The Charlie Kirk Show - Elon Musk and the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ with Darren Beattie
Aired: 2022-04-28
Duration: 32:13


=== DeSantis Presidential Ambitions (10:49) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk show, Darren Beattie talks about Elon Musk's takeover.
[00:00:04]  Is it possible that Elon Musk actually has control of the whole situation in the sense where he's thought this all through?
[00:00:11]  That does the government need Elon Musk more than Elon Musk needs the government?
[00:00:14]  That's an interesting question that we entertain here and so much more.
[00:00:20]  Email us your thoughts.
[00:00:20]  It's always freedom at charliekirk.com, including a poll.
[00:00:23]  Trump or DeSantis?
[00:00:24]  I want to hear your thoughts.
[00:00:26]  Email me directly, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:00:28]  We'll select some of the people that vote to our poll to win some Charlie Kirk show merchandise.
[00:00:33]  Do you want Trump or DeSantis to run in 2024?
[00:00:37]  I articulate in this episode where my loyalties lie.
[00:00:40]  However, I'm just interested.
[00:00:41]  CharlieKirk.com slash support to get behind the work we are doing.
[00:00:44]  Get involved with Turning PointUSA today at tpusa.com.
[00:00:47]  Turning point USA is the place where we are making hope happen.
[00:00:51]  Short high school or college chapter today at tpusa.com.
[00:00:54]  That is tpusa.com.
[00:00:56]  Support the Charlie Kirk show at charliekirk.com slash support.
[00:00:59]  Buckle up, everybody.
[00:01:00]  Here we go.
[00:01:16]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:01:18]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.
[00:01:20]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:01:23]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:01:27]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:01:28]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:01:29]  His spirit, his love of this country.
[00:01:30]  He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.
[00:01:36]  Turning point USA.
[00:01:37]  We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
[00:01:46]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:49]  Brought to you by Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage.
[00:01:52]  For personalized loan services, you can count on.
[00:01:54]  Go to AndrewandTodd.com.
[00:01:56]  The wonderfulandrewandtodd.com.
[00:02:00]  Hello, everybody.
[00:02:01]  Welcome back.
[00:02:02]  Email us your thoughts.
[00:02:02]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
[00:02:04]  Democrats are trying to pull the alarm.
[00:02:10]  They are realizing that one man is remaking the mold.
[00:02:15]  CNN.com, what's left of it.
[00:02:20]  They write, pay attention to what Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida.
[00:02:25]  Not a week goes by, CNN writes, without Florida's governors, Ron DeSantis, proposing or signing some bill that aggravates progressives, worries civil rights leaders.
[00:02:34]  I love that term civil rights leaders.
[00:02:36]  It's so Orwellian.
[00:02:38]  They're the opposite of civil rights leaders.
[00:02:39]  They don't protect civil rights.
[00:02:40]  They protect the criminalization of civil rights.
[00:02:43]  Yeah, civil rights leader, very worried that free speech could be a threat to civil rights.
[00:02:47]  Huh.
[00:02:50]  CNN writes, or penalizes politically correct corporations.
[00:02:55]  Is that how they're labeling it now?
[00:02:57]  Disney's a politically correct organization.
[00:03:00]  Oh, I see.
[00:03:01]  Okay.
[00:03:01]  So teaching a six-year-old about sex and transgender and puberty blockers makes you a politically correct corporation.
[00:03:13]  CNN writes, Ron DeSantis is a generational talent at seizing headlines.
[00:03:19]  This is the stuff presidential ambitions are made of.
[00:03:22]  This week it was Florida's second major election overhaul in as many years in which DeSantis created a new election police force focused on election fraud.
[00:03:31]  It would be under his control, even though he's up for reelection in November.
[00:03:35]  Wait a second.
[00:03:35]  So if DeSantis is able to put together an election police force, why doesn't every Republican do that?
[00:03:43]  We seem to be asking that question a lot with Ron DeSantis, don't we?
[00:03:46]  We ask the question of why him and not others?
[00:03:49]  Why does he have the courage and the will to do things?
[00:03:51]  And Brian Kemp from Georgia does not.
[00:03:54]  Why him?
