The David Pakman Show - 10/23/25: NYC debate mania as Trump demented while Canada says bye-bye

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Zohran Mamdani confronts Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa in a chaotic New York City mayoral debate filled with personal attacks and viral moments -- Mark Carney announces Canada will prioritize domestic production and reduce dependence on the United States, signaling a break from Trump -- Donald Trump declares he is a better president than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, revealing how desperate he is for validation and admiration -- Donald Trump threatens Gavin Newsom while rambling about demolishing the East Wing to build a $300 million ballroom and insulting reporters who question him -- Donald Trump oversees the demolition of part of the White House to build a $250 million ballroom while the government remains shut down and workers go unpaid -- Mike Johnson insists Republicans have a health care plan but refuses to share details, revealing the emptiness of their repeated promises -- Senator Susan Collins walks away from a Maine small business owner asking about health care costs -- Jesse Watters praises Donald Trump’s antics while Fox panelists briefly acknowledge rising costs and economic frustration under his leadership -- On the Bonus Show: The Pentagon unveils a new press corps dominated by right-wing outlets, Elon Musk breaks ground on a tunnel project in Nashville, Bernie Sanders stands by Graham Platner despite controversies, and much more... 🐟 Wild Alaskan Company: Get $35 OFF at https://wildalaskan.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.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 (01:32) Mamdani confronts Cuomo, Sliwa (12:40) Canada breaks from US trade (21:28) Trump claims he's greatest president (26:54) Trump threatens Newsom, insults press (35:03) Trump demolishes White House wing (40:52) Mike Johnson dodges health plan details (47:12) Susan Collins ignores small business (55:00) Jesse Watters praises Trump antics      

On today's show, we will look at the New York City mayoral debate, which did not go well for Andrew Cuomo. Canada is breaking up with us over Donald Trump, and Trump's latest demented rant has him claiming to be better than Lincoln and Washington as a president. Gavin Newsom is under threat, ominously told to be careful. The White House continues to be demolished, not metaphorically. It's been metaphorically demolished for nine months now. but physically demolished.

And Maga Mike Johnson says they do have a health care plan, but now it's a secret. We've been waiting for this thing for a long time now. Senator Susan Collins was confronted by a constituent whose business is getting crushed by Republican policy. And Jesse Waters also says he really liked Trump's feces bomb. Can you believe it? All of those stories and more on today's show. This should, you know, sometimes we record the show and immediately delete it because it's no good.

I say we keep today's show. Let's keep a record of this one because it is good. Plus, we've got a phenomenal bonus show plan for you and so many other things, including the main Senate race fiasco involving Graham Platner and others. All of it on the bonus show. What a program. Glad you're with me today. We start today with the New York City mayoral debate. This was really something to see.

You know, I am, you all know I'm not a socialist, right? Some of you like that. Some of you dislike that. I'm a social Democrat. It's a highly regulated form of capitalism. It's what they have in Denmark. It's what they have in Sweden. Zoran Mamdani says he's a socialist.

That's a political difference that I have with him. But I can't look at this. race objectively and come to any conclusion other than Mamdani is clearly the most likable candidate. Sliwa, Curtis Slewa, the Republican, is completely off the rails, albeit funny. And Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York, comes off as deeply unlikable, out of touch, and disingenuous. Now I don't know him personally.

That's a political assessment. You know, I know his brother, Chris Cuomo, and sometimes Chris. And I will chat and this has these are not personal attacks. This is my analysis of the race. And this was just a complete disaster for Cuomo. I'll start with maybe the most intense moment when Mamdani goes right at Cuomo over the sexual harassment and assault allegations, including from one woman who is in the audience. Mr. Cuomo, in 2021, 13 different women.

who worked in your administration, incredibly accused you of sexual harassment. Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political. You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private, her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself

because you lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak. What do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed? If you want to be in government, then you have to be serious and mature. There were allegations. of sexual harassment.

They were then, went to five district attorneys, fully litigated for four years, the cases were dropped, right? You know that as a fact. So everything you just stated, you just said was a misstatement, which were accustomed to for me. Yes, because the cases, the cases were dropped. Now this is probably, I mean, listen, I guess this is, um, Cuomo's bad. defense, we all, of course, know that just because a case can't be prosecuted doesn't

mean something didn't happen. A lot of sexual harassment is also not criminal. And so I don't know. Like maybe this is the best Cuomo could do with it, but it really wasn't great. And the groaning, the audible groaning at the answer, not so good. Now, Curtis Slewa, I got to tell you, I don't agree with with this guy Slewa on just about anything. But he had some, some lines cooked up that he was ready to go with. Here he is sort of attacking both Mamdani and Cuomo. And again, I don't agree with Slee was politics, but he came prepared

with at least some one-liners. Zoran, you talk about free, free, free. But we know that somebody's got to pay for it and that's you, the taxpayers. And that's going to lead to bankruptcy. The only reason that Zoran is on the stage is because of the failed Governor Cuomo, who was rejected by the Democrats in the primary, and rejected by 13 women who charged you with sexual harassment. Do you ever know that no means no, you know what no means? Your question is to Mr. Monaco. Who is your question to? Who is your question to? Well, we can bifurcate it, right?

