RADIOFebruary 24, 2025

Bud Light Insider Reveals What Led to Dylan Mulvaney Controversy

The American pushback against wokeness really took off after the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney controversy. But how did that partnership even happen? How did the working man’s beer go work? Glenn speaks with Bud Light insider Anson Frericks, who is the former president of Anheuser-Busch Sales & Distribution Co. and saw the company’s culture shift firsthand. He lays it out in his new book, “Last Call for Bud Light.” And he tells Glenn that the driving force behind the wokeness wasn’t business data or the will of customers. It was major shareholders like BlackRock, who pushed the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset principles. So, now that Trump is pushing back against the ”ESG Industrial Complex,” he argues, many CEOs are abandoning these failed policies.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Anson Frericks, I think I have his name right. He's the author of a new book called Last Call for Bud Light.

He was -- he is the Strive asset manager cofounder. He is with Vivek Ramaswamy.

He has written a great book that I think everybody should read. Anson, welcome to the program!

ANSON: Thanks for having me this morning, Glenn. Really excited to be on the show.

GLENN: Oh, you bet. Your book is fascinating. It's a great, great business book. To kind of get into how a great brand is built. And how it's dismantled. And how it went horribly, horribly wrong.

ANSON: Yeah. You know, Glenn, it's really interesting.

If you think about all the pushback on ESG and DEI, and really just, in my mind, it really started with the collapse of Bud Light.

That's when I think you had all these regular, everyday folks that were saying, man, you know, you act like you did not like when the NFL and all the players kneeling. Yeah, I hated it when Disney got involved in the parental rights issues. But, man, when Bud Light, which is the working man, everyday citizen beer, when all of a sudden, they're promoting Dylan Mulvaney, and everything going on with Dylan Mulvaney, that's when I think people said enough is enough. They stopped buying the beer.

Customers left by the millions. The stock price cratered. It's crazy that they still haven't figured out, and there hasn't been a comeback at all.

GLENN: You know, I wrote a book a few years ago, about The Great Reset.

ANSON: Yeah.

GLENN: And how that was changing everything. And all of these companies would be beholden, not to you, the consumer, but would be beholden to people like BlackRock. And as I'm reading your book, I'm like, yes. Yes.

I can't believe how right we were. Because that's really what seemed to have happened. The culture changed. You moved from St. Louis to New York.

You started caring about BlackRock. Not the consumer.

And you were there, watching this happening, knowing what was coming. Or at least it seems that you really kind of knew what was coming.

ANSON: Yeah. No. Absolutely. And, Glenn, you were ahead of everybody on this. With the Great Reset, the phenomenal book on your end. And seeing what's happening. When you have the World Economic Forum. Klaus Schwab, and all these individuals that were pushing more for this European form of corporate governance. Stakeholder capitalism. Companies. They're supposed to create value for all stakeholders. Which is very distinct. For the American -- Milton Friedman view of the world, that said, you have to put the shareholders first, and you have to do what's right for the shareholders, which is create products, services, that actually create more sustainable businesses.

But as many corporations over the last five to ten years adopted this Klaus Schwab, European fake order view, which was foisted on them by the BlackRock world, who were taking money from very progressive pension funds in California, in New York, and in European sovereign wealth funds. We saw this as the least sustainable thing that a business can do. Is try to get involved in all these political and social issues.

GLENN: Right.

ANSON: To fracture your customer base. It's bad.

GLENN: Was that something that you think these business leaders actually believed in? Or were they just saying, hey, it's a new world. And everybody has to do this. Or we're not going to get the money from the banks.

And we're not going to get the funding that we need, et cetera, et cetera.

ANSON: Yeah. I don't think many of these people believed in these programs. But unfortunately, they were foisted by them, by the black rocks. The state streets. And the Vanguards.

They're the single largest shareholders in most of these companies. And then you have this whole ESG industrial complex, built around this.

McKinsey. One of the most influential management consulting companies, had their diversity matters. Diversity wins.

DEI studies, that told companies that they needed to improve their DEI. And, of course, they could hire McKinsey for millions of dollars to figure out how to do that. You had the human rights, which is this activist non-profit organization, that started scoring companies. You know, you talk a lot about the social credit scores. Human rights campaigns are doing to the companies that's shaming them, if they didn't have the right transgender policies in place. If they didn't have the right amount of advertising to the LGBTQ+ community. I mean, there was this whole complex that was built up.

That's why I think you were starting to see a lot of CEOs backtrack on these policies. They had nothing to do with actually creating more value for the shareholders, or actually promoting the business.

It was all about promoting the political agenda. I think most of them didn't want to believe in, but they were most compelled and forced to do over the last couple of years.

GLENN: So the Bud Light, you know, the end of, I think, I agree with you, the end of ESG. At least not -- at least the end of it being the knee-jerk reaction of, no. Of course, we have to have transgender people in every commercial.

The end of that, yeah. I'm reading your book, last night.

And I'm like, okay.

I think maybe -- maybe we've hit the end of this. Maybe this is the beginning of looking back and saying, look how insane all of this was.

Are we on sure footing now, leaving that time period? Or is it still a real lurking danger?

ANSON: No. I think the pendulum is definitely swinging back. You really see businesses dividing in two camps. You have certain companies that have realized, that these policies have failed. And they want to get back to the bottom line. You've seen companies like Meta and Walmart and Tractor Supply Company and a bunch of other people that hold back their programs. But then you have companies that are more in progressive cities. I mean, Costco has doubled down. Costco is based out of Seattle. They're doubling down on their DEI programs.

You have other companies, and I talk about this a lot. But even Anheuser-Busch, which is owned by a Belgium corporation called InBev, that they haven't necessarily publicly backed down. It's just the company that lost the most from this whole movement. And they still haven't publicly backtracked, even though a lot of their American counterparts have. Because, again, they are owned by a European company that promotes more of these -- more of these values. And I think that's where you're starting to see this divide.

And the companies that continue to hold on for to, I think the DEI and ESG philosophies are going to continue to fall behind their American counterparts.

GLENN: So how much of a role did just being out of step, with the Bud Light customer. How much of that played a role before ESG. I mean, if you don't understand the Clydesdales. You don't -- you don't get Budweiser. Would you agree with that?

