← The David Pakman Show
The David Pakman Show
8/27/25: GOP loses seat badly, Trump has soldiers picking up trash
01:04:06
-- On the Show: -- Democrat Catelin Drey defeats Republican Christopher Prosch in an Iowa Senate special election flipping a Trump district and ending the GOP supermajority -- Donald Trump deploys more than 2,200 National Guard troops from...
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- [00:08]
David Pakman
We start today with some actually pretty good news for Democrats. If you're thinking about 2026. Republicans have suffered a stunning upset and the political implications are significant. What happened is that Democrats flipped a very red Iowa state Senate seat. Now you might say, okay, one seat in the Iowa State Senate, what difference does it make? This has no national implications. And you would be wrong if that was your belief because here's what what happened. This seat flipping, the details of which I'll give you in a moment, ends the three year super majority of Republicans in the Iowa State Senate. And it really could serve as an important warning shot for 2026 when you combine it with some other elections that we've seen. So this particular election is Caitlin Dray, a Democrat from Sioux City, Iowa, who defeated Republican Christopher Prasch in yesterday's special election for Iowa Senate district number one. This is a district that Trump carried by 11 points in 2024. And the important sort of math of it is that Dray won by nine points and that means it's a 20 point swing towards Democrats compared to last November. Trump won by 11, what was it, nine months ago? Trump plus 11 nine months ago, Democrat Caitlin Dray plus nine. Nine months later, that's a 20 point swing. This is similar to, you know, when we think back to election night 2024, viewers of My livestream may remember that while I called, nothing, right. We waited for the networks to call at about 10 after 7pm Maybe it was 20 after 7pm Eastern on election Day when I saw the results from Kentucky and from Indiana. States Trump won in 2020, states Trump won in 2016. Trump was leading at 7:20pm on election night, Kentucky and Indiana by way more than he had won them in previous elections. That's when I knew it wasn't looking good for Kamala Harris because we look at trends and we look at changes. And so going from Trump +11 to Democrat +9 in nine months is a real problem. It's a real problem for Republicans. And it also, I mean, just specifically in the Iowa Senate, Republicans had a two thirds supermajority, which basically meant that Governor Kim Reynolds could confirm appointments with no Democratic input. That's over. So now the governor is going to need at least one Democratic vote to get her nominees through. So the implications of this are more than like a sleepy local race. You look at the underpinnings, the sort of campaign underpinnings of this. National parties went all in. The DNC sent over 30,000 volunteers to help out in this race was a huge text and phone banking operation. They were hammering the Republican image as basically just this is a rubber stamp for Trump, which is what they have been. Republicans poured in more than $160,000 in various contributions, in kind of contributions for the Republican mailers and digital ads and feeding volunteers pizza and all of it. And the Democrat one. So now we zoom out a little bit, not all the way. We zoom out just partially. And we see a pattern. We see a pattern where Iowa has now had four special elections in 2025. Every single Iowa special election this year has swung towards Democrats 20 or more points. We zoom out again. You look at special election trends nationally and you see the same thing. You see Pennsylvania, you see South Carolina. Democrats are overperforming. That doesn't mean they win every race. But compared to just nine months ago, Democrats are doing far better. Why is this happening? A couple of different things. Number one, special elections in general do draw in more politically engaged people. And so, you know, you have one level of turnout for the national presidential elections. Midterm turnout is usually lower. Special election turnout is usually even lower. So there's a more activated turnout that skews towards Democrats. It may reproduce itself in the midterms of 2026, it may not. Number two, there are a lot of Trump voters that are really Trump hobbyists. They never followed politics or even voted prior to Trump. We don't know if they will continue voting after Trump, but if Trump's not on the ballot, they don't show up. So that's another aspect to why these special elections are numbers that are resulting in numbers that are not so good for Republicans. We also have to look at the dynamics of Iowa, specifically, where you have farmers and working class voters that aren't doing well as a result of Donald Trump's tariffs and the labor crackdowns and the lost subsidies. And so they actually may simply be turning against the Republican Party. And then finally, you know, we've now had January to almost September, seven and a half, close to eight months of creeping authoritarianism. There are some red state voters, presumably, that are rethinking what Trump's one party authoritarianism would mean for them and for their lives. So if you talk to Republicans about last night's results, you know, they're kind of just downplaying it. They're saying, oh, turnout patterns, or Democrats effectively bought the race. But that's really spinning. The reality is that this could be significant. This is a district that Trump easily won just a few months ago, and they got clobbered their supermajority in the Senate is gone. And if this is what 2025 looks like in red Iowa, you have to consider that there are going to be other Republican safe seats believed safe seats that could be in for a shock next year. Great grocery, gas and energy prices, as well as job losses, reduced hours, all of these things are hitting voters pretty hard. And so it's no longer an abstract policy debate. This could all be tied to the idea that Trump era economic policies aren't good for the average person. Economists have been predicting this for a while. We've been talking about it for a while. Iowa farmers in particular are not benefiting from Donald Trump's policies. So this is really a warning shot across the bow for Republicans. It's a brutal loss for them. This doesn't mean now Democrats nationally get to do whatever they want. All it means is that in Iowa, the governor now needs at least, at least a little bit of Democratic buy in to get her nominees confirmed. But that's still something. That's not nothing. And then the question is, how can we build momentum over the next 14 months? Amazing that that's, that that's all it is. Over the next 14 months, into the midterms, Donald Trump is forcing soldiers to pick up garbage in Washington, D.C. remember, he respects the troops. No one respects and supports the military more than Donald Trump. And what Donald Trump is now having the National Guard do is to pick up trash in Washington, D.C. this is not a euphemism. This is not. It's literally picking up trash. Now, there's nothing wrong with picking up trash. It's an honest job that improves our communities, but it's not what the military