No, no. You know, you can't. Who is your question to do? It's to Cuomo. Okay. Your response, Mr. I'm not sure what the man said. But the situation, my legal situation, as we discussed before, was fully litigated, I was dropped from the cases. Anyway, you know, Sliwa came prepared.

He's doing what he can with a situation that is not favorable to him to win this race, obviously. And Andrew Cuomo said that the number of homeless increased since he left. He was accused by Slewa, not of leaving, but of fleeing. And this was maybe Slewa's best mo. The homeless issue, number of homeless since I left, has more than doubled during his administration and the state's administration. Since I left, homeless rate is more than doubled. When I left, the vacancy rate on housing was 4.5%.

It's now 1%. This man never even proposed a bill on housing or education. Never even proposed a bill. Keep going back and forth between the two of you, Mr. Slewer, it's your turn. Andrew, you didn't leave. You fled from being impeached by the Democrats in the state legislature. Slewa came prepared to try to make some lemonade out of the very few lemons available to him. And another one was this line.

Yeah, I heard the both of them again, fighting like kids in their schoolyard. Zoran, your resume could fit on a cocktail napkin. And Andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City. Okay. That's really not a bad line, even though the crowd, a crowd crowd, crowd wasn't really going for it. The question was asked whether the three candidates Cuomo, Mamdani and Sliwa, would accept an endorsement from outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams if it were offered.

Would any of you accept Mayor Adams' endorsement? Mr. Mondani? No. Mr. Cuomo. Yes, I would. Mr. Sliwa. Absolutely not. Put that cook in jail where it belongs.

final a fun one careful what is all right and quomo they're very very uh you got to be got to be careful with that you got to be super careful um mom donnie came prepared as well and here was another one of his attacks on andrew quomo who was really the only other potentially viable challenger even though it looks like mom don he's going to run away with this thing in 2027 you You still have an answer. You will hear from Andrew Cuomo about his experience as if the issue is that we don't know about it. The issue is that we have all experienced your experience. The issue is that we experienced you taking a $5 million book deal while you sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes.

The issue is that we experienced you cutting funding for the MTA to send money to upstate ski resort. The issue is that we saw you give $959 million in tax. Breaks to Elon Musk. The issue is your experience. The only thing. Absolutely just cooking. Cookie just tear it not, not even a bit of daylight there for Cuomo to try to pull himself up.

Cuomo's snarkiest moment was probably this one. When the topic of psychiatric hospitals came up, Cuomo said he was going to save a bed in one of the hospitals for Curtis Sliwa. Funny, but not likely the way. to get curtisly would a drop out and endorse Cuomo, which is really Cuomo's only shot at this point. Okay. Thank you. 40,000 beds for mental health and the state hospital system.

By the time you fled fearing impeachment, you cut the budget down of 4,000 beds. Shame on you for putting those emotionally disturbed persons in the street. You don't know what you're thinking. Well, there's one bad I'm going to say for you, but the no one is saying. There's one bed I'm going to save for you. you, it was not one that the audience received very well. Another good moment for Mamdani, pointing out that a lot of Andrew Cuomo's criticisms of how the state screws the city are relevant to moments when Cuomo was governor.

Mom Doni sort of implying it was you screwing the city if that's what was taking place. You had the worst attendance record in the assembly and you gave yourselves the highest raise in the United States of America, you went from $110,000 to $140,000, and then you never showed up for work and you missed 80% of the votes. Shame on you. Shame on you. It is always a pleasure to hear Andrew Cuomo create his own facts at every debate stage. We just had a former governor say in his own words that the city has been getting screwed

by the state. Who was leading the state? It was you. Governor Hokel. You're leading the state for 10 years. Screwing this city. You cut homelessness funding. Now, of course, the truth is that the time period related to this discussion includes

a little bit of Andrew Cuomo's 10 years governor and a bunch of Kathy Hockel's tenure as governor. It doesn't matter. It's a good line. These debates are performative. They're not really about policy. And then finally, the candidates asked if there was a ranked choice election. How would you all rank each other? Answer a straight question.

If there is a ranked choice election, how would you vote, Mr. Mamdani? If there was a rank choice election? In this, you'd have to rank these. Myself number one and Curtis number two. Mr. Sliwa. Oh, please don't be glazing me. Here's all right. Are you kidding?

Mr. Slewer, do I have an answer. I support ranked choice voting, but I'd only vote for myself. There you go. So, listen, this is a fascinating race. The outcome at this point is the least interesting thing in that it seems like a foregone conclusion that Mamdani is going to run away with this thing. But it is a fascinating race in that it has really shown that there is a desire for a new type of Democratic candidate.

And Cuomo is simply not that. He is not living up to the moment. I look very much forward to seeing what those results end up being. is breaking up with the United States. Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, spoke at CPAC. This is a diff. It's not that CPAC. It's not the Canadian political action conference.

It's the Canadian, I'm sorry, it's not the conservative political action conference. It's the Canadian something. CPAC of Canada. Mark Carney making it clear, Canada's done with the United States under Trump. They are going to invest inside of Canada. That means military. That means defense. That means industry.

