Today i saw a sign for lemonade. They were on the microphone. I forgot what i was doing here for a moment. Oh, my goodness. What a great crowd. Thank you so much for being here for the third day of the fair side chats. Its so exciting. This is an opportunity for me to interview republican president ial candidates as we move to the first in the nation caucus on january 15. So thanks for being here. Im so lucky to have joining me today, vivek. Yes. So entrepreneur, business owner, welcome back to the iowa state fair. Welcome back to iowa. Youve been here a lot. Uh i look forward to having the opportunity to chat this morning. Im excited to be here with you guys. I feel like i live here these days and were, were feeling right at home. Thanks to the warm welcome. We get every time as most of, you know, i actually dont have a ton of experience in this realm of politics. Im not a politician. Im a business builder. I enjoy meeting many farmers, business builders, entrepreneurs across the state. I think we have a lot in common. My view is that im also here as a member of my generation, i just turned 38. They said 37 was a little too young to be president. So i said fine, im going to turn 38. So i got that problem solved. But speaking is a member of my generation. I think we are in the middle of this national void where young people like me, were just so hungry to believe in something bigger than ourselves. And i said, its sitting right here right in front of us. Its that flag on this gentleman shirt and his hat right here. Its the United States of america. Its the greatest nation known to mankind. If we can revive pride in that country, i think our National Problems start melting away right there. And so thats what this campaign is all about. Revive our national identity. Good things are going to happen in this country and it just might take a different generation to help lead us there. So, thank you, kim. I appreciate you. And i didnt even have to ask the first question youve answered it as a no, thats great because i wanted to talk about how we can get the next generation engaged because its so important and a lot of the issues that youre talking about the is doing just that its bringing young people to the table. Im gonna, a couple of young people right there. Im really glad, 8 30 on a saturday morning. Im proud of you guys. Yes. Listen. So were going to jump right in to if thats ok. Im going to ask you a topic that youre very familiar with. I know ive talked to you many times about it and thats eg and so just can you talk about how we explain it to the average person . And honestly, the impact that its having on their lives. And my general rule of thumb is if it comes in an acronym, if its designed to sound boring, they want it to sound boring for a reason actually. So they call it esg today after, after the work ive done in the last couple of years, i built a company to fight against this in capital markets, wrote a couple of books. What are they saying . Were not calling it esg anymore. Were going to call it something else, sustainability, whatever they use for the future, the reality is whats going on is this. Theyre using our money, the money of most of the people here this morning to implement social and environmental agendas through the back door through corporate america, using your Retirement Funds and your investment accounts to vote for Racial Equity audits or scope three emissions caps that you didnt know they were using your money to do. And that congress would have never passed through the front door. So this is actually, i think one of the grave threats to liberty today, you know, wherever you stand on Climate Change, i think most of the Climate Change agenda, im just going to say it is a hoax. Im going to call that for what it is. Wherever you stand on Racial Equity audits, i personally believe were a country that should have a color blind meritocracy. Thats my view. But wherever you stand, we should settle that through free speech and open debate in the Public Square in a constitutional republic. Thats the way we do things post 1776 on this side of the atlantic. And what these guys are saying is no, no, no, no, not so fast guys. The people of a nation, the citizens cannot be trusted to sort out their differences on Climate Change or Racial Injustice because theyll get it wrong. So we have to do it in the back of palace halls. It used to be in the back of palace halls in old world england. Today. Its in the back of palace halls, in a corner office, a black rock suite in park avenue in manhattan either way though. Thats not how we do it in the United States of america. We fought a revolution in 1776. Thats why weve adopted that you hold in our thomas payne style paperwork up. They thank you for that. We fought a revolution in 17 76 for a reason. And kim, i do think that it does frighten some people when i say it this way, but its not intended to be frightening. I intended it in a hopeful way. Theres other great people running this primary, by the way, i love them all. Theyre my colleagues, not my competitors. Were all colleagues in a national revival. Thats why im not going to bash any of them. Theyre great people. You guys are going to see him here throughout the fair and im going to need every one of them and every one of you to get this job done. But i think the choice we face is, do you want incremental reform . In which case, im probably not your guy. Do you want reform or do you want revolution . I stand on the side of the revolution, the american revolution. And thats really what this issue is all about. Thank you. I know its i know its kind of heavy to jump in, but we got to Pay Attention to whats happening to your point. Exactly what we see them doing behind closed doors. So thank you for talking about that. So lets go from g to china. How should the American People understand truly the threat that china poses to our National Security . And as president , how do you begin to address that . So im going to state a basic and obvious fact, we cannot depend on an enemy for our modern way of life. We never depended on the ussr for the shoes on our feet or the phones in our pockets. We just didnt. Today, we