The Strait Opens, The War Ends? + AMA

Summary

THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW | EPISODE SUMMARY

Episode: "The Strait Opens, The War Ends? + AMA"
Date: April 17, 2026
Host: Charlie Kirk with co-host Blake | Guests: Chris Rufo

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Overview

This episode of The Charlie Kirk Show focuses on breaking developments in Middle East geopolitics—in particular, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz following recent ceasefire agreements involving Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran, as well as the ongoing U.S.-led blockade. The episode also features a wide-ranging interview with journalist Chris Rufo about California’s controversial social and fiscal policies under Governor Gavin Newsom, especially those surrounding state-funded gender procedures for undocumented migrants and rampant government fraud. The latter half transitions into an open AMA with listener questions about grassroots activism, immigration policy, and maintaining positivity in an era of political and social turmoil.

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Main Topics & Key Discussion Points

1. Geopolitical Developments: Strait of Hormuz, Iran & Ceasefire

• Context Setting (02:28–03:22):
  • Build the Red Wall event in Phoenix, Arizona with President Trump present.
  • "We got the ceasefire...Even Iran’s spokespeople are confirming that the strait is in fact open." – Charlie Kirk (02:28)
• Ceasefire Details & Blockade (02:40–04:57):
  • A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon achieved via Washington negotiations.
  • The U.S. navy blockade on the Strait of Hormuz will continue against Iran pending a final agreement.
  • "The Achilles heel of the Iranian regime is that Strait of Hormuz. That’s where all their money comes from." — Charlie, relaying Rep. Marlon Strutzman's comments (05:01)
  • Trump’s approach: leverage economic pressure over Iran by controlling oil shipping.
• Trump’s 'Truth Social' Announcements (05:46–06:40):
  • Trump asserts that “the Strait of Hormuz is completely open and ready for business and full passage.”
  • However, "the naval blockade will remain...pertains to Iran only until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete."
  • U.S. to get “all nuclear dust created by our great B2 bombers and no money will exchange hands.” (05:56)
  • The U.S. forbids Israel from resuming strikes on Lebanon: "Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are prohibited from doing so by the USA. Enough is enough." (06:38)
• Political Fallout & Public Opinion (06:41–09:33):
  • Trump’s stance viewed as both a strong geopolitical move and a potential liability with younger voters.
  • "If he can do that in...two, three weeks, that is a huge, huge, huge, huge, I would call it a win, a definitive win for President Trump." – Charlie (08:17)
  • The challenge: spending political capital at home versus abroad.

2. California Policies: Interview with Chris Rufo (11:22–28:45)

A. State-Funded Gender Surgeries for Undocumented Migrants

• Rufo’s Investigation (12:32–15:58):
  • California’s Medi-Cal provides gender-affirming care—including surgeries—to undocumented migrants.
  • Field reports: Homeless trans migrants from Honduras and Mexico confirm migrating to California specifically for these benefits.
  • Memorable moment: "We came to San Francisco...knew Gavin Newsom would give us free sex change hormones, free shelter, free food, free gender surgeries." – Rufo (12:50)
  • High cost: Procedures can approach or exceed $1 million each over a lifetime due to ongoing medical care.
  • "You become a lifelong ward of the state or of this medical industrial complex." – Charlie (15:09)
• Polling & Public Perception (15:58–17:02):
  • Framing as “life-saving, gender-affirming care” polls well, but awareness of surgical specifics causes support to "plummet, even in a leftwing state like California." – Rufo (15:58)
• On-the-Ground Testimony Clip (17:41–18:25):
  • Audio of a migrant confirming free, taxpayer-funded breast implant and being on a waitlist for further surgery.

B. Massive State Fraud under Newsom

• Empire of Fraud (22:16–27:23):
  • "California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud...It’s larger than the economy of Mississippi." – Blake (22:46)
  • Three main avenues: unemployment insurance fraud ("more than $30 billion"), Medi-Cal fraud (20–25% of $200B spending), and abuses in other programs.
  • COVID’s role: Weak oversight left billions vulnerable to grift. One example: a rapper from Memphis scammed $700,000 and made a music video about it (25:29–26:43).
  • "At every turn, the Newsom administration and state Democrats have systematically dismantled oversight, investigations, fraud controls." – Rufo (27:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I think the Strait of Hormuz showed us the Achilles heel for Iran.” – Rep. Marlon Strutzman, as relayed by Charlie (04:19)
• "When you find the Achilles heel of your enemy...you can really exact a massive toll..." – Charlie (05:01)
• “They are getting free taxpayer-funded hormones, breast implants, sex change operations…” – Blake (12:10)
• "California is designed to do two things: line the pockets of Gavin Newsom’s key allies...and permit fraud because fraud increases spending." – Chris Rufo (24:12)
• “You’ll sometimes hear people say they’re doing nothing, but sometimes things just aren’t headline news…we are getting the reps out there of going after the activists who commit crimes.” – Blake on government action vs. activist groups (57:42)
• "How you feel is a choice. I choose not to feel bad, and so I don’t." – Charlie (via Blake’s anecdote) on staying positive (53:43)

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Audience AMA Highlights (30:17–61:53)

1. Grassroots Activism & Conservative Media Legacy

• Rush Limbaugh’s Microphone Story (30:22–33:28):
  • Glenn Beck’s symbolic gifting of the golden EIB mic; “that mic...belongs in Glenn Beck’s museum.” (32:10)

2. Jungle Primaries and Electoral Chaos (34:06–36:55)

• Why so many uncompetitive candidates run in California:
  • Weak party apparatus allows splintered fields; jungle primaries complicate strategic voting.

3. Free Speech & Campus Activism (36:59–43:30)

• Canadian activist bans, U.S. comparisons:
  • Canadian listener shares story of lifetime campus ban for proximity to a controversial conversation.
  • Charlie and Blake recount U.S. campus confrontations: "All he did was stand up there and wave, and they threatened to arrest him for that." (41:17)
  • Importance of the First Amendment.

4. Conservative Dating & Immigration System Woes (44:45–51:49)

• Challenges of finding love abroad amid immigration crackdowns:
  • Listener Andy describes difficulty in bringing his Filipina girlfriend to the U.S. for a visit or marriage.
  • "K visas for spouses and fiancés were down 65% in 2025." – Charlie (48:12)
  • Advice: Work with an immigration attorney, recognize complexity is to prevent fraud.

5. Maintaining Hope in Tumultuous Times (52:00–54:10)

• Staying grounded amid “doomerism”:
  • High-agency mindset comes from faith, choosing positivity.
  • "One of the best things about Charlie, he was so high agency..." – Blake (53:43)

6. Crackdown on Radical Activists & Dark Money (54:38–58:13)

• **Progress in prosecuting Antifa cells—first guilty pleas and convictions on terrorism-related charges for organized groups in Texas.
• Ongoing investigations into left-wing funding networks (George Soros, Ford Foundation, etc.).

7. Charlie Kirk's Origin Story & Political Realism (59:23–61:53)

• Grassroots patience and the importance of incremental wins:
  • Charlie started in politics working for a "forgettable RINO," Mark Kirk—proof that small beginnings can lead to big impact.

