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Charlie Kirk
Hey everybody. Today on Charlie Kirk Show Bukele visits the White House. We unpack his visit. We talk about the movie King of Kings and where is all of the money that the Federal Reserve is saying that they borrowed to the Treasury. Very complex but important topic of how the government lies to you financially. And if we audited the Fed, gotta wonder what would happen. Email us as always freedomarliekirk.com that is freedomarliekirk.com which here at the Bitcoin.com studio become a member today. Members.charliekirk.com and get involved with TurningPoint USA@tpusa.com that is tpusa.com Buckle up everybody. Here we go.
Brian Westbury
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Jeffrey Harmon
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
Brian Westbury
I want you to know we are.
Jeffrey Harmon
Lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Brian Westbury
Charlie Kirk's running the White House folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point usa.
Charlie Kirk
We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here. Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble gold investments@noblegold investments.com that is noblegoldinvestments.com it's where I buy all of my gold. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com let's recap some of the meaning. So one of the test cases of how we know that if you are crime ridden, gang infested and of the third world, it's a choice. In the modern era, with artificial intelligence, with cryptocurrency, with bitcoin technology, access to the Internet, if your country is still living in the third world, it is by choice. Now to get to the first world you need some advantages. But living in the third world is a choice. You can enter the second world by simply making good choices. So much of life is choices. So much of life is decisions. The left wants you to believe that you are captive based on something that you inherit. You're captive based on your circumstances. We believe in in free will, in agency and the turnaround. And the story of El Salvador and Bukele is a phenomenal story. El Salvador was the most dangerous place on the planet. Ms. 13 ran rampant. They held the entire country hostage. Bukele wins, declares a national emergency, has locked up tens of thousands of narco drug criminals in MS.13. And El Salvador is now safer than the United States of America. A lot of money is flowing into El Salvador now. I don't want to make it seem as if it's something that it isn't. El Salvador is not like Ohio, El Salvador is not Georgia. But for decades El Salvador was treated as unfixable. It's just the problem. Get used to it. They're a bunch of murderers. There's nothing we could do about it. They're poor and they're going to kill each other because what had to be done was, was outside of what Washington D.C. could tolerate. Round up thousands of people and put them in jail. Not hard. But D.C. they can't possibly tolerate that. Well what about the feelings of the terrorists? What about the feelings and the emotions of the people that are cutting off babies, heads of which MS.13 would do in El Salvador? El Salvador led a populist revolution by Bukele, nationalized the police force and locked them up in these maximum security prisons. So Bukele visited President Trump today in the White House. In fact the meeting is largely ongoing. As the meeting is ongoing they're talking about deportations and partnering and you have to wonder, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, why are you guys not as safe as El Salvador? Cuz they're choosing criminals over their citizens. It's very simple. If the west is to fall, it's because we choose to fall. If the west is to collapse, it's because collapse is a series of self inflicted choices. It is a byproduct of agenic activity. We use the agency to fall or we use the agency to rise. And what is it that makes us fall? It's because we are captive to ideology. The ideology of the Ms. Thirteen's feelings matters more than the well being of the kid that's trying to walk to school. Here's a little bit of a taste of Bukele's visit. JD Vance is speaking in this tape play cut 142.
JD Vance
For 40 years we have lost manufacturing capacity, workers have seen their wages stagnate and some of the most critical things that we need from the pharmaceuticals, the drugs that we give to our children, the antibiotics that we give to our kids, to the weapons that we actually need, need to fight a war if God forbid we had to fight a war. We don't make enough of that stuff. And so President Trump ran explicitly on changing that. Yes, as the President mentioned, caused a little bit of disruption in the market. But I actually think over the long term, workers are going to benefit, stocks are going to go up. American businesses are going to benefit as we reinvest and re industrialize our country.
Charlie Kirk
But according to Janet Yellen, that's not possible. They brought out the little elf, the little gremlin to go tell you that it's not possible. Remember she told you that abortion was a national security and economic concern. Listen to the Hobbit. Placott125.
Brian Westbury
Perhaps it's to bring back American manufacturing, but I really think that's a, that's a pipe dream and not something that is likely to be accomplished. And we could even raise questions about whether or not in a broad based way that's a desirable goal.
