MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk went on a bizarre rant on his podcast show Wednesday, claiming the solution to the housing crisis is locking more people up.
Kirk said a group of Republican lawmakers and donors had come to him for advice, asking what specific issue Republicans should “own and be known for.”
“One of my hopes is to turn the Republican party into a resolutely stronger party on crime,” Kirk said. “We are not harsh enough on crime in this country...and this is not just about stopping criminals. If you enforce the law, housing will be cheaper because more of the country will be livable.”
Kirk, who does not have a formal background in finance, economics, or real estate, said the reason for expensive housing was “because you have a small group of law-abiding young people that want to live in certain zip codes.”
“Why don’t you open up more zip codes?” Kirk proposed, arguing that greater rates of incarceration would cool the housing market.
The far-right college dropout–turned–influencer also jumped to conclusions to claim that with more arrests and more police officers enforcing the law, America will have more manufacturing, causing economic growth.
“If you enforce the law we’ll have more manufacturing here in America...the economy will grow faster.”
Kirk did not share any statistics or facts to back his statements, but said that crime rates were going down across the country, a phenomenon he labeled “The Donald Trump effect.”
“The Donald Trump effect is real, the more we do mass deportations, the more criminals know that they might end up getting a prison sentence, the more we’re seeing the rate of violent crime decrease, but that is not stopping, of course, all violent crime.”
“We do not have enough people in jail in this country,” Kirk said.
Kirk, who is the founder of conservative non-profit Turning Point USA, also dismissed the argument that the prison-industrial complex is an issue in the U.S.
“We’re just a more violent country, than other countries,” he said.
According to a report from Bloomberg, there are a variety of reasons that contribute to the high prices Americans are currently experiencing post-pandemic, including greater demand, a general shortage of housing, along with growing competition from “large-scale institutional investors” who view family homes and apartments as a “lucrative new asset class.”
