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Charlie Kirk
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Martha Stewart
how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret when prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips, lay it down and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless. It is thanks to Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it, done. Available in the Reynolds Wrap aisle at Walmart.
Charlie Kirk
The Charlie Kirk show starts now.
Caroline Levitt
War the Present has just issued a truth social from the White House saying this based on conversations with Prime Minister Sharif and Field Marshal Amir of Pakistan and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided cease fire.
Jonathan Keeperman
The reason for duplicates doing so is
Caroline Levitt
that we have already met and exceeded all military objectives and are very far along with a definitive agreement concerning long term peace with Iran and peace in the Middle east. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between The United States and Iran. But a two week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America as President and also representing the countries of the Middle east, it is an honor to have have this long term problem close to resolution. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. Trump it is trading
Jonathan Keeperman
at around $90 today after closing near 110 yesterday.
Caroline Levitt
A drop of by more than 15%.
Public Investing Advertisement Voice
This is a big deal.
Caroline Levitt
One of the reasons Dagan, you're seeing the oil price tumbling is because Trump has made it very clear that one key provision that has to be agreed to by the Iranians is to open up the the strait. Are saying that oil tankers passing through the strait have been stopped because of
Jonathan Keeperman
Israel's cease fire breach.
Caroline Levitt
So that going on asked President Trump if he's okay with that, if he's okay with Iran charging a toll and his answer was quite stunning. He said maybe it will be a joint venture. And I said a joint venture between the US and Iran. And he said yes. He said it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing.
Jonathan Keeperman
Maybe we'll do that.
Caroline Levitt
The President has told us not to use those tools. He's told us to come to negotiat negotiating table. But if the Iranians don't do the exact same thing, they're going to find out. The President, United States is not one to mess around.
Charlie Kirk
He's impatient. He's impatient to make progress.
Caroline Levitt
He has told us to negotiate in
Charlie Kirk
good faith and I think if they
Caroline Levitt
negotiate in good faith we will be able to find a deal.
Charlie Kirk
But that's a big if and ultimately it's up to the Iranians how they negotiate.
Caroline Levitt
I hope they make the right decision.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Are they cooperating with the United States?
Charlie Kirk
No, they're not.
Caroline Levitt
I think they're not cooperating at all. Spain, I think they've been very bad, Very bad. Not good at all. We may cut off trade with Spain. I don't know what Spain's doing. They've been very bad to NATO. They get protected. They don't want to pay their fair share and they've been that way for many years. That includes 10 separate points.
Charlie Kirk
Some of them include the US guaranteeing
Jonathan Keeperman
a non aggression pact with Iran, continuing Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance that Iran can enrich uranium for its nuclear program, removal of all primary sanctions on Iran, removal of secondary sanctions, an end of all UN Security Council resolutions against Iran, an end to the IAEA's resolutions on Iran's nuclear program, compensation payment for Iran and its war damage, withdrawal of US forces from the region and a cease fire on all fronts.
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This is now new video we're getting in vessels in the Key Waterway and
Caroline Levitt
at some point you can see these
Jonathan Keeperman
rock islands sitting right along the passageway
Caroline Levitt
for tankers and ships like that one there.
Jonathan Keeperman
We believe that some of these islands are still armed by Iran's regime.
Charlie Kirk
We also believe some of these islands
Caroline Levitt
were hit directly on behalf of the US Military and Israel's Air Force as well. Our troops, our American warriors deserve the credit for this day, but God deserves all the glory. Tens of thousands of sorties, refuelings and strikes carried out under the protection of Divine Providence. A massive effort. Iran begged for this cease fire and we all know it. Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield.
Charlie Kirk
A Capital V military victory.
Caroline Levitt
You see, had Iran refused our terms, the next targets were would have been their power plants, the bridges and oil and energy infrastructure. Targets they could not defend and could not realistically rebuild.
Charlie Kirk
It would have taken them decades and we were locked and loaded.
Public Investing Advertisement Voice
Charlie Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
Martha Stewart
is Martha Stewart from the Martha Stewart Podcast. Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret. When prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips, lay it down and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless. It is thanks to Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it, done. Available in the Reynolds wrap aisle at Walmart.
Caroline Levitt
Every day there's a battle for your mind.
Charlie Kirk
Raging information coming from every angle.
Caroline Levitt
With the will to deceive, fear not.
Charlie Kirk
You found the place for truth.
Caroline Levitt
The voice of a generation that still
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has the will to believe in the
Charlie Kirk
greatest country in the history of the world. This is the Charlie Kirk Show.
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Buckle up. Here we go.
Caroline Levitt
All right.
Charlie Kirk
Welcome to the Charlie Kirk show. It is April 8, 2026. We are here at the Y Refi studios in Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome, Blake. Howdy. Blake's deep in thought already. Lots, lots of news. I mean, I don't think that is a shocker for any of you in the audience. Tons of news. Obviously, we have a tentative, as J.D. vance says, a fragile peace that has been struck, a two week peace deal with Iran. But already we are seeing fractures and fissures.
Blake
This might not last. This might not last till the end of the hour.
Charlie Kirk
So we're gonna see if this two week peace deal lasts to the ends of the show. We don't know. So let's just go through all the facts. So a peace deal was reached about 90 minutes before the 8pm Eastern deadline that President Trump had set where he was going to the famous truth now basically end a civilization. I personally didn't think that that ever meant nuclear weapons. We talked about that on the show yesterday. Nevertheless, it got through. The message got through. There was actually an interesting tweet by a friend of the show, Will Chamberlain, who basically said thank you to all of the people that were assuming the worst because it actually may have helped convince Iran to come to the peace table, the peace negotiation table. There was obviously intermediation going on on behalf of Pakistan and the prime minister there. But I think it's important also to note that China played a huge role in this. China exerted force at the last minute on behalf of, I think by way of the prime minister of Pakistan. I think it's safe to say China is probably one of the beneficiaries of the cut rate oil that Iran was pumping out into the marketplace. So China wanted this deal to get done probably also because China has an interest in the long term stability of the existing regime or the framework that still exists and other reasons. So watch China in all of this. I just want to make that very clear. That was Reported by the New York Times that China played a huge role at the end there. So we have this 10 point plan. The White House is reporting that it is a different 10 point plan than the one that we have been previously seeing that.
Blake
So we haven't agreed to a ten point plan.
Caroline Levitt
No.
Blake
We have allegedly a ceasefire to negotiate based off of our 15 point plan and their 10 point plan that is allegedly different than the one they'd given us before.
Charlie Kirk
Yes. So what is also interesting here is what happens to the Strait of Hormuz. Okay, so previously oil tankers were able to navigate the strait freely. That was what was the previous status quo. Now it looks like what could be the case is that there will be tolls exacted upon tankers that go through the strait. President Trump has told Jonathan Karl that that could be more of a joint venture.
Blake
That sounds like something he'd get on board with.
Charlie Kirk
It does sound like something he'd get on board with.
Blake
Iran. Let's team up to do tariffs.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, tariffs. So why this is noteworthy is again the previous status quo, you go through freely now you gotta pay a toll. Maybe it's a joint venture, US and Iran partnering in that. Maybe Iran just charges them unilaterally. We're not sure how this is gonna shake out, but it is a massive new precedent to be set. Means there could be tolls exacted on straits and canals all through the world if this ends up taking place. So that's something that we need to keep a lookout for in the future. It's relatively nominal. And if you get peace and you get the straight back opened and you get tolls, I suppose that's a deal a lot of people would probably be willing to make. All right, well where we're at now though.
Blake
But the big problem now is we say this, there is a ceasefire. It is timed to last for two weeks while they negotiate. But as we said, it might not last till the end of this program. Cuz it's not 100% clear if it's going on right now.
Charlie Kirk
Well, this is the news.
Blake
There are still a lot of reports of explosions, missiles being fired at Israel, at Kuwait and other targets. And then this is also a big one. There is a disagreement over the scope of the ceasefire. In addition to the air campaign and missile campaign against Iran and in the Gulf, there's also been an Israeli ground operation and bombing operation in Lebanon. In fact, that I believe has killed more people than the Iran missile exchanges. And Iran and Pakistan claim that that part of the conflict is covered by this ceasefire, but Israel claims it's not. And now just breaking in the last few minutes, the United States says it's not. And that's a pretty big point of disagreement.
Charlie Kirk
Well, and why this matters is because now Iran is reportedly threatening tankers that are trying to navigate the strait. So the strait is for all intents and purposes once again closed. Now, a few tankers I believe got through earlier, but it is now halted. That movement has been halted because they are claiming Israel has violated the terms of the ceasefire. But we just don't know if Hezbollah in southern Lebanon was included at. So there's disagreements on that. We've got a lot to unpack here. There's, I think, a really important press conference that's going to be had at 1pm Caroline Levitt, White House press CONFERENCE so we are going to be throwing to that live later in our two because there's a lot of details that remain unclear. What are the details of the new 10 point plan? How much does it reflect the previously reported 10 point plan? What's going to happen with the Strait of Hormuz? Are we really seriously looking at charging tariffs and tolls to navigate the strait? There's a lot to unpack here, but I think most importantly, this is what's gonna happen. And Blake and I were talking about this right before the show started. Everybody's gonna declare victory, right? So we're seeing reports that they are waving Iranian flags in Tehran and that they are claiming victory. Pete Hegseth gave a press conference this morning claiming victory with a capital V. Sometimes in war there is not really a clear victor. And I think that's one of the, this is one of those instances. Would Iran have preferred to not been bombed and have 80 to 90% of their military apparatus destroyed, their manufacturing apparatus destroyed? Of course. But would, could you make the argument that this was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory on behalf of the United States in the sense that, yes, we have air superiority, we decimated much of their military industrial complex, but the strait was open before and now that remains in question. And if we remove sanctions on Iranian oil and energy and other products that they make from its petroleum, will Iran emerge stronger in the wake of this? And that's a huge potential here.