is trained for. And so we look at the video and we see trained, uniformed, federally funded members of the military walking the streets with gloves and trash bags and in some cases, trash picks. And this is not a volunteer event to beautify our greenways or to clean up the bike path. This is what they are doing as part of this triumphant and courageous keeping D.C. safe farce. Now, according to the task force that's in charge, more than 2200 troops are deployed in D.C. right now. They're not doing disaster relief. They're not even really doing public safety. They've shifted their mission into what is being called beautification. Now, nearly half of them aren't Even from Washington, D.C. they were pulled from Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, places that have their own problems with crime and their own problems with trash. And they've come all the way to Washington D.C. to haul trash bags. Now, Trump is saying this is a great community restoration effort. He's bragging about crime is down. We've already fixed it in D.C. we'll examine that in a little more depth later. But this is, at its core, a photo op. The DC Guard even posted a video of soldiers lined up with trash bags and quotes about making D.C. beautiful again. And the question that I find myself asking is, what is the National Guard actually for? The National Guard has a long history, and we've deployed the National Guard before during national disasters, of course, to respond after terrorist attacks, sometimes to protect communities at times of unrest. And there have been controversial uses of the National Guard before. We've talked about Eisenhower sending troops to enforce desegregation in Little Rock, Arkansas. We've talked about Nixon using the National Guard during anti war protests. We've talked about the National Guard during George W. Bush's presidency in that post Katrina disaster response. But at least there, either the National Guard was trying to preserve and defend rights or there was a real emergency. There was a constitutional obligation there for the National Guard. Right now, Trump, who says the military has no greater defender than him, is using the National Guard to as a publicly funded street cleaning crew, which is a new one. And I think the misuse is relevant here. Every Guardsperson that is doing this is one fewer person, one less person available for real emergencies. And the kicker is that Trump insists that he's the best for the troops. It's one of his applause lines. But what does it look like? And apparently for Trump, respecting the troops means you take men and women trained for disaster response and for defending the country and for specialized missions, and you say you're doing sanitation right now. I want to again say picking up garbage is not beneath anybody. It's important to pick up garbage. It's honest work. The people who do it should be paid fairly. They should have good working conditions. They should have the right, the best tools we have for doing that job. But the point is that that's a job that should be done by the people trained and hired to do it. When you give that job to the military, you're not honoring their skills, you're wasting their skills. And it is a situation where every hour spent on this stunt is an hour that you are paying for, and it's an hour that I am paying for. And it's something that we have city sanitation workers trained for. Why is it that our taxpayer money is going to service members doing it? Now, Trump has been obsessed with optics since day one, and he wanted his military parade. The back during his first term, there was the Lafayette Square clearing so he could hold up a Bible for Cameras back in 2020. And now it's make DC beautiful again, rife with imported troops to clean graffiti and pick up cigarette butts. So it's, it's the same formula we've seen from Trump before. It's a symbolic act. You wrap it in patriotism. You hope nobody stops and says, why are soldiers doing something that there's a public works crew that could handle? And you push a sort of cosmetic victory in the most literal sense, picking up trash. But that's not really DC's problem. DC's problem isn't cigarette butts by the waterfront. Its housing shortages and inequality and food insecurity and crime in areas where Trump hasn't even deployed the National Guard. So this is just total nonsense. The real solutions, as is often the case, dealing with housing policy and these other things, it doesn't make for flashy footage or headlines or something Trump can just show up and point to. And so Trump's using the military as a PR team, sort of like as a prop. And when we start using the military that way, it's not just a waste of money. We really are potentially endangering, endangering national security by taking troops away from the skills, from the activities that they were trained for. And today it's picking up garbage, tomorrow it's, I don't know. This is not the job of the military, and Trump is not respecting the troops by doing this. The White House is losing it over the growing conversation in the media about Donald Trump's health. They want it to stop right away. Michael Wolf has been reporting on Donald Trump for years. He has a very interesting scoop. Insiders at the White House, you know, the Caroline Levitz and others, they are furious about the attention that the media is finally giving. And it took long enough, didn't it? To the weird bruising on Trump's hands, to the swollen ankles, to the cognitive slips. We are finally getting some discussion of it, and the White House isn't happy. Listen to this. Michael, what are you hearing about Donald Trump's health? I did notice the extra bruise and the photograph that the White House put off, the official photograph they put out with him and the South Korean premier, and they'd cut him off at the ankle, so we couldn't see his ankle spilling.
- [14:32]
Guest or Co-host
The only thing that I'm hearing about.
- [14:35]
David Pakman
His health is everyone is irritated that people are focusing on his health. I mean, the people around him, because. And actually, this Makes some sense. What they see is Donald Trump always moving ahead. A man who doesn't stop in inexhaustible.
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Guest or Co-host
Inexhaustible.
- [14:55]
David Pakman
Well, he feels inexhaustible. But he does.
- [14:58]
Guest or Co-host
On the other hand, they acknowledge one.
- [15:00]
David Pakman
Day he will just go over. They say that, yeah, how interesting. That's their perspective, that he will just keel over.
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Guest or Co-host
He's going to. They have no.
- [15:10]
David Pakman
The idea that he will fade, that he will become sick, that he will be mortal in that way that we all are. They actually don't accept he will stop at one point. I see that. I see that because he does have still an enormous amount of energy. As we talked in our last time together, he has inexhaustible ability to speak. And he is that, you know, because he is from another age.
- [15:37]
Guest or Co-host
I mean, when I grew up, people would say, would say, what happened?
- [15:42]
David Pakman
Oh, he dropped dead.
- [15:44]
Guest or Co-host
And in my mind, I always had.
