David Pakman (8:36)
And it might not even be as strict by the time the negotiations are done, I guess. What on earth are we doing now? It's important to remember that a lot of Republicans have argued and continue to argue Trump had to rip up that deal because Iran wasn't sticking to it. I have found no evidence of that. And if you go back, I remember when this debate was being had in 2017 into 2018, when Trump ultimately ripped up the deal. Trump was claiming, oh, Iran is violating the deal. But the only contemporaneous thing I was able to find was the right wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming Iran has violated the deal with the same type of shoddy evidence that was used to claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction back in 2003, which they didn't got us into a war, though. So I am completely unconvinced that Iran was violating that deal. Do I like the Ayatollah? No. Do I think extreme theocratic regimes are good for the citizens of a country? Of course not. Do I think Iran should have a nuclear weapon? No. Iran is one of the few countries that regularly threatens the existence of other countries. I don't think they should have a nuclear weapon. Well, should the U.S. that's a different question. Maybe nobody should have nuclear weapons. But within the framework here, which is there was a deal, there is no evidence Iran violated the deal. Trump ripped it up for no reason, caused Iran to go back to nuclear enrichment. Uranium enrichment subsequently led to Trump going in in June and subsequently led to Trump going in again now. And the way we might get out of this is putting back in place a deal that is extraordinarily similar to what was the problem in the first place. This is pathetic, guys. People's lives are being lost over Trump's ego and incompetence. So, yeah, we should be furious about this. We should be furious about it because it's humiliating on the world stage. We should be furious about it because gas prices are up 45% since mid January because of this. We should be furious because we are seeing a loss of life, American service members, never mind Iranian civilians. We should be furious about this. And these people should be voted into oblivion in seven months and a week and a half, I guess. Seven. Just short of seven and a half months. But imagine if what it takes to end this is the deal that was supposedly the problem back in 2015, 2018, reconstituted with Trump's signature on it. You got to be kidding me. And we haven't even gotten to the corruption yet, which we need to do right now. You know, there are stories where you say, hey, you know what? We need more evidence. We need more evidence before we can really make a judgment. And then there are stories where you look at the timeline and you look at the circumstances and you just throw your hands up and you go, oh, come on. Because what has just happened with Donald Trump, oil markets, energy markets and stock markets is absolutely insane. And it points to one thing. Insider trading and people who traded on information they knew ahead of time about what Donald Trump was planning to say. Minutes before Donald Trump announced that he was delaying strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, yesterday morning, there was a massive and very unusual spike in trading activity. We are talking about more than $800 million placed in oil and S&P futures in one minute, which is not normal. And the trades were really specific. They were betting oil prices are about to go down and the stock market is going to go up. Minutes later yesterday, 7:23am, Donald Trump goes on his platform Truth Social and says, hey, you know what? We're making such great progress with Iran that I'm going to be able to delay my strikes on their energy facilities. And immediately. I showed you the charts yesterday. Oil prices drop sharply. Market futures surge. The stock market has a huge day yesterday, and that makes it so that those trades just minutes earlier were extraordinarily profitable. Well, that is really quite a coincidence. Maybe it was luck. Maybe out there, someone put their finger to the wind or held up their MAGA hat and saw which way the wind pushed it. It's not a real MAGA hat, by the way, and said, you know what? I just think, for no reason that today is a good day to bet that stock market numbers are going to go up and that oil prices are going to go down. But does anybody believe that? Do you believe that for a second? Maybe what really happened is the obvious thing. Someone knew in advance what was going to be announced, which is the explanation that makes a lot more sense to normal people and to anybody that knows the way that Trump and his family operate. And it got even worse because Iran immediately denied that these negotiations were happening at all. They, like, this is all fake news. What is Trump talking about? This hasn't happened. So now we have to consider whether the announcement itself was used to move markets. It wasn't. Oh, there are negotiations that are going well and Trump is about to announce it. I'm going to trade on it. That would be bad enough. It may be the case that Trump lied Knowing that he's lying, knowing that there have been no successful negotiations and said, I'm going to post this anyway to move the markets. And of course, everybody who knows that he's going to do that then can take the opportunity to profit from it. Now, if this were the only time we suspected that this sort of potential corruption, it would be like, all right, well listen, there's no history of this. We have no reason to think that this is the way this administration operates. But it's not. We have had a number of situations with suspicious betting activity around major events tied to Trump military decisions or geopolitical decisions. Remember with Nicolas Maduro, there were extraordinarily suspicious trades on betting markets right before Trump went in, sent troops in. Of course, Trump didn't go in himself to Venezuela and kidnapped Nicolas Maduro and seized their oil. So we see the pattern, which is these large bets go in right before something happens and then the bets pay out and it happens again and again and again. Now the White House response to all of this is basically, hey, there's really no evidence of that. You shouldn't be asking questions. This is crazy. What are you guys talking about? It's the fake news media. Not really an answer, as is often the case from this administration. Now, I'm sure that any second the investigations will begin, right? And this will be taken very seriously. Right? And we're going to have consequence. Obviously not. Obviously not. Of course that's not going to happen. And we all know it's not going to happen because we've seen this play out before. It's never investigated. But remember, you know, I was laughing this morning reading about this. Remember all of the Biden crime family nonsense? Years and years of hearings with endless allegations and breathless coverage on Fox News and they found nothing of substance, nothing of substance. And here you have something that looks like textbook insider trading. Insider trading tied to military decisions, insider insider trading tied to presidential announcements on strategy. And, and nobody's interested in it. Pam Bondi certainly not interested in it, that's for sure. We've got no