[00:03:58]  CNN writes, but what kind of a president would Ron DeSantis be?
[00:04:01]  Heir to Trump, with the exception of former President Donald Trump, who wants his old job back, no single person has generated more major campaign inevitability than DeSantis.
[00:04:10]  But while Trump is cloistered at his private clubs and doing some rallies and fundraisers, DeSantis has turned his state position into a national platform more than any governor in recent memory.
[00:04:20]  So I get asked this question all the time: Charlie, who will you support?
[00:04:23]  Ron DeSantis or Trump?
[00:04:24]  Or what?
[00:04:24]  I'm a loyal guy.
[00:04:25]  If Trump runs, he has my word.
[00:04:28]  I'll be loyal to him.
[00:04:30]  But it would be very difficult for me to be against DeSantis.
[00:04:33]  It would be very difficult for me to all of a sudden attack America's greatest governor if DeSantis were to challenge Trump.
[00:04:39]  But I am curious for all of you, if you're watching this, and what are your thoughts?
[00:04:46]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, DeSantis or Trump.
[00:04:49]  I will pick one of those randomly and we'll send you guys some Charlie Kirk swag to incentivize you.
[00:04:56]  Just do a poll.
[00:04:57]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, email me.
[00:04:59]  Do you want DeSantis or do you want Trump in 2024?
[00:05:07]  Friend from the Midwest emailed us both.
[00:05:10]  Now, the only problem is that they're both from the same state.
[00:05:15]  So one person would have to leave Florida like Trump could get a condo in Texas.
[00:05:20]  The 12th Amendment does not allow someone from the same state to be president and vice president.
[00:05:25]  With DeSantis to win his reelection campaign, CNN writes in November before he can really start thinking about a run for the White House, but hasn't officially announced.
[00:05:33]  Look, DeSantis, I think, is going to win the Florida reelection by five to 10 points easily.
[00:05:39]  CNN asks the question: is it too early to talk about 2024?
[00:05:43]  Joe Biden's approval ratings are stubbornly underwater.
[00:05:46]  I love how CNN writes this as a news article, and they write that the approval ratings of a president are stubbornly underwater.
[00:05:53]  Really?
[00:05:53]  That writes how like an internal Democrat memo would write.
[00:05:57]  If I was a Democrat strategist, how are our approval ratings, Ron Klain and Joe Biden?
[00:06:02]  They're stubbornly underwater.
[00:06:05]  It's a really weird way to put it for a news organization.
[00:06:09]  Like maybe if you're a Democrat super PAC, the country is divided as ever, and at least one major bank is girding for a recession in the near future.
[00:06:18]  I do believe a recession is in our cards, unfortunately.
[00:06:21]  Is that crazy to think these things, disappointment, division, and the threat of a downturn, create a difficult environment for Biden's reelection?
[00:06:28]  I love how this kind of like slow self-discovery process, they're like, wait, Biden might be in trouble?
[00:06:35]  Yeah.
[00:06:38]  So CNN's finally waking up to the fact that Ron DeSantis might be a real threat.
[00:06:42]  Quote, granted, we're not yet halfway through his presidency.
[00:06:46]  But it's important to consider the alternative since you can be sure they're already plotting campaign strategies.
[00:06:52]  DeSantis turning on Disney for its opposition to a new Florida law, many consider to be anti-LGBTQ.
[00:06:57]  Can you see how CNN writes this stuff?
[00:06:59]  I mean, you wonder why CNN Plus totally collapsed.
[00:07:02]  So CNN says, quote, Ron DeSantis went after Disney for its opposition to a new Florida law that many consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.
[00:07:10]  Yeah, like weird people consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.
[00:07:13]  Perverts consider it to be anti-LGBTQ.
[00:07:16]  If you want to teach children about these highly sensitive matters, by the way, the results of our poll are coming in very quickly.
[00:07:23]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, DeSantis vs. Trump.
[00:07:26]  I want to hear from everybody.
[00:07:27]  I want to hear your thoughts.
[00:07:29]  I've already told you I'm a loyal guy, so I'm telling you where I stand.
[00:07:32]  I'm just curious what people think.
[00:07:33]  It's right.
[00:07:34]  You know where I stand.
