The Iced Coffee Hour - "Follow The Money!" Charlie Kirk Breaks Silence On Government Corruption, Fake News, & Getting Rich

Episode Date: June 29, 2025

Oracle: Right now, with zero commitment, try OCI for free at https://oracle.com/iced Helium Mobile: Sign up (even for the FREE plan) & get $10 in Cloud Points with code COFFEE: https://app.heliummobi...le.com/o6WA/4jqp0oe5 Rocket Money: Try Rocket Money for free https://RocketMoney.com/iced OpusClip: Enter the contest and get free credits at https://www.opus.pro/clip-the-future Hillsdale College: Go to https://hillsdale.edu/ICH for FREE, easy to get started classes! Follow Charlie Kirk : Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@UCfaIu2jO-fppCQV_lchCRIQ Website - https://www.tpusa.com/ On Instagram - instagram.com/charliekirk1776 On X - x.com/charliekirk11 Apply To The Index Mastermind: https://entertheindex.com Add us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan Official Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeBQ24VfikOriqSdKtomh0w For sponsorships or business inquiries reach out to: tmatsradio@gmail.com For Podcast Inquiries, please DM @icedcoffeehour on Instagram! Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:13 - TPUSA’s first investor 00:07:11 - How campus debates started 00:08:25 - Debating - ideas vs. rhetoric 00:12:18 - Is college still worth it? 00:15:11 - Building wealth in America 00:18:10 - Is poverty circumstantial or personal? 00:18:29 - Sponsor - Oracle 00:19:38 - Sponsor - Helium Mobile 00:21:05 - Conservatives dont discuss wealth inequality 00:22:10 - Should financial literacy be taught in schools? 00:28:16 - Can you build wealth on $40K/year salary? 00:30:22 - How to hire the right people 00:34:42 - Charlies personal finances 00:39:00 - Sponsor - RocketMoney 00:40:02 - Sponsor - OpusClip 00:41:15 - Where does your motivation come from? 00:44:26 - His sacrifices to be successful 00:46:48 - Efficiency hacks 00:49:16 - Revenue streams 00:51:20 - Does $ = happiness? 00:52:42 - Should politicians be allowed to invest? 00:55:03 - Gov official insider trading 00:57:14 - Trump’s meme coin a problem? 00:58:02 - Thoughts on Bitcoin 01:00:02 - Is national debt a serious issue? 01:01:39 - Did DOGE fail? 01:06:03 - US Dollar crisis 01:08:24 - Sponsor - Hillsdale College 01:09:49 - Top 3 issues we need to focus on 01:12:47 - Newsom debate 01:15:31 - How to fix California 01:19:24 - What the media gets wrong 01:22:29 - What creates Republicans vs Democrats 01:24:25 - Should voting requirements change? 01:25:01 - Problems with modern dating 01:43:44 - Rapid fire questions *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:30 pressure is a beautiful thing. You want to have a debate, but you actually don't defeat. Put up or shut up, Charlie Kurt. It is easy to interrupt and to scold and to insult. You know what's hard? I have to go to a college campus and defend ideas that are in the minority of a lot of these kids. I mean, I don't like any elite. One of the things that I've been confused about is why financial literacy is never taught in schools.
Starting point is 00:00:53 If you want to have people remain super poor and dependent on the government, don't teach them financial literacy. It's inexcusable. Why do you think conservatives generally stay silent on wealth inequality? So the question shouldn't be like how many rich people are. The question is how easy is it to move up the socioeconomic ladder? That's the more important metric. And that's actually becoming harder. So that's a really important conversation.
Starting point is 00:01:14 Here's the key. Poverty is human norm. Wealth is the exception. How do you get wealthy is the most important economic issue in front of us. If you want like the secret to get rich, it's actually not super hard. Charlie Kirk, thank you so much. for coming on the ice coffee hour. Thank you guys.
Starting point is 00:01:35 I'm a big fan. I've seen a lot of your clips, and so it's great to be sitting down. That means a lot. In 2012, when you were just 18 years old at the Republican National Convention, you approached billionaire Foster Free. Yes, I did.
Starting point is 00:01:47 And you asked him to help you out with your idea, Turning Point USA. What was the conclusion of that conversation and what did that teach you about life and risk? Wow, it's a great question. So I was just recently graduated from high school. I wanted to go to West Point before that. Didn't get in.
Starting point is 00:02:03 and ended up being one of the greatest things that never happened to me. And so I went to the Republican National Convention. I studied like all the major donors. I had to kind of like sneak my way into the R&C grounds, if you will. And I, at the fourth day, I was so demoralized. I was like, oh, this is not working. I have this idea for Turning Point USA, which basically the idea was to try to win over young people around conservative ideas. And I was in a stairwell, literally a stairwell.
Starting point is 00:02:30 And so, and then I saw Foster Freeze doing like a podcast interview with this major cowboy hat on. And I gave him the stairwell pitch. You know, people talk about the elevator pitch. I gave him a stairwell pitch. And he told a couple jokes. He was the sweetest, most godly, incredible person ever. He was actually took me seriously because here I was 18 years old, no money, no connections, no idea what I was doing. And no reason that he should be listening to me. And this guy, for people that know, Foster Freeze started from nothing in rural, I think it was like Rice Lake, Wisconsin, became like the top mutual fund manager for like 30 years, the brand of one fund out of Delaware, like legendary stuff, right?
Starting point is 00:03:06 So he's someone that gets pitched all the time. His life is to listen to pitches. Ten times a day, top companies would come in and try to pitch foster freeze. Can you have your couple billion dollars assets under management to buy Coca-Cola or to buy United Airlines? So he's constantly getting pitches. So here I am pitching a guy, a legend, about, you know, this organization that I wanted to start, Turning Point USA, and he took me so seriously. And he wrote me a $10,000 check.
Starting point is 00:03:31 And that was like the seed funding. It wasn't shares, it wasn't like equity. It was just a donation because we were 501C3. And it might as well have been $100 million, right? It finally was enough for me to be able to start a website, to have gas in the car. And yeah, then from there, the journey just started. And he became a bigger and bigger donor. What do you think he saw on you?
Starting point is 00:03:51 Well, he probably saw someone that was passionate enough and crazy enough. And honestly, he probably saw someone that was really, like, naive to a great extent that I still wanted to get into this like broken political space, but I didn't know any better. And in Foster's own words, he said, he saw someone with focus and determination and a Midwestern work ethic. So he was from Wisconsin and I was from Northern Illinois. So we kind of had that in common. And look, I live in Arizona now and I love Arizona, but I have like a huge Midwestern bias.
Starting point is 00:04:21 I think Midwestern work ethic is like the best on the planet and nothing against other people in the country, but there is something very special about how we're raised in the Midwest and kind of that idea that we're going to outwork everybody. and that's always been who I am. I'm going to do more events and more speaking and more podcasting, more radio interviews and more donor meetings, and that's kind of been the ethos. So, yeah, I mean, I don't want to put words in his mouth.
Starting point is 00:04:40 He passed away, unfortunately, a couple years ago. But no, he was a great friend. And you asked the question, what did it teach me about risk? Is that right? Risk in life, yeah. Well, honestly, I had nothing to really risk because I had nothing to lose. And so that's like that. Well, that's, I mean, that's a nerve-wracking thing.
Starting point is 00:04:55 A lot of people are presented with opportunities to talk with someone, get their foot in the door for some opportunity. Sure. So what are you losing, though? like your own like getting over the embarrassment of rejection I know but like it's not losing anything right I mean that's in life if you think about it like okay if you're actually if you're second mortgaging your house like some entrepreneurs are I don't have like one of those stories right I'm sure you guys talk to some of these people I was on the second mortgage in my house and I couldn't feed my kids that's actually not my story that is something to lose this is like the only thing you have to lose is your own sense of comfort that's kind of weird when you think about it right I mean oh I'm not going to ask that girl out why well because I'm comfortable in my own corner. Comfort will not bring you success, actually. I won't bring you excellence. Like, only in that place of uncomfort and discomfort do you actually get to the next level.
Starting point is 00:05:39 So why do so many people believe the exact opposite of that, that they feel like that's a big risk for them to go and do that? Like, why don't more people think like you? Because I agree with you, I think. Well, first of all, like, I mean, it is risk in the sense that we as human beings do desire comfort and we want to kind of be in a place where we can have certainty above uncertainty. and going and asking a question, or going and asking a top billionaire for money, you have the probability of failure, and we are very failure-averse as a species.
Starting point is 00:06:10 And honestly, we should be, like, you think about 5,000 years ago, you have, you know, two kids, and you're living in, like, Mesopotamia, and you're like, well, I hope there's food over that hill, and if you're wrong, your whole family could die. So, like, that's embedded into our species, right? God designed us in a way where there was not a lot of food all the place.
Starting point is 00:06:32 So now you kind of extrapolate that kind of genetic wiring where we used to be in the wilderness to Foster freeze. And you think you're like, wow, Foster tells me no. My whole life's going to actually, no, you're going to be fine. Like you could go and still eat food and you're not going to die. And so I think we have to overcome our genetic hardwiring where so many people think that it's like a life or death situation. I can't ask this girl out. I can't go ask for a raise. I can't go to my boss.
Starting point is 00:06:57 I can't assert myself and you have to overcome that because it's actually not that much risk. Now, what is risk is like if there's a material or a reputational thing you're putting on the line. Like, for example, if like you're working for a company and they're like, you're not allowed to express your conservative views and you're like all of a sudden wearing a MAGA hat, that's a risk. I totally get that. But if you're 18 years old and you have no money, no connections, no idea what you're doing, I had nothing to lose. And that's actually one of my main arguments for like why we have so few entrepreneurs nowadays. We have less and less entrepreneurship rates are going down, is we're sending all these kids to college and they're telling you to be risk-averse. Like the whole incentive structure in college is to not pursue big, broad ideas actually to stay rather close.
Starting point is 00:07:39 Speaking of that, that's where I first found your content was you on the college campuses debating. When did that start? And what was the most surprising aspect of that? Yeah. So I've been doing that for 13 years. I haven't been doing that on camera for 13 years. And so, look, the Lord has been so amazing to us and has blessed us in amazing ways. I never would have imagined, like, honestly, ever since, like, I met Foster Freeze that we'd be somewhat of kind of like a household name. I don't want to overextend it. But I mean, there's some serious virality and some real punch behind what we're doing. So I started doing that without even filming it. And so, like, that's what people are like, like, you have.
Starting point is 00:08:15 And that was before, like, mass social media is 13 years ago. It was still there. Honestly, I should have filmed it. It would have went like their trajectory probably would have been even faster. Back in 2012, right? Yes. I mean, like, because that was like raw internet and like it would have been really interesting. But that's how you know I actually believe this stuff is I used to go into bait kids when there was no incentive structure for virality.
Starting point is 00:08:33 I just did it because I loved it and I loved the battle of ideas. And I did it to try to start like a turning point group on campus. And so I've been doing it for 13 years. We started filming it around 2017. We started perfecting the model really around 2021. And then 2023 is when all of a sudden it kind of became a somewhat of culture phenomenon. And then, of course, the last year seems like I can't get out of people's algorithm. So you mentioned that you like the battle of ideas.
