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What happened on Tuesday night in this country was a political earthquake for maga. And Republicans are still trying to figure out how to pick their jaws up off the floor while arguing it was no big deal. We're going to delve more deeply into that because Democrats flipped some of the reddest districts in the country. Mississippi, Virginia, a Pennsylvania county that went for Trump last year swung 24 points blue. So we're going to look at that. And it is not just a blip. It is voters saying, we're done with the chaos. And speaking of chaos, Trump's government shutdown is now breaking the aviation system five weeks in. The FAA is delaying flights nationwide. Airport airspace closures are looming. Air traffic controllers are working second jobs because they're not getting paid. And Trump keeps flying on Air Force One while the rest of the country sits in airport purgatory. And then we've got the economy where job cuts just hit their highest levels in 22 years. Trump and Lutnick keep bragging about everything's great, but over 150,000 layoffs last month. And it gets even worse as Trump is slurring through speeches, mixing up South Africa and South America, leaning on the lectern just to stay upright, and even insulting his own supporters saying they don't seem to realize how good everything is. Meanwhile, MAGA Mike Johnson lets the truth slip. If they lose next November, we will try to end the Trump administration. Yeah, that's the point. Plus, a Fox News host melts down over women voting correctly. All of that on today's show. We're still donating first payments from any new website memberships or substack subscriptions to Feeding America. We have now funded over 80000 meals thanks to your support. We what a show today. We have to start today with what happened on Tuesday night and take a little bit of a deeper dive because two days later, MAGA is unable to process what hit them. Now, I know from the email that many in my audience don't like all of the Democratic candidates that won. For example, there are those who wrote to me and said, you know, David, I don't like Abigail Spanberger, former CIA. I mean, come on, we want spooks as governors. So some people don't like Abigail Spamberger. Some people wrote in and they said, you know, Zoran Mamdani is too far to my left. Or I don't like socialists, or I don't like the fact that he's using the word intifada so casually. So some don't like Mamdani Mikey Sherrill. I mean, most people seem to be fine with her, but I think it's like, oh, some find her a little bit too centrist or corporate. But there's a different perspective. I think that's important to look at this, which is not about the candidates that won, but about the reaction from the Republican Party. Mike Johnson and Donald Trump look like they have seen ghosts. And we now are getting an understanding about why. If you look more deeply and you look beyond the governors and the mayors and Democrats flipped some of the reddest districts in the United States of America. These are really places that they should be untouchable Republican strongholds. And they're turning blue. Erie County, Pennsylvania, a county that voted for Trump last year, elected a Democrat as county executive by 24 points. That is not a close race. It's a massacre. A county goes for Trump one year and then swings 24 points against Republicans the next. And you've got voters screaming, something is very wrong here by virtue of this vote. You look at Virginia, a Republican who held a seat 36 years lost. You don't lose a 36 year incumbent unless voters are fed up with your entire party. You go to Mississippi. Look, I know people are pissed at Trump being there. I know that people there are pissed at Donald Trump right now. But if you've visited Mississippi, you know how absolutely nuts this is, hearing about Mississippi flipping seats and then realizing, wow, this is deep red territory that is fed up with the state of affairs. Democrats broke the Republican supermajority. The state Senate of Mississippi, for the first time in 13 years, flipped three legislative seats in one night. I'm still waiting for, we made a mistake. It was actually the Republican that one. We got the numbers wrong. I'm sort of kidding. But Republicans losing supermajorities in Mississippi, they're in trouble everywhere if that's the case. So when you step back, we heard from the FOX people, we heard from Trump and others. Everybody wants to believe that this had nothing to do with Donald Trump. He's going to tell us this later. It's the government shutdown. And you know, I wasn't, I wasn't on the ballot and that hurt these candidates. But Trump is on the ballot. Trump's on every ballot where there's a Republican right now. Chaos is on the ballot. The shutdown is on the ballot and voters are telling us what they think of it. And so we see a disaffection with Trump and his policies that is going way beyond, you know, Brooklyn and San Francisco and whatever you know, sort of take your pick. It's a fundamental rejection of what MAGA stands for. Happening where Trump should be really strong. Now, this has thrown Republicans for a loop. Trump's unhinged maga. Mike Johnson's unhinged. Laura Loomers ranting about Islamic takeovers. Nancy Mace is making jokes about breadlines. Stephen Miller is posting weird threats to immigrants. They are spiraling. But Mike Johnson said something that is true. Johnson said that the consequences of Tuesday's elections are going to be felt across the entire country. And he's right. Just not the way he thinks. Here is what Tuesday really proves. Voters don't seem to like the chaos that follows Trump around. Like that ex partner you can't seem to convince you're really not interested in. They're done with this endless government shutdown. They're done with magus culture war nonsense. They're showing up to vote against it. Think of what it means when Mississippi voters go, we're going to break a Republican super majority. And when Pennsylvania counties that went for Trump are swinging 24 points against the Republican and 36 year incumbents are losing. So I don't believe that this is a fluke. I think voters are looking at what has Trump done? What have MAGA Republicans done to this country? And many of them don't want anything to do with it. Now there's still tens of millions of cultists who want a lot to do with it. All right, well, we've got to keep working on that. But they have cultivated loyalty over a decade and in one night, Democrats have proven nothing's really safe anymore. So the 26 midterms are coming fast. I believe the midterms are on. Every single Republican in a competitive district saw what happened on Tuesday. They watched supposedly safe seats disappear and they watched longtime incumbents lose and red counties swing blue by double digits. Trump can blame the shutdown all he wants. Republicans can pretend this doesn't matter. But voters have spoken and Republicans should genuinely be terrified. I believe the blue wave has high potential. High potential because it started two days ago and it's happening even in the reddest districts of America. So what of that government shutdown? Let's talk about that next. Are they ever going to reopen the government? Trump is proving he doesn't give a damn about government being open. He doesn't give a damn about anyone who's affected by government being closed. And it's sort of a Trump wet dream. Government closed forever. Few days ago I asked on my subsmac, some people are Calling it subsmac. Now, my substack. Is it possible Trump simply doesn't want the government open, period, and has no intention of trying to open it back up at all? And judging from the responses, many of you thought, yeah, that. That is quite plausible. Democratic Congressman Jason Crow seems to be thinking the exact same thing. Let's take a listen. There's no framework.
