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SHOCKING inflation price comparisons show Biden is FAILING US

What did a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a lightbulb, or a loaf of bread cost at the grocery store before Biden entered the White House? And what do those items cost today? What are they projected to cost in 2024, if America continues down its current path? Glenn details all those price comparisons — plus more — showing just how badly the Biden administration — thanks to its inability to handle inflation — is failing us. 'We MUST turn this around,' Glenn says. 'But our government, our fed, and our administration are incapable of taking the right steps.'

Inflation by the numbers


Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: All right. I want to talk to you about a couple of things. First of all, I want to build this case with you, I'm going to tell you exactly what I'm doing, and what I think you should do as well.

Well, I was going to do it, and then I decided not to. Because I've had so many boating accidents lately, Stu. So many boating accidents.

STU: You, just as a friend, don't think you can boat. Because you can't seem to keep these things afloat. What are you making them out of? Cement.

GLENN: I know. And the latest, gone. Gone. Down at the bottom of the lake.

STU: Did you think about maybe getting a submarine, going down there, getting your guns.

GLENN: I can't do it. It's too deep.

STU: Too deep?

GLENN: Anyway, so I'll give you some solutions here to this. But I want you to listen carefully, and check all these numbers yourself. If you care to.

First, you have a problem with inflation. We all know that. We all can feel it. We can see it. It wasn't caused by Russia. It is caused by the Federal Reserve. It is caused by spending too much money, and printing even more.

I say it's caused by the Federal Reserve. They didn't spend the money. Yes, we have a debt now of $30 trillion, that if interest rates go up to about five or 6 percent, we will not be able to afford anything, but the interest on that debt.

Okay? Now, we know that's happening. The Federal Reserve also has printed and given the banks untold trillions of dollars. We know that they gave $30 trillion to the bank. By -- to the banks, by 2010. That news has just been released due to a FOIA request. We have no idea what they've done in the last two years.

STU: Okay. Can I just add to your point on interest here, Glenn? This is according to Brian Riedl over at the Manhattan Institute. For every point that interest rates go up, just a point, that adds $30 trillion to the debt. Over the next, I think it's 30 years. Which is the same amount, that we would spend in that period.

On defense. So every single point, interest rates go up, we owe another $30 trillion, at like -- we're adding an entire new U.S. military every time one of these things goes up one point.

GLENN: So we just raised the interest rates, the fed did by a quarter point. And said, five to seven more hikes are coming. Okay?

STU: My gosh.

GLENN: All right. So let's just talk about real stuff here for a second.

I wanted to show you what the price of things were, what the price of things are. And what the price of things will be, by -- by Election Day, 2024. Okay?

We must turn this around. But our -- but our government, and our fed, and our administration, are incapable of taking the right steps.

This is just inflation. The numbers I'm going to give you, just inflation. This doesn't include extra regulation or shortages, or anything else. This is just because the value of your dollar is going down.

Prices aren't going up. The value of your dollar is going down. Now, I use not 7.9 percent CPI to project into the future. I used shadow status. The reason why I did this was because everybody was comparing this to the days of Jimmy Carter. No. It's worse than the days of Jimmy Carter. I'm using the shadow status. Because this is the way the government calculated inflation in 1980. They changed that calculation because it was looking bad for the United States government and the fed. So they changed it. But if we look and measure the same things. The same way. We'll get the inflation rate that is 15.5 percent, not 7.9 percent. So this is from Shadow Stats. That's how we calculated these. I made some chart, but I'll read them off. In case you happen to be watching TheBlaze, you'll see the charts. If not, let me just tell you where we're going to start, and that is with hamburgers.

When Biden was elected, when Biden was elected, a hamburger was $4.40. Today, I think you guys are working on the wrong -- you're working on the wrong end of the -- that's the last slide. Look for hamburger.

When Biden was elected, it was $4.40. Today, it's $6.01.

STU: Jeez.

GLENN: 2024. November. The time the next election, just with inflation, that's it. No food shortage. Nothing. Just due to inflation, are you better off than you were four years ago? Hamburger was $4.40. A hamburger will be $7.95.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: When Biden was elected, this is just due to inflation. When Biden was elected, gas was $2.18. Today, it's 4.41. November 24th, with no shortages, no war, nothing. Just from inflation. 5.83. When Biden was elected, milk was $3.20. Today, it's 3.89. Just through inflation, in November 2024, the price of Biden milk will be $5.15.

