The David Pakman Show - 10/14/25: Embarrassing Middle East trip as MTG does a 180

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Donald Trump gushes over Egypt’s brutal dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for “low crime,” praising a regime known for torture and sham elections -- Trump gets caught on a hot mic chatting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto about his sons, bragging about “unlimited cash,” and fumbling through awkward foreign exchanges -- Trump urges Israel to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a foreign speech, exposing his authoritarian mindset and confusion about his own presidency -- Trump rambles through praise for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni while drenched in sweat, leaving world leaders visibly uncomfortable -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio flatters Trump but not enough, forcing an instant correction as Trump demands ever-greater praise in a display of insecurity and control -- Trump openly admits he values Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for her loyalty and looks, revealing his transactional and sexist view of those around him -- Vice President JD Vance dodges questions about bribery and collapses under George Stephanopoulos’s pressure, exposing his evasive playbook and fragile composure -- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suddenly sounds coherent while discussing legislation and inflation, leaving even her critics wondering if she’s glitching or changing course -- Trump’s latest “exceptional health” update hides a series of worrying issues after another visit to Walter Reed, sparking doubts about transparency -- Vivek Ramaswamy faces backlash from his own right-wing base over his Hindu faith, showing how his extremist rhetoric has turned against him -- On the Bonus Show: News outlets object to new Pentagon reporting rules, the Trump administration considers selling student loan debt to private investors, airports refuse to air Kristi Noem's partisan message to travelers, and much more... 👩‍❤️‍👨 Try the Paired App FREE for 7 days and get 25% OFF at https://paired.com/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free croissants FOR LIFE at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:23) Trump praises Egypt’s dictator el-Sisi (06:24) Trump caught on hot mic Indonesia (12:13) Trump urges Israel to pardon Netanyahu (21:07) Trump praises Orbán and Meloni leaders (26:59) Trump criticizes Rubio flattery insufficiency (29:58) Trump values Leavitt for loyalty, looks (35:30) JD Vance dodges bribery questions (42:16) MTG sounds coherent discussing legislation (50:40) Trump health update sparks transparency doubts (58:49) Ramaswamy criticized for Hindu faith  

Well, in the midst of the good news about hostages being released in Israel and Gaza, Donald Trump's latest trip abroad went exactly how you would expect a complete and total humiliation. He praised dictators. He sweated and babbled through speeches. He managed to insult entire countries and their leaders. And the America first guy is now spending more time drooling over authoritarian leaders and begging for their approval, then actually maintaining relationships with our democratic allies. So we're going to look at Donald Trump's hot mic disaster with the Indonesian president.

We'll look at his praise for Egypt's brutal regime. We're going to look at all of it, including his call for Benjamin Netanyahu to be pardoned. Marco Rubio humiliated himself. And Marjorie Taylor Green is suddenly making a little bit of sense. We're going to look at that as well. Interestingly, Vivek Ramoswamy is quickly finding out what happens when the far-right purity tests are applied to him and J.D. Vance was kicked off of a show by George Stephanopoulos after endlessly refusing to answer simple questions.

All of that and more. So great to have you here. We start today with not much. much of a shock, Donald Trump praising yet another dictator. He loves dictators. He's impressed at how dictators just do what they want. And you know, George W. Bush once said, this would be a lot easier if I were a dictator. But even George W. Bush did not attempt to become one.

And he didn't flatter dictators around the world. Bush was terrible. Don't go in there, David. Are you saying Bush was good? No. Bush at least respected some basics about what the United States of America is supposed to be. Here is Donald Trump and Charmel Sheikh Egypt on this completely hairbrained, dilapidated, and disastrous Middle East tour saying, look at how great Egypt is doing. They have no crime here.

There's a lot of respect. And I think you'll see some tremendous progress, both in the Middle East. country is doing very well. It has good leadership. It's about leadership. And it's really nice when you say, how is your crime situation? And they're like, don't even know what you're talking about. What do you mean crime? We don't have crime. Because if he has crime, he puts it out very quickly. Some people think that's not nice, but I think it's great. Some people think that brutal authoritarianism, it's not so nice. But I think it's absolutely great. And Trump continuing to to wax poetic about brutal authoritarianism. We're in a country where a friend of mine is a very powerful leader.

And my friend is right here, the president, but also the general, you know, sometimes I call him usually I call him the general because he's both and he's good at both. And they've done a fantastic job. By the way, I hate to already interrupt. This is another one of Trump's things. He is such a, he's such an authoritarian down to his bones that he loves the whole thing where the political leader also is the general. He likes it in North Korea with Kim Jong-un.

He's very impressed with this sort of blending of civil and military leadership that you see in dictatorships. You know, interestingly, Venezuela kind of has the same thing. But Venezuela, Trump doesn't like. It's just who he likes at the end of the day. And they have very little crime, you know, because they don't play games. That's why they don't play games like we do in the United States with governors that have no idea what they're doing.

The governors should be more like the brutal dictator that runs Egypt. Now understand who Donald Trump is talking about here. He's talking about Abdel Fatah Saeed Hussein Khalil El-El-Sisi. See, I just know him as Fatah, but others know him as Abdel Fatah, Saeed Hussein Khalil L. Cici. This is a brutal dictator in a country with sham elections. He disappears his opposition. He tortures his opposition for spreading, quote, false news for insulting the state.

And the regime that Donald Trump is proudly and gleefully praising for its low crime gained power through a coup and subsequent Rabah massacre of a thousand or more unarmed protesters over a decade ago. The Mukha Barat disappears and tortures people. This is a terrible authoritarian disaster. And Trump just loves it. And here he is romanticizing when they first met. Wow.

