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David Pakman
We have new allegations of wire fraud and other potential crimes surrounding Donald Trump's America 250 fundraising. We will talk about it. And an unbelievable international scandal involving the World cup, FIFA, Trump. Soccer fans around the globe are furious, and American fans should be furious as well. I will explain it. We'll look at the 4th of July celebration that turned into a completely embarrassing flop. Attendance numbers nowhere near what was promised. And we're also going to look at the president's increasingly bizarre public behavior. Posting that Italy's prime minister needs a restraining order because she's supposedly obsessed with him. Concerns about his own visible decline that got very tough to ignore over the weekend. Plus, even more Questions about Mitch McConnell's condition after weeks of secrecy. And it is the sort of program today that we shouldn't record and immediately delete. This is one where I would go, listen, we're recording it. Let's publish it. It's good enough. I think so. I'm glad you're with me today. I cannot believe this story I am about to tell you as a critic of of American authoritarianism and as a fan of soccer, football and the World Cup. Now, as many of you know, one of Donald Trump's worst qualities is that he's a scammer, grifter, con man, just like not a particularly good trait to have if you are a person. And I talk about that on the program. We talk about it with regard to Saudi sovereign wealth funds and pool renovations at the reflecting pool. And it comes up in a lot of different contexts. And it is also the case that I love soccer, football. I think if you want to take the cringe out of it. And we are in the middle of the World cup right now and we have just learned that Donald Trump is involved in cheating for the World cup to try to help the U.S. men's National Team. And it is absolutely disgusting. And what is taking place here is unconscionable. And it shouldn't be a surprise that Donald Trump is involved in cheating at sports since he reports reportedly cheats at golf all the time. Now, let me explain what happened then. Maybe you'll have a different opinion than me, but maybe we'll agree. During the last U.S. game, which was us against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the top goal scorer for the United States team team was given a red card. The player is Flo Baligun. And by the way, Baligan is a U.S. citizen because of the very birthright, citizenship and 4th 14th amendment that Trump is trying to overturn. That's actually a different story. But I Just mentioned that detail here. And during the game, Flo Baligun got a red card after his foot came down on the ankle of an opponent. Now, in football, this is a big deal. Players wear cleats. There is very special attention paid to whether in the middle of a game, a player is stepping on another player's foot or ankle. And the way that soccer rules are, when you get a red card, you immediately have to leave the field and you are not replaced. The rest of that game, your team is left to play with 10 players rather than 11. It's a big disadvantage. And then the way it works in the World cup is if you get a red card, that specific player can't play in the next game. In the next game, your team can have 11, but the particular player that got the red card is not allowed to play. So after this incident, which is, of course creates a disadvantage for the United States, without a doubt, Donald Trump calls his buddy Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, FIFA puts on the World cup. And he says to Gianni, how about reviewing this red card? How about reviewing this suspension? I don't know about this one. Maybe you can reverse it. Can you consider it? And yesterday FIFA goes, hey, you know what? We've reviewed it and we have reversed the suspension. And thanks to that reversal, Flo Baligun can now play. Today against Belgium. Trump posting about this to Truth Social, he says, quote, thank you to FIFA for doing what was right and reversing a great injustice. There has not been such a reversal in 64 years, since 1962. Now, my analysis is as follows. I don't believe this play was really worthy of a red card. I don't. I've seen the replay at this point 50 times. I don't think it was worthy of a red card. However, this is how sports work. There are tools available to the refs during the game. In some sports, it's just what the ref sees in real time with their own eyes. In other sports, there's replay. In soccer, they have VR video, assistant referee, and they can use it to check should that have been a penalty kick, as was called on the field, should that have been a yellow card, should this be a red card? And the video can be used to create a call or to debunk a call and to take back a call. And referees can change their decisions or they can confirm them and that's it. This is part of sports now. In baseball, perfect game games have been ruined for pitchers by umpires getting a safe call wrong at first base. There's a perfect game going ground ball throw to first, the runner is supposed to be out and the umpire says safe and the pitcher's perfect game is gone. That happens sometimes during this World Cup. There have been dubious penalty kick calls where I saw and I said I don't think that should have been a penalty kick. And the ref goes, yes it is. Or the opposite. There have been handballs where a non goalie player has touched the ball with a hand and I believe it should have been a hand call, a handball call, and it wasn't. But this whole idea of after the game is over, going back and revisiting calls, it is a very dangerous precedent. And in the midst of this comes Trump and the naked grift. And you also have Gianni Infantino, the FIFA president, who is a pathetic figure desperate to cozy up to Donald Trump. Don't forget that Infantino is the guy who developed the ridiculous FIFA Peace Prize to give directly to Donald Trump. Just pathetic. So this is not for me about one red card. It's do the rules apply equally to everybody? Sports work if the fans believe that outcomes are decided on the field. I have been many times on the short end of bad on court decisions, on field decisions based on the teams I like. But it shouldn't be determined by who has the president's phone number. Imagine the reaction for a second if this happened in Russia or Qatar or Saudi Arabia. And American commentators would be saying this is a disgraceful, corrupt act. And so we shouldn't use a different standard because it's happening here. Because Trump has spent years claiming the elections are rigged and courts are rigged and the media is rigged and