Very Short Shutdown, Multi-Million-Dollar Detransitioner Lawsuit & Trump Pulls out of 66 UN Agencies

Summary

Podcast Summary: Verdict with Ted Cruz

Episode: Very Short Shutdown, Multi-Million-Dollar Detransitioner Lawsuit & Trump Pulls out of 66 UN Agencies

Date: February 2, 2026
Hosts: Senator Ted Cruz & Ben Ferguson

---

Overview

In this episode, Senator Ted Cruz and Ben Ferguson tackle three headline stories: the brief and limited government shutdown, a landmark multimillion-dollar lawsuit by a detransitioner, and President Trump’s massive withdrawal from over 60 UN agencies and treaties. The tone is sharp, opinionated, and unapologetically conservative, blending serious analysis with trademark banter.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Very Short (Partial) Government Shutdown

Timestamps: 01:51 – 09:33

Explanation of the Shutdown

• Cruz describes the current situation as a partial shutdown, highlighting that this is not being dramatized by media as in previous years ([02:51]).
• The shutdown arose because the Senate passed a bill funding all agencies except the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which only received a brief extension. The expectation is for the House to resolve this swiftly ([03:25]).
• Ferguson emphasizes most essential government services remain operational and predicts it will be over in “a day or two at most” ([03:25]).

Services Impacted (or Not)

• Cruz: “Social Security, Medicare payments, they’re going to be paid on schedule. Food stamps and WIC are not impacted... Medicare, Medicaid, health coverage still will work. US Mail service unaffected as well” ([06:00]).
• The shutdown primarily affects “non-essential” services, like national parks and some administrative offices.

Political Dynamics

• Discussion of the political maneuvering, noting diminished drama compared to the 43-day “Schumer shutdown” ([06:44]). Both note this shutdown is much narrower.
• Ferguson reads out expletive-filled critical comments from progressive users on X/Twitter as evidence of left-wing frustration—providing comic relief and insight into political online discourse ([05:00]).

Notable Quote:

“Even in a full government shutdown, typically about 18% of the government shuts down. About 82% continues. Everything that’s deemed essential continues.” — Ted Cruz [06:44]

---

2. Multi-Million-Dollar Detransitioner Lawsuit

Timestamps: 12:35 – 22:17

The Landmark Case

• Cruz describes the case as significant: a young woman, after undergoing double mastectomy at 16, sued the doctor and psychologist responsible and was awarded $2 million—the “first successful detransitioner malpractice lawsuit in the nation” ([16:28], [17:33]).
• Key fact: This verdict was delivered in the liberal state of New York, which surprises both hosts ([17:33]).

Notable Quotes:

“You had a healthy 16-year-old girl that these doctors convinced…was a dude and then cut both of her breasts off — pay her $2 million. That’s a really significant threshold.” — Ted Cruz [17:37]

“No kid should be sterilized. No matter what the parents think, no matter what doctors think, no kid should be mutilated.” — Ben Ferguson [18:40]

Broader Implications

• The hosts frame the case as the start of a wave of litigation and a warning to the medical establishment.
• Cruz: “Unleashing trial lawyers can inflict enormous costs and burdens... when you have conduct that is really harmful for society, unleashing the trial lawyers to sue the living hell out of them, I think is a really, really powerful tool” ([21:06]).
• Prediction that more such lawsuits will follow; legal precedent could shift industry behavior.

---

3. Trump Pulls the US Out of 66 UN Agencies

Timestamps: 24:45 – 35:35

The Move and Its Rationale

• Ferguson frames the US withdrawal as a “type of scandal we should love and celebrate”—saving taxpayers from “woke crap all over the world” ([24:45]).
• Cites UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' warnings of imminent financial collapse without US funds and reads a Breitbart article for further color ([26:07]).
• Amused mention of some penny-pinching at the UN (e.g., turning off escalators and lowering heat) ([27:18]).

