The David Pakman Show - 1/12/24: Trump vowed to never help Europe, Jesse Watters recommends OnlyFans

Episode Date: January 12, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Top EU official Thierry Breton says failed former President Donald Trump vowed "never" to help Europe if it is attacked -- Fox News host Jesse Watters tells young people complaining about the economy to sell pictures of their feet, alluding to starting an OnlyFans account -- Caller asks if Joe Biden should pick a different running mate -- Caller discusses the uncontentious nature of the 2024 Democratic primary -- Caller is worried that Democrats are only running on being anti-Trump -- Caller wonders why people don't realize the economy is relatively strong -- Caller is a progressive bartender with Trump-supporting clientele -- Caller's brother is a Trump supporter -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: South Africa accuses Israel of genocide, Republicans may oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, Biden forgives more student loans, and much more... 🌱 Ounce of Hope: Get a THC Seltzer for just $5 at https://ounceofhope.com 💻 Stay protected! Try our sponsor Aura FREE for 2 weeks at https://aura.com/pakman ☕ Trade Coffee: Get a FREE bag of coffee at https://drinktrade.com/pakman 👍 Use code PAKMAN for 10% off the Füm Journey Pack at https://tryfum.com/PAKMAN 🥄 Use code PAKMAN for $5 off Magic Spoon at https://magicspoon.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

. There is a new report out with allegations from a top European Union official that Donald Trump at one point vowed never to help Europe if Europe were attacked. And I in being super honest, after the way Trump dealt with Putin in Helsinki, this doesn't come as the biggest surprise, but it is news nonetheless. This is a report from Politico. Trump vowed he'd never help Europe if it's attacked. Top EU official says, by the way, NATO is dead. The former and potential future U.S. president added this is from an alleged private meeting. What does it say?

One of Europe's most senior politicians recounted how former U.S. President Donald Trump privately warned that America would not come to the EU's aid if it was attacked militarily. Trump told European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in 2020. This is according to the French European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was present at the meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Quote, You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you. By the way, NATO is dead and we will leave.

We will quit NATO. And he added, and by the way, you owe me 400 billion dollars because you didn't pay you Germans what you had to pay for defense. It was described as a tense meeting at which the EU's then trade chief, Phil Hogan, was president. This anecdote was recounted at an event in European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. So let's talk about a few of the different elements here. First of all, if I'm super honest with you, when Trump and Putin did

that kind of press that public event in Helsinki and Trump just sucked up to Putin and said, listen, I asked Putin, did you hack in the 2016 election? And Putin denied it very strongly. And I believe him. It was very clear at that point that there were questions as to Trump's commitment to our NATO responsibilities, to Trump's commitment to defense of Europe and all of it. Now, I want to go a little bit further because there's there's the question that is a legitimate question, which is, should the US come to Europe's defense?

Why is it the default that the US come to Europe defense? There is no rule that says the United States must be allied with Europe, mostly Western Europe. There's no rule that says the United States has to come to the defense unless there is such an agreement in place that says that. And this is really the problem with people like Trump. We saw this with the Iran nuclear deal where Trump was just like, I'm out. I just don't like it. Iran hadn't violated it, but Trump just said, I don't like it. I'm getting out. And there are other examples of the same sort of thing in order to be taken seriously.

We're only as good as our word. And if we become the sort of country where there is a year of negotiation under one president and an agreement is signed and then the next president just goes, I don't like it, I'm out. That's the Iran deal that makes us look bad when it is something as significant as NATO and and shared defense of our European allies. You can argue it's not in American interests to come to the defense of Western Europe. I'm not making that argument. I'm just saying one could argue that. And then you could say there should be a renegotiation of the shared defense commitments.

Maybe NATO is dead in the sense that the US should or could get out. You can do those things and they need to be done diplomatically and correctly. The problem is this erratic nature of, all right, we're part of NATO and we've made these commitments, but we're just not going to do it. And I'm going to mention it in private. And then if something comes up and something happens, I'll just be like, no, we're not doing it. We're not participating. That delegitimizes the United States as a serious superpower, as a negotiating partner. And we saw it during the Trump era where on matters of climate change and in other areas, the U.S. just wasn't part of the conversation anymore because we weren't serious negotiating partners. The Iran deal thing completely backfired in the

sense that even if you didn't think the Iran deal was perfect when it was signed under Barack Obama, it was working in so far as we had no reason to think that Iran had violated it. Trump came in and said, we're out of the deal. Iran, of course, then restarted its research into nuclear development. And at that point, at that point, we got into a situation where Trump then said, look, I told you it was a bad deal. They're getting out there. They're doing the thing they're not supposed to do. Right. But they're doing it because you exited the deal, Trump. And so when we hear this from the European official, it's not surprising to me. It doesn't come as a shock, but it's a reminder of yet another way

in which it doesn't make sense and is actually a fundamentally a systemically dangerous thing to get another four years of Trump. You all know I believe that. I think most of you believe it. But here is yet another reason why, as if we needed one. I want to take a look at a clip that went viral wherein a Fox host tells young people essentially start an OnlyFans rather than complaining about money. Now, let me give you the context. We're talking about Jesse Waters. He's a Fox host. And he was reacting to a video of what I guess we would call a frustrated young person. And Jesse's advice is sell pictures of your feet. Now, sell pictures of your feet.