Blake
I spoke with a friend of mine who's good on foreign policy stuff, and he says the likely long term goal here probably to get a permanent peace deal might have to be, you would agree, which Iran has been fighting for, for basically the ideal deal we could make is they actually do back off from their nuclear deal. But in return we do fully regularize our relationship with them, which means you remove sanctions, you normalize trade and yeah, you let them toll the strait. They're saying it might be $1 per barrel for oil going through it. So that's not massive. That's about you'd maybe like a 3,4% tax tariff on all oil going out. But I think you have to say we said at the outset the best way to sell this war is if it is the last war the US fights in the Middle East. And the only way that's going to happen is if we have a government in Iran we can treat as a normal country.
Charlie Kirk
Well, and there does remain so and we want to get into this in the next segment. There was a massive report out of the New York Times by two relatively trustworthy reporters. Now we could some of it could be fake news. It's apparent to me that the story has been worked by those mentioned in it. But that's Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of the New York Times. They have a really breathtaking expose of how this war got underway. And we're going to break that down for you and explain what that means moving forward. But in the meantime, I want to tell you about strong cell. StrongCell is a great partner of this show. Here it is, little two ounce bottle with delicious, I would call it orange, but maybe mango, something citrusy.
Blake
It's just orange.
Charlie Kirk
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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Ever wonder
Martha Stewart
how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret when prepping for cooking and baking, get ahead of the mess with new Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper. Just lightly wet the counter so the paper grips. Lay it down and drips and spills stay on the paper, not on your counter. Cleanup is as simple as lifting it away to reveal clean counters. Effortless it is thanks to Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Wet it, set it, prep it. Done. Available in the Reynolds Wrap aisle at Walmart.
Charlie Kirk
All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. Lots of news coming in. Apologies. We're taking it all in. There's a new truth from President Trump that I want to get here. Says numerous agreements, lists and letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the USA Iran negotiation. In many cases they are total fraudsters, charlatans, and worse, they will be rapidly exposed after our federal investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful points and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these negotiations. These are the points that are the basis on which we agreed to a ceasefire. It is something that is reasonable and can easily be dispensed with. It is very much like fake news. CNN last night headlining a source that had no power or authority. Write a letter claiming great authority. President Donald J. Trump. So a lot of back and forth about what the actual source is here. Blake who what the 10 points are. Again, just to underscore the point, to make it extremely clear, they're calling it the foundation for a negotiation. Not that the points have been agreed to. President Trump says many of the points have already been sort of sorted out, but there remains some sticking points. Obviously, I think that it has to be a different deal than what was previously reported because the previous one was completely unworkable. There was, there was things that we would never agree to in that previous 10 point plan. So President Trump doing his best to clarify this. Okay, I want to get into this New York Times expose because everybody that I know was sending me this thing yesterday. It was going all around, basically. And Blake, fill in the, fill in the gaps that I miss here. It explains that Bibi Netanyahu, in an extraordinary moment, was essentially presented his case and the intel behind his pitch to attack Iran. And he did it in the Situation Room. He did it in the Situation Room before. Obviously, all this happened in February, which as far as I'm aware is the first time a leader of a foreign government had done something like that. Inside the Situation Room, gathered around the table was obviously President Trump, his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, JD Vance apparently couldn't make it back in time for this initial meeting. Who else am I missing? John Radcliffe from the CIA, Raisin Cain, Joint Chiefs. So it was an extraordinarily small meeting, but with all the firepower in the US Military, with Bibi Netanyahu doing a pitch in the Situation Room. And he presented four points basically that he thought that they could do a decapitation move, take out the leadership, that they could essentially wipe out the military of Iran really successfully. But then points three and four were, were more controversial, basically. Blake, I don't know if you want
Blake
to equally claim it was a four point plan. It was take, yeah, as you said, take out the Ayatollah, take out the military. But then he had this bolder claim that they would be able to launch uprisings within Iran, either invasions by Kurds or just dissidents within the country. And then point four, there would be a full regime change to a secular leader who would be pro Western and friendly to the United States.
Charlie Kirk
This is where it gets really interesting. So gathered around that table were the characters I just mentioned, they meet afterwards. Then JD Vance makes it back, gets a briefing. Now he's part of this discussion. And essentially John Ratcliffe, Marco Rubio and J.D. vance all called BS on points three and four. And Raisin Cain made an observation that I think is one of those things that is going to linger in our collective consciousness for a long time. He said the Israelis tend to oversell and under deliver. Their intel is inflated. So what happened is they go around the table again. They meet, I think basically within that week. J.D. vance says, you know what I think, sir, President Trump asked for everybody's opinion. J.D. vance says, you know what I think, sir, it's a bad idea, but if you do it, I'll support you for a number of reasons. Marco Rubio says, if you want to go in for points one and two, then I think you should do it. But if you think 3 and 4 are going to happen, you shouldn't, because he called it BS but he used the real word. Raising Cain is sort of described as this guy who's not offering his opinions necessarily on whether he thinks it's right or wrong, but he gives the details to the question the president asks. And I think there's some reticence there. Susie Wiles said, you know, basically described as somebody.
Blake
What stands out here, if you read it, is at least in this report by the New York Times, which is presumably based on all the people, a bunch of the people involved in these conversations talking to the New York Times or their staff talking to the New York Times. No one is really willing to take ownership for launching the war other than the president himself. The narrative told in this story is almost everyone around the president is skeptical, but the president wants to go for it.
Charlie Kirk
Right?
Blake
That is the story they tell.
Charlie Kirk
So it's obvious to me that the story has been worked. But we have not seen much pushback from the administration saying it's not true. We haven't seen pushback from the staff saying it's not true. We haven't even seen, as far as I am aware, any pushback from the Israelis. So I would say the basic structure of this agreement is true and it reflects other things that I'd sort of heard privately about who was rushing in or who wasn't rushing into this thing. I think the takeaway for me is a couple things, but namely, there's been a lot of debate whether or not President Trump got, quote, unquote, dog walked into this war. My conclusion, based on this report and this expose, plus all of the footage that we've seen of President Trump throughout the years, is that, no, no, I think maybe there was confirmation bias. You could make that argument. But President Trump seems to have basically made the decision that he wanted to do this. He's wanted to hit Iran for a long time. And I will say this, this is my last point, and I'll get your take. Blake, do not underestimate the significance of Iran attempting to assassinate President Trump. Whether they actually did attempt it or signaled their intention to do it, that will leave a incredible, indelible imprint on anybody's psyche. And I think you take that back to the fact that older Americans remember being insulted by Iran, the Iranian hostage crisis and the like, and it's been a thorn in the side of the United States for long enough that I think President Trump was the man who wanted to make the decision, whereas you get younger generations like JD Marco, they were less enthusiastic. Blake, your take?
Blake
I think that's very possible and you want to be careful with that. I'm taken back to when we overthrew Saddam Hussein, which a lot of the argument from the left was Bush did this essentially for sentimental reasons that his dad hadn't taken out Saddam and that was why he'd lost reelection and he had to go back and finish the job. There was a lot of, there was a big lobby to overthrow saddam well before 911 happened. Like 911 essentially just offered the excuse to do it. And if you're correct, that's kind of the feeling I get. Here you are, the president has thought about Iran for literally decades. He does remember the hostage crisis. Those are things that would all motivate him. But that's not necessarily the best reason to launch a war which was really expensive and risky.
Charlie Kirk
And, and I think there's a couple other takeaways here. I do think there is a possibility here with after Venezuela, maybe there was a sense that this would be a greater risk, but the glory would be even greater as well and that we could get in, get out quickly. I think other people like J.D. vance, Marco, Rubio, Ratcliffe had a little bit more hesitancy because it this is the line.
Blake
This is a line that's worth emphasizing. It also reports in the same article that he called Tucker Carlson and he said it's going to be okay. Tucker asked why and he says because it always is.
Charlie Kirk
Talks in Islamabad begin on Friday. We'll see how those go. Jonathan Keeperman joins us next.
Public Investing Advertisement Voice
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
Martha Stewart
is Martha Stewart from the Martha Stewart Podcast. Ever wonder how to make hosting look effortless? Here's a secret Getting ahead of the Mess with New Reynolds Kitchens Countertop Prep Paper Just lightly wet the counter beforehand so the paper grips and stays in place. Then lay down the Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper so drips and spills stay on the paper, not all over your kitchen counter. You can roll out dough, prep a party spread, or cook alongside family. When you're done, cleanup is as simple as lifting the paper and revealing that clean counter underneath. Effortless. You can use it for cooking and baking, prep and even crafting, especially when you need extra working space. Because when the mess is already handled, you can focus on what matters the food, the people, and the moment. It may look effortless, but now you know it's Reynolds Kitchen's countertop prep paper. Take a tip from me. Wet it, set it, prep it, done. Make it easy. Make it with Reynolds Kitchens countertop prep paper available now in the Reynolds Wrap aisle in Walmart.
