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Hey, welcome everybody. You all know I'm not big on constantly fear mongering about civil wars. There are some content creators whose bread and butter has been predicting Civil War for 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 years. However, I do want to raise the question of whether it is a colloquial civil war for the President to say, we're going to start cutting from blue states, we're going to start hurting the states whose politics at the top level, level are not aligned with my own. Now, before I even tell you what's going on, I know that some of you, because you're so smart and you're so intuitive and you're so astute, most of you anyway, not the ones I hear from in my email daily. But I know that, that you're all out there and make up the vast majority of my audience. You would all say, wait a second. When you hurt a, quote, blue state because you're a Republican in most Blue states, didn't 35, 40, 45, even 48% of the population still vote for the Republican? Aren't you hurting your own voters? And the answer is, of course you are. But Donald Trump doesn't care about that. Here's what's going on. Trump is cutting off federal money, not across the board, not fairly, but to states that voted against him in the presidential election. It is not about saving money. It is not about fiscal conservatism. Any time a MAGA Republican talks about fiscal conservatism as if they care about that, I can't help but laugh. This is just about authoritarian punishment. Donald Trump's budget director, Russ Vogt bragged that nearly $8 billion in green energy projects are gone. Every state that voted for Kamala Harris has been hit. And at the same time, Donald Trump has frozen $18 billion in funding for New York subway and the tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey. Money which, by the way, I believe is very much needed. I don't know how many of you have been on the New York subway or in that tunnel lately. I have, and these projects were already approved by Congress, raising questions as to whether any of this is legal. But legality is just a quaint artifact of times gone by in the Trump era. Trump is blocking them because they are blue states. So here is a tweet, or it's, it's, I guess now because it's X, we call them excretions. Here's an excretion that Russ Vogt put out, quote, nearly $8 billion in green new scam, scam funding to fuel the left's climate agenda is being canceled. More info to come from the Department of Energy. The projects are in the following states. What do these have in common? California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington. Hmm. What do those states have in common? Now, at the same time, the administration is putting the 18 billion on hold, as I mentioned, for the New York infrastructure projects. These were not like little obscure grants. These are major projects congressionally approved by the House of Representatives, which at the end of the day holds the purse strings. People rely on this stuff. And Donald Trump gleefully adding in a truth social post, quote, republicans must use this opportunity of democracy, Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste and fraud. Billions of dollars can be saved. Make America great again. Now, I do think it's, you know, it's, I feel like that elderly person reminiscing about an irrelevant time in the past when I mentioned this stuff. But like the concept of is this even legal? Oh, David, you're so quaint. That's so old school. Legality. What does legality matter? Oh, you know, when they talk about fraud, fraud's a crime. With all of the supposed fraud that they found, why has nobody been charged? All of the fraud that Doge found, fraud is a crime, but has anybody been charged? No. Oh, so maybe it's not really fraud, is it? Donald Trump then adding, quote, I have a meeting today with Russ Vogt, he of Project 2025 fame. Now Trump is playing up Project 2025 as a credential. He used to not know what it was to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam. He recommends to be cut and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people. So maybe this is their way of wanting to quietly and quickly make America great again. President Donald J. Trump. Okay. Grunt added for emphasis. That was, that was me adding that. Now here's the problem and there's a few problems here. First of all, the government being shut down confers no additional powers to Donald Trump, certainly not powers to cut programs that have already been approved by Congress. That's issue number two. It is not up to Trump or any president. Doesn't matter who they are, doesn't matter whether they're a Democrat or a Republican. Congress decides how money gets spent. President doesn't have the power to cancel it because he wants political revenge. It's illegal. It breaks the idea of equal Protection under the law. Taxpayers in California and New York have paid into the system like everybody else. They we are being cut off only because we voted the wrong way. If you are a maga potamian, now look at the bigger picture. If you wanted to bring back Christian nationalism, this is exactly what you would be