← The David Pakman Show
The David Pakman Show
9/3/25: Trump hit with legal defeat as resignation scandal explodes
00:58:20
-- On the Show: -- Judge Charles Breyer rules that Donald Trump illegally used the U.S. military as a domestic police force and sets a precedent against future deployments -- Trump pressures Republicans to block a near-successful bipartisan push...
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David Pakman
We start today with legal news. A federal judge has handed down what could be the most devastating legal ruling of Donald Trump's post 2020 political career. This has nothing to do with documents. It's not about hush money. It's not about the insurrection. This is about something that Donald Trump just plainly thought he could get away with, which is using the US Military, the National Guard, federal law enforcement, like his own police force. At the start of this, when we started with Los Angeles, subsequently went into D.C. now, threats of Chicago and other cities. At the very beginning of this, I mentioned to you, it's not clear that this is legal. There may be a legal problem here. And indeed Judge Charles Breyer, this is not a radical. Okay, called it what we suspected it was, which is against the law. It's not questionable, it's not about, it's controversial. It's just illegal. There's a 52 page ruling which I encourage you to look at. You could also use, you know, a tool that will summarize it for you in the, in the 52 page ruling, Breyer just obliterates the legal foundation that Donald Trump used to send the National Guard and even Marines to Los Angeles. And he doesn't, he doesn't mince words. The judge makes it very clear that the goal here is to create a national police force force with the president as its chief. That is an authoritarian nightmare. It is mini fascism for lack of a better term. And so the ruling is not vague. It says there are specific acts here that are not okay. Pentagon led troops arresting people and doing crowd control. All of this violates the Posse Comitatus Act. That's the law, I've mentioned it to you many times, that forbids the US Military from functioning as domestic police. This is not a few rogue soldiers out of line. This is systemic. And willful is the term that the judge uses because there's a deliberate command structure behind it. It wasn't some troops acted out and did domestic law enforcement. Trump sent the troops to American cities under false pretenses and said, act as police here. It happened in L. A, it's happening in D.C. trump is now talking about, we got to go to Chicago. He said, oh, there were 58 shootings in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. So we've got to go back in there trying to create these justifications, but legally, they really aren't justifications. Trump on Truth Social wrote, quote, chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world by far. I will solve the crime problem fast. But what Judge Breyer says here is that this really isn't about crime. This is about the law around the military and law enforcement. It's about Trump wanting control. And local leaders know it. You've got Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago who signed an executive order basically walling off federal forces from being integrated with local police. You can't collaborate on patrols. You can't do joint immigration enforcement. You can't send in mass federal agents who show up and do anonymous policing. And the message here is very clear. You can't turn a city into a battleground. J.B. pritzker, the governor in Illinois, is stepping in and preparing for what might really be quite a legal battle. And you've also got military veterans that are protesting this, saying this is not what service members have signed up for. So the legal ruling here in Los Angeles, it is a setback in a way, but really it's a terminal diagnosis for this federal fantasy that Donald Trump has of pseudo martial law and he controlling everything. We now have precedent. The ruling says that was illegal. If you do it again, it's not a gray area. It's criminal. Now, Trump's not going to go quietly. He never goes quietly. And what Donald Trump's legal team is doing, they're sort of scrambling here. They have until September 12th to appeal, and other cities are watching closely. And the Trump administration is trying to figure out on what basis could we appeal this ruling. It's also possible that Trump will just ignore the ruling which said this is against the law and send troops to Chicago anyway. And if he does that, yes, there could be another lawsuit, but we could be looking at a full scale constitutional crisis. I think Trump knows it. And this is part of why Trump is probably accelerating and saying, we got to get there soon. This is not a. It's not just a campaign for power, which, of course, Donald Trump wants. He wants to see, how much can I flout the law, how much can I ignore legal orders from courts? Now with the deportation of Kilmar, Abrego, Garcia and that entire planeload of people, in fact, you. You'll remember that a court said, you can't do it, and they said, the planes are in the air. We're not turning them back. Eventually, the courts did win and they brought Garcia back. The much like the correction often gets less attention than the original headline, the court's reversal often gets less attention than when the principal in this case Trump, ignores the court's direction. But ultimately, the court did prevail, and Garcia came back. This could be the moment that courts finally just sort of say no to this. And if they don't abide by this, there is a real question as to how this ends. And then you start saying, well, is it going to get violent? What's the direction in which this is all going to go? So we're going to be following it extraordinarily closely. Trump is making it clear he wants to get to the next iteration of this federalization of police forces. But at least as far as Los Angeles is concerned, a judge said, no, no, no. This was completely against the law. Now, there's another question here that is not lost on me, which I'm sure many of you are asking. Trump did the thing. He did the L. A Militarization. A court said it's against the law, but so what consequences are