Maria Bartiromo (8:53)

It's like have they met college students? Do they realize that when you're 18 what you think at 18 might change between 18 and 20?

Charlie Kirk (8:59)

According to the latest polling, 18 to.

Abby Phillips (9:01)

21 year olds are some of the.

Charlie Kirk (9:02)

Most conservative people in the country.

Maria Bartiromo (9:03)

I think that is exactly.

Charlie Kirk (9:04)

So how is it that Harvard, every non conservative 18 year old in the country, and to that woman's point, I don't know her name, as a counterpoint to her, as you get older, you actually tend to get even more conservative. That's Abby Phillips. So if this is the baseline starting point, this is before they're married, before they have a mortgage, this is before they have kids and they're starting as a baseline data point as the most conservative generation in recorded data in the last 40 years. That's before they have the three M's of a mortgage marriage, mating. So they're conservative before the three conservatizing life events. I am by no means taking credit for this with Turning Point USA or Turning Point Action, I will say we play a substantial role and President Trump deserves enormous credit for his grit and his fortitude and his resilience and his focus and his stamina. But I will say that what we do on this program, when you guys listen to us, when you download our podcast, when you become a member, when you follow us, you are part of what I believe is the greatest catalyzing ingredient. We are a catalyst. And boy, this is hopeful, everybody. The next generation, according to Yale, is 11 points more Republican than Democrat. The kids are alright and the future is increasingly bright. I just gotta give glory to God for His grace and his mercy. And we are just getting started. The world is waking up to the power of gold. National banks are scrambling to secure it. According to the World Gold Council, central banks added 1,000 tons of gold in 2024, the third straight year of net gold buying. They understand what many investors don't. Gold is real money. Unlike paper currency, gold's value doesn't disappear with inflation, reckless government spending or market crashes. Now, Noble Gold Investments makes it easy for you to claim your share. As our new administration works to reverse the economic chaos of the past. Market swings are inevitable. When uncertainty rises, you need something solid, something to keep you on the path to financial freedom. Gold can be that foundation. And right now, when you make a qualified investment, Noble Gold will send you a free 10th ounce of a cold coin. Visit noblegoldinvestments.com that's noblegoldinvestments.com the world is turning to gold. Shouldn't you be looking into doing that too? What does it take to get a Democrat on a plane? Do you know that there's still American citizens being held hostage by Hamas? That's a lesser reported element that there are American citizens that are still being held hostage by Hamas. It's a real thing that American passport holders, American citizens and I do think that is a lesser appreciated element of the entire Hamas situation is that when Americans are held hostage, that certainly is noteworthy. So this is a Democrat senator from Maryland. Van Hollen is his name. What gets him worked up? Well, Van Hollen, because he's held captive by the lunatic wing of the Democrat party. In order for him to get on a plane, he wants to make sure that an MS.13 member can come back to the interior of the United States. Van Hollen is boarding a plane to San Salvador. He's going to El Salvador to talk to the government of El Salvador. Advocating, encouraging and requesting the return of an MS.13 member back to the United States. He wants him back. This guy is willing to go fight so that the worst of the worst can actually come back to the United States. Kilmar, Abrego, Garcia, this is 213. This is your Democrat party. They will fight. They will fly hours on a plane to a foreign nation not to go try to get hostages returned from Hamas. No, instead they will fight to try to return a non American in illegal. This is not a US Citizen. This is not a permanent green card holder. This is an illegal. Who in previous court filings has said that he's afraid to go back to El Salvador because another gang was gonna kill him. Huh? That's something a gang member would say. But hey, Democrats are willing to get in the arena. They're willing to fight not for you, but for Foreign El Salvadorian Ms. 13 gang members. That's what gets them fired up. Plight cut 213.