Caroline Levitt
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Charlie Kirk
You're listening to the Charlie Kirk Show. All right. It is April Blake. You know what that means? You might not know what this means, actually.
Blake
Wait.
Charlie Kirk
It's grilling season. Oh, it's grilling season, Man. That's grill is. It's getting. It's getting.
Blake
Where I come from, grilling season is in this time. You get like summer.
Charlie Kirk
No, you get like two months, months out of the year where you're from for grilling season. Okay. But here in Phoenix and many places around the country, the weather's warming up and that means it's grilling season. And I want you guys to check out goodranchers.com American Meat Delivered. I genuinely love these guys. And the product is amazing. It's so amazing. And I love it because I've got to see the entire development of this company from when they founded it to where they're at now. They are. They have just built such a juggernaut. This company has the best meat and they have custom boxes now. It's 100% American meat. Great quality. None of the antibiotics or hormones or any of that stuff in any of their meat. So whether it's steaks for grilling, chicken for weeknight dinners, or whatever you reach for most, you can put together your own custom box. Get it today, start your plan. You'll get free meat included with every order. So you get to pick your favorite cut and they'll just include that as a special gift. If you subscribe, use promo code Charlie, at checkout, you get $25 off your first order, plus that free meat for life. So it's a great deal. That's free meat, $25 off promo code. Charlie, go to goodranchers.com goodranchers.com Today, American meat delivered. You gotta support our American ranchers. They are the good guys. One of the guys, one of these folks out in our movement that I would love to have a barbecue with is Jonathan Keeperman. You might know him as Lomez. He is a sage of wisdom and advice and just good insight. And we wanted to have him on because so much has been made about the MAGA fracturing over the conflict in Iran and we're not through it yet. We're not through the Strait of Hormuz yet. We're not through this yet. I don't think so. Jonathan, welcome back to the show. It's so good to have you, man.
Jonathan Keeperman
Blake and Andrew, it's great to be here. I appreciate the praise. I always love hearing that from you guys. So I could get used to hearing that every day.
Charlie Kirk
I try to, you know, so I'm trying to bait you back on.
Blake
We've got a visual here running from left to right. Like, no hair, medium hair, extremely large amount of hair.
Jonathan Keeperman
This is after peptides. Okay. They have peptides for this.
Charlie Kirk
So listen, I just got a haircut not long ago. Okay. I could.
Blake
Okay, whatever you say, Andrew.
Charlie Kirk
So, Jonathan, let's just get your viewpoint first of all on where we're at with this ceasefire and then we'll get into the way the movement has reacted.
Jonathan Keeperman
Yeah, I mean, you know, just to set the table for. For your listeners, you know, this is something I talk about quite a lot on the show with. With Chris Rufo. We have a show on the Blaze, and we've been talking about the Iran war. And I share, I think, your guys's perspective, not to speak for you both, which is that I was always skeptical of this as a military operation. It was unclear to me what the objectives were. It was a bit unclear to me how we were meant to achieve those objectives and certainly what the day after was look might look like. And I was also maybe primarily worried that this would distract from domestic priorities. There's a domestic agenda that we want to see this administration not just continue to pursue, but achieve it at a significant rate as we head into the midterm. So I want to see us refocus our efforts on that. But I will say, I was never a doomer about this war. And I think, like everybody today, I'm going to claim some kind of vindication, maybe prematurely, but that is just to say that I never bought the sort of catastrophe scenario that many people were selling. I think what we saw yesterday, even if this ceasefire doesn't hold permanently right now, even if these negotiations take several weeks to get going and start to produce results, that at least the markets, oil prices took a nosedive yesterday after this was announced, the stock market is on a historic upward trend then. Now, after these announcements suggest to me that there was always a way out of this, that Trump at any moment could essentially fold the hand. Okay. And that might not sound well to the administration, administrative boosters, but it's. That's really what Taco means, I think, is a willingness, when you know the cards aren't in your favor, to just fold the hand. And so if that's what this means here, that Trump is going to hold fold the hand and we just cut our losses and can get out of this. While in the grand scheme of things, it might not be a high point for this term, it's not going to be, I don't think, the catastrophe that many have been selling online. So that's one part of it, and I think the other thing I learned, or that we're learning, and that has been clear all along, but maybe certain people have neglected in this equation, is that Iran is a rational actor. Okay? We may not like them, we may not like what they do, we may not like their point of view and some of the geopolitical objectives that they pursue, but they are motivated by survival. And when you're dealing with a counterpart who is motivated by survival, you can predict what they want and what they will respond to. They will respond to certain kinds of incentives. And I think we are seeing that here with the ceasefire, as imperfect as it may be. And what this all redounds to, in my view, is that we actually have a lot of optionality here. We're in a situation where there's a lot of opportunity to maneuver and negotiate. And this is really, of course, where Trump shines at the negotiation table. So I'm cautiously optimistic that this could resolve itself and more or less from a domestic political standpoint, point, be forgotten by, let's say, mid June, which would be, I think, ideal and set us up for midterms rather well.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, and I think I really agree with that. I was never a doomer on it. I've always been skeptical about this war, Blake likes to say, and I agree with it, that you can always start a war. You can't always decide when to end it. But I would say that as far as ending a war, we had more, as you say, optionality here than a lot of other scenarios that you could imagine. And we kept saying, like, Trump could simply just declare victory and get out. Yeah, I mean, essentially that's what he was kind of positioning, I believe, with the Strait of Hormuz, saying, hey, we don't get any of our energy from there. It's your guys problem. NATO, if you guys want the straight open. And I think we're gonna kind of see some of that when it comes to whether they're tariffed or whether it's a joint venture, whether we allow Iran to put a toll on these tankers that go through. Not ideal. It sets a bad precedent, I think, for energy and trade throughout the world, but it's also not a doomsday scenario.
Blake
I think if the president, I think the one thing he seems consistently fixated on is the nuclear weapon part. I think if he can credibly claim I have made it so this will never happen or it will take an extremely long time to happen.
Charlie Kirk
I agree.
Blake
He's ready to accept a lot of other things.
Charlie Kirk
I totally agree. I think what's going to happen out of this, and then I'll throw to you, Jonathan, is the negotiations that are going to go on in Islamabad on apparently starting Friday. There's some question of whether or not security is such that J.D. vance can participate. But Jared Kushner Witkoff, I think they are going to demand that there are actual American forces or observers or whatever that goes on with this IEAE or whatever. Maybe I got the acronym wrong. That goes in and actually removes it, physically removes it, and observes the removal of that. If they can negotiate that in all of this, you're right, Blake. I think they're gonna be willing to put up with a lot, including removing sanctions. This, this tolls through the strait. Jonathan, your take.
Jonathan Keeperman
Yeah, I just think that, you know, Blake's right, and, and ending a war is difficult, but what you want in this situation is for everybody to be able to walk away. Both sides need to be able to walk away. Saving face to their own people, their own constituency. Iran can tell their people that they made the Great Satan blink, okay? And that's all they need. And they survived. There was no regime change, so they're still standing. That is a win, sort of regardless of anything else that happens from their end. From Trump's point of view, the big headline item here, and I think really the thing that's motivating him, maybe even more so than the nuclear material, the uranium, is that he got the Ayatollah. The Ayatollah has existed as this sort of bogeyman for people Trump's age, going back to the Cold War. And, you know, Trump got another notch on his belt. He got the Ayatollah. Their military capacity is badly degraded. Obviously, it can still do some stuff like control the Strait of Hormuz, but it's badly degraded. If he can get just some compromise, even rhetorical compromise on the uranium stuff, I think both sides can walk from this. And again, while it's not a win per se, it's not a huge W. It's not the thing we're celebrating going into midterms. It's largely forgotten, I think, in several months.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. And I just. I do think that you could actually, you know, spike the football pretty large in a big way, loudly, if you do get the concessions on nuclear. And I think, because that. That has been the one most consistent drumbeat from President Trump when it comes to Iran. You can't let Iran have nuclear. If we get massive concessions there, but we have to give over, give concessions back, for example, on sanctioning their oil, then that would be something that he could tout, I think, decisive in the end.
Blake
Iran getting nuclear weapons is the only thing that keeps us obsessed with them. Even if they're an annoying government, frankly, even if they're a government that funds terrorist activities, it makes them evil. But there's a lot of evil government.
Charlie Kirk
I'm just saying they killed upwards of 50,000 of their own people during the protests. And the question is, then, Jonathan, and if we remove sanctions on their energy and their petrol, chemicals and stuff like that, are we actually going to potentially create a monster out of Iran? I think that would be the one question, because are they going to be stronger? One of the questions that we have remaining out of this is are they weakened? Will the people actually, you know, topple the regime eventually?