What an incredible day. doing very well. We're very proud of him. Because we knew each other from the beginning. The first time I met, it was in a hotel, and I was going to meet him, and then Hillary Clinton was following me. Remember? Hillary Clinton. And he liked me so much, he never even got to see Hillary. He saw it for about two seconds. But he didn't really want to waste a lot of time. He knew what was going to happen. But that was the first time we met, and we had a very good chemistry together. And it continues till today. So I want to thank you all very much.

I appreciate the way you covered the, this really momentous. I've never said anything. International diplomacy under Donald Trump has been reduced to high school rivalries. Who likes whom and who am I impressed by? But the theme, Trump loves authoritarians. And Trump really believes that it would all be better if he just got to say what is. This is global shame. Putin, Kim Jong-un, Orban, it's a long list, and you can add LCC to that list.

Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic speaking with the Indonesian president, Subianto, and it is difficult to hear exactly what they're talking about, but what is really clear is that Subianto is talking to Trump about some kind of project. And he says, can I meet Eric? And Trump goes, yeah, I can set that up. And Sue Bianto says, or Don Jr. Now, I have an opinion as to what they're talking about here. It's completely criminal, mind you.

But this is extraordinary, extraordinary hot mic video. Let's listen carefully. Okay. And just what I believe is happening right here is what they accused Hunter Biden of without any evidence. Take a look. So right now, Subianto is telling Trump, it's in a region that's not very safe, all right? So now Subianto says, can I, can I meet Eric?

And Trump says, yeah, I can put you in touch. He's a good kid. By the way, Eric's almost 50. Oh, wait, is that true? How old is Eric Trump? I want to be precise. Sorry, he's only 41. We'll look for a better place, says Subianto. And now, Subianto, I believe it's obvious what's going on here. Now, we are left to speculate because they are acting like this is nothing, okay, they are acting like this is nothing. Okay. Even though I believe what's going on here is what they accused Hunter Biden of doing without

evidence, I believe it's really clear what is happening here. And they're not going to tell us. It seems obvious that Subianto is talking to Trump about some kind of business venture. Subianto is letting Trump know the location under discussion is not a very safe area. He wants to help them, meaning Trump's organization, Trump's business, Trump's for profit enterprise. He wants to help them identify a better location for whatever project this is, and he would like to be put in touch about it with Eric or with Don Jr. This is Donald Trump in an official capacity as president of the United States talking about private for profit business for the enrichment of himself and his family. That is what is taking place here. Donald Trump

is trading on the reputation of the American presidency to do private business. deals with other countries. Now, you might say, well, it sounds like the Indonesian president is corrupt too. Sure. I just have nothing to do with voting or with elections or with politics in Indonesia. That's for the Indonesians to figure out what they want to do with. But this is what they said Hunter was doing. And Trump is doing it. Trump is doing it. Now, if you think this is bad, at another point, Trump points to an official from the United Arab Emirates during a photo op, photo op, and says lots of cash, lots of cash. He's bragging that the people who bribed him with an airplane have a lot of money. Oh, boy, do they?

Egypt has to go. Here we go. A lot of cash. A lot of cash, unlimited cash, bragging that the people who bribe him have a lot of money, even though there's still people in the United States who can't afford food. And then Donald Trump also doing a lot of the jerking motions. Trump likes to play these jerking games when he does handshakes. It's sort of like a, it's sort of like a power play who's going to dominate whom.

And the French president comes over and Trump shakes hands and he immediately starts with with the jerking stuff. And then he does the really, he pulls him in and then does this weird thing where he switches into a different sort of handshake with like, I don't know what you would call that handshake. And then there's just a lot of games being played with with the jerking. And this is how Trump tries to assert dominance. And I mean, listen, Trump is clearly a lot. bigger than the French president Macron. He clearly outweighs him by a lot. And Trump believes that that allows him to just throw people around. So global humiliation, bragging about the cash that the people who bribed him have, doing deals. I'll set you up with Eric, who's a good kid.

I'll set you up with Don Jr. And this is really why Donald Trump wanted to be president of the United States. He doesn't really like the governing. In fact, he hates it. To a great degree, He prefers to sit in the residence at the White House and watch TV. But then we got, then we got to where it really, really got ugly as Donald Trump delivered a speech in Jerusalem. Let's discuss that next. Donald Trump was invited after the provisional signing of this Israeli Gaza deal to deliver a speech at the Knesset. This is the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem. And Donald Trump during this speech, it was, it was meant to be a very friendly dog and pony

show, right? Trump getting his victory lap. Of course, the truth is there are still serious questions as to the longevity of this deal. But that being said, it is an accomplishment. We, you know, we have to be precise and we have to be clear. president under whom you get hostages released and a provisional reduction or stop to hostilities. You do have to say Trump's administration was involved in the negotiations. He is the president.

The buck stops with him. That is a checkmark in Trump's side. Now, of course, Trump also worked to prevent such a deal during 2024 because he believed that it would be better for him politically for that conflict to be ongoing as he was. he runs for president and for he to be president when it is resolved, even though obviously people, civilians are hurt by hostilities continuing. Trump didn't care. He said, let's do what we can to prevent a deal during 24 so that then I can come in and get

a deal in 2025. Fine. That's true. And also we shouldn't say that this is nothing. This is, you know, as we see the videos of the hostages arriving back. the ones that are alive, which unfortunately is not that many. And you see all of these different videos, both in Israel and Gaza. This is an accomplishment.