Charlie Kirk
Why do we listen? What has she ever accomplished in her life except being a technocrat for the Wall street banks and the lords of easy money? It's a pipe dream. You know what we like defying pipe dreams. Wrong. And to tie it all together, they said making El Salvador a safe country was a pipe dream. And now it is a fact it is safer to walk the streets of El Salvador. It is safer to walk the streets of San Salvador than it is the streets of Chicago. It is a material fact to say that it is safer to bring your kids on the streets of San salvador than Washington D.C. or New York. So we look forward to proving you wrong. Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here. The April 15 tax deadline is coming fast. Do you have an unfiled tax return? Can't pay the irs. The IRS is more aggressive than ever. And the longer you wait, the worse it gets. Wage garnishments, bank levies, even property seizures are on the table. You need to get ahead of this. But going up against the IRS alone is a mistake. Take my advice. Call the experts at Tax Network usa. They know the system and they have an edge. A preferred direct line to the irs. They know which agents to deal with and which ones to avoid. Whether you owe $10,000 or $10,000,000, their genius strategies are designed to quickly settle your tax problems in your favor. Tax Network USA attorneys and negotiators have already resolved over $1 billion in tax debt. Tax Network USA can help you too, but you need to move fast. April 15th is almost here. Talk with one of their strategists. Today it's free. Stop looking over your shoulder and put this behind you. Call Tax Network USA at 1-800-958-1000. That is 1-800-958-10000 or visit tnusa.comcharlie. do you know that we are financing private banks? How much money are we actually giving to private banks? Well, Brian Westbury is the chief economist of First Trust lp, former chief Economist of the Joint Economic Committee for US Congress, and current member Board of the Trustees for Hillsdale College. Brian, welcome to the program. Great to see you. Brian, why don't you educate our audience on how the Fed is receiving hundreds of billions of dollars. I'm not even quite sure how this all works. All I understand is that the US Taxpayer is funding private banks. So build it all out for us.
Brian Westbury
Yeah, Charlie, great. It's great to be with you. This all started really back in 2008 when Ben Bernanke walked into W's office and said, hey, if you don't Let me print $4 trillion and flood the financial system with that money, the whole global world, the whole global world order is going to collapse. And so that was when it began. We did it again during COVID And so what this means is that we have increased the money supply in the United states. It was $7 trillion in 2007. It is now $21 trillion. So let me put that in perspective. If you have $100 bill in your wallet, 67 of those dollars were created in just the last 18 years. Like that's how much money we printed. Now when all of that money goes into the banking system, it turns into inflation. And the way the Fed stopped it from turning into inflation is first, they raised a ton of regulations on banks, and second, they paid banks to hold that money. So we are now paying banks about $200 billion a year to not lend that money out. That means we're paying private banks. Now the interesting thing is the Fed bought bonds with that money. And so they earn interest from those bonds, but they're paying banks more than they're earning. In other words, the Fed is losing. Last year they lost about $80 billion and the taxpayers funded that. And we used that money to pay banks. If we stop this, think how much we could lower the deficit. Over 10 year period, it would be $2 trillion.
Charlie Kirk
So is Congress then financing this loss? And if so, where in the budget is this money?
Brian Westbury
Yeah, they play sleight of hand with this, Charlie. It's like, it's crazy. The Federal Reserve has an account that they call a deferred asset. So normally before all of this change, the Fed owned bonds, but they didn't pay banks. And they made money every year. And so then they would give that money to the treasury at the end of the year. Now, with them losing money, they have what's called a deferred asset, which is the craziest term I've ever heard. It's a negative account. I don't know how they're paying their employees. I don't know how they're keeping their lights on. Because if you run a private business in a deficit, you either have to raise more equity or debt or something in order to pay to keep the lights on. And so my belief, and the Fed won't really tell you this, is that they're borrowing money from the treasury in order to keep the lights on. In Britain, the uk, they did the same thing and now they're kind of caught because it's raising their deficit, but at least they're accounting for it the right way. We don't, we hide it. And so I can only imagine that Elizabeth Warren doesn't understand that we're paying private banks $200 billion a year, because I think she'd have a cow if she knew that. She hates banks. And so this is the most amazing, insane policy I've ever seen. And, and yet we're doing it right.
Charlie Kirk
But if it's the Fed paying the banks $200 billion a year, there is not necessarily a through line from the treasury to the Fed. Can't the Fed just create the money by lowering interest rates? I guess the question is the money has to be appropriated at some point of origination. So walk us back. So the Fed is paying the private banks. Who is giving the money to the Fed? The Treasury Department.