It's understood to basically mean start an onlyFans, which is a website that I hope I'm explaining it correctly, allows people to charge for what are often sexually charged pictures. I don't know that it's literally a porn site, but you can charge and have subscribers for for sexually charged pictures. That is Jesse Water's suggestion. Take a look at this. So younger Americans are now complaining about being an adult in the Biden economy. And guess what? It's your fault. I work five days out of the week, 40 hours a week. OK, I do not make enough to live on my own. You have 20 years of experience in a career that has allowed you to gain raises, to get more money, to profit you in an economy that you created. I don't want to work

my tail end off wasting all of my life working. You let the economy turn into what it did. You let it all run to hell. Does she have a point or not? No. no okay and i'm going to give her a heads up okay she's using social media all wrong she shouldn't be yelling at old people she should be selling them pictures of her feet she would own that walmart she wouldn't be wearing that vest that's how you make money in this economy thank you and. And old people didn't have that. This is where social media screwed up young people because they're comparing their lives to everybody else. And it's denying them the perspective that everybody bowling who's truly bowling on social media, which is like two percent. OK, but everybody who's bowling busted their ass. OK, I drove a cab

20 hours a day, did stand up at night. You know what I didn't do during those 20 hour workday is stop and complain on Tick Tock. So this is and that's Jesse Waters guest Jimmy Fila, who is suggesting that these young folks, if they're upset about their financial situation, they should they shouldn't be mad at older people. They should start selling pictures of their feet, a.k.a. Stardom Only fans. You know, it's there are

two things can be true at the same time. OK, it's possible that there is a work ethic problem among a certain generation. I'm not saying there is. I actually don't know about it to really be able to say Gen Z doesn't want to work or they do want to work. I have no idea. OK, it's possible that there is a work ethic issue, but that the work ethic issue is caused by the seemingly pointless nature of toiling in minimum wage jobs when the cost of living has gone nuts. Student debt has gone crazy. It seems like a mathematical impossibility to ever pay off the student loan debt with the job that you got after getting out of college that doesn't pay nearly enough to even afford a one bedroom apartment where you live. So, again, I'm not doing the thing. I think it was one of the Kardashians

who got caught. Oh, nobody wants to work. I'm not doing that. I'm saying even if it were true that there were a work ethic issue, it's possible that it is an accurate reflection of people saying, OK, here's what college costs. Here's the debt. Here's the job that's available. Here's what housing costs. I'm in a 40 year hole in the best case scenario and reacting in a way that would be logical based on the facts. Now, I don't think that Jimmy Fila and Jesse Waters really care about that conversation. This this is just this is a classic from from right wingers.

People who don't have enough money should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Even poor people in the United States are doing fine. If people are poor, it's thanks to their own lack of work ethic or determination or whatever the case may be. There are no systemic issues in society. Everything's individualized. All things we know are completely and patently untrue. I don't think these are serious arbiters of what is plaguing the economy.

But it is interesting because you will then see these sorts of talking points reflected at Trump rallies when voters are interviewed or others who say, listen, people just have to decide, like, you got to work. I worked I worked my way through college. You know, Tom Hartman has told a very interesting story before about his wife, Louise, where he said, you know, Louise worked her way through college, but college was relatively so much cheaper when she did it that it was mathematically possible. How are you going to work your way through 50 grand a year or even way more?

Right. I mean, I'm just throwing out 50 grand a year. I know there are places where we're talking about 84 grand a year. How are you going to work your way through that at a job, even if it pays fifteen dollars an hour and you work. Fifteen, 20 hours a week during the school year and full time or full time plus during the summer, the math simply doesn't add up. So I think most people here know that.

But now the callous nature and by the way, not everybody's feet are interesting enough, I think, to make money on OnlyFans, although maybe there are maybe the feet people, maybe all feet are created equal. I really don't know. But a very it's not like, yes, it's callous, but it's also painfully disconnected from the reality of how wages and so many other things have become completely unaligned. So there's advice. That's the advice from Fox News. I would have sort of different advice and maybe I'll give that advice someday. Let's take a quick break. So much on the Friday show. Back right after this. So many people in our audience have become fans of our sponsor, Ounce of Hope. Ounce of Hope is a cannabis farm that ships CBD and psychoactive THC products to your

door anywhere in the US. This is federally legal. THCA, THC Delta eight and nine. They have edibles. And now you can check out the brand new drink from Ounce of Hope for twenty twenty four. The very high five milligram THC seltzer. It's the only 16 ounce THC seltzer on the market. It's only five bucks, a price no one can beat at their cannabis farm in Memphis. Ounce of Hope sustainably raises fish

to feed local homeless people. I've always thought it's a really cool operation. Besides the delicious seltzer, they have gummies, chocolate, rice, crispy treats, caramels, topicals, oils, soft gels, you name it. Ounce of Hope grows, extracts and formulates all of these world class products in-house so that you can trust the safety and quality of every product that arrives at your door. So whether you're looking for a little help sleeping at night, something for aches and pains, a way to unwind on the weekend, Oun ounce of hope can help you out if you are over 21. And right now you can pick up their very high five milligram THC seltzers for five bucks each

at ounce of hope dot com. No one can beat that price. And aside from their drinks, you'll get 20 percent off everything else when you use the code Pacman. That's ounce of hope dot com. Pick up one of their THC seltzers for just five bucks. Use the code Pacman to get 20 percent off everything else. The info is in the podcast notes. You might remember that a few years ago, the show got hacked and a bunch of money was stolen and we never got it back. But I now have more peace of mind because I'm using aura. Our sponsor aura is your all in one tool for protecting your online and financial accounts. Aura alerts you any time your personal information is found on the dark web or data breaches

like social security number, log in credentials, financial accounts, and you get super fast is Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 screen spam calls and texts. And Aura has parental controls for your kids devices. You can restrict apps or manage screen time, set focus time to make sure they're doing homework instead of binging YouTube or whatever the case may be. You can try Aura for free for 14 days at Aura dot com slash Pacman. That's A-U-R-A dot com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. The David Pakman Show continues to be funded and supported primarily by people in our audience through something we call the membership program. You get extra show content every single day, plus commercial free audio and video feeds of the show, the members only sound board and even more great things coming on the new website when it launches. Join Pacman dot com is the place to sign up. Let's hear from some folks in the audience. We do this on the Friday

show via discord at David Pacman dot com slash discord. Remember, folks, speakerphone is not your friend. Let's start today with Greg from New Jersey. Greg from New Jersey. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hi, David, can you hear me? Yes, I can. There's been a lot of talk about our concern about Joe Biden's age. But what I haven't heard is what I call the elephant in the room, which is who his running mate would be, because there's a lot of people who just don't like Kamala Harris. And I'm wondering if because of Joe Biden's age, obviously, whoever the vice president is takes on more importance. Would he be polling better with a different running mate?