But Trump has to go further. And he goes to Israel and he lobbies for Benjamin Netanyahu a terrifying right-wing ideologue to be pardoned for all of the corruption he is alleged to have committed. The good man right here. These two men are good men right here. Hey, I have an idea. Mr. President, why don't you give him a pardon? Give him a pardon. Come on. Truly bizarre and completely inappropriate for an American president to publicly pressure

and other countries leader to pardon their own prime minister. Remember, Israel has a president and a prime minister. Imagine the outrage if Barack Obama had gone abroad. Obama now. Yeah. And suggested a pardon. This comment really reveals Donald Trump's worldview, which is that corruption isn't really a problem if you're loyal. If you're my friend, as Nikki Haley once said about Donald

Trump, if you're Trump's friend, corruption's okay as long as you're loyal. And this is another put aside the praise of overt dictators. This is another appeal directly to Trump's authoritarian instincts. Laws shouldn't apply to my friends. They should only apply to my enemies. And Trump doesn't respect democratic institutions. He doesn't respect the rule of law. Even in other countries, he'll just show up and go, how about a pardon for my friend here? Donald Trump also saying that it was what what is taking place now in Israel is something that should have happened under Obama or Biden and they couldn't do it. Trump conveniently ignoring the four years between Obama and Biden during which he was president. A year

ago, the United States of America was a dead country. Now it's the hottest country anywhere in the world. It is, the hottest. There's no question about it. In fact, if you go back a year ago before the election, although once we had November 5th, we became hot, because people got it. I would say November 5th was a time that we became really hot.

But once you go back, a couple of years, if I were in charge, and the country, was doing what they would. Nobody was going to ask me to speak. Nobody asked Joe Biden to come up and speak. I guarantee you that. And if they did, he would have turned them down, I promise you. He didn't speak. He didn't speak and he didn't speak well. But all of the countries in the Middle East, it could have what we're doing now, it could have happened a long time ago, but it was strangled and set back almost irretrievably by the administrations of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden. It was And what's interesting about that is that Trump again seems completely unaware of his own presidency

between what happened between Obama and Biden? Well, Trump was president for four years. And whatever failed accomplishments he's pointing to Obama and Biden for he should also apply to himself. Now, I do think it's important. I know most of you get this. This deal does not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I know you all know that, but just to sort of like get it on the record. We still don't have resolution with regard to a durable Palestinian state. I continue to say that under Netanyahu, we are not going to seriously get long-term peace because it is not in his interests. We do not have the blockade resolved.

We don't have the status of Jerusalem result. We don't. Nothing has been resolved. Hopefully. I mean, hopefully these immediate hostilities are really coming to an end. But there is a long way to go here. Donald Trump, of course, conveniently ignoring history there. We will have much more about this and Trump's trip on today's podcast.

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Well, the hits just didn't stop this weekend. Donald Trump giving an incoherent speech as sweat poured down his face at the signing of the Israeli Gaza deal. Other world leaders visibly horrified. And of course, one of the themes that persists around Trump, praise of dictators earlier we talked about Donald Trump's sucking up to L.C. from Egypt. And then Donald Trump on Hungary's, or as he calls it, Hungary, what's on his mind, Hungry's Orban talking about how great and fantastic he is, you will notice that both Italian and

British leaders, Maloney and Starner, Starmor, look uncomfortable as Donald Trump praises yet another authoritarian. It's another authoritarian. We have Hungary. Oh, Victor. Where is Victor, Victor, Victor. We love Victor. Victor, I call him.

You know, I put the little accent on it. You are fantastic, all right? I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I'm the only one that matters what I got. You are fantastic. He's a great leader. And Starmor looks like he is in pain. He looks like he's realizing the Clams Casino might have been a day overdone. This is just ugly, ugly stuff.

I endorsed him the last election he had any one by 28 points. So you're going to do even better this time. If you have another election and you're going to do great and we appreciate it. At one point, as you can see here, Starrmer even leaning away from Trump. I mean, doing anything he can to add centimeters of distance between the two of them. And the big theme here was that the prime minister of Italy, Georgia Maloney, maybe looked more uncomfortable than anyone I've seen, worse even than when Chris Christie was forced to stand behind Donald Trump after endorsing him in 2016.

She looks like she would take the first jet plane out of the planet, off the planet if she could. So you have Armenia and you have Bahrain, you have Canada. It's so great to have, in fact, the president called and he wanted to know if it's worthwhile. He knew exactly what it was. He knew. By the way, Canada has a prime minister, of course. Carney is the prime minister, not the president.

The importance, where is Canada, by the way, where are you? Where are you? He knew the importance of this. He said, I want to be there. So many people have done that. They called. I mean, they heard about it. And these are not people that can do that very easily.

They have pretty big schedules to put it in mind. The most powerful people. And the look on Maloney's face really says it all. I mean, she looks like she caught. a whiff of Trump's diaper and does it's not like what she what she smells. And then there was another moment during which the leader of Pakistan, Sharif, was fluffing Trump about next year's Nobel Peace Prize. And once again, Maloney is just like, what is going on here? I would say that Pakistan had no.

nominated President Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize. Oh boy. For his outstanding extraordinary contributions to first stop war between India and Pakistan and then achieve ceasefire along with his very wonderful team. And today again, I would like to nominate this great president for Nobel Peace Prize. It would be too on the nose to even be a Saturday Night Live skit. What is going on here? And then of course, Trump's two prisms of importance are loyalty and physical attractiveness.

And he starts talking about Maloney's looks and she doesn't exactly look thrilled. And Kier Starrmer looks extraordinarily uncomfortable here. Very much. Italy, we have a woman, a young woman who's, I'm not allowed to say it because usually it's the end of your political career. If you say it, she's a beautiful young woman. Now, if you use the word beautiful in the United States about a woman, that's the end of your political career, but I'll take my chances.

