The Thucydides Trap: America vs. China

The US dollar has lost 85% of its value since the 70s, when the dollar decoupled from gold, and the government seems bent on continuing the tradition.

Charlie Kirk here. From now until after the elections, the government can print as much money as they want. The last time they did that, inflation went up 9%. Gold is the only asset that has proven to withstand inflation. Invest in gold with Noble Gold Investments. You will get a 24-carat, one-fourth of an ounce gold standard coin for free.

Just use promo code KIRK. Go to noblegoldinvestments.com. That's noblegoldinvestments.com, the only gold company I trust. Hey everybody, here on The Charlie Kirk Show, what is BRICS? We go through that and how it impacts your life, the intentional destabilization of the American dollar.

We also introduce you to a trap that goes all the way back to Sparta and Athens. We then ask the question, why is it that the American regime, in all these published articles, they seemingly want to cancel the 2024 election? Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com. That is freedom at charliekirk.com. Subscribe to our podcast as always by opening up your podcast application and typing in charliekirkshow.

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That is tpusa.com. Become a member at members.charliekirk.com and text this episode to your friends. Buckle up everybody. Here we go. I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country. That's why we are here.

Brought to you by the loan experts I trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandtodd.com. The biggest story on the planet is the BRICS. It's BRICS with an S. You have four major rising powers and then you have South Africa, which is obviously the affirmative action pick. These four rising powers have big diverse economies and then South Africa can't even keep the lights on, but I guess they're the host.

What's going on here? Well, China arrives in South Africa. And honestly, that's the biggest airplane I think I've ever seen. What is that?

Like a double or triple decker? Air China. Xi Xi Ping.

Winnie the Pooh comes down the stairs slowly, triumphantly. They are trying to create a different world. They are trying to create a different world than the one we live in.

And we, the United States of America, the gay, the globalist American empire, have forced the hand of this. If they are successful, you will get immediately poorer. If these people, Xi Xi Ping, Modi from India, South Africa, Lula from Brazil, if they are successful, the American that we know, the American economy that we have grown accustomed to will no longer exist. For all of history, China has been famously a relatively insular country. They've been massively wealthy, but they don't like venturing abroad much. Do you know that in Chinese, China literally means center of the world. They aren't like Europeans who traditionally went out and explored and colonized the world during the Golden Age. They're very inward focused.

But that's changing now. China believes that it deserves to be the number one power in the world. And they're starting to realize that means building up a global alliance against the current number one power, America. Belt and Road Initiative, purchasing land, they're using the American system against us. Buying up our farmland, infiltrating our universities, purchasing our politicians, elite capture, buying off the Bidens, buying off the National Basketball Association, buying off Hollywood. And our leaders for the last 20 or 30 years have cared more about making money than standing up for America. And we kind of rolled our eyes and under the description of free trade, we've said, oh, we're getting richer. We haven't been getting richer.

China has been getting richer. Now, all of this is a prelude to what is happening today in South Africa. It's the biggest story on the planet. The Wall Street Journal is not covering it. The New York Times is not covering.

I mean, they have a little story here or there, but it's not a lead story. This is a global realignment happening in real time. The whole planet is realigning in South Africa or attempting to realign in South Africa. And so they have this coalition called the BRICS, a block of five countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. South Africa is the joy read of the BRICS nations.

Combined, they are about 40% of the world's population and about 25% of its total economic output. All of these countries aspire to shake up the global economic order, which is dominated by the United States, by the US dollar, and by our allies among the world's wealthiest countries, like the European Union and Japan. One of the things they're talking about in South Africa is the desire to strengthen their currencies and undermine the US dollar.

That's why they are meeting. They are trying to undermine the United States dollar, undermine the dollar as the world reserve currency, which would make us poor immediately, poorer and poor immediately. So much of our GDP, so much of our economic strength is built on the dollar being the world reserve currency. This undermines our sovereignty.

This undermines our ability to pass down wealth to future generations. Thanks to our leaders, Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, and even some Republicans, in fact, especially some Republicans, like Miss Lady Graham and the turtle and many others, we're sitting idly by while this global realignment is happening. What triggered all of this? Ukraine. From the moment Russia invaded Ukraine, we were very clear and we said this is not going to end well.

We were attacked by many people on the right. Oh, you must stand with Ukraine. We said, why? Why?

Well, because you're a bad person, if not. But what happens if Russia decides to wage war on our currency? Shut up, bigot. Huh. But we also said from the very beginning on this program, Russia and China are growing closer together. Oh, you don't have a degree in geopolitics. You know, we're on the Council of Foreign Relations. We know better than you, but we can see in real time you don't need a meteorologist.