And there is one five letter word that is the reason why this is all happening. And that is Trump. Our strategy will recognize that in today's global economy, we have to build sustainably. It's not just a moral duty. It's also an economic imperative. It is a moral duty, but it's an economic imperative. Now, above all, we will build Canadian. The new security threats the world is bringing to our shores

means we're making the biggest investments in our military and generations. But up until now, more than 70 cents of every dollar of military spending, military capital expending by our government, goes to the United States. Uh-oh. With our new defense investment agency, we will make sure we build more. of our security and defense capabilities here at home, creating new careers in

aerospace and shipbuilding and cyber and AI for Canadian engineers, technicians, and scientists. It's the same thing in steel. Consider that well 80% of the steel that Europe buys is manufactured in Europe, 75% of the steel that the US buys is manufactured in the US, only 40% of the steel that we use is made. here. That doesn't make sense. Not when we have the people, the resources, and the companies to build right here in Canada. So our upcoming budget will move forward with our by Canadian policy, prioritizing Canadian steel, aluminum, lumber, manufactured good, and technology for Canadian projects. Why is it that when Trump is president, we have more and more distance with our

traditional Western democratic allies? And we are tight. with dictators and authoritarian. Why is there now a move by Canada to move away from the United States? While Trump is closer than ever to Putin, closer than ever to Victor Orban in Hungary, and enamored with authoritarian dictators around the world, well, it's obvious why. It's because Trump doesn't respect democracy. Trump isn't impressed by democracy. When you tell Trump, hey, look at this country.

where the will of the people depends, determines who leads them, and the leaders are responsive to the will of the people. That's not impressive to Trump. What's impressive to Trump is how drug trials in China are very short and they always end in conviction. That's interesting to Trump. That's impressive to Trump. That's what Trump is enamored by.

Carney continued and said, we have had decades and decades of getting closer to the United States, and that is now over. So because of these advantages, over decades our economy grew steadily, more integrated with the United States, through the free trade agreement of the 1980s, the NAFTA court of the 1990s, and eventually USMCA agreement signed in 2018. Canada's trade increased by over 400% during that period and our economy doubled in size. But this process, this decades-long process of an ever-close, economic relationship with the United States is now over.

Oh boy. And as a consequence, many of our former strengths as a country, former strengths more particularly as our economy, strengths based on close ties to America, have become our vulnerabilities. And as a result of that, the jobs of workers and our industries most affected by the US tariffs in autos and steel and lumber are under threat.

are under threat. And our businesses are holding back investments restrained by the pall of uncertainty that's hanging over all of us. This is not good for the United States. And I know that it's, we, we have to all pretend that Republicans know what they're talking about when they say, oh, Trump's making us strong and he's forging ahead and making the US independent. This is a disaster for the United States.

This is barely getting attention. This, this is a major piece of news. The prime minister of Canada, a long-term ally, one of our major trading partners, we have multilateral bilateral and multilateral trade agreements with Canada. They're saying we're just not that into you guys anymore and it is because of Donald Trump. Now, of course, many of us will think hope and expect that once Trump is gone, January of 2029 or whenever he is finally gone, all of these relationships get repaired.

But as I said when it comes to China looking elsewhere for soybeans, which we'll get to later in the show. The other country doesn't have the incentive to come crawling back to the United States. Once they get independent of the United States on might be steel, might be auto parts, it might be soybeans, it might be something else. They're all set. It's the United States that ends up screwed and they've got us over a barrel. So the damage that Trump is doing when you look at farmers and what they are saying, we see the damage that's being done right now. But the longer term effect of this damage. It's going to be felt. I mean, listen, it could be felt indefinitely. These could be irreparable relationships. And Mark Carney isn't even doing it quietly. He's doing it publicly.

It's yet another way in which Trump is just screwing the average person. But he's going to be fine. Don't worry. All right. Awesome new sponsor to talk about wild Alaskan company. They do sustainable seafood memberships. I got one of these boxes. And it is just phenomenal. The whole point with wild Alaskan seafood is that it's 100% wild caught. It's never farmed. It's from sustainably managed fisheries in Alaska, frozen at the peak of freshness, and then delivered to you.

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Donald Trump suffering what can really only be described as a narcissistic collapse. He's no longer saying that he's up there with Lincoln and Washington. as the best president ever. Now he says he gets angry when people don't say that he's better than Lincoln and better than Washington. If you say Trump is the third best president ever, he will be mad at you. He will be angry. The great George Washington all the way to, well, I think we have to rate him above me.

So less than great, less than George. Somebody went up there. They say, you're the third best president in the United, this was on television. third best. And they said, who are the first two? George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And I got extremely angry at this man, you know. You can't, it's going to be, it's going to be tough to beat Mr. Senator. It's going to be, John, it's going to be very tough to beat Washington and Lincoln, but we're going to give it a try, right? Hey, they didn't put out eight wars, nine coming, all right? We put out eight wars and the ninth is coming, believe it or not. Lincoln gave his life to hold

the United States together. Trump tried to rip the country apart because he lost an election and he couldn't admit it like a big boy. Lincoln freed the slaves. Trump freed George Santos, okay? This is the contrast that we have. And Trump wants us to say, no, you're better. You're so good, sir.

