[Music] I actually spoke with the founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, about the direction of the party and what he thinks that it means to be conservative. Take a listen. Charlie, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. I love love the program. So, Charlie, you're here at Politicon. Tell us a little bit about what you're up to. What are you trying to do here? Um, well, capping off a pretty exciting week. Uh, did a multi-state campus tour. Uh, started at Grand Canyon University with Donald Trump Jr., did Colorado State, Iowa, then New Hampshire, flew back for our Western Regional Conference in Newport Beach, and here we are in Nashville. I'm participating in a debate against Kyle Kolinsky. Uh, so that should be quite interesting. And what what's the debate going to be about? What is it? So, it's actually going to be about President Trump. A lot of it, uh, we'll see where it goes. I mean, these things kind of shapeshift in their own way, but uh the premise is supposed to be has President Trump made America great again. I guess the debate's going to be more can I at least get Kyle to admit there's been some marginal improvement in America's condition over the last three two and a half years because it's something tells me based on uh where he's coming from, he's not going to want to give much uh credence or credib you know uh to that argument. So Charlie, tell us about I guess the support of President Trump, right? So like Turning Point USA is almost intrinsically linked to the administration at this point. What is it about Trump in particular that makes you guys fused together? So we have we have a 501c4 which is students for Trump and that's outwardly proTrump. Uh the 501c3 does educational events. We we've done a lot at the White House, but we have to stay very disciplined on on education. Um you know the importance of me with that disclaimer. I totally get it. So what are you trying to educate people about? Thank you. So I appreciate that. So first and foremost, I say this at every speech I give. I say that America is the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world. And when you start from that perspective, you want to defend, restore, and hopefully revitalize America if you think it's going in the in the wrong direction. And the argument that I will make tonight personally is that President Trump has revitalized America. Now, we still have some very pressing challenges. I think one of the most unressed ones would be the national debt and deficit. as a fiscal hawk myself and as kind of a um uh as a fan of Rand Paul, I just kind of get worried when we have $1 trillion in debt. So, but that's the question, right? It's like how how do you fan of Rand Paul and a fan of Donald Trump? Well, I could tell you exactly. So, I I I began with one thing that I found to be a challenge, but now I'm going to tell you all the things I love. I love Gorsuch. I love Kavanaaugh. I love the 150 circuit court judges. I love a more restrained foreign policy and reconsidering these foreign occupations with no success in sight in Afghanistan. I love the tax cut bill. I love deregulation. I love the appreciation for the American entrepreneur and free enterprise. Um and so look, I I've said, you know, once I'll say it again, that I think one of the biggest um one of the things that we have to address most urgently is our debt and deficit. And I think we as conservatives, we made our brand and our nationwide kind of call to action under Obama under that. And I think the president recognizes this in the sense that he submitted budgets that would eventually balance. Congress has just thrown those out the window. And you know, he's been kind of stonewalled on that. What about with the voters though, right? Because you look at the you look at the election. I mean they basically what they wanted was less immigration and better trade. They I mean Mitt Romney ran on a lot of what you're talking about here and he didn't win. So well so I mean I I don't I I agree on I agree that we should have less illegal immigration and in some ways less chain migration visa lottery. I think look if I had your analysis is not incorrect I don't think but I think it's multi I think 2016 was multifaceted. If I had to overly generalize which is a very dangerous thing to do. I think there was a I don't like the Bush family anymore. I don't like the Clinton family. Here's a guy who says he's gonna go blow it all up. Metaphorically, of course, not like Madonna, right? Metaphorically. Why not? Let's give him a shot. And then if you actually look, there were districts that have not voted Republican in a long time, like the districts districts in southern Colorado and districts in northern New Mexico that voted for Donald Trump on those issues of more restrictive immigration and on trade. Well, President Trump has renegotiated trade deals. Got to give him credit for that. He's I I think one of the longest lasting most significant accomplishments of the Trump presidency is our reorientation towards China and I think a lot of people are are acknowledged that Rich Lowry who's he wrote the against Trump said my goodness this is one of the greatest things. China is the number one enemy of the United States. I mean what they're doing has to be addressed and so I think that's a huge positive. Um and then from the immigration standpoint president has tried to put forth at least some common sense immigration reform ending visa lottery chain migration. Southern border apprehensions are going down finally. It took a very asymmetrical approach. I would argue that it took threatening to put Mexican tariff tariffs on Mexico to actually get Mexico to help enforce the southern border. I think the latest border apprehensions is 57,000. But how do you square that with the Rand Paul, you know, cuz I talked to Rand Paul on the show two weeks ago. I'm not I don't believe in everything he says, right? But I I I'm He's actually my favorite US senator, but I think Rand does believe in a strong southern border. I'm more hawkish on I'm more I'm closer to Senator Cotton immigration closer to Senator Ran Paul on size and scope of government you know get rid of the Department of Education commerce energy I think there's one more if you know get the joke of Rick Perry actually remember all three we love Rick Perry here though but no look the point being is I think the Trump presidency um is a disruptive presidency and people know that I'm a very supportive you know advocate of the president and I don't back down from that but the economic success is is pretty unprecedented I love the fact that we're reconsidering these foreign wars it seems that there's been this bipartisan agreement that we have to occupy every country that looks at us a little, you know, incorrectly. And I just think that's