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- [00:00]
David Pakman
Donald Trump promised a short war. Five months later, his own administration is refusing to say whether it might continue for years or how many more Americans might die. Trump then freezes when directly confronted about whether his threats to destroy Iranian civilian infrastructure could be war crimes. And as his political position deteriorates, he's demanding new voting restrictions before these midterms that are just months away. While Caroline Levitt desperately blames Joe Biden for everything bad happening under Trump. We'll also look at the President's disturbing six hour explosion of bizarre AI fantasies and the new push to question Barron Trump about his alleged connection to the Tate brothers who have been arrested. And Mitch McConnell's six weeks, six week disappearance. What's the latest with it? Plus, the White House Correspondent's Dinner Redux treated Trump's authoritarian threats like comedy. Disgusting. All of that and more. Today. I want to start with a reminder, which is that we were told this Iran war would be two to three weeks.
- [01:22]
Donald Trump
Weeks.
- [01:22]
David Pakman
It's now been five months. We are in week 22. And Donald Trump's own administration is openly preparing Americans to be ready. The war could be starting to be in the range of years. Forget about weeks, but not even months. Years. And it could kill even more American troops. Remember that this is the peace president, the self proclaimed peace president, the proclaimed by Tulsi Gabbard peace president. And he criticized exactly these types of open ended forever wars. He said, only stupid presidents get us into this crap. Well, Kristen Welker on NBC confronted Trump's ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz with a very simple question which was Trump said this would last weeks. It's been five months. Will it at least be over by the end of the year? Well, take a look at this Iran right now.
- [02:17]
Kristen Welker
Mr. Ambassador, a lot of people are very interested in the timeline of this because President Trump had initially said that this conflict would last for a matter of weeks, five to six weeks, he said, we are now at the five month mark. Will this war be over by the new year?
- [02:36]
David Pakman
Well, listen to whether there's a yes or a no here.
- [02:39]
Mike Waltz
This war has been going on for 47 years.
- [02:43]
David Pakman
Incorrect. The regime has been in power 47 years, but the United States has not been at war with Iran for that period of time. Not to mention we were obviously not at war with Iran while the Obama Iran nuclear deal was in place. So he's starting. It's a yes or no question. He starts with a lie. That is neither a yes nor no.
- [03:01]
Mike Waltz
This, these attacks on Americans, not, not in this, of course, not, not necessarily this intensity. But at some level, Iran has been at war with the United States.
- [03:12]
David Pakman
I was just so the question was, is it conceivable, is it possible that this might not be over by the end of 2026? And Waltz certainly doesn't disabuse Kristen Welker of that notion. Now, notice the scam that Mike Waltz is running here. The question was about Trump's war, the military conflict that Trump chose to launch on February 28 after repeatedly promising Americans there are not going to be, we're going to get out of wars and certainly not going to get into any new ones. Walt's answer is, well, there have been tensions with Iran for 47 years now. By that logic, the administration could keep this war going forever and go, this was a 47 year old war. Trump was just president for a little bit. Trump has nothing to do with it. And of course, we all recognize how absurd and completely deranged that is. Now, Kristen Welker and continued to press him and said, can Americans expect Trump's war to be over by the end of the year? Let's listen to his next answer.
- [04:15]
Mike Waltz
Session of strength.
- [04:15]
Kristen Welker
But very quickly, do you anticipate this conflict will be concluded by the new year?
- [04:20]
Mike Waltz
Oh, I'm not going to put some kind of timeline on it. The President has all options on the table and he is exercising both diplomatic, economic and military to achieve a very clear strategic aim. And that's what's different. The wars of my generation, we had policy drift here. The president is very focused.
- [04:39]
Kristen Welker
This was an art.
- [04:42]
David Pakman
I hope people are realizing what's going on here. There is no timeline. There's no definition of a victory. There's no, forget about an exit strategy. It's all options are on the table. I'm not going to get ahead of the President on timeline. These are all Washington phrases that are used when they want maximum freedom to keep escalating and escalating, but never telling you what they are actually planning. Now, remember how this was sold. We would have decisive action for a few weeks. America would win. Everybody's weak, everybody's incompetent. But Trump is strong and he knows how to impose peace through strength. We had weeks, they become months. We supposedly won it, what, 60 times by now. And the end of the year may not even be the end of this thing. And the administration officials are refusing to tell Americans whether it could continue for years. The fact that they aren't saying, of course it's not going to last years, tells us everything we need to know. Now, then, then Kristen Welker gets maybe to the darkest question of all, which is should Americans prepare for more American service members to, to die? And it is another refusal and an incredibly cold one.
- [06:02]
Kristen Welker
This was an incredibly somber week, as you know, for the country, for US Service members were killed in Iranian attacks. President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, others attended the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday. Should the country brace for more American lives to be lost in, in this conflict? Mr.
- [06:22]
Mike Waltz
Ambassador, every man and woman who signs up, as I have and so many others to go serve knows of that eventual possibility. And my heart breaks for those families receiving the worst news of.
- [06:38]
David Pakman
Yeah, you seem heartbroken.
- [06:39]
Mike Waltz
Their lives, as does the president, all the way down the, all the way down the chain of command. Where I am thankful as a veteran is that we finally have a president who, who has said enough is enough. The Iranian regime has killed thousands of American soldiers, has threatened our neighbors, has threatened the region and threatened the United States and no more. And if they are willing to do this, if they were willing to build a massive conventional shield, which is what they were trying to do. You mentioned the issue of munitions and interceptors. Imagine if the president.
