The Charlie Kirk Show - The President Honors Charlie at the State of the Union

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

President Trump used his State of the Union address to once again honor the immortal legacy of Charlie Kirk. The team replays that moment and reacts to other pieces of the president’s high-stakes speech, from the appearance of Team USA to the president’s handling of the illegal immigration issue. Andrew calls in fresh off the floor of the House to explain what it was like being there live.   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 many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA college chapter. Go start a turning point you would say high school chapter.

Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life and I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.

The Charlie Kirk Show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers. All right. So that was the President's State of the Union address. We'll keep the camera on there to watch, but it seems like he is just shaking hands with people, and we're having applause, but we'll keep an eye on that.

I know we've got Danny here. We've got Cliff with us. We'll see if Jack rejoins us imminently too. And we'll also, of course, be looking at the chat. I see a lot of positivity. We said Penny. I thoroughly enjoyed this state of the union. We've got Jill House saying USA, USA, USA.

Got a lot of American flags, a lot of magas, some thank you's, Mr. President. Highland Miss again. Watch these Dems scoot like rats running from the Orkin Man. Is that an advertisement or something? I'm not sure. No idea. Orcan Man. God bless America. God bless President Trump.

Only one person thrown out was Al Green. impressive. I'm not sure if he was thrown out or if he just walked himself. Did he walk out? I'm not sure. It wasn't super clear. We'll definitely get a screenshot of what happened there. Cliff, we'll get your reaction in a second, but I think the first thing we want to do, we want to replay the part that is emotionally closest for all of us. And that was when President Trump shouted out Charlie and he got everyone in the house to stand for it because he linked it to a call to end all political violence. I believe that number is 442. I'm very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and in particular, this last year,

there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity, and belief in God. Commendous, you know. This is especially true among young people, and a big part of that had to do with my great friend, Charlie Kirk, a great guy, great man. So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyed, really, martyed for his beliefs. His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight.

Erica, please stand. Been through a lot. In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind. And we love bringing it back, and it's coming back at levels that nobody actually thought possible. It's really a beautiful thing to see. Cliff, what were you feeling when you saw that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's obviously a beautiful tribute.

I love that he was finally able to get them to stand and applaud together, on the idea of, you know, hey, let's all say no more political violence. I mean, I think for all of us, that was the one thing. You know, I'm not going to speak for you guys. But, you know, through all the conversations with people in Charlie's orbit, I still think the number one thing that was just so shocking was the response from so many people on the left. And to see Democrats at least acknowledge, hey, let's take a pause and all agree to no political violence. I just think that was a powerful moment.

I'm glad that obviously, Eric, you got the recognition. And to have them chanting Charlie was pretty cool. It was. It was. I think that was my favorite moment in it. But obviously, there were a lot of other great moments. The president is very, he's very good at the pageantry side of the state of the union. So we got not one, but two medals of honor that were awarded.

He also had the hockey team showed up, gave the medal of freedom to the goalie, which that was quite the gesture. I've got to say. Good shoutouts throughout, and I think he did a good job. Part of this goal is, of course, political. I think he did a good job of highlighting that Democrats are very loopy on some very important issues. He did that on the border, on illegal immigration generally. If you weren't hearing the president's remarks, you may have also seen, I saw Rashida Talib had a F-Ice button on that was just lovingly displayed there throughout the address.

We got some nice images of Ilhan Omar glowering really angrily. And he, of course, he even highlighted the Somali fraud, which I thought that was a long shot on my bingo card. But I did pretty bad on my bingo card overall. But that was one that actually appeared. I did not score a full bingo, which that's okay. You know, you want to have some long shot ones, make it a little bit of a challenge. But how did you do? Yeah, my card was not very good.

I think I had five or six total. I kept going for long shots and stuff I was hoping for more so than what would happen. I blame Fasio. He gave me a card to use and it performed very poorly. Might have been mine. Throwing Angelo under the bus like that. Got to watch it, Cliff.

But, you know, Angela, Angela could get you for that one. But yeah, no, it was, I'm looking through just to remind myself of everything. So we did have, we had Democrats. Actually, I think it was Rashida Talib again. she was screeching at Trump during some of the immigration rhetoric. And Al Green. Yeah, Al Green, of course, disrupted it with, he had a sign. I think it, do we have that image?

I believe it's 440. We do. Throw that up. It is 440 and the sign said, black people aren't apes, which I guess is about that. It's about that TikTok. It's about the true social that Trump put out where it went to the next video at the very end. Here was the best part, though, for like the five. or six times that you could barely see it on the stream. It actually said black people rent

apes because he was covering up the A like an idiot. So that was like taking off on Twitter. But anyway, I just think he does this for every every, I mean, if you ever like listen to this guy, this is one of those Democrats where you wonder how in the world do these people get elected and it's incumbency protection, et cetera. Like once you get in, you never can get out. He doesn't make sense with anything he says, right? He's just kind of this cartoon character. and it's just surprising to me if the Democrats don't, you know, the leadership step up and say,

hey, why don't we not do that this year? Because I just think it makes him look totally out of touch. Yeah, was it last year that he was yelling that he wouldn't leave and they had to, like, fully escort him out? Man, I can't remember any of these. I think it was. Yeah, with his cane. Yeah, that was last year.