Brian Westbury
Well, okay, so there's two things going on here that are separate. One, in order to do quantitative easing. So Ben Bernanke, when he was fighting the financial panic of 2008, created like 4 trillion new dollars. Jerome Powell, and literally created out of thin air. Jerome Powell did the same thing during COVID So we have created $8 trillion more dollars of Fed balance sheet that turned into $14 trillion more of M2, which is all our checking account. So the Fed creates this money. But, but then once they've created it, now you have interest earned and interest expense. And the, and the Fed is losing money based on that. Here's another way to think of this. When, when they created $4 trillion under Bernanke and then another 4 trillion under Powell, they bought bonds to put on the Fed's balance sheet. And they, and interest rates were super low when they did this. So when interest rates went up, they actually lost money on their portfolio. Right now the Federal Reserve has a trillion dollars of losses on its bond portfolio. And it's all because they bought bonds when interest rates were low, and now interest rates have gone back up. So the Fed is caught. They have losses on their books. They can't sell those bonds off without taking those losses. At the same time, they don't want the banks to lend out the money, so they're paying them that they created out of thin air. And so they're paying the banks to hold on to that cash so that it doesn't turn into inflation. And their bond.
Charlie Kirk
No, yeah, finish your thought. Go ahead.
Brian Westbury
No, all I was saying is their bond portfolio is not earning as much as they're paying, so that's where they make a loss. And then the question is, how do they pay to keep the lights on? Do they print the money? Well, it doesn't look like they're doing that. Are they taking it from the interest that they're earning from those bonds and somehow moving it into another account, or are they just borrowing straight from the Treasury? And my belief is they're borrowing straight from the treasury, even though they won't tell us that that's exactly what they're doing.
Charlie Kirk
But if they're borrowing it straight from the treasury, the treasury must have the money in the first place. So is Congress appropriating $150 billion for this purpose? But then where is the money coming from?
Brian Westbury
Yeah, the Federal Reserve creates a deferred asset. Like, that's the weirdest phrase I've ever heard. It's a negative number. And they promise that they're going to pay the treasury that money back when they start making a profit again in the future. So in return for that promise, the treasury is now funding the Fed. All right. And what's interesting about this is Congress did not agree to this. Congress did agree to let the Fed pay interest to banks, but they did not agree that the treasury could lend the Fed this money. And so I actually think there's a lawsuit here around Low Burger.
Charlie Kirk
How is this any different than Enron? I mean, this is a massive accounting scandal, isn't it?
Brian Westbury
Well, to me it is. And nobody focuses on it. And you know what's fascinating is you go in every month or every. Well, every time the Fed meets, it's like eight times a year they have a press conference and there's 30 reporters that are handpicked by the Fed to come in, and no one will ask them how they're paying to keep the lights on. They just won't ask them. Because if they do ask, they'll not be ever invited back again. And I've begged them to let me in and ask those questions. I've tried. I've begged reporters to ask those questions, but so far they haven't been asked and they haven't been answered. And the Fed this I give a talk and I call it the Fed. Federal Reserve has gone insane. We, I mean, I'm going to go back to what I said. If you have $100 bill in your wallet, 67 of those dollars were printed in the last 18 years. The other 33 in the previous 220 years or 30 years. And so what I'm getting to here is that the Fed has completely changed the way we manage monetary policy and hardly anybody complains about it. It's why we had inflation.
Charlie Kirk
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Brian Westbury
Yeah, well, first of all, they do have oversight. They can bring the Fed chairman in, ask him questions, embarrass them, but they also write the laws. The Congress started the Fed in 1913, changed the law again in 1973, and then we changed it again about 10 years ago. And then Congress also gave the Fed this ability to pay banks interest on reserves. So Congress has a big role in this. And the problem is that most congresspeople, ever since Rand Paul's father left, don't really understand monetary policy. And therefore they get flummoxed in these hearings and they don't know enough about it to ask the right questions or to do the right thing.
Charlie Kirk
So therefore, if Congress is not even willing to engage, I suppose we're gonna keep on participating in this funny math. And is there anything preventing the Federal Reserve from another capital influx of created trillions of dollars? And how much money do we actually get an audited look at the Federal Reserve ever?