- [07:13]
David Pakman
All right, the question was, are more soldiers going to die because of Donald Trump's optional war? And the answer was everybody knows when they sign up that they might get killed. That's the answer. Now, I hope if military recruiters are being honest, I hope that it is true that members of the military understand that there are risks to serving. But that doesn't give presidents permission to send them into pointless wars with no timeline, no clearly defined objective, no, no explanation of when do we get to come home? When is it over? The troops accept the risk of defending the country, but that doesn't mean you give Donald Trump a blank check to gamble with their lives because he promised a quick war and has no plan for what to do now. This is how forever war has happened, by the way the original promise disappears. Do we even remember why we got in? Oh, they will never have a nuclear weapon. And they kind of didn't because we destroyed it over the summer. Summer. But then they did. And so we had to go back. The objective keeps changing and they stop talking. Notice how we're not getting any more. Well, we think it's going to go 26 weeks. That, that, that discussion is gone. Every new death becomes a justification for more escalation. They got some of our people. Now we're really going to go after them. So Trump didn't end endless wars. He may have created a new one. And his administration is now telling us as clearly as they can without just saying it out loud, there is no end in sight. There is no end in sight. There should be political consequences for this. And this, by the way, happening as global horror spreads over the authoritarian collapse that Donald Trump had this weekend. We must address that right now. Donald Trump used the rescheduled White House Correspondent's Dinner over the weekend to announce that he intends to run for a fourth term. And he repeats the lie that he won in 2020 and he humiliates journalist Kaitlan Collins to her face. But I believe that the most disturbing part of all of this is not just Donald Trump. We know who Donald Trump is. It's watching an institution supposedly dedicated to holding presidential power accountable turn this entire thing into dinner theater. Here is Trump, haha, it's so funny, announcing his fourth term campaign.
- [09:38]
Donald Trump
Okay, but we are all doing good together. That's why tonight, to show just how much I care about the press and I want to save your ratings, I'm pleased to announce my intention to, and this is a somewhat of a scoop, my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States. I will be doing that. I will be having an official. In fact, I think I have. Yeah, I won. I won three times. Now I'm going to do it again.
- [10:17]
David Pakman
So Trump just put on a Trump 20, 28 hat.
- [10:20]
Donald Trump
Thank you. I'm going to do it. Should be easy. I'm getting very good at running for president. No, I won three times, did very well the second time, by the way. It's a rigged election, but we don't have to talk about it. You know, it's interesting when you come back and you do a good job like we did, you don't care about it so much. But we do have to tighten up these elections because they really are in seriously bad shape.
- [10:41]
David Pakman
Ok, but now the obvious response is, oh, Trump was just joking. And I'm not naive to the fact that there's an element of joking. Trump's trying to be funny. He's not currently mounting a fourth term campaign or whatever. But Trump's jokes are threats with plausible deniability. He'll say the authoritarian thing and an audience of journalists laughs, despite Trump having insulted them, despite Trump having attacked them for years, despite Trump having no respect for the one profession that's in the Constitution, the press. And they go, well, it's a joke. And then Trump says it again and then he sells the merch and then he watches how people react to it. And notice that even the joke depends on another lie. I won three times. No, you didn't. You lost the 2020 election. There was no evidence of fraud remotely capable of changing the results in even a single state. His own administration, his attorney general, Republican state officials, courts, they all rejected this ridiculous fantasy that he won't stop repeating. And the 22nd Amendment also says nobody can be elected president more than twice. Changing it would require two thirds of the House, 2/3 of the Senate, ratification by 3/4 of the states, and Trump has no path to doing that. So the danger isn't Trump can declare himself president for life tomorrow. That's not the danger. I'm not suggesting that it is the dangers. A sitting president can repeatedly reject election results, discuss violating constitutional limits, or while the political culture is processing it as mere entertainment. Now then, in one of the ugliest moments of this entire thing, Donald Trump turned to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who had just received an award for her reporting. And this is what he had to say.
- [12:31]
Donald Trump
They learned a lesson. But I want to personally congratulate CNN's Kaitlyn Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It's a fake. She shouldn't get the award. It was a fake, but I didn't mind. I said, caitlin, congratulations. But it was fake. There's no question about it. But she's a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, caitlin, do you have a smile? Smile? You have a nice position. You're at CNN Fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Caitlin. Just smile.
- [13:06]
David Pakman
But think about what is happening here, okay? I mean, really think about the dystopian nature of this trash. The president congratulates a journalist, sort of, but it's like, not really sincere. He declares her award fake, attacks her employer, and then tells this accomplished professional, you should be smiling more because you're a young, attractive woman. That epitomizes Trump's understanding of journalism. If the coverage flatters him, it's legitimate. But if you've got reporting that challenges him in any way, it's fake. And a woman asking difficult questions should stop looking so serious and give Trump a little smile. A cute smile. Kaitlan, please. And Trump can't tolerate that Kaitlan Collins is being recognized in the same room as he is, because the award wasn't about honoring him. It's about honoring her work, which, by the way, was critical and incisive reporting related to Donald Trump. He had to degrade the journalism, the journalist, and cnn. And then he goes back to the. The jokes about his Next term.
- [14:18]
Donald Trump
We all did very well. It was a hell of an evening, I can tell you, that won't soon be forgotten. And I think a lot was learned from that evening. Tremendous amount was learned about security and about other things, the dangers of what we all do. But just like my presidency, the second time is always better. It's always better. And the third time will be better yet. I'm only kidding.
