0:01

Freedom to code, freedom for financial

0:03

self-reliance, and most importantly,

0:05

freedom to innovate free from regulatory overreach.

0:09

Good morning. Well, good morning.

0:12

Good afternoon. Good evening. Happy

0:14

middle of the night, wherever you are listening to this podcast. I hope you're

0:16

doing well. We are certainly living in crazy times. It's not just

0:18

been a crazy few years. It's been a crazy week. I'm

0:23

still trying to get my head around the idea that a libertarian

0:26

is now leading the 23rd

0:28

largest economy in the world. Trying

0:30

to get my head around what happened

0:31

with Binance, looking at the bullish

0:33

Bitcoin price, enjoying football.

0:36

These are wild times. But anyway, welcome to

0:38

the What Bitcoin Did podcast, which is brought to you

0:40

by the massive legends at RS Energy, the

0:42

largest NASDAQ listed Bitcoin miner using 100%

0:45

renewable energy. I'm

0:47

your host, Peter McCormack. And today I've got a very

0:49

special show for you. I have Republican

0:51

presidential candidate, Vivek

0:54

Ramaswamy back on the podcast.

0:56

It's just as weird for me to say that as

0:58

it may be for you to hear that. I started

1:00

this little podcast a few years ago, and now

1:03

we're out here interviewing presidential candidates.

1:06

Weird. Now, in January this year, I did sit down

1:08

with Vivek in Nashville and absolutely loved the

1:11

conversation. We have a very real

1:13

chat about a lot of things. And the weirdest thing happened actually

1:15

afterwards. Vivek hadn't even announced

1:17

his presidential candidacy. And Danny said

1:20

to me when he left the room, he said, he's going to run for president.

1:22

I was like, Danny, what are you on about? He's like, trust me, Pete.

1:24

He's going to run for president. And not long after

1:26

he did actually announce it. So good

1:29

spot there by Danny. I like

1:31

to follow politics closely. I find it super

1:33

interesting, even if I don't always like

1:35

politicians. But I like Vivek. I've met

1:37

him a few times now. We've had some good conversations.

1:40

So when we were out in Dallas,

1:43

we asked him to come back on the show. He agreed. We

1:45

also have my buddy Dennis Porter there as a co-host.

1:48

Dennis was the one who actually helped facilitate this happening.

1:50

So big up to you, Dennis. Thanks

1:52

for that. So this time we looked a little bit more

1:54

into Bitcoin. And he's definitely aware

1:56

of CBDCs and the surveillance of money. But

1:59

this was a combination.

1:59

Conversation after his presentation

2:02

the North American Bitcoin summit and so

2:04

we didn't have as long as I'd like we could I think we Got about 45

2:06

50 minutes, maybe nearly an hour. I do

2:08

want to sit down with him again I do want to get a long-form interview

2:10

I want to get another two three hours with him because he's a great

2:12

talker a number of subjects Don't agree with

2:15

him on everything. But when do you agree with somebody

2:17

on everything? So anyway, I want to give

2:19

a big shout out to the vague Thank him for coming back

2:21

on the show another thanks to Dennis for helping facilitate

2:23

this interview and my boy Danny for calling

2:25

this One early on. I hope you enjoyed this You've

2:27

got any questions about the show or anything else any feedback,

2:30

please do get in touch is hello or what Bitcoin

2:32

did calm

2:37

Dennis Porter yo-yo presidential

2:39

candidate Vivek Ramaswamy

2:42

I get that right Ramaswamy Ramaswamy

2:45

you got it. I Could see again

2:48

Spin a minute. You got a haircut. I did get a haircut.

2:50

Yeah, I grew it long and then realized it was shit

2:52

So I cut it all off. I can't say I

2:54

hated that but you look you look clean You know ready ready

2:56

to run for president ready. Yeah. Well, I

2:58

can't do that sadly cuz uh, I'm

3:01

British Oh, yeah, you know once you're

3:03

kind of old we're ready to run for King You can't be King

3:05

can't be president unless I marry into

3:07

kingship. Wait, why can't you be King? I'd

3:10

have to marry into it. Yeah, I mean there's Long

3:13

future ahead. I'm a commoner. I don't want the

3:15

peasants there with a crown Anyway,

3:17

good. Yeah, man. I've got to tell you something funny. So

3:20

we last met in Nashville. When was it? He's

3:23

a little while ago long before I was on this journey Yes And

3:25

you know what happened when you walked out of that room Danny

3:28

turned around to me and said He's gonna run for president

3:30

you kidding me. I swear to God He

3:33

called it before I called it. He

3:35

did he said yeah I was a part of it was all part of a journey

3:37

when I was just traveling this country with an open mind I thought

3:40

I was gonna do it through business actually was the way

3:42

I wanted to drive change

3:45

but

3:46

You said that that day I

3:48

swear on my children's lives Unbelievable,

3:51

yeah Thank you,

3:53

brother, I appreciate that I'll take that in a good way. Yeah.

3:55

Yeah. Well, here we are now Hey, we are

3:57

and now you're a presidential candidate You

4:00

can you crushing. Thank you for

4:02

getting warmed up. I hope why

4:04

did you decide to do that? You know, I've

4:06

been thinking about different ways to drive change in this

4:08

country. I was a CEO of biotech company.

4:11

I had to You know make a decision

4:13

and it was it was not an easy decision But

4:16

in the aftermath of the George Floyd death

4:18

and the BLM related protests across

4:20

America were companies I don't know if you remember

4:22

this but three years ago, it was a very

4:27

Suffocating environment where you had to

4:29

bend the knee to one orthodoxy as a CEO That

4:31

was it every company was coming down on one

4:33

side of this fraught social issue and

4:36

I refused to do it because a it didn't match my

4:38

Personal convictions and I did not want to be fake

4:40

about what I said as a CEO But

4:42

B, I didn't think it was the job of a CEO to

4:44

do it and yet that

4:47

had adverse Consequences for

4:50

me as a CEO and I worried

4:52

that it would have adverse consequences for the business

4:55

And so I had to change I do you know it when multiple

4:57

advisors to my company resigned and whatnot

5:00

in the wake of What I view is not

5:02

political statements But just principled statements that were

5:04

staying out of this kind of thing and we're focusing on our

5:06

mission That wasn't good enough in

5:08

that moment in corporate America And so

5:10

I stepped aside from my job as a biotech CEO

5:12

so I could speak my mind freely I thought

5:15

maybe there was a path in politics to

5:17

drive change and there was a US Senate

5:19

race in Ohio Literally that

5:22

opened up weeks after it was a coincidence,

5:24

but weeks after I stepped down from my

5:26

job as CEO But

5:29

one of the things I got to know was you know, how

5:31

broken that legislative process is

5:33

so somebody gave me a good piece of advice you

5:36

might want to Know what the job

5:38

entails before you interview for the job and

5:40

that's what you do when you campaign and the more

5:42

I got to know About the legislative process

5:45

of how the sausage making works of the

5:47

negotiations of an individual piece of legislation

5:50

Which most people don't even read before they vote on I

5:53

actually decided that politics would not be the

5:55

way that I would go and Ended up trying

5:57

to drive change to the private sector and we can

6:00

you talk a lot about that. I started a business called Strive

6:02

to compete against BlackRock and State Street in

6:04

Vanguard. I wrote a series of books.

6:07

I wrote three books in the last couple of years, two

6:10

of them about different elements of the politicization

6:12

of the market, one about the ESG

6:14

move in particular. And so

6:16

that was the way I was going to drive change. All

6:19

that being said, I think

6:22

that as much as the swamp lives

6:24

outside of government, the ultimate bureaucracy

6:27

of all is the bureaucracy

6:29

in the administrative state. And all roads

6:31

kept leading back to that

6:34

invisible fist of government, not the invisible

6:36

hand of the market, but the invisible fist of government,

6:39

particularly the administrative state that

6:42

lurked behind a lot of the cultural

6:45

and economic challenges that I was taking on

6:47

through the private sector. So, you

6:49

know, Porv and I had our second son last year,

6:51

Porv Adam. I

6:54

did my part and tried to be helpful, but

6:56

we brought our second son

6:58

into the world. And we

7:01

were at the end of last year and we look ourselves in the mirror.