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Key Timestamps

• 02:28 – Build the Red Wall event intro & Middle East ceasefire news
• 04:19 – Analysis: the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s Achilles heel
• 05:46 – Trump’s social media statements on the strait, uranium, and Lebanon
• 11:22 – Interview with Chris Rufo kicks off
• 12:32 – Details on California’s gender surgery policies for migrants
• 22:16 – Overview of California’s fraud crisis
• 30:17 – Start of AMA: Rush Limbaugh's microphone story
• 36:59 – Canadian activist and free speech on campus
• 44:49 – Immigration/dating dilemma: listener Andy’s story
• 52:00 – How to avoid "doomerism" in politics
• 54:38 – Progress in prosecuting radical groups & dark money networks

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Conclusion

Charlie and Blake deliver a wide-ranging episode mixing hard-hitting analysis of current foreign policy maneuvers with deep dives into domestic culture war issues and vibrant listener engagement. The episode stands out for its unapologetic conservative ethos, on-the-ground investigations, and willingness to tackle controversial subjects. The show's tone remains passionate, solution-oriented, and at times, fiercely optimistic, delivering on its promise to provide clarity—and a call to civic action—amid the chaos of the day.

Transcript

[Charlie Kirk]

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro American student organization in the country, fighting for the

[Blake]

future of our republic.

[Charlie Kirk]

My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you

[Blake]

is just feeling good, you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important thing is

[Charlie Kirk]

doing good, you will end up purposeful.

[Blake]

College is a scam, everybody. You gotta stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as

[Charlie Kirk]

possible and have as many kids as possible.

[Blake]

Go start a Point USA College chapter. Go start a Turning Point USA High School chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved.

[Charlie Kirk]

Sign up and become an activist.

[Blake]

I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same.

[Charlie Kirk]

Here I am, Lord.

[Blake]

Use me. Buckle up, everybody.

[Charlie Kirk]

Here we go.

[Blake]

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[Charlie Kirk]

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[Blake]

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[Charlie Kirk]

all right, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. We're here in Phoenix, Arizona at the Y Refi Studio. Blake, how we doing?

[Blake]

Oh, we're doing great.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's a good morning.

[Blake]

It's a good morning. It's a great morning for our event.

[Charlie Kirk]

Here it is. Build the Red Wall is happening today in Phoenix. Arizon, if you look just behind Blake's shoulder, maybe an ISO on Blake. There it is. Build the Red Wall. You see Trump's face right there and it is happening. It starts today at 12:00 clock local time at Dream City Church. We are expecting a packed house. People are already streaming in. Line is building, they're chanting, they're waving flags. There's a Elvis sighting. Really? Yeah, there's actually an Elvis sighting. So if you're in line, our people are gonna come greet you, get you water, all that stuff. It's gonna be an Excell. Obviously, a lot of security. They're gonna be making us sweep cars and think, well, we're not doing it. The Secret Service is doing that. Just know that this is all planned, so get in line, don't worry about it, and we'll have our people come out and talk to you and all that stuff. So Dream City Church, Build the Red Wall. It's a great day to have President Trump in Phoenix because, Blake, ceasefire. We got the ceasefire and the President has fired off a stream of true socials. We could probably just start rotating through some of These of the fact that the strait has been open. Even Iran's spokespeople are confirming that the strait is in fact open.

[Blake]

So to supply context for this, do it, do it. We announced the ceasefire a while ago, but then there was some friction because they wanted it to apply to Lebanon. We said it didn't apply to Lebanon, so they said it really wasn't fully open. So then we began blockading the strait. So what was announced late last night was There is a 10 day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon that was agreed through negotiations here in Washington. And because that ceasefire has been achieved, Iran now says they're ready to leave the strait open. But President Trump does say that the blockade will continue until we can reach a final agreement with Iran.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yep. And I think this is a really telling clip because as soon as, listen, you may not like this conflict, you may have skepticism, hesitancy, as I did, but President Trump's onto something with this blockade and the blockade sort of exposed. So, you know, first of all, you got the strikes, they take out the missile capabilities. That's all well and good. You've got, I don't know, 10 to 15 US destroyers in the area, vessels that can actually shoot down missiles, whatever they have left in their stockpile. So now the strait was their big point of leverage. So if you block the strait, you're cutting off their money. That's really a big deal to Iran and the future prospects of the Iranian regime, what's left of it. And I think this word that President Trump uses with CNN is really, really important. Let's go ahead and play SOT8.

[Blake]

Do you think we're now in week seven, entering into week seven?

[Charlie Kirk]

Do you think this is it? This is the beginning of the end of this war?

[Blake]

I do. I think the Straits of Hormuz showed us the Achilles heel for Iran.

[Charlie Kirk]

I mean, I'm a business guy. I know that when revenues start to

[Blake]

dry up, that all of a sudden you start to scramble.

[Charlie Kirk]

And I think the Iranian regime realized that their cash flow was going to

[Blake]

take a big hit when all of a sudden ships can't move in and out of the Straits of Hormuz.

[Charlie Kirk]

And so I think President Trump did a brilliant job of taking that position.

[Blake]

I mean, it was, you know, it seemed risky to everybody, but really it was the one that I think put

[Charlie Kirk]

the, put them on their heels and

[Blake]

said, look, we have to have that cash and we've got to find a deal. It'll be interesting, I think, at the end who we're actually really dealing with. I know President Trump knows that.

[Charlie Kirk]

So again, sorry, that was Rep. Marlon Strutzman who used that word. The Achilles heel of the Iranian regime is that Strait of Hormuz. That's where all their money comes from. That's where all the oil flows out. And it's not just oil, by the way, it's petrochemicals. It's all kinds of different products. So if you block that straight and you cut off Iran's ability to get revenue from their energy, you basically strangle the economy of Iran. And the Iranian leaders understand that. So when you find the Achilles heel of your enemy, or your opponent in this case, now this is straight, you can really exact a really massive toll, a price. And what is the price? President Trump is going to ensure, at least this is what we're hearing, that he's going to get all of the nuclear components, the nuclear dust, the uranium dust.

[Blake]

Let's just. We should read some of these.

[Charlie Kirk]

Go for it. Yeah. He says.

[Blake]

So he opened just two hours ago. He said the Strait of Hormuz is completely open and ready for business and full passage. But the naval blockade will remain in force and in effect as it pertains to Iran only until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete. This process should go very quickly and that most of the points are already negotiated. Thank you for your attention. And then he continued right after, without all caps this time, the USA will get all nuclear dust created by our great B2 bombers and no money will exchange hands in any way, shape or form. We know he was very critical of the Obama nuclear deal which gave Iran a lot of money. He says this deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, but the USA will separately work with Lebanon and deal with the Hezbollah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are prohibited from doing so by the usa. Enough is enough. That's a very interesting statement.

