cover of episode Kristi Noem Is More Than Her Very Viral Book

Kristi Noem Is More Than Her Very Viral Book

2024/6/18
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Governor Kristi Noem discusses her approach to handling COVID-19, emphasizing her constitutional approach and refusal to lock down, which made her a target of criticism but also a model for other governors.

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Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk Show, sit down conversation with Governor Kristi Noem from South Dakota. A great conversation. We talk about South Dakota lockdowns and her book, which went very viral.

If you guys want to check out my new book, it is out this week. It is Right Wing Revolution. Go to the number 45books.com. That is 45books.com. It is out this week. It is doing very well. Thank you for that. It's How to Beat the Woke and Save the West. It is out and it is featured at 45books.com. You get it without any of the cut going to Amazon. That is number 45books.com. Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.

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Governor Noem, welcome. Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So a lot happening in the country right now. And you deserve credit. You handled COVID better than any governor in the country. And you refused to lock down.

I want to go back in time. What made you make those decisions and to be so defiant against the national orthodoxy to lock down? I mean, not even your other rural counterparts, rural state counterparts, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, were as bold as you. You know, it's interesting. Somebody recently asked me this at a meeting. We were doing a question and answer, and they said, how do you make your hard decisions? And I said, you know, I really don't find the hard decisions hard. They're easy. And it was because I think...

My whole life, I've been treated just like anybody else, whether it's my dad. There was no boy chores or girl chores. Even when I was in the legislature, very few men and women treated us differently. When I served in Congress, just did my job, didn't complain about things, fixed them. I remember when I ran to be governor of South Dakota. It was the first time a woman was going to be considered to be running for governor. It's never happened before. No, it had never happened before, and people had...

We're having a tough time dealing with it. In my polling, they were really struggling with it. So, you know, governors are CEOs, and South Dakota had never seen a woman serve as the CEO of the state.

I didn't really realize that it was a big deal until I was getting sworn in. And when I was being sworn in during the inauguration ceremony, I remember looking around and the whole ceremony was built around the fact that I was happened to be sworn in as the first female governor of the state on the 100th anniversary of women first getting the right to vote.

And so the whole ceremony was about, you know, the first women getting the privilege to actually vote. And now here we are electing our first woman governor. Anyways, I got nervous for the first time. I got nervous thinking, I hope I can do this job and thinking, what am I doing here? I better not screw this up. I remember taking my oath and there was two promises that I made.

The first promise during my oath when I held my hand up and I put my hand on my dad's Bible was to uphold this Constitution of the state of South Dakota. And the second one was to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. And I thought, two promises? I can do that. That's not hard. I won't screw this up as long as I always remember that. So from that point, every decision came from that. So when we got into COVID and we saw the whole world melting down and shutting down, every question that I asked any –

in my office, any lawyer, any general counsel, any medical expert was, is what you're doing right now constitutional? Do I as the governor have the authority to do that? Do I not have the authority to do that? So that's really where all those decisions came from. And I had to literally take in as much information as I possibly could and then just give the

Give the power to the people that had the real responsibility to make it according to the Constitution. You were the most attacked governor during the COVID craze. And looking back, there's been an unbelievable amount of revisionist history where people are like, oh, yeah, I was always against the lockdowns. Like, actually, no, you weren't. You were locking down and masking. But you actually were against the lockdowns and you refused. In fact, I remember we had dinner together in Rapid City, South Dakota in June of 2020. No one was wearing masks.

There was none of that nonsense. It was just like business as usual. It was. In fact, if you remember, we even went farther than that. South Dakota put national ads up on TV telling people to come to South Dakota. These beautiful ads. Come to South Dakota and visit. We are open. You can be free. So we didn't just not lock down. We invited people to come and enjoy their freedom. And you all probably remember the July 3rd event at Mount Rushmore. I was there. Yeah, it was great. Yeah.

I think that was President Trump's, one of his best speeches of his presidency. And at that moment, I think actually President Trump turned his campaign for the better. I mean, again, I think he won in 2020 for the record. But I think at that point, because it was not a good trend line. No, and I think the whole country got hope from that night. I agree. I think people saw, because I had the opportunity to plan that whole night.

And it was, are you going to be social distancing? No. Are you going to be wearing masks and mandating it for people? No. We're going to be outside. Why would we do that? That doesn't make any sense. So I got viciously attacked for even hosting that. And then I said, I am not going to have President Trump at Mount Rushmore and not have it packed. If you are scared, stay home. I just remember having press conference after press conference saying, if you are scared, stay home. But people who want to celebrate their freedom are going to be there. And it was packed with people.