I guess my question would be, who would that running make running mate be? Well, I don't know. I mean, there are other popular ones, Jamie Raskin, Gavin Newsom. There's others that might be more palatable. Let's say, you know, I don't disagree with you that I mean, listen, it's an empirical fact that Kamala Harris's approval rating is low, that that's that's not that's not a shock, but that's also not that rare. I mean, Pence didn't exactly have great numbers either.

What we have to balance, Greg, is we might be able to think of someone we we or voters would like better than Kamala Harris. But if Biden announces I'm going to have a different running mate next time around, does that seem chaotic to the degree that it cancels out whatever benefit there is from picking someone that voters like more? That's the question. And I don't know. You know, I think I think I think Jamie Raskin is great, for example. But if there's an announcement that Kamala Harris won't be on the ticket and Jamie Raskin will, does the the apparent chaos of that questions about, oh, is there unrest? What's going on? Does that really help Biden in the net? And I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, and I would like to see when they do the polling questions, when they ask about his age, just ask, would your would your position be different if there were a different role in

running majors to get a sense? That is a good question. I would be interested in seeing that polling data as well, although, you know, remember, sometimes people answer one way in January, but then in practice in November, they feel differently. And that's the difficult thing with polling on a lot of these hypotheticals. Yeah, I just wanted to get out there because we haven't really talked about the vice president running mate. For instance, what if what if Trump picked somebody like, say, Ted Cruz, right? Maybe bring more people into his side. Yeah, I mean, it seems Trump's going to pick a woman, but it would be interesting if he picked Ted Cruz. What does that do for him? That's I haven't considered that. Right. Well, that's all I had. Have a good day. All right. Thanks, Greg.

There's Greg from New Jersey. Let's go next to Jared from California. Jared from California. Welcome to the program. What's go next to Jared from California. Jared from California. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Jared, are you able to hear me? Yes, I am. Speaker 4 Hi. Perfect. Well, I want to say I've been a big fan of the show for a long time. I hope you're having a good new year. Speaker 1 Thank you. Likewise. Speaker 2

Apologies. I just had to step up for new year. Thank you. Likewise. Apologies. I just had to step up for a second. Just got to compose myself. So my question that I've been wanting to ask you is in regards to the behavior of the Democratic Party. Mostly this is speculation on on my part, but just based on what I've observed, there's been a lot of controversy surrounding the these primary, these primary elections and what the DNC is doing to essentially suppress the will of the people, in my view, by outright not allowing certain people to run when they should have been previously, or most recently the story came out that New Hampshire, which should be going first,

is being forced into not being able to go first, or that the results are not going to be considered. I just wanted to get your opinion because I feel like that's a very important thing that a lot of people are not really giving enough attention to. It's Jared. Who is the narrative? Who isn't being allowed to run that part? I didn't hear. So not that.

Not that they're not allowed to run, but like in in Florida, for example, how the the DNC has basically decided that the the primary is just not going to happen and that Joe is just going to get their their vote to begin with. So listen, here's the thing, Jared, I've spoken about this before. I would love for there to be a primary all the time, have a primary regardless of who is incumbent. If you have an incumbent president and they say, I'm running for reelection, make them win the primary again. That's my preference, right?

That's never the way it works. And it's not unique to the Democratic Party. In 2020, it was the same thing with Donald Trump now. Oh, well, we don't have to be as bad as the Republicans. No, but the point here is a different one. The point here is political parties have assessed that the best way to win an election if you have an incumbent is to stick with that incumbent. Now, are they right about that? I think they probably are in most cases, but maybe not all. But there's really nothing special going on here. And that's the thing. I think it's fine to be critical of the fact that this is the way it works when you have an

incumbent. Totally fine thing to say. But there's nothing special going on when you have an incumbent. Both parties do it this way. There's no real primary. OK, my my question then, I guess, would be, should we when when we hear the other side, Republicans or Trump even say that Democrats are suppressing the will of the people, that they're taking away their their options, they're rigging things by looking at things through that lens and looking at this. This is basically evidence for that if they wanted to use it in that sense. No, I just feel like it's very important. I think it's really important. Again, I would love a primary every single time, but I think it's dangerous to say that when a political party doesn't hold a primary because they have an incumbent, it's the same type of rigging that has been accused over the

last four years. That includes vote dumps, manipulation of different kind voter suppression. I think it's a bad idea to start in any way using the same terminology. When there's an incumbent running for reelection. Political parties give them essentially give them the nomination. That's not rigging an election in the way that these other things are rigging elections. I would not start using the same terms for that. I think it's a bad idea.

I completely agree. And I just worry that they would use those terms. But I completely agree with you and I appreciate you they would use those terms. But I completely agree with you and I appreciate you taking my call and answering my question. Thank you so much. All right. Jared from California. Great to hear from you. Why don't we go next to Cole from Alaska? Cole from Alaska. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind? Hello, this is Cole from Alaska. Yes, welcome. you think people think the think the economy is bad right now, despite despite the economy being good? And why do you think the Democrats have been unable to brag about the economy?