[Charlie Kirk]

Can I pause on this one really quick? So I was talking with somebody that is looking at the numbers, look at the polling for midter terms yesterday, and I said, well, what can we do? What would be your advice? And the advice was really clear. It said President Trump has to assert his independence from Israel immediately. Now, I don't know if this person is speaking to the admin about this specifically, but this tweet stood out to me because this truth, because he's saying we're in charge, they're not in charge. We're mandating the terms of this, we're telling them to knock it off. Again, remember that moment after Midnight Hammer, where there was still some missiles going back and forth between, between Israel and Iran and he was not happy. Remember that? Where he's walking out to the, I think on the South Lawn of the White House and he's like, I'm not happy. It's not gonna, you know. And that was a really important moment, I think, for the president in that time. Fast forward to today. He's sort of doing this via truth, saying, here's the terms. Lebanon's not gonna scuttle the deal. I'm not gonna allow Israel's fight with Hezbollah, whatever you may think of that, to scuttle the deal, because we had a larger thing that we're doing here. And frankly, it's too important to America to get the deal done and over the finish line. And this is my big, my big message and my hope is that this is really and truly the culmination, the finish, the end of this conflict in Iran. Let's wrap it up. Let's declare victory. Let's get the uranium dust, let's put our people in there, let's establish and normalize relations with Iran. If he can do that in the next. If we can wrap this back puppy up in two, three weeks. That is a huge, huge, huge, huge, I would call it a win, a definitive win for President Trump. Now, the political fallout is still a thing. It's gonna take some time to shake this off, especially with younger voters. I've told you guys on the show a number of times that young people don't like the Iranian war. They don't. They don't like it. Okay? Now, you might like it out there, you might trust Trump. You might see that the geopolitical ramifications of this, but that doesn't mean that normies out there that aren't consuming the news every day understand the ramifications geopolitically, what this does to China, what this does potentially to end conflicts for a long time in the Middle East. And I've said it again, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that this could have been the absolutely right geopolitical national security move, but it will have a political cost. So the point in politics is, where do you want to spend your political capital? We want to get through this, and we want to spend our political capital right here at home. We want to nation build right here at home.

[Blake]

I think it's pretty. It's as you say. I think it's pretty clear, as we said, this had a political hit to The President. But we said if he can resolve it successfully pivot domestically, and if he has something he can point to that this is our last war, that this was a successful war, they will get over it. And I think he's excellently set the ground for that. And now he just has to land the plane.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yep. Get it over the finish line. If he gets that uranium man, he'll have done something no other president has done, not by a long shot. If you are a parent like me, sometimes you go through these growth spurts with your kids at home. You realize how quickly they're growing. Their pants don't fit, you gotta go get them new clothes. And all of that for me is a sign that we need to get serious about making sure that they're taken care of in the future. It's a burden that we have as families to make sure that the next generation, our loved ones are taken care of should anything happen, a safety net big enough for what they need. That's why I trust policygenius to take care of my family's growing needs by making coverage life insurance easy. Their licensed team works for you, so their guidance is about your needs. What stands out to me is that these are, this is a company all about people. Policygenius cares about real families, just like mine, just like yours. We've gotten so much positive feedback from the audience that has used Policy Genius already. So you should become the next person to do so. Prioritize peace of mind. Lock in your life insurance today. Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace that allows you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. Easily find what you need. Coverage, amounts, prices, terms. No guesswork, just clarity. Policygenius helps you find your most affordable policy that meets your need. So protect your family with a policy that grows with your life. With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policy starting at just $276 a year for 1 million in coverage. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com

[Blake]

we have the excellent Chris Ruffo joining us to talk about his sustained operation to bring down Gavin Newsom's California before it devours the entire country. Chris, are you there?

[Chris Ruffo]

Yeah, I'm here. Good to be with you guys.

[Blake]

What's so amazing, what we did is when we first reached out to you, it was a week or two ago and at that time it was your article in City Journal, which everyone should check out. It is Gavin Newsom's empire of fraud. California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud, according to officials and experts. We'll get to that in just a second. But just in the last few days, you got another story which went incredibly viral and deservedly so, which is that California is. I don't even. In a sense, I don't know why this is a news story, because I think Kamala Harris basically ran on this as her platform in 2024. But California is giving free sex change procedures to homeless illegal aliens. Your team went into the streets and you found the people who are getting free taxpayer funded hormones, breast implants, sex change operations. Chris, tell us more about it.

[Chris Ruffo]

Yeah, that's right. And so if you look in California's medi cal documents, it says very clearly that they provide health care to illegal aliens and also that they provide gender affirming care, which is a euphemism for sex change procedures. But we went a little bit deeper and wanted to figure out where these things intersect. So we visited a number of homeless shelters in San Francisco. And outside of each one, there were groups of trans migrants, mostly from Honduras and Mexico, who told us very clearly. We came into the United States, in many cases crossed the border illegally, because we knew that if we made it to San Francisco, that Gavin Newsom would give us free sex change hormones, free shelter, free food, free gender surgeries. And so it was kind of one of those moments where you're like blown away because it seems like a right wing fever dream. But in the streets of California, on the ground, firsthand sources, they tell you as if it were just another Tuesday.

[Blake]

So even if this was costing $10, it would be manifestly insane. But what's the expense on some of these operations? How much does it cost to give one of these illegal migrants breast implants, or to lop it off, as it were?

[Chris Ruffo]

Well, what's really interesting is the total cost. So some of the more complex genital surgeries can cost half a million dollars. But what happens when you go through all of these surgical procedures? You start taking the hormones, you become a lifelong ward of the transgender medical system. So you have to go back month after month after month for your entire life to receive all of these follow up treatments. And so the cost can easily balloon into seven figures. This is a million dollar, multimillion dollar, lifetime medical process. And so you know why doctors like to do it? Because they have a lifetime patient. You know why Gavin Newsom likes to do it? Because he gets a pat on the head from all of the left wing activists that are living in his state and living across the country. But what's mind boggling is that California voters also seem to support these policies. It costs them money. It's barbaric. I think we'll look back in 50 or 100 years and this will be just like some of those horrific medical experiments of the past. It will be something that is recognized as a form of barbarism.

[Blake]

I think you're absolutely right and I think that's a point very much worth emphasizing. These are not one off surgeries. They're stuff people aren't even maybe familiar with that they'll get like male to females. They'll get their Adam's apple shaved down because that's more prominent. You'll shave down their cheekbones, have a softer face.

[Charlie Kirk]

Sometimes, you know, we're all gentlemen here, at least I suspect we are. And sometimes we use euphemisms to talk about how disgusting this stuff is. But if you are a male to female transition, er, then I mean they're literally boring a hole in your pelvis and that hole wants to heal. And this is what you're talking about. You become a lifelong ward of the state or of this medical industrial complex here and you have to receive treatments over your life to ensure that this stays open wound.

[Blake]

An open wound that we're pretending is an Adam.

[Charlie Kirk]

It's extraordinarily barbaric. And to think that California would do this to its own taxpayers and the taxpayers would somehow go along with this as if it was compassionate. I mean, do we have polling on this Chris, in the state of California?

[Chris Ruffo]

Yeah, it really depends how you phrase it. And so if you phrase it like the left likes to do as life saving, gender affirming care, it polls fairly well. But if you actually explain to people the kind of physical mechanics of what this is. And Andrew, your point is really a good one. You know, we talked with one of these migrants, trans migrants from Mexico, who said he got free breast implants for medi cal and he was now on the wait list for bottom surgery, which is another one of those euphemisms as you're talking about, which is essentially castrating an adult male and using that penile tissue to create an artificial vagina. I mean this is Dr. Frankenstein. This is barbarism. And again, if you explain that to people, the popularity plummets even in a left wing state like California. People just are, they don't want this. When you tell them the truth, they recoil and so that's why it's important, as you guys have done on the show and as Charlie did over and over, to just give people the straight facts, even if it's a little bit uncomfortable.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, Chris, I just want to pause because I know Blake's an avid reader, and I'm such a huge fan as well, of the work that you guys are doing at City Journal Manhattan Institute. You guys have some of the most incredible reporting. I mean, the Minneapolis stuff was from, I believe, you and your colleague. Ryan, tell me his name. I want to give him a shout out. Thorpe.

[Blake]

Thorpe.

[Charlie Kirk]

Thorpe. Ryan Thorpe. He came on the show and talked. I mean, but, like, these stories are huge. They're shocking. You guys do really good research. I mean, it really is the investigative journalism answer to so much of the apparatus that's set up on the other side of the aisle. And so I just want to give you guys a big hat tip and a shout out there. And we do have a clip here that I was.