[00:07:37]  CNN writes, Ron DeSantis is the imperial governor.
[00:07:41]  Noted recently that DeSantis' rise puts him on a collision course with Trump.
[00:07:45]  His ability to mold state government around him is something Trump could only dream of and that would never work in Washington.
[00:07:52]  Maybe.
[00:07:54]  Quote, DeSantis' imperial governorship.
[00:07:58]  Where did these people get this stuff?
[00:08:00]  The imperial governorship reached new heights when the actions of Florida's legislature demonstrated how he is not only bending state government to his will, but also to his whims.
[00:08:11]  About time someone in the Republican Party does something meaningful.
[00:08:17]  In a special session, lawmakers approved new congressional maps proposed by his office that appears all but to certain to dilute the voting power of people of color.
[00:08:27]  On the same day, the legislature carried out DeSantis' threat to punish Disney for speaking out against the law he recently signed that limits certain classroom discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity.
[00:08:40]  This is incredible the world they live in.
[00:08:43]  One person just emailed us their vote.
[00:08:45]  Definitely DeSantis because Trump is too polarizing, but we'll be behind 100% Trump if he's the nominee.
[00:08:53]  Why do they hate him? CNN says.
[00:08:54]  Well, here's the thing.
[00:08:56]  He's anti-mandate, anti-woke, anti-tech, anti-protest.
[00:09:00]  No, he's anti-riot, CNN.
[00:09:02]  This is what I love.
[00:09:03]  In a response to the killing of George Floyd, while other states reviewed policing policies, DeSantison called for a so-called anti-riot bill that opponents say target peaceful protesters.
[00:09:14]  Really?
[00:09:15]  If you're a peaceful protester and you're burning down a Wendy's, are you really a peaceful protester?
[00:09:22]  Anti-woke, DeSantis has been on the forefront of attacking wokeness and critical race theory, signing a new law that bans businesses and schools from teaching about white privilege.
[00:09:35]  His administration has always rejected, has recently rejected math textbooks from publishers, claiming some included elements of critical race theory and emotional social learning.
[00:09:46]  In closing, CNN writes, they say, it's easy to imagine very different uses of a massive federal apparatus if someone with such talent for the politics of division were to assume office.
[00:10:00]  Email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:10:03]  DeSantis or Trump, where do you think?
[00:10:05]  In 2024.
[00:10:09]  And by the way, we don't make a habit of talking about CNN, but I'm using this because they're starting to wake up.
[00:10:13]  They're starting to say, like, wait a second, why is DeSantis so popular?
[00:10:18]  He must be a fascist.
[00:10:20]  Right.
[00:10:22]  Terry from Corona, California, DeSantis, DeSantis, DeSantis.
[00:10:26]  Bill from Florida.
[00:10:28]  I'm a big supporter of Trump, but thinks DeSantis is less controversial, more electable.
[00:10:32]  One person says here that Trump forever.
[00:10:35]  Trump forever is a big kind of one.
[00:10:37]  It's tough.
[00:10:38]  It's tight.
[00:10:39]  One person says Trump for four years, so we can get Ron DeSantis for eight.
[00:10:43]  So keep your thoughts coming in.
[00:10:45]  It's very helpful for me to kind of see where the base is at.
[00:10:47]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.

=== War on American Energy (03:12) ===

[00:10:49]  Okay, let's get to this one here all about energy.
[00:10:53]  We have all the energy stuff queued up here.
[00:10:56]  Cut 69, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calls for a halt on gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.
[00:11:06]  It's another provocation promising an immediate united response.
[00:11:09]  It comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us.
[00:11:13]  Play Cut 69.
[00:11:15]  Gaspron's announcement that it is unilaterally stopping gas deliveries to certain EU member states is another provocation from the Kremlin.
[00:11:26]  But it comes as no surprise that the Kremlin uses fossil fuels to try to blackmail us.
[00:11:33]  Yeah, I mean, look, of course they're going to try to blackmail you.
[00:11:35]  Okay, they're at war with Ukraine.
[00:11:38]  The question is, why have you allowed them to have the opportunity to blackmail you?
[00:11:42]  Because you have prioritized ideology over competency or ideology over practicality.
