The Charlie Kirk Show, January 07, 2026

Summary

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The Charlie Kirk Show (Real America’s Voice) — January 7, 2026

Overview:

This episode centers around the U.S.-Venezuela oil deal following the deposition of Nicolas Maduro, the evolving U.S. foreign policy posture in the Western Hemisphere (especially regarding Venezuela and the potential acquisition of Greenland), government fraud in blue states like Minnesota, and a sweeping conversation on American resurgence, military priorities, and accountability—all featuring live press conference audio, interviews (notably with Senator Rick Scott and War Secretary Pete Hegseth), and data-driven political analysis.

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Major Segments & Key Discussion Points

1. White House Press Briefing: The Aftermath of Maduro’s Ouster

[00:27–22:05]

• Caroline Levitt (WH Press Secretary) leads a robust Q&A on the U.S. government’s new oil deal with Venezuela’s interim authorities following the removal and capture of Maduro.
• Key Details of Oil Deal:
  • 30–50 million barrels of previously sanctioned Venezuelan oil to be sold for U.S. and Venezuelan benefit.
  • Proceeds controlled via U.S.-based accounts, with strict financial oversight.

    “All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and products will first settle in U.S. controlled accounts at globally recognized banks… for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the United States government.”
    — Caroline Levitt [01:34]

  • Heavy private sector engagement: Banks, oil companies, and commodity marketers participating.
  • Secretary Wright (Energy) leading private sector meetings, with further summits at the White House.
• Military and Security:
  • No U.S. troops in Venezuela at present; military remains an option for safeguarding American workers and interests.
• Maduro Deposition:
  • Operation that led to Maduro’s extradition to the U.S., credited as a successful, highly sophisticated, and secretive military/law enforcement maneuver.
• Vice President's Role:
  • Levitt strongly rebuffs suggestions the VP was sidelined, calling New Yorker reporting “fake” and affirming deep involvement in the Venezuela operation.

    “The vice president has been involved in all policy... including Venezuela policy. He was, of course, read in and deeply involved in this operation from the very beginning...”
    — Caroline Levitt [04:21]

• Foreign Policy Doctrines:
  • U.S. demands for Venezuela to cut ties with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba not explicitly confirmed.
  • Ongoing debate over whether the U.S. could attempt to buy Greenland, with military force not ruled out.
  • Sanction rollback to facilitate oil shipments; strict embargo enforcement on “dark fleet” tankers.
• Immigration & Deportation Policy:
  • Trump administration maintains policy of deporting all illegally present Venezuelans.
  • Strong rhetoric on migrant crime and national security.
• NATO Commitment:
  • U.S. reiterates support for NATO even if allies have lagged on obligations.

    “We will always be there for NATO even if they are not there for us.” — Caroline Levitt [16:45]

• Healthcare and Domestic Legislation:
  • President urges bipartisan flexibility, especially on the Hyde Amendment and health savings accounts.

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2. Senator Rick Scott Interview: Government Fraud & Accountability

[27:45–38:45]

• Minnesota Somali Fraud Scandal:
  • Discusses recent Minneapolis incident involving ICE and cover-ups of mass fraud in state programs.
  • Critiques bureaucratic indifference to fraud:

    “The attitude... is if the federal government's paying for it, it's free. Doesn't cost you anything.”
    — Sen. Rick Scott [29:54]

• Federal Program Mismanagement:
  • Highlights hurricanes as cover for fraudulent federal claims; urges tighter oversight and legislative reform.
• Minnesota, California, and Washington:
  • Explains political barriers to reform, need for stronger executive and congressional action to halt funds to fraudulent programs.
• Greenland Acquisition:
  • Scott characterizes Denmark as an ally, doubts U.S. would “invade” Greenland, expects increased U.S. military presence to counter China and Russia.
• Support for Secretary Hegseth:
  • Notes Hegseth’s strong reception in classified briefings and among grassroots activists.

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3. Minnesota ICE Incident, Immigration Policy, and State-Level Corruption

[41:41–47:29]

• ICE Officer-Involved Shooting:
  • Details the incident where an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot a driver allegedly attacking agents during anti-fraud raids.
  • Hosts argue local “sanctuary” politicians and anti-law enforcement rhetoric are endangering officers and the public.

    “This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians...”
    — Read from Trisha McLaughlin report [41:33]

• Sanctuary Policies:
  • Hosts explain impact of sanctuary jurisdictions: forced raids instead of safe cooperation with local jails.
• Broader Refugee Fraud Context:
  • Allegations that Somali community leaders in Minnesota have engaged in organized fraud—with state politicians complicit.
  • Section highlights whistleblower suppression and bureaucratic cover-ups.

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4. Polling & MAGA Coalition Reactions: Rich Barris Analysis

[52:46–73:26]

• The “MAGA” Coalition:
  • Barris distinguishes MAGA from generic Republican identity; coalition includes independents, orphaned Democrats.
  • Warns of misleading media polling cycles used to manipulate GOP perspectives.
• Venezuela Operation Polling:
  • Barris: Operation to oust Maduro, while popular within GOP base, is actually historically unpopular overall for a U.S. military action.

    “It's basically the most unpopular military action of its kind. Grenada had 82% [support]…This is negative. It's not horribly negative, but it is negative.”
    — Rich Barris [58:38]

  • Advises administration to frame the policy as “America First” and focused on U.S. economic/strategic gain (Monroe Doctrine), not regime change or nation building.
• On Foreign Policy:
  • Barris argues average Americans want “unapologetic” American power in the hemisphere, reject endless wars, but are open to decisive, benefit-driven actions.
• On Immigration, Demographics, and Morale:
  • Panel discusses the psychological and demographic impact of mass immigration on U.S. civic cohesion and birth rates.

    “We are watching the erasure of American culture before our eyes.”
    — Charlie Kirk [71:00]

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5. LIVE Interview: War Secretary Pete Hegseth

[87:43–100:00]

• Venezuela Blockade & Tanker Seizures:
  • Hegseth frames vessel seizures as “outright accountability, actual enforcement,” targeting the “Dark Fleet” that facilitated sanctioned oil for Maduro’s regime.

    “A oil blockade is in full effect around Venezuela to ensure that that oil on the Dark Fleet doesn't make it anywhere.”
    — Pete Hegseth [88:05]

• On Boots on the Ground:
  • Refuses to foreclose any American military presence in Venezuela; lauds strategic ambiguity.
  • Blockade and pressure will persist; Marines could guard a reopened embassy, but no firm occupation plans declared.
• Maduro Extraction Operation:
  • Praises the military raid as “the most sophisticated” in living memory; recounts watching the live drone feed and the sense of relief as helicopters left Venezuelan airspace.

    “Only the United States of America could do this mission. Second to none, no doubt.”
    — Pete Hegseth [93:13]

• Military Lethality and Morale:
  • Claims marked improvement in recruiting, training, and troop morale since taking office.

    “It’s a new environment...a new aura inside the military where we feel empowered to be the warriors that we’re supposed to be.”
    — Pete Hegseth [93:50]

• Disciplinary Actions:
  • Explains the administrative demotion of retired Senator Mark Kelly for allusions to defying orders—underscores seriousness of UCMJ and upholding military integrity.
• Tribute to Charlie Kirk:
  • Hegseth credits Charlie Kirk’s unwavering support for his own confirmation and for emboldening the “America First” ethos across the administration.

    “He was the thermometer and thermostat of our movement...”
    — Pete Hegseth [98:13]

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Oil Deal Oversight:
  “All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and products will first settle in U.S. controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds.”
  — Caroline Levitt [01:34]

• On Vice President’s Involvement in Venezuela:
  “The vice president has been involved in all policy... including Venezuela policy. He was, of course, read in and deeply involved in this operation from the very beginning...”
  — Caroline Levitt [04:21]

• On US Foreign Policy Boldness:
  “This is the Don Roe Doctrine. Russia, Iran, Cuba, others had their tentacles all over Venezuela... We’re flipping the script, putting America first, controlling our hemisphere...”
  — Pete Hegseth [91:13]

• On Fraud in Federal and State Programs:
  “The attitude... is if the federal government's paying for it, it's free. Doesn't cost you anything.”
  — Senator Rick Scott [29:54]

• On the High-tech Maduro Raid:
  “Only the United States of America could do this mission. Second to none, no doubt.”
  — Pete Hegseth [93:13]

• On the Need for U.S. Economic Moonshot:
  “We are in a race against the clock. We have to prove that our ideas work and we have to clear away from a policy standpoint to make sure that Gen Z... are not getting blocked out by institutional investors, foreign buyers and the like.”
  — Charlie Kirk [86:48]

• On Charlie Kirk’s Legacy:
  “He was the thermometer and the thermostat of our movement... He understood how to ensure we were calibrated correctly to make sure Make America Great Again or America First was moving in the right direction.”
  — Pete Hegseth [98:13]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:27] — Start of White House press briefing post-Maduro
• [04:22] — Vice President’s role in Venezuela clarified
• [14:55] — Migrant deportations and “America First” justification
• [16:45] — NATO affirmation
• [27:45] — Interview with Senator Rick Scott
• [41:41] — Minneapolis ICE shooting incident
• [52:46] — Polling & MAGA coalition analysis (Rich Barris)
• [87:43] — Secretary Pete Hegseth interview: blockades, military doctrine, and Charlie Kirk’s legacy

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Tone and Style

The conversation is forthright, partisan, and unapologetically nationalist. Hosts and guests often pivot from granular policy to sweeping cultural and existential arguments. Data, personal anecdotes, military bravado, and critiques of mainstream narratives are interwoven, true to the style and rhetorical flavor of The Charlie Kirk Show.

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Conclusion

This episode captures a moment of sweeping U.S. interventionism in Latin America under a revived “America First” doctrine, robust government assertion domestically and abroad, and a renewed bid to energize and unify the conservative coalition. Military excellence, economic security, and cultural resurgence are foregrounded, with no shortage of criticism for bureaucratic inertia, the political left, and transnational adversaries. The episode closes with a stirring tribute to Charlie Kirk’s influence on the movement and administration.

Transcript

[Caroline Levitt]

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.

[Charlie Kirk]

The Charlie Kirk show starts now.

[Caroline Levitt]

As you saw, the President announced last night, this was a deal. This was a deal made by the President and his team with the Venezuelan interim authorities. This will benefit both the American people and the Venezuelan people. And Secretary Wright and the Department of Energy are working with the interim authorities and also with the private oil industry to execute on this historic energy deal that's not only good for the United States, but it's also going to revive the prosperity, the safety, the security of of both the United States and Venezuela as well.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Ed, following up on the oil part of this, the 30 to 50 million barrels of oil, how exactly is that going to work? Getting it out of Venezuela into the.

[Caroline Levitt]

United States and then what? That's exactly right. So as you know, Ed, as the President announced last night, this was the sanctioned oil that was basically just sitting in barrels, sitting on ships because of the effective quarantine of the United States of America. And the interim authorities have agreed to release that oil to the United States. So it will be arriving in here at home very soon. The United States government has already begun marketing Venezuelan crude oil in the globe. It marketplace for the benefit of the United States engaged the world's leading commodity marketers, key banks, to execute and provide financial support for these crude oil and crude product sales. All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and products will first settle in U. S Controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of of proceeds. And those funds will be dispersed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the United States government.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Sounds like it requires a lot of private sector engagement and agreement.