Chris Van Hollen (13:49)

I'm here at the airport. I'm about to board my flight for San Salvador. The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Albergo Garcia home until he returns to his family. I hope to meet with representatives of the government. I hope to have the chance to actually see Kilmar and see what his condition is. But we are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice. The Supreme Court has ruled 9 to 0, 9 to 0 that he was illegally taken out of the country and put in a prison in El Salvador. And this is about due process. This is about rule of law. What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable. But if we get rid of the rule of law, due process, the United States, it's a short road from there to tyranny.

Charlie Kirk (14:48)

Okay, Taima, why is it that the Democrat party seems to be filled with these like 65 year old men that walk around in cargo shorts and New Balance sneakers and that are like slightly effeminate in their approach? That's like the new caricature. It's like the Tim Waltz Van Hollen Beta Energy. Now let's just be clear. The illegal act was not by the US Government. The illegal act was when he came into our country. Van Hollen, this guy who thinks that jogging once a year is a fitness plan. That's the type of guy that he is. He never tweeted once about Rachel Morin, not once. A Maryland mother and an actual constituent of Chris Van Hollen who was killed by another violent illegal. Remember the first commandment of the left? We should do an entire show of the ten Commandments of the left. The first shall command. The first commandment is very important. Thou shalt have open borders. They would like this Maryland dad a lot less if he were a US citizen, if he weren't a gang member, if he wasn't a person who obviously should be here. Did you know the wife of the deported Ms. 13 gang banger dad, Kilmar Abrego Garcia petitioned for a domestic violence protective order against him in 2021. Looks like the Maryland father also liked to beat up his Maryland wife. This is the person that Van Hollen is getting on a plane to go fight for. This is the type of individual that he feels is worthy of his advocacy. Not American citizens, not US Passport holders, not members of our nation, but foreigners who broke in, committed crimes, part of MS.13. And he could not be even bothered to tweet or mention the name of Rachel Morin. That is the Democrat Party foreign gang bangers first and America's last. Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here ask 10 people to define the word capitalism. How many different responses do you think we'll get? This is a word that comes up all the time, but does anyone know what it really means? Do you? Hillsdale College offers more than 40 free online courses. That's right, free online courses on the subjects like the Book of Genesis, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic, the history of the ancient Christian Church. It's hard for me to say which is my personal favorite. They've recently launched a new course, understanding Capitalism, that I've been watching. In seven lectures, you'll learn about the role of profit and loss, how human nature plays a part in our economic system, why capitalism depends on private property rights, the rule of law and above all, freedom and why capitalism is ultimately a system that encourages morality rather than undermines it. Right now, go to charlieforhillsdale.com to enroll. There's no cost and it's easy to get started. That is charlieforhillsdale.com Charlieforhillsdale.com, hillsdale's America's greatest college. Take their brilliant online courses@charlieforhillsdale.com that is charlieforhillsdale.com Maria Bartiromo is with us, legendary in the financial space and broadcasting all around. Amazing person. Maria, thank you so much for joining the program.

Maria Bartiromo (18:16)

Charlie thank you so much for having me.

Charlie Kirk (18:18)

So, Maria, there's a lot of confusion, some could say, around the tariff issue. You understand financial markets. You talk to more CEOs than anybody and lawmakers. What is the latest with the tariff situation as of today, Wednesday, April 16th, as we are talking? Maria?

Maria Bartiromo (18:35)