depend on communist china for the way we live our lives. That doesnt work over the long run. Its like were in a co dependent relationship, co dependent relationships do not end well. The only question is who ends it first, the sooner we end it the better for us. And i think just run this through in your head. If you doubt me on this, if that were a russian spy balloon flying over half this country, what would we have done . Shot it down . What would we have done in iowa once again, what would we have done in iowa . Shot it down. Amen. If it was russian. But they wouldnt let you at the Us Government level because they wanted to fly over half the country, transmit the information and then do a nominal shoot down over the atlantic. If that were russia, we would have ratcheted up sanctions. We didnt do it for china. You want to know why . Lets be honest, im going to speak. This campaign is about truth. You see it on your hat. Speak the hard truth. Its because were scared, were scared because we depend on them. And xi jin ping he says, you know what . You all are addicted to me. Youre addicted to that fentanyl. Im pumping across your southern border in a modern opium war that you dont admit youre in, youre addicted to the digital fentanyl that im putting in your kids hands in the form of modern social media. Youre addicted to the financial fentanyl in the form of the National Debt that you have no capacity to wean yourself off of. And so kim, i think this is actually a positive point. Its not a doom and gloom point, i promise. Which is that the real question isnt even about china. The real question is, do we have it in us to actually strengthen up with a spine and stand up for who we are . If we do, china will have to play ball according to the same set of rules. But if we remain addicted to our enemy, then we deserve the consequences that we face. And thats why im going to say yes, we do have it in us. We will lead our nation forward. If thomas jefferson, my favorite president were alive today. The declaration of independence hed be signing is the declaration of independence from communist china. Thats a declaration of independence that i will sign as your next president. Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, ive been, weve been pushing for civic requirements in high school to ensure that our students i know can learn the foundational principles of our country and what it actually means to be free. Weve forgotten how fragile that is. So why are we seeing really the disconnect between our young people and the opportunities that truly exist in this country and that america provides. First of all, can we just give your great governor a round of applause . She is dominant. She is totally dominant School Choice example. For the rest of the country, it does start with education and i tell them about a conversation we had in your office. Right. I mean, my whole game is if were going to stay behind closed doors, well say it in public. I think that theres no reason why every High School Student who graduates in this country should not have to pass the same civics test that an immigrant, like my parents had to pass in order to become citizens of this country. You got to know something about that country. I want to share a fact to you. Some people may, you may think im just making this up. This is actually a survey conducted two months ago, widely connected survey by the reboots foundation. 60 of Young Americans think about that. Six out of 10 Young Americans say they would sooner give up their right to vote than to give up their access to tik tok. Im not making that up. So the reality is why young people dont value a country. Theyre taught to hate. Young people dont value a country that they dont even know anything about. And so this campaign, if its about one thing, the way im going to lead this country, if its about, one thing is reviving this idea of citizenship, actually, what does it mean to be a citizen of this nation . And now this is a little heavy for a saturday morning. But i just think its important that we talk about it where were taught to believe that citizenship is what do i get . What do i get . What am i entitled to . And as the 14th amendment and say, what are the privileges of citizenship . Well, i think we ought to ask ourselves a different question. I think this is a place where conservatives can lead the way. I think the question we ought to ask is what are our duties as citizens . Thats really what citizenship is about. And our first duty is to know something about this country and then to pledge allegiance to it. And i think this is a deep moment for conservatives to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves who we are because for a long time, even people like me, what do i stand for . And i still stand for the american dream, the individualist, the capitalist in me to say that i will achieve anything i want with my own hard work and commitment and dedication. Im an individualist and i will not apologize for capitalism. And thats a good thing. Im proud of it. That is who we are, that is definitely who we are. But it is half the story. We can also admit at the same time that theres the other half of us that is still a citizen of a nation and that we have civic duties to that nation. Those arent contradictory. Those go together. And we ask the question of what does it mean to be an american . I remember 1776 it was the year of the wealth of nations and the year of the declaration of independence, individualism and unity, capitalism and a republic. Both of those are what it means to be american. And i think thats what were gonna have to teach our youth. My two sons who are running around here somewhere or other riding some rides. If theres one thing i want to say when i leave office in january 2033 thats the destination. Not november 2024. Thats just a step along the way. January 2033 when im leaving office, i kind of want to say the same thing that Ronald Reagan said when he left office in january of 89 that we revived a sort of missing National Character that we lacked when he took over office. When i will take over office. I want to look my two sons in the eye and know they live in