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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:10]
B
All right. The TPUSA All American halftime show. Massive, massive success, folks. With over 50 million views and counting, it was the perfect halftime show to show America's 2250th birthday. I'm happy to have TP USA spokesperson and executive producer of the Charlie Kirk show, Andrew Covid. 9. Andrew, really, really good to have you on, brother. And congratulations on the halftime show. 50 million in county. Do you. Did you ever think you would hit this number?
- [00:36]
C
No. You know, we, we this far surpassed our expectations for what we sort of thought would be a success. And I just want to be clear on the number. We actually have hired a third party to do an. A full audit. We want to get like a Nielsen equivalent because we know that that's what the market does. And you know, there's so many of these platforms take a while to report, so there's not an official number number at number out yet. But I would say it's going to be between. It would be right around 50, I would think whether it's 45 or 55, it's going to be somewhere around there.
- [01:07]
B
What are you thinking? When you, when you announced when we.
- [01:09]
C
Did it, I thought, listen, if we get 5 to 10 million, that'll be a huge success. But then all of a sudden, when I'm looking, you know, minute. It was probably 10 minutes before, 15 minutes before the first half ended, and there was already a million people live streaming waiting to get on. I was like, oh, here we. Here we go. Because what we found is that if you add up, I believe that our stream just on turning points, YouTube alone was the second largest stream. Just that alone. But as you know, we had it on Charlie's page, we had it on Rav's page. Just that we're just talking YouTube here. Just YouTube. We're not talking about OTT, we're not talking about Rumble. But if you add up all those, it very possibly could have been the number one live stream event in YouTube history. Now, the first one is like the moon solar. It was like the moon landing in India. So it was like you had a whole. You had a whole country watching, you know, some sort of space event with like 1.6 billion people. So you're going up against a really big number there. And yet we still might have beat it.
- [02:07]
B
Take us through the moment, the night. You know, they call the halftime. They go to break and. What are you guys doing? What's the, what's the. The vibe?
- [02:15]
C
Oh, I listen, the group chats from that night were just like, you could, you could feel the energy. It was hurried. We were. Everybody's trying to fire at the same time and make sure we were all on the same page. But yeah, I mean, instantly, as soon as it started going, you know, just screen grab, like, oh, my gosh, we're at 4 million. Concurrence, oh, my gosh, we're at 5 million. Oh, my gosh, we're 6.17. And it just was massive amount of energy because none of us had ever seen numbers like that. But, you know, I think it just speaks to the fact that there is a huge underserved part of the country that feels left out of mainstream entertainment, mainstream media. And I also think it's, you know, the professional football folks have gotten increasingly out of touch with the audience that buys the tickets and buys the jerseys. And, you know, it just keeps getting nuttier. It just seems to keep getting more and more and more out of the mainstream of where the American public is at. And we just, we came off a 2024 election where, you know, a majority of the country voted for President Trump. They voted for deportations, they voted for enforcing our laws again. And it. And I think, listen, I'm not here. I have zero hate on this. Listen, they did their thing. That's cool. We did our thing. That's cool, too. And the juxtaposition, the contrast couldn't have been more stark. But I'm just saying, you know, the market speaks. The number of eyeballs is absolutely incredible. You know, again, we took a legitimate sizable dent out of the marketplace. And I think, you know, the halftime show's never going to be the same.
- [03:43]
B
Again and never going to be the same for. For them or you, because you announced you're already looking at next year.
- [03:48]
C
Yeah, we're going to, we're going to run it back. And we made that announcement the night of, because we were blown away. And we realized, you know, there's just a huge marketplace. And I would, I would put odds on the fact that they're going to make the same kind of decisions, at least, you know, well, you don't do Green Day. American Idiot. And then Malo Canejo the next. The, you know, for the, for the halftime show, if you don't have an agenda. And I, And I think that's. That's the calculus. The way you keep the pressure on is you keep the pressure on. And ultimately, I mean, I'm open to retiring this thing if they start doing, doing the right thing, but it had been since 1994, that there had been a country artist at the halftime show.
- [04:28]
B
And so, oddly enough, I mean, huge. Obviously, we're big involved in music here. The winners of American Idol are typically country stars. America wants to hear some country music. I'm so shocked. I get the, the business dynamic behind bringing in minorities because you want. You want the NFL to expand, you want to bring it to women, you want to bring it to minorities.
- [04:50]
C
I'm sympathetic to that, to be honest.
- [04:52]
B
Yeah. But also give the people what they want. I think the big drawback that I'm hearing from people who were kind of disappointed that they couldn't understand a single word of Bad Bunny was that there wasn't a little bit. Some of it wasn't in English. Right. They may have counter program, and they might counter program you next year. Maybe they see 50 million go, we want those 50 all of a sudden next. You know that country music is the halftime next year.
- [05:15]
C
Well, and listen, if they, if they pivot, then we'll pivot and it's great. And I would, I would call that another win.
- [05:19]
B
Yeah.
- [05:20]
C
You know, if they, if they come out next year. By the way, the. Our phone is open, the door is open to the commissioner, if he wants to consult with us and get our feedback.
- [05:32]
B
How about a collaboration?
- [05:33]
C
Well, I mean, listen, I'm open. I'm open minded. I'm open minded.