wrong. And with the recent news today, it shows that you don't need a huge foreign occupation force to actually go after enemies that want to kill us. Uh, with Albagghdadi, which is something very, very promising there. And look, also the judges. I think one of the longest lasting successes of the Trump presidency, 150 impartial judges, Gorsuch and Kavanaaugh. It's pretty big. So here's the question. What does it all look like after Trump? This is I've been asking this question all the time. So what does it look like? I mean, you have one of the biggest organizations in the conservative movement. What's it What are you guys going to be pushing for? So, under the assumption he wins re-election. Let's just play that game because I don't know. I'd say it's probably 50/50. The Democrats going to throw everything they got at us. Let's play the theoretical he wins re-election. Um, look, the conservative movement, and I have a book coming up about this, I think it's going to be very positive in the sense that we're going to be able to have the intellectual space and permission to not have to say we have to declare war on every country that looks at us incorrectly, to maybe be against regime change. Now, mind you, President Trump was highly critical of John Bolton's Libya strategy, which was one of the worst decisions we've ever made in, you know, recent US history, but we displaced Kaddaf. Kaddafi is a horrible guy. But now we have like an ISIS power vacuum in Libya. I think that's a good thing because we as conservatives, if we believe in limited government, we believe in, you know, restricting government power and government spending. War is a big, the war machine is a big part of that. So, I think that's a really good long-lasting legacy. And honestly, I don't think that I think there's something positive about the Trump legacy of saying we can be for the American worker. Again, might look differently to every person, but I think the technocratic Mitt Romney, George HW Bush way of saying that we're only going to talk supply set economics at the Manhattan Economic Club, that doesn't resonate to folks in Iowa and Colorado. And I think there's something okay with that. Now, I'm a free trade guy, so you kind of got to reconcile the two. Say, how is that reconiled? Right. Yeah, again it's I think there are ways to say though that there has been a squeezing out of middle America that there has been a turning of the back. My argument would be that the power center and the wealth center has gone to Washington DC and you actually look at the richest counties in America after it's all around but there is something to be said that China has deliberately dumped products. They've, you know, they've they've stolen our IP and they've waged economic war on us for a long time. And I I hope that the new China deal reflects at least some for some some form of um some form of equilibrium that we're able to sell our products and that you know the American worker can be given at least a fair a fair shot. Well, Charlie, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate it. Great to see you, man. Thank you. Yeah. [Music] Good evening. It is an honor to be with you tonight. My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country, Turning Point USA, fighting for the future of our republic. Speaking to you in my personal capacity tonight, as a 26-year-old, I see the angst of young people as well as the challenges facing new parents. I am here tonight to tell you, to warn you that this election is a decision between preserving America as we know it and eliminating everything that we love. For decades, ruling class leaders in both parties sold out our future to China, to faceless corporations, and to self-serving lobbyists. They did it to preserve their own power and enrich themselves. All while rigging the system, to hold down the good, decent middle-class patriots striving to build a family and pursue a decent life. All of this changed dramatically in 2015 when a billionaire named Donald Trump put his own life of luxury on the line. From that moment he came down that famous escalator, he started a movement to reclaim our government from the rotten cartel of insiders that have been destroying our country. We may not have realized it at the time, but Trump is the bodyguard of Western civilization. Trump was elected to protect our families from the vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life, our neighborhoods, schools, churches, and values. President Trump was elected to defend the American way of life. The American way of life means you follow the law, you work hard, you honor God, you raise your kids with strong values, and you work to create a civil society. The American way of life means you speak your mind without retribution, without being kicked off social media by a self-righteous sensor in Silicon Valley. It means you can freely practice your religion and that church is more essential than a casino. And it means that we judge people on their actions, not on their immutable characteristics. The American way of life is being dismantled by a group of bitter, deceitful, vengeful activists who have never built anything in their lives. They have us locking up pastors while releasing violent criminals from prison. We are kicking doctors off of social media, yet promoting Chinese state-f funed propaganda on major tech platforms. This election is the most critical since 1860 when a man named Lincoln was elected to preserve the Union from disintegration. This election is not just the most important of our lifetime. It is the most important since the preservation of the republic in 1865. By reelecting Trump, we will ensure that our kids are raised to love our country and respect its founding fathers, not taught to hate or be ashamed of them. We will build monuments to heroes, not burn down our cities. We'll be a country that rises to higher heights, that dreams big, thinks big, and achieves the impossible. A country that values our remarkable journey, the complexities of our past, but clearly communicates to the next generation that we have to be grateful, not angry, that we live in the United States. We will be a country that makes it easier to have many children. Live quiet and peaceable lives and worship your God without a tyrant getting in the way. We will be a country that has its best 100 years ahead. We will build a future where America remains the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world. All of that is within our grasp if we secure four more years for the defender of Western civilization. our champion, my friend, the 45th president of the United States, President Donald J. Trump. Charlie, endure it and not counterattack. That's sort of like telling Trump not to be Trump, right? Well, it depends which debate. You know, the first debate