Newt Gingrich
Appearances
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Charlie, it's always great to be with you, and you do an amazing job.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
No, I don't think so. I think if you date it from the 7th of November after it was clear he was going to be president all the way up through the first month, and I'm writing on this Friday at Gingrich 360, there is a speed, a comprehensiveness, a clarity of what he's doing, which is extended through his whole team.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
If you look at who he's been picking for key jobs, starting with Vice President Vance, he has a clear sense of the entrepreneurial energy and drive and toughness that he wants throughout the whole government and of the kind of America that he thinks we have to become if we're going to be great again. So I've never seen anything like it.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
I think if he can continue it for four years and if he can win the 2026 election, then I think he's going to be in a league just below Washington and Lincoln and maybe slightly above Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who created a majority that lasted for 90 years. Trump is doing stuff I wouldn't have thought possible.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Well, I think historians will look back and say the greatest mistake the left ever made was taking the election away from Trump in 2020. Because what it did is it allowed him to spend four years thinking about what had gone wrong, thinking about lessons he'd learned as president.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
And at the same time, the left misunderstood the election, thought they had a mandate to go further and further left to be truly weird. And the net effect was that you ended up, I think, with a country that was madder, sicker of the left, more ready for change. And thanks in part to the America First Policy Institute,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
and the remarkable work of Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins, there were some 400 people from the Trump administration who were actively preparing for a second administration. So when he got elected on the 7th, of November, they already had, I think, 600 executive orders. They knew what they wanted to do. They knew who they trusted. It was totally different.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Remember, in 2016, Trump had never run for public office. There was no Trump organization. MAGA was a movement, but it wasn't a structure. Now MAGA, all across America, there are huge numbers of people who think of themselves as MAGA and who are prepared to go out and work and help elect candidates who belong to Make America Great Again. Totally different world than the world of 2016.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Well, I just did a newsletter for Gingrich 360. My background, I'm a PhD in European history. I've lived in France, Germany, Belgium, and Rome. So I have some general interest in Europe. I think what J.D. Vance did is sort of like your next-door neighbor being an alcoholic, and you go over and you do an intervention. He went to the Europeans, and what I think was an intervention.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Their system is failing. Their elites are so isolated from the world and so isolated from their own people that they maintain power by cheating every day. And Vance, I mean, has a very courageous speech. They actually made two speeches, one in Paris on artificial intelligence and then a speech in Munich. And they both had a similar pattern. You know, I just did some numbers a while ago.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
There are 15 trillion dollar companies that are American, four that are Chinese, and then Saudi Aramco. There are no European companies that are trillion dollar companies. Well, the Europeans chose regulation rather than innovation, and it's now destroying the continent.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Well, we shouldn't. It's actually quite ironic. The Weimar Republic, which people always say, well, that's what free speech gets you to. The Weimar Republic had very strict laws. There are 200 legal actions against the Nazis. Hitler at one point is barred from speaking in Bavaria. So it's not like the Weimar Republic was this wonderful world of free speech.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
In fact, they were trying to find ways to restrict communists and to restrict Nazis. And in the long run, it failed. But it failed because the economy failed. because the world had failed from the standpoint of the average everyday German. These rules in Europe and Britain, by the way, in some ways is the worst.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
I mean, the British have had a grooming crisis of Pakistani males raping young girls and nothing being done, because if you report it, it's considered Islamophobia. So the parents get in trouble for trying to protect their 13 or 14-year-old girl. I mean, this stuff is crazy. And, of course, the American elites, who are all still in a state of shock from the election,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
I mean, the performance on CBS the other morning with Marco Rubio was a disgrace, and the moderator should be fired for pure incompetence. I agree. The things she said are just false. And I think this is a real crisis. The 60-minute speech is pure propaganda. And, of course, what you've seen is, as Jim Clifton and Gallup told me today, for the first time, the news media now ranks below Congress.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