To great question. Two reasons, I believe right now, public sentiment about the economy doesn't match the statistical reality about the economy. Number one, Republicans have made a concerted effort to insist that the economy is a disaster when it's not. And to some degree, the propaganda of Republicans works. So that's one part of the answer, Cole. The second part of the answer is I don't think that the Biden administration and Democrats more broadly have done a good enough job of communicating the state of the economy. And then sort of a number three is there is a lag time sometimes between when we see something in indicators and when we see it reflected in polling.

And so even though I would assess that it's now been seven, eight months that the economy has been really solid, we only started to see polling move in the last three months. So I do think, Cole, that people are realizing it, but it's on a delay. So I think those are the three critical aspects for answering that question. Yeah. Also, also, also, you know, I do I do think I do think by by November, I do think think Biden will probably end up winning this election, partly because of the incumbency, but also because the economy is stable right now. And I think people will care. About other issues by the time. The election rolls around.

Yeah, I mean, big picture, Cole, when the economy is as it is today on election days, the incumbent president tends not always tends to get reelected. So call from Alaska. I agree with you 100 percent. I really appreciate the call. Why don't we go next to Lara from Arizona? Lara from Arizona. Welcome to the program.

What's on your mind today? Speaker 4 I'd like to discuss the solution to your Facebook problem, if that's okay. Speaker 1 Lara, I can barely hear you. We have you turned all the way up. You're barely audible. Speaker 4 Can you hear me now? Yes, I can. Speaker 5 OK, I would like to discuss a solution to your Facebook problem. Speaker 1 Well, you know, it's almost solved. We're 90 percent of the way there. Thank you. Fortunately, you know, by's almost solved. We're 90 percent of the way there. Thank you.

Fortunately, you know, by the grace of God. But what I'm actually talking about a solution not just for you, but for everybody. And it's something that people are starting to stand up for again. Unions, you should start a union, a journalism union. Speaker 1 Right. And then how so I'm not employed by Facebook. I just published content there. Tell me if I start a journalism union, how does that force Facebook to unshadow ban me?

Speaker 4 OK, it's a long term solution. What it is is I see this problem with a lot of independent stations, media networks, journalists. I mean, it's not just you. It's a lot of people across the world. And the thing is, is on your own, you're not able to stand up to the big guys. I see it time and time again. It's not just you. If you guys actually united together, you, Midas Touch, Luke Beasley, all the other ones, if you guys created a union in which independent journalists could join pay monthly dues, you could pull in for your own legal team.

That would work. And then it is the legal team that might be able to help us deal with Facebook in a more direct way. Yes. That's an interesting idea. You can't do it on your own. It's too costly for one network. But together, if everybody just joined, you would be able to make a platform equal to CNN, Fox, any of them. And I promise that would happen. Unions are a strong solution. Everybody needs to look at right now. Now, Lara, I'm curious. Imagine that we make this union. Are there any limits to who can join in the sense that if you have one follower on YouTube and you can join, you're going to end up with what? Hundreds of thousands of people in the union

and thus the legal capacity would be very watered down. Right. So it would probably need to be for creators at or above a certain level. Is that right? I mean, generally speaking, I would imagine you would have to, of course, pay union dues. Yep. So the creator would have to pay. They would have to abide by ethics codes that you would set up as a hard part of the union. If they can't stick with those ethical codes, you know, they could have their membership revoked. Speaker 1 And presumably the fact that dues are part of it would self select out those who are such small creators that they can't afford the dues. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it would just would be, I mean, yeah, you, you do what you got to do. If you can build a following,

if you can prove your journalistic honesty, I mean, actually, even at that end, you're unlikely to run into too many legal problems at that level. But if you are able to get to the point where you can really launch yourself out there, then that's the time to step up. I mean, if you're just a single person just starting out right now, there's no reason for it. But big networks like you or growing networks of 500,000 subscribers or more, if you guys just work together, you would be able to stand up for yourselves. I'm watching you guys struggle i i mean in all honesty i'm working on an amendment to the constitution and the press is just core to the amendment fixing the situation with this honesty i don't believe a free press can be an

employed press i know and believe me there's a there's a method to that madness I could not possibly go into. Right. But there is a way to free the press from the madness of the employer. Right. All right. Well, Lara, I really appreciate the idea. It's an interesting one and we'll keep everybody posted about what's going on with Facebook. Hey, I think you're the man for the job. OK, I think you could do it, Dave. All right, Lara. Thank you, Fittler from Arizona. Very, very impressive idea.

I like it. I have to say I like it. Let's go to Roberto from Italy. Roberto from Italy. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today, sir? And Roberto from Italy drops off. What a shame. Let's go to Gerald from Miami. Gerald from Miami. Welcome to the program. Hello. Yes, you're on the air. OK. Hey, David. Long time listener. I actually don't have a question today, but I actually want to tell you a funny story.

I have a friend of mine that's a big Trump supporter, I should say. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay. All right. Yeah. So I have a friend of mine.

He's a big time Trump supporter. He's actually been making some pretty big moves in the sort of Republican spheres and stuff. And he told me a story. So he said he got invited to Trump's inauguration, the second one. And hold on a second. What what inauguration? I'm sorry, I misspoke. His presidential announcement.

OK, that's what I was going to say. Excuse me. I'm sorry. I misspoke. His presidential announcement. Oh, okay. Announcement of his candidacy. Excuse me. And he told me that he, through some connections he had made, he ended up in the circles with like the million dollar donors and above. And he told me he was talking, he was just networking, talking to a guy. And he commented on a guy's suit that he was wearing. And the guy said, yeah, you know, I had a specially made for this, this, this event. And then the guy opened up his jacket and the entire melted in the little girls and they just started just.