Brian Westbury
No, we haven't. And you know, and here's the thing. The only thing that keeps the Fed in check really is, I mean, Congress has oversight, but it's really the public. And inflation. When it came, it was all because of this policy. And yet, like so many people have ignored that. And when you have, when you explode the money supply like they did during COVID especially, that's where inflation comes from. You print so many dollars that the value of the dollar goes down. You know, people say pizza costs more, and I'm a geeky economist, and I say to them, your pizza doesn't cost anymore. Your dollar buys less because we printed too many of them. And so, so they, and now what's, what's happening is they're, they're the Powell, the all. Every member, every member of the Fed, especially the chairman. They're politicians. And, and now he's blaming Trump on tariffs and inflation, and he's trying to get away from the fact that he is the one that caused it in the first place. So it, and, and the public doesn't know enough about this to, to really be able to make a, a decision about who's really.
Charlie Kirk
It's intentionally confusing that it's now, now Main Street's turn. Let's play cut 139.
Brian Westbury
For the last four decades, basically since I began my career in Wall Street.
Charlie Kirk
Wall street has grown wealthier than ever before. And it can continue to grow and do well.
Brian Westbury
But for the next four years, the.
Charlie Kirk
Trump agenda is focused on Main Street. It's Main Street's turn.
Brian Westbury
It's Main Street's turn to hire workers.
Charlie Kirk
It's Main Street's turn to drive investment, and it's Main Street's turn to restore the American dream. Brian, final thoughts.
Brian Westbury
Yeah. So, I mean, if you just look back at Covid, you know, supposedly, gosh, all the arguments were, Covid hits the lower class more than the upper class and certain groups of people more than others. And so we have to fix this and make things more equal. So we ended up running these massive budget deficits. We ended up printing all of this money. And what happened was the exact opposite of what they said was going to happen. If you had assets, if you own equities, if you own a house, and inflation comes along and they print all this money, you win. If you don't have assets, you get crushed. And so I hope that Scott, in that quote, and the Trump administration really does find a way to keep the Fed from ever doing this again. And in fact, I think they ought to shrink the Fed quite a bit and take away the power. We didn't even talk about the fact that the Fed somehow is able to fund climate change research, that the Chicago Fed is doing work on lead water pipes. I'm like, and they have a community development office. I mean, they're like, like, it's, they're out of control. And these, all these regional banks are spending money they don't have to do things that they shouldn't be doing. They have nothing to do with climate change. They have nothing. We have the EPA for lead water pipes. Why is the Fed involved in lead water pipes? We got to answer. They need to answer all those questions. All right, thanks.
Charlie Kirk
Great to be with you. Excellent work. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Brian Westbury
Thank you.
Charlie Kirk
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Jeffrey Harmon
The movie is based on Charles Dickens book that he wrote for his kids and it wasn't published till 25, 65 years after Charles Dickens had passed away. And what it is is it's a look at Jesus's life from the perspective of a young child where Charles Dickens is explaining to his child the story of Jesus Christ. This movie has been, has blown up in the box office. It was number two this last weekend. Did $19.3 million over the weekend, which is just $400,000 less than Sound of Freedom did in the first three days. And it is a getting. Forbes just posted that it's the. The what lands one of the best audience scores in history. 97 with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, about 64 with critics. And it has a. A cinema score with audiences, which is a cinema score of a. Has only been done 128 times in movie history and only 5 times for animated films outside of Disney and Pixar.
Charlie Kirk
Well, congratulations for that. Let's watch the trailer and to get into it, let's play cut 116.
Brian Westbury
Going to tell him a great story about forgiveness right there. Our story begins 2000 years ago when baby Jesus came into the world. Wait, wait, stop. If it's not about a king, then I'm not interested. This story is about the King of Kings. If you're with me then I know that I will, I will fly. It has angels and wicked kings and miracles. Why don't we help Jesus along the way?
Charlie Kirk
That is captivating. So tell us more. It's done in not quite animation, but one step above animation. What is that process called and why did you guys decide to do it in that form?