As an institution, people don't trust. And as a general rule now, I think the average American knows that if you're watching CBS or NBC or ABC or you're watching or you're reading The New York Times, The Washington Post, it's probably a lie. It's probably fake.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
I mean, you're going to say you're part of this. I mean, the fact is the country's turning to podcasts. I mean, going on Joe Rogan beat anything that Trump could have gained by going on the old networks.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
In terms of sheer believability and in terms of penetration. You've done the same thing. I think a big part of the rise in younger people supporting Trump comes directly from you. And so in a sense, the old media is killing itself and driving people to places like your podcast.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
since before he was Speaker of the House in Florida. We are old friends. He is a brilliant political leader. He was a great Speaker of the House in Florida. You know, and I think had Trump not overwhelmed him, he would have been a very good president. I think he's very talented. Plus, as somebody with a background as a Cuban American, he has a deep instinct for Latin America.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
He's thought a great deal about communism because he's dealt with Castro and the Cubans. And I think you're going to find, and he and I chatted about this the other day, he is going to remake the State Department. into an institution that actually serves American interests rather than the elitist interests of the sort of Davos world gentry.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
And I think he does it well, he's articulate, he's smart, he knows an immense amount. I mean, these reporters don't know anything. That's one of the things you have to remember. Not only are they biased, they don't know anything. People like Marco know a great deal. Witkoff, by the way, has been a huge surprise. I know Steve, but I knew him as a realtor. I had no idea his negotiating talents.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
And, of course, we have a great national security advisor with a real record of being realistic about the world. It's going to be interesting to see what they can accomplish in talking with the Russians and trying to get the Russians to understand that the war is over, period. I think that's Trump's position. This war is over. We're now down to details.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
And I think we'll do what we have to to convince Putin that he can't keep fighting.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Well, I mean, first of all, very symbolic that they're not meeting in Europe. I mean, historically, you'd meet probably in Switzerland.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Think about it. They've gone to Saudi Arabia, which makes the Saudis happy. They have basically taken a step out of the old world, creating a new world. And remember that Saudi Arabia is the first place Trump went when he was elected and sworn in in 2017. So he does feel a deep affection for the crown prince, and he's trying to get him to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
So there's a lot of different things moving here. The sense I get from talking with the president over a number of years, he is increasingly aware, first of all, of the danger of Putin having about 6,000 nuclear weapons and that nuclear war would be horrifying on a scale that none of us can appreciate. Second, he really, I think, wants to be a peacemaker.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
I believe personally that his being shot once and almost shot a second time with the sniper who they found at the golf course, I think that had a profound impact on him. And I was reminded, Chris and I did two movies, one about John Paul II going called Nine Days to Change the World. his going back to Poland in 1979, and the other called Ronald Reagan, Rendezvous of Destiny.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
When Reagan and John Paul meet in 1982, they are comparing notes because they'd both been shot. And they said, why did God spare us? And they decided God had spared them to defeat the Soviet empire. And they agreed to make basically an alliance to defeat the Soviet empire.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
Well, I think in a very similar way, Trump said, this is not hidden, he said in his inaugural address that he believes God spared him to make America great again. And I think that that is about as deep a feeling as you can have. And I think that he believes that part of that is not just here at home, but part of it is trying to make the world a safer and a better place, whether it's in Gaza or
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
or Ukraine, or a number of other places, you're going to see him, I think, have an impact. And he's begun to assemble a team, as you pointed out. When you have somebody as good as Marco Rubio as your Secretary of State, you have a negotiator as effective as Steve Witkoff, and you have a national security advisor as realistic and smart as Mike Waltz, you really have a pretty remarkable team.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
So Trumpism, if you will, is both having an impact inside the U.S., but it's also having an impact all around the world.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
If we can pass a tax cut by May or June and have this economy roaring next year and keep the House next year, this administration is going to lead to a boom on such a scale. And this is part of what J.D. Vance talked about in Paris on artificial intelligence, that the United States is just going to pull away from the rest of the planet. And it's not even going to be close.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Did Elon Expose the Biggest Fraud in History?