They were fangirling. They turned into complete fangirls. I thought it was hilarious. Now, why were they fangirls and not fanboys? You know, I guess, you know, it is 2024. You know, I don't discriminate fanboys. Yeah. Well, listen, it's an incredible situation, Gerald. I was just down in Miami think, you know, I really like it down there. But then when I when I'm there for a little while, I go, wow, the infrastructure in Florida is really a nightmare. But it's a it's a great city in a lot of ways. Yes. Yeah. I truthfully, I'm not in Miami currently. I'm actually a student in New York from Miami. So that's what I what I read. But I don't plan on going back.

Even my dad don't go back. It's kind of crazy down there. All right. Well, very interesting story. I appreciate it. All right. There is Gerald from Miami. If you're holding on to talk to me, just wait a second. We're going to take the quickest of breaks and then we'll be right back with more calls. I'm very particular about my coffee and our sponsor, Trade Coffee helps you do more in twenty twenty four. If you're like me, coffee might be part of your routine, maybe a factor in your productivity. Check out trade as your destination for better coffee at home. Subscribe to trade and start the year with amazing coffee. You'll discover new favorites. You'll support more than fifty five local roasters across the country and you

will upgrade your morning. And the best part is you can personalize all of it from the type of coffee you get, how often you get it delivered. They have decaf if that's your preference. I recently got Orin's Colombian from New York. Sweet and inviting, full bodied notes of pine. I actually love pine. Who knew? Pine is great. Every time I get a new shipment from trade, the quality and the taste is top notch. The convenience is it's just great. The coffee comes to my door instead of having to go find them. Whether you already know what you like or you're new to specialty coffee and want some help. Trade just makes it easy to discover new coffees you will like. Jumpstart the year. Sign up for a trade subscription right now. Trade is offering a free

bag with select subscription plans when you visit drink trade dot com slash Pacman. That's drink trade dot com slash Pacman to get a free bag of coffee with select subscription plans. The link is in the podcast notes. Breaking a deeply ingrained habit is one of the toughest things to do. Our sponsor, Fume, can make it easier. Not everything in a bad habit is wrong. So instead of a drastic, uncomfortable change, remove the bad from the

habit. And that's, quite frankly, what fume helps you do. Fume is an innovative, award winning device that delivers flavored air. That's it. There's no vapor. There's no nicotine, no electronics. It's just delicious flavored air delivered by the cylindrical fume device that fits in the palm The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. parts and magnets. So if you're fidgeting or want to, it's great for that. And it's just a useful thing to break bad habits. And it provides that perfectly satisfying hand to mouth mechanic that many people love. Don't judge fume until you've tried it. They have helped countless people make positive changes and you could be next a special deal right now. is That's try FUM dot com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman for 10 percent off and buy one, get one flavor cores. The link is in the podcast notes. All right. Let's hear from a few more people.

We do this on the Friday show. We do it on discord. You can find our discord at David Pacman dot com slash discord. Let's go next to Kilo from Kansas. Kilo from Kansas City. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind, David? How are you doing today, man? Doing well. So I have a question about. The direction of the Democratic Party. Sure. So from my perspective, and I just want to know what your thoughts are on it. Um, I think that the democratic party as a whole has done itself a lot of harm, shot itself in the foot the last eight years or so. Okay. Um, so do you agree we become,

I think more so the past two election cycles, we become the party that exists exclusively as opposition to Trump. Let's see. I think in 2020 that was absolutely the case. Right now, in 2024, based on the solid state of the economy under Joe Biden and some of Biden's accomplishments, including most student loan debt relief of any president in history, Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, all these things. At this point, I think that preventing a Trump presidency is still a big thing. But no, I believe at this point that Biden

is is and can and should be running on his record. And I think it's a good record. OK, so you think Biden going into this current election cycle stands in his own right as a candidate? I do. I do. OK, what do you think the general public sentiment is towards Biden across all political, the entire political spectrum. You know, and I'm not asking you positive or negative. I just like more specifically, what do you think the perception of Joe Biden is? Well, I don't have any special insight into that. But based on the polling I see, it seems that there are a growing number of people who recognize

the economy is good. A large number of folks who believe that we need someone younger and a percentage that are concerned about Biden's age. OK, yeah, so I think you're I think you're pretty spot on there. And then I also think that the thing that we might be missing is that even though it's not that Biden has done a reddish job or anything and doesn't deserve the job again. Yeah, it's that I think that the DNC, for instance, would probably find it a safer option to bank on Joe Biden defeating Trump because it looks like Trump is presumptively going to be the nominee again. Oh, absolutely. I mean, listen, there's a reason why incumbents

are essentially given a free path to running for reelection. It's because both parties have recognized these are almost always our best bets. OK, so overall, I'm getting a little sidetracked, but I'm trying to say that I think that the Democrats for the last eight years or so have spent more time weathering the storm and trying to stand in opposition purely to Trump and his cult than actually furthering their ideas or trying to make political compromises or anything like that. Speaker 1 Well, listen, to some degree, you're right. And for a while, that was what they had to do because they stood in opposition to Trump. I think the degree to which that's true has declined

over time. And I think at this point it is still just as important to prevent another Trump presidency as it is to point out the successes of the Biden administration. Briefly, I'll just say I think that you're so I'm going further back than that. And I'm saying that the Democratic Party needs to be introspective and look at itself in the mirror and consider what contributed to the rise of Trump in the first place. All right. Fair point. Kilo from Kansas City, thank you so much for making it. Let's go next to Christina from Pittsburgh. Christina from Pittsburgh, welcome back to the program. How's everything going? Good. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. OK, I know I've had issues in the