institutions are rigged and the Kennedy center is rigged. And then the moment he has influence, he uses it to influence the outcome of an international sporting event. And it is an incredible contradiction. Now, FIFA has created a terrible incentive. Every country with political influence will wonder, should we start leaning on FIFA when we get a red card? We don't like when one of our players get suspended. And if Baligan deserved to play, play, the officials should have gotten it right during the match. And once the whistle blows, the president of the United States shouldn't be acting like the world's most powerful sports agent. We look weak when this stuff happens. The rules are optional is what it portrays. Now, I don't ultimately know what's going to happen. We have some hours before the 8 p 8pm Eastern game tonight. Belgium says they are appealing and and it's going to have to get sorted out. But is there no situation in Which Trump has no shame, inserting his corrupt, grifty nature. And by the way, you've also got to look at the person being grifted, which in this case is Gianni Infantino, who has decided to get on his knees and pray at the altar of Trump. They're even going to have Trump hand over the World cup trophy to the eventual winner. So, a pathetic and regrettable episode that once again, the rules don't apply to Trump is the belief that he has. We have explosive new allegations of wire fraud against Donald Trump surrounding this entire Freedom to 54th of July scam that he's been running. And it appears that Donald Trump has been misleading donors and into making payments which were rerouted to a different organization, which just so happens to be a little thing we call a crime. Now, what is being alleged is that people intended to donate to the America 250 celebration. Already a bad idea, I think, like, just kind of silly, but fine. And instead, they were given wire instructions to send the money, which would send the money to freedom to 50. Now, you might be saying, wait, David, America 250. Freedom 250. What do you mean? I will explain. This report comes from Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee. You might say natural resources. Why? Because it involves the Natural Natural National Parks Service. Now, to understand why this is a huge deal and a potential crime, you have to first understand the difference between America 250 and Freedom 250. America 250 is a commission that is nonpartisan and congressionally chartered. Freedom 250, on the other hand, is an executive branch project, meaning President Trump. And these, it is an executive branch public private partnership directly under the White House. So, different organization, totally different goals. For example, that UFC cage fight that put a bunch of money in the pockets of Dana White, the president of ufc, Donald Trump's friend. That is an example of an event organized by Freedom250, not America250. Trump's failed state fair, which we'll talk about later, was under the Freedom250 umbrella. And it appears that this was not an accident. They've been using the logos interchangeably. The organizers of Trump's Freedom250 have been aggressively targeting the people who donated to America to 50, creating confusion as to who am I donating to. And the reason that they would do this is that Donald Trump originally wanted to commandeer America to 50, which has actually been around for years. It didn't go so well when they tried to do that. So instead, they created Freedom 250 and the confusion began. Now, this could be multiple crimes. There could be wire fraud here, could also be charitable solicitation fraud. These are federal crimes. But the leaders of Freedom250 could also be subject to charitable solicitation violations under the laws of Washington, D.C. so a lot of potential cross crimes here. Trump did his normal games with Freedom 250. He nested Freedom 250 under the National Parks Foundation. So it all sounded very cool and very legal. But like he often does, Trump overthrew the board of the National Parks foundation, appointed people to the board who rubber stamp anything Trump wants, like the true loyalists in the worst sense of the word. And the other issue, of course, is who actually committed the crimes. Because Trump has, as he often does, put some layers between himself and the people who are getting conned. And in reality, it would probably be the consultants who would go down, since they're the ones putting together the outreach and the marketing, and they'd be the ones allegedly fleeting policing the donors. Now, this is exactly why we have charitable solicitation laws. People have a right to know who am I really donating to before they send the money. This is like, really basic stuff and violate the. The whole premise of how they're organizing. It violates the point of the laws. Now, notice how often this Trump administration creates organizations with names that sound similar to existing ones. And even if a donor, you know, is paying some attention. America to 50. Freedom to 50. American freedom 250. It's sort of easy to confuse. And the movement that has been lecturing us about rigged and scams and corruption, they now appear to have been misleading their own donors. Now, do I listen? It's almost laughable. Do I expect anyone to go to prison for this? No, I don't. I haven't been sleeping under a rock for the last 10 years. Is it another example of how the. I'm in it for the average Joe. I'm here for the average worker. And meanwhile, they are grifting donations from their own followers. Prices haven't come down. I won't give you the full list. But what has happened is Trump pocketed 1.4 billion from crypto. That's who really has done very well. The average person, really, not so much. And so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody, but maybe the most embarrassing part of all of this is, you know, America to 50. Freedom 250. They're confusing people. They're fundraising. They're doing all this stuff. After all of it, after all the money they raised after all the time they spent saying this is going to be the best and the biggest and whatever, almost nobody showed up. It seems as though the entire state fair that was organized with this Money brought in 200000 people over 16 days. That's like 12,000 people a day. Trump's fireworks display the most cool and big and polluting. By the way, it brought in a crowd of 150,000 people. And later I'm going to contextualize why that is such a flimsy and shriveled number. So maybe the most humiliating thing is that after all of it, after all of it, all of these events failed miserably. And part of it has to do with the algorithmic wall that exists on a lot of these different platforms between people and how we don't see what they see, they don't see what we see. I write about this a lot in my forthcoming book. Pay attention. By the way, some of you will notice that my forthcoming book has replaced my first book on the shelf behind me. I am going to be giving away this particular copy. This copy on my shelf is copy 1 out of however many will ultimately be printed and this particular book will sit with me here until the book is released. And then I will dedicate this book to someone in the audience and we will send it to you along with copy number one of the Echo machine. I will tell you a little bit later how we're going to make all of that happen. Let's be honest. Estate planning is one of those things people know they should do but keep putting off. I was one of those people. I have fun. Finally done it. Yes. It took a little bit of time. Yes. 