- [14:49]
David Pakman
What is funny about this crowd? And again, everybody laughs, and Trump gets exactly what he wants. If people object, his defenders go, oh, these triggered. People can't take a joke. But then if nobody objects, another authoritarian leader enters normal political conversation. And this is where I do believe the White House Correspondent's Dinner itself deserves scrutiny. The dinner honored legitimate journalism. It included reporting that challenged Trump. And of course, the association is not responsible for everything that the president says from its stage. Inviting the president is a longstanding tradition. Trump has declined for a bunch of time. I think this is the first time he's gone. Journalists shouldn't fear being in the same room with the powerful people they are covering. But there is something disgustingly broken when you turn the relationship between the president and the press into this celebrity banquet as Trump just continues attacking journalists and threatening media organizations with lawsuits and dismissing unfavorable reporting as fake and toying with trying to stay in power beyond his constitutional limits. Peter Baker of the New York Times said that the dinner should be rethought by the association after seeing what happened. And I kind of think Peter Baker has a point if we're supposed to celebrate the First Amendment. But you give Trump a glamorous stage from which he undermines the people practicing the First Amendment and everybody laughs and cheers. This is what Democratic erosion looks like in real life. It's not a scary the. It's not the. The Imperial March of Star wars with a sign that says authoritarianism begins now. Its jokes and lies and breaching norms and institutions that convince themselves everything's normal. The speech was embarrassing. And the room's willingness to play along reveals something far more dangerous. And it really reinforces, boy, do we need independent media. So we're pushing to 4 million YouTube subscribers. We're under attack by this White House. I've been listed as a media offender. They have no respect for what we are doing. As corporate media is failing hard. Consider following me. Consider following your other independent favorites. 4 million on YouTube is the immediate goal. It costs nothing. We're going to try to offer something different than if I have anything to say about it. Let's talk about suits for a moment. Guys want to look sharp for weddings or work or dinner or just you don't want to wear jeans one day. But finding menswear that feels classic, modern and comfortable is pretty difficult. This is why I like our sponsor, Southern Gents. Southern Gents offers refined menswear. They've got suits and blazers, trousers, dress shirts, loafers, all the finishing touches. They've got a great suit collection with single breasted and double breasted options. Maybe you need something polished for business or you've got a summer wedding. Southern Gents has what you need. I got a great single breasted blazer and pant combo perfect for a summer wedding. I'm going to the ordering is really straightforward. The shipping was super fast. Go to s-gents.com and use the code PACMAN for 10% off your entire order. The link is in the description One of the best parts of a good meal is sometimes something people overlook having great bread. When a meal includes fresh warm bread, everything feels a little bit better. Which is why I love our sponsor, Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, artisanal pastries and fresh pastas. Everything arrives frozen bakes in 25 minutes or less with no thawing required. Boxes are fully customizable. You can do variety gluten free vegan protein options. I love the garlic butter demi baguette. Comes out crisp on the outside, soft in the middle. Really easy. Weeknight dinner feels much more complete with it. Imagine fresh bakery quality bread, pastries and pasta at home with no trips to the store or Wild grain has over 40,000 5 star reviews and has been voted best food subscription box by USA Today three years in a row. For a limited time, get $30 off your first box plus free croissants for life at wildgrain.com/pacman or use the promo code Pacman at checkout. The link is in the description. Barron Trump is now being pulled into a potentially criminal investigation. Trump is furious. Furious as another Trump family member is hit with a remarkable demand. Now I have to start with this. Barron Trump is an adult. Barron Trump is not a child. This has to be the first thing we start with when talking about it because you always hear about oh, the children. The kids of elected officials are off limits. Trump still refers to his older sons as good kids despite Don Jr being almost 50 years old. So remember, we are talking about adults here. Now, before I even tell you what specifically this new investigation is about, I want to remind you that we know, Barron Trump has been involved in politics behind the scenes. Barron Trump played a huge, huge role in getting Trump into crypto stuff. Trump's entire family is now in this very lucrative crypto grift. Trump reportedly made about $1.3 billion from crypto in 2025. And never mind the amount that Trump's entire family made from the world World Financial. I forget exactly the name of the organization, organization they're involved with with Witkoff's kids. That is Barron's influence that Trump has gotten so into crypto crypto. Barron played a huge role in getting Trump on a lot of podcasts he did in the 2024 campaign. Which by the way, was good strategy. I've said it, it was, it was smart. Put him on the Nelk boys, put him on Lex Friedman on Rogan's show. That reportedly was at the encouragement of Barron Trump and it helped play a role in Trump ultimately defeating Kamala Harris. So before we go any further, this is an adult. It's an adult that. It's not like Tiffany Trump, who's an adult, but not in any way involved with Trump's candidacy and presidency. It is an adult involved both in Trump's electoral campaigns and in money making schemes. Bottom line. There is now a demand growing for testimony from Barron Trump. Our friend Congresswoman Yasmine Ansari explains it. She says Barron is tried. Barron is tied rather than to the recently arrested Tate brothers, Andrew and Tristan Tate. There's rape, sexual assault being thrown around, possible extradition. And Congresswoman Ansari says, listen, we need his testimony.
- [22:17]
Congresswoman Yasmine Ansari
Absolutely. I could not agree more. Barron Trump is an adult. He is, he is a full blown adult and he is very influential in the Trump White House orbit. I mean, we know from, you know, from the first administration and from this administration that the Trump children play a very big role in the administration and policies that are passed. They benefit financially from the way the Trump administration operates and the self dealing and, and the, the corruption that takes place. We know, you know, very famously Ivanka Trump also who I think even as a, you know, as a grown woman gets the same kind of treatment, right, because of her relationship with her father, father and the way Donald Trump talks about her. I think there are a lot of parallels to be drawn with the, you know, Donald Trump Ivanka relationship and the way he tries to, you know, let her get away with her actions. It's the same with Barron and Melania, but Ivanka had a very big role in the first administration. Jared Kushner is still conducting foreign policy on behalf of the United States. Barron Trump has not only been influential in the campaign and connecting the campaign to the manosphere, which, of course, Andrew Tate is a major influencer in that space, but he also has, you know, is similar to his brother's undertaking in corruption, undertaking in investments and prediction markets and stock trading.
