The David Pakman Show - 2/13/25: Trump surrenders to Putin, Tulsi becomes DNI

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Attorney General Pam Bondi announces lawsuits against Trump adversaries including Letitia James as the targeting begins -- Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, a major victory for Vladimir Putin's Russia -- Donald Trump completely surrenders to Vladimir Putin after a phone call with him -- Donald Trump is so disoriented at a press event that he leaves without swearing in Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence -- Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, waves randoms papers around while trying to make a point -- Trump's staff is increasingly treating him as if he had dementia, much the way Fred Trump was dealt with years ago -- MAGA's plan to destroy "woke culture" is likely to backfire if it continues -- Elon Musk's son tells Donald Trump to "shut up" and that he is "not the President" in a wild Oval Office moment -- On the Bonus Show: X gives Trump $10 million, CFPB in shambles, egg purchases restricted at grocery stores, and much more... 🍵 Pique: Get 20% OFF delicious Pu’er Teas at https://piquelife.com/pakman 🧽 Blueland: Get 15% OFF sustainable cleaning products at https://blueland.com/pakman ☕ Beam melatonin hot cocoa: Code PAKMAN for up to 40% OFF at https://shopbeam.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- 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

Speaker 1 Speaker 1 Welcome everybody. We are quickly learning why former president Joe Biden did pardon people on his way out of office. We are learning why thanks to attorney general Pam Bondi, who yesterday announced a number of new lawsuits. She calls it filing charges. It's not even clear she knows what she's doing, but that's a whole different story. Do any of these Trump people know what they're doing? But the bigger picture is that this is likely only the beginning. Now, let me set the stage for you. Donald Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, was selected sort of as a backup candidate after the nomination of Matt Gates to that office, a completely imploded thanks to not only his lack of qualification,

which Pam Bondi shares, but also the cartoonish nature of allegations against him regarding sex trafficking, underage girls and so many other things. So as I said at the time, Pam Bondi or whoever Trump was likely to choose to replace Gates, they were likely to be less cartoonishly unqualified, but still unqualified and still doormat loyalists. Why do I call them doormat? Because they lay down and get walked all over by Trump as if they were a doormat to Donald Trump's bathroom or wherever. And indeed, that is what Pam Bondi is. This is the same Pam Bondi, former attorney general of Florida, who once famously accepted

a donation from Donald Trump and then said, you know what, I'm not going to open up an investigation into Trump University. She has now announced that the Department of Justice is suing the state of New York. The reason allegedly failing to enforce immigration laws here. She explains it. This is a lawsuit targeting New York Governor Kathy Hochul, state attorney general Letitia James, who, of course, went after Trump, the state's Department of Motor Vehicles for issuing licenses to undocumented immigrants, which, by the way, makes a lot of sense.

And I'll talk about that in a moment. The lawsuit was filed in Albany County Federal Court. Bondi says this is the new DOJ. You don't have to read between the lines to realize this is only the beginning. I was in the West Wing swearing in Tulsi Gabbard. And so I just came straight back here. So thanks for being patient with us with the delay. We're here today because we have filed charges against the state of New York. We have filed charges against Kathy Hochul. We have filed charges against Letitia James and Mark Schroeder. Now, what I have to just mention, I don't know that she has filed charges like it is

a lawsuit considered charges. Is it a legal semantic question? I don't I'm not even sure she knows what she's saying. But forget about that. You always have to give them that. They don't know what they're talking about. Who is with DMV. This is a new DOJ and we are taking steps to protect Americans, American citizens and angel moms like the mom standing right behind me who you're going to hear from in a moment.

OK, so what is this about? At the center of this lawsuit or charges, as she describes them, is New York's green light law. And that is a law that allows undocumented immigrants to get a driver's license. And the law specifically says the DMV cannot share immigration status with federal authorities. And Bondi says that puts law enforcement officers at risk, saying if these officers pull someone over, don't know whether that person is documented or undocumented, they don't know who they're dealing with. They are now at risk. And this is part of the attack on, you know, they love to use the term sanctuary city states and organizations. But much of what it is is we are going to do our duty.

We are not going to go out of our way to assist federal authorities. And if you understand states rights, then you can't possibly argue with the legality of that. They want to pretend that this is a lawsuit over immigration enforcement, but it's not. It's really a political statement. They're saying we're going after New York. They're also suing Illinois. They're sending a message to the base, which is we are tough on immigration in the sense

of we are going to target places that we see as liberal or left wing strongholds. But in practice, what this is is the suspension of the rule of law in favor of an authoritarian dictatorial regime. Everyone who has ever spoken out against the regime is potentially going to be the subject of persecution. Does the David Pakman show need to worry? We, you know, are our little cohort of progressive media outlets. We've all been texting saying, is

it likely we will be targeted or not? I've gotten emails from people saying, David, you do need to worry. Just folks like you, people in the audience who say it's abundantly clear that there is, uh, that, that they are going to target folks like you. Um, I, I don't doubt that they would love to. My hope is that we're just small enough potatoes that they won't get to us. But Pam Bondi is making it clear that this is only the beginning. She's hinting that other so-called sanctuary states and sanctuary cities could be facing