Notable Quote:

“The United Nations is going broke and needs member nations to stump up cash. Lots of it. That is the plea from Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who fears... imminent financial collapse.” — Ben Ferguson [26:07]

Deep Cuts: The 66 Agencies and Treaties

• Cruz reads through several of the organizations/treaties cut, many with obscure or bureaucratic names—highlighting how little most Americans know or care about these taxpayer-funded entities ([33:35]).
• Among those listed: UN Population Fund, UN Climate Treaties, and more.
• Both hosts agree these moves fulfill Trump’s campaign promises to “get rid of all this stuff” ([34:17]).

Pop Culture Sidebar: "Team America"

• The UN’s “powerlessness” is jokingly compared to the comedic film Team America: World Police ([27:58]), culminating in a cringe-y vacation story where Cruz accidentally showed the R-rated puppet comedy to his missionary in-laws ([29:50]).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the shutdown’s real-world impact:
  “The government shuts down every weekend... and nobody on planet Earth noticed.” — Ben Ferguson [03:25]

• On online hyperbole about the shutdown:
  Ben highlights: “What the literal F, Stop all caps! Exclamation mark!” ([05:00])

• On the UN withdrawal:
  “Let me read from our article in Breitbart. Quote, the United Nations is going broke and needs member nations to stump up cash. Lots of it.” — Ben Ferguson [26:07]

• On the impact of lawsuits:
  “Unleashing trial lawyers can inflict enormous costs and burdens... when you have conduct that is really harmful for society, unleashing the trial lawyers to sue the living hell out of them, I think is a really, really powerful tool.” — Ted Cruz [21:06]

• Team America/UN Satire:
  “There’s a scene in Team America where the United Nations is going to send you a really stern letter.” — Ted Cruz [31:16]

---

Important Timestamps

• Shutdown Explained: 01:51 – 09:33
• Detransition Lawsuit: 12:35 – 22:17
• Trump & the UN: 24:45 – 35:35
• Team America/UN Satire: 27:58 – 31:16

---

Tone & Style

• Direct, opinion-driven, and often humorous, with a strong conservative viewpoint.
• Both hosts use vivid analogies and side stories (e.g., Cruz’s Team America vacation tale), keeping the discourse accessible and colloquial.
• Policy analysis is blended with personal anecdotes and pointed cultural commentary.

---

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

You'll leave understanding not only the facts behind the day’s biggest political headlines, but also the hosts’ world view: a strong skepticism toward government bureaucracy, progressive gender policy in minors, and international institutions; and a belief in individual responsibility and legal accountability for those deemed social or political "bad actors." The theme throughout is conservative activism—whether in American budgeting, the court system, or in international relations.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human.

[Podcast Announcer]

Friday Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Lipsy for Sensational the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

[Ben Ferguson]

Ilia Malady redefining the sport Friday at.

[Podcast Announcer]

8 Eastern, 7pm Central on NBC and.

[Public Investing Ad Speaker]

Peacock Support for the show comes from Public the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosure is available at public.com disclosures Want to score? When your favorite player does well, you can't unless you download Better Picks. Who's giving away a free $10? Download the Better app, pick more or less on your favorite player stats, watch the games and win some cash.

[Ben Ferguson]

It's that simple.

[Public Investing Ad Speaker]

Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates Terms and conditions Black Better Picks Sports just got better.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. It's nice to have you with us on this Monday Morning Center. We've got a lot to talk about, including as we speak we're in a partial government shutdown. We're going to cover what that actually means. Plus we've got two other big stories as well.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, that's right. We're going to explain what is happening with the shutdown, what's going to happen next, how long it's going to last. We're also going to talk about the fact that there was a landmark verdict for the first time of an individual who transitioned had a young woman who had both of her breasts removed in a transgender surgery, who then realized it was a catastrophic mistake. And she filed a lawsuit and ended up being awarded $2 million, the first ever verdict of its kind. We're going to talk about the consequences of that as well. And finally, we're going to talk about Donald Trump just this week pulled out of 66 different UN committees, withdrawing US from massive global entanglements. We're going to explain what that means and why he did so.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to hear that story. It's going to also save Americans a lot of money. So let's start with the government shutdown, and this is a partial government shutdown. The media is not playing this up with all the fear mongering they did with the last shutdown, partly because the Democrats didn't get what they wanted out of the last government shutdown. They thought it was gonna help them significantly in the polls. That didn't really work out. So for Americans right now that are waking up and they're like, all right, we got a partial government shutdown. What does that actually mean for them? What services could disappear? Are there gonna be lines at the airport? And how long could this last?