[Charlie Kirk]

The oil industry and the banking industry. Do you have that yet?

[Caroline Levitt]

Ms. There's a lot of private sector engagement that's happening right now. As you know, Secretary Wright, our energy secretary who's heading up this big project, is in Florida today meeting with some of these oil executives and as we confirmed earlier, they will also be at the White House later this week. So they are absolutely eager to invest, they're eager about these opportunities and Secretary Wright is a very well knowledgeable guy when it comes to oil and energy and he's the perfect man for the job.

[Rich Barris]

Another quarter of the world there. Real quick on.

[Caroline Levitt]

Go ahead. So just to follow up on the oil, 30 to 50 million barrels is an initial tranche, if you will. And then what happens after that?

[Rich Barris]

Ms.

[Caroline Levitt]

I won't get ahead of the plans that the President and his team are currently speaking with the interim authorities about. But rest assured, there is a long term plan here. Secretary Rubio and the entire team are working diligently on it and this is just sort of the first action that you all are seeing.

[Blake]

Ed.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Thanks, Caroline. So in order to get these oil companies to invest billions in Venezuela, how will the US Reassure that their workers will be safe in Venezuela? Could there be troops involved?

[Caroline Levitt]

Ms. At this point in time, as you know, there are no troops on the ground in Venezuela. The president, of course, reserves the right to use the United States military if necessary. It's not something he wants to do. Diplomacy is always the first option. As you saw, he tried that with Nicolas Maduro, but unfortunately he was an illegitimate dictator and an unserious person. And so President Trump authorized this law enforcement operation and now Nicolas Maduro is sitting in a prison cell in New York. So certainly the president is going to do what's in the best interests of the American people, and that includes workers from our energy and oil industry as well.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

With that meeting tomorrow, with that meeting tomorrow, what is the message the president is going to give to the oil executive and what does he Want to hear?

[Caroline Levitt]

Ms. Well, the meeting is on Friday and it's just a meeting to discuss, obviously, the immense opportunity that is before these oil companies right now.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Steven thank you, Caroline, and congratulations again.

[Caroline Levitt]

Thank you.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

The New Yorker had a story yesterday.

[Rich Barris]

On the vice president and it questioned.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

His notable absence on Venezuela.

[Rich Barris]

And the sub headline asked was the.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Vice president's exclusion from the operation in.

[Rich Barris]

Venezuela an expression of his anti interventionist ideology or political calculation?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Would you be able to discuss the.

[Charlie Kirk]

Vice president's role in Venezuela policy?

[Caroline Levitt]

Ms. I did see that report in the New Yorker and quite frankly, I laughed out loud because it's very clear it's a fake report that's trying to sow distrust and division amongst the president and his team. Let me just be very clear. The vice president has been involved in all policy. He is the right hand man of the president on all policy matters, including Venezuela policy. He was, of course, read in and deeply involved in this operation from the very beginning and and he was present on the night of the operation via secure communication at a different location as to not damage the operational secrecy of this mission. That was so incredibly important to ensure that this mission could be carried out successfully without endangering our troops.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Sure.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Every day there's a battle for your.

[Charlie Kirk]

Mind, raging information coming from every angle.

[Terrence Bates]

With the will to deceive.

[Charlie Kirk]

Fear not, you found the place for.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Truth, the voice of a generation that.

[Charlie Kirk]

Still has the will to believe in the greatest country in the history of the world. This is the Charlie Kirk Show. Buckle up. Here we go. All right. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk show. It is January 7th. Lots going on. We are going to throw right here at the top to the press conference that Caroline Levitt is leading and the White House press briefing room. It's the first one since the deposition of Maduro in Venezuela. So we're actually getting a lot of information. Let's go ahead and throw back to.

[Caroline Levitt]

Caroline Levitt in 2020. Chuck Schumer said that at the time, President Trump had not brought an end to the Maduro regime. The Maduro regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the president began. Now you hear Chuck Schumer out there saying, this is reckless. The American people and the Venezuelan people should be in fear. But this is something that Chuck Schumer has long advocated for. Senator Chris Van Hollen, same thing, had said that the United States is going to use its leverage and influence to push for negotiations to transition to the truly elected leader. This was under President Biden. We know Maduro and his cronies don't want to go quietly into the night. The US Needs to work to ratchet up the pressure. Now Senator Haaland says it's an illegal act of war to get rid of Nicolas Maduro. So the hypocrisy is really astounding here. And thank you for giving me an opportunity to point it out, Kayla. I mean, sorry. Go ahead. So there reports that the administration is demanding that Venezuela cut ties with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. Can you confirm Ms. I'm sorry. Reports that the administration has essentially demanded that Venezuela cut ties with China, Russia, Iran and Cuba. Can you confirm that? Ms. Well, those alleged demands were made in a classified briefing by Secretary Rubio. And I know that there's a lot of leaks coming out of these classified briefings. So I'm not going to confirm or deny or get into what the secretary has said in classified settings to members of Congress. But I think that the administration has made it quite clear to the interim authorities in Venezuela that this is the Western Hemisphere and American dominance is going to continue under this president. Ask. There have also been reports that the US could potentially buy Greenland as one potential option on the table. What would such an offer look like? Is there anything monetarily you could provide? Any details there? Ms. Well, that's something that's currently being actively discussed by the president and his national security team. And I would point out that the acquisition of Greenland by the United States is not a new idea. This is something that presidents dating back to the 1800s have said is advantageous for America's national security. The president has been very open and clear with all of you and with the world that he views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region. And so that's why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like. Jackie, why not rule out taking it by military force? Ms. I know that past presidents and past leaders have often ruled things out. They've often been very open about ruling things in and basically broadcasting their foreign policy strategy to the rest of the world, not just to our allies, but most egregiously to our adversaries. That's not something this president does. All options are always on the table for President Trump as he examines what's in the best interest of the United States. But I will just say that the president's first option always has been diplomacy. Again, look at Venezuela. He tried ardently to strike a good deal with Nicolas Maduro, and he told him, I will use the United States military and you will not like it if you don't take such a deal. And look at what happened with respect to Iran. The president said the same thing, right? He tried to have serious interest in a deal with the Iranian regime with respect to their nuclear capabilities. They were not interested. And so Operation Midnight Hammer happened, which was another remarkable military success under the leadership of this commander in chief. So the president keeps his options open, but diplomacy is always the first. Quickly, just one additional follow up on that. Does the president recognize Denmark's ownership as part of the kingdom? Because there have been some Republican senators questioning the claim that Denmark has to Greenland. Is the president in that camp with them, questioning the legality of Ms. I have not heard him question it personally, but you're welcome to ask him yourself next time you have the chance. Lifted for Venezuela. We've got to lift some sanctions to let the oil come in. Can you talk about that just very briefly? Yes. So the US Is selectively rolling back sanctions to enable the transport and the sale of Venezuelan crude and oil products to the global markets. Yes. Annie, thank you. There are some reports from Venezuela that the country's leaders are cracking down on the population, specifically suppressing public expression of support from Maduro's ouster. Is that kind of behavior consistent with what the president wants to see, how the president wants to see the leaders take on the population?

[John Jubilee]

Ms.

[Caroline Levitt]

It would not be Consistent. And I'll let the president's national security team speak further on that. I know they are well aware in tracking. Kelly.

[Charlie Kirk]

Two questions.

[Caroline Levitt]

One on the seized vestments, the bell of the Sofia. Can you tell us where they're headed? What happens to any existing cargo, and you reference personnel. But potentially facing prosecution. That's one thing I'd like to follow on. Yes. Okay. And on Annie's question, if I could also ask, does the administration believe that the interim regime should release all political dissidents and prisoners and return detained Americans? That's not a question that I've personally spoken about to the President with, so I will let him answer that question. I don't want to make new policy at this podium today. With respect to Venezuela, with respect to the two ships that you mentioned, I spoke with you about the Bela One. There was another vessel this morning, the Sofia, that, in coordination with the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security apprehended it. This is a stateless, sanctioned, dark fleet motor tanker, and this occurred without incident. This vessel was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The US Coast Guard is escorting the Sofia to the United States for final disposition. To answer your question, Kelly, directly, this was through Operation Southern Spear. The Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere. And as the President has repeatedly stated, we're going to defend our homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas. Dasha Garland. Dasha, thank you, and happy New Year. Thanks you, too.

[Charlie Kirk]

I have two questions.

[Caroline Levitt]

One on Venezuela, one on Greenland.

[Charlie Kirk]

You repeatedly at the podium called the.

[Caroline Levitt]

Current leadership in Venezuela interim leadership. There are Republicans and Democrats alike that say they want to see elections in Venezuela. The president has said it's too soon to do that right now. But is there a timeline for elections in Venezuela? Is he committed to seeing that? This year, for example, you just said the President has answered that question. So I will reiterate what the president has said a few times now to all of you, which is that it's too premature and too early to dictate a timetable for elections in Venezuela right now. Carolina, you just talk to Jackie about diplomacy first, right? The Danes have repeatedly said they are willing to collaborate on all of the concerns that the President has, whether it's more troops, mineral rights, intelligence sharing. Why does the president feel he needs to own Greenland and not put out the threat of military action when this could be done through diplomacy? Well, who said diplomacy isn't taking place behind the scenes, Dasha? I mean, the president is interested in diplomacy. His national security team is as well. Well, and of course, he's always willing to pick up the phone for everybody and hear out their concerns. But the president is the President of the United States of America, and he's always going to be very clear about what he views as being in our nation's best interest. Reagan. Thanks, Caroline. I have a question for you in Venezuela and then I'd love to ask you about Minnesota and Tim Walls. Sure. On Venezuela, I'm wondering, does the administration hope to start sending more Venezuelan migrants back home or have them self deport if the situation in the country improve? As far as I'm concerned, the policies of the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security have not changed. All those illegally present in the country are subject to deportation. And I would just like to add how we got here. The president was very clear on the campaign to the American public and it's one of the many reasons they resoundingly reelected him back to this office, that he was not only going to crush foreign drug cartels, but that he was not going to stand by and watch as the illegitimate Venezuelan regime was sending illegal criminals and gang members and rapists and murderers to our country, which happened to the tune of thousands under the previous administration in president. And so there could be nothing more America first than this operation that took place last week. And I would just remind all of you in this room that there were innocent Americans like Jocelyn Nungare who lost the their lives at the hands of dangerous Venezuelan criminals who were sent here by the Maduro regime. And that has been the president's North Star and guiding principle throughout his entire policy since January 20th?

[Charlie Kirk]

Tim Walls in Minnesota.

[Caroline Levitt]

Does the administration believe that Tim Walls potentially dropped out of the governor's race.

[Rich Barris]

Gained by taking control of Greenland that.

[Senator Rick Scott]

The US doesn't already have access to right now?

[Caroline Levitt]

More control over the Arctic region and ensuring that China and Russia and our adversaries cannot continue their aggression in this very important and strategic region. And there would be many other benefits as well that again, the president and his national security team are currently talking about. Jeff, I'll give you another one.

[Charlie Kirk]

That.

[Caroline Levitt]

Question on foreign policy.

[Blake]

Are you concerned about increasing tensions with Russia because of the tanker seizures? How does the US Action in Venezuela.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Impact the ongoing relationship with China and.

[Charlie Kirk]

The president's relationship with President Xi?