- [05:36]
B
Tp, usa, halftime.
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A
Can you.
- [05:40]
C
I mean, listen, I. What Charlie always believed in was, you know, and I'll never forget this now, I don't think in the moment, I realized how significant the moment would. Would feel to me later. But I'll never forget January 2025, we're in D.C. charlie's talking to a reporter, and the reporter says, well, you just won the presidency, the House, the Senate, you know, what's next? Like, what else do you have left to do? And Charlie immediately fired back and said, we want to win the culture, we want to win the institutions. And this is the funny moment that we find ourselves as conservatives because conservatives by default, by our hardwiring, want to preserve the institutions. We want to preserve the good, the true, and the beautiful. But what do you do when your institutions are corrupt? They are. They've been captured by another ideology that you don't. You don't even recognize.
- [06:27]
B
That's what made Charlie that dangerous, because maybe people didn't realize what he was saying. It was, yeah, elections matter, but when you win the culture, you win the elections going forward.
- [06:38]
C
Yeah, exactly. Well, and then this is the point. So we wanted to Win the culture. Charlie, dating back to, like, 2012, he was, you know, tweeting about Madonna at the halftime show. 2014, what is clothing optional? And the halftime show, you know, one like. One like, this guy got one like. And he just kept at it. Kept grinding, kept grinding, kept grinding. And then it would go viral during the halftime show in years, more recent years. So it was just something that Charlie understood was this cultural touch point. It was important. Whether you like it or not, it's important. Okay. And so when we made this decision to do this, you know, we didn't know what to expect. It was, you know, I had a pastor friend that's passed away since, but he used to tell me, faith is spelled R I S K. Faith is spelled risk. And so we took a big risk. We put it out there. You know, we knew that if it flopped, people were gonna come after us. Oh, turning point's over. Whatever. And, you know, it's funny, if it succeeded, people were gonna come after us. So. But the. But we knew it was important because the culture matters. And to your point, we want to reclaim culture. We want to reclaim these institutions that mean so much to the country. That's a halftime show. So, yeah, listen, my door is open. Our door is open. We would love to talk. Depends what spirit those negotiations are held in. If they're contentious or if they're welcoming and warm. That would determine a lot. But listen, we want. We want. We want what's best for the country. So ultimately, we reserve the right to make whatever choice is in the best interest of the country.
- [08:06]
B
It's amazing what you're doing. You know, you talk about. I would say that you're filling a void. You know, there's the conservative voice. There's. Fox is the big dog in the. In the right of center. I'm going to call them conservative right of center. They couldn't, back in the day, they couldn't jump into the CPAC world. It was just a little too not corporate enough for their advertisers. So that lane was. You've taken that lane over with, With. With passion. And you're just bringing people from that whole untapped, unserviced group of conservatives that aren't corporate conservatives like Fox, but our boots on the ground middle America conservatives.
- [08:44]
C
When you. When you do that, you ultimately have to concede ground. Right? Because you're. You're not, you know, And Charlie would always say, we want a conservative. We want conservative leaders that are as conservative as their voters. And that was always the frustration that you'd send these people to Washington, and then they would, you know, fail you. They would. They would concede ground to, you know, whether they wanted to keep getting invited to the rubber chicken dinners or the cocktail parties. They wanted to be invited in polite society. Oh, listen, like, turning point exists on our own. Like, we don't need that. And so we're able to be as conservative as the voters. We are a voice for the grassroots. We're a voice for the people out.
- [09:21]
B
There don't have to service advertisers who are uncomfortable with being a little bit more conservative than their taste.
- [09:29]
C
You know, it's funny. I mean, Charlie, God bless him, I mean, he told more donors to where they could, you know, stuff it over the years than you could count than most organizations have ever had. And so if we had donors that came in and were like, hey, but we want you to kind of, you know, do this on this issue, Charlie would just say, hey, we're not doing it. I'm sorry. We hope you still support us, but if you can't, we get it. And. And that happened over and over and over again. Some of them left, some of them said, okay, whatever, we trust you.
- [09:55]
B
After a few appearances on TPUSA stages over the years, early 2017, 2018, Charlie asked me to be on your advisory board. I was later on the honorary board. An honor. I'll never forget those moments. And the point is I'm trying to make here is you guys have got a lane. It's. It's expanding. There is. You have such incredible reach. Charlie's looking down. What's he saying to you right now, Andrew? To. To continue this, to continue the momentum that you guys have created and continued.