doing. That ideology, Christian nationalism, says only one group of Americans is real. Everybody else is the enemy. And so when you go and you strip money from blue states, Trump is saying exactly that. It is not merely political theater. These states make up a huge part of America's economy. In fact, we know that America depends on the blue states. Red state America could not survive as a country. Only thanks to the grace of God of the blue states can this country survive. And when you look at where do the patents come from? It's blue states. Where are the most prestigious institutions of higher learning? It's the blue states. Which where do we disproportionately see the GDP generated? It's the blue states. I don't have to go on. Okay? I think you all mostly understand that. And so when you deliberately hurt the blue states, not only are you, of course hurting the blue states, but you're also really hurting the entire country because it is so dependent on blue states. It'll kill jobs, it'll delay transit projects. It's going to waste billions of dollars. So what can the left do? First of all, and I, oh, David, don't get into this pedantic, technocratic stuff. It's, this is what, what can the left do right now, given that we're completely out of power? Sue state attorneys general and cities can file lawsuits immediately to block these cuts. Courts could issue emergency orders and stop the administration while these cases play out. That's number one. Number two, you can try to use Congress even if you're not in power. Democrats and any Republicans who care about democracy need hearings and subpoenas. Congress still has subpoena power and bring officials in and force them to explain why they are breaking the law. Show the public that this is political revenge, not budgeting. And then we have to hope that voters this November and next November will understand and recognize who's to blame here and will hold people accountable. And then thirdly, fight in the states. Come on. Governors and mayors should go to the public with the damage. Explain, because Trump cut this. Here's who's getting laid off in your community. Here are the commuters stranded in your community, the small businesses that are left hanging and keep the pressure on and show voters what the human cost is here. And then finally, and this is tough for Democrats, you got to win the messaging war. Do not let Donald Trump call this some form of triage. We're just triaging. No, call it what it is. This is retaliation. It is revenge. It's certainly un American and it appears to be illegal. And repeat the principle. You can't punish half the country because of how they voted. And in fact, it's more than half the country. And this is where, if, if actions had proper consequences when Trump. Well, let's just look up as an example, 2024 Massachusetts election results when Trump cuts off Massachusetts because it's a blue state. 37% of Massachusetts voted for Trump. So even though the idea is Massachusetts blue hurt Massachusetts me big and strong, 37% of the people you're hurting voted for you. And so the left needs to fight really hard to make that a point. Now, if this goes further, right now it's transit and climate projects. That's what they're saying right now. But tomorrow it's schools. The next day it's health care, it's disaster relief. And equal protection under the law is going to be flushed down the toilet. Not America first. This is Trump first. And unless we stop it, winners and losers will be decided based on loyalty to Donald Trump. You want to know why Donald Trump loves the shutdown and is walking around with that smug smile while the government has stopped? Well, if he sounds so casual about millions of Americans facing real consequences. Paychecks are stopping, services are grinding to a halt, and chaos spreads. It is one word that explains it. That word is Epstein. Epstein. It's the E word. You've got to be careful with the E word. It is because the government shutdown is not a problem for Donald Trump, it is a solution. For as long as the government is shut down, the release of the Epstein files won't happen. They are delaying, even swearing in Adelita Grijalva in Arizona. And more than anything else, delaying or preventing the release of the Epstein files is what Donald Trump really cares about. It's not speculation. This lines up perfectly with what is happening in Congress right now. Adelita Grijalva won her race in Arizona. She's supposed to be sworn in. It is believed that she would be the final and deciding vote on moving forward with an up and down vote on releasing the Epstein files. Democrats were chanting, swear her in. Swear her in on the House floor, but MAGA Mike Johnson refuses to do it. Why? It's because of a little thing called numbers. You know my Uncle John Trump went to Wharton, and that means, I understand numbers. And 218 is the vote number that Adelita Grijalva would represent to force the release of the Epstein files. She said openly she would vote to do it. It's the first thing she wants to do. And Donald Trump doesn't want that. And MAGA Mike Johnson is helping him out now, you might say. But, David, presidents ultimately bear the blame for