[Caroline Levitt]

I think the president has very open, honest and good relationships with both President Putin of Russia and also President Xi of China. He has spoken with them numerous times, as you know, since coming to office, about a year ago, and I believe those personal relationships are going to continue. But as for the president and the United States, he's going to enforce our policy that's best for the United States of America. And with respect to these ships seizures, that means enforcing the embargo against all dark fleet vessels that are illegally transporting oil and only legitimate commerce. To answer your question much earlier, Rachel, determined by the United States is going to be permitted, and that's the policy of this administration and he's not afraid to implement it. One more stand back.

[Charlie Kirk]

Just one more stand back.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

And last one.

[Rich Barris]

I remember asking the president at the.

[Blake]

Beginning of his term if he was committed to Article 5 in NATO, and he said yes.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Has his stance on NATO or his.

[Charlie Kirk]

Commitment to NATO changed?

[Caroline Levitt]

Did you see his statement earlier today? He said we will always be there for NATO even if they are not there for us. And I think that answers your question directly. Yes.

[Charlie Kirk]

Just to follow up on what Jefferson.

[Caroline Levitt]

Was saying there, will the president commit that if any NATO members are attacked? Ms. Again, the President addressed this directly himself this morning after seeing the coverage from all of you in this room on television, and he made it very clear we're always going to be there for NATO, even if they have not done right by the United States of America, and they have not. They have finally increased their defense spending at the request of this president, but it was only because of this president that they did that. We'll take a couple more. Michael, go ahead.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Thank you, Caroline.

[Terrence Bates]

Happy New Year and congratulations.

[Caroline Levitt]

Thank you.

[Charlie Kirk]

Questions One on health care, one on Mexico. On health care. The president says he wants Republicans to.

[Blake]

Be flexible on the Hyde Amendment in.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Order to pass health care legislation.

[John Jubilee]

What is the White House's message to.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Pro life voters who say federal funding.

[Blake]

For abortion goes against their values?

[Caroline Levitt]

Well, the president did not change the administration's policy. It was President Trump who signed an executive order protecting the Hyde Amendment. It's the Trump administration that has taken multiple actions on various fronts to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding the practice of abortion. What the president was saying yesterday was Republicans and frankly, Democrats, too, need to show a little bit more flexibility so we can actually get something done. With respect to the issue of health care, Republicans have amazing ideas. The president himself, as we spoke about earlier, has launched this most favored nation drug pricing initiative, has cut good deals with Big Pharma. He wants to see Republicans and Democrats, too, if they're willing codify those executive orders into law so that these good deals can remain and these prices can continue to be lowered long after this president and this dealmaker in chief is gone. The President has talked a lot about health savings accounts and giving more money back to the health care consumer rather than to these giant insurance companies. And he's been very outspoken and tough on them too. And I think you'll see more and hear more from him directly on that issue. So he wants to see Congress get something done with respect to health care, and that was the point that he was driving home yesterday.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Mexico Caroline, President Trump says the drug.

[Charlie Kirk]

Cartels are running Mexico.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

What action does he need to see.

[Charlie Kirk]

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, take to prove that she's in control of that country, in control of those cartels, and does the White House believe she's able to do that without U.S. intervention?

[Caroline Levitt]

Ms. Look, I think the President was speaking very candidly and frankly about the reality on the ground in Mexico. Haley. Caroline, happy New Year. I wanted to ask you about the seas tanker the Bella. There were reports before this that Russia had sent a submarine to escort it. Was there any engagement with that submarine? And then was the deconfliction aligned with Russia used ahead of boarding that? Again, this was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag and it had a judicial seizure order and that's why the crew will be subject to prosecution. Mary On Colombia, the President talked over the weekend and suggested that you'd be open to an operation there. Should the President of Colombia be expecting Delta Force anytime soon? And then I had another one in California. Ms. That would be a very unwise question for me to answer. To weigh into what's your next question on California? Can you share any more about the fraud investigation? The President said that there was one who's being investigated and where is it starting? Ms. Again, this is going to be a all hands on deck government wide effort. The President has directed all agencies across the board to look at federal spending programs in not just Minnesota but also in the state of California to identify fraud and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law all those who have committed it. Take one more. Sure. Thank you, Carolyn. Yesterday was the five year anniversary, January 6th. Democrats and mainstream media continue to push their big lie that it was an insurrection and that police officers died that day. The reality is that four Trump supporters died on January 6 and two women were killed by January 6 police. Everybody knows Ashley Babbitt was shot in cold blood by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd. But there was another woman. Her name was Roseanne Boylan from Georgia and she was pepper balled, gassed and ultimately brutally beaten with a stick. By January 6, police officer Lila Morris, the Biden administration and maintained media lied and told Americans Roseanne Boylan died of a drug overdose on Capitol steps. Her family is now asking for an investigation. Is the administration aware of the circumstances of her death and will there be an investigation finally? Ms. Well, for investigation, I will have to defer you to either the FBI or the Department of Justice, and I'm sorry to have to do that. But with respect to all of the facts that you just laid out, the White House relished the opportunity yesterday to actually create a new website to share the facts with the American public. But also all those in this room, we knew the media would be covering January 6th quite a bit because they think it's something that the American people are still believing their lies on. They think it's something that still helps their case against this president. Obviously not, or else he wouldn't have been reelected in an overwhelming fashion in November of last year. And so I would encourage everyone to take a look at that website. It's quite well done and thank you all very much. It's great to be back.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right. Well, covered a lot of ground there with Caroline Levitt, the White House press briefing room. We are going to take a quick break here on the feed. We have Senator Rick Scott from the great state of Florida joining us next. So oh, we've got one minute left in this segment. Sorry, we're all mixed up with the clock. But the massive amount of breaking news there. That was the first White House press briefing that Caroline has done since the Maduro, I guess you would call it, attack, a seizure deposition. Also, we've got two tankers that have been basically apprehended, boarded by US Military. A lot of questions about that we have. Just so you know, for our show today, we got Senator Rick Scott, we got Rich Barris talking about the polling, about some of these actions. And then we've got Secretary of War Pete Hegseth coming up in hour two. We have a lot of questions for him and he's he's been great. He said whatever you want to ask. So if you have questions you want to ask that you want us to ask The Secretary, email us freedom charlie kirk.com Freedom charlie kirk.com Send us your questions. We will be reviewing. Blake will be filtering through them, as a matter of fact. We will be right back with Senator Rick Scott from Florida.

[Terrence Bates]

Welcome back to this REAL America's Voice news break. I'm Terrence Bates The White House just wrapped up its first press briefing of this new year. Much of the focus centered around health as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. As well as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins were among the featured speakers. Rollins addressed the issue of new nutrition guidelines.

[Caroline Levitt]

These new dietary guidelines are a framework which is meant to be customized to meet the needs of the preferences and the financial status of all American families. For example, a meal including such items as pork or eggs or whole milk or cheese, tomatoes, other fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, corn tortilla, can cost today right around $3 for that meal, $3. And soon USDA will finalize our stocking standards, which means that those businesses in America that take the SNAP benefit what they are required to stock in order to take that benefit. By the way, that's almost 250,000 retailers across America that very soon we will be finalizing that rule that will mandate all 250,000 retailers in America double the type of staple foods that they provide for America's SNAP households. This means healthier options will be in reach for all American families, regardless of circumstance, at levels never seen before in our country. These dietary guidelines are foundational to so many USDA programs. And their introduction marks the first step in connecting America's schools and dinner plates to the best of American agriculture. Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring common sense. We, we are restoring scientific integrity and we are restoring accountability to federal food and health policy. The new guidelines are all about putting the well being of Americans first, exactly where it should have been all along. This is the foundation that will make America healthy again.

[Terrence Bates]

And as I said earlier, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. You see him here in this picture, also spoke. He addressed the new changes to childhood vaccines and also talked about the fact that vaccines will still be available for children, but they may not be mandated. That's a quick check of your headlines.

[Charlie Kirk]

Fact first, America first. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk show. All right, 2026 marks 250 years of America. And conversations around American cultures will be front and center all year long. The point about America being at 250 cannot be lost on any of you guys. That's a huge accomplishment for any nation. And it's an awesome time to celebrate this country 250 years. So as America turns 250 this year, let's remember the people who helped build it. American Ranchers. Good Ranchers honors that legacy. Good Ranchers only sources their cuts from local American farms and ranches. Good ranchers equals 100% dedicated to America. So if you want to buy American, American meat, that's the way you do it. Through good Ranchers from the pasture to the final seal on every box. Their entire packaging and fulfillment process takes place right here in the good old US Of A. And if you ever have any questions, their customer support team is here in the US Of A as well. I'm a subscriber. I love good Ranchers. I get one box every month. And sometimes I run out and I call them up and I say, can I have some more meat? And they send it to me. So subscribe and save up to $500 a year. You'll also get an additional $25 off your first order with our code. Kirk K I r k good ranchers.com American meat delivered. Love those guys. Just talking with Ben Spell yesterday, as a matter of fact, without further ado, I'm very excited to bring in our next guest, Senator Rick Scott from the great state of Florida. It's good to have you back, Senator. How have you been?

[Senator Rick Scott]

I've been great. Happy New Year, Andrew. It's going to be. It's going to be a great year.

[Charlie Kirk]

I've never been so ready to turn the calendar over to the next year. I will tell you, 2025 was a absolute doozy. But there is so much breaking news here, Senator. You know, there's Greenland. There was a shooting that I want to actually inform our audience about involving an ICE officer in Minneapolis. As you know, we've been surging ICE DHS personnel, over 2,000 on the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Massive, massive reaction from the federal government. It appears that it was a ramming and a shooting. This is breaking news. A ramming and a shooting. So a lot of times these citizen activists, these volunteers on the left, they will follow around ICE vehicles trying to alert the public. And sometimes they ram them and sometimes they try and get in their way. Sometimes they play fast and loose with their own vehicle. It appears initial indications were waiting for more information here that that's what this was. But Senator, let's start there. There was a House Oversight Committee hearing on this Somali fraud and the complicity within local politicians there covering it up. Maybe they were getting political kickbacks. What's your take of it? You have run the state of Florida. You know these processes. You know how the bureaucracies work. What's your reaction?

[Senator Rick Scott]

Well, I'm not surprised. Number one, when I became Governor of Florida January 2011, I started going agency by agency. Now, my background is I'm a business guy and in business, you don't waste your money. Right. And you solve your customers needs. They don't want to pay you a little extra money because you wasted money or did stupid things. So what I watched agency by agency there would be, they wouldn't worry about fraud against the agency. They wouldn't worry about improper payments. They, you know, look as free money the way is the way so many people looked at it. So I went agency by agency and fixed it. Then we got all this free federal money. It's free. By the way, the attitude that many governors have is if the federal government's paying for it, it's free. Doesn't cost you anything.

[Charlie Kirk]

Right.

[Senator Rick Scott]

And so I watched it like after a hurricane, people would say, well, if we just got to, you know, we can go get all this free federal money. So I watched unbelievable fraud attempts with regard to debris pickup after hurricanes. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every, every government program, and especially federal programs, the oversight is pathetic. It's horrible. We have studies, we know that there's, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud. We know there's tens of billions of dollars worth of improper payments and we don't get the money back.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah.