- [10:29]
C
This is not normal is what probably Charlie would be saying. I remember when he was on south park, you know, when they did a parody of him on South Park. Yeah, exactly. He instantly texted me. He's like, is this real? And I was like, I think it's real. And he instantly. The next note was, this is not normal. And that was a refrain that we had a lot when he went to Greenland. This is not normal. When he's riding on Air Force Two with J.D. vance as the first guest on the plane with him. This is not normal. You know, when he's delivering a speech at the rnc, this is not normal. And he would say, stay low, stay humble, stay close to Jesus. And that's. That's kind of where we're at. You know, it's like, yeah, there's a huge success. Let's stay Low. Let's stay humble. Let's stay close to Jesus, understand that God's got to go before us and kind of open the doors, but let's be a voice for, for the people. Let's be. This is the people's halftime show is what we think about it. And, you know, there is a lot of opportunity, there's a lot of things we could do, but, you know, we always have to kind of put that back against, you know, what is the best use, highest and best use of our time? What is the highest and best use of donor dollars? What is the highest, best use of our staff Time. So, you know, we're, we're assessing as we go. But listen, there's a lot that we have to do in front of us, including the midterms Turning Point action is going to be out there doing ballot chasing, door knocking. That's a huge focus for us. Obviously, the programming with the Young Women's Leadership Summit coming up, probably going to have a political event this summer. Then we got AM Fest to plan for. And then. And then, you know, we're going to be right back at the halftime show again next February. So. So things, Things come fast at you in this world. But, you know, I think Charlie would just be. I think he's. I think he would be so thrilled with the halftime show. I think he would be honored and humbled at the people's support. And I think, you know, listen, give us a. Give us a year to, to think up how to. How to even make this better. It'll be. It'll be a fun challenge.
- [12:20]
B
Massive. It's just a massive. We got to go because you got speeches and people that you got to see. I, we. I remember nine, 10 years ago, you and I having cocktails with Gaston at a bar and just. It was so happy going Trump.
- [12:32]
C
I think it may have been at.
- [12:33]
B
The Hilton here, maybe at Trump and both. It's been more than one time. But here's my point. It almost this event, yes, you're powerful, you're bigger, but made you really grow. How are you doing? Are you handling the growth and the responsibility that's been handed to you?
- [12:47]
C
Yeah, I mean, listen, the. The benefit that I have is that I got to watch Charlie do it so close. I mean, Charlie and I texted probably a dozen times, if not a hundred times someday back and forth. And then we would call and then we travel together. And I watched him go through so much of the growth period. And so I have that memory firmly in my mind. I was there. I got A front row seat to, to history.
- [13:09]
B
Honestly, I, I love, he couldn't have done it without, I mean, you were so integral.
- [13:13]
C
I think Charlie would have been successful regardless of what's next to him. But I, I just, I, I, I was on honest, it's a honor of a lifetime to have been up close to history. I got to see history. And so, so I have that memory. I, I saw how he did it. And listen, I'm just trying to do my best to honor Turning Point, to keep our eyes focused on, you know, building. You know, there's a lot of noise out there. Every time you do something big, there's people that have opinions about it either way, and you just stay focused on building. You know, Erica likes to mention the story out of Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is sent by God to sort of build, rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. And there's a group of hecklers down at the, at the base of the wall that keep calling him down. We demand to speak to you. We demand to speak to you. And on a number of occasions, he rebuffs them. And he says, I am busy doing a great work. I'm building this wall on behalf of the Lord. And, and then I think eventually, like on the fourth or fifth request, he goes down and he sort of scolds them. And I think of Charlie's whole life as being one of not getting involved in so much of the noise that draws so many people down. And that ends up being the, the thing that, that, that really distracts them from doing more and better work. And so, you know, what I will say is, you know, we're going to keep building. We're going to keep looking forward. We're going to keep giving the people opportunities to get involved. We're going to give them opportunities to have an alternative. And we really want to fight for this culture because we love this country. We are purely America first, and that will not change. We are purely for the people that are forgotten all across this country, the grassroots. And we still have the main goal. We want to win the culture. We are, we want to win politics, but we want to make sure that our elected leaders are as conservative as their voters.
- [15:01]
B
Take care of yourself.
- [15:02]
C
Thank you.
- [15:03]
B
First. Yeah. You know, say, you know, they tell you in the airplane, if there's turbulence or something bad, mom, make sure your mask is on first before.
- [15:12]
C
Well, I will tell you my, my family life, my, my marriage, my kids, everybody's doing great. And if I didn't have that core, yeah, I think I'd be in. I would have been in some serious trouble along the way. But, you know, God's been good. I will just, you know, my wife is a total. Is. Is the mvp, really. And so if, you know, and that's an encouragement for people around, and that's a message that Charlie would have had, too. It's just, you know, get married, have kids. You will not regret it. It keeps you grounded. You always keep saying, and I am living testament to it now.
- [15:41]
B
Very good, Andrew. Really good having you, my friend. And I'm excited to watch the next chapter, the next phase of pp. Fantastic. God bless you.
- [15:49]
C
Thank you for your support.
- [15:50]
B
All right, good to see you. And go knock them dead, folks. All right, we will be back. Two and a half minutes. Time is valuable. That's why Lowe's blueprint takeoffs turn blueprints into quotes faster. Bring us your plans, and we'll generate itemized material lists to make quoting easier so you can get back to Building plus. At the Lowe's Pro desk, you get access to thousands of building materials not sold in store. And when your order's ready, we'll deliver everything to the job site. Improving is easy at Lowe's. All right, I'm gonna tell you right now, Trump is getting ready to talk, so we're gonna try and do this. Cause this is a great guy. This is one of the best sheriffs in the country. One of. Certainly one of the best in this state of Florida. Active child exploration cases are growing every day. Detectives are overwhelmed. Resources are limited. Investigators don't have time in a day to get the important work done. My next guest, Lee County, Florida Sheriff, and he, along with the Lee County Sheriff's Office, are conducting knock and talk operations to eliminate child abuse and human trafficking. Happy to have back with us Sheriff Carmine Merceno. Transparency here. Sheriff CARMINE I go. I go back about a dozen years or so. Great man right here. Great sheriff. Great man. Sheriff, tell us what's going on in Lee County. Man, you are. You're. You're a badass sheriff. And, you know, an example for all sheriffs, not only in the state of Florida, but across the country. Sir, what are you doing differently than some of the other ones?