You know how normal people say, I'm proud of the work I've done. Trump hears a random guy at Mar-a-Lago say you're the third best president. and he's off the rails all of a sudden. He cannot separate personal validation from reality and is so desperate to be loved and to be liked and to be seen as the best. Imagine being so detached from reality that you're angry that people don't rank you above Abraham Lincoln. And in all seriousness, this is what happens when you live in this bubble of yes men and

cult followers. You know, when we had Sarah Matthews on the show now a couple of times, she's a former deputy press secretary to Donald Trump during his first term. She worked under Kaylee Maganani. She, I asked her, how is it that Trump ends up with these delusional beliefs? And she explained, there is a bubble around the guy. He's kept insulated. He's fed information that's going to make him happy. That's going to please him. And so when you're around that for years, now it's been a decade, you start to think you actually belong next to Lincoln and Washington and your face should be up there on Mount Rushmore. And you can see Trump unraveling because that's not the recognition

that he's getting. He's not trying to lead anymore. Trump is now trying to convince himself. And this is not how presidents talk. Now, there's another aspect to this that I do think is relevant to mention and important to talk about when it comes to Donald Trump in his rankings. One of the areas that is really kind of an intangible with how presidents have done or how presidents are seen retrospectively is how the United States is seen around the world and the relationships that we have or don't have. And even though Donald Trump spent what is it years telling us while Biden was president. We're not respected under Biden. We're going to be respected when when I become president again. We are going to see that the the world is moving

away from the United States in ways that it never did under Joe Biden. And if we say, well, let's evaluate it based on the level of respect for the office of the presidency based on global surveys. It's in the toilet. Let's evaluate it based on the motivation that other countries have to be allied with the United States. They don't seem concerned. I mean, just earlier in the show, we talked about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying, hey, you know, the decades of getting closer and closer to the United States, that's over. It just, it's over, but doesn't make sense anymore. And you can say a lot of things about Joe Biden. You could say he didn't accomplish enough. He shouldn't have run for reelection. He failed to secure the student loan debt relief

that we maybe hope that he would secure. But Biden was respected around the, world as an ambassador to the u of the united states as an advocate for the united states and the united states was part of global decisions and discussions under biden under trump it's the opposite and we saw that during his first term and we're seeing it now so donald trump is clearly suffering a narcissistic collapse as donald trump approaches 80 years old and he realizes that his time on this earth and his time on the oval in the oval office is is limited He's increasingly concerned with legacy. And this is what's leading him to lash out and to do things that will be harder to reverse.

Certainly the demolishing and building of a ballroom at the White House is part of it. He wants things that won't be reversed so his legacy can live on. But the greatest legacy of Trump so far is that he has distanced us. He has alienated us from our historical and typical allies. And he's also doing it while threatening a whole bunch of different people. And I want to dig into that a little bit. Trump is now threatening California governor Gavin Newsom. He said, Newsom had better be careful.

Gavin had better be careful. And what I believe this is truly reflective of is that Donald Trump is terrified. Donald Trump is lashing out and threatening people because he is afraid he's not going to get his way. He is afraid that others are more liked than he is. And you know what? That's true. And one of those people happens to be Gavin Newsome.

This makes him extraordinarily insecure. This makes him extraordinarily angry. And he's saying, Gavin has to be careful. Today, Los Angeles, immigration officials were attacked by some protesters in an attempt to arrest an illegal alien. Gavin Newsom, other Democrats, used very aggressive language in terms of how to address ICE agents out of the field. Is there any responsibility that we can place on Gavin Newsom and other elected officials

who were using such aggressive language? Well, Gavin has to be careful. Remember that when I first came in, they had a terrible riot in Los Angeles. They had the fires, which shouldn't have happened. They didn't have the water for the fires. They should have had the water coming in from the Pacific Northwest. They didn't have the waters. They didn't have water in the hydrants or the sprinklers.

So they had the fires. And then they had the riot. And if we didn't go and take care of that riot, you would have lost Los Angeles. You would have canceled the Olympics, which is because of me in Los Angeles. This is all completely made up. Gavin had better be careful. And then it's lie after lie after lie. There was no big emergency in Los Angeles.

The mayor said we don't need federal troops. The governor Newsom said we don't need federal troops. It was contained within a two by two or two by three block area. And Trump just can't help himself. He just keeps lying and lying and lying. And now he says, Newsome has to be careful. Careful of what exactly? then started talking about what's going on at the White House.

And we're going to talk later about the demolishing of the White House. And you might have noticed or you might not have noticed that the price of this project has quietly gone from $250 million to $300 million. Well, I thought it was only going to cost $250. And of course, it's funded by donors, friends of Donald Trump. It was a $200 million project to $250 and now it is $300 million. Just changing this topic slightly. I see you've got the model of the White House and the ballroom.

Many people were surprised the entire East Wing was being demolished because you would said initially that the ballroom would just touch. Yeah, well, certain areas are being, yeah, certain areas are being left. We determined that after really a tremendous amount of study with some of the best architects in the world, we determined that really knocking it down, trying to use a little section, you know, the East Wing was Not much. It was not much left from the original. It was over the course of 100 years. It was changed. The columns were removed and it was a much different building. Then a story was added on in 1948, 1949. There was a story added on which was not particularly nice. And the building was very, very much changed from what it was originally. It was never thought of as being much. It was a very small building. And rather than allowing that to hurt a very expensive, beautiful, building that, frankly, they've been after for years. You have that.

