There are suddenly problems everywhere

Summary

The David Pakman Show — "There are suddenly problems everywhere"

Date: June 10, 2026
Host: David Pakman
Featured Guests: Brian Tyler Cohen, Nathan Sales, Sarah Wiles, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Overview of the Episode

This episode tackles the escalating Iran conflict, Donald Trump's evolving war rhetoric, rising inflation, and the shifting narrative within conservative media. Pakman dives into Trump's health rumors and the controversy over a newly revealed White House enemies list, while connecting policy failures to the lived experiences of everyday Americans. The tone is sharp, satirical, and often incredulous, mixing fact-heavy commentary with biting humor.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Never-Ending” War with Iran

• Escalation Instead of Resolution:

  • What was originally a "three-week war" is now in week 15, with Trump repeatedly declaring victory while conflict intensifies ([00:00]).
  • Trump has redefined “cease fire” to mean "moderate shooting" (02:57), leading to an Orwellian distortion of language.
  • Iranian retaliation, attacks on US positions in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan, and Trump-ordered strikes on Iranian infrastructure signal increasing, not decreasing, hostilities ([03:28], [04:13]).

• Notable Quote — Redefining Ceasefire:

  • David Pakman (02:57):
    “Moderate shooting is a cease fire according to Donald Trump. In the Middle East, certainly an innovative definition.”

• The Loop of False Claims:

  • Trump and administration officials repeatedly claim the war is almost over, with Fox News correspondents relaying the narrative that “strikes are coming” and “negotiations are close,” but with violence simultaneously escalating ([03:28]).

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2. Economic Fallout: Inflation and Blame

• Rising Inflation:

  • Inflation surges to 4.2%—a three-plus year high, or the highest in over a decade if excluding the COVID-spike ([08:53]-[10:00]).
  • Energy and food prices are leading contributors; wages are declining in real terms, further diminishing Americans' purchasing power ([10:17]).

• Notable Quote — Assigning Blame:

  • David Pakman (10:17):
    “We need Trump stickers. We need them all over gas pumps. I need them on my avocados. I need them on my beloved Granny Smith apples. I need them on my electrical bill … I did that with Donald Trump.”

• Cognitive Dissonance and Gaslighting:

  • Trump claims to have inherited "the highest inflation in the history of our country" from Biden—a statement Pakman debunks with data ([12:38]).
  • Trump and supporters argue that current problems are remnants of Democratic mismanagement, while Pakman insists these are self-inflicted wounds due to the Iran conflict turnout.

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3. Shifting Conservative Media Attitudes

• Fox News Starts Asking Tough Questions:

  • Anchors like Laura Ingraham challenge the administration’s claims about Iran’s military capacity ([52:38]), pointing out contradictions between “their military is destroyed” and new successful Iranian attacks.
  • Dana Perino and Jesse Watters express fatigue and incredulity at the endless declarations of imminent victory ([55:55]).

• Notable Quote — The “Days Away” Paradox:

  • Dana Perino (55:55):
    “He keeps saying we’re very close, we’re days away. And I don’t know what that means. We’ve heard that for a very long time.”
  • David Pakman (56:12):
    “At some point, ‘we’re very close’ is no longer an update. It's just like the slogan of the war.”

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4. Trump’s Health: A Growing Concern

• Physical Symptoms on Display:

  • Viral videos show Trump unable to walk in a straight line; speculation mounts over vision, neurological, or balance issues ([40:00]).
  • Multiple examples cited by Pakman—Trump veering on a red carpet, tripping on stairs, and bumping into Melania—underscore the problem.

• Transparency & Enemy Lists:

  • The White House's lack of disclosure on Trump’s health gives rise to further suspicion; Pakman notes he’s been added to a "media offenders list" for reporting on these issues ([44:00]).

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5. White House “Enemies List” Raises Questions

• All-Jewish Initial List:

  • Alongside Brian Tyler Cohen and Brian Krassenstein, Pakman notes the published “enemy” influencers are all Jewish ([43:04]).
  • Guest Sarah Wiles flags the disturbing pattern and historic overtones; Pakman is careful to not assign definite intent but calls the list “authoritarian” and “dangerous” ([43:54]).

• Notable Quote — On the List:

  • David Pakman (43:54):
    “What that information means and what we do with it is a different question... A list of media enemies and political enemies that has its own ugly past.”

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6. The UFC White House Fiasco

• A Symbol of Misplaced Priorities:
  • Trump constructs an outdoor UFC arena at the White House for his birthday, hemorrhaging political capital ([37:00]).
  • Celebrity attendees drop out in droves; even Trump-friendly figures face ridicule for being involved.
  • Pakman’s sarcasm turns palpable as he wishes for rain storms to wash out the event, characterizing it as “disgusting, tacky, and embarrassing.”

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7. “Blame Minorities” — Ugly Old Tropes Return

• James Comer’s Rhetoric:
  • Pakman highlights Comer’s scapegoating of minorities regarding election fraud ([00:42]).
  • Frames it as a regression to open racism and a distraction from real issues.

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8. The Psychology of Election Denial

• AOC Dissects Trump’s Mindset:

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asserts Trump is psychologically incapable of admitting defeat and thus must allege fraud in any loss ([61:22]).
  • Pakman expands: Trump has claimed cheating even in victories and his refusal to accept loss has cascaded into GOP dogma.

• Notable Quote — On Trumpian Denial:

  • David Pakman (62:03):
    “If Trump won, the election was fair ... If Trump loses, the election was rigged. It’s a very convenient framework. There is no outcome that could prove them wrong.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [02:57] Pakman on Trump's redefinition of “ceasefire”:
  “Moderate shooting is a cease fire according to Donald Trump.”

• [10:17] On Inflation Accountability:
  “We need Trump stickers. We need them all over gas pumps ... I did that with Donald Trump.”

• [43:54] On the All-Jewish Enemies List:
  “A list of media enemies and political enemies that has its own ugly past.”

• [56:12] On Perpetual Promises:
  “‘We’re very close’ is no longer an update. It's just like the slogan of the war.”

• [62:03] On the Psychology of Election Denial:
  “There is no outcome that could prove them wrong. It’s a self-reinforcing belief system.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00-04:13] — Escalation of the Iran war: New strikes, downed helicopters, Trump’s definitions.
• [09:17-13:10] — Inflation surge, declining real wages, fact-checking Trump’s economic narratives.
• [37:00-41:00] — The embarrassing UFC fight at the White House.
• [40:00-44:00] — Trump’s visible health symptoms and White House “enemies list.”
• [43:04-44:00] — Sarah Wiles and the significance of White House targeting Jewish influencers.
• [52:38-56:29] — Fox News’ critical coverage: Ingraham, Perino, Watters question administration’s Iran narrative.
• [61:22-62:40] — AOC and Pakman on the psychology of election denial.

