The Disrupters v. The Establishment — The MAGA Fire Lit Across America
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Hey, everybody.
Today on The Charlie Kirk Show, a full cultural realignment with a sigh of relief.
We explain the UFC fight and more.
Senator Eric Schmidt joins us.
Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
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Happy Monday.
It is a glorious day to be alive.
Here in sunny Palm Beach, we continue our mission to make sure that phase two goes well.
Just trying to help wherever we can.
The transition team is doing very well.
However, there's three phases to trying to save a country in the modern political environment.
Phase one is winning an election.
Phase two is making sure that your picks get selected and confirmed.
And then phase three is actually governing the country.
And then phase three is a whole different thing, which of course we will be on top of every day here on the Charlie Kirk Show.
We're here in Palm Beach and the energy is just off the charts.
I have to start here and then we'll go into the UFC fight, which is super interesting and kind of making some comments on the team that Donald Trump is assembling.
But first, people are coming up to me saying, Charlie, I can finally feel as if there is a weight lifted off my shoulders.
You are living through, and again, it will fade a little bit, but it's going to last a lot longer than I think people realize, a national sigh of relief.
You are living through just kind of this major moment where everyday people feel as if we don't necessarily have to live through crisis to crisis.
Now, understand the Democrats right now, as we are doing this broadcast, are the weakest that we have seen them In quite some time.
They're going to come back, though.
They're demoralized.
They're disorganized.
There's these hilarious stories being written out in Politico and the New York Times about how they're pointing figures and they're saying, well, we have to have the left wing of the Democrat Party kind of stay in its corner and we have to re-embrace Bill Clinton.
Good luck with that.
When I'm talking to regular people here, though, all throughout Palm Beach, they're coming up to you, Charlie, thank you.
I said, well, I did a little bit, but the thanks is really to God and to Donald Trump.
They say, I finally feel as if I can sleep well at night.
It's amazing how an election truly was in existential terms.
Our side believed everything we said about the election.
The other side, of course, does not.
Just this last weekend, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough met with Donald Trump.
They went to Mar-a-Lago and met with Donald Trump to go bend the knee, which is interesting.
Why would you go meet with what you called Hitler?
Why would you go meet with what you falsely call the fascists?
Because they never actually believed it.
And now they want to be in the good graces of the incoming president.
So Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough go to kiss the ring and bend the knee.
As we're watching this team assemble in front of us, This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get changemakers in every cabinet level.
Remember the lesson in 2016, 2017, 2018 was that we won the election, but we did not win on transition.
It's one of the reasons I'm here just to help any way I can.
Help to sit in meetings, help to advise where I can, help to expose things that are necessary, help fulfill the president's mandate and fulfill the president's agenda and The American people.
And what is that mandate?
No more business as usual.
No more just kind of doing things the way they've always been done.
So we want changes in public health.
We want changes in intelligence.
We want changes in how we do the Department of Justice.
We want changes on the southern border.
And President Trump deserves massive credit.
Now, some people are saying, but Charlie, I don't know about these picks.
Like, hold on a second.
Unlike in 2016, 2017, he's playing to win.
Yes, some of these risks, some of these are risky on its surface.
I mean, there's gonna be a confirmation fight for almost all of these.
For Pete Hegseth, for Matt Gaetz, for Tulsi Gabbard.
However, he's showing that political promises mean something.
It's not just rhetoric.
That you are fulfilling the mandate already in the transition team.
Because personnel is policy.
The personnel that you have surrounding a candidate, surrounding a politician, will end up resulting in the policy.
It's not enough just to say, hey, I want to secure the southern border.
If you have a bunch of people working at Immigration Customs Enforcement, if you've got a bunch of people at the Department of Justice, like the Solicitor General, that does not believe in the agenda, then they're not going to defend it in court.
This last weekend, Donald Trump Went to go claim what was his.
He went back to Madison Square Garden, which of course was his major rally before the end of the campaign, to a UFC fight, of course, hosted by Dana White.
And he was joined by his Avengers squad.
He was joined by Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard, Bobby Kennedy.
He was joined by the squad that is going to help take back America.
