RADIOAugust 18, 2022

How progressive 'puritans' are DESTROYING FUN for us all

Noah Rothman, author of ‘The Rise Of The New Puritans,’ details just how ‘miserable’ the lives are of today’s progressives. And the worst part? They don’t even REALIZE IT! But these progressive ‘puritans’ are ‘pursuing a moral framework and have imposed it on EVERY ASPECT of life,’ Rothman explains, just like the totalitarian philosophy on which their ideology is based. Glenn and Rothman discuss how this kind of moral absolutism — that takes no prisoners — could cause our society to cease to function normally…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Noah Rothman. A guy who I think really gets it. He's the -- just written the book, The Rise of the New Puritans. The war on fun. Really. Noah, welcome to the program, how are you, sir?

NOAH: Very well. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

GLENN: You bet. You bet. So Stu and I are in the midst of reading your book. We haven't gotten all the way to the end yet. But I have to ask you: Do -- do progressives know that they're almost embarrassingly unfun right now? Do they know this?

NOAH: No. They absolutely don't. They would reject the premise. And they sort of recoil at the assertion that they're pursuing some sort of a moral framework. That they have imposed this moral framework on every aspect of life. Especially the apolitical aspects of life. They don't see themselves as less fun, less chill. Less accommodating than their parents or grandparents. But they most certainly are. They're having less fun. They're having less sex. They're enjoying life less than their elders.

GLENN: They're having less sex?

NOAH: Oh, yeah. You haven't gotten to that chapter? That's a good one.

GLENN: No.

NOAH: So that is my very salacious chapter on sex and booze. It's called -- it's titled Temperance. All of these chapters are organized around unimpeachable moral values. Because they are pursuing a moral ideal, about how society should organize itself. So when you think of progressives, you don't think they have sexual prescriptions, right?

But if you dig into the literature around the many proliferating sexual identities. It's not about self-gratification or self-fulfillment. It's about the political program associated with these things. This has to pursue and advance a political agenda. And couple that with the labyrinth theme of consent requirements now, in statute, in places like California, but mostly in dorms and college campuses.

And you have this unnavigable labyrinth that has been erected around consent. Which absent consent is obviously a crime. But we created now, real legal and moral, and social consequences, if a Q is misread or a signal is overlooked, or it's just human behavior that's intervened in the process. The complicated process. The result is less sex, people are reporting, especially young people are reporting have much less casual intercourse than their parents did.

GLENN: Okay. I have to tell you, first of all, it is a religion. It is a religion. So you have Puritans absolutely right. And they are imposing it on all of us. But I look at people who are like this. And I think to myself, how could you not be just miserable, if you believe all the things that they believe, it's just a life of misery.

NOAH: Yeah. They don't see themselves as miserable, but they are making their compatriots miserable. I think nine out of the ten people I spoke with are -- who -- most of them wouldn't go on the record, for fear of consequences, saying the things that they actually think.

GLENN: Which is weird.

NOAH: Yeah. Well, there are real social and professional consequences for going against this movement. It's not a big movement, but it punches way above its weight. And so these guys are Democrat. They vote Democrat. They wouldn't vote Republican with a gun to their head. But they didn't get into the business of making delicious food and writing screenplays and broadcasting sports because they wanted to do politics. They don't. They've just been drafted into this movement. And it's sapping them of enthusiasm for their life's work. And they really, really resent it.

STU: Can you go over some of these? You have so many examples of this type of thing. The hummus place is one.

GLENN: I would like to hear about the burrito truck. Tell us about the burrito truck.

NOAH: A truck that was in the Pacific Northwest, these two women went down to Mexico. Fell in love with the food, interviewed chefs, picked up some recipes, brought them back to the Pacific Northwest, and it was a profound success. They were very commercially successful. In fact, a lot of people targeted by this movement are successful. And their success engenders quite the resentment. But they brought it to the Pacific northwest. And the media environment down there, which is beholden to this progressive set of ideas, just went about destroying the thing, because they had stolen this heritage from -- from the hard-working people of Mexico. They hadn't given them any credit. They weren't giving them the proper remunerations that were due.

It was a very nebulous idea of what they violated. What prescriptions they ignored.

But this thing was destroyed. These two women were driven out of business. And the burrito truck, which was feted, which was loved, which was driven under -- out of business. In part, also because I think it was so good. But they had violated some unspoken, unwritten ideals about whatever culture appropriation is, it's very difficult to define. But it's believed to be some form of theft, as though culture is a 0-sum game. And it's commodified in some way.

GLENN: So when I read that, and I thought about it, I had just seen the new Elvis movie. Have you seen the new Elvis movie?

NOAH: I haven't. I heard it's good.

GLENN: It's very, very good. But it taught me something about Elvis that I didn't know. I didn't know that he was so poor after his dad died, that he and his mom lived in a black community in Memphis. Which never happened. He was like the only white kid in this black community. So he grew up in that culture. He grew up with the music. That's why he moved the way he did. And the -- at the time, the programmers of radio, many of them would have loved to have played the black music. But they couldn't put a black man on the air. And when they heard his music, it was the black culture and black music sung by a white guy.

And, you know, it shows B.B. King and all of these legends who were friends of his, going, man, take it. Take it. I'm glad people are listening to it.

Now, you would look at that, and it would be cultural appropriation. And they would hate. I think they probably do, hate Elvis and anybody like him, because he was just stealing that. No, he wasn't.