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From cleaning sprays to hand soap, toilet bowl cleaner, laundry tablets. All Blueland products are made with clean ingredients you can feel good about. Blueland is trusted in over 1 million homes, including mine. I've been using the Blueland dish detergent and the toilet bowl cleaner for a while. Couldn't be happier. And you'll get 15% off your first order at blueland.com/pacman the link is in the description Donald Trump suffering terrifying glitches while speaking to a flight placid and shriveled crowd on the 4th of July. And after promising the longest speech in who knows how long because he has so much stamina, Trump ending the speech after mere minutes ending up being one of the shortest speeches he has ever given. Folks, I don't know what is wrong with this guy but he glitched as badly as we have ever seen. I've been talking for years about this symptom that gets worse which is when Trump attempts to speak something happens neuro linguistically meaning with the a brain and the a speech and he some his shoulder goes up and he just locks up and it happened really badly during this speech. The only upshot there weren't that many people there watching this crap. Take a look at this Milestones of
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Guest or Co-host
all time detour and you know you
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David Pakman
see that the whoa. Something very very serious is happening here. Let me play it once more.
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Guest or Co-host
Milestones of all Time the to
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David Pakman
what is it? We need a doctor. Maybe One of the 22 doctors that examined Donald Trump recently could tell us what it is. And the glitches were flat, flowing like water. He big water. Here is Trump struggling, coming up with the gem immortal, where's Jake Tapper when you need him?
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Guest or Co-host
We also have the flag that was given to that immortal.
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David Pakman
Just a fit that immortal. This is his worst ever. I have never seen this guy glitch this bad.
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Guest or Co-host
Saudi Arabia and Russia will repeat,
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Another Guest or Contributor
right?
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David Pakman
Trump trying to say that people must show voter id. Who must show voter id voters. But instead of voters, he says, motors, this guy's not well.
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Guest or Co-host
And we want to keep America great. And we will do so by approving the Save America act, which means all voters must show voter id. All motives of
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David Pakman
all modus must.
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Guest or Co-host
All voters must provide.
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David Pakman
All right, so Giga glitching the entire thing. Next, extremely poorly attended. Now, of course, it started hours late. There was terrible weather. If there is a God, he must have quite a sense of humor to keep screwing up the weather for all of these stupid Trump events. But as you can see here, a lot of empty seats.
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Guest or Co-host
Tonight, we come together for one of the most joyous and glorious milestones of all time. The two. And you know what that is. Two, five. The 250th anniversary.
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David Pakman
And I do have the number. 250 is made up of a number of digits, and a lot of people don't know that. A lot of people don't know zero can actually hold the place of hundreds. If it's the 2, 5 and then 0, even though it looks like a 0, it's a place value that is very important because it pushes out the two and it pushes out the five. So without that zero, we'd be talking about 25. But that zero, guys, give me a break. A presidential speech. Now, check out Marco Rubio. He quite literally could barely stay awake. If you're only listening, we're about to see Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is not known for having trouble staying awake. He could barely stay awake through this crowd. All right, as usual, Donald Trump has to lie about the attendance. He goes, we thought There were almost 40000 people here, but then the weather got in the way. But we've still got 150,000 people here. Nobody who saw the shots of the crowd believes there were 150,000 people there.
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Guest or Co-host
There's no way we can be deterred. And they estimated they had 375,000 people before everybody had to leave. And they now have 150,000 people. It's the craziest thing anyone's ever seen, at least. And I want to just thank you. And I feel so badly about some people. They left and they couldn't get back. But you're very special people and we have a very special country. Thank you very much. Much.
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David Pakman
There's no way lies. There is no evidence that 375,000 people tried to go to this thing. There is no evidence that 150,000 people were at this thing. Just a ridiculous lie. Now, Donald Trump was set to conclude this very short speech. Trump bragging, I have so much stamina and I'm going to be speaking for so long, hours and hours. But after just 35 minutes, Trump gets set to conclude the speech. And then he goes off track, totally off script, and says $19 trillion are coming in. Not only is it a lie, the crowd doesn't seem particularly interested in this nonsense, not one bit.