Where is she? There she is. You don't mind being called beautiful, right? Because you are. Thank you very much for coming. We appreciate it. She wanted to be here and she's incredible and they really respect her in Italy. She's a very successful...

She has one of those moments where she is saying, how did this become my life? And then finally, her facial expressions basically say it all as Donald Trump wraps up this disastrous speech. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. And this is the exact moment where her soul left her body and went somewhere where Donald Trump isn't. One of the most embarrassing and delusional speeches I have maybe ever seen Donald Trump give.

And seeing the real time reactions from his cohorts and contemporaries in other countries really makes you think, might we have been better off with Kamala Harris? Marco Rubio made a nearly terminal mistake in Donald in front of Donald Trump. During this meeting in Sharmael Sheikh Egypt for the signing of the Israel-Gaza deal, Marco Rubio made a critical mistake, which is in praising Trump, he wasn't quite effusive enough. And it got Donald Trump to say, wait a second, that's it, Marco, and Marco quickly does a good boy. And he goes, no, no, no, I'm going to say even more about you.

Take a listen to this. About restoring Gaza. It is about transforming the region. So we have an incredible partner along the lines, very capable partner here and a tremendous collection of leaders. This is clearly in my mind, I think in the mind of everyone in this room, probably one of the most important days for world peace in 50 years. That's not an exaggeration.

Only 50. Maybe 100. It's the end of World War II. Only 50 years, Marco, is that what you're going with? Think carefully. Think carefully. And Marco quickly goes, well, maybe this is one of the most important days in a hundred years. You know, it's all a joke.

It's all fun in games, except it's kind of not with Donald Trump. It's a perfect snapshot of the Trump dynamic. Trump dynamic. No matter how much you flatter the guy, it is never enough. And so Marco Rubio scrambles to recover. No, no, no, I meant a hundred like a dog begging for approval. And people laugh, but that's the laughter of fear. It's the laughter of, you know, everyone knows you can't under praise Trump without consequences. And it's like a hostage video moment. Politicians around Trump have learned. How do we overcompensate for his ego? 50 years, no, 100 years, a thousand years. The Republican Party has devolved into a praise cult. Accuracy doesn't matter. Humility isn't

seen positively. Reality doesn't matter. Devotion to Trump is the only thing that matters. And every single Republican who survived politically under Trump has had to master the ritual. You either go crazy with the praise or you risk perishing politically. Only 50. It shows that despite all of Trump's bravado, there is this insecurity that is pushing in along the edges. He needs the validation even in completely trivial ways related to offhanded comments. He can't even let a compliment stand if it is not a grandiose enough compliment. Marco Rubio identified it. You can't.

Rubio's not stupid. He knows what the stakes are here. And if you're not seen as effusively praising Trump enough, you could be in jeopardy and Rubio does his best to clean it up. Donald Trump has now admitted very clearly what we have suspected for a long time. He likes his press secretary, Caroline Lovett, primarily for the. two reasons that are most important to Donald Trump. Number one, unending loyalty to the degree of a cult follower.

And that is Caroline Leavitt. She is unendingly loyal to Trump like a devoted cultist. And number two, Trump finds her physically attractive. These are the most valuable traits to Donald Trump. That is what makes people valuable. And Trump, when asked about possibly replacing Levitt, Once again, starts talking about her machine gun lips. Oh, my goodness.

I've never failed at working around like immediately, is that right? How's Caroline doing? She's doing good? Did Caroline be replaced? No. That's up to you, sir. Yeah. Nobody wants to.

I said she does a great job. Thank you. Do you want to elaborate on that? And those lips, they move like a machine gun, right? Do you want to elaborate? Those lips, they move like a machine gun, right? This is not the first time that Donald Trump has talked about those lips that face when it comes to Caroline Levin.

Just in the speech in Charmel Sheik Egypt, part of 90% of what he said he liked about the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney, was that she's beautiful, a beautiful young woman, according to Donald Trump. He is making it very clear. He is very attracted to Caroline Levitt, and that is worth its weight in gold when it comes to job security under Donald Trump. Now, a couple of other wacky moments during this impromptu press conversation. This was on the plane home from the Middle East.

Donald Trump asked if he has a message for J.B. Pritzker. This was his message. I'll just speaking to Governor J.B. Pritzker tomorrow. You have a few messages or questions for him. I think he should beg for help because he's running a bad hour. He should beg for help is Trump's message to J.B. Pritzker. And then finally, Trump doubling down, he's just so impressed with how little crime Egypt has, which as we know, authoritarian regimes often have very little crime, but that doesn't mean that they are great places to live.

Mr. President, you spoke to Egypt. You can ask more questions this one. Go ahead. I have some good questions. You do. You were very nicely. Go ahead. You talked to President LCC and you spoke about in that room how you just a little crime and you said it's all about leadership.

Well, they're very strong. You talked about some of the governors. You wouldn't believe how strong. But they are very strong, but they don't have the kind of crime. They don't have the violence. They may have other kinds of crime. But they're violent crime. You can actually walk down the park and not get mugged or hit over the end of the business.