shutdowns. Even Trump said that. And of course, you would be right. Remember when Donald Trump said this about shutdowns under Obama? If there is a shutdown, I think it would be a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States. He's the one that has to get people together. And. And of course, Donald Trump previously making that exact same point. Ultimately, during a shutdown, the buck stops with the president. You know, the interesting thing is in 25 years and 50 years and 100 years from now, when the government is, you know, they talk about the government shutdown, they're going to be talking about the President of the United States, who was the president at that time. They're not going to be talking who the head of the House was, the head of the Senate, who's running things in Washington. They're going to be talking about during the Obama administration disaster. So guys like Boehner, who is in there working hard, and he's got one of the truly hard jobs of the really discussing him, they're going to be discussing one person. So I really think the pressure is on the president personally, in terms of his own. Trump knows it. He said it many times. Shutdowns are on the president. So why is he still okay with it? Because it's really convenient for Donald Trump. He drags the country into a government shutdown, stops the release of the Epstein files. And we know why he's afraid. We know why he's afraid. Two thirds of Americans already believe Trump knew about Epstein's crimes against underage girls. Almost half say he knew a lot. Only 9% of Americans are buying the claim that Trump knew nothing. I had no idea. And Trump did originally say during his campaign he was going to release the files. He's back in office and he's doing everything he can to bury them. So ask yourself, why would Trump be so nonchalant about a government shutdown when he has previously said the buck stops with the president and the president, who gets blamed? Why would he risk the chaos? Why would he risk the blame? Because the shutdown isn't a crisis for Trump. It's protection. It's cover. He's willing to pay whatever price there is to keep the files locked away. I I don't know what ultimately is going to happen with these files. We had kind of a longer conversation about it on yesterday's award winning bonus show. Yesterday's bonus show was so good we actually recorded it rather than immediately deleting it, which is what we normally do when it goes haywire. I believe that the most likely outcome is eventually something that will be called the files will come out, but it will probably not be complete. I wish I had a different prediction right now, but if I had to put money on it, which I'm not, I'm not a betting man by the way. I don't know how many people knew that, but my bet is eventually something called the Epstein files is, quote released. It won't be the full thing, but they'll say we did it, it's over. Let's move on. Let me know what you think will ultimately happen. Leave a comment or send me an email info@david pakman.com you know, it's not that the system is broken. The system is rigged and if you are drowning in debt, that is how they want it. The big banks profit when you're desperate. Creditors win when you lose. But you don't have to play their game. Our sponsor PDS Debt helps you simply take back control. Whether it's a custom plan built for your financial situation or or off the shelf plans. Credit cards, collections, personal loans, medical bills. They will help you stop the bleeding and financially move forward. No minimum credit score required. You fill out a free assessment. They've already helped hundreds of thousands of people. They're A plus rated by the Better Business Bureau. 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And where UPDF really leaves Adobe Acrobat behind is the built in AI. You can summarize, translate, create mind maps, chat with the documents all powered by GPT5 and all of this is part of the lifetime plan that costs less than two months of Acrobat. Simple, affordable and smarter. Try UPDF for free at David pakman.com/ungraded PDF. The link is in the Description the David Pakman show is an audience supported program. We have something called Membership. It comes with an extra show every day called the Bonus show for members only. We also have commercial free audio and video feeds of the show available to members hours before the show is made public. To everybody else, I invite you to sign up at Join Pacman Dotcom if you missed the Membership special earlier this week, there was a technical snafu the day we launched it. So if you still want to avail yourself of that but you missed the code, just email me Info@David pakman.com will send you that code. My new hero is Congresswoman Madeleine Dean. I absolutely love this video. Madeleine Dean confronted MAGA Mike Johnson and said Trump is unwell. He is unhinged. And MAGA Mike Johnson seems to acknowledge it. He seems to admit it. And he goes, well, there's unhinged people on your side too. He, he is not denying that Trump is unwell. Look at this video. Listen to this audio. Inject this right into my veins like bleach. Don't inject bleach. Don't inject bleach.