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Guest or Co-host
There is no challenge Americans can not overcome. There is no place we cannot go. There is no goal we cannot reach. And there is nothing, nothing that Americans cannot do. And we're proving that right now. Our stock market is the strongest it's ever been. We have $19.2 trillion being invested in our country, which is six times more than ever happened before. We're building more factories in the United States than ever before. Everyone's 401ks are at the highest number they've ever been. And more people are working today in the United States than any time in the history of our country. But in this country, we could a
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David Pakman
muted response at the end of a low energy speech which wrapped just about 35 minutes in. After claiming he would speak so long, no one would ever doubt his stamina and his virility and his girth ever again. How big and strong Donald Trump is a complete and total failure of an event. And we just have to come to terms with the fact that he really can't do it anymore. The glitches are getting scary. The disorientation is bizarre. And even his own supporters couldn't really be bothered to go to this thing. Let me encapsulate for you just how big of a failure all of this was, as the United States is now in its 251st year. We're in that 251st year now. We have to come together, I believe and agree about reality, to really have a shot at moving forward successfully. And the reality is that this entire America 250 celebration that Donald Trump put together has been a dramatic failure. It has been a failure, I believe, on two fronts. The first front is the events themselves. Maga billed Saturday's Fourth of July fireworks show in D.C. as the biggest in history. Now, usually when Trump and his people call something the biggest in history, it's a strange, straight up, brazen lie. Let's imagine for a second that it's true that Saturday's fireworks display really was the biggest fireworks show in history. It did, after all, pollute the air so badly that air quality alerts went up in D.C. because of what it did to the sky. Okay, only 150,000 people showed up by Trump's claims. He says that that's the number of people at his speech, but it wasn't. But let's say 150,000 people showed up to the fireworks display. Back in 1976, the bicentennial, the U.S. turning 200 years old, when the population was only 218 million people, 500,000 people went to the D.C. fireworks show. So if you look at a percentage basis point to 3% of the population went to the fireworks show in 1976 versus.04% for Trump's on Saturday. Almost six times bigger proportionally, in 1976, Trump's big state fair was an even bigger embarrassment. If you include World cup parties in D.C. the entire 16 day fair supposedly attracted just 200,000 people people. That's like 12,000 people a day in a country of 350 million. And a whole bunch of those people were only there to watch the World cup games, not for the state fair. Now, in comparison, 1.6 million people come to D.C. every year to see the cherry blossom trees. 1.2 million people come out for D.C. pride. So on the numbers, it was a failure. Fine, that's very easy. That's the simple analysis. But there's a second layer here, which is that Trump and MAGA attempted to co opt the fourth of July, which is what I think is the worst part of all of this. At a party over the weekend with some friends, someone was telling me, you know, I put out for the holiday, I put out a big American flag and I posted it to my social media. And my friend says, another friend contacted me and said, what are you a Trump supporter now with that flag? And my friend had this realization, and it's the realization that they want those symbols, the flags on the fourth and patriotism to be indicative of maga. And not only does the right want to seize those symbols, even people on the left now go, oh, what, you got a flag? You must, you must support Trump. But that is not the way that it has to be. We don't have to let them co opt the holiday and the flag and patriotism. They tried to do it under Bush during the Iraq war. What, you don't support the troops because you don't support this war? Yeah, I support the troops by opposing ill advised wars based on faulty or even maybe downright fraudulent intelligence that's supporting the troops, not sending them into an ill advised war that we're only into because of bogus intelligence. And Trump made the mistake of making the 4th of July about Trump. And once he personalized the event, his state fair, his speech, his reflecting pool, fireworks and all of this stuff, the success or failure of the event started to become a referendum on Trump. And Trump's got 30% approval, 27% approval on the economy. So that's risky. Now I think that it's important that we all restate. Patriotic symbols don't belong to any political movement. The American flag isn't maga's flag. The fourth of July isn't a MAGA holiday. These are national symbols and they belong to everybody. And if your political movement convinces people that displaying an American flag is an endorsement of a particular politician, you're shrinking patriotism instead of expanding it. Every president before Donald Trump understood these milestone celebrations should unite Americans. Trump turns the anniversary of the country into a campaign rally centered on himself. How long can he speak? And he says this was rigged and that was rigged and tells all these lies and does an entire state fair that feels really like a low rent MAGA rally that lasted 16 days and so it failed. And the irony of all of it is a celebration intended to showcase Trump's popularity ended up highlighting the limits of Trump's popularity. You promised the greatest celebration in American history. People naturally compare the turnout to history and it really doesn't compare well. So I am not glad that what could have been a unifying celebration of a milestone for the country, 250 years, failed so miserably and failed to unite people. That doesn't make me happy. I wish that we could have had something on the fourth of July that would have united people. But I am glad that Donald Trump, making it partizan, making it about himself, talking about communists and 17 trillion and all this different stuff. I'm glad that that did not work to get people out and that people rejected it and said no, we are not going to do that, so we're going to move on from this. I'm glad to be able to turn the page on Trump's failed 250th celebration. I'm glad to be able to turn the page on Trump's failed state fair. They were all global humiliations but but it could have been done in a way that would have united the country. Trump just isn't capable of doing doing it. Most VPN companies sell privacy the way that diet pills sell confidence. A lot of marketing, not much proof. But the thing is that your data is constantly being tracked. That is why I like our sponsor, private Internet access. It is a VPN that is different because they've proven multiple times in court they are not logging your activity. When authorities have said turn over the logs, they don't have them because they don't keep them. 