Well, you know, I mean, it's interesting and it's funny that, you know, you're saying what is the situation today? Because of course, we know that it appears that it feels like it's constantly changing. But the truth is, is, you know, President Trump has had plans in place from day one, and he's trying right now to categorize things in different buckets, frankly, I mean, to make it as simple as possible. He started this, you know, this exercise out by focusing on the fentanyl coming into the country, killing 100,000Americans a year. And so he went to the countries that he was looking to help and he put a 20% tariff on them for failing to really stop the problem. And that was initially the first reason. And then it's also a revenue generator. He's also raising money into U.S. coffers. So there's that. He's talking about $2 billion a day, of course, that's terrific, knowing our debt and deficits. Then he's talking about bringing manufacturing to America. And that's another reason that he's looking at tariffs. So today we've got tariffs on fentanyl, which is under the international emergency economic powers that the president is using, which, of course, allows the president to regulate foreign and business activity internationally and place those tariffs on partners or wherever. And then he's got the tariffs having to do with aluminum and steel. And he's talking about tariffs there being A national security issue. So you know what, Charlie? I think this whole thing is not just an economic issue, but it is a national security issue. And that's what I wish corporate America would understand. I wish most people would understand these people that are trading stocks and selling their portfolio and putting pressure on the markets. It's really not a good idea. When I say not a good idea. It's not a good idea for them because you have to hold. The stock market is the best place long term for wealth creation. So if you really want to make money over the long term, decide where you want to put your, you know, where. Where you want to invest. We can get to that later. That's another conversation. Stay there and. And you don't trade in and out of it. Okay? So you stay there long term. If you didn't sell anything, you're fine. Okay, so you saw lots of volatility on Wall street in the last couple of weeks. But again, this is a national security issue, and I really don't care how much, you know, it cuts into people's profits right now. It's not the priority. The priority is, is that communist China is undermining America at every turn, whether it be, you know, okay, you could start with COVID Why don't we start there? Okay, Covid. We all know where it came from, and we knew that actually very early on. Secondly, there was a Covid cover up. They cornered the market on things like masks and gloves and this and that. And I remember reporting that at the time because I had my hospital sources call me and say, maria, ships were on their way to America with all the stuff that we need. They were told, turn around, go back to China. So they totally corned the market on PPE and the products that we needed. And then they. They basically stopped, you know, stopped flights going out. I'm sorry, stopped flights coming in, but allowed people to go out of China, out of Wuhan, right to Italy, where they had their belt and road initiative. All those people were working in Italy, and then it spread globally. So there's a Covid cover up. There's also obviously massive, massive surveillance. They're surveilling us at every turn they had. Not to mention the spy balloon that travels the country. Thanks, Joe Biden. For the whole week of having the surveillance balloon send information back to the Chinese Communist Party in real time. But you also have spies galore coming in all the time. They have exploited the student visa process. They have exploited and capitalized on anything they can. And it's because the Communist Party of China wants to overtake the United States as the number one superpower. President Trump is aware of this, so he needs to protect the country. And one of the most important ways and direct ways to do that is, is to ensure that America is independent of its own production. There is no way in hell anybody would believe that we are completely reliant on Communist China for our prescription drugs. It's outrageous. We can't have it any longer. We need to change that immediately. Advanced semiconductor chips, same thing. We are reliant on Taiwan. We all know that China wants to reunite with Taiwan. So in three seconds, China will be able to shut the lights off and on in the world if they go in and get all of those 90% of advanced semiconductor chips. These are serious issues. So President Trump is making it so expensive and so hard for companies not to want to produce in America, not to want to manufacture in America, that they're all gonna immediately start talking like patriots. And that's what should happen.

Charlie Kirk (23:23)

I wanna play a piece of tape here. This is cut. Thank you for that, Maria. Cut 118. It's the Nvidia clip from Stuart Varney. Let's play cut 118.

Chris Van Hollen (23:31)

Look at Nvidia on the left hand side of the screen. They've announced they will manufacture AI supercomputers in the United States. They'll be building more than a million square feet of manufacturing space in Texas and in Arizona.

Charlie Kirk (23:45)

So we're seeing more and more investment here domestically. Maria, when you're Talking to the CEOs, both on your great program or privately, how are they internalizing all of this? Some say they're panicking, but are they understanding that they have probably indulged the Chinese beast far too much? Is there a private admission by the corporate class that they have made a mistake? They've made an error, and even for their own best interest as a company, they should start to decouple their marriage with the Chinese Communist Party.