I brought these along so people could see. But now Trump pulls plans out. It's, you know, there's a relative, nobody's actually seen anything quite like it. I think it'll be one of the great ballrooms anywhere in the world. It's about $300 million. It's set to do many, many things, including meetings of foreign leaders, including the honoring of foreign leaders. You can see this.

This is a plan if it's got tables so that you are. There's tables in case anybody was unsure, the ballroom will have tables. Honor, a foreign leader. We have a proper space right now. We have a. Yeah. It was 200 million bucks. Then it was going to be 250 million bucks.

Now it's 300 million dollars. What's another 50 million between friends, right? In donor money, of course. And then Trump starts to get irritated that he's even being asked about this. And then he attacks the reporter. That's a classic. I just want a quick follow up on that question. Your response to people who say that you haven't been transparent and on this about this.

I haven't been transparent. That's some of your greatest feel is. I've shown, I've shown this to everybody that would listen. Third-rate reporters didn't see it because they didn't look. You're a third-rate reporter, always have been. So third-rate reporters didn't look, but anybody that asked, these pictures have been in newspapers. And now this is a complete, it's like, it's covered in this picture, it's all gold. everything is gold inside remember money can't buy class and this is trump's great if trump

represents anything it's that money cannot buy class they've been all over the place and you know we're very proud of it it's gotten great reviews it's gotten really great reviews so i think we've been more transparent than anybody's ever and i don't know which which reporter trump is yelling at there but it sort of sounds like our friend jeff mason from the associated press i i'm not totally sure because he's not on camera. Finally, Donald Trump struggling for vocabulary when talking about this whole bombing of boats thing and using military response to boats that he believes are bringing drugs. Trump talking about ocean drugs and sea drugs. This is how Trump speaks when he has no idea what he's talking about. And drug usage is way down and drug usage coming from

the sea. They call it ocean drugs. A little term that they, they, use the ocean drugs is very close to nonexistent right now i wouldn't want to be in one of those boats heading away you know they're driving happily to destroy the lives of people and they end up that's the end of them so uh the ocean drugs and the sea drugs drugs by sea they call it also they they call it drugs by sea uh that's almost down to nothing as you can imagine so they continue to come in by land at a little bit less because they see something is going to happen. They don't like it. They see something. And they're right. Something very serious is going to happen. The equivalent of what's happening by sea. And we're going.

Anyway, Trump just meandering linguistically and mentally, no idea what's going on. The press core is trying. Some of them are trying. I've got to give them credit. But you know when they say when life gives you lemons make lemonade, if the lemons are rotten or they're actually just rocks, you might not be able to make lemonade out of them. And that's where we find ourselves today with this administration. Every time you Google your name, you will probably find dozens of sites that expose your personal information. This can include phone number, home address, family details.

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It's October of 2025, almost November. Government is shut down. Food stamp benefits are set not to go out in November if the government remains shut down. We've got federal workers furloughed, not getting paid. Some aren't sure if they'll even have jobs when government reopens. And meanwhile, the president Donald Trump is using his, the power of the presidency to demolish parts of the White House because he wants to do it to build a $300 million ballroom. He now says it's going to cost and is simultaneously suing his own DOJ for 230 million dollars.

What an embarrassment. And meanwhile, Republicans are mostly looking the other way. You ask Republicans, what about Trump suing his own DOJ for 230 million? They go, oh, I've been busy doing stuff, even though government shut down. I don't really know about it. Oh, what about the ballroom? Oh, I don't really get involved in construction projects at the White House or whatever the case may be. And when you look closely at what is going on, it is not only another reminder that money can't

buy class, the gold covered ballroom just looks so gaudy, but this is an insult to everybody that is suffering right now under the shutdown and struggling economically. And the demolishing of the White House in a sense is really a sad metaphor for this entire administration. You have the destruction of American business. You have the destruction of American alliances with our historical Western Democratic allies. You have the destruction of the American dream. You have the destruction of our health care programs, et cetera, et cetera. And meanwhile, you've got excavators knocking down pieces of the White House.

Now, there are kind of, I guess I would call them contrasting and parallel scandals here. At the micro level, the project is being done all wrong. First of all, it was going to be $200 million, then it's $250 million. Now it's $300 million. The typical federal commission approvals for such a construction project have not been obtained. All of the right historical type of work hasn't been done with regard to the project. Trump has been caught lying about the specific saying the project's not going to affect the existing structure.

Obviously, as we see stuff is being knocked down right here. We see that it is very much affecting the original structure. But then at the same time, tons of federal workers aren't even getting paid right now because of the shutdown. And meanwhile, the whole thing is supposedly funded by private donors. Now, when I say supposedly, it very well might be funded by donors and it might not be and actually taxpayers are paying for it. But assume for a second that it is being funded by donors.

It's basically legalized bribery. of course knows who's contributing the money. And I'm guessing that if you contribute to Trump's ballroom, then you get invited to the ballroom and you get the opportunity for not only access to the president, but to be handed deals of different kinds and to be in the midst of, you know, the presidential milieu and the entire thing. Now there's one other aspect to this. It has not been lost on many in our audience that when the ballroom was going to cost 250 million.