similar legal actions. She says they need to comply with the administration's policies and so on and so forth. The practical question is whether these lawsuits will succeed because legal experts are looking at the substance of the lawsuits and pointing out immigration enforcement is primarily a federal responsibility. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled states cannot be forced to assist federal authorities in enforcing immigration policy. So there's all these layers. We know that this lawsuit, these lawsuits aren't really about enforcing immigration

policy. They're about political retribution against perceived blue states, blue cities, people who went after Donald Trump, uh, for reasons that were based in fact and valid. Layer number two is that they want to argue the states are responsible for anything bad that happens if they don't assist federal authorities. Well, what the Supreme Court has held is that states have no legal responsibility to do so because immigration enforcement is at its core a federal function. You can't, as the federal government say, even though this is exclusively within our purview,

we are going to hold cities and states accountable because we weren't able to do our jobs the right way, the way we wanted to, the way we otherwise would have been able to do. The Supreme Court has said they have no responsibility to do that. So Bondi's lawsuit is clearly more about politics and optics than it is about policy or enforcement. But the critical thing is you have to remember. Even frivolous lawsuits, even baseless lawsuits, even lawsuits that are ultimately dismissed can still completely ruin your life. And that's exactly what Pam Bondi is trying to do. We have two major victories for Vladimir Putin and Moscow to announce. One came after his phone call with Donald Trump. We'll get to that a little later. Another came

with the news that Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed to be the director of national intelligence. Now, I know many of you are saying she has no qualifications to do anything that has any kind of significant stakes attached to it. Never mind directing national intelligence. And of course you would be correct, but there is a huge victory here for Moscow. And as most of you know, I am no fan of war hawk John Bolton, briefly Donald Trump's national security advisor, one of the architects of the war in Iraq under George W. Bush.

I'm not a fan of this guy. But when even Bolton recognizes the national security risk that you pose, you know that it's worth paying attention to. Take a listen to this. Well, I think Putin couldn't be happier. I tell you, they're drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight. It was a great day for Moscow. I think Tulsi Gabbard's role as director of national intelligence is going to be extremely harmful to our national security.

I think many allies are now going to think twice before they share intelligence with us. I think it will impair our ability to gain confidence around the world. It's it's it was it was one of his worst nominations beyond a doubt. Ambassador John Bolton, thank you for your. Yeah, Bolton's right. You know, I'm not a guy who likes to rely on Bolton for feel good news, but there is something jarring about seeing this war hawk practically wave a white flag of his own resignation, not a reassuring message that we would want to hear from someone who used to have the president's ear on international affairs.

And I think it's important to mention the obvious, which is it's hard to think of someone less qualified for this job. Tulsi Gabbard's resume, whatever you think about her as a representative, formerly a Democrat, she served in the military. None of it screams top U.S. intelligence official unless you think Pete Hegseth is qualified to be secretary of defense, which I happen not to. We are talking about a person who's for it, not Hegseth now in Gabbard, uh, whose foreign policy stances are baffling to anyone who knows anything about global affairs, including some people in her own Republican party. Uh, remember her views about Bashar al-Assad. This is just one of a hundred clips that I could play. Do you think Assad is our enemy? Assad is not the enemy of the United States because the United

Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States. What would you say he is to the United States? If you cannot say that he's an adversary or an enemy, what is Assad to the U.S.? What is the word? You can describe it however you want to describe it. I want to know how you describe it. My point is that whether it is Syria or any of these other countries, we need to look at how their interests are counter to or aligned with ours. The problem with a lot of people's reaction to this stuff, including some people on what we call the so-called political left, as I call it, uh, is that they say, David, what are you, are you some kind of war hawk? Like, why do you want her to say Assad's the enemy? Why do you want her to say he's an

adversary? This is not about wanting war. And I have never called for military action against Bashar al-Assad. You know, this is all increasingly in the rear view mirror. But the point here is it's naive to just say, no matter who it is, no matter their dictatorial actions, no matter their authoritarian tendencies, we should just be able to get together around a campfire, roast marshmallows and sing Kumbaya with anybody. And unfortunately, there are people you can't do that with. Now, is it about Bashar al-Assad is is personally a bad guy or maybe he's really nice to his kids and he's a good father? Does he have kids?

