Megyn Kelly Tells Glenn How 7th Grade Bullies Prepared Her to Handle Trump

Megyn Kelly, host of The Kelly File on Fox News and author or the new book Settle for More, joined Glenn on radio today for an enlightening conversation about her all-American values and how she views adversity as an opportunity.

"It's a pretty incredible story," Glenn said.

In particular, Megyn told Glenn about an experience in 7th grade that both scarred and shaped her.

"You can learn a lot about life in the seventh grade," Megyn said.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these questions:

• How did a group of 7th grade girls make Megyn Kelly feel loneliness and deep sadness?

• What dawned on her about Trump's relentless attacks?

• Why did Megyn Kelly called Glenn "a gentleman throughout?"

• What torrent of threats were unleashed after the now infamous debate question?

• What's Megyn Kelly's blueprint for beating bullies?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Welcome to the program, Megyn Kelly. How are you, Megyn?

MEGYN: Hi, Glenn, it's great to be here.

GLENN: Thank you. Shoot. We have a horrible connection. Can we play with that as we talk?

Megyn, I haven't read your book yet. Just came out yesterday. Just got it actually this morning. Have thumbed through it. Have read some excerpts from it. It's a pretty incredible story. And you're ruffling some feathers right now in several areas.

Can we start with Donald Trump? And tell me if I have this story right -- and this is what you wrote in the book or not.

MEGYN: Okay.

GLENN: The Donald Trump story, if I may share a story -- I was on your show one day when you were in lockdown, may I go farther than this? Do you remember this?

MEGYN: Keep going.

GLENN: Okay. And you were having significant security issues.

MEGYN: Yes.

GLENN: And real death threats. Your family was under attack. And you had never seen anything about it. And I was I think maybe in Iowa or Nebraska. And I was waiting for you to come into the studio. You were about an hour late. And we had a conversation, and it was a quite frightening time in your life.

MEGYN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Do you want to talk about that at all?

MEGYN: Well, I mean -- look, let me just start with this. This book, Settle for More, is about my life and my values, which I think are not just mine, but American values -- at least, used to be. Right? I don't know about today's day and age and these kids.

But one of the things that you see throughout the book is that I think adversity is an opportunity to grow and become stronger. And I can certainly say that my year of Trump, as I describe it in the book, has done that for me.

And it has been a difficult year in many ways. I mean, in particular, the security scares were bad. And clearly unacceptable. No journalist should have to go through that just to cover a candidate.

GLENN: Nobody should.

MEGYN: But I dealt with it. And I think I actually now have a bit of a blueprint for others in how to deal with it. And I hope when people close this book, they will understand that, you know, I think you can grow if hard times come your way. And it's an opportunity to evolve. And as far as Trump and I go, I think we're in a better place now.

GLENN: May I pursue this because of what was printed in the New York Times of what you wrote. And, again, I'm sorry. I have not read the book. I just got it this morning.

MEGYN: Stan Burgos (phonetic).

GLENN: Yeah. I know.

The New York Times spun this as what you were saying in the book was you knew no one was going to come to your rescue, no one was standing by you. I don't necessarily want to get into this, but I have been shocked and horrified at the way you have been treated by several people. And no one stood by you. But you -- the New York Times made it seem that no one was going to stand up for you, and so you had to solve it. And basically, the way I read it from the Times is you had to go kiss his ring and make it go away and make it stop.

MEGYN: So that's not exactly right. I did have people stand up for me. And just so your listeners know, you were one of them. And this is, I'm sure, knowing you, not something you talk about, but just so everybody knows, Glenn would write me the kindest, most supportive, uplifting messages in the darkest days that offered to help and offered to do anything he could. And expressed, of course, genuine concern. And just, you were such a gentleman throughout, Glenn, and I just want to make a record of that to people.

GLENN: Thank you, Megyn.

MEGYN: But what had happened with Trump was he was relentless. You know, he just couldn't let it go. And the book documents how in the initial days after that August debate, I understood he was angry. And I -- I understood why. It was definitely a tough question for him. I don't regret it, but he was new to the game. All these other guys were seasoned politicians, and he's up there like, "Hey, I'm here to get you ratings," and then it's all of a sudden a punch of the face. And he's like, "What the hell is that?" Right?

