THE GLENN BECK PODCASTAugust 28, 2025

Whitney Webb: How You Can BREAK FREE of the Chains of the Elites

Are you truly free, or is your life quietly controlled by systems most Americans never question? In this eye-opening conversation, Glenn Beck speaks with investigative journalist Whitney Webb about how the Elites, banks, and global systems have created modern forms of enslavement, all while the public remains largely unaware. They discuss the urgent need for local self-reliance, alternative financial systems, and taking personal responsibility to protect yourself and your family. This is a wake-up call for anyone who believes freedom is guaranteed, and it’s time to see the truth and act before it’s too late.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Whitney Webb HERE

SHOCKING: Glenn Beck Interviews 'Detransitioner' Deceived by Doctors

Claire Abernathy was just 14-years-old when doctors told her parents she’d take her own life without hormones and surgery. They promised “gender care” would save her life. Instead, it left Claire with irreversible scars, broken trust, and a lifetime of regret. Her mom was told she was required to comply. No one ever addressed the bullying, or trauma Claire endured before being rushed into medical transition. Now, years later, both Claire and her mother are speaking out and exposing how families are misled, how doctors hide risks, and how children are left to pay the price. With federal investigations now underway, their story is a warning every parent needs to hear.

Deep State NGO CAUGHT trying to restart opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan

Was an NGO with deep government ties trying to RESTART the opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan while former Taliban members were on its payroll...only to be caught DESTROYING the evidence?! The State Department's Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie joins Glenn Beck to expose what he found when he was made Acting President of the United States Institute of Peace. Plus, he debunks ProPublica’s claim that DOGE “targeted” an “Afghan scholar who fled the Taliban.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Darren, welcome to the program. How are you? Darren, are you there? Is he there?

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. Check if he's there. Is he? Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney.

STU: Trying to shut him down. They don't want peace. They don't want peace.

GLENN: They don't. They don't.

He is -- he is a big-time anti-globalist. I've got to tell you, what we're doing with the State Department. I absolutely love. The State Department has been a big problem for this country for a very long time. It's what's gotten us into these global wars. These endless wars, and everything he is.

And, I mean, I don't know what happened to Marco rube, but he is tremendous.

And the way president Trump is appointing different people like Darren, it's fantastic. Darren, are you there? Darren.

STU: Something must be wrong with the lines. Because we are talking to him offline on the phone here. And it does seem to be working, but not coming through our broadcast board here for whatever reason.

GLENN: Well, let's see if we can get that fixed, and maybe let me just talk here for five, six minutes on something else. Then we'll take a break and come back and see if we can get him.

There's something else that I really want to talk about. And that is this flag-burning thing. Now, it's not an amendment.

This is something that the president is putting up in an executive order and has very little teeth to it.

But I -- I -- look, I understand. As a guy putting an enormous flagpole up at my house today.

I mean, an enormous flagpole.

I love the flag. I love it!

And there are a few things that make me more angry than see somebody you set our flag on fire.

For a lot of people, that's a punch in the gut, especially our military people. And it has been planted on distant battlefields. It's raced after victory. Saluted in the morning, or should be in our schools and folded and given to the hands of grieving families. It feels like spitting on every sacrifice, that ever made this nation possible. And the argument against flag burning is really simple: It dishonors the idea of all of that. Okay?

And it defends millions of people, including me. It disrespects, I think the veterans that bled. The families who mourned. The dream that binds us together.

However, here's the hard truth: Symbols only mean something, in a land where freedom is alive.

If you outlaw the burning of a flag, the you have placed the cloth above the Constitution that it represents. You have made the flag an idol.

We don't worship idols. If you can only praise the flag and never protest it, it just stops being a symbol of freedom. And starts being an idol of obedience.

Now, that's the argument for allowing it. At least to me.

Because the real strength of a free nation is -- is to -- it's -- it's how we protect, not the speech we love, but how we endure the speech we hate!

And the Supreme Court has already ruled on this. And, you know, they -- the line they drew wasn't an easy one. Freedom of speech, stops where it directly -- directly insights violence. And that's it same thing, kind of, in this executive order.

You can burn the flag. But if I'm not mistaken, but if it incites violence, then you're in trouble.