Jonathan Keeperman
You know, this may run counter to, you know, most people's preferences, but I think regularizing relationships with anyone is a good idea. And if we can regularize economic relationships with Iran, maybe there's some rough water that we have to pass through and they abuse that for a period of time. But I think in the long run, that's the only way out of this. Okay. We need to have a sort of global landscape where these countries participate in the broader global economy. That is a win. And I think this larger narrative, the larger foreign policy narrative, the Iran specific story gets captured by what's going on everywhere else. With Venezuela, we'll see what happens. With Cuba, we'll see what we can strike a deal maybe with China, which I know is on the table and coming up soon. So I think this can all work itself out and it isn't necessarily the case that removing sanctions is going to be some sort of catastrophic moment.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, I hope you're right. Jonathan, we're going to keep you for another segment. I want to talk about the movement because I think it's safe to say that many on the right were more viciously attacking President Trump than people on the left even. Yeah, especially yesterday we saw it hit a fever pitch that we had not seen. First, I want to tell you guys about All Family Pharmacy. I literally used this last night. Great product, great website, great user interface, very easy to use. AllFamilyPharmacy.com used to be you get sick and then you have to wait and ask permission from your doctors, from the pharmacy, et cetera. Don't do that. Just go online. Take control of your own healthcare. Order what you need, whether that's antibiotics, antivirals, tamiflu, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, mebendazole, methylene blue, even your daily maintenance meds. You can get it all at all Family Pharmacy. Use promo code Kirk10 to save 10 off your next order. That's Kirk10@AllFamilyPharmacy.com Kirk and do it the right way. Do not be waiting to get sick. Just be ready when it happens. And all Family Pharma is a great company. They can help you out. Check them out. Allfamilypharmacy.com/crave we'll be right back with Jonathan.
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Caroline Levitt
Pretty sure
Charlie Kirk
it is true to say that this has caused a massive amount of consternation, hand wringing, and actual attacks on the president. Where do we go from here?
Jonathan Keeperman
Yeah, I mean, look, I saw this article earlier, and that's certainly an important faction that supported Trump. But this is a huge coalition and it's a big tent. I'm a big tent guy. And we all have to accommodate ourselves to the fact that we are in a big tent coalition, and that consists of libertarians and people who are very strongly opposed to the Iran war and want to see us from a foreign policy perspective retrench and retreat back into America. There are immigration hawks, of which I count myself among. There's the culture warriors. You have young people, old people, and there are a lot of just diverging interests here. And all of us are in some sense subservient to the interest and will of Donald Trump. He's the guy at the top. He's the guy that calls the shots. And sometimes when you're within that coalition, you're going to get a little bit of what you want, sometimes you're going to get a lot of what you want. And sometimes you're going to have to compromise and give up on the things you want, because other members of that coalition are going to win the argument on any given issue. And I think regardless of what's happened here, and I would really strongly urge even those who are strongly opposed to what's going on Iran to consider that we'd be much worse off if the Democrats win. We'd be much worse off if Kamala Harris was president and if the Republicans lose office in the midterms. I don't believe in the acceleration thesis at all, which is that you have to lose in order to win at some point in the future. No, you win by winning.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Winning.
Jonathan Keeperman
You win incrementally within that coalition. You make your argument, you try to win on the issues that matter to you the most and be willing to compromise elsewhere. And remember that your ego just isn't very important in this equation. And so what I hope is, as this starts to die down, as it becomes a less salient centerpiece of what's going on in the news every day, and it's the thing you see when you scroll that will start to coalesce around more shared objectives, we get back to this domestic agenda that I was referencing earlier. So that's my hope. That's what I think will happen. And I think, you know, members of this coalition are just going to have to learn to get along.
Blake
So I'm hopeful that you're right, Jonathan. But I guess I want to sound a note of concern, worry, caution. First of all, I think you and I both know this already was a super salient issue before the Iran war broke out. We've definitely got voices that are are all Israel all the time, all the Jews all the time, let's be frank. And on top of that, it's also some of it's going to be difficult to walk back. We have people, it wasn't just people opposed to the war. We had people saying 25th amendment, use the 25th amendment, people saying these are war crimes, we need a Nuremberg. We have people honestly sounding very liberal in their overall statements, I guess, when they're saying we shouldn't be criticizing Islam or whatever. But lastly, Vault, there's a concern I'm seeing where I think there's a lot of voices on the bigger right that you say we want to unite around these domestic goals. But a lot of stuff is so not policy, not politically driven at all anymore. And that's something that really concerns me. It's when they're very centered on maybe their latest outrage stuff, but not as much on what are we actually doing on immigration, for example.
Charlie Kirk
Example.
Jonathan Keeperman
Yeah, look, I don't want to sound too Pollyanna is here, and I recognize that some of this is sort of hopeful thinking and that there are real headwinds facing this coalition. And I think some of the impolitic and sort of imprudent things that people were saying online, well, a lot of that is just sort of siloed off in a. This is my view, maybe I'm wrong about this, but I some of this is just siloed off in the online milieu that we operate in and we're highly responsive to, but doesn't necessarily translate into broader conservative GOP politics. That's one, and I think two. I'm operating under the assumption, which is just I've seen over time, that people have incredibly short memories. And a lot of the people who are now in Trump's favor and are directing policy decisions six years ago or 10 years ago or whenever it was, were saying precisely the same things about Trump that some of his, his more recent allies are saying about him now with regards to Iran. So there's a lot of movement within the coalition. People say things that are regrettable. I hope cooler heads will prevail. I think there is time to subtly sort of walk back some of the inflammatory rhetoric that's been bandied about online over the last several months with regards to Iran So look, we have a long way to go. The midterms really haven't ramped up yet in terms of messaging. I think it's going to be really important for GOP strategists to take a very hard look of what's important to this coalition, what can be the shared interests and just hammer that stuff over and over and over again and try to recreate the sort of enthusiasm that if people again people don't remember. I mean it was in January the, the State of the Union speech. It was, that was maybe the high watermark of this first term. Everybody was really enthused. All of the right things were being said. There was sense of coming together over a shared domestic agenda. I really do think we can get back to that. Maybe we lose some people, maybe this war and what's gone on creates some attrition within the coalition. But I don't think it has to be a fatal blow.
Charlie Kirk
So Jonathan, can we keep you for a couple more minutes? Do a little podcast exclusive here for real America's Voice. Jonathan Keeperman, absolute amazing mind and thinker. We're going to go over the break just a little bit and then at one we're expecting Caroline Levitt to start that press conference going over what is the 10 point plan that we're actually working from. So many questions that we want to make sure we tune into that. So more with Jonathan Keeperman in just a minute on the stream and on podcast. We'll see you at the start. Hour 2.
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Martha Stewart
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Caroline Levitt
Welcome back to this Real America's Voice news break. I'm Terrence Bates. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt set to hold her latest press briefing at any minute now. You're looking live at the point podium where she is set to speak here. The press corps as you can see already in place and anticipating the press Secretary's arrival. The two week cease fire between the United States and Iran will likely dominate today's briefing. Before heading into the briefing room moments ago, our Brian Glenn filing this report. Thanks Terence. Here shortly, just moments away, Carolyn Levitt expected to address the media at 1pm here local time. Now this will be the first time we're we've officially heard from the Trump administration. Now earlier today we did have the press briefing at the Pentagon, but this will be the first time that Kevin Levitt will step front on the podium taking questions. And then this is in wake of that two week pause, that two week cease fire that President Trump late yesterday announced that he was going to do. And of course I would imagine a lot of the questions will be what is a ceasefire fire entail? What does this potential deal look like? What does life look like after the ceasefire. A lot of conversations came up as far as what our presence is in that region to secure not only the strait but to make sure that diplomacy and stability returns to Iran. Also the fact that Israel continues to just late last night reach really hammer Lebanon and so be some questions I've heard some speculation today about what does that look like in terms of a ceasefire. And that's a part of it. And that will continue to be something that Israel will obey. But we've got all the details right here coming up at one o' clock here local time. And we'll cut to it as soon as Carolyn Levitt steps in front of the microphone. Terrence, again, that's Brian Glenn reporting just outside of the White House. He is now inside the White House. White House in that press briefing room as the briefing is expected to get underway quite literally any minute. By the way, there's also brand new reporting just out that Iran has now closed the Strait of Hormuz as a result of continued Israeli attacks on the Islamic regime. So that's also a storyline that we're expecting to be focused on during this upcoming press briefing involving Caroline Levitt. In the meantime, earlier this morning, the Pentagon sounding off about the cease fire agreement and what's next. Iran's defeat is America's retribution for every American lost to Iranian terror, especially those brave troops killed by Iranian made roadside bombs in Iraq that my generation knows so well and for the suffering their regime has inflicted around the world.
Charlie Kirk
Now we have a chance at real
Caroline Levitt
peace and a real deal. The War Department for now, for now, has done its part. We stand ready in the background to ensure Iran upholds every reasonable term. And as everyone knows, nobody makes a better deal than President Trump. In a barrage of truth social posts this morning, President Trump writing a country slipping military weapons to Iran. Iran will be immediately tariffed on any and all goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. And in a separate post, 47 writing the United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will likely be a very productive regime change. US Negotiators, by the way, set to meet with officials from Iran on Friday in Pakistan in order to continue talking hawks. President Trump celebrating another election victory this morning after Clayton Fuller wrote his Trump endorsement to Victory in Georgia's 14th congressional district special election. As expected, Fuller won in a landslide, beating Democrat Sean Harris with more than 57% of the vote. Fuller will fill Marjorie Taylor Greene's remaining term in the U.S. house. The traditionally Republican northwest Georgia district returns another much needed vote to the GOP's narrow majority in the House. Despite the win in Georgia, though, House Republicans can only afford two defections on party line votes, assuming that all members are present and voting. Fuller can't be too comfortable in that seat though, as Georgia will hold another primary for the seat on May 19th. Candidates looking to fill the full two term to year term, excuse me, will be part of that primary. Well, that's going to do it for your headlines. As always, we appreciate having you along for the ride again at the top of the hour of the moment at this point that Caroline Levitt takes the podium and the White House will take you there live. Stay tuned for that.