So I understood his initial anger. But I didn't really understand how he couldn't let it go.

My point is, Roger Ailes did try to stand Trump down many times, but he was unsuccessful. And Sean Hannity, who is tight with Trump, tried to stand Trump down many times, but he was unsuccessful. Hannity was successful in getting some more talk radio guys sort of, you know, not gin up so much hatred at a time when I was under serious threat and I was, you know, having to live my life with bodyguards, which is not how a journalist normally lives or should have to live.

And so I did have some support. But it just wasn't working. You know, it was like, they were trying, but it wasn't working.

And after nine months of it, Glenn -- and the book sort of documents how just every time I would think it was over, it wasn't over. And I'm not just talking about nasty tweets. We've all been subjected to that. I'm a big girl. I can take that. It was the torrent of nastiness that those would unleash in my life and of threats, I mean, real security threats. And people coming to my home, and on my doorstep threatening and screaming obscenities at me on the street in front of my children. And not being able to go anywhere without an armed guard, including Disney World. I mean, it's just like, what the hell is going on here because of a debate question?

So in April, if memory serves, of 2016, it dawned on me that Trump was never going to let this go. That he was enjoying the story line and that, that meant it would be up to me to write an ending to it. And I knew if I could in front of him, he would stop.

And there was no apology. I mean, I wasn't -- he wanted an apology from me for my debate question. That wasn't happening. I didn't want an apology from him. But we had always had a good relationship. So I knew if I could get in there, sit down with him and just talk, we would be okay and he would stop. And that's what happened.

GLENN: There is a theme that is going on in the country today, and it's whether or not -- you know, we for years have been told for years to stop bullying. And what that meant in the past was, "No, kids, you cannot play dodgeball anymore because you might get hit in the face." There's a difference between the bullying that has been -- you know, that the left has been saying has happened and real bullying.

MEGYN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And you have -- have seen your share of it, as, you know, the bullying that was happening with Donald Trump, the bullying that was happening with Roger Ailes. And it seems as though the country doesn't necessarily care all that much on either side. Is that right? Is that how you're feeling?

MEGYN: Well, first of all, I know that you have experienced this yourself because there's just something about the way some of Trump's supporters marched to the beat of his drum, that whenever he sends out a negative message about somebody, it really does wreak havoc in that person's life. And I haven't seen a lot of people talk about it.

Erick Erickson has written about it. You know, he got some just terrible death threats to his family. And I know you've been subjected to some of that too, just for being a Trump critic. Which is -- this is America. We have dissenting points of view. We as journalists are supposed to be skeptical in our coverage.

But, yes, I do draw a distinction though between bullying, which my book, Settle for More, talks all about. I have had real experience with. I had a brutal seventh grade year, in which my group of friends all turned against me. And I was in tears for much of the year and very, very alone with no friends. And it was hard. You know, this was 1983 when you didn't have helicopter parents intervening at every turn. But it does teach you a thing or too

GLENN: Why did they turn against you at seventh --

MEGYN: Who the hell knows?

GLENN: Why was that an important story to tell?

MEGYN: Well, first of all, who knows, right? These are 12-year-old girls who are just -- who can be the meanest some B's you ever -- terrible.

(chuckling)

GLENN: I have to tell you, I have found that women -- some of the meanest tweets, some of the meanest Facebook posts, and some of the meanest emails I've received, I'll read them and say, "This guy is out of control." And it will be signed by a woman.

(laughter)

GLENN: I mean, women are nasty at times.

MEGYN: Yeah. We can give as good as we get.

GLENN: Ooh. And then some.

MEGYN: And, you know, it all begins in the seventh grade, Glenn. You can learn a lot about life in the seventh grade.

You know, in the book, I tell this story about -- take a step back on the bullying. But in the book, I tell the story about how it culminated in -- because I used to be popular. And then suddenly one day, this group, they just turned on me, and I had no friends.

And they would, you know, flick the spitballs at me and try to trip me in the hall. I used to be overweight. I used to have bad skin. They would make fun of every vulnerability.

JEFFY: Me too.

GLENN: Wow. Boy, must be fun --

MEGYN: One day I was at home. It was a Saturday night. The most popular girl was having a big party, and I was home alone with my parents.