[00:11:52]  You care much more about some sort of green future than using the assets and the resources at your disposal.
[00:11:58]  You're right right here.
[00:12:00]  That Europeans can trust that we can stand united and in full solidarity with member states impacted in the faces of this new challenge.
[00:12:10]  The news put U.S. natural gas futures up 3%.
[00:12:13]  European gas prices jumped 20%.
[00:12:17]  It's amazing the casualties and the consequences of declaring an all-out war on American energy.
[00:12:23]  It really is.
[00:12:25]  Declaring a war on American energy turns out not to be a very smart idea.
[00:12:32]  Have you looked at how much of Russia is inside your 401k or IRA?
[00:12:36]  Did you know my friends at PAX Financial Group have zero investments in Russia through their biblical investment strategy?
[00:12:42]  Those companies were screened out long ago because they didn't pass the treat people right test.
[00:12:46]  One of the most important tenets of the Christian faith is to love your neighbor, and this includes to love your employees.
[00:12:52]  Based on PAX's biblical responsible investment strategy, a company, domestic or international, is excluded from an investment from your portfolio if it violates our innate God-given fundamental rights.
[00:13:02]  So PAX Financial is wonderful.
[00:13:04]  They share our values.
[00:13:05]  In fact, I know people that have switched to PAX Financial from our partnership, and they speak so favorably about it.
[00:13:12]  Stop using the woke money managers.
[00:13:14]  PAX Financial is rooted in biblical wisdom.
[00:13:18]  So if you have $150,000 or more and would like to know more about biblical responsible investing at PAX Financial Group, text Charlie to number 74868.
[00:13:28]  That's Charlie at number 74868.
[00:13:32]  That's Charlie to number 74868.
[00:13:35]  So you just take out your phone, text the number 74868, and type in Charlie to get to know about PAX Biblical Responsible Investing.
[00:13:45]  Biblical responsible investing strategy, take out your phone, text Charlie to 74868.
[00:13:52]  They're about to manage some money for me.
[00:13:54]  I really think highly of PAX Financial.
[00:13:56]  Text Charlie to number 74868.

=== Elon Musk Leverage (14:57) ===

[00:14:02]  Here is the great Darren Beattie from Revolver.news.
[00:14:05]  If you are not supporting Revolver.news, you should be.
[00:14:08]  They're one of the few organizations that actually does journalism in our country.
[00:14:12]  Revolver.news.
[00:14:14]  Darren, welcome back to the program.
[00:14:15]  So great to be back.
[00:14:16]  Thanks for having me.
[00:14:18]  So, Darren, there's a lot of different stories we can address here, but I do want to talk to you about the Elon Musk story.
[00:14:24]  This is being met with enthusiasm from most base conservatives, populists, and nationalists, the MAGA types, if you will.
[00:14:31]  The establishment Republicans seem to not love it, or they're just kind of glossing their eyes over at it.
[00:14:36]  Now, help us walk us through this because Elon is not necessarily team right.
[00:14:42]  He's socially liberal on certain things, pro-China in other ways.
[00:14:47]  Also, the Neuralink stuff we're not a big fan of.
[00:14:49]  But you seem supportive of this, and I am as well.
[00:14:52]  Tell us why.
[00:14:54]  Yes, I'm incredibly supportive for the simple reason that Twitter really is, as Elon characterizes it, the global public square.
[00:15:04]  And the question of who controls information flows on the global public square and whether or not there's free speech on the global public square is an existential one.
[00:15:16]  It's existential from the point of view of the stakeholders in our regime, which I believe will do everything in their power possible to prevent this from happening.
[00:15:26]  And it's also existential for us because if we're not able to have free speech at scale, we're never going to be able to have genuine political victories.
[00:15:38]  And so I support this because even though probably a realistic and fair assessment would be the odds are stacked against Elon.
[00:15:47]  Now, he's already done an incredibly impressive job for how far he's taken it, but this is just the start.
[00:15:54]  And so, you know, he's up against a lot.
[00:15:57]  Maybe he won't succeed.
[00:15:58]  I hope he will.
[00:15:59]  If anyone can do it, he can.
[00:16:01]  But what's important is that this is the greatest show on earth.