Starting point is 00:08:56 is, but one thing that I tend to notice is that whoever has stronger rhetoric, persuasion skills, you know, quick on their feet, quick on their toes, that's going to be the person to win the argument, the debate. Do you feel like these debates have turned into a battle of ideas or just who has stronger rhetoric? That's a good point. I actually have to think, I think about that a lot. So I try to do a couple things and I fail. But if you notice, in the viral videos, I try to put my microphone down, literally physically on the table when the person is asking their question, because I want to try to give them uninterrupted time to be able to make their argument. Number two, there is an advantage that the person coming up to the mic has that they're allowed
Starting point is 00:09:37 to ask any topic, and I don't know what that topic is going to be, and they could prepare profusely on it. But you're right. Of course it's advantage to the guy that does it for a living, right? But understand, like, I have to go to a college campus and defend ideas that are in the minority of a lot of these kids worldview. I have to go to college campus and argue against abortion. Most kids are not against abortion, right? Have you ever had your mind changed from one of these college campus debates? Oh, yeah. I mean, so mind changed is over a period of time,
Starting point is 00:10:05 probably, yes, I would say that I definitely have grown respect for like the thoughtfulness of a lot of international students when it has come to the Russian-Ukraine war. Like definitely. Like, I'm very against U.S. involvement. But like talking to, and they're, they're all public. You can watch them. Like very thoughtful German students and like very thoughtful students from Eastern Europe. Like for them, it's a very existential crisis what's happening. And so like to hear that was something that was very, let's just say, different than what you would hear just on like the usual American political landscape. But yeah, look, I'd say over, I would say that I learn a lot too. And that's what's important. I do 100 hours of this a semester. 100 hours. In addition to two hours of
Starting point is 00:10:49 podcasting radio, right, 250 speeches a year. I got to raise $130 million a year and I got a thousand employees. I got a lot going up, right? I still do 100 hours of content a year. So 200 hours of campus content. And I'm not just like, I try and I fail. Everyone would fail at this, but I try not to just be ready to say what I want to say next. I try to really learn and listen. And then I try to listen back to the footage. And so this is one of the reasons why it's a little bit unfair when I go to these campuses because I've been doing it for literally a thousand hours and these kids are like a college, you know, freshmen. So I try to have at least somewhat of a teacher role to them and try to be a little bit softer, unless if they're coming after me and they're like insulting me and
Starting point is 00:11:29 you've seen it, right? They're just being like totally like Blitzkrieg. It's nice because I feel like you do tend to do that where they might have a hard time articulating a certain philosophical argument, but then you take it for that strongest, you know, derivative or representation of that strongest philosophical argument. And I try to do a better job of that. So look, I, look, everyone fails, right? I mean, look, sometimes it's like 98 degrees outside, and I didn't sleep well because my kids were up all night. And like, it's like the ninth time they're asking about Israel. And I love Israel, but I'm tired of answering questions in Israel. Okay. Like, I love it. It's fine. Like, it's just, but this is not the debate Charlie Kirk on Israel hour. And I'm like, can we have
Starting point is 00:12:04 another topic here? And I might get a little bit mift. Who wouldn't, right? I mean, that's just human. But I will say, like, I try to meet you at the frequency you're at. So if they're coming after me and they're like insulting my appearance or whatever, like, I'm going to, I'm not going to let myself. self get run over. But if a liberal student comes and they're like, hey, I really seek to understand this or help me know or I try to it, I try not to like pummel them if that makes sense, because I at least I think that's effective. Right. Now, if they come with like a uniquely grotesque idea, then I'm going to try to expose it to the audience and to the, you know, online community. But yeah. No, look, I learn a lot and I try and I hope the audience does too. And I mean, the physical crowds are
Starting point is 00:12:46 now three, four thousand people almost every time we do this. Now, in those cases, when if you found that college is really worth it for someone? Yeah, it's a great question. So I'm a big proponent of Hillsdale College. So Hillsdale, I think it's America's greatest college because it's what college should be, which is it's the development of the soul and character. So character is one of the most important things that you can invest in when you're 18, 19, 20, 20 years old. And I guarantee you to go to most colleges, they're about preparing you for your career, but they're not about preparing your character. And character is really, really important, right? Character literally comes from.
Starting point is 00:13:16 in the Greek word tattoo or to etch into you, character will define every decision, right? From what you eat to what you drink, how you communicate to people, to the decisions you make, way more important than whatever you have a skill. Having a skill is important. I'm not diminishing that. But wouldn't, I mean, if you guys are building a business,
Starting point is 00:13:30 wouldn't you rather have people of high character or high skill? Of course you want people of high character. Skills can come. Character is the hard thing. And so I think that we as the college world has done a really bad job of developing character. They don't even prioritize it instead. Why?
Starting point is 00:13:44 Why do you think it's failed so many people? Well, those are two separate questions. So why do they not teach character? Well, first of all, they don't think that's their reason for existing. Most of them, it depends. Like the super left wing colleges, which is most of them, they're all like, we're here to create global citizens for an ever-changing world, like some sort of pablum. Or they're like, we want to have you very specific, you know, skill.
Starting point is 00:14:05 Like, we want you to be able to, like, turn a widget. Which, by the way, if AI replaces that job, what do you have? That's a cool thing about developing character. Like, if AI replaces jobs, you still have the most important of all thing. which is you know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, beauty and ugly, right? You know the difference between the most, the high things and the low things. Like, that's what we should strive for in higher education. That's why I think Hillsdale does a great job. But yeah, most, I mean, if you want to become a doctor or lawyer, of course, you have to go to college, right? You still have to go through this ridiculous environment of left-wing social indoctrination. But I will say, though, that the, and I've debated all around the world that I debated at Cambridge and I, Oxford all across the country. The other problem is that they're not in the pursuit of wisdom. And this is one of the more important things. Like, if you ask a regular college kid, what is a difference between knowledge and wisdom? They'll just trip over themselves.
Starting point is 00:14:57 And it's not a semantic thing, but semantic means meaning, but it's not a semantic thing. It's actually important. Knowledge is just facts. Like, okay, I know the capital of, you know, California, Sacramento, whatever. Wisdom is the knowledge of things that never change. It's the understanding of things that never change. It's like, what is human nature? What does it mean to be a good person? what is beauty what is goodness what is the best way of living what is a society in its fullest form is it good to have children wisdom is is understanding that is even playing with the idea like is there a god like who are we how did we get here i think that's what college should be all about is the cultivation of wisdom as a christian we believe wisdom starts with the fear of the lord but yeah
Starting point is 00:15:34 i mean i don't mean to talk uninterrupted for 10 minutes straight but yeah um i think that college has has completely derailed its purpose in terms of college as an application for the average person. I think it's really interesting. Ben Shapiro claims to be wealthy in America, you need to do three things. Graduate high school, get a full-time job, and get married before you have children.
Starting point is 00:15:54 Yeah, and he's right. And that's the Brookings Institution. He's right on all three of us. And do you think he's missing anything? First of all, like Ben a lot. We disagree on some big things, but Ben's great and he's been a good friend for a while. Yeah, I would say, like, become a person of high character.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Again, I'm going to kind of go back to a main thing. Do you think that that is essential to be wealthy in America? That's a good question. I don't think being wealthy is that important. Like, do you want to be wealthy of the soul or just have like a bunch of money? Well, that's, that would be a different question. But I agree with you. But the question is fine.
Starting point is 00:16:23 If you want to be rich, I can tell you to get rich. Like, that's actually not that hard. How would you get rich? Like, work relentlessly and solve a problem for people and, like, dedicate your entire life to it and, like, become an insane person. Do you think it's possible to still do all of those things, though, and then not become rich? Of course. But, like, if your whole reason for living is to become rich, you will become rich.
Starting point is 00:16:43 you will become rich. Most people that I think, like, most people I meet that want to be rich, they actually don't want to be rich. They want to have the lifestyle of being rich. They don't actually want to be rich. They're like, you have to sacrifice everything to want to become actually rich, unless you're born into it. Like, no nights, few weekends. I traveled 3,000 days over a decade. I'm a million mile or an American Delta United. I'm in all 50 states multiple times. Like, it's thankless, gritty work. Like, Shapiro hosted two radio shows, plus like Brightbart.com and Truth Revolt. Like, not easy. So if you ask, actually want to be rich, then there is a path for you. You have to like sacrifice like immensely.
Starting point is 00:17:18 I don't drink alcohol. Like Tucker Carlson doesn't drink alcohol. Donald Trump doesn't drink alcohol. That doesn't mean that like you can't be rich if you don't drink alcohol, but you must sacrifice stuff. Now, it might be that you create a good widget or like you might a good social media app or you might be good venture funding. But even those guys will tell you, you have to fail a lot, you have to sacrifice a lot. You have to be really gritty. I just challenge the premise of like what is the most important. Like, I think if getting material wealth is the most important thing, I think there actually is a playbook for that. That absent of like committing crimes, like being a really crappy person, being sociopathic, it depends also what you define as rich. Like,
Starting point is 00:17:54 there is a way forward for if it's your number one reason for living to, you know, earn $500,000 a year. Like that's very conceivable in America. But if you're like, hey, actually the most important thing is to have kids, which I actually think having children is more important than having material success. And I have both. And I can tell you kids are way better than having money. Like honestly, not being poor is awesome. That's like the best thing I could tell you. Like being super rich and I'm not super rich, but I would consider to be successful under, you know, American terms is great. But up to a place it's kind of like, you know, you're blessed, you're wealthy, it's fine. Not being poor is the true blessing. Not worrying about like medical
Starting point is 00:18:30 bills or being in debt is like really bad. But yeah, it depends on what you want. If you want to be rich, like actually, like, have your bank account big, then America, of course you can do that. How much of people being poor is their fault versus just the circumstances of their life? It's both. It's very case dependent. A lot of it is agency. I put, so we as conservatives tend to blame free will agency and the person a lot more than circumstances. But of course, circumstance play a role. Of course it does. Now, in business, they say that you could have better, cheaper, or faster, But you only get to pick two. However, what if I told you that you could have all three at the same time?
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Starting point is 00:21:57 That's the more important metric. And that's actually becoming harder. So that's a really important conversation. But I could probably agree with a liberal that it's not good to have like an entrenched permanent oligarchy that's running the country and that people have to go into debt and go into credits to pay for their groceries. Like I actually don't want to live in that country. So I can agree that we should talk about it more. But is there anything like inherently wrong with a billionaire? No.
Starting point is 00:22:19 Like most billionaires actually have solved big problems for us. Like, you know, people love hating on Elon Musk. I like Elon a lot. He's become a friend. I know there's been like a lot of social media talk about it, but I refuse to say anything negative about Elon. Like, okay, you tell me the next time you're able to launch a rocket and land it. Like, actually, that's pretty cool. Like, okay, you're able to revolutionize the electric car industry.
Starting point is 00:22:39 Like, you deserve a lot of money if you do that. One of the things that I've been confused about is why financial literacy is never taught in schools. Like, you think that this would be something taught drop middle school, high school, college. Why is that? I mean, if you want like an actual conspiracy theory, that's the best evidence of a conspiracy. If you want to, like, have people remain super poor and dependent on the government, don't teach them financial literacy. It's like it's inexcusable. And who do you think is in charge of that? No, I'm not like like, I'm just saying like, I don't know who's like the designer of that conspiracy. Right. The incentives are aligned. They are saying like if you want a generation to like have to go to the payday lending people and if you want to have them like filling out credit cards at 25% interest, don't teach financial literacy. I don't know who. I mean, it's convenient. I'm a big school choice advocate. I think that we need school choice. I think the public sector teacher unions and public sector cartel have done a huge damage to this country. But yeah, I mean, look, there's how many young kids right now that are 17 can tell you the difference between credit and debit? They can't.
Starting point is 00:23:35 So one of the things I like about Trump's upcoming big, beautiful bill is that every new baby board in America will get a thousand dollar loan from the federal government in, I don't know if you guys know about this, but in a investment account that they can't touch their 18 invested in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that they'll be able to monitor throughout their 18 years. It can be grown by philanthropists, family members, grandparents. So they'll actually be able to see. their wealth increase. So they're stakeholders. So if we have two kids, if we have another kid, that kid will immediately have a investment account that's only a one-way drop box. You can't access this money until you're 18. So it actually creates ownership units for the next generation. I think it's a phenomenal idea. I wish they did that with Social Security. Oh, of course they you just invest out. We were told it was a lockbox and it wasn't. Of course. But no, I mean, looks, so if you want like the secret to get rich, it's actually like not super hard. It's like live below your means, save your money, invest in good companies, and then find good ideas
Starting point is 00:24:33 and read a lot, like read a lot. If you just read a lot and you understand, like all of a sudden you'll see trends and you'll be well informed. Again, I don't want to make it seem like it's super easy, but it's, it depends what you define by rich. But I'll say one final thing. People are so bad with money. Like again, if you, if your top priority is getting drunk, okay, then go do that. Like, I know a lot of people. They're like, I want to be rich. I spent $700 going out this weekend. Like, I guess you don't want to be rich. Okay. You want to feel good and you want to have a bunch of, you know, toxins go through your liver, but you actually don't want to live a life of happiness and contentment. And if you want if you, I'm not a moralist, if you want to drink, go ahead. It's a free society. Go ahead. It's a
Starting point is 00:25:15 materially wealthy. It just seems like it's such low lift to, to make a huge change in terms of wealth inequality if there was just one course taught in high school about financial literacy. And so like, let's just say hypothetically, I'm just a casual viewer of, I mean, I've been watching for a very long time. How difficult would it be for you to just, you know, reach out to Trump or reach out to someone and be like, what do we got to do to put some incentives into the school system to teach financial literacy? But you know what? It might hurt a lot of businesses that people were smart with their money. Oh, it would totally. The credit card companies would freak out. They would freak out. Could you imagine like Visa and MasterCard?
Starting point is 00:25:53 Apple are like people are asking questions about 25% interest. I mean, so. Like how difficult would that be? I mean, is there just way too much interest? No, no, no. It would just be difficult. It's very hard for the federal government to control curriculum. But to apply incentives. Yeah, the states
Starting point is 00:26:09 should do it. Like there happens some ideas to do this. I know that there's big companies that have tried to do this because they're like, oh yeah, we're giving money towards financial literacy. I'm sorry, like, it's not working. Whatever you guys are doing, it's not working. Whatever program you think that's going on financial literacy, you guys are all a failure. You should all be shut down because it's just not working. Because I deal with the next generation, they know kaput about financial literacy, like very little to nothing. And this is one of the things that I just want to caution everybody about, which is like, I'm very, very pro-crypto,
Starting point is 00:26:37 but I know a lot of people that have lost money on crypto. I'm sure you guys, I'm very, very pro-crypto. I think there's a huge opportunity. I think it's incredible technology more than anything else. But like the best way to build wealth is over long periods of time saving money and doing boring stuff. It's not get rich quick. It's not big meme coins, right? It's not big spikes. It's just going to work, saving money and living below your means. I know that's not the sexy answer everyone wants, but that's what Warren Buffett did. Warren Buffett's one of the world's wealthiest men. He started with like very little money 70 years ago. And the eighth wonder of the world, the eighth one of the world is compound interest. And no one wants to hear that.