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, listen, I think this is gonna be very short lived. It is a partial government shutdown. Much of the government is funded already. And the way a government shutdown operates is that any essential services are funded regardless. And so what is temporarily shut down is what each cabinet agency deems a non essential service. I think at the end of the day, this is going to last a day or two at most. So what happened last week is the Senate passed legislation funding the government, funding the entirety of the government through the fiscal year, except for the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security, it funded a two week continuing resolution that has gone to the House. The House is back. Now, today is Monday. The House will be back. I predict by Tuesday the House will have passed this and the President will have signed it. So I think this shutdown will extend a couple of days. By the way, it's worth noting the government shuts down every weekend. And so the government shut down on Sunday and nobody on planet Earth noticed. I think we will see because Sunday people were at home, they were going to church, they were with their families. They were not expecting government offices to be open. So I think it will be a very brief delay. I will point out also that on Sunday, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn, both senior Democrats in The leadership of the House told House Democrats on their private caucus call that they should vote yes to pass the government funding package this week. And you know, it's interesting that was sent out on Twitter this weekend and lefties just lost their mind. I'm going to read you the first couple of comments come off. First says, this is getting ridiculous. These people are rapists and murderers. Are they effing serious? Shut it. Effing down at dnc. The second comment, F. No. Steny Hoyer and James Clyburn, you are not speaking for your base, which is why your fundraising is down. No funding for ICE until real reform. They're killing us and you want to give them more money to do that. I'm so tired of you. We are experiencing true evil. Here's the fourth comment. What the literal F, Stop all caps. Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark, exclamation mark. That sort of gives you the flavor of the Twitter left wing glitterati. But I think at the end of the day, you're gonna see a coalition of both Republicans and Democrats in the House pass this. And I think the shutdown will very quickly become old news when you talk.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

About services, just to put it in perspective for people to understand, like things that you don't have to worry about in this shutdown. Social Security, Medicare payments, they're going to be paid on schedule. And so this can calm many people as well. Food stamps and WIC are going to not be impacted because those benefits got funding through September of 2026. Medicare, Medicaid, health coverage still will work. So that's not going to be a problem. US Mail service unaffected as well. And passport and visa process processing. State Department says their core services will continue, so that's not a problem either. Is that part of the reason why you're not seeing as big of maybe a throwdown by Democrats? Because what are we really fighting over here? They can't weaponize a shutdown as much as they did the last time.

[Ben Ferguson]

Well, listen, part of the reason is Congress has already passed a significant chunk of the funding for the federal government. So it's a much smaller government shutdown that happened previously. Last year, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats forced the longest government shutdown in US history, 43 days. They did so really to throw a temper tantrum. They did so to show their left wing base how much they hate Donald Trump. They did so to show they are fighting. And I gotta say, one of the nightmares if you're a big government Democrat about The worst nightmare you can imagine is the government shuts down and nobody notices. The reality is even in a full government shutdown, typically about 18% of the government shuts down. About 82% continues. Everything that's deemed essential continues. So Social Security continues, Medicare continues, Medicaid continues, the military continues, law enforcement continues, Border security continues. The only things that, that shut down during, during a shutdown are things that are deemed non essential. Each cabinet secretary gets to make that determination. So typically that's things like national parks, that's things like the Smithsonian museums. It's things that over time can get annoying. And by the way, one of the biggest factors of annoyance are that you have people like air traffic controllers who are not paid. And over the extended government shutdown, the 43 day Schumer shutdown, those air traffic controllers got pissed off and they didn't come into work or a fair number of them didn't. And so you ended up having a lot of delays. So what is funded already? Department of Agriculture is funded already. Commerce and Department of Justice are funded. Energy and water, Interior Environment, Ledge Branch, Military construction and va. All of that is funded. So what is affected by the temporary shutdown? Well, the Department of War is, but again, as I said, our military fighting forces still continue to function. Department of labor and hhs. But again that does not include Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, but that is expected. And anything that is a law enforcement function continues to ongo. The Department of State, Foreign Ops is not funded. Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, court funding, Sec, fcc, some of the independent agencies. But, but at the end of the day, all of that is, is, I think not going to matter very much because I fully expect, I will be surprised if by Tuesday evening the full government is not funded. So I think this will be short enough that nobody's going to notice for.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The next 60 seconds. Can you hit pause on your life and just think about this? Every day, millions of children face a crushing reality. A constant defeating message echoes their empty stomachs and their desperate eyes. It is that you don't matter. Poverty doesn't just steal food and shelter. It steals hope, dignity and the fundamental belief that they are loved. But there's another message, one of boundless love and hope. Through Compassion International, you can change the child's story forever. You can sponsor a child just like I do. You can introduce them to a loving heavenly father. You can equip them with education, health care and the support to overcome poverty. This isn't just about one child it's about transforming families, revitalizing communities and changing nations. It's about proving that every child truly matters. So help give a child a future. Give them hope. Visit compassion.com today. That's compassion.com Friday kick off the Winter.