Tens and tens of thousands of people. It was amazing. By the way, if you've never been to Mount Rushmore, it's way better than you... I know... It's not saying that it's like I thought it was going to be bad. It's amazing. It's way more impressive and just more beautiful in that whole region of the world. So the...

Republican governors in particular, a lot of them lost their mind during the COVID thing. And so what, what, how are we supposed to make sense of that? And I'm doing this as a compliment to you because you didn't and you were steady at the hand. But again, if it wasn't for the people pushing back against some of these governors, they never would have broken. Well, I had one of the Republican governors say to me, it was about a year later after I'd already been lit on fire for a year. Um, but

But he said, Christy, when you kept your state open and you left it open, and we were the only state also that never defined what an essential business was. All businesses are essential. Yeah, I said, we don't have the authority to tell you your business is an essential. Also the only state in the country that never took the elevated unemployment benefits. We were the only ones that turned it down and said, thanks for the flexibility, but our people want to work. So you turned away the free cash from the government? We did. And we said also, yep.

Which since then, we have broken the national historic record for the lowest unemployment rate in the history of the nation at 1.7%. It's amazing. Everybody in South Dakota works. Everybody works. But that Republican governor said to me, he said, when you were getting lit on fire and they were making fun of you on Saturday Night Live and every night Rachel Maddow was calling you crazy and attacking you, he said, you gave us cover.

You gave us cover because you were taking all the hits. We could start to loosen things in our state. We could start to relax. And we could, he said, so I appreciate that. The fact that you actually, you were the one taking the hits for the other governors so that the other Republican governors could say, well,

I'm going to let businesses reopen. I'm emphasizing this because I'm constantly paranoid that our Republican leaders are going to betray us because they betray us a lot, as everyone knows. And I'm trying to understand the psychology. I guess the best way I've understood this is that it was a crisis, crisis, and that our side is not actually ready to govern doing the hard stuff when it matters most. I suppose that's the way I can make sense of it.

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I think there's a lot of weak people. There's a lot of weak people. And it's not about Republicans and Democrats or conservatives and liberals anymore. It's literally about the people who love America and the people who are trying to destroy America.

And who will stand on the line when you have to stand on the line? And I think there's very few people like that. And so if we get the chance to take back the White House, if we get the chance to govern again, boy, we better be ready to go. And we better have strong people in the right positions because we're going to have a lot of work to do. And we're going to have to clean out the bureaucracy 20 layers down and clean everything out. And it's going to be a lot of work. So I hope people are strong enough that are in the position to have the power to do it. If I remember correctly, during COVID, you were a test case for

Because we're always told that we need mass migration to fill all of our jobs. And I remember in South Dakota, it was a very underreported story where you guys were actually able to fill your jobs through other South Dakotan labor. Can you remind me of this? We did. We just did universal licensing. We did apprenticeships and let people get trained while they were filling the jobs to get the certificates that they needed, anything. So you didn't need a bunch of Nicaraguans to come in? Nope, we didn't at all. By the way, I love Nicaraguans. Nice people, but...

We've got enough people in the country right now.

did a national advertising campaign for law enforcement officers, said if you want to live somewhere where people respect you and where we will take care of your families, move to South Dakota. And that first week, over 800 law enforcement officers raised their hands and said, we want to live in South Dakota. Wow. Have you seen your population increase? Yes. How much has it increased? Yeah, South Dakota is growing like crazy. So we've had, you've seen our recent ads on FreedomWorks here. Have you seen me be a very bad plumber?

No, I haven't seen that one. Oh, haven't you? No, no, no. Oh, the plumber was the very first one. See, I don't watch certain cable networks anymore. I think I know which one you're talking about. Yeah, they ban me. I'm not allowed on. Did they really? Yeah, it's been a year. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Too outspoken for them. Well, anyways. Watch the Charlie Kirk show instead of me. Six months ago, we started this national advertising campaign on a certain network. Well, it was on all networks, and it was a very targeted campaign. Yeah.

But in six months, we've seen a 78% increase in plumbers get licensed in the state of South Dakota. We did an electricians one where I accidentally was such a bad electrician, I shut off the lights on the Capitol Dome. We've had a 50% increase in electricians just in five months since that ad has come out. So people are seeing those ads, and they're inspired to come to South Dakota.