- [15:45]
David Pakman
That walking along the street gone. Well, interestingly, that didn't happen to Jeffrey Epstein. There is so much in the Ghislaine Maxwell transcript. I read it cover to cover on a flight on the way back, frantically sort of John Stewart like, making comments all over it. But one of the things that I was most interested by, pruriently, I will say, is the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell, unreliable narrator, says that Jeffrey Epstein couldn't really have sex. So this is a sex story, people.
- [16:19]
Guest or Co-host
Well, two things before we go there. Exactly.
- [16:24]
David Pakman
I think we should go to the top line on this, which is what she delivered for Donald Trump. Okay, so we've discussed that part before. But so the point here is, the point here is the White House is not happy with the discussion of Donald Trump's health. And we've seen the White House try to kind of stage manage this. We are increasingly seeing Donald Trump holding his hand in a way where you can't see the bruises or even covering the hand with his left hand, although the left hand is now bruised. We've seen the White House crop pictures to hide Trump's swollen ankles. Increasingly, people are referring to Trump as Cankels Caligula, which is a totally different thing. The Tangerine Tyrant or the Mango Menace. These are other, other names. They're issuing the minimum explanation for the bruising. Oh, he shook hands all day. And that's all that happened here. And that, that, that is not really convincing to too many people. And they've even now rolled out Ronny Jackson, the same guy who said if Trump had a slightly better diet, he could live to 200. And Ronny Jackson is saying Trump's health is great. We're going to talk about that later. And, and interestingly, even Alex Jones, you remember Alex Jones, right?
- [17:40]
Guest or Co-host
Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad.
- [17:45]
David Pakman
That Alex Jones.
- [17:46]
Guest or Co-host
Thank your lucky stars every day you're not Dave Pakman.
- [17:49]
David Pakman
Thank your lucky stars every day you're not Dave Pakman. Alex Jones now is even saying Trump's got to slow down or he's going to collapse. So where we find ourselves as we are about to Breach September of 2025 is that the White House thinks they can just shout down the conversation. The White House thinks they can come out and say, oh, totally benign, chronic venous insufficiency. And he's doing so much great work shaking hands that he got bruises. But the more that the White House insists that Trump is the healthiest of any president, his energy surpasses any president in history, the more obvious it becomes that they're hiding something and that Donald Trump's health is a political liability that they're not going to be able to spin away. Now, on Friday, we're going to talk about reports of a growing movement in JD Vance's circle based around the expectation that Trump may indeed drop dead during this presidential term and how Vance would capitalize on that, other than the obvious, which is he gets to be president. So we're going to deal with that on Friday. There are people who have written to me and have said, you know, David, it's almost worse if Vance becomes president over Trump because Trump at least is incompetent and Trump is losing a lot of the things he's trying to do in the courts. Even if it doesn't get a lot of attention, JD Vance would actually get stuff done. So that's a conversation we will have Friday. We're going to take a break. Make sure you're on my substack. Substack.david pakman.com to see the full interview with Robert Reich that we did, we're going to take a quick break and be right back. You know, no matter how fast time seems to be flying by, it is never too late to make some progress. If you're saving for a big purchase like a home or a car and you need to build credit, Kickoff can help. They are the number one credit building app in the App Store. Plans start at just five bucks a month. No credit check, no hidden fees, no interest. If your credit is under 600, you could jump 28 points in your first month. Kickoff is a smart legal credit hack with no catch, no credit check, no hidden fees and no interest you just make on time payments. Credit bureaus see the good behavior and your credit grows. Start building credit immediately for only a dollar your first month. And with autopay you never have to worry about missing a payment so you can build credit in your sleep. Sign up in minutes from your phone. No credit check. Cancel any time. Kickoff is the number one credit building app out there. With over 100000 positive reviews in the app stores, 98% are 5 stars. Building credit can happen faster than you expect with Kickoff. Don't wait and get your first month for just a dollar at getkickoff.com/pacman the link is in the description I want to introduce you to an amazing tool that has helped a huge number of people reach their health goals. It is called Lumen and it's the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath and on the app it'll tell you are you burning fat or carbs and and give you tailored guidance to improve nutrition, workouts, even stress management. Your metabolism is like the engine of your body, how you turn food into fuel. And because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does, optimal metabolic health can translate to many benefits, including easier weight management and improved energy levels and fitness results. It's a long list. Lumen gives you recommendations to improve metabolic health based on the context of your breath measurement, whether that's first thing in the morning, before and after meals or workouts. And you can get 20% off your lumen by going to lumen.me/pacman. The link is in the description. Donald Trump held a cabinet meeting so disastrous yesterday that it stunned the entire room, the media, the people left in this country who can think critically, and most of our allies. Now, before we get into the clips, I want to remind people this is the Cabinet meeting. What do I mean by that? Other presidents would hold actual cabinet meetings not open to the press, where policy is discussed, decisions are made, actionable steps are outlined, and then they let in the press and just chat for a few minutes. This is the Cabinet meeting with Trump. So for people saying, oh, if this is what they do publicly, I wonder what the behind the scenes of the meeting is. There is no meeting. This is the meeting. The entire meeting takes place on camera. It has two components. Trump ranting and raving unintelligibly. We're going to look at now we're going to look at that now and then everybody in the room praising Trump to see who can praise him in the most brown nosing way. We'll get to that in a moment. Donald Trump has a new idea that we are going to ignore the fact that the death penalty is outlawed in Washington, D.C. and we are simply going to start executing people who commit murder.
- [23:10]
Guest or Co-host
In D.C. anybody murder something in the Capitol?
- [23:14]
David Pakman
If you murder something in the Capitol, if you murder that. Nando's chicken. I stopped in there last time I was in D.C. we will, we will put you to death.