past where I couldn't be heard. So I just have a question. What do you think about CNN basically selling themselves out to the Republicans? How so? Like they're hosting the Republican debate. I don't think that hosting debates for either of the two political parties is a sign of selling out. My concerns with CNN over the last few years have been increasingly bringing in Republican insiders to provide a larger and larger share of the commentary on the platform. I think that when they brought in Chris Licht, that was a bad idea. And it turns out that that indeed was the case. I have other concerns with CNN in terms of for a little while, it looked like they were going to try to kind of become friendlier to Trump in an effort to maybe get greater access to him if he does become president. But I don't think, you know, there's two major political parties in the United States. I don't think simply hosting debates for them is

a sign of selling out. I think it's OK. I think we I think they should do that, make them fair debates. Right. But but I think that's OK. I was like asking for my boyfriend, if I'm being honest with you, because he was asking, he was like, I wanted to know what he thought about that. He like watches you constantly. Speaker 1 Is that is it annoying to you that he's watching the show constantly? Speaker 4 No, because I watch it with him because I love you. Speaker 1 Oh, all right. I don't want to like create a problem in the relationship, you know? Speaker 4 Oh, no, no, no, no. We love you.

Speaker 1 All right. And if I recall correctly, you were having the issue at a bar of being harassed by Trumpists, right? Yeah. Did you quit that job? Honestly, they've all shut up lately. Is that right? So you're still working in that job? Yeah. Unfortunately, there's not very many places in my town you can work at. I got you. And they don't harass you anymore. I just don't like if they talk to me about them, I found that it's just best that you just don't engage back. Even if you want to, you can't change once. If they

love Trump, you can't change their mind or like try to put reason or logic with them. All right. That's fair. Are they tipping you any better now that the economy has continued to improve? No. Oh, my goodness. That's not that. I hate hearing that. No, they don't tip any better now that the economy has continued to improve? No. Oh, my goodness. That's not that. I hate hearing that. No, they don't tip any better. They think that Donald Trump is still the president and there's nothing you can do to get them to like not be birdbrained, basically. Wait. So they in a literal sense, they believe Trump is still the president. Yeah. They still believe that Trump is running everything and that Joe Biden is just a puppet. And so do they think the economy is doing well or not?

Yeah, they think that it's the worst it's ever been and that the president set the gas prices. And it's just. See, that's weird if they think the economy is bad and they think Trump is president, don't they have to blame Trump for it? That's what I don't get about those people. Speaker 4 Yeah, but that's what I don't understand. Speaker 5 They're not thinking it through the whole way. Speaker 1 Yeah, they don't like think it through the whole way. I think they just speak so they can speak.

Speaker 1 Right. Speaker 5 I like right whenever, like they have the news up at my job and then you get like our, they're regulars too. And we have another regular who's super sweet and he's, he's a Democrat like all the way. He said that. Right. And he'll get into an argument with them and he'll be like,

let me go pull that little smart girl off the floor. Cause I'm like younger compared to some of the other people that work there. Jeez. And I run in the Gen Z form. So I got. All right. Well, listen, good luck. I hope it stays tolerable and always great to talk to you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Christina from Pittsburgh and her boyfriend calling in. Great to hear from you. Why don't we go next to Ivan from Frankfurt? Ivan from Frankfurt. Welcome to the program. What's on your mind today? Hello, David. Happy Friday. Thank you. So

I wasn't too I run into a little bit of a weird conversation with my brother. We're both members of the military. We're both from Mexico originally. Okay. I'm talking about the US military, right? Yeah. Right now I'm in Germany. He had been in Germany before. So it was surprising. We usually don't talk about politics because we don't we don't get to see each other that often.

Right. And I even I want to hear the rest of this. But are you on speakerphone? Oh, I'm not. Let me I'm wearing some kind of like ear. Oh, no. Can you hear me a little better now? Yeah, yeah, it's it's all right. You can continue. So you guys don't usually talk about

politics, but no, we don't usually talk at all because we live in parts of the world. Yeah. So all the things came out during our last conversation. uh for me it was obvious that he was in both for biden right okay i'm voting for biden we're we're immigrants we had a pretty good to be honest since we came to the united states so uh i was surprised when he said he's voting for trump like i thought he was kidding at first right yeah we both had the same upbringing we both the military but um i know he might have some more conservative friends that i do okay so still i started doing the socratic method like oh uh how so like uh do you think what do you think we will be better under trump he said well you know uh gas prices were better and i mentioned some of the lines that you have to use before like well guys gas

presidents don't have that much to do with gas prices right that's a global global uh price this the price is set globally so um hey we started having a another conversation started going to a different direction like in a different tone not so respectful anymore so you know what i don't get to see you that often and i love you you know you love me as well so let's not engage into this and let's just continue having a good time right um so yeah that was my question to you is what do you think some uh people that have the same upbringing they at the end, they come up with different. So different ideas and. Well, there must be I'm guessing there must be something different in the upbringings. Now,

are you did you guys you're not the same. You're not twins, right? You said this is your brother, not your twin brother. Correct. We're like three years apart. Yes. And is he younger or older? He's older. OK, so for this now, this I'm not saying this is the answer, but one of the things you have to consider is you were raised by parents who had a three year old when you were born. That's different than the parents that raised your brother. Does that make sense? Like in terms of like a difference? He does. He does. Yeah. And so you went to school and you had a brother three years older who was also in school. His experience is of having a younger brother. Right. So so it's interesting because the in a sense, the upbringing is the same. But you're both you're one of you is

the older brother. One is the younger brother. You're raised by parents where you're raised by parents where you are in the second child position, where your brother was raised by parents who for whom he was the first child. So anyway, the point is, even the quote, same upbringing, usually you end up finding that there are a bunch of differences. Now, if you had to speculate, was he around different sorts of people? Is his job different such that it may have made him a Trump supporter where you aren't? Have you lived in different places over time? We live in different places. Yeah, I'm basically following him around like he's on in the Pacific and then Europe. And I've done the same for. But yes, I can see how that plays a part