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We have NOW learned that three days after Mitch McConnell was rushed to the hospital, his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, reportedly met with a top official in Beijing. And we've also learned that he was taken to the hospital after being found unconscious. A detail that took weeks to get about what happened with Mitch McConnell. So let me catch you up and then we'll talk about the new information. The former Senate majority leader, still a Republican senator, Mitch McConnell, was hospitalized on June 14th. We are now getting close to a month ago. We didn't know where he was hospitalized and we didn't know why he was hospitalized. Now eventually it was revealed which hospital he was being cared for and we still had no idea why he was there. There were statements from his office that he was recovering nicely, but from what we didn't know, remember that Mitch McConnell also had two incidents recently where he froze while talking, just like that. And we never got an explanation for those either. After he froze again, we were Told he's feeling much better, but feeling much better from what condition? Like, what on earth is going on here? He was also hospitalized earlier this year for what was described as a flu like illness. Also very opaque circumstances, very little transparency. And then we learned that he was found unconscious and an ambulance had been called when the June 14th AM incident happened. We don't know what medical condition was playing out. We don't know what his medical condition and status are today. And now the news is that three days into his hospitalization, his wife was in China meeting with the Vice President of China. This is per a news release from Chinese officials. So McConnell is hospitalized after being found unresponsive on June 14. And on June 17, his wife is in China meeting with the Vice President of China. Now, putting aside for a second that we have no idea why she was meeting with the Chinese vp, Like, was this official business? Was it a personal thing? The only thing that said is that it was for mutual partnerships or something totally generic. Who knows? Why is she doing that three days after her husband is hospitalized under secrecy after allegedly being found unconscious? It's all very strange. Now, we don't know whether Mitch McConnell plans to resign at this point from the Senate. As we've said before, it certainly doesn't seem like he has any capacity to do this job. Pat and I spoke about this on the bonus show last week and whatever needs to happen, it doesn't seem like he's coming back to be a senator anytime soon. And it has now been 22, 23 days since he's been hospitalized. Now, remember that there was speculation that what was going on with McConnell, maybe if he died, it was being hidden because they didn't want Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear appointing McConnell's replacement in the Senate, who would certainly be a Democrat, if a Democratic governor gets the opportunity to do it. But that's not how the law works in Kentucky. So we were able to debunk that. If indeed it was known that Mitch McConnell had passed away, Andy Beshear wouldn't get to appoint anyone. It would be decided by a special election. That race is up for election anyway. McConnell's retiring, so in four months they'd be electing a new senator anyway. You might not even need a special election, but there would be no appointment from Andy Beshear. So that can't be the explanation. But we now are finding everybody asking, Is Mitch McConnell alive? Is he technically alive but on life support with no hope of recovery? Rumors are flying and there is a complete and total lack of transparency. Now, I know that every once in a while when you talk about stuff like this, someone will go, oh, but what about hipaa? You're asking HIPAA to be violated of medical privacy. HIPAA applies to medical providers. The, the, any transparency that could be provided willingly by Mitch McConnell's office or his family would have nothing to do with hipaa. And I would even go further. I don't even really think this is about Mitch McConnell anymore. Not really. It's more about does the American public deserve basic transparency when someone holds one of the most powerful elected offices in the country? He's recovering nicely after a few days in the hospital and two more weeks go by and he hasn't been seen or heard from. Isn't transparency. So it's weird to say, but this is one of the most senior senators in the Senate, former majority leader, one of 100 of the most powerful votes in the country on issues of legislation. Do we need proof of life? Like at this point in is it crazy to say, before we go any further, we've got to make sure he's even alive? At this point in time, no one is entitled to every medical detail about Mitch McConnell. But there's medical privacy and then there's total secrecy. Right now we're in the total secrecy phase. And imagine if this were a Democratic senator. Imagine that this were Chuck Schumer. Right wing media would be running wall to wall coverage saying, we need answers. Is he fit for office? How is he still controlling a vote that he may not have the fitness to execute? And they would be accusing, by the way, Democrats of a cover up for sure. So I don't believe the standard should change depending on party when Democrats have gone missing. There was a congresswoman who was missing and she was in a memory care facility. We called it out, we said, this is unacceptable. We need transparency. This also raises the even broader issue of aging political leadership and our gerontocracy. If someone is physically or cognitively unable to carry out the responsibilities of their office, we as the public have a legitimate interest in knowing that. And I don't care what letter is next to their name, if they're a Republican or if they're a Democrat. And I know many of you must be thinking, well, David, that's got to apply to Trump as well. Hell yes it does. And of course it's important when I say we need to know whether elected officials are cognitively or physically capable. Trump's glitchy performance over the weekend certainly raises even more questions about that. So listen, it's time to end the speculation. And doing that I don't think would be that difficult. Have Mitch McConnell appear publicly, at least release a more substantive update on his condition. Authorize medical professionals who I don't think would just make stuff up to give an update on his medical condition. And the longer that this silence goes on, the more of these vague statements he's recovering nicely from what the more rumors are going to keep growing when that's the sort of stuff they put out. So I want to hear from you on two parts. Number one, what do you believe is going on? And number two, what is it going to take to finally get some transparency here? I don't have the answer. You can leave a comment up there, down here, wherever, or send me an email info@david pakman.com Usha Vance, the second lady, wife of J.D. vance, the vice president, interviewed the president Donald Trump and, and she was talking to Donald Trump like he's a kid. She was almost talking to Donald Trump like he has a cognitive issue. And one of the wildest things is that the topic is reading and reading books. Donald Trump has not read a book in decades. He does not read. And in fact, we have come to believe over time that Donald Trump suffers from limited literacy. It doesn't mean he literally cannot read words off a page, but he does have limited reading capacity. Usha Vance starts talking to him about, what are you reading for fun these days? And of course, the, the real answer is not a damn thing, Usha. But what Trump comes up with is so self centered and so egomaniacal that it is remarkable. Everything that you just described, all of these incredible accomplishments, they take a lot of reading. Do you have any time to read for fun these days?