a country where they and their generation are once again proud to be citizens of this nation. I believe that is possible, but its going to require each of us doing our part. And iowa did theirs when we said no to c rt and that being taught in our classroom. So thank you legislators for helping me get that across the finish line. We appreciate your work on that and we did that before anybody else was even talking about it. So we did that two years ago. It does start there. You cant teach these young people to hate our country and who they are. Its ridiculous. So, you know, i love the vision. I love what youre talking about, but bureaucracy is out of control. We started here in iowa. I cut 20 working with the legislature again, i got 21 agencies from my cabinet. We went from 37 down to 16 215 billion of savings. Over four years, we are going to return that money back to the taxpayers and tax cuts. Uh so, so we ask iowans for questions and thomas and bettendorf wants to know whats your plan to reduce the size of government . Especially with the number of government employees. How do you, how do you tackle that . Is it possible . Yes, it is. Yes. Yes, it is. Look at the states. Yes. Yes, we not. Yes, we can. Yes, we will. Ok. So im going to tell you what im going to do. But then im going to more importantly tell you how im going to do it because i know im in iowa, you guys demand the details. So the first thing is my first term in office, 75 head count reduction across the federal employee base. 50 done in the first year. Take the Government Agencies that should not exist from the fbi to the irs to the, to the cdc, to the department of education, get in there and shut them down. That is how we revive the integrity of a constitutional republic. You know, if im the us president , thats your choice, not mine. But if you all put me there and i cant work for you for more than eight years, which i think is a good thing, then neither should any of those bureaucrats reporting into me, Civil Service protections out term limits in for the bureaucracy. And, and i understand this as a ceo ive built businesses, many of you run businesses big and small across this audience. You know, with me that if somebody works for you and you cannot fire them, that means they dont work for you. It means in some way you work for them because youre responsible for what they do without having any authority to change it. So i refuse to be a puppet sitting in the white house going through the motions. This is one of the areas where i want to give credit to my most recent republican predecessor, donald trump and where i want to say i want to build and on his foundation to go further when i give him credit was hes the first person in either Political Party to have identified this rot of a problem. That wasnt me. I was in the Business World back when he was doing it. So i give him immense credit for actually having the courage to identify the problem of the deep state. And i said im not going to be bashing other candidates that includes him. Ok, i respect the most successful president in our century. I also want to learn from where he left off because one of the issues is the managerial class. The advisors who advise the president come from that same swamp. And so what they told him was that, hey, you cant fire these people because there are Civil Service protections that stop them from being fired. That was bad advice. Turns out we need an outsider whos been a ceo who comes from outside the swamp, but who also knows the law and constitution of this country to say no to those advisers because ive read the law and heres how it works. You cant fire individual employees who are Civil Service protected. But those rules do not apply to mass layoffs and mass layoffs are absolutely what i am bringing to the dc bureaucracy. That is how we actually drain the swamp and get this job done. Thank you. Ok. It goes, this time goes way too fast. But so were going to do the fast three and then im going to give you the last five minutes to really talk about some things that are important to you and ill lead into that question. But heres the fast three. Give me one funny Campaign Moment on the trail. So this is a funny one. So we were at the moms for liberty event in philadelphia. Were my moms for liberty. I love this. So that was the first event where you were there. You remember where we brought our two kids on stage and it was like wild. Theyre like, were trying to talk about like how were going to shut down the department of education. And my sons like running around making faces to the audience. So im unveiling a pretty detailed proposal for the first time. Its kind of complicated and i didnt know how i was going to play with an audience. And like all of a sudden i hear the audience applauding and im pleasantly surprised i was like, oh, these guys really like this plan about how were going to move money around from Public Schools to School Choice. And so i get off and im talking to my wife and my family afterwards and say, hey, the audience really loved that. Shes like, no, no, no, you missed it. Arjun is like our one year old son, he was just clapping his hands at the same time. And so the audience was clapping for him, not for me. And so thats one of the things that ive learned is if, if the audience is responding to something, its probably not something im saying its what my kids are doing. And so thats, i i experienced that many times. I, i get that favorite fair food that youve had or looking forward to having. I had the fun cake with powdered sugar. We go the whole sugar it up, sugar it up. Ok. Your favorite walkout song . I actually like m and ms lose yourself to be honest with you. I am really starting to understand my age. Im gonna have to go look it up. Ok. But again, ii, i love it. I love that. Ive learned so much on these interviews. A lot of takeaways. Ok. As i travel, the state, i get to interact with a lot of iowans and they truly are looking for a leader that will kind of stand up for the American People, for this country, for our freedoms. They want somebody that has the moral conviction to do the right thing. Even when the right thing is really hard. They want somebody that can take that vision and act on day one. And most importantly, they want somebody that can win. Thats how they end almost every conversation. So tell us why you think or tell the audience why you think youre that person. Ill respond to the practical part about the winning. This cannot be a 50. 