And of course, now it's going to cost $300 million. But when it was going to cost $250 million, Trump is suing his own DOJ for $230 million. And he says that he would donate any money he gets. And Trump is building a $200, what was then a $250 million ballroom, which will be funded by donors. Now, I don't want to get all conspiratorial. But again, it's not really a conspiracy if it's all being done in the open. says he will donate $230 million to charity and the ballroom will be paid for by donors. I'm so sorry to ask such a basic question, but is Trump going to be the donor?

Is Trump planning to get $230 million in taxpayer money through his DOJ lawsuit and then donate it to a charity, the charity being the donation pool for the ballroom funded by donors. Am I crazy to be thinking this way? Now, meanwhile, people around the country who can't afford an unexpected $400 expense without putting it on a credit card, they see a gilded $300 million ballroom going up. What do they say? What do they say? What do they think about the way that money is being spent. You see people who can't afford health care. You see federal workers furloughed who don't even know if they'll have a job.

You see people who can't afford their kids' education. And this is what is taking place in Washington, D.C. And it really undercuts this idea of Trump as every man. Trump is he really identifies with the average person, does he? Because we've got tens of millions of people here at risk of losing health. care over losing subsidies. And meanwhile, you've got Donald Trump building a $300 million gilded ballroom. Doesn't really seem like he understands to me. But the MAGA people just look away. They don't care. They're not getting involved. And meanwhile, we're still waiting for that

health care plan, which I guess now exists, but it's a secret. All right. So MAGA Mike Johnson went on TV and he was asked by Caitlin Collins, what's going on with this health care plan? And Maga Mike Johnson says, oh, we've got a plan, but we need to open the government first before we can tell anybody about it. They have a health care plan, but it's a secret. And someday they're going to tell us there's probably what, a couple of weeks left. Here's Maga Mike Johnson himself explaining it. But if you have ideas and you have plans, why not have that out there to talk about in the public so so the people can hear that debate happening i mean you could have committees in session right now they will kately um talking about this i think the question

yeah we need to get back to regular session so we can't no no we're not going to allow chuck schumer to play selfish political games and hold the american people hostage we will not negotiate with legislative terrorists we're not going to let them do that we can't we owe it to the people to get this government operating again republicans have now voted 12th or 13 times counting the House and Senate 13 times to open the government and the Democrats have voted 13 times to close it down. It is wrong. Hey, Mike, just tell us what the health care plan is, okay?

Shutdowns don't affect the House calendar. The only thing preventing Republicans from being in regular session is Mike Johnson. Even Marjorie Taylor Green has acknowledged and admitted. Republicans can open the government if we decide that that's what we want to do. us the health care plan. Tell us what it is. Trump said in August of 2020, we are two weeks away from the health care plan. And then during 2024, he said, well, I don't really have a plan per se.

I have concepts of a plan. Tell us what the plan is. We are desperate. Caitlin Collins asking him, if government reopened tonight, would Republicans have a plan to address the Obamacare subsidies? what Mike Johnson said. All sorts of other stuff. And we've gone back and forth on, you and I have on, you know, what Democrats want

here and whether or not that's health care for people who are in the country illegally, obviously. But I think the question is on the health care plan, to Marjorie Taylor Green's point, is if the government reopened tonight, would Republicans have a plan to address the Obamacare subsidies? Yes. Yes. Yes. We have a plan tonight.

Proposals to, yeah, we could have that ready immediately. Yes. Yeah. This is like when I pick up my daughter at daycare and she says, hey, let's go to the playground. And I say, okay, listen, we can go to the playground. But when it's time to go, we've got to go without arguing, right? And she goes, yeah. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Absolutely. And then when I say, it's time to go, she goes, no, we just got here. I haven't done all the stuff I want to do. The truth about these healthcare plans is you can't create something out of thin air. There's a great book by the late Uvei Reinhardt on healthcare. And if you imagine a triangle and the three axes of the triangle, the three angles of the triangle are cost, access and quality, cost, access, and quality. You basically need to pick a point on that triangle.

And if you pick a point that's closer to the cost and access, you're going to suffer when it comes to quality. If you pick a plan where you increase access and quality, well, the cost is going to go up. Now, of course, these are always all else being equal ideas. But the point here is to a degree, obviously you want to eliminate waste, you want to eliminate bureaucracy. Those are things that can be done to reduce cost without affecting access and quality. But there are only so many ways that you can do this.

You can look at what France does. You can look at what Singapore does. You can look at Canada. You can look at Spain. You can look at all sorts of different countries. There are only so many things that you can do. And so it really is laughable that they've been saying over and over and over again. Oh, we've got ideas and we've got proposals and we need two more weeks.

What's the plan? There are only a certain number of things that you can do. Maga Mike Johnson has no plan. The Republicans have no plan. And when they come up with an idea, it's just let's cut something. Let's eliminate someone's access to health care. Or let's eliminate a subsidy, which will get some people to say, oh, without the subsidy, I can't afford it.

I guess now I'm going without health care. They act as though it is both true that health care for a country of 340 million people is complex. And at the same time, it is true that there are only a certain number of levers. And if the point is we're going to give everybody access, okay, well, then you start there and you've got to figure everything else out. There's only a certain number of ways you can do it. Maga Mike Johnson's clueless.