ANSON: You know, 100 percent, I think there was a dangerous cocktail that was mixing for almost ten years at Anheuser-Busch. And we kind of found this firsthand. So going back, Anheuser-Busch was created by an American family, by the Busch family. It was taken over by a European company called InBev in 2008. And InBev was based in Belgium, and then it was also run by a couple of Brazilian individuals. And they came here to the US. And over 5 years, really dismantled what Anheuser-Busch was.

Even including in the year 2015, they moved the corporate headquarters from St. Louis to Missouri.

And they thought they couldn't have the right talent in -- in -- in St. Louis. They couldn't attract the right people. Even though, St. Louis, Missouri, they had great talent that built this company, essentially the world's largest beer company.

GLENN: Oh, yeah, Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Missouri. You heard that your life.

ANSON: That's it. So they moved from the epicenter, away from the middle of the country.

Where there's always a saying -- you know, generally placed for American. Peoria, Illinois, is very close to St. Louis. You have all of a microcosm of the US around there.

Which helps you understand the center of the US.

When you move to New York. You hire New York agencies. New York marketing. New York folks. That has really changed.

I think the outlook of the company, combine that with the rise of really ESG and DEI, which really took off, in that 2015 to 2021, 2022 time frame made for a dangerous cocktail, that they just lost who their customer was. And who that core American beer drinker was.

GLENN: I have to tell you, one of the best parts has nothing to do with ESG, of the book. Is moving the company to New York. Because I moved my company out of New York. But at first I left the -- the headquarters in New York. And the company really split. You know, once a founder leaves, things can go awry quickly. And especially if you're in New York, and the founder is in Texas. And we really had some really tough times, because of that. And I -- you know, businesspeople, I hope they -- I hope they recognize the effect. But in your book, it shows, a company like InBev could not. It didn't get that at all.

ANSON: No. They didn't really get it at all. I saw firsthand, the company changing. You read more about this, in the book last call for Bud Light. One of the things I was frustrated with, especially in the 2020, 2021 time frame, after COVID, after George Floyd. And the company which was this meritocracy. That's what I joined. Hey, if you work hard, you get promoted. And one of the key principles of the company was, we promote based off the results you get. And all of a sudden that principle was changed to, we promote based off the diversity of your team.

Then you sort of have diversity dashboards coming in. To see the diversity of your team. On top of that, we couldn't even just get partnerships done. I thought that made tons of sense.

I talk about this in the book a lot. I tried to do a distribution agreement with Black Rifle Coffee Company. And you probably Black Rifle Coffee company, its mission is to serve culture and coffee to firefighters, first responders, police, people who love America.

But that was too controversial of a partnership in 2021 and early 2022.

GLENN: That's crazy!

ANSON: And for me -- for me, it was kind of our external affairs team in New York. They essentially scuddled this deal based off their own political leanings. I said, guys, the same person drinking a six pack of Budweiser at night is the same person drinking six cups of Black Rifle Coffee Company the next morning.

GLENN: Yes.

ANSON: And what do you mean we can't do a distribution deal, where we're putting the same Black Rifle Coffee cans on the Budweiser trucks? This makes sense for everybody.

But that was too controversial of a partnership. And that's where you saw just that center of gravity, when you're looking at America through the lens of Fifth Avenue in New York, versus St. Louis Missouri, where I think you really lose sight of who your customer is.

GLENN: You know, when you talk about how Bud Light sent that can to Dylan Mulvaney, that may surpass. In fact, I think it does, surpass the boob move of, we've reinvented our recipe. Now it's the new Coke!

I mean, just dumb as a box of rocks. You say, I -- you outline clearly how bad it was for Anheuser-Busch, but the average person, I think would think that Bud Light has kind of recovered, and that's kind of past. But that's not true!

ANSON: No, I mean, it really hasn't.

You know, I get into this in the book a lot. About that same organization, that same sort of external affairs team that canceled that Black Rifle Coffee deal. They were the one that green lit the Dylan Mulvaney partnership.

And unlike the Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, they were in the state. But what do they do? They took accountability for it? Did they apologize for it?

GLENN: Right.

ANSON: They killed new Coke, I don't know, within a couple of months.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

ANSON: One of the big problems. You make bad, bone-headed marketing mistakes regularly in business. The real problem here is, yes, the marketing decision was wrong. But even more importantly, the company's response to it is the reason, Glenn. Like sales are still down 40 percent, 50 percent.

They still lost $40 billion of value, and have not recovered before this. Because the company never took responsibility and accountability, and has not made any changes. The same CEO is still there. They still have not come out. They rolled back publicly DEI policies. They haven't apologized to their loyal customer base. And they haven't been able to admit, and say, we screwed up.

And I think part of it is, is because of this kind of European ownership they have. And, you know, my feeling is that they're not going to actually get their Bud Light customers back, no matter how much money they throw at it. Dana White, the ultimate fighting championship, which I think they gave him $100 million. They have Shane Gillis, they have others. Because the real path to redemption, I mean, goes through forgiveness. You know this. But the only way to be forgiven is actually to admit there was a mistake and there was an area. And they have yet to do that. Until they do that, I don't think a lot of these customers are coming back, no matter what marketing you give folks.

GLENN: So the name of the book is last call for Bud Light. The fall and future of America's favorite beer. I need to take a one-minute break and then come back. And I want to talk to you about what does the future look like, and not necessarily for Budweiser.

I mean, you are -- you cofounded strive asset management with Vivek. A good friend and a really smart guy. Who I think has a really bright future. And so you're looking at these companies and trying to find the right companies that align with the values of their customers.

Tell me, the advice that you give for companies, now that are still kind of in this weird zone. What the future looks like. And what is the path forward?

GLENN: If -- if I could catch hope in a jar and put a lid on it. And give it away, I would. Our nation has been far too short on hope. Especially when will it comes to the economy and our personal ways.

Maybe things are finally starting to get better. Maybe we will have more trouble before it gets better. We have a lot of debt we have to pay.

We made a lot of really bad mistakes. But now that we have good leadership in office, you know, it's going to be a little less worrisome, maybe.

A little more hope.

But you are still in charge of your own personal economy.

Here's the hope I can give you. A sincere recommendation to give American Financing a call. Because they work for you, not the bank. They're salaried employees. When they -- when you call them. They will shoot straight with you. Maybe take ten minutes just to get started. And they are saving the average listener of this program, just around an average of, what? $836 a month.

That's like giving yourself a 10,000-dollar raise. That's a little -- that's a little deposit in the hope bank, isn't it? Start today. You might even be able to delay up to two mortgage payments, which can help get you even further ahead.