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Martha Stewart
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Charlie Kirk
All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. We are awaiting the start of the White House press conference. This. We don't take all of them on the show, but I think today is a truly important day because we're gonna define, we're gonna hopefully learn what the White House is defining as victory. Again, you can have war in the modern era where it doesn't. It's not as clear. It's like, you know, World War II, right, or the Civil War. We're used to the, these grandiose celebrations, the theatrics of, you know, signing a surrender. That doesn't happen in modern warfare nearly as much. Obviously. We saw it in Venezuela where Maduro was captured and taken back. I mean, that was fairly clear cut, but it's not always clear cut. And so you have to define your objectives and you have to then, you know, get press conferences up and running and declare victory. This is why I think Hegseth, you saw him out this morning and explaining why he. He defines this as a victory. And obviously this is part of the PR spin both sides. Listen, I think again to Blake's earlier point in hour one. We may not see this ceasefire even hold through the end of the show, but I think that given the calculus of a current moment, I think the administration would be loathe to reignite hostilities, kinetic operations, because I think there is an understanding that Iran is really willing to sort of wait out, out and take the barrage, take the punishment. But here's Pete Hegseth Sat 3. Iran begged for this ceasefire and we all know it.
Caroline Levitt
Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield.
Charlie Kirk
A capital V military victory. There's a little bit of defining, though, military victory. He didn't say it was a political victory. It's not regime change. I think what is going to be very interesting in this press conference as we await it, you can see that in the bottom of your screen. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens specifically with nuclear. Right. Nuclear is. I think if we can get that chess piece off the board, we can, I think, objectively declare some semblance of a victory and say, listen, maybe the strait isn't cleared out. Maybe we didn't get regime change. Maybe we remove sanctions and they are going to get more money flowing into the Iranian regime. Regime. But the Ayatollah is gone. Most of their main leadership is gone. Maybe we'll have to Lomaz's point in the previous hour. We're going to establish regular relations, normalize relations with whatever is left intact in Iran. And that's not a bad thing. All right, so I think I'm waiting for clarity. I think the world is waiting for clarity. I don't know, Blake, what are you hoping to see? Because sometimes these press conferences, you don't get much specific. I think today's going to be a bit different.
Blake
Well, yeah, I think, as you say, we're going to see them define not just what victory is, but hopefully set terms for the ceasefire that can hold. I think they're probably going to get grilled over strikes still happening over that disagreement over Lebanon. And that's probably going to be the most difficult answer they can give because that's going to be what people break the ceasefire wide open again. We'll probably also have to see how aggressive their posture is. On if the ceasefire starts breaking down, are they ready to fully resume everything? Are we back to the threats or do we think Trump is seizing an off ramp aggressively where if the ceasefire starts going south, he's still not inclined to raise back up all of America's military operations?
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, I mean, we know already reporting is that Israel, the leadership of Israel is not happy with this ceasefire. They very much want to be able to continue operations in southern Lebanon to take out Hezbollah. I think it's also a, like I mentioned before, it's a clear indication that Iran sees Hezbollah as an extension of the regime. So, you know, if there was any doubt, let there be no doubt, that Hezbollah is an extension of the regime in Lebanon and Israel is not happy with this, but they're kind of, Trump's got them cornered a little bit. So I think that's going to be another question here that Caroline Levitt's going to have to navigate. What are you going to do with Israel? Israel is a X factor question mark on the board. Obviously, their proximity to Iran is much closer than our own. So they want to see this regime toppled. There's no doubt in anybody's mind, really. So we'll see, we'll see how she handles that. But again, questions on the board. Nuclear straight to Hormuz. Hezbollah, can the ceasefire hold? Is JD Vance going to be present in Islamabad for the Friday peace deal negotiations or is there some security concern? What is the security concern? So there's a thousand question that she's going to be confronted with and maybe it will be a grilling. But I think I'm most curious to see what is the ten point plan? Are we gonna get any clarity on the ten point plan? The White House has Already said It's a different 10 point plan than has been reported and circulated.
Blake
It is funny how I don't think there's been any public versions of the ten point plan.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah.
Blake
Just all different places reporting alleged hearsay versions of it.
Charlie Kirk
I think that's why President Trump issued that truth today, saying that there are all things fake, basically. So take it all with a grain of salt. Keep your wits about you. This is all a litmus test. All right? This is all a litmus test. Are you going to catastrophize? Are you going to doom and gloom or are you going to keep your wits about you? I'm very proud of us on this show that we've kept our wits about us and we're calling balls and strikes. We're not rushing into war. We certainly are glad that this one could be on the precipice, on the threshold of being over. I think that's a good thing and we should celebrate that. That. But it is fragile. It is very fragile and we've got to see right now the strait is essentially halted. It's closed. So is there going to be immediate action taken by the administration to get that reopened? We don't know. And I think it's also very telling. Here we are. This was supposed to start at 10, well, 1pm Eastern, this press conference and we're already at 1:12pm Eastern. So it's already been delayed a bit. We kept this segment open, open for this press conference today and it's delayed, which means there. This is a very active and moving situation and I bet is we're working with wet cement here.
Blake
Wet cement indeed. Yeah. And then how quickly does it dry?
Charlie Kirk
But yeah.
Blake
Did you ever, did you ever read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy growing up? It's. I don't know if maybe it would age badly. It might not be funny anymore. But it's what's funny about.
Charlie Kirk
I watch.
Blake
Well, I'm just with the black pilling thing. I just. The thing you'll remember is that the Hitchhiker's Guide of the, of the title, it's this book and it just says on the COVID don't panic. And I think that would be good to have on a lot of things in the right. Maybe we could add it to these pocket constitutions that we have.
Charlie Kirk
Don't panic on the article 1 section 1. Just to give you a quick market update though, oil is down $18 a barrel. It came down at about, I think it was about 110, it said settled yesterday. So it's at $94 a barrel. It's down 16%, which is good news. And then the markets are surged 1200 points. The Dow is up 1200s and P 500 is up two and a half points, up 167. And the Nasdaq is up three points at 670 points. So the markets like what they're hearing, despite some of the uncertainty, despite the fragile, very fragile piece that we've reached. Reached. Let's hope that it continues on. Let's hope that Caroline Levitt has some updates for us that will lead us to have additional reason for optimism. But right now, I think, right now, I think a lot of the calls Yesterday for the 25th Amendment, a bunch of Democrats got together. What did the number get up to? Like 70, 80 Democrats calling for President Trump's impeachment. A lot of that has settled and that today is a new day. So. So I'm very, very interested to see what is revealed in this press conference. I want to tell you guys about Hillsdale College. It's America's greatest college. We love partnering with them. Hillsdale College was Charlie's favorite college. The beacon of the north, he called it. And Charlie understood. He didn't chase diplomas. He didn't chase the titles. What he chased was learning. And you can do that through Hillsdale on their online courses. They offer over 40 of them, and it's a truly amazing resource. Is it starting? No. Okay. Nope, nevermind.
Blake
We did get an email from someone who says the press conference is always delayed. Do your homework. I feel. I feel a bit seen. I feel a bit called out. I think. I think he is correct. They usually are not quite on time.
Charlie Kirk
I don't know. So one of the frustrations with the show is that Caroline Levitt always does her press conference conferences during our show. So I'm pretty on to the timing of many of these press conferences. And they usually have it started by now. All right, so one of the courses Charlie took was the Genesis course taught by Hillsdale Professor Dr. Justin Jackson. It's a free online course that explores our relationship with the Lord, what happens when that relationship severed, and how to lead to reconciliation. It's a rigorous, real course, and it's free to anybody willing to learn. Are you that person? If you are, go to CharlieForHillsdale.com to enroll today. That's CharlieForHillsdale.com learn deeply, lead boldly. Carry it forward. We love the good folks over at Hillsdale. Check them out today. We'll be right back.
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Charlie Kirk
All right, welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. We are still awaiting the press conference with Caroline La Levitt. Pins and needles over here, which is unusual. So that's noteworthy. I want to tell you guys about why Refi. The good folks over at Y Refi are amazing. We are all in with them and the reason is is because they're good people and they care about this country. There it is. You can check them out@investyrefi.com so here's the offer that they make you. You can invest with them up to one to five years. You can lock in a interest rate as high as 10.25%. You have all the flexibility in the world of however you want to move that investment on. They calculate your interest daily and they pay you out monthly. And then once they pay you out, you can have that. You have the choice of either reinvesting that money back in with them or you take it off the table and take it as profit. Maximum flexibility, maximum transparency. And they are also amazing, amazing people, which makes it all the better. And by the way, they care about the students of this country. They care about investors. They care about, about the patriots that make this country work. So check them out for complete details. Make sure to review the private placement memorandum and scan this QR code right there on your screen to view the disclosures at your leisure. Why refi investing in America's future? Check them out today. All right, I want to. While we're waiting on this press conference to get started, it's important to realize what some of the rhinos in the House tried to do while we were all distracted by the war. Well, we weren't so distracted that we didn't notice. We had Nick Sorter on yesterday talking about it. And that's when I discovered that it wasn't in fact called the Dignity Act. It's called the Dignity God Act. They had the audacity, the shamelessness to put a Spanish word on an amnesty bill while we were all distracted with Iran. Let's hear Rep. Maria Salazar in her own words, Sat.12 we give them dignity.