there? Does Trump get charged with some crime? No, of course not. Does anybody get fired from the Trump administration now? Probably not. And so question one, when a court says something and Trump is president and authoritarians love to ignore courts, question one is, does he do it again anyway? And if so, what consequences are there? But number two, now that we've determined something he did is illegal, are there any consequences for that? And sadly, I wish I had more for you. The answer is just probably not. A panicked Donald Trump is scrambling to kill the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. As I've said before, if you're totally innocent, why are you panicking? And Donald Trump is in full blown panic mode here because there's a rogue faction of Republicans that is dangerously close to forcing a vote on, on releasing all of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Not the 97% that are already public. The real stuff we're talking here about, the critical documents that they've been sitting on. Congressman Thomas Massie, not a liberal darling, not a guy who I look at and say, those are my politics. Congressman Thomas Massie is working with our friend Congressman Ro Khanna to gather signatures for what's called a discharge petition. It would bypass Republican leadership and it would bring a full vote on releasing the files to the floor. They are, as of this writing, two Republican signatures away from forcing that vote, and Trump is absolutely losing it. Cocoa for cuckoo puffs. As I like to say, Cuckoo for cocoa puffs. I don't. You can say it either way. The White House reportedly warned these rebels in the Republican Party that if you do this, we see it as a hostile act. What does that mean? Well, you have to remember Trump's prism is loyalty, and his goal is fear and power. So what Trump is trying to do here is to say, if you participate in this, even if you're a Republican, I will turn against you. I might try to primary you. It's sort of like the nice, nice congressional office you've got here. Sure would be a shame if anything were to happen to it. Like, it's Mafia style stuff. Now, again, we get to the sort of critical material question. What's in the files? We don't know. The panic tells you a lot. If it were nonsense, if Trump had nothing to do with Epstein, if there was nothing new in these files, why would you work so hard to bury them? Now, as I've said before, it might be that Donald Trump is simply trying to protect his friends who are incriminated in the files. It might be that Donald Trump is in the files, but not with any criminal wrongdoing, but just because he was in that orbit and he wants to cover that up. Or it might be that Donald Trump is accused of criminal involvement in the sex trafficking in the file. We just don't know. The Oversight Committee has already released 33,000 documents, but 97% of those were already public. We're not falling for the fake transparency. No client list, no new names, no justice for the victims. We need the full files now. Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie says that Trump's campaign to block the vote is very intense behind the scenes and that Trump has recruited others, like Speaker Mike Johnson, to try to whip votes against this Idea. But the problem for Trump is that even some of his most loyal sycophants are breaking ranks. You've got Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, who ran out of an Epstein victim hearing sobbing yesterday. They all signed the petition and Mace was in tears. She said it was so difficult for her because less than two years ago she was the victim of a sexual assault and it just was too much for her to handle. She had a panic attack and she wants to put the files out. So when even that group of people is willing to defy Donald Trump on this to some degree, the tide seems to be turning. And the excuse that this is about attention seeking for Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna? I don't think so. I mean, Trump ran at least initially on transparency on Epstein. Later on, he started to equivocate. Remember when Fox said, you're going to release the JFK files? Absolutely. You're going to release the MLK files. Files no one was asking for, by the way. Absolutely. You're going to release the Epstein files. Yeah, well, I'm not totally sure on Epstein files. You know, there could be people in there who we don't want to ruin their lives. They might not really have had anything to do with it. So we started to get a sense as Trump got closer to being reelected that he was not so hell bent on releasing the Epstein files. Now, there's a White House official that told CNN that anybody working with Massie on this would be seen as a traitor. Massie fired back, saying, this is simply about corruption. It's not about partizanship. It's not about taxes or jobs or the economy. It's not about any of that. It's just about corruption. And we don't care about party. Now, one other sort of interesting aspect to this, Thomas Massie is operating under the belief, the assumption that Trump's base wants to know the truth and get the Epstein files. Now, that's probably true. You know, the Kuhnen crowd, the MAGA keyboard warriors, they spent years obsessing over Epstein until it started getting a little too close to home. And so we now are in a situation where I'm not as convinced, given the assumption that Trump is at least in the files, even if not implicated in crimes. But in the files, I'm not so sure that the hardcore MAGA base really still wants the files if it's going to implicate the Dear Leader. Counter, counterpoint. We know that in cults, when the Dear Leader is implicated, the cult members, or at least the Most brainwashed ones tend to just either ignore it, say that those are lies, the files were planted. What Trump did isn't really that bad. So I don't think we are going to get a clear read on really how the hardcore MAGA base will react. One other thing about this, the question I'm most interested in is who Donald Trump believes he's protecting by trying to quash the release of these files. The obvious assumption is that it's Trump himself. As I mentioned earlier, there's the maybe Trump's friends are in there and Trump is trying to protect