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Conclusion: Tone & Takeaways

David Pakman’s analysis is caustic and investigative, with flashes of dark humor and palpable frustration. The episode underscores:

• The dangerous normalization of war and propaganda,
• The tangible impact of policy on American families,
• Erosion of trust among even Trump-friendly media outlets,
• The specter of authoritarian tactics—from White House enemies lists to relentless election denial,
• The risk of gaslighting and the importance of holding leaders and their enablers accountable.

Pakman's final note: “Focus on the facts. Trump's net worth has swelled by more than $2 billion during this second presidential term... I don't think this guy is primarily concerned with what's good for the American people. Let's vote that way.”

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Transcript

[David Pakman]

The three week war with Iran just got even bigger. US Strikes are ramping up. Iran is retaliating. There are new threats. If the war has been over nine times, why does it keep escalating? We will try to address that question today. A bizarre new video has people asking, why is Donald Trump now unable to walk in a straight line? Is it age? Is it vision? Is it balance? Is it something neurological? Are people seeing a pattern where none exists? We will dive deep. We'll also look at a stunning comment from Republican Congressman James Comer who is saying the problem is brown people. If you're looking for election fraud, look at minorities. Are we really going back to that? And Fox News hosts are suddenly asking questions that Trump won't like. If the war has been almost over so many times, how come it seems less over than ever and inflation surges to a three plus year high? And if you don't consider the COVID global inflation crisis to its highest level in more than 10 years under the affordability President, all of that and more. The most ended war in history is back. It's growing, it's escalating. We're in week 15 of what was supposed to be a three week war with Iran. After ending it, what, nine, ten times. The war is now raging. Trump going, the war is over, but just watch me drop a bunch more bombs. It started with Donald Trump on Truth Social yesterday. He posted, quote, I have just been informed by our great military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved. Both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must of necessity respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now, even without Trump retaliating, like just at the point at which Trump posted this, if Iran took out our helicopter, the war isn't over and it's probably not close to over. Now Trump is retaliating. The war is building. It is a war. Despite being told many times that it's just a special military operation. It's an excursion, it's an incursion. Now, I think it is important just to consider Donald Trump has redefined the word cease fire, where cease fires can now include bombing. How do you find cease fire pretty

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

much the way it is. It's a different part of the world. You know, I'd say in that part of the world, cease fires when you're shooting in a more moderate manner.

[David Pakman]

Moderate shooting is a cease fire according to Donald Trump. In the Middle east, certainly an Innovative definition. I thought that we weren't going to see any of this. Words mean whatever. I want them to mean stuff from Republicans because they're against that stuff. But Trump's doing it. Cease fire means the fighting continues. We then heard this morning from a Fox News correspondent who was told by Donald Trump strikes are coming. This is going to be a big one. Take a look at this.

[Fox News Correspondent]

Now. Interestingly, President Trump told me that he is getting close to ordering new strikes against Iranian power plants and bridges because he says the Iranians are tapping the United States along when it comes to the negotiating process. He says the bully of the Middle east is dead. And he told me I may keep going. When I asked him about a possible response to the Iranian missile fire that targeted US Forces in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan overnight, the president said they had a chance to sign a deal and survive, indicating again that he may order new strikes against the Iranian regime in response to their dragging their feet at the negotiating table.

[David Pakman]

Look at where we are. An American Apache. This is after the war ended nine times, okay. A U.S. apache helicopter is downed near the Strait of Hormuz. Trump says we've got to retaliate. And now they're talking about strikes against power facilities. CENTCOM is calling these self defense strikes ordered by Trump because of the helicopter situation. And then Iran has responded to the response with missile and drone attacks targeting American positions in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. So we now have had. The war was going to be three weeks. We're in week 15. And we have had months of Donald Trump saying negotiations and a deal are days away. Negotiations are almost complete, negotiations are almost finalized. We're close to a breakthrough. We just need the final details. And every time we supposedly are on the verge of this finish line, something explodes, metaphorically or literally. The bridge and the power plant stuff really matters because that's national infrastructure. And this is not about, this is a general comment about whether this is escalatory or de. Escalatory. You do that. You go after national infrastructure when you're expanding pressure rather than winding down a conflict. So if you ask me, are we. Despite Trump's nine claims, there could. Some people said it was actually 30 times, but I think sometimes he's referring to the same series of negotiations at least nine times Trump has claimed. This is basically over. We are now moving in the direction of it being less over than it has been in a really long time. Stock markets very much down today. Absolute and total chaos economically. We'll get to the new inflation numbers in a moment, but how many Times. Can you describe a conflict as almost over before people notice that it's actually getting bigger? Well, later in the show, Fox News hosts don't seem to be buying this crap anymore, saying, I don't know if it's going to work for Trump to just continually say we're almost there, it's almost over, etc. A helicopter gets shot down, retaliatory strikes, Iranian attacks on American bases, threats to bomb power plants. This is not winding down. And meanwhile the economic consequences are getting to the point where of course the people who didn't vote for Trump are furious and they're blaming Trump. Of course, the majority of independents, some of whom voted for Trump, some who didn't, are saying what's happening economically is because of Donald Trump. But we are now even starting to see more and more Republicans blame Trump along these same lines, as well they should. The 2026 election is not looking good for Republicans, but it is not about scoring political victories. You talk to a random working class family, two parents working with a couple of kids in Michigan. Do you think they have been convinced that this 15 week, three week war that has spiked gas prices and energy prices and inflation has now hit a three plus year record. Do you think they're sitting around going, well, you know what, it's worth it, it's worth it because Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon or whatever? I don't think so. And just take a look at these inflation numbers that just came in hours ago. The affordability. President Donald Trump just got disastrous news. Inflation has spiked to 4.2% year over year. Energy is up and is a big driver of that 4.2% inflation number. Inflation has now surpassed the 4% mark for the first time in three years. You have to go all the way back to actually, let's see here, April of 2023, July 2022. You've got to go back a ways. Yeah, March and April of 2023 to see higher numbers. We've got the numbers up on the screen. In fact, I'm going to switch this to a 10 year view if we consider the COVID inflation spike something beyond the control of any global leader, which of course it was. If you take out the fact that during COVID inflation was high, inflation in the United States is higher right now than it has been in more than 10 years. Take out this Covid spike in the middle and you look at 2020-2019-2018-2017, inflation at 4.2% today under the affordability president who was going to bring Prices down, gas down, energy down, groceries down, housing down, knickknacks and tchotchkes down. Is higher than it has been other than Covid in a decade. Here is CNBC reporting on this new inflation data.

[CNBC Reporter]

The index that goes back to 1913 comes in at 335. Why do I mention that?

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

Because.