He was popularizing it. He was breaking a barrier.

NOAH: Yeah. Popularizing it and creating synthesis. And there's this idea abroad that synthesis in music, in culture, in cuisine, is some sort of form of theft. Is there needs to be -- there's a racial essentialist element that's put to this.

That suggests that any creativity in creative works of art and amalgamating and synthesizing various influences into some finished product represents some form of attack on culture, even though what you just said is absolutely correct. In art, in food, and in music, you're exposing new audiences to this thing. You're creating a broader understanding and acceptance of these cultural traits, albeit, perhaps, amalgamated. Not necessarily adulterated. They confuse the two, probably deliberately. But the expansion of broadening the exposure to these ideas. These cultural traits. Used to be something that we would celebrate and accept as an unadulterated good. It's not anymore.

GLENN: Right. I know there was a guy who I grew up listening to on the radio.

He was very, very good. His name was Charlie Brown. He was originally at KJR in Seattle, and then CUBE. And I studied at his feet. I was lucky enough to work with him when I was very, very young. And I watched him, and I talked to him. When I started doing my own show, I called him up and I asked him. Hey, Charlie, can I -- can I steal this and this and this from you? And he just laughed, and he said. And I think this is true, with almost everything.

Because it's not -- you're not living in a vacuum. And he said, Glenn, you steal from me. You have stolen twice.

And that's what we don't understand, that it all is just kind of -- that's where you get your inspiration. And you take it. And you make it your own. And you move -- not stealing things word-for-word, et cetera, et cetera.

Let me ask you, because I'm watching -- I mean, I know you're -- your IQ is a lot higher than mine. And I don't know if you're -- if you're watching like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I think is fantastic.

But it centers around this woman in the 1950s, early 1960s, who wants to be a comedian. And one of the running characters is Lenny Bruce. And Lenny Bruce would absolutely be in progressive jail right now, if he lived today. And you had all of these great comedians, that were there to push back, on the man. Whatever it was, they pushed back. These people like Ricky Gervais, make it, I think, because they don't apologize, and they don't stop.

Can you talk a little bit about the effect of apology, and what's happening in comedy.

NOAH: Yeah. The very same sentiments, policing of public morality, that took in Lenny Bruce. George Carlin and Richard Pryor are at work today. The executors of this campaign are not on the right. They used to be.

You know, the tendency that saw something that would corrupt you into great society and innocent cultural fare, used to be a tendency native to the right. In part, because we are all heirs to this puritanical tradition, has found a home in both political coalitions over the years.

On -- when it comes to comedy, one of the things you see now among this particularly puritanically inclined progressives is to emphasize the pain that someone had to endure, in order for you to enjoy something as trite as a punch line. You know, I see this in the fans of the comedian Hannah Gatsby. An anti-comic. And who is funny when she wants to be. She doesn't always want to be. Sometimes she will build the same tension that would otherwise lead to a punch line, give you that release, and doesn't break the tension. Just lets you sit and marinate in it, and absorb her pain. And maybe interrogate you about that joke that you told five minutes ago, and ask you, why you thought that was funny. Why was my suffering funny?

And that's what they love so much. They love the language. They love the ardor. Because it's a sign of your prudent understanding. That suffering exists in this world. And if you don't dutifully dwell on it every second of your life. You're sacrificing a moral mission, to advance a progressive project and make the human experience just a little bit more, you know, tolerable. This is a very puritanical ideal.

GLENN: I've never heard -- go ahead. Well, hang on. Hang on. I have to take a quick break. I want you to get to the apology. And I want you to explain a little bit deeper this anti-comedian. I've never heard that term before. Anti-comedian. And, you know, it's different than like Andy Kaufman. Who just, for his own entertainment, would make people wildly uncomfortable. But that's a completely different look. As I understand it. We're talking to Noah Rothman. He's the author of the rise of the new Puritans. A great book. You want to understand what's going on with the left and this new religion, and how it affects everything? The rise of the new Puritans, by Noah Rothman. Back with him in 60 seconds.

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(music)
Noah, I would love to do a podcast with you and spend, you know, at least an hour with you on this -- this topic. You've really nailed it. The book is the rise of the new Puritans. Tell me about the apology.

NOAH: So we are often bombarded with demands that you will apologize for your conduct. The apology provides you no absolution. And that's where I differ from a lot of the very brilliant scholars. Who have called this a purely secular faith. I don't see it entirely as a faith. Because in a faith in the western condition, there is deism, that expiates sin. There can be no absolution for sin in this particular faith because there is no deism. And because it is such an all-encompassing social code, I liken it more towards Puritanism. Because Puritanism wasn't just a phase. It wasn't just congregationalism. It was a way of life. It was a totalitarian philosophy by definition, because it was total.

When it comes to the apology, the apology as we've all observed, makes you just a more delicious target, and trains more fire on you. This isn't just true in comedy. There's several examples of that in the comedy chapter. But there's a particularly interesting anecdote that I lead off the book with, about a grocery -- about a grocer in Minnesota, that was, again, very popular. Very successful.

It was vetted by Keith Ellison on the floor of the House of Representatives. Diners, drive-ins, and dives. Guy Fieri featured it.