Jonathan Keeperman
At some point in the future, another legislator will write another law to give
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
them path to citizenship. Right now what we need to do is to buy peace for these people, allow them to stay to continue working because they are needed.
Blake
It's just insane. We actually won an election on saying we're going to enforce the border, we're going to do deportations. And every, every single time Congress comes up, they're like cockroaches or something. And they just come out and say, actually what the people wanted was mass amnesty.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah, it's the exact opposite. And what I've realized from this is that there will always be a push. It doesn't matter how much the base wants the moneyed interest in ag hospitality, other sectors are going to continue pushing for amnesty because they want cheap labor.
Blake
You literally just have to to learn to tune them out. They're going to say it no matter what. They will always say it. So you just have to ignore them. You have to say thanks. You say that every time.
Charlie Kirk
We're ignoring you. So Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, who should be primaried, by the way, like this woman, I don't care who endorsed her. Okay, I guess she's got a Trump. I don't care. She needs to be primaried because you cannot represent the grassroots and the movement of the Republican Party party. If you're going to continue pushing garbage amnesty and try and you know, to quote Ron DeSantis, don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. That's exactly what's happening here. Brandon Gill, who's going to come on the show tomorrow, said, this is an amnesty bill. She fires back, said, read the bill before you open your mouth. Calling the Dignity act amnesty isn't just wrong, it's a deliberate distortion. No, what you're trying to do, calling it the Dignity act act, is a deliberate distortion of an amnesty bill. And I love that there's a community note on her X feed here. It says it grants amnesty, permanent residency, DREAM act, deferred action and legal status. Dignity program halts deportations, wipes 3 to 10 year bans. Creates inspected and admitted loopholes. Grants Attorney General power to terminate deportation for family hardship. Are you kidding me? Who. They're all going to claim hardship.
Blake
They're always. You can't really give in the. These flexible definitions of things. We've seen that with asylum. We've seen this with refugee status. We see it. I mean, that's also how all the fraud that works in all these blue states, you create a vague category that everyone can claim. And if it's not really aggressively enforced, it quickly breaks down and we know it won't be. You have these immigration judges and if you install a sympathetic actor, you basically have the inmates running the asylum. Everyone's able to claim the benefit.
Charlie Kirk
Get, get this. It allows every illegal alien deported by Trump since January 2017 to return to the USA. They can apply for their new dignity status Digni dad from their home country and then return to the usa. It also ups caps on certain immigration visas, so it increases our immigration. Then it provides funding to lawyers that are gonna argue on behalf of these illegals to get back into the country. This is a treasonous behavior, betrayal of the American voters.
Blake
Get this woman out of my party.
Charlie Kirk
And by the way, I'm gonna have Rich Barris join maybe tomorrow if he's available because he's got a backstory on some of this polling that's being circulated around the administration that is warning them against using the words mass deportation. I want to hear your thoughts. Send us an email. Freedom Charliekirk. Right now. Do you like the term mass deportation? Do you not like it? Do you understand the rationale behind maybe not using it as much? Okay, I want to hear all your viewpoints. Do you think it's bad pr? Listen, there is an argument to be made that we lost some of the PR wars. Right. Masks on ICE agents. That's one of the things that I've heard actually does poll very badly. Okay, well, like maybe there's some room to maneuver here, but you are not going to convince me that mass deportations and the reclaiming of American culture and sovereignty is not popular across the board. It is one of the issues that has been, I think undervalued under appreciated the most in American politics since Trump came down the golden escalator. He saw it, he called it out and it will and Caroline just walked out. And Trump deserves a massive amount of credit for changing the discourse on that topic alone. And we, we're going to, we're going to die on that hill. That's the hill you die on. It's mass deportations and our sovereignty. Let's go ahead and take the Caroline Levitt press conference.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Landmark legislation that First Lady Melania Trump played an instrumental role in getting passed that protects victims from non consensual AI generated sexually explicit images, cyber stalking and threats of violence. This is a huge achievement for the first lady. And I know the President is very proud of his wife's efforts in getting this critical legislation passed to protect America's youth. So we thank the first lady for her efforts and we hope that others will report on this historic conviction yesterday with respect to the two week ceasefire announced by President Trump last night. This is a victory for the United States of America that the President and our incredible military made happen from the very beginning of Operation Epic Failure Fury. President Trump stated this would be a four to six week military operation to dismantle the military threat posed by the radical Islamic Iranian regime. Thanks to the unbelievable capabilities of America's war fighters, the United States has achieved and exceeded those core military objectives in just 38 days. The US military destroyed Iran's defense industrial industrial base, crushing the regime's ability to manufacture weapons that they and their proxies use to maim and kill Americans and terrorize the world. Iran's ability to build and stockpile ballistic missiles and long range drones has also been set back by years compared to where it was six weeks ago. Prior to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. We destroyed the vast majority of Iran's ballistic missiles, launcher vehicles and long range attack drones threw more than 450 strikes on ballistic missiles and approximately 800 strikes on Iran's drone launching units and storage facilities. In total, more than 13,000 targets across Iran were struck. Again, this is in the matter of just 38 days. Meanwhile, the Iranian naval navy was completely annihilated. The United States destroyed more than 150 naval vessels in total, including 16 entire classes of Iranian warships. Despite once being the largest undersea force in the Middle East, Iran now has zero submarine vessels. 97% of Iran's once massive inventory of more than 5,000 naval mines has also been targeted and destroyed. Iran's air forces are functionally and operationally irrelevant at this point, after the United States maintained total air dominance over their country for weeks on end. To underscore the significance of this, before Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian air force would fly between 30 to 100 flights per day. Today, that number is zero. Iran's ability to fund and support its terrorist proxies has been greatly reduced. At this point, Iran can no longer distribute weapons to its proxies in the region. And most importantly, Iran will not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. Prior to the start of this successful operation, Iran was aggressively expanding its short range ballistic missile arsenal. Through these weapons and its navy, Iran was attempting to build a military buildup around their country that would pose an imminent and existential threat to the United States military assets in the Middle east, our allies in the region, and ultimately the free world. Iran was pursuing this dangerous and aggressive strategy for one reason, to hold the entire world hostage to its terrorist ambitions. The Iranians aim to use their expanded military capabilities as a shield around their country to continue achieving their ultimate, ultimate goal, internally building nuclear bombs. But their murderous and evil plans have been blown up, quite literally and figuratively, along with their military, their nuclear program, and most of their senior leadership, including the former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ala Khamani. Their command and control structures were also massively disrupted after being struck more than 2,000 times. Many of their remaining leaders are paralyzed in fear and no longer enjoy the freedom to move around their country freely and meet openly. Thanks to the unmatched excellence of our warriors at the direction of the Commander in Chief, the world has just witnessed a historically swift and successful military triumph. President Trump started Operation Epic Fury with strategic military objectives and the United States has clearly achieved them. As we mark this point progress, we also remember and honor the 13American heroes who laid down their lives in this noble effort. I know President Trump and our grateful nation honors their ultimate sacrifice and we will never forget them. May God bless their families. The valiant efforts of all of our incredible service members created maximum leverage for the President of the United States, allowing he and his leadership team to engage in tough negative negotiations over the past couple of weeks that have now created an opening for a diplomatic solution in long term peace in the Middle East. The President's maximum pressure and the leverage created by the success of Operation Epic Fury led to the Iranian regime asking for and ultimately agreeing to a ceasefire proposal with the United States. Iran could no longer tolerate being bombed or taking the gambler of what was to come. Following President Trump's 8pm deadline last night, Iran has agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz. And as the President said, we have received a proposal from the Iranians that has been determined to be a workable basis on which to negotiate. I've seen a lot of inaccurate coverage today from the media about these negotiations and these plans already. So let me be clear and correct the record. The Iranians originally put Forward forward a 10 point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded. It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team. Many outlets in this room have falsely reported on that plan as being acceptable to the United States. And that is false. With the President's deadline fast approaching and the United States military completely decimating Iran with each passing hour, the regiment acknowledged reality to the negotiating team. They put forward a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the President and his team. President Trump and the team determined the new modified plan was a workable basis on which to negotiate and to align it with our own 15 point proposal. The President's red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed. And the idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd. The President will only make a deal that serves in the best interests of the United States of America. And he, as a negotiating team, will focus on this effort over the next two weeks. So long as the Strait of Hormuz remains open with no limitations or delays, these extraordinarily sensitive and complex negotiations will take take place behind closed doors over the course of the next two weeks. I would strongly advise the media against running with narratives that have no basis in fact.
Caroline Levitt
The next great awakening is here.