7:03

We're putting in a lot of hard work in driving

7:07

whatever positive change we can in the short time we've

7:09

been given on this earth. But we look ourselves in the mirror. I

7:11

did certainly and ask

7:13

myself, how am I going to use my

7:15

skill set to drive maximal change in this country?

7:19

And I think all roads pointed to the

7:21

root cause of that cancer. And unlike

7:24

the U.S. Senate seat, which I for

7:26

a hot second had considered a few years ago

7:29

before you and I met, before I thought I'd hung

7:31

a jersey on politics, that's

7:34

driving change through a legislative process that

7:36

itself was broken and is an illusion. Here,

7:38

the ultimate bureaucracy that

7:40

I think is sucking the lifeblood out

7:43

of the American Republic and sucking our freedoms

7:45

out along with it is actually

7:47

in the purview of the U.S. president to solve.

7:50

And so it's not just running for president, something in hierarchy

7:52

that's the highest position. Go for it. No, there's

7:55

a unique problem that needs to be solved now. It's

7:57

going to take somebody coming in from the outside.

8:00

with total disregard for the norms

8:02

of Washington DC likely somebody who's been an entrepreneur

8:05

who knows how to break glass But also

8:07

someone who knows and understands the Constitution

8:11

And I'm not saying this to boast. I'm saying this

8:13

is a matter of self-reflection Those

8:16

two qualities Don't really

8:19

coincide you could be a legal academic and have

8:21

a deep understanding of the Constitution, but you're not gonna have

8:23

the Qualities of an entrepreneur

8:26

or a glass breaker or you

8:28

might have you know This is one of the unique

8:30

features that Donald Trump brought to the presidency be an outsider

8:33

be a businessman But

8:35

those people tend not to have a first personal

8:37

understanding of the Constitution And

8:40

so if I look myself in the mirror and ask myself This

8:42

country's afforded me an education and my parents

8:45

have given me an upbringing and this

8:47

country's allowed me to live the American dream How

8:49

do I use my unique set of attributes

8:51

to have a maximal positive impact? reviving

8:54

the soul of this country and the essence of who we

8:56

are Her not yeah running for president

8:59

was the way to do it And so that's why I'm on

9:01

this journey And I think we're not gonna stop until we're

9:03

done and we succeed but there's this waking

9:05

up and saying okay I'm gonna run for president. It's

9:08

quite a bold move. There's doing

9:10

it But historically the people

9:12

tend to win the presidency have it either

9:15

Deep history in politics or their family

9:17

has a deep history in politics or Donald

9:19

Trump had a high profile With

9:23

his business and what he's done with the TV show You

9:26

didn't really have those yet. You still come

9:29

in as it's kind of curveball and

9:31

you're now I'll put

9:33

Donald Trump to one side at the moment So don't what he's doing, but

9:36

it feels like you're the leading most

9:38

credible candidate I appreciate that man That's

9:40

not me that's not me saying you're credible

9:42

it's from the opinions I said to ever spoke

9:44

to everybody else I spoke to a lot of people and

9:47

a lot of people have said to me if it's

9:49

not Trump is with a And

9:51

I've also heard people saying people

9:54

who would vote for Trump Will

9:56

now vote for the vague and I don't know how

9:58

you've done it. Well, I think it It's through

10:00

sharing my convictions. I mean, a lot

10:02

of times some of my views that I've shared are

10:06

unorthodox, but they're my convictions and

10:08

I think that's my political strategy. Share

10:11

your actual convictions. Don't

10:13

try to tell people what they want to hear. There's

10:15

an old saying from Thomas Sowell actually, if

10:17

you care about someone, you tell

10:20

them the truth. If you care about yourself,

10:22

you tell them what they want to hear. And

10:24

so there are things I've said in this campaign that have challenged

10:26

orthodoxies 360 degrees in

10:28

the Democratic Party and the Republican Party amongst

10:31

people who thought they were

10:33

America first conservatives, but now actually

10:35

this is what it really means to put America first. We have

10:37

to rediscover what America is. And

10:40

so in the short run that has presented some

10:42

challenges in this race, you

10:44

know, I think my people who are my

10:46

pollsters and otherwise could tell you here are some things

10:48

you could have said a little bit differently and you'd be ahead

10:50

of where you are right now. They're probably in the short

10:53

run right about that. But I think in the

10:55

long run, people have a good sixth sense

10:57

for somebody who's giving them their actual

10:59

convictions. And I think

11:02

that we live in a moment where the government's

11:05

been lying to the people systematically for a long

11:07

time from the premise of the war in Iraq to the premise

11:09

for the bailouts in 2008 to the

11:11

Trump Russia collusion hoax that never was that

11:13

I challenged that Republican moderator on the last

11:16

debate about to the whatever

11:18

the Nashville transgender shooter manifesto. We were

11:20

in Nashville when we when we last spoke to

11:23

how many federal agents were in the field on January 6th to how

11:26

our money is being spent in Ukraine. I mean, the

11:28

list just goes on to the origin of COVID-19. And

11:30

I think people are very hungry for somebody

11:33

who is willing to at

11:35

least share their actual convictions. And

11:38

my end of that bargain or the deal I'd like to make with the voters

11:40

of this country is I'll do that.

11:42

And for your part, you don't have to agree with 100 percent of what

11:45

I say to support me. with 100

11:49

percent of what I say to support me. You

11:51

just have to know that I'm telling you what I believe 100 percent of the

11:54

time. That means that as

11:56

a relatively young person, at least

11:58

in politics. I'm 38. I'm

12:00

the youngest person ever to run in the Republican Party.

12:03

That means occasionally am I going to think something that's

12:05

different than I did 10 years ago? Yeah, I did.

12:08

Because I've evolved, because of my experiences, and I'm a human

12:10

being. And if you're a human being

12:12

and you're not responding to changes in

12:14

the world and changes in your own experience, then you're

12:17

probably not fitted to

12:19

be the kind of person who leads the country either. In

12:22

politics, it doesn't reward, I think, human

12:24

attributes very much in the short

12:27

run. But I think in the medium

12:29

to long run, and I hope that's measured in the time

12:31

span of this race, even, I think

12:33

it's going to lead us to be successful. And one way

12:36

or another, I would rather speak the truth and be

12:38

who I am at every step of the way than

12:41

to win by playing some carefully

12:43

crafted political snakes and ladders. And

12:45

so far, that seems to be working. And will

12:48

Nikki Haley be your running mate? No. No,

12:50

she won't. I think, yeah, she's

12:56

hopefully going to get her long-awaited seat on the board of Raytheon

12:58

and then Lachie. And maybe she'll

13:00

be able to double up and do both at the same time. So I

13:03

wish her well in that future career and wish her

13:05

to make as many hundreds of thousands, if

13:07

not millions of dollars, doing it that she, I'm

13:09

sure, has long aspired to. Well, listen, look,

13:11

we are going to get into the Bitcoin stuff. We've got my friend, Dennis Border

13:14

here who helped facilitate this. So thanks, Dennis,

13:16

because that's an important part. You're

13:19

about to say something. Yeah, well, I just think it's interesting

13:21

because clearly our

13:24

country is in a place where it's extremely divided.

13:27

And we have both sides lobbying

13:30

sort of bombs at each other. You know, even myself, I'm

13:32

center left. You probably consider

13:34

yourself at least center right. I

13:36

don't even see the spec. I'll come to that in a second. I

13:39

think we got to break the axis. Please.

13:42

Actually, because center left, center right, far

13:44

right, far right. But

13:47

that presumes that there's one axis

13:49

and then there's two poles to the axis. I

13:51

don't think that's what the political spectrum looks

13:53

like today, actually. I mean, if you look at the

13:56

most some of the initiatives, particularly

13:58

important to me right now, I mean, I think we're

14:00

marching our way into World War III. I think

14:02

it's deeply dangerous. The

14:04

American people have

14:06

not yet fully processed those risks. I think the

14:09

funding of the war in Ukraine is a disaster. That's

14:11

a bipartisan idea. And so

14:14

most of the most important themes that we need

14:16

to address today are actually bipartisan

14:19

in the stupidity of them. And

14:22

I think that there are other opportunities for change that

14:24

are nonpartisan of how we actually

14:26

revive the country. I mean, this basic idea that

14:29

I talked about at the at the blockchain

14:31

conference, that the people we

14:33

elect to run the government ought

14:35

to at least be the ones who actually run the government. Maybe

14:38

the people who I didn't vote for, but

14:40

at least let it be the people who we the people elected.