So it turned out, the owner of this grocer had a daughter, who in her youth, 14 and 18, respectively, made racially insensitive remarks online. This was picked up by the online community, that they attempted to him, to -- to apologize. And -- and to make absolution for his sins. He had to fire his daughter. That was not good enough. He pledged that she would devote herself to good works for the community. That was not good enough. Eventually, the holder of his lease terminated the lease.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

NOAH: Because that was the penitence that was deserving of the sin he had committed. The careless parentage of a willful daughter. And this is as moral a code as you can find. It goes back to the founding of the country. When you are apologizing in any other tradition, you would find some absolution. This particularly uncompromising tradition offers no -- no absolution for offenses against it.

GLENN: It is. I will tell you, you're right about this. As a completely different kind -- you don't call it a religion. I do. I just think it's an Antichrist-style religion. There is no forgiveness. And without forgiveness, we cease to function normally as a society. You just can't live in a society, where there is no forgiveness. Where you're held accountable, not only for everything you've ever done, but also anything your ancestors have done. That's a pretty shallow pool of good people that can be swimming around.

Noah, thank you so much for being on the program today. I would love to have you back. Love to do a podcast with you. The book is the rise of the new Puritans. Fighting against progressive's war on fun. Noah Rothman is the author

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

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Trump told me why he's "DESTROYING" the White House...

Construction for President Trump's ballroom has begun on the East Wing of the White House, and every Democrat in America has lost their mind. Does the President have the authority to alter a historic structure like the White House? Glenn and Stu discuss, as Glenn shares the story where he reveals even Trump was shocked at how easy it was to get the alterations approved.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

STU: Well, you still haven't really addressed why Donald Trump for is knocking down the White House for his own --

GLENN: Well, he just hates America.

STU: That's -- what I've been reading. Yeah.

GLENN: Right. And how crazy excited the left should be that he's knocking down something built by slaves. They're like, we've got to preserve that.

Slaves made that!

It's weird.

STU: I actually do have questions about this though.

GLENN: What? What question do you have?

STU: Well, and they come from, you know, everybody's source of thinking these days. Which are group texts.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: I'm on with some friends. I have some really basic questions of like, I feel like, there would be a conversation and a bill passed if we're going to put a giant new building at the White House.

GLENN: No.

STU: That's not how it works at all.

Is it? How's it work? How does this work?

GLENN: You ready? So the president says, I want to change the White House.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: And the White House architect says, how would you like to change it?

And he says, this way. And they say, okay.

Well, you need to approve all the permits. Okay. I approve all the permits.

Okay. We change it. That's literally how it happens.

STU: Really? They can do anything they want.

GLENN: Well, I mean, within reason.

When I say within reason.

I think with restraint from public outcry.

Like, I want to paint the White House black.

Well, you know, as president, you can do whatever you want.

But I don't think that will fly with the American people.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: So there some standards in there. I will tell you about a conversation I had with Trump next.
(music)

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(OUT AT 10:29 AM)

GLENN: Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. We're glad you're here.

Thank you so much for listening. You know, Stu has been freaking out about the White House.

STU: I'm not -- I'm not freaking out. I just think it's an interesting. I thought there would be more of a process to something like this.

GLENN: No.

STU: Because I certainly was not think at this point, the American people understand what is about to happen. Which is like, the White House is about to double in size.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: My -- just by my eyeball look at it.

It looks like it will maybe be more than two times the size.

GLENN: It's going to be large! But it's not the actual White House. It's part of the east wing.

STU: That's -- that's a totally misleading commentary.

GLENN: No. It's not.

GLENN: Because the White House is the original piece from the 1700s. Okay?

That's the center house. The east wing and the West Wing was not done until FDR. They were added later.

STU: It was a big deal.

GLENN: The biggest change in the White House since FDR. And happened in our lifetime. Right after 9/11.

The White House became enormous. But it was all underground.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: They completely changed everything underground.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: And we didn't have a conversation about that at all.

STU: Because it's underground!

I assume all sorts of things are happening underground. Our well-known monuments and buildings.

GLENN: Right. Sure.

STU: But this is -- this is -- it's not a -- they keep saying this.

They're going to be changed the West Wing.

GLENN: No. The East Wing.

STU: They're going to be changing the East Wing. That's not what they're doing. This is like doubling the size of the White House.

Now, I'm not opposed to that idea.

I'm just sort of surprised that it wasn't like a big conversation and a bill.

GLENN: All right. Okay. Okay. You ready?

So was Donald Trump.

STU: What do you mean?

GLENN: So I'm in the White House with him. And I'm up in the private quarters with him.

And he is showing me some things that he is doing. And talking to me about some other things that I can't talk about. Because he doesn't want.

I don't know.

STU: He doesn't want to discuss it.

GLENN: I didn't want to discuss it. And I don't know why.

Because it's all really good stuff.

So, anyway, we're taking about it. And then he brings up the ballroom.

And we're walking down the stairs, from the residents, and we're going into the ballroom.

And he says, you know, this is the ballroom that Abraham Lincoln had dinners here.

I said, you know, it's that window over there, that Fredrick Douglass had to open up the window and had to crawl in because they wouldn't let him in because he was black. And Abraham Lincoln was like, let him in. He's my friend. Why is coming through the window?

And we were talking about all the history of the ballroom. And that it's very, very small.

Because it was built in the 1700s. And we keep using that ballroom. And he's like, we have to have a bigger ballroom.