STU: I got news for you, I don't care what the price is, I'm not drinking Biden milk. That just sounds icky. You can milk anything with a nipple.

GLENN: You're not the one milking him either. It does.

When Biden was elected, the price of a lightbulb was 1.57. Today, it's 2.55. A price of a lightbulb, when the presidential election in 2024 is happening, will be 3.37.

When Biden was elected, eggs, a dozen, 1.45. Today, 2.35. November '24, 3.11. When Biden was elected, 1.50 for bread. Today, it's 1.67. November 2024 projection, 2.21. That number is going to be wildly different, and you'll understand why, here in a minute. When Biden was elected, just because of inflation, houses were 358,700. Today, they're 414,123. November '24 projection, 547,885. That's the average home.

STU: Gee.

GLENN: When Biden was elected, $22,095 -- what? $22,951 was the price of a car. Today, it's 30,603, if you can get one just -- just through -- just through inflation, that number will jump from 30 to 40,488.

STU: Just some quick personal news here, Glenn. I celebrated this weekend, my seven-month anniversary, with an order of my car.

Thank you. It's still not here. They haven't even taken the order yet. But seven months in, I'm doing well.

GLENN: That's great. That's great. Have you thought about a horse?

Now, let me give you something else. Now, these are just projections, and you can find -- we'll publish all of this. You can find how we made all these projections. But they are just projections. These numbers can change dramatically. But we wanted to add in the geopolitical instability factor.

So we know about wheat. And I've got something I've got to share with you in a minute.

We know about wheat. But we are kind of -- we're being, I think, very conservative on some of these numbers.

A hamburger. The price I just told you, add 25 percent, if things continue to go geopolitically as they are.

Gas, if things continue, the instability factor, you'll need to add 30 percent to that gallon of gas. 15 percent added for milk. 5 percent for lightbulbs. 15 percent for chicken.

I don't think -- or, sorry, for eggs. I don't think that's high enough. You'll understand why, here in a minute. Bread, up 30 percent. Housing, down 25 percent. And cars, down by 25 percent.

I agree with the housing, not necessarily so with the projection of the cars. But I left this to the experts and be our team to put together the numbers.

Number two, I'm going to take a one-minute break. And then I'm going to tell you the truth, that no one is willing to talk about, about what's really going on with food.

And why you need to begin to prepare, right now.

GLENN: Stu, have you ever listened to the podcast, all-in.

STU: Yes.

GLENN: Okay. Really good. Really bright guys. Generally speaking, more independent now. But they've all been Democrats. Staunch Democrats. I think, except maybe one of them.

And they're all experts. In different fields. And all friends. David Freedberg is one of them. And I was listening to the podcast. And they asked David a question. Now, David used to work for Monsanto. And he doesn't work there anymore.

But he believes in, you know, Monsanto. Think GMOs, et cetera, et cetera. If you're against GMOs, don't dismiss him. Because I got the facts from him, on the stats. But we're not talking GMOs. We're just talking about looking at the market, and what is really happening.

So when you're looking at food, understand that 15 percent of all global calories, come from wheat and rice. 25 percent. Sorry. 15 percent.

One-third of all of our wheat, comes from Russia and Ukraine. We're supposed to be planting crops, all around the world, right now, for wheat.

Not happening in much of Russia. Not happening anywhere in Ukraine. Next stat you need to understand, our food supply -- you know how the cars had just in time. Our production lines were all just in time.

And that's why we can't make cars. Because there are parts, that are sitting somewhere, you know, crossing the ocean. Sitting on a dock someplace. The whole supply chain has broken down. Because it's just in time. It arrives just in time to put it into the car. When you have a disruption, it just bogs everything up. And unclogging, we don't really even know if we can unclog it, and get it started again. But it will take years to do it. That's the supply chain, for stuff. The supply chain for food is 90 days. We have 90 days' worth of food in the supply chain. That is from the grocery store, to the garden, and everything in between. If it stops, we stop -- let's say, we for some reason stop all farming, we would have 90 days left of food worldwide. Okay? 25 percent of all global production, is food. We're about to lose 12 percent of production. That means, we're losing half of our food supply, of wheat. Half of our wheat food supply.