yeah so I mean there's a bunch of differences there for sure the thing is he works in the medical field and usually you know people with higher degrees and everything and I work basically a job where like we're both enlisted

but I work with people you know lower enlisted and not many degrees going around. So it's weird how, yes, and there's a lot of conservatives in my workplace, that's for sure. So I'm going against the, you know, the current right now. Yeah. But yes, it's weird because I'm usually the one bringing the, I'm trying to slip the left-wing ideas into my workplace

right it's like for example sometimes when i'm i'm in a supervisory position so i'm like hey guys don't worry about this i know it's scary when you're watching the news but if anything comes up we're going to show them we're going to show russia why we don't get we don't have health care in the us like because the military is the strongest one. And they go like, yeah, or like, no, that's interesting. Why our grandparents died without a health care because we have the strongest military like, yeah, yeah, right on, brother. And they're like, hmm, I don't know if I like that part.

You may be changing some minds or at least getting people thinking, it sounds like that's what I tried to do. So, yeah, thank you. All right. Very good. Very interesting. Ivan from Frankfurt with the Trump voting older brother. Quite a situation we've got here.

All right, folks. So great to be able to talk to so many of you. I will take calls again and I hope to talk to more of you then. One of the longest running David Pakman show sponsors is Magic Spoon Cereal. They have been with us for years, and it's only because my audience loves Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon has really reinvented your favorite childhood cereals. Each serving has zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein and only four to five net carbs per serving. It is keto friendly. It is grain free and you can relive the moments of watching your favorite cartoons without the guilt and the sugar. My favorite flavor is maple waffle. So nostalgic. But it

also comes in great flavors like cocoa, fruity, frosted peanut butter, blueberry muffin. Also, check out Magic Spoon treats, which are the perfect on the go snack. They are like the marshmallow treats you had as a kid, but with only one gram of sugar, one to two net carbs and 11 grams of protein per bar. Magic Spoon is so confident in their product. It is backed with a 100 percent happiness guarantee for any reason. If you don't like it, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Go to Magic Spoon dot com slash Pacman to create a cereal box bundle. Grab some Magic Spoon treats for being on the go.

You'll get five dollars off with the code Pacman. That's Magic Spoon dot com slash Pacman. Use code Did you know there are hundreds of commercial databases and people search sites that hold your personal information and the number is growing every year? Anyone in the world, boss and X can use these people search sites to see your online activity, to find your home address, phone number, email address, license plate number, family members, financial info, even your political beliefs. Europe has certain laws that protect people against this. But it is a big problem in the United States. The FBI is even buying this data from these companies to get private information about Americans without search warrants. And the solution is our sponsor Incogni.

It takes just moments to sign up. Incogni will send takedown notices to all of the major data broker companies to get your information removed from their databases, which they are legally required to do. And Incogni will keep you updated every step of the way with live information about who's complied, where is Incogni still working on it. Incogni will even send follow ups and appeals on your behalf. Go to Incogni dot com slash Pacman. You'll get 60 percent off with the code Pacman. That's I N C O G N I dot com slash Pacman. Use code Pacman for 60 percent off. The link is in the podcast notes. All right, let's get into Friday feedback for the week. You can email info at David Pacman dot com. Also, so many other

different ways to get messages in YouTube comments, Facebook comments. Sometimes we'll pull something from tick tock. It might end up here in any number of ways. I have to say once again, I am really surprised that so many people and by that I mean like 10 were shocked that I don't believe in psychics or tarot cards based on a segment from Fox News that we covered last week. We did a voicemail on the Monday show about this. And here is a comment that came in. You flippantly mock tarot without even realizing that you were mocking our religious beliefs. Where is it fair that we aren't allowed to mock your religious beliefs, but you can freely mock ours? I mean, mock my religious

beliefs. I'm not aware of any that I have, but go ahead and mock. It's not written anywhere that you can't mock, mock my religious beliefs or my non-religious beliefs, mock whatever you want. Going on to say you can think whatever you want about tarot cards and psychics. Well, thank you. But you've never met a real one, but they exist. I love this. We had a psychic on the show. We had I've met others who claim to be psychics. Anytime I mentioned this, folks like this go, no, no, no, David, that wasn't a real psychic. Oh, okay. She goes on to say, it's your own childish prejudices that have closed your mind to the possibility that they're just may be things out here in the great wide world that you don't know about yet. Quit being an arrogant prick. Listen, give me the controlled

evidence that psychics and tarot card reading is what those who do it claim for it to be. Whenever I ask for the evidence, they say, oh, but David, tarot and psychics are special. They can't be measured in a control way. Then why do you believe it? Right. I mean, if there's no way to actually measure it in a way that would satisfy science and empiricism, why is it crazy that I don't believe it and not crazy that you do believe sad? It's really sad when I see this stuff. It's just a failure of critical thinking. Talking with Mom wrote, if you can't join the military with a felony record, how could you be commander in chief while actively? And by the way, they wrote commander and chief. It's commander in chief. How can you be commander in chief while actively in prison?