[CNBC Reporter]

Because it's another new all time high after a hundred and what x years we are now continually almost on a month over month basis moving up on the index. And if you look at the core index, same scenario except for 336. This started in 57. Once again a record. You know what, I think we need to also look at real average hourly earnings year over year. They came in -7/10. And the reason I'm looking looking at these because last month we turned it negative at -3/10. First negative number since Feb of 23. Now this becomes the most negative number also since Feb of 23 because that was minus 1.1. And if we look at year over year weekly average hourly earnings, same scenario, it turned negative last month at minus 2 tens. First time since May of 23. Now it's even more negative at minus 4, 4 tens.

[David Pakman]

We're going to get to the wage issue in a moment. The most important element of understanding what's taking place here is that Trump did this. This is optional. Remember those Biden stickers that the Maga Potamians would put on the gas pumps? Biden, I did this. We need Trump stickers. We need them all over gas pumps. I need them on my avocados. I need them on my beloved Granny Smith apples. I need them on my electrical bill. We need them all over this entire economy. I did that with Donald Trump. Food prices, by the way, Trump promised they would come down. This is an important part of people's budget. It relates also to health and nutrition. What are people eating? What are people able to afford to eat? Food prices continue up and critically wages are down, meaning inflation is up. But it's not the case that, well, inflation is up 4.2, but wages are up 5. People's purchasing power has actually grown over time. No, no, no, no. Inflation is at a 3 plus year high, 10 plus year high excluding Covid and wages are down. Now remember that in January Donald Trump said inflation solved. He says prices are down, it's over, it's all fixed up.

[Nathan Sales]

Literally shows how hard it is to clean up even after you close it. It shows the price that we paid under Joe Biden.

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

It's the you think of it you know, inflation, we've solved. It's done. We have it good. Where prices are coming way down.

[David Pakman]

We solved it, folks.

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

They were just saying where the fuel is 195. Did you hear that? Somebody said 185. But it was 3,5450 just a year ago. A year and a half ago. You look at eggs, you look at groceries, it's all down. Everything's come down. Do you notice they don't mention affordability anymore?

[David Pakman]

Yeah, well, they do, and we do. And inflation is at its highest point in Trump's second term and at its high, highest point in more than three years. What about, Trump was asked in a different interview, what about people worried about the price of gas and the price of groceries? And Trump goes, I inherited high prices and they are down. We fixed the problem. What about people who don't have 401ks

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

and they're worried about gas or groceries? We hear about inherited very high prices. When I came in, I inherited the highest inflation in the history of our country. You know, Biden had like, 9, 10% inflation.

[David Pakman]

And of course, we know that that's not true. As you can see here, Trump did not inherit the highest inflation in the history of our country. Trump was sworn in in January of 2025. I've got my mouse cursor there. And as you see, inflation was 3% at that point in time. Not the highest in history.

[Brian Tyler Cohen]

I inherited that, and we have it way down. And then I said, I did have to say we have to do something about Iran, because regardless of how well we're doing, we can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

[David Pakman]