And we are here To help them every single step of the way.
It's a longer cut, but it's worth it.
This is Donald Trump entering like a conquering general back to the Coliseum.
This is Donald Trump entering as if he has vanquished his enemies to roaring applause.
Play cut one.
We can now officially project that Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States.
He will be going back to the White House.
I will fight for you, for your family, and your future, with every breath in my body.
We're never going to stop fighting.
For you, for your dreams, for the future of your children, we're going to leave the greatest comeback in American history under Donald Trump's leadership.
God spared my life for a reason, to restore America to greatness.
Together we can truly make America great again.
Now, most of that was a campaign video that Dana repurposed.
And this was shown at UFC 309 as Donald Trump enters triumphantly.
Understand the cultural realignment that we're living through right now.
In what world a decade ago would a Republican candidate in 2014, a Republican candidate and president-elect would enter UFC with roaring applause?
Donald Trump has completely remade the Republican Party, and it doesn't stop there.
With winning the popular vote and this kind of national sigh of relief, it is an ongoing celebration.
An ongoing celebration at UFC and then also on NFL Sunday.
Let's just play cut five as I continue to narrate.
The Trump dance is going viral from John Jones to Brock Bowers all throughout the NFL where people are doing the YMCA dance.
I just think it's hilarious that Donald Trump Has not just realigned the Republican Party, but he has realigned the YMCA dance.
And if you know, you know, and I'm just going to say that.
This is not just a political victory, everybody.
This is a full-scale reorientation of our culture.
This is a full-scale reconfiguration of how we view what is acceptable, what is cool, what is desirable.
The Democrat Party has embraced what we know what they always have been, which is a bunch of scolds.
Hall monitors, political correct police officers, self-involved, self-righteous elitists, that the Democrat Party...
Who in the Democrat Party?
This is an interesting question.
Is there a single person in the Democrat Party that exists today?
And if so, email me freedom at charliekirk.com that would enter the UFC fight and get that kind of a reaction.
I know you might say, oh, Charlie, UFC is conservative.
Well, no, it's not really.
These are just men and women, mostly men, coming to go watch a fight.
It is not, in essence, a political rally.
Yes, it has become more Republican and conservative.
If Bernie Sanders entered, would he be booed or would he be welcomed?
AOC? It is a cross-selection and a cross-section of America.
And Donald Trump enters with roaring applause.
Can a single Democrat that you can name enter a UFC fight and be welcomed like this?
I can't.
Because the Democrat Party embraced a very, very risky political strategy, which is purity tests.
If you are not 100% on board with every one of our goofy issues, you are out of the club.
We will purge you.
Well, turns out that all the people that have been purged Many of whom are now joining Trump's cabinet, ready to retake America.
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So Jake Paul fought Mike Tyson on Friday night.
I don't know if it was a fight or if it was performative or theater.
People say it was a fight, but I think that Mr.
Paul let him off easy a little bit.
But that's a separate debate for a different time.
Let's start with the cut 10.
This is Donald Trump entering To claim what is his.
Again, this is not a MAGA rally, everybody.
These are folks that bought tickets to go watch a fight, not knowing that Trump was going to be there or not.
Trump did tease it on the Joe Rogan podcast, but it was not confirmed up until recently.
And listen to the roaring applause.
He's there with Kid Rock, Dana White, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard.
He has completely remade the culture.
And what's so amazing is that the bad guys have done everything they could to make him seem uncool, to make him seem toxic, poisonous.
And that actually made Donald Trump more liked.
The more they attacked Trump and the more that Trump fought, he became more interesting.
Let's play cut 10 of Trump's walkout at UFC. Ladies and gentlemen, look who is now making his way to the world-famous octagon flanked by UFC CEO Dana White.
45, soon to be 47, President-elect Donald Trump.
I wish the people at Cajon could hear the sound in this room.
It's so loud in here.
It is so loud.
It's always loud when he comes here, but now that he's won, now that he's the president again, oh my God.
I mean, over the top.
Again, I want to make this point.
If you're a Democrat, what cultural institution are you latching onto right now?
I mean that.