14:44

These are not black ideas or white

14:46

ideas or even red ideas or blue ideas.

14:49

I think they're fundamentally American ideals.

14:52

And I want to say something about

14:54

the division point. I begin this campaign

14:57

believing that we are deeply divided as a country

14:59

and I want to unite this country. Here's what I've found.

15:04

The real dividing line in this country is certainly

15:06

not between black and white as the traditional media

15:08

would have you believe. But it's not even between

15:10

Democrat and Republican. I don't

15:13

think so. I think

15:15

it's between and there's different ways you could

15:17

cut this the managerial class versus the everyday citizen.

15:19

I think that's one important axis. You

15:21

could cut it between those of us who believe in the

15:24

founding ideals of the United States of America,

15:26

unbridled meritocracy, the unbridled

15:29

pursuit of excellence, absolute free

15:31

speech. And I'm a free speech absolutes that any opinion

15:33

goes no matter how heinous the rule of

15:35

law, self governance, the idea that we the people

15:38

self govern in a constitutional republic

15:40

where every citizen's voice and vote counts

15:42

equally. Here's

15:45

what I found. We're taught to

15:47

believe that we're divided. I actually have

15:49

now traveled a majority of states in this union. I

15:52

can tell you with conviction. This is not an opinion.

15:54

I think this is a fact. 80 plus

15:57

percent of Americans in this

15:59

country. agree on those rules of the road. Maybe

16:02

they disagree on, you know, the details, corporate tax

16:04

rates being high or low or abortion even, and

16:06

I'm not dismissing the importance of questions like

16:09

that. But in the basic principles

16:11

and the rules of the road, 80 plus percent

16:13

of this country agrees on it. And half the 20 percent

16:16

are people younger than us who never learned those

16:18

ideals in the first place. And I think we can bring them

16:20

along too. So

16:23

this notion of national division at

16:25

the level of people in the country when you take TV

16:28

screens and social media, etc., out of it, it

16:30

actually, I now believe this with conviction,

16:32

is actually a myth. We're sold

16:35

to believe that we're actually divided when

16:38

the basic rules of the road actually were united on.

16:40

And the individual

16:42

policy disputes don't have to go to the level

16:44

of deep bone, deep division if it weren't for the projection

16:47

of division that were fed

16:50

largely by the media and by modern

16:52

offshoots of media. And

16:55

so why do we fall for it? I

16:57

think we fall for it because we happen to now

16:59

live in a moment, not just it's not all just the advent

17:02

of social media and everything else. Those are those

17:05

are the vectors, but there's an underlying pre-existing

17:07

condition where we

17:09

find ourselves at a moment in our national history

17:12

when faith, patriotism,

17:16

hard work,

17:17

family, the things

17:20

that used to fill our sense of purpose

17:22

and meaning. Those have

17:24

all disappeared right around the same time in American

17:26

history. And there's deep preceded causes for that. I talk about

17:28

this in one of my books. But

17:31

when you have that vacuum of purpose, then

17:33

you're vulnerable to almost fall for anything. And

17:37

so I'm not I'm not sort of preaching that we have to be religious

17:39

or this or that or the other thing. But like, here's a basic

17:41

prescription, faith, family,

17:43

patriotism, hard work.

17:46

Try to pick two. You're the gear

17:48

to go all for us. But

17:50

two try to pick two. We can't be at zero because

17:52

if you're at zero, you're going to then bend the knee to something.

17:55

And so you're going to be sold the

17:58

myth of national division or the myth of climate.

17:59

which is different than any particular

18:02

individual claim about climate change, it's

18:04

a religion or COVIDism, or

18:06

wokeism or transgenderism, or

18:09

Zelenskyism, which has become a bit of a religion

18:12

in the United States of America in both parties.

18:15

These are symptoms of this deeper

18:17

void of purpose. And

18:19

so I think part of my task is, I can't

18:22

fill that full hole as the US president, but I

18:24

can fill part of it with a vision of

18:28

our national identity, of who we are as

18:30

Americans. And that's

18:32

a task I'm setting out to achieve. No,

18:34

it's a long and winding

18:36

road to get there. I think that

18:39

sounded optimistic. I'm

18:44

not a morning in America, I'm not a morning in America

18:46

person, right? It's not morning in America right now, but

18:48

it can be. And

18:51

I think the choice that we make in the next few

18:53

years, I think within the next decade or less,

18:57

if we don't get this right in the next

18:59

decade, I don't think we have a country left. I

19:01

think it's the end of the United States as we know it. It

19:03

maybe will exist as a geographic space, but that's

19:06

also to your question earlier, I mean, that's what drew me into this

19:08

race with the sense of urgency. This

19:11

show is brought to you by Bit Casino. Now

19:13

Bit Casino was established in 2013 and

19:16

is the world's first licensed Bitcoin casino.

19:19

It is trusted by tens of thousands of players

19:21

worldwide. And not only do they have cutting

19:23

edge security, but they offer fast withdrawals

19:25

and VIP experiences that money can't

19:27

buy. Bit Casino has over 2,800 games

19:29

of tournaments for you to

19:31

try out. And with 24 seven live

19:34

chat support, you can always get help if needed.

19:36

If you wanna find out more about Bit Casino, the

19:38

first Bitcoin casino to win an EGR award,

19:41

head over to bitcasino.io, which

19:43

is B-I-T-C-A-S-I-N-O.io.

19:47

And please remember to gamble responsibly.

19:50

Next up today, we have Unchained. Now Bitcoiners,

19:53

you'd be crazy to sell your Bitcoin right now. Right?

19:56

The halving is just over six months away. And

19:58

we've seen before that this... be a time which sees

20:01

the price rise as the new supply shrinks.

20:03

Now selling Bitcoin to cover unexpected expenses

20:06

can end up costing you missed opportunities.

20:09

With credit card interest rates up to an average of 21%

20:11

and increasing, by borrowing

20:13

against your Bitcoin you can actually save quite

20:16

a lot. And the best part, with Unchained

20:18

you get to hold your own keys and you

20:20

can always verify that your Bitcoin is secure.

20:23

Unchained Loans dashboard gives you a health

20:25

status for your loan so you can easily

20:27

manage collateral when the Bitcoin price

20:29

moves quickly. So don't be forced to sell

20:31

your Bitcoin and miss out on those potential gains.

20:34

And for more info on this, go to unchained.com

20:36

and use the promo code WHATBITCOINDID

20:39

to get $50 off concierge onboarding.

20:42

Also today we have Wazabi who I

20:44

am using to keep my Bitcoin private. Now

20:46

Wazabi is the easiest way to send and

20:48

receive Bitcoin privately, even for

20:50

non-technical people like me it is effortless

20:53

and it provides privacy by default. With

20:55

Wazabi there is no minimum amount

20:57

so you can start coin joining straight away and

21:00

Wazabi users can make coin join transactions

21:02

together with BTC Pay and Trezor users

21:05

and BTC Pay server users can make payments

21:07

in coin join which saves on fees and is

21:09

a privacy improvement. Also Wazabi

21:11

has just dropped a new feature, now Trezor

21:14

suite users can make coin joins directly on the hardware

21:16

wallet which is obviously very very

21:19

cool. So if you want to find out more please head

21:21

over to wazabiwallet.io which

21:23

is w a s a b i

21:26

w a l l e t dot io.

21:29

Well listen I've been traveling here for what

21:32

two decades now. Yeah. Probably

21:34

been here nearly a hundred times, I've never

21:37

been to any other country more. I love it over here, it's

21:39

great and what you see on the tv is very

21:41

different from your experience when you're here when you go out you meet

21:43

people. Yes. It's great. That's my point. You don't see

21:45

that but I do believe

21:48

that the media and

21:50

whatever the political class, the elites,

21:53

whatever have weaponized the 20 percent. Yes.

21:56

Difference. Totally. So you're going to get

21:58

the deep of what's going on there. Yeah. Okay, because

22:00

this is the stuff I don't do in campaign speeches. It's

22:03

all in sentence, right? Well, yes,

22:06

yes, it's incentives. But let

22:08

me see if you mean that in the same way that I do.