them. The only thing that makes me doubt that is Trump has always been transactional. He doesn't really care about other people. Maybe his own family, but political allies, they come and go. Trump doesn't really care about other people. I wonder whether Trump would really go out on a limb and potentially make his own base say, you're not being transparent the way you told you were going to be. I question whether Trump would really do that for other people. The counter, counter, counter to that is it's not that he cares about the other people's reputations, it's that his success depends on those other people, either in terms of political support or financial support. And so, yes, Trump is acting to protect other people, not because he genuinely cares about them, but because there's something in it for him. Are they Mar a Lago members? Are they senators who help him? What are they? So if this were a nothing burger, if Trump's name weren't in there, or if Trump didn't have anything to lose, I think we would have the files by now. Trump would be demanding it. Instead, Trump is panicking. He's scrambling. He's calling in favors, he's threatening his own party. And nothing says I'm innocent like trying to kill a vote on releasing evidence that you ran initially on being transparent about. So I'll put it to you. What do you think is really in the files? Why do you think Trump is panicking to cover them up? Leave us a comment@substack.david pakman.com One of our sponsors is BetterHelp. I am a huge believer in therapy. Let's say you've been thinking for a while about getting into therapy. You know it's the right move. You have things you'd like to talk to someone about. There is no better time than the present. But you don't have to drive across town every week and sit in a waiting room because of BetterHelp. BetterHelp is the world's largest therapy service, it's 100% online. With BetterHelp you can tap into a network of over 25,000 licensed and experienced therapists specializing in a wide range of issues. You answer a few questions about yourself and BetterHelp will match you with a therapist based on your specific needs and preferences. The sessions can be on the phone, video call, chat, anytime, anywhere from your couch, at home, from your office at work, and if your therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch any time at no charge. My audience gets 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/pacman the link is down below. If you were spending $6 a day on Cafe Cold Brew or drinking those weird store bought cold brew concentrates, I want you to know there is an easier, better tasting and more affordable way. Our sponsor Trade Coffee makes it super easy to brew incredible cold brew at home with beans roasted specifically for cold brewing, all delivered right to your door. I've tried a bunch of their cold brew selections. It is smooth, it is fresh, it's as good as any cold brew I've had and I'm very picky. They even grind the beans for you so all you have to do is scoop it into a pitcher, add water, steep it overnight in the fridge. Trade works with some of the best roasters across the country and has put together a curated cold brew collection so you're not guessing what will work well cold and the flexibility is awesome. You can skip deliveries, you can pause when you're out of town, pick it back up whenever you're ready for a limited time. Trade is giving you 50% off a month of cold brew. That's around 60 cups of cold brew for 50% off when you go to drink trade.com/pacman the link is in the description well, I've gotten dozens of emails from people in my audience sort of jokingly asking, david, are you getting red pilled? Is this your political awakening? Are you going to pull a Dave Rubin or a Tim Pool or an Anna Kasparian? Is this your moment to go from left to right? So let's talk about that. Am I getting red pilled now? If you haven't heard this word, the term red pilled comes back to the Matrix, the film the Matrix, which now must be must be over 20 years old, right? I'm very old. I don't know. It's an old movie at this point. And taking the red pill means you're waking up to the real truth. It's a harsh truth. It's a difficult truth. But you're waking up to it now. Red pilled in Internet slang has sort of become a paraphrase for adopting right wing or reactionary beliefs. I've been red pilled. I'm rejecting progressivism. I'm going to the right. And it sort of means like you're selling out or you've become a reactionary, that sort of thing. Now why would I be getting red pilled right now? Well, some have accused me of selling out, being a puppet for the dnc, taking dark money to secretly push a neoliberal psyop agenda. And so the joke is, and maybe it's not as much of a joke as to others as it is to me, the idea would be, well, given that that's happening, I must now start screaming about soy in the water supply and posting gym selfies and Jordan Peterson quotes and going hardcore right wing. So, so let me break this down and sort of assuage fears. The last week has really been something. It has been eye opening. I don't know that red pill is the term that I would use, but the last week has been something. I was named in this Wired article with a bunch of misleading claims about a group called Chorus, which is a nonprofit that supports and incubates independent creators. And suddenly there's a slice of people out there. I don't even say my audience, but there's a slice of people out there acting like I'm getting marching orders from the DNC and that the Benjamin Netanyahu of the world have become my handlers. The worst part, and I'll be honest about this, and I have been the worst part is the accusations are coming not from the right, but they're coming from the left. They're coming from what I described yesterday as the purity test accelerationist left. They took a headline they didn't investigate and they said, that's it, we're done with David Pakman. Comments flooded 6000. Actually now 8000 YouTube unsubscribes. Not because I said anything right wing, not because, because I'm supporting any right wing cause. Not because I've changed my views on policy, because I'm participating in the very infrastructure that I've been calling for for years, which is a more