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It's very simple.
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Donald Trump wants to keep the government shut. He wants to inflict pain on the people, and he wants to weaponize hunger. He wants to weaponize government services. He wants to weaponize health care to consolidate power. That's what's happening. Democrats want to govern. We're here to govern. We actually want to find a deal. But you know what? I'm not going to compromise on the Constitution and rule of law. I am willing to make a deal on policy, but I'm not going to allow Americans to lose their health care coverage and blow up the health care system. I'm not allow. I'm not going to allow children to go hungry and to be starved by.
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Donald Trump, and I'm not going to.
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Allow Donald Trump to violate the Constitution and violate the law. All right, so he's making the point. Does Trump even really care about opening the government? Now, if we were in the pre Trump era, before Trump, small government Republicans loved the idea of government being closed. Why? Because they don't want government doing that much. They as small government conservatives, they're like, hey, if government's closed, it's going to be small. Can't do nearly as many things. That logic applied to old shutdowns. But today's Republicans are different. They're not small government conservatives. They're authoritarians. They want government doing stuff, just whatever Trump said, whenever Trump wants it, no matter whether it's legal or not. So let's start with, like, the most explosive and obvious possibility. Does Trump want government closed forever to just prevent the release of the Epstein files? With the government shutdown, document releases are delayed and transparency mechanisms grind to a halt. It'll certainly delay the release of the Epstein files, But my guess would be if government never reopened, someone's going to leak the files. I really do think you are not going to suppress those files forever. So it may be a convenient thing temporarily. But I think it goes deeper than the Epstein files. A shuttered government creates a sort of fog of chaos that Donald Trump has a history of thriving in. While agencies are closed, while the news is dominated by the shutdown drama, the bureaucratic processes are frozen. Trump thinks he can get away with stuff. During the shutdown, Trump thinks he can fire people without the normal checks and balances and issue orders that would normally face resistance from institutions when they're open and bypass oversight mechanisms that defend on functioning agencies and create enough confusion that his abuses of power might get lost in the noise. And so I think that's why Trump loves the idea of government shut, although he does seem to recognize government shut isn't a great thing for Republicans in terms of winning. But he's also trying to blame Democrats for the shutdown rather than Republicans, which is who is actually getting blamed by the American people. Think about Trump's political philosophy. He's never trusted government institutions. He's always railed against the deep state. He's consistently portrayed federal agencies as his enemies, especially when they do things he doesn't like. Oh, you can't trust any of these dozen intelligence agencies because they said something that's not that great for me. Why would someone with that worldview be in a hurry to get everything opened, turn the lights back on? Why would he want to do that? So for Trump and his allies, a non functioning government serves a lot of purposes. Maybe it delays the release of the Epstein files, although I believe that's temporary, but it prevents oversight. It delays and creates cover for his, it delays consequences for, and creates cover for getting away with his controversial actions. And it really demonstrates their core belief, which is we don't really think we need government to function and we don't care if people are getting hurt by it. People not getting food stamps. We, I just was at the airport with my, with my baby daughter getting her, her Global entry. She had her Global Entry interview. She, she, you know, under questioning, she really gave it all up. And during this appointment, one of the customs officers we were talking to said, listen, I can't get too political because I work for the federal government, but I'm not getting paid here. And you know, we had a conversation about what was going on. Trump doesn't care that that guy is not getting paid now. He said he is going to be in principle entitled to back pay. Not everybody is. So one question has been when will they reopen the government? Second question has been what will finally get Trump to want the government open? The third question is, does Trump have any interest in opening government or is it providing cover for him to get away with even more? Let me know your thoughts. Leave me a comment. Send me an email info@david pakman.com if you like these sorts of analyses, make sure that you have subscribed to the YouTube channel. There is much more coming. What a day. What a week. I've been using Graza olive oil for years and I am super excited that Graza is now a sponsor of the show. Graza olive oil is always fresh, it's never blended. They use one olive from one region in Spain. No mysterious blends. It's a traceable and fresher product and the packaging is super practical. None of these messy drippy spouts. Graza oils come in easy to use squeeze and spray bottles. They've got three types, super simple Frizzle for high smoke point cooking, sizzle for everyday cooking and and drizzle which is more for garnishes and dressings. I've been using Graza Oil in my house for years. I love everything about it. Supercharge your food with Graza olive oil. Visit graza.co/David P and promo code David P Today for you know I'll often talk to my friends about what do we really think is private on our computers and on our phones. And many people believe that their emails are genuinely private. 