As America turns 250 this year, we want to help good ranchers take a moment to remember the people who helped build it, not the ones in the history books, but the ones who woke up, before the sun, season after season, without seeking any sort of applause. And those people are America's ranchers. For over 250 years, ranchers have worked tirelessly to feed America through every kind of storm through the droughts, wars, recessions, pandemics, changing markets, changing politics. They never stopped. That's the kind of legacy good ranchers was built on. Unlike others,

Good Ranchers is a meat company that's 100% committed to America, not just in words, but in practice, every cut they offer is raised on local American farms and ranchers, from the pasture to the final seal on every box. Their entire packaging and fulfillment process takes place right here in America. And if you ever have any questions, their customer support team is in-house too. And to top it all off, with every order place, Good Ranchers donates a portion of the profits to various veterans organizations. So as we head into the new year, meant to celebrate American culture, heritage, and the people who shaped it, Good Rancher stands right at the heart of that story. I'm actually a Good Rancher subscriber myself, and I love how easy it is to manage my orders.

When life gets too busy or I'm traveling, I can pause or move my order. and just a few clicks. It's simple, flexible, and built around your schedule. To support a company that honors America's past, present, and future, visit good ranchers.com today. When you start your plan, you'll get to choose a cut of meat that'll be included for free with every order. And you'll get $100 off over the course of your first three orders by using the exclusive code, Kirk, K-I-R-K, that's Kirk for $40 off your first order, then $30 off your next two, totaling $100 off while you try Good Ranchers out, because they're that confident you'll love it. good ranchers.com American meat delivered. Blake one other

when you brought up that he went into the Somali thing. I mean, the camera, by the way, kudos to whoever the camera crew is. I don't know who, if it's through the house or if it's the White House. They did a phenomenal job based on certain points going to the person that even if they weren't named,

they would have them in the screen. And I mean, her reaction and sitting next to, who was to leave i mean they just look like children screaming at the president i mean she just went irate in that moment yeah in fact we have a clip of her uh let's let's get the clip of uh ilhan omar getting very upset that is 443 you should be ashamed of yourself not standing up you should be ashamed of yourself that is why i'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.

They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of your family. Could you tell what, okay, it was apparently she was shouting there, you have killed Americans, you should be ashamed is what she was, Ilhan Omar was apparently, it's interesting coming from her policies which led in all these illegal immigrants have killed people to fentanyl. Oh, yeah, of course.

Well, but as we know, in Democrat politics, the realist Americans are the people who are not from America. Like herself. Really, the only people who aren't American are the people who are born in America. Everyone else is, if you're from America, you're gutter trash.

Can we at least give some credit to the Democrats that had to sit in the row in front of them, too? I mean, to have them for the entirety of it. Maybe they need to get one of those medals. Yes. They definitely went through a trial by fire there.

looking at more reactions from some of those people. If you have any thoughts, feel free to shoot a don't know message. But we might read it anyway. We love to see what your guys' takes are. We've got best part from Ward 36, best part of the State of the Union. The president called out the Democrats to their faces and gave them a big, I can't read that part of it. God bless President Donald J. Trump. Highland says, yes, the camera crew was great.

That was the best part. I was hoping that Ilhan Omar clip would be the part of it. where as soon as he mentioned Somali fraud, they just cut over to Ilhan Omar. They had the camera ISOed on her. It's like the only time that a, the state of the union is like the only time that the cameras in Congress are on par with like Sunday night football

where they have the camera ready for every eventuality and they think they just have impeccable timing. They knew that might come up. They had it ready to go. You can picture the studio. Go. Put it on Ilhan. Put it on Omar.

Well, this reminds me of when they were, having the whole vacated speaker. Matt Gates talked about this a lot, how it was actually kind of awesome to watch C-SPAN for once, because instead of just the shot, you know, a lot of, let me break the secret here and all the members of Congress have madame, but they typically have the shot where the camera's up high pointing down

so that people can't see that they're debating in an empty chamber, right? And so this is like the one night, like you said, where the control room is they've got everybody kind of pinpointed and where they want to be. And obviously once they get, you know, pre-recording of the speech, then they're probably mapping it out like a producer would do to figure out where they're going to go. So I, once again, kudos to the cameraman and the camera crew here. Yeah. And I think that was part of, one of the best parts is Trump just calling them out

straight to their face multiple times, especially on the transgender issue and they refused to stand for that girl, the transition, where became a guy and then went back to being a girl. And you just like, he's looked at him and it was like, you guys are crazy people. Um, That's something that he didn't do last year that I feel like actually kind of helps just calling him out straight to their face. With the transgender lawmaker right there. Yeah, and then they showed the dude in the dress or whatever. Looked pretty sour. Yeah, the best part is that Trump actually said, I put up a video on this and it was like he actually said to them,