Jeffrey Harmon
Well, the filmmakers, they're from South Korea and this Christian group from South Korea that has done a whole bunch of work for all the big studios over the years. They're called Mofax Studios. And these South Koreans. The director doesn't even speak English. He made this movie as a passion project, recruited all these, these, these amazing talent and they did a Motion capture process where you actually capture real people walking and things. So they decided to do that to, to bring down. It brings down the cost and makes it feel more real. But what, what they've done here, like if you see the walking on water scene from this movie or the, there's just so many scenes in here that are gorgeous. The cinematography is beautiful, the voice actors. It has one of the top cast. You've, you know, you've got Pierce Brosnan in it, you've got Ben Kingsley, you've got Uma Thurman. There's this huge list of actors inside this movie that they've pulled in and what they, what they have built, audiences are raving about. I went on Saturday to the movie with my kids and up in the front of the theater during the credits. The entire movie was full of kids and all these kids go running down during the credits and while the credits are playing, they're all dancing around these like 6 year old to 12 year olds just dancing spontaneously. It was, it was pretty amazing. It's a great experience.
Charlie Kirk
So putting forward a faith based film during Holy Week is the success you're enjoying right now exceeding expectations and educate our audience even deeper on what angel is and what you guys seek to do with the Angel Guild.
Jeffrey Harmon
So every single movie on Angel Studios is approved by what we call the Angel Guild, which is a group of over a million people who greenlight every film on Angel Studios. So they gave King of Kings one of the highest scores we've seen, which is a 95. And so if you're part of the Angel Guild, you get a vote on every movie that comes in Angel Studios, then you get two movie tickets to be able to go see every movie in theaters. And so we have this group of over a million people. As a guild member, you get to approve. I can't. As a co founder of Angel, I can't even take a movie into Angel Studios unless it first passes the Angel Guild. And so today if you go sign up for the Angel Guild and you get to vote on future movies, you get two movie tickets. Two King of Kings today@angel.com what's your URL, Charlie?
Charlie Kirk
Kirk. Kirk. Yeah. Angel.com Kirk. We chose the, the shorter, easier to spell one.
Jeffrey Harmon
Yeah. So if you take, if you go to angel.com Kirk and you join the Angel Guild right now, you get two free movie tickets. Two King of Kings this week for Holy Week. And then you get a vote on all future movies that come into Angel Studios. We believe that there's this brokenness in Hollywood that's coming from not the filmmakers, not the craftsmen, not the actors, but it's primarily coming from the gatekeepers, which is a group of like couple dozen people that are making all of the decisions of all the movies that go into Hollywood. And we're replacing that with this guild.
Charlie Kirk
Yeah. And just so everyone understands that if you join the guild today, Angel.com Kirk as a premium member, you get two free tickets to King of Kings and every other angel studio film. But also you guys have so much more that you guys have developed for families with angel.com talk about tattle twins. Talk about the entire library and depth that you guys have at angel.
Jeffrey Harmon
The movies you're going to see@angel.com so we have the Tuttle twin series, which is a series about these two twins with their grandma Gabby who has a time traveling interdimensional wheelchair. It's a, it's a, it's a comedy animated film and they get to go meet characters like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and they even go meet Karl Marx and learn about Marxism and it shows Karl Marx as kind of this goofy guy. But the, these, these twins are learning and your kids get to learn with those kids. Then there's other films like the, the Sound of Freedom from a couple years ago to the Homestead series that just came out which launched at Christmas time. Homestead with Neil McDonough. There are, there's a Wing Feather saga, which is a fantasy series based on the best selling book the Wing Feather Saga by Andrew Peterson. And these, these movies and series are coming in. There's a couple movies every single week being released. And so you have just a huge amount of excellent films. It's a growing library, films and TV series that represent our values as families and middle America's values because it's voted on by the Angel Guild. And so you see this level of quality that's coming in and as you, as you watch angel movies, you're going to realize that they're just like hit after hit of satisfying, satisfying movies because they have to pass this threshold that's very difficult to pass. Getting voted on by the Angel Guild.
Charlie Kirk
And congratulations, I just want to say on behalf of the entire audience for bringing the gospel message to a mainstream audience during Holy Week. Was there any resistance here or do you feel a little bit of a cultural shift? Because typically this kind of a lift would be met with protests and with walk offs. But was this one a little bit, dare I say, easier? And if so, what does that tell us about the state of the American Culture.