22:12

I do agree with that. But so

22:14

to me, the story is clear, actually, what's happened is failed

22:17

institutional elites,

22:20

leaders of institutions that have failed

22:23

to fulfill their purpose for existence

22:27

and used to get criticized from it. Let's

22:31

use political lingo here by the left have

22:34

weaponized this new apologist

22:38

brand of progressivism as a deflection

22:41

tool to deflect accountability for their own failures. A

22:43

lot of jargon there. Let me let me just use some specific

22:45

examples. 2008, the

22:48

financial crisis and the bailouts

22:51

that followed what happened. You had the

22:53

old left that said, and by the way,

22:56

I think there's a lot of validity to this claim. That's

22:59

not capitalism using public taxpayer money to

23:01

bail out a bunch of big banks that took risks when

23:03

times were good, made boatloads of money

23:06

doing it, and then now

23:08

are pinning

23:09

into the public to bail them out when times go bad. That's

23:11

not capitalism. That's crony capitalism. So, you know,

23:13

we'll occupy Wall Street and we'll

23:16

demand that you redistribute

23:19

all that money from those wealthy

23:21

corporate fat cats to poor people to help poor people. That's what the old

23:23

left had to say. But right around that time, there

23:25

was this new strand of the left that said,

23:27

well, it's not quite economic

23:29

injustice we're after. It's racial injustice

23:32

and misogyny and bigotry and climate

23:34

change. After

23:36

Wall Street, Occupy

23:38

Wall Street is a pretty tough pill to swallow. But

23:41

this new, let's call it the woke stuff, is pretty

23:43

easy, actually. Applaud

23:46

diversity and inclusion. Put some token minorities on your

23:48

boards. Talk about systemic racism. Muse

23:50

about the racially disparate impact of climate change after

23:52

you fly in that private jet to Davos. We can do

23:54

that. That we can

23:56

handle. And

23:58

so you have this sort of arraigned. marriage.

24:00

And I just happened to, I bring this one up first, because

24:02

it's the one I happened to see first. I got my first job

24:05

in the fall of 2007, right on the eve in New

24:08

York City, in a finance firm right on the eve of the Ahoy

24:10

crisis. So interesting time to get a first job.

24:13

That's where you see that arranged marriage,

24:15

where you have one institutional class of unlikely

24:17

bedfellows, right? The folks

24:20

on Wall Street somehow embracing this new woke

24:22

orthodoxy. Interesting how that, how

24:24

that arranged marriage took place. But then you open your

24:26

eyes and you

24:29

see it everywhere. Right? The old breakup

24:31

big tech around that time used to come from the left.

24:34

Silicon Valley says, All right, well, take

24:36

it easy over there. We'll use our monopoly power to

24:39

censor hate speech or misinformation as you know,

24:42

you guys vaguely over there define it, but leave us alone

24:44

and leave our monopoly power intact. It worked. Coca

24:47

Cola says, Okay, we used to get criticized

24:50

from the left for spreading diabetes

24:52

and obesity in the black community. Hold the phone,

24:54

hold the phone. We'll talk about teaching our employees

24:57

how to be less white, call voter ID

24:59

laws in Georgia racist, even though we're a beverage

25:02

company, and we don't have anything

25:05

to do with voting laws in Georgia, but that's okay. We'll

25:07

interject ourselves. Great defang the

25:09

left. As I just, it's

25:11

not just in the corporate sphere, you go to the military. 25 years

25:15

of pointless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $7 trillion

25:18

added to our national debt. People my

25:20

age sent to go die fighting somebody else's war

25:22

by the thousands, innocent Americans. And

25:25

to what end the Taliban's in charge 20 years later,

25:27

Iraq is still a broken country. Totally

25:30

failed. The left used to be the

25:32

ones criticizing the Iraq war and those Middle

25:34

Eastern wars. Remember that this is a Republican creature.

25:36

Remember the bailouts are also under

25:38

Republican administration, which goes back to the fact is not about

25:40

Republicans and Democrats. Far deeper. Well,

25:43

what does General Mark Milley then say? Does

25:45

he want accountability for admitting that the Iraq

25:48

and Afghanistan, the Iraq war

25:50

and the Afghanistan occupation thereafter was

25:52

a failure? No. So

25:54

he says, will muse

25:57

about white rage and systemic.

26:00

racism. Woke

26:02

smoke to deflect accountability for their own failure.

26:04

Look at the schools. Well

26:06

shut down public schools for two years in the name of COVID-19.

26:09

Well, it's interesting how COVID only affects teachers

26:11

and public schools, but not private ones. Funny how that works.

26:13

Private schools managed to remain open. Shut down the

26:15

public schools in their cities for nearly two years. Take

26:18

my hometown of Cincinnati shut down for an entire year.

26:20

I went to public schools through eighth grade. I went to a private

26:22

high school for high school mile in the modern for

26:25

high school Saint Xavier High School. They closed for four

26:27

days at all during the entire pandemic. That was it.

26:30

So interesting how it

26:32

only affects the teachers in public schools. Well, now

26:35

what do they say two years later, black kids in the inner city

26:37

aren't testing as well as white or Asian kids

26:39

in the suburbs. So what do they start saying

26:41

math is racist? I

26:43

mean, I'm not making this stuff up. This came out, you know, from teachers,

26:46

you know, otherwise, last year, math is racist. Now two plus two equals

26:48

four. Math is not racist. But

26:50

what might be

26:52

inequitable

26:54

is the failure to teach those kids

26:56

in the inner city how to do math because teachers unions

26:58

got a perk of getting two years off while collecting

27:01

full pay. It is woke

27:03

smoke to deflect accountability for their own failure.

27:06

So are we really divided that half the country believes

27:08

that math is racist that the United States was born

27:10

in 1619 as some racist project designed

27:12

to oppress the oppressed. And

27:15

that's what this nation is that are of course not do

27:17

I we have to somehow stop burning carbon and even

27:19

though we shift that to places like China, that it's

27:22

racist and xenophobic to have a border that we actually

27:24

respect or whatever. No,

27:26

most people don't believe it's not even close.

27:29

It's not 5050.

27:30

So it's this fringe

27:31

minority, the other side of this war,

27:34

I guess you could call it. But

27:37

you know, 10 20% of this country, but they've

27:39

been weaponized because of incentives whose incentives,

27:42

it's the failure of the leaders of from the

27:44

military to our public schools to K through 12

27:46

education to college education, to

27:48

Wall Street to Silicon Valley to corporate America, that

27:51

use this to defang criticism

27:54

that used to come from the left, but they've weaponized this

27:57

new strand of the left to deflect

27:59

accountability. So that's a long story, I know,

28:01

but that's, I think, why

28:04

this fringe minority is still winning the

28:07

war for the soul of this country. And

28:09

I think it takes a commander in chief who,

28:13

first of all, understands this. And

28:15

I think you can't win this war if you don't know that you're

28:17

in one or what the terms of it really are. And

28:21

it's part of, again, what called me into this. You see a bunch of Republican

28:23

politicians that will, you

28:25

know, read with varying

28:28

gradations of outrage what's served

28:30

up to them on their teleprompter. I

28:32

think you probably need somebody who understands

28:35

the why more than just the what that they're

28:37

reading back to people. It goes back to if you tell,

28:39

if you care about someone, you tell them the truth, at least tell

28:41

them what you believe. If you care about yourself, you tell

28:43

them what they want to hear. Politicians in

28:45

both parties, that's what they're acclimated to doing. And

28:49

so, yeah, I think it's

28:51

not 1980 anymore. The threats to liberty

28:54

are complex. They present themselves in

28:56

new ways. You know, government

28:59

using backdoor channels of private companies

29:01

or private actors in space that

29:03

you all are in, in the realm of currency, in the realm

29:05

of capital. That's

29:07

what's happening in the country. But I think it takes somebody

29:09

who sees that with

29:11

a level of clarity in

29:15

order to be able to actually have

29:17

a shot at forever

29:19

fixing it. And I think, look, I think

29:21

there will be a lot of Republican voters who

29:24

will love what you're saying. Oh,

29:26

yeah. And if you want to unite the country,

29:29

how do you express this criticism

29:32

of the left whilst also bringing

29:34

them back on side? Well, I think actually, if you listen

29:36

carefully to what I just said, it's not

29:39

really a criticism even of the left.