back in 2020, I think President Trump interrupted a fair amount and uh that one did not necessarily rate as well, but President Trump did really well with the debates back with Hillary Clinton 2016. Look, the president is one of the best debaters that we've seen. Uh, I think he's going to do very well and you have to let just Joe Biden talk. There's some rules that have already been established for the debate, uh, such as cutting mics and things of that that might help President Trump. Look, the president's a fighter. Uh, the second debate last time, I thought he did very, very well. And, uh, look, it's going to come down to hopefully a question of the record, not the performance. Uh, I think that if the debate is less about who actually performs better uh and more about who actually presented better ideas, I think President Trump is going to be a triumphant winner of this debate. Charlie, I've been covering a lot of presidential races and debates. Uh, I I it's rare that I'm the older one in the interviews, but I am in this case. I have never remembered a presidential debate that was about the substance and the issues than it was about the performance. I'm hoping I'm hoping, Leland, a fair point. Is that a policy? Hope's a policy now. Well, I mean, I I'm sorry what you're saying. Does Trump have policy? I mean, I I hope that it's about policy. Um I I think that it's much better that way, but I think that's fair. And I think that especially in the TV TV era, you make a good point that it's much more about who actually presents well and who looks good. Um and look, I don't necessarily think people uh think Joe Biden is necessarily the sharpest on his feet. Uh I do think N. Gingrich makes a great point. He's going to be hyperaggressive. He's going to try to get Trump off his game. Um, I think the president needs to give calm, cool, and collected answers. And he certainly has a better agenda to run on. Very quickly, this is the first election since 1892 where we have two independent terms to compare. Uh, the Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison election, and I believe President Trump objectively was the better president. I'm very biased. I'm a supporter of his, but I think if we can at least get that presented to the American people, uh, then it will be u, it will be wellreceived for President Trump. But you make a good point that in the entertainment area, it's usually much more about style than substance. All right. So, fair enough. And I look, the polling bears out what you're saying. Most Americans agree they were better off uh under Donald Trump than they are under Joe Biden. That's just how Americans um view this. But then you look at the polling on who's going to do better on the issues. On the economy, Trump wins by nine points. On immigration, Trump wins by 12 points. Abortion, which uh to some voters is extremely important, but not many. Joe Biden wins. That's understandable. Then you look at the real clear politics average of polls, Trump, Biden tied. Is there anything to explain the difference of leading so much on the issues and tied in the in the actual head-to-head poll other than people don't like the mean tweets? Well, I think two or three things. First of all, one of those was a state poll. You showed a Pennsylvania poll. The other one was a national poll. So on the state polls, President Trump was still up two or three points on some of the averages. the national polls, it's quite tighter and I anticipate if if Donald Trump wins the popular vote nationally, I'll be shocked. In fact, I I don't think he'll win the the popular vote nationally. However, I think that Joe Biden has spent a lot of television time, a lot of advertising, over 50 to 75 million the last couple months. And let's look at this. If you were to tell me that Donald Trump would be a convicted felon, he would be on pseudo house arrest in a courtroom for four to six weeks, and that Joe Biden would spend 50 to 75 million almost unopposed. I would think Joe Biden would be winning in the polls. Uh the fact that it's even tight and close and we're starting to see Minnesota and Virginia uh tighten and close in. I think President Trump is in a great great spot. It's not perfect by any means. We have So it's his setting up right. It's his to lose, right? That that he's in a great spot. Hold on. He's Let me just ask the question. It's his to lose. So Maggie Haberman, uh Trump's favorite reporter to talk about how much he hates her, um was on CNN talking about debate prep. Take a listen. He knows that this has to go well for him. He has said to people multiple times that he knows that he interrupted too much. I anticipate President Biden will reference his criminal conviction. Now, I I'm quite confident based on my reporting that Donald Trump will then point to Hunter Biden's criminal conviction. You are a Trump confidant. There's no question about that. We know that there are people talking to him saying exactly what you're saying, what N. Gingrich is saying of look, hold your fire. Let Biden go you and don't take the bait. Is he listening? I think so. And I think he wants to win. Look, President Trump, uh, he's a fighter and he hates to lose. Uh, I mean, we'll end up seeing what the debate looks like. I think the president will be at his best if he can have a stoic performance and he allows Biden to just present his case to the American people and then he responds calm, cool, and collected. And so, again, it's impossible to know what's going on in somebody's head or what if they're listening or not. I can say this, very wellreceived when I spoke to him. And uh again, he is somebody that knows how to perform on television. And it's important to remember the one debate last time uh he had COVID in that first debate and remember he was tested positive for a couple days after. So look uh in the television entertainment era, Leland, we've never seen a summer debate before. There's no better entertainer. No, that's true. I can guarantee one thing. This will not be a boring debate. It will not be boring. Fair fair enough. Pop the popcorn. Uh we'll talk either before or after. It's good to see you, Charlie. Congrats on the book. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I want to start with the young voters. I feel like you have been part of the push to bring young voters to the Trump campaign as well as the Republican party. Uh if you want to go ahead um if you could just talk a little bit about where that's at right now. Obviously, we just saw the TikTok with Trump kind of get more into that and what that's looking. Yeah, we don't know. I mean, the polling might be wrong, but it looks like it's the best uh we've been with younger voters in almost 40 years, but it's all kind of a guessing game at this point. Uh Donald Trump is dominating on TikTok. He's doing great with people like Logan Paul and with other younger voices. And Donald Trump really kind of has that rebel attitude and young people are upset. They can't own anything and they're not happy. Joe Biden has been a total failure for them uh in more ways than one. And I think Donald Trump has an opportunity to score historic points with younger voters. Do you think the young vote is essential in 2024 and something that Trump needs to win? Well, I don't think he's going to win uh than younger vote. I think he'll do better just to be perfectly clear. Republican hasn't won the youth vote since 1988 and plenty of Republicans have won since 1988. So, but doing better is something that we're very focused on. Right now, it shows Donald Trump within two points of the youth vote. I think that's probably wrong. Um, I think it's more likely that Donald Trump is within 10 points. I think that would probably be more accurate. And if that is the case, Donald Trump stands to do very, very well in November. If he improves under 10 points, he's in a great spot. When it comes to the separation of church and state, what do you want that to look like under the Trump administration if the former president wins? I I I don't have any like specific ideas. I'm a Christian. Uh but what I want more than anything else is a free society and a restoration of the Constitution. So, if it's in the Constitution, I believe in it and uh I want I want our republic back. But do you want to see more of a merge and more of the Trump administration push Christianity to the forefront? Today, he's at a church speaking with uh black voters as well as evangelicals. Do you think that's essential? Yeah, I wouldn't even say Christianity. I just think that an idea that there is a God and we are not him. I think ethical monotheism is what built the West and it's in all of our founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence. And it's not about pushing Christianity. It's about trying to have some sort of a moral standard at the core of why you make decisions. And I think that's important. I don't think that by any means uh is like a primary push by anybody. But if we're talking about as as we try to run the government, not me, but as Trump tries to run the government, um we should try to make good decisions. One that create that kind of free society that the Constitution um articulates. Who do you want to see as Trump's VP? JD Vance. Really? That is your pick? If you had a second choice, who would it be? JD Vance. Okay. Why JD? I'm very good friends with him and uh he's young. He's under the age of 40. He's amazing. He's a wonderful father. He's a terrific person. Um, I think very very highly of him and he also is a popular elected uh, senator here from the Midwest and we need to win a rusfelt state. We need to win either in Ohio or Pennsylvania. I mean, we need to win Ohio. We need to win either Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Michigan. We need to win one of those three states. You just spoke with Trump's HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Do you think it would be important for him to have someone like Ben Carson or Tim Scott a uh, black representation within the administration? Potentially. Uh, just I'm looking at the three finalists. It's Rubio Bergam and Katie bands. Those are kind of the final. Okay. All right. Yeah. Uh, should there be a Tik Tok ban in the US? I used to say yes. Yeah. And why'd you flip on that? Well, I flipped because I challenged to first of all, anytime Washington starts to agree on something very quickly, I get very skeptical. And the more I read the actual bill itself, it could be wide-rangingly used as censorship. And I'm very skeptical of censorship. But secondly, and I'm very well on record about this, um, you know, they they pushed the ban on Tik Tok and I tweeted out, "Hey, Tik Tok, let's see if you're actually a free speech platform." Tik Tok used to censor me all the time, like three times a day. And we weren't able to get any following. And T I called Tik Tok's bluff. And to their credit, they're like, "Okay, uh, we'll let you post." We now one of the most popular Tik Toks out there. We have 1.7 million followers, over 15 million views a day, and we're reaching tons of Gen Z voters. And so I don't think it should be banned or censored. Uh and I think the people that are trying to do that have ulterior motives. I'm not sure what those are. So you don't think the bill in Congress to get by dance to be bought by an American company? I I can't speak to that. You asked banned, right? So that's a question of whether it should be forced transfer. I can't speak to that. I'd have to learn more about what that actually looks like. Uh but parts of the bill give overreaching power to the president to be able to ban apps that you don't like. Thank you. God bless. I really appreciate it. [Applause] Thank you everybody. [Applause] Good evening. I'm Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA and Turning Point Action. together the largest conservative grassroots organizations in the country. Thanks to our work, I talk to a lot of young people on campuses, at our events, on my radio show, podcast, and social media. Set differently, I visit college campuses so you don't have to. I hear a lot from young people about their hopes, their dreams, and their fears. You see, young people are idealists. They respond to vision. For the past four years, they've seen the vision of the Biden Harris regime. That vision is you'll own nothing and be happy. The Democrats say instead of owning a home, you'll rent a 400 square foot studio apartment. Instead of owning a car, you'll rent a scooter using some app. Their vision is this. Limit your dreams. Give up. Aim lower. Be content with less. If you're a 20some in America, life has been really tough. You've watched home prices rise 47% since 2020. 