- [23:47]
David Pakman
So she's getting to a lot of the same substance that I'm pointing out, which is this guy is substantially substantial, substantively, Substantively involved. Now, we should be precise about what's happening here. Barron Trump has not been charged with a crime. There's no public evidence that Barron committed a crime, participated in any decisions involving the Tate brothers. This is a request for testimony as part of a proposed congressional investigation into whether people around Trump are using political influence to help the taints, the Tates. Now, there could be criminal referrals that come from it, but we need to distinguish what this is from what it is not. Andrew and Tristan Tate are facing dozens of extraordinarily serious allegations in the uk, and the new charges reportedly include rape, sex trafficking against both of them, and in Andrew's case, a charge involving indecent images of a child. Of course, the brothers deny all wrongdoing.
- [24:43]
Interviewer/Host
And.
- [24:43]
David Pakman
And the question for Congress is how two men facing allegations this serious managed to develop such extensive connections to the President's political movement and also whether those connections affect United States policy. Andrew Tate has publicly claimed he knows the Trump family. He's communicated with Barron and is very close with them. And the New Yorker has also reported apparent communications between Andrew Tate and Barron, although a spokesperson for TAINT denies them. And MSN Ms. Now now says it has not independently confirmed that. So what? Congresswoman Ansari is asking the Republican Oversight Committee Chairman, James Colmer, to investigate. And James Colmer is a piece of, you know, he's a piece of work. She says. We have detailed, direct, extensive communications between Tate and Barron. So we got a question. Barron here. What did he know regarding the Tates? Did he communicate with Donald Trump or administration officials about their legal problems and whether anybody tried to influence their custody or travel restrictions, passport status, possible extradition. And Barron is only the tip of the iceberg. Junior Donald Trump Jr. Previously referred to the detention of the Tates in Romania as absolute insanity. JD Vance follows both of them on Twitter. The Tates have reportedly. Or the representatives have reportedly met with Congressman Wesley Hunt, with Richard Grenell, one of Trump's special envoys. They were accused of pressuring Romania on their behalf, although Grenell denies it at this point in time. So this is a network of connections very much worthy of scrutiny. If Barron merely communicated with Andrew Tate and had nothing to do with government policy, Trump's campaign, the crypto schemes, all of it, he can come in and he can say that under oath and being asked questions doesn't mean you're guilty. But the Trump standard seems to be any investigation involving Trump or anybody near him must be illegitimate by default. And Republicans can go and investigate Hunter Biden for years. Joe Biden doesn't get in the way. They display his private pictures in Congress and drag them before committees. But asking an adult member of the Trump family, what do you know is considered this unthinkable assault on the family. Give me a break. Now. James Comer is not going to pursue, pursue this. Of course, House Republicans have no appetite for investigating anybody connected to Trump. They risk being subjected to Trump's wrath. But the real danger for Trump is November. If Democrats win the House, which they are likely to do right now, it looks most likely outcomes. Democrats win the House but not the Senate. Democrats get subpoena power and, and at that point, the Tate's connections to Barron, Don Jr. Grinnell, the broader MAGA establishment could become the subject of a serious investigation. The central question, did anyone use access to the President of the US to protect Andrew and Tristan Tate from international law enforcement? Barron's last name being Trump doesn't prove he did anything wrong, but it shouldn't make them untouchable either. And that's where we stand right now. Mitch McConnell has now disappeared from the Senate for more than six weeks. And Republicans are finally admitting we need him back. But here is the even stranger political reality. The longer Mitch McConnell remains in office and away from Washington, the better it is for Democrats. And I'm going to explain this because I'm getting a lot of email about this. I think some people are confused. Mitch McConnell has missed every Senate vote since June 11th. On June 14th, the story is he fell briefly lost consciousness and was hospitalized, during which he ended up with mild pneumonia. But he's doing great. We got weeks of vague assurances that he's recovering nicely. He, of course, remained completely out of sight. Eventually, his office put out a picture and said that the 84 year old was being transferred to a rehab facility. He was pictured with his wife, Elaine Chao, holding what appeared to be the sports pages from that day's Washington Post. We still have not seen a live appearance or heard directly from him. There is significant speculation that the picture is old or was AI modified. Even Republican senators said, I've Been told that that's an old picture. And then nothing. Once again, for weeks, additional weeks. We now have a statement from spokesman David Popp, who said to the Washington Post, quote, the senator continues to meet with staff regarding Senate and Kentucky business, including discussions on defense appropriations, foreign policy, the farm bill, constituent services, and constituent federal grant requests. As the senator continues to improve in rehab, we will be sure to keep you updated. This is basically a more detailed version of don't worry, Mitch is working with staff. Maybe he is. But after six weeks, it's time to request a brief, independently verifiable appearance. You even got Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville saying we should at least get some video. But here's the political twist I want to address. Democrats should want McConnell to remain a senator and remain missing for as long as possible. Why? Republicans already lost Lindsey Graham. Without McConnell, their working Senate majority is down another vote. His absence leaves the Appropriations Committee evenly divided. Makes it hard for Republicans to get Trump's military spending through. True. So the best, as infuriating as this whole thing is, the best tactical situation for Democrats is what's happening right now. McConnell technically has the seat, prevents a replacement, cannot appear to cast votes. Now, I've been seeing people claiming if Mitch McConnell resigns or the seat becomes vacant, Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear can appoint a Democrat, but he can't. Kentucky Republicans changed that law specifically to remove the governor's power to appoint a replacement senator. Beshear vetoed the regis that legislation, but Republicans overrode him. So the law right now would be that there needs to be a special election. Beshear has suggested maybe he will challenge that, but that would open up a legal fight. Very uncertain. I highly doubt it leads to an automatic Democratic