I'm going to ask you to stand up if you agree with this. You know, he took a pause, went into his statement. And that way it wasn't just, oh, look, they're not standing. even though I said something that 90% of Americans agree with, he gave them the opportunity to stand. He kind of set the scene. And I honestly think, guys, I think this is going to be the biggest moment

or the biggest message that we have to control the narrative on for the 2026 midterms, which is, do you think that the duty of the American government is to first stand with American citizens over illegal immigrants? And to have not one Democrat stand up. I just think that's extremely powerful. We have your clip on this from a few minutes ago. So let's put that up 444.

If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. First duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not the legal area. Come on, they all got to stand. They all got to stand. There's no way they're that stupid. Oh, my gosh.

Are you kidding me? Keep the chant going. These idiots. folks we might have a chance in 2026 they have yet to learn you cannot refuse to say that you support American citizens over illegals you represent we the people the American citizens this right here gives us a shot to win big in 26 not one Democrat standing up you can't write this stuff hopefully they're they're ready enough to like there's a good way to cut that into an ad i do feel Like that's a good midterm message, but...

Yeah. Who knows? It's a strange country. We're looking over at the cameras. Abigail Spanberger is delivering the Democrat response. I guess it's hard to tell at a glance whether it's pre-taped, but my understanding is it usually is, though maybe not in this case. I'm not sure. Especially since she's not in Congress.

It doesn't matter as much. But obviously it's pre-written, so it's not really reacting to anything the president specifically did. But we'll see how that gets reviewed. We don't care about watching that. right now because she's lame. She's the perfect Democrat model. I mean, it kind of makes sense. Of course, they make her

do the speech for them in that she pretended to be a moderate and then went insane as soon as she got into power. That's their same game plan that they're trying to run out in 26. Zuzuzis asks, can we get the USA hockey team to run for Congress only if they're over 25, otherwise they are constitutionally

ineligible to run for Congress, but I imagine most of them are. They should all be old. I assume. Who knows? But we have Wiser T. God bless Erica, heart and three prayer hands. We have virtuously meet. Please do not put that communist spangler on here.

We will not. We're not doing that. You guys can change the channel if you want to listen to weird Virginia commies rattle on about things. One quick comment about the awkwardness of some of these USA hockey players, they play for teams in Canada. So they were interviewing. I think one of them just did a Fox interview. I think it's the goal.

I think he plays from Winnipeg. And so he's got to go back to Canada now as this American hero that stole the cup from the Canadians. That's going to be a fun trip. Yeah, I don't really follow hockey much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only when the playoffs come around. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, Stars for Charlie says literally just joined because I've been at church all night. I'm sure I missed a lot. You missed a great shout out to Charlie from the president. You'll want to catch that. You can find that on next, or you'll be able to definitely catch it on our show tomorrow. We'll be playing that plenty of times, I am sure.

You miss the president getting Al Green. He kicked himself out. He voluntarily walked himself out. I don't know. Yeah, you missed, I guess, I'm thinking of other big topics out there. He talked about the economy. He talked about home ownership. I'm kicking myself that I didn't put on my bingo card,

what I thought he might do, which was both talk about helping people afford homes, but without lowering the home prices of anyone who currently owns a home. That is a line the president has used from time to time. It's definitely walking a tight rope on how housing is in this country, which is frankly one reason it does get so expensive is, yeah. We say we want affordable housing, but if you own a house, not really. No, they don't.

So he talked about that. What was that? How about the shots? I mean, is it me or did it feel as if there were more Democrats asleep? and maybe once again the camera guys were just feeling a little you know yeah we had a sleep counter going on the office I think we count at least three to four people asleep

yeah we need term moments folks you heard it here first was Mitch McConnell there I didn't see him but he was probably asleep but he's definitely getting rather feeble yeah he's in bed by six o'clock so I don't think he made it yeah I didn't see in there let's see let's check on next if Mitch McConnell

was he there's just people still missing in action people are saying so I guess I guess he wasn't there and then we had Hank Johnson either asleep or closing his eyes yeah it seems it seems like it was that let's see oh I did like him Angelo predicted that we would get a slam on Nancy Pelosi and I thought no way Nancy's not even the Democrat leader

anymore she's retiring how often you hear about her but he was right and we were wrong. He threw in that dunk on Nancy Pelosi, and I don't know if she was there either. Was she there? Yeah, she was there. Okay, all right. She was probably pretty intoxicated as usual,

but yep, she was there. Probably sleeping in some of them. Well, you know what's weird when they went to her, there was this congresswoman next to her who was like definitely asleep. And I don't want to say too much about Nancy. We've attacked her enough over the past decade, but she was looking rough.

I'll just leave it that. it was not great for her. There was no Andrew's citing, though. No Andrew citing. Yeah, I did have it on there if we would see. And he was the guest of a congressman there. I'm not sure where he was in there, but they did not incidentally catch him.