And my phone rang. I said, "Hello." And she said, "You know, it's me." She said, "Do you know where all the people are from my party?" And I said, "No." And they all screamed into the phone, "We're here."

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

MEGYN: And they hung up. I hung up the phone in front of my parents who didn't know what had just happened. I lied and told them it was a wrong number.

And I went out in my backyard, which had iced over. This is upstate New York, Albany, suburb. And there was snow on the ground that had iced over. And my sneakers -- I went out there, Glenn. I put my hands in my pockets, and I sort of skated across the ice in the darkness, with tears streaming down my face. And I can remember it to this day, you know, just that feeling of ostracization and loneliness and just deep sadness and the desire to connect and feel like you belong. And so, you know, those scars they take a long time to heal.

And the truth is, it took me some 20 years before I had even realized what they had done to me, what that year had done to me as a person. So I do take bullying very seriously.

And when Donald Trump began to act up -- again, in the initial phases, it's like, "Okay. It's a politician that's unhappy with me. I'm experienced in that." But when it was so relentless -- I knew I was not going to submit. You know, actual bullying is intimidation designed to get a certain effect, you know, to have a certain effect.

GLENN: Yeah.

MEGYN: They're looking for compliance, right? To -- to cow you.

And Donald Trump never managed to do that with me. I -- I covered him without fear of favor, every day of that campaign. And so I feel like it was an attempt at bullying, but not an actual bullying, right? Because there was no submission.

But I will say this, when I came out of the bullying, and over the years in thinking about it, I did realize that in dealing with the bully in general, the best course is to send the bully a message that he's nothing to you, right? That there's a good me when you raise a child, the bad me. If you don't pay positive attention to your child, he'll act out badly. And if you don't pay attention to that, the worst thing that you could do to a child is send them the not me message. And I think when you're dealing with a bully, the not me message is the best message you can send. And I think it really irritated Donald Trump over the months that I would not respond to him. But I think that's a proven course for how to handle, as an adult, someone who is trying to push you around.

GLENN: Megyn, I have talked to several people who have expressed the feeling of, "This is not the ending." And it has nothing to do with Donald Trump. It has everything to do with the way our society is going. And the economy and world affairs, if we don't turn a corner here.

MEGYN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And the people who are saying, "I want to stand, but it's lonely. It is really, really lonely. And I don't know if I can do it."

MEGYN: Uh-huh.

GLENN: What have you learned from truly standing almost alone, or you had to have felt pretty alone even though you did have some people back -- I'm glad to hear that some of the Fox people were backing you behind the scenes?

MEGYN: Well, I don't define myself by applicant or this job or just my identity as a news anchor. And that's been key to everything for me. And, you know, in this book, you know, I talk about what -- what -- a piece of advice that was given to me long ago by one of my first law bosses, when I was practicing law, which was, "In times of trouble, remember who you are."

And what does that mean?

It means, what defines you? You know, who are you? Am I Megyn Kelly news anchor? Well, that's something I do, but it's not who I am.

You know, I'm -- I'm a woman. I'm a person, a woman, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister. You know, those are the things when I think about who I am, I think about those people who made me those things. And the influence they've had in my life. And the times we've shared together and the laughter and the tears. And those are the things that are important to me. And that if I ever were, God forbid, to lose would change who I am, you know, would deeply affect me in ways I couldn't change back, not not this job, not, you know, who is even in the Oval Office, Glenn.

And I think that people should hold on to that, because they can try to bully you. They can say mean things about you. But they can't change your soul unless you let them.

And for me, I feel like, you hold on to your integrity, you hold on to your ethics and who you are, which, of course, is what you do behind closed doors when no one is looking. And you hold on to what you hold most dear in this world. And those things don't tend to change. And they certainly aren't dictated by the internet or anything anybody says in a public forum. And you'll be good. You know, just keep redirecting yourself to that stuff, remembering who you are, and you'll be good.

GLENN: The name of the book is Settle for More by Megyn Kelly. It is out today. Megyn, I would like to read the back and then when things slow down for you, I would like to have you back and talk a little more because I think you are one of the more fascinating people in the media today and somebody who actually really tries to be fair and to get it right. And I appreciate that.

MEGYN: Thanks, Glenn.