If you are a left-winger trying to rebuild the base of the Democrat Party, and I don't want to be too cocky or confident.
I'm calling balls and strikes.
If you are a Democrat left-winger, What popular institution right now that nonpolitical people consume, that's the kicker, that nonpolitical people consume, excites you.
Again, show cut five on screen.
The Trump dance all across the NFL. This is a cultural shift, and it is not just cool, but it is uncool to be a left winger.
This is devastating them.
It's a huge opportunity.
The Trump dance on NFL Sunday football is nothing, but it's also everything.
It's everything.
Four years ago, four years ago, folks, those NFL dances were like taking the knee for George Floyd.
People had to apologize for having a Trump hat in their locker in 2015.
And all of you in this audience that never gave up, it shows it's a testament to our will.
We outlasted them.
We outworked them.
And the left has kind of just said, Fine, forget it.
They've kind of thrown up their hands and they're like, just let them through the floodgates.
Just let them through.
Now nobody cares.
In fact, it's met with celebration and applause.
Nick Bosa takes a fine just to say he loves Trump, says it's worth it.
And then Nick Bosa does the Trump dance with other, by the way, players of all different races and backgrounds, Hispanic, Black, White doesn't matter.
They're all doing the Trump dance because Trump is a symbol of cultural realignment.
He's a symbol against political correctness, of free speech.
Donald Trump is a symbol to stick it to the man.
Donald Trump is a symbol that even when you are down and the odds are against you, Thank you, America.
It's the era of truth.
It's the era of good.
There's a shift in the world, and good is rising.
The truth is rising.
I'm just honored to be a part of America, and it feels like we're back, baby.
It does feel like that.
Trump is a symbol of the value of calling it like it is.
It took eight years, but more and more people realized, well, Trump was right about what he said on the border, on foreign policy, on war, on political correctness.
The left so overplayed their hand by trying to censor our thoughts.
Let's play cut John Jones, who is the UFC champion from this last week.
And he gave his belt to Donald Trump, by the way.
Just an awesome moment.
Play cut six.
While everybody's cheering and so happy, I want to acknowledge Jesus Christ.
I tell you what, man, I cannot take credit for a gift like this, man.
I really owe it all to him.
And I know that there's millions of people around the world watching right now.
And I just want to let you guys know that Jesus loves you so much.
I also want to say a big, big thank you to President Donald Trump for being here tonight.
Trump, check it out.
USA! USA! Let's go!
USA! USA! USA! I'm proud to be a great American champion.
I'm proud to be a Christian American champion.
Man, by the way, the whole planet watches these fights.
I think hundreds of millions of people end up watching it if you count the clips.
Email us freedom at charliekirk.com.
The great cultural realignment is here.
Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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Joining us now is a wonderful man and a fighter for America, one of the good guys in D.C., Senator Eric Schmidt from the great state of Missouri.
Senator, welcome to the program.
Hey, it's good to be with you.
By the way, at my desk here at home, I just happen to have a pocket constitution at my desk.
Now, I don't think it's from Hillsdale, but I'm glad they're doing that.
Well, Senator, let's start with that.
In Congress in general, wouldn't it be nice if most senators and members of Congress would be carrying around a pocket constitution?
That would definitely focus the body, wouldn't it?
It would.
And also this civics class that we should all revisit, which is the states created The federal government and agreed that they should have limited powers, right?
So when you get to DC, it's like everybody wants to solve every problem with expanded authority and that's just not the design of the founders.
I think that is the most important lesson because it's meant to protect liberty, right?
You spread out power, you diffuse it, and the purpose of all of that is to protect individual liberty.
I think, yeah, people in DC should take note Revisit that.
And one in particular, now that we're on this topic, Senator, is I would love to see the Republican House, Republican Senate revisit how we veered off course where the administrative state is able to author laws without consent of Congress.
I know this is something that you've really been passionate about when you were previously Attorney General and also in the Senate, but we're talking about anywhere between 80,000 to 100,000 laws and regulations that have basically been authored and implemented without Yeah,
in fact, when I gave my first floor speech or maiden speech in the Senate, the two topics that I identified as the biggest threat to our republic is the suppression of free speech and the growth of the administrative state.