And at that point, the idea of somebody creating an alternative currency is just silly. It won't happen. It can't happen. The dollar will be dominant, certainly for the rest of your life and probably for your grandchildren's life.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Some fled famine and poverty, others sought religious freedom, and some came for the possibility of a better life.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Well, I think it was inspired by Calista because her grandmother came to the United States legally from Poland through Ellis Island, as did something like 12 million other people. And so we believe deeply in legal immigration. And we are strongly opposed to illegal immigration.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And we want to make the case that people who have come here legally, some famous like Henry Kissinger, others like Maria Dome, who had been adopted from a Siberian orphanage and went on to become the first woman certified by the Marine Corps as a combat infantryman, all of them in their own unique way has made America a better wealthier, more secure country.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And it's important that we find ways to strengthen legal immigration at the very same time that we control the border and we deport people who are here illegally. So that's why we did it. We're very proud that PBS picked it up and that people can find it streaming at pbs.org. And I think they'll find that it's a very educational and at the same time a very interesting show.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
You know, when Colist and I were in the Rotunda listening to the speech, it hit me that it's the most revolutionary inaugural address ever. in American history. The next morning, I went and read Jefferson's first and second inaugurals, Andrew Jackson's first inaugural, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural. And sure enough, Donald Trump on Monday gave the most revolutionary speech.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
If you read it and think about it, it's about cultural change. It's about political change. It's about economic change. It's about governmental change. And it's about changes in our role in the world. All those in 30 minutes, clear, decisive. And then what's amazing is instantaneously, he began implementing it with hundreds of executive orders. He has in the last five days,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
I think, done almost as much as Franklin Roosevelt did in 100 days. And in fact, I told him that if he keeps this up for 10 days, he will have passed Franklin Roosevelt's 100 days. And he shows no sign of slowing down. And if you saw him speaking to Davos by television, he laid it out for the business leaders of the world. You want to create jobs in America, you're going to have low taxes.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
You want to create jobs overseas and try to sell in America, you're going to have a tariff. I think that was probably a huge sobering shock to many of those business leaders. And you've already seen several groups come together to commit $500 billion for artificial intelligence. The head of Saudi Arabia has pledged $600 billion in investments in the United States.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And I think Trump has decided he's going to be probably the most consequential president other than Washington and Lincoln that we've had in American history. And he's certainly working at it pretty hard the first week.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Well, you know, I think a couple of things. First of all, his nine year project to get back here is unlike anything in American history. They did everything they could to stop him, and he's here. And maybe the most iconic moment was when he was shot and stood up with his fist up in the air, yelling, fight, fight, fight.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
I think it took something out of his opponents to realize that you're dealing here not with a normal politician. You're dealing with a citizen who has become a juggernaut of history. Second, the fact that he won by more than 2 million votes and that he carried every single swing state, all seven of them, I think demoralized the left.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Here they had thrown everything they could at him, and here he is standing triumphant. And then they're watching, you know, to go back to General Thompson's phrase, they're watching shock and awe. I mean, he's hitting them from so many different angles every day. They're getting 20 or 30 things to be outraged about daily. And I think they're just mystified.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And I think the elite media knows that they're in deep trouble. They're declining economically. They're getting people laid off. Frankly, programs like yours or like Joe Rogan or like Fox News, all of these have become dramatically more important than the traditional elite media. And The result is that their revenue is going down. Their employment is going down.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
You look at the layoffs at places like the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times. This is a different world. Now, let me be very clear, and you sort of said this at the beginning. All we got so far is a ticket to the dance. We haven't realigned America. We haven't won massive majorities like Franklin Roosevelt. And so we've got to perform. We've got to do well enough to keep the House in 26.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
We've got to do well enough to elect another Republican president in 28. And until we've done that, I think we're still in a gray zone where Trump's personality is carrying us, but we haven't yet quite solidified the country as a new MAGA-oriented traditional American country, which is where Trump is taking us.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Well, I think Washington and Lincoln will always be preeminent. Washington and and essentially created the country. Lincoln held the country together through a four-year civil war. So they're in a little different class.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
But if you go one layer below to Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, I have no doubt that Trump is going to end up, if he continues at this pace for four years and keeps the House and elects a successor, I have no doubt he will end up in a zone just below Washington and Lincoln and above Washington. people we've historically thought of as great presidents.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And I think that if you watch his authenticity, I watched him the other night on Hannity, and they've known each other for 30 years. He's so calm. He's so relaxed. He's so much comfortable with himself that I think this is a very important moment.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
You know, Cliss and I made two movies, one about John Paul II called Nine Days That Changed the World, where he went back to Poland, and the other movie about Reagan called Rendezvous with Destiny. And Reagan and John Paul II meet for the first time, and they've both been shot. And part of their conversation is, why did God spare us?