[00:16:04]  This is the place where the meaningful battle is taking place right now.
[00:16:09]  Because if we can liberate the global public square, the optionality increases tremendously in terms of what we can achieve politically.
[00:16:17]  And this seems to be such an unexpected development, right?
[00:16:20]  Only someone with the, I will use a nicer term, a spine, like there's other body parts I could use, of Elon could actually be able to do this.
[00:16:30]  So we as conservatives need to look, I suppose, what you're arguing, and I agree wholeheartedly, that we need to look at this in terms of power dynamics, right?
[00:16:38]  That if Elon is helpful now to the liberation of humanity from this kind of technocratic regime, then let's do it.
[00:16:46]  Let's sign him up.
[00:16:47]  Let's try to get him on our team.
[00:16:49]  Is that the way we need to look at it?
[00:16:50]  The same way the kind of left designed kind of power and allies and all this, and less about just whether or not somebody agrees with me on everything?
[00:16:59]  Yeah, I mean, I think that's looking at it from the perspective of what Elon's personal political affiliations might be versus what the policy implications would be for Twitter as a service in terms of the terms of service governing speech.
[00:17:15]  I think that's probably the least sophisticated way to look at it.
[00:17:20]  And looking at it that way is a way to ensure continued failure.
[00:17:25]  You know, I know a lot of conversation sort of it's been a trope within conservative dialogue to talk about, oh, our ideas are better.
[00:17:33]  Ideas have consequences.
[00:17:36]  The reason that the left can only win by censoring us.
[00:17:40]  And there's a lot of truth to all those things.
[00:17:42]  But then the question is: so what?
[00:17:45]  The game is not about, okay, there is no marketplace of ideas.
[00:17:49]  There's the meta game of who controls the marketplace that decides what ideas are allowed to prevail.
[00:17:57]  And that's the game that Elon's playing.
[00:17:59]  He's playing it at the very highest level, and he's shown every indication, which is a rarity among people of his station at that level of being a billionaire, to actually play for keeps and put things on the line.
[00:18:11]  Because Sai said, this is an existential threat.
[00:18:15]  This amounts to a declaration of war on our corrupt and illegitimate regime.
[00:18:21]  And he hasn't seen anything yet.
[00:18:23]  This is the battle of his life.
[00:18:25]  It's the fight of his life.
[00:18:27]  He might not even understand exactly what he's getting into.
[00:18:31]  This is Trump 2016 proportions, and he's going to see a reaction that resembles that, if not even more intense.
[00:18:39]  Do you think he can win that?
[00:18:42]  You know, that's the thing.
[00:18:43]  Like, my honest assessment is probably more likely that he'll not prevail.
[00:18:50]  But even if I were to give it, say, a 15 to 20% chance, that's a hell of a great chance.
[00:18:57]  That's an optimistic thing because if he were to win, it would actually be meaningful.
[00:19:02]  Because so many of the battles that we see now are just fake and performative, and they don't really amount to anything.
[00:19:09]  They're just fake things to get people invested, to get people to donate money, and they'll never deliver anything.
[00:19:16]  And so even if this is a 20% chance of delivering the highest stakes imaginable, I'd say that's incredibly optimistic.
[00:19:25]  So one thing I like here is that this is actually a real fight.
[00:19:29]  This actually has real stakes here, the highest imaginable.
[00:19:33]  And so, like I say, this is the greatest show on earth.
[00:19:36]  This battle taking place right now is the greatest show on earth, and its consequences will be proportionate to that description.
[00:19:43]  In some ways, he's already won part of the battle by taking Twitter away from them.
[00:19:51]  And I said this and someone pushed back, but can it really get worse?
[00:19:54]  I mean, there's no way Elon is going to make it worse than what it are.
[00:19:58]  It's already a censorship propaganda machine.
[00:20:01]  So even if it just gets a little bit better, that prevents them from still having that part of their machinery.
[00:20:09]  So let me ask you, how do you think they're going to strike back?
[00:20:11]  I mean, the empire always does.
[00:20:13]  These people aren't just going to be like, oh, I guess we lost.
[00:20:16]  I mean, I anticipate subpoenas for Musk.