I don't even know. Yeah, he does. But but it's just that it's it's politic. It doesn't in practical terms. This is when we are dealing with individuals who operate autocratically, who are authoritarians, who by getting what they want, damage the United States and damage democracy and freedom around the world. It's not about, oh, I want wars. It's simply when someone continually goes out of their way to not even say

this is an adversary. You have to wonder what the values and priorities of Tulsi Gabbard are. It's not the war hawk, you know, warmongering or any of it. It's is she going to in a serious manner address espionage, disinformation, cybersecurity threats, whatever to the United States? If at a baseline she's like, oh, this guy's I'm not even willing to say Bashar al Assad was an adversary at the time. So, you know, you can tune into certain corners of the Internet. You'll find people claiming that this this is actually a really good thing because now

we're going to get along with whoever this that the other thing that is very much not how foreign policy works. And it represents a naivete, totally disconnected from reality. So that's where we are. She got confirmed. It appears as though the vast majority of Trump's confirmations, if not all, are going to happen. And this is going to be a new political era. It is globally humiliating. Putin has already achieved a surrender from Trump, which we will deal with in a moment. But this is going to be a wild and long four years. Are you protected by living in a blue state?

You're protected from some of this stuff, but not all of it. Now, particularly the foreign policy disasters, you're not really protected from in blue states. You know, nominally, if they come after women's bodily autonomy, are you more protected in blue states than red states? Yes, you are. When it comes to funding for certain programs, are you more protected in blue states than red states when the blue states are self-sufficient financially and less dependent on the federal money?

Yeah, you are. With a lot of these bigger picture things. It doesn't matter where you are. You could be in Texas or California, Florida, Arkansas. It doesn't matter. And being a global laughingstock is not something that moving to Vermont is going to prevent. So a sad state of affairs. And just wait till you see Trump's post Putin phone call press conference.

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You can do it at join pac directly with us. It's just a few bucks a month. You can do it at join pacman.com. We have an extra show every day called the bonus show producer. Pat will be making his triumphant return to the bonus show today. We'll hear what he's been up to. It's been something. Um, and of course you will get the daily shows with no commercials in audio or video formats. Simply sign up at join Pacman dot com. And also remember that you can get signed copies of my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, only by ordering them from Brookline Booksmith at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. One hundred and sixty four of you doing that yesterday. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'll have more to say about the book as we continue to approach

the publication date. I'm going to play videos for you that genuinely make me sad. Yes, they are of the mango menace. Yes, he seems impotent and disoriented and confused. But I do not remember ever of any of the presidents that I have covered. And this includes Trump's first term, a moment at which I realized, wow, this guy has surrendered. He has given up. And in these videos, you will see Donald Trump completely surrender to Vladimir Putin. It's happened before and it's happened again. Trump's enamored with these authoritarian dictators.

And after Trump met with Putin during his first term, he came out and he was just so impressed. You could see he had stars in his eyes. Putin, I believe him. Why would he lie? He said things so strongly. He's so rich. He's so handsome. OK, maybe the last two I'm adlibbing. This was a phone call that took place between Putin and Trump. Trump comes out of it and he's giving Putin

everything. He's saying, I don't know that Ukraine is going to get any of its land back. This was a bad idea for Ukraine to get into this war. Wait, Ukraine was the one that was attacked. He is surrendering foreign policy to Putin. Trump implies in this first clip that since Russia has been fighting for the contest, illegally contested land, that maybe they should get to keep some of the future in which Ukraine returns to its pre-2014 borders. Well, I think Pete said today that that's unlikely, right?

It certainly would seem to be unlikely. They took a lot of land and they fought for that land and they lost a lot of they lost a lot of soldiers. But it would just seem to me and I'm not I'm not making an opinion on it, but I've read a lot on it. And a lot of people think that that's unlikely. You know, it's a lie because Trump doesn't read. But what Trump is arguing here is forget about the fact that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was illegal and that they are the aggressors and they are trying to take land

by force. Forget about all of that. A bunch of Russian soldiers died and it seems as though Russia is just going to end up keeping some of that land that they illegally attempted to take by force. What? Thanks Vlad. Right. It's a total surrender. Trump requires doormat loyalty of his staff. Trump's laying down and being the doormat for Putin to walk all over. A reporter asks Trump, do you view Ukraine as an equal member of this process? And Trump goes, Ukraine shouldn't have gotten into this war.

Do you expect Ukraine to say it? What do you do? Ukraine is an equal member of this peace process. It's an interesting question. Not really. I think they have to make peace. Their people are being killed and I think they have to make peace. I said that was not a good war to go into. And I think they have to make peace. I said that was not a good war to go into. And I think they have to make peace. That's what I think. It wasn't a good war for Ukraine to go into. Russia attacked Ukraine. And Trump is asked, is Ukraine on a level playing field as a negotiating party here with Russia? Trump goes, I don't know, that's difficult. But this was a bad idea for Ukraine.

Ukraine chose to be attacked by the wrong people. Blame the victim is what this is. Trump then says Putin wants peace. Putin wants peace. What a nice guy. Do that. Then Putin would say he won with the thing that's holding it back. And frankly, we'll go as long as we have to go because we're not going to let

the other happen. But President Putin wants to have peace now. And that's good. And he didn't want to have peace with Biden. Yeah. Oh, man, this is going to be really bad. I mean, this this is a global humiliation. I don't know that I have ever seen a president just totally whatever you want, Vlad, just whatever you want. What do you want me to say? And of course, reporters noticing that indeed, it seems as though Putin is getting the privileged position with Trump in this situation despite being the aggressor. A reporter said, aren't you squeezing out Ukrainian President Zelensky from this process? And Trump goes, no.