And I think that, you know, the administrative state It's just as antithetical to the design that the founders that we're talking about the Constitution had in mind, because the whole idea of our country is that we could self-govern, right?
And this was an anomaly in world history.
It still is, for the most part, in the world today, that the people are the sovereign, right?
And the people grant this authority to their elected representatives to go do certain things, and they can send them home or they can send them back.
But ultimately, somebody's accountable, right?
The big problem, Charlie, as you know, with the administrative state is nobody's accountable.
You have no idea who the deputy undersecretary of some agency you've never heard of is.
And if they can write a guidance letter to destroy your business or your livelihood or take away your liberties, or say, for example, OSHA wants to force 100 million people to take the shot or the...
Joe Biden with the stroke of a pen can wipe away a half a trillion dollars worth of student loan debt.
That's what they want, because they want to aggrandize their authority.
But that's not what they're empowered to do.
And so I do think there's a couple things that should happen by way of executive order.
And I think you're going to see Vivek and Elon Musk take on some of these things that can be done from an executive level.
But we do have to have structural reform in Congress.
Whereas if some bureaucrat wants to ban gas stoves, we should have to vote on that, right?
And then the people in Missouri can judge me on my vote.
The people from Idaho can judge somebody from Idaho on their vote.
But right now, there's just no accountability.
So it really is a fundamental issue about our republic and self-government.
So I absolutely think there needs to be a focus.
It's some of the things that I'm going to be working on in the Senate.
And of course, in my previous life as AG, we brought a lot of lawsuits that were successful, but we brought that Missouri versus Biden lawsuit that showed these administrative actors coordinating with some of the biggest companies in the history of the world to suppress speech, which is really scary, too.
Without getting too wonky, this is just for my own purposes and the audience will definitely hopefully go deeper on this.
The Chevron doctrine does not go as far on this topic, is that right?
That just means that the scope of the regulation cannot be extended.
It doesn't necessarily get down to the route that regulatory agencies cannot author new rules.
Am I understanding that correctly?
So I think the best way to describe it is there were two cases that kind of chipped away.
There was this, and then the most important one probably is this West Virginia versus EPA case that was decided a few years ago.
So for the audience, Chevron gave outsized authority or deference to these agencies, which basically said, hey, kind of trust the experts here, and the courts would defer to their opinions in an outsized way.
So that starts to get chipped away over the years.
There's something called the major questions doctrine, which is, hey, if this is a big enough deal, maybe Congress should have to weigh in on it.
So that came down a couple years ago, which was a big step.
But in the Loper-Bride case that was decided this past summer, the Supreme Court basically said Chevron was wrongly decided.
Okay, so these agencies shouldn't have that much authority.
But what now remains, Charlie, is what are we left with?
And so, actually, I'm leading a working group in the Senate, working with people like Mike Lee and others, so that Congress now reclaims some of this authority, right?
We should be the ones that have to vote on these things.
Our legislation should probably be a little bit more prescriptive, so we don't give them this much authority.
The other truth is, some people in Congress kind of like it, Charlie, because they can say, hey, I voted for the greatest bill in the world, but I can't believe what the EPA did.
They can kind of pass the buck and we got to change that dynamic too.
So there's some work to do, but that's a big opening for us with the Chevron decision being overturned, but we got to do something with it.
I agree.
Thank you for that.
So now shifting gears to personnel, which obviously that's been all the attention the last week and a half on the newly minted Senate, which is now 53 seats, as long as they don't completely steal it in Pennsylvania.
I don't say that lightly, Senator.
What they're doing in Pennsylvania right now is so outrageous.
Do you have a comment on that, by the way?
They're counting illegal ballots in broad daylight.
Even the Washington Post is calling them out for their theft.
Yeah, and the courts have said you can't do it.
This isn't an open question like, hey, do we think we can and we want to do this as provisional ballots?
You can't count the ballots that they're counting, but they're doing it anyway.
So it is kind of scary.
I'm still hopeful.
I don't think there's enough there, but it still should be.
Concern everybody.
And I think that, you know, people ought to be stepping up.