29:42

It's a criticism of an arranged

29:45

marriage between

29:48

institutional elites who aren't at all

29:50

of the left, but

29:52

who have entered this arranged

29:56

marriage that's not really a marriage of love, but

29:58

more like a mutual prostitution.

29:59

with

30:01

a certain strand of the left. They're

30:03

two strange bed fellows that together

30:06

get in bed and they create this

30:09

new bastard child this woke industrial

30:11

complex. That's far more

30:13

powerful fold in state power or corporate

30:15

power alone because it's a hybrid of the two

30:17

that together can do it neither cannot own. That's

30:19

really what I'm criticizing. My first book was woke ink. People

30:22

remember the book is woke. No, no, no. The title of

30:24

the book was woke ink. And I use this.

30:26

This was before that word became popular

30:29

in American parlance. The

30:32

ink is where the emphasis is actually.

30:36

It's a cynical exploitation of there are

30:38

certain people some person dies their hair pink,

30:40

you know, is you know, has a nose ring and thinks they're

30:42

a gender different than their biological sex. It's a free country.

30:45

You're allowed to do that. I personally

30:47

think many of those people are lost and maybe hungry for purpose

30:49

that others in positions

30:51

of leadership have failed to serve them. And

30:55

that's okay. That's part of a free country as

30:57

long as we don't have the cynical intervention

31:00

of entrenched elite

31:03

institutional failed leaders that

31:05

are using that for

31:08

their own cynical ends. And I think that's

31:10

actually a big that's not a criticism of the left or the right.

31:12

It's a deep understanding of how a fringe

31:16

worldview and anti American worldview that

31:18

was about challenging the system. And

31:20

I'm a guy who you know, agree or not with what you say, if somebody

31:23

is really going to be a challenge to the system, I'm

31:25

always I'm always going to give you some credit for that. Right?

31:28

That takes guts. But what began as a challenge

31:30

to the system became the system. And

31:33

I think that's not a critique of one

31:35

end of a political spectrum. It's a critique of

31:37

a merger of state corporate and institutional

31:40

power that I think poses

31:42

some real danger to the future of this Republic.

31:45

I think I think my question is still valid though,

31:47

in that I unite the country. Well, how do you know

31:49

the country because even if it is a fringe part,

31:52

even if it is a fringe group, yeah, it

31:54

is still some

31:57

of these ideas, some of this may be perhaps

31:59

ideal. It's still attributed to

32:01

the left. It is still defended by

32:03

the left. Yeah, and ideology certainly is. Well, I think

32:06

there's many versions of the left. That's one thing

32:08

I would say. And sure, many versions of the right. But what I'm saying

32:10

is that the

32:12

country is divided on politics. It might

32:15

not be divided in the street, in the cafes, in the bar.

32:17

When it comes down to election, it will

32:19

be divided because some people

32:22

will want a Republican and some people

32:24

will want a Democrat. And if

32:26

you are going to unite the country, I still

32:29

don't know how you're going to do that. Well,

32:31

my aspiration is actually to win this in a Reagan-style

32:34

landslide, as Reagan did in 1980. And

32:36

that sounds about as ridiculous for me to say today as it would

32:38

have for Reagan to say in 1979, around the same time. I

32:45

think that I rarely talk in terms of Republicans and

32:47

Democrats on the campaign trail. I'm

32:49

equally critical of the Republican Party as I am of the Democratic

32:51

Party, but in different ways. I

32:54

don't sit here bashing Biden, not because there isn't a

32:56

lot to bash or criticize. I know I do criticize in words

32:59

do, but because I don't even think

33:01

he's really the person running the country. I

33:03

think he's a puppet of the managerial class

33:05

in the administrative state. And

33:07

I think that's something that Democrats and Republicans alike

33:10

can agree is not the country we want to live in. I

33:12

mean, agree or not with Donald

33:14

Trump, you're free to vote for him or not in

33:17

the last couple of elections. We don't want to become

33:19

a country where the party in power uses police

33:21

force to eliminate its political opponents from running. We

33:24

don't want to become a country. I think most people in this country

33:26

do not want to be a nation where

33:29

the elected representatives who are designed

33:31

to want to make the laws are not the ones actually making

33:33

the laws that it's a bureaucrat who

33:36

got their position because of civil service protections

33:38

and can't be fired. And I think that it

33:40

takes a president who understands they can be fired to be able to

33:43

do it. So am I going to unite 100 percent

33:45

of the country with that? No, I don't think so. But

33:47

I think I can probably unite

33:49

about 80 percent of this country. And

33:52

with a little bit of work and showing up and being

33:54

willing to engage with the next generation, maybe 90

33:56

percent of this country. I

33:59

think half the battle is showing up. I mean, I've gone to probably

34:01

more college campuses than any Republican president

34:03

has, Republican presidential candidate has

34:05

in modern history. Yeah,

34:08

I'm on TikTok. That was

34:10

persuaded to do it. The

34:12

next generation with that we Darhamson. I

34:16

have not done. Yeah,

34:19

I think I had one where I was kind of kind of jamming

34:21

a little bit. I think I did some

34:23

surfing on TikTok, most recently.

34:25

But my point is, you

34:28

know, even look at the place we go, South Side

34:30

of Chicago, not a place where Republican

34:32

presidential candidates go. I've spoken to a room bigger

34:34

than this one with about 100 people and at 95%, 100, 150% supposedly

34:40

presumably Democrat, 95% black audience

34:42

who you'd presume agree with, disagree with much of

34:44

what I have to say. That's a room

34:46

where I've never been in a room where

34:48

people agree with me more on the importance

34:50

of ending the war in Ukraine, stopping spending our taxpayer

34:53

money over there, building our own

34:55

southern border defenses, including militarizing

34:57

our southern border because they're turning South Shore High School

34:59

in the inner city of Chicago into an encampment

35:02

for migrants where they're paying $7,000 per migrant per

35:04

month where people in that community are

35:06

rightly asking what about me? I've

35:08

been to the inner city of Philadelphia, been to Kensington.

35:12

I don't know if those people are Democrats or Republicans, but they're, I

35:15

mean, it's literally like a scene out

35:17

of hell that you see people

35:19

walking around where I took videos

35:22

there, posted them online. The

35:24

number one response I got is he staged it because

35:26

it looks like there were actors from, from

35:29

some sort of ghoulish movie

35:32

is what people, like people literally on the internet thought

35:34

that we did some hired actors that are

35:36

walking around this park. We're walking around people who are

35:39

that lost from drugs or their arms

35:41

and feet are decaying from shooting themselves up from

35:44

different kinds of drugs. No, those weren't paid actors.

35:46

And it's sad that that's the country.

35:48

You don't have to go to third world country to see that you go to, well,

35:51

you could go to a third world country. It's called regions of the United

35:53

States of America. Got to Flint,

35:55

Michigan, one of the forgotten cities, right? I mean,

35:57

people that happened, okay, relegated to the past.

36:00

Well, Michael Moore's done that. I don't agree with

36:02

Michael Moore on a lot of things, but at least he paid attention to Flint,

36:04

Michigan. And so I think we

36:06

can do this in a way that it's not going to unite 100%

36:09

of the country, but

36:14

it can unite 80% and 90% of this country, showing up

36:16

as half the battle. Here's my pledge as the next president.

36:18

You will not agree with me on 100% of what I say. You

36:22

won't. Now, let's take

36:24

a step back and say, it'd be kind of weird if you did. Right?

36:27

I mean, we're a country founded on the belief

36:30

that you get to speak your mind and you do too

36:32

as long as I get to in return. That's the beauty of

36:34

the United States of America. And

36:38

that itself is a substantive value that we

36:40

can unite around, actually. And

36:42

I think that that's something we've long forgotten. And

36:44

so I do believe people are hungry for that. Maybe

36:49

I'm wrong, in which case I won't be the president,

36:52

in which case I won't have the opportunity to unite. But

36:54

if I'm elected, it's

36:57

on this message. Right? So

36:59

if on this message, the people of

37:01

this country put me in that office,

37:04

by definition, that's our path to national unity.

37:06

Because this is a message that says we can be united

37:08

around shared national values, even if we disagree on individual

37:10

policies. This show is brought

37:12

to you by Orange Bell App, the Bitcoin-only

37:15

social network. Now, if you're like me

37:17

and enjoy talking about Bitcoin all the time, you

37:19

know how difficult it is to find local Bitcoiners,

37:22

grab a beer and talk about hyper-Bitcoinization.

