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- [00:00]
David Pakman
We're going to talk about some economic warning signs today that there are a lot of people in Washington pretending not to see. And Americans are falling behind on credit cards. Americans are falling behind on car loans, student loans, even starting to see it in mortgages. And this is a real problem. Then things get weird. Trump went to China, was totally humiliated by President Xi, reduced to a sputtering mess, and then talked about how great Chinese food is in the United States. We are in the middle of a potential conflict between the US And China over Taiwan. And Trump's talking about Chinese food. And we are going to also look at JD Vance desperately attempt to clean up Donald Trump's comments about Iran and the American financial situation. And then a bizarre report of an if I die letter that Donald Trump reportedly left for J.D. vance in the Oval Office before his current trip to China. And finally, Barack Obama, that guy, reminding everybody why Donald Trump is so triggered by him. All of that and so much more. Today, There are economic alarm bells going off right now. Trump's ignoring them. The administration won't talk about them, but they are really serious red flags. And almost nobody even has any idea, unless you are one of the people that is experiencing the following struggles. Now, let me kind of set the stage for you. The stock market can go up and it has been, and it has been for a while. Corporate profits can look okay for a while. Like you look at corporations and their numbers look sort of okay. Donald Trump can stand on a dais at a lectern and yell, this is the greatest economy ever for a while. But if you look underneath all of that, you can find a number of very concerning indicators that regular people, just the average American is cracking fucking financially. And when you see this with credit cards, student loans, car payments, eventually mortgages, it is a leading indicator of a problem that is rapidly barreling towards us. Now, I mentioned this several weeks ago and earlier this week, and we now have others in the financial space starting to focus in on this stuff. Charlie Bilalo, who's the chief market strategist at Creative Planning, noticed the very same problem I've been talking to you about. And he put out a tweet with a chart that says 13.1% of credit card balances in the US are now over 90 days delinquent. This is the highest since 2011. 10% of student loans are now over 90 days delinquent. That's the highest since 2020 five and a half percent of auto loan balances are now over 90 days delinquent. The highest level Ever on record. And then mortgage delinquencies are also starting to tick up a little bit. This is a major red flag of the economy moving in the wrong direction. And the mortgage aspect is important, as even that is starting to tick up the number of people late on their mortgage, because that's usually the last thing people will stop paying. They might start paying only the minimum on credit cards and accruing interest, but they'll stay on time with their mortgage. They might start to be late with their car loan payment, but they'll stay on time with their mortgage. Because after, at the end of the day, it's the payment associated with the place where you live. People will delay student loan payments, but they'll stay on time with the mortgage. But when they start being at risk of losing the house with late mortgage payments, you know that things aren't good. Now, I don't think that the Trump administration gets it, or they do get it, and they are not at all willing to acknowledge it. Remember this? This was Kevin Hassett earlier this week or late last week. When was this? This was late last week, bragging about how everything is so good that Americans are going into a bunch of credit card debt. Missing the point that the reason Americans are going into credit card debt is because everything is more expensive and they can't afford to pay cash.
- [04:36]
Kevin Hassett
And so the consumer is really, really firing on all cylinders, just like the corporate sector you're seeing in the earnings reports. And they're doing that because they have so much more money in their pockets. In fact, I had the head of one of the big five banks in my office yesterday going through the credit card data. And just as Secretary Bessant said, credit card spending is through the roof. They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else.
- [04:58]
David Pakman
To Besson. I'm sorry, Hassett. Kevin Hassett. Did I say that it was Besson earlier? This is Kevin Hassett. He's extremely smug. Yes, he's extremely irritating to watch, but he's also completely wrong. It's not good that Americans are racking up credit card balances. Things are so expensive that people are having to charge them and having to pay interest on them. If you're drowning in credit card debt, you don't care about truth social posts. You care about how much interest am I paying on my credit card over the next month. And so when we put the entire picture together here, if people are closer to having their cars repossessed, if people are closer to having their homes foreclosed on, or are starting to get into the credit card debt spiral cycle. That is not a sign of a good economy. We are finally, I've been yelling about this for three, four months now. We're finally starting to see this enter the mainstream. By the way, not to pat myself on the back, but I am proud that my audience has been informed about this for a while. And if these economic stories matter to you, please make sure that you've liked this video on whatever platform you're sharing it on. Make sure you're following me or subscribed on whatever platform you're watching, whether it's YouTube or Instagram or whatever. We'll do more of the economic stuff. It is so important to keep the audience informed about what's happening in this economy because by the time the experts, the so called experts admit that there is a serious problem, we have already been talking about it. And importantly, millions of Americans have been living it for a long time. So, so important here to see that these numbers are entering the mainstream. And it's, I think also kind of worth mentioning that when these delinquencies start to increase, they can't really go down as quickly as they go up. And that's a scary thing. Why? Because as they go up, interest is added to what people owe. And so to pay them back down to where they started, you need to catch up not only on the principal and interest, but you need to catch up on the additional interest that is accruing as these payments are not made. That applies to most of these types of payments, not every single one. So this is a major red flag going in the wrong direction as Trump is talking about what kind of marble are we going to be using on this completely deranged and unnecessary White House ballroom? If you thought for a second that he really cared about you and the average financial situation of normal everyday Americans, well, not only is he acting like he doesn't care, he also said two days ago, I don't consider Americans financial situations when deciding what to do as president. Terrifying, disturbing. And I hate that we told you so. I don't. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say that this week FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned. So what? Right. Doesn't sound like a massive political shockwave. It's not like when Kristi Noem was pushed out. It's not like when Pam Bondi was pushed out. Except I believe that it is. Marty Makary, as head of the fda was getting massive pressure from Trump world and from the Maha people. The make America healthy again. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Type people. Why Marty Makary wasn't crazy enough. Think about that. The events leading up to Marty Makary's resignation give us kind of a glimpse into what might be coming next. As the administration is going to be searching for someone to lead the fda, we are seeing this growing effort to treat the FDA not as an independent scientific and regulatory agency, which is what it's supposed to be, but as a political tool. That's all that Trump world considers the FDA to be. They've placed huge pressure on the FDA to approve certain drugs faster. Very dangerous. We have a process for that, to reconsider or to revoke approval for others based on political issues. That's extremely dangerous when people are depending on certain drugs and we are talking about medications and treatments used by tens of millions of Americans. And what makes this particularly notable is the timeline. We have over the last month, a number of data points that explain what happened and why this is so dangerous. We've seen pressure campaigns around mifepristone. I've covered that extensively already. We've seen the public attacks on SSRI and other psychiatric medications from the MAHA people scale up. We've seen reporting about potential restrictions being discussed within the fda. And we've also seen Trump kind of casually talking about FDA approval as if it's something he can do as a favor. Remember when Joe Rogan showed up in the Oval Office and said, oh, we we've got to do. I don't know what was the drug even. It wasn't ketamine. We'll get back to that. Wrote for ptsd. Trump goes, you want FDA approval? We can get FDA approval if you want that. So let's go through all of these and understand that every single one of these controversies are points in the same direction. So we start with mifepristone. This is the pill used in more than half of abortion cases, and it's also used for miscarriage care. It's been approved 25 years, almost 26 since the year 2000. We covered Josh Hawley, the Republican senator, pushing to try to undo the approval of mifepristone, to take it totally off the market. It's very safe. We have decades of data about it. And what they're pushing for is not let's review it again or conduct more research or whatever they are just ideologically and politically saying, let's revoke approval for this. We then have the MAHA movement targeting SSRI medications, often known as antidepressants, taken by tens of millions of Americans. Some of the brand names for these are Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac, and there's a bunch of others. And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Has been on a campaign against these drugs and he went after them in general.
- [11:28]
Guest or caller with addiction experience
Remember this, withdrawal from ssr, SSRI can be more difficult than withdrawal from heroin. And the New York Times and a lot of other outlets published a response from that saying that the experts disagreed with the secretary. And we all know that whenever they say trust the experts, they got nothing. But I happen to be an actual expert on this because I was addicted to heroin for 14 years. I never wanted to be. So I was constantly getting off of it and then getting back on. And I went through cold turkey withdrawal probably over 100 times. And so I know what it's like and it's not fun.
- [12:18]
David Pakman
I don't really know why cold turkey withdrawal from heroin makes RFK an expert on FDA approvals of psychiatric medications, but he claims that it does. And this is a building story because Reuters also reported that people inside the administration tried to figure out ways to restrict these medications with or without the fda. Now, I mean, listen, I don't think I even need to say this, but talking about side effects of medications, very important. Talking about the overprescription of medications, very important. That important. We've talked about that with GLP ones, we've talked about that with ADHD medications. It even is a relevant topic with SSRI is sure. Talking about how the pharmaceutical industry pushes on the FDA long term health impacts, all of that is very reasonable conversations we should have. Really, really important. But the problem is that the scientific agencies under MAGA have become subject to pressure campaigns from people who don't know a damn thing about this stuff. People including the President and people close to the president who just have opinions and they're not particularly well informed opinions. And so that sought to turn the FDA into a political organization rather than a health and safety organization. Now, remember when Joe Rogan recently visit, visited the White House and he explained Trump offered FDA approval for a psychedelic treatment in a text chain. And this is not the way that regulatory agencies are supposed to work.
- [13:50]
Person discussing ibogaine treatment
I want to tell everybody how this happened. I sent President Trump some information. We have a gigantic opiate problem, problem in this country. Obviously in 2024, more than 80,000 people died of overdoses. It's, it's a horrible number. And there's more than 5 million people that are addicted to opiates right now in this country. With one dose of ibogaine, more than 80% of people are free of that addiction, with two doses, it's more than 90%. I sent him that information. The text message came back, sounds great. Do you want FDA approval? Let's do it.