GLENN: Megyn, thank you. We'll talk to you again. Settle for More is the name of the book by Megyn Kelly. Back in just a second.

Featured Image: FOX news host Megyn Kelly looks on during the Republican Presidential debate sponsored by Fox News at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa on January 28, 2016. (Photo Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck: Here's what's WRONG with conservatism today

Getty Images / Handout | Getty Images

What does it mean to be a conservative in 2025? Glenn offers guidance on what conservatives need to do to ensure the conservative movement doesn't fade into oblivion. We have to get back to PRINCIPLES, not policies.

To be a conservative in 2025 means to STAND

  • for Stewardship, protecting the wisdom of our Founders;
  • for Truth, defending objective reality in an age of illusion;
  • for Accountability, living within our means as individuals and as a nation;
  • for Neighborhood, rebuilding family, faith, and local community;
  • and for Duty, carrying freedom forward to the next generation.

A conservative doesn’t cling to the past — he stands guard over the principles that make the future possible.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm so tired of being against everything. Saying what we're not.

It's time that we start saying what we are. And it's hard, because we're changing. It's different to be a conservative, today, than it was, you know, years ago.

And part of that is just coming from hard knocks. School of hard knocks. We've learned a lot of lessons on things we thought we were for. No, no, no.

But conservatives. To be a conservative, it shouldn't be about policies. It's really about principles. And that's why we've lost our way. Because we've lost our principles. And it's easy. Because the world got easy. And now the world is changing so rapidly. The boundaries between truth and illusion are blurred second by second. Machines now think. Currencies falter. Families fractured. And nations, all over the world, have forgotten who they are.

So what does it mean to be a conservative now, in 2025, '26. For a lot of people, it means opposing the left. That's -- that's a reaction. That's not renewal.

That's a reaction. It can't mean also worshiping the past, as if the past were perfect. The founders never asked for that.

They asked that we would preserve the principles and perfect their practice. They knew it was imperfect. To make a more perfect nation.

Is what we're supposed to be doing.

2025, '26 being a conservative has to mean stewardship.

The stewardship of a nation, of a civilization.

Of a moral inheritance. That is too precious to abandon.

What does it mean to conserve? To conserve something doesn't mean to stand still.

It means to stand guard. It means to defend what the Founders designed. The separation of powers. The rule of law.

The belief that our rights come not from kings or from Congress, but from the creator himself.
This is a system that was not built for ease. It was built for endurance, and it will endure if we only teach it again!

The problem is, we only teach it like it's a museum piece. You know, it's not a museum piece. It's not an old dusty document. It's a living covenant between the dead, the living and the unborn.

So this chapter of -- of conservatism. Must confront reality. Economic reality.

Global reality.

And moral reality.

It's not enough just to be against something. Or chant tax cuts or free markets.

We have to ask -- we have to start with simple questions like freedom, yes. But freedom for what?

Freedom for economic sovereignty. Your right to produce and to innovate. To build without asking Beijing's permission. That's a moral issue now.

Another moral issue: Debt! It's -- it's generational theft. We're spending money from generations we won't even meet.

And dependence. Another moral issue. It's a national weakness.

People cannot stand up for themselves. They can't make it themselves. And we're encouraging them to sit down, shut up, and don't think.

And the conservative who can't connect with fiscal prudence, and connect fiscal prudence to moral duty, you're not a conservative at all.

Being a conservative today, means you have to rebuild an economy that serves liberty, not one that serves -- survives by debt, and then there's the soul of the nation.

We are living through a time period. An age of dislocation. Where our families are fractured.

Our faith is almost gone.

Meaning is evaporating so fast. Nobody knows what meaning of life is. That's why everybody is killing themselves. They have no meaning in life. And why they don't have any meaning, is truth itself is mocked and blurred and replaced by nothing, but lies and noise.

If you want to be a conservative, then you have to be to become the moral compass that reminds a lost people, liberty cannot survive without virtue.

That freedom untethered from moral order is nothing, but chaos!

And that no app, no algorithm, no ideology is ever going to fill the void, where meaning used to live!

To be a conservative, moving forward, we cannot just be about policies.

We have to defend the sacred, the unseen, the moral architecture, that gives people an identity. So how do you do that? Well, we have to rebuild competence. We have to restore institutions that actually work. Just in the last hour, this monologue on what we're facing now, because we can't open the government.