[Blake]

Oh, of course.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. This is just to show that you guys did your field work here. Sat 9. And me as a trans woman. Yeah.

[Blake]

I don't.

[Charlie Kirk]

I feel safe. Were you able to get the hormones or, you know. Yeah, I did that with my doctor. So medi Cal, you got the breast implants? Yes.

[Blake]

Wow.

[Charlie Kirk]

Taxpayer funded. So here in California, they gave you the. The breast implant here? Yes. Free. Yeah.

[Blake]

Wow. Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

Congratulations. Do you feel like that's a good benefit for other migrants here in California? Yeah. Even though you don't. You're undocumented. You can get it. Did you do bottom two bottom surgery? Waiting for that one.

[Blake]

Wow.

[Charlie Kirk]

You're waiting for bottom surgery. Okay, there it is. Is that Jonathan Cho? If I heard the voice right. We work with him at Turning Point Frontlines as well. He's a great guy.

[Chris Ruffo]

Jonathan is one of the best. I know he's been doing front lines for you. He's been doing work for me, been doing work for Discovery Institute. And it's really important, and it's really important to go out onto the ground, talk to people, get the real story. And I appreciate all that you guys have done to kind of boost these stories that we're doing. And the formula that we've developed is pretty simple. We have now a growing team of investigative reporters, and we put in the work. I mean, we have reporters spending a month, sometimes two months just on a single story. We're not a content mill trying to generate, you know, a million links a day. But we really want those stories that peel back the kind of onion. Of progressive governance, in this case in California, to reveal what's happening beneath the surface.

[Blake]

Yeah, well, I really. I want to flag this because Gavin Newsom's government has tried to dispute the fraud claims, which we'll get to in the next segment, but they have, in fact, doubled down on this trans surgery thing. They put out a statement. This is from Gavin Newsom's communications office. Undocumented Californians don't get special treatment. Everyone on Medi Cal gets the same access to care. If you want to call California woke for not letting politicians interfere with doctors or not wanting people to die in the streets, then go ahead. That's their. That's their response to the clip we just played.

[Charlie Kirk]

Oh, dear. Yeah. I mean, what's your. What's your reaction to Gavin Newsom and the framing of that. That tweet?

[Chris Ruffo]

Well, it's classic emotional blackmail. And so this is something we see even with young girls. They say, you know, if you don't let this person transition, if you don't provide the hormones and the surgeries and the drugs, they're going to commit suicide. So that's what he's. That. That's what they're referring to. It's, of course, totally dishonest. The facts don't substantiate it. And, of course, he's essentially admitting that, yes, we are giving transgenders, migrants, and illegal aliens these gender surgeries, but it's a good thing. And so, you know, he can't escape the facts. They knew that we had caught them in the act, and so they're trying to run defense and these very sleazy emotional blackmail techniques that we've seen for years.

[Charlie Kirk]

Charlie had an absolutely relentless passion for learning. I saw it up close and personal in every waking moment, every spare moment that he could. He had a book open. He had a podcast open. He had a Hillsdale online course open. He was always diving into new ideas, absorbing information, studying up, and sharpening his skills. That's why I love Dr. Arn. Hillsdale College, they shared a deep understanding that learning is the key to shaping your character, creating courage, and changing lives. Charlie never stopped learning, and neither should you. Through Hillsdale's online courses, he spent time studying the classics, the American founding, and the enduring truths of the Bible. Now it is your turn. With Hillsdale's free online courses, you can follow in his footsteps, learning from real professors and challenging yourself with rigorous coursework that's free and accessible to anybody who's willing to learn. A great place to start is their brand new course on logic and rhetoric. Learn from Hillsdale professors how to speak masterfully, make a powerful point, and see how clear thinking leads to better decision making and more effective speech. Don't wait. Go to charlieforhillsdale.com to enroll today. It's completely free. This is a real good one, by the way. Logic and rhetoric. Pick up the mic, carry it forward. Learn like Charlie. Start right now at charlie for hillsdale.com

[Blake]

so we covered the trans focus, but there's a bigger picture that you've been highlighting, which is that this is one small part, and I guess you can't even call that fraudulent. They're just openly saying this is what we spend money on. But there's also that California is the apotheosis of what you might call the Minnesota problem, which is easy fraud all over the place that's going unchecked. You call it the empire of fraud. California has lost at least $180 billion to fraud. If you want a point of comparison, that's about the size of the economy of Qatar or Kuwait or Uzbekistan. It's larger than the economy of Mississippi. That's a pretty large amount of fraud. And it's coming from a lot of different places, isn't it, Chris?

[Chris Ruffo]

Yeah. I mean, we reported, we had four reporters working on this story for a number of months, and it felt like every lead we chased down opened up a whole dozen new leads about fraud within the California system. But if you want to break it down in the simplest way possible, you have three major buckets. The first is unemployment insurance. We know that unemployment insurance in California was defrauded of more than $30 billion under Gavin Newsom. The second bucket, the biggest bucket, is Medi Cal, the state Medicaid program. We know that there is, you know, somewhere between 20 and 25% of that budget is lost every year to fraud. Currently about $200 billion in total spending. So we're talking about, you know, let's say between 20 and $50 billion, conservatively on the low end, and then a kind of grab bag of other programs that are rife with fraud. Homelessness services, food stamps, autism services, welfare programs. And so if you really pull back, the total scale of this is really astonishing. And it seems that California is designed to do two things. One, it's designed to line the pockets of Gavin Newsom's key allies in the labor unions, the teachers unions, the medical system. And then second, it seemed to permit fraud because fraud increases spending, fraud increases the kind of perception of job growth within the state, and that some of that fraud is doubtlessly routed into the NGOs, into the unions, into the other parts of the system where Gavin Newsom generates his power.

[Blake]

Yeah, I'm just, I'm looking through some of the examples here. You have someone who embezzled $2.2 million for exotic cars. They got the monthly rent on a 6,500 square foot mansion. There's just example after example. And it was really, it stands out. A lot of this just, it seems like it went. It was always there, it was always bad in California. But what really allowed it to just become permanent and much bigger than ever before is Covid. That Covid really just, it set the standard that we're going to give away almost unlimited amounts of money. And it sort of normalized the practice of just essentially not checking. That's why fraud is so glaring here, is it seems like it's considered immoral, impractical, unethical to check the claims of anybody who's trying to take state money. Is that a fair characterization?

[Chris Ruffo]

It's more than fair. I mean, Blake, you put it perfectly. During the early months of COVID and California's response, they essentially opened up the unemployment insurance program to distribute money, you know, with no checks. In our reporting, we found two very interesting things. One, there were only two bureaucrats in Sacramento controlling potential fraud in the unemployment system, which was issuing, you know, tens of billions of dollars per month in claims. I mean, it was really just open season. And one of the stories we found, which was just a perfect encapsulation during this period, a rapper in Memphis, Tennessee named Nuke Bizzle released a music video showing exactly how he was filing false claims with California unemployment and harvesting hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the system because he made the music video. He was eventually tried and convicted for embezzling $700,000. But the kind of dirty secret, he only got caught because he literally made a music video teaching people how he was stealing money from the state of California. So if you kept it a little more low key, you almost certainly got away with it.

[Blake]

Yeah, and I'm looking here that they were paying, they paid out some Covid benefits to a bunch of hundreds of millions of dollars worth to prisoners names including 133 inmates on death row.