Yeah. So listen, they've tried to say there's an affordability hoax. Democrats made this up as a political issue. Democrats didn't make it up. We've got the numbers. Inflation is now at its highest since April of 2023. It's been more than three years. Inflation is at more than double the Fed's target rate of 2%. At 4.2%, it is more than double that 2% target. And as you look around and you say, well, what are the priorities of this president? Is he at least working hard to deal with this issue? Well, he's building a UFC arena at the White House. He's attending the NBA Finals in New York. He's golfing, he's running an optional war in Iran that is causing much of this to begin with. And other presidents have had no choice but to deal with higher inflation or global economic situations. Even during his first term, you could Say he screwed it up, but Trump didn't create Covid. Every country was dealing with that. Trump dealt with it particularly terribly. But that wasn't of Trump's doing. This is optional. This is a self inflicted screw up by Donald Trump. And this is why, you know, when you looked at Covid, one of the reasons Trump lost in 2020 was, was he screwed up the response. It's not a guarantee that Covid screws you up politically. If you deal with it well, you look at Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand at the time, or you could look around the world, everybody had to deal with COVID But there were world leaders who were seen as working in a reasonable way with medical experts and finding the right balance between health guidelines and individual freedom. And voters said, hey, I think they did a good job. We're going to reelect them even easily in some cases in the middle of COVID One of the reasons Trump lost is he didn't create Covid, but he screwed up the response to it. Here we have a different situation where it's Trump is proactively doing things that are bad for the country, bad for the economy, bad for the average person, and it makes sense to hold Trump's party accountable. Now, let me just say one more thing about this. I'm still getting some of these emails that go, you know, David, I don't know, I, I'm a Republican. I don't think Trump's doing a good job, but I do think my elected official is doing fine. My congressperson in South Carolina or my governor in Texas or whatever. My message to you is to consider whether those individuals that you think are doing a good job support publicly what Donald Trump has been doing. Do they vote for everything Trump wants them to vote for? Because what you will find is that there are these elected officials that a lot of people go, well, I don't like what Trump's doing, but I'm fine with my elected official. They've voted with what Trump wants. When things come up in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, 85, 90, 95, 97% of the time. And so it is valid to hold the Trump rubber stampers accountable in November even if Trump's not on the ballot. If you think Trump's done a poor job, part of the poor job Trump has done with some things, some things are executive order, some are decisions Trump makes unilaterally. But with a lot of these things, there has been consent from the House and or Senate for what Trump has done. And it is absolutely valid to hold your elected officials accountable for that. Let's do that in November. That's my suggestion. If you run a business, customers can slip through the cracks like grains of sand. Missed calls, forgotten follow ups, dropped conversations Quo spelled Q U O is the communication system built so you don't miss calls. Your team can handle calls and texts from a single shared number with every thread visible. 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You can try quo free plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/pacman the link is in the description One thing that drives me nuts about political media is how two outlets can cover the same story and make it feel like two different events took place. Not because any of the facts have changed, but because the emphasis of the stories is different. This is why I use Ground News, because Ground News pulls together reporting from across the political spectrum and and you can compare the headlines side by side and see how different outlets are framing the exact same issue. You can look at the bias distribution. You can look at factuality ratings. You can see who owns the outlets behind the reporting, which makes it easier to separate the substance from the spin. For example, Trump's EPA recently decided to remove limits on those forever chemicals in drinking water. Ground News shows how outlets like PBS and Raw Story are getting it right and right wing outlets put this anti Biden spin on it. Or they just stay very vague to avoid implicating Donald Trump. Ground News also has a blind spot feed. This is for stories that are underreported by one side and you can also get a personalized feed based on your interests. Go to ground.news/pacman or scan my QR code to get 40% off the ground News Vantage plan. The link is in the description it's been a disastrous 48 hours for the President and so Overnight he stroked out on Truth Social again. Why is it that when everything goes wrong, he retreats to wherever he is in the White House putting these messages up and makes us wonder, has he finally lost it to the point where he won't be able to do the job anymore? It starts, as it often does, saying that black people have a low IQ individual. Black people always. But they seem to always be black or Hispanic. Donald Trump posting quote Stephen A. Smith is an arrogant fool, a low IQ individual. In other words, he's dumb as a rock and totally unqualified to ever think of running for high political office or even low political office for that matter. He'd get annihilated in a debate by the most incompetent of politicians. Joe Biden's now fabled performance would look great by comparison to anything that this loudmouth huckster has to offer, which isn't much. Within a few weeks they'd laugh him out of politics. Now, I got to tell you, in a debate, I can't stand Stephen A. Smith, but in a debate, I think Smith crushes Donald Trump. And what this is about is that Stephen A. Smith said, listen, if Trump comes to the Game 3 of the NBA Finals and inconveniences everybody and the Knicks lose, people are going to blame Donald Trump. I'm going to blame Donald Trump. That happened and the Knicks did lose and Stephen A. Smith is blaming Donald Trump. And now Trump is flipping out saying black man has low iq. It's Jasmine Crockett. It's Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. It's Stephen A. Smith. Is it on purpose or does it just happen to be nonwhite people that he uses that insult against? I don't know. I'll leave it to you to determine. Then Trump shifts his ire. It's always outbound. Inflation's 4.2% because your war in Iran. Let's attack somebody else. He goes into Joe Scarborough, quote, Joe Scarborough's ever shrinking low rated show, one of the most inaccurate detailers of truthful facts on television and is being crushed in the ratings. His serious case on Trump derangement syndrome, often referred to as tds, has made him a laughingstock among those who know what is going on in the wonderful world of television. His show is being cut because his ratings are terrible and Mike and Willie, who wants to be his father but doesn't have the talent, are falling further and further into the TDS swamp. I think he means Mika, not Mike. He then says they all suffer from low ratings disease. Blame Other people. There is no ability to self reflect and go, let me just think. I'm going to sit back and really think for a moment. Here's a list of the promises I made people and here's a list of the things I've done since I've become president. Are these the sorts of promises that are likely to be fulfilled by my actions? No, they're not. I'm screwing up. I'm making gas more expensive. I've pumped inflation to 4.2%. No, that is not something that Donald Trump is willing to do. And I don't think, quite frankly, it's something that he is capable of doing. He then shifts to Iran, which is a complete and total mess. Trump does use the word mess, but he uses it to blame other people, posting, quote, iran's military is a complete and total mess. Much of it like their navy and air force doesn't even exist anymore. They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle east is dead. Dead. They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now they will have to pay the price. Does that sound like a cease fire to you, my friends? Does that sound like a president who is ready to say it's time to end this war? That Tweet coming at 7am And I think it's important to mention that. How is it that on the one hand, Trump has insisted for months that Iran's navy is done, Its military is dead. Dead. They've got no air force and they just took down one of our highly sophisticated Apache helicopters. How does a nation with no navy and no air force take out the much vaunted American Apache helicopter? Something seems like it is missing. And then, as usual, everybody else is the problem. Trump directing his anger towards the media, which is a common one. I mean, listen, they put me on a list of media offenders after all. Trump posting, quote, the fake news media refuses to report how effective the US Naval blockade is. The most successful blockade in the history of naval warfare. Nothing gets through unless we want it to. It. It is a steel wall. Iran is doing zero business, not paying their military or any of their bills and quickly becoming a failed nation. Lots of oil is getting out. Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump. It's everybody else's fault, folks. It's everybody else's fault. Look at who just today Trump blamed in the last few hours. Joe Scarborough, Mississippi. Now Mike AKA Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and the fake news media. Stephen A. Smith. He's a huge problem. The Iranian military is terrible and is to blame the Iranian regime, the fake news media, for how they are and aren't reporting on the things Trump does and doesn't want said about his failed war in Iran. On inflation, the 4.2% number that came out today, Trump flunkies are saying, well, this is clearly because of Biden. Is it? You've been in power almost two years and Biden turned over 3% inflation to you and you're now at 4.2%. Everybody else is to blame instead of, damn, I shouldn't have started this war. It's, it's that simple. I shouldn't have started this war. This was a mistake. There are reports that at the White House there are proverbial ketchup throwing incidents just about daily. Not literal ketchup being thrown, although it might be, but just meltdown after meltdown, people screaming at each other, people turning on each other because they are increasingly realizing that this is not a scenario that will lead to victory in November. This is not a scenario that's improving the lives of Americans. Americans will presumably vote in that way. And what does Donald Trump do publicly? He just goes on social media and posts a bunch of this crap? Exactly. That's Trump at the White House every single day. And what is unbelievable is that even the little stuff, the stuff that if things were going well, no one would care about, those things are backfiring as well. It's called UFC on Trump's Birthday, and we've got to talk about it. This is humiliating and embarrassing and disgusting. Donald Trump is in the middle of a huge, nasty erection at the White House, erecting an outdoor UFC arena for a UFC fight Sunday on Trump's birthday, which will pour money into the hands of his friend Dana White, the president of ufc. And despite claiming that everybody wants to go to this godforsaken event, tons of celebrities are lining up. They just, they need to be there. They all appear to be bailing. Whether celebrities like something or want to be affiliated with it is not how I like to judge the merit or value of an event. But it is notable that every relatively famous person who was going to be attending this UFC fight at the White House is bailing on it. Melania will be there, sure. Donald Trump Jr. Will be there with his new wife. Jared Kushner and Ivanka are going to be there. Okay, I guess they're even going to allow Eric Trump, not the smart one, not the most well liked one, not the, not the most articulate one, but they're even going to allow Eric Trump to show up. But it doesn't seem as though the celebrities are going to go, and this relates to a bigger embarrassment for the administration. Now, you might remember that last month UFC president Dana White said, I've invited a whole bunch of people. I invited Adam Sandler, I invited Guy Ritchie, I invited Tom Brady and Jared Leto and Jason Statham and Dwayne the Rock Johnson and Mario