Starting point is 00:27:19 Right? They want to hear about like, what's the next Navidia? Okay, I don't know, but I can tell you that, oh, in 40 years, if you put a hundred bucks a week into a moderately managed, you know, wealth account, you're going to be great. 100 bucks a week, man. I can't afford that. Okay, well, let's talk about it. How much money do you make? Oh, I make $91,000. You can afford $100 a week. Stop getting your Frappuccino. Stop going out to drink with your friends, right? I've been saying this. You sound exactly like that. I mean, I don't know. I mean, the reason why we're called the iced coffee hour is because he had a joke on his channel called the 20 cent iced coffee. And you could save $3 a day, which is $300 a month. And if you just invest that in a Roth IRA, you know, assuming 10% interest, you have some inflation. But when you're, you know, 60 or whatever, you'll be a millionaire. That all came from a guy. He was spending $500 a month at Starbucks. No, I'm probably that guy.
Starting point is 00:28:12 You're that guy? Well, now I am. But like, no, I know. It's terrible. It's not good. But you have an amazing coffee maker. upstairs. Aren't they incredible? Yeah. Yeah, I know. Um, I also drink a lot of tea and Starbucks. Like, someone who travel a lot, the one thing most Starbucks is consistency, right? So it's just like,
Starting point is 00:28:28 I don't know what mom and pop, you know, place there is in Laramie, Wyoming. I don't just give a coin flip if it's good or not. Exactly. The only, the only argument for like mass proliferation of Starbucks when you travel is. You do the rewards though, right? Yeah, Mikey does. It's funny. I actually have coffee socks on, believe it or not. Good for, well, like, coffee's really good. I'm very pro coffee. So I think coffee gets a bad rap. It's very, very good for you, actually. This episode is brought to you by FedEx. These days, the Power Move isn't having a big metallic credit card to drop on the check at a corporate launch.
Starting point is 00:28:59 The real Power Move is leveling up your business with FedEx intelligence and accessing one of the biggest data networks powered by one of the biggest delivery networks. Level up your business with FedEx, the new Power Move. Amazon Presents, Jeff versus Target. truck salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette with a flamethrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Haboniero? More like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Let's talk about the average American. Do you think it's possible to build
Starting point is 00:29:51 wealth when you're making $40,000 a year? That's a great question. Boy, first of all, if you're earning $40,000 a year, you're in a tough spot. And I don't envy that. And you might be there because you're own choices, you're an agency. That's a really hard question. Depends where you live. Depends your age. And also depends your circumstances. And so if you have kids in $40,000 a year, it's very hard to build wealth. And that's a real problem that we have to tackle. But if you're 18 years old earning $40,000 a year and you have four roommates, yeah, you can build wealth for sure. And that's a real problem. actually. Like if you have four roommates and you're living in downtown Phoenix and your rents a thousand bucks a month because you're splitting it four ways, you absolutely can build well. I mean, so it's a very case dependent answer. But if you have $40,000, you were two kids, I don't know how you'd support two kids of $40,000. You have to go to government assistance, right? Which, by the way, we as conservatives, we bash government assistance a lot. So I'm a huge Oregon Ducks fan, like massive Oregon Ducks fan. My dad went to University of Oregon. My uncle did. My aunt did. Like, I know every player. So Dan Lanting, the coach, I don't know if you care about a college
Starting point is 00:30:51 but the coach of University of Oregon, like there was a moment in his life where he was like a, what they call like an assistant coach. What do they say? Like you're kind of like a coach's assistant basically. He was on food stamps as a coach. He's like, and it was,
Starting point is 00:31:05 I was ashamed by it. I felt guilty. He's like we needed it. And now he's earning like 11 million bucks a year being the University of Oregon football coach. And so I think that's like a great case story of like, okay, we want this to be a safety net,
Starting point is 00:31:16 not a hammock. And like here's a guy who really needed it. He had two kids and, And so if you're earning $40,000 a year, you know, that's a tough, that's a tough spot. So I always think about this study, this data where the U.S. military during World War II and Vietnam War conducted aptitude and psychological evaluations showing that 10 to 20 percent of new recruits were only ever positively counterproductive in any sort of work. And then this is also backed by corporate research as well, showing that 10 to 20% of individuals will only ever be toxic and contribute to less efficiency in the work environment than them just being gone in the first place. As someone that runs a massive company, how do you find these people and then seed them out? It's a great question.
Starting point is 00:32:05 They kind of reveal themselves. So it's a really important question. So we have highly intensive events, the best in the movement, I would say. They are objectively the biggest, 15,000 people, 20,000 people. Last year, we hosted the Bobby Kennedy Donald Trump event where Bobby Kennedy endorsed Donald Trump. We hosted President Trump six times last year. We had our Student Action Summit, our Young Women's Leadership Summit, Amfest, tons of campus stuff. So pressure is a beautiful thing.
Starting point is 00:32:34 Pressure will reveal those 20% very quickly. They cannot hide in a high-pressure situation. What do you look for specifically? Complaining asymmetrical behavior, suppressive personality, anti-social personality behavior for sure. Gossiping, leaking, being late, trying to divide,
Starting point is 00:32:50 things of that nature, disobeying orders, cutting corners. When do you know how to cut and maybe give them a chance? Maybe they just had a bad day. They didn't sleep. It's a great question. So if there's a pattern, for sure,
Starting point is 00:33:03 I mean, it goes to like levels of defiance, right? If somebody is directly defying orders or if somebody has a really bad attitude, and again, events are a great way to flush this. out. I always say when I have our all-staff meeting, I said some of you guys are going to move up in the company in the next four days and some of you guys might not be here in four days. And like there's a lot of silence in the room. But, you know, when you have 700 people in a room,
Starting point is 00:33:24 it's just the odds, right? And so, you know, we have very strict policies at Turning Point. You have saved certain things that we expect and certain things that drive success. And it's a great way to kind of see what people are made up. Now, when you say disobeying orders, how can you tell if they're truly just being defiant for the sake of being defiant or if they're an entrepreneur at heart and doing what they feel is the best move for the company, even though it's not popular. So let me give me an example. If there is a rule, which is like during these three days,
Starting point is 00:33:52 you are not to drink alcohol because you have to be on call and that we're hosting high school. It's totally appropriate. And we find out that you're at a bar drinking alcohol. That's disobedience, right? Defiance. Whereas if they're trying to find a more creative solution, yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, like we kind of run our stuff like the military.
Starting point is 00:34:10 In a sense, like the four days, we appreciate. your creativity. We want you to kind of within bounds. But for example, if I'm hosting President Trump and I need like bike racks up and all of a sudden, you know, you show up with cones. Like I didn't need your creativity there. Okay. I need you to follow the words. Okay. Right. Like so if, you know, if I'm hosting the biggest speakers in the movement and I need an intro video done and all of a sudden I see Dali Parton. Like no, no, I need an intro video. I don't need Jolene. Okay. So like I appreciate the creativity. But, um, You got to be creative within, you know. By the way, we also have, there's times to be maximally creative, right? But understand our events. What our events team is the greatest in the country, in the movement, they deserve so much credit. You guys should come by the way. You'll love it.
Starting point is 00:34:57 It's unbelievable. It's life change. And just from the audiovisual to the music, to the attendees, to the experience, to the exhibitors, to the sponsors. What we put on is second and not. It's just one of the many things we do. And, like, there's a long lead up, but it's like, it's literally a military operative. It's a 24-hour operation, right, from the security to the students. We have 5,000 students that we have to look after, right? High school kids come across the country. So, yeah, I will say I'm extremely impressed. I mean, we've filmed with a lot of different businesses, corporations, et cetera. I mean, you do run a tight ship. We do run a tight ship. That is a good way to put it. But for those people that aren't able to be a deckhand of a tight ship, those people that 10 to 20% of people that will only ever be positively counterproductive, what do we do with them as a society or, Or you can't just let them job hop for their entire life, right?
Starting point is 00:35:46 If they're like going to, if they're never going to make it out of poverty, poverty is just not good for anybody. Some of them end up in prison. I mean, that's an honest answer. Unfortunately, I mean, there is a antisocial component to going to prison. I don't know the answer to that. Honestly, some of them end up getting married and they don't reenter the workforce. So that's an answer. But look, this is not a problem unique to America.
Starting point is 00:36:09 It seems as if it's built into the species, right? I don't know. Now, you've started making quite a lot of money going from the beginning to where you are now. Very blessed. Have you handled your own personal finances? very carefully. I mean, I'm a big investor. I have a great team that does it. So, I mean, for just to be clear, I didn't, I didn't take a salary from turning point to say the first five years. So, and I didn't want it. I mean, all the money went back into the company. And so I, my test of a founder is always like, what do you pay yourself the first couple of years? And unless you have kids at home or else you have like a family to support, like, you know, mom that's sick, you should not be
Starting point is 00:36:45 taking money out of the company. Like, it all should be going back in. Because it's just, it's so precious at that point in that period of time. And so I would say that probably over 75, 80% of all the money I make is invested. What do you invest in? I mean, it's very diversified from private equity, which is great. So once you're able to make enough money, you're able to kind of get access to private equity deals, which is great. I'm super boring with some stuff too. I'm just like, hey, you know, buy this mutual fund, buy, you know, buy the Dow, buy this index and just kind of put it aside. I went all in and bought the dip during the tariff stuff and COVID.
Starting point is 00:37:21 Fantastic. During COVID, I bought triple leverage, triple Q. No way. Of course I did. What do you mean? Of course you did. What do you do? You should become a financial advisor, man. You got to start having fun.
Starting point is 00:37:31 Okay, why was that so obvious to you to go triple leverage? It was the easiest bet I've ever made in my life. Why? You're in a bet against America. I think the argument was that it could get a lot worse before it's better. And we didn't know that there was going to be $2 trillion dollars printed into your economy. And I was against that. But I mean, my whole premise at the time was, this is so self-inflicted.
Starting point is 00:37:53 We decided to shut down the country. A meteor didn't strike. It's not an alien invasion. We could reverse this immediately. And so I said, by the way, I'm investing for the next 30 years. You're trying to tell me the Dow is going to remain about 17,000 points from the next 30 years. So basically, I was like, I'm buying triple-liber. I mean, it was like kind of ballsy when you think about it.
Starting point is 00:38:09 Yeah. I guess what you don't know is that how far can it go before businesses start flat-out-going? Sure. So, to be clear, I did. I started to buy it when I started to buy it when I started. to see a little bit of signs of hope, right? Like, I try to see the bottom. If I remember correctly, we went down to like 17,000, 18,000.
Starting point is 00:38:25 Like, um, and then, yeah, I just kind of plowed a bunch of money into it. By the way, I was like, fine. I wasn't even married at the time. I had no kids. Do you manage your own money or do you have people? No, I have a great guy that does. But I call a lot of shots. Like, I'll, I will, I make macro decisions, not micro decision.
Starting point is 00:38:40 That's the way I say. I'm not a good micro investor. By this company, that's company. The only thing I'll say is like when Elon's company went on Tesla. I wanted by Tesla just as kind of a symbolic philosophy. Because I thought he was being treated so terribly. But like macro stuff I'll get involved in. So for example, if there's like, hey, I want to invest in, you know, more artificial intelligence or, you know, I think that, you know, oil is undervalued. You know, we'll have a conversation. The guy that does it is a guy named Doug de Groot. He's phenomenal. And so he's just a great family office, really sweet guy. And what about Bitcoin? Oh, yeah. No, so I don't buy individual Bitcoin. But I've, I bit. I'm an investor in a thing called Anagram, which is the fundamental technical. below crypto. So it's kind of like buying the plumbing of the crypto industry, if you will. And so like Solana and all these companies, anytime they wanted an ICO, you have to basically
Starting point is 00:39:28 have the fundamental technology beneath it. I don't even understand it that well other than you're kind of buying a philosophy, if you will. And then look, I'm in a very unique blessed place where there is a lot of deal flow that comes my way where a lot of people want to, you know, have me invest in stuff. And I say no more than I say yes. And then I'll do a little bit of real estate here or there. But no, I mean, look, in terms of rental properties or what? No, like flipping homes and stuff like that. Do you have like guys that you partner with to flip homes or? Yeah, I mean, I do. I have a couple guys and they've actually been very successful. Did a couple in Chicago trying to do a couple here in Arizona. Where do you have the time for that? Look, I mean, that's the thing.