So that would have gotten me close to a bingo. If I'd gotten that, I would have needed a backhanded compliment. But Trump, he didn't do that. Trump was very positive about all those guys. He appointed JD, the Somali fraud investigator at large for a

which I think will be a rather thankless job, but it is an important one and a good one. And finally, there was a job created that wasn't given to Marco Rubio, who also got a shot out. He said a lot about Marco Rubio, who was really touting the Secretary of State there. And, you know, it was very positive vibes for his admin. Didn't call out Thomas Massey.

We didn't see any, like, I didn't notice any Epstein stuff in terms of people shouting it or... They had the pins, though. All the Democrats had the theater pins. That's their big message. But, yeah. Massey was sitting next to Nancy Mace. I did catch a couple glimpses in him.

But, yeah, Trump didn't go into that. Yeah, I'm certainly not surprised he didn't. He did bring up eight wars, which included some ones. It's funny to make up the list like Egypt and Ethiopia. They get to eight through some somewhat creative accounting. Yeah, Blake was like, some of these aren't even wars. Yeah, well, it's a state of high tension. Yeah.

You know, if you're going for the Nobel Peace Prize, you. He was campaigning. See, I had that on my bingo board and he never mentioned. He did not mention that. He did not mention that and he did not mention Greenland. He did not mention quite a few foreign policy things, which I think is right. We kind of are thinking he should pivot

towards domestic stuff. And that is largely what he did. Howdy, Blake here. You know, in moments like this, truth really matters. The truth was important to Charlie. So we want to share with you a new documentary that's caught our attention.

not because it's political, but because it refuses to shy away from the questions that so many Americans are still asking. It exposes the truth. Thank you, Dr. Fauci is a hard-hitting investigative docu-thriller from award-winning filmmaker Jenner First. He digs through thousands of documents, sits down with scientists, intelligence insiders, and whistleblowers, and exposes what may be one of the most significant public health cover-ups of our lifetimes. This film isn't about scoring partisan political points. It's about transparency, accountability, and the courage to follow the evidence, wherever it leads. If you've ever wondered what really happened behind closed doors, this is something you need to see for yourself. Angel Studios was the only platform willing to

release it, and that's because you, not Hollywood, decide what gets made. Join the Angel Guild today at angel.com slash Charlie Kirk. Become a member and stream. Thank you, Dr. Fauci today. Which award did he say he would give him? Is it the presidential medal of honor? What award did he say he would give himself if he was able to? I think the medal of honor. I think he was saying he would give himself the medal of honor if he was able to, if the loophole closed or if the loophole opened or whatever it was.

But they told him he can't and it's, you know, it's for valor in the armed forces. So I think that's just kind of the usual Trump cheekiness. I don't think people got too upset about that. But two medals of honor. I think we've awarded one medal of honor before, but I don't know that we've done two. Or have we awarded it to someone living? I think they've awarded it to a widow, I believe, perhaps during the state of the union?

I don't know. I can find out. Yeah, we should check on that. But it's almost like there's almost awards inflation. Like where do you go from a Medal of Freedom and two medals of honor in one state of the union address? Yeah, and I'll also add this. I do think that, you know, the quips and kind of the ability for Trump to handle him to, himself to obviously go off script at certain points, not in a bad way. I just mean, you know, to work the room.

I think the American people, you know, that's a big reason why he's gotten elected, right? Is he's able to connect. He's able to talk. He's able to just kind of free flowing in a way that most politicians can't do, right? We learned this at the 2016 debates, you know, it was like, who's this guy who's not a politician that's a TV star, you know, he knows how to really carry himself and work the room. And that connects to the normies. So on a night like tonight, when so many non-political people, people that are just trying to pay their mortgage, take their kids to basketball practice. He had that audience tonight, and I think his demeanor really carried well to connect with that crowd. Yes, and some stuff where he might have been amped up, he didn't get

as combative as you might have thought. He did, he did mention the Supreme Court on the tariff case, but considering how clearly close to his heart that was and how he was pretty peeped, he basically just said, oh, you know, it wasn't a ruling I cared for. Like, he was, he was, he was disagreeing with it, but it was not hyper aggressive. And then he pivoted to what I think you'd want, which is he's saying, we're still going to get the same trade deals with countries, that we're achieving what we wanted with the tariffs, with the tariffs that we imposed in the year past. And we're going to do that. All right. I'm just getting notified. We have Andrew on the phone. Andrew was just in the house chamber. They confiscated his phone from him as he was going in, but he has

now recovered it. Andrew, what was it like inside the chamber? Well, hey guys. Yeah, thanks, Blake. On back. It's pretty weird, actually. They let the press have all of their devices. And for some reason, you know, the guests that have been invited there don't get them. But inside, it was amazingly electric, honestly. And I was kind of peering right over at the vantage point I had was looking right at Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar constantly throwing out random comments. most time you couldn't cure them because the chamber was drowning them out. But it was actually, I don't know what it was like on TV, but actually live in the venue, they literally would not shut up.