47%. Home ownership is now out of reach unless you make over $16,000 a year. Since I last spoke at the Republican convention four years ago, I've become a husband and father. In fact, we have two under two. I think I get extra points for that. For millions of people my age, that is a dream that feels farther away than ever under the Biden Harris administration. According to current projections, onethird of today's young Americans will never get married. The average American is having fewer children than ever before. Why? It's because for far too many, they simply can't afford them. The basic things our parents enjoyed are increasingly out of reach for Gen Z and millennials. You see, the American dream has become a luxury item for the wealthy elite. Happy countries have children. Broken countries have addiction, depression, and suffering. Democrats have given hundreds of billions of dollars to illegals and foreign nations. While Gen Z has to pinch pennies just so that they can never own a home, never marry, and work until they die childless. Under Biden, our young people own nothing, and they are miserable. Donald Trump refuses to accept this fake, pathetic, mutilated version of the American dream. When he was president, young people were richer than ever before, and he will do it again. Donald Trump is on a rescue mission to revive your birthright. One your grandparents and those before them gave everything to hand down to you. And listen carefully everybody. This is why young men are the most conservative that they have been in 50 years. To all the Jenzers watching this convention on Tik Tok right now, I have a message just for you. You don't have to stay poor. You don't have to accept being worse off than your parents. You don't have to feel aimless and unhappy. You don't have to support leaders who lied to you and took advantage of you for your vote. America's future is a series of choices. There's only one way. Our current state of slow motion national decline is a choice. This November, we're going to choose success. We're going to choose to put the future of Americans first. We are going to choose to no longer be spectators this election. We together are going to do the work to save America. We are going to choose to work harder than ever before to chase ballots, to vote early, to register new voters, and all of us together working harder than ever. We will fire the Biden Harris regime and put Donald Trump back in the White House where he belongs. God bless you guys. Thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Charlie Kirk. [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] We did it everybody. It is hard to believe, almost surreal. For those of you that have always had the president's back throughout these last couple of years, when we were at our darkest moment four years ago, this is your victory. For those of you that refused to waver, when they tried to throw our amazing patriots in federal prison, when they tried to silence this movement, for those of you that never wavered, this is your victory. For those of you that are sick and tired of seeing your beloved home be overrun by hordes of illegals, this is your victory. And no longer is this just a rally about what we say we're going to do when President Trump takes office. Now I can say what he's doing right now as we are here in this arena. As we are here right now, President Donald Trump is signing executive order after executive order. 200 executive actions and orders today. Some of which include drill baby drill, curb inflation, national emergency on the southern border, and my favorite, that God created man and woman. There are no other genders besides that. No more critical race theory or diversity, equity, inclusion in our military. Our taxpayer dollars will no longer fund our kids to hate our country. It is over as of today thanks to President Trump. And what you saw from President Trump today, which by the way, I believe was the best inaugural address in American history. And the reason why it was the best, it was not platitudes or abstractions or empty promises. It wasn't about stuff that the DC regime wants to hear. While they were all sitting behind him, he basically said, "The people in this room have been robbing you, the American people." You see, as of high noon, just an hour and a half ago, the 46th president is no longer. And the and you might think it was Joe Biden, but it really was a bunch of White House staffers that you've never heard of before. Their term is over. It will go 45 Trump, a bunch of White House staffers, 47 Trump. That is how the succession will go. And what we have seen these last couple of years was the intentional destruction and obliteration of our homeland. And in just one day, we're going to understand a very simple truth that decline is a choice. That when your country is failing, it's because our leaders have decided to allow it to fail. And President Trump, I really believe, is on a mission from the Almighty to save this country in that millimeter miracle where he very well could have been not just shot, but unspeakable things could have happened in Butler, Pennsylvania. And the reason that they wanted to take out Donald Trump so bad. 700 years in federal prison, every possible way imaginable is because he brings you guys into the room. Is because he brings you into the negotiation. You see, this was supposed to be a managed decline of the United States of America. And just understand what you are living through. You're living through a new American renaissance. And honestly, there were a lot of people that said there's no way they'll allow Donald Trump to be president again. They're going to steal it. They're going to use the machines, and I understand all that. They're going to try to take them out. But never underestimate the will of the American people and the sovereignty of God towards righteous and good purposes. Donald Trump is evidence that God is not done with the United States of America. That our best days are ahead of us. And our marching orders are very simple. Right now, the southern border is being secured and it is being militarized. There are no more illegal entries allowed in the United States of America. Right now it is right now. Right now the evasion is over. It is over. And we have to understand that it's going to be more than just executive actions. It's all of you continue to fight in your community. It's all of you continue to understand that this is going to be a bottomup movement to reclaim our communities, to reclaim our school boards, to make sure our kids love America again. And for me personally, I have a lot of things that I could have done, but the most important thing that I can do and Turning Point can do is to go back on these campuses to make sure that Gen Z is the most conservative generation in American history. I'll say this in closing, everybody. In closing, Donald Trump won the White House largely because younger voters trusted Donald Trump with their vote. It was the largest swing of any demographic, a 35point swing. For 12 years, I have been focusing on trying to get young people to believe in America, to believe in conservative principles. And I went to campus after campus. And you know, it was not easy work. It was very difficult. But I will to all the young people of America and Gen Z, I want you to know President Trump is going to deliver for you so that you could be able to own a home, have big families, believe in this country, and the American dream that your parents once had, you will also be able to enjoy. And let us all together say, "Thank you, God. Thank you for giving us 45 and 47. Thank you for delivering this country from the most awful people imaginable. Our best days are ahead. Thank you everybody. God bless you