And that's true. But the bar of inciting violence is so incredibly high. And it's -- it doesn't have anything to do with speech that offends. It's not speech that stirs anger. Not speech that wants you to punch the speaker in the mouth. It's speech only, that provokes imminent and specific violence.

And unless it's that be with the government doesn't have any right to -- to get into the business of silencing speech. Ever. Ever. Ever.

It is a hard line. And that standard is really hard. It's painfully hard.

Because what our citizenship requires, this is civics. What our citizenships require, is that we defend -- oh, I hate this.

We defend the right of your opponent to mock everything that we hold sacred.

Now, I want you to think of this. You can burn a Bible. You can burn the Word of God. But some want to make it illegal to burn a flag. Where are our priorities? You can burn the Constitution. The words that actually are the ones that stir us into action. But you can't burn a flag.

You can't burn a Koran. Can't burn them. Can't. Can't.

You will -- you will quickly come to a quick end, not legally. But you will come to a quick end. I don't ever want to be like that. Ever!

You burn a Bible. I think you're a monster. What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?

But you have a right to do it. Why are we drawing a line around the flag? It -- the reason is -- is because we feel things so passionately. And that is really a good thing, to feel love of country so passionately. But then we have to temper that. My father used to tell me, that I think this country needs to hear over and over again, every day. My father -- we would talk to somebody. And we would walk away. And he would go, I so disagree with everything that man just said. But, Glenn, son, he would say. I will fight to the death for his right to say it. He used to say that to me all the time. Which now lees me to believe, I know where I've got my strong opinions from. Because dad apparently would disagree with a lot of people all the time.

But that was the essence of freedom. That is the essence of what sets us apart. Standing for universal, eternal rights like free speech. It's not easy. It means you have to take the size of those people that offend you. It means -- it doesn't mean you have to disagree with it. You can fight against it. You can argue back and forth.

But you -- can you tolerate the insults to the things that you love most. That is so hard, and that is why most of the world does not have freedom of speech. It's too hard! But our Founders believed people are better than that. Our citizens can rule themselves!

And the only way you can rule yourself is if you don't have limits on freedom of speech. So the question is, do we want to remain free? Or do we want to just feel good? It really is that simple. It's why no one else has freedom of speech. It's too hard! I think we're up to the task. Okay. Give me 60 seconds. And then we will try again.

The -- there's certain moments in history, that test not just entire nations, but the hearts of those who live in the nations. And right now, the people of Israel are living in one of those moments. Sirens in the night. Families huddled together.

Elderly men and women. Who remember a time when help never came. All of them wonder. Is anybody going to stand with us, this time?

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews exists to answer that question. They provide food, shelter, security, and hope. Real hope and help in the middle of a crisis! And every act of generosity from people like you sends a clear message. You are not alone. When you support the fellowship, you are joining hands with believers all around the world to lift up God's people, when they need it most. And it is a promise in action. It's a testimony that our faith isn't just words. It's love delivered right on time. And this is your chance to be part of something that really, truly matters. Something that is eternal. To stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. And say, we're with you. We're not going to fight your wars. Not going to fund your wars. But we're with you. You have a right to live and exist in peace. To learn how you can help. Visit IFCJ.org. IFCJ.org. Go there now. IFCJ.org. Ten seconds. Back to the program.
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All right. Let me -- let me bring Darren in. Darren, are you there now?

DARREN: Yes!
GLENN: Oh, God. Thank goodness.
Thank you for putting up with us. I don't know what happened with the phone system. But, first of all, tell me what the US Institute of Peace is. I've never even heard of it.

DARREN: That is a fantastic question. And I'll try to give the abbreviated answer, because I know we don't have several hours.

GLENN: Good. I know.

DARREN: But US Institute of Peace is one of lesser known, but quite important member of the NGO archipelago, that was created in the '80s. It belongs to the same cohorts as national endowments for democracy.

GLENN: Oh.

DARREN: And some other -- some other better known NGOs that really in the broad context of things. In kind of the sweep of things, was created as a kind of reorganization of the government structure in the aftermath of the church type committee hearings that expose a lot of the dirty dealings of government agencies such as the CIA, and so sort of a broader response to that government lie was to create this NGO layer of governance, with an armed distant plausible deniability, a kind of chameleon character of not exactly being government, not exactly being private, in order to fulfill some of those more sensitive functions that had been exposed in the course of the church hearings.