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D
Well, Eric, it's great to see you again. You know, we go back a long way. We're blessed. In southwest Florida. Governor DeSantis, I mean, he is a law and order governor. He makes it very easy to do our job. Also, I mean, I always thank God for President Trump. President Trump has set the pace, and he's saving America. You Know, it's simple, Eric. You know, support law enforcement. We talk about the recent ICE things and all the debates about ice. ICE plays a critical role in protecting our communities. And given how publicized these events are. Halftime show is right. Different commercials that are controversial. I'm glad to see that in this whole media environment that law enforcement perspectives, they deserve airtime, too. I mean, ISA law enforcement officers, they're out there risking their lives. We actually lead the state. We're number one. But we're not knocking on doors to. To hunt people down in restaurants and other places. We have interactions every day. And when someone is a violent felon, if they crash into you, they're committing a crime. We work with our federal partners, and they're gone. So this is not a political debate. This is, hey, this is a felon. This is a violent person. Why do you want them? Do you want them as your neighbor? You know, I say, hey, if you're against that, then tell me if you want them to be your neighbor. If they're here illegally, they're committing crimes. And virtually all the people we interact with are that they're gone.
- [18:41]
B
Yeah. You know, Sheriff, folks should know this. I was doing an interview with Tito Ortiz for my other show, the Ed show, and I said, tito, you're from California. Why in Cape Coral? And he said, sheriff Carmine. I said, sheriff Carmine.
- [18:53]
A
Really?
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B
Because I know Sheriff Carmine, and he was so impressed with what you're doing to clean up Cape Coral that he moved to the town.
- [19:01]
D
Well, that means a lot to me. Tito's a great man. This is another day that it proves. They come from California. My hometown in New York, you know, where people are walking around and sometimes punching people in the face, you know, doing their narcotics in plain view. That's not what we are about. We live with law and order. And here locally, thank God for that. The crime rate's never been lower in the great state of Florida. We work together, 67 sheriffs. And I will tell you again, Governor DeSantis, he stands for law and order, and he supports law enforcement. President Trump has made it very easy to do our job, and all we want to do is protect people. When someone dials 911, we don't say, ma' am or sir. Are you a Republican or Democrat who are. No, we say, what's the issue? And we get there immediately. And we save lives and we protect lives. And anyone that wants to argue the point of safety and security, and that's a very sad day.
- [19:55]
B
You know, Sheriff, so important what you just said for Sheriff's office for any, any level of law enforcement to have the bureaucrats behind them supporting what they do. For you, it's DeSantis. For DeSantis, it's Trump. Right. And so as long as there's support behind you, you got, you got their backs, they're going to be able to do their jobs. It's so important. I don't understand in these, these liberal cities, New York and other, where the mayor's office is just actually allowing criminals to sue their police officers directly without support. It's crazy. It's a recipe for disaster, is it not?
- [20:30]
A
It is. It is.
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D
And the same people that live in these cities that are against law and order are moving here because they don't want to be a victim of a crime. They don't want to live in an area that allows that violent crime. So they come here, and then they're upset with the people that. That want to live with law and order again. We go back to pop culture and a performance and a halftime show. These are opportunities for us to have meaningful policy conversations about immigration and what's really affecting the Americans today. And, you know, it's easy to hate, but you know what I say, Be part of a solution. Don't hate people. Educate yourself. Be part of a solution. I respect that we can professionally disagree, but I thank God for President Trump.
- [21:12]
B
Another important aspect to this, and we noticed this because Axios is a big media, I watchdog kind of group, and politics, politics and media came out and said, violent crime is, is plummeting. Levels are plummeting in America under Trump. Right? And then they changed the headline to kind of soften it because it was too good for Trump. And I'm just thinking, if you can't take a victory on reducing violent crime, there it is right there. If you can't take a victory on that, if you have to hide behind some sort of liberal ideology for that, where are we as a society?
- [21:44]
D
Well, where are we, right? I mean, President Trump could walk on water and they'd say he can't swim. Again, this is about being safety, security families, raising families, children, safe schools. This is what the Americans want. And even the people that hate different people for their views, even they want to be safe and they want their families safe. And that's important.
- [22:06]
B
You know that badge, you're watching them as we're having this conversation live, folks, right now. I watch our chat. We get our rumble. They all love you. They love you. Look at that badge. And it breaks me back to about nine years ago. You you were very, very good, my friend. So we're going to leave it right there. We got, we got to get to Trump in just a minute or so. Appreciate you having you on, Sheriff Carmine. What a great man. What a great sheriff. Keep doing what you're doing and we.
- [22:32]
D
See you, my brother, many years. Great to see you.
- [22:34]
B
We have a. We have a dinner plan, sir. We'll do it very, very soon. Thank you.
- [22:38]
D
Yes, sir.
- [22:38]
B
All right, folks, we'll be back. Two and a half minutes.