Jeffrey Harmon
I would say there is definitely a cultural shift because a couple years ago we released a movie called His Only Son, which is watchable in the Angel Guild right now. But His Only Son is the story of Abraham. We released it at an Easter time years ago when we started. Angel Studios released the first three seasons of the Chosen. And I remember before anybody had really seen it, I would invite people over to my house and ask them if they could watch the show. And I'd give out the movie, the series, the Chosen, this is season one, episodes one through four, and nobody wanted to watch it. And I'd give links to them and they wouldn't watch it. Nobody would watch it. And then I finally just said, you know what? I'm invite people over to Sunday dinner, and then I'm going to get up after Sunday dinner and say, now we're going to go watch this series that I've been working on with Dallas. And when I sit people down and say, you have to watch this series, they would resist and say, no, I've spent the last two years of my life working on this. Sit down and watch the Chosen. And every time, without fail, they would love the show, but it was like pulling teeth to get people to watch it. Now that's a very big hit. This is very different. The King of Kings is getting watched in mass. It just beat Prince of Egypt's record for the biggest biblical animated box office opening of all time. And, and so that was over two decades ago, and that's how long it's been since we've had a serious animated biblical film. So the culture's definitely changing and there's a huge shift.
Charlie Kirk
Final call to action. Remind people. Jeffrey it's angel.com. kirk what do they get? The importance and the cultural powerhouse that it is. Please one minute riff on it.
Jeffrey Harmon
Come join the Angel Guild. Kirk and when you join it, you get to pick all the movies. You get two free movie tickets to King of Kings, and you get to pick all the movies that come into this community. There's over a million people. You get to vote on the films. You get to give feedback to the directors. They read your feedback, they give comments to it. You get to watch movies like if you're in the Angel Guild, you potentially got to see King of Kings months ago, and you got to vote on it and decide if it came into Angel Studios and you get to see the next one and the next big hit, and you get to be a part of that process of creating the culture that we want for our children.
Charlie Kirk
Caleb One of our dear friends that watches the program regularly just emailed us. We join the Angel Guild. Amazing books and shows. No regrets. We love having a say. Everyone should as well. So there you go. Straight from the Charlie Kirk audience. So thank you, my friend. Angel.com Kirk congratulations and have a blessed Holy week.
Jeffrey Harmon
You too.
Charlie Kirk
Okay, you guys, when you guys subscribe to the Charlie Kirk show, we deeply appreciate it. There's a new study out from Axios that shows the power of our podcast and we want to share that with you young Americans. Favorite podcasts reveal a stark partisan split. The most listened to podcast for people that listen to President Trump was Joe Rogan. I mean, who voted for Donald Trump was Joe Rogan. No surprise. Joe Rogan is the goat. He is the Michael Jordan of podcasting. He is the Rush Limbaugh of podcasting. No one comes close. I find Joe Rogan so listenable and enjoyable. He's phenomenal. And his courage to come out to support President Trump was admirable. However, it says here 27% of people who voted for President Trump say they listened to the Joe rogan experience, while 19% of Trump voters say they listened to the Charlie Kirk show. 18% listened to the Ben Shapiro show. Pretty great. So 19% of Trump voters listened to our program. So that is number two. Nine percent of Harris voters listened to Call Her Daddy. Of course I was going to make a really bad joke, but we won, so I'll be wholesome. Of course they listen to Call Her Daddy. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us. As always, freedomarliekirk. Com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless.
Jeffrey Harmon
For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.
Charlie Kirk
Com.
The Charlie Kirk Show: Bukele at The White House + Where The Money?
Episode Overview In the April 15, 2025 episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, host Charlie Kirk delves into significant geopolitical and financial topics. The episode primarily focuses on El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele's visit to the White House, scrutinizes the Federal Reserve's financial practices, and highlights the release of the faith-based animated film "King of Kings." Through insightful discussions with Chief Economist Brian Westbury and Jeffrey Harmon of Angel Studios, Kirk provides a comprehensive analysis of current events affecting America and beyond.
Charlie Kirk opens the episode by unpacking El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele's recent visit to the White House. Bukele's administration has been lauded for transforming El Salvador from a perilous nation grappling with gang violence into a safer country, surpassing even some American cities in security.
El Salvador's Transformation: Kirk emphasizes Bukele's decisive actions against MS-13, resulting in the incarceration of tens of thousands of criminals, which has significantly improved national safety. He states, “El Salvador is now safer than the United States of America” (00:59).
Regional Implications: The discussion extends to neighboring countries, questioning why nations like Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico haven't achieved similar safety improvements. Kirk attributes this to differing government priorities, asserting, “If the west is to fall, it's because we choose to fall” (04:36).