And I think the Trump legal team did a very good job on the front end of addressing some of these issues.
And now we're left with this.
But I'm confident it's going to work out.
But this is a cautionary tale.
Yeah, it's outrageous.
So congratulations on 53.
There's been a lot of chatter about advice and consent, about potential recess appointments.
Let me take a step back before we get specific.
Do you feel as if in the conference there is a renewed sense of urgency to give President Trump his cabinet that the American people voted for?
I know you were not in the Senate then, but at least based on your colleagues that were, do you think that we're in a more urgent place to move more rapidly than in January of 2017?
I do.
I do.
I think that, you know, we were back there last week, and as we gather, it's the first time we've been there since the election.
And you do feel like there is a sense of urgency to move an agenda, and that does mean cabinet picks forward quickly.
Because, look, we've got four years, but we may only have two years.
You don't really know how this is going to work out.
But we've got a moment in time here.
And I think, Charlie, one of the important things about leadership It's understanding the moment that you're in.
So if you take a step back and look at what happened, and you guys did a lot of great work.
I saw you in Arizona just a couple of days before the election of all the great work you were doing on the ground.
And so you think about that.
President Trump, after the Democrats tried to bankrupt him, keep him off the ballot, throw him in jail, there were two assassination attempts, he delivered the biggest political comeback in American history.
And that's not an exaggeration.
I mean, people were writing him off and he was victorious.
I'm glad that I was, I think I was either the first or the second senator to endorse him.
Tuberville and I argue about that from time to time.
But anyway, I mean, he delivered, right?
And what's more amazing is it's with a different coalition.
Like, I'm 49.
Like, it's a different coalition than we had when I was growing up, which I think is a great thing.
I grew up in a working-class neighborhood.
You know, my dad worked seven days a week in the midnight shift.
Those are our voters now, right?
They're low-propensity voters sometimes, which I know you were doing a lot of work, and others were to make sure they go vote.
But we've got a multi-ethnic working class coalition now.
We've got also, you have RFK Jr.
and you've got Tulsi Gabbard and you've got all these other sort of disruptors.
And so you really had the dynamic, as I see it, was the disruptors versus the establishment, right?
That's what people wanted.
That's what they voted for.
And so we have a very unique opportunity, a once in a lifetime opportunity, as far as I'm concerned, to really take on Permanent Washington.
And so, yes, there are things that we can do in the Congress to address those things structurally, and we should.
But you also need reformers inside the agencies to go do that and who share that vision that you trust as well.
And to me, that's what these cabinet appointments are all about.
And so when President Trump, who got a mandate, sweeping the battleground states, winning the popular vote — and I'm not sure how many people actually saw that coming, if they're being honest — Winning all of those things, he deserves the ability, in my view, to put the people that he trusts to go execute on this reform agenda.
And so I do think there's momentum for that.
My hope is if there are any concerns anybody actually has, that they would try to address those early.
Because, in my view, I'm going to support them all.
But we've got to get to a place, when we get there January 5th, We've got to be ready to rock and roll with hearings and move these nominees forward for approval.
Okay, so just really quick, there's been a lot of chatter on recess appointments.
Is there appetite within the body, not leadership, if we get too stalled here to be able to use recess appointments where both the houses of Congress would basically recess and President Trump could fill his cabinet for two years and 700 days?
I do.
I think that we got to peddle the metal.
We got to do everything we can through the typical process.
But for me, it's on the table.
It should be.
It'll take a great deal of coordination, which we've got the House and the Senate allows us to do that if we have to get there.
And recessed appointments, by the way, aren't some like historical anomaly.
They happened a lot prior to about 12 years ago.
So I absolutely think they should be on the table.
They need to be used if we have to get there.
But I'm also pretty confident That sense of urgency you and I were talking about, that is also for making sure these personnel decisions get the full attention early and for a very long time.
If that means that we got to be there over the weekend, whatever, that's what we should do.
Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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So, Senator, what legislative priorities can we expect in the first 100 days?
What bills are you going to be pushing for to get on the president's desk and sign into law?
Well, I think the first two orders of business, and we're going to work closely with the Trump administration.