They just kept yammering on and on and on and throwing out, you know, references to Alex Freddie and Renee Good. And it kept hearing them say, you're killing American citizens, which I was assuming meant them. But they just, it was just a really raucous crowd. side. I think the two standout moments for me were the U.S. men's hockey team. It was just, I mean, literally the energy and the volume of it was extraordinary inside that chamber. And then the helicopter pilot, you know, getting awarded the Medal of Honor. It was just a really amazing

moment. There was not a dry eye in my section where I was. It was truly, truly a special honor to be able to witness in person. It's a much smaller space than people realize on TV. And so you just feel crammed in with this whole room full of huge emotions. And of course, I have to mention when President Trump honored Erica and Charlie, you know, we were, our whole section started cheering Charlie, Charlie Channing his name. And that was a beautiful moment as well. So really a special night.

That sounds great. Blake, I found it it was the first time tonight during the speech that the Medal of Honor was awarded during the State of the Union. First time, all right. And they did it twice. Yeah, and they did it twice. Quick question.

Yeah, no, it was, it was, go ahead. No, anything that surprised you, I mean, obviously, being able to experience that, being in the room, anything that, like, stood out as, like, you didn't expect. I mean, you mentioned it's smaller than you think or when you watch on TV, but anything that kind of, you know, you weren't expecting. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's a lot of yelling. There's a lot of like whooping and hollering and the members down on the floor, you know, they get really into it, you know, and, and you can hear people across the chamber talking.

You know, I'm assuming that's by design, you know, when it was built, people needed to be able to hear each other across the room. So it's a very intimate space. Like I was actually on the other end from Erica, but, you know, I felt like I could kind of wave at her and see her and she could wave back. And, you know, it was a, you know, I saw Michael Knowles like a couple rows away from me. And it's just very small. It's just very intimate. And so when people are having open conflict and shouting at each other, I mean, it's, it's, you know, intense. I saw Steve Scalese try and rip out Al Green's, you know, black people are not apes, a little troll protest, try to try to rip it out of his hands.

I saw the congressman from New York Malatakis tell another congressman. to shut up. It's like, I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's really in your face. It's kind of raw, uh, politics. And you sort of wonder how, how often these people are actually around each other because there's a lot of pent-up conflict and frustration. You could feel it. Uh, it's, it's just palpable inside the room. How long, sort of a dumb question. How long, how early do you have to get there for the state of the union? Is it a lot of waiting? Yeah. Actually, uh, so we came in through the cannon building and then there was a, a, a, uh, tunnel and they tell you have to get in by like 730 and then they they take your phone away

and then you sit in there for you know I don't I don't actually know what the start time was because I couldn't look at a watch or didn't have my phone and you're just kind of sitting in there and then you know it's quite a process but then and then the vice president filters in and then the Senate and then you know and then the kind of on and on it goes but I mean you have to get there well in advance. I mean, I was having a conversation with my seat mates, my seat neighbors. You don't know who you're going to sit next to you. You know, there was a union boss from, a steel union boss from Ohio there. And there was a, there was a oil, oil guy near me. I saw Congressman Brandon Gill came by and brought me waters. It was just, you know, you're kind of,

Abe Homiday said hi, Lauren Boward. It was, you know, it was, it takes a while to happen. But then, you know, all of a sudden, next thing you know, they're gaveling in and the president enters. So it moves, but it's like you have to get there well in advance. What did you make? We were discussing, what did you make just of the, I guess, the message of the speech, what issues he focused on? Do you think there's anything that was left unsaid? Do you think there's anything that he particularly nailed well? What did you make of that?

Yeah, you know what was interesting, Blake, and we talked about this on the show quite a bit, was that he went straight at those Fabrizio polling points, right? He hit the stock ban, stock trading ban in Congress. He mentioned Nancy Pelosi. That's the interesting thing because you kind of spot all these people in the room. So when he brings up, you know, transgender ideology stuff, you look right at Congress men, McBride. You know, when he mentions Nancy Pelosi, you're able to look right at Nancy. But yeah, so he hit the stock trading ban.