[Senator Rick Scott]

And then we know people lie, cheat and steal and we, we're just sitting there and people say, well it's, it's free. Why do, why do you worry so much about this? Well, we should worry about it because 38 and a half trillion dollars worth of debt, your interest rates are too high because of that. Inflation is caused by all this wasteful spending. And it's not fair. It's not fair. The hard working kid that's out there, or family that's out there busting their butt every day and then somebody else doesn' work so they take advantage of a state government, a local government, a federal government. It's wrong.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. I mean, it keeps getting worse the deeper this rabbit hole goes. Senator, it looks like, you know, Keith Ellison, there was a leaked tape released of him that he was basically, you know, said he was going to cover up for these Somalis if they kind of gave them political kickbacks and he was going to, they were going to run cover for them. There's multiple questions here. I'm gonna play David Marcus from Fox News. He had a great take on it. I wanna get your reaction to it because we had Senator Ron Johnson on the show yesterday. I know a friend and colleague of yours in the Senate who said that these systems are designed to fail, they're designed to be looted they're designed to have wealth extracted from working class Americans, from the white man, however you wanna look at it, to be given to marginalized communities. I thought David Marcus made an incredible point here. 245.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

This is not standard Tammany hall patronage and kickbacks.

[Caroline Levitt]

Right?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

We've always had that. That was meant to keep people in power. That was not meant to be a.

[Rich Barris]

Massive redistribution of wealth. What we're seeing here is a massive.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Redistribution of wealth when these blue states.

[Rich Barris]

Allocate billions of dollars for marginalized communities and then fail to put in place any safeguards to stop theft.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

That's Marxism by fraud.

[Rich Barris]

That's, that's taking money from corporations, from.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Rich people, saying, we're going to send.

[Charlie Kirk]

It over here, we're not going to.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Pay any attention to what's happening to it.

[Charlie Kirk]

That line sticks with me. This is Marxism by fraud. Is this intentional? Is this in a, in a blue state, in a blue setting? Is this, is this the outgrowth of a really sick ideology that is based on racial grievances, that's based on systemic oppression, that's based on crt, all of these ideologies, Is it intentionally lacking oversight?

[Senator Rick Scott]

Oh, absolutely. I mean, think about this is most of the taxes are paid by hard working middle class Americans. That's who's paying most of the taxes in this country. Right? It's taken their money and given it to somebody else. And then their goal is the politicians that give all this away. Oh, vote. Vote for them. Because they're giving you something for free. Because it's, it's free, Andrew. Doesn't cost anything, so. Absolutely. I mean, let me tell you a quick story. I became governor of Florida. I ran my whole campaign in 2010 on jobs. I go to the agency that does employment right after I won, I said, how's unemployment work? They said, well, you have to. I said. She said, we're open six days a week because unemployed Floridians don't have enough time to apply during the week. Really? I said, if you get unemployment, you have to do anything. They said, yeah, apply for, you have to apply for five jobs a week. I said, you enforce that? Well, no, I said.

[John Jubilee]

I said.

[Senator Rick Scott]

So I said, if somebody was on unemployment and you found them have a job, would you accuse them of fraud and get the money back? Well, no. I said, what's your purpose here? They said, our purpose is to get as many people on the program as we can, because we don't, because we'll feel good. Who cares? It's free, by the way. They explained to me that at the time, the federal government was paying the excess money. So it's free, it's federal money. They don't care. And they think that's just how they're going to get elected. And you look, I've been up here seven years. They don't, they don't, you know, the people, they don't set up the programs to work. They intentionally allow to be allowed a fraud. And then we have earmarks that waste money. We have programs that have no accountability. When I was Governor of Florida, 4,000 lines the budget, every line had a written purpose. If you didn't meet your purpose, I vetoed your money. We can't even, I mean, it's hard to even get a copy of the budget up here, let alone is there a purpose. So we've gotta get to the bottom of this. This is unfair. It's un American.

[Charlie Kirk]

Tim Furious.

[Senator Rick Scott]

This has got to change.

[Blake]

Senator SCOTT we have to get to the bottom of this. But it strikes me that the most immediate, pressing thing, we're not going to get Minnesota to reform itself unless we can have a revolution in their state government. But we've tried several times. We're not going to get washed, certainly. We're not going to flip Washington, we're not going to flip fraud in California anytime soon.

[Rich Barris]

It's.

[Blake]

What's the step? I guess, first of all, what could the administration do to have immediate accountability for this? Not just in terms of arresting perpetrators, But I think a lot of people are asking, okay, we know the fraud is there. Can we bring a stop to it in a quick way? Even if that's something as simple as saying Minnesota doesn't get money anymore.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, well, they've cut off some of it. Yeah.

[Senator Rick Scott]

So right now, one thing they should be doing, and they're focused on it. If you talk to Brook Rollins, you talk to Memana as you talk to them, you know, they're going through program by program and they're gonna, they're gonna do everything they can. That's number one. Number two is we've got it. We've got in Congress, we've got to pass measures to stop the fraud and make sure when we pass things, it doesn't allow the fraud to happen. So what people like Ron Johnson and Mike Lee and Cynthia Lummis are doing, we keep coming up with ideas of how do you stop the waste? Now, part of it is stop the earmarks. Part of it is don't have programs that have no accountability. That's part of it. And then the other part is let's make sure that the executive branch has the ability to stop it. And then we need to be doing investigations, we need to do real investigations of each of these programs. Think about it. I've said for seven years that all this fraud with regard to debris pickup and I can't get the Democrats to help me. I'm on the right committee, but I have to have Democrat votes to get this done, to fix the unbelievable fraud and debris pickup after hurricanes.

[Charlie Kirk]

Geez, they don't wanna do it, Senator. They don't care. I'm just. I wonder if you're gonna get maybe a John Fetter in the Senate if there's laws that need to be changed. Is there. You know, there's too little time here. And I actually have to ask you about Greenland. I had no idea you spoke with representatives from Greenland as much as you did. 250, 259.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Denmark is a great ally. And I know every time I talk to them, I talk to their ambassador quite a bit. They want to work with us. So we'll see what happens there.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right, Senator. So you know these people.

[Senator Rick Scott]

I know exactly what's going to happen.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. What is going to happen next? One minute.

[Senator Rick Scott]

So I know, look, Denmark is a great ally. I talked to their bastard quite a bit. Jesper is a good guy. So I think Trump is trying to be strategic. I don't believe we're going to be invading Greenland, but I do believe we're going to figure out how to work with Greenland to have more military assets on there so we can counteract what China and Russia is doing. So something will happen there. You never know. Exactly. You know the process. You know the let's Make a Deal guy is going to do. But something will happen there to put us in a better position.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, I mean, we're going to have Pete Hegseth on in the second hour, Senator. So we're going to ask him about Greenland, So. And again, audience members, if you have questions, send them in. Freedom@charlie kirk.com.

[Blake]

They'Ve sent in a lot.

[Charlie Kirk]

They're just. They want. The Secretary of war is like, hey, any question, Any question you want. So it's fantastic.

[Senator Rick Scott]

He said a great job.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, he's doing a phenomenal. By the way, he was our most popular cabinet secretary according to the Amfest drop poll. So tells you something. People love it.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Yeah, I think he's. I think he's. Pete's doing a great job. I just saw him. We did a classified briefing on Venezuela just last hour.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, well, shoot. I wish now that you tell me that I want to. I wish I could keep you for a couple more minutes. Senator, thank you for joining. We'll have you on again soon. Thank you so much, sir.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Bye bye. See you guys. See both of you.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Bye bye.

[Charlie Kirk]

We'll be right back. All right. Private student loan debt in the U. S. Totals about $300 billion and over.

[Blake]

45 billion of that is. Is distressed.

[Charlie Kirk]

45 billion.

[Blake]

45 billion.

[Charlie Kirk]

You got it.

[Blake]

Yes.

[Charlie Kirk]

45 billion of that is labeled as distressed or defaulted private student loans. And they are loans that nobody's going to touch. So if you find yourself in that position, you have private student loan debt, distressed or defaulted. If your credit is abysmal, nobody else is going to help you out. But there is a solution for you and that's yrefi. Y r e f y dot com. Check them out today or give them a call. 888 yrefi 34. They will custom tailor a solution just for you, just for you, based on your ability to pay. They will guarantee interest rates and rates below 6%, ensuring affordability. And they'll even let you skip a payment every six months up to 12 times without penalty. You do not have to ignore that mountain of student loan debt anymore. Just call the good folks at yrefi. It may not be available in all 50 states, but you owe it to yourself to check out if it is available in your state. So visit yrefi.com that's yrefy.com or call them 888 yrefi34. Amazing people, by the way. So, Blake, there's. We got new information. There is a tweet here from Trisha McLaughlin who was just on the show, actually. She said today ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations, very targeted. There's over 2,000 that have surged to that area following the Somali fraud ring, basically following Nick Shirley's expose when rioters began blocking ICE officers. And one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in attempt. An attempt to kill them, certainly. Or at least to block them. But yeah, certainly those things can be fatal. And these people lose their minds and they do crazy things. An act of domestic terrorism, says Trish McLaughlin. An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. The alleged perpetrator was hit and his deceased, the ICE officer who was hurt are expected to make full recoveries. And I, I totally agree with this, by the way. What she says next, this is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement. These men and women who are simply enforcing the law on the books are facing a 1300% increase in assaults against them and an 8000% increase in death threats. This is an evolving situation. We're giving, we will give public more information as soon as it becomes.

[Blake]

And that, that's the most important part because she says that we'll see there, there's reportedly video we'll see, we'll get more context on what fully happened. But the big picture is this, which is the reason ICE has to go around all like acting like they're basically going to war is because they're treated as an enemy force by these left wing cities, by these left wing governments. Their job would be a million times easier if they could pluck people out of jails. Yes, like focus on that. Get the criminals who are getting arrested. That's happening all the time. They have treated them like criminals. They've encouraged violence against them and they've harassed them. And so regardless of how this incident went down, that is why it happened. And that needs to be the focus.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah.

[Blake]

The blood of this person is on Jacob Fry's hands. It's on Governor Tim Walls's hands, period.

[Charlie Kirk]

I totally well said, thousand percent agree. I actually like it when we disagree on stuff a little bit because it makes for a live.

[Blake]

This is the wheels.

[Charlie Kirk]

I just happen to completely agree with what you said. You have to. So no sob stories here. Absolutely not. I have seen video after video. There was an instance that really sticks out in my mind where I saw a video of this guy ramming ICE officers in California. They ram him back, they stop him and arrest him. He, he gets released. He gets immediately, he's American citizen. So he goes over straight to CNN about two hours later, cries victim on national television. And this is what they do. This is their cycle. So you have these vigilantes, they call themselves citizen, you know, activists or whatever and they're working on behalf of illegal immigrants because, you know, why? Get off your couch. To help American citizens. They want to go help the marginalized. Right? So then they do this and they put lives on the line. They put lives at risk of federal law enforcement. And by the way, new today, ICE officers have surpassed their recruiting goals of 10,000. According to the One Big Beautiful bill, they've hired 12,000. There's 12,000 new ICE officers on the streets of the United States. And I want to underscore Blake's point here about this, the way that it was done. So you go back to Obama was called the deporter in chief. Do you realize that 80% of those deportations were done the old fashioned way? What does that mean? It means that an illegal immigrant was arrested, apprehended on the streets of his or her, you know, invaded city. They would go into jail. The local officials would process that person. There would be an ICE detainer, they would hand that person over to ICE safely, securely. There's no raids in the streets. There's no DHS rammings, there's no, none of that stuff.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Stuff.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's secure. The person has handcuffs on, they get put on a plane, process put back in their country of origin. When sanctuary cities and states refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement, this is the result. They have to go into the streets, do raids, they have to go knock on doors. They have to endanger the public in order to do the public a good. So this is completely Blake's point. The blood is on the hand of Jacob Fry, who's by the way, demanding that these ICE agents be removed from his city, which is not going to happen, by the way. And you hear Tom Homan saying, we're going to double down, we're coming for California, we're coming for Illinois, we're coming for New York next. So look out, more of this is coming as it should be. And you know, just say a prayer for our brave men and women of DHS and ICE as they are forced to not work in cooperation behind closed doors, in safety, but instead have to go out on the streets and commit, you know, conduct raids on businesses and homes and that sort of thing. Because this is completely on the head and on the hands of local officials. It's absolutely infuriating. Blake, we had a kind of related. But there was a House Oversight committee hearing, the first of its kind. Some explosive allegations were made in this hearing by Republicans in the state of Minnesota that were saying they have tried to conduct oversight and to deal with the fraud in Minnesota.