[Charlie Kirk]

Is this just a rubber stamp? It's just like, is this, are these, this money? It just seems like nobody's checking any of the work. They're not checking to see if people actually need this. And I think that's the other side of the story, is that not only Is it fleecing the taxpayers? But it's so bad that you have to imagine people that actually need help in services are not able to get it or something. I mean, I just. Are there any checks and balances, Chris?

[Chris Ruffo]

No. And in fact, at every turn we found this in our reporting. You know, the Newsom administration and state Democrats have systematically dismantled oversight investigations, fraud controls. It really does appear that they, they see the fraud as some kind of social justice, maybe redistribution of wealth from California's wealthy class and productive class to California's criminal class. I mean, you really need to go back and like read your Dostoevsky and read your Nietzsche to find the philosophical core of this. Because on the surface, if you're a regular middle class taxpayer, it's almost too difficult to understand. How does the kleptocratic criminal political class in California just give out tens of billions of dollars per year to fraudsters with seemingly no interest in making it stop?

[Blake]

You guys have done incredible work over at City Journal over at the Manhattan Institute.

[Charlie Kirk]

It takes a long time and do it this way, if you're a young

[Blake]

person out there, I will note that Manhattan Institute and City Journal, they're often soliciting for potential fellows, potential reporters. So if you're trying to make it in the world and want to make a difference, consider shooting them a resume. They are hiring pretty regularly. Chris, thank you very much. You guys have done tremendous work. We love having you on to highlight it.

[Chris Ruffo]

Thanks guys.

[Charlie Kirk]

Keep it up. For a lot of Americans, the healthcare system is reactive. You get sick first and then you wait for an appointment. Then insurance decides what you're allowed to have and suddenly the medication you need is delayed or it's not available. That is where all family pharmacy is different. This is not a typical pharmacy, it's family owned. I know these guys, they're great guys. Works with licensed doctors and is built around a simple idea. That's the idea that you should have the freedom to make informed choices about your own health and the ability to prepare ahead of time. So you're not reactive anymore. You're already prepared. You do not need insurance, you don't need to beg a doctor, just simple, fast, honest care.

[Blake]

This is what healthcare should look like

[Charlie Kirk]

in America with you in control. With all family pharmacy, you can order prescription medications before you get sick, keep them at home and have them ready when you need them most. Everything is done online. A licensed doctor reviews your request and your medication ships straight to your door. They offer antibiotics, antivirals, Tamiflu, Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine mebenzadol, methylene blue, and even your daily maintenance medications. This is about access, preparation, and personal responsibility. Choose freedom. Choose the right pharmacy. Go to allfamilypharmacy.com Kirk use code KIRK10 to save 10% on your next order. That's allfamilypharmacy.com KIRK. So we have Don. Don, you are first on the Ask us anything here. Go to members.charliekirk.com to join Don.

[Blake]

Hi, guys. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for taking my call. It's good to, Good to talk with you.

[Charlie Kirk]

You too. What's on your mind? Well, I was.

[Blake]

I was wondering what, what you did with the microphone that Glenn Beck gave you that that used to be rushes,

[Charlie Kirk]

the golden EIB microphone. Excellent. Excellence in broadcasting. So a little backstory here. When Charlie and I first decided we were gonna start the Charlie Kirk show and we're gonna do a podcast, then a broadcast, I remember the first conversation I had with Charlie about it. And I asked him, what did he want to be? What did he want to become? And I said, do you want to become president? I just threw it out there at that point. A lot of people ended up making that thought about Charlie or thinking that could be a potential in his future later on. But this was early. I said, do you want to be president, or do you want to be Rush Limbaugh? And he said, well, I definitely know that I want to be more like Rush Limbaugh. I had to pick a route not to compare himself to Rush by any stretch of the imagination. He just said, that is a direction of where I want to go. I love that. And Charlie and I were both Rush babies. We grew up with our parents listening to Rush in the car. And he left a profound impact on both my life and Charlie's life. And so when Glenn Beck came to the studio and put that mic in front of Charlie's chair, it was a tremendous honor and an amazing moment. I remember I got kind of emotional. I was sitting in the bullpen watching the show from. From the bullpen. And so it was an amazing moment. That being said, that mic, that microphone belongs in Glenn Beck's museum. So it was not a permanent gift. It was a sort of.

[Blake]

It was a lovely tribute. But he did not permanently gift us, which is frankly good, because as he said, Glenn actually has a museum in the Dallas area. You can go and see it yourself. Which is. And a lot of other things.

[Charlie Kirk]

He's quite a very avid collector.

[Blake]

I once went. He had a. I was once Able to go to sort of an open house where they had the main museum, but also a storage area. There's a tremendous number of historical documents that he collects throughout American history and world history, religious history. Very interesting place to go. So if you ever have the chance to see that, if you're in the Dallas area, you should do so.

[Charlie Kirk]

Great pool studio here. That was Glenn Beck presenting the Golden EIB microphone. And, yeah, I mean, that thing is iconic, you know, it is. And I loved the way Rush would kind of sit back. These are actually the same make and model of the Golden EIB microphone. It's just his was gold. These are the standard ones. But he would kind of sit back, and he always had, like, perfect microphone etiquette. So if you get into broadcasting, you hear about microphone etiquette, I like to be a little closer. But Rush would kind of stand there and kind of talk into it, and it was a tremendous honor. It's a beautiful, beautiful piece, and I'm glad it's in a museum. Safe and sound. And, you know, honestly, we probably couldn't keep it as safe as it needed to be here anyways, with as many people are in and out of the studio. So that's what happened to it. But it was a beautiful gesture from. From the great Glenn Beck to bring that here and present it to Charlie.

[Blake]

Yeah, that's good to know.

[Charlie Kirk]

I'm glad it's someplace where it can be honored the way it should be. Yeah, absolutely. Of course.

[Blake]

Of course.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, thanks for your question. You know, it's funny, Don. We've gotten that question a lot, actually, so I'm glad I get a chance to kind of address it publicly. All right, next up, we have David. David, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. Unmute yourself. Hey, how are we doing today? Doing great, David. How about yourself? My. My question is real quick. First of all, you guys are doing a great job. Still doing the job. But I'm trying to figure out, how do candidates that are not in the

[Blake]

race drop out of the race?

[Charlie Kirk]

Because we're in California, and a lot of candidates. We got 60 pages of people running. Well, three pages of people running for governor, and half of them have no chance of getting in. How do you tell these people to. To what? Where is this at?

[Blake]

California.

[Charlie Kirk]

California.

[Blake]

California is especially bad.

[Charlie Kirk]

Communist.

[Blake]

Anyone can run. And it's a jungle primary.

[Charlie Kirk]

Jungle primary system tends to create chaos. I'm much more a fan of each party running their candidate and going through a primary. Closed, close, closed primary.