And also and also he should hold an election, sort of implying maybe he won't even be part of this process long term. Are you freezing out President Zelensky of this process? Isn't there a danger of that? No, I don't think so. As long as he's there. But, you know, at some point you're going to have to have elections, too. You're going to have to have an election. Trump is indeed freezing out Zelensky and he is going to let Russia decide what happens with Ukraine.

And you know what? Trump says, I think I'm going to meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia. And so it will be Trump aggressor, Putin and Saudi Arabia who will get to decide what does happen with you. Calling with President Putin largely on the phone. And we ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he'll come here and I'll go there and we're going to meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time

we'll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something done. But we want to end that war. That war is a disaster. What a great idea. So we're building up to the totality of the wishlist here. Trump says Ukraine is maybe just going to have to give up some of that land that Russia took. We are not only going to keep talking to Putin, but we might even talk to Putin in Saudi Arabia. Screw Zelensky. And then finally the another Putin wishlist item. What about NATO membership from Ukraine for Ukraine?

Trump says, nah, nah, nah, nah, doesn't seem good. What was NATO membership for Ukraine? I don't think it's practical to have it personally. I know that a new secretary of defense who's excellent, Pete, made a statement today saying that he thinks it's unlikely or impractical. I think probably that's true. I think long before President Putin, they said there's no way they'd allow that. Yeah. So, you know, translation, Vladimir would be very upset with me if I said it's OK for

Ukraine to be a NATO member, if that's the way the process goes, if that's the way the voting goes. This is total surrender to Putin. Forget about the Mueller stuff. Forget about the Russia probe. Forget forget about everything from before and during the first term. This series of statements from Trump alone is a level of surrender, impotent surrender to an authoritarian foreign leader that I've never covered in my entire time doing this. And by the way, Trump also got so confused at this event that he left without even swearing in Tulsi Gabbard. Let me talk about that.

Yesterday, Donald Trump appeared extraordinarily disoriented by simple questions to such a degree that he left without swearing in Tulsi Gabbard, leaving Tulsi standing there wondering what's going on and even confusing Newsmax Newsmax going. What happened to the swearing in? So let's just jump into this. Here is Trump spitting out random words in one of these. He calls it the weave.

Others call it cognitive decline. I challenge you. What on earth is Trump talking about here? See if you can unwind. And instead of using hydraulic like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets. It's a new theory. Magnets are going to lift the planes up and lift the planes as it work. And they had billions and billions of dollars of cost overruns. I met the architect.

I said, have you designed a ship before? This is one of the biggest ships in the world. It's like landing at LaGuardia Airport. But you look at the kind of waste, fraud and abuse that this country is going through and we have to straighten it out. We have great people. And Trump just ranting, just confused. He was asked what, how quickly should the Department of Education just completely be closed? And Trump goes, immediately, it's a scam. Do you want the Department of Education to be closed? Oh, I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education is a big con job. It's a big con job. You know, there is no doubt that we have problems with public

education in this country. Some of those problems are because we have Republicans trying to destroy the Department of Education. This is a classic. They do it with Obamacare. They do it with the Postal Service. They're considering doing it with Social Security. If you don't like the program, you just damage it. You starve it. You strangle it, and then you go, it's not working very well. No, it's not because of all the things that you were doing. But it is critical to understand that if you look at the educational disparities in this country, you look at the amount spent per pupil, certainly in many blue states with good public education systems compared to what is spent in a lot of these red states per student.

But even further, you look at what is spent per student in private schools that are only accessible to the top ten, five to one percent of the population compared to some of the average or even mediocre public school systems. And you go, wait a second. If we get rid of the Department of Education, that disparity only gets worse. And so even though Donald Trump did bamboozle a lot of people with this populist rhetoric about being for the everyman, like all these populists do, populists and faux populists all over the world, it's going to be good for the average person.

We're going to clean everything up and then get you set up. We'll get rid of fraud and abuse. And you did this. This just average household, two people working, making 60 grand a year between the two people. You are going to be able to have better education for your kids without money coming out of your pocket. You will have access to health care without more money than you can afford coming out of your pocket. And then you go, wait a second.

If you get rid of the Department of Education, people who can't afford private education are just going to be further damaged in terms of what their children are going to have access to. So the con job is Trump saying we're going to get rid of the DOE. A couple other clips from this and then we're building up to when Trump just walks out without swearing in Tulsi. It's crazy. Trump says that there are large swaths of the government that are just completely fraudulent. The billions, the billions of dollars that they're giving to. And it doesn't make sense. It is interesting that when you're looking for fraud, you look at items, hundreds of items, and you'll find one or two, maybe if you're lucky.