So you're increasing the population. Yeah, and it's people who... And California is decreasing the population. The number one state they're coming to South Dakota from is California. The second one they're coming from is Florida. I've got to pause. Wait, they're coming from Florida? That's interesting. Yes, they're coming from Florida to South Dakota, and I don't have beaches. Yeah, no. By the way, have you experienced South Dakota winter? I know. It's character building. They're so happy. So let me understand. The California influx...

Are they like-minded? So what we did in this marketing campaign is we actually interviewed and talked to everybody. And they came through a website called FreedomWorksHere. And it's almost like a welcome wagon on steroids. Like, hey, what do you want to do when you come to South Dakota? Do you understand what South Dakota is, what we love here, our way of life, that this isn't like –

You know, we leave our car doors unlocked. We're neighbors. We take care of each other. You know, we expect law and order. We're a Second Amendment state. It's like an onboarding process. It is. Well, we just interview them, and we want to make sure that when they come, they understand that we don't want them changing us.

we believe that they should come there and find a place that finally feels like home, feels like America again. So one of these organizations yesterday, this is a compliment of South Dakota, came out and they ranked the worst states for the LGBTQ plus agenda. Oh, shoot. Where did I? You got an F. Oh, okay. Which I think is great. And by the way...

Some people are going to criticize me. Let me be clear. They call an F if you don't have grooming in schools and drag queens in the streets. Let me be very clear, right? We all love everybody. Everyone's made in the image of God. You go after children or you put it in curriculum. That's what gets you an F. I just want to be very clear. And so how does that make you feel that those groups attack you that way? I feel like I get up every day and I get attacked. So I just always wait the next day to see what the new thing is, what the latest attack is, because it doesn't matter what it is that I do.

I can't even imagine. The thing that gives me hope every day is that I know it's nothing close to what happens to Donald Trump. I mean, it's not even close to how attacked he is. So if he can get up every day and go fight for America, I can do this. Yeah, I just totally agree. You've gotten to know him well. I know him pretty well.

It's hard to grasp into words how he's actually able to keep... He's 78 years old. Can you believe he's 78 today? No, I can't. Somebody told me he was... Can you believe he's 78? He's getting stronger. He's Benjamin Button, I'm telling you. This guy is aging in reverse. Yeah, he's strong. And we talk quite often. And he just is determined. I think the more they attack him, the stronger he gets to realize... It's like increased his life force, right? It is. I try to channel it, but I'm still kind of a girl. Where it's still kind of like...

Man, I'm not really what they're saying about me. I love people. I love kids. I love everybody. I'm just standing for the right thing. But, boy, the media is vicious. Yeah.

And I've also found that there's very few people that are your friends. Yeah, for sure. You've got to know what's right in your heart and do what's right because people are going to try to sway you, whether they're Republicans or they're Democrats. They're going to try to pull you off course, and you've got to keep your perspective on your people. And you've been smeared recently. I want to get into this. And I actually defended you throughout all of this because you have a great book. It's a fantastic book. No one actually talked about the book. It's so good. They just talked about a part of the book. And –

So I defended you on my show, which is this, which is that in rural America, if a dog does not do what you want it to do, you're responsible for that dog. And I know that's so foreign for those of us that grew up with dogs in suburban America, but you don't live in South Dakota. And it's like, by the way, I poll tested 10 people in South Dakota like, oh, it's totally normal. Yeah. And so can you just comment on that? I would just say that, you know, we just had days ago a nine-year-old boy killed by a dog.

It happens all the time. It happens all the time. And I told the story because it was a hard story. 20 years ago, I had to decide between the safety of my children and the safety of people over a dog. I was at second chance. At that time, I was running a hunting lodge. I was one who reformed dogs and helped them.

It was a working dog, but it was viciously killing livestock and attacking people. And I had to decide. So that's what the real story in the book is. I just, I defend you here. And I'm honest, like the media is so bothered by that. First of all, like dogs are not human beings. Okay. Let's just be morally clear about this. And like the outrage from the media, like, oh my goodness. Again, dogs are not human beings. How about you get upset about the million abortions in our country? Yes, that's exactly right. Like, hello? That's exactly right. I mean, I find the whole thing is so morally sick, honestly. Super sick.

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Pastor Jack Kibbs, my friend and great American. Sign up right now at reallifenetwork.com. That's reallifenetwork.com. Wonderful project. I love it. reallifenetwork.com. So talk about the book and why you wrote it and why people should read it. You know, I wrote the book because for years I've listened to people talk about, I wish we could just go back to the good old days. I wish we could go back to the days before Trump when the Mitt Romneys of the world and the Cheneys and the Bushes and everybody was civil to each other and we didn't fight like we do and I just got so tired of it.