Don't take my word for it. I always tell you, and I mean it every time. Do your own homework.
Don't take anybody's word for it. You're smart enough to figure out if it's right for you.

American Financing. 800-906-2440. 800-906-2440, or go to AmericanFinancing.net.
Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: So what do you see as the current situation, and the path forward in the next three to four years, for American companies and brands?

ANSON: Yeah, so it's funny. I left one year before that Dylan Mulvaney partnership, after they wouldn't let me do the Black Rifle Deal.
I saw the company changing from a diversity standpoint. And Vivek and I, we started a company called Strive Asset management. Which was, we were going to invest everyday citizen dollars into businesses and have them be focused once again on meritocracy. Have them be focused on their mission.

Don't necessarily get involved in a lot of political and social issues, like we saw. I was looking Atlanta, Georgia.

If you remember, Glenn, in 2021, when the governor passed the Georgia rights act. You have to have an ID to vote.

And corporate America lost. BlackRock. One of the companies said, we're pushing back against it. Then they kind of compelled Coca-Cola, Delta to get involved in this pushback. And Major League Baseball cancelled the All-Star Game.

In 2021, in Atlanta, over this Georgia voting rights. You need to have an ID to vote. So we saw a lot of these problems happening. And we came out, and we said we're going to start a new asset manager, compete against BlackRock.

Let's have companies just focus on whatever their mission is. Stay out of politics. That will be good for business, because you will not fracture your customer base, and it will be good for our democracy as well. Because we should have individuals -- are the ones that should be deciding what rules they live by, not these secret national organizations or ESG-promoting asset managers. It's funny.

When we originally launched, this is not even a contrarian position. But this was almost like a subversive position 20 years ago. People called us anti-ESG, anti-DEI, anti-woke. I mean, you name it.

GLENN: Anti-everything.

ANSON: Anti-everything, and I said, guys, we are just pro-American, free market shareholder capitalism. That's what we are pro. We are anti-European stakeholder capitalism. We're anti-the World Economic One. We're anti-the European agendas, yes, we are. But we're very much pro-American. Free market shareholder capitalism.

And there are a lot of people that wouldn't even work with us. Marketing agencies wouldn't work with us. People wouldn't engage with us early on.

And it's so funny now, because now three years later, what was a very contrarian idea has become very mainstream, and the pendulum again has swung back for most of corporate America, who has now -- who has now once again been able to focus on the business.

GLENN: I think this is a book for every businessperson, even just someone who has watched Anheuser-Busch through the years. It's an amazing story, and something that every businessman should read, going forward. Last Call for Bud Light. The fall and future of America's favorite beer. Anson, thank you so much. God bless.

ANSON: Thanks, Glenn.

Glenn Beck SLAMS Krugman: Chinese Slave Labor Over US Jobs?!

Glenn tears into economist Paul Krugman’s recent Substack article, “Making Sweatshops Great Again,” which laments Donald Trump’s plan to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Of course, we should manufacture things like computer chips in the US, as Krugman insists. But what’s wrong with bringing sneaker and textile manufacturing back? Would Krugman rather child slaves in China continue making them?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Paul Krugman writes, on Manhattan's Seventh Avenue near the corner of 39th Street, there's a larger than life statue of a garment worker, a man wearing a skull cap, hunched over a sewing machine. The statue is a tribute to the locale's history.

It stands in the middle of what's still called the Garment District! After all, in 1950, New York's apparel industry employed 340,000 workers, but that industry is gone now. Not just from midtown Manhattan, but from the United States as a whole!

Having moved to low wage countries, like China, and increasingly Bangladesh. No serious person mourns the off-shoring of the apparel employment.

I do! As someone who would like to wear American clothing, who has tried to help save the Cohen denim company, which made the best denim in the world. They're out. You know why? Can't afford to make it here. You know why? Because we offshored everything. You know why? Because we're stupid, that's why. So I actually do mourn that, but I don't really count in Paul's world, but I digress. For a poor nation like Bangladesh, apparel jobs are a big step up from the alternatives. Even in our heyday, mostly, it only employed immigrants, who despite being represented by powerful unions were paid low wages.

And often faced harsh working conditions. Oh. Wait a minute.

So wait a minute. Let me see if I can get this right. What about your insistence of keeping people here, because they will work for low-paying jobs. You remember jobs Americans won't do. So are you now saying, we will want to get rid of all those low-paying jobs that all Americans won't do? I mean, I'm not with you, Paul.

I'm just trying to understand your reasoning here. I mean, have you changed your mind on that? Is there no one in America that would gladly take a sewing job over scrubbing toilets in a hotel?

Nobody. As I said, no serious person wants the apparel industry to come back. Again, but Donald Trump's economic team aren't serious people.

This come from the biggest clown of my lifetime. Last week, Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary went on CNBC to explain that Trump's tariffs will bring back US production of T-shirts and sneakers and towels.

The host just started laughing at him, because we know when we all know better than he does. And there's no reason to believe that he -- he or his boss think this was a joke. And their nostalgia for industries in the past, seems to be matched by surprising hostility towards the industries of the future.

Oh, okay. All right. Now, we're starting to get good. Again, our hard-working dishwashers. Fruit pickers. Lawn maintenance. Or service style jobs. For people just like you, Paul, that will hire people at a lower wage because they're illegal, and you can get away with anything that you want.

Oops. I mean, you can help them achieve the American dream. Are these jobs nostalgic?

Because with the onset of AI in the next few years, I think they are! But wait. I'm hostile towards AI?

I'm confused, but Krugman goes on.

Now the Trumpiest view of international trade pretty much begins and ends with a view that whenever Americans buy something made abroad, no matter how much cheaper it is, it may be to import a good, rather than try to produce it domestically. And that's a win for foreigners and a loss for America.

No. Paul!

God, you're stupid.

Products that are more inexpensive. Or that are inexpensive, are always a win for Americans. Always. Unless it completely guts our ability as a country to stand on our own.

Also, why should we give so much money to the biggest slave owner country the world has ever known?

Message to you progressives, America is not so bad. Compared to what China is doing currently!

Now, instead of standing up to them, you know, we -- we just want to be independent, so we can!

And I would like to live without the slave labor of some of these countries.

You know, if we're making sneakers here in the US, at least it wouldn't be a line full of children, spraying, you know, led paint on Nike shoes, like it's most likely happening away from our shores. But I digress. Again, by shipping our jobs to China, Paul. Buying our i Phone and socks from China. Are you not doing the same things the elites like you did before and during and even after the Civil War? Well, it will hurt the economy!