We have it out in the wet, and the cold and the rain. Yada, yada, yada.

And so he said, we come over to a window. And he's like, right there, I will build a big, beautiful ballroom.

And it's going to better than anybody thinks. It's going to be the biggest, most beautiful ballroom. And I'm just trying not to laugh. Because that's the way he describes it.

And he said, you know, surprised that I could do that.

And I said, I bet. How long is that going to take? What's that process like?

And he's like, right. That's what I asked.

He said, I went to the -- I went to the -- I don't know, chief usher or somebody. Whoever is in charge of the White House. I think it's the chief usher. He said, I think we should have a ballroom. He's like, what do I do?

And he said, well, you just have to talk to the architect.

So he went to the White House architect. Now, this is a guy who makes sure the integrity of the White House stays. Okay?

You can't make it into a modern house. Okay? You're not going to redesign the inside. You can add some gold I guess.

You can add a lot of gold, I guess. You can't make it into. You can't wreck the integrity of the White House.

And he said, you know, I just put these flagpoles in. And he's like, all I had to say was, I want to put some flagpoles in.

He said, yes, sir. Where?

He's like, what?

One in the front. One in the back. They were like, okay. Tell us where.

We went out into the yard. Right here. Right there.

And they put them up. And so he's talking to the White House architect. And he said, we've got to have a ballroom. And I think we should have it over here in the East Wing. A big, beautiful -- and he said, but what is this going to take?

And he's like, well, it's going to be very expensive. Are you expecting the people to pay?

And he's like, no, I'll raise the money for it. I'll pay for it, and I'll raise the money, extra, so American people are not going to pay for it.

And the architect said, well, then all you have to do is sign the permits.

And he's like, what?

And he said, well, you have to go through the permitting process.

He's like, how long will that take?

He said, well, the President is the one who controls the process and signs the permits. So as on short as you would like it to be, Mr. President.

And he's like, are you kidding me? And he looked at me, he's like, I'll have this done by spring of next year.

So he can change it. The -- what you have to understand is, the -- the east wing and the West Wing, those -- those are FDR.

So FDR went into a works project. And he added those wings.

The east wing is where the first lady's offices are.

Just the east wing is like, you know, it's -- it's just the east wing.

And it's --

STU: Okay. Shade of the east wing?

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, and so what he's doing is he's taking some of it town, and he's going to link it to the ballroom. And the bail room is going to be the biggest, beautiful ballroom in Washington DC.

It's going to link from there. So you will walk -- if you're in the White House, you will walk from the front door, through the -- the dining room.
Or, the east dining room. You'll go into the East Wing, and you'll go to the ballroom.

STU: I'm looking -- I'm at the renderings as we speak. And that's exactly --

GLENN: I've not even seen the renderings. Just describe it to me. Can I see it?

STU: No. They're mine. This is my computer.

GLENN: Okay.

STU: This is the -- I can't obviously show it to the people here. You can see it over here.

GLENN: Okay. It's big, beautiful. What a surprise, the tables are golden.

STU: By the way, it's different --

GLENN: That's amazing. Holy cow.

STU: My conversation about whether this is the -- the -- you can't. It's already zoomed in. They're not the best images.

Here.

GLENN: There's nothing wrong with that. What is wrong with that? It looks just like the White House.

It fits. It's appropriate.

STU: I was in the middle of saying. It's -- my conversation on this is not whether it is -- looks good or is appropriate or anything like.

I actually think his point on the ballroom is so obvious, every president should have been making it.

The fact that we don't have a big room to have state dinners in.

GLENN: Right.

STU: Unless you wanted to do them off campus everywhere else.

You have to have that, and why not have it at the White House. It makes a lot of sense.

GLENN: Except, I don't want to pay for it, as a citizen. I don't want a dime going for it.

You know what? Hey, all you Frenchies, you can eat on the lawn. Literally, on the lawn.

Just throw the food out on the lawn.

Yeah, I mean, I'm fine with that.

But if he wants to pay for it. If he wants to get rich people to pay for it, go for it.

I don't want any of my tax dollars going for it.

STU: Right. So my criticism is not how it looks. And that we need it.

We actually showed the inside of it. It seems like the facility we should have for these type of events.

We're going to have them somewhere. Why not have them there?

GLENN: Right. And who better to build it than one of the best builders of all time.

STU: Donald Trump. We've had this conversation about how you project American power.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: And I think Trump's approach to -- particularly in the Middle East. I think it's been effective around the world. Of these trappings actually are effective in diplomatic relations with other nations. Donald Trump has a lot of places that are lined in gold. That can have meetings. It's not like that's what he wants it for. The left tries to portray. Of course, he does.

No. It means something to him. And he knows how these people think.

GLENN: No. No.

Because I asked. I -- I won't tell the whole story.

But I really want to, really desperately.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: But, you know, he's gilding everything.

And that's not necessarily my favorite look.

STU: Right.

GLENN: And -- and he -- he came in, Tania and I were alone in the Oval for a while. And we were talking about it.

And he comes in. He says, you know, I'm doing all of this.

You see all the gold? Yes. You can't miss it. You can't miss the gold.

And he's like, you know, it's so important. These foreign leers, they all come from palaces. And they don't understand. And I know, you know, the White House is different. America is different. But they understand power in a different way.

And he said, they are coming from these old countries. And these big buildings.