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The link is in the description. We have absolute chaos at our airports under Donald Trump. And I say this to you as I am literally about to head to the airport after filming today's show and attempt to get on a plane. The FAA is delaying flights nationally because of staffing shortages at air traffic control. We are five weeks into this shutdown and the aviation situation is an unholy mess. And and Trump doesn't really care. I mean listen, he flies around Air Force One gets to go wherever he wants, whenever he wants to go there. It's sort of fine for Trump. So why would there be any sense of urgency to fix this situation? He keeps saying, America's back, but our airports and faa, atc, it is all more broken than ever. But Trump experiences none of it, none of it at all. One air traffic controller spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity because they're afraid if their name gets out, they'll just get fired. And they said people are calling in sick. Air traffic controllers are calling in sick because they have to go and make money at other jobs because they are working without pay as a result of the shutdown. Trump's Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, says this is not a safety issue, that safety is fine. They are simply reducing capacity. Although he is warning, even Trump's transportation secretary is warning, that if this shutdown continues into Thanksgiving, it is going to be bad. Very, very bad. And a half ago this morning, they're getting their pay stubs, that they're going to get another big fat zero, no paycheck for the second time. They've all told me it's really hard, really hard to navigate a four full month of no pay, missing two pay periods. So I think they've all told me I couldn't possibly tell you because I've never experienced it, but they're telling you're going to have more significant disruptions in the airspace. And as we come into Thanksgiving, if we're still in the shutdown posture, it's going to be rough out there, really rough, and we'll mitigate the safety side. But will you fly on time? Will your flight actually go that. That is yet to be seen. You know, he says this is going to be rough. It's never rough for them. This is going to be rough. Except this is something that's happening as a result of our doing so. The warning is mass chaos. Mass flight delays are surging. Airspace closures have been happening sporadically and more are expected. And the FAA is reducing air traffic at 40 busy airports by 10%. Airlines. Think about that. Airlines were given 48 hours notice. They were notified yesterday to put this in place by tomorrow. Figure out how to go from 100% to 90% of your schedule. And also figure out based on that, how do you even get planes to where they need to go? Because you're counting on having a plane in location B. Because. Because it flew there from location A. So now the fact that you've got to reduce at these 40 airports might affect other Airports, this is not a lot of time, extraordinarily chaotic. And I spoke to a couple of friends. You might think that if your airport isn't on the list of the 10 highest or the broader list of 40, you might think, well then I'm completely fine. But in fact, if the plane you want to get on is coming from an affected airport, you're still going to be affected even if you are not flying from or to one of these 40 locations. I've, I'm already seeing that my plane that will eventually be the one I fly on hopefully is delayed two flights prior to mine, like earlier legs are already delayed. So none of this is looking good. And there are air traffic controllers out there having to get loans from their credit union in order to pay bills. Some, as I mentioned, have taken part time jobs. Now the FAA administrator Brian Bedford said at a news conference he has never once seen it this bad. The aviation situation is worse today under Trump than the FAA administrator ever even remembers hearing about. And it is all happening as we are just weeks from Halloween, from Thanksgiving, one of the busiest times to be traveling when things often get crazy at airports anyway. So are we winning again under Donald Trump? How is any of this in the best interest of the American people? And I always try to be fair, you know, when, when something is happening and it really doesn't have anything to do with the President. I will tell you, like if this air travel situation was because of an unprecedented number of storms, which of course Trump doesn't control storms, I, I would tell you this is going on, but it really doesn't have anything to do with the President. But this does. This is against the interests of the American people. It is a shutdown that was optional. While Republicans control everything. And Trump doesn't seem to care about the shutdown and he doesn't, as we're talking about today, he doesn't even seem eager to reopen. Now there are some Republicans reacting online. I saw on Reddit and on X only liberal elites are flying around on planes. We patriotic right wingers are too busy working. This stuff doesn't affect us. Hold on a second. Forget for a second that that's obviously untrue. People rely on flights to get to medical appointments. People rely on flights to get to business meetings. I thought Trump was the business president. It's hard to do business if you can't get to where you're supposed to be going for business. Even after 911, I had to go back to check if my memory was right and it was even after 9 11, the FAA was not this hollowed out for so long. Even during the COVID travel chaos, air traffic control staffing didn't get this bad. And of course, if all you care about is the economy, right, if you're one of these, I just care about the bottom line economically. Flight delays cost billions, Airlines lose money, workers lose pay, consumers, consumers lose time. Tourism tanks, which is bad for for the economy, business travel tanks and the economy slows. So if all you care about is the economics of it, you should be very concerned. But we're supposed to believe that Trump is showing strength with the shutdown, right? How much more of this can we tolerate? Well, just wait until I tell you what's going on with layoffs. Disastrous economic news for Donald Trump. Last month, October, the month that just ended a week ago, we saw the worst layoff numbers in 22 years. Not since 2003 have companies cut as many jobs as they did last month. Employers cut about 153,000 jobs last month. You might say, well, maybe it's a seasonality thing. That's why we compare to October of the previous year. October of 24, there were 55,000 layoffs. October of 25, 153,000 layoffs, the most in 22 years. Here is a report from CNBC about this news about the health of the job market. Steve Liesman joins us with the latest.
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Numbers from Challenger on job cuts. What's going on?
