Best of the Program | Guest: Zachary Levi | 5/30/25
45:02 Share

This episode is brought to you by Amazon's Blink Video Doorbell. Get more at your door with the easy-to-install Blink Video Doorbell. Get more connections. Hey, I'm here for our first date. More deliveries. Hi, I have tacos for two. Oh, thanks. We'll be right down. And more memories. I have a surprise. All new Blink Video Doorbell with two-year battery, head-to-toe HD view, and simple setup. Shop now at Amazon.com slash Blink for just $69.99.

On today's Friday podcast, Washington State has gotten so far. They are so crazy. Even Mao has to be impressed. This is what happens when you adopt the attitude of the ends justify the means. It's a really important part of the program today. Also, Zachary Levi, the actor and he's the guy who's starting his own studios in in Austin Wildwood Studios.

He's talking to me about AI and the new Google AI that will, it's going to change the industry. I mean, is there a reason we will have photographers and actors and everything else? Just what has been released this week from Google has changed things dramatically. And a thank you to Elon Musk as his fight against the swamp comes to an end. Don't miss a second of today's podcast.

Have you ever watched a dog try to hide a limb that's hurting? It'll limp for a second, then it'll snap to attention like, nope, nope, totally fine. Watch me, I'm going to run around in circles. You do things like that sometimes, pretending my body isn't falling apart. And you have zero to say about it, really, zero stars. I don't recommend it. It's not a good thing when it happens. My wife made me try Relief Factor.

And when I say she made me, she made me. She said she won't listen to me whine anymore unless I try everything. And I'm like, relief factor's not going to work. It's all natural. I mean, Dow Chemical is not even around. You know, better living through pharmaceuticals, baby. And she said, no, I don't think that's actually true, Glenn. So you should try something all natural. And I did. And I can't tell you the difference it made in my life.

My life. It totally changed my life. It might change your life. Just try it for three weeks. Get the quick start trial for three weeks and see if your aches and pains and your problems kind of disappear over time. 1995, it's relieffactor.com. relieffactor.com. 1-800-THE-NUMBER-4-RELIEF.

Hello, America. You know we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you. Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast?

Give us five stars and lead a comment because every single review helps us break through big tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review, share. Together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now let's get to work. ♪♪

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. You know, for Democrats, if you don't think you're playing with communism or socialism, talk to the people in Washington state, talk to anyone who is sane in Washington state. I'll give you his number. But they are going to full fledged communism, Marxism. You have people,

You have every giant corporation now moving out of the Seattle area and Washington State because they're going to, I'm telling you, they're going to go to wealth confiscation. They're going to do it. There is a place, Lake Washington is, you know, by Bellevue, in between Bellevue and Seattle. And it is beautiful. It is just the most beautiful place you've ever seen.

And this is where Bill Gates and everybody else. And when I was a kid, it was not like that. It was, you know, there were still normal people that lived there. And now you can't even get close to it. And there's this place in the middle of the lake, and it's called Hunt's Point. And it is where, you know, these are 60 to 100 million dollar houses. And they're not necessarily fancy houses.

They just happen to be in an area where there's not very much land and it is the place to live if you like water and you're living right on the water and it's just spectacular. It used to be that when a place would go up for sale, even when I was a kid on Hunts Point, it would never last. They'd never come up for sale. People, they wouldn't want to sell it because you couldn't replace it. You couldn't get anything like it.

And so they would come up for sale and they'd be gone before anybody would even know. I am told by a friend who knows that area quite well that, I think he said, 17 homes in Hunts Point are up for sale. 17. And some of them have been up for sale now for over a year and there are no buyers. All of these people are trying to get out of Washington State and nobody's buying their home.

because nobody, you're going to, are you going to buy that? Hey, rich person, where are you going to move from? You're going to move to Washington? No, no,

Washington, the property values are going to start plummeting. And you've got crazy people, not only crazy people all around you. I'm telling you, I grew up in Washington State. I grew up listening to hippies and everything else. My friends and I remember going to a friend's house and we were standing on our front porch and

And, you know, we were, this is the Alex P. Keaton days. And not politically, but just politically.

I mean, I guess a little politically, but my friends, not all my friends, you know, agreed with Reagan, but we didn't talk politics. It was just, you know, we weren't hippies. And I remember standing on a front porch and my friend was going to open up her front door. She had her hand on the doorknob and she, before she opened it, she turned to me and she said, I really apologize. My folks are probably in the living room getting stoned. Just nevermind. We were the adults.