- [43:30]
Guest or Co-host
So I end up reading mostly newspapers. I usually read stories about myself.
- [43:36]
David Pakman
Well, with so much going on in the world, it's really kind of you to take a moment to read. And I know you have 11. Yeah, it's oh my God. Barack Obama said reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible. I agree with that. I think that's a great way to sort of characterize and couch the importance of reading. Thomas Jefferson said, I cannot live without books. And Donald Trump says, I usually read newspaper stories about myself. Here is, here is Donald Trump attempting to read a children's book about presidents. And the topic of Bill Clinton comes up and Trump goes, I like Bill Clinton a lot. A natural thing to interject when reading to children. Take a look, I guess.
- [44:32]
Guest or Co-host
And then you have President Bill Clinton ran on a special Jogging track. He had a little track built for him at the White House. That's nice. I didn't even know that until recently, but he had a track built at the White House. I don't think I'll ever do that. I don't see myself doing that. I don't know.
- [44:49]
David Pakman
Trump sounds barely.
- [44:50]
Guest or Co-host
Barely awake, but he's actually was a nice guy. I like Bill Clinton a lot. I still do. And then you have. President Abraham Lincoln rode horses. He liked riding horses.
- [45:02]
David Pakman
Now, notice that Trump is not reading the damn book. He is not actually reading the book. He's summarizing what's on the page and picking up a word or two here or there. And I think, Uchevant, by the way, they cut this thing together. It's like the. It's like the $6 million, man, that they have to Frankenstein parts together to make it look like they're cutting this thing, slicing it up like you would a cucumber to put it together in a way that makes it sound like Trump can do this. Uche van seems to be realizing, I don't know, that Donald Trump can really fluidly read. And of course, numerous stories about Donald Trump's difficulties reading, including this absolutely viral story from SNL comedian Pete Davidson, who recounted how it was when they had to work with Trump as the host.
- [45:59]
Guest or Co-host
Donald Trump. You were telling me I have one
- [46:02]
Another Guest or Contributor
story I'm allowed to tell, and it's hilarious.
- [46:05]
Guest or Co-host
Have stories you're not allowed. You're allowed to tell what happened with the Trump story.
- [46:08]
Another Guest or Contributor
Okay, so he's like. He doesn't really know how to read.
- [46:11]
Guest or Co-host
For real.
- [46:12]
Another Guest or Contributor
Yeah. And he loves to improv.
- [46:14]
Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [46:15]
Another Guest or Contributor
So during, like, the table read, he, like, before. Like, we were gonna read each. Before, he had to read each line. And he's the host, so he's at everything.
- [46:25]
Guest or Co-host
Yeah.
- [46:25]
Another Guest or Contributor
He would go, I'm not gonna say this. I think I'm gonna say it the way I want to say it. Is that okay? Do you.
- [46:30]
David Pakman
Is that okay, Lauren?
- [46:31]
Another Guest or Contributor
Is that everything? And everybody's like, what? And then this is my favorite part is there was a sketch that we wrote where he's at Disneyland with his daughter, and the line is, all right, let's get out of here, turkey legs. Like, let's, like, go get turkey legs. And he doesn't know how to read. So he went, all right, let's get out of here, turkey legs. He called his daughter how to turkey legs.
- [47:00]
Guest or Co-host
Maybe that was his improv.
- [47:02]
Another Guest or Contributor
Oh, no, it wasn't. And then he looked at, like, he doesn't get it? Like, he thinks if everybody's laughing with him, but we're all laughing at him. And it was like crazy for he would be like, I did a good job, right?