- [14:26]
David Pakman
That is an extraordinarily scary way to be talking about FDA approval. And I'm not naive. I know presidents influence agencies. Of course they do. But the implication here is that the approval of a drug is something Trump can personally help to arrange. If you're an ally or a friend or just someone who's politically connected, someone who did a nice interview with Trump that he liked during the election, none of this proves corruption or a giant conspiracy. But if you take it all together, the picture is the independent agency of the FDA and others are seen merely as extensions of political power. And so that takes us back to Marty Makary resigning. I've spoken before about Marty Makary. Marty Makary wrote a book about medical issues that I read, which has a lot of good stuff in it. He wrote in the book about how OB GYNs are too quick to recommend C sections in the United States for women relative to other countries. And there's a lot of C sections that could be avoided. That's an important topic. That's a good topic. Marty Makary wrote in his book about how we don't really need to do all of the appendectomies that we do, that there's been a lot of good studies now, and it turns out that antibiotics work really well for a lot of appendicitis, and you can just take antibiotics and go home, and you don't need to have it removed the way I did. And the appendectomy that shook the medical world to its core. He has some good ideas, but he has also really gone off in this MAHA direction. But what's fascinating is clearly not far enough, because he decided to resign. And it was clear that the MAHA people didn't think Marty Makary was moving quickly enough. So, as is often the case in MAGA world, the question becomes, who are they going to replace Marty Makary with? Because remember when Matt Gaetz was nominated to be the Attorney General, and that totally bombed, and instead it was Pam Bondi? We said, well, Pam Bondi is less cartoonish in a way than Gates, but she'll probably be more effective at getting horrible things done. And she did. Using Trump's desire for revenge to inform the direction of the Department of Justice and all of the stuff that we covered. The FDA is not a niche agency. That's somewhere in the background. They are regulating medications, treatments, warnings, clinical standards. These are decisions that affect the health care of just about every American. Just about. And when the expectation becomes the the FDA should be acting politically and Trump should just tell the FDA what he wants and they should do it. That is absolutely terrifying. We need scientific independence. It can't be subject to is it a Republican or a Democrat in the White House? What outcomes is the president demanding from the fda? We have a long history of the FDA not being independent enough. When you look for example at approvals for certain opiate painkillers, Sackler family story, all of that stuff. We need more independence and more rigor at the fda, not less. And so the resignation of Marty Makary is terrifying. We have been climbing, climbing, climbing the Apple podcast charts and we haven't even been making a push, just the podcast has been growing. I think it's been better than ever and we are climbing the charts. I want to actually ask you to do me a very small favor. I don't need 11,000 votes, I don't need FDA approvals. I would just love it if you subscribed to my podcast on Apple Podcasts and left a rating. And if you're so nice a review it costs nothing and it takes 30 seconds. And we want the right is making a run for the podcast charts. We've got to beat them back. And all I'm asking you to do is subscribe. On Apple Podcasts you've got an iPhone, it's on your phone. Otherwise you can find it on your computer or on your Android phone if you have it. Subscribe and leave a rating. It will help us keep pushing, pushing, pushing up and we can displace some of these horrible, horrid right wing shows. Thank you. The frustrating part about debt is that even if you're doing everything right, the system is stacked against you. Interest compounds, the fees pile up and you end up paying just to stay in the exact same place while the bank collects. That's why I want to talk to you about PDS debt, which works with people dealing with unsecured debt. That means credit cards, personal loans, medical bills. There's no one size fits all approach. They will evaluate your specific situation and make a plan that works for you. There is no minimum credit score required. PDS debt is A plus rated by the Better Business Bureau. They have thousands of five star reviews
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- [21:00]
David Pakman
barely conscious Donald Trump struggled to speak during his disastrous China trip, talked about Chinese food and praised Dictator Xi during a completely absurd rant. This guy loves dictators. This guy is enamored with authoritarians and Chinese food. You've got to be kidding me. Here is Donald Trump as his cabinet looks on in Hara as Elon Musk and other CEOs question, what on earth is going on here? Trump goes. We love China. We've got more Chinese restaurants than the fast food chains in the United States. And it is even more absurd by the fact that this stuff is being translated in real time. Like, it's bad enough when Trump rants incoherently, but when he's ranting incoherently and you have translators working to translate this, it is just pathetic.
- [22:07]
Donald Trump
As allies in World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt's mentions of the brave people of China, that's what they were through loud cheers and his speeches in the United States. And everybody loved what he had to say. Just as many Chinese now love basketball and blue jeans, Chinese restaurants in America today outnumber the five largest fast food chains in the United States all combined. That's a pretty big statement.
- [22:39]
David Pakman
I don't think we need the live translation. You know, they call it American chop suey, but it's not really American, is it? No it's not. I got chicken and garlic sauce, and there was just so much garlic at a level we've never, ever, ever seen before. But is crab Rangoon really a Chinese dish? I don't know, but we put him on Air Force One. This is demented. This is humiliating. Now, if this was part of a broader trip to China where Donald Trump reinforced American competence and strength, all. All stuff that he could never possibly do, I would accept it. If Donald Trump went to China and spoke about the values of democracy rather than authoritarianism, I would go, you know, I can deal with the Chinese food rant. But Trump went and just sucked. Xi just desperate to impress him and to be liked. And here is Trump telling the authoritarian leader, you're a great leader. You know, I say it to everybody. It's true.
- [23:44]
Donald Trump
You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true. I only say the truth.
- [23:52]
David Pakman
Trump doesn't always say the truth. He lies all the time. But he is enamored with dictators. Does he talk about how our Western allies have great leaders? No. The closest you can get is him praising, you know, right wing Meloni in Italy. And even under protest, he. He does that. But the authoritarians, he just absolutely loves. In a weird moment, Trump talks about beautiful little kids. We got to keep this guy away from the kids.
- [24:28]
Donald Trump
Well, President Xi, I want to thank you very much. First of all, that was an honor like few have ever seen before. And I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. The military is obvious. It couldn't be better. But those children were amazing and they represent so much.
- [24:50]
David Pakman
And I know Trump very impressed by the children. And Trump very impressed again, by China's military. China welcomed Trump with one of these authoritarian military displays of strength the likes of which we've come accustomed to in countries like Russia and North Korea. And it's what Trump would like here in the United States. But sometimes he just can't get it done. And then Trump really just dumps the love letters on the authoritarian President Xi. He says, I respect China so much. You're a great leader. I'm honored to be here. Think about how Trump talks about and to President Zelensky. Think about how Trump talks about and to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney or the French president or the British prime minister doesn't talk to them like this. And they are the leaders of democratic countries. But you find an authoritarian country Like China. And Trump is just gushing.