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A
Foreign.
- [22:54]
B
National disputes. Inflation. Rising national debt. Digital currency. Never ending list of reasons gold has risen over 700 in the last 20 years. Never ending list also of reasons why smart Americans diversify a portion of our savings into precious metals with the Birch Gold group. More than any other commodity on earth, gold thrives during uncertainty, which is why it's a crucial part of a balanced strategy. Gives you peace of mind given all the events that could impact the US Economy. See if holding gold as a tax, as a tax sheltered IRA retirement account is right for you too. Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold. Just text Thor in America to 989898 to receive your info kit on gold. No obligation, just useful information with an A plus rating. With a Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers. Let Birch Gold help you diversify with gold so you too can have peace of mind, regardless of uncertainty. Text that word, America to 989-898 one more time. America. Text it to 989-898. All right, there's a quiet shift happening. Most people haven't even noticed it. The Edge. We just crossed 11,000 subscribers. All organic, nearly 2/3 of them. Sorry. 700,000 views, 29,000 watch hours. YouTube now ranks the edge in the top 1% of all new YouTube channels. Here's what matters. Individual episodes are now drawing more viewers than cable news shows on places like Newsmax or News Nation. True story. And we're doing it without politics. It's about performance, discipline, health, pressure. Real conversations from top men from sports, finance, television and elite health and longevity. No slogans, no outrage. Just men preparing to perform better, live longer and think clearer in a tougher and tougher world. If you want noise, look somewhere else. It's not the Edge if you already know where to find it. The Edge. Watch it now. But if you don't go to there, right there, hit your phone right there of your camera. That QR code will get a little yellow line. Boom. Press it. You'll you'll subscribe. Really, really want you part of this group. We're growing. You got to be part of it. Or go to YouTube.com ericbulling the edge. Type it into Google. Eric, bowling, edge, YouTube. Go there, subscribe, why don't you? Thank you for. Thank you for watching Rav. Thank you for watching Bowling on Rav. And thank you for watching, for subscribing to the Edge. I want you to do it. I'm looking for it. They tell me Trump may be coming out to the microphone very soon. Yeah, Ben. Really? Okay, so what should we do? Should we do a little. Should we do a little rapids? All right, let's do rapids. Let me know if we got to jump in, folks. We're going to go to Trump. I promise you, you won't miss any of it. So a school shooting in British Columbia in Canada has left 10 people dead, including the suspect, 25 injured, eight. And I'm using the quotes, a woman wearing a dress is what they went with for almost 24 hours. Not the reality, which is that yet another transgender killed people in a mass shooting. Local police went above and beyond to avoid the truth at first, referring to the suspect as a gun person, which tells us everything we need to know about both the suspect, but also about the state of a very woke Canada.
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A
That includes the deceased gun person. Okay.
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C
And then separately, do you know the.
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A
Gun person's relationship to the.
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B
All right, before we can react to that, we have President Trump, folks.
- [26:40]
A
Sam. Clean, beautiful coal. Clean, beautiful coal. We love clean, beautiful coal, don't we, Doug? I'm thrilled to welcome to the White House the men and women who light our cities. And, you know, you do things that people don't even understand. There's so much you do. So much. You heat our homes, fuel our factories, and turn natural resources into American riches and dreams. Our amazing coal miners. Thank you very much, fellas. That's great. And I know you well. You know, I know you well. I think I get about 97% of your vote. And you wouldn't want to do anything else. You wouldn't switch with a guy who had a beautiful penthouse apartment on fifth Avenue. You wouldn't switch with that. Me. That was me. I had a nice, easy life. And now I decided to do this. But you know what? We just hit the highest price in the history of the stock market. 50,000. And a lot of people are getting rich with your 401ks and everything else. So our country is back. We have the hottest country anywhere in the world. So it's Pretty cool, right? So I want to just tell you I really appreciate you being your special people. You got mistreated very badly for a long period of time. But you've never had a better friend in the Oval Office than me. And I'm proud to officially name the undisputed. Just when did this come out, Mr. Speaker? The undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal. We have to proceed. Always. I don't use the word coal. You know, it needs a PR job because had a bad reputation for a while. So we're not allowed to say the word coal anymore. It has to be preceded by beautiful clean coal. Okay, we're cleaning it up. Very good. And we're delighted to be joined by Secretary, Secretary Doug Burkham, who's doing a fantastic job from the great coal mining state of North Dakota. And thanks as well to speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a fantastic guy who's doing a great job. Thank you, Mike. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. He's our secret weapon. He's getting those approvals done in record setting time. True. Great. Senators John Barrasso and Jim justice, thank you very much, very much for being here. Hi, Jim. Been a long time. Jim, you're looking good. Shelley Moore. Capito. Thank you, Shelly. Thank you very much. Marsha Blackburn, Bill Haggerty, Ted Budd, John Usted, Bernie Marino and David McCormick, all here. Great senators, every one of them. Great Senators. Representatives, the House, Jim Baird, Troy Balderson, Andy Barr, Dave Taylor, Warren Davidson, Troy Downing, Morgan Griffith, Brett Guthrie, Harriet Hagerman, Mike Kelly, Dan Muser, Scott Perry, Carol Miller, Dana Harshberger and Riley Moore. Boy, that's a good group of people. We have some others in here too, and I'm not going to say it's just too many. Don't get angry at me. I'll never get their vote again. It's very dangerous. I also want to thank the President of the Washington Coal Club, Michael Day, CEO of the National Mining Association, Richard Nolan, along with many of the greatest business leaders in this powerful industry. And a great industry it is. But of course the most important people here today are those who get their hands a little bit dirty to keep America running at full speed. Our frontline coworkers. And I'm pleased to report that in the first year of my presidency, real wages for the typical minor increased by more than $2,200. I'd say that's pretty good, Right? And I'll give you the bad news. It's the first time that that's happened in, in more than 27 years. All right. Those