Trump's clueless. They're all clueless, but they're insisting that they have the answer. When we see their answer, it usually leads to tens of millions losing health care. That's not really going to work. 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. 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. Well, Susan Collins is a senator from Maine. She's the so-called moderate Republican in the Senate. She is perpetually disappointed and concerned about things that she sees going on, but never can quite find her, find it in her to go against what the Republican Party at large wants. She walked away from a constituent when a small business owning constituent wanted to talk to her

about healthcare. This was not like a gotcha that this was a local business owner who said, I'm struggling with health care costs. What are you doing about it? And Susan Collins walked off. And in fact, there's like a mini, it's not, not even really a documentary. It's just a two minute thing about this guy's trip to DC. And you see Collins' staff working very hard to keep her away from this guy.

I'll play it for you then we'll discuss excuse me senator Collins my name is Andrew I'm a constituent of yours I was hoping to talk to you about some of my concerns about the ACA my name's Andrew I'm a constituent of Senator Collins and I was hoping to talk to her about the Affordable Care Act my name is Andrew Volk and I'm a Maynor as well as a small business owner and a father of two and I'm here today in Washington DC to ask Susan Collins why she is failing small business owners and why she refuses to extend the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act. Yeah, I mean, my, my biggest concern is, is seeing those, those tax credits expire.

And, you know, I'd love to understand where Senator Collins stands. For those who are only listening right now, they sat him down with, I guess it's like some kind of legislative aide who's just listening and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. On that if she's, you know, I think that with the uncertainty in the economy, with the uncertainty with the government shut down and the tariffs, there's a chance that those tax credits expire and for, in my opinion, not a very good reason. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting. Sure.

I haven't seen Senator Collins fighting the administration. I haven't seen her fighting for Mainers, and I haven't seen her fighting for Mainers, and I haven't seen her fighting to bring down the costs that small businesses in Maine experience every day. So my boss has said that she's concerned about the impact. Sure. Rightfully so. She's also concerned about the fact. Very, very concerned. I might add. Government isn't opened up. Yeah. And she's expressed concern

about the rising cause to health care as well. Sure. So all those things working together. I mean, I understand the concern, I guess, from my position I don't see the action. I just got out of Senator Susan Collins' office trying to meet with her and was not able to.

Clearly, her aide saw that I was waiting for her and did everything in their power to make sure that she was able to avoid me. Excuse me. Collins. My name is Andrew. I'm a constituent of yours. How are you? How are you? Great. How are you? I was hoping to talk to you about some of my concerns about the ACA. I'm a small business owner and a father of two. Extending the tax credits. Okay. Do you have just a moment to chat? Thank you. I'm sorry.

We've got to go vote. Have a great day, Senator. I'm so sorry that I'm just trying to reach you today. She wouldn't make time to meet with a constituent like myself, but instead was getting lunch with President Trump and cozying up to the administration. So listen, I understand that it's not reasonable to think that any constituent can just show up in D.C. and meet with a senator. I get that. The bigger picture here is I am so sick of Susan Collins. You know, she has made a career out of being the moderate Republican, the thoughtful

Republican, the empathetic Republican, the nice Republican, the one who's willing to think seriously about issues. the one who's reasonable. But the truth is that she's really not moderate. She's polite while doing all the same things that just about every single one of them do. This is the Susan Collins who for all of her concern and whatever voted for Trump's tax cuts that gutted the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, for example, which is at the core of what makes it work and left millions of small business owners like this guy worse off. And this is the same Susan Collins who always act. I'm troubled. I'm troubled because I'm worried Republicans may be going

too far. And then she votes with them anyway. So she's confronted by someone living with the consequences of her votes, this guy, Andrew. He's trying to keep a small business afloat. He's paying thousands a month for health care. And she walks away and gets on the gets on the, the Congress, the Senate subway there, which by the way, when I was in D.C. last time, we wrote on that subway and saw Lindsey Graham walking alongside of it, a surreal moment, but that's not what we're talking about today. And so when she gets confronted, she doesn't really want to substantively deal with what is going on here. And this to me really is emblematic or representative of where the Republican party is right now. They've got slogans. They've got we've got to be friends with Trump. We've got to

stay aligned with Trump. But there's really no substance there. And if you talk to them, they'll, you'll hear buzzwords floating around freedom, family values, supporting small. business, entrepreneurship, and then you've got a specific guy, Andrew in Maine. He says, I'm drowning because of what you voted for. You voted to gut the ACA subsidies and it's a problem for me. She has no answer and she walks away. Collins vote to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act didn't happen in a vacuum. It increased costs for small businesses.

It increased costs for self-employed workers. And Maine has one of the highest rates of small business employment in the country on a per capita basis. These are the people that Colin says she's fighting for. And she votes in a way that hurts them and then doesn't want to talk to them. And she's been dodging these conversations for a long time. You might remember back in 2017 when the Republican Party was again trying to dismantle Obamacare. You might be like, well, didn't they do that 70 times?