[Blake]

But the practical question is real, which is we've certainly seen cases. You know, maybe as an example, you might look at the Lindsey Graham race in South Carolina. A lot of people want him unseated, but there's a lot of different contenders and it might have a strong shot if there was one guy specifically as the champion. There was back and forth about Paul

[Charlie Kirk]

Danz ended up dropping out and throwing his. His support behind lynch, which is good because it consolidates the primary field and gives us a better chance of replacing Lindsey Graham. So I get your point. And actually, ironically enough, when you talk about the governor's race in California, it's the Democrats that are concerned about the prospects there of having a splintered field that could result, in theory, in two Republicans. I think that's less likely now that Swalwell has dropped out. But the larger point that you're getting at here, the question is, how do you get them to thin the field so that people can throw their support behind the more, I guess, the candidates with the best chance of actually getting elected. And really, this comes down to party apparatus at the state level and the county level. So what that reflects is a weakened GOP in California that can't sort of exert itself and tell candidates what to do. So sometimes you have to give candidates an off ramp. You have to give them other opportunities. You have to say, hey, if you get out, we'll make sure you have a position on this board or something. This is like Party Politics 101. It happens all the time. And so the stronger the local party, the stronger the state party, the more influence and pressure that they can wield to get that done. You know, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. Sometimes you want the grassroots candidates to stay in because the base gets more of a vote, and you don't want the party apparatus to sort of dominate which candidates get the support or not.

[Blake]

It's tough because naturally politics does. It attracts people with egos, people who have a bit of megalomania. So a lot of people like you don't really want to run for governor unless you really, truly believe you can win. And a lot of people believe they can win even if they can't. But he is correct. Andrew is correct. That's really where party apparatus that you can really exert pressure financially. You can exert pressure, say, you know, you're done in this party if you don't bail out. That's the strongest tool in their kit. It's a reason we have parties.

[Charlie Kirk]

So we have more questions here. What's our next One, we have Sarah next.

[Blake]

Sarah, unmute yourself. And what's your question? Hey, can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. All right, so this is a Canadian question again. So I'm a political activist, a conservative political activist up here in Canada. You guys are a tough time.

[Charlie Kirk]

I was recently.

[Blake]

Yeah. Well, it's also interesting, too, because I was recently issued a trespass notice by

[Charlie Kirk]

the University of Guelph. Not for anything that I said or

[Blake]

did, but because I was in the

[Charlie Kirk]

vicinity of my father, who had what

[Blake]

they deemed to be a hateful. A hateful conversation with two Middle Eastern girls in the parking lot. And I took no part in this conversation. I said nothing. I did nothing. And now I am banned from that university for life, even though I have work that I need to do there. And I'm now banned. But that's kind of my story. That's what I'm fighting with right now, and it's a big deal. Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

I have two questions. So you're saying that for engaging in a conversation, which you didn't, but just let's forget, say for a moment that you did, debating, I don't know, Islam in the West. Let's say it was a spicy conversation. They're saying that that is so hateful that you could be trespassed and banned from a university.

[Blake]

Yes. Yeah.

[Charlie Kirk]

Just for having banned universities on a public university. Yeah. Wow.

[Blake]

I mean, it wasn't even painful, though.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, okay, let's just say it was argumentative. Let's say, you guys, it was a fierce disagreement about the merits of Islam or its compatibility with Western culture, which would be a very spicy conversation to have face to face, I admit. But even then, it just underscores the value of the First Amendment in the United States that that is totally open and free for having that conversation. The fact that you can't do that without, you know, falling afoul of some hate speech codes in Canada is really a really terrible indictment of the Canadian system.

[Blake]

Yeah. But Canada's unfortunately an unfree country or a post freedom country, you might say.

[Charlie Kirk]

Terrible.

[Blake]

But I saw you had a little bit more to your question, if you wanted to finish. Yeah. I was curious if anything like that ever happened to Charlie, because I know he went on a lot. There's a lot more campuses in the United States, and I know he went on a lot of them. Was he ever trespassed by a university for anything? That's a really interesting question because it gets at the heart of kind of why he was effective. Because over time, Charlie and Turning Point More generally, they got very good at knowing what the rules were where. Like, for example, if the university tries to block you, when is. When is what they're doing valid? And when are they just trying to BS you, You know, trying to say, oh, there's security risks. You're not allowed to speak, and say, actually, you're a public university. You have to allow us to speak if you allow those people. He did get very good at that, but we did. He was once threatened with.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, So I remember. I don't think he was ever trespassed off a university, but he. I remember at the University of New Mexico, which used to put up huge protests, they would ship people in from all over. Most of these were not students, but they would make a lot of noise. And they actually kind of harassed Tommy Lahren, who was visiting with us at some event. And so Charlie had made it a point to get back to the University of New Mexico and basically just to plant the flag and say, you will not intimidate us. We don't care if you're going to try and, you know, put Tomi Lahren in a. Lock her in a room somewhere, which is, I believe, what happened. They ended up having to get escorted out by law enforcement for their safety. So Charlie went back there, and I remember he stood on the roof of one of the buildings and waved at the protesters, and the police did not like that, and they threatened him with arrest, and they basically said he was goading the protesters, and really, he just out there waving. He just stood up on the. On the roof of one of the buildings and looked at them and waved. And it was an important symbolic gesture to say, you will not intimidate us. You will not drive us off this campus. And, yeah, that was the closest I remember him ever getting arrested. It also happened to Riley Gaines, where she got locked in a room, in a private room where protesters were pounding on the doors, and she had to be sort of protected by police. Hours later, she ended up getting out of that situation, but it was a terrible situation. Oh, is this the New Mexico footage? Oh, good job, Dave.

[Blake]

And that's how far away he was waving. And they threatened to arrest him for that.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, that was a. That was a near arrest. And I remember there was a bunch of hullabaloo after that event when he came back and told us what. What actually happened. But all he did was stand up there and wave, and they had this huge protest out there for him, and he would not be intimidated. But that's what we love about Charlie, because, you know, he looked them right in the eye. And to Blake's point, because of the movement at Turning Point, and because we, you know, especially during Trump 1.0, he did a bunch of executive orders on free speech on college campuses. It created a whole culture and a whole news media environment around enforcing free speech laws on college campus. And there was, you know, FIRE was involved. ADF Alliance Defending Freedom was involved. I'm curious if ADF does any work in Canada. I would presume no. Just because the laws are so distinct.

[Blake]

It's different. It's tough. I mean, Canada does.

[Charlie Kirk]

They.

[Blake]

As I said, they just don't have our rights. They. They kind of only wrote a modern constitution in the 80s, and it's infused with so many of the modern assumptions of the left. So, yeah, you can restrict hate speech laws. You can. A whole, whole battery of things. And that's without even getting into the eccentric parts of Canada, the way large chunks of your major cities are being ceded over to the First Nations. And, yeah, one thing after another.

[Charlie Kirk]

Brain rot is deep.

[Blake]

One last thing about Charlie, one thing, he would have been fascinated by your story, because I know one of his goals that he talked about was he was interested in speaking in more countries. And one of the things he wanted to try was going to Germany and reciting facts about immigration that you'd get in trouble for saying there if you were a German. And he said his goal was to get arrested or cause a diplomatic incident or get himself deported, start some sort of ruckus. And I think he would have been inspired by a story like yours to maybe try the same thing in Canada.

[Charlie Kirk]

I remember, actually there was some concern at one point whether or not Charlie was even gonna be allowed to go into Canada. There was. We got. It's vague, the memories, it's through the cobwebs here. But there was some concern that Charlie was on some list and wouldn't be allowed in Canada at one point. Really? Yeah. I don't know that we ever tested it or tried it or looked into it deeper, but there was some concern that he was on a list, and we were sort of warned that it could cause a problem if he ever tried to go to Canada.