- [25:51]
Donald Trump
We've had a fantastic relationship. We've gotten along. When there were difficulties, we worked it out. I would call you and you would call me whenever we had a problem. People don't know whenever we had a problem. We worked that out very quickly, and we're going to have a fantastic future together. Such respect for China, the job you've done. You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true. I always say the truth. And I just want to say on behalf of all of the great delegation that we have, we have the greatest businessmen, the biggest and I guess the best in the world. We have amazing people, and they're all with me. They. Every single one of them. We asked the top 30 in the world, every single one of them said yes. And I didn't want the second or the third in the company. I wanted only the top.
- [26:46]
David Pakman
All right, so anyway, he respects she so much, and he brought the top people and everything's awesome. And by the way, this is not a democracy. He wants to be their friends. That's really what it is. Every dictator, he just has this instinct to slobber over, and it projects such weakness. Such. Such weakness. And just, Just a little bonus from earlier in the day. Trump saying, this is the best summit ever. It's the biggest summit. It's the best summit. This is just so awesome.
- [27:14]
Donald Trump
So I really look very much forward to our discussion. Is a big discussion. There are those that say this is maybe the biggest summit ever. They can never.
- [27:23]
David Pakman
Some are saying it. Trump, I guess, is the one saying,
- [27:25]
Donald Trump
or anything like it. It's. I can say in the United States, it's. People aren't talking about anything else.
- [27:32]
David Pakman
But we are just so impressed with the size of Donald Trump's summit. But it wasn't all fun and games, that's for sure. Donald Trump got a very serious warning from President Xi in China, and it has to do with Taiwan. And even though the language and the environment is also diplomatic, we're welcoming him with open arms and a red carpet. If you know how to listen to diplomatic speech, you realize she is warning Trump and is saying to Trump, we would go to war if you try any hijinks with Taiwan. This is, I think this is the most serious warning of Trump's presidency. And I don't think people realize how dangerous this is because Trump doesn't understand the implications. You know, Trump was There smiling, he was complimenting Xi Jinping. We're. We're good friends. And she was warning that Taiwan could trigger a direct conflict between China and the United States. And when China talks about Taiwan, it is not in the United States. It might seem like an ordinary foreign policy disagreement. Well, there's just. We have different perspectives, and it's going to be sorted out. There's routine diplomatic tension over some issues. The Taiwan issue for China is existential. They see it as unfinished business from the Chinese civil war. They view reunification with Taiwan as inevitable. It's necessary. They believe their national security depends on. On absorbing Taiwan into China. And they view outsiders interfering as humiliation. China has spent years preparing militarily in case the Taiwan issue turns into a confrontation with the United States. They've expanded their navy, they've expanded their missile systems. They've bolstered their cyber warfare and air power. And a lot of it is directed exactly at the Taiwan situation. Now, the United States has been deliberately vague. Now, some call it strategic ambiguity. Trump's just clueless on the issue. But for decades, there has been this vague relationship where we've helped to arm Taiwan, but we don't make explicit guarantees about military intervention. And that ambiguity has kept the balance. And the fear is what happens if someone miscalculates. And this is where Trump becomes really risky. Trump looks at foreign policy like personal branding. You see that with the we might get Greenland stuff. You see it with Venezuela. You see it with Iran. You see it with Trump going, we might just grab Cuba on the way back from Iran. And so then that changes how we should interpret this personal chemistry that Donald Trump has with the authoritarian leaders. When you look at Putin, Kim Jong Un, Erdogan Xi, he is genuinely impressed by these leaders who rule without opposition and without constraints and with no accountability to democracy. And for years, people kind of defended this approach, saying Trump is really clever to be friendly with these dictators because it brings down the chance of a war. There is a different side to that, which is you're not really friends with the authoritarian leaders. That analysis only works if you believe that Trump is genuinely developing friendships with them, but he's not. Trump thinks that they are friendships, but the authoritarian leaders see these as manipulations of Donald Trump. They aren't really impressed because you compliment them in public. They expect that, and they use it against you. They have interests and objectives, and she, during this trip, has laid out a red line. If Taiwan isn't handled correctly, we could see relations between the US And China deteriorate up to and including military armed conflict. So everybody's smiling, they're having their Chinese food. As Donald Trump talks about it, they're glad handing and doing all this stuff. Elon Musk is sitting there taking selfies with people. But what is basically being said here is we, we will go to war with you over this. And Trump goes, these are my friends. You're so great. It is not sophisticated diplomacy for Trump to just be snowed in this way every single time because she understands how power works. Trump has no clue. And if there were to be a conflict over Taiwan, it's not going to be like the conflict in Iraq of 2003. It won't be like the 20 year conflict in Afghanistan. Taiwan produces a massive share of the advanced semiconductors of the world. And in a conflict, those supply chains overnight could get frozen. And you could see the militarization of shipping routes from China, from Asia. You could see Japan getting involved, you could see American troops, you could see cyber attacks. Like, the backdrop here is, this is insanely serious. And Trump praises Xi and then he threatens tariffs, and then he questions, is Taiwan worth defending? I don't know. And then he does weapons sales to Taiwan. It's this erratic, crazy thing, while he's just in love with Xi. And so the most dangerous confrontations can be where one side has completely miscalculated the state of place play. And with Trump, I don't even even calling it a miscalculation might be too much. It really might be more of like an ignorant thing. He doesn't even really understand what's going on. And so Trump's approach might work on reality TV for lack of a better place. But when you're dealing with managing tensions between global superpowers, you've got to take this very seriously. China sent a signal. Is Trump even smart enough or informed enough to realize it? And if we talk about the temperament of Donald Trump, I don't know that the guy, he doesn't have the discipline, doesn't have patience, and I don't think he has strategic consistency either to manage something that's so sensitive. And so, yeah, Trump being enamored with authoritarian leaders is sort of, on a personal level, off putting. It's kind of gross that his instincts are so anti Democratic that the people he loves are the, the dictators and the authoritarians. But there is a real important dividing line here on this issue of Taiwan. I don't think Trump even remotely understands why and how this is so important. And the next thing you know, we could be in a war with China, and it would be nothing like what we've seen with Iran, Iraq and other places. Question to you. Do you think Trump even gets the risk, or does he not understand it?