appointment, probably not before the next person is sworn in. And Democrats would be significant underdogs. If there is a special election, Democrats are extraordinarily unlikely to win that. So I think that the best scenario is, of course, McConnell's constituents deserve answers about whether he's alive and whether he's ever coming back. As a matter of Senate power, Republicans are the ones who should be anxious about this absence rather than Democrats, because for Democrats, the politically advantageous outcome is McConnell remains a senator, continues recovering nicely, would do we believe that, who knows. But stays very far from the Senate floor so that he is unable to cast any ballots. Now, there's one other element of this, which is this August 3rd, August 4th deadline we're coming up on. The best understanding that we have right now is that if Mitch McConnell were to resign or die before August 4, meaning by August 3, Andy Beshear has to have a special election. Now, the law doesn't say when, and there are questions like, could he schedule it for the day before the new Congress takes over. There's all these questions. But if Mitch doesn't make it to August 3rd, there has to be a special election. If Mitch does make it to August 4th, there is no special election. So after everybody's Talking about this August 4 deadline, after August 4, the seat would remain with Mitch McConnell as the senator up until the new senator, whoever wins in November, is sworn in in January. So that may leave Republicans down a seat for even longer. So it's important to understand what's going on. Do we need accountability and transparency from our elected officials? Of course we do. Do we have a problem with the gerontocracy, a government by the elderly in the United States and people staying too long in positions of power? Of course we do. But expediting Mitch McConnell's resignation potentially gives Republicans a vote. I don't want Republicans having more votes. So just something to keep in mind here. Hey, if you're hearing this, that means you're listening to our podcast on one of the many podcast networks that we stream to. And first, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being a listener of this show. It really means a lot that you're tuning in here. I would love to ask you for a quick favor. We are so close to reaching 4 million subscribers on YouTube. YouTube is where we post everything you get through the audio podcast and a lot more stuff. It would mean a lot to me if you took a quick second to pop over to YouTube, search up the David Pakman show and hit subscribe. Every bit helps. I would love to have you as a subscriber there. Caroline Levitt is panicking and made it evident during a bizarre interview with Donald Trump's daughter in law. And she is stunning people with a desperate plea. Please keep blaming Joe Biden for everything. Even though it's been 550 days since Joe Biden left office. This is really a perfect, perfect preview of Republican strategy for the midterms. Blame Biden for everything. And if it happened under Biden, great. If it happened under Trump, also blame Biden. And if it stops working. And this is the interesting part, communism. Just start saying communism, Communism, Communism. And hope nobody has a follow up question. Here is Caroline Levitt.
- [34:55]
Caroline Levitt
They all got me up to speed pretty quickly and now we're back out at the podium.
- [34:59]
Interviewer/Host
Well, speaking of the midterms we know the tradition, the party that has the White House typically has an uphill battle for the midterms. And when you look at the top issue among voters right now, it seems to be the cost of living. So what steps have been taken by the White House to really address that? Because that's going to be important as we head towards November.
- [35:20]
Caroline Levitt
Yeah, well, the president and the White House, we fully recognize that. And I would remind your viewers in the American, American people of who caused the affordability crisis yet.
- [35:30]
David Pakman
Tell us, Caroline, please, this country, it
- [35:32]
Caroline Levitt
was Joe Biden and it was the Democrats in this city when they were in power. And President Trump took immediate action on day one to fix that with his overall economic formula of tax cuts, deregulation and energy dominance. That's what this administration has been working on every single day for the past year and a half. President Trump and the when Republicans signed the largest middle class tax cut in history, every single Democrat voted against it. President Trump and Republicans created Trump accounts where children who are signing up today, like my daughter, will have nearly $300,000 worth of savings in these accounts by the time they are 18. That is giving our children the American dream on a silver platter and the touch of an app. And Democrats are opposed to that. How could you be.
- [36:18]
David Pakman
Levitt says Trump took immediate action to fix affordability, but prices are up. When has inflation been negative since Donald Trump took over? When have wages exceeded inflation growth? Because even if you can't get inflation prices down, if you've got some inflation but wage growth exceeds that inflation, people's purchasing power goes up. Never, never since Donald Trump took over. In fact, we're down to 3.5% inflation now, which is still too high, according to Trump. So Trumps when Biden was president, 3.5% was too high, but it even hit 3.8% the previous month. So hold on a second. Republicans control the White House and Congress. Biden hasn't been president for 550 days. They've been given all of the power that they say Trump needs to fix all this stuff. How many years into a Trump administration can we get before Trump is responsible for anything? Now, nobody denies inflation surged under Biden at the beginning of his term. It surged globally. The pandemic supply chain crisis, stimulus, housing shortage, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There were a bunch of contributing factors. Biden was president and voters punished Democrats for it. When Biden and Harris went out going, everything's awesome, voters said, no, it's not. And Joe Biden did not start. Joe Donald Trump's war with Iran. Joe Biden did not impose global tariffs. Biden is not free, forcing Trump to pursue any of these policies that raise the cost of fuel and the cost of imported goods and the materials that American businesses use. Now, we have a study from the Tax foundation and not not a left wing entity. And the Tax foundation estimates that Trump's tariffs this year will cost every American household about $700, in addition to the 2025 tariffs, by the way. And meanwhile, the Iran war is driving oil and gas prices up. And these are optional choices that Donald Trump made. Now, Caroline Levitt's argument is Trump gets credit for anything good, but Biden gets blame for anything bad. And apparently the presidency is powerful enough for Trump to fix everything. That's how he campaigned, but never powerful enough for him to be blamed for a damn thing. Now, Caroline Levitt then moved on to what Republicans are increasingly using as their substitute for an economic argument. If you can blame Biden, great. If you can talk about communism or our education system, that's cool, too.