What's funny about this new thing that Trump has about how safe it is in authoritarian regimes. Just a week and a half ago, the French president was walking all over New York City. In fact, there's video. A street was blocked. And so Macron got out of his vehicle and just walked to wherever their meeting was, obviously with his with his security. But it was fine. It was completely fine and safe and not a problem. And part of the story that's being told you have to understand is that in talking about how great and safe it is in authoritarian countries, Trump is subsequently justifying authoritarianism here in the United States. In order to make DC, Chicago, Portland, I don't even remember the full list of New York, the full list of cities at this point,

Baltimore, in order to make those cities safe, he's got to be an authoritarian just like in Egypt and North Korea. There's no crime in North Korea. Oh, cool. Well, why doesn't anybody want to go there? This is an old trope and a terrifying trope, but Trump is not letting up on it. Let's be honest. When it is hot outside the way it's been bad underwear makes it really much worse. Our sponsor Sheath underwear has completely rethought how men's underwear should function in the heat. Sheath's boxer briefs are designed with a dual pouch system, keeping everything in place, separate, ventilated. This means less sweat, less sticking, less of that awkward adjusting.

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If you've never thought much about your underwear, this is the one brand that might make you start. Go to sheathunderware.com slash Pacman. Use the code Pacman for 20% off. The link is in the description. Vice President J.D. Vance got himself kicked off of George Stephanopoulos's show. He was repeatedly asked, did Tom Homan take the $50,000? And J.D. Vance delivering really a clinic in disinformation and how not to answer a question. He's doing all the things that we've studied before. This is this is like an an academically

instructive example. He tries to answer a question that isn't. the one that was asked. He plays semantics games. He attacks the interviewer. He attacks the entire institution. And he attacks the media more broadly. And one of J.D.'s weaknesses that I think you'll see here is that he tries to act a little too slick when he does this stuff. And he comes off as too patronizing. Take a look at this. This is a just, I don't know that there's a better example. The White House borders are Tom Homan was recorded on an FBI surveillance tape in September 2024, accepting $50,000 in cash. Did he keep that money or give it back? George, you've covered the story ad nauseum. Tom Homan did not take a bribe. Now remember,

the question was, did he take the money or give it back? Answer, he didn't take a bribe. Now we are talking about a distinction that is about whether the money counts as a bribe. This is a different question than the one that George asked. A ridiculous smear and the reason you guys are going after Tom homin so aggressively is because he's doing the job of enforcing the law. I think it's really preposterous. I know Tom. I think that he's a good man. He gets death threats. He gets attacked. He gets constantly threatened by people because he has the audacity to one who enforce the country's immigration. Now he's doing a pivot. So first is answer a different question than the one asked, then pivot to something different. I think that it would be a much more interesting story about why is it that Tom

who is simply enforcing American's immigration laws is getting constantly harassed and threatened to the point of death threats. That's a much more interesting question that I think journalists should focus on. We can agree to disagree on that question. You said he didn't take a bribe, but I'm not sure you answered the question. Are you saying that he did not accept the $50,000? George, this story has been covered ad nauseum. He did not take a bribe.

Did he accept $50,000? I'm sure that in the course of Tom Homan's life, he has been paid more than $50,000 for services. Notice that again, he's answering a question that wasn't asked. Has he accepted money for services? The question is, did he accept the 50,000 at issue here on camera, on recording that the FBI was investigating? The question is, did he do something illegal? And there's absolutely no evidence that Tom Homan has ever taken a bribe.

I'm asking a different question. I'm asking you, which is why he's working in the administration. I'm asking you, did he accept the $50,000 that was caught on the surveillance tape? Did he accept that $50,000 or not? George, I don't know what you're talking about. Did he accept $50,000 for what? Next is feign confusion. It was recorded on an audio tape in September 2024 in FBI surveillance tape accepting $50,000 in cash.

Did he keep that money? Accepting $50,000 for doing what? George. I'm not even sure I understand the question, is it a crime, even the far left media like yourself? So I'm actually not. Now he's starting to attack George. That's not this is now part four of this. I'm not sure what the precise question is. Did he accept $50,000? Honestly, George, I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that he didn't violate a crime. If you don't know what he did, how do you know it wasn't a crime? So you don't, what was caught on the tape? You're saying right now you don't know whether or not he kept that money.

I don't know what tape you're referring to, George. I saw media reports that Tom Homan accepted a bribe. There's no evidence of that. And here's George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing credibility because you're talking for now five minutes with the vice president of United States. And of course, it's been two and a half minutes. But importantly, the reason it's going on this long as J.D. Vance won't answer the question.

This is a classic shift the blame, not I won't answer a simple question five times. you won't stop asking me about it. About this story regarding Tom Holman, a story that I've read about, but I don't even know the video that you're talking about. Meanwhile, low-income women can't get food because the Democrats and Chuck Schumer have shut down the government. Right now, we're trying to figure out how to pay our troops because Chuck Schumer has shut down the government.

You are focused on a bogus story. You're insinuating criminal wrongdoing against a guy who has done nothing wrong. And of course, George is not insinuating anything. He's just trying to figure out, do you acknowledge? knowledge that he took the money. Instead of focusing on the fact that our country is struggling because our government shut down. Let's talk about the real issues, George. I think the American people would benefit much more from that than from you going down some weird left-wing rabbit hole where the facts clearly show that Tom Homan didn't engage in any criminal

wrongdoing. It's not a weird left-wing rabbit hole. I didn't insinuate anything. I asked you whether Tom Homan accepted $50,000, as was heard on an audio tape recorded by the FBI in September 24 and you did not answer the question. Thank you for your time this morning. No, George, I said that I don't know. And gone just kicks them off the show. Every single interviewer should treat these guys like this. If there's a criticism here of Stephanopoulos is that he actually should have jumped in more quickly and said, ah, not the question I asked Mr. Vice President. Let me ask the question again and see if you want to take another shot at it. And one of the things about J.D. Vance, these are not novel techniques. And the

Like media trainers will tell you reframe the question to one that's more favorable to you. Did he take the money? He didn't take a bribe. Okay. Classic example. Pivot elsewhere. This is really about people upset that Tom Homan is doing great work, kicking people out of the country or whatever. Go back at the person asking you the question. He's doing all the things that you're trained to do. Although some media trainers would say don't attack the person asking the question.