organized left that supports creators. So did I have the thought, if this is how I'm going to be treated by my own side, what the hell am I doing here? But if that's your concern, I'll just tell you very clearly, just because a faction of the left has become a purity testing clown show doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to believe trickle down economics works or banning books is good or Viktor Orban is an interesting leader to pay attention to. I am still a social Democrat. I still want a stronger social safety net. I want climate action. I want to support labor, civil rights, public health care. None of my political views have been changed by this. I don't become a right wing reactionary because someone on the left said something I don't like or disagree with. I don't become a right winger because some online leftists lost the plot and think coalition building is a form of betrayal. And importantly, some of my strongest criticisms of the Democratic Party have come in the last two weeks. I don't know how many of you saw I did this segment last week ripping the Democratic Party to shreds. It went viral. Fox News covered it. How hard am I ripping Democrats if even Fox News sees a cynical opportunity to exploit it. So I have not changed in terms of my views. What has changed, as I pointed out yesterday, is I no longer believe we are all part of the same movement. There's the governance focused big tent win elections and pass laws left. That's where I am. And then there's this purity test left. The ones who don't really care if we lose and sometimes seem to like it so they can say I told you so as long as they feel morally untainted. They treat compromise as corruption. They think we need a better media ecosystem must mean install CIA approved thought leaders or something like that. So maybe we were never really part of the same movement. If I've been red pilled about anything, maybe it's that we overlapped when convenient and that was it. But I'm not getting red pilled. I'm done pretending that everyone with a left wing label is on the same page. You can stand for progress in a lot of different ways. You can want change without torching everyone who's only 98% on your side. But no, I am not having a political awakening. I am not the next Dave Rubin. None of that is happening. Donald Trump is jealous. He's really, really jealous. While world leader leaders are gathering without him. They're shaking hands. They're holding hands. They're shaping global alliances. Donald Trump is rage posting from the sidelines and he is seething and reminding everybody he's no longer at the big kid table. And tragically, this gives me no pleasure. The United States is increasingly losing influence. Donald Trump posted to Troth Central quote the big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and blood that the United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its freedom from a very unfriendly foreign invader. Many Americans died in China's quest for victory and glory. I hope that they are rightfully honored and remembered for their bravery and sacrifice. May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America. Signed, President Donald J. Trump. That's a real post. Okay, that. That's untruth social from the President of the United States. He also tossed in some really weird historical tangent about how the United States is giving blood to help China gain freedom. Putting aside the historical revisionism of that, it's really not the point. The point here is Trump's not trying to warn anyone. Trump's not calling out any global threat. Trump is jealous. He's envious, like the kid who got left out of the fun. This is a guy who spent four years during his first term measuring diplomacy, calibrating diplomacy by how much foreign leaders flatter him personally. Are they staying at his hotel? Are they bringing in gifts? Are they telling him how the US Is so hot under his leadership? The deals didn't really matter, the alliances didn't really matter. He cared about. Did Kim Jong Un write me beautiful letters? Love letters. He called Putin a genius for invading Ukraine. He swooned over the autocrats because they were treating Trump like he was one of them, which is what he wants. And so now, when Trump sits in D.C. and watches Xi, Putin, and Kim meet without him, he's not thinking about American security. He's thinking about status, his ego, his sense of loss. And this is a post that reads to me a lot less like a geopolitical commentary than like a bitter ex partner texting, tell your new boyfriend I say hi. This is what Trump doesn't get and what Trump never understood. Foreign policy is not a loyalty test in the way that a lot of Donald Trump's domestic hijinks is. But to Trump, everything is sort of a loyalty test. If you praise him, you're a strong leader. If you ignore him, you're disrespecting America and you're weak and you're pathetic. There is zero daylight between Trump's personal pride and the interests of the United States. In his mind, they're the same thing. And that's what makes this so extraordinarily dangerous. When A president still attempts to command influence through the fear mongering and the insults and the posts and, and when your supporters take those posts seriously, it's humiliating and also damaging to American relations. Trump has a desire to be seen above all else, even by the adversaries of the United States. And so Trump isn't warning us, hey America, be aware, there are adversarial leaders. Bad actors are meeting. Trump's upset. Why am I not with them? That is all that this is about. This is a guy who was at the centerpiece of a global reality show for a while and he's relegated to sending drunk texts from backstage. Figuratively, I know Trump doesn't really drink. So Trump is increasingly out of power. Even as President of the United States, Trump is making himself irrelevant. And the only way he knows how to process that is by turning these global alliances into kind of a personal snub. The tragedy is that millions, tens of millions, I don't think hundreds of millions, but tens of millions of Americans see this and they say, this guy's the answer. Look at what a great job he's doing. Phenomenal stuff. That's what should scare us the most.