Why can't we open the government?

Because government is broken. Why does nobody care? Because education is broken.

We have to reclaim education, not as propaganda, but as the formation of the mind and the soul. Conservatives have to champion innovation.

Not to imitate Silicon Valley's chaos, but to harness technology in defense of human dignity. Don't be afraid of AI.

Know what it is. Know it's a tool. It's a tool to strengthen people. As long as you always remember it's a tool. Otherwise, you will lose your humanity to it!

That's a conservative principle. To be a conservative, we have to restore local strength. Our families are the basic building blocks, our schools, our churches, and our charities. Not some big, distant NGO that was started by the Tides Foundation, but actual local charities, where you see people working. A web of voluntary institutions that held us together at one point. Because when Washington fails, and it will, it already has, the neighborhood has to stand.

Charlie Kirk was doing one thing that people on our side were not doing. Speaking to the young.

But not in nostalgia.

Not in -- you know, Reagan, Reagan, Reagan.

In purpose. They don't remember. They don't remember who Dick Cheney was.

I was listening to Fox news this morning, talking about Dick Cheney. And there was somebody there that I know was not even born when Dick Cheney. When the World Trade Center came down.

They weren't even born. They were telling me about Dick Cheney.

And I was like, come on. Come on. Come on.

If you don't remember who Dick Cheney was, how are you going to remember 9/11. How will you remember who Reagan was.

That just says, that's an old man's creed. No, it's not.

It's the ultimate timeless rebellion against tyranny in all of its forms. Yes, and even the tyranny of despair, which is eating people alive!

We need to redefine ourselves. Because we have changed, and that's a good thing. The creed for a generation, that will decide the fate of the republic, is what we need to find.

A conservative in 2025, '26.

Is somebody who protects the enduring principles of American liberty and self-government.

While actively stewarding the institutions. The culture. The economy of this nation!

For those who are alive and yet to be unborn.

We have to be a group of people that we're not anchored in the past. Or in rage! But in reason. And morality. Realism. And hope for the future.

We're the stewards! We're the ones that have to relight the torch, not just hold it. We didn't -- we didn't build this Torch. We didn't make this Torch. We're the keepers of the flame, but we are honor-bound to pass that forward, and conservatives are viewed as people who just live in the past. We're not here to merely conserve the past, but to renew it. To sort it. What worked, what didn't work. We're the ones to say to the world, there's still such a thing as truth. There's still such a thing as virtue. You can deny it all you want.

But the pain will only get worse. There's still such a thing as America!

And if now is not the time to renew America. When is that time?

If you're not the person. If we're not the generation to actively stand and redefine and defend, then who is that person?

We are -- we are supposed to preserve what works.

That -- you know, I was writing something this morning.

I was making notes on this. A constitutionalist is for restraint. A progressive, if you will, for lack of a better term, is for more power.

Progressives want the government to have more power.

Conservatives are for more restraint.

But the -- for the American eagle to fly, we must have both wings.

And one can't be stronger than the other.

We as a conservative, are supposed to look and say, no. Don't look at that. The past teaches us this, this, and this. So don't do that.

We can't do that. But there are these things that we were doing in the past, that we have to jettison. And maybe the other side has a good idea on what should replace that. But we're the ones who are supposed to say, no, but remember the framework.

They're -- they can dream all they want.
They can come up with all these utopias and everything else, and we can go, "That's a great idea."

But how do we make it work with this framework? Because that's our job. The point of this is, it takes both. It takes both.

We have to have the customs and the moral order. And the practices that have stood the test of time, in trial.

We -- we're in an amazing, amazing time. Amazing time.

We live at a time now, where anything -- literally anything is possible!

I don't want to be against stuff. I want to be for the future. I want to be for a rich, dynamic future. One where we are part of changing the world for the better!

Where more people are lifted out of poverty, more people are given the freedom to choose, whatever it is that they want to choose, as their own government and everything.

I don't want to force it down anybody's throat.

We -- I am so excited to be a shining city on the hill again.

We have that opportunity, right in front of us!

But not in we get bogged down in hatred, in division.

Not if we get bogged down into being against something.

We must be for something!

I know what I'm for.

Do you?

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.