37:25

Now the Orange Bell App makes it super easy to

37:27

find nearby Bitcoiners to connect with. And

37:30

it's also the largest repository of

37:32

Bitcoin-only events. I've been using

37:34

the app quite a bit recently when I travel. It's

37:37

been a bit of a game changer. So if you want to get

37:39

in touch and connect with me, please do

37:41

head over to the orangepillapp.com,

37:44

send me a DM and start building your local network

37:46

of Bitcoiners. Next up today, we

37:48

have Ledger. Now Ledger is the world

37:51

leader in Bitcoin security, and it's the best

37:53

way to own and secure your private keys. If

37:56

you're still holding Bitcoin on an exchange or with a

37:58

custodian, it might be time to take Bitcoin

38:00

security a little more seriously because remember

38:03

not your keys not your Bitcoin. Now

38:05

Ledger hardware wallets paired with the Ledger Live

38:07

app are the easiest and safest way to start

38:10

managing your own private keys. You

38:12

can send and sign your Bitcoin transactions with full

38:14

transparency in the Ledger Live app and

38:16

honestly it could not be easier. I

38:18

have been a Ledger user since 2017 and

38:21

I absolutely love the products and I'm still

38:23

using the first Ledger device I bought back

38:25

then. Now if you want to find out more and purchase

38:28

a hardware wallet from Ledger then please head

38:30

over to shop.ledger.com which

38:32

is s-h-o-p dot l-e-d-g-e-r

38:36

dot com. Also today we

38:38

have Iris Energy. Now Iris Energy

38:40

is the largest Nasdaq listed Bitcoin miner

38:42

using 100% renewable energy and

38:45

they are building next-gen data centers for

38:47

Bitcoin mining, generative AI and

38:49

beyond. Now Danny and I have been working

38:51

with the founders Dan and Will for several months now and

38:54

have been super impressed with their values especially

38:56

their commitment to local communities. It has

38:58

been great collaborating with them across everything

39:00

we do from the podcast to films to

39:03

events and even my football team Real Bedford.

39:05

Iris Energy is the responsible way to power

39:08

Bitcoin and beyond so if you want to find out more

39:10

please head over to irisenergy.co which

39:12

is i-r-i-s-e-n-e-r-g-y

39:15

dot co. Can I selfishly

39:18

ask you if you become president can I come

39:20

and interview you again in the Oval Office? Yes

39:22

that would be you know I've said I've actually made a

39:24

decision we're going to do a podcast I'm doing a weekly podcast

39:28

as part of this campaign we're going to continue that through my

39:30

eight years in the White House. I want to come in the Oval Office come

39:32

and see you. Okay all right we should get into

39:35

the topics that people listen to this care about

39:37

which is money, Bitcoin and

39:41

all the sub subjects of that of getting

39:44

away from a surveillance state CBDCs

39:46

but the thing that really gets me is

39:49

we've been making the show for a long time and it's yeah whilst it's

39:51

a Bitcoin show it's also really a macroeconomic

39:53

show and in 2008 in

39:55

the financial crisis I think it was 8

39:58

900 million was printed. And

40:01

this year alone, I think it's $4 trillion has

40:03

been printed. The dollar system

40:05

is essentially a Ponzi now for the government.

40:10

We're in a situation whereby they've had to raise

40:12

interest rates to reduce inflation, but that

40:15

brings in recessionary pressures. So they're

40:17

going to have to reduce interest rates to stimulate

40:19

the economy, certainly going into an election. But

40:21

in doing so, they're going to have to print more money, which

40:23

will drive inflation again. And that is

40:25

potential. Yo-Yo, why my Republic stuff

40:28

coming to the United States? And if it comes

40:30

to the United States, it comes to the rest of the world. Nobody's

40:33

talking about cuts apart from

40:36

maybe you deep cuts, but deep cuts.

40:38

But no one's talking about austerity. No one's talking about

40:41

the government running a budget, running

40:43

a fiscal surplus. So I

40:46

want to know exactly the things that you

40:48

want to do to fix it. Yeah. So

40:52

there's a lot. You know, I

40:54

believe that the only answer, not just

40:57

for fiscal reasons, but even for constitutional

41:00

integrity reasons, 75%

41:03

reduction in the size of the

41:05

federal government. And that includes

41:07

federal employees. You know, I

41:09

think the US president has the power to do that on

41:12

day one. And this made a lot of people. I said,

41:14

but how do you do? How do you, David came and get started on the first

41:16

wave of it just as a thought experiment. I'm not saying

41:18

there's exactly how we're going to do it, but as a thought experiment, by

41:21

the way, that's a lot of voters as well. Some

41:25

of them, if they're honest with themselves, may want actual

41:27

better work in the private sector and they can get it. And either way,

41:29

the job of the government is not to provide employment opportunity.

41:32

I don't believe that's the job of the US government. So,

41:35

so say what you will. Maybe we disagree on that one. Then if we,

41:38

if you're on the other side of it, I'm saying whoever's on the other side

41:41

of this can disagree with me and they're entitled

41:43

to their opinion. I

41:45

would say on day one, I mean, even if you imagined, how do

41:47

you wrap your arms around this? If

41:49

your social security number ends in an even number, you stay. If it ends in

41:52

odd number, you go boom. 50% reduction

41:55

on day one. Now there's a beauty to that. People said

41:57

that's glib. The reason

41:59

US. The reason why the presidents haven't done it is that

42:01

there are these so-called civil service protections

42:04

that stop a president from firing somebody. You

42:07

could be mired in court for years saying

42:09

that, well, I was fired for political retribution or it's a civil

42:11

rights law violation or whatever.

42:14

Those civil service protections do not apply to mass

42:16

layoffs. So you've completely shielded yourself

42:18

from that criticism if the first wave

42:20

of cuts is done with a chainsaw and not a chisel. I

42:23

think that's what we're going to be recording. Is it going to be perfect? No,

42:25

it's not. I mean, the status quo is what it is.

42:28

Anyone who's proposing incremental reform

42:30

is lying or lying to themselves even.

42:33

They may think they're telling the truth, but it's not going to happen. It

42:35

hasn't happened for every bit of that reason. It's

42:37

like a multi-headed monster

42:39

where you cut off one one-headed. Something else is going to

42:41

grow back unless you actually go to the root cause and gut

42:43

the thing. It's very core. I

42:46

believe in zero based budgeting. I've

42:48

been a CEO. I've built successful businesses,

42:50

multiple, multiple, multi-billion dollar businesses. Well,

42:53

part of what that means is that you

42:56

don't just start with last year's budget

42:58

as your baseline and then roll that

43:00

over. You ask what's actually necessary from

43:03

the ground up. That's never happened in our nation's

43:05

history. Part of this, let's also do the math

43:07

on the 33 trillion of national debt. Seven

43:09

trillion of that was attributable to two foreign

43:12

wars that literally could not have happened. Like if you

43:14

just pretend they didn't happen, not a thing would be different

43:16

today. You could have had a

43:18

limited targeted operation take out the Taliban in Afghanistan, but

43:20

that's like a tiny fraction of the cost of the occupation that

43:22

came after in the Iraq war thereafter that. Seven

43:25

trillion of our national debt would be gone if it weren't for that. Now

43:27

we're about to repeat the same mistake in

43:29

places like Ukraine. My view is not a dime of

43:31

foreign aid is going to be ever sent to a country whose

43:34

national debt per capita is less than ours. That's

43:37

almost every country we give foreign aid to today. I think

43:40

that there are some reasonable practical

43:42

steps we can take. I think this is our

43:44

last window to be able to do it before

43:47

interest payments become the largest line item on the federal budget,

43:50

which in turn has to,

43:52

in the meantime, it's like showering

43:54

cocaine on a drug addict. It's what the Federal Reserve

43:57

has been doing to the American people and politicians with

43:59

the federal government. four-year election cycles or two-year

44:01

election cycles who have an incentive to see

44:03

that through. And

44:05

I think that we're at the tipping point where if we

44:08

continue with this much longer, we're not going to have a country left.

44:10

It's like ancient Rome. They

44:12

devalued the denarius. The amount of silver in the

44:14

denarius went down to almost nothing.