[Blake]

Thank you for providing the good fight in a very tough environment.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right. I'm so excited. The weather is finally warming up, which means grilling season is basically here. And, sorry, if you live in a colder part of the country where I'm at, it's grilling season. And if you're anything like me, you're Already thinking about planning your first backyard barbecue of the year. For me, I already know what's going on the grill, and that's Good Ranchers. Good Ranchers partners with local farmers and ranchers to deliver 100% American meat straight to your door. It's pasture raised, no antibiotics, and no added hormones. It's the kind of quality that you can actually feel good about serving other people around your table. And they just launched custom boxes. Now you can build your own box with the cuts your family loves, steaks for grilling, chicken for weeknight dinners or whatever you reach for the most. Start your plan today, and you'll get free meat included with every order. And with our code Charlie, you'll get $25 off your first order. That's free meat with every order and $25 off your first order with Code Charlie when you start your [e-mail] goodranchers.com American meat delivered. All right, so we. Who's our next.

[Blake]

We have Andy next.

[Charlie Kirk]

Andy. All right, Andy, unmute yourself. Welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.

[Blake]

Hello, guys. Howdy.

[Charlie Kirk]

Hey, there.

[Blake]

So I'm kind of in a unique situation, politically and stuff, because the thing is that I'm. I've always been maga, but I'm also dating a foreign woman. And I'm struggling with, you know, how to balance immigration reforms with, you know, keeping out illegals, but also not harming guys like me who are just trying to possibly bring a wife here. But of course, the dating process is difficult. You know, it's like, I. I would want my girlfriend to come visit United States to see if she liked it before deciding to move. But really the only option is to immigrate because if you do a tourist visa, they won't let her come because they'll presume immigrant intent. And so it's a really sticky sort of thing. And of course, the only reason I'm dating outside of America is because of the. Some people call it the dating apocalypse of America, where it's like, perfectly good guys are being, like, rejected by women left and right, and it's like, our only option is to date outside of America. So I'm just trying to live the American dream. And it's just. It's difficult with the immigration system. It's like there's no middle ground. It's like, either you're, like, completely kept out, and you have to prove everything. It's just, like, really tough.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah, it's. So what. Do you mind me asking what country your, I guess, girlfriend, fiance is from?

[Blake]

Philippines.

[Charlie Kirk]

Philippines. Okay. And you guys, I'm assuming you guys have been dating a while. You, you went and saw her in the Philippines. Did she come to this to the States without issue? It's just a matter of.

[Blake]

She has never, she's never come to the States. I've always visited her. I've been there two times. I'm going to be flying down there for a third time, hopefully to propose to her next time I go down, which is exciting. But yeah, it's also, you know, she wants to fund her, her family's home improvement project before getting married. So that's another thing. She was trying to get like a job that's good paying, but it's difficult. It would be nice if she could get an H1B and come here, but, you know, we're doing away with that now. That's kind of frowned upon. Well, you know, in the end, in the end, obviously, you have our support. You want to chase the American dream. We want you to get married, we want you to have a family. But we also have to set our immigration policies for the interests of the nation. And I don't think there's any proposal to entirely. No one's proposing that we get rid of the ability to marry foreigners or that you, you can get marriage visas for your spouse. But what we have talked about is we do, I think we need to curb, for example, chain migration. I don't think marrying one foreigner should give them the automatic right to bring in every member of their extended family because that's very abusable. You have to be careful with it because you don't want people committing fraud. And people will commit a lot of fraud in order to get into the United States. So we're trying to set up a system that is good for the country. There's still ways that can work out for you. And even with you. Your obstacle to my understanding is not so much that you're unable to marry her. Your obstacle is just she'll face obstacles visiting you in the United States when she has long term immigrant intent.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. So just pulling up the numbers from Cato Institute, which did a big study of the decrease in legal immigration categories. And they said that K visas for spouses, and I sent this graphic here. K visas for spouses and fiances were down 65% in 2025. So if you compare a month by month, just at the last December of 2025, it was down to about 1.25. So 1250k visas were granted that month, which was down from a number of almost 3.5 thousand in 2024. So they are cracking down on this because you got to believe there's a lot of fraud involved in this. A lot of people saying, oh, we're married, but they're not actually married. So to Blake's point, I believe that there's still a route for you here. It's probably going to be more challenging, more documentation, more proof. I'm assuming you're working with attorneys on this.

[Blake]

I haven't hired an attorney. Part of the thing is I have a lot of things I'm paying for. Neither of us really have way too much money. I'm trying to navigate that too. I do have the dating service I went with called Christian Filipina. They actually have a visa consultation company that's directly linked with them, but they're pretty expensive. So it's like, I definitely need that, like, because, you know, it's going to be tough, but it's like at the same time, I can't afford it.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, I mean, listen, you got to work with an attorney on this. It's a complicated process. So whether you use that service or some other. Some other service, there's a lot of immigration attorneys. That's one of the downsides of the invasion that we've all lived through is it was a. There's a lot of attorneys in the space looking for work right now.

[Blake]

The big picture is the option is there, it might be more difficult. And it's similar for that. For other things. We hear from businesses, obviously they say, oh, yeah, you know, we want a secure border, we want to crack down. But it's tougher with labor costs in the roofing industry, in the home building industry, in the agricultural industry. And the truth is, we do have to bite the bullet on that because so much of what we've done, it's been short term thinking, it's been taking the thing that's easier right now for the next month, for the next year, when we need to do what's best for this country 50 years from now, 100 years from now. And that might require short term sacrifices.

[Charlie Kirk]

I would just encourage you to not despair against the larger goals and the larger vision. And it sounds like you're basically on board with that. It is having a personal impact on you. But you have to then put that in context of the larger goals that the Trump administration, the people that voted for the president in 2024, want to accomplish. And we do want to limit foreigners coming into our country. We just do. Because, listen, we're losing American culture. We're losing a lot of our norms, traditions. We're losing a lot of things we took for granted. And the country that we grew up in, we're watching it transform in ways we don't like and don't need and that aren't in the best interest of the country. So just separate your personal frustration and challenges from the larger goals. And just remember, if this is authentic, if your goals are true and real and you can get a lawyer, I think you're still going to ultimately be successful. But again, yeah, it's going to cost you something. But not as much as you'd think. Not as much as you think. There's a lot of lawyers in this space that, like I said, need work right now because of all the crackdowns. So hopefully you can find a good person to represent you and your fiance, and you guys can get married, have some babies.

[Blake]

Yeah, thanks.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right, man. Good. Good talking to you. What do we got next?

[Blake]

We have Ellie next. Ellie, if you're there, unmute yourself. And what's your question? Hi. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can.

[Charlie Kirk]

All right, so this is kind of similar to the last question that I asked, but obviously there's been a lot

[Blake]

of chaos with, like, the daily news lately, and I feel like just, you

[Charlie Kirk]

know, the spirit of doomerism can kind

[Blake]

of just run rampant.

[Charlie Kirk]

But since you guys are both on this show every day and pretty active

[Blake]

on X, my question would be, how do each of you, like, stay grounded

[Charlie Kirk]

and still maintain, like, a semi positive view of the country and the world, especially when you guys are, like, very actively reporting on the news every day?