And these palaces.

And he said, it is important for us to project power.

STU: Yes!

GLENN: And that's -- and that is why he's doing this. Not because he likes gold. He's doing it to project power and wealth.

Notice how many prime ministers.

They're all flying in all the time, from all over the world. You know, I've never seen a president meet with so many foreign dignitaries in the White House all the time!

STU: Yeah. And the media likes to say, well, that's because he's self-important.

And he's --

GLENN: No. He's projecting American power.

STU: Yes. I think so too.

When I say it's important to him.

That's why it's important to him.

He believes it's an important tool in that world.

GLENN: Correct. It's not him.

He knows the language they speak. And not just body language or, you know, spoken language.

All of the entire -- that's what protocol is all about. It all means something.

STU: And so my criticism -- and it's not even criticism.

My observation is not whether it fits. Or whether we need it, or whether it's appropriate.

My -- I don't think my observation here in the group text, that we started this with, which is that, holy crap.

I don't think the American people have any idea what's about to happen. Like every time I bring this up to Glenn.

And we have to understand how these conversations work.

I say, people will look at the White House. And it will be totally different.

He's like, oh, president Tyler did on more than that. In 1940 -- shut up!

That's what I get from Glenn.

Oh, well, there was more changes underground. You don't understand the piping -- that he totally changed the -- the -- the piping back in 1807. You moron!

Okay. I'm sorry.

I didn't know that. What I think of. And, you know, FDR made these changes.

My whole life, it's been the same, pretty much from the outside.

I know what the White House looks like. You go up there, I look at the White House.

It looks like the White House.

It is not going to look like the White House when this is over. It is going to look like the White House plus another White House next to it.

And it's going to be, I think, massively impressive. But I'm surprised there's not more conversation about this.

GLENN: When was the last time you were in Washington, DC?

STU: The inauguration.

GLENN: So you would not believe the difference in the White House grounds.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: The difference from, you know, when I went with George Bush.

You could stand right at the front gate.

STU: Right.

GLENN: You can't do that anymore.

They've taken the park. The park in the back is all gone.

The security --

STU: Just for security.

GLENN: Everything. All of the trees. Everything that has been done to not see the White House.

Except, for that iconic front.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: You know what I mean?

Everything is -- is not really -- you don't see it like you used to anymore. You don't walk up to it.

STU: The last -- I was in town for the inauguration. Last time I actually walked by the White House.

It's been a long time.

GLENN: Oh, you would not.

You will not recognize it.

I mean, just driving by and seeing it.

You will get pictures and everything else. But walking by it.

Today, you wouldn't recognize it.

It's -- it's -- what has -- what has happened with security is so sad. When I have the bell from the White House front desk, they're will it used to be a little desk right in the front, right as you walk in. There was a desk, and a bell. And I -- I have it. I think it is from Tyler's, you know, administration.

STU: Of course.

GLENN: And you would walk in. And you would hit the bell. And you would say, I want to see the president.

And somebody would say, okay. All right. Sit over there.

And you would wait. And you might wait all day, but you got -- you can walk in without an appointment and see the president of the United States.

You're not getting within two blocks of the White House right now.

It's sad. It's sad what's happening.

STU: Yeah. And for good. I wouldn't disagree with that either.

It's for good reason, security-wise.

I think back, the classic. I think what everybody thinks of when they think of the White House.

Is the scene from Superman two.

GLENN: Try to remember.

STU: When they showed the White House. And it's supposed to be -- it's a motion picture.

But they were too lazy to actually get video footage of the White House.

So it's just a still.

And you can tell, because there's like things that should be moving. That aren't moving. Right.

GLENN: Is that because --

STU: I think that's Superman.

GLENN: On Independence Day, they blew it up.

STU: But that's another example.

You had that picture of what the White House looked like. And, you know, I guess from certain angles, it looks pretty much the same. From the front. You won't notice it. Because it's kind of wrapped around the back. The back is pretty iconic too.

It's not going to look like that anymore.

In some ways, it will look a lot better or impressive.

It is a major change. That when you say, hey, they're redoing the West Wing, putting a ball room in there. That's not what they're doing.

GLENN: East.

STU: Sorry, East. I hate Glenn.

GLENN: I'm only saying it because I know how much he hates it.

Is Trump secretly resetting America’s economy with gold?

The price of gold is skyrocketing, and that’s usually a bad sign for our economy. But this is no normal economic market under President Trump. What if Trump is using a little-known strategy that hasn’t been seen in decades? Glenn Beck reviews the theory which, if it works, could save our economy, and it all revolves around Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. Before I start this on gold. I want to ask you: What is Donald Trump? Is Donald Trump a guy who likes to cut the spending?

No. He believes in debt, right.

But what he believes in more than debt is growing the bottom line.

So you grow your way out of things.

So keep that in mind. As I'm trying to make sense of gold.

And what I'm going to share with you is just a theory. I think I might be right on this. But I don't know. Okay.

Gold is rocketing. You know, it's -- now almost. What is it? Forty-three or $4,400 an ounce today. And I've always told you, you don't want to see a world with 5,000-dollar an ounce gold. When 5,000-dollar an ounce happens, that means the trust is going away for the financial system. And the financial markets.

The dollar is starting to weaken. And the -- the world is sending a signal, we don't trust any of this anymore!

Now, that may be true. That may be true.