all. So, thank you, Mr. President. Thanks, Greg. Uh, this is a great audience of millennial leaders uh from all across the country. So, thank you for taking the time uh to address us today. So, uh this morning you signed uh some very historic um historic piece of regulation against China and they've been stealing our jobs for for many years now and the critics have said that uh you know this will trigger a trade war. I like to say we've been in a trade war for 40 years. So, you like the losing. That's right. That's correct. Um, so thank you for what you're doing to stand up for the American worker. Uh, would you like to comment on that and what Well, it was an honor actually doing it. We had a great news conference a little while ago and uh section 301. It's a very complex uh pile of words, but honestly, it's very simple and uh the simplicity is what makes it beautiful. Look, we've lost I mean so many factories, probably 60,000 factories. Nobody can even believe it. In fact, when I first heard the number, I said, "That can't be real. We lost anywhere from six to seven million jobs over a relatively short period of time." And it's a whole different thing. Now, I have to tell you, they're coming back. Over the last year, we are bringing jobs back. Uh, as of uh about two weeks ago, 153 million jobs. It's the highest number of jobs we've ever had in our country. So, it is coming back, but we're losing $375 billion with China. It could be 504 billion dep depending on the way you count. A lot of different ways of counting, but no matter how you count, it's bad. And we're doing something that will be the start of making trade with China more fair. We're so far down and our presidents, frankly, our past president should never have allowed this to happen. This has been many, many years. It's sort of like the Middle East. How did that happen? And other things. How did all of these things happen? North Korea. How did this happen? Where it got so bad. I shouldn't be the one negotiating North Korea. This should have been done years ago, Charlie. This should have been done by somebody before they were in the position that they're in right now. But we got uh we got stuck with a lot of beauties, but we'll fix them. We'll fix them. I um I like to say if a Democrat president accomplished onetenth what you've done over the last year, they would say it's historic and it's it's unbelievable. And so what you've done for the American people to change the trajectory and save this country and our generation is is quite phenomenal. So let's talk about tax reform. Uh the Democrats call it crumbs. Uh $1,000 is not crumbs to the young people in this room. Um it's the biggest middle class tax cut in American history, but it's also the biggest uh young person essentially the millennial tax cut. So talk about the amazing economic benefits that we're seeing thanks to the tax cut package that that you championed and you successfully got through Congress. Okay, Charlie and a couple of things. The individual mandate was knocked out by itself. That would be a big bill. Knocking out the this is this is for Obamacare where you have the privilege of paying a lot of money so that you don't have to buy bad healthcare. Okay. And we got it knocked out. That was a big thing. and Anoir we have that uh approved uh which is tremendous in terms one of the great energy reservoirs in the world and uh they've been working on it Reagan tried Bush tried every president was trying to get it approved and we got it approved and that was part of our bill and then of course we have the tremendous tax cuts for people and I guess if you think about it millennials starting out tremendous you have a tremendous advantage now over what you had you're going to pay less les taxes, you have far more incentive. You're going to have a lot more money left in your paycheck to spend. And that's part of the beauty. And we're seeing it. And we're seeing the numbers. And you know, we were at about 1.2% GDP. We've now hit three and another three and a 3.2. And we'll see what this next quarter is. That could be a good quarter. Uh our businesses are flourishing. Jobs are now people are going to have choice. And it's choice of jobs. You know, before they were if they got one job, they'd stay there even if they didn't like it because they had no alternative. Now people are going out and they're looking at five, six, seven jobs and they're making a choice. So that really works out. But young people coming out of college, coming out of even high school, we're trying a very big push for vocational schools. I like the name vocational school where somebody's good at fixing motors. I remember I'd be in school in uh lower schools and I'd be doing a test and there'd be somebody on my right who was not too good. This was not a great student. This was not going to be Einstein academically. Okay? And yet that person could fix an engine or a motor. So he was incredible blindfolded. And by the way, that's what he liked. And that's probably I don't know we lost track that's probably what he ended up doing but he had a great ability at that far greater than me or far greater than other people but he'll never be a student nor did he want that kind of learning that kind of whatever you want to call it. So we need vocational schools. Now they call them a lot of times community colleges. I don't think it's an accurate definition. We're having a lot of companies come into the United States. We need workers. And by the way, illegal immigration, which will be probably one part of a question, but I'll give you the answer right now. We want people to come into our country, but we want them to come in based on merit because we're going to need these people because we have tremendous numbers of companies coming in. Whether it's Chrysler leaving Mexico and coming into Michigan or Fox, you know, Foxcon is going to open up a tremendous place in Wisconsin. And we're very proud of that because that was a deal that nobody even thought was happening or could happen. Apple, they make a lot of the Apple products. Apple is taking $350 billion dollars and they're coming into our country with building here. And I said to Tim Cook a long time ago, Tim, it's wonderful Apple, it's nice, but we want you to build the places here. and he's because of our tax, because of what we've done, they're bringing in they're actually bringing in about uh 240 billion, but they're going to be investing $350 billion on new plants and uh a tremendous campus and lots of other things. So, it's very exciting and very exciting for millennials, very, very exciting for jobs. Absolutely. And black youth unemployment at an all-time low, Latino youth unemployment at an all-time low. That's all-time low. Black unemployment. I'm very proud of that. And uh Hispanic unemployment, all-time low. Women, women