Charlie Kirk
Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. All right, folks, Caroline Left, its press conference is ongoing. We're going to take it in just a second. I want to tell you about blackout coffee. I'm really picky about what I put in my body and I'm really picky about my coffee. I love blackout coffee. I am drinking their brutal awakening this morning. So it's morning Reaper, brutal awakening. They've got dark roast, two way, medium roast, instant coffee, coffee pods. They got all the things it's an American company. It is a family run company. It's not some big corporation that's going to burn your coffee. Coffee. Go to blackoutcoffee.com Charlie and use promo code Charlie for 20 off your first order. That's blackoutcoffee.com Charlie. And for even a better deal, sign up for a blackout coffee subscription, save money, get free shipping and earn free coffee through their rewards program. Blackoutcoffee.com Charlie use promo code Charlie for 20 off your first order. Let's go ahead and take that presser.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Once again, build a nuclear bomb inside their country is no longer going to be allowed can no longer happen. Thanks to the remarkable success of Operation Epic Fury over the course of the last 38 days. That has been absolutely achieved. And now we're moving into the next phase of this, which is a negotiating period to put some fine points on this and to hopefully broker an agreement that can achieve long term peace in the Middle East.
Caroline Levitt
Yeah.
Charlie Kirk
And then second, what is the president's message to American seniors who have a much higher voter participation rate and they're likely to be a key swing vote
Blake
in the midterm elections?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Well, the President loves our seniors across the country. And as you know, the president signed the one big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, last year, which greatly reduced taxes on Social Security for our seniors. In fact, thanks to the working families tax cut, nearly 90% of seniors will no longer pay tax on their Social Security. That's a huge win for for our seniors and also for our middle class and working families across the country with the no tax on tips provision and the no tax on overtime. Next week is tax week. You'll hear a lot from the president about how his policies have benefited the American people. And I'm proud to report that the president will be traveling next week to the great states of Nevada and Arizona to tout this historic accomplishment over the course of the next week. Thank you for being here, Shane. Gabe, thank you.
Caroline Levitt
Caroline Raymond, state media saying that Iran has now closed off the Strait of Hormuz today in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanon. What's the White House response to that? And you just listed many military successes. I understand that, but strategically, how is the administration arguing that Iran does not have more economic leverage than now than it did before the start of the war?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Sure. Well, with respect to the first reporting out of Iran, Iranian state media, the president was made aware of those reports before I came to the podium. That is completely unacceptable. And again, this is a case of what they're saying publicly is different. Privately, we have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today and I will reiterate the president's expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely. That is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that what's taking place and these reports publicly are false.
Caroline Levitt
Caroline, the president yesterday threatened that a whole civilization would die if a cease fire deal wasn't reached, understanding that Iranian leaders have previously said death to America. But why is it appropriate for the president of the United States to use that kind of language when talking about civilian targets? And was the president mocking Islam by signing off his true social post over the weekend? Praise be to Allah. Wouldn't that antagonize Muslim allies across the world?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Well, I understand the questions about the president's rhetoric, but what the president cares most about is results and in fact, his very tough rhetoric and his tough negotiating style is what has led to the result that you are all witnessing today. Iran publicly acknowledging last night that they have agreed or that they wanted this cease fire with the United States because they no longer could talk tolerate being bombed by our very powerful and lethal military and that they have committed to the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which the president will hold them accountable for. And it's something the administration is closely monitoring in real time.
Caroline Levitt
Dani, should the world not take his word seriously?
Charlie Kirk
Ms.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
The world should take his word very seriously in understanding that the president is always most interested in results and it was the Iranians who backed down, not President Trump. He said that they were would face very grave consequences, as you just laid out by the 8pm deadline, if they did not agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And what did they do last night? They agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Danny.
Charlie Kirk
Thanks, Karen.
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Would President Trump like to see Lebanon
Charlie Kirk
included in this peace deal? Because as you know, there have been
Caroline Levitt
increased Israeli strikes on Lebanon today with dozens of casualties there.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Sure. Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire that has been relayed to all parties involved in the cease fire. As you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu put out a statement last night in support of the cease fire in support of the United States efforts, and he's also assured the president they'll continue to be a helpful partner throughout the course of the next two weeks.
Charlie Kirk
Is there any thought, though, that the
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president might like to see Lebanon included at a future date, given that it seems to be causing or potentially undermining the Iran ceasefire?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Again, this will continue to be discussed, I am sure, between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the United States and Israel and all of the parties involved, but at this point in time, they're not included in the ceasefire deal. Jeff.
Blake
Thank you, Caroline. Will the US Take part in talks with Iran in Islamabad on Friday?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. I can announce that the president is dispatching his negotiating team, led by the Vice president of the United States, J.D. vance, Special Envoy Witkoff, and Mr. Kushner, to Islamic for talks this weekend. The first round of those talks will take place on Saturday morning local time, and we know we look forward to those in person meetings.
Charlie Kirk
What role does the president see for
Blake
the US in monitoring or helping with
Charlie Kirk
this trade of Hormuz going forward?
Caroline Levitt
Ms.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
I think the president commented on that this morning. We're going to continue to monitor it very, very closely. We will be helpful in any way that we can, but we fully expect Iran to do this, and the president has made that call quite clear as well. Again, as his statement said last night, this cease fire is subject to the safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Again, this was just determined last night. We understand things take time, but that's the president's expectation and he will hold everyone to it. Sure, in the green blazer.
Caroline Levitt
Thank you, Carol.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
And then in front of you. But Andrew, you can go ahead. You're not wearing a green blazer.
Caroline Levitt
I am actually wearing it looks a
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
little round to me, but go ahead.
Caroline Levitt
Fair enough. So regarding the president's rhetoric, when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, George W. Bush said in a message to the Iraqi people that the military campaign was directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not against you. Yesterday, the president threatened to destroy Iran's civilization, the entire civilization, not the Iranian government, but the Iranian civilization, the Iranian people. The US has been a moral leader for most of its history by fighting wars against other governments, not against civilizations. How can the president claim that America can ever have the moral high ground if he's threatening to destroy civilizations and not casting wars as fights against other governments?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Andrew, I think you should take a look at the actions of this president over the course of the past six weeks and the actions of our brave men and women in our United States military who have taken out the essentially taken out the military of a rogue Islamic regime that has chanted death to America for 47 years, that has killed and maimed thousands of American soldiers over the course of the last five decades. The president absolutely has the moral high ground over the Iranian terrorist regime, and for you to even suggest otherwise is frankly insulting.
Caroline Levitt
Caroline, with all due respect, there is
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
just given what we've seen in Lebanon today and the increased attacks from Israel, I mean, is there any concern that Netanyahu trying to kill the ceasefire Ms. The President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu last night. In that private conversation, Prime Minister Netanyahu relayed exactly what he said to the world publicly that he supports the President and Israel remains a key ally and partner to the United States. They've been a tremendous partner over the course of the past six weeks, and we thank them for their heroic efforts as well. And the President had that conversation last night and that was relayed to the world publicly as well. Reagan, go ahead. Thank you, Caroline. I have a question for you on Iran and a question on the Dignity act as well. Sure. On Iran, it's been reported that the cease fire was struck after the involvement of Two unlikely factors, J.D. vance in China. What role did those parties play in striking a deal? Well, Vice President Vance has played a very significant and a key role in this since the very beginning. It of course, he's the President's right hand man. He is the vice president of the United States. He's been involved in all of these discussions and as I just announced, he'll be leading this new phase of negotiations in Islamabad later this week. With respect to China, there were conversations that took place between top levels of our government and China's government. The President has great respect for President Xi, in a great working relationship with him and with that country, and he looks forward to visiting China in just a few weeks. And on the Dignity act, it's getting a fresh push through Congress. It would give some illegal immigrants in the country a path to citizenship. What's the White House's position on this legislation and would the President sign it if it made it to his desk? Ms. Honestly, Reagan, I haven't spoken to the President about the legislation, but I will have that conversation and we'll get you our form formal position on it as soon as we can. You're welcome. Go ahead.
Caroline Levitt
The President suggested yesterday, this morning that he would support a joint U S
Jonathan Keeperman
Iranian venture to charge tolls for ships
Caroline Levitt
going through the Strait. Does the President believe that the US
Charlie Kirk
should earn revenue from the Strait of Hormuz going forward?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. It's something it's an idea the President has floated, as you know, and it's something that will continue to be discussed over the course of the next two weeks. But the immediate priority of the President is the reopening of the strait without any limitations, whether in the form of tolls or otherwise.
Caroline Levitt
And on the highly enriched uranium, has
Charlie Kirk
Iran given the administration any indication that
Caroline Levitt
it would simply turn over the enriched
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
uranium, or is this an expectation the
Blake
president has that he would have to
Charlie Kirk
send in ground troops in order to do that?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. This is on the top of the priority list for the President and his negotiating team as they head into into these next round of discussions. And as I said in my opener, that is a red line that the President is not going to back away from and he's committed to ensuring that takes place. We hope it will be through diplomacy.
Charlie Kirk
Have they given any indication that they
Caroline Levitt
would turn it over?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. They have, yes. Trevor.
Charlie Kirk
The latest news out of Iran is that the air defenses have been activated in several cities, including Isfahan, and that
Caroline Levitt
explosions have been hurd in esqman who
Charlie Kirk
who is bombing Iran right now.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Were those reports just as of a few minutes ago?
Charlie Kirk
Yeah.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Okay. So obviously I'll have to go back and check with the national security team. I'm standing out here with all of you, but I will do that and we will get you an answer, okay.