Here's something where you look at data and they're all fraudulent. It's all fraud. No, by just looking at the topic, they're all fraudulent, except it's the opposite. You'll find one or two that's like a legitimate reason. So. So Trump says get just start slashing, slashing, slashing. Elon's doing great. Trump then essentially directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to open politicized investigations against money that shouldn't go because we caught it before it was sent out. But they want the money to go anyway. And I think you're going to have a lot of things to look at, Pam. I really do. What's going on with this whole thing? And this is

just one group. We haven't talked about Department of Education. We haven't talked about the military. We haven't talked about a lot of things that are very big. So Trump directing Pam Bondi, you got to look into these people. And finally, a an enfeebled and disoriented Trump once again, confused, forgets to swear in Tulsi Gabbard at Tulsi Gabbard swearing in leaves the room. You will see Tulsi look confused. You will hear Newsmax very confused. Wow. Thank you very much, everybody. there you go. President, we were we were hoping to see Tulsi Gabbard getting sworn in here, but apparently that's that's not going to happen. So there you go. Trump forgetting why he was even there to begin with and simply leaving the room. Tulsi looks confused. Tulsi's husband looks confused. Pam Bondi looks confused. This is where we are. It is a land of confusion, a land of confusion.

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One of the more regrettable and disgusting characters of the Trump administration is his press secretary, Caroline Leavitt. Caroline Leavitt makes it a point to wear almost a novelty sized, oversized cross when she appears in public. And she is one of the most ardent defenders of any old crazy idea that Donald Trump has. And what she did yesterday is pull out an old trick from Kayleigh McEnany's days as Trump's press secretary and from Trump's own days, which is you hold up papers, you just hold up papers and growing scrutiny is taking place. Not enough, but it's growing. Growing scrutiny is taking place over Elon Musk's ideas about we're cutting this and we're cutting that.

And what's fraud, by the way? And what Caroline Levitt does here is really I mean, you we have to analyze this for its propaganda value. One thing she does is she waves around papers. And of course, we never know what's in the papers. But because she has them, that's meant as a tool of propaganda. I don't know. She's waving them around.

There must be stuff there. But because she has them, that's meant as a tool of propaganda. I don't know. She's waving them around. There must be stuff there. But more importantly, while claiming that they have found fraud everywhere in the government, what she really means is there was money being spent on things that Trump doesn't like. Now there's a difference between Trump's priorities are not aligned with certain initiatives and there is fraud going on. Fraud is something very specific and as evidence, what does Caroline Leavitt have? Well, she has papers that she waves around.

Check this out. This would make North Korean anchors blush at its propaganda value. As for the actual receipts, we are happy to provide them and I actually brought some today because all of you know I love to bring the receipts. We have contracts upon contracts that we can send and provide this information to you. Let me be very clear. We are not trying to hide anything. We have been incredibly transparent and we will continue to be. These are screenshots of contracts that they found across our government. This is a DEI contract, $36,000 for us citizenship and immigration services. By the way, $36,000. I mean, it's not even a drop in the bucket. It's, it's not even

mourning do on the bucket. It's nothing that is against the president's policies and his America first agenda. This is a 3.4. Now notice that being against Trump's agenda and being fraud, not exactly the same thing. Billion dollar contract, a council for inclusive innovation at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Commerce, another DEI contract that Doge identified. I can continue to go through these. Oh, I love this one. Fifty seven thousand bucks for climate change in Sri Lanka.

What is this doing to continue the interests of the American people? Absolutely nothing. You know, what's what's sort of sad and tragic about that one is, first of all, it's almost no money. Like what did you say? Fifty seven thousand bucks. What can you even do? The issue of climate change is so much bigger than fifty seven thousand dollars. But the idea of Sri Lanka, why it goes to this idea that they don't understand that there are issues that don't respect imaginary lines on a map. And we have to deal with some of these issues globally. If anything, it would be like, why are we even bothering with $57,000? We need to do more. These are the line items across the federal

government that DOE is identifying daily. They're moving very fast. There's a lot of paper that we can show you, but we're happy to do it. This administration has been more than transparent about what Doge is doing. And here's one of their tweets that they posted about the mine. She's got a printed excretion. I believe this is in Pennsylvania, where the federal employee retirement system is being processed. Did anybody know this was even happening in our country before Elon Musk talked about it in the Oval Office yesterday? A lot of Americans didn't. So we are providing

transparency and accessibility on a daily basis when it comes to Doge. And I also have a Doge Daily report, if anybody would like it, on all of the things that they are identifying and finding. We're happy to provide this information to you. We're talking about it every single day. Are all those things you just mentioned fraud or are they waste or are they just contrary to the president's policies? I would argue that all of these things are fraudulent, they are wasteful and they are an abuse of the American taxpayers dollar.

You know, uh, it would be nice as a starting point for her to define fraud, you know, because she has all of these papers. But fraud is an intentional act of deception that results in an unauthorized benefit. If you don't care about diversity, equity and inclusion, but there's money allocated for a diversity, equity and inclusion program. And that is carried out. That's not fraud. That's simply a program you don't agree with.