He talked about transparency in health care. He talked about Trump RX. I mean, he kind of did the Fabrizio talking points. It's interesting that they they, they, they, they wove those populist kind of totem items. They wove them into the speech and he's messaging on them. I think it's important. It kind of echoes back to that no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social securities, these kind of anchor tent pull items that give kind of normal Americans,

Main Street Americans who aren't following this stuff every day, something to kind of be like, oh, well, you know, President Trump helped me. and it's something I can point to. So that to me was interesting that he did that. You know, I thought, you know, the other thing I was looking for, Blake, honestly, because you have brought it up on the show so many times is, you know, how's he going to sell Iran? And I thought he did a very interesting, you know, presentation of that,

kind of weaving in the dead protesters, the fact that it's been American policy for, you know, decades that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. So I think he did, I think I give him. him a B on the Iran sale. I'm still not, you know, totally there, but I thought he at least did a serviceable job. And I think that the messaging war on that front will still need to continue. But I thought it was interesting. Nonetheless. Yeah, it overall, I would say Iran didn't strike me as a very big part of his speech. It was there almost because it had to be. But I feel

he he could have probably said just about the exact same thing if we weren't on the brink of war at the ran. So I think you're right. I think there probably will be need to be additional messaging if something is about to happen there as seems quite plausible still. Cliff, you haven't said anything for a while. Any new thoughts? Andrew, how uncomfortable were the seats? Very. Yeah, the seats are built for like 18th century Americans pre-fast food. I'm pretty sure the gentleman next to me was in his 60s and is probably 100, you know,

centa-millionaire oil tycoon from Texas. And I kept bumping into him. My suit was getting in his seat. Because you're standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down. And I was like, you know, felt bad for the guy because I'm pretty sure he hasn't been subjected to such tight spaces in quite some time. But yeah, it's small. It's tiny. and it's hot, you know, because you're on the upper balcony, so it's hot up there.

I'm told it's much colder and cooler down on the floor, but yeah, it's, it's a, it's a, almost like a sauna up on that, on that top balcony. Did you notice any funny guests that maybe weren't highlighted beforehand? You saw, you mentioned Knowles. Say that again? Did you notice any funny guests that were there, like maybe that you didn't expect? Oh, yeah. Or just that were a little surprising.

No, I mean, listen, there was a lot more cowboy hats up there than I was anticipating. That was one thing I noticed. You know, I just was kind of the most of the time I was honestly just looking down onto the floor to see kind of what the Democrats were doing, you know, to see who was willing to clap. I mean, it's really stunning how rare it is for them to stand, you know. And I think that's an unfortunate reality for our country. So, yeah, I mean, Knowles was kind of the standout. I was pretty focused on my immediate proximity. but, you know, it was just, it's just a very interesting perspective to just be looking down, watching them react.

And frankly, I just have to say one more time, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Thelieb were very disgraceful in the way they just kept interrupting. And then eventually, you know, they walked out probably five, ten minutes before the, you know, the helicopter pilot received the Medal of Honor. So, I mean, it was honestly, it was a relief when they left. But again, it makes me sad as an American to see the ranks on that side of the aisle dwindling, you know, as we go here year by year. Yeah, I mean, that, and I think one of the craziest parts is how they all stayed seated Democrats when Irina's mother was in tears and they were Trump was doing that. Yeah, and they were all staying seated. I think was that when he turned to them and said, you guys are crazy or was that on a separate thing? Yes.

Yeah, he says, why can you not stand for that? I'm pretty sure that's when he had that moment. And I think that was one of the more powerful politically. There was one of the more powerful moments in the room. And I remember thinking this is not going to look good for them. Because Arena was a war refugee. I thought they were the party that supports refugees. And they can't stand for her parents and for her death, even though, you know, she's from Ukraine.

I thought you guys support the war in Ukraine and funding it endlessly. Like, I mean, what are we doing here? Just because Trump is honoring her, you can't bring yourself to stand up and honor her. It was really, there was around my section, there was people just, you know, drop-jawed kind of mumbling. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. So I knew that that moment hit powerfully on at home and on TV. Because in the room, it was definitely an elevated response.

I'm actually curious what you guys thought, watching it from your perspective, you know, not in the room, what moments played the best on television. That's kind of what I'm curious about right now. Yeah, I think definitely that played the best. And then also just Trump calling them out to their face on when they would refuse to stand or clap. Like we played a clip of Cliff earlier reacting to them, just refusing to clap and stand up for our country.

Yeah, and Andrew, I'll give you a little more on that. The clip we played is when he literally said to them, I'm going to give you an opportunity to stand to show your support for this statement. And the statement was just, you know, hey, as the American government, our first priority is American citizens. And I just, you know,

I might be getting a little excited, but that got me pumped up, right? 2026, I can be a pessimist. I can think, hey, we're, you know, we're going to be in trouble. A lot of the numbers don't look great. That was a moment that made me think, you know what?

If this is the sentiment of the Democrat leaders, it's an open door for us. Yeah. No, you're right. That was a real powerful. I actually kind of didn't cure it right at first. And then I didn't know what he said because it was a novel way to approach an applause line in the, in the, you know, in that speech. But then I, you know, I saw from the reaction of the members on the floor that, you know, a gauntlet had been thrown and he was leaning into it.