This is going to hit places like Africa first. And it's going to hit places of poverty, unlike anything we've ever seen.

800 million people, currently on earth, live below 1200 calories per day. So you know, the Germans would not allow Jews to have more than 600 calories a day.

So they're only double the amount of calories, that the Jews got, during the Holocaust. And we all remember what they looked like.

If they're at 1200 calories today, and they're in -- in places that are poor, which they most likely are, those calories will be either cut off or greatly reduced.

Now, the bigger problem is fertilizer. And energy. The energy price for run the trackers. To run the trucks. To run everything else.

And the price of phosphorus and potassium, potash, and Nigeria. Those are the three major things we use, to make fertilizer. Natural gas, 90 percent of ammonia is made from natural gas. Prices in natural gas, have doubled. And in some places, gone up 4X.

It's gone from $200 a ton, to $1,000 a ton. Phosphorus, 10 percent of the phosphorus from Russia, and 20 to 25 percent of all of the potash comes from Russia. It's now been banned in Russia. They cannot sell it. We cannot buy it.

They said, oh, you're going to cut us off at the bank. Great. We'll cut you off on this.

Potassium is up to $700, phosphate went from 250 to $700. This is causing so much stress on the farmers. That farmers all around the world, are not planting their fields.

They are reducing the acreage. Because without fertilizer, you're not growing much. So why plant all those fields? It's not going to be a good year, they're thinking.

So as they -- as fertilizer goes up, they pull more and more acres. So far, the price of corn has doubled. Soybeans. Wheat. Skyrocketing. The strategic food reserves, in some parts of the world, are now opening.

We better have perfect weather all over the world. Just because, if things continue the way they are and don't turn around quickly, and we can't get fertilizer, hundreds of millions of people, will experience famine by the end of the year.

We need to do everything we can to support our farmers, we need to understand what's coming. And you need to have a garden, plant some seeds. Live by a farm, and help them. Or start storing food now.

More on this, in a second.

GLENN: Rising fuel prices are taking a toll on small businesses. Owners from everything from furniture retailers to swimming pool service companies are trimming their services and revising contracts because the financial hit is getting worse and worse and worse. Keeping store owners wide awake, trying to figure out, what are we going to do?

Well, first of all, there's a couple of things we should do. Let me go back to food for a second. The governments around the world are buying up large swaths of food right now. Commodity prices going up. Not just because of traders. But because of governments are trading -- governments are like, we're going to buy our corn right now. And first in, first out.

Countries like -- that are in Africa, they're going to have a really hard time. They're not going to get the food, that they desperately need. But neither are other countries as well. We're all going to take a real hit on this. Especially if we don't have good weather. If we -- you know, we don't have fertilizer. We should, as a nation, be doing everything we can right now to help the farmer. Everything we can, right now, to get fertilizer. You know, everybody is worried about the price of inflation for the average person. Okay. That's really bad. And we're all hurting. But if we don't take care of the farmer right now, and get him fertilizer, and make sure he can afford the things that he can afford. Or they have to afford.

Our inflation is the least of our problems, it will be shortages, next year. Now, they are -- governments are buying up food. But governments all over the world now, are also, while they're doing that, telling you not to hoard. And I'm telling you, also, not to hoard. But I am telling you to prepare for your family. And then others, that will be hungry.

We have to help each other, through this. There are going to be people, who just can't make it. And they'll have to bring another skill. It's going to be barter, I guess. But we're just going to have to help each other. If you can grow food, plant this spring. Anything you can do it ease the burden on your family. And others, do it. When you go to a store, if you are going in, and you're going to buy macaroni and cheese, and you only need one box, buy two. Put one away.

Use the other one. When that one box is done, don't reach into the pantry to get it. Buy a second box. As I showed you just a few minutes Al Gore, just because inflation, that box, a year from now, will be costing you a lot more money at the store.

And when you hit a breaking point, you'll have some food storage. But be careful on what you think your breaking point is. Because real, real trouble is coming, and we have to be prepared, and we have to be prepared to help others.