- [23:24]
Guest or Co-host
Capital punishment, capital capital punishment. If somebody kills somebody in the Capitol. Washington, D.C. we're going to be seeking the death penalty.
- [23:38]
David Pakman
Now, is that legal? No. But Donald Trump wants to federalize everything. And so he says we're just going to do it. An authoritarian being an authoritarian. We're going to get back to RFK Jr. In the next segment. But Donald Trump has a new opinion about autism. That's really what it is. He says something like maybe a drug is causing autism. Fascinating how quickly Trump has adopted Robert F. Kennedy Jr's opinions about this.
- [24:10]
Guest or Co-host
So there has to be something artificially causing this, meaning a drug or something. And I know you're looking very strongly at different things and I hope you can come out with that as soon as possible. So 1 in 10,000 and now it's 1 in 31 or 34 or 12 if it's a boy. Can you imagine that? 1 in 12. That's for a boy. I don't have every 12.5.
- [24:35]
David Pakman
It's not even be prepared for September to see a declaration from the Trump administration. Vaccines cause autism. We're banning them or we're banning some now. RFK Jr. Sorry, not RFK Jr. Donald Trump started his dictator talk once again and he once again is saying there are people who want a dictator and he doesn't even hesitate it.
- [25:05]
Guest or Co-host
But then he goes on television says, oh, Trump is a dictator. He's a dictator. And a lot of people. So the line is that I'm a dictator, but I stopped crime. So a lot of people say, you know, if that's the case, I'd rather have a dictator, but I'm not a dictator. I just know how to stop crime.
- [25:21]
David Pakman
There you go. Trump would gladly be a dictator, but he's not. But he will be on day one. But people want it, but he isn't. But he's doing it. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Then ranted about radioactive shrimp. Not a topic we're used to hearing about. And by the way, they have scaled back Food inspections in the United States.
- [25:45]
Guest or Co-host
I'll say one other thing about fishing. We are now, the South Asian nations are now dumping shrimp on our country. Shrimp is heavily contaminated. We just stopped a shipment that was contaminated with Cesium157, which is radioactive. They're farming these shrimp, and they use bactericides and antibiotics and all kinds of chemicals. And the shrimp are so contaminated, the European nations won't take them. So they're dumping them all here and they're putting out a business. We have the most sustainable, highly regulated fishery in the world. What our fishermen do is a good thing. And all of the trawlers in the Gulf and Alaska are being shut down because we're getting shrimp dumped here. So we have now increase FDA inspections of shrimp to make sure that Americans are not eating, contaminate, buying and eating contaminated shrimp.
- [26:40]
David Pakman
You know, it's funny, because here he says we're doing a good thing by increasing FDA inspections. But overall, the problem is that food safety is more at risk in the United States under Trump because overall, even if it's true that RFK has increased the valuation of radioactive shrimp, overall, we're doing fewer food inspections and food is less carefully screened. So if RFK believes that more inspection is good, why have they reduced it overall? Now, he did address autism briefly, and we're going to get back to Trump in a moment. He is already saying we're on to something. We think we've figured out what it is that is causing autism and we're going to deal with it next month.
- [27:23]
Guest or Co-host
The autism. If I could just. I don't want to go too long because we have a lot of people, but the autism is such a tremendous horror show. What's happening in our country and some other countries, but mostly our country. How are you doing on that? We are doing very well. We will have announcements, as promised, in September. We're finding interventions, certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly, causing autism.
- [27:51]
David Pakman
Clearly, almost certainly.
- [27:55]
Guest or Co-host
We're going to be able to address those in September. It's such a big day. I'm looking for.
- [28:01]
David Pakman
There you go. What do you think those interventions are that RFK will courageously declare are the cause of autism in the United States? The mathematical challenges continue. Donald Trump insisting he will cut prescription drug prices 1500%.
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Guest or Co-host
That can be done is favored nations, Bobby. And we're not talking about a 25% cut or 50. We're talking about a 1500% cut because people go to Europe to buy drugs and they come back with drugs, prescription drugs, normal, not. I Don't mean the bad, bad drugs. I mean prescription drugs.
- [28:42]
David Pakman
There you go. So if you have something that costs $100 and you cut the price 50%, well, now it costs $50. If you have something that's $100 and you cut the price 100%, now it costs 00. If you have something that's 100 dollars and you cut the price 1500%, how exactly does that work? I don't know. I don't know. And you know what? I don't think Trump knows either. And then finally, Donald Trump claiming that D.C. restaurants are doing so well thanks to his make D.C. safe again thing. The reality, as we've covered, is that DC Dining is in the toilet.
- [29:19]
Guest or Co-host
Badly. But, and I bet you see a big difference on the streets right now. And this is only 12 days, but people are telling me they're going out to dinner. Now they haven't. I told the story of my friend, but I have a lot of friends that are going out to dinner all the time now in D.C. and they weren't, they weren't doing it 12 days ago. They would never even think. One of my friends went out five times. It was four times. The last time I told. Now it's five times. He said, I love going out to dinner. And restaurants are starting to open again.
- [29:49]
David Pakman
The truth, of course, is that Restaurant reservations were down 30%. And a completely brutal and unnecessary assault on the D.C. economy is taking place right now. So that's Trump at his cabinet meeting. But what about the cabinet secretaries? I have a question for you. Who do you think sucked up the most to Donald Trump during yesterday's Cabinet meeting? I submit to you some candidates and it is really something to see people like Tulsi Gabbard, Kelly Lefler, Scott Bessant, Kristi Noem, Lee Zeldin. They are competing who can suck up to Donald Trump the most. And the best here is Tulsi.