[Podcast Announcer]

Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Lipstick Sensational the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

[Ben Ferguson]

Ilia Malinu redefining the Sport Friday at.

[Podcast Announcer]

8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC and.

[Public Investing Ad Speaker]

Peacock Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures [e-mail] Do you like free money?

[Better Picks Ad Speaker]

Well, today's your lucky day. Better Picks is offering a free $10 just for signing up. Download the Better app, pick more or less on player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Better Picks is available in 33 states including Texas, California and Georgia. Download the Better app today. That's Better B E T R and get a free $10. No deposit necessary. Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates. Terms and conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got better.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I want to move to another big story center and this is one that gives me genuine hope and I want to get your reaction to it as well. Over what could be coming. When it comes to the abuse of children, I call it child body mutilation. With the obsession over sex change and transgender children, we've seen this be a cash cow. Vanderbilt University got busted on van video talking about how they need to advocate for this more with their transition center there and talking about how much money they can make off kids if you just get them in here, bring them to us and their lifetime treatment. Because your body is constantly trying to say, no, this is not what I am. When you go through these transitions, you got to take all these pills and all of this medicine and all these doctor visits, and they're like, dude, this is seven figures. And these kids come in here, get as many as you can. In essence. Uh, that backfired when it came out publicly that that's what they were looking at these children as. But we had something very big that happened, and that is a child that has now been able to, in essence, sue and win for what awhat doctors and the mental health people have literally done to her allowed to happen to her. This is great news for I. I think to warn doctors that are in that are. That are claiming they're helping people when they're really just mutilating them this way. You're on notice now. You could be held accountable for these actions.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, look, my approach to this is, number one, quite libertarian, and number two, very focused on protecting kids. So, Ben, you're a grown ass man. If you decide tomorrow you want to be a chick, okay, that's your choice. I don't agree with it, I don't encourage it. But I think that's fine. If you tell the world from now on you're Benjamin, okay, that's fine. You can tell people that. By the way, you don't have any.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Right to do such an eloquent job of always bringing me up in these scenarios anytime there's a sensitive subject like this. I just feel good that you're gonna make sure you somehow figure out a way that I am the example X. But keep going.

[Ben Ferguson]

I just think you illustrate this well. But look, if you want to tell the world, you want to call yourself Benjamina, great, like, you're an adult, you can make that decision. What you don't have a right to do is make me call you Benjamina. I'd be like, okay, that's a little bit crazy, Ben. I'm call you what I want to call like, you don't have a right to control me. You can control yourself. You don't have a right to control me. And God forbid you decide you want to do something radical. You want to chop off body parts. Look, I very much disagree with that. But as I Said, I'm a libertarian. You're a grown ass man. If you want to chop body parts off, you can do that. I wish you wouldn't. I think that'd be unfortunate. But you have the ability to make that decision. You know who doesn't have that ability? Kids.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah.