Lopez. And it appears as though few if any of those people are actually going to be there. Now, they're giving all sorts of excuses. They're not saying, the last thing I want to do is have my face associated with this dilapidated event. That's not what they're saying. They're going, well, I've got a scheduling conflict and work and very, very busy. I've got to reorganize my sock drawer, as Trump calls it, sock drawer. But it all sounds like bs. They don't want to be associated with this atrocity. And even some of the softer supporters of Donald Trump, people like Adam Sandler, are increasingly realizing this is not someone you want to be associated with. This is not a regime that you want your name or likeness attached to. Now, one hilariously funny note. They accidentally invited our friend John Favreau from Pod Save America. They thought they were inviting actor director Jon Favreau. They share a name, but I guess they realized their mistake and they revoked Pod Saves. Jon Favreau's invitation. And just a funny little interlude. There's incompetence as well here. Even Rogan, by the way. Joe Rogan, who is still going to be doing commentary for the fight. Rogan has even started some soft critiques, not because of political reasons, but interestingly, because of the weather. They're doing this outdoors. The forecast for D.C. on Sunday, I checked this morning, is 91 degrees. Insanely humid, plus rain in the afternoon. Potentially dangerous temperatures for having a UFC fight. It might forget about being dangerous for the fighters. This might even be dangerous for the audience just to sit there. Presumably they'll have to clear security very early. A lot of these things. Your movement is restricted. I don't know. Based on the time of day and whether it's raining or not, is there going to be direct sun on people, but just potentially very dangerous scenario for the attendees, never mind the fighters. DC is also insanely buggy. Just mesquite every time I'm in dc, that's all you hear if you're with me in dc, slapping mosquitoes. It's so buggy and so humid They've installed this lighting, massive lighting apparatus for the arena. And Dana White has said, I'm worried that these lighting structures are going to attract even more swarms of bugs. So the details are totally whacked out. The big picture is that, listen, this is a disgusting, tacky thing that no one should want to be associated with. How on earth did the White House think this is going to be a star studded event? You'd have to be delusional. But Trump does seem delusional. I mean, he got booed brutally at Game 3 of the NBA Finals this week. And when he was asked about it, he said, yeah, I think it was mostly cheers and it was a very nice reaction. So I don't plan to watch this thing. If anything politically notable takes place, I'll cover it on Monday for you. But maybe they could get like Mike Pillow or Lee Greenwood, the, the proud to be an American, that guy who sells the scam bibles with Trump. They could maybe get Kid Rock to play some of his horrid, rancid music, but I don't think they're going to be doing much better than that. So my final note, I don't know how many of you pray. I don't make a habit of prayer, I admit, but if you're interested in doing something, let's do a rain dance, let's pray for rain. Because it would be magical to see the entire event on Trump's birthday ruined by 91 degree humid heat combined with torrential Washington D.C. summer storms. I would. Maybe it makes me a bad person, maybe I'm a nasty guy, but that would actually give me great pleasure to see that take place. If you're voting in November, just remember what the White House is prioritizing and what they're spending money on and ask yourself, is this the behavior of an administration? The UFC fight, the ballroom, the Iran war, all of this stuff kicking people off of food stamps. Is this an administration that is primarily working for the benefit and betterment of the American people? Or is this something very different entirely? A self aggrandizing, put money in my pocket administration? I say focus on the facts. And the fact that Trump's net worth has swelled by more than $2 billion during this second presidential term points in the direction of, I don't think this guy is primarily concerned with what's good for the American people. Let's vote that way. There isn't one mattress that's perfect for everybody. Some people want firmer, somewhat softer. Some are side sleepers, back sleepers. A mattress that's good for one person might not be the right one for somebody else. That is the idea behind our sponsor Helix Sleep. Instead of one generic mattress, hoping it works for everyone, Helix sends you a mattress that is based on your specific sleeping needs and preferences. I've been sleeping on a Helix mattress for years now. It fits my sleep style perfectly because before I got it I took the Helix Sleep quiz. I answered questions and I was matched perfectly with the right mattress for me. Support but not too stiff, cushioning but not too much. And Helix also has free shipping, 120 night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty. Go to helix sleep.com pacman and you'll get 20% off site wide. The link is in the description Think of how much personal information you you put into your favorite AI chat bot. They track everything you say on the app, many of them sell the data to ad companies and they use your personal info to train the AI. So your personal life lives inside the chat bot forever. Creepy stuff. Which is why I recommend Venice. It's sort of like a VPN for AI. Our sponsor Venice is gives you access to all the best and latest language models, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Deep Seek as well as leading image, video and music generation models all in one place. But you can use them privately and anonymously and it's completely uncensored. On Venice, you can ask the AI for anything and it won't say no. Nothing is tied to your identity because your prompts are encrypted. They never even leave your device so no corporation or government can spy on you. And those conversations access the world's leading AI models privately. You'll get 20% off any plan when you go to Venice. Dot AI slash Pacman and use the code Pacman. The link is in the description Donald Trump has another terrifying new symptom. People are now noticing he can't walk in a straight line. Everybody is noticing that this is a really strange thing and it's happening all the time and there is no medical explanation that we've been given just hours ago. Really. Donald Trump landing on his helicopter, walking towards reporters and it's impossible to notice that he cannot walk in a straight line. Donald Trump doing the weave, as we call it. Take a look. Off to the right and off to the left and further left and back to the left, a little straight and now left and off he goes. Okay, so we have a sped up version of this with clown music. Admittedly just to give you a sense of the full effect of it. All. Right, I. I think you get the picture. Now. There are many of examples of this. This can be neurological. This can be visual. Imagine someone struggling to stay in their lane when driving a car. It could be neurological. It also could be that they need glasses and they can't see. Donald Trump famously needs glasses, but doesn't like wearing them. Although I believe it's reading glasses, which wouldn't really be in play here. This happens a lot. Here is Donald Trump walking to greet Vladimir Putin. This was particularly noticeable because he's on a red carpet. The red carpet, isn't that that wide? It's probably 5ft wide or something like that. And Trump is unable to just trace a straight line through it. There is another incident which is really weird, which was Donald Trump getting off of Air Force One. I'm sorry, off of Marine One, the helicopter, some months ago. And in this case, he just runs into Melania. Even when being escorted by Melania Trump, Trump suddenly goes over to the right and boom, just knocks Melania almost off of her step. And this is another example of the exact same thing that we have been looking at. And as if we needed more information or more examples of this, by the way, Trump walking up Air Force One and tripping, something he famously said only happens to Joe Biden and low energy, sleepy politicians. But it did also happen to Donald Trump. So let's do the normal kind of responsible disclaimers. You can't diagnose dementia, Parkinson's, neuropathy, vision problems, vestibular issues or anything like this from social media issues, or at least I can't, I'm not a doctor. The story is the accumulation of this. Trump is now regularly veering by while walking. We've got the issue with the bruised hands, we've got the issue with the swollen ankles, we've got all the other stuff. This is a new issue. He's having trouble on stairs, he's bumping into people, he's unable to trace a straight line when he walks. He has episodes that seem to show balance issues. And so now we have a pattern. We have more than an individual incident. As a general concept, walking in a straight line is a surprisingly complex neurological task. I mean, let's acknowledge what it is. It depends on vision, inner ear with regard to balance, knowing where your body is in space, Proprioception. Proprioception, I believe, is the right word. Muscle strength is involved. If the wrong muscles are. If the right muscles aren't strong enough, you can't do it. Coordination of the limbs, executive brain function. You might be doing or thinking about something while walking. And yet humans are still able to do that stuff while walking in a straight line. And if you have problems in any of those areas, never mind a bunch of them, it can affect your ability to walk in a straight line. Now, dementia is an explanation, but there's a lot of explanations here. Vision problems. I already talked about peripheral neuropathy. This would be. If Trump doesn't have feeling in his feet for whatever reason, it can be tough to know exactly what your feet are doing. Cataracts, a side effect of medication, can affect your ability to walk in a straight line. An inner ear disorder could affect your ability to walk in a straight line. Joint instability or forms of arthritis, weakness in the muscles. A prior injury that has caused this. An injury of course, we've never been told about. And yes, in addition to dementia, you could be looking at neurological disorders separate from dementia. Do we have an explanation? We don't. Do we have reason at this point to believe that there's a problem? We do. That is the opinion of a growing number of medical experts. Maybe we will even invite one of them onto the program to talk to us about this. If it weren't for the total lack of transparency, we wouldn't need to be digging for information in the way that we now are. An administration that was actually going to keep the public abreast of the president's health wouldn't be raising questions every time Donald Trump is going back and forth when trying to walk in a straight line. Will we ever know for sure the full scope of Donald Trump's health status? I don't know that we will. I think even after Trump is gone, there will probably be an effort from his family to cover up the full story. What I can tell you is that this stuff is hitting a nerve. And the reason we know it's hitting a nerve is the reason that the White House put me on their media offenders list. It's an enemy's list. A democratically elected president has an enemy's list of people in the media who's reporting he doesn't like. They've put me on a list for my reporting about Donald Trump's health. If you don't care if this isn't hitting a nerve, if I'm just like an annoying little mosquito not having any impact, actually, mosquitoes can wreak havoc. If one gets into your house, maybe it's the wrong analogy, but in any case, if someone with no followers responds to me on Twitter, it has no effect on me, and I don't give a Damn. I don't go and respond to someone with no followers for trolling me on Twitter. I think this is the point I'm trying to make. The health stuff has struck a nerve to the degree that the White House put me on a list. And so I am increasingly convinced that something is going on here. The inability to walk in a straight line is the latest state symptom, but I don't know the full scope of it, and I am unsure, quite frankly, that we ever will. All right, this is one of the darkest segments I've had to do in a long time. I missed something completely. Trump's leftist media offender list started with three people. It started with me, David Pakman, my friend Brian Tyler Cohen, and Brian Krassenstein, one of the Krassenstein twins. And maybe some of you noticed it. I actually did not. We're all Jewish. Listen to Sarah Wiles explain it on her Instagram.