unemployment, the lowest in 18 years. Uh we're doing great. We're really doing great. And I really believe that uh I don't want to sound braggadocious, but I think that there's never been an administration that's done as much of as we've done in the first year. You know, if you look at regulations, forget about tax. I think the cutting of the regulations may be as important or more important than even the tremendous tax cuts. That's right. And you said you would get rid of one regula two regulation for every one. And I think it's now 22 for everyone thanks to your leadership with that. Absolutely amazing. It's amazing. And so shifting gears for a minute here, one of the other things that you've done so successfully during your campaign and presidency is crush political correctness. And what the college network that uh we represent, I represent an organization on,200 college and high school campuses is it's harder than ever to espouse support of your presidency and the ideas that you're fighting for. So thank you for what you're doing to help give us the courage of our convictions to fight against political correctness. But what advice do you have for young patriots and conservatives on campus that support your agenda that are being ridiculed and silenced uh because of administrators that are clamping down on free speech? So, it's a great question. I think the numbers are actually much different than people think. I think we have a lot of support. Uh if they have one campus or two campuses and we know what they are, it gets all the publicity. We have campuses where you have a vast majority of people that are perhaps like many of the people in this room. Uh you could call it conservative, you call it whatever you want, but there are people that want free speech. If you look at what's going on with free speech, with the superleft, with Antifa, with all of these characters, I'll tell you what, they get a lot of publicity, but you go to the real campuses and you go all over the country, you go out to the Middle West, you go out even to the coast in many cases. Uh we have tremendous support. I would say we have majority support. I think it's highly overblown. Highly overblown. I totally agree. And we see it on the ground. And so people say, "Hey, I'm a Trump supporter. I'm just not not allowed to say it because of the the culture that's been created by the administrators and the professors and kind of piggyback piggybacking off of that uh what you see on college campuses and the speakers being disinvited and you know the the assault on these ideas. I think it's so important what your administration is doing for the Department of Justice to support these lawsuits to help advance you know this this free speech movement on campus. So kind of talking generationally in general this is something that I'm quite curious about and a lot of people ask me. I consider you to be one of the most successful business people in American history and your successful presidential run is something that all people, young people included, should look up to. What advice would you give to the 25-year-old Donald Trump, knowing what you know today? Don't run for president, but we're glad you did. You know, I was talking to Mercedes and Sarah walking off for just a, you know, the Oval Office is right across the street and I said, "All my life I've gotten really, you know, look, we all get every once in a while a knock, but I got the greatest publicity. I was getting such great until I ran for office." And uh but it's been People get it. People really do get it. There is a lot of fake news out there. Nobody had any idea. And uh you know I'm actually proud of the fact that I exposed it to a large extent because we exposed it. It's something it's an achievement and you have some great news. And you know when I say fake I don't mean everybody not every one of those many people back there. I just say we have shown something that a lot of people didn't really understand. If you look at approval rating their approval rating is sorry folks it's down the tubes because people have found out how how dishonest it is. However, you have some great great reporters. You have some great people in the press, people that I have tremendous respect for and it is that way also and that's very important and it's also reassuring to know that you know that's the fact. Absolutely. And your capacity to be able to fight back against the press and look they say oh they talk about your approval ratings. These are the same people that said you were going to lose in a landslide victory and now we're supposed to believe these you know these approval rating polls. Well, I think, you know, a lot of the polls are not real, too, because uh there a couple of them got us right, but a lot of them didn't. And a lot of them purposely didn't because um you know, they set an expectation when they give you a certain poll. People say, "Oh, gee, I think I'm not going to vote. I love Trump, but he's not going to be able to make it." So, they'll go to a movie and they'll say, "We'll go home and we'll watch later." And they go home, they watch and they say, "Gee, if if only we voted." But they really voted. In 2016, they came out and they voted. There was nobody that stayed home. And as you know, the results were far greater than the polls. Now, a lot of people just don't want to talk about it. They say, you know, we love Trump, but we don't have to talk about it. We love, what do we love? We love a strong military. We like low taxes. We like all of the things that are happening now, jobs, uh, tremendous cutting in regulation, all of the things that you see happening right now. They like that. They don't have to talk about it. They went into the booth and you know, look, this was the big story. People came out that nobody knew existed and the Democrats are looking for those people right now. I got a tremendous I got a tremendous number of uh people from the Obama administration where they voted for Obama, President Obama. They voted for him and they voted for me. They voted for Bernie Sanders. A lot of people and I think because he was right about trade. The difference is I know how to fix the problem, not just talk about it. But he was right. And that's what we're doing. That's why we had the 301 meeting today on China. But uh Bernie Sanders was very strong on saying that we're getting ripped off on trade. He happened to be right. And I got a lot of Sanders voters. Who would think that? You know, you would think I would have gotten virtually none, but many of them came. That was a big part of the difference between Hillary Clinton and myself. So, uh we have a tremendous amount of support. And it's sort of an interesting thing. Uh sometimes they say you add nine. Whatever Trump's poll number is, add nine. People don't want to talk