[Ben Ferguson]

And I think the idea that you take kids and sometimes we're seeing these forced sex changes for kids as young as 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, no child has the maturity to decide that he or she is going to make what could be a permanent, life altering decision. Look, you look at sex change operations, they can sterilize a child. Whether it's a little girl who suddenly thinks she's a boy or a little boy who thinks he's a girl. The chemicals that they give, or even worse, the surgery they give, can permanently sterilize a child, can permanently deform a child. And as I said, an adult can do that. If you want to castrate yourself, I disagree with that decision. It's the wrong decision. But an adult should be able to make that decision. No kid has the maturity to make that decision, and no parent should let them. You and I are both parents of teenagers. And your kids are. How old are your kids now? They're young.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Mine are six. The twins are six. And my oldest is nine.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, six and nine. And by the way, there are kids this age that are being subjected to this. And if you as a parent decided, my kid wants to do this, I'm going to let them. I think that's child abuse. If your kid's an adult and they make that decision, that's different. But what happened, and this is really significant, last week there was a case. So there was a young woman who was 16 years old, and she had both of her breasts removed. They were healthy. She had them removed because she was supposedly transgender. And she went and sued because as she grew up, she realized, wait, I don't want to be a dude and I'd really like to have my breasts back. And you know what? Once you have them removed, they're gone. They don't come back. And so she filed a lawsuit and she was awarded $2 million. It's the first successful detransition or malpractice lawsuit in the nation. And she sued both the psychologist and the surgeon. And what is remarkable, do you know what state the jury was in that awarded the $2 million?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

The best part of the story for me, because it's New York, right?

[Ben Ferguson]

New York State, Westchester, New York. And you know what? The jury in New York said, wait a second, you had a healthy 16 year old girl that these doctors came in, convinced her that she was a dude and then cut both of her breasts off, pay her $2 million. That is a really significant threshold. I'm going to predict right now this is not going to be the last lawsuit. And you pointed out one of the most evil aspects of this, which is there is a multi million dollar, if not a multi billion dollar industry behind this, behind pushing these supposed treatments that are just abusing kids. And you've got woke adults that are pushing these treatments because they want to virtue signal just how virtuous they are. But you've also got hospitals, you've got doctors that are making massive amounts of money. And this lawsuit, you want to talk about changing physician behavior and changing hospital behavior? This lawsuit is significant. The young girl, it was reported that the young girl quote, wept and hugged her mother when the verdict, which followed a three week trial from a suit filed in 2023 came down. And this is a big deal and it's a big deal that I'm hopeful will stop this abuse. No kid should be sterilized. No matter what the parents think, no matter what doctors think, no kid should be mutilated. And you know what's astonishing, Ben? Five years ago everybody would agreed with this.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yes.

[Ben Ferguson]

If you had a Democrat on, if you had picked the most left wing Democrat five years ago, you and I could have been talking with Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren and said, hey, should we sterilize and mutilate kids? And they'd say no, of course not. Like it was just a blink of an eye ago that everyone agreed with this. And then there were millions of dollars and the radical ideology of the left. And to be clear, it's not just a couple of people on the Democrat side, it's everybody. Joe Biden is the sitting president, advocated mutilating and sterilizing kids in the name of gender ideology. And so this verdict is I hope, a really significant step in turning around this madness.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, not only is it a significant step, but this also I think is going to inspire others and lawyers by the way to take on cases. As you mentioned, this is historic, first one ever. When you see how it was won this now and you can give I think more insight on this as a lawyer, other lawyers are gonna look at this case and go, okay, can I replicate this for a winning strategy? Here's almost a blueprint for these types of cases. And other now other lawyers around the country will probably be way more likely to take on these types of cases because now they understand, a, they can win, and b, there's a blueprint of maybe how you want to run this case. Am I wrong?