And we open up the door and I'm like, I get it. And so open up the door and there they are getting stoned in there. And they're like, Hey kids, what's going on? I mean, that's where I grew up.

And it was crazy back then. And there's these people that believe in this thing called Cascadia, which is a communist state. Just get out of America, start a new communist country called Cascadia. And it is Washington, Oregon, and I think they want parts of Idaho. Thank God Idaho hasn't gone nuts yet. But that's what's coming. That's what they want.

And you see people like, you know, the mayor of Seattle, do you see what happened in Seattle over the weekend, Stu? Where there was this... Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. A little bit. You're talking about the mayor and this accusation going on? No, no, no. The Christian, the Christians that had a revival out in a park...

And all of these revolutionaries came. They were threatening them. The police came and shut down the Christians, and they deemed the Christians, the police against their will, I think, but under the direction of the mayor, shut down the Christians, excused all the radical revolutionaries, and said, you know, it's the Christians here that are causing all the ruckus. I mean, it's crazy what's going on. Well, now what you were talking about is the scandal that's going on with Bruce Harrell. He's the mayor of Seattle now.

Who is the mayor of Seattle? Who is this guy? Okay, well, he's just like you. Well, I mean, just like you, if you had been arrested in 96 for brandishing a firearm over a parking space,

In 1996, this has been out for a while, he was a young attorney and he had just been appointed to the Housing Authority Board in, I think, Council Bluffs, Iowa. And he was at a casino and he was pulling up to a parking space and this other couple in their family, it's a husband, wife, a mom, and somebody else, they pull up and they pull into the parking space and he gets pissed off.

And they say he pointed a gun at them and they were afraid for their lives. He admitted at the time to say, yeah, I had my gun, but I wasn't pointing it at him. What are you doing? Just showing it to them. Hey, I just I'm so proud of my gun. I just want you to see that's called brandishing a firearm. You can't do that. It's against the law.

Well, the charges fall apart or whatever, and so he's charged with it, but he's not convicted of it. Nobody says anything. Well, it comes up again recently, and now he's saying, no, I didn't have a gun. They mistook my watch for a gun. Now, I'm a watch guy. I'm a watch collector. I like watches, and I have some big watches, but I've never...

Had anyone at any airport or on the street go, oh my gosh, you've got a gun strapped to your wrist. No, it's never happened. Has that ever happened to you, Stu, where you're like, that guy's got a gun on his wrist and you realize, no, it's just actually a watch.

Well, you're talking about the watch gun. Yeah. I mean, I try not to wear that at night because people do make that mistake. Yeah. I mean, besides the watch gun. Right. You know what I mean? Besides that watch. Okay. So that's his excuse now when it's brought up. He's like, no, I didn't have one. He said at the time he did, but he wasn't pointing it at him. Now he says, no, they mistook that for a watch. Yeah.

And justify the means. I mean, if you're going to if you're going to elect radicals, if you're going to elect people that don't, you know, they just don't care about the law, the Constitution, you know, they don't care. But, well, you know, well, people just say anything now. There's no there's no even attempt to to come up with stories that even sound real.

No. Because basically, like, and if you think about it, there's some pragmatic sense to it in our current day, which is like, in reality, like, what's going to happen is the people who already liked you are going to support you no matter what you say. And I just...

You might as well just say something. And everyone's going to nod along and say, well, yes, I like his other policies or I want him to succeed. So therefore, I believe his gun watch story. Right. Who is the guy? Oh, is it Jesse Smollett? Yeah. He's still saying that he was targeted. Still saying it. Yeah.

Yeah. There's no consequence for any of this. No, it's true. I mean, we talked a little bit off the air a few minutes ago about this is the sort of conversation we have, which is the WNBA and the situation with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, where, you know, again, these are two basketball players, one white, one black. The white player fouled the black player. There's some sort of rivalry that seems to be basically one way from Angel Reese toward Caitlin Clark.