[Sarah Wiles]

Doing this fun little thing on their website, calling out media offenders. And they have a new category of leftist influencers. Of course, we all know this is just bullshit tactic, attempting to silence voices that are actually making a difference right now and pushing back against this insane, cruel, exceptionally ugly administration. But I want to point something else out that I haven't seen anybody else so far. There are three influencers that the Trump administration is calling out. They are David Pakman, Ed Krasnstein, and everyone's favorite dog dad, Brian Tyler Cohen. And because my little ADHD pattern recognition woo, woo. Inside of this brain was going off, I googled to confirm what I noticed.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]

And wow, wow, wow.

[Sarah Wiles]

Would you look at that? All three of those men are Jewish. And wow, that's a weird pattern coming from a White House that spends so much time talking about anti Semitism, isn't it? And as a member of the tribe myself, I'm concerned. So anyway, what do you all think?

[David Pakman]

All right, so what that information means and what we do with it is a different question, which we'll get to. But this list, as it started, is 100% Jewish people. A list of media enemies and political enemies that has its own ugly past. Russia or bonds, Hungary. We've already talked about that. I told you already that it is a very ugly thing. Dangerous, anti democratic, authoritarian. But now consider times when there were lists of Jews and there is an even uglier history with that. Now listen, this may be mere coincidence. Jews, of course, are the most left wing voting group in the United States. It's more likely if you're targeting the left than the right, that there will be Jewish people. Statistically, it's more likely because Jews are so overwhelmingly left wing. Although 100% of your list is a lot when jews are only point 19% of the population. But at the same time, three people is a very small sample. At the same time, it's understandable why people would notice a pattern when all three people share a characteristic that represents a very small percentage of the population. Well, you're all men also. Yeah, but that's half the population. Jews are 0.19% of the global population population. Now, it does make sense to look at history a little bit when we think about this stuff. When you look at authoritarian movements, they've often started with the language of offenders, enemies, disloyal media, internal threats. And the concern is not necessarily the religious identity of the targets. And Judaism is, is an ethno religious identity. There's a Jewish ethnicity that is totally separate from your beliefs. The real issue is the normalization of these official enemy lists. Now, without question, even if the religious composition were different, imagine there were one Jewish person, one Catholic, one Muslim. Whatever, the existence of such an official government enemies list would still be a major story. Now, I can't tell you, I want to hear from you. I can't tell you whether the Jewish composition of the list is coincidence, if it's unconscious bias, if it's something more intentional. What I can tell you is government maintained enemies lists are terrifying historically. And when it just so happens, or maybe it's not coincidence, that the names on the list share a historically persecuted identity, people, some people are going to notice. Now, I have to admit, I didn't notice until I saw Sarah Wiles's video. I had not noticed that and I think that there may be some relevance to it. Now the good news, and this is just unbelievable, the good news is that people seem to recognize how dangerous this is and they are coming out in droves to support me. We did a one day membership drive yesterday. Anticipating potential legal expenses related to being on this list. And to reinforce and grow independent media, we did a one day membership special. Almost 500 of you signed up for new memberships yesterday into today. I am without speech. I'm speechless. I know that there's 140 other people who emailed in requesting the coupon code to get that discounted membership. Thousands of you raided my podcast on Spotify and Apple. Podcast. Thank you. I am truly flattered, humbled. I don't even know what the right word is at the outpouring of support. So if you missed yesterday's membership drive and you want to take advantage of it. We're we're going to extend it for a day. Just email in info@david pakman.com say David, give me that code. I need that code. We'll get you the code as quickly as we can. It's going to take us a day or two to work through those already hundred plus emails. But I think that even people who are more moderate, even some nominal conservatives, respect and understand the First Amendment and its importance and that there is one profession that is mentioned in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and it is a free press. And even if I give opinions that are wrong, it is still protected by the Constitution or give opinions based on things that end up being wrong or whatever the case may be. So thank you for the outpouring of support. We are going to continue doing what we are doing and I know my team appreciates it, our staff and it is sometimes when things get the craziest, it's when you see that people actually do come together out of a united sense that something wrong is happening here and something wrong is happening. If I've ended up on a White House list, that's for sure. Some people assume focus is just about willpower. 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There's also been peer reviewed research published showing that their music increased activity in attentional networks and also improved performance on attention based tasks. Try it yourself with 30 days free at Brain FM Pacman. The link is in the description here's something people don't think about enough There is not much of a line between online privacy and real world safety. If someone gets angry at you in traffic, at work, in a relationship, or in a comment section, it can Be very easy for them to figure out your details. Address, phone number, relatives. A lot of that information is just sitting on public search databases right now. There is something you can do. Our sponsor, Incogni helps protect you and your family by automatically sending removal requests to hundreds of these databases and they are legally required to comply and get rid of your information. Incogni will follow up until it's done. Done. Incogni's custom removals is my favorite feature. If I find information on a random directory or an obscure business database or some new people search site, I just paste the link into Incogni. Their privacy experts work to get it removed. Removing your information from these online databases is critical to protect yourself and your loved ones. Get 60% off when you go to incogni.com/pacman. Use the code Pacman. The link is in the description One of the most interesting building commentaries about this administration right now is not coming from people who normally despise the administration. It's coming from Fox hosts. I'm going to play a couple of clips for you that I think are very interesting because of what they mean about the direction that this administration and maybe the party is even going to have to be go as we approach the midterm elections. Let's start with example number one. This is Laura Ingraham and you and I already know Trump said that the Iran war is over like nine times and it just keeps going. And the cease fires are total BS and everybody's bombing each other. Trump's redefining cease fire. It's all complete and total nonsense. Well, what does one of the big supporters of Donald Trump have to say about it? On one of the biggest Trump supporting media outlets, Fox News, and she says, well, I don't know that these definitions of cease fire are really making sense. I mean, if we destroyed their military, how'd they take down an Apache helicopter? Which is a great question that I asked earlier. But this is Laura Ingraham. Take a listen.