Starting point is 00:40:07 It seems like it just takes away from everything else. It does, but like it's, I mean, if you, time's a very interesting thing. And if you meticulously plan out your day, there's so much waste in people's schedule, right? How much time do things actually take? Do you really need two hours for a meeting? Do you really need an hour and a half for that? And so I'm like a time efficiency maximalist. And I still get nine to ten hours of sleep at night amazingly. So, now really quick, when it comes to personal finance, I've noticed that most people think they know where their money is going every month until they look at their statement and it becomes a wake up call. That is where our sponsor, Rocket Money is there to help. Rocket Money is the best personal finance app that
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Starting point is 00:41:30 com slash iced. Thank you so much to Rocket Money for sponsoring this episode. Really quick here, Real Talk, short form content has been one of the biggest drivers of growth for the iced coffee hour. Like even this episode with Charlie Kirk. We'll take our best moments and then clip them up for platforms like TikTok, Instagram,
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Starting point is 00:42:35 dot pro slash clip hyphen the hyphen future or click the link down below in the description. Seriously, guys, I could not recommend it more. Thank you so much to Opus Clip for sponsoring this episode. And I still get nine to ten hours of sleep at night, amazingly. Yeah, I mean, we were talking with your team, and they were saying you work crazy hours. And I was like, why does he work so hard? And their answer was he's just extremely mission focused. Yes, correct.
Starting point is 00:42:58 I'm very driven. Does it exhaust you ever to the point of regretting it? Oh, no, no. I mean, so I'm actually finishing a book. So I actually don't work one day out of the week. So I take a Sabbath every Saturday. Turn my phone off, no work, just kids, just family. It's an amazing blessing.
Starting point is 00:43:14 So every Saturday, totally off. It's amazing how much work you can get done in six days, though. And so I wake up early, you know, wake up around 6.6.30. You know, again, I usually feel really good in the morning. I don't have any hangover or any of that stuff, right? And I just get straight to work. And I do my show from 9 to 11, local time in Arizona. Once I'm done, I try to just kind of, you know, just eat a little bit, maybe take a 10 minute, 15 minute nap. maybe. I try not to do more than that. It's amazing, like the power of like a 12 to 15 minute nap. And then I'll just work all day. And then I'll try to train a little bit, go for a walk. But again, I'm in a very blessed position where things really come to me where I used to have to go to things. Have you always been this way? Like you've had laser, laser sharp focus. Yes. You've never felt like you dealt with poor motivation. You've always just been that way. You don't do anything to try to cultivate this motivation and laser focus. No, that's a really good question.
Starting point is 00:44:16 No, I've always been very driven. Like, very, very driven. So that's a really interesting point. I thought when I first started this, everyone wanted to be equally successful. Like, everyone had equal drive. So I thought that was like an equally distributed ingredient amongst the population. And that was my natitae. I didn't realize that, like, motivation and, like, drive and grit and hustle was actually like an exceptional quality.
Starting point is 00:44:41 And so then quickly I realized like, whoa, I'm just going to outwork everybody. Like, I'm not the most charismatic person. You know, I can speak. I got a good thing going. But I'm not the most. I'm not the smartest person and I go to Harvard Law, right? I don't have the highest IQ, but I can compete with the best of them. But I am going to outwork you.
Starting point is 00:45:02 Like, I'll put in more hours. I'll read more books. I'll listen to more podcasts. Like, I will do more meetings. I'll travel to more cities. Like, that I can do. Have you done an IQ test? I did when I was young, you know.
Starting point is 00:45:12 And what did it come back at? It was, it was well above average. I don't want to misspeak on the, on the, but I think it was like, I don't want to, I don't want to say a number because it's going to get cut up on all that, but it was 300. No, no, it wasn't high. No, but it was, it was, it was not like quite meant so, but it was high. Like, I mean, I have a good memory, but like, I'm not like, I'm not like an international chess champion, right? I'm not like a perfect SAT. I had good ACT scores, right?
Starting point is 00:45:38 We took the ACT where I was from, you know, 31, 32. is it respectable, it was like a 36. But so I'm not dumb. I mean, that's not, but I, I'm a unique combination now that I'm, I can see it, which is, you know, I'm like a heat seeking missile towards what I want to achieve. And that and that alone can be an incredible differentiator in this space. So what are some of the sacrifices or compromises that you make because of that heat seeking missile nature that people may not recognize?
Starting point is 00:46:06 My life's configured now in a way where the biggest, sacrifice I have to make is not being home with my kids. And that, like, that's, that sucks. I don't have to do that as much. I get to say no to a lot of stuff. By the way, thank you guys for coming to Phoenix. It's one of the main reasons why this was like, thank you for doing this. Absolutely. By the way, I'm going to do this more with more shows. I'm like, you want to interview me? Come to Phoenix. Yeah. Because my kids are my most important thing in my world. My wife, my relationship with God, top three things, right? God, wife, kids in that order. And so that's a sacrifice that I just am not willing to make. So I'm just saying no to a lot more stuff. And so, but in the early days,
Starting point is 00:46:39 it's so interesting. Like people think like, oh, you know, you had a bunch of donors that wanted to give you money. Like, yeah, that's not the story, actually. The story was I was going to find a lot of donors and tried to had to scrap and hustle and get like elementary funding because we could barely make payroll for the first five to six years, right? We could barely pay the bills. This building that we're sitting in right now was not even open until our sixth year. Okay. We barely had an office the first couple of years.
Starting point is 00:47:05 And so, yeah, I mean, like you want to be successful? You think it's easy. Okay. I'll show you my flight logs. 200 red-eye flights. You want to go do that? 200 red-eye flights where you have to go sit and perform and give a speech and be on and go all day and be interesting. 1,200 cable news interviews.
Starting point is 00:47:21 Fox News at 3 o'clock in the morning. Fox News at 3.30 in the morning. Get up, get on a flight. Conference calls. Remember the donor's name. Write a thank you note. Show up. Report for the donor.
Starting point is 00:47:33 They have questions. They're critical. They're skeptical. Like, fine. Okay. It sounds easy, right? And I'm not here to like brag. on it, but like, there's a lot you have to sacrifice for all this. And it's really easy to look at
Starting point is 00:47:43 Turning Point USA because people then they can like recreate it. Oh, yeah, I can recreate. It's fine. I mean, look, it's the Lord's blessing and providence of all this. Like, I'm telling you, man, like, there's a hustle behind the scenes. And not just me, it's our team to. Our team works. Their tail off. Because now what's so cool is like my like maniacally driven purpose is now shedding off on people. And like, not everyone can sustain it. They're like, this is too much for me. I'm going to go work for an insurance company. I'm like, that's fine. Like, because the pace here is first class. That's why we get more done. That's why we have more chapters. We have more donors. That's why our budget is bigger. It's because we're just going to keep on growing. We're going to keep on
Starting point is 00:48:15 expanding because we do not settle for mediocrity. Your excellence is the only thing that we'll settle. What do you do now to save as much time as possible? So I'm a huge scheduler, big time. And so I schedule out days in advance. And so I will block out like, this is when I'm going to have conference call time. This is when I'm going to have, this is when I'm going to train. This is where I'm going to launch like I go down to like the 15 interval 15 minute interval um and you know this is the time that I'm going to go try and you know go see this friend this is the time where I'm going to go just turn my phone off and go for a walk so I'm very very precise with time and then the biggest hack and you guys know there's something new it's called layering you know this so anything you're doing try to fit two or three things on top of it
Starting point is 00:48:58 so if I'm traveling to go speak listen to an audiobook right I mean obviously so then all of a sudden I'm getting two things done at once if I'm if I'm training or working out, okay, I'm also going to be trying to listen to a podcast that I need in preparation. I take all my calls in the treadmill. 100%. It's amazing, right? Or like, so I try to, you know, do a, I'm a big walker. I think there's a couple health hacks out here that are right in front of us that nobody ever wants to talk about, right? I'm a huge big, I'm a huge believer in sleep, like massive believer. I think it's totally undervalued. I'm a major believer in walking. I think we don't talk about walking enough, just walking. Not running, not deadlifting, not cold plunging, just walking. Okay. I'm a big believer in fasting. I think
Starting point is 00:49:35 fasting's like untapped power. And then I just think like not eating terribly. You know, not those four things, you're actually going to be pretty relatively healthy. Yeah. We used to come up with their best ideas taking walks. Oh, walking is one two mile walk. There are studies, I think, that show if you have forward movement. Like if you're walking, your brain actually functions at a higher capacity. Then if you're sitting sedentary. My best ideas are when I'm walking. My best ideas are when I'm moving. And I go for walks my kids. So that's another layering, right? So, I mean, you want to talk about like a triple layering.
Starting point is 00:50:08 When my daughter was six months old, she can't yet communicate, but you'd want to go for a walk and she'd fall asleep. So I'd listen to a podcast while getting a walk while spending time with my kid. Like that's the trifecta, right? And so I'm really big on that. And so as far as time, you just also have to be able to say no. There's so much wasted time. And look, I'm also in a very blessed position. I'm incredibly blessed.
Starting point is 00:50:33 most people don't have this one a lot of entrepreneurs too i don't have to sit around at a desk and do just like wait for stuff to come to me i constantly can set the terms of my own schedule now it comes at great cost and great consequence right because with you know great freedom comes phenomenal responsibility and enormous responsibility in terms of your own material success where is the money coming from in terms of like percentages because i know you have like a store you have a for-profit merchandise company you have your non-profit you have you know your youtube channel all of these things where Where is the money coming from? Very small percentage is my salary at Turning Point USA. So Turning Point USA is a 20. Turning point USA, Turning Point Action. 120, $130 million budget. My salary there is about $300,000 a year. And I donate $350,000 back to Turning Point USA.
Starting point is 00:51:19 So it's basically a wash, right? So literally is a wash. And you might say, well, why do you donate it back? Well, my wife and I, we try to be charitable. We try to give 10% of our income a year. What better place did it give it back to Turning Point USA, right? Why even take a salary? Honestly, that's a really good question.
Starting point is 00:51:35 Number one, it's very important from just an IRS standpoint. If the CEO's unpaid, it just kind of looks very weird on the form. But also, I do believe in, like, different buckets for doing things. I still think I should earn a salary for my work here. And then if I want to give it back, then so be it. It's a psychological thing more than anything else. Like, it comes in, and then if I want to give it back, I can give it back. I know that might sound like strange to people, but in the nonprofit.
Starting point is 00:51:56 I'm thinking just wasted payroll taxes. No, it's fine. It's true. I mean, all the FICA tax money going out the window, right? It's better to go back into the company than not. No, the revenue streams is the show. The show is a for-profit entity, Charlie Kirkshow podcast. As of the recording right now, we're either number two or number three in all of Apple News, incredibly blessed.
Starting point is 00:52:16 We stream on Rumble every day, on X every day. We're on 250 radio stations on over 400 affiliates. We are on Real America's Voice every single day, which is a great fast channel, which is also on Pluto and Roku. easily estimates two to three million people a day, tune into some part of the Charlie Kirk show. We cut it up. We do socialize it. And then, of course, we have a beast of a YouTube channel. We do very, very well on TikTok. And so you kind of compile that all together. And then, of course, I do speaking. I try to write a book a year, which I'm able to make personal money on. Has life gotten a lot better since becoming wealthy? Yes. I mean, look, my life has gotten a lot
Starting point is 00:52:58 better since I got married and I had kids, I will tell you the best thing about being wealthy is not being poor, not having to worry about money. Like, just like not get to a place where you don't have to worry about money. It's funny. When you get to a place where you have like billions of dollars, you're actually worrying about money all the time because then you have like lawsuits and it's like your identity. I'm not joking. Like they, it's like kind of like a weird like horseshoe, which is like you have no money. You worry about money all the time. And you have a ton of money you worry about money all the time. It's best to be like somewhere in the middle where you have like a lot of cash flow. The best thing is this, I have purpose of what I'm doing and the money is a
Starting point is 00:53:29 nice reward. Like, it's not, money is not the number one driver for me. It's not, like, I mean that. Like, I have the skill set where if I quit all of this right now, I could probably go start a company right now. And after 10 years, I could probably sell it for like a couple hundred million bucks. That's not, I mean, that's not like an crazy thing for me to say the fact that we've started turning point USA in action. We have $130 million years in revenue. Right. I have the Charlie Kirk show, if it was all about getting rich, I could go start some app and probably go be successful. What makes me so happy is I get to impact people's lives. I get to speak truth. I have purpose. I get to help save the civilization. And then I also get to make some money while doing
Starting point is 00:54:08 it. And that, quite honestly, is the most enormous blessing. I have the greatest job in the world. I'm the happiest person in the world. I mean that. Now, in terms of disclosures like this and being so open about your finances, AOC recently disclosed that she has no. No individual stockholdings. Tim Walts famously said he doesn't have any investments. Do you think this is just financial irresponsibility? Or do you think it's a good thing that they don't have a financial interest in maybe some of the measures that they're putting forward? So, I mean, I'll talk about the Tim Walts and AOC thing. I don't know enough about it. She's young. But like Tim Walts, it's very interesting. It's like, so on one hand, you're like, wow, he can't be bought. Another hand is like, wow, you're like really bad with money. Like, like, you're kind of old. And like, you don't have. have any stocks? Well, he has a pension. Okay, fine. But I mean, like, okay, I get it that he was a football coach or whatever. But, I mean, is that a good example? I guess. I mean, I just kind of the idea, which is you're of that age, you haven't played into compound interest. You haven't like really tried to, I mean, by the way, you could have, you could have blinded trusts and,
Starting point is 00:55:14 you know, different ways of building wealth. I don't think you should go as far as Nancy Pelosi and basically like trade stocks after committee hearings. I think that's, probably a little ambitious, right? But I actually prefer my politicians to be successful. I know that's a weird statement. But people that own nothing, like own nothing, it might be like really appealing on the surface. But then I wonder, do they know how wealth is created? It's indicative of something deeper that could be an issue. I think so. Again, I, there's plenty of good Republicans, I'm sure, that own nothing. I may run for office and that's great. But generally, I do want someone that knows. Here's the key. Poverty is human norm. Go to any country around the world. Most people are in
Starting point is 00:55:55 poverty. Wealth is the exception. How do you get wealthy is the most important, like, economic issue in front of us. It's actually a really hard issue to solve. We know how to solve it. Markets is how you get wealthy. That's it. Okay. Private property, trade, rule of law, can't steal people's stuff. We're going to enforce those laws. It works. Decent, virtuous society. Okay. So we know how to be poor, not hard. I actually want people in office that know how to create wealth. I think that's a really important question. And then the opposite of that, though, with, you know, tickers like N-A-N-C that track the trades of-
Starting point is 00:56:32 You should totally follow Nancy Pelosi's trade. That is grotesque. That's a totally different thing. So how do we crack down on that? Oh, to what degrees is the problem? Josh Hawley's act is very good. I think it's called the Stock Act or something. See, here's what I think.