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Yeah, well this is like a clue from like a cough or a sneeze or whatever, but announced corporate job cuts, Andrew, in the US surging past 1 million so far this year with 153,000 new layoffs announced just in October. According to Challenger. That is the worst October since 2003. Here are the numbers. October up 153. That compares with September. That's 100,000 more than September and 100,000 more than this time last year in October 2024. Andy Challenger commenting, some industries are correcting after the hiring move of the pandemic. But this comes as AI adoption softening consumer and corporate spending and rising cost drive, belt tightening and hiring freezes. Announced layoffs don't always lead to actual cuts and could take place from attrition. But the report puts in perspective what we've been reporting here day after day, week after week. Series of marquee announcements unveiled in recent weeks across US Industries including ups, Amazon, Target, among others, Paramount, Rivian, all these companies there government has been responsible year to date for 308,000. But look at that tech 141, that could be where you see a lot of the air, maybe some in warehousing, but a big chunk of that's going to be ups as well as potentially some hit from reduced flows of trade.
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Doesn't that sound so good? We're finally winning again. Here's a similar report from cnn, the jobs report new this morning. A brand new report is out. It just came out moments ago and it shows layoff announcements hit their highest level for October in over 20 years.
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This will not surprise you because a.
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Key factor is AI. CNN's Matt Eagan is here with me now for more on this. Look, these reports are becoming more important because there are no government reports coming out because of the shutdown. What is this one telling you? This one seems, seems like a big deal. Yes, Sarah, look, it's painting the picture of a job market that is really hurting.
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U.S. based employers announced 153,000.
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All right, you get the picture. I don't have to play the entire thing. But let's contrast this with what Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce told us last night, which is everything is so good you can't even believe it.
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The economy is on fire because of Donald Trump's economy is one that says tariffs come on build in America. You know, the president's been saying north of $15 trillion coming to build in America, that's going to grow our economy more than 4. It could grow our economy more than 5%. I mean, these are numbers no one's ever thought are possible for America. And it's driven by Donald Trump's trade and tariff agenda.
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Yeah, that is acutely delusional. That that's almost 72 hours psych hold delusional. Now I think we want to be complete in our report. Not all of this is US Specific and not all of this is Donald Trump. I mean, they touched on a couple of things there. There was a pandemic hiring boom. Some companies over hired. That's absolutely the case. Some of them are paring down. So that's part of it. Some of this is AI adoption. There are companies saying we are not needing as many employees because of how we are leveraging AI technologies. And that is part of it. But we also have blanket tariffs from Trump which are optional, which are raising prices on completed products and crushing businesses. The uncertainty of Donald Trump's on again, off again economic policy, including tariffs and other things that makes a lot of businesses say let's wait rather than invest, let's wait rather than hire. Trump's general shakiness with international treaties and agreements. Are they on or are they're off? That makes businesses say he might reverse whatever framework we think we have to do business. Let's wait, let's not hire, let's lay off, let's, let's be quieter in our, in our actions and movements of capital. And meanwhile, as is almost always the case with these people, Trump is building a $300 million ballroom at the White House. The White House bathroom, I guess, I guess the Lincoln bedroom bathroom is getting remodeled to Donald Trump's gaudy standards. Yet another reminder that money cannot by class. And so he's not affected by it. Lutnick with his I think hundreds of millions isn't affected by it. They're all fine. So they're glad to see the shutdown continue to the extent that they believe that it is politically useful. It's unclear to what degree it is now in the midst of this, we are doing what we can. We're working on hunger. We've decided it's getting into the holiday season. It's November, Thanksgiving, meals, etc. We are in the middle of a month long fundraiser donating to Feeding America. Feeding America is a hyper efficient hunger organization that supports local food banks. Every dollar feeding America gets 98 cents. Go out to actually feeding families. And here's what we're doing and I'm going to give you the update as to how much we've raised for November. Every new membership at join pacman.com or gift membership at join pacman.com that entire first payment we are donating to Feeding America. You sign up for a month, your monthly payment, your first monthly payment goes to Feeding America. You sign up for a year, that first payment goes to Feeding America. Same applies to substack premium subscriptions. Okay. We so far with 202 new memberships have raised $8297 for Feeding America. That funds 82,000 meals. You all have funded 82,000 meals. There is more work to do. I hope you'll consider jumping on. And if you already have a membership, you can do it as a gift where you check that this is a gift box when you sign up and then not only will we give the membership to some one of the 4,000 people on our membership waiting list, the money still goes to Feeding America. So 80, 200 bucks, 82,000 meals. So far, every dollar funds 10 meals. Because of how efficient Feeding America is. That's where we are. We're going to take a quick break afterwards. Some terrifying, terrifying video that I will Play for you. Donald Trump has already packed his second term cabinet with loyalists. He's threatened deportation as political punishment. He's expanded executive authority in ways we have not seen seen in modern history. These are real changes that are happening right now. And what's even more alarming is that a lot of the media is either glossing over the worst of it or they're reframing it so it all sounds a little more palatable. And that is why I use Ground News. This is a news comparison tool, doesn't just feed you headlines, it shows you. Here's how different outlets, left, right, center, are covering the same story. And this is one of the few tools I know of that can really help you detect the political spin, the bias catch stories that your usual sources might downplay or not cover at all on everything from immigration policy to economic shifts. If you want to get a bigger picture, a broader picture of what's being reported, Ground News is an invaluable source to keep you informed. And Ground News is offering my audience 40% off their top tier vantage plan. You'll only pay five bucks a month. Go to Ground News, slash Pacman or enter the code pacman in the app to get started. The link is in the description. Donald Trump spoke at Miami's business forum, a completely unhinged event, and he could barely stand. He could barely speak. And the audience sat stunned as much of what Donald Trump said didn't make any sense. Raising questions. Forget about the MRI from a couple of months ago. Does Trump need another mri? Listen to this impenetrable world word salad. Where Trump seems to confuse South Africa and South America, he is gripping the lectern, hunched over, low energy. This does not seem sustainable to those places.