- [30:36]
Guest or Co-host
And they could never make America great again. But we are doing that. Congratulations. You found some interesting things. Tulsa, she's becoming a bigger and bigger star every day. She found a lot of good things. Go ahead.
- [30:50]
David Pakman
Thank you, sir. As we approach Labor Day weekend here. Yeah, this is just such a great opportunity, really, to recognize your leadership as a true champion for working people. He's just such a champion. And I know we'll hear as we go around the table here how your focus singularly on putting the well being and interests of the American people first. Is that common thread that we're seeing in your policies being implemented across your administration. And he is just such a champion, such a champion for the average person. And Tulsi kind of gives up the game. Tulsi goes. We're going to hear from other people sucking up to you as well. Kelly Lefler says. So keep. Remember, we're trying to figure out who wins the suck up contest best here, which is a classic in authoritarian governments, who can suck up to the dear leader. The best here is Kelly Lefler. She's giving an attempt administrator.
- [31:46]
Guest or Co-host
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [31:47]
David Pakman
Well, everyone knows there's no stronger advocate for hardworking American families than you. There is no stronger advocate than Donald Trump. So there's Kelly Lefler. Then we get to Kristi Noem. And Kristi Noem, thanks Trump merely for the opportunity to work for him. This is, this is vomitus. I hope people aren't eating right now. Mr. President, first of all, thank you for the opportunity to work for you. And you committed when you ran for president to make America safe again. And today, the average family and individual that lives in this country is safer than they've been in years because thank you, sir, for allowing me to work for you. And and then Kristi Noem, a little more substantively saying, sir, you're doing such a great job on crime. Make sure we know who's coming into this country. You've arrested and brought to justice hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, of criminals that have perpetuated violence against American people. Sir, you've had 1.6 million people voluntarily go home to their home country, sir, that were here in this country illegally. Because of your strong message and you enforcing the law, they decided to go home on their own so that they could come back the right way someday. What a miracle. What a miracle that Donald Trump was able to achieve. Not to be outdone, Lee Zeldin then finds other ways to praise Trump. Lee Zeldin is the administrator of the epa, which is sort of ironic because they're supposed to protect the environment, something which does not seem to be a priority for Donald Trump.
- [33:23]
Guest or Co-host
Led by Stephen Miller, they have been.
- [33:25]
David Pakman
Amazing to work with.
- [33:26]
Guest or Co-host
I was just in Iowa with Administrator Lefler, made an announcement with Secretary Rollins to reverse the deratement on diesel exhaust fluid systems. Mr. President, you said you wanted water flowing faster. Working with the Secretary of Energy, we've done our part to do that, to get gas cans flowing faster to stop that annoying start stop feature in vehicles. See, people out there might say, well, why are you focused on all of these little things if it's little to you? It doesn't mean that it's not a very big deal for millions of other Americans.
- [34:03]
David Pakman
What a victory by Donald Trump. They are getting gas cans flowing faster now. Then it became Robert F. Kennedy Jr's turn. Now there's a little problem here. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Did some kind of fitness challenge and the problem of course is Donald Trump couldn't do a single push up and Donald Trump couldn't do a single pull up. And what RFK says is Trump is exempt from that and he'll explain why.
- [34:32]
Guest or Co-host
And then finally, most importantly, the Pete and Bobby challenge. I want to give an update. Pete got it or I got five minutes and 48. It's 100 push ups, 50 pull ups and you try to do it within 10 minutes. I got five minutes and 48 seconds. Pete beat me. I'm still bitter at that. Five minutes 25. The cabinet leader is Scott Turner. You bet you five minutes and 15 seconds. I'm waiting for reports from the rest of the Cabinet. The only exemptions currently existing is if you can hit a 50 administer, which President Trump did with Bryson DeChambeau. So he's the only one exempt in this room. That's right.
- [35:24]
David Pakman
Trump is exempt from the fitness challenge because he was able to cheat his way to a 50 at his own golf club, which RFK misstates as bed minister rather than Bedminster. So that's pretty full on. But then I saw Scott Bessant and Scott Besant praised Trump like a parent would praise a three year old. Listen to this, sir.
- [35:47]
Guest or Co-host
As we've said, very often economic security is national security.
- [35:50]
David Pakman
And our country has never been so.
- [35:53]
Guest or Co-host
Secure, thanks to you.
- [35:55]
David Pakman
You have brought us back from the edge. You have the overwhelming mandate from the American people. You're restoring confidence in government, a topic that is on the front of everyone's mind.
- [36:08]
Guest or Co-host
The Federal Reserve.
- [36:09]
David Pakman
The Federal Reserve's independence comes from a political arrangement between itself and the American public. Having the public's trust is the only thing that gives it credibility. And you, sir, are restoring trust to government. And you can tell Scott Besant really means it because he's reading it off of a piece of paper. I've got to tell you, Besant seems miserable to me. Miserable. I sat next to Scott Besant at a dinner in D.C. recently. And I don't mean I was at the same table. What I mean is I was. This was at Haleo in dc. I was sitting at the next table over for from Bessant and Besant was at a table with a bunch of guys. He said nothing the whole dinner and just sat there looking miserable, slowly eating his food. Looked as miserable as I've ever seen anyone. I think of all these people. Besant is not a true believer. I think he thinks this is all nonsense. But he's bought in and loyalty is expected and loyalty he's going to give. And then finally, finally and maybe this is the winner of the Suck up to Trump Contest Steve Witkoff says when is Trump finally going to get that Nobel Peace Prize?
- [37:22]
Guest or Co-host
And there's only one thing I wish for that that Noble Committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the noble piece this noble award was ever talked about. To receive that award reward beyond your success is game changing out in the world today. And I hope everybody one day wakes.