[Ben Ferguson]

You're not wrong. And I will say philosophically, as a conservative, my approach to some of the extreme abuses we've seen is to quote Mr. Burns in the Simpsons, release the hounds. I think unleashing trial lawyers on these really bad actors is a really potent tool. And so for every one of these hospitals and doctors that are pushing this mutilation on kids, I think the specter of their being sued into the poorhouse is really powerful. By the way, it's the same approach that I have to big tech engaging in censorship. And I think we ought to change. Right now there's a provision called section 230 of the Communications decency act that immunizes big tech from lawsuits almost across the board. I have long advocated creating an exception to section 230, that if you engage in political censorship, you should face lawsuits. And the only way to avoid those lawsuits is, is to stop censorship and create a free speech town hall, a town square. And it's very much the same philosophy, which is unleashing trial lawyers can inflict enormous costs and burdens. I don't want to do so more broadly. I don't want to do so on job creators. I don't want to do so in a way that hurts the economy. But when you have conduct that is racial, really harmful for society, unleashing the trial lawyers to sue the living hell out of them, I think is a really, really powerful tool.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's a new year, 2026. You've probably heard the name bitcoin and cryptocurrency. So the question so many people have is, is it safe? And is it something that I should be invested in? It's a question I want to get answered for you today. And joining me now to talk about that is the co founder of bitcoin, Ira Chris klein. Chris, I appreciate you being here. And it is pretty cool to see what's happened in the crypto space. It has become normal. It now can be a part of your ira. The federal government has changed the rules. They're accepting cryptocurrency like it's a stock.

[Chris Klein]

Yes, absolutely. And it's, it's really driven itself into a mainstream space. I remember a decade ago when we first started bitcoin, Ira, and everybody was like, are you crazy, kid? You're putting bitcoin in retirement accounts? Is this even possible? And you fast forward to where we're at today where countries are building stockpiles, corporations are building stockpiles. Strategy for example, is pretty much its entire business models around this. It's a piece of diversification that every major player in the space and economics is looking at and so should to the individual sovereignty of the average American looking to put it inside of their retirement.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

You guys actually have a really cool stat that you told me about at dinner and that is that your clients 75% were born before 1976. So the idea that you maybe missed out on this or if you're a little older, older, it's a young man's game in crypto that is also just not true.

[Chris Klein]

That's definitely one of the myths I wanted to come debunk with you and your audience is this isn't, this isn't our grandfather's economy. And grandfathers are buying bitcoin and putting it inside of their retirement for long term holdings. Especially now that they're thinking about inheritance and handing some of these things down. But yeah, that was actually shocking to me. We discovered that in 2018 that 75% of them were older than my parents generation. And what we found from surveying all of them was this is something that they think is new age and that I think almost every American, especially older ones has a genuine concern of watching what's happened to the US dollar over the last four or five decades. And there's always been gold and silver as a potential hedge land, real estate. These scarce assets in bitcoin, while it may seem, oh that's digital and it's different, it's scarce. There's only 21 million assets of Bitcoin that will ever be mined. 19 and a half million have been mined so far. And you and I actually won't live. Our kids will probably live to see the last one get mined. This is something, you know, we're in a world of abundance. Since I was born in 1985. It's abundance. We just printed and printed and printed more. This is a moment in time where we may be able to revert back to scarcity. And there'll be a day where just saying I have one. Bitcoin will be life changing.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Chris. I hope a lot of people that are watching this, you guys will go and find out more. It is amazing what you can do in your retirement account now just like your other investments with bitcoin cryptocurrency. Find out more right now@bitcoin ira.com Ben that's bitcoin ira.com Ben and see what cryptocurrency can do for your portfolio. I want to move finally to this other big subject. And, and for people that are listening right now, there is a big scandal that is taking place at the United nations. But it says it's a type of scandal that you and I should. Should love and celebrate. And that is the UN is angry right now that there's not enough money for them to do all their, their, their woke crap all over the world. The simplest way I can describe it. And they're really upset because the number one fund of the UN has been the United States of America. Donald Trump has said, no more. We're not gonna just give you this blank check and be and fund all this stuff. And now the UN Secretary General is freaking out and saying, we need desperate money now or things are gonna have to be shut down. This on top of the fact that Trump has also taken the US out of 66 globalist organizations and treaties as well. Saving American taxpayer dollars are being wasted.