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David Pakman
Definitely.
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- [29:54]
David Pakman
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Interviewer
Something completely different, but about a big viral social media trend over the weekend. How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead? You see that? No, people didn't see you for a Couple of days. 1.3 million user engagements as of Saturday morning about your demise.
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Donald Trump
Really? You know, I have heard it's sort of crazy, but last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well. Like this is going very well.
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David Pakman
This one's going so well, guys.
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Donald Trump
And then I didn't do any for two Days, and they said there must be something wrong with him.
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David Pakman
Oh, so Trump did hear about it.
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Donald Trump
Biden wouldn't do him for months. You wouldn't see him. And nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him. And we know he wasn't in the greatest of shape. No, I heard that. I get reports now. You knew. I did an interview that lasted for about an hour and a half with somebody and everybody saw that was on one of your competitors.
- [33:18]
David Pakman
Yeah. No idea what he's talking about. But Trump claims he didn't hear about the rumors. What do you believe? Do you think Trump had no idea that rumors were swirling, maybe not about his death, but about his health? Is he just playing it off or is he serious? Has he really kept that isolated from the news? I don't know the answer I want to hear from you. Trump then delivering an absolutely bloodthirsty rant about criminals. And this goes to this idea that many on the right have, that some people are just, they're born criminals. They are just genetically implicitly criminal criminals.
- [33:52]
Donald Trump
These are hardcore criminals. You know, we took many people off the streets of Washington, D.C. they're hardcore. They're not going to be good in 10 years, in 20 years, in two years. They're going to be criminals. They're going to be. They were born to be criminals, frankly. They were born to be criminals and they're tough and mean and they'll cut your throat and they won't even think about it the next day. They won't even remember that they did it. And we're not going to have those people. Washington, D.C. is now a safe zone.
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David Pakman
It's a, you know, this is the genetic determinants of crime idea. The idea that no matter what environment you're born into, no matter your economic circumstances, just some people have a genetic predisposition to be criminals. They are born criminals. Now, maybe I'm different from some on the left in that I think there is a question as to, to what degree does genetics influence predispositions or behaviors. Is it possible that the genetic aspect of an individual's makeup might predispose them to be quicker to violence, more disinhibited when it comes to the commission of a crime, more arrogant in the sense of believing you can get away with a crime? I'm completely open to that. But everything we know from the academic literature is that environment, socioeconomic status, in other words, social determinants play an overwhelming role in who ultimately ends up being a criminal. Now, I know that some will say, well, David, if This, if this was not a genetic thing, why are men so much more likely to be criminals than women? And I think that that's a very interesting question. But even there, much of it is about expectations societally placed on men and women. And if you look at other types of societies, non Westernized societies, that distinction is significantly less relevant. So, anyway, we're getting into a lot of sociological stuff, but Trump with this bloodthirsty rant, these are born criminals and we got to get them out of here. All right, Donald Trump seemingly confirming he will militarize the streets of Chicago. It's a question of when. Your mind up on Chicago, though.
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Donald Trump
Well, we're going in. I didn't say when we're going in. When you lose. Look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation. When we lose. When 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks and 75 are shot with bullets. So let me tell you a little story about a place called D.C. district of Columbia.
- [36:40]
David Pakman
Anyway, I'm not going to play the full three minutes of ranting. Donald Trump says, we are going in. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says, no, you are not. Governor J.B. pritzker says, no, you are not. And a judge who ruled on Trump's militarization in Los Angeles said it was against the law. So we may indeed be heading towards a pretty severe constitutional crisis here. Will there be consequences if there isn't some kind of a meeting soon between Russian President Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky? Remember, Trump promised to end that war within a day of becoming President Elect, then move the goalposts endlessly. They've now been moved into the locker rooms. Trump says, oh, yeah, very soon, folks. Very soon there are going to be consequences with President Putin. In the past week, have you spoken with President Putin?
- [37:28]
Donald Trump
Yeah, I don't want to. I have. I have learned things that will be very interesting. I think in the next few days.
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David Pakman
You'Ll find out consequences if there isn't some type of announcement of a meeting. By the way, why is Pete Hegseth standing like that? Dear God.
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Donald Trump
Yeah, there will be. We're going to see what happens. We're going to see what they do and what happens. I'm watching it very closely. Last week, they lost 7,000 between the two countries, 7,313 soldiers, to be somewhat exact.
- [38:01]
David Pakman
So Trump says, yes, there will be consequences very, very soon. I do want to remind you that on July 28, this is just the latest data point, Right. I could do 100 of these on July 28, which is now about five weeks ago, Trump gave Russia two weeks to reach a peace deal. As you can imagine, we are beyond two weeks from five weeks ago. No consequences for Russia thus far. Donald Trump just making up numbers. He now says we've taken in $17 trillion trillion dollars in investment, which would be more than half of the American gdp. This is completely made up like a dictator who expects no one will fact.