It sort of depends on the environment. But the problem for JD is that he comes off too condescending. He comes off patronizing. He comes off too slick with his whole. I don't even know what you're talking about. I'm sure he's been paid money for work that he's done over his career. No, no, no. That's not what we're talking about.

Good for George Stephanopoulos. He could have done even better. And this is how you've got to deal with these people. Something is off with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green. She's making a little bit of sense. And when Marjorie Taylor Green is making a little bit of sense, it's one of two things. She's either glitching or the universe itself must be collapsing in on itself. She's suddenly making sense about some issues.

She's talking about inflation and wages and the Epstein files and discharge petitions. This is all stuff that she normally butchers. Is Marjorie Taylor Green breaking with MAGA or does she just care about these specific issues? Is she angling for re-election and thinks this is the way to do it? Here's Marjorie Taylor Green on CNN talking about the Epstein files. And she says, listen, Adelaidea Grosva has been elected. She's eventually going to be sworn in. They're eventually going to have the votes on the Epstein files.

I don't understand what my fellow Republicans are doing. is the Jeffrey Epstein files wanting to release those. I know Democrats have also been calling for that, a few other Republicans as well. The Democrats are accusing Speaker Johnson of delaying the swearing in of Arizona's Democratic Congresswoman-elect because she would give the last vote needed to release those Epstein files.

I'm wondering, you know, the Speaker for his part, he has denied that. He said it's because of the shutdown. Have you spoken to him? Do you think she should be sworn in right away? Well, I'll say it like this. I can't conclusively say if that's why the House is not in session, but the House should be in session, and the House should be in session for many reasons.

We have appropriation bills that need to get passed. There is a new Democrat that's been elected that does deserve to be sworn in. Her district elected her. We have other bills that we need to be passing. And if it's to avoid the discharge petition, why drag this out? That is going to have 218 signatures. And so I say, go ahead and do it and get it over with. Listen, she is being sensible here.

And what this suggests to me is that a lot of the right wing nonsense we hear is performative. Now, we've had this conversation on the show before. Would it be worse if they were really as dumb as they appear to be? Or would it be worse if they were only pretending because they thought that that was the best way to curry political favor and support? least with Marjorie Taylor Green, I am starting to suspect that much of her public-facing persona is performative. She is actually describing the procedural situation accurately. That is rare for her. And it's weird to hear her sound like a legislator. She is frustrated

because the leadership that she once supported doesn't have a plan and they are slowly losing control. She's not really rebelling against Donald Trump, at least not yet, but she's clearly annoyed to a degree with how ungovernable MAGA has become. Now, there was another interesting segment. She was on Tim Dillon's podcast. I believe Tim Dillon's a comedian primarily. And he asked her, what about Trump's administration and just doing things to improve the average person's life? And Marjorie Taylor Green, with some inaccuracies, gives a pretty good assessment of where we are. Take a listen to this. When you look at an issue like health care, an issue like affordability, has the administration done enough to help the quality of people's lives?

At this point, prices, inflation is stabilizing, sort of, but prices have not come down at all. The job market is weakly. The job market is still extremely difficult. Wages have not gone up. Health insurance premiums are going to go up. Car insurance goes up every year. People's homeowners insurance goes up. Rent is going up.

Young people have no hope of buying a home. And then when they try to buy a home, they end up, like I said, they end up compete. Marjorie Taylor Green is mostly right about everything she said there. Now, inflation isn't really stabilizing. actually slowly been ticking up in the nine months since Donald Trump became president, but she's mostly right. Now, where I would go back at her is to say, you know, Marjorie, you don't really have a functional plan for bringing prices down the way you said that Trump was going to back when you were supporting him during his campaign. You don't really have a solution to a lot of

the problems that you're identifying. It's the Democratic Party that is at least proposing some solutions. They may not be perfect. They may not be politically viable. We are learning when Republicans control everything, but at least the Biden administration came in, identified real problems, had proposals, some of which they were able to succeed with and get through, and some of which they were not. Still, though, still, this is a different Marjorie Taylor Green. This is a very different environment in which we find ourselves where she is making a lot more sense. Now, There's a cynical sort of interpretation of this, which is she hasn't really had any change of heart.

She just plays the same loyalty games as Trump. And as it seems that Donald Trump to a degree has stepped away from being associated with the Marjorie Taylor Green Lauren Bobert types, she is just shifting her loyalties, even though she has always held these beliefs. I would almost argue that that's worse. If you find someone who's just wrong about stuff, right? Like if you find a Republican who just, I don't know, he or she thinks tax cuts for the rich are good for the economy.

Okay, they're wrong about that. Maybe we could lead them to the evidence and they might change their mind because they get information that they don't currently have. Okay, we can at least deal with that in a way, maybe not successfully most of the time, but we know what to do. If you find someone who knows what the truth is, but is committed to publicly doing whatever is going to get them the most attention. or get them cozied up with whoever's in power, you can't really talk them out of that

in the same way. They're not lacking information. They're just lacking an honest presentation of who they are and what they should be doing. So listen, I don't know how far this Marjorie Taylor Green thing is going to go publicly facing. She's done a 180. Privately, I don't know what's going on, but it is interesting. And my view has continued has been and continues to be.

not a progressive, she's not a friend of the left, but where our interests overlap, which might be pointing out that this administration has been terrible for the average American, we should be able to go and say, even Marjorie Taylor Green understands and acknowledges this. I'm sure we disagree with her about abortion. I'm sure we disagree with her about education and a whole bunch of other stuff. But even she can't deny what is so obviously in front of our faces, X. That's what I think the left should do with it. Let me know what you think. Info at David Pakman.com.