- [38:48]
Interviewer/Host
Fox News polling shows that Democrats have a favorable opinion of socialism over capitalism by a large majority, as opposed to Republicans who have by about 50 points more favorable view of capitalism over socialism. What do you make of those numbers and what would your message be? Maybe to independent voters who are looking at these two parties as we head towards the midterms, you have one party, the part of the Republican Party, obviously capitalists, you know, free market people who want you to be able to keep more of your own money. They have the Democrats on the other side who basically are taken over by social totally.
- [39:25]
Caroline Levitt
They, the Democrat Party has totally capitulated to the communists within their ranks. Communism has never worked. And it's very scary that a major political party in this country, the Democrat Party, is being controlled by communists. And their only real answer to any problem is to just take more from the individuals who make that country great and give it to the government. You know, it sounds great to have free food, free free health care, free rent, but who's paying for all of that? We are. You will be. It's easy to sell, but it doesn't work. And I think unfortunately, so many people in this country are falling for it because of our liberal, biased education system. We live in the best country in the history of the world. That's what our children should be taught.
- [40:10]
David Pakman
Listen, this conversation has become completely mind rotting. But David, I thought you also weren't a communist. Well, listen, she says communism has never worked. Fine. I'm not a communist. Neither is she. Most elected Democrats aren't communists. In fact, I don't know of any that are. Most Democratic voters aren't communists. Wanting a combination of expanded health care, school meals, housing assistance, lower rent doesn't mean we transfer ownership of the economy to the state. That's not what is being advocated for. And these generic polls she talks about asking people, do you prefer capitalism or socialism or communism? They tell us very little. You're basically polling reactions to what people often wrongly believe these words mean without really talking about policy. Ask people about policies. Should children get meals at school? Should Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices? Should somebody go bankrupt because they got cancer? Should billionaires pay a higher effective tax rate than their secretaries? Should we be building way more housing and preventing families from being thrown onto the street? Then we can debate what works, what it costs, and how to pay for it. But Caroline Levitt instead invents this fantasy platform of unlimited free food and free rent and free health care, calls it communism and says everybody wants it, and says the education system is to blame for teaching everybody this crap. It's just not what's happening.
- [41:36]
Congresswoman Yasmine Ansari
Free.
- [41:37]
David Pakman
Finally, she explained why being Trump's press secretary is just so, so easy. This is good.
- [41:45]
Caroline Levitt
Yeah. I've been in this press world now for quite some time, and it's constant and busy and evolving. So it took me some time, you know, several days to really wrap my arms around everything that's going on here at the White House. But thankfully, you know, working for the president, people always ask, what's it like to be, you know, his spokesperson? And he makes it.
- [42:05]
David Pakman
It's so easy because he always tells the truth.
- [42:08]
Caroline Levitt
Very easy, because he just tells you like it is. And he's so accessible, not just to me, but to all of his staff here. And so it just. It was a gif where I was really able to figure out what was going on here in the building. Obviously received briefings from the Secretary of State, policymakers, our legislative affairs team, what's going on in Capitol Hill? They all got me up to speed pretty quickly. And now we're back out at the podium.
- [42:31]
Interviewer/Host
Well, speak.
- [42:33]
David Pakman
Donald Trump may be the single worst example of somebody who just tells it like it is. He lies about elections, he lies about tariffs, he lies about the economy. He lies about crowd sizes. He lies about wars. He lies about how long wars will take. He lies about when we're getting his new health care plan. He lies about the deficit. He lies about deals that don't exist. He'll contradict himself within seconds in the Same speech, and. And then deny that he did it when anybody calls him on it, which, by the way, his staff very rarely calls him on it. Levitt's job is easy only is that in that there is no expectation of consistency. It's not easy because Trump always tells the truth. It's easy because she can say one thing one day and the next thing the next day or the next minute, and as long as she appears to be loyal to Trump, she's not going to get punished and she gets to keep her job. This is the entire midterm message. Trump inherited every problem created, not a single problem, and deserves two more years to fix the things Republicans insist he has already fixed and also are Joe Biden's fault. Anyway, it's incoherent. If voters judge them by what's happened to cost of living instead of by the word communism, these Republicans are going to have a very serious problem. But it depends on us getting out there and voting. And that is exactly what I plan to do. Donald Trump threatened to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants. And a reporter said, is that a war crime? And Trump's answer was to attack the reporter. We've seen this before. Question about Iran. You're talking about blowing up civilian power
- [44:09]
Donald Trump
plants and bridges, moving.
- [44:10]
David Pakman
Much of the civilized world would consider that a war crime.
- [44:12]
Donald Trump
Do you? I won't respond to that question. Who you with?
- [44:17]
David Pakman
The New York Times.
- [44:18]
Donald Trump
I figured so. New York Times.