We've got -- jobs here in America on our American assembly lines actually allow people to afford college for the next generation or even themselves, to better their stations. Even though you have done everything you can to destroy our universities through your horrible progressive ideas.

And, you know, through government subsidies that you have raised the cost of college.

You know, since we got into the business of getting loans for colleges, guaranteeing those loans. In 1963, tuition was an adjusted -- inflation adjusted $2,487. Now it's almost $10,000. That's an increase of 292 percent. Four times the cost, in real dollars, that was in 1963!

What happened? What changed?

What changed?

He continues. I mean, Trump has slapped high tariffs on Canadian aluminum, which is cheap, because smelting uses a lot of electricity. And Canada has a lot of abundant hydropower, and aluminum is important for US manufacturing. Yet, Trump somehow thinks Canada is exploiting us, by offering us a key industrial import at a good price.

But back to T-shirts and sneakers. We definitely shouldn't be making those for ourselves.

But what should we be making instead?

Well, here's what we are going to be making, Paul. Nothing. We're not going to make anything.

Unless, we have a hard-working, well-educated, motivated workforce, with cheap energy, and the cutting of crazy regulation. In which companies can afford to grow and build.

And want to come here. Because we have the best conditions. And the best labor. And the cheapest energy.

That's what made America, America.

But what you have done, you have killed the well-educated with your support of the teachers unions. And everybody else controlling EDU. You want an example. Just check what you were saying, while our children were out of school, during COVID. Because of your support.

You know, next thing that you cut was the motivated by advocating for higher taxes. More red tape. Plus, out of control labor unions.

You know, where the lazy and the corrupt, they think can't be fired. Can't be fired. You killed motivation.

Well-educated. You killed that one. The motivated, you killed that one. You killed that one. Because not only the red tape. But with DEI and ESG, and CRT programs. You also teach everybody, you'll never make it without us. Why try?

You've killed everything. And do I need to even remind you of your anti-cheap energy lectures? And you love the growth. Energy regulation. Because, oh, my gosh, we have to get rid of our -- we have to get rid of our hydroelectric power here. And take those dams down. Because that's so colonial.

Oh, my gosh.

I can't take this guy. What free trade purist would answer, whatever the market decides, let private firms decide what's profitable in America. And even if you're not a free trade purist. You have to admit the government doesn't have a great record of picking winners.

Oh, my gosh, have you just admitted this out loud, without even knowing this? Your support for the Green New Deal!

Your support for things like, I don't know, Solyndra. Did I miss an op-ed, where you're like, boy, that was a mistake?

Yet I, like many economists, have come around to The View. Listen to this one. This is his big announcement. That maybe we should engage in a limited amount of industrial policy, using subsidies.

Oh, wow!

Paul, the heavens have opened up for you.

You have finally come around to the idea of government subsidies. How refreshing from you.

What a shock. What an unbelievable turnaround for you. You mean to tell me, you've gone from a supporter of the public private partnerships. The green nigh deal that just funds entire sectors.

Big government programs.

To now somebody who can -- who can finally embrace the idea of government bailing out failures.

Wow!

Making partners with private corporations. With our government using the little guy's tax dollars, to give to the billion dollar companies.

Money from the average person. The average working man and woman. Right to the billionaire. Wow, you have come so far, Paul!

You really have!

Good for you. You know, there are two big reasons. Limited industrial policies, back in vogue.

That word isn't even in vogue.

One is that it's become increasingly clear that there are important positive spillovers, between technology firms, Silicon Valley is now more than the sum of the individual companies, located in south of San Francisco.

It's kind of an industrial ecosystem of shared services. A pool of skilled workers. And an exchange of knowledge!

Oh! Paul, you mean like every other industry, somehow?

But this one is different?

I mean, other than Silicon Valley being originally funded by the DOD, CIA, and the federal government, how is this different?

You know, again, other than it was the greatest concentration of wealth, perhaps ever in the history of man.

Think of that. Silicon Valley, probably the greatest collection of wealth in the history of all mankind, we've got to get the government in there to help those poor, starving billionaires.

The -- aren't these the titans. The billionaires. Are they somehow different than the titan and billionaires that have to pay their fair share.

And who are unelected fascists like Elon Musk.

I mean, I'm so confused, Paul.

Are you now admitting that Elon Musk alone is capable of creating, quote, an industrial ecosystem of shared services? A pool of skilled workers. And with his willingness and action, not to patent technology. But to release it. To help the planet.

Is he an important force, that for an exchange of knowledge, it -- wouldn't he be one of those?

If we want America to be competitive and high-tech, we need government policies to encourage the formation of these industrial ecosystems. In other grimmer reasons, we need industrial policy because of geopolitics.

Circa 2010. Listen to this. Circa 2010. No, not many people worried about how much of the world's production of advanced semiconductors, which are now crucial to almost everything, was concentrated in Taiwan. No, Paul!

You weren't! In 2010, you couldn't see over the horizon. You know that quote from Paul Krugman, that you gave me earlier? About the internet.

I mean, you were the one that wasn't concerned about semiconductors and high-powered chips.

STU: 1998. The growth of the internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in Metcalf's law, which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the squared number of participants becomes apparent.

Most people have nothing to say to each other. By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet's impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machines. That's so good.

GLENN: Well, forget about that.

Now we know the age of large-scale warfare isn't over! And it's dangerous to rely on crucial products and industrial clusters easily threatened by potential adversaries. That -- just that paragraph.

Just that paragraph -- just that, Paul, proves everything else you've said in your stupid op-ed, to be absolutely the opposite.

Or may I just say, duh!

And duh! These realizations lay behind one of the Biden administrations two major pieces of industrial policy legislation. The Chips and Science Act, designed to encourage production, unlike the Inflation Reduction Act, which sought to use industrial policy to fight climate change! Climate change.

The Chips Act has had a substantial bipartisan support. Yeah, it did. It did. As did slavery in the 1800s. As did the rounding of the Japanese under another progressive president.

In fact, wow. So did men can actually be women? Just a couple of years ago. It doesn't make it true, Paul. Even though in an era of intense partisanship, a significant number of Republicans were willing to back the effort, but during his speech to Congress last week, Trump veered off into a demand that Congress would repeal that act.