A substantial portion of the episode is dedicated to exposing the Federal Reserve's opaque financial dealings and their impact on the U.S. economy.
Brian Westbury Explains the Fed’s Losses: Brian Westbury, Chief Economist at First Trust LP, uncovers how the Fed has been incurring losses by paying private banks $200 billion annually to hold excess reserves, rather than lending the money out. He elaborates, “The Fed is losing. Last year they lost about $80 billion and the taxpayers funded that” (10:07).
Deferred Assets and Congressional Oversight: Westbury discusses the concept of "deferred assets," describing it as a negative account where the Fed is essentially borrowing from the Treasury to cover its losses. He points out the lack of transparency and oversight, stating, “They have what they call a deferred asset. So normally before all of this change, the Fed owned bonds, but they didn't pay banks” (10:15).
Potential Deficit Reduction: Highlighting the fiscal impact, Westbury suggests that halting these practices could reduce the national deficit by $2 trillion over a decade, posing critical questions about the sustainability of current monetary policies.
Kirk draws a stark comparison between the improved safety in El Salvador and the ongoing struggles in several U.S. cities plagued by crime and gang activity.
Safety Metrics: He argues, “It is safer to walk the streets of San Salvador than it is the streets of Chicago” (11:50), underscoring the effectiveness of Bukele's policies compared to the perceived inaction in American urban centers.
Critique of Ideological Captivity: Kirk criticizes the U.S. government's prioritization of ideological sentiments over tangible safety measures, asserting that “the ideology of the MS-13's feelings matters more than the well-being of the kid that's trying to walk to school” (14:49).
Transitioning from geopolitical and financial discourse, Kirk introduces Jeffrey Harmon, co-founder and CCO of Angel Studios, to discuss the release and success of the animated film "King of Kings."
Film Overview: Harmon describes the film as a reimagined portrayal of Jesus Christ’s life from a child’s perspective, blending motion capture technology with a star-studded voice cast including Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman. He notes, “The entire movie was full of kids and all these kids go running down during the credits and while the credits are playing, they're all dancing around” (26:56).
Audience Reception: The film has achieved significant box office success, grossing $19.3 million over the weekend and receiving a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Harmon attributes this success to the Angel Guild, a community-driven approach where over a million members vote on film projects.
Angel Guild Participation: Kirk and Harmon emphasize the importance of community involvement in content creation, encouraging listeners to join the Angel Guild. Harmon explains, “As a guild member, you get to approve” (28:45), highlighting the platform's mission to reflect family and middle-American values through its productions.
In the concluding segments, Kirk touches upon the influence and reach of The Charlie Kirk Show, citing its popularity among Trump voters. He reinforces the importance of financial freedom and cultural influence, urging listeners to engage with platforms like Angel Studios to shape the future of media.
Podcast Influence: Citing a study from Axios, Kirk shares that 19% of Trump voters listen to The Charlie Kirk Show, positioning it as a significant voice in conservative media (35:12).
Financial Empowerment: He reiterates the critical discussion on the Fed's financial practices, encouraging listeners to stay informed and take action against policies that may undermine economic stability.
Notable Quotes:
Charlie Kirk on El Salvador's Safety Improvements:
“El Salvador is now safer than the United States of America.”
(00:59)
Brian Westbury on the Fed’s Losses:
“The Fed is losing. Last year they lost about $80 billion and the taxpayers funded that.”
(10:07)
Charlie Kirk on Safety Comparisons:
“It is safer to walk the streets of San Salvador than it is the streets of Chicago.”
(11:50)
Brian Westbury on Deferred Assets:
“They have what they call a deferred asset. So normally before all of this change, the Fed owned bonds, but they didn't pay banks.”
(10:15)
Conclusion This episode of The Charlie Kirk Show provides listeners with a critical examination of both international and domestic issues, from transformative leadership in El Salvador to the intricate and often opaque financial mechanisms of the Federal Reserve. Moreover, it showcases the growing influence of faith-based media through the success of "King of Kings" and the community-driven model of Angel Studios. By intertwining geopolitical analysis with cultural commentary, Charlie Kirk offers a multifaceted perspective aimed at empowering his audience to understand and influence the socio-economic landscape.
For more insights and discussions, visit freedomarliekirk.com.