But let me take you to another place. Because maybe something that is happening, that doesn't fit that script. Because you're dealing with something new. You're dealing with Donald Trump.

So I think behind all of it. There is a new strategy, that is taking shape in Washington.

Congress, you know, doesn't have the stomach to cut any of the spending. And Donald Trump believes the opposite, grow can't way out.

Okay? So that's a recipe for a deficit, that is really quite frightening.

But there is someone, and I think it's Bessent. Who is finding a way to pull downtown deficit, without the usual political bloodshed. One of the misunderstood tools in that strategy is something that you're going to be amazed that it hasn't happened before.

It is the revaluation of gold.

Right now, the government values its gold reserves. We have 260 million troy ounces.

That's what they say officially. We might have none. But we have 260 million troy ounces. But we only value it at $35 an ounce. Why?

Because that's the price that FDR in the 1930s set gold at. And said, it's worth $35 an ounce.

That hasn't changed. So that means on paper, all of the government that we have. On paper, the whole gold hoard is only worth $9 billion. Okay. So wait a minute. But market price today is almost $4,500. Which would make that 9 billion actually worth $1.1 trillion.

Now, think about that.

The United States is sitting on a trillion dollar asset, and we don't even count it!

Why does this matter?

I want you to think of your home.

Imagine you're going into a bank, and you want to go buy a car. Okay? And you have your salary. And you're in debt. And you're just barely making it. But your home on paper, has only been valued at $5,000. Because when your parents bought it all those years ago. It was $5,000. And now, you're sitting here. And it hasn't changed in value.

It has in reality. But you're still counting it as the bank. And saying, yeah. Well, my grandfather. Or father paid $5,000 for this.

So it's worth $5,000. You know. The bank would know, no, it's not. It's worth a million dollars today.

What changes if this is called mark to market? This is a usual thing. You mark the price to what the value is. The price of your house goes down, you are poorer, on paper. Because the value of your house has gone down.

And it's marked to market.

If your price. If the price has gone from $35 an ounce, to $4,500 an ounce, then you mark to market, and then everything changes. Suddenly, if that's your house, 5,000 to a million dollars, now you can buy that new car. You walk into the bank. You're like, I will buy a 50,000 dollar car. And they're like, well, let me see your assets. And you're like, oh, well, you have a house that's been paid off, and it's worth a million dollars.

Where, yesterday it was worth $5,000. Today, it's worth a million dollars. Because it's actually worth that if you sold it.

So the bank goes, oh, you're fine. You're fine.

Yeah. Sure. Here's 50 grand. Go buy that car.

Suddenly, your profile looks different overnight.

Okay?

That is what I believe is coming in America. I believe they're going to revalue gold.

Without raising taxes. Without cutting a single program, it would instantly improve the nation's balance sheet.

Our debt to asset ratio, would shift dramatically. Have you noticed in the last year, everybody is like, their debt to -- their debt to asset ratio is way out of whack. And they're now 125 percent.

Whatever it is. Okay?

That would change. The dollar would legitimately appear to be stronger, and the deficit, at least on paper, would shrink!

Now, add to that, again, what Donald Trump believes. And you may not agree with it. But he believes, I can grow the economy.

So you combine that with the H-1B one visa fees. You do the tariffs. Expected, you know, to bring in money. And then also, the expected eight to $12 trillion in foreign capital investments. That are flowing into the United States.

If all of that is real, suddenly, the picture doesn't look quite so desperate.

Because it looks like, we are growing again. And we actually would be growing again.

The debt doesn't shrink by cutting. It shrinks by growing.

It shrinks by growing the economy and expanding the economy, beneath it.

That's Trump's mark!

That's always what he's believed in.

So while I've been sitting here going, you don't want 5,000-dollar gold, you don't!

But it also might be a good thing. Let me give you this. There's more. Washington is floating the idea. And Mike Lee got hammered for this.

But this is a Bessent idea. Mike Lee is floating the idea of selling off portions of fast, federal portfolio. We have all this land. These are not national parks.

These are not. We have millions of acres of un-- unproductive, and unused territory.

I have known this from central bankers for 20 years. That they actually have said, we should sell the national parks.

You know how much the national parks. I don't want you to sell me the national parks. No. What are you talking about? No. We're not selling the national parks.

But that's not what they're talking about. They're talking about cutting the inefficiency out of every department. And taking land that is unusable, and sellable, that the government is holding, and doesn't need to hold.

Selling that land, okay?

Which would allow us to build more houses. Expand. Et cetera, et cetera.

And -- and increase the bottom line on the ballot sheet. Suddenly, with all of this, the pressure valves are opened up.

Okay? Also, put in here, nobody seems to be panicking about the government shutdown. And what is the government shutdown doing? What is Bessent hoping he gets an opportunity to do? Cut.

So now you're expanding with gold. The possibility of selling federal land at some point. You're bringing in $12 trillion of investment. You're getting the raw earth minerals from Venezuela and from South America and from elsewhere in the world. You've solved our military peace problem. We're no longer the world's policemen. So we're not having to do all of that stuff, which is a drain on blood and treasure. All of a sudden, you're target to see that America is actually shoring itself up.

So what looks like chaos right now, may actually be a controlled implosion. Of a broken system.

Because remember, this is exactly what the left was going to do.

The left, through the WEF and the Great Reset, they wanted to implode the system.