It's not clear what he has against the Chips Act. Although, according to the New York Times, many semi conductor companies attribute his hostility simply to personal animus to former President Biden.

Yeah. You can't think of another thing, that might make him against the Chip Act.

It's weird, Paul.

I went to an expert, I trust more than you. Grok!

And asked it, besides personal animus, why might the president be against the Chips Act? I'll share that answer with you, Paul.

I can't figure out, other than his personal animus against former President Biden, why he would be against the Chips Act. Uh-huh.

Thank you, Paul Krugman. So I just went to Grok, and I said, is there another reason besides personal animus, that President Trump might be against the Chips Act?

Here's what Grok told me today. Cost, and perceived wastefulness.

Trump has described that the Chips Act is a horrible, horrible thing, that involves giving hundreds of billions of dollars to companies without sufficient return.

From this perspective, he might view the $52.7 billion in subsidies, plus additional lending authority. As an inefficient use of taxpayer money.

If his goal is to save America, he could argue these funds might be better directed elsewhere.

Two, preference over tariffs for subsidies. Trump has constantly advocated for tariffs as a tool to incentive domestic manufacturing, claiming they could achieve the same outcome as the Chips Act, bringing the semiconductor to the United States without the government spending any tax dollars.

Let me point to Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing company. Increasing its US investment. As evidence that these tariffs, or the threat of them are working.

From his viewpoint, this approach avoids handing out money to wealthy corporations. Aligning with a belief that market pressure is a more sustainable way to bolster American industry.

Three, skepticism of corporate giveaways. I don't know.

Paul, that sounds like something that you would say, as you're shipping your country -- right there, on the porch in your rocking chair. Thinking, I'm so smart!

“15 Smoking Guns”: Is Mahmoud Khalil a THREAT to America?

The Left and Legacy Media insist that anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who helped organize protests at Columbia University in the wake on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, is just “supporting Palestine.” But Capital Research Center Investigative Researcher Ryan Mauro argues that the evidence is clear: he poses an actual threat to Americans’ safety and should be deported. Ryan lists 15 “smoking guns” that Khalil and his activist group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, support taking radical action against Western civilization. They seem to have an affinity for arson, his group called for a repeat of the Oct. 7 attack on US soil, and one group in the coalition even declared itself a literal part of Hamas.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Ryan, welcome to the program, how are you? Right, hey, it's great to be with you.

GLENN: It's great to be with you. This is an amazing article, the 15 smoking guns, that show, this guy is clearly a terrorist threat.

I think I got to number three, and I'm reading this. Like, how is this even an argument? How this guy even here, still? Honestly, why isn't he even in jail, here in America? Can we go through these, one by one?

RYAN: Yeah, absolutely. And I think -- I would preface this by saying, honestly, we're thankful that he's deported, and we can all applaud that. But we shouldn't necessarily be impressed by that.
(laughter)

GLENN: It is a pretty low bar here.

RYAN: It is. And the fact that the Trump administration hasn't involved to any degree that I'm aware of. Those are the monitored groups. That's why I have this information available. They came out with this, and kind of got put on the defensive. And now Mohamed Kahlil, a group he's a part of that we will talk about, is more powerful than ever. All the pro-Hamas seditionist groups are fundraising off of this.

GLENN: This is crazy.

RYAN: And this is -- they didn't work with those to justify what they were doing. They just kind of did it.

GLENN: Okay. So let me take this point by point with you.

First point, Kahlil's group seeks to incite and carry out terrorism on US soil, including copying the October 7th atrocities.

RYAN: Yeah. So the group that he is a leader of, Columbia University apartheid. Which is actually a coalition of 100 student groups.

They post odd their social media base. Multiple times, that they were telling their comrades, involved in this little intifada. Primarily to the United States.

They talk about Israel. To, quote, look to the tactics of the Palestinian resistance, which were inspired action, and to rise like a flood. When they think flood, what they're doing, is they're referring to the October 7th attacks because Hamas refers to it as Operation Jerusalem Flood.

So that's how that would be interpreted. October 7th, good idea, for US soil.

GLENN: Number two, his group praised the October 7th attacks and Islamist-backed violent uprisings in Bangladesh as part of the global intifada against American imperialism.

JASON: Right. So they view themselves as part of a global intifada that is both Marxist, Communist, actually some anarchist elements, and Islamist. It's all one thing.

They view this as a part of a network.

GLENN: His group said, quote, we must genuinely threaten the state, I imagine that's America.

So much, we are killed, jailed, tortured, disappeared, and targeted in America. End quote.

RYAN: I think they -- the goal is doing that. To approve a sacrifice. They called it to achieve liberation in America. What they're doing, they and their comrades talk about, they refer to America as turtle islands. And basically, if a native -- what they're saying, just as they want to replace Israel with an Arab state of Palestinian, their goal is to replace the United States with a Native American state of Turtle Island.

GLENN: Give me a break. First of all, can we just -- I'm sorry to do this here. But let me --

RYAN: Go for it.

GLENN: Can we stop with the Native Americans were so much better than every other human being alive?

They were humans.

They were warring all the time, just like every other race and group of people. They were enslaving. If they didn't kill you in war, they enslaved you after war.

Please, can we stop!

Humans are humans. This -- this ridiculous -- well, these were Native Americans. And so they were perfect.

Shut up!

Grab a book. Read a little history. Okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

RYAN: No. Thank you, for saying that. Especially -- a lot of these people, they hate religion.

But they model the characterization of Native-Americans on Jesus Christ.

When you look at, they describe it as a gay man. And Native Americans have decided. Because they were pure. They were killed by capitalism. But anyway --

GLENN: So is there any -- I mean, are people that stupid, that they think, that a Marxist, communist, Islamist group is going to hand over America?

To the Native American nations?

Are they that -- I mean, really?

RYAN: I mean, watching the way the protesters talk on their personal social media pages.

A lot of this is performative.

GLENN: Yeah.

RYAN: And it's more about they feel scared for the future. For legitimate reasons. They feel there's no safety net. They feel no one is coming to help them.

So they drive to which ever group is talking about the most far sweeping change.

It's not what they're -- and then saying, oh, that's a great idea. Let me join that group. It's more, I'm scared, because my God, what am I going to do? I don't know if I can -- and they speak the language, and they bring them in.

GLENN: Number four, Kahlil's group called for attacking the military and the police, en masse. And dismantling the state infrastructure, assuming it's America.