[Blake]

So funny thing, I remember the first time I ever traveled alongside Charlie. This would have been in 2023, and he was about to sit back to take a nap, and I can't even remember what we were discussing, but I asked him about some sort of bad news or something like that, and Charlie just told me, blake, how you feel is a choice. I choose not to feel bad, and so I don't. And that's actually. It's a remarkable testament to his talents that I would tell people. One of the best things about Charlie, he was so high agency, and what that means is your ability to take your. To create change in the world, that you want to make something happen, and so you take the individual steps to put it into action, which kind of all of us can do, but some are just better at it. And Charlie was 99.9 percentile at that. And a big part of that is that he choose how he had the ability to create how he wanted to feel. And he knew being defeated, being downbeat, being negative was a hindrance to the world he wanted to create. And so he was always endlessly positive. And I think a big source of that, of course, was his faith that he had that absolute confidence that comes from believing, I am saved. I have Christ died for me. If I. All I can do if I die or if something bad happens to me is I can meet my Creator. And that that fire was in him all of the time. And that doesn't mean he never felt bad. It doesn't mean he never felt something was a bad thing that unfolded. But he could always bounce back so quickly.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, and we try and do a good job on this show of talking about all the wins. I mean, if you just want to know why you should feel good, it's like, well, imagine Kamala Harris was president right now. Good Lord. Anyways, if you want to be a part of these conversations with us, we would love to invite you and have you [e-mail] Next up is Mickey. How are you, Andrew? I'm well, Mick. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Hope you're doing good, too. Blake, my question for you.

[Chris Ruffo]

Shortly after Charlie was assassinated, we heard

[Charlie Kirk]

from the vice president, and then we heard again when you were with him in Georgia that we would see an

[Chris Ruffo]

effort from the administration to crack down

[Charlie Kirk]

on some of those dark money leftist groups, such as, you know, George Soros Open Society foundation or the Ford foundation and all their little crony groups. Where are we at with that? I haven't heard anything.

[Chris Ruffo]

We had the little incident where Don

[Charlie Kirk]

Lamond got arrested, but I think they went into a church. So that was a pretty open and shut deal. And besides that, I haven't really seen anything. So if anything, and I know the

[Chris Ruffo]

vice president said he listens to this,

[Charlie Kirk]

so if he's listening, I hope he hears this. Yeah. You know, just on that. That last note, I actually, when I got off stage with him, I was like, were you just like, you know, being nice? Like, do you like. And. Cause I have a relationship with the vice president of such. He would be like, yeah, you know, I was just trying to build you up or whatever. He's like, no, I actually listened to it. I actually listened to your show. And that was a great honor. And he says a bunch of people in the administration do the same. So, yes, I have spoken with members of the administration. I'm sure Erica has as well, but I'm Reminded of that final text message that Charlie sent to Stephen Miller where he said, we have to dismantle these left wing groups and the funding mechanisms behind them. And I know that Stephen Miller takes that very, very personally. And the fact that J.D. vance brought it up without me urging or asking is a really good indication that it remains top of mind. And I will tell you that the Treasury Department, which I remember during my conversation with JD I brought up Scott Bessant has been working on this. He has a whole team that's devoted to this. And I mean, I've seen the binders. There's like stacks of binders that they're investigating and looking through to, to root out some of these thugs, these militants. They call themselves activists. No, these are domestic terrorists that want to intimidate and potentially hurt, injure and kill conservatives. And so we saw this recently with what happened to Savannah Hernandez in Minneapolis. And then honestly that we talked about some of the violent threats that Erica Kirk was getting in the lead up to that University of Georgia event. Well, a lot of that sparked right after Savannah Hernandez. It like emboldened people to start, you know, making threats against Erica and the organization. So I am 100% on board with what you're saying and I will tell you that they are working on it.

[Blake]

Well, I want to flag specific examples. So late last year, so you might recall, there was an attack on an ICE facility in Dallas and that was organized and perpetrated by antifa cells. And so actually late last year, for the first time, we got people who pleaded guilty in court to being members of an antifa terror cell. And then just last month in March, we had eight more people convicted by a jury in Texas, again for terrorism related offenses as part of an antifa group. And it's the first time that's ever happened. We've gotten individuals before, but we've never had it just, oh, your antifa group is a terror group. You committed offenses. So you'll sometimes hear people say they're doing nothing, nothing is happening. When the answer is sometimes it happens and people just, they don't want to believe it, they don't want to talk about it. It's easier to complain. But there are things like that happening. Unwinding a whole financial network is tougher. It takes longer to build that case. Big donor networks, of course, can pay for better lawyers. They can pay for better defense generally. But we are getting the reps out there of going after the activists who commit crimes, bringing them to court, getting convictions.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. And kind of going back to the question from before, this is one of the reasons that I am positive I don't black pill. Because give me four years of President Trump administration and the country will be an undoubtedly better place than four years of Kamala Harris. It's better for my kids. It's better for the country in every conceivable way. Yeah, you might have issues with what's happening in Iran or you might have issues with the foreign policy or not enough focus on domestic. Part of our job is to remind the administration on this show and other shows like it of what the base wants, what the activists want, what the core constituency of this president really want. And so we talk about that, but we do celebrate the wins. And Blake's right, those are some great wins. And that's just the tip of the iceberg in a nation of 350 million people. It's going to take time. Last question here is from Elizabeth. Elizabeth, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show. Unmute yourself and welcome. Hi, Blake. Hi, Andrew. Thank you for taking my call. And also, please just send to Erica, like there are a lot of people who love her and pray for her and see how hard she is working, recently widowed with two toddlers in tow to keep her husband's legacy going.

[Blake]

Thank you so much.

[Charlie Kirk]

Value it and appreciate it. Like, please let her know we do.

[Blake]

And I want to say very briefly, when we get emails, for example, in our inbox, freedom Charlie Kirk, I. And if they're messages to Erica of that nature, I, I screen cap those and I send them on to her immediately. She very much appreciates those. She, she does often reply to them herself as well. And so I just wanted to say

[Charlie Kirk]

that check out her Monday meditations were also great on the podcast. They're still out there to listen to, of course. So, so my actual question, I apologize for digressing Charlie's origin story sort of in getting into politics was interesting how he was a door knocker for this guy called me, Mark Kirk. Nobody remembers him for a reason. He was a forgettable rhino. And I guess my point is if that was Charlie Star and he could still build Turning Point USA after that, like, don't be an accelerationist. Like, keep going. Like, keep building. Because imagine if we didn't have 20 million people in here illegally on the four years under Biden. You can't give these people an inch because it takes 12 years to do the damage they can do in two years.

[Blake]

Exactly, exactly. And you know, even you'll dunk on, we can dump a bit on Mark Kirk. He was Rhino. But he also was a Republican senator for the state of Illinois. I don't think we're getting one of those anytime soon again. And even if they're a Rhino, if they're in a blue state, you take what you can get. Those are people who will vote with you on judges most of the time.

[Charlie Kirk]

Susan Collins, a great example, I think.

[Blake]

You know, Kirk helped undermine Obama. Had a filibuster proof majority for a while. We blew that apart and that really limited the damage Obama could do in his second term. So as bad as he was in plenty of ways, we would never tolerate a guy like that if he was from Oklahoma or from North Dakota. But if he was representing Illinois, that's pretty good.

[Charlie Kirk]

Well, and Charlie always graded Susan Collins on a curve. Yes, because he said, you know, she'll always be there when we need. We'll do some vote trading. She'll, you know, make her, you know, she'll throw some bones to the blue parts of the state, but she's a. She's better than a D. She held

[Blake]

the line she made. We didn't confirm Merrick Garland. So we have Trump's picks on the Supreme Court instead of Obama's picks on the Supreme Court. You take those. But I love your bigger picture point that Charlie got his start campaigning for another Kirk who was pretty moderate in a million ways and he built a juggernaut that changed America. Always endlessly positive, great model for all of us to follow.

[Charlie Kirk]

Yeah. Amen.

[Blake]

For more on many of these stories and news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.