wall to wall coverage on Fox News. We've got no urgent congressional hearings. It's like, why are you asking about that Now? Jessica Tarlov on Fox News is talking about it with her mayo brained co hosts. We'll look at videos of that later. But short of that, it's, you're not hearing a peep from right wing media about what seems pretty blatant here. Now, even if something illegal did happen and it was undeniable, you know what they would say, they would go, these were official acts. Everything is completely protected. We go, what are you talking about? Insider trading is an official act. They would go, yep, it's all official, totally legal, nothing to see here in. It's what the founders would have wanted. Presidents making decisions that can move markets and enrich insiders. George Washington would have been thrilled. Oh, and by the way, thank you to the Supreme Court for clearing that up, because apparently this is just how things are supposed to work in the system. I'm being sarcastic, obviously. So what we are increasingly seeing is allegedly circumstantially global conflict being used as a tool to generate profit. And this is very, very dark. So we land on a pretty straightforward question at this point. Is there insider trading going on here or something very close to it, and what, if anything, can, should, and will be done about it? Not an abstract question. You know, sometimes we have these. Imagine that Trump on election day decides to, you know, take off his oversized suit and burn it along with a bunch of ballots. Well, what would we do? All right, well, that's theoretical. That's a hypothetical. I don't think Trump's going to do that. We are in a real situation. This is happening. It seems to be happening every couple of weeks with something. And people are making a lot of money on this. War and energy and global stability decisions are potentially being used as part of a moneymaking scheme behind the scenes. I have a question for the magazine that voted for Trump. How does this level of corruption make you feel, if you're even able to acknowledge that this seems corrupt? Because for a lot of people, it seems as though it's all completely rigged and they don't care about the partizan angle on it. They're just ready to say, we need this to be over. Which is why I believe that an anti corruption platform is a very smart thing for Democrats to consider running on. But if you are a MAGA who is not at all concerned by what you're seeing here, I want to hear from you. Why doesn't this bother you? It seems so obvious. Do you think it's somehow going to be something you can benefit from someday? Do you think you're going to enrich yourself from this sort of corruption? Let me know. I want to hear from the magazine info@david pakman.com if you have no problem with this, I want to know why. One of our sponsors today is Pocket Hose, the world's number one expandable hose. I love this thing. Old fashioned hoses get kinks and creases at the spigot. The Copperhead hose from Pocket Hose has Pocket Pivot which swivels 360 degrees for full water flow. Gives you flexible freedom to water with ease around your home. When you're done, the hose shrinks back down to pocket size for effortless handling and easy storage. Plus your super light ultra durable pocket hose. Copperhead is backed by a 10 year warranty. The brand new Pocket Hose Copperhead with Pocket Pivot has been a game changer for me in my infamous garden, the vegetable garden. The way it grows from pocket size to full size in seconds is amazing. It then shrinks right back down, coils up on its own, you don't have to wind it, no hassle and it is super lightweight, durable, rust proof, won't burst. My audience can get a free pocket pivot and a 10 pattern sprayer with a purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just text PACMAN to 64,000. That's PACMAN to 64000 for your two free gifts with purchase info is in the description. I love anything that will solve small daily annoyances in a simple way and that's why I love my gear from Extra, our sponsor. The Wallet Pro by Extra is slim, clean and practical. Click the button, your cards pop out instantly. No digging around. It also has RFID blocking to protect against wireless theft and it comes with a lifetime warranty. And you can pair the Wallet Pro with the finder card for iOS which lets you track your wallet from your phone if it goes missing. Extra also makes the Travel Pack Vacuum kit which lets you compress clothes and create up to 60% more space in your suitcase or carry on something I desperately need. The rechargeable pump makes it quick to use. The Travel Vacuum bags are built for durability on real trips, not just for closet storage. Now Extra is having a sale offering up to 45% off. You can unlock an additional 20% off with code Pakman for a limited time. There's also a 100 day money back guarantee. Go to David pakman.com exterior the link is in the description. The David Pakman show is mostly funded by individual memberships on our website and Trump's Gas has been unleashed. The Trump Gas promo is on every day this week. We will discount memberships down to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Under Donald Trump this morning a gallon of gas was $3.97. That's 45% higher than it has been, but it is a really good price for memberships. So if you want to avail yourself of this discount, and I will remind you, once you lock in a discounted membership price, it's not the low, low introductory rate. You get to keep that price as long as you keep the membership. You can use the coupon code, trump gas. All one word, no space there. Trump Gas. Use the coupon code TRUMP GAS. At join pacman.com it'll drop the monthly memberships to 3, 397. You can also get an entire year for 3970. It's like getting an additional two months free. That's an insane deal. Check it out. Tomorrow we will update membership prices to reflect the next gas price. If you expect gas prices to go up, well, sign up today. If you expect gas prices to go down, maybe you wait until tomorrow. There is a narrative being pushed that Democrats are to blame for TSA agents not getting paid during the shutdown. Democrats are to blame for long lines at pre check at Minneapolis and Houston airport. And it's all Democrats. And that narrative has completely fallen apart. As soon as you listen. Not to what Democrats are saying, not to what left wing pundits or as it's often mispronounced, pundance. Who the hell came up with that, by the way? Pundits? Give me a break. It is what Republican elected officials are saying on television. Republican Senator John Kennedy, no relation to the Democratic Kennedy family, nor any relation to the no longer Democratic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Senator John Kennedy went on TV and he said, listen, Senator Ted Cruz and I, we had a plan to get Homeland Security reopened, to get TSA back to full staffing, to pay TSA workers. The plan was really simple. Reopen almost everything right away and then just separate the ICE funding part, which is the controversial part, do reconciliation, go through the reconciliation process and we'll get ICE funded later. And Kennedy admits on Fox News, okay, not some lefty on a liberal rag. This is a Republican senator on Fox News. He says the reason it didn't happen is Trump said, no, listen to this.