And I just said, we're not going back. We're not going back. There's no going back. Donald Trump broke politics. He just did. And I think that's a good thing. I think it's a wonderful thing because now we're having much more honest conversations. We're peeling back the layers to the corruption that we have in our government and in our three-letter agencies. And I think it's a wonderful thing. I tell the story in the book about me sitting, watching President Trump announce he was going to run for president in 2016. And...

he's coming down a golden escalator. And I remember thinking, you know, when most politicians run for office, what's the first thing that they do when they announce they're going to run? They probably go buy themselves a pair of jeans, go stand in front of a barn with a hay bale or a manufacturing plant. Golly shucks, geez, I'm just like you. But secretly, they've always thought that they're better than you. And I said, when President Trump came down that golden escalator, I was like,

Who does that? Nobody does that. And in South Dakota, I was thinking at the time, I think we maybe have two escalators and they're in our airports, you know. Well, so most people on a day to day basis, I know, cannot relate. They can't relate to having a daily life with an escalator. So it was clear that the president wasn't trying to act like he was just like everybody else. He was just himself.

He was just himself. The bright red tie. Yep. He didn't think he was better than anybody else. And I thought, this guy is just going to come down this escalator and save our country. And I think it's fantastic. So I've been with him ever since. What does he need to do to win?

He needs to have conversations like he had yesterday, but also remember the track history of all those people in the room that he had a lot of conversations on Capitol Hill yesterday. Talk about that because, you know, all those I know all those characters. I saw Lindsey Graham. I lost my mind. I said that guy should be nowhere near President Trump. Do you guys agree? I can't stand that guy. You don't have to comment, but I think he's a waste of rations. He shouldn't have been in that meeting. Anyway, you know, some of those characters, you're more diplomatic than I am.

They were kissing the ring. They were like the body language was unbelievable. Right. I mean, it was like full. You know why? Because what ring they were actually kissing is you guys. Trump has brought you into the room. Yeah, that he is a vessel for the people. That's exactly right. They and so that's what I'm hoping is that he will always remember what he's told me his priorities are, is that he he needs to be ready to go on day one with a team that can actually fix stuff. I don't know of U.S. senators that do very much.

Would you ever run for the U.S. Senate? I can't imagine, but there's some that do some. You'd be a great upgrade from a couple in South Dakota. It's just really interesting that we have. I think that yesterday was an interesting day because President Trump kept it on legislative policy. I know. He was very magnanimous. Yes, he was. He was. And I just hope that he also remembers, though, that who is going to be there to actually help him. I told him before, I said, what happened the first time

is that you kind of thought you had to get everybody to get along and brought people into your inner circle and into the White House that didn't necessarily have your back and weren't loyal. And I said, this time you need to keep a few fighters around you. I said, because I know as governor that when I have to do all the fighting myself,

And I don't have my communications team or my staff or whoever it is fighting for me. I feel like I have to do it by myself. But I said, if you're fighting for me, then I can just relax and be the governor. And that's what he needs. He needs to just relax and be the president and keep people around him that do his fighting for him and make sure that what he says actually gets done this time. What have you learned in South Dakota on how to govern the state that can be applied to the executive branch of kind of building that team? Common sense.

common sense and you have to look at people what they have done in times of crisis before were they strong enough before what is something big that they did is there something in their life and in their testimony that tells you that they can handle the job you're giving them I would say that

that my dad raised me doing impossible things. He gave me jobs that were absolutely impossible. I thought maybe being a little kid that you thought maybe he was trying to kill me most of the time with, go drive that truck when you're 12 years old, go deal with that mean cow or whatever. But I think what he did was that he raised me to be a problem solver.

And to, when you take on tough challenges, to have the confidence to know you can handle it and take on the next biggest thing. That's what he needs to, President Trump needs to remember that he has people that have been consistent and strong and have gotten him through difficult times before and be there for him again. Make sure that he does it as much. He was fantastic to work with. You know, I got to work on tax reform with him for two years when I was a member of Congress. And every day he was in the White House when I was in office.

When I was governor, I was on offense. I could call him up and say, sir, I need to do this. I need to fix this. Isn't he the best with that? It's like, yes, Christy, do it. Can you contrast that with other politicians? Yeah, as soon as Biden got in the White House, I went on defense. So talk about your relationship with the Biden White House. It's obviously adversarial. Mm-hmm.