44:17

Back in their era, the way they used to fix it is go to Northern

44:19

Africa or whatever and plunder and then bring some back.

44:22

Well, it is a

44:24

philosophical debate about whether

44:28

that game can be played all over again, but that's not the

44:30

way this game can play out this time around. And

44:33

so this spells the end

44:35

of an empire, the end of a nation, a once great

44:38

nation, unless we get that back on track and right.

44:40

So 75% reduction out of the gate, zero-based

44:43

budgeting as the new norm in Washington, DC, start

44:45

with zero as the baseline, and any foreign war

44:48

that doesn't advance US interests and foreign aid

44:50

to any country that has a national debt

44:52

problem that's smaller than ours, which is almost every other

44:54

country that we give foreign aid to. And

44:56

yes, that's the beginnings of a very pragmatic plan of how

44:59

we lead our nation forward. Put

45:01

the Federal Reserve back in its place, tie the Fed's hands.

45:04

The fact that that backstop exists is

45:07

actually what allows a lot of these behaviors to continue.

45:11

People forget it's not just that they're doing it in response.

45:14

The behaviors wouldn't have existed if the hands had been tied

45:16

in the first place. How would I do that? Peg

45:18

the dollar to a basket of commodities, period,

45:22

with real value and fixed supply, period. That's

45:25

it. Turns out when the US

45:27

was pegged, the dollar was pegged to the gold standard, we

45:30

had our highest economic growth that we've had in our national

45:32

history. It was averaging about 4% plus

45:34

per year for most of our national history. Go

45:36

off the gold standard, what do you know, the dollar becomes

45:38

volatile. It's no longer stable. Pricing

45:41

mechanisms are much more difficult,

45:44

become less efficient in the marketplace. Economic

45:46

growth is impeded on. And

45:48

you have the growth in the mandate of the Federal Reserve,

45:50

which becomes hostile to wage growth in this country.

45:53

Over time, wages grow up. They claim it's a leading indicator of

45:55

inflation, try to tighten monetary policy

45:57

into what's actually just a downturn in the business cycle because wages are not the

45:59

only thing. wages are the last thing to go up. Well,

46:01

if wages are the last thing to go up in a business cycle and you claim

46:04

it's a leading indicator of inflation and you type monetary policy

46:06

into that, you give

46:08

yourself the crises that you have. That

46:10

was the source of the 2008 crisis, among other reasons. Then

46:13

you have a boom, bust, and then what comes after the bust?

46:16

Bailout.

46:17

So the boom, bust, bailout cycle. That's

46:20

how you get what happened after the

46:22

tech crash, what happened after the 2008 financial crisis,

46:25

and some limited measure of what's happened even over the course of the

46:27

last year. And

46:29

so that ends on my watch, tie the hands of the

46:31

Fed, but tie the hands against the backdrop which

46:34

the government actually has to fiscally get its act together

46:36

with true zero based budgeting, deep cuts of

46:38

the kind that I'm talking about. And one of those

46:41

indulgences would be stopping fighting foreign wars

46:43

that don't advance the American interest, which is a third of our national

46:45

debt today. Real

46:48

quickly, I think you're touching on something really important that a

46:50

lot of Bitcoiners would certainly agree with. And

46:53

that is that the unlimited money printer

46:56

in Washington, DC is really what corrupts the incentives

46:58

of the elected, whether they be

47:00

a politician or not. And it's sort of not really even the politician's

47:03

fault. I mean, look at just as an example. Oh, they're

47:05

just pawns. You kidding me? These people

47:07

aren't agents. They're vectors. Yeah,

47:09

but real quick, but just as an example, like at Satoshi Action,

47:11

we do a lot of state work. So there's no

47:13

money printer at the state level, right? They don't have

47:16

this Federal Reserve that can just

47:18

throw money at a problem every time they have an issue. And

47:20

so the incentives are very different. We find actually

47:22

very commonly that folks at the

47:25

state level are really emboldened

47:27

to create jobs, economic opportunity,

47:30

things that we all agree we need and we have

47:32

to have in order to grow as a country. But that's sort of different

47:34

in DC because they have access to that

47:37

printer. And so there's less of a need to max

47:39

stop. And again, changes. It's a moral hazard,

47:41

actually, is what it is. It's a moral hazard.

47:44

Same with raising taxes, right? Like they don't need to raise taxes.

47:46

They can just print more money. And so they can sort of

47:48

keep playing this game over and over and over again. So

47:50

you're touching on something really important here, which is that you're

47:54

going to try to get rid of that. You're going to try to limit

47:56

that, the ability for them to come in and use that money

47:58

printer, which corrupts incentives. and

48:00

forces them to be a fall to sort of like have

48:02

to play in this game. Yeah, absolutely. And I

48:04

don't know. I think, you know, and I think

48:06

we're on the same page. I don't pin it all

48:08

on that, but that's a very important factor.

48:11

And so I think that there's always a trap

48:13

to fall into to think that there's one silver bullet. I

48:16

think there's no silver bullet. I think that there is

48:18

a plethora of partial solutions. And

48:21

this is definitely high on my list of those

48:23

partial solutions, but absolutely correct.

48:26

And I think if we tie the hands of if we

48:29

have seen that I'm seeing something plugged in there into the wall.

48:32

If we pull that out of the wall, if we plug, if

48:34

we unplug the money printer, that

48:36

actually ties our hands in a lot of ways

48:38

that are good. I keep it going

48:40

for a few hours after you get elected. Yeah,

48:43

I would print a trillion dollars by Bitcoin. You

48:45

know, you have a 10 years and you'll be able to probably get rid

48:48

of the national debt. Leave it on

48:50

for a little longer than the money printers. Just just just

48:52

a few micro seconds. Just put some Bitcoin in Fort

48:54

Knox. Actually, when you get an office

48:56

is to tell them not to sell the Bitcoin that they've already

48:58

confiscated. I mean, a whole bunch of Bitcoin that the

49:01

US government holds. And what's the magnitude of that right

49:03

now? They keep auctioning it off. I mean, they're one of the largest holders of

49:05

Bitcoin in the entire world. I mean, they keep auctioning it off. So

49:09

we consider it to be a strategic reserve. In fact,

49:11

we say we have the Fort Knox. Yeah, we

49:14

should tell them to keep it. Just keep the Bitcoin

49:17

subject important. Like I believe in a fixed limit

49:20

currency. I believe in censorship

49:22

resistance. I like the I like

49:24

the whole premise of the gold backing of

49:26

the dollar. But I'm I'm

49:28

a bit younger and I prefer my gold on

49:30

my phone or on my hardware wallet. But Bitcoin

49:33

has defended my other kind of work

49:35

hard. I work really hard. I travel around the world. I do this

49:37

podcast. I got a couple of businesses, but I work hard.

49:40

I've been hit with inflation in the UK, quite heavy

49:43

inflation. Bitcoin has protected

49:45

me. And Bitcoin

49:47

is something I want to hold. Now, if I was an American citizen,

49:50

I would feel like as a hardworking

49:53

American citizen, why is Elizabeth

49:55

Warren trying to attack my

49:58

work and my defense defense? what

50:00

would you do because because she had a fundamentally different

50:02

world view by those of us who are having

50:04

this conversation believe that we as

50:06

individuals create a government accountable to us

50:10

the alternative world view to understand it is that the state

50:12

predates the individual but your

50:14

rights come from the government they're

50:16

not independent of that into this proposes a

50:19

threat to the existence of that state then

50:24

perfectly within the rights of the state

50:27

to come after prevent that from existing inside the

50:30

mistake the people in the united in the

50:32

lobbying community for bitcoin or or otherwise

50:34

in washington dc make is always educate

50:36

them and when he educate them then

50:38

they'll understand that these people don't understand her

50:40

no you got a backwards if

50:43

only that were the problem the problem it isn't that they

50:45

don't know what bitcoin represented that

50:47

they do and that the that

50:50

actually what creates the anaphylactic

50:52

response so what's the on-site punches were

50:55

we got we have five minute warning i'm having

50:57

too much fun guys well i think you can stay here

50:59

and i think i would have a year i mean to

51:01

the three pillars of your new let's get to it but

51:03

but just what what should

51:06

they do that so here in

51:08

a year's a later comprehensive crypto policy

51:10

people to go to my website today twenty twenty

51:12

four dot com check it out we get the detail

51:14

i give a detailed speech about earlier today to

51:16

but i think that we can

51:18

restore the constitutional principles which is country was

51:20

founded history core pillars to my policy

51:23

one of the freedom to code on that

51:25

list of the code of speech can't

51:27

go after to address drug-related

51:30

cash go after somebody for stealing

51:32

from the belong to somebody else for for profit you can go

51:34

after somebody in the premise of the code that they develop the

51:37

code of the first amendment violation financial

51:40

self-reliance of the thomas jefferson andrew jackson

51:42

would have stood for well all these

51:44

a m l laws and uh... and the know

51:47

your customer laws that's an infringement

51:50

on your financial self-reliance get

51:53

the punch line on this one self-hosted

51:55

wallets or any any regulation that

51:57

impede the right to have self

52:00

posted wallets rescinded. They're wrong,

52:02

they're unconstitutional. And a lot of this dates

52:04

back to the

52:07

third party doctrine, which is something

52:10

that I think the folks in the crypto space would do well

52:12

to understand. It was infringement on

52:14

our freedoms that began in the

52:16

aftermath of 9-11 with the Patriot Act and otherwise.