[Ben Ferguson]

So you talked about cutting off funding for, as you said, quote, woke crap all over the world. I think that's the new motto of the United Nations. The United nations woke crap all over the world. Let me read from our article in Breitbart. Quote, the United nations is going broke and needs member nations to stump up cash. Lots of it. That is the plea from Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, who fears the globalist body is at risk of, quote, imminent financial collapse due to their member states not paying their dues. The former leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party said Friday the UN faces a financial crisis which was, quote, deepening. Threatening program delivery and money could run out as soon as July, leaving the unaccountable globalist cabal destitute. Such as the financial drama unfolding at UN headquarters in Geneva, signs of a warning situation have reportedly been put up everywhere in an almost desperate attempt to save cash. The escalators are regularly turned off and the heating turned down. The BBC reports, By the way, how much money do you save turning the escalators off? Like, that's really.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Exactly.

[Ben Ferguson]

That's a little amazing. So Gutierrez sent a missive out to all 193 member states, outlining his fears and pleading that they had to honor their mandatory payments or overhaul the organization's financial rules to avoid collapse. It comes after the UN's largest contributor to the United States refused to contribute to its regular and peacekeeping budgets and withdrew from several agencies it called a, quote, waste of taxpayer dollars. These include the UN's population agency and the UN treaty that establishes International climate negotiations. And I gotta say, reading this, it reminds me of. I actually think one of the funniest movies ever made was Team World Police. You ever see Team America?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Ben Ferguson]

Okay. It's absolutely hysterical. By the way, I'm gonna confess a really stupid thing I did. So several years ago, I was vacationing with Heidi and with the girls and with my in laws, Heidi's parents, and they have a houseboat on Lake Powell. Lake Powell is an amazing. Have you ever been to Lake Powell?

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I have not. You've told me about it. It's on my bucket list now.

[Ben Ferguson]

Like, holy cow. So Lake Powell is the southern part of the Grand Canyon and basically envisioned the Grand Canyon dammed up and filled halfway with water. That is Lake Powell. And so my in laws for 30 years have had a houseboat there. And you go out on the houseboat and. And they tow. You tow a ski boat. You tow typically one or two jet skis. You go out into the water, and it's amazing. So my in laws are not fancy. So their houseboat does not have a working air conditioner. So you go out typically in the middle of the summer, which, you know, 100, 110 degrees, no AC. You sleep on the roof of the houseboat under the stars. By the way, your cell phone doesn't work at all. You have no Internet, and, you know, you get up and jump in the water, you bathe in the lake, you go out water skiing, you get on a jet ski, and you can go down these finger canyons. Ben, I gotta say, you go down a finger canyon, it is breathtaking. You can go down it where on each side, you can put your hand out and touch the side of the cliff.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, that's on my bucket list. Sounds amazing.

[Ben Ferguson]

A couple hundred feet of just red sandstone, and you're in this sliver. You can go in far enough that you got to jump off the jet ski, swim around and turn the jet ski around because you don't have room to turn it around. So it's an awesome thing to do. So one time a decade ago, Heidi and I are going out with her parents, and we decided. So they do have a little TV on the houseboat with a DVR player. And we decided to bring.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I know where this is going. All right, I'm with you now. Keep going.

[Ben Ferguson]

A DVD of Team America. Because Heidi doesn't like movies very much. I love movies. Like, I grew up, my parents both love movies. So, like, I would go out with my mom and dad and we'd go See movies every week, and we love movies. Heidi grew up. She never went to the movies, but I took her to see Team America, and she laughed so hard she couldn't breathe. So we're like, all right, let's bring it. And this was, I gotta say, an incredibly stupid thing to do, Ben, because I forgot that Team America, okay, so it's puppets, and it's done by the south park guys. But every third or fourth word is a curse word. I mean, it's Earth bomb. It is a relentless. And I'm sitting there playing this. We turned it on with my in laws, and they're just looking in utter horror as it's just curse, curse, curse, curse, curse. We didn't watch 10 minutes of it before we turned it off and said, oh, sorry about that. I really gotta apologize.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Like, now, here's my question, though. Did your wife do it? My wife would do that scenario. Act like she's shocked that you brought this movie and shared it, or did she laugh as hard as she laughed when y' all were at the movie together? That's the real question.

[Ben Ferguson]

She sort of laughed. But we remembered how funny the movie was. But. But we hadn't internalized. There's just. If you deleted every profanity in the movie, the movie would be 30% shorter.