RYAN: Yeah. And you can tell. Because on a lot of these posts, these are several together. So they do keep bringing them back to America.

They will cite the violence in Bangladesh, or what Hamas did as an example to follow.

So that particular post, after going over and praising the Bangladesh were attacking the police and military and surveillance state.

They have the obligation to beat them there. After saying, this is -- they escalated in this way.

GLENN: So if this isn't -- if this hasn't been bad enough for you to shut the pie hole. To say, this guy, he's just a freedom fighter. There's no hope for you. Let me go on. Number six. Kahlil's group seeks the eradication of Western civilization!

RYAN: Yeah. I mean, what more can you say? It's right there. And they talk about burning a lot of things down, too. You'll notice that patterns throughout these points. The example they gave is a lot of burning down prisons, burn down this, burn that.

They're a big fan of anarchists. Or arsonists. Arsonist terrorists.

GLENN: I have a former Prime Minister of England, Liz Trust coming in, today, for a show. And I can't wait to talk to her because I would like to hear her opinion on, what the hell is wrong with all of you people over in Europe, and in England.

How do they not see that they're going to be an Islamic state, if they don't turn this around, right now.

And it may be too late.

I mean, how -- how are we missing this in the West.

RYAN: I think, part of it, is that there's an ability to recognize the degree to which all of the extremes, all the seditionist elements are kind of coming together.

It seems like, in people's minds. They're in separate boxes.

How the Islamists -- sad, but it's not that high.

GLENN: Oh.

RYAN: They're not putting together the anarchists. The white nationalists are increasingly in there. You put it all together, and you rook at the polls that show how many people support them and you add them up, then you will see the totality of the problem.

GLENN: Gosh.

Number seven, Kahlil's group asked violent extremists abroad for help in organizing uprising.

Number eight, his group asked for help from militants in the global south, in achieving its goal of eradicating western civilization. And fighting the fascism, engrained in the American consciousness.

RYAN: There's the Antifa reference. See, it's all coming together.

The antifascism, Antifa reference.

GLENN: Kahlil's group, number nine, threatened to shut down Columbia University, unless it eliminated the police presence on campus and severed all ties to the New York Police Department.

Which if they did that, just in Columbia, that accomplishes so many of the other goals.

RYAN: Yeah. Right. And just it's amazing that the schools even tolerate -- even the threat. How are you led to this on campus, at all.

GLENN: Kahlil's group really likes to see things set on fire. I love that one. Explain.

RYAN: Yeah. That's what I was alluding to before, where they're giving specific examples of what was going on in Bangladesh, that should be replicated. And how they set fire to the state broadcasting networks headquarters. And they set fire to the prison. They set fire to the government offices. Set fire to the state vehicle.

Then there was an arsonist terrorist in California who tried to firebomb a federal building, he firebombed a cop car.

Lit a building on fire. Looted a building. On college campuses. And that's all fine and dandy. They said, that's a wonderful thing, and everyone cheers.

GLENN: Number 11, Kahlil's group had terrorists teach Columbia students.

RYAN: Yeah, so he put together a virtual event. That future to leaders of this group. That anyone that knows this stuff. Thirty seconds, you would know this is a front. For the popular front for the deliberation of Palestine, which is like the Marxist counterpart to Hamas. They work together, and they're both backed by Iran.

To -- and there's some academic exercise. We heard the viewpoint, anything that was challenged. No, just come in, and tell the students what reality is. And that's what they did. And they taught the students that hijacking, that was done by the terrorists, are an inspiring thing.

GLENN: Number 12, Columbia protesters were told to riot by a Chinese communist party entity. And they complied hours later.

RYAN: Yeah. Yeah. Just the -- all you can do is laugh at it. It's so absurd in some cases. So over 100 protesters from Columbia University, went to the headquarters of people's forum, which we know from the Capitol Research Center profile on them, is heavily, if not completely funded by the Chinese Communist Party. Like the leader is over there in China and in Asia. And this is all known and proven.

And so they said, you know what you guys should do? You should riot. And then a few hours later, Kahlil's group goes and they riot. So they're incited by the Chinese Communist Party in that instance.

GLENN: Again, we're talking about a guy, Columbia University student that is -- that is really behind a lot of the stuff, that was happening in Columbia University. All of this really, you know, Jew hatred. Israel hatred stuff.

And the people on the left are going, you can't do that. How dare you do that. Well, yeah. You're -- you're either part of the problem, or you just are ill-informed or uninformed.

You're living in a self-contained box of ignorance. Where there's three more left. And I will get Ryan to comment on those in just a second. First, let me are just take 60 seconds to break and tell you. I've watched the real estate market spin out of control. Right itself. And then spin out of control again. Dozens of times. Over and over and over again.

And it's a minefield to say the least. And any real estate agent that can navigate it halfway well is a successful one.

GLENN: We're talking to Ryan Mauro. You can follow him on X, @RyanMauro.

His website is Ryan Mauro. That's spelled M-A-U-R-O. RyanMauro.com.

And we're down to the last couple of points that you're making in this great op-ed on -- on the Blaze News and Blaze.com.

Let's see. We have 13. Kahlil's Group -- their stated goal is to topple all institutions that benefit from colonial, racial capitalism, and dismantle the state.

JASON: Yeah, so it's an anti-government group, just like the left likes to talk about, the crazy right-wing militia type forces. But then it happens. The Islamist Marxist friendly group, saying the same thing, and civil rights icon.

GLENN: Kahlil's group boasts about vandalism of campus property.

RYAN: Yeah, and I included that just to show people that the same people that do that type of thing, you can't just dismiss it. Like, it's all part of the same thing. So there's broader implications. It's not just about the spray paint.

GLENN: The last one. Number 15, a large part of Kahlil's coalition declared itself a literal part of Hamas. Oh, my gosh.

RYAN: Yeah, so the Students for Justice in Palestine, which is biggest group behind all of these protests, and, by the way, I already spoke to you. I completed by study for Capital Research Center. Where I found over 150 pro-terrorism groups, were behind the protests.

Literally, 150.

So this group is one of them.

And so Kahlil's group is a coalition, and probably the biggest group within his coalition is sue for justice in Palestine, which is nationwide. Which is the biggest group involved in all of this stuff. It's kind of widely known that they celebrate the October 7th attacks, because people were shocked. But people were so shocked, they didn't read the rest of the statement that they put out.

Because the rest of the statement, they actually say -- let me clarify something. The resistance -- we're not saying that we're in solidarity with them. We are saying, we are part of them.