Yes. But what I mean is in 2017, when Trump was president, one of the biggest spectacular failures of Trump's first term was that in his desperation to undo anything with Obama's name on it, they came up with this alternative health care plan. That plan was scored by a number of different budget agencies. And they found that 20 to 30 million people would lose health coverage. That's why it didn't go anywhere. It ended up dying because it would have been terrible.

She said, I'm a protector of coverage for people and then made a whole. I don't even know the number of votes in a row to dismantle elements of it. So as with most things, Republicans say they love entrepreneurs and small business owners, but now they need something and then they vote in a way that hurts them. You can't really call yourself pro business when your policies make it harder for business owners to afford health care for themselves or for their employees. And that's the Republican playbook that unfortunately is very common right now. They will create a crisis, say there's no crisis.

And then when they get confronted, they flee. People can't afford insulin. I'm going to run away. I've got to get on the subway. It's not just Susan Collins. It just so happens we're focusing on Susan Collins right now because a constituent of hers went looking for her. You could swap out Susan Collins for just about any so-called mainstream Republican and

get the same clip. The branding would change. It might be a man instead of a woman. It might be someone from Nebraska instead of Maine. But the behavior is exactly the same. They don't really care. They just want to stay close to Trump, keep their elected post, and that's all that really matters. Fox News host, Jesse Waters, loved Trump's feces bomb.

What? Yes, he liked Trump's massive AI dump on Harry Sisson. What am I talking about? Let me explain. After the No Kings protest, Donald Trump posted to his truth social, an AI generated video in which he is the pilot of a fighter jet dumping feces on no king's protesters, including my friend Harry Sisson, who by the way, I hung out with this week. And he was a little shaken up by the entire thing, I must say.

Here is Fox News host Jesse Waters, proudly saying Trump is a meme lord dropping feces on everyone. Remember that to these cult members, there is nothing Trump can do that will get the them to say, this is too much. This is too much. And this guy, Jeff Daniels. Okay, Trump's a meme lore. He's strafing feces over everybody. And Democrats are like, ah, where it wasn't like a day ago. They were like, we need to up our social media game. We need and they were like Gavin's the ban. He's crushing it on social media. And this guy, Jeff Daniels. Can you, can you imagine? Trump posts an unhinged, disgusting clip on truth social. Waters' reaction isn't, this is the president of the United States behaving like a toddler.

It's what a legend. It's memetic. He's a memetic legend. This is where we are right now. Fox hosts cheering the president's latest feces meme like it's a master's stroke of political communication. Imagine if Obama, Biden, anybody. Just Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, imagine if any of them did something remotely like this.

A weird bathroom joke, crude meme. Republicans would be saying impeach or if it's a candidate and the campaign, they'd be screaming about dignity and tone and it's a disgrace to the presidency. But when Trump as president does it, it's art, it's memetic warfare, it's owning the libs. He's so well-crafted psychological warfare. It's kind of perfect. A network that is full of crap, Fox News, praising a president for dumping it on Harry Sisson. Now, I just as I was preparing for this segment, I came across a video.

It is not all sucking up to Trump. Every once in a while, a little bit of truth gets through. One example being, here's a Fox commentator who says, my mom owns a small business. She imports stuff from Canada. It's not good. Her costs have gone up and for now she's trying to eat most of it. Just a little, a contrast to Jesse Waters, the real story of what's going on out there and going on out there in the real world.

Can I just go back to one thing on the small business side because my mom is in a small business. She imports from Canada. We've talked about this many times. It's uncomfortable. It's not been pleasant. Her pricing has gone up regardless of what's been instituted or not the anticipation of it has the suppliers bringing the prices up.

not passing it on to consumers. She's eating it. She's managed so far. It's not, it doesn't feel good. But I think most small businesses, we've talked about people who've lost jobs or businesses that have had to fold. I think most small businesses will find a way to, because they're scrappy and, you know, they believe it. My mom believes in the president and she believes that somehow all of this will come together and this period of discomfort will eventually ease. I love the use of the somehow in there. She goes, my mom, despite all of these things being terrible, which I'm glad isn't being acknowledged here, okay?

Despite all of these things being terrible, my mom supports the president and believes that somehow, somehow doing a lot of heavy lifting, somehow it's all going to get figured out. We're getting part of the real story. We're actually getting all of the real story. Small business owners are getting crushed and the cultists don't care. And they're still going to support Donald Trump. Trump's out there posting crap memes and small business owners, including family members of

this Fox host, are getting crushed. They're eating the cost. And instead of focusing on that, which is what Jesse Waters should be talking about, he's, you know, analyzing the artistic genius of a man sharing poop jokes on the internet. It's really the emblem of Trump era conservatism. The more humiliating it is, the more they celebrated. and what they should be talking about, which is this. They don't. Final note, uh, you can see here how hard it is to disabuse people of their cult beliefs. The host's mom is getting crushed,

but she supports the president and believes that somehow, somehow he's going to do what's going to be good for the small business owners. He didn't do it in his first term. Why would you expect him to do it this time? Doesn't make any sense. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves as bad. If you're not currently getting the bonus show, you really should go to join packman.com and sign up. We will talk about the main Senate race, which has become the subject of much controversy. We will tell you about Elon Musk's new Nashville tunnel project. And the Pentagon has announced a new press corps. I don't think you will be hugely surprised to learn.

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