The founding ideals of the United States are defined as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Said by Congressman Chris Deluzio, Checked Updated
- Sources
- 3 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
The Charlie Kirk ShowAug 5, 2026
The claim paraphrases the post's question-and-answer ('what was the founding principle? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'), which is faithful to the passage. Primary sources, including the Declaration of Independence text and the National Archives' Founding Documents page, identify life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the ideals on which the United States was founded.
What was said
… Yeah, no, I think it's really important, and I think when we understand the number one value of these two systems, capitalism values freedom. It values liberty, and that makes sense why America has been a capitalist nation, is because what was the founding principle? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or John Locke: life, liberty, and property. So what it's saying is, that's a value statement. Number one thing is life, and then the other two are my personal happiness, my self-determination, and my liberty. …
The Charlie Kirk Show · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. The Declaration of Independence, the founding document, states that among the unalienable rights are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.[1]
Supports. The National Archives' Founding Documents page says the Declaration 'expresses the ideals on which the United States was founded' and quotes the Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness language.[2]
Supports. A presidential message on the Declaration's anniversary cites 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness' as the rights the founders declared should be safeguarded.[3]
Context. Sources also note the phrase is illustrative rather than exhaustive ('among these'), and that the 'pursuit of happiness' was substituted for 'property' by Jefferson; this does not contradict the claim that these are the founding ideals.[4][5]
Sources
5 sources: 5 primary
- 1IN CONGRESS. JULY 4. 17-70. The unanimous Declaration of the ...archives.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 2Founding Documentsvisit.archives.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 3Message on the 244th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration of Independencegovinfo.gov · primary source · cited for: supports
- 4Life, Liberty, and Happiness: A guide for yesterday and ...brookings.edu · primary source · cited for: context
- 5Pursuit of Happiness - Creating the Declaration ...loc.gov · primary source · cited for: context
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