And so US Institute of Peace is one of those NGOs that had particular focus on conflict regions. But, of course, as I think you -- you suggested earlier, peace requires at the very least, an asterisk. Because there involves a lot of things, that conventional, most American citizens would not think should belong as part of the portfolio of something calling itself an institute of peace.

GLENN: So what was the thing with the -- with this Taliban member that was getting money from us?

DARREN: Right. So this is an interesting case. So there's a whole saga of a takeover of the US institute of peace under -- under DOGE.

And that's really a fascinating story unto itself. Just to give you a sense of what these characters were like. They barricaded themselves in the offices.

They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within the offices.

GLENN: Wow!

DARREN: There was one, like, hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false imprisonment type situation. It was extremely intense.

Far more so than the better known story of USAID. And in the course of all of that, they tried to delete a terabyte of data, of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to.

What kind of people they were paying. And in the course of that, DOGE found that one of the people on their payroll. Was this curious figure, who had a prominent role in the Taliban government. And then seemed to kind of play a bunch of angles across each other.

Sort of one of these sixer types in the middle of Afghanistan.

The question is, what the heck is an organization like this, having an individual, who is a former Taliban member on their payroll.

It underscores how incredibly bizarre the whole arrangement is. And to just reinforce that. I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture exhibited by the chief -- one truly bizarre thing is that one of the US Institute of Peace's main kind of policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership. They had multiple reports coming out, basically saying, this is horrible, that the opium trade is diminished under the Taliban. Meaning, finding some way to restore it. How bizarre is that!

GLENN: What was their thinking?

DARREN: Well, it's -- it's very strange, and it depends on what kind of rabbit holes you want to go down. But the whole story of opium and Afghanistan and its connection to, you know, government entities, is a -- is a very intricate and delicate and fascinating one. But it seems very clear that the US Institute of Peace was involved in that story to some degree because their public reports. They had a full-the time guy of basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade dissipated under the Taliban. And, meanwhile, they're funding this former Taliban guy.

GLENN: Unbelievable. Now, ProPublica got this. And you have released the statement on it. And ProPublica just completely white-washed this -- said this guy was a victim, and his family was taken hostage. Was his family ever taken hostage because he was exposed?

And correct the ProPublica story, would you?

DARREN: Yeah, I mean, the ProPublica thing, as usual and as expected was a total joke.

GLENN: Yes.

DARREN: I mean, this guy, I'm not an expert on this particular person's history. But what's very clear is he was a former Taliban guy, and he was probably one of these people, who was playing all sides, made a lot of enemies. I know that there were several kind of attempts on his life by the Taliban, in the course of various -- various decades.

This has nothing to do with -- with DOGE.

I mean, he's a known quantity in the region.

And somebody who has made a lot of enemies.

And he was not -- he was on the payroll of the US institute of peace.

And nobody is expecting something like that. So then, and, again, there's this sort of hostile takeover situation.

Where the people are barricading he themselves in. Trying to delete all this data.

And sure enough, what's in the data, is stuff like this.

These random former Taliban guy, making his contract with $130,000.

GLENN: You know, this is the -- this is the real Deep State stuff, that I think bothers people so much.

Look, we expect our CIA to do stuff, we don't necessarily want to do it. We expect it.

When it's in the State Department.

When every department is pushing out money to NGOs to overthrow governments and everything else.

It's out of control!

It's just completely out of control.

And who is overseeing all of that.

DARREN: That's a great question.

I think part of the NGO -- UCEF was almost a cutout of a cutout.

A fourth of its money came from USAID.

In many ways, it was a cutout of USAID. Which itself was a cutout.

So there are many layers of distance. Plausible deniability.

And UCEF, I think institutionally really perfected this chameleon structure of being able to plausibly present itself as government. When that was convenient for what they were doing.

And also to present itself as a private organization, when that was convenient.

It's a very intricate setup that they had, that was truly optimized for this chameleon character of plausible denial operations. In conflict zones. Doing God knows what, with American taxpayer money.

And it's just an absolute hornet's nest.

We have recovered that terabyte that they tried to delete. And once we get things settled in the building itself, I intend to do a kind of transparency effort, whereby we release all of this material to the public.