You do not need to be a meteorologist to know it's raining. It's like, this is not good. Our leaders have pushed Russia and China together. India is part of this coalition. Brazil, after they were able to get rid of Bolsonaro, get them part of that. Bolsonaro would not put up with any of this. Xi and Putin are literally making pancakes together right now. Now, the question remains is, why are leaders putting up with this?

I'm going to tell you exactly why in a second. They're talking about openly building a new alternative, more decentralized economic order. Get America out of the way. Right now, BRICS is just five countries who make up the acronym, but they're considering expansion. And so far, 22 countries have formally expressed interest in joining. The list of countries ought to make you and the American people very nervous. The people who have applied are Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Mexico. China is building a sizable economic bloc, and Mexico right on our border is looking to join. Mexico, the source of all of the illegal border jumping and the transit hub of China's fentanyl supply. If we had Donald Trump as president, if they were not able to derail him, just like they did with Bolsonaro, remember, they had to get rid of Trump, they had to get rid of Bolsonaro. Had to get rid of Trump, had to get rid of Bolsonaro to make this happen. Trump would have said, you know what, Mexico, 15% tariff on your cars coming into America. That's a starting point.

You get on the plane to South Africa, 50%. We're not going to play ball with this. All of this is a reaction to the United States and Europe funding the war in Ukraine. The Western media has attacked Vladimir Putin as being a crazy person, as being erratic.

I'm not saying he's a good person. I do not support Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine. But if Vladimir Putin is able to pull off the destabilization of the US dollar, he will have defeated America without ever having to fire a shot on the American homeland. Why are our leaders not talking about this? Why do we not have Senate hearings or congressional hearings on this?

Where's the outrage from the Republican Party? Instead, we are seeing Republicans that say we have to send more money to Ukraine, more money to Ukraine, more money to Ukraine. India, we could cancel in an afternoon. We could say, India, you're not part of it. We could break up BRICS and we could unite the world against the true enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.

Russia should be our partner in fighting the Chinese Communist Party. Instead, our government has a different agenda. Part of our government are just outright traitors, bought and paid for by the CCP, bought and paid for by foreign governments. But not every member of our government is guilty of treason.

Not every single member of our government is on the payroll of the CCP. Instead, there is an intellectual reason why they're actually not so upset about what's happening in South Africa. It's a philosophical contagion, an approach to geopolitics. I'll explain it to you. We've never talked about it on this program before because this is deeper than economics.

Essentially, this is the United States saying we want to surrender before the inevitable fight against China because they're going to win anyway. Look, I want to tell you about Donors Trust. We're sponsored today by them, the principal tax friendly way to simplify your charitable giving. Fidelity Charitable recently released its latest giving report. According to its report, its account holders recommended in 2022 $11 billion to nonprofits in the mixed Planned Parenthood Foundation of America. In fact, according to the report, Planned Parenthood was the sixth most popular nonprofit among Fidelity Charitable account holders. Last year, six out of nearly 200,000 unique charities. Does that upset you?

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That's Donors Trust dot org slash Charlie. So if you were to get Tony Blinken or Jake Sullivan, well, let's just say one of them that's not totally on CCP payroll. And you were to ask them and they were to tell the 100 percent truth. Why are you indifferent to the rise of China?

Why is it as if you have just given up? Why is it that you're just letting China do whatever they want? We've never held them accountable for the China virus. They lied about COVID. They covered it up. It obviously came from a lab. They're taking over the entire third world belt and road initiative.

Why is that? Well, let me tell you about something that many of these smart people, Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken and the Council for Foreign Relations people believe. And it's called the Thucydides Trap. Say that three times fast. The Thucydides Trap.

We haven't explained this on the show before. So Thucydides was an ancient Greek writer. He lived in Athens in the fifth century B.C.

Thucydides was one of the first historians ever recorded. And his masterwork was a very long history of the Peloponnesian War. It was a war between the nation Sparta, those guys from the movie 300, as you might remember, and the democracy of Athens, Athenian democracy. And yes, Athens was an actual democracy, unlike America and Athens fell apart because democracy is unsustainable and democracy is not a good idea. Now, in history, Thucydides argued that the war between Athens and Sparta, which was hugely long and enormously destructive to both countries, was caused because Athens was growing in power and was able to surpass Sparta.