And then I leaned over to somebody. I was like, what did he say? You know, and I kind of gathered that it was like a, you know, do you stand with America moment? and that we need you know government's compact with its people is that we put them first and yeah I think that's I think that's a powerful line in the sand and it's something that's going to be brought up again and again and again totally agree hi folks Andrew Colvette here I'd like to tell you about my friends over at Y Reefi you've probably been hearing me talk about Y Refi for some time now we are all in with these guys if you or someone you know is struggling with private student

loan debt take my advice and give them a call maybe you're behind on your payments, maybe you're even in default. You don't have to live in this nightmare anymore. Y Refi will provide you a custom payment based on your ability to pay. They tailor each loan individually. They can save you thousands of dollars and you can get your life back. We go to campuses all over America and we see student after student who's drowning in private student loan debt. Many of them don't even know how much they owe.

YREFI can help. Just go to yrefi.com. That's the letter Y refi. then refi.com. And remember, why Refi doesn't care what your credit score is, just go to whyrefi.com and tell them your friend Andrews sent you. We don't want to go too much longer, but we did want to get the hockey clip because we didn't play it earlier.

So this is Team USA's arrival on the scene, 445. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made. the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Come on in. That's the first time I've ever seen them get up.

And actually, not all of them did get up. But they beat a fantastic Canadian team and overtime, as everybody saw, as did the American women who will soon be coming to the White House. That was pretty good. That's really interesting in hearing it. Yeah. We have Jack now. That was really interesting hearing it from the...

Oh, all right. Oh, no, no. Hey, what's up, guys? Go ahead, Andrew. What's up, man? I hope you had a fun night there. It looks like you had a great time. That was a good one, man.

It was fantastic. Tons of energy, I will tell you. But that was one of those moments where the gallery erupted in applause as Trump was still talking. So I actually couldn't make out what he was saying. The acoustics in the room are such. that you can't hear. You just kind of hear him reference the hockey team

and then everybody starts exploding and applause. So it was actually great to hear kind of how he finished that off and he powered through the applause. I think it made the moment even better for you guys watching it at home and in the studio because I couldn't hear any of it. But I just, you know, I knew we were celebrating the hockey team. So I just lost my mind and started shouting

and whistling and clapping. So that's a beautiful moment. No, Andrew, is it true? I had a report from some house interns that you tried to steal one of the gold medals and the hockey team actually knocked one of your teeth out. Is that true? I'm going to have to take a day after the show tomorrow to get some dental work, but it's a good thing we are in America because we have the best dentists.

We have the best sentences. So I'm going to get these puppies fixed up. It's going to be great. It was actually when I bit the gold it broke off that way. Oh, okay. You're making sense. the capacity. No, I mean, this was, it was, it was so much more than just a speech. This was made for TV. This is what Donald Trump is best at. He leaned into spectacle. He leaned into greatness.

You saw the intensity of emotion, the full display of the American people from champions to heroes, to families of the fallen, you know, a hero from Camp Mystic. It's just all over the country, so many different things. War heroes and everyday heroes. You look at this and it's like, if you're some normie, I just, just to finish the point, if you're some normie who's watching this, you're going, I like that team. I like what I see here. I want more of this.

I want to be part of that thing. That's the goal. And that's, I think, he achieved on all fronts. Totally. I totally agree. It felt like a big family there in the upper gallery. I will tell you, you know, you saw the conflict playing out on the floor. but like in the gallery it was just unanimous it was just it was absolutely everybody felt bonded together

you know i i said there was a couple moments that stood out but really you you just reminded me of all the it was so packed with personal stories that it was it's hard to keep track of them on thinking about the young girl that uh is learning to walk again because she was hit by an illegal driver with a cdl out of yeah out of california and man i got teared up when i saw that story it was so powerful, you know, when the, you know, the Venezuelan uncle Enrique, when he got reunited with his niece, I mean, that was powerful. There was just so many little moments that it's hard to really parse through, but you're right. It kind of comes together in this giant mosaic that says, I want to, I love this team. These are the people that love this country and are standing with the real people.

And I think that came, that message came through loud and clear tonight. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's inspirational. It's just inspirational. And it's America at our best, America at our worst, so many different moments of, you know, using that emotion. And you know what you didn't hear Donald Trump say a lot tonight? You didn't hear Donald Trump use the word I a lot. He didn't really talk about himself that much. He barely talked about the work of the cabinet. I think, you know, Marco got a shout out, JD, and that's pretty much it. You know, we were expecting, I think, coming in a lot of people to hear, well, it's the golden age, everything is good, et cetera. But what he put on was a tour to force. I said on Twitter, and I'm going to stand by this. I really mean it. That speech was not a home run. That was a home run derby.

And this state of the union, it's the best state of the union I've ever seen. And this was a speech that will make you fall in love with America all over again. And speaking of that, we want to make a, I got to make it to make it to. my way over to Statuary Hall, so I got a dash. But what really well said, Jack and Blake and Cliff and Danny, thanks for holding it down. And God bless you guys. We'll see you tomorrow morning. All right.