That -- this is, I think, the beginnings of the times when I have felt, since the beginning with you, that you are going to may a role in saving this nation. And I think this is the beginning of it. Preparing for those in need.

And it is going to be really, really, really hard, because you're going to be like, I prepared, they didn't.

I know. I know. But we're in this together. You have to take care of your family first. But we're in this together.

That doesn't mean, that -- that doesn't mean that you should tell the world what you're doing. Because governments will come in. And they'll start to make it illegal to hoard food. They will start to demonize people first.

As hoarders. This is a while away, I think.

But that's what will happen.

So just keep your mouth quiet, and it don't be needs to know your business. Just urge the people who get it, to go in just store some food, for their family.

And -- and create a network, if you will, of people who think like you. And really understand what's coming. And just help each other. Just help each other.

STU: So how real do you think the food shortage thing is?

GLENN: I think food shortage in places like India and Africa, I think millions are going to die. Millions will die. Probably worse than anything we've ever seen.

STU: Oh, my God.

GLENN: If -- if they come up with a solution today, and crops get into the ground, maybe not.

But -- but it will still be a problem, because we're not getting fertilizer. So it will be a situation where maybe we as a -- as the top market in the world, be are able to acquire this stuff, but at way higher prices.

GLENN: Way higher prices.

STU: Down the line, the -- the poorer countries aren't even able to acquire it at all.

GLENN: Yeah. Or very, very little. It will be Ethiopia, on a grand scale. Do you remember what Ethiopia was like?

STU: Oh, yeah. I remember all the commercials. And we had the, We Are the World song out of that. That was not worth it. I don't know if it solved it. If it did, still -- no offense, to the African people, but I think they would oppose the song over being saved.

GLENN: I don't think so. It might be a little --

STU: They would rather starve to death. Look, I may be speaking for an entire continent here. But I think if they can go back to the '80s and they said, look, would we have generations of our people be alive, or that stupid song play again, they would -- they would choose, they would choose to delete the song, and sadly, have -- deal with the repercussions of that.

GLENN: Well, we don't have Michael Jackson around, to make a song this time.

STU: That's right. We're screwed.

GLENN: It is going to be bad. It is going to be bad everywhere.

And forget everything else. Just know that a 25 percent of fertilizer comes from Russia.

STU: Just the 25 percent.

GLENN: But just 25 percent.

STU: So what do you do here? I think it's easy for us to say, we've done everything wrong. It's easy. But look at the effects of what we've talked about with inflation. The things you're talking about. Thirty and 40 percent increases are nothing compared to, if we internalize all the production in the United States. If we got rid of all this global trade, our prices would go up way more than 30 to 40 percent. Your TVs are no longer $400 for a 60-inch. I'll tell you that much. All this stuff goes away, without all the global trade. And all the things associated with it. The theory going back, as -- as globalization, not in the nefarious, you know, UN running our lives sort of way. But in the, hey, we're going to trade with countries because we can turn up production. And certain countries will do certain things well. Others will do others. We'll all combine our efforts, and this is why you have Walmart and prices are really low there.

So that goes in, and one of the theories was, as we saw new countries get into that system, those countries tended to moderate. They wanted to be involved in the global trade, so they didn't act like psychopaths all the time. So our theory was, if we embrace countries like Russia, and like China, they will over time, be so interested in these markets, that they will stop acting like psychopaths. Now, I think we've seen that with those two countries, that has not worked out that well. However, you've seen it in other areas. Japan is a good example of it working out pretty well. So what do you do?

Do you wait longer to bring them in?

Because it seemed like, you bring them in as an incentive to let them change. And instead of letting them change first, and then allowing them in.

GLENN: Right. So I think this is the key. Out of 170 countries, 95 do not have on their books -- ninety-five countries do not have on their books, illegal slave trade. They have not made slave trade illegal.

STU: Really?

GLENN: Ninety-five.

STU: That's a mind-boggling stat. Ninety-five countries.

GLENN: Ninety-five countries have not passed anti-slavery.

Now, there's a lot of countries, probably in that number. I don't know all the countries. But I'm sure there's some that don't have a problem with the slave trade.