That's all it is. This is so humiliating that it's scary. The topic of where will Palestinians be moved by Trump came up. Here's what Caroline Levitt had to say. The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place with the additional land to be used for new development, which would greatly create jobs at levels never seen before. But the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas. I would just add to that that the president remains wholeheartedly committed to seeing

peace in the Middle East. And our Arab partners in the region have been tasked with coming up with a peace plan to present to the president. That is ongoing. King Abdullah mentioned that yesterday. The peace plan is two weeks away, just like Trump's health care plan. And then finally, Caroline Leavitt is asked about there's this crazy thing where an Associated Press reporter referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump wants it called the Gulf of America. And so they kick that reporter out. Caitlin Collins brings this up and goes, isn't that just like retribution here? And here is how Caroline Leavitt explained what they did. It is a privilege to cover this White House. It's a privilege to be the White House press secretary. And nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the president of the United States questions. That's an invitation that is given. And there are hundreds of outlets on this campus. Many of you in this room who don't have the privilege of being part of that pool every single day and getting to ask the president

questions. We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office. And you all have credentials to be here, including the Associated Press, who is in this briefing room today. But isn't it retaliatory in nature is the argument because the reason that the AP was barred, which they said was because they're not using the phrase Gulf of America. They're using Gulf of Mexico in line with their standards. And so the question here is, is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don't use the language that you guys believe reporters should use? And how does that align with the First Amendment commitment that you were just talking about? I was very upfront in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.

And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America. And I'm not sure why news outlets don't want to call it that, but that is what it is. The Secretary of Interior has made that the official designation and the geographical identification name server. And apple has recognized that Google has recognized that pretty much every other outlet in this room has recognized that body of water as the Gulf of America. And it's very important to this administration that we get that right now. So there you go. That's why the Associated Press reporter was kicked out. More honest than Kayleigh McEnany? I don't think so. More of a loyalist than Kayleigh McEnany? No, I don't think so. It's just Kayleigh McEnany 2.0. There is an increasingly obvious and scary

parallel between how President Donald Trump is being treated by his staff to how Trump's family reportedly treated his father, Fred Trump, during the later stages of his dementia. Earlier in the show, we played yet another one of these videos where Trump appears disoriented and left the left the swearing in of Tulsi Gabbard without swearing in Tulsi Gabbard. He just left. Everybody was left standing there like, wait a second, we're here to swear Tulsi Gabbard and Trump just left it. And what's happening here is that history is repeating itself in really a pretty unsettling

way. So let me break this down for you. First, Fred Trump was Donald Trump's father, real estate mogul, built the Trump family fortune, gave Trump the money he has now. But in his later years, Fred suffered from dementia. And according to reports, including accounts from Mary Trump, that's Donald's niece, the family did not necessarily handle it with the most grace. And one of the things that happened was that Fred Trump was reportedly set up in a fake office. And what I mean by fake office is the following. It was a it was a real office

structurally. OK, but there would be a desk, there would be a phone. He would be given papers to sign sort of to go through the motions of you're doing stuff. When he would pick up the phone, he couldn't get an outside line. It would just ring through to his administrative assistant or whoever it was. He had no idea what he was signing. He was essentially a prop kept around to maintain the illusion of control. Now we fast forward to Donald Trump today. Yes, the speeches are often incoherent. He confuses names. He confuses places. He leaves events before the thing he's there to do has even taken place. But what I want to talk about here specifically is that Donald Trump is being handed these executive orders to sign on camera and he

seems to have no idea what is in them. He reacts to a lot of this stuff like it's the first time he has seen or heard of it. Here's one example. Sir, next, this is an executive order relating to the use of paper straws. As you've consistently identified, nobody really likes paper straws. Number one trending. Can you believe it? A paper show is number one trending for three days or something. The environmental impact of plastic straws versus paper straws is entirely unclear. This has cost both the government and private industry an absolute ton of money

and left consumers all over the country wildly dissatisfied with their straws. So we're asking aspects of the federal government, federal departments and agencies to look at their existing procurement processes, and we're asking your domestic policy council to look holistically at this issue to address it, and it really is something that affects ordinary Americans in their everyday lives. And we're asking your domestic policy council to look holistically at this issue to address it. And it really is something that affects ordinary Americans in their everyday lives. We're going back to plastic. So as these things don't.

All right. So listen, I am not claiming that Trump doesn't understand what he is being given, but he often seems as surprised by what he's signing as some of the American people end up by what he is signing. Here is another example of this. Take a look in the room. OK, thank you, sir. Next, in 2018, you imposed odd Valorum duties tariffs on imports of steel at a 25 percent rate. Since that time, a large number of exclusions and exceptions to that tariff rule have been implemented because of the damage to the United States steel industry that those exceptions and exclusions have imposed. We're now,

this order would reimpose that 25% ad valorem lorem tariff rate on imports of steel. And it's presented for your signature now. Okay. You sort of get the point. Trump just seems generally confused by this stuff. So here's the point that I'm trying to make. During his first term, Trump was notorious for signing executive orders without reading them.