[Laura Ingraham]

To discuss is Nathan Sales, ambassador at large and former counterterror coordinator under President Trump. Mr. Ambassador, Iran's foreign minister just posted on X that the US opted to test our determination, leave our region if you want to be safe, and said that Iran's military will hit back. We keep hearing their military is destroyed, obviously. But if their military is destroyed, how are they continuing to hit us? I mean, an Apache helicopter, what costs about $46 million not to speak of the potential injury or loss of life.

[Nathan Sales]

Yeah, Iran feels emboldened. They're hitting us because they've used the ceasefire to rebuild their armed forces and to deploy their armed forces in a way that they can use them to hit us.

[David Pakman]

It's amazing that Iran has an ability like no other just to rebuild everything really fast. Remember Trump? Trump supposedly, when he bombed them in June of 2025, decimated their nuclear program, but then he had to start a war with them at the end of February because I guess they had rebuilt it all, if you believe that crap. And even though their military was destroyed 10 times over, we've destroyed it and again and again and again. According to Nathan Sales, ambassador at large, Iran already rebuilt their military. But this morning, Trump said they have no air force and they have no navy. So obviously they're lying. But what's coming through is Ingram's question. If their military is destroyed, how are they hitting us?

[Nathan Sales]

This is the real problem here. When the United States engages in diplomacy, we're most effective when we negotiate from a position of strength with a credible threat of military force. And what the Iranians have seen over the past couple of months is, as you said, patience, which they misinterpret as weakness. And so when CENTCOM says, we're going to hit you in a proportional way.

[David Pakman]

All right, so anyway, this guy is justifying the fact that we're back in the war. We were never really out of it, obviously. But the question from Laura Ingraham is a devastating question. There's this contradiction at the center of Trump's messaging. We're told Iran's been crippled. They have no military, they have no air force, they have no navy, they have nothing. Their shattered military capabilities were not, will not allow them to do anything to us anymore. Victory has been achieved or it's imminent and a deal. And they have no negotiate. They don't have the cards because we've destroyed everything. And then they take down an Apache helicopter, and now we've got to hit them again because they're coming after us hard. Those claims don't really fit together in any coherent way. Either the threat has been neutralized or we haven't neutralized the threat. Either the war is ending or it's growing. It can't be growing and ending at the same time, as Donald Trump likes to say. Well, cease fire means that there's only some bombing going on. You can't tell people at the same time, we've destroyed our enemy and our enemy just won't stop attacking us, and we actually need to scale up our military offensive. That's completely incoherent. Maybe Trump's Nine declarations of victory and copious supposed cease fires are just kind of bs. Here's Jesse Watters again. These are Fox hosts. Okay, Jesse. Oh, wait, is this Perino? No. Which one is it? Here's Jesse Watters. Here's Jesse Watters saying, according to Trump, we're days away all the time. We've heard that for a long time now. Jesse Watters with a rare moment of clarity.

[Nathan Sales]

It's even more pressure on him and gives us more leverage in those negotiations.

[Dana Perino]

The president indicated that he does not want to resume major combat operations. He said if we did do that, you'd have the strait closed for another two to three to four months. And he doesn't want that. And he keeps saying we're very close, we're days away. And I don't know what that means. We've heard that for a very long time.

[David Pakman]

Correct. You've heard it for a very long time. And it couldn't always have been true.

[Dana Perino]

I mean, oil has gone down. It was closed that I think 89 today. But gas prices are very high and there's a lot of people in the administration, I think, that would like to see the job finished. And others think that, you know, we're pretty close, but what do we know

[Nathan Sales]

that has never stopped us.

[David Pakman]