- [47:12]
David Pakman
So anyway, numerous stories about Donald Trump's limited reading capability and it's, it's really shocking to see that when Trump is supposedly reading this children's book, he really can't read it. He sort of describes the images that he sees and they have to slice and dice it together to make him seem even remotely coherent. Does this seem like someone who is truly capable of discharging the duties of the President of the United States, folks? I don't think so. I don't have a cat myself, but I have spent enough time around friends cats to know that there are picky cats when it comes to food and they don't like it, they won't eat it. But one of my friends has had a ton of success switching to Smalls cat food. Before Smalls, mealtime was very hit or miss. The cat gets excited. Now our sponsor, Smalls is fresh human grade cat food made with real ingredients, no fillers or artificial stuff. High protein, gently cooked, promotes digestion, delivered right to your door. My friend did a side by side with the old food and Smalls. The cat went for Smalls. Your cat deserves more than a bowl of processed shortcuts. Try Smalls. If your cat doesn't love Smalls, you get a full refund for a limited time. My audience gets 60% off your first order, plus free shipping and free treats for life when you go to smalls.com pacman the link is in the description. My friends, something has changed over the last few months. And no matter how much the White House tries to control the cameras, no matter how much friendly media avoids shooting Trump from certain angles, it is becoming really difficult to hide. Trump is looking like a guy who has aged dramatically, as many presidents do do. But there are new concerns, even just from the last four days, some of which I've already outlined, that are getting a lot of attention now. This new photograph that is making the rounds is striking. Trump looks gaunt and pale. His posture looks stiff and he's got that vacant expression. His hair is noticeably thinner around the sides. And again, there appears to be significant discoloration on at least one of his hands that we can see. And something has shown up now in multiple public appearances that is impossible to really explain by talking about any one thing. Chronic venous insufficiency, aspirin, shaking hands, which is that this is a significantly diminished individual who seems to be visibly struggling, often to catch his breath to speak and stand at the same time. And over the weekend, what was going to be supposedly the longest speech ever because he has so much stamina, was cut to 35 minutes. A record short speech of this kind for Donald Trump. Now, again, I do think that some normal caveats are relevant here. I am not diagnosing Trump with anything. You can't diagnose something like what we're talking about from a photograph. It's not like, oh, he has a cut. I see the cut in a picture, so I know what it is. There are lots of reasons that people get bruises. People age in a lot of different ways. Lighting can make people look worse than they actually do. And, you know, all of that stuff is true. What is impossible to miss at this point is that even six months ago, Donald Trump looked very different. And it's difficult to deny it when these sorts of pictures keep coming out. And then we get to the July 4th celebration during one of the biggest fireworks displays of the year. I mean, Trump says it's the biggest fireworks display ever. Loud, bright, explosive event, tons of music. Most people would find it really hard to sleep through that. And it looked like Donald Trump was sleeping at multiple different moments during this event. Take a look at this video. Everybody wants a thrill. Trump is out, and then he tries to rouse himself once again. By itself, maybe it means nothing. People get tired, they have long days, but we have nothing happening in isolation anymore. It's a pattern that people are noticing. And one thing that I have found fascinating is how differently people perceive this depending on where they get their information. Part of that, of course, is the algorithms. You have millions of MAGA people who truly have no idea. They have no idea that Trump's been falling asleep one, two, three times a week for months now on camera. They just don't know that that's going on. And if you showed them the video, some of them would still deny it for sure, but these algorithmic silos are keeping a lot of these people from even knowing what's going on. Now, I write about that extensively in my book, Pay Attention. We must understand that this is going on if we are going to try to break through it. So I would love it if you preordered the book@david pakman.com, slash attention. And I'll mention one other thing. As some of you can see, the book is now on my shelf over my shoulder. I'm going to give this specific copy. This is copy number one away to someone who preorders My book. Every preorder qualifies. Okay. If you prefer audiobooks, preorder the audiobook. If you want a signed copy from Brookline Booksmith, order that. If you want the E book, order that. Any version of the book will put you in a raffle. If you want for this specific copy, all you have to do is send your preorder receipt or screenshot to info@david pakman.com and say book raffle. And when we get to the end and the book launches, we will randomly pick one person. I will dedicate this specific number one copy of Pay attention. And also the number one copy of the Echo Machine, which has been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years. These two books together. This is a one of one. Okay, this is a one of one. Info@david pakman.com submit your preorder receipt now. Remember what Donald Trump previously said about Joe Biden falling asleep, which is highly relevant to what we're experiencing today.
- [54:14]
Guest or Co-host
Over the last week, I have what we talk about. Funny or sad? I think it's more sad than funny. Yeah, he has one ability I don't have. Yeah, he sleeps. He can sleep. This guy goes on a beach and he lays down on one of those, you know, six ounce. They weigh six ounces and he can't lift it.
- [54:37]
David Pakman
Isn't he funny?