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For generations, Miami has been a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa.
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That's right, that is. Actually, the Cubans from South Africa have been coming to Miami and they're having the cortado cortadito, some of them say, but it's a South African coffee.
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D
I mean, if you take a look at what's going on in parts of South Africa. Look at South Africa, what's going on? Look at South America, what's going on? Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm not going to. We have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn't even be in the GS anymore because what's happened there is bad. I'm not going. I told him I'm not going. I'm not going to represent our country there. It shouldn't Be there. Take a look at what's happening in different parts of South America. Take a look at what's happening in different parts of the world.
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But now the Democrats, those really riveting stuff. Trump visibly leaning, holding on through an exhausting and completely incoherent ramble, bouncing around from one topic to another. How long can this continue, folks? How long can this continue? It doesn't make any sense. More incoherence from Trump talking about surgical mutilation of children and he just doesn't make sense.
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D
The chemical and surgical mutilation of our children. Think of that. Can you imagine somebody 15 years ago saying, we stopped the surgical mutilation of our children. We stopped the chemical mutilation of our children. Can you imagine that? They would have said, this guy's crazy. And now you're saying, thank you very much because you know it's true. How about this one?
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This, this is like Trump's infamous story. Nice little boy goes to school, comes back a girl after secret surgeries, teacher doesn't tell mommy and daddy, sir, where did that happen? Trump, on Florida's Republican senators, says, tries to explain what they're working on and seems completely unable. I mean, just, he's standing crooked, his voice is a mess and he's not making sense.
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All the senators this morning, I gave them my vision because frankly, it's always nice to have good vision. And they are two terrific senators and they're in Washington working hard and they were going to come and I said, do me a favor, stay back and work on the things you're working on. They're working on really things. And Ashley is in the election. Rick just won his election. They're two great senators that you have right here in Florida. So that's really good. And they're working to make America great again. So I said stay back in Washington together with many.
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Yeah, they're working on, on a really thing. I mean, just really, really thing. And then maybe the funniest moment, but also the scariest moment. Trump brags about kicking people off of food stamps, but he acts like it's a great miracle and an incredibly auspicious accomplishment. This, this is terrifying.
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D
In nine months, we've lifted over 600,000Americans off of food stamps, which is a record 1.9 million more American born workers are employed today. Think of that. Almost 2 million American born workers are employed today. More than when I took office. That's nine months ago.
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Can you imagine that, dude, Cutting off their food stamps isn't really lifting them. Lifting them would be going to some of these corporations that pay such shitty wages that despite being employed full time, you still need and qualify for food stamps. And saying to them, how about paying your employees a fair wage? That's lifting people off of food stamps, making it so that their standard of living without the food stamps is good or at least passable. Just canceling food stamps is not a way to lift people. And by the way, I don't want to digress too much, but if you'll allow me, one of the aspects of this with, with these magazines, there's always some big thing that's missing from the conversation. I'm going to give you an analogy. This is an example. My, one of my famous analogies with the Epstein stuff. Who are the perpetrators? Who's in the files? Who's going to vote? One way to release or not release. Does Trump know Ghislaine Maxwell or doesn't he know all this different stuff? What about the victims? What about Epstein's victims? The Epstein victims who really should be at the center of this story, given especially the notoriety of some of the alleged victimizers. But the victims are basically missing. You know, Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie did, did a press conference with some of them, and we're hoping to actually talk to a victim or two on the show, but the victims are sort of missing from the conversation. They're so important with food stamps. All of this discussion about who qualifies, how much do you get? It's two bucks per meal, per day. The average benefits are a couple hundred bucks a month. People are living large by having, you know, popping out kids to get more food stamps. All of this nonsense. Fine. There's a debate, there's a discussion to be had about what should the limits be on food stamp, all of that. What about the fact that in one of the richest countries in the world, most of the people on food stamps work and yet they still qualify for food stamps because their wages are not living wages. That is the missing piece that I'm going to make an effort. And to the extent that I haven't done it, I apologize. I throw myself at your mercy. We need to be reminding ourselves there are tons of people on food stamps working full time in jobs where the wages are so low that that they still need the damn food stamps. All right, so that's Trump in Miami. Completely incoherent. Nothing compared to what we saw later in the day. I'm calling this droopy flaccid Trump. You could also call it swollen pale Trump. A droopy and flaccid. Donald Trump was interviewed by Bret Baier on Fox News, and he is not having a good day. He was asked about New York City Mayor Elect Zoran Mamdani's acceptance speech and Trump didn't like it. And Trump's angry. And it's very obvious that Trump is going to target Mamdani.
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D
I tend to doubt it's going to work this time. You see, his victory speech literally never worked. Yeah, I thought it was a very angry speech. Certainly angry toward me. And I think he should be very nice to me. You know, I'm the one that sort of has to approve a lot of things coming to him. So he's off to a bad start.