GLENN: Good. Good.

DARREN: Just like I'm doing at the State Department. I'm currently acting as secretary at the State Department. And doing a transparency effort here. After I eliminated the global engagement center, which was sort of the internal censorship office within the State Department, decided, we've got to -- we've got to air this out to the public.

So within the next couple of weeks.

We'll have our next tranche of helps you of thousands of emails, documenting what this were doing.

GLENN: I would love you to go back on, through those emails.

I think you guys in the State Department are doing an amazing job. Thanks for being on.

Is THIS Trump’s REAL reason for allowing 600k Chinese students into America?

Why would President Trump allow China to send 600,000 students to the United States with China’s history of using students as spies? There has to be more to this story! Investigative journalist and author Peter Schweizer joins Glenn Beck to explain what he believes is really going on. Plus, he gives an update on the “massive problem” of China buying up land next to US military bases.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: One of my good friends, a guy who I just so admire. Is Peter Schweizer. Or admire. I still admire him. He's the president of the Government Accountability Institute. He's the host of the Drill Down, which is a podcast. He's written numerous books. He's an investigative reporter, been on this program a million times. And he is always way ahead of the game.

He's brought to my attention some -- some land exchanges that are going on with China. Here in our own country. The exchanges for dollars. And they are still buying up more land. And nobody is doing anything about it.

And there is the story today about the 600,000 Chinese students, that Donald Trump is letting come in.

Now, there's got to be more of this story on why he's allowing that.

But, I mean, these are people that if I'm not mistaken, and this is my first question, Peter.

Aren't these students.

You have to be close to the CCP to be able to travel to the United States. Don't you?

You have to be well connected to the Communist Party.

PETER: Yeah. That's right, Glenn. Look, the reason I think Trump is allowing this to happen is because this is a top priority for Xi.

And they're trying to negotiate a whole bunch of things, but I still think it is a mistake. And here's why: There are 600,000 Chinese students that come to the United States. American students going to China is a trickle. So this is not about in exchange of ideas. You know, it's not like junior year abroad in Italy, where you learn more about Italian culture, you remember it for the rest of your life. It's not that at all. The students that come to the United States, are screened for their political views. Their families are screened for their political views. Their costs are born by the Chinese government. So when they are here, they are function eight years of the Chinese government. As they fail the fallen line, or do what they're asked.
Damage can come to their family. Damage can come to them. And the entire premise behind the student exchange is going back to the 1980s is that this would make the Chinese elite more like us.

Right? They get to know us. They become more friendly. They become more Americanized. The vast majority of the hardline aides around President Xi were educated in the United States, primarily in places like Harvard. So it's not working.

The Chinese leadership is actually more hard-lined now than it was under Hu Jintao or under Gung Shah Ping (phonetic). And they are more Western educated, so it's not doing what they claimed it was going to do.

GLENN: So why is he doing this?

PETER: I think Trump is doing it because he's trying to secure, you know, a series of trade deals with the Chinese. He's trying to deal with them, on the Ukraine-Russia war to pressure Russia. He's got a whole bunch of things on his agenda. This is a priority for Xi.

GLENN: I understand that, but why would it be a priority for Xi? I mean, he gets 600,000 spies here in the United States.

PETER: Great question. Yes, that's correct. And so here's what we know. We know the Chinese students come to the United States have engaged in espionage.

And, by the way, they're not coming here to study comparative literature or sociology. They're the vast majority, over 90 percent are in the hard sciences.

GLENN: Right.

PETER: So it is -- it is stealing our secrets. We also know, by the way, that the fentanyl trade in the United States, as we've talked about before. The Chinese are intimately involved in that.

A key component of the money laundering is Chinese students in the United States, who are taking suitcases full of cash to Chinese state-owned banks.
This is well documented. So there is a -- a component who is there. There is also a political component to it. Chinese students in the United States have done everything from shout down speakers on college campuses, that are critical of China.

There have been reports in California of Chinese students being bussed to places like San Francisco, to engage in counterprotests. When people are, you know, concerned about human rights in Tibet.

When President Xi, remember, visited San Francisco. There were thousands of Chinese students bussed in there to organize pro-Xi rallies. So there's also a political force component to this.