[Blake]

We saw this, this went viral the other day that there's in 2018, their inspector general did a whole report or the staff there did a whole thing. It laid out exactly how fraud happens. They say they have fake groups that come in or social groups. They have groups of like these daycares that come in and say we're interested in stopping fraud, but they're really trying to deflect investigations away. They had a whistleblower explain this to them. They said, we think half of all of our daycare money may be going to fraud, if not more. And then the inspector general just buries it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, and get this, they are fabricating documents. Play Cut 262. According to the nonpartisan legislative auditor, this.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Is another case of mismanagement of taxpayer money.

[Charlie Kirk]

But perhaps the most explosive revelation is.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

That managers within dhs, the Department of.

[Charlie Kirk]

Human Services, tried to cover their tracks.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

By backdating and creating new documents.

[Charlie Kirk]

Backdating. So they're trying to cover their tracks. Other testimony from this morning's hearing said that they were blacklisted, that it was career suicide to call out fraud. The. The depth of the rot seems to know no end here. It's truly stunning. And I think we all knew this was going on. We all knew that there was fraud. We all knew that was bloat. But it was so amorphous and abstract. And now you're seeing in vivid technicolor exactly how it works. And they get political kickbacks and they get promises for whole communities like the Somalis to vote and block for them for reelection. Hour two, coming up. Foreign.

[Terrence Bates]

Welcome back to this Real America's Voice news break. I'm Terence Bates. Why not start this new year off with total health? There's a good chance that one of your New Year's resolutions is to either lose weight or to live a healthier lifestyle. Well, why not try something new this year so that you can actually see your resolution through my 555 challenge? Well, that may be just the thing for you.

[Charlie Kirk]

We lost weight that first week. I've gone down five notches on my belt. If you just follow the program, it works.

[Rich Barris]

I mean, this is so simple and so doable.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

And so I just thank y'.

[Rich Barris]

All.

[Caroline Levitt]

I have no more body aches. My mind is clear. My endurance is up. My heart is just fuller. I'm able to give more and be more present.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

It's changed our marriage.

[Senator Rick Scott]

It's changed our relationship, and it's so sustainable.

[Terrence Bates]

Let's bring in John Jubilee. He's the founder of Energized Health and the man behind the My555 challenge. Johnny J. Always good to see you. Happy New Year.

[John Jubilee]

Happy New Year.

[Terrence Bates]

So look, the reality is it is a new year. Everybody's pretty much making these New Year's resolutions. Mine, typically, is out the door less than 24 minutes, 24 hours after I make it. How do you sustain these new New Year's resolutions, particularly when it comes to health?

[John Jubilee]

Well, Terrence, I can tell you how to do it. And the Reason I can, Terence, is because for 10 years, for 10 years, I just was like everyone else out here. I'd make my New Year's resolution, and guess what, Terrence? And it never was sustainable. It never was sustainable. I just couldn't do it. I was like everyone else 14 to 21 days in. Because it didn't work. It didn't work, Terrence, and it was not a sustainable solution. But I can tell you guys, when I found this, when I found this energized health protocol, this has been sustainable for 28 years. Now, how many of you would say 28 years now that's working if it sustained you for 28 years? So I've been the same shape and size for 28 years. Now, how many of you would like to have that story and not one medical doctor Visit Terrence, for 28 years? Because it's really hard to make a healthy cell sick. But the great news is, is this really is sustainable. This can be your last New Year's resolution. Who would like to do your last New Year's resolution that you ever do? Because, guys, you know, I make it simple for you. You can lose one of these in a week. This week, by the way, you guys can come and join Chelsea and I today. Today. You can sign up today. And, Terrence, we'll spend about 45 minutes each day for the next five days. And, guys, you're going to lose this in five days.

[Terrence Bates]

I'm sorry to cut you off, but there are people looking at this and saying, okay, looks like a big foam blob. What does that represent? Let's be clear.

[John Jubilee]

This is five pounds of fat. This is five pounds of fat. What your fat really looks like in your body, that's just five pounds of fat, by the way. So just think, if you got 20, that's four. You know, you got four of these to lose or more. But the good news is, is once you lose one in a week, you realize, well, hey, if I could do that every week, it won't take me long to achieve my goal. And then you realize each week that you're doing this, you realize, well, this is so sustainable. Of course I could do this for the rest of my life.

[Terrence Bates]

John, let's get to the nitty gritty, then let's lose that £5 a week. How do you start?

[John Jubilee]

Yeah, guys, it's super simple. Just go log on today to my555challenge.com. It costs you $5 to sign up. If you want to join the VIP group, it's $99 and with that, we FedEx you a medical grade scale that'll measure your hydration, your visceral fat, your metabolic age. You can get all your measurements and you get some extra one on one with Chelsea and I. So, you know, make a $99 investment for yourself, guys. It'll be the best investment you ever make in your life. But get signed up today because, guys, just the next five days. We only do these a few times a year, but no better time than the first of the year. So make an investment in yourself today and come and join us. It's themy555challenge.com all right, there you go.

[Terrence Bates]

Join them today. Five bucks is the initial payment for a lifetime of health. My555challenge.com the information is there at the bottom of your screen. Log on, get all the information you need. But more importantly, this is your opportunity to sign up and start this new year off on the right foot. Well, that's going to do it for us. As always, we appreciate you being here with us. Now let's get you back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Rich Barris]

Sam.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right, welcome back hour to the Charlie Kirk Show. We have Rich Barris, the people's pundit, founder of Big Data Poll, joining us now. I tweeted something yesterday. Welcome, Rich. I tweeted something yesterday from Harry Enton from cnn and I saw you get into the comments and I was like, I gotta get my boy Rich on because, because I, when I text, when I tweeted it, I was like, I thought about you in the back of my head. I was like, I know Rich is gonna totally disagree, but I kind of disagree with you a little bit. That can make for a fun conversation. So, so Harry Entin is saying that there is no rift in MAGA, that President Trump was at 84% of approval rate within the GOP or his base, previous Trump voters. Now he's at 85%. Six months goes by, he goes up 1 percentage point, which is nominal, obviously, but at least it's not going the other way. It's going presumably up. And this is after Venezuela, which raised some questions about our foreign policy. MAGA's America First. So how does this jive with that whole vibe? So, Rich, tell me why Harry Enton is wrong. What, what am I missing? The floor is yours.

[Rich Barris]

So first, and for folks, maybe this was the easiest way to explain it. And as always, by the way, thanks for having me. Of course, think about the MAGA coalition like a simple Venn diagram.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

All right?

[Rich Barris]

Republican does not equal MAGA and MAGA does not equal Republican. If you looked at it like a Venn diagram, you would see in the middle, you know, all of the various groups that come together. But MAGA is actually made up of several different groups of people. One, you're going to have those hardcore Republicans. They're Republicans, they vote Republican no matter what, and they also vote maga. And Trump has won the argument even with them. And then you have a smaller group of Republicans that they're not maga. And by the way, I mean, we have some public figures that pretend like they are, but in truth, in the populace, they've been voting Democrat for a while. They may vote for a moderate Republican or a traditional Rhino or something, but they, they don't vote for maga, but they're overwhelmed. And they're more than offset by a group of independents and even a small sliver of orphan Democrats that only vote for MAGA and they'll only come out for America. And I don't even know if MAG is the right way to say it anymore, Andrew, because we've had this like debate over MAGA versus America first. So the messaging is getting muddled there. But for all the time that we have been tracking it, it's, you know, in theory, you know, this is Donald Trump's vision of America first, right? And I know we're debating what that means right now, right? Even with the President off doing things that other people disagree with. But Harry Enton, I would warn all of you, he is a prime actor in what has long been a use of public polls to dupe the right. And the right falls for it every single.

[Charlie Kirk]

Hold on, hold on, Rich. Now I remember Harry Anton in the run up to the 2024 election showing poll after pollution of Trump winning, of Trump being ahead in the polls, of Trump winning on this issue, that issue. And I, So I'm just saying maybe that's my memory and maybe I'm selectively, you know, choosing what I remember and what I don't. But I do remember him, like, candidly, it was Charlie's Twitter feed. It was just like clip after clip after clip. And it ended up, you know, proving to be accurate.

[Rich Barris]

He's manic. He goes back and forth on a 24 hour basis. The video that you, the video that you reposted not 24 hours before, he had just posted another video about how awful the, the strike polled in the public. And then he went back immediately after and did another video within a day of, which is the one that you posted. This is what they do, guys.

[Blake]

All right.

[Rich Barris]

And think about it in terms of COVID because it's like one of the best examples of what the media does. And people like, we call them over here the election mafia. Right? So Harry Ant and Nate Silver or the Larry Sabineau at the Crystal Ball, these guys along we've long called on our side the election Mafia. And what they'll do is they'll understate somebody like Trump's.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Great.

[Rich Barris]

They'll understate Trump's approval rating way below where it really is. And then when he does something stupid that they like, they'll jack his approval rating up, like Covid, shut down the government.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Right.

[Rich Barris]

And then all of a sudden you'll get polls. You know, Trump sent a majority approval for the first time ever in his administration. They did this in the first administration and it was not the smart political thing to do. It exposed him politically. Then when that vulnerability hits, they'll crash him into the 30s and the right falls for it all.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, that's fair. So would you, would you say, Rich, though, that Trump's, I guess his political backing from his supporters is pretty, like, resilient, it's pretty stable. But it's been challenged in this first year and even with the Venezuela strike in new ways, I think, because again, foreign policy seems to be the hot button topic, right? It's like we don't want to focus on it, we want to focus domestically. And then when we do, everybody's scared of the neocon intervention, foreign abstractions, rabbit holes that trails what we've followed in years past. So. So where are we at right now? So Harry Enten says that actually the strike is, is more popular than, than we previously thought. What do you think?

[Rich Barris]

It's historically, it's, it's basically the most unpopular military action that of its kind. Grenada had 82%, even 57% approved of the military action against Syria that Donald Trump took in his first administration in response to what we now probably, you know, almost certain, assuredly know were false flag attacks.

[Blake]

Right.

[Rich Barris]

So. So historically, compared to other, including Iran last year, by the way, which was very even, you know, very evenly divided among the American.

[Charlie Kirk]

So where is this at, according to your numbers, Rich?