- [38:50]
Donald Trump
Check them, because without the tariffs, this country is in serious, serious trouble. We've taken in almost $17 trillion of investment is coming in. Most of it has come in because of tariffs. And if for some reason somebody wanted to be politically correct, I actually think it's unpolitically correct.
- [39:09]
David Pakman
Right. It's a matter of political correctness to just fabricate numbers. And finally, at his most condescending, at his most arrogant, at his most egomaniacal, we might say Donald Trump claiming that he ended seven wars. And if it weren't for him in the United States, the world would die.
- [39:29]
Donald Trump
Because without the United States, every, everything in the world would die. It's true. It's so powerful, it's so big. And I've made it. I made it really big in the first four years. Then it started to degenerate with what this Biden administration did. But we built it up to a level that I never thought we could be at this quickly, right? With the hottest. With.
- [39:49]
David Pakman
It got so good so quickly that nobody noticed.
- [39:52]
Donald Trump
Best with the best. Financially, the money coming in is so big because of tariffs and other things, but because of tariffs, tariffs, tariff gets us even those other things, plus it gets us great negotiation. I settled seven wars.
- [40:04]
David Pakman
Certainly a idiosyncratic understanding of the last seven months, I guess I would say so. If the point of this press conference was to prove Trump's fine, he definitely proved that he's alive. But that's about as far as I can go. Donald Trump was caught lying by Fox News. This is absolutely fascinating stuff. When Peter Doocy asked Donald Trump about the garbage bags thrown out of White House windows, Donald Trump said the windows don't open and these are AI generated videos. The problem is that the White House has already commented on it and said that, yes, that is real and it was contractors that were doing work. So let me just first remind you, yesterday we looked at this video, which I'm playing right now, and it is a view of bags being dumped out of the window at the White House. As you can see here, if you look closely, there comes the bag, and down goes the bag. Donald Trump was asked about this, he acted like he doesn't know anything about it. Peter Doocy brings up a phone and shows him the video. And Trump goes, those windows don't open. It's probably. I listen to the ease with which Donald Trump tells lies.
- [41:28]
Interviewer
There is a video that is circulating online now of the White House where a window is open to the residents upstairs and somebody is throwing a big bag out the window. Have you seen this?
- [41:39]
Donald Trump
No, that's probably a generator. So actually, you can't open the windows. You know why? They're all heavily armored and bulletproof.
- [41:50]
Interviewer
A fake video.
- [41:51]
Donald Trump
Well, it's got to be because I know every window up there. The last place I'd be doing it. Is that because there's cameras all over the place, right? Including yours. No, but every window. I. I've never seen a window that's. In fact, my wife was complaining about it the other day. She said, love to have a little fresh air come in, but you can't.
- [42:08]
David Pakman
They're both a little fresh air proof.
- [42:11]
Donald Trump
And number one, they're sealed. And number two, each window weighs about 600 pounds. You have to be pretty strong to open them up. No, that has to be. Where was the window? Let me see.
- [42:22]
David Pakman
So Ducey brings up the phone.
- [42:31]
Donald Trump
Which is the window.
- [42:33]
Interviewer
It looks like this is on the 15th street side, I think so right here.
- [42:39]
Donald Trump
Those windows are sealed. Those windows are all. They're all sealed. You can't open them. You're saying regarding the federal. It's the kind of thing they do. And one of the problems we have with AI it's both good and bad. If something happens really bad, just blame.
- [42:53]
David Pakman
AI look at the ease with which Trump goes, it's AI and then just starts talking about the problems with AI.
- [43:00]
Donald Trump
But also they create things. You know, it works both ways. If something happens, it's really bad. Maybe I'll have to just blame AI but there's truth to it, because I see so many phony things. I saw something as I was growing.