Uh, Caitlin Clark walks away, Angel Reese freaks out, um, you know, the team, you know, Angel Reese's team lost by like 30 points in the game. Afterwards, she's doing her press conferences. And of course, as you 100% can just fill in the blank, if you don't, if you know nothing about the story, claim that there was racism. That was the reason why all of this happened. And there was people in the stands saying,

yelling racial slurs at her. She says this to a press conference. It's a major controversy. Everybody's talking about it. They're batting it back and forth. What does this mean? Can you believe this? Full investigation launched, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now remember, this is not, this doesn't happen in the woods. This doesn't happen like under a bridge, you know, in Madagascar somewhere. This happens, I

In an arena that's being televised. So, of course, there are hundreds of fans around the area where this was supposedly going to happen. There were dozens of employees around this area. There were cameras and microphones everywhere. Of course, they do the investigation. Of course, no one can find any evidence that this happened outside.

At all. No one can find one example of this occurring. And then the end of the story is not a massive controversy about how this player could be falsely accusing all of these people that are fans of the other team of being racist and manufacturing claims of racial slurs. No, no. The story is a two paragraph statement from the WNBA. Hey, we looked into it. Couldn't find anything.

No follow-ups from any of the journalists who were concerned about it at the time. We just all move on.

And why no follow-up on the investigation of how that began? Who started those charges? What are they going to do? Are they going to pay a price for starting those charges? Shouldn't they? And didn't I see that very player sitting on the bench talking about white girls? Oh, yeah. In a derogatory way. Yeah. Hard to see many conversations without that phrase used from that particular player. Yeah.

I mean, well, what about the racism there? I mean, it's just, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. The truth doesn't matter anymore. You know, somebody said to me the other day, have you seen that Donald Trump is now saying that if you're working for the government, you have to go through, I think it's a hundred hour class on the constitution. And somebody said, well, wait a minute. I don't want that. I don't want that because I don't want them doing that with DEI. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

The Constitution is the owner's manual. And right now we have a bunch of people that are trying to put our country together and they've never read the instructions. And, you know, it's like it's it's like our country came from Ikea.

And, you know, I can build this. I'll just put it together. And it's being built upside down. The legs are in the wrong place. And you've got like 47 screws left over at the end. Okay? Read the instructions. Okay? They're not in Swedish. They're in English. Read the instructions.

This, I think, is one of the best things that the president has done so far. You want to work in the administration? You want to work for the government? Good. You've got to go take a course on the Constitution of the United States because that's the owner's manual.

And there's no excuse. Oh, I didn't know that that was in the cause. I didn't know we couldn't do that. Even though they're not even saying that they're now saying 200 people. Democrats are now saying, yeah, I knew that he was, I knew that he was gone, but you know, we, we couldn't lose the election.

Wow. I think you need a refresher on the constitution. Cause none of that is part of our country. None of that. There's no place in the constitution that allows that. Yeah. One of the ways it's interesting, they talk about that in the book of those decisions being made, right? Why would you hide this from the American people? Like how could you justify that? And you know, it is exactly what you're saying, right?

And justify the means. Right. And they said that one of the reasons why, especially the really close group around the Bidens, including the family and some of these advisors, basically said, number one, Donald Trump is, you know...

Basically Hitler, right? Like he's an existential threat and he's the worst thing that could ever happen to us. So we have to do anything to beat him. And the people really close to Biden believed the only person who could beat him was Joe Biden. Now that part's another part. That's another level of delusion, I suppose, to think that Joe Biden was uniquely qualified for this victory. But he was the only person who did win in an election against him, right? So there's some, maybe some sense to that.

But as I think it was Alex Thompson, one of the authors pointed out, it's like when you exist, when those two things are true, you can justify anything.

Yes. Right? Like, if you believe Hitler's about to come into power and the only person who can beat him is this old doddering fool you work with, well, of course you're going to justify all of this. If you believe that Elon Musk is evil, I can firebomb and terrorize anybody with a Tesla. Yeah. If you believe that global warming is going to wipe the entire Earth out, I can kill anyone with an SUV. This is why you can never adopt...

The ends justify the means, which is Sololinsky. That is the motto now of the Democratic Party. So you're in debt. You're behind the eight ball. You've got high interest credit cards. What do you do?

First thing you do, stop avoiding looking at it. There are mornings when you log into your bank account. I mean, who was it, the comedian that said, you know, I'm just thinking about letting that thing chill for a while. I've seen this movie before. I'm just not going to check my bank account. Okay. I want you to look at things and get somebody that is an expert that can help you that is not trying to sell you something.