[00:20:19]  I anticipate his government contract to SpaceX to be put into jeopardy.
[00:20:22]  I anticipate electric vehicle subsidies to be put in jeopardy.
[00:20:25]  I anticipate major audits, DOJ investigations, SEC investigations, a public propaganda campaign, sexual assault allegations, Me Too allegations.
[00:20:37]  What else?
[00:20:39]  Well, you covered a lot of it, and it's really interesting there, as you point out, a great deal of Elon's success.
[00:20:49]  He's a tremendously talented person, but a great deal of his success comes from his willingness and ability to play ball with the government, to use government contracts.
[00:21:00]  SpaceX is essentially the government deciding, you know what, NASA is basically a mess at this point.
[00:21:08]  So here, Elon, we're basically allowing you to be the private NASA.
[00:21:13]  And the whole kind of the pitch of Tesla, yeah, it's cool.
[00:21:17]  It's these cars are cool and everything.
[00:21:19]  But a huge part of the pitch and the narrative was riding that wave of, okay, this is how we're going to fight climate change and everything.
[00:21:26]  So he's really been kind of sailing in the direction of the establishment.
[00:21:30]  That's been a key to his success.
[00:21:32]  And this is why it's so rare to see people like Elon actually turn against the system.
[00:21:37]  It's kind of, it's equivalent to in academia, there's something called tenure.
[00:21:41]  And if you play ball for enough time, after seven, eight years or so, they'll give you tenure and they can't fire you.
[00:21:48]  The only thing is the kind of person with such a slavish personality that they can make it seven years just being a yes man and pretending to believe what the others say, that kind of person generally is not going to rock the boat after seven years once they have tenure.
[00:22:04]  There's a similar thing at a bigger scale when it comes to what sort of person does the system allow to get to Elon's level.
[00:22:11]  And he's gotten to that level by playing ball.
[00:22:14]  And now he's totally turning against them.
[00:22:16]  And as you point out, they can sabotage Tesla.
[00:22:19]  And actually, a lot of this deal is predicated on, I would imagine, the value of Tesla shares.
[00:22:25]  So they might be able to sabotage the deal completely by going after Tesla.
[00:22:31]  European Union countries can say, oh, if you don't play ball with our interpretation of censorship and censoring hate speech, we're just going to ban Twitter.
[00:22:41]  You can have various news outlets institute a kind of a link, a domain ban on Twitter links.
[00:22:49]  So whereas now it's typical to see Twitter links embedded into stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, and so forth.
[00:22:56]  They can just say, okay, we're no longer doing that.
[00:22:59]  They can punt up the censorship level to basically having Google and Amazon try to disrupt any type of distribution.
[00:23:07]  And then if that doesn't work, we're already hearing remarks from Elizabeth Warren and others that they're willing to take aggressive government action, ironically, using Section 230 and other things to go after Elon.
[00:23:21]  So they have a lot of materials at their disposal.
[00:23:24]  And we're just talking about the somewhat above board and clean methods.
[00:23:28]  There are much dirtier methods, much darker methods that they can use as well if it comes to that.
[00:23:34]  And so, but here's here.
[00:23:35]  So I have two thoughts.
[00:23:36]  And this is so interesting.
[00:23:38]  I think that every one of those measures, he's in a double down.
[00:23:41]  Okay, you're gonna tell me I can't do AWS servers.
[00:23:44]  I'm gonna build my own servers.
[00:23:45]  And he just kind of does have the ability to do that, right?
[00:23:49]  He's like, oh, you're gonna say that I can't have Twitter in Germany?
[00:23:52]  I'll blast it in from Starlink, right?
[00:23:55]  I mean, there is kind of like a part to him where he's going to keep doubling down.
[00:24:02]  I mean, he's already showed that, right?
[00:24:03]  I mean, you don't 44 billion.
[00:24:06]  I think he might be looking at this as saying, if I'm going to be prevented from being allowed to get people to speak, then I might have to just rebuild the entire ecosystem.
[00:24:15]  And something tells me about him, and this is pure conjecture, though, or speculation.
[00:24:19]  I've never met him.
[00:24:20]  I know people that know him well.
[00:24:21]  We've had him on this program.