- [38:07]
A
That is how people like Trump threaten others. Ok, he should be very nice to me. Is a threat. Trump loves authoritarians. He loves bullies. He loves prototypical alpha males who really aren't. I mean, you know, actual alpha males lift people up and ok, but Trump's stereotype of an alpha male, this is how they threaten. He should be very nice to me. Bret Baier also specifically asked Trump about the moment in Mamdani speech where he says, Donald Trump should turn the volume up. And Trump says that's dangerous. That's a dangerous statement for him to make.
- [38:49]
D
At one point, he says, turn the volume up. So hear me, President Trump, when I say this, to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us. How do you respond to that? Does that, does that affect anything you're going to do? As a very dangerous statement for him to make, actually. And, you know, you talk about danger, I think it's a very dangerous statement for him to make. He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington because if he's not, he doesn't have a chance of succeeding. And I want to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed. I don't want to to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed. And we'll see what happens. You see reaching out to him. I would say he should reach out to us. Really. I think he should reach out.
- [39:35]
A
Classic authoritarian. He's got to come to me.
- [39:38]
D
I'm here.
- [39:38]
A
Like the godfather at his daughter's wedding. You got to come up to me and ask me for favor.
- [39:43]
D
We'll see what happens. But I would think that it would be more appropriate for him to reach out to us.
- [39:48]
A
So there you go, Trump. Trump is totally triggered. And in a moment, I'm going to get to what if you think Trump doesn't like other Elected officials. Just wait till I show you what he thinks about his own followers. We're going to get to that in a moment. These are threats. I think it's really Trump who has to be careful here because very soon it's already happening, but very soon it may start having consequences for Trump the way that he is treating everybody like crap. And I mean even Republicans who don't agree with him all the time, Democratic elected officials, voters. This is going to start causing a problem very soon for down ballot candidates. And my expectation would be that if this sort of behavior continues sometime in early 2026, as the midterms get going, we know that they're getting, I think they're going now. Trump is going to start hearing from Republicans who are going to have to delicately, or not so delicately, delicately explained to Trump, if you keep doing this, you're going to torpedo all of us in 2026. Donald Trump says that his supporters don't seem to be able to figure out that the economy is actually great. Trump is truly in crisis. Trump doesn't, his head is spinning from what happened on Tuesday and he's lashing out at his own supporters. He's saying to them, don't you realize how good things are? I want to remind you someone this very recently didn't work for, for Joe Biden. I'm going to come back to that. Trump has told a story during his Fox News interview with Bret Baier about a Republican who voted for him three times. And that Republican who voted for Trump three times isn't happy with the economy. He's not happy about the prices that Trump said would come down and they aren't. And Trump basically says they should realize things are good. They should realize I have done all of this stuff. Why aren't they smart enough? That's my editorialize is a registered Republican all her life.
- [41:42]
D
She voted for you three different times. But she is not happy about how her prices have not come down that she sees. And she said this quote, I want the Republicans to keep control of Congress in 2026, but something has to be done fast. I don't see the best economy right now. Wall street numbers do not reflect my Main street money. Please do something. President Trump. So I guess what do you say to Regina and people like her? Well, I do say this beef we have to get down in terms I think of groceries. You know, it's an old fashioned word but it's a beautiful word.
- [42:16]
A
It's a beautiful old fashioned word.
- [42:18]
D
Grocery beef, we have to get down but we've got prices way down. And think of this energy. She drives a car probably, and her energy prices are way down. And energy is so all encompassing. It's so big that when energy goes down, everything comes down, everything follows it. And I have energy down to 56 year lows now. You think prices are coming down from this? That, yeah, I think they're coming down, but I think they're down already. I think the biggest problem is Republicans don't talk about it. They don't talk about the word affordability and the Democrats lie about it.
- [42:49]
A
There's no real problem here. There's no problem with prices. I haven't missed any of my promises coming true. The only problem, the only problem is Republicans aren't talking about it. And Republicans aren't realizing how I fixed everything for them. I don't think this is a great strategy. And the strategy of regularly indicating that your followers just are wrong about the state of the world. They kind of tried this in the Democratic Party in 2024, which was, look, these economic indicators all look fine. Unemployment's down, everything's good. Joe Biden's economy is perfect. Voters didn't buy it, voters didn't feel it. So voters didn't buy it. And Kamala Harris ultimately lost partially because of that. Trump on the economy, insisting Democrats are lying about it. We've done a great job. And he again cites these completely implausible numbers as to the amount of investment that he has brought in.
- [43:42]
D
I had that opportunity. When you look at our exit polls in these states and you point out they're traditionally Democratic states, but on the economy, the poll numbers are upside down, you're saying it's that Republicans don't talk about it. Do you think they're going to feel different come first quarter 26, etc. Well, I hope so. You know, the Democrats lie about it. We've done a great job. We have $17 trillion of investment coming into our country. Biden had less than $1 trillion in four years.
- [44:13]
A
You know, I wonder if you are a two working parent household in Des Moines and you're struggling to make ends meet. Maybe you're on food stamps and now Trump doesn't care. He's not sending them to you. Are you reassured when you hear from Donald Trump that he's brought 17 trillion in investment from the Middle east, which by the way is a lie. But imagine if it were true. Is that helping you in some way? Or do you still need the damn food stamps to get your food have.