- [37:45]
David Pakman
Up and realizes that only when people wake up and smell the coffee will Trump finally get what he deserves more than anyone else, the Nobel Peace Prize. I think that's the winner. I think Witkoff wins the Suck up to Trump contest with Kristi Noem a close second. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment here Email info@david pakman.com or better yet, leave a comment on my substack@substack.david pakman.com 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 to 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. A pending Supreme Court case could strip our fourth Amendment rights and allow immigration agents to come into our homes for any reason. No probable cause needed. All while Republicans try to twist things so that you think this is all great for America. This should be the biggest story in the US right now. But it's almost impossible to keep up with the millions of moves that Trump is making every single day. That's why Ground News exists. Ground News is an app and website that exposes the blind spots and spin. But before it takes control of our opinions, Ground News is the smarter, more reliable way to stay informed when MAGA is banking on us getting distracted. I'm partnering up with Ground News to give you 40% off the same vantage plan that I use, so you'll pay only five bucks a month for all of their premium features. Just go to Ground News, slash Pacman or use the code Pacman in the app when you sign up. The link is in the description or scan the QR code. Young voters who decided to vote for Trump in November of 2024 are regretting it. You know, you hear these stories over and over again. Someone voted for Trump and they cheered when he talked about law and order and border security. And then ICE showed up and took away their spouse or took away their son in law or their best friend or someone they've worked with or gone fishing with for 20 years. And they go, I didn't think Trump, Trump meant them. I thought they meant some other people off in some distant land. But of course, as we've clarified, yes, Trump meant them. It's like a wolf walking into your backyard and you don't worry because you're like, it's only going to eat other people's sheep, not mine. And then the next morning you find that it's ripped your sheep to shreds. Okay, it's not just older voters and immigrant voters that are having second thoughts. This is starting to happen with the group that Donald Trump kind of shockingly grabbed more support from, which is young voters and in particular young men who supported Trump in 2024 at a level that we have never seen before. Now in 2020, Biden won 18 to 29 year olds by 24 points. Biden plus 29, 24among young voters in 2020. In 2024, Harris barely won that group with a 4 point margin. So that means Trump went plus 20 relative to 2020among young voters. That's a massive, massive swing. And that swing was Almost entirely because of young men. Specifically, 56% of young men voted Biden in 2020. 56% of young men voted Trump in 2024 and what Trump offered them. And we've talked about this in our segments about what's going on with young men and Democrats before Trump sold them this unapologetic, traditional masculinity. Don't apologize. Be the traditional caricature of an alpha male. And he went on the Manosphere podcast. He elevated people like Pete Hegseth and Elon Musk and says, I'm going to ban trans Americans from the military. We're going to gut d I. We're not going to do any of this sissy boy stuff. And for a lot of young men, they saw Voting Trump kind of like a cultural statement. We're going to make men great again. We're not going to be embarrassed about being men anymore. Well, they got Trump elected, and the sort of shine is wearing off. There's a new Pew poll which shows that Trump's approval among under 35 voters who backed him has gone from 92% in February to 69% now. So understand that you might say, david, that's a great number. This is if we start with young men who voted Trump. Right? So we start with all of them. 100% of this group voted Trump. By February, only 92% of those young Trump voters still supported Trump. Now, only 69% of the young Trump voters still support Donald Trump. This is the biggest drop in support for Trump among any age group in his base. And what's happening is that these guys, these young guys are getting hit really hard by the economy. Manufacturing job losses, construction job losses. These are industries that employ more men than women. We see gains in health care jobs, which are dominated by. By women. Unemployment is rising among young men in their early 20s, even those with college degrees. We still have inflation. And when your rent check comes due, you just can't spend that when you're. Everything was going to be cheaper. Remember, nothing's cheaper. Groceries aren't cheaper. Gas isn't cheaper. Student loan payments are still coming due. And so nearly half of men under 30 now say, oh, no, the economy is very clearly getting worse. We then have the Epstein fiasco. And I do think it's worth mentioning because I think it's relevant here. For years, Trump World was hyping. Trump's going to be the guy that will expose the client list. It's going to take down Democrats. We're going to expose these pedophiles. They said These are a lot of the same influencers who helped bring young men into Trump's camp. Joe Rogan and Andrew Schultz and others who are now saying there's a cover up. Trump's clearly hiding something. What happened to the Epstein files? Are we ever going to see them? And so this is the same pattern as the immigration rates. People cheer the tough talk. It hits them and all of a sudden they go, I thought Trump was going to use his power against other people. I didn't think I or my family or I didn't think I was going to live with higher prices. I didn't think I would have fewer job prospects or deal with broken promises. And so now some of the voices that sold young men, Trump, are saying, you might have been played. This isn't going as well as we thought. So the Republican bet for 2026 is that young men stay loyal. This is just a bump in the road. This is no big deal. What we have to remember to do is welcome them back and say, hey, you know what, we're not going to shame you for now saying, I think I was led astray. We're going to say, it's awesome that you have the wherewithal and 30,000 foot view to recognize that come back in. But we have to have something to offer them. And unfortunately we have very few Democrats to point to where we can say, look at this great thing, right? Someone might have, they might be driving a jalopy. But if you don't have a better alternative to show them, if you don't look at this reliable Toyota Camry that you can get, we've got to have something to show them that is going to be a reasonable alternative. So we're going to talk about that later. But Trump is losing support from this key group. Governor Gavin Newsom dropped a Trump dementia bomb yesterday. I love to see this because Newsom is up for a fight. Newsom's fighting Trump on redistricting. Newsom's fighting Trump on social media. But Newsom is also doing something which I asked him about, not in our last interview, but in our previous one. Why is corporate and legacy media so scared to talk, to talk about not only Donald Trump's physical but also his mental health? And Gavin Newsom is now dumping this into the forefront. Donald Trump played, or there was a video of Donald Trump rather, in which he isn't making any sense? So I'm going to play that video for you first and then I'm going to show you what Gavin Newsom's reaction was. Here is Trump during his Cabinet meeting yesterday, talking about Gavin News scum.
