← The David Pakman Show
The David Pakman Show
8/18/25: Putin crushed Trump, and it devastated Karoline Leavitt
01:02:27
-- On the Show: -- Vladimir Putin exploits the Alaska summit to humiliate Donald Trump and walk away with legitimacy while Trump gets nothing -- Donald Trump runs to Sean Hannity to repeat Vladimir Putin’s flattery and election lies after being...
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- [00:08]
A
Friday was one of the most embarrassing days for the United States in a very long time. And it happened because after Donald Trump had American soldiers literally crawling around on their hands and knees laying out a red carpet for Vladimir Putin, the brutal dictator, Putin showed up, conceded nothing, and made Trump look even dumber than when Kim Jong Un tricked him with his fake concessions. Putin didn't even give him any concessions. And truly the biggest foreign policy humiliation of Donald Trump's political career. And that really says a lot. So let's zoom out the context here. Trump's going to Alaska where Putin will meet him. They're going to have a tough conversation where Trump might even get Putin to end the Ukraine war. None of that happened. And in fact, the very, the very nature of the meeting taking place already framed Putin as the, the dominant one, as the strong one. And with the entire world watching who came out stronger, it is abundantly clear that it was not Donald Trump and not the United States. Now let's get back to the optics for a moment. As I mentioned, American soldiers rolling out a red carpet for Vladimir Putin where we have a brutal dictator who disappears, dissidents who has seen adversarial journalists accidentally fall out of a hospital window or stab themselves in the back. You know, you hear these crazy things which are meant to be unbelievable. That's part of the game. Of course, that didn't happen. Of course they were ordered killed, but Trump rolls out almost like they were royalty on American soil. The red carpet, and he's laughing and he's hugging and doing all of this. And the symbolism of these American troops bowing down before Putin's plane to, to lay out a red carpet. These are optics of subservience. These are optics of Trump not an Alpha, even though he claims to be, but of a wannabe Alpha who's enamored by these dictators and authoritarian strong men who rule with an iron fist. It would be easier for Trump to just be able to disappear journalists the way Putin does, rather than having to deal with questions he doesn't like when he does a press conference. It would be better for Trump to be able to just say, you're off the air when there's a channel that's reporting things that Donald Trump doesn't like. And so all of the optics were humiliating. This then gets us to the outcome or the lack thereof. What did we get from, from this so called summit? Well, even though Trump announced it went very well, we had a lot of points of agreement, understand the reality of what we got. Vladimir Putin conceded nothing Vladimir Putin did not make a single commitment. He didn't agree to even one reform. He didn't agree to any kind of change to what he is doing and to what he plans to do in Ukraine. He didn't do any of it. Now, I was sort of thinking back to the Kim Jong Un summit when Donald Trump made a big, big deal out of going out to meet with Kim Jong Un. And there was even this photo op where Donald Trump stepped into the demilitarized zone between north and South Korea. And it was all so incredible. And Trump said, we won, we did it. And all he got with from Kim Jong Un were the same sort of vague commitments to, oh, denuclearization or, you know, stuff that North Korean leaders have been saying for decades. Kim Jong Un's dad said this sort of stuff. Kim Jong Un's grandpapy said this sort of stuff. And they never do it. And because Donald Trump is so naive and so little understands history, Trump thought that it was a real success, that he got real concessions out of Kim Jong Un. They were fake concessions. Well, the Putin summit was even dumber. The Putin summit didn't even lead to fake concessions that Putin has no intention of actually carrying out. It was just really a photo op for Vladimir Putin more than anything else. After the Kim Jong Un summit, Trump could at least wave around paperwork. It was meaningless paperwork. It was unenforceable paperwork. But with Putin, he has nothing. He has no leverage. He didn't get a single win. It's just a global humiliation. Now, from Vladimir Putin's perspective, of course he would do this. Think about it. Simply being invited legitimizes Vladimir Putin. Putin is an anti democratic, authoritarian, dictatorial strongman. And so when a nominal democracy like the United States says, come for a summit, we're going to have, what did they have? A green salad with champagne vinaigrette and surf and turf. Right? Vladimir Putin says, whoa, Trump coming out of nowhere, they're speaking. We'll get to that in a moment. When. When you do this to a guy as anti democratic as Putin, you legitimize him, you legitimize Russia, you say, hey, you know what? The way you have run your country with an iron fist and oppression, and all of it gets rewarded by a beautiful lunch and meeting with the President of the United States. It gives Putin a major propaganda boost back at home. And the narrative for Putin to go back there is, look at how big and strong I am. They literally laid out a red carpet for me. Did you see what happened when I went to the United States. Putin can now say they had soldiers on their hands and knees in uniforms, putting a red carpet right up to my plane. And the President sat there, by the way, Putin made Trump wait. I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable. Is it cuckoldry? You know, the people who were blackpilled or whatever on the Internet were saying Trump was cucked by Putin. Not phraseology I would use, but this is the exposure of Donald Trump's weakness. Trump comes off looking desperate. He comes off looking submissive. No defense of American interests was put forward during this summit. And you, you contrast it with others. Put aside for a moment that when Barack Obama met with Putin, the dynamics were very different. Putin didn't get a red carpet. Putin wasn't glad handed by Barack Obama. Obama made it clear who was in charge. But even look, look at other instances with Biden, Biden in Geneva where he brought up the issue of human rights and set boundaries. Trump grins for the camera, leaves empty handed with nothing. So if you voted for Trump because he was going to be America first and because he was going to finally restore America's reputation around the world, how do you look at this and say, boy, am I proud. He really did us well? Donald Trump, people see weakness, adversaries see opportunity. And the person celebrating this the most, you know, I saw these videos floating around from Mar a Lago where Trump's club goers were saying, you did so good, Mr. President. The real person now in a position to celebrate, celebrate is Vladimir Putin. And Trump had no choice after the summit but to run to Sean Hannity for what was supposed to be a friendly interview. With his tail tucked between his legs after being globally humiliated by Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump ran to Sean Hannity on Fox News. He needed a friendly interview. He needed a softball interview. And in this clip, you will see Donald Trump confirm Putin owns him. Listen carefully to what Trump says here. Trump says, you know, Putin told me your mail in voting is a scam, it's fraudulent. And this is why Putin, you got it, you got to admit it. When, when you're bested, when they've gotten the best of you, you've got to admit it. This is why Putin owns Trump because he understands that if he supports Trump's conspiracy theories, like about the 2020 election being stolen, Trump will go, he knows what's going on. And Trump will accept whatever Putin says. Look at, look at how it worked to manipulate Donald Trump.