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David Pakman
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- [35:38]
David Pakman
There's a major change on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. more and more elected members of the House and Senate are just straight up saying Trump's cognitive decline is a major problem at this point in time. You know, before they would sort of allude to it for a while, they wouldn't even really do that. But now we are seeing every single day, members of the House and members of the Senate say, I don't know, that Trump is cognitively fit enough to carry out, to discharge his duty, for lack of a better term, as President of the United States. Our friend Pablo reports. By the way, I Met Pablo in D.C. he's Chilean. He's a fellow South American. We, we should come up with a name like the Chilean Chainsaw, who just goes and just cuts up these elected officials with sharp questions. Or maybe like, the Chilean charmer is better. He was a very nice guy. Pablo was on Capitol Hill, and he asked a whole bunch of members of the House, what is the deal with Trump's cognitive decline? Is this now a factor in evaluating and thinking about how and whether he's able to do his job? And they basically all said yes. Here's Congressman Pat Ryan worried Trump may fall asleep while negotiating with China started.
- [36:51]
Congressman Pat Ryan
So the only emergency is, is him in the White House.
- [36:55]
Congresswoman Dexter
What do you call him? What do you make of him calling for Obama's arrest? Two presidencies. Three presidencies.
- [37:00]
Congressman Pat Ryan
Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, he's completely unhinged. It's clear that he's unhinged, particularly I think as he goes to China and knows he's going there with a weak hand. He's just grasping and flailing.
- [37:12]
Congresswoman Dexter
And how big of a factor at this point is his cognitive decline?
- [37:15]
Congressman Pat Ryan
It's a huge factor. I mean, we're in the midst of a war. He's negotiating with China right now, and we can't be sure if he's not falling asleep in the middle of these meetings. We should all be very concerned. I'm certainly concerned and my constituents are, too.
- [37:30]
David Pakman
This is not normal, folks. I know. We've gotten used to the fact that everybody is now talking about Donald Trump's inability to stay awake and his cognitive decline. This is the President of the United States on high stakes international missions, international diplomacy trips, and you've got members of the House and Senate just as as an assumed problem, it's going to be tough to do X and Y because of the cognitive decline. Congresswoman Dexter asked a similar question.
- [38:01]
Congresswoman Dexter
And how big of a factor is Donald Trump's cognitive decline now that he's in China negotiating on behalf of the United States?
- [38:06]
Representative McBride
No, I don't trust that man to
- [38:08]
David Pakman
be able to cognitively make a complete
- [38:11]
Interviewer or journalist questioning JD Vance
sentence, let alone negotiate with China, who's
- [38:16]
David Pakman
so clearly three steps ahead of us right now.
- [38:18]
Interviewer or journalist questioning JD Vance
It's really, really concerning.
- [38:20]
David Pakman
Representative McBride was asked about the exact same thing.
- [38:25]
Congresswoman Dexter
Expectations quickly lowering for the trip to China. How big of a factor is Donald Trump's cognitive decline at this point?
- [38:32]
David Pakman
Well, he wasn't starting from a high bar, that's for sure. And then also Scott McFarlane, who I had a chance to talk to in D.C. a couple of weekends ago, asking other members similar questions. By the way, he spoke with Congresswoman Bailon from Vermont, who I had the pleasure of meeting at White House correspondence weekend. She's very cool. I would not want to get on her bad side, let me put it that way. And she weighed in. Thank you. I'm sorry to ask the question this way. Are you concerned about the President's mental Well being?
- [39:09]
Congresswoman Nancy Mace
Oh, 100%. I don't know how anyone can see what he posts or watch him in any meeting and think that he's fit for office. I'm, I'm absolutely concerned about it. And I know my Republican colleagues are, too. They just won't say it out loud.
- [39:23]
David Pakman
That's the key it's not that Republicans are blind to the crumbling cognitive abilities of the president. It's that they know they can't talk about it because if they do, they screw themselves. Finally, our friend Congresswoman Yassimine Ansari also asked about Donald Trump and she indicates that he is indeed unwell, which is true and an incredible understatement.
- [39:47]
Congresswoman Dexter
How big of a factor is this cognitive decline given kind of like what we're seeing, you know, in the lead up to this China trip?
- [39:55]
Representative McBride
I mean, Donald Trump is so unwell. The fact that the President of the United States spends every single night from the span of midnight to 3 to 4am on truth social creating AI slop, it's, it's unbelievable. And I think that's why you're seeing more and more people call for the 25th amendment and just recognize that he is unfit to be president, let alone any sort of leadership position.
