it.

It's my job to get them what they need, ensure their standards are clear, they're able to execute at the highest possible level, and unleash them to do what they do best. I mean, that's the reflections I've gotten back from not just special operators, but conventional units just saying it's a new environment. It's a new vibe, a new aura inside the military where we feel empowered to be the warriors that we're supposed to be. We've always been that way, but other things have held us back. There have been political correctness or prerogatives or DEI or new priorities were emphasized, and we didn't feel like we were fully supported, not anymore.

And you mentioned the recruiting numbers. That's why last year was the most historic recruiting numbers we've seen in decades. This year is even beyond that so far, guys. The recruiting numbers are surpassing so far in FY26, what they were last year, because the spirit continues. The word is getting out. This is a military you want to be in. President Trump has your back. The secretary has your back.

We're training better than ever before in what we do. And we've got historic financing to make sure we've got the weapons to do it. But also, we're focusing on barracks and quality of life for the men and women who serve raising pay. That's the way it should be, putting the troops first, and that's been our focus. Speaking of the troops under you, yesterday you announced you're going to seek a reduction in Mark Kelly, Senator Mark Kelly's rank as a result of his statements about possibly defying orders. One of our viewers, Elizabeth, has asked us, she's wondering, she said, why not bring charges against him? She wonders how you reach that decision.

Well, we went through the regular process, and we have evaluated those statements, not just that one video, which was incredibly reckless. He knew exactly what he was doing. By the way, he was the senior member of that video. He's the only one we have jurisdiction over because he's retired when he's receiving a pension, money from the government, which means he's still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And watching the, I don't know, hissy fit that he's been throwing ever since shows us just how over the target we are. He knew exactly what he was saying. He understands the rules.

He understands he's still subject to UCMJ. He understood the doubt and uncertainty he was putting into the process by, by, vaguely alluding to illegal orders, but never, never pointing to what that would mean underneath the Trump. So he knew, and he understands, and the reaction underscores how serious this action is. Reducing a rank or pay is a serious administrative action that sends real signals that we take these things incredibly seriously. So he's got the time by statute or by directive to reply. We'll review after that. But this is, I don't think anybody should minimize how significant this is. We don't do it without understanding that,

and we're following up by the book, and we'll see what happens. Yeah, my brother, who's in the military, said that this is a pretty massive demoralization for him. I mean, this is a, getting demoted in retirement is pretty big. Secretary, last question here. Oh, I want to say first, I want you to know that you were our most popular. We did a straw poll at America Fest, and 31,000 people, we gave it to all of them, they said that you are their favorite cabinet secretary in the Trump administration. So I just, I want you to know that.

There's other questions about how many pull-ups you can do, how many push-ups, but we're going to skip that for the interest of time. But I'm sure that that had some influence in your favorable marks there. I want to end it with this, and we should. This is the Charlie Kirk Show. You were friends with Charlie.

Charlie fought like tooth and nail to get you over the finish. line in your confirmation. I think he'd be very proud of you, Mr. Secretary. You've done a tremendous job and we're proud of you. What do you remember about him? And what do you want the world to know about your friend that maybe they don't from your POV? You give me chills. I wouldn't be in this position right here without Charlie Kirk. Probably without the Charlie Kirk show, without his platform, without his courage. Throughout the confirmation battle, he was always right there. saying hold the line. Don't give in. We've got your back. And the wind that put in my sales,

I mean, he and Donald Trump Jr. and others just unrelenting and backing me up. So I wouldn't be here without him. Listen, he was the thermometer and the thermostat of our movement, and you understand what that means. He understood what was going on around around the country, and he understood how to ensure we were calibrated correctly to make sure, make America great again, or America first was moving in the right direction. But he did it because he had to. He had to, had a, listen, he was a true believer on every front in politically what he believed in, in his own Christian faith and how he lived that out. And he wasn't about praise for Charlie Kirk. He was about the country and Christ and the cause and doing everything he could to advance it. He

never cared whether it was his name in the headline. So he backed people up. He backed President Trump up. He backed me up. He backed the other members of the cabinet up and created the opportunity for us to do exactly what we should do, which is what we said we would do, which President Trump appointed us to do, which is peace through strength, America first, bring the warrior ethos back to the military, all the things Charlie cared about, you guys care about, we're doing. So I wouldn't be here without him. We think of them every single day. I love him. His wife, Erica, is incredible. Anything we will do here at the war department. And just grateful to live in such a country that produces men like Charlie Kirk. Well, God bless you. We're grateful to live in a

country that produces men like you, Secretary. And thank you for making the time. I know you're busy you got a heart out get on to your next thing uh we pray for you we support you have your back a hundred percent we'll see you soon thank you guys appreciate it god bless you all right the secretary we got to a lot there we got a we got a we got two questions then i'm proud of us amount of time i'm proud of us it was it was delayed complicated business thank you for everyone who sent them in yeah we only got to a couple of them unfortunately but yeah but we appreciate it keep sending us emails freedom and charley kirk dot com we will see you tomorrow For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.