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B
Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things. He said, your election was rigged because you have mail in voting. He said mail in voting every election. He said, no country has mail in voting. It's impossible to have mail in voting and have honest elections. And. And he said that to me. It was very interesting because we talked about 2020. He said, you won that election by so much. And that's how he got it. He said, and if you would have won, we wouldn't have had a war. You'd have all these millions of people alive now instead of dead. And he said, and you lost it because of mail in voting. It was a rigged election. But mail in voting show.
- [09:40]
A
Do you think that Vladimir Putin really believes that Donald Trump won the 2020 election? Putin is a lot of things. He's a brutal dictator. He's an oppressor of media, he's an invader. He's an aggressive global force. But Putin is not stupid. And Putin knows that Donald Trump did not win the damn 2020 election. But. And by the way, Putin, a known falsifier of elections, is saying to Trump, you really won in 2020. What is this about? Trump has no idea that this is a master manipulation by Putin. Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle. And when Trump later will hear from Putin, no, you know, the truth is we are defensively in Ukraine. Ukraine was the aggressor. Trump's going to go, I believe him. I mean, listen, Putin recognized I really won 2020. He was right about that. He's probably right about this as well. And we saw after Putin during Trump's first term in Helsinki said, oh, no, we didn't do any hacking. Even though that was the determination, we didn't do any hacking. Trump comes out and he goes, listen, why would he hack? And he said to me very strongly, he didn't do any of the hacking. Putin owns Trump because Trump doesn't realize how he's being manipulated. Biden would never have fallen for this. Obama would never have fallen for this. To his credit, George W. Bush would never have fallen for these attempts at ingratiating himself and the entreaties. And the entire thing never would have happened. Here's Trump more. And he, he's really pleased, really pleased with the review Putin gave him.
- [11:20]
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And Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said, I've never seen anybody do so much so fast. He said, your country is like hot as a pistol. And a year ago, he thought it was dead. Everybody thought it was dead. Let me ask you this.
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A
We mentioned it is so easy to play this fool. It is so easy. Here's the playbook. You praise Trump so that he's enamored with you. You tell Trump you believe some of his most unhinged rantings, like, I won in 2020. The country is so hot right now. I'm achieving so much. You go in, there you go, oh, Mr. President, you know, you were really screwed in 2020. You really won that thing. And your country is so hot and doing so well. And it's just unbelievable what you're doing. So Trump becomes enamored with you, which he already is, because he's enamored with these strongmen dictators, and then you can manipulate him and then he will take your word on everything. Everything. If Putin's right that I'm so cool and so awesome, he must be right about other things as well. And this morning on the issue of the mail in ballots, Trump has come out and said he's going to try to do away with all mail in voting. And then also Donald Trump coming back. And we have word that Crimea will remain in Russia's hands no matter what happens. So Putin got a lot of what he wanted. So basic, so pedestrian, so childish. But it worked on Donald Trump. And then this put Marco Rubio and so many others in the position of having to defend what took place. Now, later in the show, we are going to get to Donald Trump's press secretary Caroline Levitt's reaction to all of this. Reports are the word is ashen. She was ashen over what took place in Alaska. We're going to get to that a little bit later, but we're going to start here with the response from Donald Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. Donald Trump's Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin was such a globally humiliating failure that even Trump's own Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, could not explain any of what went well without crumbling on live tv. Listen to what Rubio says here, which is that many concessions were asked of Vladimir Putin. Asked of Vladimir Putin. He doesn't say that Putin agreed to a single one of them. And believe you me, if Donald Trump had been able to secure any concession from Vladimir Putin, you know, we would be hearing about it. But Marco Rubio plays it like. Well, I'm not going to just start talking about that on this show. Why not? Take a listen. Can you name any concessions that Vladimir Putin made during this meeting?
- [14:22]
C
Has he has any of any.
- [14:24]
D
I wouldn't name him on the program.
- [14:25]
A
Of any. I wouldn't name them on this program.
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D
I wouldn't name them on your program. Why would I do that?
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C
Where is the pressure?
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D
Because you can't have a peace agreement. Now, you can't have a peace agreement unless both sides give and get. You can't have a peace agreement unless both sides make concessions. That's a fact. That's true in virtually any negotiation. If not, it's just called surrender. And neither side is going to surrender, so both sides are going to have to make concessions. So, of course, concessions were asked, but what utility would there be of me going on a program and tell you we've wagged our finger at Putin and told him, you must do this.
