Salem Radio Network has been evolving, for all intents and purposes, into an arm of what I’ve come to call the Trump Radio Network — a talk radio network consisting of so-called conservatives like Charlie Kirk who used to stand for conservative values before the Age of Trump.
Nearly a year ago, I wrote an article about my decision to leave Salem Radio after Craig Silverman, a former chief deputy district attorney in Denver, CO. and the host of The Craig Silverman Show on Salem’s “conservative” talk station 710KNUS, was unceremoniously fired while on-the-air after daring to criticize Donald Trump on his show.
In an interview with CNN’s Reliable Sources following his termination, Silverman stated the obvious when he said that his abrupt termination was evidence of Salem Radio’s intolerance of unfavorable Trump content — a true statement because Salem Media Group and Salem Radio Network long-ago joined the rest of the so-called conservative media to become willing allies with Trump in his war on conservatism and conservative values.
Salem Media Group fired all “anti-Trump” writers working for their various online publications in April, 2018, and Salem Radio did likewise with their radio hosts later that year; replacing anti-Trump conservative Michael Medved with former Trump campaign manager Sebastian Gorka and giving Steve Bannon a daily show in November, 2019.
So, it came as no surprise to learn that Salem Radio has announced a new addition to the Trump Radio Network: Charlie Kirk — or Charlie Cuck if you prefer since he’s a “cuckservative.”
The Urban Dictionary describes a cuckservative as a self-styled conservative who will cravenly sell out and undermine his home country’s people, culture, and national interest in order to win approval with parties hostile or indifferent to them. As you’ll soon see, the word fits Kirk to a T.
Kirk’s Salem Radio Network bio calls him “the next big thing in conservative Talkradio” [sic] and lists his many “conservative” qualifications for getting the gig. Here’s a few of the “highlights” along with some of my comments:
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and President of Turning Point USA, a national student movement dedicated to identifying, organizing, and empowering young people to promote the principles of free markets and limited government.
Taken at face value, this sounds pretty good. But if his movement is so noble, why did Twitter and Facebook shut down accounts earlier this month linked to a misleading media campaign run by Turning Point Action, the sister 501(c)(4) to Turning Point USA and its political action committee?
According to a report by The Washington Post, TPA paid teenagers to flood the platforms with so-called conservative talking points, including disinformation and misleading claims made by Trump relating to everything from mail-in voting to the coronavirus pandemic.
He’s the author of three books including the #1 Amazon and New York Times bestseller, The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas that Will Win the Future from Broadside Books, an imprint of Harper Collins.
The MAGA Doctrine? Kirk claims in his book that this is how Trump is guiding the United States. In reality, it exposes Kirk’s faux-conservative values.
Charlie is also the chairman of Students for Trump, which aims to activate one million new college voters through its more than 350 chapters present on campuses in battleground states in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.
TPUSA is supposed to be “dedicated to identifying, organizing, and empowering young people to promote the principles of free markets and limited government” — ideals Trump abandoned long ago.
But this isn’t about conservatism, it’s about all-things-Trump. Kirk is leveraging TPUSA by turning it into a Trump propaganda machine; spreading the GOP’s “new-conservatism” — better known as nationalism.
In 2019, Charlie was granted an honorary doctorate from Liberty University citing his exceptional leadership and energetic voice for conservatives. Later that year, Charlie teamed up with Liberty University President, Jerry Falwell Jr. to cofound The Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty, a Christian think tank working to expand religious liberty and advance conservative principles in the public sphere.
The connection between Trump, Liberty University, and Jerry Falwell, Jr. has been well-known since 2016 — a connection that recently made biblical-inspired headlines after Jerry was relieved of his very lucrative position as university president.
The connection to Falwell is bad enough on its own, but it provides additional proof of Kirk’s Trumpism.
His social media reaches over 100 million people per month and according to Axios he is one of the “top 10 most engaged” Twitter handles in the world behind only President Trump among conservatives.
As stated above, his social media influence is highly suspect, and there’s very little “conservative” about it.
Kirk is not alone in the cave by faux-conservative media. Personalities like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity effectively turned FOX News into Trump TV, and ever since Mark Levin and Glenn Beck merged Conservative Review and Blaze Media, it’s been nothing but a pro-Trump echo chamber known as BlazeTV.
I provide a daily two-minute radio feature that used to be distributed by Salem Radio Network. But all of that changed for me last year when my defense of conservatism and the Constitution interfered with the Trump Radio Network.
Many of the people I used to work with in the radio business called it “sour grapes” when I severed my connection with Salem Radio, but I simply refuse to play the go-along-to-get-along game played by so many in the Age of Trump — not with the future of liberty and conservatism at stake.
This decision, no doubt, has made things rather challenging. But I remain committed to my faith, the Constitution, and conservatism. And I will unabashedly call out politicians, the Fellowship of the Pharisees, and the faux-conservative media when they sell out those values for a seat at Trump’s table.
That includes Salem Radio Network Trump Radio Network and Charlie “cuckservative” Kirk.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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