Well, you know, it's a it's a remarkable thing about the system we have. There are areas where the law and the rules are very clear and there are areas where they aren't, or at least it doesn't say anything one way or the other. And the military has its rules. They are completely separate from what the constitution says about who can be president. And indeed, I, I don't believe that this country is going to have a president in prison. I just don't believe that's what's going to happen. But from the legal analyses I've read, it would not violate any law. It would be possible. It would be possible to have a president serving from prison. Carl wrote in and said only some people believe the nonsense

numbers reported by the Biden administration. Everyone else sees higher gas prices, higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher food costs and the massive illegal border crossing. So few notes that I think are important to remember here. The numbers about job creation and inflation. Are no more the Biden administration numbers than they were the Trump administration numbers. There are agencies that regardless of who is president, provide these data to us. And it's been happening for decades and decades and decades. What's happening here with Carl, sadly, is that when he sees numbers that contradict his political understanding or wish, he says the numbers must be fake. Everyone sees higher gas prices. Gas prices have come down from

five bucks a gallon to right around three. He says higher inflation. Inflation has come all the way down to three percent. Higher interest rates. Yes, interest rates have been high. They are going to start being cut. Higher food costs. Again, yes, they're for the last hundred years. We see higher food costs because we have inflation in the United States and some inflation is desirable. The rate at which food costs have been going up has slowed down dramatically. And then as far as massive illegal border crossings, we've talked about that separately. There has been no real appreciable change in border policy from Trump to Biden. We do have illegal immigration in this country. It is arguably being mishandled by Republicans and Democrats. But the idea that that's something special about the Biden administration

just does not coincide with reality. Glenn wrote in about Vivek Ramaswamy and says he's basically running as Trump Jr. And who's going to vote for Trump Jr. when Trump himself is on the ballot? Very good question. Also, he's running on a platform of restricting most people under 25's right to vote, which has to be the biggest self-sabotage ever from a guy trying to run on youth appeal. Yeah. I mean, listen, Vivek knows he's not going to win. It's sometimes we get into these deep analyses. How does it make sense to prevent those under 25 from voting when that's a big part of his support? It none of it makes sense. His candidacy doesn't make sense. He'll probably

be out within, I don't know, probably five, six weeks or something like that is my sense of it. And Glenn is absolutely right. Everybody who's running on Trump was great. Trump was great. But I'm a little bit different in these minor ways. I'm younger or whatever. That's not going to appeal to Trump supporters because they're in a cult. They are cult supporters of Trump. So going Trump's pretty good on 98 percent, but I'm better on two percent that maybe would work in some some other Republican Party in the MAGA cult Republican Party. That's simply not going to work. Johnny wrote in and Johnny says Republicans went from saying anyone under investigation should not be allowed to run for president. That's when it was Hillary. Right. To Trump can be president from prison real quick. Yeah. Listen, Johnny, you know what's going on. These right wingers, you say, what are your principles? They give you a list. OK.

All of a sudden, those principles would be inconvenient to them. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Those principles. We have exceptions to those principles. They only apply in certain situations. It's different because Trump actually won in 2020. So he's right to do everything he did, even though other presidents would be wrong to do it. Their principles don't matter. Their principles are quite literally a distraction that they use when the facts aren't in their favor. And then all of a sudden the principals go out the toilet when the facts are not in their favor in a way that hurts their particular candidate. Johnny's completely right. Now, all of a sudden, oh, Hillary was under investigation. Trump, they're saying could be president from prison and that would be fine.

You're not going to get very far with these people asking for consistency. Karen commented, am I the only one who thinks the term Trump derangement syndrome makes more sense when used to describe Trump supporters? No, Karen, you're not the only one. The derangement around Trump, a derangement in which he can do no wrong. He was chosen by God. He's right about everything. Any law that he appears to have broken or tried to break was justified because of X, Y or Z. The derangement when it comes to the reality of Trump is far more applicable to his own supporters than it even comes close to being with those who, like me, think that the guy

is a bad influence on the country and the world. Don West says, I still say Trump will try to flee the country when it becomes obvious that he will do jail time. You know, I it's it's an interesting comment from Don. I really go back and forth on this. I have moments where I feel and again, none of this is about facts. It's only feelings. We're just talking about opinion. I have moments where I feel Trump's not leaving the United States. He's just not. And part of it is like, where would he really go? I believe that if Trump gets to the point where he believes he's going to do jail time, he will rely on attorneys to negotiate that he can do it from home confinement, which I think

is the most likely outcome anyway. And then I have other moments when you see Trump's erratic nature, the things he posts, the screeds that he delivers, where I say to myself, hey, you know what? I think if Trump panics, he will just get on the 757 and try to leave the country. Now, where he will go, I don't know. I know we talk about Russia. Would he really do that? I don't know. I don't think Don's comment is as wrong as I once thought that it was. I'll leave it at that. Here's Kevin. Kevin wrote in and said, you're a Biden supporter, yet you talk about Trump's mental state declining. L.O.L. That's the most embarrassing and hypocritical thing of all time. Wow. Yeah. I mean, have you seen Trump? Nobody here denies that Joe Biden has slowed down from where he was 10, 12, 14 years ago.

There is no question about it. Biden's 80 81. Is he even at this point? But you have to really be living in a fantasy world to see Trump regularly misstate who's president regularly misstate where he is, regularly get confused about what year it is, who he's running against, who he ran against, the sequence of events in American history, which world war would be the next one, where people he's known for decades are, even when they're standing right in front of him.

It's very difficult to see all of that and say this guy's playing with a full deck, operating on all cylinders, whatever the case may be. So the great thing about it is whatever the truth about Trump and Biden's cognitive state, it actually doesn't matter because Biden's ideas make sense and Trump's don't. And the people around Biden getting things done are reasonable, sane people, whereas the people who would be around Trump getting things done if Trump were president are deranged extremist political ideologues. So even if they're both demented and don't know what day it is, it's still very obvious that Biden is president is better for the country than Trump as president.

So that's that's the it's fortunately there is a simplicity to the situation. All right. So, Kevin, or maybe it was Keith. Good luck. Congratulations. Let's see where we are in November of twenty twenty four. We have a great bonus show coming up for you today. Do not miss it.

Coming up, sign up at join Pacacman.com. Coupon code SaveDemocracy24.