- [14:56]
A
Well, to prove that the summit wasn't a pointless and humiliating failure, and you must do that.
- [15:01]
D
It's going to make. It's only going to make it harder and less likely that they're going to agree to these things. So these negotiations, as much as everyone would love it to be a live pay per view event, these discussions only work best when they are conducted privately in serious negotiations in which people who have to go back and respond to constituencies, because even totalitarian governments have constituencies they have to respond to, people have to go back and defend these agreements that they make and so, and figure out a way to explain them to people. So we need to create space for concessions to be made. But of course, concessions were asked.
- [15:37]
A
Concessions were asked. Remember, he first said, concessions were made. You're going to tell us about them. No. And then he goes to. We asked for a lot of different things. Well, easier question that Rubio was asked during a different interview, this one on NBC News with Kristen Welker. Can you name any of the concessions that Trump asked Putin to make? Can you name a single one? You won't be surprised to hear that Marco Rubio doesn't name any.
- [16:06]
C
Can you name one thing that President Trump is asking Russia to give up in order to get peace?
- [16:13]
D
Well, I'm not going to disclose those things, because if we do, then you can imagine no negotiations could fall apart. These negotiations. Look, I know everybody wants to know what's happening, and to a certain degree, that's important. But what's more important is that these negotiations work and for us to run to the press, like, you see these leaks sometimes that are completely inaccurate. And, and in many cases, sometimes you see leaks out there that undermine the negotiations. Okay. These negotiations, in order for them to be successful, allow. Require for us to allow both sides to agree to potential concessions or discuss potential concessions without it finding its way in the public sphere and creating all kinds of internal problems for one country or the other country. So here's the bottom line. We all know what the elements of such a deal. There has to be talk about what the territories are going to look like and what the borderlines are going to look like at the end of this conflict. There has to be talk about Ukraine's legitimate desire for security in the long term to make sure they don't get invaded again. There has to be talk about how Ukraine is rebuilt and how do you rebuild a country that's been attacked?
- [17:12]
A
So listen, if there were real concessions that Putin made, they would be bragging about them. We know that. That's how the Trump administration operates. If they had, even if they sniffed out any, anything that was even a pseudo concession from Vladimir Putin, they would be bragging about how big and strong Donald Trump is. Rubio has not articulated a single concession Putin made. Caroline Levitt hasn't. They're not even telling us what concessions Trump asked for. And I don't even know that Trump had the gall to ask for a damn thing. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. We know he didn't get anything. And so when you see Marco Rubio dodging like this, it's proof that there's nothing to point to. Trump's top diplomat can't sell this as a win. So what's the takeaway? The summit gives Putin legitimacy on the global stage and gives him propaganda value. He can go back to Russia and now say, look at how respected I am, look at how feared I am. They rolled out a red carpet for me. Propaganda victory. In practical terms, it in terms, if your priority is let's end this war, which above politics is my priority, nothing was achieved, absolutely nothing. And then even from a public relations standpoint, which is important, I don't pretend that PR isn't important for American presidents. From a PR standpoint, Trump got nothing either. And I know that you've got the usual sycophants and dilettante saying what a big strong boy he did, such a good one. But Trump got nothing. And it's a disaster for him as well. So I'm going to have a piece today on my substack in more detail about what the stakes were of this summit and where we go next. Make sure you're subscribed free to my substack@substack.david pakman.com we're going to take a break and be right back. Skip the hassle of planning meals or cleaning up. 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I've been using Private Internet Access to get soccer games from Argentina not available in the us. I love it. It's super easy. You open the app, you choose a server and you're in. Works on unlimited devices so your whole household can stream freely and it also supports lightning fast peer to peer file sharing and they can prove they do not log your activity. Right now Private Internet Access is giving my audience 83% off, which is just 203amonth and four extra months for free. Go to PIA vpn.com/pacman the link is in the description the David Pakman show is an independent, audience funded, progressive media program. This means a few different things. This means, number one, I have no editors, executive producer or layers of managers saying why don't you cover this, why don't you cover that? Why don't you take this position, why don't you soften that position? We don't have anything like that. Whatever I want to talk about, whatever, whatever I want to say, that's what it is. The downside is we do depend directly on our audience to fund the show. Now it's only a downside in the sense that that does mean it's up to individual folks who say, hey, I kind of like this. I'm going to support the work that you're doing and I invite you to get a membership. You'll get instant access to so many great perks, including the bonus show commercial, free audio and video streams of the show, and many other things by signing up@join pacman.com Another way to support the show is to become a substack paid subscriber@substack.david pakman.com this morning Donald Trump unleashed a roadmap for dictatorship. You have to see this. It is terrifying. He did it on Truth Social Truth Central. This after Vladimir Putin told him, you really got crushed in 2020 by those mail in votes. You really won the 2020 election, but those mail in votes screwed you. Trump posts the following quote I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail in ballots and also, while we're at it, highly inaccurate, very expensive and seriously controversial voting machines which cost 10 times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper which is faster and leaves no doubt at the end of the evening as to who won and who lost the election. We are now the only country in the world that uses mail in voting. That's not true. All others gave it up because of the massive voter fraud encountered. We will begin this effort which will be strongly opposed by the Democrats because they cheat at levels never seen before by signing an executive order to help bring honesty to the 2026 midterm elections. Remember, the states are merely an agent for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the federal government is represented by the President of the United States. Tell them for the good of the of our country to do with their horrible radical left policies like open borders, men playing in women's sports, transgender and woke for everyone and so much more. Democrats are virtually unelectable without using this completely disproven mail in scam. Elections will can never be honest with mail in ballots voting and everybody in particular the Democrats knows this. I and the Republican party will fight like hell to bring honesty and integrity back to our elections. The mail in ballot hoax using voting machines that are a complete and total disaster must end now. Remember, without fair and honest elections and strong and powerful borders, you don't have even a semblance of a country. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America I wrote an op ed two months ago. They will try to steal the 2026 midterms. And this is the beginning. Even really the beginning, it's actually just the next step. They've been doing it for a while. Trump will attempt to use an executive order to end mail in voting altogether. He claims only watermarked paper ballots are valid. He says we're the only country using mail in voting. That's completely untrue. And via executive order, he says he will tell states exactly how they should run their elections, wrongly arguing that states are merely an agent of the federal government. That's completely authoritarian framing. It's, I decide. I decide everything. Now let's kind of break this down step by step. The Constitution is very clear. If you're a constitutional conservative or a whatever, the Constitution gives states the power to run their elections. Trump saying he decides and he can boss states around. And all of it. That is overt authoritarianism and it contravenes the Constitution. This is a very obvious attempt to rig the 2026 midterms in advance. Donald Trump is seeing what's happening with Gavin Newsom's beautiful maps and potentially other blue state governors getting involved. Donald Trump is seeing that his approval is at historic lows, that the economy, jobs numbers, inflation, it's all shaky. It's shaky. And so he is trying to figure out, how can I steal the 2026 midterms so that I can actually get something done? Because, remember, if Democrats take the House in 26, Trump's agenda is dead. It's dead in the water. So the pattern is the same. One lie about 2020. Even better if you can get Putin to go, oh, it was stolen in 2020. Use those claims about 2020 to purge officials, intimidate secretaries of state, try to take control of the election yourself, and then ultimately attempt to use an executive order. This is phase three. Attempt to use an executive order to just declare federal control of state elections. Trump wants federal control of local police departments. Trump wants federal control. And remember, we were told these are small government conservatives that don't want the government to involve where they're not needed. And Trump wants to federalize everything. He throws in open borders as if this is also a national security issue. He mentions men and women's sports and sort of these culture. It's like generic culture war filler. Whenever you need to expand a post, you just add stuff about Woke ad stuff about men and women's sports. And the takeaway here is that Trump's been whining for years about the 2020 election. That's, that's not a new thing. But Trump is now openly saying that he's going to override states. This is exactly how authoritarian takeovers start. You change the rules of the vote itself. We've seen it in Russia with Vladimir Putin. We see it all the time. I mean, listen, in North Korea, you don't even have to change the rules. It's just, it's been built from the ground up since Kim Jong Un's grandfather was in charge there. They just built it from the ground up. Doesn't. There's nothing to change. And when we step back, we find ourselves watching a sitting president plotting openly. It's not even happening in secret. And why, why would it? A lot of his supporters say, sounds awesome. It is all rigged and stolen. He is openly plotting to dictate state elections. It's a constitutional crisis in real time. Now, what is it that we on the left should do? Well, first of all, Trump outlawing mail in voting in red states that Republicans are easily going to win doesn't really matter because they're going to win those states anyway. So the first question is whether blue state governors are going to be legally prepared to be able to hold elections the way they determine they should be held, not succumb to Donald Trump's bullying, and actually make sure that we get the will of the people represented. And that includes being able to vote by mail. So first of all, blue state governors need to be really sure of what can Trump do, What can't Trump do? That's number one. But number two, midterm turnout is often really low, like pathetically low. And so there's a real question here as to what kind of turnout we're going to get. We're still 15, three and 15 months away, 14 and a half months away from those midterms. I hope, and I know we say this every midterm, I hope that this time around people will understand the scope and gravity of this. And as I've said before, one of the best defenses, one of the best defenses against election rigging is the biggest possible turnout. Overwhelm, just absolutely overwhelm the polls. Easy to pay lip service to it, easy to say it doesn't always happen. But we're going to be talking extensively about voter turnout as we go forward. The anti Trump protests have exploded. Donald Trump cannot stop them, no matter what he does. We have Been seeing the biggest coordinated anti Trump mobilization since Donald Trump returned to office. The scope of these protests is massive. It's widespread. They are diverse. We've seen over 300 protests in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C. why are people furious? Yes. Donald Trump's authoritarianism. Yes. Texas's attempt to redistrict and gerrymander overtly to avoid potentially losing control of the House of Representatives in November of 2026. We have seen large marches in big cities and in small towns. And one of the biggest flashpoints in this entire thing is Texas at this point in time. In Austin, more than 5,000 showed up at the Capitol to fight the Trump takeover. And of course, they're upset about the authoritarianism. But we have a lot of great people in Texas. Remember, Texas is. What were the 2020 or 2024 Texas presidential results? Even though Texas is, of course, a red state, Kamala Harris still got 43% of the vote and nearly 5 million votes in the state of Texas. There are a lot of Democrats, leftists, and blue voters in the state of Texas, and they see this attempt to overtly gerrymander their congressional maps in order to generate more Republican seats, and they don't like it. So Texas, one major flashpoint here, Washington, D.C. another major flashpoint. Free D.C. has been a sort of slogan or motto. And we've seen Free DC March from Dupont Circle down to the White House. Trump federalized local police. He deployed the National Guard. They're pushing out homeless people. Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania were brought in. And despite this military presence, protests grew louder and louder and louder. Now, I want to say one other thing about protests. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, had a massive turnout last week when he announced at a press conference, if Texas is going to gerrymander, we're going to gerrymander, and we're going to generate more Democratic seats. Something I support completely. I support ending all gerrymandering, but I also support not unilaterally, unilaterally disarming. And that's what Gavin Newsom is doing. ICE agents were sent to Gavin Newsom Newsom's press conference. The implication is the sort of people that would support this effort of gerrymandering in California are more likely to be undocumented immigrants. So send ICE there to pick them up. And of course, it's completely idiotic. Number one, undocumented immigrants kill. They can't vote. So why would they be at an event? I guess they could go to show support, but why would they be at an event that's primarily about a referendum in November. It just makes no sense. But why on earth, if you know you are undocumented, would you show up at a massive event filled with cameras? It doesn't make sense. So these are all intimidatory tactics, but so far, the protesters are saying, we're going to show up anyway. Now, why can't Trump stop it? Well, he wants to stop it. Even the National Guard deployments have failed to deter the crowds. And what's happening right now is a circle or a cycle where the more that the Trump administration and federal law enforcement attempt to crack down on protesters who were legally saying, we're going to use our voices to be heard, the more they try to crack down, the more it is inspiring people to get out there and protest. And so Trump's entire law and order farce, which is really all it is, it's being flipped. And the more Trump tries to say, stop them from protesting, the more that they protest. And that make Trump makes Trump look weaker, and it makes him look desperate, and it makes him look like he can't control what's going on, which he can't do. So I am hugely invigorated by the grassroots energy that is exploding in ways that Trump can't contain. The louder Trump tries to crush dissent, the more people seem to be showing up and saying, we're not going to be staying home. And one of the greatest nightmares for an authoritarian is a resistance that grows when you push, when you push back. Authoritarians expect, and they want that when people start protesting, you go, we're going to send National Guard and levy some threats and everybody will go home. People aren't doing that. And authoritarians hate it because they want to be the ultimate powers. So good for everyone that's been protesting.
- [35:16]
D
Good for.
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A
On today's full audio podcast, which I hope you're subscribed to on Spotify and on Apple Music, we're going to have more. Also on the bonus show about the resistance techniques that are not only working, but they're really triggering Donald Trump. All right, so we all know Alexa listens to us, recommends products based on our conversations. Metta retargets us based on our browsing and engagement history. Have you wondered what Chat GPT and Claude are up to with your conversations? We feed so much of our information to these AI chat bots. Thoughts, dreams, sensitive questions, business ideas. They take the information, tie it to your identity, and they can sell that to third parties and governments. ChatGPT has the former director of the NSA on their board right now that doesn't feel awesome. It took us a long time to truly understand what social media companies were doing with our data. We don't have to make the same mistake with AI. And that's why I've started using Venice AI, a generative AI platform that is private and permissionless. They don't spy on you, Venice. I won't censor the AI. They have a safe mode which you can turn off for both text and image generation. Messages are encrypted. Your conversation history is only stored on your browser. I love the Pro plan because I get upgraded features like uploading files, unlimited text prompts. Check it out if you want to use AI without censorship or fear of handing over your most intimate thoughts to a corporation or the government, go to Venice AI/pacman and use code PACMAN to get 20% off their pro plan. The link is in the description Are you planning any exciting trips? I've got a couple lined up and one thing that I've learned is that being able to speak even a little bit of the local language can make a huge difference both for your experience and how you interact with locals. And that is why I use Babel. Babbel is the language learning app that gets you talking quickly. It has 10 minute lessons crafted by over 200 language experts. They're really built around real world conversations, the things you would actually say when traveling, ordering food, asking for directions, chatting with locals. No gimmicks, no fluff, just practical language skills. And the best part is that you can start speaking in just a few weeks. I've used Babel to help me get ready for trips abroad. It does a great job. I just arrive with a little confidence that I can navigate a new place with some basics without having to pull my phone out every five seconds. Babel also has advanced speech recognition which helps to fine tune your accent as you go. It's like having a tutor in your pocket. And Babble is giving my audience 60% off subscriptions at babel.com/pacman. The link is in the podcast notes Rules and restrictions may apply One of the things Donald Trump hates the most is when there's somebody he can't control. And right now that somebody is California Governor Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom dropped a brutal, brutal, brutal anti Trump ad Steamrolling Trump. This is a digital ad for the California Democrats redistricting campaign. This is what Gavin Newsom announced last week, which if successful, could effectively neuter the Donald Trump presidency. This is sharp, polished stuff. It goes directly at Trump, Trump Hates this. Take a look at this.
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E
Wake up, America. Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing.
- [39:15]
A
Here.
- [39:15]
E
He is once again trying to rig the system. He doesn't believe in the rules. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district. We have got to meet fire with fire. We're asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting to level the playing field all across the United States on November 4th. You have the power to stand up to Trump, Donald Trump. You have poked the bear and we will punch back.
- [39:48]
A
This is serious moment.
- [39:49]
E
Wake up.