Starting point is 00:56:44 I made this in a video years ago when the whole Nancy Pelosi tracker came up. I thought it would be a great idea for just anyone in Congress to signal their trades publicly in real time 24 hours before they plan to make them. And that's it. And they could trade whatever they want to. But they just have to signal 24 hours in advance. That's it. I have no issue with that. I think it's great. I would go a step further. I don't think any member of Congress should be trading stock period whatsoever. Individual stocks, but they could buy ETS. Sure. I think, yes, fine. I think it should be complete moratorium at individual stocks. They know way, they know way more than they're telling. I think that would be impossible to enforce because they would claim that, well, I don't trade.
Starting point is 00:57:25 I have a financial advisor who's trading on my behalf in an irrevocable trust that I don't own. And they just happened to buy all these defense stocks before, you know, Iran started bombing Israel. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I just happened. That's not. That was coincidence. I bought all the pharmaceutical stocks before COVID, right? Exactly.
Starting point is 00:57:41 I don't know. The enforcement. I just, I spent a lot of time in D.C. It's a disgusting city. It's repulsive. There's a lot more information that these people know than they're ever letting on. And they're getting wealthier while most Americans don't have access that information. I think your idea is great.
Starting point is 00:57:55 The kind of public, you know, beacon, if you will. We have insider trading laws for a reason. And what these congressmen do is like the definition of insider trade. Right. And but the penalty is so small. Like if they, if they don't report their trades, they have 30 days to report them. And if they don't do that, the fee, I think, is either 200 bucks or it's a thousand. Like, it's, it's not.
Starting point is 00:58:16 It's pennies, basically. It needs to be severe criminal penalties, in my opinion. I'm very populist on this question. Because, look, most people in this audience, they would love to know what's going on in a skiff. They would love, which is a secure compartmentalized information facility where there's no phones. It's a bunch of generals giving you class in information about, I don't know, a new Wuhan leak or a new war. Or they would love to know whether or not an electric vehicle mandate is going to be attached to the reconciliation bill or not. And then they're able to make trades in the information.
Starting point is 00:58:43 So, I don't know, I'm very populist on this thing. I think we should just put an end to all of it. What do you think about things like Trump's meme coin? Do you think something like that was an overall smart or not very? I don't know. I know Eric really well. He's the one that's pushing it. I mean, look, I know the Trump family, so I'm not going to speak against them.
Starting point is 00:59:00 They're all friends of mine. I don't know enough about it. I get a lot of questions about it on college campuses. I know people that have made money on it. Like, I don't know. Like, I'll say this when it comes to like crypto in general. I'm very supportive of it. I know it's largely like a Trump family indebted.
Starting point is 00:59:15 ever. Technically, he did promote it before he came president. I know a lot of people kind of rolled their eyes at it. Here's my statement and people can laugh at it. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour. Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at About Amazon. You care about helping others learn and grow, and now you can make an even greater difference. The Ohio State University's fully online master's in applied behavior analysis prepares you to help learners with disabilities thrive.
Starting point is 01:00:08 You'll develop the skills to use evidence-based interventions that enhance learning outcomes and foster independence, all in a flexible format designed for working professionals. With growing demand for board certified behavior analysts, this is a very important. The online program helps you prepare for what's next without pausing your life. If you're ready to expand your impact, Ohio State is ready to support your next step. Visit go.osu.edu slash behavior analysis. He got shot, so he's allowed to launch a meme coin. That's my statement.
Starting point is 01:00:48 So anybody you get shot to launch? No, I'm half to. It's sarcasm. Look, I'm not going to get into the details of defending it. That's a question for Eric or Don. What are your thoughts on Bitcoin? I'm a big fan of Bitcoin. Should the U.S. do a Bitcoin reserve?
Starting point is 01:01:00 Absolutely, yes. Yes, the United States should have a strategic Bitcoin reserve. And who should pay for the Bitcoin Reserve? That's a good question. Some of the tariff money could potentially do that. The reason why I think we should have a strategic Bitcoin Reserve, I know you guys had Michael Saylor on your show, and I think he's on to something. There is something called like the mass adoption theory, which is over a period of time,
Starting point is 01:01:20 like the English language, US dollar, things just catch on and they're just kind of volitional and there's no stopping it. I think Bitcoin is that. You got to watch out though. Quantum computing could potentially crack cryptography. But if they do that, then they're also cracking bank accounts. Right. And stock trading accounts. So quantum is the only asterisk on all this. But I think Sailor is onto something very profound, which is that because Bitcoin is a scarce, legitimately scarce resource that it's probably going to go nowhere but up. So Saylor makes a very provocative argument that Bitcoin could go up 10x over the next 10 years or something like that. Which therefore, if we start a Bitcoin strategic reserve, it could like pay for the national debt and like basically cover our losses on the deficit. But I think that we should add. I think the United States government should be invested in crypto without a doubt. I tend to agree with Michael Saylor that it's more likely to go to a million than zero. Yes. I think that's right. And by the way, so you have a problem of the world's richest people. They don't know what to put their money. So there's only so many penthouses in London and Paris that they could buy. There's only so many ranches in Wyoming that they could buy. And so they we had this problem. So you create all.
Starting point is 01:02:24 all this money, the money goes upwards, to wealth inequality point, to your earlier point, the question is then, well, what do rich people do with money? There's only so many equities they can buy. There's only so many shares in Navidian Apple and Microsoft they could justify. Well, money needs to find a home, and it's found a home in Bitcoin. And so once it has mass adoption and literally the wealthiest families on the planet are starting to park serious monies in Bitcoin. And because it's scarce, it's easy to transfer, and it's just a winner. Sometimes there's a mass adoption and it just rises to the surface. And I think Bitcoin is that.
Starting point is 01:02:56 Speaking of the national debt, at what point do you think it's going to become a major problem? I think it already is. I think it already is. Do you see any solvable way that we could address this? Because it seems as though if Trump's big, beautiful bill passes, it's just going to get $2 trillion higher. Yeah, so that's over 10 years. So I do find issue with some of those estimates. I don't want to get too deep into that.
Starting point is 01:03:17 That's kind of a wonky. We'll lose the audience on CBO estimates, congressional budget office estimates. Right. I think we need to cut a lot more spending. I wish more Republicans want to agree. I know Donald Trump agrees. He's just very frustrated with some of the Republicans on Capitol Hill that don't want to cut it. So here's the worst thing we could do, though. The worst thing we could do out of all the options is not grow. So the worst of all the options is not grow. So when you have a big debt, that's bad. Not growing with a big debt is catastrophic. Growing with a big debt is somewhat manageable. Growing with cutting your debt is awesome. That, that's, that. That, That would be the best possible scenario. So the calculus is, okay, we have a big debt. Let's at least try to have the debt outpaced two things. The rate of the increase of the debt to GDP ratio and the rate of inflation.
Starting point is 01:04:07 If GDP can grow faster than inflation and grow faster than the rate of the debt to GDP ratio, then we're in a manageable place. So that's what the premise of a lot of these tax cuts of the bill is, right? No tax on tips, no tax in overtime, right? the depreciation, the extension of the Trump tax cuts, all of which I support because you need a pro-growth agenda because when you're a debtor nation that you have no growth, then you're going to be in a really bad spot. What happened to Doge?
Starting point is 01:04:34 It just seemed like it's done. I think, but first of all, I think Elon did a lot of good work. I really did. First of all, I think Elon's greatest contribution was a philosophical one. I think Elon made us all realize how much waste there is and how much we really need to kind to get into the details of how much the government is inefficient from a technological standpoint from a efficiency standpoint. So I don't think it's over by any means. I think Doge is a cultural mindset that is going to be hopefully around the Republican Party for years to come.
Starting point is 01:05:04 It just seemed like Congress didn't really have that big of an incentive to do anything about it. What was most surprising, Elon said that he just wanted people to code and write in a description of where the money went. Because right now you could basically just leave it blank, send money and not write what the purpose of the money is for. And he just put something in there. And he said he was up against just a wall that they didn't even mandate that. It's a very complicated. So yeah, that's right. And so there is common sense to type what it's for.
Starting point is 01:05:37 There's so much waste in the federal government. And my hope is that we can start to rein it in in the next, you know, couple of months and a couple of years. It's a beast though, guys. I mean, this is a, it is a wild monster that is hard to rain in. And I know that sounds like cope and an excuse, but. You have an entrenched permanent bureaucracy of millions of people. And then you have judges that are preventing literally the Trump administration from doing some of this stuff. You have federal judges that are coming in and preventing, you know, President Donald Trump from being like, nope, I want to lay off these workers.
Starting point is 01:06:06 Nope, I want to cut this aid. Nope, I want to cut this, which of course is unconstitutional. So, yes, I mean, like, it would be nice. Here is the goal. The goal would be we need to blockchain, the entire federal government. Put the entire federal government on blockchain. And then number two, every dime of federal spending online in real time. We should know what everybody is spending in real time, no different than a transparent federal database.
Starting point is 01:06:27 Could that be a national security risk in any way? There are certain things you could block box for sure. But I think that people deserve to know on a day by day month by month basis. Like, what is the Department Interior spending? Like, are they going, what is the Department, what are the Veterans Affairs spending money on? We should know. Like, are they buying $50 hammers? Like, are they buying $200 bandages?
Starting point is 01:06:47 Like, I think it's our money. This is the whole problem I have with this whole thing. This is our money. It is you watching money. We are the ones that earn the money. It is not the government's money. We are the sovereign. We create the government. We earn the money. And then the government extract it from us with our consent, right? Because we vote. We have elections. So we have a right to know where that money goes. It doesn't magically become the government's money. I guess part of the problem is that there's no penalty for overspending. It's like a credit card. The limit just keeps getting higher and higher and higher. So why is there? No, it's actually even worse than that. There's there's an incentive. There's an incentive. to keep spending more. In fact, the incentive in Washington, D.C. is that you have one wing that wants to spend money on more war, which is the Republican Party warmongering caucus, which I'm at war with. And then you have a whole other thing, which is the welfare caucus. So you have the warfare welfare caucuses. So the warfare guys want to go invade the world. The welfare caucus wants to go put the entire world on welfare. What can they both agree on? We'll authorize your warfare if you
Starting point is 01:07:45 authorize our welfare. We all spend more money and we get our pet projects done. And then we're going to go invade the world and they're like, oh, so the welfare people say, don't invade the world, but if you invade the world, can we invite the world? They say, it's okay if you go invade the country, but then we can have a couple million more people into the country. And then the warfare people are like, ah, we don't like that. We'll do that, but the welfare people, but then we got to put them on welfare. And literally, this is the unipartisan agreement last 30 years. Every major public policy, budgetary debate comes down to an agreement between the warfare and the welfare wing of the two parties. There's no, there's no, no. There's no. There's no. First of all, I would not, no.
Starting point is 01:08:20 I actually, I, I, that's important. Yes, that's very sensible. The way you described, I agree with you completely, but that. The reason I say no, no, no, is that I am not a cynic. I'm like a super optimist. I've never been more optimistic on the country. Let me tell you why. I saw insane dumerism like a year ago.