- [44:45]
D
17 trillion in nine months. That would mean 20 or 21 trillion dollars in the history of the world, there's never been a country with anything near that. It's now all these plants are being built, car companies are coming back. I we're leading China, you know, we're beating China. You know it, China knows it. In fact, President Xi congratulated me. He said, I want to congratulate you in turning that country around. I've never seen anything like it. And I congratulate him too.
- [45:12]
A
We get all right, listen, I hope nobody's dumb enough to think that Donald Trump has gathered half of the country's GDP in so called investments from the Middle east. But maybe some people are falling for it, I don't know. Trump's message to farmers who are understandably worried about what's going on. His message is, don't worry, get ready to buy yourself a bigger tractor.
- [45:34]
D
And I told the farmers, don't worry about it, start thinking about buying a bigger tractor. Right? I said more land and a bigger tractor.
- [45:41]
A
There you go. Get your get ready. Call up John Deere and Kubota. You're going to get yourself a bigger tractor very soon. Final one. Trump says if it weren't for his tariffs. This is so stupid. Trump says if it weren't for his tariffs, the entire world would be in a depression. We would be in a global depression if not for Trump's global blanket tariffs. Truly imbecility.
- [46:06]
D
If I didn't have tariffs, we wouldn't. We were right. Now the entire world would be in a depression.
- [46:11]
A
Right? If you believe any of this stuff, I feel bad for you. But it seems to me like a shortsighted strategy to insist everything's awesome. Your supporters just can't tell. Not a political strategist, but it seems like a bad idea. A lot of people think identity theft is something that only happens when someone hacks into your account. But the truth is that it usually starts with your personal information being posted online by data brokers where anybody can find it. Our sponsor, Incogni, is a service that helps protect your privacy by forcing the data brokers to delete your information. This includes your name, address, phone number, even sensitive things like property records or your political affiliation. And now, with their custom removals feature included in the unlimited plan, you're not limited to just the list of 250 plus brokers they work with. By default, if you find any site exposing any of your private information, even one they've never seen before, you can send a link and Incogni's team will work to get that removed. This is serious protection for you and your family and against identity theft, against fraud, doxing, harassment. And Incogni's data removal process is the only one independently verified by Deloitte. Get 60% off an annual plan when you visit incogni.com PACMAN and use the code PACMAN. The link is in the description. This is just awesome. MAGA Mike Johnson, Republican Congressman and currently the speaker of the House. He finally seems to get it after the devastating losses of Tuesday. He said if we lose the majority in the House, they will try to end the Trump administration. He's not grandstanding, he is afraid. Let's take a look at this.
- [48:09]
B
The President is on the ballot in 2026. President Trump is on the ballot next fall because if we lose the majority of the Republicans, the common sense people here who are doing the job for.
- [48:20]
A
The American people, if we lose the.
- [48:21]
B
Majority in the House and this radical element of the Democratic Party, we're able to take over. We've already seen that movie. They will try to end the Trump administration. He won't have four years, they'll have only two. And they will try to systematically unwind all the important reforms that we've done for the American people. The President.
- [48:38]
A
You don't even need to make campaign ads for 2026. Just run this unedited. That is right, MAGA Mike. That is what we're talking about. That's why I've been saying 2026 is so important and why this week was so important. You know, for years, MAGA world operated with a particular confidence. They would push boundaries and test limits and dare anyone to stop them. The rules didn't apply. Investigations stalled. There was never accountability. They got used to winning or at least getting away with it. Trump is still in that same phase. Trump is still in that same mindset. But something has shifted here with MAGA Mike Johnson. The sudden realization that power doesn't last forever. It's not guaranteed. The things you've done may have been noted, documented, remembered, and they might have consequences. And Johnson seems to know what is waiting. If Democrats take control, the congressional committees would flip overnight. Every subpoena that's been blocked, every witness that's been protected, every document that's been hidden, it becomes accessible to Democrats all of a sudden. Your House Oversight Committee alone could spend years unraveling the financial details and the pardon abuses and conflicts of interest. And that's just the House. Trump himself would be in a precarious legal landscape because all those federal cases against him that were paused while he was in office. They haven't disappeared. And there are state charges that aren't subject to presidential pardon. The civil judgments are part. Are piling up. And so the guy who has seemed untouchable could be. I mean, listen, I'm not going to blow smoke up your nose. I don't think Trump will ever see a day in prison. But taking control of the House back when Trump still has two more years in office has the real possibility of. Of making it very unpleasant for him. I mean, just really unpleasant, especially when he doesn't have allies controlling the House of Representatives. So this is what terrifies them. It's not just Trump having diminished power. It's what are the consequences going to be? For four years during Trump's first term, you know, getting closer to a year of the second term, Democrats have watched mostly in frustration as the norms are shattered and the guardrails are failing and all of it. But something has been learned from the experience, which is institutions only work if people are willing to use them, and Democrats are willing to use institutions when they control them. There's talk of investigation about 1-6- pardons, which I think would be great. There is talk of looking into why did people who attack police officers walk free thanks to Donald Trump. There's questions about foreign payments and business deals that ethics experts have been flagging, and some of it involves Jared Kushner. And there's a whole bunch of this stuff. These don't have to be hypotheticals right now. They're plans. I've spoken to members of the House, off the record. They are plans waiting for the moment that Democrats have the authority to execute them. Now, it