GLENN: Wasn't it two students, or was it just scientists? Just recently, they were trying to bring in really dangerous stuff, and we caught them. But twice, we caught them.

That just happened a couple of months ago. Do you remember that story, Peter?

PETER: Yeah. That's exactly right. These were scientists. But these are scientists that are oftentimes educated in the West, they take on research lab positions at American universities like the University of Michigan, as in this particular case. And so they sometimes bring in a dangerous thing. There was a report in Canada of Chinese students that were bringing in pathogens, related to COVID back in 2019. Widely reported in Canada. So it's an enormous problem. And it's not really something that we are focused on.

Again, we are treating them as if they're German exchange students or Americans studying in Italy. That's not how China views this. They view this as a component and an extension of the state.

And the students need to fall in line. And if they don't, they will suffer serious consequences.

GLENN: Donald Trump is so strategic, and nothing he does is without several things down the line. He's usually playing 3D chess. He's way ahead of everybody else. I cannot imagine what we're getting out of this, that would balance this in our favor. But we'll have to -- we'll have to see. Is anything being done on the Chinese buying up land? I know you're on a big story now about how much land is being purchased up in the northeast. That is extraordinarily dangerous.

PETER: Yeah. So we're working on a report right now, of one of our top researchers. Twenty military bases that ran them in the United States. And he wanted to look at land records. And say, of those 20 military installations, how many have Chinese-owned land. That are just add adjacent to those military bases. The answer, Glenn, is all 20. So this -- this is a massive problem. It's -- you know, land purchases are not regulated at the national level of the United States. They not necessarily should be. It's done at the state level. And certain states like Florida and others have worked to have passed legislation in this area. The problem is you have states like California, where there was legislation passed in the -- the state Senate. The state assembly. On a bipartisan basis, that said, foreign hostile governments. It didn't even say individuals. Just foreign hostile governments cannot buy land in California. Gavin Newsom actually vetoed that bill. So the problem is, yeah.

It was that narrowly written, bipartisan support. Vetoed that bill. I think part of the reason was, frankly, he was involved in the wine business.

He had land and vineyards in the wine area. And Chinese state companies have been buying up vineyards in Napa Valley.

So probably would have affected the valuations of his property. That's, I think one of the motivations. And as we've talked about before, he has a -- let's say long history of association with people involved in the United Front groups. And frankly, people involved with Chinese organized crime. So the land issue is not going anywhere. It's a major problem.

GLENN: Peter, if I'm just looking at this on the surface. I immediately think back to what Ukraine did to Russia, with the drones.

Where they were in these trucks.

They were right outside the military base.

And they destroyed things that we get our wildest dreams, couldn't have destroyed just a few minutes ago. And it was because of drones. And it was a whole new line of attack. Everybody knows that China is the leader in drone technology. I mean, they are just way ahead of everybody. If you don't -- if you have a drone and it's not -- what is it? DGI. DJI. It's not the best. It's all coming from China.

If you have property all around the United States, all add adjacent to our military bases, that is a direct threat to our national security.

I mean, you could have a barn full of those drones. Or a truck full of those drones. And you could take everything out of those military bases quickly. And America wouldn't have any time to respond.

Is it deeper than that on concerns?

PETER: No. Well, yeah. I think that's the main one. Right?

The -- the -- the ability not only to cause kinetic damage, as the Ukrainians have shown. By flying drones and blowing things up.

Look, even our most secure military bases will be able to defend against an attack like that.

You have the additional problem, that you could do something more -- you could take drones, you know, with pathogens. With poisons. And introduce them, into a military installation.

GLENN: Yeah.

PETER: So, yeah. It's a massive, massive problem. And the notion that we can't even limit the Chinese government, or government state-owned, you know, companies, from buying real estate. That that somehow is in violation of -- of some Constitutional right, as if the Chinese government has Constitutional rights in the United States is patently absurd.

So this is something we've got to continue to address. We're going to keep exposing it. You've been on the front lines of it, Glenn.

And it's one of the things that people innately understand. When you think about currency close, when you think about money laundering, you get complicated -- this is very real and dangerous and understandable.

GLENN: Yeah. Peter, as always, thank you very much. Thanks for your hard work. We'll talk again. Peter Schweizer.

PETER: Thanks, Glenn.

GLENN: You bet.