[Better Picks Ad Speaker]

Like.

[Ben Ferguson]

Like, it just. And. And part of what I like about Team America is it mocks both sides. So it's not a conservative movie. It's not a liberal movie. Like, it. It makes fun of both sides in a way that is really funny. But I. I don't advise particularly if, you know, my in laws. I mean, I mean, they were. They were Christian missionaries. They're. They're wonderful people, but. But they don't curse. And they may have seen more curse words in those 10 minutes we played than they had in the past 10 years before that. So my whole point of this is there's a scene in Team America where you have. Part of the theory is that Kim Jong Un is the dictator of North Korea, which is, of course, true, but he's a puppet in Team America, and he is seeking to attack the world. And it's all Team America. World police is trying to fight Kim Jong Un. But anyway, the United nations sends Hans Blix. Who? Hans Blix. Most of our listeners are too young to remember, but Hans Blix was a weapons inspector for the United Nations. Yeah, and the UN sends Hans Blix to Kim Jong Un to go tell him to stop developing weapons of mass destruction. And Kim Jong Un ends up feeding the puppet Hans Blix to sharks who eat him. And at one point, right before he gets fed the sharks, Hans Blix says, you must stop what you're doing. And if you do not stop what you're doing, the United nations is going to send you a really stern letter. Yeah.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

So accurate, by the way. So accurate.

[Ben Ferguson]

As I'm reading the cries from the Secretary General, I keep envisioning Hans Blix in Team America saying, give us money, or we will send you a really stern letter saying, give us money.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

It's entirely accurate. Exactly where we are. And that's why the part about this is so funny is the President said he was gonna do it. You elect me, I'm gonna get rid of all this stuff. I'm gonna get rid of the wasting of your tax dollars. And it's not just the UN that's freaking out now. You've got this list of 66 globalist organizations and treaties that he's also, by the way, we're not giving you money there, either.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah. So the list of 66, by the way. So as Ben and I were prepping for this show, we're talking about the list of six, six. And I asked him, I said, hey, what are the six, six? And he's like, I don't know. And you sent me this whole document. I'm not going to read them all, but I'm just going to read some of the topics. So number one is the 247 carbon free energy Compact. We withdrew from that. The Colombo Plan Council, the Commission on Environmental Cooperation, Education Cannot Wait. The European center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, the Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories, the Freedom Online Coalition, the Global Community Engagement Resilience Fund, the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise. That's the first 10. There are another 56 that come.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

I mean, now you know why he said, we're going to get rid of all them. Right. Like, we're just not going to fund this stuff. Many of them, by the way, are like people that hate America on top of that.

[Ben Ferguson]

That's right. All right, let me read the last 10. So numbers 56 through 66, we withdrew from the UN entity for gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. We withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Human Settlements Program, the UN Institute for Training and Research, UN Oceans, UN Population Fund, UN Register of Conventional Arms, the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination, the UN System Staff College, the UN Water, and the UN University. All of that. Look, you And I and most people on planet Earth have no idea what any of these do. But we were sending millions of dollars to this garbage. And there is a reason why Hans Blix is floating in the water having been eaten by sharks from Kim Jong Un. Because stern letters from the United nations don't do a whole lot.

[Senator Ted Cruz]

Yeah, they really don't. It's I love seeing the President do this. This is exactly what we needed him to do and what so many people voted for. And thank goodness he's he's following through and hammering on this issue. Don't forget, we do this show Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So hit that subscriber auto download button so you don't miss a single episode. Most of our episodes we also do on YouTube as well. So you can watch us on YouTube and follow and subscribe there. It's always free on any platform and the center. I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

[Better Picks Ad Speaker]

Not everybody can be good at fantasy football and at Better. We understand that. That's why we're giving away a free $10 just for signing up. Download the Better app, pick more or less on player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Better Picks is available in 33 states, including Texas, California, and Georgia. Download the Better App today. That's Better. B E T R and get a free $10 dollars. No deposit necessary. Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates. Terms and conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got Better.

[Ben Ferguson]

This is an I heart podcast. Guaranteed human.