other presidents didn't take good care of you. They didn't take good care of you at all. They didn't realize what they had. The last time many of us were together, I signed a historic executive order to ensure that America's beautiful clean coal plants would keep running when we need it Most. And that's 24 hours a day in rain, sleet, and snow. You know, coal can operate when other substances can't. The Biden administration, he had no clue what he was doing, shut down dozens of coal plants by. They shut them down, literally, it seemed like one a week, one a day. They were shutting them down left and right as fast as you could. They were paying people to shut down a coal plant. And if we had stayed on the ruinous path, we would have seen mass suffering and rolling blackouts all over the country. We would have had blackouts right now all over the country. If we would have had a country that, worse than blackouts, every other thing would have been wrong with it, too, with all of the horrible things that took place at our border. And right now, our border is 100% secure. First time in the history of our country right now. And you see it all the time. So instead, when large parts of our country were hit with winter storms, it was coal that kept the power on. And it was coal that never was bothered by cold weather, warm weather. It's never bothered by anything. Just keeps on chugging. Right during this vicious storm. And they had some really bad ones. Coal generation surged 31% while solar and wind totally collapsed. I'm not a big fan of those crazy windmills that are all made in China. You know, they're made in China but not used by China. Let's look for a couple of wind farms in China, see if you can find one. They sell us those things for fortunes, but we don't do them anymore. Have we done any this year, Doug? We're not going to do any, hopefully for four years in this country. They're losers. They lose. You're supposed to make. You're supposed to make money with energy, not lose money with energy. And they lose a lot of money. And by the way, they're all over Europe and, you know, I was recently there, and it's not recognizable what they've done to their beautiful fields and those beautiful, beautiful scenic areas. And they put those wind turbines all over the place and they're chugging, chugging, chugging, not doing a damn thing, except every time it goes around, it loses a fortune. It's horrible. They've lost their way. Not actually not recognizable. And then I wonder why they don't like me over there. But you know who likes me over there? The people like me over there, I can tell you because they know I'm right. More than 200 million Americans across 35 states were impacted by the storm. And the only reason most were able to take a hot shower was thanks to the power provided by the most reliable, dependable of and really dependable form of energy that we have. And that's clean, beautiful coal. Biden and the radical left wanted to abolish coal. They did everything they could, everything possible. But on day one of this administration, I ended the war on coal. We terminated the green news scam and we withdrew from the unfair one sided Paris climate accord. That was another beauty we had. We paid $1 trillion. Nobody else had to pay 10 cents. Already I've saved 74 coal power plants from crushing restrictions and closures that would have been forced to shut down in the very immediate future. And today I'm proud to announce that the Tennessee Valley Authority is taking action to save two major coal plants in Tennessee. Tennessee Valley Authority, The plants are the Cumberland fossil plant and the Cumberland City. It's in Cumberland City. It's a big beautiful thing that they just wanted to shut down. You know, the Tennessee Valley Authority has gone in a very stupid, very bad direction. The head of it, it's considered sort of semi private. It's supposed to be semi public, but it's semi private. He's the highest paid government type official in history. I think they pay them $10 million a year. They're paying him $10 million. I think the speaker of the House wants to resign and head the Tennessee Valley there. And he could do a much better job, I can tell you that. Is that right, Doug? They pay him $10 million a year. Can you believe it? Well, Trump is on the scene now. We're going to make his life miserable. $10 million. I wonder what he got before he got that job. Probably making 150,000. Right. And the Kingston fossil plant in Harriman, Tennessee. So they're going to remain open and they're going to be vibrant, they're going to be improved, built up and continue to do all the things that they do. These two plants were slated for termination, but we're going to save over 450 jobs by keeping them going and going strong. In addition, I'm directing the Department of Energy to issue funds to coal plants in West Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina and Kentucky to keep them online and Keep those plants open. Right, Jim. And very importantly, we're also bringing our coal mines roaring back to life under after four years of the Biden administration. Slippy Joe, Not a single permit was approved for a new coal mining project. Think of it, four years, not one permit. They were all being disapproved, actually. So not a single permit was approved. I didn't know that. But in one year of Trump, we've already approved over 70 permits for very big, very powerful minds that are going to be with us for many, many years to come. And we did that over the last 30 days. We did more than half of them because we have the system going now. It's a very reliable source. Great, great source. If you look at some of the most prosperous places in the world, they run on coal. Since I took office, coal production is up by nearly 4 million tons a month after falling for decades. I mean, literally decades. Coal power generation is up by nearly 15% in my first year. And that number is going to be about 25 or 30% this coming year at least. These pro American energy policies are bringing energy prices way down. You see what's happening, even with gasoline. Gasoline. I was in Iowa last week and it was $1.85 a gallon. And many of them are 199 and 191. I saw we have them under $2 a gallon now. A little while ago, just a year and a half ago, they're at $3.50, $4, $4.50 in California, $7. Because of its crazy taxes, coal is one of the lowest priced energy sources and it's probably considered by almost everybody to be the most reliable. It requires no subsidies because you make money with coal. More coal means lower cost and more money in the pocket of the American citizens and in the pocket, frankly, of the United States of America. That's not bad. Every once in a while, we have to take care of our country. Right with us today is Kayla Blackford, who drives a haul truck at Bear Run Mine in Dugar, Indiana. Great state. We love Indiana. I only like states that are one so big, you know, I want to pick. No, I like them all. Where she has worked for five years. And she's joined by her wonderful husband Eric, who also works at the mine and their really incredible son, Isaac. And Kayla, if you could come forward, I'd like to just have you say a few words. Please come on up. Where's Kayla? Kayla. Oh, hi, Kayla.