- [44:23]
David Pakman
Failing New York Times. And that's it. You don't get an answer. He could have said, every strike will follow the laws of war. Of course, he could have explained, I don't know which military targets he meant. Or he could have said, well, we. We're going to get these targets, but they have strategic value, and here's how we're going to protect civilians. He didn't do any of that. He just said, oh, who are you with? Ah, the New York Times. Very much a failing New York Times. Now, more than likely, Trump understood answering the substance could be a big legal problem and a big political problem, because at the end of the day, he is proposing war crimes. So he refuses to answer, and he attacks the messenger. Now, I don't even know that cornered is the right word. Trump got a single direct question, refused to answer it, and there were no immediate consequences for refusing to answer. And what Trump announced is, every time Iran attacks a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, America will destroy one bridge or power plant, including near Tehran. Now, that is not how lawful military targeting works. Attacking a bridge or a Power plant is not automatically a war crime. Civilian infrastructure could be a legitimate military target if it contributes to military operations and provides a definitive military advantage. But commanders must distinguish military targets from civilian objects. And they must consider, is civilian harm going to be excessive relative to the military advantage we get. They have to take feasible precautions in those situations. Trump is like, I'm not going to answer that. Who you with? Failing New York Times. And the punishment formula is, for every military ship that's hit or other ships, America will destroy a piece of infrastructure. Well, which bridge, which power plant? What military function does it serve? Does the electricity run hospitals or water treatment or sewage systems? How many civilians could die when the lights go out? And Trump stated criteria is, Iran does something, we're going to do this other thing. And international law prohibits intentionally attacking civilian objects that are not valid military objectives. Trump wants revenge, but revenge doesn't change the law. Now, there was a discussion I read which said, isn't this all kind of like a distraction from the Epstein files? And I want to address it. You know, at this point, everything, depending on who you talk to, everything, is supposedly a distraction from everything else we can follow. Want more than one scandal at the same time. And so when I see a president threatening potentially unlawful attacks on civilian infrastructure, that deserves attention. And Trump promised peace through strength. Five months into the war, we've got 13 consecutive nights of new strikes and commercial shipping is under attack and troops are dead. And Trump can't define victory or explain the exit or tell us how much longer this is going to last. That is important. A single question from a reporter exposed how vapid this whole thing is. And also, we're not going to forget about the Epstein files. And we've done multiple interviews about the Epstein files over the last few weeks and we can do two things at once. But here, this totally depraved and wacky retaliation formula combined with an insult to the reporter and no legal answer is what we are focused on. Now, just to go back to the beginning of the show, Donald Trump over the weekend went to to the rescheduled White House correspondents dinner, and he joked about how he won in 2020, and he joked about how he's running again. And he put on a Trump 2028 hat and did the full routine. And the room of press who have been roundly attacked by Trump and suppressed by Trump and disrespected by Trump, who has no respect for the media, laughed at most of it. And here is Donald Trump getting a serious, substance, substantive question. There are other countries where if you're asked about your apparent plan to commit war crimes and you go, who you with? Ah, the failing New York Times. That becomes a scandal where every serious media outlet reports on it and attempts to hold the President accountable and will join in asking the same question every time over and over again until they get a real answer. And in solidarity with the press here, we didn't get that. And over the weekend, the press corps laughed at Trump's authoritarian jokes. Depressing stuff. Hey, if you're hearing this, that means you're listening to our podcast on one of the many podcast networks that we stream to. And first, I just want to say thank you for being a listener of this show. It really means a lot that you're tuning in here. I would love to ask you for a quick favor. We are so close to reaching 4 million subscribers on YouTube. YouTube is where we post everything you get through the audio podcast and a lot more stuff. It would mean a lot to me if you took a quick second to pop over to YouTube, search up the David Pakman show and hit subscribe. Every bit helps. I would love to have you as a subscriber there. A furious Donald Trump is demanding that they rig the midterm elections for Republicans right now. Now, Trump has seen the midterm polls clearly. And after throwing ketchup at the proverbial wall, or throwing proverbial ketchup at the wall, or maybe throwing real ketchup at the real wall, his response was to demand that Republicans change the voting rules before Americans can throw them out of power in November. This is what Trump does whenever defeat is possible. Attack the election in advance, restrict how people vote, prepare to declare the results illegitimate if he loses. And now Donald Trump is publicly pressuring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to require proof of citizenship and voter id, while largely throwing out and eliminating vote by mail, which Trump does, Trump now regularly votes by mail. Now, Trump has a name for this disastrous scheme. He calls it the Save America act. Because Republicans are always seem to give their most destructive ideas names that sound pretty good. Instead of saving America, it should be called the Destroy America Act. Remember the Patriot Act, One of the least patriotic pieces of law of legislation we've seen. Citizenship is already required to vote. Widespread noncitizen voting is imaginary. The Save America act addresses an imaginary crisis by putting in place really serious obstacles for those who are planning to vote legally. It requires documentary proof of citizenship to register. It imposes these strict ID rules. It eliminates almost all mail in voting. And what House Republicans have Now proposed are $10 billion in grants for states that adopt these restrictions themselves. They're essentially trying to pay states to make voting harder. Now, Caroline Levitt says Trump's patience is running out. Oh, he wants this done before Congress leaves for its August recess. Why? Well, there is a new Fox News poll that has Democrats leading the House ballot 53 to 46. This is the highest percentage either party has received in generic ballot polling from Fox News since 1996. Democrats lead Republicans by 9 on the economy, and they've even pulled ahead on immigration. Trump is right to see this as a political disaster. There are two problems with his supposed solution. Number one, Senate Republicans don't seem to have 50 votes. John Thune says they just don't have the votes. The restrictions in the bill may not qualify for budget reconciliation either. Calling voter suppression a state grant doesn't magically turn election law into budget policy, meaning they may not even be able to pass this with 50, 50, a simple majority if they had it. Number two, this could backfire and end up blocking or haranguing Republican voters as well. About 12% of registered voters may lack the required documents. Married women may have different names on birth certificates. Rural voters might have to travel for hours to present documents. Older Americans, military families, Republicans in states like Florida. These are folks that rely on mail in voting, and many of them vote Republican. So Republicans are effectively saying, we have all these arrows. Some of them may hit some of our own people, but we think that the arrows, arrows will hit more of your people. And one kind of interesting observation is that if voting in the courts were