[00:24:22]  He just might keep going until they just take him off the chessboard, right?
[00:24:27]  And, but you bring up an interesting point.
[00:24:29]  And a quick answer to this, only a minute.
[00:24:32]  Is there a calculus in Elon's mind that the government needs him more than he needs the government?
[00:24:38]  For example, SpaceX is doing basically all of the work of the United States Space Force right now, from satellite technology to missions to international space mission.
[00:24:48]  Does Elon feel as if he's got the U.S. government over a barrel?
[00:24:52]  You know, that's a great observation.
[00:24:55]  And it could just be if he pulls this off, that will be a major factor that he's become too big to fail.
[00:25:03]  And he's waited long enough to show his hand and actually to turn against him.
[00:25:07]  Because if he showed inklings in this direction just five years ago, 10 years ago, they would have never let him hit the exact right now.
[00:25:14]  He's at this point and he does have some leverage.
[00:25:17]  The only question is, how existential is it to the regime to prevent free speech?
[00:25:23]  I think it actually is existential and they'll do everything in their power to prevent it.
[00:25:28]  So that's why I'd give it a 20% chance.
[00:25:31]  I could just see kind of a meeting on one side, like we have to shut up Elon.
[00:25:36]  And the other side is just some kind of the last like gasp of a patriot at the Pentagon and be like, yo, yo, guys, slow down.
[00:25:43]  You realize you go to war with him and stop the SpaceX thing.
[00:25:46]  We don't have satellites.
[00:25:48]  Like we don't have the ability to fight the Russians or the Chinese.
[00:25:52]  And you could just kind of see those debates unfolding, right?
[00:25:55]  Right.
[00:25:56]  And although I would have to say, from the point of view of the stakeholders of the regime, preventing free speech domestically is more important to them.
[00:26:06]  I agree.
[00:26:06]  No, I'm just saying, though, that they're defeating China.
[00:26:09]  I totally agree, but there will be some remnant of like, hey, are we really prepared to disentangle our whole space operation?
[00:26:21]  Hello, everybody.
[00:26:22]  Charlie Kirk here.
[00:26:23]  Super important announcement.
[00:26:24]  Look, when you swipe your credit card, you're funding liberal causes.
[00:26:27]  Dozens and dozens of times a month.
[00:26:29]  Every time you swipe that card, you might as well do BLM, LGBT, Clinton Foundation.
[00:26:34]  But now there's a choice.
[00:26:35]  I got to know these guys.
[00:26:36]  I vetted them, checked out the technology.
[00:26:38]  I'm a partner with them.
[00:26:39]  I'm all in.
[00:26:40]  It's called Coin, C-O-I-G-N.
[00:26:42]  It's a new credit card built for conservatives.
[00:26:44]  I'm moving all my credit card activity under COIN.
[00:26:47]  And the Coin credit card is an unlimited cashback Visa credit card that is just like every other credit card you've ever owned with one huge exception.
[00:26:54]  Every time you use the Coin card, they contribute to conservative charities that support your values.
[00:26:59]  I'm using it, and you should too.
[00:27:00]  Remember, we have to create a parallel economy, and this is a great new option.
[00:27:04]  Act now.
[00:27:04]  Go to COIGN.com right now to sign up to get a conservative coin credit card.
[00:27:11]  That's C-O-I-G-N.com.
[00:27:14]  Join Coin, and let's start spending right.
[00:27:20]  But you made a really interesting point that even if those kind of internal discussions were unfolding in Washington, D.C., right, with a five-star general and, you know, kind of a White House staffer and the vice president or whatever, you would have to say that they would have to rank the suppression of domestic speech to be more important than actually preventing Chinese hegemony.
[00:27:40]  Is that correct?
[00:27:41]  Absolutely.
[00:27:42]  And I think even as you see the relationship between sort of the foreign policy agenda and the domestic agenda, so much of this ostensible concern for Russian disinformation and foreign meddling, that's simply a pretext to suppress the popular will at home.
[00:28:03]  And so so much of the alleged concern for foreign policy is simply a smokescreen in order to further suppress speech and political activity at home.
[00:28:14]  So I think, and, you know, to a certain extent, I don't blame them.