A pending Supreme Court case could strip our Fourth Amendment rights and allow immigration agents to come into our homes for any reason, no probable cause needed, all while Republicans try to twist things so that you think this is all great for America. This should be the biggest story in the U.S. right now, but it's almost impossible to keep up with the millions of moves that Trump is making every single day. That's why ground news exists. Ground news is an app and website that exposes the blind spots and spin before it takes control of our opinions.

Ground news is the smarter, more reliable way to stay informed when MAGA is banking on us getting distracted. I'm partnering up with ground news to give you 40% off the same vantage plan that I use. So you'll pay only five bucks a month for all of their premium features. Just go to ground.news slash Pacman or use the code Pacman in the app when you sign up. The link is in the description or scan the QR code. All right, we've got a major Donald Trump health update after he spent about three hours at Walter Reed Medical Center a few days ago, not coming as a surprise to you, I am sure.

The White House says that Donald Trump is in excellent and exceptional health. Donald Trump received the flu shot and the COVID shot, which, by the way, is interesting in and of itself, given that the guy he hired as Secretary of Health and Human Services thinks that the COVID shot should be pulled off the market altogether. Trump seems to love RFK. Then he went, got himself that COVID shot. This was Donald Trump's third publicized medical checkup in about a year. He went in April.

He went in July. Those also were excellent and awesome. And you might remember that after the July evaluation, they quote, came clean on Donald Trump's chronic venous insufficiency. Now, what's funny to me is a major health update about the president's health status from the White House would be really valuable to us if it didn't feel like it was all completely made up. useless information designed to deceive everybody as to Donald Trump's actual physical state.

Like for example, one of the things that came out of this Donald Trump physical or examination is his cardiac age is 14 years younger than his chronological age. In other words, Trump is 79, but he has the cardiac health of a 65 year old. Wow. Oh, intro. Whoa. He sounds so healthy, right? The only problems are he's obese. His hands are turning black. His fluid build up in the lower legs is getting worse and worse. He has extreme difficulty climbing stairs. It's a terrible diet and doesn't exercise. But lo and behold, his health is exceptional and don't believe your eyes. Don't believe what you see. Don't believe what he sounds like. Don't believe what he looks like. Simply acknowledge he's 14 years younger than his

chronological age from the standpoint of cardiac health, a CNN did a piece about him. I have to admit, there's actually a cup, at least they're mentioning some of the apparent health problems that he's having. You remember, Jake, it was November of 2019 where he had that surprise visit to Walter Reid. It was not announced. We, I think it was even on a weekend where all of a sudden he went to Walter Reed and then again in June.

So if you look at the cadence of that, there have been times when it's more than, more than annual. So in that sense, not that surprising. But again, you know, I worked at the White House. I seen that White House medical facility. It's pretty good. If you're going to Walter Reed, it's usually for more extensive testing. So this obviously comes in the context of those photographs that we've seen of his bruised hands. Hey, finally, Jake Tapper, after I asked him on my show, why aren't you talking about his hands and ankles? Now, he's finally talking about it. and ankles. We've talked about this before, but how concerning are those images?

Well, you know, the way that I would sort of look at it is that I think they're concerning, which is why questions have been asked, investigations have been performed, and the White House medical team has commented on it. So if you look at the hands, for example, first of all, they say that, look, he's on blood thinners, he shakes a lot of hands. If you look closely at that, it's more bruising on the right than the left, the shaking. The shaking. hand, you know, the hand that you shake hands with. So that kind of fits a lifetime of sun damage. The skin on the back of the hand is quite thin, so it's a little bit more susceptible to bruising like this. So my point being that it fits, the explanation sort of fits, attracts with regard

to the ankles. The swollen ankles, I think, were pretty clear. And again, that can be of concern, but, you know, the blood is not flowing through there as well. It's pooling or accumulating in the ankles, and they say that is something known as chronic venous insufficiency. The veins just aren't pumping the blood as well back to the rest of the body. They're not moving the blood as well. Again, that tracks. About 1 in 20 people have this, and it gets more common as you get older. So yeah, to just look at it concerning, investigate, and those explanations do make sense, Jake. What do we know about President Trump's health? Because in January, he became the oldest president ever inaugurated in the history of this country. He's now 79.

Yeah. Yeah, and to give context, the lifespan for a man in this country is just under 76 years old. Oh, boy. So, you know, I mean, both these last two presidents have been far older than average life expectancy. What we're likely to hear is what we heard back in April. We're going to hear his height and his weight, 224 pounds. His blood pressure was normal. I struggle to believe those numbers, by the way. They've talked a lot about this dementia screening test.

known as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. I think he's taken it a few times now, and his doctors and him say that he's gotten a perfect score. The skin I just mentioned, he is on medications, including a couple of different cholesterol-lowering medications. His cholesterol numbers back in April, they look good, and certainly those medications are helping with that.

And he's on aspirin, this blood thinner, which may be contributing to that bruising. All right, I got to say, they're at least hitting a lot of the highlights. And this is something that corporate media has not really done. Now, they're not, you know, they asked this question, what do we know about Donald Trump's health? If you're going to be doing responsible reporting on that, you really should include the fact that there's a long history from this White House of both lying about Donald Trump's health, releasing propaganda style documents, and also only ever admitting anything once it's impossible to deny. You know, we know that Donald Trump and his administration fabricated a completely farcical situation

around Trump going to Walter Reed when he had COVID. They said, well, because it's the president, this is the most important patient in the country. It's an abundance of caution. We later learned after the fact that Donald Trump was being advised, you are deteriorating. You may not be able to get to the hospital under your own power. It would be better if the American people see you walking to the helicopter rather than seeing you. brought out in in a stretcher, which we may or may not be able to cover from the media. So Trump said, okay, for the propaganda reasons, I don't want to be seen in that weakened state. I'm going to go now to the hospital.