52:19

What did they basically say? They

52:21

said that if you and I are having a conversation, we give

52:23

up our right to privacy to a third

52:25

party, namely the phone provider that's providing

52:27

the phone that we're actually talking to each other through. That's a perversion

52:30

of what the Constitution says or the law says. The current

52:32

Supreme Court has begun to roll that back. Well,

52:35

if you believe that, that means most of these know-your-customer

52:37

laws and anti-money-laundering laws that are being used

52:40

to impede the anonymity of financial transactions,

52:43

self-hosted wallets and otherwise, are also

52:45

unconstitutional. So that's an opportunity that, again,

52:48

it takes a president who understands that to see

52:50

that through. So that's the second pillar. First

52:52

is freedom of code. Second is freedom for

52:54

financial self-reliance, punchline that applies

52:56

to things like self-hosted wallets, not being impeded

52:58

upon by unconstitutional regulations. Speaking

53:01

of which, the third point then is the freedom

53:03

to innovate without regulatory overreach. There's

53:06

a Supreme Court case that came out last year, West Virginia versus

53:09

EPA, that said several of those regulations

53:11

coming out from the EPA are unconstitutional

53:15

because Congress never gave them the authority to pass it. Well,

53:17

that applies to basically every regulation the SEC

53:19

is misusing to put

53:21

a chokehold on not just Bitcoin but cryptocurrencies more

53:23

broadly. And any other regulations

53:25

like the Biden administration is proposing to say that

53:27

there should be a special excise tax on

53:31

those who use electricity to mine for Bitcoin.

53:34

I'm sorry, Congress never authorized that. So the regulatory

53:36

state doesn't get to do that. And by the way, think

53:38

about the surveillance state they would require to

53:42

know how your energy was being used in your home. That's

53:44

Patriot Act 2.0. It's Dick Cheney 2.0

53:46

pervading both Republican parties. We

53:49

launched a movement in our own campaign,

53:51

notoneocons.com. You could check

53:53

out what that entails. That's about keeping us out of foreign wars.

53:56

But it relates to what we're talking about here because

53:58

the surveillance state here at home is... It's part of what quashes

54:01

dissent to the foreign wars that we fight. Anyway,

54:04

that's part of what the assault on Bitcoin is a symptom

54:06

of as well. So I'm dead set against any of those regulatory

54:09

overreaches as well. Freedom to code,

54:11

freedom for financial self-reliance, and

54:14

most importantly, freedom to innovate free from regulatory

54:16

overreach. And so yes,

54:19

I think that I am the most pro-Bitcoin

54:21

and pro-crypto candidate who's existed in American

54:24

history. And I'm saying that, I say that with a sense of pride.

54:27

I'm told that I was the first Republican to have these financial

54:30

disclosures you put up if you're a presidential

54:32

candidate that are required. Apparently among

54:34

the financial disclosures, I think I'm the first presidential candidate

54:36

ever to own Bitcoin

54:39

or crypto. So I think

54:41

that that's- Well, I hope you don't have any crypto. You haven't got any shitcoins,

54:44

are you? Well, I own Bitcoin

54:46

and Ethereum as a kind of the- Mike,

54:48

you're a shitcoiner. Come on, man. Okay. You

54:51

guys are purists. Right. I

54:54

don't trade my account anymore because I'm running for president. It's

54:57

independently managed. Also first

54:59

Republican presidential candidate to accept

55:02

lightning donations via Bitcoin, the

55:04

layer two. So that was a big move as well. Yeah.

55:07

You got to skate to where the puck is hopefully going

55:09

for our country, but it's not going to go there automatically.

55:13

And I just want to say this is sometimes

55:15

in our community here, whatever, we fall in the trap

55:17

of throwing up our hands and say, how can it be this way? And

55:20

maybe have some fringe candidate

55:22

running outside the political party

55:24

system and say, we're going to move the terms of the

55:27

conversation. And that's important. I'm

55:29

not taken away from that, but I'm going

55:31

to drive this actual change. We have a clear path

55:33

to me serving as the next president of the United States

55:36

and actually translating into action the things I've talked about

55:38

in that conference in this conversation today and

55:40

otherwise. This is about action. And

55:43

so at the start of this campaign, I was somewhat shy about

55:45

asking about it. Our family has invested immense amounts

55:48

of our wealth into this campaign and we will stop

55:50

at nothing. That's the inheritance we want to give our kids as

55:52

a country greater than the one we grew up

55:55

in. But now I need the

55:57

help of this community because because the establishment

55:59

RNC, the national committee just last week

56:01

with the corrupt institution but the chairwoman said i

56:04

would not get another center funding from

56:06

the rnc why could have criticized them for their corruption

56:08

publicly now making up and if you are that

56:10

they are debate that was why she said it okay

56:14

fine but we're gonna need to be lifted up by

56:16

the people who are aligned with my views and

56:18

if that doesn't come from the traditional rnc or the

56:20

detritional party system then

56:23

yes i'm gonna need people here donate

56:26

bitcoin you can donate dollars got a hold on to

56:28

a bit going to make your dollars instead either way

56:31

i asked people to do the maximum of

56:33

what they're able if you do your part i have

56:36

a clear path to beating expectations

56:38

and i went to hampshire i think that's almost set

56:41

to happen will shatter the expectation is giving the momentum

56:43

to then become the next president and

56:45

i think that that will and

56:48

i think i think we have a crowd was gonna ask people to do it before

56:50

i knew that we had a path we put up and the

56:52

millions of our money to do it first but

56:56

now we have a clear path and i need you all to lift me up

56:58

and so people do their part the

57:00

big twenty twenty four dot com donate

57:03

whatever format you want we

57:06

will do our part and i think that this is not theoretical

57:08

rise about action lost very quick questions and

57:10

you gotta go uh... and it's something that

57:13

might even help you with uh... your last point are

57:15

you gonna bring up the queen in the uh...

57:17

debates if they don't bring it up i will absolutely

57:20

called you that the my i've already told the moderators

57:22

republican party we could issue be a topic we need to be talking

57:24

about if they don't do it i

57:27

will i'm holding you to that the trip to the

57:29

oval office as it will continue

57:31

podcast yeah i'm probably a podcast episode

57:33

from their love it let me make things become a busy

57:35

i don't like what this uh... and will keep watching

57:38

thank you appreciate it

57:44

would you make it on you a fan

57:46

of the vague personally i was impressed

57:48

with i still don't know if he has a real shot

57:51

because the president i think it really comes down

57:53

to what happened to trump but he's definitely got

57:55

a chance he's up there he's impressing people i've

57:57

met a lot of people who like him and it was just very

57:59

cool to hang out with him He's very chilled, dressed casually

58:02

and when he came off camera he's exactly

58:04

the same person he was on camera which I did appreciate

58:06

because some of the people I have interviewed

58:08

have been completely different on camera and off

58:10

camera. So yeah thanks for coming on the show

58:12

Dennis, thank you for helping facilitate this and co-hosting

58:15

the interview and thanks for listening. If you've got any questions about

58:17

this, you want to hit me up about this or anything else, please

58:19

do get in touch. It's hello at whatbitcoindid.com.