Starting point is 01:08:37 They're never going to let Trump win. They're going to try to take them out. And like, I saw dumerism die. And so I think what Trump's one of his greatest contributions is he's really pushed the art of the possible. Like, actually, no, you can do dramatic things. can change stuff. But yes, to your answer, it's going to be very big. It is climbing a major mountain. Massive. Do you worry about the U.S. dollar? Of course, absolutely. And what do you think
Starting point is 01:09:01 is the most likely outcome? Because I would like to think positively, but at the same time, I think realistically, it's just going to be predicated. As one of my friends and heroes, Tony Robbins would say, I don't tell you to go to your garden and say, there's no weeds, there's no weeds, there's no weeds. I tell you to spot the weeds and pull them out. So I'm not like delusional. I'm an optimist. I try to find the best case story of how things. can be told, then have us have human agency and action to actually do it. So with the U.S. dollar, look, the U.S. dollar as the World Reserve currency has gone down dramatically in the last 20 years. President Donald Trump is focused on breaking up bricks. So bricks is Brazil, Russia,
Starting point is 01:09:38 India, China, and South Africa. South Africa is the DEI pick. Why South Africa is considered to be some sort of world, that's a joke for the record, some sort of like world currency power. It's like a freaking joke. Okay. All right, India, easy to peel away. We already have. great relations with India. J.D. Vance did a state visit to India that was not very reported. Donald Trump, by the way, he stopped the India-Pakistan war. He deserves huge credit for that. That thing was like simmering up and was going to be incredible and big. And so then Brazil, Brazil's a disaster. Lula is a complete Marxist and communist. Bolsonaro should still be prime minister. So then you have Russia and China. That's a person. So Brazil, Russia, China. The best case telling is we can end this Russian-Ukrainian war and hopefully try to create a little bit of separation in daylight between.
Starting point is 01:10:20 the ever-growing marriage of Russia and China, which is bad for America. It's bad for the West. It's bad for the world. And so we should want the U.S. dollar to remain the world reserves currency status. It is imperative. Our, I think, reckless involvement in the United States with the Russian-Ukrainian war has only led to de-dollarization. We took Russia out of the swift banking system. Basically, we took their dollars out of their bank accounts. We confiscated their dollars. what does that do to every other nation that uses dollars as a World Reserve currency status? We're no longer a safe haven. We never should have done that, guys.
Starting point is 01:10:56 Regardless of how bad Putin is for invading Ukraine and all that stuff, basically we de-incentivize people to trust the dollar as a safe haven. Basically, we said, oh, if you misbehave, we might take away your dollars, which then has led to an incentive structure away from the U.S. dollar, which is very destructive. It seems like we're always facing several cataclysmic level issues at the exact. exact same time in the United States. Welcome the majority. If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know there's one word that comes up quite a bit, and that would be capitalism. Whether we're talking to entrepreneurs, investors, or other content creators, in part, a lot
Starting point is 01:11:29 of their success is due to the opportunities that capitalism is presented. But here's the thing. For how often the word gets thrown around, very few people actually understand what capitalism is. Ask 10 people to define it, and you'll probably get 10 different answers. Some people think it's just about getting rich, while others may think it's just a rigged system. That's why we're excited about today's sponsor, Hillsdale College.
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Starting point is 01:12:56 Okay, so the question is cataclysmic, an actual like... Like what you would say are the biggest issues facing America right now. And if you could provide three answers... Yeah. So number one is the fertility crisis. Interesting. Yeah, we're having less chill than ever before. We're mating less. It's a major problem. We're on the verge of a population collapse. It's a huge issue.
Starting point is 01:13:16 No one wants to talk about it. Everyone's like, oh, I'm single with and 32 without kids. Like, no, you have a moral obligation to get married and have kids actually. And if you don't, that's fine. If you don't want to, you have to make the case that we're doing is more important. And there is a case for that. Like if you're a Catholic father, like a priest, I'm not Catholic. Okay, you're actually helping society. You're doing something. But I come from a worldview that you have a moral obligation to help society and to help people through something that you do. It's not just all about yourself and pursuing your own self-interest. And that's the death, the death of the Dannery. I think part of it is getting married and having children. I'm a very traditionalist in that way. So that's number one. Other cataclysmic things. We are incredibly sick in this country. And this is why I love Bobby Kennedy. Like I'm a huge Bobby Kennedy fan. We're a fat country. We're an obese country. We're a depressed country. We're a poisoned country. We are not physically fit to fight a war, let alone be able to stand up and even go for a walk for two miles. We are a fat country. And It's a major problem. And so I actually think that physiology is directly related with how you act and how you feel. I got that again from Tony Robbins. And so if all of a sudden you're kind of this like obese, sad country, of course you're going to kind of just fall apart and you're going to collapse. The last one is the most provocative of the three is that we have a major issue of this country
Starting point is 01:14:42 that we become a nation of foreigners and we're strangers in our own country. We have not assimilated the third world well into our country. We have 20 million illegals that I believe invaded the country under Joe Biden. And so you kind of come, I could go to four, five, six if we want me to. But we are increasingly not a nation or a country. We look more like a colony where no one talks to their neighbor and we have to lock our doors at night. We're like a high, our cities are all super high crime. So people say, Charlie, what does success look like?
Starting point is 01:15:11 I get asked all the time. Very easy. I want fertility rates to go up. I want church attendance to go up. I want people to be less fat, and I want to be able to not have to lock my doors at night. I want to be able to talk to my neighbors and really have a connective bond with them. My final one. I want to feel safe that my daughter can walk the streets of L.A., unaccompanied at night.
Starting point is 01:15:31 That's it. Can you walk L.A. at night? She can walk Tokyo at night. Why can't you walk New York at night? Or L.A. or San Francisco or Denver. We are a failed country. What did Newsom say to that? I loved your debate with him.
Starting point is 01:15:44 Thank you. Yeah, it was something. Why did he agree to do that? It seems so weird. It was maximally entertaining. Yeah. It did very, very well. It got millions and millions of views.
Starting point is 01:15:54 And so I don't really know what his incentive was, to be honest. I think he wants to be president, obviously. But he just, so to the left, he looked weak and to the right, he looked fraudulent. And so who did he win over? Exactly. Because the right's not going to believe him. I mean, we can't stand him for obvious reasons. And to the left, they're like, look at this weak guy who's trying to find common ground with it.
Starting point is 01:16:15 know, Charlie Kirkwood, you know, I think I'm terrible. So, but his credit, I mean, there were no gotchas. But, I mean, look, I'll kind of go back to the point. I say, like, it's a failure of governance if you cannot walk your greatest cities at night. That's my politics. I know that sounds like, I don't care if it's Republican or Democrat. I want to be able to walk America's greatest cities at night. The five greatest cities in America are New York, Chicago, San Francisco, L.A., and what's, maybe Miami, okay? It's fine. Whatever. And people in Dallas are going to, like, email us. Sorry, Dallas is not what America's great. Dallas is fine, but it's not what America's greatest cities, right?
Starting point is 01:16:47 And no, Seattle's not. But Seattle used to be one of America's like most interesting cities, but you should be able to walk your major cities at night. This is insane. You go to Seoul, South Korea. Amazing. You can eat off the streets. You go to Tokyo.
Starting point is 01:17:00 Go to Singapore. This is a choice. We are deciding to have our cities dangerous. And we shouldn't put up with it. I think it's really just being tough on crime. But that's choice. And people know they could get away with it. We're choosing to be soft on crime, though.
Starting point is 01:17:11 We're choosing that. It's a choice. Yeah. What was the biggest takeaway from Newsom? His backpedaling on the trans sports issue was fascinating to me. I did not expect that where, obviously he kind of agreed with me and then, you know, went super viral where he was saying that, of course, it's deeply unfair for men to compete in female sports. Like what kind of insane stuff is this, right?
Starting point is 01:17:31 Yeah, I think I would say that was probably one of the biggest takeaways. Have you kept in touch with him since then? I've texted him a couple times. Does he get back to you? He does, yeah. My biggest text was him was being like, hey, you said that it was no big, you know, you were unfair for. trans athletes to win state championships. Why are you not doing anything about it?
Starting point is 01:17:47 Because a man just won the girls' championship in the state of California. So you were still poking the bear? Poking the bear, but I was just calling them out. And by the way, I wasn't even publicizing it. Now it's, I'm finally having to publicize it. I was like, why are you not doing? And by the way, during this whole Trump knew some feud,
Starting point is 01:18:01 I was just like, I was like, fine. And he's the guy's a total, he's a catastrophic failure. Does he ever reach out to you for help? No, and I wouldn't, I wouldn't give him help. You wouldn't? No. Why? He's a Democrat.
Starting point is 01:18:12 But what if you wanted your insight? in terms of policy and you could somehow eke them a little bit more. Policy, yes. No, no, for sure. Yes, that's right. If he's asking how to better govern and help people, without a doubt, yes. If he's asking me, like, how to get political power, I will not help. What's your advice to him in terms of turning around the state of California?
Starting point is 01:18:29 He would argue the state's doing fantastic. They're doing great revenue. Oh, great. We left California in 2020. Unfortunately, the issues just got so bad with homeless, crime. The taxes were out of this world. They just raised the sales tax. in the city of Santa Monica.
Starting point is 01:18:45 Of course, which is attacks on guys like you. It was really bad. It got to a point where Vegas was so welcoming. I made a video announcing that I was moving to Las Vegas. And someone from like the business administration within the city of Vegas found my email and sent me like, hey, we're really happy to have you. If there's anything we could do, like they were happy to get the business. We love it there.
Starting point is 01:19:05 So since Gavin Newsom has like no core beliefs, he's just like a slippery politician that wants to be in power. he's literally somebody that could pass a lie detector test easily. Like this guy has no guiding principles at all. Just leave the Democrat Party. That's my advice to him. If you really want to like be an elected office that bad, just leave the Democrat Party and just go run as like a moderate Republican and just have some sort of like conversion
Starting point is 01:19:28 story. Like, oh yeah, I'm some sort of progressive. Like you just want political power. You have no guiding beliefs at all whatsoever. You'll say whatever it takes whenever you want. You're captured by your left flank. But he won't do that. And finally, like, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:19:41 I mean, I would say that more practically. Don't be afraid, Gavin, to like go lock up a bunch of criminals and make your state better. I just, the whole premise of California is so sad. Every time, I love California. I love California. Every time I land in California, I say the same thing to my team. It is a shame that they messed up heaven on earth. It is without the most, it's the most beautiful place in the world, right?
Starting point is 01:20:07 I mean, Orange County, can you think of a better microclimate than that? The mornings are just like gifts from God. You do have pockets. Orange County has gotten gorgeous. It's like Santa Barbara. You have certain cities. 61 degrees in the morning. It's just like you just can like anything is possible.
Starting point is 01:20:25 It's kind of got this miss. But I think they're sending all the people to L.A. It seems like L.A. is kind of like the stomping grounds for a lot of the issues. And then other cities are actually getting better. Yeah, I hope so. I think Orange County has some real, some bright spots. But Jenner, look, L.A. is the. beast of California, right? And L.A. is just a dump. It is just disgusting. And it's too bad. I say
Starting point is 01:20:48 that. It never used to be that way. L.A. used to be a really interesting city 30 to 40 years ago. Yes, it had crime, but a better example of a city that has fallen apart is the city that he was the mayor of San Francisco. When I was a kid, I could walk the streets of San Francisco. It was gorgeous. It was fun. It was unique. It was interesting. It was artistic. It was boundary pushing, but it was safe. You would, again, Gavin Newsom, if you're listening to this, would you let your son walk the streets of San Francisco unaccompanied at 1 a.m.? No, you wouldn't. Of course not. You're a failure. If your own kids can't walk your city at night, then what have you done? I don't want to hear
Starting point is 01:21:24 about like how you oversaw gay weddings or whatever stupid thing that you're talking about. Or, oh, yeah, we're taking you to wreck at revenues. I'm sorry. Your son can't walk the streets to the city that you were in charge of, you're a disgrace. Like, don't, don't lecture me about like how you're some sort of progressive beacon. How much of that do you think is Gavin Newsom's fault versus other people's faults? He was the mayor of the city. I put a lot of fault on mayors. I think mayors have a lot of power. And I know this because of New York. Look at Bloomberg and Giuliani and how well they did in New York versus de Blasio. New York crime went up. It got dirty or homelessness went up. Like, mayors are actually some of the most powerful people in the
Starting point is 01:22:00 country that we don't spend enough time or attention on. The police are responsive to the mayor, the building codes of the straddle of the mayor, the homeless, like, mayors are very, very powerful. So he was mayor of San Francisco. Then he ran for lieutenant governor and then he ran for governor. And he was mayor of San Francisco like during the collapse of San Francisco while it started to go down when all this progressive woke stuff started to pop up. Now, you get a lot of people just on the street and you have a good pulse of what's really going on with younger people. What's something that you've noticed that mainstream media either gets wrong or it's just out of touch on? I would say that something that mainstream media really misses
Starting point is 01:22:32 with young men especially is they desire to be more religious than I think they give them credit for. There is a return to religion. You're seeing a little bit of this episode is brought to you by Tell Us Online Security. Oh, tax season is the worst. You mean hack season? Sorry, what? Yeah, cybercriminals love tax forms. But I've got Tellus Online Security.