This is American financing. Your mortgage most likely sold to you by a bank and by people who got a kickback for selling you that mortgage. That's not the same with American finance. They work for you. Call them now. See how they can help you. It's Americanfinancing.net. Americanfinancing.net. Now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

Zachary Levi is with us. Hi, Zach. How are you? Hey, good morning, Glenn. I'm doing all right, Glenn. How are you doing? I'm really good, but I'm not in your business. How concerned are you by what Google released this week? I mean, I'm very concerned. I mean, you know, you and I talked about this when I came on your show last, and I hate to...

sound like a doomer and gloomer, but this is something I've been foreseeing for a really long time. I've been banging this drum for a really long time and trying to wake people up and say, "Hey, listen.

It moves exponentially. This is one of the things that I think most people just don't understand, whether it's people in my industry or other industries. And might I say, yes, this is knocking on the doorstep of entertainment right now, but unfortunately,

Understand that AI is knocking on the doorstep of all of our industries. Your industry, radio, everything in entertainment. Anything that can be recorded and broadcast. But every industry. There are...

you know, experts in many fields that say within a year, two years, certainly within five years, every white-collar job will be gone. And a lot of blue-collar jobs are going to be right behind that because you have to recognize that AI is not just moving exponentially, but also humanoid robots

and the development of humanoid robots is developing exponentially. And exponential growth is something that people just don't understand. Most people see growth as, you know, kind of just, you know, multiplicative, meaning like, okay, every year it gets twice as good. No, no, no. It doesn't get twice as good every year. It gets 10 times as good, and then it gets 100 times as good, and then 1,000 times as good, and so on and so forth. And so...

Years ago, I was telling people, guys, if what we have right now, you know, like, for example, two years ago, AI was generating images.

And, you know, but, you know, humans had six fingers. And so people said, ah, this is schlock. Look at this. You know, this is never going to get good. It can't even get the amount of fingers right on people's hands. I said, yeah, yeah, right now it couldn't. Right now it cannot do that. But six months later it did. Six months after that you had video, and now you've got video with audio that is almost,

almost indiscernible as you've been seeing with these new examples it's almost indiscernible now people say yeah but i can still tell i go yeah right now you can but six months from now a year from now two years from now we're gonna i don't even think that long no probably not even that long no and and and so people have got to wake up and so for people in my industry

I think that, yes, we should all be very, very concerned, but everyone should be very concerned. And it's not even just, you know, like, for example, yes, this could very much replace my job. This is partly why I am building Wildwood Studios in Austin, Texas.

It has always been a 25-year-plus calling that God has put on my life to create a better Hollywood, to give artists a better life, a better work-life balance, to give audiences better content. These are all things that we've deserved for a really long time. But AI is really...

the kind of, I think, most galvanizing force in all of this, because if we don't do something about it, if we don't hold the line, if we don't build the arc, which is really kind of what I've always felt in my life, I've felt this kind of Noah calling on my life that God's like, "Hey, listen,

a flood is coming. It's not going to be water. It's going to be something entirely different. And that is this AI. And if, and if you can build the arc, then you can at least save as many of those jobs two by two as you can. But if you don't build the arc, then the flood just wipes everything out. And so go ahead. Let me, let me interrupt you on that because I believe, I mean, I'm developing some things with AI and I've been on this for a very long time as well. And I,

I believe you're absolutely right that you have to get, you know, you have to get into a boat because floods are coming. However, you have to, you can't dismiss it. You have to, I think, use some of the skills that it has in a positive way because I think it could, it will enhance your,

As long as you don't surrender to it, it will enhance what you can do. So are you talking about, you know, building something that has no use for AI and it's just this island? Or are you saying that we'll use it, but we'll use it in ethical ways and we'll never allow it to become the master? We will always use it as a tool.