powerless, Republicans wouldn't be working this hard to weaken voting and the courts. I believe that's the emergency here. Demanding Congress pass a terrible law is not in and of itself a crime. The bigger danger is Trump establishing his excuse for what comes next. And if the SAFE act fails and Republicans lose, Trump can say, listen, I was warning you guys, the election was rigged. Congress refused to protect it. And then come the lawsuits, the. The pressure on election officials, attacks on certification processes, maybe even demands for law enforcement to intervene. We already have heard from Trump that he plans to have ICE in and around polling places. Now, will those efforts succeed? Probably not. Elections are administered by states. Presidents can't cancel them. But what we learned in 2020 is that you can have a failed authoritarian scheme and still do a lot of damage. Trump is not acting like a president confident that voters support him. He's acting like a guy who has seen the verdict and he wants to interfere before it can be delivered. Now, what should the average person be doing to be ready? Well, listen, first of all, verify that you are registered and your polling place. This is every election, by the way. This is not in this particular situation. But the starting point is verify that you are actually registered. I believe that Vote.org has all this stuff. You can make sure you're registered. Know what's on your ballot before you go. Especially if things get hectic or wacky. You don't want to be surprised by things on the ballot. This can include ballot referenda or other things. Figure out your polling place, track your ballot if you voted by mail, and then there's a bunch of other relevant information. Have a plan. Understand the ID rules in your state. One thing you don't want is to show up believing that the requirements are A and they're actually B. But just as importantly, you might correctly assess, I don't need certain documents to vote. And then one of these provocateurs might come up to you and go, hey, you know you need XYZ in there, right? And if you don't have the information, maybe you fall for it, maybe you go home. So the point is, information is the most important thing here and Vote Dawg as well as a bunch of other resources can help you find that. Now, in terms of the what can we do from an activism perspective, that is a much longer term and difficult conversation. We recently spoke with attorney Mark Elias and he is doing a lot, including a whole cadre of lawyers out there hoping to protect these elections. But there are groups working on this. What I actually suggest is get involved yourself at the state level. You can be the person making sure that these people don't screw with the election. Learn about being a poll monitor, get trained and you can sign up in most states, depends on the municipality and the state exactly what the rules are. But in a lot of places you can do this and then you can actually be there informing people, which I believe is extraordinarily valuable. So we have tools. We have tools. Let's not let them get away with this. Donald Trump had a terrifying mental health episode posting 40 deranged images in a six hour mental breakdown. This is deeply abnormal. Millions have become desensitized to it. I don't know what to do. I've got to take my my make America, make truth great again hat and I've got to beat my microphone. I don't know what to do to d or rather resensitize people to the fact that this is insane. Over roughly six hours, Donald Trump unleashed more than 40 posts, many of them bizarre AI fantasies depicting Trump as a military conqueror, a doctor, a founding father, a time traveler, the guardian of the entire planet. I have a list of the posts here put together by our friend Harry Sisson. And what you can see is that there are moments when, for example, from 322 to 325, that is a three minute period, Donald Trump posted almost 10 things. Him standing next to Biden, art of him giving a speech, an AI picture of Chris Christie fighting with Jerry Nadler. One of the wackiest images he posted after attacking her at the White House Correspondent's Dinner is an a photo of Kaitlan Collins depicted as Dylan Mulvaney, who is a trans woman, I believe, who was involved in that Bud Light controversy. Was it years ago at this point, which led to a lot of right wingers saying, no more bud light. Endless AI images multiple between 4:36 and 4:41, just this is the President of the United States, ladies and gentlemen, and look at what he is doing here. How has this become normalized? You were not forget about the specifics of each one here. The fantasy nature of this. The president behaving this way during an international military crisis, publicly fantasizing about war through AI generated art. And the images also are very revealing as to the fantasy world that Donald Trump inhabits, or at least wants his followers to inhabit. Trump alongside jfk, Trump with George Washington. Trump as a doctor. Trump is a Navy commander. Commander Trump is saving America. Trump wants us to see him in these ways. And he even posted one of him running illegally for president in 2028 while his enemies cry. This is the visual language of a cult. I talk about this extensively in my book Pay Attention. And how not only do we end up in these algorithmic silos, we then are increasingly fed visual language of cults generated by AI. Trump is the warrior, the physician, the founding father, the immortal leader, the global protector. Now, I cannot diagnose Trump from social media posts, but what we can observe is behavior. If your elderly parent or grandparent spent six hours posting dozens of fake pictures portraying themselves as military commander, historical hero, doctor, etc. You would be concerned. You wouldn't say this is engaging normally with social media. You would probably say it might be time to have an evaluation done, a medical evaluation done. And if Trump didn't personally post all of this crap, it's not a particularly comforting alternative because it means staff members are controlling Trump's account and flooding it with authoritarian AI fantasies. Are these the people that should be controlling Trump's social media accounts. So either Trump is obsessively posting the material or the people around him believe this is how a president should communicate. One other thought. Notice the 2028 obsession. His supporters love to insist it's a joke. We know from history. Authoritarian movements constantly use jokes to normalize ideas and to test public reaction and to make previously unthinkable behavior just feel familiar. Familiar. And then there's the imagery downplaying American casualties. Real service members become another prop in Trump's fantasies, where he smokes cigars and time travels with George Washington. Trump is desperate to project strength. None of this projects strength. It communicates insecurity, obsession, a desperate need to see himself depicted as the hero of every story. Nobody's having nightmares because Trump posted another fake image. The alarming part is the guy in control of the world's most powerful military is consumed by an AI generated fantasy version of himself. And millions of his supporters see it and they go, that's leadership. That's how the president should behave. We are screwed as a country if we can't do away with this. Democrats have selected South Carolina to be the first primary in 2028. We'll talk about it on today's bonus show. Thomas Massie's bill would bar funding for police using Flock license plate readers. Very interesting. And the Trump administration is ramping up its controversial plan to revoke citizenship from people who were naturalized. Am I next? All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up@join pacman.com and remember, you can preorder for a few more weeks a limited number of signed copies of my new book. Pay attention at David pakman.com/attention. If you want this particular copy of the book, this is the first one ever printed. Send your preorder screenshot to info@david pakman.com say David, put me in that raffle and on the book's release date, one person will get this particular copy that's on my shelf. First one ever that's been printed. I'll dedicate it and send it to you. That's info@david pakman.com for the raffle. Join pacman.com to get even more show today. I'll be back with you tomorrow.