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Starting point is 01:23:43 ...of these news reports, but there's definitely a curiosity for God and for going back to the church in a very serious and significant way. What's causing that? Well, modernity is a failure. I mean, modernity has given us a lot of great stuff, right? I mean, praise God that we have modern medicine and surgery. and that we have antibiotics. These are all amazing things, right? No one debates that.
Starting point is 01:24:08 But modernity has, the core of modernity is what? You are in charge of your own life and you could do whatever you want to do and you're the center of the universe. Sounds good. Leads to highest depression ever, highest rates, highest anxiety and hopelessness. In Victor Frankel's amazing book, Man Search for Meaning, he said that outside of food and water, the greatest need for man is meaning. And so we see modernity constantly changing around us at all times.
Starting point is 01:24:36 Things are changed, people changing their genders. There's constant change. And I think young people want to go to a church environment that isn't changing. They want to go to a place that is stable, that is consistent, that is beautiful, that is ancient, that is everlasting, and that is eternal. What would you say is the biggest non-issue that people make out to be a massive issue? You already spoke about the issue that you think is extremely important, that people people don't really talk about, which is the birth rates. What about the...
Starting point is 01:25:04 I mean, by the way, the birth rate's so big. I mean, the fact that no one wants to talk about it... It's just not really discussed. Yeah, so... Okay, great. So I would say... It's not a surprise what I'd say. Racism.
Starting point is 01:25:15 It's like the most ridiculous. I mean, we are the least racist country of it exists in the history of the world. I don't like racist. You don't like racist. I don't like running into them. I have no tolerance for it. I would put it as, like, issue number 22,800 on issues of, like,
Starting point is 01:25:29 what's pressing, facing America. How about the fact that our public schools can't educate our kids and we can't find a single kid that can read at grade level in Maryland or Chicago? Probably a bigger deal than racism. How about the fact that in this country that we have an average family cannot afford to go buy groceries in major cities and have to go into debt? Like these are much major problems. Young people can't buy homes. Like the dollar is being deteriorated. We have 110,000 drug overdoses every year.
Starting point is 01:26:01 That's a much bigger problem than racism. Like, who. And like, we have, like, entire social and cultural institutions that are trying to propagandize us. That racism is, like, the biggest problem. I'm sorry, it's not. In fact, I would argue that not only is it not a problem, it's a massive psychological operation against us than I actually talk about the major economic, cultural and political forces that should be addressed in this country. And what do you think makes someone conservative or liberal on the first place? Do you think it's a great question?
Starting point is 01:26:28 It's a nature and nurture. It's both, obviously. again, the older I get, I do give a little bit more, I give a little bit more weight to community than I did probably 10 years ago just because I see how much my daughter and my son absorb around me and my wife. So I get kind of how you're a product to your environment, but it's not, you're not solely a product to your environment. You're not. You have agency. You have decision. You have free will. You can break free of your environment. You're not only your environment. That's very important. You're not only your upbringing. So it's just a worldview difference.
Starting point is 01:26:59 So left-wingers generally look at things through a prism of what they look at a prism of oppressor-oppressed, whereas we look at prisms of things versus just and unjust, right and wrong, and good and evil, and moral and immoral, where they look at things as more as like, who's in power and who is not in power, which group wants sympathy, deserve sympathy and what other group deserve sympathy. But look, we know that people that tend to be liberal tend to have temperament that is far more on kind of the openness and acceptance of, you know, how people are and how they act. We're conservatives. We tend to be much more order and discipline and, let's just say, structure driven. A great example of this is crime. So when we as conservative see someone that commits a crime, and we don't think they're necessarily a product in their environment, we say, you shouldn't have committed that crime. You're being an idiot. You're going to jail. Whereas liberals like, well, we must have sympathy for them because the schools are broken.
Starting point is 01:28:10 And of course, there is some truth that you still decided to commit the crime. It's an insult to every other person that's not committing a crime that comes out of that environment to act as if that that person should be given an exception. As someone who works very closely with young voters, do you think that we should change the rights for who can vote? should we increase the age, should we apply a civics test to it? I mean, probably not. I'll say this. Like, we won the youth vote this last cycle. And it's funny, like, we, in certain states, not across the country. And it's just an amazing thing that you can actually win the youth vote and you could do it with mass virality and mass popularity and reaching out in ways that people would never have imagined.
Starting point is 01:28:52 And so, no, I probably wouldn't put any more restrictions on it. You mentioned earlier in this podcast that one of the biggest sacrifices that you have to make is running this massive business at the same time of trying to be the leader in a family. Yes. I'm curious, what do you think is the biggest issue with modern dating? As a single guy, I would love some advice. You know, Graham, he got married a year or so ago. Congratulations. So he's looking to start a family.
Starting point is 01:29:17 Have as many kids as you can afford. Probably two. Have more than you can afford. That's what I should say. I'll stick with. What is wrong with modern dating? Yeah. The biggest problem with modern dating is very interesting.
Starting point is 01:29:29 We had a women's summit. The young ladies all raise their hands. They're like, how many of you aren't happy with the dating pool? Every woman raises their hand. I'm like, funny, all the young men I talked are unhappy with you too. So who's wrong? Those seem like kind of select groups of people, though. You know, like if you're asking women that are attending a woman's summit, they might be in a very specific situation.
Starting point is 01:29:48 Yeah, I mean, like, generally, I hear more complaints about the dating pool than, you know, like, wow. There's so many options. Maybe you're right. I don't know. Maybe. I think it's more of an options issue is that you could go online and just if you, if you don't like someone, instead of working through it, it's just you go back and you start swiping again. So there's, so let me, what's the problem with women and then I'll go to the problem with men? The problem with women is that many of them, A, have unrealistic expectations of the man that they want a lot of them. And I deal with this all there. I'm like, I want a guy that's earning a million dollars a year and he's six foot four. And I want him to have a, you know, a perfect jaw. and I'm like, yeah, that's never going to happen. How about, by the way, you know where on your list is, like, I want someone who will be a good father or someone with good character. So, I guess it's, like, really disgusting, actually, that you just want someone that's, like, super rich and looks good. Like, why don't you want someone that's going to be loyal to you and not cheat on you? Like, oh, yeah, I want that too.
Starting point is 01:30:43 Oh, okay, got it. So basically, you want, like, Ken Barbie doll. And then you'll have, like, all the good virtues. Notice they don't lead with the virtue. And a lot of things lead to that. But number two is women need to be very clear that we need to tell women more clearly that if you do not have children before the age of 30, there's only a 50% chance that you will have children. That's a fact? It's a fact.
Starting point is 01:31:06 You can fact check me on that. Isn't that, though, that women are becoming very intentional about whether or not they want to have kids and just it's more socially acceptable. Yes, but they're miserable because of it, though. I mean, it's not just my, you go the fact check me, put the numbers up. The most depressed people in America are women without children. They're the most likely to be on antidepressants. They're the most likely to be anxious. Again, people that experience severe depression are people, people that say they are very unhappy are people young, single women in their early 30s without children.
Starting point is 01:31:33 Who are the happiest women in America? Married women with children. I think there is a, and by the way, of course they have the agency to do that. I'm not trying to make a law. Like, you must get married and have kids. But I think that we've gone wrong here that women should prioritize family and children way above career, that they should try to find their husband. before they're 25, that they should try to get married way younger. This is probably a fertility. But then that also goes back to just finances. No, that's a huge problem. Totally agree with that.
Starting point is 01:32:01 I completely agree with that. That's the best argument. It's not a winner argument, but it's the best argument. Because at some point, you go to like sub-Saharan Africa, they have like eight kids and they live in like a dirt hut. You can figure it out. Having children, I believe, is a blessing of the Lord. It's the most amazing thing. We should try to have as many children as you can. Much more important than traveling to Thailand or having a big apartment or a bunch of cats. Okay. Having children are a gift from the Lord. So but as far as like the dating pool problem, so young ladies, they need to be very clear about what they're expecting in a man and date with the intent to marry and not just date to, you know, have a good time. And quite honestly,
Starting point is 01:32:39 both need to do this, but young women need to do a much better job of saving themselves for marriage. They need to be, they need to prioritize purity again. Young men need to too, but if young women do it, then young men will. So if that's what the women need to do, in order to make themselves worthy of dating? What do you think is the main thing men need to do to make themselves worthy? The most attractive quality in a young man that young women can't ever articulate a self-control.
Starting point is 01:33:03 So how does this look in application? A woman needs to be able to know that you can control your impulses when things get really crazy. They can't articulate it, but that's what they want. So for example, they want to be able when you go on a date,
Starting point is 01:33:14 can you control your mouth, can control your tongue, can control your eye? Are you going to cheat on her? Are you going to have a wandering eye? Are you going to get drunk every night? are you going to kind of go into like a drug, you know, abyss? Women can't always put that into words, but that differentiates a boy from a man. A boy is someone that has no self-control.
Starting point is 01:33:31 I would argue it's confidence and ambition. And if you had those qualities, I think everything else falls into place because you have to have self-control if you're going to be ambitious. Sure. To have a North Star that you thought. I totally agree. Confidence is true. Look, again, it's just if you look at it, though, you can be very confident, ambitious, but you could also then cheat on your wife like 10 years. later, right? So you have to be able to control your flesh. We have, we as men have very different
Starting point is 01:33:56 problems than women, right? Different temptations. As men, we have problems controlling our flesh. That's why adultery is literally in the Ten Commandments. You had to command an entire people not to cheat on their wives. It was easy, God would not have to command us not to do it. And so when women are, when men are dating, if you want to make yourself more attractive to a woman, first of all, like demonstrate self-control. And also, women want to be able, they want to be taken care of. I know this is like super provocative. But like deep down, they want a man to be able to provide for them financially. Should a man pay on the first day?
Starting point is 01:34:27 A hundred percent. Like what kind of a wust beta male is splitting the check? Like, who are you? Do you agree with me? Listen, with Macy, I pay for the check. The first. Yeah, the first. It's like, I'm just sorry.
Starting point is 01:34:39 I would go into debt and like scrub dishes before a woman paid for it. Let's see what this. Yeah. Let's see. What is this? So didn't you go on a date? like years ago, like a decade ago, with this woman whose mom gave you $20 to take her to the movie theater? Yes.
Starting point is 01:34:59 Yeah, I made money on that date, actually. Well, so there's a good money. No, no, no. Explain how you made money on a date. That sounds different, though. That's not what we're talking about, though. Yeah, yeah, her mom gave her. And by the way, this was in high school.
Starting point is 01:35:10 Okay, so that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about, like, 24 years old, like, serious dating, right? I split the check quite a lot. Quite a lot. I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend you. you guys are great. That's incomprehensible to me. I think that's... To me, I thought it was a great financial decision. I've just... Okay, so from your prism, I totally get that. And like,
Starting point is 01:35:28 you have a really good financial discipline. I'm sorry. Like, I would be so humiliated. If I... I'm more... I didn't want that. I mean, I find that to be like the greatest beta male, like, humiliation. To save money? No, no, to like, the idea is that a woman that you're trying to court... Now, if it's like a friend thing or... As a first date, you don't even know if, It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry. By the way, that money you save is not worth the honor that you compromise. It's such a big deal. It's a massive deal. I'm not trying to give it a hook on time. I don't know. I'm sorry. But here's the thing. In fairness, for your point with Macy, I paid for the whole first date. Well, why did you do that one, though? I think I was at that point, I was at a level where like that felt like the right choice to make. But throughout my early 20s. Was it because I was hyper.
Starting point is 01:36:18 serious with her or? I was also in a point where I was ready to be able to. Financially. Yes. Legit. I get that. Early 20s like, I still think you should.
Starting point is 01:36:25 Saving five bucks here and there, I would do it. I would go to. So you're manic with saving money. I am. We have Blake on my team is like you. I know, he goes and he'll eat like the, the snacks for lunch to save money here at.
Starting point is 01:36:38 You know, it's funny. I brought food from home. No, no, that's, by the way. And coffee from home. Frugality is a virtue.
Starting point is 01:36:44 Yeah. I, but so we, we as Christians believe that there is, an order of virtues and above frugality is honor. And so we as men must lead. We must provide. Under no circumstance ever should a man ever let a woman pay for a date or you should split, ever, no circumstance. Even on the third, fourth, fifth. What is it first date and you're just not in anything? Okay, well, let me, period. Well, let me, okay. So I, what kind of world are we living in?
Starting point is 01:37:08 Well, hold on a second. I agree with you. If I'm dating a girl, I would pay for everything. Everything. Yeah, everything. However, I could see for other people. that might be in a different financial position, you know, you pay for 10 dates and then she's like, you know what, I want to treat you. Well, that's, that's totally different. No, no, what we're talking about is like, oh, we're going to alternate. Like, well, what's you're serious and she wants to take you out to something for a nice dinner? And you might, by the way, if you have the intent to marry, you're already like kind of blending finances.
Starting point is 01:37:37 Like, I get that psychologically. But like, if you're like, oh, we'll take turns. Like, oh, well, you know, you pay this time. I pay this time. So what's your advice to a girl who's who the guy she's currently seeing, he says that. Oh, do not marry that, man. But here's the thing. I feel like they should always break off.