Yes, that's exactly right. So I'm a firm believer and have been for many years that, you know, philosophically, you cannot stop progress. You can only hope to guide it. That is the bottom line, right? Right. So it would be folly to look at new technology that, by the way, is going to do some really cool things in this world. Example being, we're at the brink of nearly having our ear pods. You know, Apple, I think, will start, but other companies will be right behind it.

if not simultaneously, we'll have real-time language translation. It's going to happen. It's happening very, very soon. Now, that's incredible. That's something that as a human race, we've all been wanting really since, I mean, since I guess the Tower of Babel, right? The ability for all of us to be able to communicate across the world, no language barriers whatsoever. That is huge. That's a huge leap forward for mankind. Now, that's going to absolutely displace what is –

a smaller, let's say, industry of translators, right? There are many translators in the world, but it's not the biggest industry, let's say. And I feel for those people. And I think we have to be very conscious about trying to rehome them in other jobs. But you always have to ask yourself, is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it ultimately worth it for the betterment of all of us, right? So

I don't think that we can't embrace AI. We must embrace AI, but we must do it in as ethical a way as possible and be mindful of what is it doing? How is it disrupting and how is it displacing jobs? Because that's the only thing that we can do. Now, when it comes to entertainment,

There's going to be all kinds of ways that we can implement AI to make the process more efficient, more enjoyable. And I have every intention of utilizing AI like that. I don't vilify it, you know, writ large. But I think that we must be very mindful about how we implement it in still holding on to human creativity, human creativity.

Art and entertainment is is at the brink, but I also believe, you know, with with Wildwood example being like, I think that not only is it necessary to prevent, let's say, the extinction of human art and entertainment, but there's also a market opportunity in this because.

Similar to vinyl, for example, you know, once upon a time, all music, we all listened to vinyl records. That's what it was. And then the cassette tape came out and everyone said, oh, well, I don't need vinyl anymore. I'm going to go with these little, you know, rectangular plastic, you know, cassette tapes. And I'm going to do that. Great. And then the CD came out, even more people left vinyl and then streaming. And now even more people have left vinyl, but the people that held on, the people that said, you know what? Yes, everyone is going to zig, but

But I'm going to zag. I'm going to hold on to this. I'm going to keep printing vinyl because I believe that there's something special about it, unique about it. And sure enough, vinyl sales have gone up because people are looking for something that's more human, more tangible, more slightly imperfect with a little crackle, a little, you know, whatever. Right.

Why would that's what we intend to do. We intend to hold on to. We're not I'm not trying. I can't save the entire industry. That's impossible. But I'm going to try and save as many jobs as I can. And in doing so, provide audiences the alternative. And I think a lot of people are going to be looking for that alternative.

So, Zach, because I, like you, I've been on this for a long time, and I have put a lot of thought into, because my job is, you know, at stake. Everybody's job is at stake. Oh, yeah. And I've always felt, well, there's something special about humans that we have a different sense to us. But I don't know if you heard, there was a study done of, I think, 100,000 songs that

and they did what's called hook testing to see which tested the best. I think it was seven out of the top ten were AI, and people didn't know it was AI. Seven out of the top ten. We used to say art can never be done. So what is it that you think is going to be...

quickly. I mean, I believe that there is going to be a huge draw back to handmade individual. You know, when, uh, when, uh, machines came out and you had factories and they started producing shirts, nobody wanted a homemade shirt. Nobody wanted a handmade shirt. They wanted one that was from the factory, but now handmade is the best of the best. Um, so there's going to be a, uh,

Renaissance, if you will, of handmade and human made stuff. But what is it right now that will bridge this gap that humans can do that you don't think AI can do?

Well, I think that, you know, obviously live performance, that's going to be huge, right? So people in this rebound effect of people saying, ah, you know, it just flooded with ubiquitous AI content. A lot of people are going to say, oh, I want something authentic, right? And authenticity is the most important. In fact...

There's been studies done where, you know, just from an energy level, like, you know, as humans, we produce an energy when we have various emotions, right? And there's lower energy if you're sad, depressed, angry, and there's higher energies when you're joyful and happy and you feel love. But there's an energy even higher than love, as they've tested, and it's authenticity, right?

that is the highest energetic level that we can all reach. And so people yearn for that. They really do. Yes. So live performance, obviously, is going to be that. Sports is going to have a big... A lot of people are, you know, investing in sports and live performance because that is going to hold on the longest, at least as long as...

let's say, you know, robots and holograms, that's going to start to kind of eat into that market a little bit. We'll see how long that goes. But ultimately... I have to tell you, may I say something on that? Have you been to London and seen the ABBA experience? I haven't, but I'm very well aware of it. And I've heard it's incredible. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, no, it's beyond incredible. It is. My son and I said, I didn't tell my daughter, who was a teenager at the time, you know, 17 years old, that ABBA wasn't really performing. We just didn't tell her. And two songs into it, I said, do you think they're real? Does it look like they're real? And she's like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, that's not real. Those aren't people. And she's like,