[Rich Barris]

It's not good. It's negative. It's not horribly negative, but it is negative. And the reason why, and this is where like, you know, Republicans should like, snap out of this, like, haze that they're in. Democrats are never going to believe anything that the Trump administration says that Nicolas Maduro did. We're asking people not just about the strike, but Whether or not they even believe the charges against Nicolas Maduro. And Democrats don't even believe the charges. So this idea that you could get into a solid majority who opposes this is, is ridiculous. I hate to say it, but we're actually really close to the Washington Post, Andrew. Unlike everybody else, we didn't drop the numbers right away. And there's a reason for that. The war drums at the time they're beating war propaganda is always one of the most powerful forms of propaganda you can get. And when you initially polled you will get the strongest level of support typically then you're ever going to see and then that support will decline over time. It happened with Iran as well. Iran initial even in some polls the Iran, the strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities were pretty popular. Not nars. And we, I, I think we were right and they were wrong. But you can even see in those polls that no, we're more favorable to that. It dips over time. So we didn't want to snap poll it. We wanted to get an accurate reflection of how the public digested everything thing. The question is what comes after this? So people are going to be okay. And this is what. And just so people understand, my own personal views are very different from what I think the, you know, the how I think the public sees this or what they're telling us right now. My own personal views. If you can get a, if you can get a guy like that out of there, Andrew, with a limited strike like this, you know, in a limited operation, intel led operation, get him out of there and then bring the regime to heel. Take the gold and the oil. Go ahead. Because we're $40 trillion in debt and you need to back the petrodollar. That's my view. That's Rich Barris's view. That's not the public view. Unfortunately. They're like they have PTSD over this, brother. You understand? Like they have PTSD over this and the administration sold it like garbage. This was the easiest sell. Look, they stole our oil a few years ago. You know, Joe, Joe, you know the Democrats were too, you know, George Bush actually was the wiener here. But they were too weak to do anything about it. I'm not, I'm taking it back because China and Iran can't have it.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Period.

[Rich Barris]

End of story. And we're not going to nation build. That's what we're going to do. Don't give the public some garbage rehatch version of the failed war on drugs which they laugh at and think is ridiculous. Don't. And don't insult their intelligence like that. Come out and just say, do this, be the strongman that you were elected to be. You know, we talked about this at the conference quite a bit, Andrew, especially voters under 45. They don't care if he acts like a Franco. They don't care. They want it. They want, so be that guy. And don't, you know, that's it. I'm not going to explain myself. I personally want Greenland. Don't explain yourself over Greenland. We have to colonize space and the United States has to lead that effort. Guess what? We need Greenland to do it.

[John Jubilee]

Tough.

[Rich Barris]

End of story. And you don't even have to do that with military action. So the, and the public wouldn't even care. I don't think that much about that because the question of what comes next is less of a, you know, a very concerning question. Right. I mean, you can leave people in charge there that obviously Western values hold. Our same belief systems, right. Have been in the international order for a long time. So there's no, there's less of a danger of this, this crisis and destabilization.

[Charlie Kirk]

So again, I think that's, I think that's well said. I think that's well said. Rich, we're going to continue on with you in the break, so don't go anywhere more with Rich Barris. We'll be right back. All right, we are back in the stream with Rich Barris. We never have enough time with Rich. Blow the brakes here.

[Blake]

I just want to, I, I, I guess I want to ask a little more on this. As you say, you say Harry Enten and others, they directly manipulate the polls to manipulate Trump. I guess that struck me as a very strong claim, like, how many people are involved in this decision? How do they do it? And because that's like a big swing. And I just feel, among other things, I feel like there'd probably be whistleblowers.

[Charlie Kirk]

From these organizations, a lot of independent editorial decisions, too, but. Yeah, go ahead, Rizzo.

[Rich Barris]

Yeah, I mean, the fact is that my industry is completely dominated by leftists. I mean, guys, I literally created the polling critic industry. It was like me. And that was it for years. That has grown over the years now, and thank God it has. But if you're somebody like me and you come up like, look, I think you're understating Republican shares of the vote, you get ostracized, right? So these guys, the Enton average, for instance, or the Enton aggregate that he pushed the entire cycle, excluded most of the polls that got the Election. Correct. Including ours. So, you know, when he. You got to watch that little writing when he puts up on the screen underneath the empty and aggregate or whatever poly's talking about, you better look damn close at what he's citing and where he's getting it from. Because all of the people who not fairly but accurately have predicted the outcome of elections in the Trump era are excluded from most of Enton stuff. You will never see him cite, you know, one of the guys who are part of our association. That will never happen on cnn. Right. So go back and look at how some of these pollsters fared in 24. They know it. The. The evidence of what they have. Look, even if you are pretending that this was just a, you know, a difference of opinion on who should be cited and who should not be or what, what kind of data collection modes make the poll more accurate, make that pollster more accurate, and it's a methodological, you know, discussion or debate. Even if we were going to pretend for a second that that was true, which it's not anymore, I pretended for the first five years of my career. It's not true. But even if we were to, the evidence built up over many years and it became overwhelming, they continued to do it intentionally and no one's going to call them on it because, I mean, there's various things going on as group think there's being afraid to get contracts, losing a contract with the media outlet and in the industry post 24, they've consolidated a lot. So Reuters, Yahoo, CBS, they're all using the same online panel and same Data set as YouGov.

[Charlie Kirk]

I believe. I believe it, Rich. I believe it absolutely, that they, you know, I think Harry Anton's not as bad as you think he is, but I do think he probably, you know, he plays both sides. That much I can see until it's true. More. Rich, we're going to welcome back Real America's Voice in just a second.

[Rich Barris]

It.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right, Blake, how much private student loan debt is labeled as defaulted or distressed in the United States?

[Blake]

$45 billion.

[Charlie Kirk]

45 billion. That's a lot of money, man. That's like more than. That's like. That's like five Somalia Minnesota fraud rings that. Think about it that way.

[Blake]

Yeah, yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

About five Somali, Somali, Minnesota fraud rings that we know of. By the way, that's tip of the.

[Blake]

I have to get in Washington.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Ohio, New York, California. Why? Refi is not a debt settlement company. And they work with each borrower individually, tailoring each loan to each borrower specific situation. When you find yourself with private student loan that loans that are labeled as distressed or defaulted, you are going to want to call them ASAP. They are not, not in all 50 states. But if they are in your state and you find yourself in this situation, you gotta call them. They are great patriots, great people, genuinely great people with their hearts in the right place and they want to help this country. Obviously they have a business to run but they do it in such a way that's going to put your interest first and help you get out from underneath this financial predicament that you find yourself in. They are even let you skip a payment every six months up to 12 times without penalty. They are going to insure a, an interest rate under 6% and give you monthly payments that are affordable, that you can manage. Got to take control of your financial situation. That is the difference between victims and victors. That is the difference between people that are going to have a bright future and a miserable one. So you got to take advantage of their services that they offer. Yrefi.com yrefy.com 888 yrefi 34 Check out the great folks at Y Refi. All right, Rich. The, you know, I, Blake and I have taken a pretty, I would say, middle of the road approach on the Venezuela thing. I'm going to show my cards. There is something. And I, and I, I watched Mike Cernovich, who's a friend of the show, kind of give his take why he, why he supported it. I support, I support it. Yeah, I support it. And, and I'm surprised that I support it because Charlie and I spent years railing against the military industrial complex. We're gonna have Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on next. We're gonna talk about this. I've devoted basically the majority of my adult political life to railing against the war machine. But this is different. This is the Monroe Doctrine. And the way you boil it down, Roe Doctrine, Don.

[Rich Barris]

Roe Doctrine, Don Row.

[Charlie Kirk]

The way you boiled it down, I thought was brilliant. We want our oil back. I'm not making excuses for it. Iran, China, Russia, you have no place in this hemisphere. Get the hell out. This is our, this is our backyard. We're not going to be suffering fools any longer. We're not going to be playing patty cake. Get out. This is our oil. We're going to take the revenues. We're enriching the homeland. We're securing our defenses. That's why I like it. You know, obviously the proof is in the pudding how this plays out. But is there A chance based on, you know, where you see the base at, where you see Trump voters at, that we can turn this into a win politically from a polling standpoint.

[Rich Barris]

I do. I think there's a way to really give the American people a vision. Because right now, Republicans, one of the main reasons they're losing, and we can get into some of the gripes that certain factions within the coalition have, but one of them, I would say the main reason that they have, they lost in 25 and we go into 26 with them being the underdog here, is that they don't have a vision. They haven't given the American public an idea of what's the agenda for this year. What. What's the agenda for the country. And I think this is actually a really good opportunity. And I think the interview with Cernovich on Tucker was just great because I think Mike, whether you agree with him right now or not, guys, I think what Mike started to do was lay out what kind of a vision you could give to the American public and give. Which could. Look, Americans are dying for something to believe in again, guys, they really are. And I'm not saying that we should start toppling governments one by one in the Western hemisphere. But Reagan understood something about the unique identity of Americans, you know, what it meant to be an American. It's optimistic, it's forward thinking. And for so many years, one of the reasons for Trump's success is that forget about a malaise, they've been in the gutter thinking, you know, hopelessness with hopelessness and despair. Right? And some people look at, you know, especially younger people, they look at the situation you just brought up during the break. You know, student loan debt, we have national debt, we have credit card debt, we can't afford homes.

[Charlie Kirk]

Right there is our country's getting invaded rich. That's the, I mean, I, I tell you, that is the single most demoralizing asp of modern American life, is that you look at, you look across the street and you don't recognize your neighbors. You go to the dmv, you don't recognize your neighbors. You, you go to on an airplane, you don't recognize your neighbors. And there is something insidious about this. Blake, I would love to build this out from a data standpoint. At some point. There is something about when your country gets invaded by foreigners, where American families stop. Or whatever the country is, stop having.

[Blake]

Babies and stop believing in 100%. Like mass immigration lowers fertility rate. Country doesn't. It's not the cure all because Japan doesn't have a lot. South Korea doesn't have a lot, and they're lower than us.

[Charlie Kirk]

But Switzerland, yeah.

[Blake]

So it's not the only factor, but.

[Charlie Kirk]

There'S something insidious about it and demoralizing about it. And this is why I constantly harp on the issue of immigration. I think it is visceral. I think there is a. You know, we talk about illegal, and you still get these boomer cons that say, you know, oh, I support legal immigration, and I'm just anti. No, like, nope, we've had too much. We've had too much. And we are watching the eraser of American culture before our eyes. We are watching the communities that remind us of America shrink and get like these enclaves get shrunk. It's not about skin color, by the way. I think it's about pre modern and postmodern. I'm gonna build this idea out, too. It's people that see the economic system as an opportunity to get ahead and those who view it as a extraction tool to oppress people. That's the dividing line. Because if you look at the American opportunity as a chance to enrich yourself and your family and the future generations that come after you, then you will be a contributing member of this society. If you look at America as an extraction machine operation like the Somalis do, pre modern, then you're going to treat us as oppressors and you're going to try and take back the wealth that you think was wrongly stolen by the white man. Rich Barris, One minute.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Yes.

[Charlie Kirk]

Final words. Yeah.

[Rich Barris]

If you, if you look at what just the, the. The chart or the graphic that Donald Trump put out on truth the other day about these populations and how much they take.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Right.

[Rich Barris]

What are the percentage. What are the household percentages receiving benefits from the country? And there is this feeling, and if you're a domestic population, it does give you this sense of, you know, I'm just losing. We're just losing because you can see that people come in here and they. They don't have the attitude you have. You want to thrive. Right? Where these populations want to come in, they want to survive and they want. Like you said, they want to extract. Right.