Sparta's leaders feared this outcome and decided to wage war on Athens and defeat them while they were still the stronger country. So this idea of the Thucydides Trap has been playing out many different times. Basically, here's how it works. You have a strong power and then you have a rising power. And the trap is that the two powers inevitably are going to fight. That's the trap. The Thucydides Trap is that it is inevitable that there will be a melee, that there will be a rumble in the jungle. There will be a thriller in Manila.

There will be a collision. So in the smart guy circles of the Council of Foreign Relations, they know this. Now, they have actively assisted the Chinese Communist Party to get rich. They have allowed the Chinese Communist Party to become a growing power because we decided to close down our factories and send them to China so the Wall Street bankers, the world of the elites, can get a second and third home in Aspen.

Very important. How dare you not allow them a second home in Aspen. Who cares if East Palestine is poor? Who cares if Appalachia becomes permanently impoverished? They need that home in Sun Valley, Idaho. And don't question them because it's free trade and you're getting rich.

It doesn't matter if you have a dollar store and your kids are addicted to meth. You're getting rich. Come on.

If you don't believe me, you're a deplorable. So they know this. So there are three ways that you can handle a Thucydides Trap. The first one is you can get ready to fight. The fight is coming.

We are going to stand up and we are going to fight the Chinese Communist Party sometime in our lifetime. That's the first way. The second way is you can refuse to fight at all. Let it happen. Let them take it over and lay down your arms and they think they can hack the Thucydides Trap by not engaging in the brawl, just not showing up, surrendering, white flag, you take it over.

Or the third way, which they think they're being really cute, is called a fusion, that you merge the two societies together, a.k.a. you sell out. This is rubbish, the selling out. Let me tell you why. Because China just wants to win. They're Al Davis.

Just win, baby. They just want to win. They don't want to merge with American culture. They hate our culture. They don't believe in God. These are godless, secular, material Marxists who look long-term. So while some of our elites say, well, how do we fuse the two together?

It's like fusion cuisine. China is laughing and they say we are going to win this thing because our victory is inevitable. So our leaders think we're engaged in this trap, but do you know that not a single one of our current leaders in the national security establishment or in the economic leadership are saying, well, why don't we try to win? You have one side trying to win and one side afraid to even engage in the game. That's exactly what's going on. That's why there is an indifference from our elites. That's why they do not care what BRICS is doing. And to tie it together to our next story, that's why they hate Trump.

His entire worldview is based on winning, and that terrifies them. We are told repeatedly by the people on television that our democracy, our democracy, is at a very fragile pace. Remember, it's ours. And as we said yesterday, anytime you hear our democracy, remember we are a republic, not a democracy, just replace it with our oligarchy.

That's all you have to do. And as if we timed it, as if we just put everything at perfect pace, something happened intentionally yesterday in perfect harmony. You see, the New York Times and the Atlantic both had similar articles, pieces, that were extensions of what we talked about yesterday. Remember, we talked about yesterday into great detail about how the party of democracy, oligarchy, is trying to keep Donald Trump off the ballot. The way to save democracy is have a one-party state.

The way to save democracy is have only one option. And now the New York Times has an article, and this is not a mistake. This, they probe it, they trial balloon it, they push the boundary, they see the reaction, if necessary, they'll reel it back in.

They'll reel it back in. But this is an attempt to move the Overton window. This is an attempt to try to push, push the boundary.

It's a trial balloon by other means. New York Times opinion guest essay, not a joke, not an exaggeration, not a satire piece. Elections are bad for democracy. The New York Times, which is constantly lecturing us about democracy, is now picking up where the Atlantic left off yesterday, saying elections are bad for democracy. They want to get rid of elections, everybody.

We've said that. Whether it be emergency measures, crisis, climate change, or getting rid of elections as we once knew them, they're trying to get rid of the idea of the consent of the governed. And in this Orwellian doublespeak projection way, they accuse us of trying to get in the way of democracy. There is a game plan here, and we're going to try to build it out. They have a plan. And in perfect harmony, after the Atlantic yesterday says Trump should not be allowed on the ballot, and then the New York Times says elections are bad for democracy, what does the Atlantic then publish?

Shot, chaser, boom, Atlantic. Americans vote too much. So you have the Atlantic saying Trump should not be allowed on the ballot, you have the New York Times saying elections are bad for democracy, and the Atlantic saying Americans vote too much.

This is confirmation of what we have been saying all along. The idea that you can vote bothers them. The idea that you might be able to vote securely irritates them.

Plato famously came up with this idea of the philosopher king, who knows better. This is why they always say in their articles, experts say, experts say, experts say, they want America to be governed by a secret society of unelected. That is what the administrative state is built on. Not the people. And they're trying to grind that down.