- [39:52]
A
This is very, very good. Now, I know that my audience is split about Gavin Newsom. I know some of you absolutely despise the guy. You say, look at what he's done to California. He is not brought California to prosperity. Now, that, that, that's one faction of the audience. I have others writing to me saying, david, this is the only guy fighting right now. I get you've got Democrats filing some lawsuits and doing town halls, but the guy really fighting here, and he's a governor, but he's fighting on the national stage. The only guy is Gavin Newsom. I'm going to get back to Gavin Newsom in a moment. What is so good about this entire campaign is that it is hitting Trump's power. Power grabs on gerrymandering. It's framing this California gerrymandering campaign, which is what it is. You know, they call it redistricting. Yes, it's partizan redistricting. We call that gerrymandering. That's what it is. We got to own it. I'm against gerrymandering, but I'm not going to unilaterally disarm and let Republicans do it and win elections. And we're going to just stand aside. I don't want that. And the visuals and the tone, it really feels like a presidential campaign ad more than a local issue spot. Now, there's a couple of realities there. Number one, the redistricting concept is a national concept, because if Kathy Hochul says we're going to do the same thing in New York and JB Pritzker says we're going to do the same thing in Illinois, you start to get some. A pretty powerful national movement. But there's a bigger signal here, and I know you all know what it is, it looks very clear that Gavin Newsom is positioning himself for a presidential run. He is nationalizing a message. It's not California versus Trump. It's the United States versus Donald Trump. The ad drops right as anti Trump protests are exploding nationally and so the timing is a major factor in what's going on here. What's my view about Gavin Newsom as a Democratic presidential candidate? I want to, I'm not going to be cagey here, okay? I'm going to give every, all the information to you up front. It's extraordinarily early. I don't even know who's going to run in 2028. Is, you know, is Pete Boot. Edge. Edge going to run? Is Congresswoman AOC going to run? What about Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro Shapiro or Gretchen Whitmer, who we. I just don't know who's going to run yet. I can't pick who I like the best until I know who is running. What I do feel very strongly about is that I want a primary where candidates must earn the nomination, fight it out. I'm ready for the bench is so deep. And I know that the right loves to say, oh, Democrats have nobody. They've got a bunch of 80 year olds whose careers are over. What, Bernie, he'll be 90 at the end of the next presidential term in early night. No, no, no, no, no. That's a total distortion of what's going on there. There's are, there are almost too many good people and certainly among those good people, I include Gavin Newsom and I know many of you. Oh, but we don't like him. Hey, there's going to be a fight, ok? We're going to see who reigns supreme. We're going to see who the voters want. Gavin Newsom is excellent on hitting the right tone, triggering maga, generating national attention, getting people interested in something. Right. I mean, however many lawsuits you file to try to stop Trump doesn't exactly activate people because there's not much they can do. This is an effort people can get behind. This is an effort people can donate to if they want to help in California or they can call their governors and say, hey, you've got to do what Gavin Newsom is doing. So I am going to advocate for an open and robust primary and we will see who comes out on top. But Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, aoc, Jon Ossoff, Gretchen Whitmer, there's a long list. I'm not going to Buddha Judge, I'm not going to be able to get to everybody. But the point here is this is a, this is a deep vent bench. What I want is people willing to fight, like really fight. And Gavin Newsom is fighting right now. So the takeaway here is this is a brutal and very effective ad, it's rattling Trump, it's energizing Democrats, it's giving people something to fight for. Gavin Newsom is showing he's ready to throw punches on the national stage. This instantly getting national, if not global attention. So whether or not Newsom is running, I mean, listen, I don't know. And whoever it is that is ultimately the nominee opposition needs to be robust and it needs to be energized and it needs to be well calculated and, and organized. And Gavin Newsom is doing that. I'm super interested in seeing where it goes next. The makeup patches on Donald Trump's hands are spreading. And Caroline Levitt simply cannot cover up what's going on with Donald Trump's health anymore. We saw over the weekend at Donald Trump's golf course that the patch of makeup on his hand to cover bruising is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And we've seen this in different shapes and forms and iterations over recent time. And what's happening is that the COVID up is really falling apart. Caroline Levitt is in a position where she needs to manage two aspects of Donald Trump's health. Number one, yes, it's the cognitive, it's the incoherence. You don't have to say he has dementia to realize that he seems regularly lost, doesn't know what's going on, saying things that make no sense syntactically, saying things that make no sense factually rambling incoherently. Last week it was about grass and who the hell knows what else. So on the one hand, you've got the brain, on the other hand you have Caroline Levitt trying to always give as little information as possible about what's going on with Donald Trump's physical health. Trump's working very hard every day. We are seeing how much energy he has. The bruising on his hands is from shaking hands so vigorously with so many people. These are really not explanations. This is damage control where you release only the absolute minimum. Now, the overall signs are really undeniable. We saw the swollen ankles. We were told no big deal, it's simply chronic venous insufficiency. Ok, well, wasn't on any, any of Donald Trump's health disclosures over the last decade. We've then got the swelling, sorry, the bruising on the hands, which we're not really being told. What is actually the explanation for it. Trump shaking hands doesn't really make any sense. You then see, you know, I'm going to Russia when he was going to Alaska, called Kristi Noem. Kristi Kerr asks Where people are when they're right in front of him forgets things. So we've already built that picture up over time. The dissembling pattern is notable, which is that when Donald Trump is caught in confusion, confusion when you see that look on his face when he's visibly confused, he'll make up details, he'll just make that, make stuff up to fill gaps in his memory. And often what he comes up with doesn't make any sense. Now, the issue we're talking about here relates to Caroline Levitt. Levitt has a sort of impossible task here, which is she is trying to gaslight America into ignoring what's right in front of us. And she's clearly working with a guy who doesn't want to reveal anything. Caroline Levitt or any spokesperson for a president could come forward and just tell the whole story and then we would go, oh, that's the whole story. We can evaluate it for what it is, but she's not doing it because Donald Trump doesn't want her to. And the stakes are significant because you've got a 79 year old here who can't remember countries and continents, and