[Charlie Kirk]

So they want to fleece the system. They want to build.

[Rich Barris]

Yeah, that's right. Well, well, domestic u. S. Born citizens don't. Because if. Well, of course, we all have criminal populations, criminal elements, but that largely. That's not what we're talking about here. Right. We're talking about people who are trying to be good citizens and then just constantly beaten down by the system that they're fleecing. And it just come on. I mean, it's not hard to understand why people had this sense. It's like cloud, this dark blanket come over them that the future is bleak. So again, I think this is, this can be used as an opportunity to turn this into like an American resurgence. It just has to be done right.

[Charlie Kirk]

Exactly. I mean, there is a sense. I even looked at Blake in one of the breaks. I said, I'm loving this. Sort of unapologetic, yeah, we're going to take Greenland. Yeah, we're going to, we're going to, we're going to seize a Russian. I'm just saying I like the vibe. I like the energy. It's resurgent. Thank you, Rich Barish. You're the man. We have Secretary of War Pete Hegseth joining us next.

[Terrence Bates]

A new year means new financial goals, like making sure that your savings are secure and diversified. Will this be the year that you finally listen to us here on Real America's Voice and talk to someone from the Birch Gold Group? They are really great people, and we appreciate their educational approach and their understanding of macroeconomics. There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher, which is why they believe that every American should own physical gold until January 30th. If you're a first time gold buyer, the Birch Gold Group is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. To claim eligibility and start the process, simply text the word America to the number 98. The Burch Gold Group can help you roll an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold and you're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. Make right now your first time buying gold and take advantage of a rebate of up to $10,000 when you buy by January 30th. Text the word America to the number 98. 98. 98. And claim your eligibility today. Again, text the word America to the number 9898. 98. Terrence Bates here with your Real America's Voice news break. We are following a developing situation in Minneapolis involving an ICE officer who shot and killed a person there in that city. We're going to take you to some video of the scene as we try to get you more information. Federal officials are saying that the officers were conducting targeted operations. That's a quote from ice. They say rioters at some point blocked the officers, and one of those rioters, excuse me, weaponized her vehicle in an attempt to run over the law enforcement officers and, quote, attempt to kill them. That's when that officer then pulled out a gun and fired into the vehicle, ultimately killing the woman. ICE is saying that this, that this officer was fired defensive shots to save himself and his officers, again ultimately killing the woman. By the way, Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary, is in Minneapolis. She just spoke moments ago. We'll try to get you that video and get you that sound from Kristi Noem. And we will continue, of course, to follow this developing story for you throughout the day. That's gonna do it for us here.

[Charlie Kirk]

Now let's get you back to the trail.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

The hardest working radio show in the.

[Charlie Kirk]

Business, the Charlie Kirk Show. All right. Welcome back to the Charlie Kirk Show. We are waiting on Secretary Pete Hegseth to join us. We are busy, busy man. We are monitoring the feed. I will see him as soon as he sits down. Got the video up there. As soon as he sits down, we're going to take him. You have sent over a lot of questions. Blake has been filtering through them. We've added them to the list. We're gonna get it. Hopefully we can get to as many of them as we can. As we can. Yeah. So Secretary Hegg said, obviously a busy, busy man. Lots of questions about Venezuela, lots of questions about what's going on with Greenland. There's been rumors that the US Is open to military force to take Greenland. I don't know how else you want to put that, but we. Blake, why don't you set up the next clip for us here while we.

[Blake]

Will have this ready to go so we can ask him about it once he sits down. But there's this big obviously there's been a lot of stuff about Greenland after the Venezuela thing because there's chatter, which the administration has encouraged that, okay, we're flexing our muscle in this hemisphere. Could that mean we'll make a bid for Greenland? And there's debate whether it would be just seizing it or now there's also back room. We really just want to buy it, all of that. Anyway, this got a lot of attention because Denmark's prime minister reacted to this and basically said if the US Goes after Greenland and effective this is going to be, it's going to be the end of the NATO alliance. Let's play 2. 46.

[Caroline Levitt]

Firstly, I believe that the American president.

[Senator Rick Scott]

Should be taken seriously when he says that he wants Greenland.

[Caroline Levitt]

But I also want to make it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Clear that if the United States chooses.

[Caroline Levitt]

To attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since.

[Charlie Kirk]

The end of the Second World War.

[Caroline Levitt]

I believe in democracy and I believe in the international rules. Of course, I also believe that you do not change borders by force either one way or another. It is not only the position of.

[Charlie Kirk]

Denmark and the Danish Kingdom, fortunately of Europe too.

[Caroline Levitt]

So I hope that the people will also take note of the once again significant European support that we are receiving.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. After which Trump truthed that America will always support and have NATO's back, even if they never have our back. And after he bragged that he got them to spend 2% to 5% GDP, which is fair, which is.

[Blake]

That's what we've wanted.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Blake]

Like, I think, I think it's worth. Because I think some people have responded to this with some chest thumping. Like there's a lot of attitude. I think this is what part of what Stephen Miller said when he was on cnn. He said Denmark can't stop us from taking it, which is true. But some people have actually just embraced on X. Mostly people have embraced this attitude of that's all that matters, is whether they can stop us or not. And that that's all it reduces to. And I guess I would caution people from going really far down that rabbit hole. First of all, it's not ever been America's way. Even when we were, you know, the global unquestioned superpower, not in decline anyway, it's not been our way to just bully weaker nations to beat them up. That's not really a great long term play for America. Like what's greatly been to America's benefit historically is a lot of nations far weaker than us have been willing to work with us, have been willing to just accede to our leadership. And that led us in a dumb way where we just started to put other countries interests first over ours, where we just did dumb things, where we're funneling endless foreign aid to crappy countries that don't like us and are taking advantage of us. But I don't think you swing back the other way and you just, for example, dissolve NATO because you feel like making your image on a map bigger.

[Charlie Kirk]

No, I mean, listen, I think you have to ask the question, how would we acquire Greenland? You got to involve the people. Yeah, right. It should be done by vote. I think, you know, I think the.

[Blake]

Way you do it is you buy it, you, you just make the pitch. I think one thing that's been an issue is we've been, it's almost been too attractive to just again, chest thump and say like, oh, we could easily do it, which we could. But I think the way you make it a long term play is you point out it is a win win. You can say Denmark. You just talk about how Denmark is a great ally. They actually have been. They have spent money, they've ponied up for Ukraine, whereas other countries haven't. They sent troops to Afghanistan. They had more troops die per capita in Afghanistan than I think any of our allies. And they've been a good ally to us. And they're also the European country that restricts immigration that you. They're. They're good on a lot of ways. And so we talk about how Denmark is a great ally and Denmark has taken on this burden of supporting Greenland.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, they spend $4 billion.

[Blake]

Yeah, they spend a ton of money. It's not really a very profitable endeavor in any way. It's a loser, a big welfare sink for them. They spend a lot on this. And for us, it would be a far more trivial amount of money to spend. So we could increase the amount of money so we can say it's good for Greenland. We can develop you more, we can give you more money. It's good for Denmark. You're getting this off of your books. And it's good for America because we have the long term certainty of owning Greenland. We have that long term military security. We can potentially develop the natural resources with more.

[Charlie Kirk]

I was gonna say the natural resources is.

[Blake]

That's the pitch. You make the big play. Win, win, win, win, win for everyone involved.

[Charlie Kirk]

And then we get our oil lands back in Venezuela. We're talking about. And by the way, we have Secretary Wright on the show tomorrow, Energy Secretary of the United States. So we're gonna be talking all about Venezuelan oil. What's at stake, what could we benefit from, how much money could we make? How much money would flow back into the hands of the Venezuelan people? We are monitoring the situation. Secretary Hegseth should be sitting down in just a second. Blake, what are some of the questions that people wanna ask?

[Blake]

Secretary Hegseth, Some people really wanted to ask. What was this one? Danny sent us one. One moment.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Crap.

[Blake]

There's so many in this.

[Charlie Kirk]

There's a lot, you guys. There's a lot we got.

[Blake]

We literally got like eight questions all at once. And so and more have flowed in since then. Let's see. Someone really wanted to know what are your thoughts on the Russians sending a submarine to assist the Russian flagged oil tanker?

[Charlie Kirk]

Wasn't much because the. I think, you know what I. I believe that the Russian submarine, by the way, I've looked into this would was basically doing surveillance ahead of where the.

[Blake]

There's all of them.

[Charlie Kirk]

This tanker evaded a blockade, probably with the help of additional resources provided by the Russians.

[Blake]

Yeah, I like this question from Evan. What has the Department of War done to correct shipbuilding problems in the US Navy? We've covered that. We had a guest on at the start of the year. We're not building ships very well. When America won World War II, we could famously build a ship in a single day. We did it once as a publicity stunt. We built a Liberty ship from nothing to finished vessel. 24 hours.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's fast.

[Blake]

And we could literally build, we could build ships faster than the Japanese and the Germans could sink them. And now China can build ships faster than we would be able to sink them.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, that's certainly true.

[Blake]

Probably faster than we could build the missiles that would blow them up. And they can build missiles faster than us.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's not good. So we're going to be asking about these seized vessels. We're going to be asking about, you know, what is the military obligation in Venezuela to if we're going to be running Venezuela, is there a military obligation and what is the extent of that obligation? We're going to be asking about, you know, do we have proof that Iran, China, Russia are still on the ground in Venezuela? Are they fomenting dissent? Are they fomenting factions? You know, we're going to be talking about Greenland and if we can get to it, we're going to find out how many push ups and pull ups Secretary Hegseth can do, which is what everybody wants to know, obviously, Blake and I just want to remind everybody one thing here. Secretary so we did a flash poll, well, straw poll at Amfest. So for our 31,000 attendees of AmFest, we asked them who was the most popular secretary. We have that, that graphic, I believe Secretary Hegseth was our most was the most popular cabinet secretary in Trump's administration, according to our attendees at America Fest, which should tell you something, 83% strong.

[Blake]

Approval and only 0.6% strong disapproval.

[Charlie Kirk]

That's a pretty, that's a pretty favorable crowd, however you want to slice it. So again, we looks like we're getting some activity here. We will have Secretary Hegseth on in just a second from an undisclosed location. What other questions do you want us to ask the Secretary? Email us freedomarliekirk.com freedomarliekirk.com I also want to know where our recruitment is at. So there's been a lot of headlines made about the recruiting numbers coming out of the US Military that they are through the roof. I want to know exactly where those numbers are at. All right, so email us your questions. Freedom Charlie Kirk.com Freedom Charlie Kirk.com by the way, breaking news. There is, there is video now of the shooting incident out of Minneapolis involving an ICE agent. It does appear that the woman was attempting to ram the ICE agent there. That video has is now circulating online. I would show it to you, except we are still eagerly awaiting the secretary. So, Blake, what else you got for us?

[Blake]

Well, we were going to do this after, but we might be going right up against the end of the show here. President Trump has announced he's going to be pursuing new measures not clear yet, but to make it easier for a single family home. He says for a long time buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American dream. It was a reward for working hard and doing the right thing. But because of the record high inflation of Joe Biden and the Democrats, the American dream is increasingly out of reach for many people, especially younger Americans. For that reason, I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single family homes. And I will be calling on Congress to codify it. People live in homes, not corporations. I will discuss this topic and more at my speech in Davos in two weeks. I don't know what it's going to be. That is tremendous. And it's exactly what Charlie was saying.