- [43:13]
David Pakman
Anyway, now he talks about other stuff. So Trump goes, it's AI Those windows don't open. The reality, of course, is it wasn't AI the windows did open. The White House confirmed it. When Donald Trump said this, the White House had already confirmed contractors were doing routine maintenance. The video is real. They really did throw trash out of the window. By the way, who would even take the trouble to make a video of something like that? Like, why is that what you would use AI to do? So the trash bag story is not the biggest story. The ease and facility with which Donald Trump doesn't even speculate. He just lies confidently about things that the White House has already weighed in on. If you can't even trust him to tell the truth about this, how can you trust him to tell the truth about anything? And of course, the answer is we can't. One of the easiest ways to make a good night even better is a great bottle of wine. 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For instance, these sites are where scammers and spammers can get your information to then target you. Using Incogni can cut way down on the spam calls and the messages that you get. Try it risk free for 30 days and get 60% off an annual plan. When you go to incogni.com/pacman. The link is in the description. After a 6 day absence from the public eye, Donald Trump resurfaced with what was going to be a very major announcement at 2pm Eastern yesterday. Yesterday at the White House, there were questions. What would the announcement be? Is it Trump's resignation? Is it him coming clean about what's going on with his health? Is it renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War? No, it was a military base relocation. I can't believe this is the timeline we're in. Donald Trump, whose bruised, swollen hands, confused rants, physical decline, cognitive decline, swollen ankles, culminated in him being missing from the public eye for five to six days, puts together the event that is going to reaffirm that everything's all good. And he announces that Space Command headquarters is going to be moved from Colorado to Alabama. Now, if other presidents, after being missing for five or six days, had organized a supposed major press event and said, we're going to move Space Command from Colorado to Alabama because Colorado is not so good politically, per Trump, and Alabama politicians worship Trump like a cult leader, other elected officials would be rightly excoriated and there would be endless, breathless, histrionic, dystopian coverage of it across the media. But Trump does it. And they credulously go, wow, he sounds great, he looks great. It's just a little blip in the news cycle. From what I'm seeing in Google search trends, yesterday's press conference has completely failed, just utterly and completely failed to distract from the concerns about Donald Trump's health. Now, I also think it's important to mention that this move from Colorado to Alabama really is not about national security. Moving Space Command will cost probably hundreds of millions of dollars. It will delay readiness for years. And Colorado Springs had already been named the permanent headquarters. And Trump is now reversing that. He's reversing that not because of strategy, but because Colorado didn't vote for him and Alabama did. And so this really goes to Donald Trump's prism of loyalty testing and fear mongering. We know that Donald Trump loves to punish those who don't vote for him. He wanted to deny California disaster relief because it's too liberal. The FBI shouldn't go to Maryland because it's a Democrat state. It's transactional. It's petty, it's pathetic. Pathetic. And the kicker is that it doesn't really seem to be working. Because if you look at Google search trends, this very transparent attempt to drown out the concerns about Donald Trump's health failed to do it. He's still looking disoriented and swollen, and he had even worse makeup on his hands. And he continues ranting about sharks and satellites and the equivalents. And you can't move space command and expect people to forget about that. And even MAGA kind of seemed confused. I was looking at, you know, the usual places where the Magaz like to hang out, certain subreddits and the platform formerly known as Twitter. And even many of them were kind of saying, this is, this isn't like the super strong announcement that we were really hoping for. And so I hope, I don't know, but I hope that Americans are starting to see that none of this projects strength. These are attempts to make people afraid and to get them to fall in line. But Trump looks really frail right now, and I'm not saying physically frail, although you can make that argument. He just looks politically frail. Can't get much done. Policies are on and off, depending on what the last person who whispered into his ear had said. And it all seems to be reflected in yet another record low approval. And meanwhile, the attempts to cover up the health stuff are getting pretty pathetic. I want to talk about one next. Fox News has this doctor, Dr. Mark Siegel. He's their senior medical analyst. Not just a medical analyst. This is the senior medical analyst. So you can know you're going to get better propaganda from him. He went on TV last night. And in the midst of all of these concerns, Trump's gone for five days. He reappears on Scott Jennings show, and he sounds terrible. I'll play that next. His hands are bruised, his ankles are swollen, his eyes are swollen, almost completely shot. I mean, it's just crazy. Mark Siegel shows up on TV and he goes, this is ageism. The only reason people are talking about this is because Trump, 79, but he's in great health. He's awesome. Take a look at this and see if there's any historical parallel to this, where Fox News handled it very differently now.
- [51:55]
Fox News Medical Analyst (Mark Siegel)
Well, and also apparently they have no elderly relatives or people who are getting up there and they bruise easily. It's just, it's like a fact of life. Do you not know that fact? If you're officially, if you take aspirin for any condition, you're going to have more be more prone to bruising.
- [52:08]
Fox News Commentator
Really, really great point. I want to make one other point. 25% of people at 80 are demented. Guess who was in that group? 25%, the former president. This guy. He's in the 75% group. This is pure ageism. It wasn't.
- [52:24]
Fox News Medical Analyst (Mark Siegel)
Oh, no, that's. Oh, yeah, that is ageism.
- [52:26]
Fox News Commentator
This is ageism to be looking for something wrong with this guy who's in great health just because he's 79.
- [52:32]
Fox News Medical Analyst (Mark Siegel)
A few weeks ago, you know, it's.
- [52:33]
David Pakman
Weird because Fox News spent years trashing Biden based on he's too old. And now they're going, oh, it's ageism to talk about Donald Trump's health. Hilariously. But as often is the case on Fox News, in their attempts to defend, they go a little bit too far. And Mark Siegel says, oh, you know, Trump doesn't use a teleprompter. But of course Trump does use a teleprompter. Trump talks about how he doesn't use a teleprompter. And he often talks about that while using a teleprompter.