There were even reports that he didn't fully grasp the content of what he was signing. And now of course we have to ask, does this leave Trump open to being taken advantage of? And the answer seems to be a very obvious yes. If Trump is struggling to string together coherent sentences, how is he supposed to understand complex policy documents or even the implications of what he's signing? We know the answer. He doesn't understand them. And it is an eerie parallel to how Fred Trump was used as a puppet in his final year, signing whatever was put in front of him without really understanding it. Now, there is an important difference here. The difference is that Donald Trump is not just managing a family business. He's the president of the United States. Now, to be clear, I am not claiming that there is

parity between Trump today and Fred Trump with advanced dementia. But the analogous circumstances of signing stuff he doesn't really understand is difficult to ignore. Cognitive decline or not, we are potentially heading into a situation where the Republican president is merely a figurehead and a puppet. And that should concern you regardless of your political affiliation, because when the person in the Oval Office doesn't fully understand the

power they wield, it is not just a danger to democracy. It's a danger to the world. And we have a growing list of reasons to be worried about that. It's Trump signing the executive orders. He doesn't seem to really understand or care about. It is that Trump has been supplanted even quite literally in the Oval Office by Elon Musk, as we saw yesterday. And it is Musk taking questions and Trump sitting there hunched over looking weak. It is the group of people around J.D. Vance, including his supporter Peter Thiel, who reportedly have the plan of taking over power for a feeble Donald Trump over the next four years to make Trump nothing but a figurehead.

The people not concerned with this are the ones who think that they will get more access to power. The more diminished Donald Trump ends up and that should scare us. J.D. Vance is on that list. Elon Musk is on that list. And there's a lot of other people in Donald Trump ends up and that should scare us. JD Vance is on that list. Elon Musk is on that list and there's a lot of other people in Donald Trump's orbit and the parallel to Fred Trump not saying it's the same is really difficult to miss here. Winter is the perfect time to cozy up at home with some freshly baked treats like flaky pastries, hearty breads, comforting pastas, and you can do it without any effort. Thank you so much for joining us. of baking. Everything bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less. No mess or cleanup. Your family

will be amazed thinking you've become a master bread baker all of a sudden. My favorite is the croissants. You throw them in the oven. 25 minutes. Wow. If you're ready to bring all your favorite breads, pastas, and pastries right to your doorstep. Check out wild grain. You can build your box of artisanal pastries, breads and everything right now. And for a limited time, wild grain will give my audience thirty dollars off your first box plus free croissants in every box. When you go to wild grain dot com slash Pacman to start your subscription, free croissants in every box and thirty dollars off your first box. I want to talk a little bit about the plan to destroy woke culture, which has become a major priority for those who identify with the current iteration of the Republican

Party and the MAGA movement. And I want to try to deal with this. I don't want to, you know, the word neutrality, objectivity, even sometimes what I want to try to do here is deal with both sides of this woke culture thing, which is that on the one hand, I've been critical of when sometimes some of these things become self-defeating when they go too far, while at the same time acknowledging that if MAGA continues to wage this war, it will almost certainly backfire on them. Let's see if I can do a good enough job of explaining it. So the MAGA movement, including Trump, people like DeSantis, Tucker and others, they have this vow to obliterate woke ideology. But we're going to put it in the dustbin of history, right? It's a potent rallying cry that certainly fires up the MAGA base. You know,

the biggest applause lines at Trump's final campaign speeches where he would do the anti trans stuff and the anti gay stuff and they would just love it. And the reason that I think in the long run it's a political disaster is because the more that Maga demonizes wokeness, the more they risk alienating younger and more diverse voters that are really having a growing role shaping the future of American politics. So we've got to go back to what woke has become woke has turned into kind of a Rorschach test, an inkblot test.

Some say, oh, woke is we believe that we need equality and social justice. Others hear or see woke and they say it's cancel culture run amok. What I amok. What I can tell you is that no one who supports what wokeness initially meant uses that term. I would never use that term when I say, hey, here's a specific injustice. I would like to fix it. I don't even think of the word woke as part of this. Now, have there been excesses that have pushed everyday concerns like jobs and health care into the background? Sure, they have. And I've called them out when

we have seen them. It's sometimes around language. Like, let me give you an example. As a as a Latino person myself, this the whole Latin X thing. Okay. Doesn't make any sense. Uh, as a Latino person, myself, like most Latino people, I don't like it. I don't think it helps anything. I think it's been imposed in a lot of ways by disproportionately, uh, uh, white folks who just say, Hey, this is what we're going to do. I think it's a waste of time. I just, I don't use it. It's just, you know, I actually had an event that I hosted where it was on the script and I said, listen, I'm just not going to, I'm not, I'm just not doing Latin X. Okay. I'm just not doing it. And they said, all right, don't do it. Um, what, what is that an example of an excess? Sure. But is it a huge deal in the grand scheme of things?