- [40:21]
David Pakman
Think about how we've gotten used to duly elected members of the House and Senate just casually talking about, listen, we've got a president in cognitive decline. And so here are the problems that it causes. He sometimes falls asleep during events. We've got to work around that. He humiliates himself on international trips. The, that's a problem. He is not fit to really be in the room negotiating with these authoritarian manipulators like Xi and Putin and others. This, it's not even is he suffering from cognitive decline. It's now here are all of the different ways in this in which this creates a problem. And this is why I think it's so interesting that we have now seen heard from Robert Reich as we spoke about yesterday about this way that, listen, if you get Vance and then Vance goes to Rubio and together they go to that there's this glimmer of Hope that the 25th Amendment could be used for the removal of Donald Trump statistic. Let me mention one other thing. Yesterday when we looked at the actuarial tables, what I looked at generic actuarial tables for a 79 year old. We were asking what's more likely removing Trump with the 25th Amendment or that he dies office and it looked like there's only, you know, like a 7, 8% chance that he would die before his term is over by actuarial tables. A bunch of you wrote to me and you said that's generic. If you say an obese 79 year old with poor cardiovascular health who eats a diet of fast food, the actuarial tables would be much higher. So that's a fair point. And I don't know that I have access to that cross section, the actuarial tables. But putting the physical health aside, as interrelated as it is with cognitive health, it's unanimous among those not constrained by their membership in the Republican Party to say, hey, you know what, this guy's brain isn't working. And that is a real problem. I want to remind you that J.D. vance is a pathetic, spineless coward. But whoa, hold on a second. What happened? Let me explain. Remember that when Donald Trump was departing to China, he said he does not consider the financial situation of Americans when figuring out what to do in Iran. We have it on video here.
- [42:51]
Congresswoman Nancy Mace
It is negotiating with Iran. Mr. President, to what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?
- [42:59]
Donald Trump (video clip)
Not even a little bit. It's the only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
- [43:15]
David Pakman
That's all he cares about. He does not consider the financial situation of Americans. And he even said when I did Iran, I thought barrels of oil would go to $200, which would imply eight or nine dollar gas. He was fine with that. Thank God it didn't happen. When he went to Iran, he thought the stock market would drop 20 to 25%, meaning your 401ks would decline 20 to 25%. And he was fine with that. So then JD Vance is asked about it yesterday. Do you agree with what Trump said? And he goes, trump didn't say that. It's a misrepresentation. No, it's not JD That's a pathetic cop out. That is cowardly.
- [43:53]
Interviewer or journalist questioning JD Vance
And can I ask you, Mr. Vice President, when approaching the war with Iran, do you agree with the President's position that Americans financial situations should not be a consideration in that decision making process?
- [44:06]
Vice President (Kamala Harris or similar)
Well, I don't think the President said that. I think that's a misrepresentation of what the President said. But look, I agree with the President that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. We're obviously engaged in a very aggressive and very engaged diplomatic process to try to ensure that that doesn't happen. And the President has a lot of options as he said repeatedly.
- [44:23]
Interviewer or journalist questioning JD Vance
And can I ask you Mr. Vice President, when a.
- [44:25]
David Pakman
What? That is not at all what happened. But JD Is a pathetic, spineless jellyfish. Sort of an insult to jellyfish. Other than the couple times that I got badly stung, I don't really have a problem with jellyfish, but I got a problem with J.D. vance. That's for sure. He does not have. I know people hate it when I say this. Some do. He doesn't have the testicular fortitude. He just does. He doesn't have it. He is terrified. And this is why he was supposedly against going into Iran. And he had it leaked that Vance has a different perspective. He didn't even want to go on record. Now, I know that many of you can say as the vice president, you don't make policy. Kamala Harris said when it came to Joe Biden, she was the vice president. She was designated by Biden to work on certain things. She doesn't go out and say, here's my policy, and it's totally different. I understand that. But JD Is a particular type of spineless doormat, and I don't respect it in the least. Not. I don't respect it even the tiniest bit. And he knows that if he wants to get an attaboy from Trump and for Trump to go, JD is the guy for 2028, he. He has to do stuff like this. By the way, I don't know how many of you have noticed a lot of in the last 24 hours. I saw speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, and a bunch of others. They were asked about this very comment that Trump made. I don't consider the financial situation of Americans. And they go, oh, I haven't seen that comment. Come on, guys. We don't believe that. We. We do not believe that. You saw it and you're afraid to comment, and that's why you're saying you didn't see it. Funny bonus. Funny bonus. JD Vance is asked about the fact that Trump keeps doing this. Should it be JD or should it be Marco in 2028? And listen to JD go. I don't think Trump wants to turn this into a reality show. That's exactly what Trump wants to turn it into.
- [46:33]
Interviewer or journalist questioning JD Vance
A couple of days ago, Trump made this statement to people in the Rose Garden. Why do you think he does that? Do you think it's. It's a little bit of toying with you both over your succession? Why do you think he brings that up just number one?
- [46:46]
Vice President (Kamala Harris or similar)
Well, I just don't think it sounds like the President of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice. I just think that's not at all what you would expect the president to do. But, no, look, I think.
- [46:59]
David Pakman
And of course JD Is joking, right? Because we all know, that's exactly what Trump would do. What a funny joke, isn't it?
- [47:04]
Vice President (Kamala Harris or similar)
He's always been fascinated by politics. If you, if you talk to him. He was fascinated by politics 30 years before he ever ran for office.