What are they doing with Mount Rushmore? Are they trying to turn that back? That's a very big buried lead story, right? There's like a Native American issue or something, right? The Black Hills are sacred to our Native American tribes. But Mount Rushmore is a national park. There's Forest Service land on it.

all around there. There's a lot of history in the area. But what has been interesting to watch is that during that July 3rd event and all the activity and protests and violence we saw, we had quite a few activist groups that were trying to blow up Mount Rushmore. In fact, I had to have... Yes, like actually be terrorists. Yes, I had to have National Guard troops there. We had a lot of protection. In fact, we still, to this day, have to have much higher levels of security to ensure that the mountain and the monument's going to be safe.

But now the Biden administration is talking about giving co-management of all of our national parks to our Native American tribes, which many of them have been very outspoken, saying they want it destroyed. So that's what's concerning to me, is that we have people that...

are wanting to blow up Mount Rushmore and destroy it that may have the authority given to them by the Biden administration to actually make decisions that would affect it. In South Dakota, how much land does the federal government control? Oh, I would say it's probably 36% of the land is federally owned, I would say, because you have Forest Service land, you have National Park System. Do you want that land back?

Somebody should have it back. I think the people should have it back. I don't want it. So that's a great action item. If Trump gave back the land from the feds to the states, I think that would be an amazing, like at least 10%, right? The state has much more right to it than the federal government does. I think Trump should have the BLM, which is Bureau of Land Management, give back the federal government lands to the states. Wouldn't that be a great idea, guys? Yep, yep, yep.

36%? Arizona is something like crazy, like 70%. Yeah, it's crazy. I think Utah maybe has the highest amount. Nevada, I think, is 97%. They call it federally impacted land, which means it's either forest service. That means you're not actually a state. Yeah, it's forest service, BLM land, Bureau of Land Management. It could be National Park System, which we have the badlands there as well, Wind Cave National Park. We have a lot of it. And then you also, we have tribal lands in the area, which the state has no jurisdiction over.

And we've talked a lot about the fact that, you know, what's happening at the southern border is impacting South Dakota dramatically. Because the tribes are the cartels, don't they? Well, what has happened is that we've had because of the open border, the cartels are not just at the southern border and in Mexico now. They're set up in areas of this country, cartels and their affiliates in our tribal areas, because I have no authority to go there and to bring law and order or have any jurisdiction. It is the federal government that needs to go in there.

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So for those, I mean, a lot of Michiganders here, right? There's not a huge tribal issue here, I can't imagine. Maybe a little bit here or there. But very little. Can you explain that? Because for those of us, I mean, I live in Arizona, so I understand this. There's like no-go zones. Right.

They literally govern themselves. This is an issue of crime. They can come into non-native areas, commit crimes, and go back. And there's a hard... This is a huge loophole. Didn't Oklahoma lose half of its state recently? Governor Stitt just lost his state, basically. Yeah, he had some court decisions that went a different direction.

and a lot of land. Neil Gorsuch messed us over on this, by the way. Like a lot of Tulsa went back to the tribes. Literally, just like Tulsa just handed back to the tribes. But what happens then is that the state no longer has a role in upholding law and order in those areas. They are a sovereign nation. Why are they able to vote in our elections? Well, they're still citizens of the United States of America.

But it's so that who has responsibility according to the treaties, according to the treaties that were signed, is the federal government has the authority to come in and enforce law and order. They're just not doing it. And then the tribal government has responsibility as well. So the FBI...

Yes. Could theoretically come into the tribes and shut down meth clinics or whatever. Yes, they do. But they only take the big cases because they say they're overwhelmed with cases. You know why they're overwhelmed? Because they're too bad looking into us. That's true. That's why they're overwhelmed. And Jay Sixers and trying 700 years for Donald Trump in prison. How big of an issue is that in South Dakota? It's a huge issue because I've got.

Kids getting raped and trafficked and women disappearing. There's a whole movement across this country talking about missing, murdered, and indigenous women. But a lot of it is because a lot of these affiliates of the cartels and the cartels come in and they take advantage of our young women. They're trafficking their drugs across our reservations. And they're doing it largely protected.

because I, as the governor, can't go there and take any kind of enforcement action. A lot of times, you know, you have their tribal council that's conflicted as well. You know, there may be some that are figuring out a way that it benefits them to have that kind of activity there. And the politics, I have many of the hundreds and hundreds of people, thousands of community members have said, Governor, help us. And my hands are tied as far as being able to come into these reservation areas and bring them safety. On the southern border...