- [47:52]
Guest or Co-host
But I think that's actually just an excuse. I actually think these people are sick. There's something wrong. So we send hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day into the Pacific Ocean. They turn a valve and the valve heads out and we turn the valley valve back. I actually had to do it using force. We turned the valve back and now they have water, but not as much as they should have, because they should. And I'm telling Gavin Newscombe by. By this conversation right now, turn the rest of the water on.
- [48:25]
David Pakman
So Donald Trump has repeated this many, many times. And Gavin Newsom taking that on Gavin Newsom taking that video of Trump and asking Twitter's AI Grok, do people with dementia repeat false things over and over again? To which Grok replies, yes. People with dementia can repeat false statements or beliefs, a behavior often linked to memory impairments and cognitive changes. This can manifest as confabulation, where they create or repeat false memories to fill gaps in recollection. Recollection or perseveration, where they fixate on a particular idea or statement. Is this the most important thing for Gavin Newsom to be doing? No. Is it important in some sense that there is clearly something going on with Trump? Trump continues to turn his ire on Newsom, and Newsom is saying it plainly. Something's wrong with this guy's cognition at a time when he, meaning Gavin Newsom, is getting more attention than ever for how he's going after Donald Trump. Yeah, I think there absolutely is something to that, and I like to see it. And more evidence that Trump is getting very triggered by this is what Donald Trump said about Gavin Newsom later in this Cabinet meeting, which we're going to talk about next. One of the things, if I were Donald Trump, I would not be talking about would be my or anyone else's hands. And here is Donald Trump during yesterday's Cabinet meeting saying that Newsom has something going on with his hands. Listen to this and handle it.
- [50:09]
Guest or Co-host
You have an incompetent governor there. You have an incompetent governor in California, Gavin. He's in. I know him very well. He's incompetent. He's a nice guy, looks good. Hi, everybody. How you doing? He's got some strange hand action going under. Know what the hell is the problem? Weird, to be honest. A little something shaky going on there.
- [50:29]
David Pakman
You know, this is funny because Trump's got a problem with his hands. They're covered in bruises. And Gavin Newsom seizing on this after Trump went after him by putting out a tweet, you really want to have the conversation about hands. So here's my takeaway. And I know that my audience is sort of a little split on what Gavin Newsom is up to. There are certain issues that legacy and corporate media. You know, no matter how much we in independent media shout about some of this stuff, there is still a large swath of the population that doesn't watch independent news media and they just watch corporate media. Corporate media is essentially silent on these issues. Corporate media dances around the stuff going on with Trump's body. They dance around the stuff going on with Trump's brain. I've got to hand it to Gavin Newsom. At least he's putting this stuff out into the public. And so I don't think this is going to end Trump's presidency. I don't think this is the be all, end all of political resistance or whatever the case may be. But Newsom is willing to say this stuff and we know that it is getting to Donald Trump. We know that Trump's White House inner circle is furious and irritated, to put it lightly, about what is taking place with regard to increasing coverage about Trump's physical and mental health. So keep at it. I think Gavin Newsom is doing exactly the right thing. But I want to hear from you. Info@david pakman.com do you like it or do you think it's a waste of time? People in my audience know I am a bit of a pastry connoisseur. Our sponsor Wild Grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, pastries and pastas. Wild Grains boxes are customizable depending on what you like and prefer. They've got their classic variety box. They've launched the new gluten free box. They have a plant based box that's 100% vegan and it just takes the hassle out of baking because all items bake from frozen in 25 minutes or less. Nothing to clean up. My experience has been awesome. I love the croissants. I was having people over last week, half an hour before preheat and throw them in the oven and people love it. Definitely. The croissants are my favorite. The quality and the freshness of the items is extraordinary and it is just so convenient. Go to wildgrain.com/pacman to start your subscription and get $30 off your first box plus free croissants in every box every month. The link is in the description. Donald Trump suffered a complete Meltdown at one in the morning, two in the morning last night. This is not normal. Sarah Matthews, former deputy White House press secretary, was recently on this show. I asked her was the belief that when this happens, Trump is up all night tweeting, held in the in your office when you worked for Trump? She said, yes, we, when he did this stuff, we believed he was up all night. Take a look at this insanity and remember that this is the President of the United States, Donald Trump posting to Truth Social. I am pleased to report that I have raised since the great presidential election of 2024 in various forms and political entities in excess of $1.5 billion. Make America great again. President DJT drop Trump still doesn't understand that when you put tariffs on other countries, the tariffs are paid by Americans. He has raised money in the way that you can raise taxes. He put an import tax on American companies and he's collecting it from American companies. Republicans were supposed to be against that, but Trump is bragging about it. Trump then talking about a crime bill. Quote, Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader John Thune are working with me and other Republicans on a comprehensive crime bill. It's what our country need. And now more to follow. Make America Great Again. Now there's a new crime bill that he wants to do. We've never heard a thing about it. He then goes to talk about what he's doing in D.C. crime numbers are way down in D.C. amazing progress being made. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump, you know, every detail of this is humiliatingly dishonest. We saw the Trump administration brag that DC went 13 days without a murder since Donald Trump deployed troops. Except just a few months back, D.C. went 16 days without a murder. It's not really representative of anything that Donald Trump is doing. There's also broader questions as to can you really reduce crime in this way or are you just kind of relocating it? And if Trump is president of the United States, is it really a victory to relocate crime from one city to another? I don't know. It doesn't really seem like it to me. Trump then attacking mail in voting at nearly 2am posting quote, ban mail in voting President Donald J. Trump. And then at 2 in the morning, he's just up all night with this stuff. You think foreign leaders respect what Trump is doing? I don't think so. Trump posting quote, There is a sick rumor going around that fake news NBC extended the contract of one of the least talented late night television hosts out there, Seth Meyers, and he has no Ratings talent or intelligence and the personality of an insecure child. So why would fake news NBC extend this dopes contract? I don't know, but I'll definitely be finding out. And of course, those are thinly veiled threats. Trump taking responsibility for getting Stephen Colbert's show ended. This is an authoritarian nightmare, if you ask me. Where do I want presidents focused? I want them focused on creating jobs, on getting an economy functioning that works better for the bulk of the country. I want them dealing with lack of access to health care and do I want them picking and choosing who gets to have a late night show? And strong arming either with lawsuits or social media threats, networks about you might lose your license or I might sue you this way or go after. No. That's what authoritarians do. That's what insecure people do. That's what incompetent people do. And there are people in Trump's corner, for lack of a better term, who love it. They think he's finally going after these woke late night shows. Really? Does that get anybody food if they can't afford it? Does that get anybody a job if they don't have one? Is that get anybody health care if they don't come on? And there are people praising this and one of the main people praising this stuff is named Charlie Kirk. And you've got to see what he said. This is not really a show about pop culture. I couldn't care less about Taylor Swift getting engaged to Travis Kelsey. Who is he? Does he still even play football? I don't know. I guess it's maybe his brother who retired. Like, as you can tell, I couldn't care less about this crap. But Charlie Kirk's reaction to the engagement of Taylor Swift was very interesting to see because Kirk expresses a sort of social conservatism rooted in the Bible and rooted in sort of 1950s ideology that you would think no one would give a damn about in 2025. But there is a growing movement, including online, some of these people, because I. This is touchy. I'm just going to say it. You know, there are incels, men who are involuntarily celibate. They would like to be dating, they would like to be romantically entangled, they would like to be sexually active, but they are not desirable in many ways. Okay, this is tough stuff, but we've got to call it for what it is. Some of these men, because they are unable to live the lifestyle they want that involves women giving them the time of day, they have found this sort of, you know, Biblical values, no sex before marriage type stuff. Appealing because it makes them feel like they're not failing because they're losers. They, they're failing. They're not failing at all. They're choosing because it's the biblical thing. Now, I don't say this pejoratively in the sense of I've said the Democratic Party has failed young men and I've enumerated the ways and I've talked about what should be done. But the scary part is that what Kirk is selling has become so appealing to them. Take a listen to this. But maybe one of the reasons why Taylor Swift has been so just kind of annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years is that she's not yet married and she doesn't have children. I say this non sarcastically. I say this as a husband and a father. Having children changes you. Getting married changes you. And I hope that America's biggest pop star marrying the pharmaceutical spokesperson ends up conservatizing them. Taylor Swift might de radicalize herself. She might come back down to reality. I want them to have lots of children. It teaches something about. Teaches you something about yourself.
- [60:29]
Guest or Co-host
Deep down.
- [60:29]
David Pakman
I think Taylor Swift actually was raised as a conservative that has gotten kind of caught up in this metropolitan liberal stuff. And she doesn't quite have an attachment to the conservative backbone that she was raised in. But this might reattach her in the best possible way. And I'm not saying this sarcastically, I've seen this happen time and time again. When people start to get married and have children, it starts to change your politics, it starts to clarify your worldview. And for Taylor Swift, who obviously is very popular and incredibly supported, Taylor Swift might go from a cat lady to a J.D. vance supporter. And I think we should celebrate that. I think that Taylor Swift having two or three children, she should have more children than she has houses. That is my challenge. Taylor Swift, and I'm not being sarcastic, I think that if she, if she ends up having children, she'll stop this kind of liberal endorsing Joe Biden nonsense. And we want, we want Taylor Swift on Team America. So this goes on now, anecdotally and also at a statistical level, I was not able to find any evidence that when people get married or people have kids, they become more conservative and they vote more for Republicans. In fact, I think that there is a sort of self selection bias here. If you already lean right and live in a certain part of the country, it's plausible that you get married and have kids and all of a sudden you sort of recede into a more extreme version of like the security mom, we've got to get these immigrants out. And that's if you're already predisposed in that way. At the same time, on the other hand, speaking personally and for other people, I know when you get married and have kids, you start to think about what sort of a world do I want my kids to grow up in? If you have girls, you start thinking about, do I want a world for these girls who will eventually be women? That looks the way people like Trump and Charlie Kirk want it to look, where mostly older white men decide what they can do with their bodies and so on. No, you don't. And so a lot of people who already lean left go more in that direction when they find themselves in that scenario. So there's a bit of a self selection bias here and an availability bias of what do you see around you. But at the big picture level, I was not able to find any evidence of what Charlie Kirk says here, that people become more conservative, especially socially, once they get married and have kids. But if that's, if all you've got is a hammer, everything ends up looking like a nail. Now on the bonus show today, we're going to talk about Donald Trump's flag burning order, which appears to be completely illegal, by the way. We are going to talk about the possibility of changing the Department of Defense to, to the Department of War, which has been suggested. And finally, English proficiency requirements for truck driver licenses. We've seen and heard them breach or broach this before. They are at it again. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Don't miss it. Sign up@join pacman.com make sure you're getting my daily Substack newsletter for free @substack David pakman.com and of course, make sure you're getting the daily audio podcast completely free. I've got nothing to sell you but a good time here. It's on Spotify, it's on Apple podcasts, It's really anywhere you want. I'll see you on the bonus show.