What are you talking about? And she couldn't believe it. And the first couple of songs, my son, who was probably 18, 17 at the time, kept looking at me going, Dad, this changes everything. This is not good. This changes everything. And I mean, everything is about to just turn upside down.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's already like in front of our eyes. It's happening already. Yeah. And and I am not one of those people. Many people that I talk to, you know, a common pushback that I get is people saying, well, it will never be able to fully.

let's say, you know, human emotion or, you know, we'll always be able to tell. And I just don't believe that. I mean, I don't believe ourselves. No, we are amalgamations of everything that we've taken in. Right. So we're, we are, we ourselves are kind of LLMs. We, we scrape our entire lives. We scrape information from our parents, our community, people around us that, you know,

The internet, whatever. We're learning all the time, and then we are replicating from the things that we learn. AI is doing that, and it's doing it at scale. And it's happening exponentially, and we're very, very close to it becoming...

AGI, general intelligence, which is then just a few steps away from super intelligence. And it will be then at that point, it will be more intelligent and more capable than not just any individual human. It will be more capable and more intelligent than the sum of all humanity. So we're stepping into some insane, insane territory. And when you start, you know, powering, um,

video agents like Google and others that will keep popping up. It's terrifying to acknowledge that. A lot of people just don't. They're kind of burying their head in the sand and saying, no, no, no, no, it won't happen, it won't happen. It's going to happen. At that point, I think that what we have to, and what I'm hoping that Trump and the administration are going to be working on in earnest, is legislation that at the very least

requires all content that is AI generated to be watermarked, right? So that therefore we know we can say, okay, I can't tell the difference. I don't know the difference, but just by looking and listening to it, I can't tell if it's real humans doing this or not. The difference will be that there will be some kind of watermarking that indicates that. And therefore that is what people are going to be looking for. In the same way, if you go to the supermarket,

and you're looking at blueberries, and these ones on the left look the same as the ones on the right, but there's packaging that says these ones on the right are organic. Oh, those are the ones I'm looking for. I want the organic ones that aren't sprayed with glyphosate. I'm trying to make certified organic human-made content.

for free range artists, that is what Wildwood Studios is going to be about. And also at Wildwood Studios, we're not just going to be making and really focusing and dedicated to making human film, television, music, and video games, but also providing amphitheaters and live performance venues so that it's a one-stop shop. So people can really know when they go there, they support us. They're supporting humans in that process.

Zachary, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And anything we can do to help you at Wildwood, let me know, please. Zachary Levi, Wildwood Studios owner, actor. He was Chuck. He was Shazam. I mean, there's a ton of great movies and everything else. So Zachary Levi.

You're streaming the best of the Glenn Beck program, and you can find full episodes wherever you download podcasts. So Elon factor, Elon factor, Elon Musk is leaving Washington, D.C. today. He is not in. He's not in defeat. I don't think he's in retreat. We all expected this. In fact, many of us believed that there was no way this was going to end well.

with him because he was a strong individual. Trump is a strong individual. How are these two strong individuals going to get along? They got along famously. And we're losing today one of the few individuals in our time that is willing and has been willing to challenge the most sacred assumptions. Here's a guy that when he...

you know when they were talking about i think it was the x prize about you know making rockets uh for nasa he went to nasa this is early on and they said okay so here's what we want and he said great and what kind of money do you want this to come into i mean what do you want what do you what's your goal that i could hit that would make it affordable for you and they said what are you talking about he said what what do you want to spend on this and they said

Don't worry about that. Just make it fly. And he's like, well, there's got to be a budget. No, don't worry about it. It's not about budget. No, it is about budget. And he knew that that was wrong. And he really, really, it bothered him a great deal. And so here's a guy who comes in, reinvents absolutely everything, and then goes to Washington because he actually believes in something. And he's vilified for it.

I mean, I don't know of anybody that has been this vilified, you know, so vital to progress and what humans are experiencing and going through and solving huge problems. I don't think I've ever seen anybody do that and been this vilified.

Here's a guy who didn't ask for the power. He didn't seek the favor. In fact, when he said, because he believed something, yeah, I think I'm on the other side, they tried to literally kill him for it.