- [39:58]
E
Thank you, Mr. President. As he said, my name is Caleb Blackford and I am so proud and Honored to be here today representing Peabody and coal miners across this country. My husband and I both work at Bear Run Mine in southern Indiana. I drive a haul truck and I train others on this large piece of equipment. A haul truck is used to move rock or coal and is capable of carrying loads of nearly 2, 250 tons. The tires are 12ft tall. When I stand next to one, I barely reach the middle of the tire. It's the best job I've ever had, and not just because of the cool mom points I get for driving big equipment. My job supports my family, it supports our community, and it keeps the lights on and electricity affordable, not just in Indiana, but across the country. As demand increases and our lives become increasingly electrified, America needs to generate more electricity, not less. For years, coal miners have felt the weight of policies that made our future uncertain. Over the past year, that weight has begun to lift. My son Isaac, who's here today, Has friends whose parents also work at Bear Run. And when you grow up seeing huge mining equipment from the road, like Isaac and his friends, do you dream about the day when you get to run that equipment? When a mine closes, families don't just lose their jobs. They're often forced to leave their communities, their schools, and their support systems behind. The common sense policies to keep coal plants running implemented by this administration mean that my husband and I can keep working, stay where we are, and continue raising our son in our community that we call home. And the impact is even greater than that because you, Mr. President, have single handedly kept utility prices affordable, the lights on, and our jobs alive. We are real people under these hard hats. On behalf of America's coal Miners, thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing the value of coal and the value of the people who power this industry every day.
- [42:09]
A
Thank you, Karen.
- [42:10]
E
Thank you so much. So much. Thank you very much. Sorry. I'll take that.
- [42:24]
A
Good job. She did a good job, right? Look at the boy. He's so proud of mom, huh? Did a good job. Couldn't do better, right? Anyway, thank you, Kelly. That's really nice. Thank you very much. Coal is also critical to our national security, vital to everything from steel production to shipbuilding and artificial intelligence. It's incredible what's happening with coal. And it's also incredible how clean they're able to keep it now with all of the new techniques. By using it, they're able to do things environmentally that are amazing. You see that? That's why I'm also pleased to announce that in just a moment, I will sign an executive order that Directs the Department of War to work directly with coal plants on the new power purchasing agreements, ensuring that we have more reliable power and stronger and more resilient grid power. And we're going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now, and it's going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we have been using for many, many years. And again, with the environmental progress that's been made on coal, it's going to be just as clean. As some of you may know, today, February 11th is Thomas Edison's birthday. There could be no better way to honor the legacy of the man who lit the world. Did you know that? The man who lit the world, Isaac, do you know that? You ever hear of Thomas Edison? A little before your time? Slightly. But then to reaffirm our commitment to American energy independence and the American energy dominance, we're going to be dominant, and we are dominant right now. We have a new group of people that we're very close to, become very close to, and that's called Venezuela, where we're taking in, in this case, oil. We had 50 million barrels of oil that we have floating right now to Houston to be refined. And we're getting energy from all different sources. And so oil and gas is fantastic. So many of them are so good, but we're not going to use the bad ones. America is now the number one energy producer in the world. We are by far number one. In fact, we're going to very. We're very soon going to be number one by double what number two is. And under our leadership, we're becoming a massive energy exporter. In just the past few months, we've made historic trade deals with Japan, Korea, India and others to increase our coal exports dramatically. We're now exporting coal to all over the world. And the quality of our coal is supposed to be. I mean, I'm not an expert in coal, but I've been very good to the people that are. The quality of our coal is supposed to be the finest anywhere in the world. From West Virginia to Wyoming, from Ohio to Montana and all across the country, we're lifting up our hardworking American miners like nobody has ever done before. We're bringing down costs of American consumers, and together we're making the most of the magnificent land that God gave us to rebuild the greatest economy and the greatest nation in the history of the world. Another one of my favorite words is the word tariff. You know, tariff is very. I know they want to hear that little story. I used to say it's My favorite word, they said, what about God? What about religion? What about family and your wife, your children? So now I make it my fifth favorite word. Oh, you have no idea. I suffered. I was Kayla, I was suffering from the fake news media. They were, they were really, they were going after me when I said it was my favorite word. So I make it number five. And I think I'm generally speaking, okay, they'd like it to be a little bit later than that. But because of tariff. You saw that we just, it was just announced our trade deficit has gone down. Now, if you go down 1.2 points, you're like a genius. It's gone down 78%. 78%. Can you believe it? And we have to fight, right? Speaker and we have to fight just came out. Everyone's saying that can't be right. 