Starting point is 01:37:52 That's great. But they should offer. They should pull out the credit card. The woman? Just to offer. No. It's a nice gesture. No, by the way, no, no, no.
Starting point is 01:37:59 This is feminism. Feminism is that you have to be this like self-independent. This is not a nice gesture. It's you trying to be like egalitarian. No. You as women should want to be provided for. In fact, you should have an expectation that you as a woman are so important and so critical and so necessary and beautiful that it shouldn't even be a question that if you're in a date.
Starting point is 01:38:22 Now, if it's a business lunch or like friends own stuff, 50, 50, we're not talking about that, right? Like it's all of a sudden they're like, hey, I want to buy insurance or like, you know, you're going to, you know, I'm going to go do business. I totally different. I still think the man should pay, but that's that. But see, to me, when I was dating, it would be a huge turnoff if the check comes and she just looks at it and then looks at me and looks at the check. I totally disagree. I at least want to see like I'm reaching for something and I'm like, no, I want to worry. I want a woman that wants to be led by a man.
Starting point is 01:38:49 I don't want a woman that's all of a sudden going to be competing financially in a marriage. I don't want a woman that's going to be like, oh, you know, questioning financial decisions or a woman that's going to be like all of a sudden, no, the man is the leader of the household. The man is the leader of all the financial decisions. The man is the primary, should be the primary provider. Again, there's exception to this. That's all. Oh, Jarly. So sexist.
Starting point is 01:39:10 Sorry, it worked for 2,000 years for 5,000 years. And it should work again. And by the way, what we're doing right now is not working. Let me just repeat again. This is not working. And I'm not trying to like bash you. Like this is fun. It's in really good spirit.
Starting point is 01:39:21 No, I love the banter. No, it's great. But like this idea, if a woman on a date were to pull out a credit card to go pay for something, like I would be. I would be like, oh, so you're like one of those boss babes. No, that's, that's not what that's saying. A hundred percent of it is. Yes, it is. No, that is completely missing.
Starting point is 01:39:38 I think, no. I think if I want to date and she reaches for it. Like, I just think, oh, that's really nice. You're trying to be kind here. You're trying to alleviate what you perceive to be a financial burden on me. That's a generous interpretation. And so, so, but bringing something to the table. And so I think women are not bringing money to the table.
Starting point is 01:39:56 They're bringing something else. Local news is in decline across Canada. And this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void. And it gets harder to separate truth from fiction. That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada. Reporting on the ground from where you live,
Starting point is 01:40:18 telling the stories that matter to all of us. Because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. Nice gesture. I agree with Graham. I think it's a nice gesture. However, I agree with you.
Starting point is 01:40:32 I think the guy should pay. I think the woman going into that should have an expectation that the man takes care of her. But should she be grateful if the guy takes... 100%. Oh, okay. If you're expecting... Men's gratitude. No, no, no, no.
Starting point is 01:40:45 The woman should be like, you know what she should say? She's like, thank you so much for doing that and not having to put this unnecessary pressure on me. Because you have just, you've just freed me. That's what women want, by the way. You freed me? I would say to run. No, no, no. Or like, like what?
Starting point is 01:41:00 No, no, no. No, no. Do you know how many women are secretly miserable that they have to be as financially successful as men? A lot. Like a lot. It drives them insane. Deep down a lot of women want to be mothers. They want to be wives.
Starting point is 01:41:13 I tend to agree with that. Not every woman. By the way, if you want to go be a boss, babe, go do that. Like, it's a free society. There's a lot of people to do that. But generally, we have overcorrected, okay? We have a lot of women that deep down want to go be moms. And they would love to have their man come in and just grab the check.
Starting point is 01:41:31 Be like, no, I got it. And by the way, you know what they see that as a signal? It's going to be okay. When the bullets start firing and there's chaos and things start falling apart, this man is going to protect the family. Boom. Throw it on the table. Wall it on the table.
Starting point is 01:41:46 No, even better. Paying 26% interest on that. It's got to be even more alpha. You go to the waiter before the meal and you just give them the credit card. It's not even a conversation. It's paid for. It's done. Like you don't even allow it to be a thing that is introduced there.
Starting point is 01:41:58 I would agree with that. I agree with that. Phone alpha is like you go straight up where you are like smooth move and the girl is so stunned and she'll be like, oh, don't we have to pay like, no, I got it. It's done. Boom. Are you kidding? From a woman's perspective, they'll be like, that's the most.
Starting point is 01:42:13 attractive thing ever. I would love to hear some woman's perspective in the comments here. I think they're going to be agreeing with you for the most part. If they disagree, it's fine, but like, you'll end up with, by way, some women want to marry weak men because they are the boss. What other tips do you have like that? Like, that was a good suggestion. Oh, I have a lot of tips. So for marriage or for dating? I have both. Let's start with dating and then move our way to marriage. So in dating, look, I don't, I do not think you should have sex for marriage. I know, I know that's a provocative take. I think sex is holy. I don't, and by the way, it's not just a religious take. I actually think that if you introduce sex into dating, then all of a sudden there's kind of like a dilution of what exactly will be the ultimate physical crescendo of marriage. You can actually make a rational, reasonable, non-religious argument for that. Anyway, that's like a whole other topic that we could discuss another time. But I will defend that. I actually think bring back purity, bring back saying yourself for marriage. Okay, but other things is this, you should go in a road trip with the person you're dating. It's very important. You should find uncomfortable.
Starting point is 01:43:12 high pressure travel situations that's not just like flying first class to a ruba and you should try to be in places of discomfort intentionally with who you are dating and you'll find out a lot with that person. Number three, this is going to sound incredibly sexist. I don't care. If it is a woman that you want to get married to and she says that she wants to be a traditional wife, see if she's actually up to it. Say, okay, treat me, cook me a meal. I'm not kidding. No, I think that's really. I'm like, no, no, no, but be honestly, like, she says she wants to be a traditional wife. Like, and by the way, be like, does she enjoy it? No, this is important, though. Like, and then ask her. No, I'm not even just, is she a good cook. Be like, did you enjoy doing that?
Starting point is 01:43:53 Like, was, and she like, oh, I love that. I love getting the ingredients. I love looking at the cookbook. I love the recipe. I love thinking about you when I was cooking the food. You're like, okay, this is going to be awesome, right? Or otherwise, she's like, it was a disaster. It was this.
Starting point is 01:44:04 I'm like, okay, well, then we might have a little bit, you know. And by the way, I'm not saying that every wife has to cook every meal for husband, but honestly, a lot of women out there want to do that. A lot of women want to provide for their man in that way. They want to run the house. They want to shepherd the kids. Going into marriage, though, I'm a big believer in premarital counseling. I think that there are several questions that are not answered when most people go into marriage that should be answered. And I might freak you out with this because I don't know if you did this. No, we did this. I looked at every divorce statistic and we did everything we could less than the chances of a divorce. So yeah, money is number one. right, who's going to handle the finances? Here's one that you might not have done that you should do while you're still in the honeymoon phase. Are you going to have an open or closed house? I don't even know if that. See, it's big. So were you raised in a house where a lot of friends came over all the time? Or were you raised in a house where almost no friends came over? A normal amount. It wasn't yet, you know, open or closed? It was maybe like once a week. We'd have like a Klingade or something like that. Do you know what kind of house your wife was raised in? Probably about the same. Okay. It's an important question because I was raised in a very closed house. Right. I know people that are raised in open houses and it's destroyed their marriages. You know the type where they're always having people over. That was my family. Okay. So you get that. Yeah. Imagine if you were to marry a closed house person. And all of a sudden you were like, hey, we're going to constantly have a stream of people. And you don't talk about that before marriage. All of a sudden you're like, it's total chaos for a closed house person. Because they're raised in a place where not evenings are very quiet. Make sure, this is another important. Make sure that you get along with each other, that you really like each other, not just love each other.
Starting point is 01:45:36 that you like spending time with that person. One of my favorite words in the English language is like. It's very unique. Only the English language actually has that. Do you like spending time or do you just love that person? Because liking is like, hey, can you talk to that person seven hours uninterrupted on a park bench if you needed to? Or is it just kind of like an annoyance and is it just purely physical? Other questions and other pieces of advice I think are really important.
Starting point is 01:46:02 In-laws matter. They really do. They shouldn't always necessarily be deal breakers, but boy, you should know the in-laws because, you know, your wife will take the form of the mother more times than not. So you should at least get along with her in-law, kind of know the in-law. Children, how many children? When are you going to have children? Is it a priority? Will it be early?
Starting point is 01:46:20 Will it be late? Religious questions. Are we going to raise them religiously? Are we raised them secular? Other questions that I think are really important that actually don't always get flushed out. How many vacations are we going to take? What type of vacations? Are we an RV family?
Starting point is 01:46:33 Are we a go to a private, you know, island family? Are we a, are we going to splurge on one vacation a year? Or are we going to do like three or four? This is important before you get married. All of a sudden, you're kind of in the marriage thing and you're like, hey, I just booked us a vacation. Like, what? I didn't want to. That's not because it's different philosophies of time off.
Starting point is 01:46:51 Last one, which is the biggest. You want the biggest of all. What are acceptable and unacceptable vices for our marriage? For example, is it acceptable for, you know, the husband to smoke a cigar? Has she smelled cigar before you get married? And does she know what that is? Will marijuana be allowed in the marriage? I would say no, of course.
Starting point is 01:47:12 Is it okay for alcohol to be around? If yes, how often? Will you drink on weeknights? Are more than one drink acceptable? Will we drink socially? Will you drink once you have kids? Will you drink around the kids? Here's another question.
Starting point is 01:47:23 Will you watch TV at night? Will you be okay if, you know, there's R-rated kind of sexual nudity that your partner is watching? is completely off limits for your relationship? I think it absolutely should be. You should talk about that because some couples are like perfectly okay with what. I think it's kind of weird, to be honest, right?
Starting point is 01:47:40 These are questions that honestly, all the time that people do not always flush out before marriage. In the course of dating, though, I could go on for like infinite. No, I really enjoy this. Yeah. Again, we have an amazing marriage. My wife and I, obviously not perfect. No marriage is perfect. But we actually like each other.
Starting point is 01:47:56 We prioritize date night. We're actually doing it right after this tonight, which is awesome. But I find so often that people in dating don't date with the intent to marry. And when they end up doing to marry, they don't even ask the tough questions before they get married. Could we do a couple rapid fire questions real quick? Okay. What's your biggest in security? For getting something I should know.
Starting point is 01:48:17 Will you run for president? No, not running for president. What's more dangerous, ignorance, or apathy in voters? Oh, apathy for sure. Should there be a maximum age to be president? No. What is a worst policy idea, universal basic income or open borders? Open borders.
Starting point is 01:48:32 One government agency you'd shut down right away. That's a great quick. Department of Education. Would you rather have dinner with AOC or Bernie? AOC. Is it a sin to fly Spirit Airlines? A sin? No.
Starting point is 01:48:43 But whoever started Spirit Airlines is in great defiance to God. What's worse for society, we to... Do you think you could win in a fist fight against Gavin Newsom? Probably not. If I'm being honest, like I don't think so. Do you believe in aliens? Maybe. debate or a podcast.
Starting point is 01:49:02 I like this. I like podcast. It's way better. It's more human. Censorship or chaos? What's more destructive? Censorship, without a doubt. Absolutely.
Starting point is 01:49:10 Do you have a random pet peeve? I have a lot of pet peeves, actually. One of my pet peeves that I can't, I literally cannot stand. I'm actually a violator of it is when I'm trying to talk to somebody and then they check their phone. I'm really bad with that with my team. So I'm sure you guys, it bothers you, but I got to be a lot better about that. And finally, oh, sorry. No, no.
Starting point is 01:49:33 And then when people say at the end of the day, they don't even know what they're saying when they say it, it's just. At the end of the day. It's just literally a linguistic crutches, all that it is. Linguistic crutches are very annoying, in fairness. Yes, and that is one that drives me nuts. If everything completely goes away, how do you want to be remembered? If I die? Everything just goes away.
Starting point is 01:49:53 How would you, if you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered for courage, for. my faith. That would be the most important thing. Most important thing is my faith in my life. Charlie Kirk, thank you so much for going on the next to be a great job. I wish it could be longer. This has been amazing. We would love to do this again. Come back soon. We only hit half in the serious. Oh, my gosh. So we'll have to do a part two sometimes. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And shout out to your crew. Like seriously, they're incredible. Incredible. Hospitality was incredible. By the way, come to the Student Action Summit. You guys would get so many guests. Yeah, we have
Starting point is 01:50:25 everyone there. Yeah, it would be phenomenal. Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you guys for watching. Until next time. Before you knew what a stock was, you traded snacks, cards, turns. You knew what something was worth because you felt it. That instinct to trade didn't disappear. It just grew up. TD Easy Trade taps into that instinct so you can build something real for the future. With no minimums, no monthly fees, and 100 free trades.
Starting point is 01:51:01 You already got this. Because you are made to trade. And TD Easy Trade is made to help. Download it now.

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