might come, but not until 2028. That would be less useful. Trump will be even older, and it would be great to do it while Trump is president. The MAGA response since Tuesday has been fascinating. It's not denial anymore. It's not, we did nothing wrong. It's they are going to end his presidency if this is replicated, if this Tuesday is replicated next November. So Johnson's warning his side, we have to win, because if we don't, they're going to do to us what we actually want to be doing to them. So that's the quiet part that Mike Johnson understands it now. There are some Republicans already starting to distance themselves, and they're kind of reading the room and preparing for a future where Trump is not the center of the universe. Others are doubling down. They're saying, I'm betting everything on Trump stays in control and Trump's going to Protect me. But MAGA Mike Johnson experienced a rare moment of honesty, which is how much legal exposure do I have? What does happen if Democrats take control of the House? Now, Democrats, for their part, have been careful publicly with the language. You know, they talk about accountability. They talk about restoring integrity. They talk about the importance of nobody being above the law. I think that's smart. Use that language. They're not threatening revenge. They're saying if there is an opportunity to properly investigate some of the things that have happened, we plan to do that. And I support that completely. And having the power to subpoena, the power to investigate, the power to refer to prosecution, that's all important. So MAGA Mike Johnson heard that maybe not in the exact words that I'm using. And the goal would be, the hope would be that we're getting to an era where the people protected by their proximity to power are no longer protected by that proximity. And it's not about unfairly going after people. It's about accountability. It's about due process. It's the beginning of a reckoning that's been building for years. So they are afraid. You can hear it when they speak. They are frantic. We must hold on to control because they finally understand what could be coming. And. And they're terrified because they know that they have earned it. Fox News host Jesse Watters suffered what I can only describe as a psychotic episode after they lost everything on Tuesday. This the person on your screen is Dana Perino. That's not Jesse Watters, but I'm going to play a clip for you. Here is Jesse Watters doing his new version of Childless Cat Ladies all over again. But women voted for Mamdani. Women. Women did it. This is remarkably pathetic stuff. Jesse, your thoughts?
- [54:15]
B
So the Mondami Coalition is this. It's people not born in the country and they're here now. And then it's people blacks and Hispanic New Yorkers and it's also people with college degrees. Many.
- [54:28]
A
It's not a real win if only immigrants, brown people, white women and college educated people vote for someone. It's not. That's not a real win according to Jesse Waters degrees.
- [54:41]
B
And they're young. A lot of them are women. So let's talk about these single women because they were the force here. You're in an apartment. It's small. It's very small and it's very expensive. And you haven't gotten married and had kids and moved out to the suburbs like everybody else. So you're in a tiny apartment and the apartment's Getting really expensive because all of these migrants are here now. And it's also expensive because of the Green New Deal.
- [55:07]
A
So your utilities are high, the Green New Deal, which doesn't exist.
- [55:10]
B
And you got the wrong degree. You should have gotten a degree in like chemistry, biology, finance, computer science, something useful in this high tech economy. No, but you got a degree in like Southeast Asian feminist literature. And you're wondering why you can't advance in this economy. And so you're overqualified and you are underpaid and living in the most expensive city in the world. And the Democrats made it this way. And so you're choosing a guy, Cuomo, who's just the laziest person on earth, versus a guy in his 30s who's in the clubs and he's eating kebabs with the cabbies. And you're like, this guy's fun and he's positive. And he's like, this is the American dream. We're gonna do this, we're gonna do that. And it looks like, okay, whatever. I didn't learn about communism in college. I learned about Southeast Asian feminist literature instead. So you vote for this guy and he's making promises. Are these promises gonna happen? No. So you have two factions of this communist thing. One faction is the AOC faction and she just wants to fight. Trump doesn't know anything about anything else. She just wants to attack the guy in the White House. But he has made promises about the cost of living. So is he going to deliver on these promises?
- [56:31]
D
How?
- [56:32]
A
Let me translate this for you, okay? As just a white male, which is fine to be okay. As a white male. Jesse is furious that being a white male alone doesn't give him priority in the way that he would like. His feelings are hurt because he wants DEI for white men, because of course he thinks that white men deserve it. But this is a sort of misogyny and xenophobia and condescension and stupidity that exposes both the insecurities and, and the vulnerabilities of this coalition. Now, you know, he, by the way, he's a, I, I believe he has a college degree, college educated guy working in New York. I think it was public that he, like, lives in New Jersey or something like that. He kind of also is a representation of that, which he says in some ways is, is a problem. He is a white guy, but he has other identity elements that are actually part of what he says is the problem coalition. This is childless cat ladies all over again, which is just, let's pick people based on certain characteristics and say these are individuals that in some way are less than, less than, but they're getting more. They're, they're less than, but they're getting more than they deserve. I just, I'm more than as a white guy, but I'm getting less than I deserve. The people that are less than, the women, the immigrants that, the brown people, the college educated, they are less. They should be getting less, but they're getting more. That's what is really upsetting to this guy. They're going to need an attitudinal, attitudinal adjustment if things keep going the way they went on Tuesday, which is up to us to ensure happens. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Remember that for November, we are feeding hungry people through the charity Feeding America. Every first membership Payment at join pacman.com will be donated to Feeding America. I'll give you another update as to where we are on those numbers and how much we've raised so far on tomorrow's show. Sign up for the bonus show@join pacman.com I'll see you then.