- [47:11]
Donald Trump (video clip)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [47:12]
David Pakman
Okay, J.D. here is what's going on. Trump wants Vance and Rubio to lick his boots and that is going to help him decide. I'm going to wait to decide and figure out. No. Trump's waiting for two things. Does it seem like one of these guys has a better shot? Because Trump likes picking winners. I don't mean that he causes people to win. Trump likes figuring out who's already going to win. I'll pick that one. And then I'll say, look, I'm incredible. I picked it. It was because of me. And number two, Trump wants them groveling. He wants them on the floor, licking his boots and licking those lifts that he puts in his shoes so that he can go, this is the person that it should be. So we're going to, I believe that we are going to have more and more of a J.D. vance narrative arc as we proceed beyond 2026 and, and towards 2028. We're going to be here covering it. We are doing everything we can to beat back the right wing podcast machine. And I have such a humble ask for you. I just need your help with this. We are trying to push up the Apple podcast charts and we have moved up 12 slots in the last 24 hours. I'm asking you with peace and love. Peace and love. Go on to Apple Music. Just subscribe to my podcast there and leave us a rating, that's all. That's it. It costs nothing and it takes 30 seconds. We pushed up to 87 on the Apple charts and I will tell you where we are tomorrow. The David Pakman show is an audience supported program and the best, most direct way to support support the show is by becoming a member@join pacman.com you'll get the daily bonus show, the daily commercial free show, and plenty of other great membership perks. Get the full experience by signing up@join pacman.com A new report explains that Donald Trump has some kind of if I die letter in the resolute desk for J.D. vance. And it's all very, very weird. According to the Daily Beast, Sebastian Gorka went on a podcast and said that there's a written letter addressed to JD Vance should something happen to Donald Trump. And immediately my reaction is, why are these people talking like this all the time? Now, like everything with Trump world has become death, revenge, annihilation, enemies, traitors, assassination plots. It's Trump. You know, as a former reality show host, seems like now he has put himself at the center of some kind of fictional drama. Now, you might say, well, hold on a second. There have been assassination attempts against Donald Trump. He really is in that real world drama. And apparently what's interesting about that is that apparently the Gorka comment came up because he was asked about concerns with regard to Trump being assassinated while overseas, like on the China trip that he's on right now. And instead of just saying, listen, the President is protected, Gorka starts talking about protocols and letters in drawers, which is just absolutely fascinating. Now, this, to me, this links back to the thing Trump himself said earlier in the year, where he has given JD Vance very firm instructions essentially, to destroy Iran if anything happens to him, wipe them off the face of the earth, which we know is how Trump talks, because he has posted some of that stuff publicly on Truth Social, as we covered with great interest. And the fascinating, overarching theme is that Trump is a guy increasingly obsessed with his own mortality. He has talked in the last year about maybe he's not going to get into heaven. Could be accurate. You know, if. If your beliefs include a heaven and a hell or just a heaven, I think it's reasonable to think Trump may not end up in heaven. That. That seems fair. We have Trump increasingly talking about his health in terms of, I'm totally fine right now. They say all these things about me. I'm totally fine right now. But someday, someday that may not be the case. Telling Melania, not that long ago, a couple of weeks ago, you know, I don't think we're going to make it together to 50, 60 years of marriage or whatever it was that he talked about his parents making it to. He said, I'm sorry, the numbers are not going to work out that way. Paraphrasing. And now this if I die letter, which shows me that Trump is increasingly sort of obsessed with his mortality. And from a broader perspective, he is obsessed with his legacy. And this is the political aspect of it that we've talked about Trump's obsession, you know, with, with Greenland and the ballroom and the reflecting pool and all of these physical manifestations of his presidency. I think he knows that his executive orders can be reversed. He probably suspects that not all of the reflections upon Trump's life when he's gone are going to be so positive. And so he wants to leave an impact that is more difficult to reverse, which includes construction, physical buildings of different kinds. And there are reports that people around Trump are constantly sort of feeding this line of thinking. And there's a political purpose to it as well, because in a sense, Trump wants to be seen as larger than life. Remember, you know, North Korean leaders, including the current one, Kim Jong Un, but also thinking back to Kim Jong Il, the perspective of these people are larger than life. Kim Jong Il shot a hole in one, every hole the first time he golfed. And when he was born, there was a quintuple rainbow and he never defecates and all of this stuff. Trump has a political identity that has to feel. He is historic. Everything is existential, existential. He can't only be the president. He has to be more than that. And this is where the victimhood aspect comes in. The whole world is plotting against him. Iran wants him dead. They might want to kill him when he's in China. And despite all of that, he is this indispensable figure holding together humanity. And some of his supporters eat this stuff up. They eat it up like it is being spoon fed to them, ladle fed to them, them. And there is a mythology around Trump that is about him being almost superhuman. He's the strong man under siege and his family is treated so unfairly and he has enemies everywhere. And so he needs the secret plan. Here's the letter to JD I think it's all part of the same performance. So if there really is a letter and if I die letter sitting in the Resolute desk for JD Vance, I think it probably doesn't contain detailed policy recommendations. It's probably a revenge letter. It's an F them up, JD F them up. Blame Biden and Obama if you can, but F them up. And interestingly, one of the most coherent things that could come out of Trump is such a letter. Now, you might say, David, what do you mean? It's a crazy letter. Screw these people up. Bomb them. Bomb them. What I mean by that is Trump is wishy washy and flip floppy on every issue. We're going to get gas prices down, but I'm going to take actions that bring them up. And we do care about this, but we don't care about that. The economy is the most important thing. I don't consider the economy when I think about going into Iran. But JD If I die, do these couple of things. It's sort of the most committed in a way Trump has ever really been to any kind of actual action. It's mostly rhetoric for Trump, rhetoric that is abandoned as soon as it's Inconvenient. And if he left J.D. vance any kind of specific instructions, in some sense, it's the clearest and most definitive that Trump has ever been as President of the United States. Barack Obama really triggers Donald Trump. He triggers him because he's more articulate and a better speaker. He triggers him because he's more athletic and more fit. He triggers Trump because Obama is globally respected, even if you didn't like everything that Obama did. And Obama triggers Trump because he reminds people that the stuff Trump is screwing up. Obama had mostly figured out Obama had solved the Iran nuclear situation, at least for a period of time and at least without launching missiles, without threatening to nuke Iran, without turning the Middle east into an even bigger disaster because of his ego. Wasn't perfect, but he did those things.