GLENN: Jeez.

JASON: They cleared themselves to be part of a designated terrorist organization, Hamas and you just say the other groups that are involved in October 7th.

They're part of all those groups that illegally -- illegal to be a part of. And here's the kicker that I just recently found out.

Do you know who else is a member of Kahlil's group?

GLENN: Satan.

JASON: Ilhan Omar's daughter.

GLENN: You have to be kidding me.

JASON: She was arrested for her activism with this group. She tweeted that she is an organizer with Kahlil's group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Columbia.

So think of it this way. Students for Justice in Palestine, since they are a part of Hamas, and then Ilhan Omar's daughter is a part of Students for Justice in Palestine, what does that say about it?

GLENN: What does it say about Ilhan Omar?

JASON: Right.

GLENN: So are these -- because the language is so Marxist. It's strangely almost disarming, instead of it being Allahu Akbar. Which -- what is his center? Marxism? Revolution? Or crazy Islamist?

RYAN: They come all insane. Because I monitored all these extremists, all these divisionists. I call them the seditionist movement. But I bring them together. From the anarchist to the Communist to the Islamist to the white nationalist.

And I can't tell the difference in -- in the -- between them.

They switch out the nouns. But it's all the things. Revolution. Discovering along ethnic, racial, political lines. US isn't a legitimate state.

It's more this guy is aligned with the PFL, the Popular Front Liberation of Palestine, which is backed by Iran. But it's kind of like -- it worked in tandem with Hamas, or as close as they could be. But they're Communists.

GLENN: Unbelievable. I can't thank you enough for everything that you do. I mean, you are fighting the good fight. And doing all the heavy lifting on it, and I really appreciate it.

Ryan. Ryan Mauro. Capital research center. Investigative researcher and counterterrorism expert. You can find this op-ed at the Blaze.com.

Why the Department of Education & USAID Must be Dismantled

President Trump is doing all he can to dismantle the Department of Education and USAID, but the Left is up in arms! For instance, there's Rep. Hank Johnson, who tried to argue in favor of the Department of Education, but ended up revealing his true beliefs about illegal immigrants. Glenn, Pat, and Stu explain how the Dept. of Ed. has really affected our kids and why it, along with USAID, should be exposed for the destructive organizations that they are.

European Union Admits TERRIFYING Truth About Digital Currencies

The head of the European Central Bank just admitted that the EU has been planning to roll out a "digital Euro" for OVER 5 YEARS. Wait, we were told that was a conspiracy theory! But now that it's ready to go, the EU is bragging about it. Glenn explains why CBDCs are a dangerous pivot away from the emphasis on personal freedom that the West has long championed. If the EU adopts a CBDC, it should fracture our alliance, Glenn says. Anybody who's advocating for a currency that the government can PROGRAM and TURN OFF is no friend of America or the Trump administration. But it's not just the EU, Glenn warns. Our Federal Reserve is also developing one. Glenn makes the case that Trump and Congress must BAN THIS NOW.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me start with Europe. With the president of the European Central Bank. The ECB. I love central banks. Don't you, Pat?
PAT: Oh, they're the best.

GLENN: Pat sitting in for Stu again, who is just so sick.

Yesterday, he was vomiting from all the truffles he was eating on the couch, while he was watching soap operas.

Anyway, Christine Lagarde. She's the president of the Central Bank. It's basically our Fed. And they're all the same. Here's what she said, and it's a lot of blah, blah, blah. So I don't know how long I can take it. I'll summarize it if I can't take it for two whole minutes. But here she is.

VOICE: Nature doesn't like vacuum.

GLENN: Vacuum.

VOICE: And we started working on the digital euro.

GLENN: Hmm.

VOICE: Way back.

GLENN: Way back.

VOICE: Actually when I started my term five and a half years ago. And I'm not claiming, you know, parental -- parentality on the digital euro, because my colleague Benoit Kura (phonetic) had already committed a speech on this matter before I arrived, but I certainly carried on with that project, and subsequently Fabio Panetta on the board, and then Piro (inaudible) who has replaced Fabio.

GLENN: Okay. Okay. Okay. I can't listen to somebody who is talking about Fabio. Look, here's what she's announcing. First of all, let's remember that for years, Christine Lagarde and everybody else, both here, foreign, and domestic, have said that any worry about a CBDC is just a conspiracy theory. They have silenced. They have discredited anyone who warned of the dangers of this. But now, all of a sudden, I guess we all forgot that. Because now they're ready! And the steaks cannot be higher. We, I'm telling you, 18 to 48 months, our whole world is going to be different. They are ready to launch this now, and the stakes for privacy, free markets, and individual liberty, especially anybody who kind of likes the Constitution, they're at risk. Okay? This is a really dangerous pivot that is going on right now, and I think it should fracture our alliance. Anybody who is advocating for small government, personal freedom. You know. Hey. Privacy.

I don't think you should be in bed, and Defending those who are going down the road of Europe right now.

Years ago, CBDC. That's central bank digital currency. That's like Bitcoin. Except, the point of Bitcoin is, it's untraceable.

It's completely private. And nobody can stop you from using it.

CBDC. That's a tinfoil hat conspiracy. I'll never do that.

Why would we do that?

In fact, in 2019, Mark Carney, who was the head of the Bank of England back then. He said, CBDC, you are so misguided with your fears.

And he said that, while he was at Jackson Hole. You know, they have that economic symposium, where all the really cool people go to. And they talk about things. And when we, who are not the cool people in attendance go, that sounds spooky. You're just a tinfoil hat person.

Anyway, that's where he made that speech. That it's just misguided.

There's nothing to fear here.

Because we are just experiment. Oh. Kind of like Mengele.

I'm sorry. That was bad. Kind of like, let's say, the atomic bomb. There is nothing to atomic bomb, we're just doing experiments. Why would you be experimenting, if you didn't think that it would be something that you would eventually use.

So, anyway, 2021, Jerome Powell, who is our central bank guy. The Federal Reserve.

He said, quote, CBDCs. I love this one.

Not on the immediate horizon.

Okay. So you're admitting that it is on the horizon!

So in 2024, she, Lagarde, she -- she comes out, and she told the European parliament, that CBDC skepticism stem from conspiracy theories. Saying, the digital euro is not going to be big brother, surveillance.

Remember, what a central bank digital currency can do, and will do, at least over in the Soviet -- I mean, in Europe. Will be that it will track everything that you buy. Everything you sell.