he's got access to the nuclear code. And at a certain point, no matter how skilled you are as a press secretary, and to a degree, I'll acknowledge Caroline Levitt has some skills. And when you really sit down, the way to analyze what a press secretary says is you step back and you say, okay, let me read the answer. And let's evaluate each element of what she says and determine whether what she's saying is true or not. In a sense, she lies all the time, of course, but she has some skills for this job. But at a certain point, no press secretary can really spin away visible decline where the emperor is degrading in front of our very eyes. And so I don't really know what are the next excuses that she'll come up with. Certainly we don't know what the next health crisis is going to be, but Trump doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. And placing Caroline Levitt in this position really asks her to do something that. That is extraordinarily difficult. Now, one of the things that I would expect is sometimes when there's an attempt to cover something up or kind of like manage in the public eye, sometimes there's an attempt to say nothing. And that was the attempt with Trump's hands and ankles. For a while, the pressure got so big that then they went to, well, we've got to say something. And the something that they gave us. It doesn't ring true. It certainly seems only partially substantive. It doesn't feel complete. We know it's not the full story and the reaction has been so disastrous that I wouldn't be surprised if I see them go back to the we're not saying anything at all. Last week a reporter asked Caroline Levitt, would we be able to speak to Donald Trump's doctors and get answers from them? And Caroline Levitt just said, yeah, I don't know that that's really something that we're going to be doing. So I would expect that after their brief attempt at saying a little more, it went so poorly that they're going to go back to saying a little bit less. My expectation. What do you think? Let me know info@david pakman.com 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 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 of 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 dot news, slash pacman or enter the code Pacman in the app to get started. The link is in the description New reporting indicates that Donald Trump's White House press secretary, Caroline Lovett, was visibly devastated. Ashen is the word that's being used by the abject failure and humiliation on the global stage of her boss Donald Trump in the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. We are going to look at reporting indicating that, you know, there was a lot of pre summit bravado. This is going to be Trump's biggest victory and we've got full confidence and it's all just going to go so well. Levitt even Said anybody criticizing this is pathetic. Trump knows what he's doing. There's no better person than Trump. And Trump rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. Three hours of talks with no deal. Fine. No concessions. Oh, no path even to Putin doing anything. Worse optics than the Kim Jong Un summit. Whereas I said earlier, at least Kim Jong Un gave Trump some sort of red meat, fake concessions, where he was like, well, denuclearize this and we might do that. Didn't do any of it, but Trump fell for it. But at least Trump had something he could list. Nothing from the Putin summit. Widespread reaction. Here's Peter Alexander talking about what he saw himself. The faces on people's, the expressions on people's faces, the faces on people's heads. Say it however you want. And that Caroline Levitt was ashen.
- [52:51]
F
What struck me, Jen in particular, was really just the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation here. Caroline Levitt, the press secretary, Steve Witkoff, who came into the room, then left quickly, then came back in. Levitt appeared to be a bit stressed out, anxious. Their eyes were wide, almost ashen at times. Those were some of the sort of images that are going to. That I'm going to stick. Will stick with me as we leave here. This was. This was not the way the President likes to do things. He likes to be the producer of this presidency. He got that in the first half of the day. But when he was behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin, it looks like he didn't come away with anything that he claimed, claimed he wanted. He said he'd go home unhappy if there was no cease fire. They didn't declare one here today.
- [53:33]
A
Yeah, not only that, they didn't even get a single. A sink. We shouldn't overstate the degree to which this was a complete and utter flop. I mean, not a single concession from Putin. So of course, a lot of magazine immediately saying, oh, the reporting is false. Nobody looked concerned. Peter Alexander saw this. MSNBC's Antonia Hilton said the exact same thing, that not only did Caroline Levitt look ashen after the meeting, she looked frightened after the meeting. So the press corps, noticing the exact same vibe, rattled, haunted people. Normally, normally after something like this, staffers will start calling various media outlets to push a narrative. Here is everything we accomplished. Here's the concessions Putin made. There was none of that silence. There was not even an attempt made to spin this, because there was nothing to spin. I'm going to give you an example from the Democratic side. It's. This is not a partizan analysis. After the June 27 debate in 2024 with Donald Trump and Joe Biden. We all know Biden's performance was not just bad, it was one of the worst presidential debate performances in American history. I don't, there's no other way to say it. I immediately after said Biden will have to drop out. After that, the spin room, and this has been widely reported now, the spin room was totally devoid of people supporting Joe Biden and explaining how the thing was great. They didn't know what to say. They didn't even know what can we spin? It was such a disaster. Now, eventually, very late arriving, some Biden surrogates showed up, and the narrative they came up with was, slow start, finish strong. Trump lied. But the point is, we often see when it's so bad there's nothing to spin, no one tries to spin it. And that's what happened. Trump staffers didn't even have, what do we even say about that abortive disaster? So the collapse, the trajectory of the collapse was Trump knows what he's doing, full confidence. How dare you question him? But before the summit, post summit, visibly shaken Trump staffers, who can't possibly sell this as a win and a shift from very smug to terrified and humiliated. So our takeaway is Putin walks away stronger, Trump walks away with nothing. And Caroline Levitt ends up sort of caught in the middle, knowing she is the one to defend what happened and being unable to defend it. And everyone knows she knows it now. I'm guessing she'll speak to the media at some point today. We'll see what she comes up with. Zelensky is meeting with Trump today, and so tomorrow we may have clips of what they are able to put together. But so far, really not an exercise in courage nor inaccuracy for Caroline Levitt. Marco Rubio was humiliated by Kristen Welker on NBC News when she played a video for him of himself just a few years ago, saying, you can't cut deals with guys like Putin. Just as his boss is now trying to cut a deal with Putin failing, and Marco Rubio is left to go and clean it up and answer questions like, what did we get from Putin? Here's Kristen Welker saying, you said this is not the type of person we can even do a deal with.