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And they concluded that God had spared them from the assassins so they could defeat the Soviet empire. And they agreed on an alliance which worked to defeat the Soviet empire. I think President Trump thought very deeply. I know Speaker Mike Johnson said after the second assassin was captured, Trump realized how really deep a problem threat this was.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And he and Trump went off to a room and prayed for two hours. Now, I think you're seeing a man who has been profoundly shaped by realizing that God saved him and that therefore he owes a different quality of duty than he would have thought a year ago. And I've known Trump a long time. This is a more sober, more serious, more considerate person than he was before these assassination attempts.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Journey to America, you can find it on PBS.org. It's a great portrait of nine people who have made America a much better country.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Well, look, I think, first of all, you have to have a certain level of humility. President Kennedy had a sign on his desk that said, oh, Lord, your ocean is so big and my boat is so small. And even if you're as big as President Donald Trump, the world is much, much bigger. So you have to be cautious. You have to worry about not starting a nuclear war with Russia.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
You have to worry about what North Korea is going to do. the Taiwan Straits. You've got to worry about the Iranians who are religious fanatics and try to help the Iranian people who are not religious fanatics. I mean, there are a lot of things out there that make the world complicated. We're undertaking a brand new struggle where we have defined
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
criminal organizations like the cartels as terrorist groups. That involves a whole series of decisions. And Mexico is a big country. And it's a country that has large sections of it being run by criminal gangs. So that's going to be a major concern. The biggest concern for I think for the president, the thing he has to focus on is the economy.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
It's vital to him to keep the House in 2026, and it's going to be a real fight. If the economy is growing, if there's a sense of a Trump boom, then I think he's got a good chance of keeping the House. If the economy is still floundering,
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
then I think there's a real likelihood we'll lose the House and you'll end up with a Nancy Pelosi environment of Democrats obstructing, blocking, investigating, and possibly impeaching. So this is the central decision point, and that requires, in my judgment, passing a very, very strong bill.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
I think by Memorial Day, as Speaker Johnson said, or certainly no later than July the 4th, because it's got to go into effect. Now, the early reports, $500 billion committed for artificial intelligence, the Saudis committing $600 billion. These are great things. But to get the average American on board, they've got to see the taxes change, the regulations change, the economy growing.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
If that happens with people like you, and I have to say, you were extraordinarily helpful and important in the last presidential campaign. And I think you made a significant difference, particularly in reaching out to younger Americans. So with the help of the entire team that elected him president, we have a chance to make sure we not only just keep the House, but we actually increase our margin.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
There are 13 Democrats in seats that Donald Trump carried. There are another 21 Democrats that are in seats he got within 5%. They're going to vote very strangely, very much against the American people. And we have a real chance to beat them and to substantially increase the majority that Speaker Johnson has to work with.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Well, let me just say, as part of the background, that I've engineered this before. We were the only Congress in 100 years to pass four consecutive balanced budgets, pass welfare reform, pass tax cuts, pass food and drug administration reform, invent Medicare Advantage. We did all that with a Democratic president. Why?
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Because we followed Ronald Reagan's principle, Abraham Lincoln's principle, which is you start with the American people. President Trump, if he will campaign for about 10 weeks and go into the districts I just mentioned, the 34 that are vulnerable Democrats, he will pass a big bill. I don't think you can do that twice in the first six months of the year.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
And I think it's desperately important that that be the tax cuts, deregulation, energy cuts. affordability bill. I think you can throw in things for immigration. He's frankly going to do a lot on immigration without a bill. And I think people say, oh, we want a quick early victory. No, I want a decisive victory that shapes the economy for next year to give us a chance to keep the House.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Anything less than that is a failure. And I think the Senate is so cumbersome and so difficult to work just structurally that even though John Thune is going to be a very good majority leader and very cooperative with Trump, frankly, he would have a very hard time getting two big bills through the Senate in six months.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
So if I have to choose, I want one really big bill, as Trump described it, one big, beautiful bill. And I think that's the safest if you want to keep a majority in the House. And it's the safest if you want the Trump presidency to be successful.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Donald Trump, the Greatest Pro-Life President
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.