Everything you make. Okay. Not a problem. That's fine.

I don't have anything to hide. Except, it can be turned off! You don't own -- like, I can go to the bank and say, I want cash. I want my cash out. Okay?

You'll be suspected of being a terrorist, if you do that. What's the problem? Hey, that's freedom, baby.

But you can take the cash. With the central bank digital currency, you don't own that. There's nothing to take out. They own that. The central bank and the government, they own that. So you have no place to go, but through them. And if you decide with be I don't really like that, they can turn your currency off.

And make no mistake, that's not a tinfoil hat conspiracy, that's what's happening in China!

So people have been -- there's a guy, practice sawed, I think his name is. He wrote a book, The Future of Money.

It came out in 2018. We talked about it on the program. And he was made to look ridiculous.

Theft!

Anybody who is a Libertarian, they've been talking about, you're crazy.

Anybody who spoke about it, on any platform during the Biden administration.

They're crazy!

And you were throttled or suspended, because you were spreading misinformation. Okay?

So I got the message. It's a farce. It's not happening.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Except, now they've just announced that it is happening. Okay?

Back in 2020, the European central bank said, 86 percent of all central banks are working on this right now.

Oh! Okay.

Okay. Then as she said, in 2024, there's a two-year pilot. But now she said, there's a rollout coming for digital currency, from the central bank of Europe.

So it went from conspiracy, to reality, in a year!

Love how that works. And we're all just supposed to not notice it!

Okay.

So here's -- here's why this is so dangerous, and something you must pay attention to.

I am convinced that especially ASI, is going to be a tool. Remember, like everything. Like everything, even Scriptures. Scriptures, that's a tool.

It's a gift given to you, if you would like to use it. But know that that powerful gift that you have, can fall into the hands of somebody else.

And they can twist it, and use it for very powerful, nefarious purposes. That's just the written word of the Scriptures.

Okay!

It will always -- everything can be used for good or bad. It depends on the people who are holding it in their hands. All right.

And I really am convinced that ASI, digital currency, that's all found in the Bible!

I mean, I'm in Bible territory here.

Specifically the last part of the Bible.

That -- are these the tools that are very much like the tools foretold.

That will be employed by the Antichrist, to snuff out anyone who dares to say, I'm really not with him.

Now, so they are -- China has already done this. They launched in 2020, with their digital yuan. It tracks everything.

And that gives you your -- your -- your currency. But it also gives you the currency to be somebody in good standing. If you don't do exactly what the state tells you to do, you're tracked, you're monitored. And guess who doesn't get to go on an airplane. Guess who doesn't get to take the train.

If we say who can't go into certain buildings. You!

Because you're no longer in good standing. And it gets worse and worse and worse, until you are literally living on the streets, only because you disagree with the government.

Don't believe me! Look it up. Now, the US is not far behind. We have got to pass -- and Donald Trump said he would sign it. We have got to pass legislation right now!

No central bank digital currency, ever!

In America. No -- no digital passport, ever, in America!

Because we're already working on a digital dollar here.

Europe's move is not isolated. It is a chess move. Well, they're doing it. And China is doing it.

Or we will do it. Because we will be left behind. I want to be left behind. There is going to come a time where you will hear me -- you probably will. Maybe. I don't know.

There will come a time where I will be like, you know, the Amish have it right. Maybe we should all be Amish. Now, I might just be saying that in a barn with cows and people all dressed in black. I don't know.

But there's going to come a time where I'm like, I think we should all get out of here. And go the other direction.

And it could be coming quickly!

Because what that means for privacy, for free markets.

For your individual choice, is beyond most people's understanding, today!

But you've got to educate. Remember, I said, there's going to come a time, where things are happening so fast, you will not be able to keep up with them.

You've already seen this in a good way with Donald Trump.

He came in. And it's not just that he had a plan.

It's also that we're using AI to find all of these things to correct!

Okay. That's why Elon Musk is there!

Tech support!

That's what speeding things up. Does and you haven't seen anything yet.

So when I give you these warnings.

Saying, hey, you've got to -- please, bone up on it. Please, go ask Grok today.

CBDC from Europe. What does that mean?

What could it do?

What are the good things. What are the possible bad things?

I think, in this case, the bad outweighs the good. Because it takes away any kind of privacy whatsoever. And hands it directly to a government!

Really bad! We'll go more in this in just a second. And so much more, just left this hour on the podcast.

GLENN: Okay. So let me explain. CBDC, central bank digital currencies. Their digital dollars, or euros. And they're issued by central banks. It's like Bitcoin.

Except, not. Here's the big difference: This will replace your cash with what are called programmable, trackable tokens.

Programmable, meaning, hey. We have inflation for gas. Or we don't want you buying so much gas, because we have to reduce emissions. Who is a central person who needs to go to work?

Everybody who has money in their bank, that's not deemed essential. You no longer can fill your tank with gas.

It won't work with any gas pump.

Okay. That's a programmable currency.

Every single transaction from buying bread, paying rent, everything, is programmable by the state.

Now, they say, oh, there's not going to be any data access. That's a conspiracy theory.

I don't believe you on the conspiracy theory, anymore.

You've lied and lied and lied.

And, by the way, in parliament. When they were talking about this, maybe in 2018, they were arguing that we can't pass any of this, until it's programmable.

It must be programmable.

And that means the government can cap your spending, block purchases.

Because, you know, can't buy fossil fuels.

Freeze your account, because you're no longer in favor with the government.

And free markets die!

Because they have a complete monopoly on money.

I don't know if you know this, but monopoly, isn't just the longest, most frustrating, most boring game ever invented. It's also a bad thing, when it comes to free money, free markets.

Bad!

Tenth amendment, by the way, reserves the power to states and individuals. CBDCs. They centralize control. They undermine federalism.

This is a betrayal of everything our republic stands for. It replaces liberty with technocratic tyranny. And if Europe embraces CBDCs and they're still allies, I don't think they're allies to small government, freedom-loving Americans. They're not. They're not.

This path puts them right, directly in the path of every brutal dictator, every fascist. Every German who was on stage after J.D. Vance was speaking to them.

That wept and said, if they want freedom of speech. We don't have anything in common with them anymore.

Because we're about to roll out a CBDC. And that will make sure that everybody only says the things we want them to say.

It is no longer a conspiracy theory. Europe is rolling theirs out, a social credit system will be next.