Maria Bartiromo (24:21)

They're getting it slowly. Remember, companies are going to do whatever is lawful, and they may very well push it to the edge because it's quote, unquote lawful. Now, what happened was when Clinton and when Nixon first went to China, and then Clinton supported China into the World Trade Organization, it was a pivotal moment for America. And what happened then was the Americans felt, well, maybe we open up the world to trade with China, maybe they'll recognize how great democracy and capitalism is and they'll sort of come to the middle. That's not what happened. What happened when they went more nationalistic and you've got Xi Jinping right now modeling himself after Mao Zedong. So they went completely the other way. So, yes, people recognized that it went the other way. It wasn't just corporations making the mistake. It was the world at large. And so now they've gone too far. And, you know, companies, I think, are talking about it, and they do know privately, one CEO of a financial services company said to me, well, I told my people, make sure you're always ready to leave the keys and walk out the door. Like, don't, you know, don't leave too much stuff. You know, don't leave too much behind. Make sure you're always ready to. I'm out of here. And get out when you, when you need to. But, you know, China has been very smart and very aggressive with its belt and road strategy, taking it all over the world and, and aggressively utilizing shipping lanes across the world to producing products for the world at very cheap prices, and taking over complete, huge infrastructure projects with various countries across the world knowing that they'll be able to pay the debt. And then ultimately the Chinese saying, well, then we're going to just acquire this, Acquire this port, take over that. And so the good news is that President Trump understands all of this. And the fact that he came in swinging with the Panama Canal, the Greenland idea, just shows you how and brilliant he is about this issue. On the one hand, he's saying, oh, Xi Jinping's my friend, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, he's putting 145% tariffs on the nation. So, look, it's not going to be easy. The President said we're going to see disruption. And I agree with that because these things should have happened a long time ago. Like I said, we should not be reliant on these supply chains. What companies are also saying, however, in addition, privately, that, yes, we need to decouple, we need to bring more manufacturing outside of China and depend less on China. They're also very unnerved by a lack of clarity. And that's really the issue. And when I spoke with President Trump a month ago, I asked him this, and I pushed him on it. That's not clarity. Where's the clarity? We need clarity because these companies are public companies. Their CEOs need to communicate to shareholders. They need to communicate to, to their business partners and, you know, about how much money they're going to put into it and how much money they're going to do R and D and make capital projections. And they can't, because they don't know how much it's going to cost them on tariffs. So the lack of clarity is what is undermining the confidence in this. But I think slowly but surely people are recognizing that this is not just an economic issue. This is a national security issue and everybody needs to get on board.

Charlie Kirk (27:41)

I completely and totally agree. In closing here, Maria, would you say that we are heading towards a recession? How would you look at the current economic environment? How does the one big beautiful bill play into that? The consensus amongst CEOs, 60 plus percent say that they think a recession is coming. What do you think, Maria?

Maria Bartiromo (28:04)

Nah, I don't think so. Look, I see a lot of good things in the economy. I do think that the big beautiful bill takes on much more importance than ever before. Congress needs to get to work. The GOP needs to get in line and ensure that they get those tax cuts extended because the markets and the economy need some good news. I don't think a recession is a definite outcome at all. I see growth. I don't want to hear this talk about raising taxes on the rich. That's exactly who you should not raise taxes on because that encapsulates business and businesses are the job creators. So I think they need to stick to their principles, extend the tax cuts, ensure that people have confidence in that, confidence in Trump's deregulatory plans. That's also very important. Confidence in the energy plan. And I think they'll get over tariffs soon enough. And yeah, okay, maybe it takes a hit to earnings next couple of quarters, but they'll get over it.

Charlie Kirk (28:56)

Everyone. Maria is the greatest. Every Sunday morning I'm watching Sunday MORNING Futures with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. Maria, thank you so much for your time. God bless. Talk to you soon.

Maria Bartiromo (29:05)

Thanks, you too.