But they had a safety net that we were going to fall into, and that was a global world order. Donald Trump doesn't believe in a global world order, but he does believe, we are in trouble!

He knows that.

He has a different idea. I think we might be seeing a reanchoring of America's finances in hard assets, real productivity, and if Bessent and the president can pull this off, we may be watching the birth of a -- the building of a -- of a new foundation of a new financial order. One where, you know, we're -- we're regrounding ourself in -- in value that's actually real.

It's dangerous. If confidence breaks, if the terrorists who are already here, thank you, Joe Biden, managed to disrupt the perception of reality.

If we start having, you know, real trouble on our streets, and we go unstable, then the illusion flips.

The -- the revaluation becomes a revelation, that even gold cannot cover the sins of a government that has just not paid attention for this long. And, you know, there's no pretending that. But if we can hold together this fragile unity in this country long enough and they can revalue the system and rejigger the system, keep your eye on gold.

It may be the canary in the coal mine. It may be, this is real trouble.

But remember, not every alarm means disaster.

It's how you react to it.

You I would have told you four years ago, and I did. When we said, we're going to -- we're going to kick Russia and China off the SWIFT system. That's a really bad idea. Because you have no plan. You have no replacement for the SWIFT system. You're now taking the assets of a sovereign country and saying, "Yeah, we can do that." That will drive the prive of the dollar down. People will sell our reserve currencies. And the only thing they had as backup was a global new financial order.

None of us wanted!

Notice, we're not talking about CBDCs.

We're talking about gold.

This government is talking -- Donald Trump is talking about rebalancing and growing. Not a global world order.

So it could be that the price of gold is, you know, just a fire. That could burn out of control.

As it would have just a few years ago. And it still may. But it also may be that the rise in gold and what's happening with Donald Trump is a backfire. Is a -- you know, when you set fire in a forest fire, and you burn back into it, to put it out. This may be a fire that we're setting that could put all of this out. It may -- this heat may actually forge something new.

Because I think there's real strategy here. When you look at what I talked to you about a minute ago. Why are we bombing those boats?

That's strategy for something bigger. That's not -- that's not a War on Drugs.

That's not. That's strategy for something bigger. Knowing that he's resetting the entire world.

Knowing that he likes the revaluation of things. And he likes to grow the asset sheet.

Knowing he's not a dummy. Knowing that he wants to keep America's sovereignty true. Gold will tell the story. Whether it's collapse or America's rebirth. One way or another, we're going to know, soon.

We're going to know soon.

Watch gold!

The real war in South America—And why CHINA should be terrified

Is President Trump’s “war on drugs” against Venezuela actually about something much bigger? Glenn Beck looks at Trump’s bombing of drug boats in a new light: Is Trump really trying to reset the global order and stop China’s economic conquest in its tracks?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So when we talk about the War on Drugs, most people just kind of roll their eyes. We've been talking about the War on Drugs forever. And it doesn't make a difference at all.

Another failed campaign. Another round of speeches. Another generation caught in the crossfires. But what if I told you, the drug war that you're actually watching today, has almost nothing to do with cocaine or fentanyl.

I think the average person would go, yep. That sounds true.

And I believe it is. It has everything to do with oil and minerals and the rebirth of American sovereignty.

But you have to understand about Donald Trump, he is reshaping everything. Just as the WEF said, we're going to go for The Great Reset. We're going to reshape the world. He's doing that single-handedly. He's taking on everything and reshaping the world to have a stronger America and one that is protected, not mired in endless wars. And strong financially and militarily. So we can protect ourself. With American sovereignty.

So what's taken place right now in South America is not a narcotics operation. Again, this is my opinion. You know, I was talking about it yesterday. I was like, it's like the Monroe Doctrine.

This may be as important as the Monroe Doctrine, which the Monroe Doctrine was in this hemisphere, don't screw with any of our allies. You're not going to put enemy ships.

And you're not going to play around with countries in our hemisphere. This is our hemisphere.

America is supreme in this hemisphere. You do your own thing. Then we kind of got weak on that. And then China was all over.

Russia was all over the southern part of the western hemisphere.

So what he's doing is he's putting a new Monroe Doctrine together. That's Donald Trump!

Now, look at the map. Try to -- you really have to look at it. Because I could say, imagine the map. And nobody can imagine the map. Venezuela, Guyana, Colombia, okay?

Three names, you almost never heard anything about on cable news five years ago. And suddenly, they're the front page priorities for Washington, DC, and our military.

What? Well, they're smuggling drugs. Yeah, well, they might be. But they're also doing a lot of other things. Including as they told you, terrorist island in Venezuela. They have Hamas and Iran in Venezuela. But whoever controls this little triangle, controls the western hemisphere.

And controls the western hemisphere's future. Its energy. Its minerals. And its manufacturing independence. And Venezuela is the fulcrum. Okay?

It holds the largest crude reserves on earth. And it's oil that is perfectly suited for America's Gulf Coast refineries.

But China and Russia have been moving in. They're like vultures sitting there, offering loans and sweetheart deals to Venezuela. And Venezuela has become more and more communist. And more and more hostile to America.

And they are trying to mortgage that entire system to Beijing's state-run oil giants.

So what are we doing? Well, we haven't done anything about it. We've just let them go in.