They've been lying about all of it. So we're taking baby steps in the right direction. At least CNN is talking about this. At least CNN is talking about the numerous signs and symptoms. They're not talking about his eyes going in opposite directions the other day, the swollen face, the eyes regularly almost swollen shut, the confusion, the disorientation. They're not doing that. And they're also not talking about Donald Trump's long track record of withholding health information.

I will mention one other little thing. I was supposed to be on CNN last week. And it was one of these things where they canceled the segment moments like five minutes before because they had some breaking news story of no importance whatsoever to cover. We were going to be on talking about what is my audience thinking. about with regard to Trump. And I said to them, my audience is thinking about the fact that their prices haven't come down. They're worried about losing their health care. And they increasingly are concerned Trump has dementia. And the booking producers at CNN tried to get me off of the

dementia thing. And they said, you know, that's not proven. And I said, no, no, you ask me what is my audience talking about? And I'm telling you. And they go, yeah, well, in the end, it wasn't relevant because the segment got canceled, but they immediately seized on that, probably out of concern for lawsuits, to be quite frank, and we're trying to dissuade me from talking about that. So little anecdote there, Trump's latest medical report, do you believe it? I'm struggling. Vivek Ramoswamy is running for governor of Ohio, and Vivek is not a Christian. And he was confronted by a bunch of, they seem like Charlie Kemp.

Kirk disciples who attacked him because he is not a Christian. This is a phenomenal example of when you lose control of the monster that you helped to create. Take a look at this. Jesus Christ is God and there is no other God. He's part of the Holy Trinity and any other God is a demon and it's false. How can you represent the constituents of Ohio who are 64% Christian if you are not a part of that faith. If you are an Indian, a Hindu coming from a different culture, different religion, then those who founded this country, those who grew this country, built this country,

made this country the beautiful thing that it is today, what are you conserving? You are bringing change. I'll be 100% honest with you. Christianity is the one truth. Christian voices should be the main voice of America, and I want to know basically why you seem to be, and I don't need to be horribly offensive, but why you seem to be masquerade. as a Christian. You're familiar with the Ten Commandments? You call yourself a Hindu, but you also call yourself Christian. I don't call myself Christian.

I call myself a Hindu. I'm not running to be pastor of Ohio. I'm running to be governor of Ohio, and I didn't run to be pastor of America. I ran to be president of the United States of America. What's your faith? I'm a Christian. Father of Jesus. Great.

Do you believe in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? I think a lot of people here do. Good. And that doesn't make you a polytheism. Does it? Probably not, no. Great. And so in my faith, I believe there's one true God.

He resides in all of us, and he appears in different forms, but it's one true God. So I'm an ethical monotheist. That's the way I would describe my faith. Do you think it's inappropriate for someone who's a Hindu to be, say, a U.S. President? No, I think it's... No. Well... Be honest.

Isn't Hinduism... Because you're an Indian. I can ask yourself that Hinduism believes in... believes in Shiva and what is it, the flute, the fluke. God, I forget. I forget. Right. All right. Anyway, now the guy's forgetting. Anyway, the point here is that Vivek in his support of Trump in 2024 participated in unleashing the zealots and they are now following the rules that Vivek helped Donald Trump to write. You know, these turning point type activists who get indoctrinated end up seeing Christianity as the only legitimate identity for leaders.

And Vivek Ramoswami, despite not being a Christian, as he pointed out there, he encouraged the sikosystem because he would do the rhetoric about faith and wokeism and American values. And it was part of a movement that doesn't really want inclusion. They want ideological purity. And purity ultimately eats its own. When we see, when I see the purity testing on the left, I mention it. And when I see it on the right and there's a lot of it, we talk about it. Once you frame politics as a war of us versus them, you don't get to decide who is us anymore.

And so the same people who cry about religious freedom go, wait a second, you're Hindu. You're not a legitimate candidate for the governor of Ohio. Every reactionary movement eventually devours its softer founders. You know, you look at McCarthyism. You look at the Tea Party. You even look at MAGA itself. Look at who was part of the initial coalition of MAGA and Trumpism in 2016. And look at where we are today.

Those people are now ostracized and devalued. And when the right builds these echo chambers that are so insulated, their own allies end up becoming heretics the second they deviate at all. And Vivek Ramoswamy being Hindu, even though shouldn't make a difference in the world, it deviates from the implicit requirements that they have established through their purity testing. So, you know, we've talked about when Donald Trump ends up seeing the monster he helped create on antivacs. And we talk about how Fox News ends up seeing the monster they helped create on distrusting the media. And then they start to distrust Fox News when Fox News goes, I don't know, here's someone who says they're really, there's nothing to see in the Epstein files or whatever.

It's the monster they helped create turning against them. And now Vivek is up against it. We've got a great bonus show for you today. We will talk about what's happening in airports and the propaganda video that is being required of some and rejected by others. We will talk about a bunch of media outlets who will not sign the Pentagon's news. rules for coverage and so much more. All of that on today's bonus show, sign up at join packman.com.

You'll get instant access to the bonus show, to the commercial free audio feed, to the commercial video feed, all of it. I'll see you then. And of course, I'll be back tomorrow.