STU: Of course.

GLENN: However, we should set our limits. And this has been common sense for a very, very, very long time.

If your government doesn't have the same kind of understanding about human rights, we shouldn't be doing trade with you.

STU: Just at a basic level, right? You don't have to match all of our policies, but you got to respect human life.

GLENN: Men are born to be free, okay?

Okay. If you enslave people or build concentration camps or have gulags or whatever, no. I don't think we should do business with you.

And that's why we're enslaved to these very, very low prices. It's not that we're getting -- some of this stuff we are.

It's not that we're hiring people at very low cost and then putting them in slavery. We're getting stuff, some places at a very low cost, because the cost of living is so low. So they're making a decent wage in their country.

STU: For their area.

GLENN: Yeah. For their area.

STU: When a lot of these factories open, the line is around -- it's a mile long to get jobs at this place. Because it's the best job available to that community.

GLENN: Correct. Correct. However, that's not the case in China. Now, there might be people lining up around the block in China to have a job here, but they also enslave people. So no. If your country is so diametrically opposed to our system, no. That would include Saudi Arabia. That would include Iran.

That would include Russia. China. North Korea. All of these countries, that just don't see the world and people the same way.

STU: And I think too, this points to another one of the undersold failures of the Biden administration. That people are not talking about.

Which is, when Donald Trump was president of the United States, our relationship with India was never better. They loved Donald Trump there.

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Now they've decided to side with Russia.

GLENN: And China.

STU: And China. And our option, right? If we were to lose China, as a manufacturing hub. Our easiest replacement is going to India. Where it's a little more expensive. But not a lot more expensive. And if they're a close ally. There's some synergy there. We can still probably make products at reasonable prices. And help someone -- they always call it, the global democracy. The largest global democracy. India is the biggest country that has some of the trappings of what we would respect as a government.

And we seem to be losing that right now. And that's -- and that's a big deal.

GLENN: We're going to lose them. We're going to lose Taiwan. We're going to lose possibly the Philippines. We will lose Vietnam. All of those countries, that provide low-cost labor. We'll lose all of those, if we continue down the path we're on. That will leave us with just half the world. Huh.

Almost like what The Great Reset is calling for.

STU: Uh-huh.

GLENN: They will offer the solution of the end of globalization. You'll hear that. This is the end of globalization. We've got to do things. We've got to do things closer to home. And so it will appear to be the end of globalization. But it will not be the end of globalization.

It will be what you interpret as more global controls. But we'll make stuff closer to home. And not with China or Russia.

Uh-huh. Really? Because we're currently doing a deal with Iran. Just saying.

STU: It's going to work out well.

GLENN: This is the nightmare that's coming.

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INSIDE Trump’s soul: How a bullet changed his heart forever

“I have a new purpose,” then-candidate Donald Trump told reporter Salena Zito after surviving the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Salena joins Glenn Beck to reveal what Trump told her about God, his purpose in life, and why he really said, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, as she details in her new book, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland”.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Salena, congratulations on your book. It is so good.

Just started reading it. Or listening to it, last night.

And I wish you would have -- I wish you would have read it. But, you know, the lady you have reading it is really good.

I just enjoy the way you tell stories.

The writing of this is the best explanation on who Trump supporters are. That I think I've ever read, from anybody.

It's really good.

And the description of your experience there at the edge of the stage with Donald Trump is pretty remarkable as well. Welcome to the program.

SALENA: Thank you, Glenn. Thank you so much for having me.

You know, I was thinking about this, as I was ready to come on. You and I have been along for this ride forever. For what?

Since 2006? 2005?

Like 20 years, right?

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

SALENA: And I've been chronicling the American people for probably ten more years, before that. And it's really remarkable to me, as watching how this coalition has grown. Right?

And watching how people have the -- have become more aspirational.

And that's -- and that is what the conservative populist coalition is, right?

It is the aspirations of many, but the celebration of the individual.

And chronicling them, yeah. Has been -- has been, a great honor.

GLENN: You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, when -- when Elon Musk said he was starting another party.

And somebody asked me, well, isn't he doing what the Tea Party tried to do?

No. The Tea Party was not going to start a new party.