We'll see you tomorrow. We want to get one more clip in, I think, before we head out. And I'll scan to see if we have any more thoughts from the chat. But let's do the clip of one of the veterans receiving the Medal of Honor. This is the 100-year-old one, 446. That guy was looking pretty good for his age. We got a donation from Rifleman, 1007. Only way the hockey team entrance could get better

was if they hammered some beers as they did it. That's definitely the Cash Patel strategy. Probably not the Charlie strategy, but it would be more memorable if they'd done it. It would have been entertaining. It would be memorable. Blake, so I was trying to look this up earlier, you know, just AI, whatever, using GROC.

I don't think that I certainly can't remember a Medal of Honor ever being awarded, let alone two, at the State of the Union before. Have you ever heard of that or do you guys remember anything like that being done before? Yeah, we looked it up and this was the first time it had ever been done. And he did it twice. I mean, just as a guy who served the military. So do you understand how hard it is to get a Medal of Honor and the amount of honors bestowed on that?

That it's you need to be in a situation where you probably, are supposed to die, where you're probably going to be killed. This is why so many of, you know, and you do so and you go above and beyond the call of duty. So you save the lives of others. You finish the mission, even in a situation where you probably could have died or did die. And this is why so many medals of honor are, of course, awarded posthumously. And in addition to that, you need two witnesses to be able to do so. And I had actually heard this story about the Maduro raid. I don't even know if it was all public, but the fact that they did shoot up the leg of the helicopter pilot on the way in, the part of the Chinook. So, I mean, the entire mission could have

been a failure. Every single soldier could have been killed on the infill, so on the way in, and he refused to allow that to happen. He refused to let down his fellow men. He continued the mission, came home. And look, the Medal of Honor, that's the only award that's worn around the neck. It's the only award that's authorized to be worn in any clothing so that you don't have to have your uniform on. You can wear any, you know, suit, et cetera. And one of the, just, just on a personal level, I think, has always touched me, is that no matter what rank you are, if you see someone wearing the Medal of Honor, even if you're, you know, a hundred pay grades above them, you are still required to salute the Medal of Honor no matter who wears it because of what they

did and what that award stands for. Very nice. Very nice. And the mission he did was interesting. It was he shot down four Soviet Mig fighters in a classified 1952 operation. It's like top gun, but in the 50s, basically. Very, very

impressive guy, very impressive moment. As usual, like we said, Trump, very aware of the stagecraft. We were joking as he walked out that he had the puff on his hair, but I think everyone forgot about that pretty much the moment he started speaking, which I think is a good measure of how the speech went overall.

I don't think we have too much to say extra. It was a strong speech. It went well. He hit all of the big topics. And it seems like the audience really liked it, which is good. Yeah, overall, you got to please them. Yeah, he hit the domestic issues that he needed to hit for the voters and for the midterm. So yeah, I think it was he hit all the boxes.

Sounds great. Foreign policy, think of it. He didn't bring up foreign policy until about 90 minutes into the speech, only stayed there for a little bit. You know, you could see him making that sort of pitch that Iran is this hostile actor, that they are a hostile force, that, you know, obviously, like we talked about earlier with the Sword of Damocles that's out there. And look, I'm just going to say it, you know, I said going in that the White House would have a challenge of being able to come up with, ways to get beyond the sort of Damocles. Not only did they surpass it, they destroyed it. You know, they were able to create through these moments, through these made-for-TV moments, a way to get people to focus on the stories through showing the personal, you know, just the individuals who were involved in them. And of course, you know, Erica being there with the mother

of Arina Zarutka, I mean, just, just an incredible moment. you know, regardless of your politics, I don't care who you are. I mean, that's got to make you tear up when you see the two of them together and realize what they both went through in the same period of time. And, you know, I went and looked it up. Charlie's last tweet, Charlie's very last tweet, two hours before that bullet rang out, was about Arena Zarutka. And, you know, he'd been tweeting quite a bit about it that day and in the days prior.

So, you know, this was something that was on his mind. and the fact that the two of them came together is it's phenomenal you think of the logistics of getting everyone together let alone getting people from a war zone all the way to the state of the union it's it's just incredible job by the white house all around was it was anything else final thoughts uh cliff no great home run speech uh i thought his temperament was great i thought he hit on everything you needed to and look we've got our marching orders for 2026 i think the narrative's been set and I think Jack's right to hit on a lot of things that connect with people and it's you know it's going to be up to us we got to go out there and do the work so great night all around

all right and girl says I loved speaker Mike Johnson's facial expressions throughout the speech supportive congenial and appropriately disapproving at the right moments amen it was a strong speech I think I didn't get a bingo, but I'm pretty satisfied despite that. I didn't even come close, but. And it was strong, and we'll have more to say about it tomorrow. And we'll also find out what the heck the Democrats said, if anything of note. It's probably just really annoying, but we have to go find that out. So we'll have to go watch it so all of you don't have to.

But for all of you tuned in, thanks for watching. That was a long state of the union. It's almost midnight on the East Coast. It's almost 10 p.m. even here in Phoenix. So we need to get our. crew. They've had a very long day, so we need to get them some rest so we can do the show tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who tuned in. And we'll see all of you soon. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.