- [53:12]
Fox News Commentator
You remember that. And President Trump doesn't use a teleprompter. He talks just clearly, you're sitting there mesmerized as he talks. So they see him stumble out of a golf cart. They said he has a gait disorder. Well, wait a minute. The other former president could barely walk at all.
- [53:28]
David Pakman
You know, one of the funny things about this is Siegel talks about how people are mesmerized when Donald Trump talks. That's confusion, Dr. Mark. That you see on their faces. That's not them being mesmerized by the incredible oratory skills of Donald Trump weaving together seemingly unrelated topics into a neat and tidy thesis. That's confusion. That's what the hell is this guy talking about? Someone sent to me yesterday a transcript of Trump, of a recent statement from Trump. And someone sent me a video of someone else just reading the same thing that Donald Trump recently said. It sounds deranged when you see it written down or hear it from somebody else. But Donald Trump has convinced us and people like Dr. Mark Siegel are associating with those same ideas that Trump is speaking in this incredibly high level, sophisticated way. That's why it sometimes seems like he's weaving together unrelated topics. It's confusion, Dr. Mark. Nobody knows what the hell the guy is talking about. All right, let me now get to the audio that so many of you have been asking me to play. Donald Trump's resurfacing yesterday after a five or six day absence included interviewed, interviewing with Scott Jennings and sounding as rough as I've ever heard. Donald Trump. This is not like the mic is bad. This is. This is very bad. Listen to this.
- [55:08]
Scott Jennings
I'm Very disappointed in him. He and I always had a great relationship. Very disappointed.
- [55:14]
David Pakman
Oh, boy.
- [55:15]
Scott Jennings
Thousands of people are dying. They're not Americans that are dying, but they're Russians and the Ukrainians, and there's thousands. And it's a war that makes no sense, and it would have never started if I were president. And that's what bothers me, me even more, because the election was totally rigged, and it's a shame. We'll see what happens. But I'm very disappointed in President Putin. I can say that. And we'll be doing something to help people live. You know, it's not a question of Ukraine. It's helped people live. 7,000 people are dying every single week. Soldiers mostly, but 7,000 people. And if I can help to stop that, I think I have an obligation.
- [55:59]
David Pakman
So Trump not sounding well. When this interview was released, there were questions. Is it Covid? Is it a cold? Is it a respiratory illness? That explains Trump's eyes being all red and teary and also being missing for five or six days. We have no idea. But by the time of the press conference, he just certainly didn't seem to have Covid. Trump, by the way, this was a wacky interview in terms of the substance as well. If there's anything Trump doesn't understand, it's tariffs. And Trump told Scott Jennings, I understand tariffs really, really well.
- [56:32]
Scott Jennings
We have to be able to fight on a fair term. They have tariffs against us. China kills us with tariffs. India kills us with tariffs. Brazil kills us with. Now that I know how to. But I've understood tariffs better than they did. I understood tariffs better than any human being in the world. Okay? And now with my tariffs, they were all dropping them. India was the most highly tariff nation in the country. And you know what? They've offered me no tariffs in India anymore.
- [56:59]
Donald Trump
No tariffs.
- [57:00]
Scott Jennings
If I didn't have tariffs, they would never make that offer.
- [57:04]
David Pakman
Yeah. Trump still doesn't understand that the American companies pay the tariffs. I don't know how else to say this. I don't know how else we can explain it, unless he's pretending not to understand that, which I don't know why he would, although maybe that is what's going on. Trump simultaneously says he understands tariffs better than anybody else and doesn't understand the key thing about tariffs, which is they are paid by the American companies. So the last week has certainly raised a lot of questions about the competency of the president. People are noticing that his absences are becoming more frequent, that he sounds absolutely terrible, but are we ever really going to get the accountability that we want and the transparency that we want. I would guess probably not. Now on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about a number of very interesting things. There's this viral video of a CEO snatching a hat out of the hands of a boy at the US Open. And this has become a cultural flashpoint. And we're going to talk about it. The guy now says he made a big, big mistake. I also am going to talk about the Founders Museum from the White House in Prageru, which blurs history with AI generated fiction. And this is a much more insidious and I would argue dangerous use of AI, which is undeniably going to become more prevalent and unfortunately is going to become more and more difficult to detect. So we're going to talk about that. And then finally, the Epstein victims are compiling their own client list. And it is now possible that even if the Trump administration doesn't release the full Epstein documents, it is possible that we will get a client list from the victims who know where a lot of the bodies are buried. Metaphorically, of course. All of those stories and more when producer Pat joins me on today's bonus show. Access the bonus show instantly by signing up@join pacman.com I will see you then and I'll be back tomorrow.
- [59:19]
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