Charlie Kirk
Just on the civilization question that we've been talking about.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
And I would just add to that point again, I haven't seen these reports. I'm not verifying them. Not that I don't trust you, Trevor, but I want to go back and check with the experts here at the White House. I would just say and I would echo what the vice president said this morning. This is a fragile truce. Cease fires are fragile by nature. We've seen this with respect to the
Charlie Kirk
12 day war, all right. We're learning a lot that Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire, that this is the wrong 10 point plan that has been reported. There's an entirely new one. So much more to get to here. We're going to continue taking that in the breaks really quick. Want to tell you about Strong Cell and I promised that I was going to start giving you a testimony testimonials. So here's number one. Sod18 the last few years I've had really bad swelling that would happen, you
Caroline Levitt
know, in my feet and in my ankles. You have this stuff, it's called Strong Cell.
Charlie Kirk
Just take it.
Caroline Levitt
I proceeded to take it every day. Strong Cell helped me with boating, with just being mobile.
Charlie Kirk
I mean that's a huge part of it. Captain Jeff Illingworth, one of those testimonials. More to come. We'll be unveiling those as they come. StrongCell.com promo code CHARLIE for 20% off 90 day risk free money back guarantee. You need to check it out. You're gonna big boost to energy, let me tell you that much. At least that's been my experience. We'll be back and in the stream we'll take more of the press conference.
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Martha Stewart
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Charlie Kirk
Tolling by the Iranians in the Strait of Hormuz. I've heard you talk about a number of red lines that the President has
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in this negotiation, but I haven't heard
Charlie Kirk
you say that Iranian tolling in the Strait of Hormuz is a red line. Would it be acceptable to the United States at the end of all this if the Iranians are able to charge
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poles in the strait of Hormuz?
Charlie Kirk
Ms.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
I think the President was very clear and simplistic in his language last night in his Truth social post where he said that this cease fire is subject to the free, safe and immediate reopening of the structure Strait of Hormuz. That's very plain language and it should be taken at face value. Carrie, go ahead. Without limitation, including tolls yes. Kerry, a quick follow up on the atonement. Why would the US Allow Iran to collect tolls? Administrative firmly spend is that something that we've opposed for a number of years now? Ms. Again, that's not something we've said that we've definitively accepted. The joint venture is something that was proposed by the President, but he was very clear in his statement last night he wants to see the strait reopened immediately without limitation, and that's something we're going to hold them to. Second question on family and friends in Iran. I myself am Iranian and I've been talking to them through the blackout. One of my family members yesterday said goodbye to me. So what message should we be sending Iranians when they message me saying what should they be doing right now? How should they stay safe because they really don't know what to do?
Caroline Levitt
Ms.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
I think the President's main priority and my main priority as his spokeswoman is to make sure that clear messages are sent to the American people. Of course, which is my job today with respect to the Iranian people. The President has taken out the imminent threat that was posed by their military to the United States, to our allies in the region, to our forces in the region and of course, course, as the President has long said, he hopes that Iran will be a country of peace, of prosperity, and we're moving into this next round of negotiations to hopefully come to an agreement with this new regime that will create long term stability in the Middle East. You said that they should stay inside of their homes and also take back their country. So how there's a contradiction there. So how do you address that? Again, we're moving into the this next round of negotiations with the remnants of the regime and those that we are speaking with now to hopefully reach a place of peace long term for the region and that includes the Iranian people as well. In the blue. Go ahead.
Martha Stewart
The White House issued posted the statement
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
from the Iranian government that passage in
Martha Stewart
the strait will be coordinated with Iran's armed forces as of today. Who controls the state of Strait of
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Ms. Again, these statements were put out 12 hours ago. We expect that the strait will be opened immediately. As I said earlier, we have seen an uptick in traffic in the strait and it's something that we are monitoring minute by minute, hour by hour as the days go on. I'm asking who controls the strait right now, One, on the deportations of Iranian officials and then on new negotiations on are there still security concerns about Vice President Vance being part of these peace talks? Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and then two, given the ongoing deportation of General Soleimani's niece, does the Trump administration plan to deport more relatives or people in the families of Iranian officials that are in the U.S. Ms. Certainly, anyone who is here fraudulently I understand one of the individuals who their visa was revoked by Secretary Rubio and they were deported by ice. They had a fraudulent asylum claim. That's against the laws of the United States. So anyone who is here illegally or fraudulently is subject to our nation's immigration laws and will be removed from our country. And I know this continues to be a top priority for the State Department, working in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security with respect to the safety of the vice president. We fully trust the United States Secret Service to do their job to keep the vice president and the president's negotiating team safe. They do a tremendous job and we fully trust them to do that.
Charlie Kirk
Caroline in the back.
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Go ahead.
Charlie Kirk
Thank you, Caroline. The president has said Cuba is next.
Caroline Levitt
What's the message from the American people
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regarding Cuba and what can Cubans expect
Caroline Levitt
in relation to this statement?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Well, look, I think when President Trump said that, and he later clarified after making that statement, that he meant the Cuban regime is bound to fall. Their country is very, very weak. They're in a very weak position economically, obviously, financially, the Cuban people are fed up with their government, as they should be. And these talks and discussions continue to happen at the highest level of our government. I don't have any updates or announcements for you with respect to Cuba policy today. Thank you, Caroline. Secretary Hexa said this morning that US Troops would be sticking around. Can you expound up upon that what we should expect from U.S. troops in theater for the next two weeks and beyond? I would defer you to the Pentagon for any specifics on assets that have been in place in the Middle east, but take the secretary at his word. And also the president has reiterated this as well in his own words that we're not going to move anything immediately. Again, this is a two week cease fire where we hope at the end and we expect at the end we'll have a good agreement between the United States States and Iran. But in the meantime, we're going to ensure that our military is always at the ready of the commander in Chief. I'll take a couple more in the back. Thank you very much. On NATO, I'll take your question.
Charlie Kirk
Thank you, Caroline.
Caroline Levitt
On NATO, can you tell me, is
Jonathan Keeperman
the United States still considering withdrawing from NATO?
Press Secretary (Caroline Levitt or White House Spokesperson)
Is that still a possibility? Ms. It's something the president has discussed and I think it's something the president will be discussing in a couple of hours with Secretary General Ruta and perhaps you'll hear directly from the president following that meeting later this afternoon. Thank you, everyone.
Charlie Kirk
All right, welcome back. A lot of information there. We're told just to, I think, hit some of the high water marks here, that the Strait of Hormuz is open for all intents and purposes. The president continues to demand that the strait is open safely, securely and immediately. That was apparently the linchpin to getting the ceasefire, two week ceasefire accomplished in the first place. We're told Lebanon is not a part of the current framework, so Israel is free apparently to continue attacking southern Lebanon and Hezbollah there.
Blake
We'll see if Iran agrees.
Charlie Kirk
We'll see if Iran agrees. We are told that J.D. vance is, in fact going to be participating in the peace negotiations in Islamabad starting on Friday, along with special Envoy Whit Cox and Mr. Jared Kushner. I think those were the big points. There was a lot of questions about America's, you know, the moral equivalency because of President Trump's truths. You know, are we any better than Iran? Of course we are. You know, we don't kill 50,000 protesters on the streets when they're protesting the government. So a lot of insanity there. There was a reporter there going like, my auntie from Iran called me and asked if, you know, if she said goodbye. Like, listen, like, it's so annoying. The press was very annoying there. She does a great job putting up with their garbage. But, yeah, what were your main takeaways?
Blake
I thought the most interesting thing is they did ask about Naito and the president did express, or I should say Levitt. She expressed a lot of disappointment with them. The line was like, they had the chance to step up and they failed. I do wonder if we'll see see more discussion of that. It could, of course, be another play by the president. He's always wanted NATO to contribute more generally, step up for their own defense.
Charlie Kirk
Mark Ruta, the secretary general of NATO, is meeting with the president today. So he's at the White House. And he's been somebody that understands Trump, that seems to have embraced Trump more fully with all of his, you know, quirks and idiosyncrasies. So I, you know, I happen to think that NATO will continue on, our involvement in NATO will continue on. But, yeah, this was a big blow to that alliance, I think. And again, we could argue Trump calls it a paper tiger. I think it's yet to be seen if NATO is going to live up to its promise or not. More tomorrow. It was nice spending time with you. We'll see you then.
Martha Stewart
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Charlie Kirk
This is an Iheart podcast.
Jonathan Keeperman
Guaranteed human.
This episode of The Charlie Kirk Show centers on the breaking news of a tentative, fragile two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran orchestrated by President Trump. The conversation encompasses the military operations against Iran, ongoing peace negotiations (involving a new 10-15 point plan), unprecedented global alliances (notably with China and Pakistan interceding), unresolved challenges like the Strait of Hormuz, fractures within the MAGA movement, and live reaction to the White House press conference with Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.
With live updates, deep-dive analysis, and spirited, sometimes combative banter, Charlie Kirk and his panel aim to dissect the complexities of the Middle East crisis, what “victory” means, and the political aftershocks in the U.S. and abroad.
Ceasefire Specifics & U.S. Objectives: Press Secretary Caroline Levitt outlines the military success, new negotiation framework, the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the importance of ending Iran’s nuclear program, and reiterates that no final deal is yet signed.
Lebanon Excluded: The Lebanese front (Israeli strikes on Hezbollah) is not covered by the ceasefire, raising doubts about the ceasefire’s durability.
On Tolls Through the Strait:
On U.S. Monitoring and Nuclear Oversight:
On China’s Role:
Please note: This summary strictly covers the episode's content, omitting ads or sponsor messages. For a full understanding of developments, refer to real-time news and government statements.