It was to -- you know, it was to coerce and convince the Republican Party to do the right thing. And it worked in many ways. It didn't accomplish what we hoped.

But it did accomplish a lot of things.

Donald Trump is a result of the Tea Party.

I truly believe that. And a lot of the people that were -- right?

Were with Donald Trump, are the people that were with the Tea Party.


SALENA: That's absolutely right.

So that was the inception.

So American politics has always had movements, that have been just outside of a party. Or within a party.

That galvanize and broaden the coalition. Right? They don't take away. Or walk away, and become another party.

If anything, if there is a third party out there, it's almost a Republican Party.

Because it has changed in so many viable and meaningful ways. And the Tea Party didn't go away. It strengthened and broadened the Republican Party. Because these weren't just Republicans that became part of this party.

It was independents. It was Democrats.

And just unhappy with the establishment Republicans. And unhappy with Democrats.

And that -- that movement is what we -- what I see today.

What I see every day. What I saw that day, in butler, when I showed I happen at that rally.

As I do, so many rallies, you know, throughout my career. And that one was riveting and changed everything.

GLENN: You made a great case in the opening chapter. You talk about how things were going for Donald Trump.

And how this moment really did change everything for Donald Trump.

Changed the trajectory, changed the mood.

I mean, Elon Musk was not on the Trump train, until this.

SALENA: Yeah.

GLENN: Moment. What do I -- what changed? How -- how did that work?

And -- and I contend, that we would have much more profound change, had the media actually done their job and reported this the way it really was. Pragmatism

SALENA: You know, and people will find this in the book. I'm laying on the ground with an agent on top of me.

I'm 4 feet away from the president.

And there's -- there's notices coming up on my phone. Saying, he was hit by broken glass.

And to this take, that remains part of this sibling culture, in American politics.

Because reporters were -- were so anxious to -- to right what they believed happened.

As opposed to what happened.

And it's been a continual frustration of mine, as a reporter, who is on the ground, all the time.

And I'll tell you, what changed in that moment.

And I say a nuance, and I believe nuance is dead in American journalism.

But it was a nuance and it was a powerful conversation, that I had with President Trump, the next day. He called me the next morning.

But it's a powerful conversation I had with him, just two weeks ago.

When he made this decision to say, fight, fight, fight.

People have put in their heads, why they think he said it. But he told me why he said that. And he said, Salena, in that moment, I was not Donald Trump the man. I was a former president. I was quite possibly going to be president again.

And I had an obligation to the country, and to the office that I have served in, to project strength. To project resolve.

To project that we will not be defeated.

And it's sort of like a symbolic eagle, that is always -- you know, that symbol that we look at, when we think about our country.

He said, that's why I said that. I didn't want the people behind me panicking. I didn't want the people watching, panicking.

I had to show strength. And it's that nuance -- that I think people really picked up on.

And galvanized people.

GLENN: So he told me, when he was laying down on the stage.

And you can hear him. Let me get up. Let me get up.

I've got to get up.

He told me, as I was laying on the stage. I asked him, what were you thinking? What was going through your head? Now, Salena, I don't know about you.

But with me. It would be like, how do I get off the stage? My first was survival.

He said, what was going on through his mind was, you're not pathetic. This is pathetic.

You're not afraid. Get up.

Get up.

And so is that what informed his fight, fight, fight, of that by the time that he's standing up, he's thinking, I'm a symbol? Or do you think he was thinking, I'm a symbol, this looks pathetic. It makes you look weak.

Stand up. How do you think that actually happened?

SALENA: He thinks, and we just talked about this weeks ago. He -- you know, and this is something that he's really thought about.

Right? You know, he's gone over and over and over. And also, purpose and God. Right? These are things that have lingered with him.

You know, he -- he thought, yes.

He did think, it was pathetic that he was on the ground. But he wasn't thinking about, I'm Donald Trump. It's pathetic.

He's thinking, my country is symbolically on the ground. I need to get up, and I need to show that my country is strong.

That our country is resolute.

And I need people to see that.

We can't go on looking like pathetic.

Right?

And I think that then goes to that image of Biden.

GLENN: You have been with so many presidents.

How many presidents do you think that you've personally been with, would have thought that and reacted that way?