I mean, one of the reasons I'm excited about this is that I think the...
The effort between a Republican House, Republican Senate, and the White House now, I mean, we can do a lot of important things.
I think when he comes in on day one, I mean, he's in a bunch of executive orders, but mission, I think, number one will be securing our border, right?
The truth is, Biden's team, they came in on day one.
They issued 94 executive orders.
All were meant to undo the successes we had under President Trump, like remaining in Mexico.
I would anticipate that.
We get operational control of our border.
There are going to be deportations, and that'll be a good thing.
So I think that's the—and if there's legislation that we need to backfill that, I think a lot of that's going to be executive action because the laws are there.
They're just not being enforced.
But if there's something we need to do, I'm sure that those, you know, illegal immigration issues will be front of mind.
Also, one thing to look out for is a lot of those tax cuts are expiring.
That President Trump got through in 2017.
They expire at the end of 2025.
We need to make those permanent so that middle-class families get the tax relief they deserve.
Small business owners make sure they're not stuck with higher price tags.
And I think that the...
So those two things, and then energy policy.
You know, the inflation that everybody's experienced, it's not some act of God.
It's not like a hurricane.
The truth is, if you declare war on domestic energy production, you spend trillions and trillions and trillions that you don't have, the cost of everything is going to go up.
So I would fully expect American energy to be unleashed, and that'll be a good thing.
It's good for our national security as well.
We're not relying on other countries.
So for me, I think those are going to be focuses.
Also, I think we need to make sure that free speech is protected in this country.
So You know, I've got the legislation that if you're a bureaucrat and you are working with social media companies to suppress speech, you can be sued individually by Americans.
It shouldn't have to be some attorney general in some state to do it.
You yourself can do it.
I think that'll help change the culture of the administrative state to say, listen, people can have information.
They can find it wherever they want.
It's good that media is diffused, and they can make their own decisions.
This command and control, disinformation governance board mentality has got to go, and then also those reforms that we talked about about the administrative state.
Like, for example, if you're an agency and you're proposing some new rule that's going to have an economic impact of, pick your number.
Mine would be really low, but let's just call it $100 million.
Then Congress should have to vote on that first.
We should have to vote on it before it ever goes into effect.
That's something I'll be pushing.
And also, if you've got a new rule, you've got to pull back three.
I think, again, it changes that dynamic, puts the power back with the people, and takes it away from permanent Washington.
So is there any appetite in the conference, just really quickly in the time of the remainder, to go back to pre-COVID spending?
To go back to 2019 levels.
I mean, because this is not a big ask.
By the way, you know, I've been going up in here on transition, Senator.
I learned that almost every federal worker now works from home.
I mean, listen to this.
It's worse than that.
On any given day, only 17% of the federal workforce is in a building.
So that means that based on, not there being in person, but in any particular day, only 17% of the people employed are there.
It's nuts.
And you're right.
Look, Joe Biden wanted to spend $7 trillion.
We take in about $5 trillion.
Pre-COVID spending was about $4 trillion.
So you think about that.
The explosion of spending since COVID on wasteful programs, there is a lot that we can do to balance the budget.
We need to balance the budget.
And we also, by the way, we ought to be the oil and gas, all this liquid gold, everything under our feet.
That's all new revenue, right?
Why wouldn't we use some of that revenue to help pay down the national debt, $36 trillion?
I think the American people would support that, which is why if we actually do our jobs, we work with President Trump, we can have an agenda and build out this coalition, I think, for the long term, which is working class people, common sense folks, normal people, Who don't want to be hit with critical race theory and DEI and taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for inmates.
That's the Democrat Party.
Our alternative is, I think, an agenda that works for normal people, working people who just want to be able to have a good life and their kids to have a better life.
Senator, thank you so much.
Yeah, I mean, I think 17% is generous, by the way.
But what I've learned on transition is that the rules are that you have to only come in for one day a month.
So what they do is they'll work on the last and the first day of a month, and then they don't come in basically for two months.
Insane.
Totally insane.
But they say that they come in for one day a month.
So they'll come in on the 31st and then work on the first, and then they're done basically all for whatever two months those are.