- [57:04]
C
Terry, I want to play something you said about President Putin. This was right after the invasion of in March of 2022. Take a look.
- [57:12]
D
This guy lies, habitually lies. He's never kept a deal he'd ever signed, and he's lied he lies all the time, and I don't know why, but he plays us like a. Like a violin in the west, because the west wants to believe that you can cut a deal with everybody. You can't cut a deal with guys like this. He's a professional, experienced liar.
- [57:30]
C
Mr. Secretary, given that, what makes you think that if you are able to reach a deal with President Putin, that he would stick to it based on, as you just said, he's a liar.
- [57:43]
D
Well, that's the point. That's why the deal has to have enforceable mechanisms in it. That's why the deal has to have things like security guarantees. That's the point I was making a few minutes ago when you were asking me about looking someone in the eye. What's important here is actions, not words.
- [57:56]
A
Notice he's not addressing the hypocrisy of what he previously said when it was Biden that was president.
- [58:01]
D
It's not paper, document. Those are all important. Those are elements of a deal, but they have to be enforceable. They have to be verifiable, they have to be enduring. There's no point here in signing a deal that's going to be violated in three or four months. There's no point in doing that. It actually would make things worse. So that's why this is such a difficult thing. Not only do you need a deal, you need a deal that's verifiable, that's enforceable, and that's enduring. If you don't achieve that, then I think you could have a cease fire for a few months, a few weeks, and then the war will start again and more people will die.
- [58:29]
A
But, of course, the question was, how do you square that? You said you can't do deals with a guy like Putin, with now saying Trump's going to do a deal. And we asked for a lot of things, and you just need mechanisms of enforcement. Well, where was that analysis when it was Joe Biden who was president? And of course, it didn't exist, because this is all just partizan nonsense, the sort of stuff that you're sick of and I'm sick of and is part of why voters don't trust or like our elected officials, because they just spin very nicely. You know, it is always interesting to see people's own words played back at them. Welker didn't even need an argument. It's like just press play. Here's what you said. Why are you now saying something completely different? Rubio's boxed in. He can't possibly defend the summit. And what he said in 2022. So he just goes, oh, we need enforcement mechanisms and verifiability. But the bigger picture, of course, and you know this, is that Trumpists keep getting caught contradicting themselves. The past statements expose the hypocrisy. They knew Putin, Putin couldn't be trusted. They knew it in 2022, they know it now. The difference is Trump's determined to be the dealmaker that he sees himself, you know, really a legend in his own mind. They're bending over backward to justify why this summit even happened. They now bending over backwards to even say there were concessions. Well, what were they? Well, we asked for stuff. Well, what did you ask for? I'm not going to tell you. So I hope we see more of this from legacy and corporate media. The best fact check against Trump world really isn't pundits or esoteric arguments or whatever. The best argument against these people is, is their own past selves captured on video and seen in the way that we are seeing it here now. Today, Trump's meeting with Zelensky. What do we expect? First and foremost, it is a very different environment. Trump traveling to Alaska to meet Putin. Zelensky coming to the Oval Office. Red carpet for Putin laid out by soldiers on their hands and knees in Alaska. No red carpet at the White House for Vladimir Zelensky. Trump in the last five hours, before we tape, today's show has been shifting closer and closer to Putin's demands, to Putin saying, you know, I think we want to keep all of Crimea. Trump's like, I think Putin's going to keep all of Crimea. So questions about is Trump being blackmailed are rising. I am not going to put the cart before the horse. Let's see what comes out of the Zelensky meeting. Let's check Trump's attitude after the Zelensky meeting compared to how he behaved and sort of his, his tone after the Putin meeting. But most importantly, does anyone concede anything at this point and do we take even half a baby step towards ending this war? On the bonus show today, controversy over what Zelensky wore today to meet with Trump. This is what they care about. It's unbelievable. We will talk about an AI driven, jobless, a jobless recovery that is being discussed increasingly by economists, which I think is super interesting. And then also what is important to keep in mind as Republican governors are increasingly planning to send National Guard units to Washington, D.C. by the way, they're sending them overwhelmingly to the parts of D.C. that don't even have a crime problem. It's all staged. It's all theatrics blue, but it's the way Trump operates. All of those stories and more will be on today's bonus show.
- [62:13]
F
Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad.
- [62:18]
A
Sure. Sign up@join pacman.com I'll see you on the bonus show. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
- [62:26]
E
This is one of the most spectacular.
- [62:28]
A
Venues with all kinds of character and hospitality scenery. These people in this kid Task Valley, they love when you come to see what they have to offer.
- [62:38]
G
I'm J.J. harris, an Ellensburg rodeo clown and I want to invite you to the rodeo. Come hang out with us in Ellensburg. Great rodeo. Great time. Two performances on Saturday. One is the Extreme Bulls of the Year event. Do not miss the Ellensburg Rodeo August 29th through September 1st. We'll see you there.
- [62:56]
H
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to libsynads. Com. That's L, I B S Y N Ads. Com. Today.