[Charlie Kirk]

I was going to say this is a Charlie Kirk special. So we talk about the Gen Z economic moonshot and it is very clear that President Trump is hearing the pushback. In just a second we're going to have the secretary. So just bear with us. One more sec. Complicated business, but this is the economic moonshot that Charlie wanted. This is what he said. We are in a race against the clock. We have to prove that our ideas work and we have to clear away from a policy standpoint to make sure that Gen Z and let's be honest, generations after are not getting blocked out by institutional investors, foreign buyers and the like. I am told we are just about ready for the secretary. We got lots of questions. Thank you for sending all your questions for sec.

[Blake]

We're just gonna have to go rapid fire. Just bam, bam, bam.

[Charlie Kirk]

Like, yeah, we're going to have to studio where we at.

[Blake]

We look, we're ready.

[Charlie Kirk]

We're ready. All right. All right.

[Blake]

Bring him in.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Secretary Pete Hegseth, Department of War. Welcome. Welcome to the show. It's Great to see you.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Secretary, we'll get right into it. Two tankers have been boarded and apprehended by the US Military. A senior Russian lawmaker is quoted as saying this is outright piracy. What do you call these actions?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Outright accountability, actual enforcement. There's been a long time illicit activity emanating from Venezuela around the world. Really the Dark Fleet's a global enterprise, but Venezuela has used it to transport sanctioned oil flagless vessels that enrich the regime. And we have said a oil blockade is in full effect around Venezuela to ensure that that oil on the Dark Fleet doesn't make it anywhere. So there was one vessel that attempted to move toward Venezuela when we put the blockade in, turned around. So we've been pursuing that one for a couple of weeks, frankly. Just a reminder that we will follow you and when we have the opportunity, we'll ensure you are. We seized that vessel, which we did, and then there was another one inside closer to Venezuelan waters this morning at the same time, simultaneously that we also confiscated. So this is an ongoing effort. It's in full effect. The pressure is on. And as Marco has laid out, we're working with the, with the Venezuelan government to ensure that there's a new way by which they can process that oil, partnering with the United States. And we're going to continue to enforce it, this blockade, as necessary.

[Blake]

So far, Secretary, we haven't had any U.S. boots on the ground in Venezuela, but President Trump has said we're going to run the country in some capacity. Is there any possibility that that will take place? And if so, how many? What could that situation look like?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Well, I think in these cases, what the President is so good about is we're not closing doors here. We're not opening doors, we're not revealing to anybody what we will or will not do. Strategic ambiguity is a really important thing. Leveraged properly, it creates opportunities that did not exist before. Just like that raid on Maduro that no one in the world anticipated. The most sophisticated raid maybe that's ever happened in military history changed the entire dynamic. We didn't talk about whether something like that was possible. So what happens next depends a lot on the decisions that are made inside Caracas and by leadership. The blockade remains in full effect. The strikes on narco tariffs and boats, full effect. The pressure continues to ensure that they work with the United States to ensure that that oil. And Marco made it clear. The President put out a statement yesterday, 30 to 50 million barrels of oil to be brought to the United States to be processed to be used properly by the Venezuelans to ensure that that transition happens the way that it should. I could. You could see scenarios where, hey, maybe we reopen the embassy and you have got marines there to guard the embassy. You could look at scenarios where there's cooperation, but I wouldn't foreclose anything. And I think it's important not to foreclose anything to make sure that the outcome is one that benefits the interests of the United States in our own hemisphere. This is the Don Roe doctri. This is, you know, Russia, Iran, Cuba, others had their tentacles all over Venezuela to exploit it and also to leverage their opportunity to be closer to us and pull those energy assets out. We're flipping the script, putting America first, controlling our hemisphere. And that action taken on Nicolas Maduro was the start of it, but it's certainly not the end.

[Charlie Kirk]

Secretary, you watched the raid happen live as it was happening, and you mentioned that this is the most sophisticated raid of its kind, probably in, who knows, living memory. What was it like watching it happen, the apprehension of Maduro and his wife? Like, what's the memory that stands out from that moment?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

The memory that stands out the most for me was watching the drone feed at the end when you could see the. I won't reveal the exact number, but the helicopters leaving Venezuelan territory over the water, and they looked like little ants, little dots on their way out of the country. They have Maduro and his wife indicted individuals, and all the Americans are out safely. We had some wounded, but no kia. That was the enduring image, because everything in between, you know, yes, these are the best of the best. They're trained for it. In fact, the commanders have said they've never been more supported. They've never felt like they've had better intelligence. They've never had clearer and better authorities. They've never been given everything that they need. That's one of the things we're very proud of here at the War Department. We're going to support our fighters, back them up 100%, give them whatever they need, give them the authorities and rules of engagement to be successful. And they had all of that. Still, the enemy on the other side gets a vote. And it was a contested raid, even with the sophistication that went into it. And we watched them hover over. We watched the actions on. We watched, you know, Venezuelan manpads get shot while they could potentially try to shoot at helicopters. I mean, it was all in real time. But it wasn't until we saw those birds floating out that any of us could really exhale. The courage it took for the president to authorize it. The sheer courage and competency of our men and women in the military. Those assaulters, that extraction force. Incredible. The best in the world. They went downtown without being heard, without being seen, with no notice, distracted that indicted individual and brought him back to the United States. Only the United States of America could do this mission. Second to none, no doubt.

[Charlie Kirk]

And you even saw that on CNN, Mr. Secretary, where they were. You had analysts saying that even China and Russia were looking at this, going like, wow, this is incredible. So to your point, they've never felt that. Your men and women in the military have never felt more support, more backup. I mean, I know this is hard to quantify, but you came in with a mandate to make the military more lethal. The lethality. You said it again and again. Fitness, excellence, meritocracy. You know, two part question. Where are we at now? How much more excellent. How much more lethal are we now than when you took over? And I also am curious about where recruitment stands right now for the US Military.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Well, we've always had great Americans, right? Our job has been to unleash them, to allow them to do their job without tinkering in the way they operate, without more burdensome rules of engagement, without more political caveats, while actually giving them the authorities we need. And a lot of that emanated out of the speech I gave at Quantico to generals and senior enlisted saying, I'm putting commanders back in charge. It's not my job to tell that extraction force exactly how to do it. It's my job to get them what they need, ensure their standards are clear, they're able to execute at the highest possible level, and unleash them to do what they do. I mean, that's the reflections I've gotten back from not just special operators, but conventional units. Just saying, it's a new environment. It's a new vibe, a new aura inside the military where we feel empowered to be the warriors that we're supposed to be. We've always been that way. But other things have held us back. There have been, you know, political correctness or prerogatives or DEI or new priorities were emphasized. And we didn't feel like we were fully supportive, supported. Not anymore. And you mentioned the recruiting numbers. That's why last year was the most historic recruiting numbers we've seen in decades. This year is even beyond that. So far, guys, the recruiting numbers are surpassing so far in FY26 what they were last year. Because the spirit continues. The Word is getting out. This is a military you want to be in. President Trump has your back. The secretary has your back. We're training better than ever before in what we do. And we've got historic financing to make sure we've got the weapons to do it. But also focusing on barracks and quality of life for the men and women who serve, raising pay. That's the way it should be, putting the troops first. And that's been our focus.

[Blake]

Speaking of the troops under you, yesterday you announced you're going to seek a reduction in Mark Kelly, Senator Mark Kelly's rank as a result of his statements about possibly defying orders. One of our viewers, Elizabeth, has asked us, she's wondering, she said, why not bring charges against him? She wonders how you reach that decision.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Well, we went through the regular process and we have evaluated those statements, not just that one video, which was incredibly reckless. He knew exactly what he was doing, by the way, he was the senior member of that video. He's the only one we have jurisdiction over. Because he's retired, he's receiving a pension money from the government, which means he's still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And watching the, I don't know, hissy fish that he's been throwing ever since shows us just how over the target we are. He knew exactly what he was saying. He understands the rules. He understands he's still subject to ucmj. He understood the doubt and uncertainty he was putting into the process by vaguely alluding to illegal orders, but never, never pointing to what that would mean underneath the Trump. So he knew and he understands. And the reaction underscores how serious this action is. Reducing a rank or pay is a serious administrative action that sends real signals that we take these things incredibly seriously. So he's got the time, by statute or by directive to reply. We'll review after that. But this is, I don't think anybody should minimize how significant this is. We don't do it without understanding that, and we're following it by the book and we'll see what happens.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, my brother, who's in the military, said that this is a pretty massive demoralization for him. I mean, this is. Getting demoted in retirement is pretty big. Secretary, last question here. Oh, I want to say first, I want you to know that you were our most popular. We did a straw poll at America Fest, and 31,000 people. We gave it to all of them. They said that you are their favorite cabinet secretary in the Trump administration. So I just, I want you to know that there's other questions about how many pull ups you can do, how many push ups. But we're going to skip that for the interest of time. But I'm sure that that had some influence in your favorable marks there. I want to end it with this, and we should. This is the Charlie Kirk Show. You were friends with Charlie. Charlie fought like tooth and nail to get you over the finish line in your confirmation. I think he'd be very proud of you, Mr. Secretary. You've done a tremendous job and we're proud of you. What do you remember about him and what do you want the world to know about your friend that maybe they don't from your pov?

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

You're giving me chills. I wouldn't be in this position right here without Charlie Kirk. Probably without the Charlie Kirk show, without his platform, without his courage throughout the confirmation battle, he was always right there saying, hold the line, don't give in. We've got your back. And the wind that put in my sails. I mean, he And Donald Trump Jr. And others just unrelenting in backing me up. So I wouldn't be here without him. Listen, he was. He was the thermometer and the thermostat of our movement. And you understand what that means. He understood what was going on around the country and he understood how to ensure we were calibrated correctly to make sure make America great again or America first was moving in the right direction. But he did it because he had a listen. He was a true believer on every front in politically, of what he believed in, in his own Christian faith and how he lived that out. And he wasn't about praise for Charlie Kirk. He was about the country and Christ and the cause and doing everything he could to advance it. He never cared whether it was his name in the headlines. So he backed people up, he backed President Trump up, he backed me up, he backed the other members of the Cabinet up and created the opportunity. Opportunity for us to do exactly what we should do, which is what we said we would do, which President Trump appointed us to do, which is, you know, peace through strength. America first. Bring the warrior ethos back to the military. All the things Charlie cared about, you guys care about, we're doing. So I wouldn't be here without him. We think of him every single day. I love him. His wife, Erica is incredible. Anything we will do here at the War Department and just grateful to live in such a country that produces men like Charlie Carson Kirk.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, God bless you. We're grateful to live in a country that produces men like you. Secretary. And thank you for making the time. I know you're busy. You got a heart out. Get onto your next thing. We pray for you, we support you. We have your back, 100%. We'll see you soon.

[Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

[Charlie Kirk]

God bless you. All right, the secretary. We got two blitz.

[Blake]

We gotta, we gotta.

[Charlie Kirk]

We got two questions then. I'm proud of us.

[Blake]

Amount of time.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm proud of us. It was. It was delayed. Complicated business.

[Blake]

Thank you for everyone who sent them in. I know we only got to a couple of them. Them, unfortunately.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. But we appreciate it. Keep sending us emails. Freedom at charliekirk. Com. We will see you tomorrow. This is an I heart podcast.

[Caroline Levitt]

Guaranteed human.