You can't make this up. The Atlantic, Americans vote too much. I thought the whole idea is to vote all the time. Isn't that the promise of democracy? No, they want oligarchy.

They always have. An idea of representative government is too much of a risk. That means you have to talk to the plebes that you oversee. You have to listen to the peasants. You have to pander to the serfs. They want a permanent, untouchable, unquestionable, worshiped administrative state oligarchy.

And they get away with it. And yes, the people on television are saying, oh yeah, you know, I think that's a good idea. Let's get rid of elections. Elections are bad.

They're annoying. In fact, this lunatic, Adam Grant, Dr. Adam Grant, who's an organizational psychologist at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, argues in the piece, elections are bad for democracy, that we should randomly select our leaders. Randomly select. Like a lottery. As if we're polling a jury.

I've heard some really bad ideas before. This is chief among them. As if we should just pick in the DMV. That's not any sort of representative government. You know what they're trying to say by this? Dr. Adam Grant, they don't want another Trump to ever come on the scene. They do not want a rebel, a challenger to the ruling class. And then the Atlantic piece, Americans vote too much.

So what's really going on here? Do not be surprised if they're going to try and cancel the 2024 election. They're saying it.

How they will do that, I have no idea. False flag, Reichstag fire, crisis, lockdowns, masks, COVID, climate change. They are trial ballooning, trying to get the people that wore two masks inside and wear the pride flag.

They wear the Ukraine flag and the BLM, the NPCs of the American Republic. They want to trial balloon them that the way that we save democracy is we stop voting. That passes as intellectual at the New York Times. That the way that we save the country is we just suspend all people's voice. That we have a crisis so big there's no need to vote anymore. We're in power, they're not. Fascist, domestic, violent, extremist right-wingers keep us permanently in power. They're going to try.

I don't know what it looks like. But why would they be probing this? This is the third piece of authorship that we've seen. And just so we're clear, the CIA's favorite foreigner, the actor, Zelensky, he said no more elections in Ukraine. Because we're at war. Elections are done. So they're doing it in Ukraine. Now how they'll do that here, and the media will say, oh, Charlie, it's so unrealistic.

Well, if it's so unrealistic, why is the New York Times platforming a PhD from Wharton saying that elections are bad of democracy? This has to be coordinated. This shows proof of war gaming. Somebody, somewhere in the last couple weeks, sat around a kitchen table, sat around a conference room. Remember, the left plans, the right does not.

We do none of this stuff. Maybe it's Obama. Maybe it's Valerie Jarrett, Axelrod, Lorene Powell Jobs.

She owns the Atlantic. And they said, you know what? Why do we need elections exactly? Why do we need them? The people we don't like anyway. The people are annoying.

The people own guns. The people ask too many questions. Let's just call off the elections. Let's just create a circumstance where we trial balloon this, we push the Overton window, and elections are gone altogether. That's what they're now recommending in the paper of record, all the news that's fit to print, the New York Times.

Elections are bad for democracy. And if you're a Bernie Sanders type out there, or if you're a left-winger, and you're in the Democrat Party, when are you guys going to start to say something? Probably never, because you're a bunch of cowards. You're very weak.

I'm talking about the purple-haired trans freaks that I see on campus all the time. When are you guys going to start to say something? I thought your whole thing is about voting and representation. All these people that gave $18 so that Bernie Sanders could have it robbed by the oligarch Hillary Clinton, then robbed by Joe Biden, robbed in 16, robbed in 20, are you guys just going to keep on putting up with this? Say what you will about how broken the Republican Party is. Say what you will about how dysfunctional the Republican Party is.

Say what you will. But I'll tell you, it's a good thing that we have at least the process of a primary. I think we should end the primary. But somehow, in some ways, I think it's important to realize the Democrat Party is a party of plutocrats. And they take advantage of all of these young, resentful activists. They're like, we're fighting for democracy, and the way we're going to save democracy is ending elections.

Be on guard, everybody. They're going to try to cancel the 2024 election. Don't believe me? Read the New York Times.

Don't believe me? Read the Atlantic. Americans vote too much. There's too much elections.

People have too much voice. They're going to try to cancel it by other means. Look what they're doing with Donald Trump. Keep him off the ballot. Now, whether they cancel them for real or in substance cancel them is irrelevant. They're going to try to cancel the essence of it, is what I'm getting at.