Some of the gaps on the southern border are on native land. That's true. And, I mean, the federal government, based on what you're saying, has superseding jurisdiction. But this was an issue when Arizona and Texas, still Texas to a lesser extent, they don't have that many native reservations. Arizona has a ton. Yeah. And the natives are like, yeah, you're not allowed to come on. So a lot of the illegal trafficking, the really bad stuff, they'll just waltz into the native reservation as a launching off point. Mm-hmm.

And we don't do anything. But see, and I have the poorest –

reservations in the country. Why is that? So out of the top 11 poorest counties in the nation, I think I have five of them. Are you serious? And they're all in our tribal reservation area. So it is 90% unemployment, over 80% addiction rates. Some of the communities on our tribal reservations are worse than any third world country I've ever been to. It's amazing. And the gangs and the violence. It's so interesting. There's a couple of documentaries that are out right now that kind of

reveal what life is like in South Dakota in these reservation areas. And it's kids who are looking for some hope. They're looking for how, if you could do anything besides deal drugs, what would you want to be? You know, these people were interviewing kids and the kids would say, I wish I could go fix cars for a living. But all we have here that I can do is deal drugs. All that we have here is I can deal illegal hooch. And, you know, one of the young teenagers said, I would love to

fix people's lawns for them. I would love to be able to do that, but this is my only option. It's life on the reservation. There is no opportunity there, and there is so much crime and violence that they have nothing to do except to get drawn into that kind of lifestyle that has been so elevated. And it's not for lack of resources. They're the most heavily subsidized group. They are.

by far i mean they have a whole department of the federal government dedicated the bureau of indian affairs i think it's what's called indian affairs in fact i've called for a tribal public safety summit that we're having here on june 24th that um saying we're bringing everybody to the table and calling on bia to do an audit of the tribes what dollars they give them and if they don't adequately fund them to give them more but first find out where their money is going because i don't believe that all their money is going to where the the

places as the federal government has allocated. I think it disappears. I think it's laundered. It goes into people's pockets. Absolutely. And so how many drug overdose increases have you seen since you've become the governor in your state? Well, I'm the only state that has drug overdoses going down. Wow. How did you do that? People are happier. They really are. I mean, we're the only state that

Gosh, I mean, our incomes are going up. People are thriving. They're making more money. They've got more freedoms. They're going down. We've got a AAA credit rating, our fully funded pension plan. We've paid off all the debts of the states and our technical schools and colleges. We've built railroads, bridges. Our revenue, and listen, we don't have an income tax. We don't have a personal property tax. We did the largest tax cut in South Dakota history last year.

And we have a 4.2% sales tax. And we have so much revenue because the state is booming and doing so well that we're the only state in the country where we're trending down on our mental health issues, our suicides, and we're the only state in the country where overdoses are going down. So I believe it's when you embrace freedom, people are happier. And I talk constantly about the fact that we were created to serve people.

We are happier when we're serving other people. That's why God made us. And if you do that, you have a purpose in life. You live a life of significance. And people in South Dakota understand that, and that's what they do. I want to end on a philosophical note. I think it's important. We are better when we are free. But South Dakota is an interesting test case because it's one of the last states that I think can actually handle freedom.

because they're very responsible people. Growing up on a farm makes you responsible. It makes you that you have to be able to take care of yourself. And one of the reasons why freedom is disappearing in the country is that I don't think people can handle it.

No, and I think that's why we've been so bold. You know, people ask me... I totally agree. We were the first state to ban TikTok, and then you saw dozens of states ban TikTok, and then the federal government... I used to hate TikTok. Now I like it. Yeah? Well, now you like it? Well, I like it. Let somebody else buy it. Can we let the communists not own it first? That's fine. I only like it because it's going to help get Trump reelected. Then we were the first state to ban Central Bank digital currency. I totally respect it, yes. Yeah. First state to send National Guard to Texas to defend our border when Texas was asking for help. So...

We always have to be first, and I'm working on making sure we can do that because somebody – I think the country needs an example. So my pet project, I think she'd be a great U.S. senator, don't you guys? I think she'd be terrific because you needed an improvement there. God bless you, Governor Noem. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Email us as always, freedom at charliekirk.com. Thanks so much for listening, and God bless. For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.