And all he was fighting for was the freedom to invent, the freedom to think differently, the freedom to speak your mind, and also the freedom to remain free by not becoming a slave to an out-of-control government and out-of-control waste and out-of-control spending. He wanted just the chance to build something, and he knew America was the place to do it. And build he did.

He gave us the first reusable rockets. I mean, think if I would have said to you six years ago, yeah, we're going to send up some rockets and you're going to see it instead of just casting into the ocean. It's going to reignite and it's going to come down and control and we're going to just grab it out of the sky. No, not only did he do that, he thought that crap up.

Here's a guy who completely thinks out of the box. American made, American launched, restoring capability that we had already given away. He forced the auto industry to evolve, dragging it unwillingly into the 21st century with electric vehicles that shattered the idea that sustainability has to come at the cost of performance or ambition. Here's a guy who, remember, the big three didn't want him around.

He had to break that entire system. And look what happened. Then he took a brand new platform speech that was supposed to free us up, and it had become oppressive, ossified, monopolized. It became the public square. And what did he do? He went in, bought it with his own money, and was like, this can't stand. We have to have free speech. Cracked it open and gave us, again, raw, uncomfortable at times speech

but vital free speech. It was all back into your hands now. And now with Grok and AI, he's fighting to ensure that the machines of tomorrow are actually aligned with not centralized power, but with human liberty. But for all of this, all of this that would earn anyone a chapter in the history books of the history of man, how is he leaving Washington? I mean, think of that.

He has endured the public efforts all around the world to ruin him, coordinated efforts to deplatform, demonetize, to destroy. He's received death threats. His companies have been targeted. His cars are burned. His employees are harassed. His customers are harassed. All the while, he just keeps on doing what he does. And that is, boys and girls, courage.

You don't see it very often. That is what real courage looks like. Without getting angry, without being vengeful, spiteful, any of it. He just keeps going.

This is real courage. This is the real thing. Real high personal risk, high stakes, sleepless nights, relentless attacks, and the refusal to sit down or break. He's like, no, I believe this is right. That's America. He is really, we have a few great symbols that we didn't have 20 years ago. We have some great symbols of real leaders, right?

Real examples of courage and innovation that we didn't have. And he's right up at the top. I mean, history is riddled with people like this. Nikola Tesla is probably one of them. Penniless, mocked in at least his later years. Galileo was, you know, imprisoned because he was telling the truth too early. Winston Churchill, because he was telling the truth too early. Nobody, I mean...

He was cast aside until people realized, oh, the barbarians are at the gates. These are people that saw over the horizon, saw the storms of life or saw what was capable of being. They came, they spoke up, and they paid dearly for it. Churchill said once, you have enemies? Oh, good. That means you stood for something in your life.

Elon Musk, as he stood up again and again, technological sovereignty, speech, enterprise, for the radical, dangerous idea that the individual, not the institution, should shape the future. I think there's going to be a time, and hopefully it's not too far in the future, when the heat has cooled and politics have moved on.

that society will acknowledge not only what he's done, what he's given, but the sacrifice that he just went through. But that'll happen at a time when the real effects of everything, I mean, when the future that he is helping shape right now, better or worse, is really taking root, that's when he'll be recognized, once this nonsense is over.

The thing I like about him, he never asked us to trust him. He never asked for our loyalty. But I think he does deserve our respect. I don't care what side of that. I don't care who you voted for. How do you not recognize...

What this man has done for humanity, especially if you're somebody who believes in global warming, what he's done for humanity, what he is still trying to do, the incredible strides that he has made, and the bravery that it has taken for him just to stand up. I remember he walked away from his side, didn't expect his side to leave him, but once he had a different opinion of theirs, they just abandoned him. He lost all of his friends. He lost everything.

So today, as he is leaving, I would like to say, Elon Musk, thank you. Thank you. You didn't play the game. You changed the game. Thank you. Thank you for reminding me and so many other Americans that progress has never come in polite little packages. It's never been polite. The truth rarely comes dressed in approval.

But I think you did some things that are absolutely remarkable and you're going to continue to do things that are remarkable. Go in strength. Know that history will catch up to you way ahead of the game. Thank you, Elon Musk. You may get a little excited when you shop at Burlington. What a low price! Did you see that? They have my face! It's like a whole new item! I'm saving so much!

Burlington saves you up to 60% off other retailers' prices every day. Will it be the low prices or the great brands? Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow. I told you so. Styles and selections vary by store.