And that's the most important thing. Mike's latest incredible deal is the sale of the year. For a limited time, you'll receive 50% off the Gee's at DreamSheets, marking prices down as low as $29.98, depending on the size. Go to MyPillow.com, promo code Kirk. That is MyPillow.com, promo code Kirk, including the MyPillow 2.0 mattress topper, MyPillow kitchen towel sets, and so much more.

Call 800-875-0425, or go to MyPillow.com, use promo code Kirk, MyPillow.com, promo code Kirk. We have to wargame this stuff. You think they're going to allow a seamless, perfect landing in 2024? By the way, I just want to remind you, I think we forget how chaotic September and October of 2020 was. And Donald Trump still, with all the garbage, was like 8,000 votes short in Arizona. He couldn't even do his rallies the way he wanted to do them.

Remember that. He could not do the events the way he wanted to do them. Everything was COVID this and COVID that.

Do you really think that the other side wants to have a normal 2016-style election? There is way too much at stake here, way too much. So how do you prevent it? What we're doing right now on this show is actually how you prevent it. You find it, you isolate it, you publicize it, and you shine a light on it early.

You make the bad guys know that we're watching you, that we are on edge, that we see what you're doing. Look, media matters and all these people are going to say, oh, the right wing accuses the left of wanting to cancel elections. Let me just remind you, what is the basis of this entire proposition? New York Times, elections are bad for democracy. The Atlantic, Americans vote too much. No one can be a full-time political animal.

They are the ones that are trial ballooning it. The Atlantic, the Constitution prevents Trump from ever being president again. Those are three pieces in highbrow intellectual left-wing publications that are arguing for a canceled election by another means. Whether you call it an interfered-with-election count, it doesn't matter.

It's semantics at that point, okay? Some people might say, well, Charlie, you mean there'll be no election whatsoever? That's probably unlikely, but the point is that they are arguing for a reconfiguration of what we consider to be a normal way and they are sick of the consent to the governed. They are exhausted of having to deal with you every couple of years.

They do not want to have to keep going back to the people for a renewed permission slip. They don't like that. They don't think we're smart enough. They don't think that we believe what they believe enough. And so the unelected elites, the professors, the masters of the universe, the Fauci types.

Play cut 38. The question I have been considering in the 14th Amendment, and a man I have enormous respect for, Larry Tribe, who advised me for a long time, thinks that it would be legitimate. That was in regards to the debt, just so we're clear, debt ceiling. But Larry Tribe, who he's complimenting much respect for, is the one who wrote the piece yesterday in the Atlantic calling for Donald Trump not allowed to become on the ballot. So before, you know, some of my critics, oh, Charlie's out there blowing, you know, bluster about a canceled election. Time out, time out, time out. Just read them in their own words.

Don't even take my commentary for it. Just read what they are saying. Something has changed in the last 24 to 36 hours where all of a sudden, boom, they're just saying bluntly and plainly, forget this election stuff. The 14th Amendment operates as a cheat code to try to get whatever you want. As we said yesterday, and we came under attack from the media, and I don't care, the 14th Amendment was a great thing.

It did a great thing. However, it was too sloppily and broadly written so that it could cancel elections, ignore the debt ceiling, birthright citizenship, and all of that. That's all from the 14th Amendment. And whatever you call it, if you call it a tampered election and interfered with election, a canceled election, a damaged election, whatever, it is clear that the ruling class, the philosopher kings and queens, and the academics of the regime do not want to have a normally constitutionally administered election. That is a fact.

Read them in their own words. Don't even speculate beyond it. Why? This is because the indictments aren't working.

That's why. They see it, they feel it, and they're panicking. Donald Trump will only grow more popular as these indictments fall apart, as big Fannie Willis and her group of thugs in Fulton County try to go after Trump. It's just going to keep on deteriorating and deteriorating and deteriorating. Trump is stronger than ever, and he's only going to get stronger. Even if they get convictions, he appeals, he runs, so now they have to go to the most extreme measures. The most extreme measures change the election itself. That's the most extreme measure. First, try to prevent the candidate, and then go to actual the process and the game. Change the rules of the game.

That's where they are at right now. Email us freedom at charliekirk.com. When they tell you who they are, believe them.

When they publish their plans, believe them. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us your thoughts. There's always freedom at charliekirk.com.

Thank you so much for listening, and God bless. And have my words policed by HR. Words like grandfather, peanut gallery, long time no see, no can do. When I grow up, I want to be obsessed with emotional safety and do workplace sensitivity training all day long. When I grow up, I want to climb the corporate ladder just by following the crowd. I want to be a conformist. I want to weaponize my pronouns.

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