SALENA: Probably only Reagan. Reagan would have. Reagan probably would have thought that.

And if you remember how he was out like standing outside.

You know, waving out the window. Right?

After he was shot.

GLENN: At the hospital, right.

SALENA: Had he not been knocked out, unconscious, you know, he probably would have done the same thing.

Because he was someone who deeply believed in American exceptionalism.

And American exceptionalism does not go lay on the ground.

GLENN: And the symbol.

Right. The symbol of the presidency.

SALENA: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that affects him today.

GLENN: So let me go back to God.

Because you talked to him the next day. And your book Butler.

He calls you up.

I love the fact that your parents would be ashamed of you. On what you said to him.

The language you used. That you just have to read the book.

It's just a great part.

But he calls you the next morning. And wants to know if you're okay.

And you -- you then start talking to him, about God.

And I was -- I was thinking about this, as I was listening to it. You know, Lincoln said, I wasn't -- I wasn't a Christian.

Even though, he was.

I wasn't a Christian, when I was elected. I wasn't a Christian when my son died.

I became a Christian at Gettysburg.

Is -- is -- I mean, I believe Donald Trump always believes in God, et cetera, et cetera.

Do you think there was a real profound change at Butler with him?


SALENA: Absolutely. You know, he called me seven times that day. Seven times, the take after seven.

GLENN: Crazy.

SALENA: Talked about. And I think he was looking for someone that he knew, that was there. And to try to sort it out.

Right? And I let him do most of the talking. I didn't pressure him.

At all. I believed that he was having -- you know, he was struggling. And he needed to just talk. And I believed my purpose was to listen.

Right? I know other reporters would have handled it differently. And that's okay. That's not the kind of reporter that I am.

And I myself was having my own like, why didn't I die?

Right?

Because it went right over my head.

And -- and so I -- he had the conversation about God.

He's funny. I thought it was the biggest mosquito in the world that hit me.

But he had talked profoundly about purpose. You know, and God.

And how God was in that moment.

It --

GLENN: I love the way you -- in the book, I love the way you said that as he's kind of working it out in his own he head.

He was like, you know, I -- I -- I always knew that there was some sort of, you know -- that God was present.

He said, but now that this has happened.

I look back at all of the trials.

All of the tribulations. Literally, the trials.

All of the things that have happened. And he's like, I realized God was there the whole time.

SALENA: Yes. He does. And it's fascinating to have been that witness to history, to have those conversations with him. Because I'm telling you. And y'all know, I can talk. I didn't say much of anything.

I just -- I just listened. I felt that was my purpose, in that moment.

To give him that space, to work it out.

I'm someone that is, you know, believes in God.

I'm Catholic. I followed my faith.

And -- and so, I thought, well, this is why God put me here. Right?

And to -- to have that -- to hear him talk about purpose, to hear him say, Salena. Why did I put a chart down?

I'm like, sir. I don't know. I thought you were Ross Perot for a second.

He never has a chart. And he laughed. And then he said, why did I put that chart down?

By that term, I never turned my head away from people at the rally. That's true.

That relationship is very transactional. It's very -- they feed off of each other.

It's a very emotive moment when you attend a rally. Because he has a way of talking at a rally. That you believe that you are seeing.

And he said, and I never turn my head away.

I never turn my head away.

Why did I turn my head away?

I don't remember consciously thinking about turning my head away. And then he says to me, that was God, wasn't it?

Yes, sir. It was. It was God.

And he said, that's -- that's why I have a new purpose.

And so, Glenn. I think it's important, when you look at the breadth of what has happened, since he was sworn in.

You see that purpose, every day.

He doesn't let up.

He continues going.

And it brings back to the beginning of the book.

Where you find out, that there was another president that was shot at in Butler.

And that was George Washington. And how different the country would have been, had he died in that moment.

And now think about how different the country would be, had President Trump died in that moment. There would be --

GLENN: We're talking to -- we're talking to Salena Zito. About her new book called Butler. The assassination attempt on President Trump. And it is riveting.

And, you know, it is so good. I wish the press would read it. Because it really explains who we are, who Trump supporters are. Who are, you know, red staters. It is so good at that. She's the best at that.