- [56:31]
Donald Trump
Obama.
- [56:32]
David Pakman
And here is President Obama reminding us in an interview just hours ago about what he was able to achieve with the Iran nuclear deal. And he says, Trump got out of the deal because I did it. That's the only real reason we pulled it off.
- [56:50]
Barack Obama
Without firing a missile. We got 97% of their enriched uranium out. How are you able to maintain a modest civilian nuclear program for energy?
- [57:01]
Guest or caller with addiction experience
So you think it was working?
- [57:02]
Barack Obama
Well, not only did I think it was working, even Israeli intelligence thought it was working. Even our intelligence services thought it was working. So there's no dispute that it worked. And we didn't have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the structure to Hormuz now.
- [57:25]
David Pakman
Well, there was some dispute that it didn't work. Well, our. Our present president believed that it didn't work, which is why he pulled out of it.
- [57:33]
Barack Obama
It's not clear that he didn't believe that it didn't work. He just said it didn't work.
- [57:37]
David Pakman
Worst deal of all time.
- [57:38]
Barack Obama
Yeah, because I did it. Which is fine. That seems to be a pattern. But there was no serious independent folks who would say that it didn't work. With respect nuclear program. Now, if your agenda was to bring about regime change in Iran, well, that wasn't the goal of the agreement. If your goal was to dismantle the Iranian military so that it couldn't cause any other problems in the region, then it didn't do that, but that wasn't the goal.
- [58:12]
David Pakman
Obama really gets to the heart of. Of how Trump does this stuff, which is Obama's name was on the deal. That's really all that I need to know. And that is so important right now because Obama is talking about the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump doesn't want anyone to remember. Was basically working. Iran agreed to massively reduce its enriched uranium stockpile, dismantle centrifuges, and except international inspections. And all the information we have is that up until the point that Donald Trump said, I'm getting out of this, Iran was doing. It. Doesn't make the theocratic regime of Iran something that I look up to or respect, doesn't make Iran a country whose foreign policy ambitions I am aligned with. But according to international inspectors and our own intelligence services, Iran was complying with the agreement. It was working as intended. It wasn't intended to do regime change. It wasn't necessarily perfect. Every single agreement like this has some tradeoffs, of course, otherwise both parties wouldn't agree to engage in it. But it was containing the nuclear program. And then Trump comes in and destroys it. Not because Iran violated the deal or because inspectors found nuclear weapons programs that were hidden or anything like that. He pulled out because Obama did it. And Trump has been emotionally incapable of admitting Obama did something that's good enough. He can't do it. He won't do it. And the Iran deal was especially triggering to Donald Trump because it represented the kind of leadership Trump wishes he could, he could engage in, that he could participate in. And it requires diplomacy and some patience, and it involves allies and respecting other people and acknowledging that you may not be the most knowledgeable person in the room. Trump can't do any of that stuff. He wants TV moments, dramatic threats. I'm out of the deal. Now we're going to unleash hell upon them. And so Trump pulls the US out of that deal in 2018, says we're going to get a better deal. Instead, what we get is in going now to the second term, bombing Iran in June of 2025, and then now going into a war. And what is Trump trying to get now? The best Trump can hope to do is to get back into the nuclear deal that looks almost exactly like what Barack Obama was involved in. And in fact, if you read about the negotiations that have been taking place, it seems that the best case scenario, realistically, is that whatever is put back in place isn't even as strong as what Barack Obama had in place. Trump destroyed the deal, made the region more dangerous, and now he is saying, we're trying to get a deal where they make agreements on nuclear and agreements on Strait of Hormuz. And we had that. We had that deal. And you said it wasn't good enough. And now you're going to put in place a deal that isn't even as strong. So Barack Obama is correct. He is getting to the core of this. It's that it had Obama's name on it, that Trump didn't like. Obama did it. So Trump hated it. And that's really all that this is about. And I don't think I have to tell you that this is indicative of an individual. So constitutionally, I mean, not like the Capital C Constitution as an individual. The makeup of Trump is so poorly suited to the office of the presidency that it's hard to think of a worse person, maybe. J.D. right. We don't, we don't know what he would be like as president, but Trump is pretty high up on the list of the last people in the world you would want to be president of the United States. We are going to figure out on the bonus show what is going on with Cuba. Cuba is running out of diesel and fuel oil and Donald Trump is insisting we might just go into Cuba on the way back. What on earth is going on? Florida's new history course completely whitewashes the history of slavery in the United States. And the White House is looking at pardoning 250 people. Wouldn't that be fun on the 250th birthday of the United States? Why not? Let's pardon 250 people. That would be fun. All of that is on today's bonus show. And you can get instant access to the bonus show by signing up@join pacman.com Alex Jones hates the bonus show, but the bonus show still exists, and Alex Jones is gone.
- [62:32]
Guest or caller with addiction experience
Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money.
- [62:34]
David Pakman
Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Exactly.
- [62:38]
Guest or caller with addiction experience
Thank your lucky stars every day you're not Dave Pakman.
- [62:41]
David Pakman
Thank your lucky stars every day you're not Dave Pakman. Well, Alex, you are gone. Infowars is gone and the bonus show keeps going. What a world.