Yeah, too bad. They, we've never been dissuaded from giving opinions, even when we don't know anything whatsoever. Okay, so that's Jesse Watters, and I think that that actually may be the most important quote of the entire segment. The central story is we've been days away from the end of this war for months. The war was supposed to last three weeks, and for 15 weeks we've been days away from the end. The deal was days away. The cease fire was days away. The big breakthrough was days away. Peace was days away. Everything is just days away. And somehow we never get there. And at some point, we're very close is no longer an update. It's just like the slogan of the war. We are very close. We're very, we started the war very close to ending it. It's the, you know when your contractor says we need like one more week and the job is going to be done. And then you look around and there's construction dust everywhere and there's. Anyway, it's sort of like that. It's sort of like we're two weeks away from our health, health care plan. And that's been the case since July of 2020. They are slowly realizing that Trump is just a pathological liar. That's all there is to it. Dana Perino number three, saying it's going to be hard to believe if Trump tells us again that we're almost at a deal. They took down an Apache helicopter, we're bombing them and Trump's threatening to bomb their power infrastructure. I don't know that people are going to believe we're almost there and we'll see what the night brings. But if tomorrow we hear we're closer and we're almost to a deal, I think it'll be a little hard to take it. Will you know what, Dana? It's going to be a little difficult. Now she's not rejecting Trump outright, she's not saying he's a liar. But she is saying the credibility on how we are so close, we are just days away is wearing very thin. So I think that this is a big deal. If MSNBC was saying Ms. Now was saying this stuff, you would expect it. If CNN were saying it, even though the kind of context would be different. I think there's a lot of maggots who would go, it's CNN at the end of the day. If you know Bernie Sanders or Hakeem Jeffries or whoever says it. All right, you know, these are the people we expect to hear it from. This is three different Fox hosts in a 12 hour period. It's Jesse Watters, it's Laura Ingraham and it's Dana Perino. They spent years defending Trump. The reason that they're doing this is obvious. You've got reality here and here's their narrative all floppy and in comes reality and smashes their narrative that the master negotiator anti war president has almost got us out of another war. A cease fire is announced and missiles continue flying. Oh, so what happened? Well, we've gotten a breakthrough, okay? Yeah, but they're still firing at us and we're firing at them. And then the fighting escalates and then we've got another peace deal near. And notice how mild these questions are from the Fox host. Nobody has the willingness and they probably don't believe that Trump is deliberately misleading people, that he's lying. Nobody's saying that. They're not saying the strategy has failed, but they're kind of going, I'm a little confused. Like wait a second, we already heard this 9, 15, 20 times. The deal was going to be done in March and then in April and then in May and we're almost in mid June. Wasn't victory declared? How are we still fighting and waiting for a deal if victory was declared? Wasn't the cease fire announced? These are dangerous questions because they are more coming from like a I'm disappointed rather than I'm angry. And sometimes the disappointment is sort of more devastating than the anger would be. And, and it can be harder to overcome as well. Once supporters start wondering, can I even trust the timeline? Then they go, well, can I trust the messenger? And of course, the answer is no. So the people who usually are part of selling the story don't seem to believe the story anymore. Your allies are saying, we've heard this before. I don't even think at this point it's about Trump convincing his critics. He increasingly needs to convince his support reporters that they are going to be able to do this thing, and I don't think they're going to be able to do it. Congresswoman AOC Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has identified one of the most important dynamics in American politics right now. Trump is psychologically incapable of admitting he lost anything important. Here's AOC making some really good points. She accurately seized last week on the idea that reminding Americans, here's what Trump is spending your tax money on is a very strong motivator to get people to vote against Republicans in November. I think she's right. Here is AOC weighing in on the psychology of Trump's inability to accept listen, you just lost fair and square.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]

I imagine that Donald Trump is going to deny the results of, of any election that he loses because he can't really bear the thought with his identity, like it's his idea of himself, of the idea that he actually lost. And so I think that we've already seen others since 2020. Kari Lake in Arizona and many others just try to say, well, if I lost, it must be because it was made up. And that's just not the case. When you lose fair and square, you have to understand that that's what happened. And we have to respect the will of voters. Just like when Democrats lose, you have to respect the will of voters as well.

[David Pakman]

Think about this is a very interesting commentary from aoc. Think about Trump's political career, which did not start with 2020. Trump claimed the Emmy Awards were rigged when the Apprentice didn't win, Trump claimed the Iowa caucuses were stolen from him in 2016. Trump claimed millions of illegal votes were cast against him in 2016, even though he won the presidency, he wasn't happy enough with that. He was like, no, I actually won the popular vote. Hillary didn't really win. Think about how insane that is. Most politicians claim fraud when they Lose. Trump has even claimed fraud when he won. And to me that's a huge tell. It's never about evidence. It's always, I cannot accept an outcome that reflects negatively on me. That's why I think AOC again is seizing upon a core reality of Trump. If you believe a loss is proof that there was cheating, the evidence is not relevant. And we talked about this on Monday. Every result is self validating. If Trump won, the election was fair, although he might have in reality won by even more. And if Trump loses, the election was rigged. It's a very convenient framework. There is no outcome that could prove them wrong. It's a self reinforcing belief system and when you adopt that belief system, you don't need facts anymore. It would be nice to have some facts on your side. It would be cool if we got one court ruling that went in our favor. You might be nice if an audit found that it was stolen. But you don't need it. You don't need recounts, you don't need evidence. You don't need it because you're starting with the conclusion that losing for realsies is impossible. And then you just go backwards. Well, if I lost the popular vote, but I won the electoral College, the popular vote was rigged in this case, still won electorally, but the popular vote was rigged. If I just straight up lost, the entire thing was rigged. The Kerry Lake example is a good one. AOC mentions it. Kerry Lake denied that she lost and then she kept denying it and then she kept running on the claim that she didn't really lose and they're going to fight it. And it trickled from Trump's inability to accept defeat to a political strategy they've. Some of these hardcore magazines have adopted a political strategy that is you never admit that you actually lost. They've made their bed and now they're sleeping in it. They've lost control of the monster they created. Every election is treated as legitimate only if they win, even when it's, hey, a Republican didn't win the mayor of L. A of the most progressive cities in the country. Of course he didn't, because L A doesn't want Republican mayors. Well, it must have been rigged. Regardless, a Republican didn't win governor of California in the jungle primary, Steve Hilton, of course he didn't, because California is one of the most left wing states in the country by sheer number of people, although percentage wise there are certainly plenty of Republicans there. So you always have to take an unfavorable outcome and find a way to turn it into evidence that you were cheated. And I would argue it's one of the most dangerous things that's happened to American politics. Democracy requires something very basic. At the end of the day, the winners accept victory and the losers accept that they just lost. We did it in 2024. I interviewed the Election Truth alliance guy, Nathan Taylor, twice, who said he had evidence of foul play and that Kamala Harris might have really won. I wasn't blinded by partisanship. I just don't think they have the evidence. I believe that Kamala Harris straight up lost. The polling said she was going to lose most or all of the seven swing states, and she did. Now, it is also true that if about 150,000 votes in three key states went a different way, she would have won. That's true. But there's no evidence she was cheated. She just lost. And we're accepting it. And it would be nice if that acceptance would allow us to do a deep look at what went wrong and to fix things for 26 and 28. I don't know if that's going to happen, but you've got to accept reality. And what AOC is pointing out is Trump never accepted what is clearly real to the vast majority of us. And he went further by creating this political culture where if you lose, that's the evidence. How do you know you lost? Well, because clearly I didn't. It must be fraud. And so the future elections matter. We need to root out this ideology. And the question, is there any result that Trump would accept as just, I lost? Because if he lost in a landslide, he would go, that's not possible. I must have won. And if he wins by a little bit, he goes, that's not possible. I must have won by way more so I don't even care. You know, people go, does Trump really think elections are rigged? I don't know. Trump appears to think any election he loses must have been rigged. And even the ones that he won might have been rigged. That's a threat to democratic self government. It's one of the reasons we have to take these people out of power. Now, we've got a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Bill Gates is going to appear before Congress over his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. What is that going to be like? Nancy Mace just got brutalized in South Carolina's gubernatorial primary. And the Postal Service wouldn't deliver mail in ballots for states that won't turn over their voter list to Trump, according to a new directive from the administration. Dangerous. All of that and more on today's bonus show. 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