Charlie Kirk Connects Transgender Issues With Inflation

Conservative podcast host Charlie Kirk has a new theory correlating America's rising inflation to the transgender movement, saying "they're exactly the same."

On Wednesday's episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, the host said that the country's "trans issue" is really "an issue of reality," adding that people aren't allowed to change their own reality. Without clearly explaining it, Kirk said there's a direct link between inflation and transgender identity.

Kirk began by saying poor people can't one day say "I'm rich" and it becomes true. He added that there has to be evidence as to whether someone is rich or poor. He then related that ideology to trans people.

"And one of the reasons we've been so insistent against this idea you can change your gender, or change your sex, or change both of them, is that when you start to indulge in the belief that you could become whatever you want and reality is subjective, not objective, you're going to have ramifications that nobody anticipated or intended," Kirk said.

Kirk's argument avoids explaining what outcomes he thinks will happen to trans people. He doesn't mention any specific "ramifications" of someone whose gender identity is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.

Without linking the two with context, Kirk says "there's a direct connection to inflation and the trans issue."

"You say, Charlie, come on. They couldn't be further apart. No, they're exactly the same. They're the same in this aspect—when you believe that men can become women, why wouldn't you also believe that you could print wealth? If you believe that someone can change their gender, why wouldn't you also believe that money is wealth?" Kirk added.

The host appears to conflate the idea that living as a transgender person is the same as the government printing money, thus allegedly causing inflation. How he arrived at the reasoning is currently unclear.

Many people were also confused by Kirk's comments and took to social media wondering what the correlation is between the two subjects.

Some say that transgender people are blamed for many things and that Kirk's comments are just another ploy to spark more hate against LGBTQ people.

"Trans people are blamed for so many things we obviously didn't do, one Twitter user wrote. "Conservatives said we were the reason Putin invaded Ukraine. Charlie Kirk thinks we caused inflation."

Some just decided that Kirk's argument doesn't make logical sense at all.

"When you don't know a single f**king thing about Trans& inflation but choose to embarrass yourself to get some attention," another Twitter user wrote. "We're out here thriving," they added.

A spokesperson for Kirk responded to Newsweek's request for comment.

"Charlie is not blaming Trans people for inflation. That is an absurd conclusion to draw from what he actually said," the spokesperson said.

"Charlie is drawing a connection between two completely separate topics that he believes fail to deal in reality. One is the trans agenda, which Charlie believes fails to acknowledge biological realities and results in harming children, and the other is modern monetary policy, which Charlie believes fails to acknowledge financial realities resulting in inflation."

"This is beneath the dignity of Newsweek to write such a ridiculous story that has rightly been relegated to trashy far-left activist blogs," they added.

Update 4/14/22, 10:40 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and background.