Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk analyzes the “similarities” between Cracker Barrel and Democrats after the restaurant chain returned to its old logo on “The Ingraham Angle” with host Laura Ingraham.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Of course, Democrats don’t believe they have a policy problem, not on that issue, not on any issue. They think it’s just all a messaging problem. Again, this is stupid radicalism and a refusal to admit that they need to appeal, not to a fringe, not to the same liberal elites who got them into this mess, but to a core constituency, working class Americans. And you don’t need to be a rebranding consultant to tell you what they want. The middle class, regular people, they want safe streets. They want decent education for their kids, and they want a real shot at prosperity. And that’s what Donald Trump is delivering, results. And that is the best branding of all. And that’s the Angle. We are delighted now to be joined by our old friend Charlie Kirk, Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA. Charlie, Cracker Barrel cracked, your reaction to this breaking news? CHARLIE KIRK, FOUNDER, TURNING POINT USA: Yes, they have. I’ll tell you what, President Trump, he runs both the Democrat Party, because basically everything the Democrat Party says is just against Trump. So, he gets to determine the entire agenda the Democrat Party, and now he runs Cracker Barrel, all from the Oval Office, just on Truth Social. I’ll tell you what, it’s an amazing test case to show the similarities between the two, because both the Democrat Party and their attempted rebrand and Cracker Barrel, it shows that when you market test in Brooklyn, you lose in Birmingham, Alabama. When you try to just always pander towards a small subset of elite opinion of out of touch actors, and then you have contempt and bitterness for the very country that you either wish that they want to buy your products from or to vote from you. So there is this very interesting connective tissue here, and it’s not worth overthinking. By the way you look at the ridiculous logo that Cracker Barrel have thought it was a good idea, that’s this — those are the same people that thought that a bunch of people in Pennsylvania were going to come out in a lot of numbers for Kamala Harris, like, oh, yes, which they’re going to be super excited for it. That — the — the — the — the big takeaway here, though, and I think this is important, is that the middle part of the country, they do not want to see their traditions and their customs and the things that they have come to love and appreciate taken from them. The Democrat Party has done that. So much of Trump’s base are former Democrats, and they became Trumplicans, if you will, Trump-Republicans because of the working class basis. The same thing with Cracker Barrel. And the reason why they saw such a huge response is they said, no, not again. You’re not going to take yet another institution, yet another restaurant or uncle Herschel from us. We’ve had enough stolen from us. That’s why we love Trump and we want Cracker Barrel the way it should be. INGRAHAM: But look, we don’t know the exact rationale that went into this rebrand of Cracker Barrel, but it seems pretty obvious, right? I mean, I don’t know if Starbuck’s point on this is right. He pointed to that one DEI member of the board, but his — certainly his background would sense — would tell us that there was something going on here with the multicultural push. But in the process, they offended a lot of people, and just like the Democrats are doing, Charlie, on the issue of crime. You saw that African American woman saying, basically, she would welcome what Trump’s doing in Chicago. But they don’t care. They don’t care what regular people want. They simply are ignoring it. KIRK: No, and they’re so disconnected from the regular body politic. And I love what President Trump is doing, by the way, with crime in Washington, D.C. I think this needs to be a template for the rest of the country. Someone who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, I can tell you, Chicago desperately needs it right now, and especially other cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, I think we need to now say, we’re not going to put up with crime anymore, and that is a quality of life issue that impacts every single American. And I’m telling there’s something very real happening in the black community. They’re talking, they’re listening, and they’re seeing that they have safer streets, they have better ways to school, and their quality of life has tangibly improved. President Donald Trump deals in reality, while the Democrats are too worried about abstractions and living in the clouds. INGRAHAM: Charlie, did you also notice and have you noticed that President Trump just seems a lot happier this time around? Right. He’s been through – – run through the gauntlet, gone through so much, but he’s truly enjoying this job. They didn’t let him enjoy it last time around. But he’s — and it’s kind of infectious. It’s just — it’s fun. I mean — I — you know, I took him to task on the 600,000 Chinese students issue last night, and I’m still maintaining my position on that, come hell or high water, but look at how much fun he’s having, and magnanimous he is as well. KIRK: I completely agree. I was going to mention that, for three hours straight, you just kind of saw the master at work. And I think there was some point of it where the president looked around his all-star team, and his team, his roster of patriots said, boy, this is a lot different than it was, half that room in Trump 1.0 either secretly hated Donald Trump, wanted some sort of 25th Amendment push, was actively working with the deep state against him back in Trump 1.0 — INGRAHAM: Right. KIRK: — and either that or they weren’t even good at their job, and now he has this cast of all-stars. I loved listening to it. I learned a lot hearing kind of the status report, what you saw, what the American people saw for three hours on full display, the cameras were allowed in the board of directors meeting of the U.S. government, we were allowed in the room. That’s why they hate Donald Trump, because he brings the American people. We had a seat at the table. Usually, that stuff happens in the shadows, behind the scenes. You’ve got a three hour uninterrupted, unedited window into how our government is running and operating. And I totally agree. President Trump is running a master class. He looks light, happy and joyful. The Democrats are hall monitoring scolds, and that’s why our party has gained 4 million net new voters since 2020. Our party is as hot as a pistol as President Trump would say.

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