Now, all of a sudden, we're doing Navy drills in the Caribbean. And we're doing sanctions. We're moving more ships and more Naval assets, I mean. It is -- it is a full-fledged onslaught. We are sending a message. And I don't know that we're sending a message just to the drug lords, okay?

This is a pressure campaign. That kind of looks like the old drug war, but is really, I believe, designed to crowd out the Chinese influence.

This is about keeping Venezuela's energy in the Western family. Not letting it become another victim of the Belt and Road Initiative and a pawn of China.

Then there's Guyana. Which I thought was in the other hemisphere. I had no idea it was on this continent that's, you know, just below us. Apparently called South America. It's tiny.

It is quiet. And suddenly, a gold rush of oil!

Now, an American company, ExxonMobil leaves the charge there. And Washington didn't just help fight traffickers. It's defending America's offshore platforms. They're building radar networks, they're locking down the entire coast. Because it's not just about barrels. It's about cables. It's about information.

It's about pipelines. It's about rare earth minerals.

All of those things are going to power the next century. And then Colombia, we know. Because that was the first thing that all of a sudden, Donald Trump started talking about Colombia, and then the Panama Canal. And everybody was like, "What are we talking about? Are we back in 1958?" No, nobody talked about it. Nobody had paid attention to it. This guy, he's so far ahead of the curve, he's so far over the horizon, I don't think people really understand what he's doing. Colombia is the hinge between the Caribbean and the Pacific. So we were told for decades that the US military presence there was about fighting the cartels. Maybe.

But I think the truth is that Colombia is the geographic and logistical bridge between the hemispheres. Okay?

It guards both oceans. It buffers the Panama Canal. It sits atop minerals every modern economy needs now. Lithium, rare earth. All of this stuff.

You control Colombia and you control the Western hemisphere's arteries. Now, that's not drug interdiction. That's grand strategy.

This is how -- I kind of want to make sense of the world on two things. And it all hinges around a theory that I'm peddling. A theory. And I could be wrong on this.

That when I look at all of the dots. They don't make sense. This is about that submarine, with cocaine in it. Really. Is it?

We're sending our entire military out to get the submarine. I mean, I want drugs to stop. I get it. But really?

It doesn't make sense to me. So the dots don't make sense. And there's too many on the board, that just don't make too much sense.

Unless you start to frame it in another direction, with not only South America and what we're doing with Venezuela and the drug war, but also gold.

So then I want to finish this in a minute, but then I want to move to gold. Because I want to tell you, I think there's a grand strategy here, that everyone is missing. Okay?

So why does all of this matter?

Trump is the first president since Reagan, I think, to understand that America's strength doesn't come from endless foreign wars. It comes from owning the supply lines. From building the sovereign trade. The energy. The technology pipelines. All of the stuff that runs all the way through our hemisphere, not Beijing. So he's not trying to make America the world's policeman anymore. He's not doing that.

He's making us the secure Citadel. He's forcing every region. Europe. Think of what he's done with NATO. What is he doing?

We're not going to be your policeman anymore. You've got to the step up to the plate. You've got to do it. The Middle East. We're not going to be policemen here anymore. All of you, you do it. You get together. You make peace. He's brokering peace. And also, saying to the rest of the world, "You need to step up."

And he's doing it in Latin America, to the police themselves!

Every move you see. Sanctions. Seizures. Aid freezes.

Even visa crackdowns.

This is all, I believe, about locking down critical resources before China does.

This is economic warfare disguised as moral policing. Okay?

And the irony is, it may be one of the smartest uses of the drug war apparatus we've ever seen.

This one might actually work and do something. So let me tell you something that nobody else is telling. Let me give you what everybody is missing. This is not about ideology.

This is not about drugs. This is about global architecture.

Trump is tearing down the old corrupt border, the WEF great reset corrupt global order. And he is building one not on dependency and debt and endless intervention.

He's chopping the trees down. He's paving the road. And he's laying the asphalt for a new one. A hemisphere that produces its own energy, defends its own borders. Works together. And reclaims the American right to chart its own destiny, while encouraging all other countries to do exactly the same.

And he's making as many allies as he can. In any way he can.

That's what's really happening, I think, behind the headlines. While everybody else is like, shouldn't we do this?

Before you talk about a drug war, ask yourself, does that make sense?

Now, to everybody who is like, no kings! Yeah. That might make sense. Because you're not thinking anyway.

I invite to you look at a much bigger picture.

We know the rest of the world was way down this path of a new global world government and a global world order.

We also know, Donald Trump was never for that. We know that Donald Trump doesn't like wars.

So why do we have the military, Venezuela, of all places?

Because this is not about chasing strugglers through jungles. This is about chasing China and Russia out of our own backyard.

It is a quiet, strategic, and I think, if I'm right on this. A brilliant reset.

Because if Trump succeeds, historians are going to look back at this time and call it for what it truly is. The second Monroe Doctrine.

The moment America stopped apologizing for defending its own hemisphere.

And begin re-- and began rebuilding it's own sovereignty.

Trump believes in a strong America. America first. That doesn't mean, we're going to leave every other country alone.

It just means that we have to do the things that we have to do, to make sure we are strong enough and strengthen the countries around us, as well. And the countries that we have been protecting all these years.

Give them the impetus and also the -- and also the act like to come together in their own regions and rebuild and -- and protect their own sovereignty 1 barrel, one chip, one border at a time.