about it. They don't want to be bothered, but when they get into the voting booth, they say, "Vote Trump." You know, we gave a speech the other night in Pennsylvania for a very nice guy, Rick Sakone. And uh it it was the level of love in that room was incredible. We were in Pensacola, Florida a couple of weeks ago. The place is just rocking. Now, I don't know if it's transferable. They say a lot of it's not transferable. They may like me. They may will vote for me. They're all saying I'm going to do great in 2020. I mean, you know, let's see what happens, right? But I don't they don't know if it's transferable. I hope it's transferable because we have to do our agenda. We have to win in 18. We have to get the agenda. We need more Republicans. We could also, by the way, get rid of the filibuster situation going on in the Senate. I feel very strongly about that. It would make life a lot easy easier. Uh but uh you look at uh some of the votes, we would get so many more votes. If you could work that with youth, get rid of it because certain senators just want to keep it, but it makes things a little bit tougher. But I will say we need more Republicans and we're going to get your taxes. You know, I don't know if you know, but we're I was with Kevin Brady the other day. We're starting a phase two on tax cuts. We're going to get more tax cuts and we're going to be very focused again on the middle class. we're going to get a phase 2 uh tax cut because it worked so well. Nobody thought it would be like this. It worked. So the word crumbs is going to be like the word deplorable, I think, for Hillary. Totally agree. And you know, hey Charlie, when when she said the word I was watching that speech and I thought it was, you know, not very nice, but I didn't see it that bad. And the next day I'm at a speech and women are coming in. I'm a deplorable. the husband, I'm a deplorable. And I say, "What's going on? That word really?" And it was a It was a basic. It was a That's right. She actually said deplorable and irredeemable. Irredeemable is probably worse. She was reading off a teleprompter. Well, the one she did last week wasn't too good either. That the woman goes and asks the husband, the son, and the male boss for approval to vote for Trump. That was not too good. That was not too good. She found a way to insult both men and women. She said, "Women can't make decisions on their own, and men are so controlling over women, they don't allow to make decisions on her own. Only Hillary could figure out a way to possibly do that." No. Um, kind of kind of in closing here, I know the next panel we're going to be talking about the crisis on college campuses, but specifically talking about the opioid ep epidemic, which is something that has just totally devastated middle America. And I know your administration is making historic strides um to help fix the fix the issue. So, uh, can we talk a little little bit about opioids and what you're doing, Charlie? So, we're going to be putting $6 billion dollars over a fairly short period of time into the opioid crisis. It's a crisis and you have to include in that the drug crisis period. Drugs are coming across the southern border and coming all over. That's why we will have the wall. We have 1.6 billion toward the wall and fixing up bad walls that are already up and, you know, building them new and rebuilding them and a lot of lot of work being done. You know, certain communities, believe it or not, like in San Diego, they want a wall. Nobody likes to talk about that. In fact, I said, "Don't build the wall there." They're all wanting it. And Jerry Brown, who's doing a terrible job as governor, but you know, no, if you like high taxes and lots of and crime, uh, that's that's your guy. But but they go and and they talk so much about the wall. But in San Diego, as you know, there's a long stretch that is demanding the wall. So I said, "Okay, they were ready to start." I said, "Don't build it. We'll wait till we get everything approved." Because they're having a lot of pressure. They want the Well, look, we have to stop the drugs from coming in. So, opioids are a big problem. We're going to be probably we're developing uh potential litigation to be suing some of these companies. If we could only do a painkiller that's not so addictive. This stuff is brutal. You have a broken arm, you go to the hospital, you're there for a few days, you come out, your arm is fixed, and now you're a drug addict. And we got to do something about it. It's so incredibly addictive and so quickly and we are working here with research money. We're working and and very strongly on coming up with painkillers that aren't so addictive and maybe not addictive at all. And uh I think that'll be a big thing. The other thing we have to do in terms of the drug problem is we have to be very tough on sentences. And you know, a drug a drug dealer will kill sometimes more than 2,000 people, sometimes much more than that. Ruin families, ruin lives, and they get caught. They'll get 30 days in jail. They'll get a fine, and they won't even get jail. They'll get a year in jail. And yet if they kill somebody, if they shoot somebody, if they get into a fight and somebody dies, they put them in jail for life or they give them the death penalty. But these people kill thousands of people over the course of their lives through drugs. So we're going to have to get much, much tougher in terms of penalty. And if you want to stop it, you look at certain countries where they have, as an example, the death penalty and say, "How's your drug problem?" And they will tell you, "We don't have much of a drug problem." So, I sort of uh there's nothing to laugh about, nothing to smile about, but when we have these blue ribbon committees composed of some very nice people, many of whom are in the office, Alex and Alex. We have a double Alex and Ivanka. We'll set up a nice and Kellyanne. Has anybody ever heard of Kellyanne? Huh? She's become I told Ivanka this morning, you can take Kellyanne and put her right into the heart of the battle to somebody who the the level of hatred back there is so incredible. 7 in the morning, the cameras are on, the lights are on, and she's there, and she'll just take them on. Great courage. Really great courage. A lot of people say, "Please, please." You know, Charlie, it's true. A lot of people say, "Please, Mr. President, please don't put me in there." She'll say, "Where do you want me to go?" Right. It's all words. It's all when you think about it. And here's another great warrior right here. Right, Ivanka? You are a great warrior. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Really is great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. We're fighting for you and we can't wait for the next seven years. So, thank you so much. Great. Thank you. Thank you.