[00:28:18]  Free speech is an existential threat to them.
[00:28:21]  Free speech is not compatible with the regime as it exists today.
[00:28:26]  And that really says something interesting about what media companies are at the highest level.
[00:28:33]  They don't exist really to generate profit or revenue.
[00:28:37]  They exist because of their influence.
[00:28:39]  Yeah, their propaganda instruments.
[00:28:41]  Their influence at that level will always exceed the value of whatever kind of revenue comes in in monetary terms.
[00:28:48]  So even though the price tag of Twitter is $44 billion, the question of who controls information flow in the global public square is vastly more important.
[00:28:58]  It's a $100 trillion question, right?

=== Free Speech Existential Threat (03:13) ===

[00:29:00]  It really is.
[00:29:00]  Absolutely.
[00:29:01]  That's the $100 trillion question, which is...
[00:29:04]  Absolutely.
[00:29:04]  And so, but so let me ask you, Elon has been a creation of the left.
[00:29:08]  If it wasn't for the electric vehicle push, I don't know if his net worth would have exploded the way it did.
[00:29:15]  Is there any credence, you think, to the theory that he has been steadily and patiently building this influence and power where he becomes virtually uncancelable, where he has almost, he's also can look him in the eyes like, you really want to do this, guys?
[00:29:29]  I mean, we control the space program.
[00:29:31]  Is there any thoughts that do you think he's an engineer?
[00:29:33]  He's very rational, right?
[00:29:35]  So do you think in his mind he's thought through if this, then what?
[00:29:38]  If they try to do this, then what?
[00:29:40]  I mean, is there anything to the argument that Elon's cards outweigh the regimes?
[00:29:47]  I think it's a situation where if anyone can pull it off, it's Elon.
[00:29:52]  I think just given the magnitude of what he's up against, he's still the underdog in this fight, and we should correctly understand him to be the underdog.
[00:30:01]  There's probably somewhat of an analogy to be made to the 2016 election where another intrepid billionaire stepped out into the arena, played the highest stakes game against the coordinated opposition of every powerful institution in the Western world, and he won the election in the same way that Elon now looks like at least he's going to win Twitter, but that's only the start.
[00:30:27]  Winning the election is only the start.
[00:30:29]  It doesn't presuppose actual authority over the executive branch.
[00:30:33]  Similarly, this is just the start of the battle for Elon in terms of his war against the Z.
[00:30:38]  Well, and so, but what if, and this is where the only difference in the analogy is, is that what if now this inspires at least five other billionaires to have solidarity with Elon, right?
[00:30:48]  What if all of a sudden this creates kind of the dissident billionaire?
[00:30:51]  Five to ten billionaires come alongside, they could do a lot of damage.
[00:30:55]  That could make a big difference, right?
[00:30:57]  Absolutely.
[00:30:58]  And it almost goes to show instead of all the money that's spent on campaigns, what if we just took an election cycle, pooled it into a SPAC and said, okay, we're going to take over one media company per election cycle.
[00:31:11]  We might be in a better position than we are now, frankly.
[00:31:14]  That would be rational, smart, and it would only make the greatest show on earth more interesting.
[00:31:22]  Revolver.news, Darren Beattie, his IQ is immeasurably high.
[00:31:27]  He thinks about these things very deeply.
[00:31:29]  And he was calling for Elon to do this before it was actually in the mainstream.
[00:31:34]  If you go back, he was calling for this.
[00:31:36]  And maybe it made a difference.
[00:31:38]  It's really interesting.
[00:31:39]  Revolver.news.
[00:31:40]  I am more optimistic now for the West than I was two weeks ago.
[00:31:45]  And that's where I'm at because of this.
[00:31:47]  But I agree, he's up against the big forces.
[00:31:49]  Darren, thank you so much.
[00:31:50]  God bless you, man.
[00:31:51]  Thank you.
[00:31:52]  Thank you so much for listening, everybody.
[00:31:53]  Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:31:56]  And get involved with TurningPointUSA at tpusa.com or get involved in our young women's leadership summit, tpusa.com/slash ywls.
[00:32:04]  Thank you so much for listening.
[00:32:05]  God bless.
[00:32:09]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.