78%, 78% reduction in our trade deficit. And next year we're going to be positive if we keep it all going. We're waiting for a very important decision from the Supreme Court. But I want to thank the speakers here because you have fought with me. You've got, you got it very early now. Almost everybody is getting it, but it's number, numbers that we've never seen. The other thing is breaking 7,000 on the S&P and very importantly 50,000 yesterday, 50,000 we broke on the Dow. And if you remember, when I won, they said if he could ever produce 50,000 by the end of his fourth term, by the end of his fourth year, it would be unbelievably successful. Well, we produce 50,000 in excess now. Went up today in excess of 50,000 at the end of my first year. So that's some difference. And that's, that's because of, that's because of, that's because of tariffs. So we're, we're doing numbers that nobody thought were possible. The economy is rich. I tell the story that in Saudi Arabia, the king said, you know, sir, a year and a half ago we were all saying you were a dead country. And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. That's true. We're the hottest country anywhere in the world. And a lot of reasons. So once again, I'd like you, thank you for the tremendous honor of being here and especially these gentlemen in the front row and a couple of you in the second row. What happened to the guys in the second row? They couldn't make it. Their friend. What's wrong with them? They don't shovel it as well. Right. But I want to, I want to thank you. And invite the chairman of our National Coal Council, Peabody Energy CEO, which is a great company, by the way, Jim Greck, to come up and say a few words, please. Jim, thank you very much.
- [48:44]
F
Mr. President. We stand here today representing the thousands of coal miners across the country to express our deep gratitude to you, sir, for the actions you've taken to support our industry. Your leadership and decisive actions have sent a powerful message. We have a president who, more than any other, deeply understands the importance of coal in supporting the future of this nation. Sir, you know what? Most people don't. The US has more energy in its coal than any nation has in any single energy source. We have more energy than Russia has in its country gas, and we have more energy than Saudi Arabia has in its oil. Yet before you, sir, presidents were afraid to allow coal to help keep electricity abundant and low cost. And Mr. President, that changed with you. We saw the impact of your wise policy in real time during the recent winter storm as temperatures plunged and demand surged. The coal plants you directed to keep open provided the stability and resilience that the grid needed. And today, thanks to your leadership, sir, we are working with your administration on the potential to build new coal fuel power plants and having coal emerge as a source of rare earth elements and critical minerals that are essential for our national security and economic future. Because of you, sir, the mining towns that once feared for their futures are seeing new investment, renewed optimism and a sense of pride restored. Families feel more secure. Local businesses are growing again. Communities that had been written off are reinvigorated. For the thousands of workers across this industry, your support has meant more than policy, sir. It has meant dignity, stability and the recognition that their work matters in making America great again. So, sir, Mr. President, on behalf of Michael Day, the chairman of the Washington Coal Club, and all the coal miners across our great country, I'd like to ask all of. First, all of the. There's some executives and coal miners are going to join us on stage and we are going to present you an award, sir.
- [50:41]
A
Oh, that's great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very much. Thank you so much.
- [51:01]
E
You.
- [51:19]
A
Thank you fellas, very much.
- [51:21]
C
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [51:23]
F
Sir, to show our appreciation, the trophy says the undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal.
- [51:30]
A
Thank you, sir. It's great to bring it back. You were treated very badly and now you're treated really well. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody, very much. Appreciate it. Speaker 4. We don't use auto pens. There's no auto pen. Okay, come on up. That's great. Okay, Here you go, fellas. Okay. Come on, you guys. Okay, Thank you very much. Good luck. Have a good time.
- [53:59]
B
Well, There he is. Mr. President loves that 4 o' clock hour. We share something in common. President Trump and I. Four o' clock Eastern. All right, folks, before we go, pay some bills here. February National Cancer Prevention Awareness Month. Now more than ever, we need to be asking what each of us can do to lower our chances of cancer. And if you or a loved one battling cancer, we need to make sure that no stone is left unturned in the effort to stay healthy. That's where the Wellness Company comes in. You know, the Wellness Company, we have their doctors on all the time, like Dr. Kelly Victory, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Drew all the time on this network. The Wellness Company and their doctors are medical professionals that you can trust. Wellness Company. They're committed to providing safe, low cost alternatives to big pharma, from Ivermectin to methylene blue to their fantastic new product, Shield. It's a cancer shield. It's a preventative cancer product. Amazing, right? And so much more. The Wellness Company gives you the opportunity to make the promise of Maha. Make America healthy again. That Maha movement a reality for you and your family. This February. Let's take control of our health. Go to www.TWC.health voice today and order that again, is TWC Health Voice. By the way, use that promo code voice and get 10% off. By the way, not just drugs, but also the guidebooks. Very, very important. Wellness Company. All right, folks, ran out of time. We got a lot to show for you tomorrow. Bannon's going to take the war room over and just crush it.
- [55:30]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.