1 election for so many reasons. It cant. I think we need a moral mandate akin to what Ronald Reagan delivered in 1980. Thats what we need. Im going to be really honest. I think there are other good republicans in this race who can defeat joe biden. Ill go on record. Im going to be very honest. I expect to be the nominee. I expect they will not let joe biden run against me whoever im running against though, it needs to be a landslide. And the difference between 50. 1 and a landslide is actually young people in this race. For those of you who came to jalapeno pizza last night, we saw many of them at our party last night. 40 of my 70,000 donors to this campaign are First Time Ever donors to the Republican Party in any form compared to 2 . Normally, were bringing young people along with us in droves. And so if you put me in that position as your nominee, it is my duty, my responsibility to bring them along with us in our movement and deliver that landslide election. And heres how we do it. Young people know the difference of when theyre being lied to young people know the difference of when theyre just being told some fluff that you memorize in a political speech two minutes before you showed up. Ok. And the reality is thats why this is a campaign founded on speaking the truth, not when its easy, but when it is hard, the hard truth that goes back to telling the people we the people the truth. Once again, god is real, there are two genders, fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity. Reverse racism is racism. An open border is not a border. Parents determine the education of their kids, the nuclear family. Yes, is the best and greatest form of governance known to mankind. Capitalism lifts us up from poverty. There are three branches of government in america, not four and our constitution, it is the strongest guarantor of freedom in human history. That is the truth. We stand up for the truth. We fight for the truth. That is who we are. And, and if i have one thing that i will ask of you guys and this is a good one for a bright saturday morning for us to wrap on is that were taught to believe that were a nation in decline. Were taught to believe were at the end of the roman empire. The pie is shrinking. All we have left is how we split up the shrinking pieces at the very end. I dont think we have to be a nation in decline. I dont think we have to be ancient rome. I think the truth is as a nation, not just me, not just the young people here. I think our nation is really just a little young actually going through our own version of adolescence, figuring out who were really going to be when we grow up, when you view it that way. At least for me, it takes some of the pressure off. It makes sense. When you go through adolescence, you go through that identity crisis, you lose your self confidence, you lose your way a little bit, you forget who you are, but we are stronger for it when we get to our adulthood on the other side. So i dont think we have to be a nation in decline. I truly think we might still yet be a nation in our ascent. Maybe the early stages of our ascent, maybe were not even at base camp yet. On our way to that mountain top, maybe we still are that shining city on a hill that reagan spoke of in 80 that place where no matter who you are, where your parents came from, what your skin color is. How long your last name is my case that you get ahead in this country with your own hard work, your own commitment, your own dedication and that youre free to speak your mind at every step of the way. Thats the american dream. Thats what we are running to and that is what we together are going to revive, to save our great nation. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Its good to see you when one shot, one opportunity sees everything you ever wanted. One moment. To cancer. If you had one shot, one moment. To cancer. Yo, his palms are sweaty, knees, weak arms and a heavy beat. His on his sweater already. Moms spaghetti. Hes nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop palms. But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down. The whole crowd goes loud and he opens his mouth but the words wont come out. Hes joking now, everybodys joking. Now, the clocks running out, times up, over, step back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity open the hes, he dont have any nuts. He dont, he dont, he, he dont matter but his own home. Thats when hes back to the lab. So you better go catch this and hope it dont lose yourself in the music. Miss your chance to blow this opportunity and the music you want miss your chance ladies and gentlemen of the iowa state fair. Stick around. Ambassador nikki haley is up next at 9 30. In the meantime, jrs is open, serving food and drinks. Coast to coast. So hes known as the, the roads this home, his father, he goes, barely knows his own know to see it. These products they moved on to the next. So the song, suppose its hard when the beat goes in the music. One shot. Do not miss your chance to blow one and the music, the moment your one shot do not miss your chance to blow this chains with two call rage to tear this motherf off like two dogs cage. I was playing in the beginning, the mood all changed. Ive been chewed up and spit out and moved off stage, but i kept priming and step right in the next cipher. Lets believe somebodys paying the pi pi or the pain inside amplifies the i would provide the right type life for my family because who stands the and theres no, these times are so hard and its getting, trying to feed and water. My c plus see is not a between being a father and a pre without a baby mama drama on a, you dont want to stay in one spot if another damn or not like a snail. I got to formulate a plot or end up in jail. A shot option. Failures not. This trail has got to go. I cannot in salem is my shot. Yeah, two hours and the music