- [54:38]
Guest or Co-host
And for. They're meant for children. Yeah. Young people and old people. To lift. Yeah, they. Aluminum, you know, hollow aluminum. They weigh very little. And he can't lift. And somebody convinced him he looks a bathing suit. And when you're 82, typically bathing suits are going to make you look great. You're not going to be enhanced. Yeah. All right. It's just one of those things. I can't be sure about that. But yeah, typically depends what he's packing. He could. I don't know what the hell he's backing, but I don't want to and
- [55:07]
David Pakman
I don't want to know anyway. You know, Trump said I would never fall asleep in public in these scenarios. And Trump fell asleep during a UFC fight and he appeared to fall asleep during a loud concert and fireworks over the weekend. If you live in the MAGA ecosystem, you probably have no idea that this is what's going on. You've seen the edited clips and the beautiful camera angles they make of Trump and the strongest looking images available that he posts to social media. That's how these algorithmic filter bubbles work outside the bubble. We see the pool photographs, the longer videos, the candid moments, and it gives a very different impression. It is one of the strangest aspects of American politics. Two groups of Americans looking at two different versions of the same person because the algorithms feeding their phones have decided what it is that they can see. Now, eventually, reality catches up. Nobody escapes aging, okay? Nobody escapes time. The presidency is very demanding. Even under normal circumstances. If you're 80 and obese and declining, the public will notice it in your energy, your mobility, your alertness. Doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican. And the point here is not to mock people for their age. We need transparency. If Republicans spent years insisting Americans scrutinize every stumble, verbal mistake, and every appearance by Joe Biden because they argued fitness for office is a legitimate public issue, we've got to apply that standard to Trump. Can't be one rule for one and another rule for the other. And what we are seeing is this carefully managed public image becoming very difficult to maintain. But they are going to try. It's falling apart, though. Donald Trump is showing once again he can't let things go. Over the weekend, he posted a photo of himself standing with Italian Prime Minister Giorgio meloni at the G7 summit. And at the top of the picture, bizarrely, he added the text, restraining order needed. Apparently, the joke is, oh, Georgia Maloney is so obsessed with Donald Trump now. If you're wondering, where is this story coming from, are we beefing with Italy now? The backstory is as follows. A few weeks ago, Trump said said Maloney was practically begging him for a picture together at the G7, and he said, oh, she wanted a picture with me so badly, and I only did it because I felt sorry for her. And there was one problem with that, which is that Meloni said the story is completely made up. She said, italy and I do not beg. Immediately after that, Italy's foreign minister canceled the planned trip to the United States and said Trump's comments are offensive. Now. Trump could have dropped it. He got caught lying again. But Trump doesn't do that. Trump doubled down and he said, no, she was asking me for pictures over and over again. She said she was a big fan. She said she needed the picture desperately because her popularity in Italy was collapsing. And again, Georgia Maloney said, my popularity is none of your concerns. I suggest you focus on yours. And of course, Trump's popularity is at record lows and weeks have gone by, but Trump, as he often does, is still thinking about it. He's posting memes suggesting the prime minister of one of America's closest allies needs a restraining order because she's obsessed with him. And this has become one of the defining traits of Donald Trump. When you publicly contradict Trump, especially if it's a global stage, it's he cannot move on. It becomes a personal vendetta. Now, think about what this says about presidential priorities. There are wars, there are inflation concerns. What's going on with the 60 days of negotiations with Iran?
- [58:59]
Guest or Co-host
I don't know.
- [59:00]
David Pakman
Seems like they're done. It's not clear. The President is spending time posting playground jokes and memes about the Prime Minister of Italy working on the Reflecting Pool and fireworks. And what is striking is that Maloney is not a left wing antagonist. She is one of the more conservative leaders of Europe and a lot of Republicans like her, they go, no, she's doing a good job. These are ideological allies, Trump and Maloney, but that doesn't matter. If you don't flatter Trump, you instantly become his enemy. And Trump's worldview is not about conservatism and liberalism. It's loyalists versus anyone willing to bruise my ego. And that's why relationships, which should be about advancing American interests, become these stupid popularity contests. Imagine for a second if a foreign leader spent weeks insisting that the American President was secretly obsessed with them after being publicly contradicted. We would all go, that's really weird. It's really weird. Imagine that it was Orban who goes, trump's obsessed with me. He was desperate for pictures. And Trump goes, yeah, no, that's not true. And Orban spends weeks posting memes about Trump. We go, that's really weird behavior. But with Trump, there's this pressure, which comes in part from the hyper normalization of insanity for the last 10 years, where it's treated like this is kind of normal and it's not normal. Most of Trump's base hasn't even heard of Trump being embarrassed in this way and of being seen globally as a petulant child. Again, because of the filter bubbles and algorithmic separation that there is, which I talk about in my book, Trump seems completely and totally pathetic. It is stunning that this is what we're dealing with, but it's what we're dealing with. Now we will talk about the deadly fourth of July with people killed and injured in shootings around the country. We are going to talk about this bizarre funeral procession. I'll tell you why it's bizarre in Tehran for Iran's Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. And we will also talk about what's happening in the World Cup. All of those stories and more today on the bonus show. Sign up@join pacman.com and get instant access.