Charlie Kirk (29:06)

Bye bye. Great analysis. I want to tell you about why Refi. Why Refi is amazing. Private student loan debt refinancing for you and the ones that you love. Why Refi is the exclusive partner of our campus tour. Private student loan debt in the US totals about $300 billion. About 45 billion of that is labeled as distressed. May not be available in all 50 states. When I go to these campuses, when I go to Boise State, when I go to Cal State Northridge, when I go to University of South Carolina, when I go to Oklahoma State University, when I go to Purdue, when I go to University South Florida, Florida, University of Florida, Florida State. We go to a lot of campuses. Student loan debt is a major question. They ask about if you know anybody in your life that has private student loan debt. Listen carefully. It's whyrefi.com if you go to Yrefi, you can read testimonials from other people who have been where you are. Go to whyrefi.com, you can skip a payment every six months up to 12 times without penalty. Go to yrefi.com that is yrefy.com Many clients aren't able to make the minimum monthly payment. So take a look at it right now@yrefi.com that is y r e f y.com yrefi.com okay everybody email us freedomarliekirk.com there's so much news happening right here. I want to focus on a story that has not received nearly enough attention, which is the fact that President Trump is dialoguing with Iran. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Period. Hard stop. That's a non negotiable. America has a nuclear weapon. France has a nuclear weapon. Russia has a nuclear weapon. China has a nuclear weapon. India has a nuclear weapon. Pakistan has a nuclear weapon. Israel has a nuclear weapon. I'm sure I'm forgetting it. South Africa used to have nuclear weapons and they got rid of them. Widespread. Oh, North Korea obviously has a nuclear weapon. Widespread nuclear proliferation would be very bad for the world. Be not good to have errant crazy actors like the Ayatollah of Iran to have a nuclear weapon. No good. Iran is one of the fulcrums of Mohammedism. It's not the only one. It's where the Shias come to live. About 15% of all Muslims are Shia. Now I'm going to play this piece of tape from Beat Hegseth. And I'm going to also tell you another truth because while Iran should not have a nuclear weapon, going to war with Iran would be catastrophic. Going to war with Iran would be a dreadful mistake. And that includes American military strikes on the interior of Iran. Two things can simultaneously be true. We need to exert maximum leverage while also saying we are not going to go to war with Iran. Doesn't matter if Tom Cotton wants it. Doesn't matter if Lindsey Graham wants it. It doesn't matter if all the US Senators in the Deep State cabal wants it. We will clearly say we are against a war with Iran. Let's play first. Cotton99 well, I can tell you that.

Abby Phillips (32:06)

President Trump is dead serious on this issue. He's dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He's said that for 20 years. He's been consistent. That is clear. He's dead serious that he wants it done at the negotiating table. He wants it done peacefully. And that's why he's going straight to these talks. He set that deadline. These were productive talks yesterday. I don't want to get ahead of our skis. Steve Witkoff does a fantastic job, but it was a good step and they're going to, they're going to go at it again on Saturday. But he's also dead serious that if we can't figure this out at the negotiating table, then there are other options to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb. We hope we never get there.

Charlie Kirk (32:44)

I think they have to say that for the record. I think Pete Hegseth has to say that or else they're not going to take us seriously. I would strongly oppose any form of military strikes on Iranian nuclear equipment. Period. That would be an act of war. I don't care if it's limited. That is an act of war. Ever since the cold of war ended, cold war ended, our elites have made a fetish out of never negotiating with people. Everything is always non negotiable. The same people who endlessly want to invade Iran are horrified at the idea of trying to get what we want without a war. The last thing America needs is another war. Negotiating is very important and I will say the Persian people are some of the greatest untapped potential on the entire planet. The people of Persia are phenomenal. The young Persians, they follow us on TikTok. I get messages from kids in Iran. They do not like this government. I think not. Maybe in our lifetime, maybe not. I pray this totalitarianism in Iran can end because the Persian youth, I think they want to live in a free society. Who knows? Iran can't get a nuclear weapon. But simultaneously as true, we cannot go to war with Iran. Resist those calls because the drums of war are beating in Washington D.C. thanks so much for listening everybody. Email us. As always, freedom at charliekirk. Com. Thanks so much for listening and God bless. For more on many of these stories.

Abby Phillips (34:10)

And news you can trust, go to charliekirk.

Charlie Kirk (34:12)

Com.