Not really. It almost feels like I'm spending too much time even describing it right now. The problem here is that the response from MAGA to these occasional excesses, when for the most part, these movements for equality are perfectly reasonable. MAGA has responded with this overblown, all out assault on progress and on inclusion, painting anything with the idea of woke diversity, equity, inclusion as a universal villain. And in reactionary strongholds, hammering on this woke stuff scores points with an older, mostly white voter base, people unsettled by a more diverse country. But millennials don't have the same perspective. Gen Z doesn't have the same perspective. And in fact, when you look at the values,

61 percent of Americans under 30 believe the country needs to do more to tackle inequality. They don't like the excesses. They might not identify with the word woke, but they mostly agree with the idea here, supporting LGBTQ rights, climate action, a lot of this stuff that the anti-woke movement is against. And if MAGA commits to a long term attack on this, it is a way of telling younger voters your priorities are irrelevant. Now, if they were providing economic solutions while they attacked woke, then maybe they would have something coherent. But look at what Trump's doing economically.

It also is not doing much to curry favor with any of these groups. So it doesn't come across that Trump's priority and Magus priority here is to protect traditional values with this anti woke thing. It just comes across as wanting to erase history, silence voices, and it's not going to help them actually win. Now, then you've got corporate America. Corporate America is also going two different ways. You've got those who are embracing diversity and inclusion. You've got those who are announcing we are doing away with our DEI policies. This also sets up a potential clash. We saw the DeSantis clash with Disney. DeSantis did not win that. DeSantis did not

come out on top of that and it was a very public feud and it didn't go well. And it's an example of how it can backfire that that was Florida. And that was DeSantis. The exact same sort of backfire can happen at the 30,000 foot level and trashing woke culture may energize the MAGA base right now, but it's a losing strategy over the longterm because America continues to diversify. Like what, whatever policies we have, America is diversifying racially and in a whole bunch of other different ways. Values continue to shift more and more to the left, albeit more slowly lately than maybe at one point. And so paradoxically, MAGA's own war on woke may accelerate its own decline because they're going to cling to this agenda if they choose to. That speaks to

a shrinking demographic in a literal sense. It is a demographic that is increasingly less prevalent and they become a relic of the past if they can't adjust. So will the next iteration of MAGA and the Republican Party choose to go a different way? I don't know. There are certainly more traditional type Republicans. You know, I bring up Mitt Romney, don't know. There are certainly more traditional type Republicans. You know, I bring up Mitt Romney, even though retired. There are people like Mitt Romney who either because they believe it or because they realize it's not useful, have chosen not to do as much of that stuff. And for now, they've kind of been relegated to the fringes of the Republican Party, or at least Romney was during his last period of time in the Senate. So we'll see the direction it goes, but they risk their own

demise. There are some incredible videos of Elon Musk's son telling Trump to shut up, that you're not the president and that you need to go away., this is what a world that we live in right now. Here is video and it's sort of tough to hear while Elon Musk is talking in the oval office the other day and Trump is sitting hunched over and dejected his son. In addition to wiping and eating boogers and wiping them on the Resolute desk, actually says to Trump at one point, you're not the president. You need to go away. I'm going to play it here, OK? To restore democracy, this may seem like, well, are we in a democracy? Now, is it possible that Elon's son was speaking to someone off camera?

That's been suggested. He wasn't speaking to Trump. He was speaking to a reporter off camera. Uh, okay. I guess maybe let's look at it one more time to restore democracy. He certainly seems like he's speaking to Trump. And if he is, where would he get the idea to tell Trump? You're not the president. You need to go away. Here's another wacky

video where the kid seems to tell Trump, you need to shush your mouth. This is for one year to the next are the same and there're and Trump seems to look. Oh, don't we all kid, don't we all? You know, I don't know whether the kid is talking to Trump or talking to someone off camera, as some have suggested. It certainly seems like he's talking to Trump. This is simultaneously hilarious because it's a we're all thinking this about Trump. You need to go away. Please shush your mouth. It also you know, I don't want to talk about the kid,

but it also is certainly about Elon Musk's parenting. We know because Elon Musk has said he can do whatever he wants. This is a kid who's being brought up in a painfully entitled way, painfully entitled way. And what that leads to certainly is this sort of behavior. So let me know what you think about it. Let me know who you think he's talking to. But wild and wacky stuff on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about dozens of CFPB workers fired as the agency remains closed. X has reached a 10 million dollar settlement with Trump over his prior suspension from Twitter. It's so weird because now Trump and Musk are working together. It's it's all crazy. And retailers, including Trader Joe's and Kroger,

have started to limit egg purchases. This is starting to get bad and Trump has no plan to deal with it. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com to get instant access. And as a reminder, my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, comes out in just five and a half weeks. I invite you to preorder the book at David Pakman dot com slash book. If you would like a signed copy only available at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith from Brookline Booksmith, they will on the bonus show.