The David Pakman Show - 2/14/25: Egg prices up more, RFK confirmed, Trump deranged

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Egg prices continue higher, now up 25% since Donald Trump became President -- A reporter asks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a simple question about the Russia Ukraine war and Hegseth drops the ball -- Linda McMahon, Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, lays out a dystopian vision for the department during her confirmation hearing -- During yet another demented rant, Donald Trump talks about "tic tac" when referring to TikTok -- Trump bizarrely slams Mitch McConnell and suggests he is suffering from cognitive decline while doubting that he ever had polio -- Fox News host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump adviser, is thrilled that under Trump, he can get hit hard with water pressure in his shower -- Donald Trump holds a disastrous press conference alongside Indian Prime Minister Modi -- At his swearing in, Secretary of Health and Human Service Robert F. Kennedy Jr says that God sent Donald Trump to him -- This week's Friday Feedback -- On the Bonus Show: Report finds Cybertruck is dangerous, Milo feuds with Tim Pool over Russian money, and much more... 🖥️ UPLIFT Desk: Get up to 5 free accessories & special discount at https://upliftdesk.com/pakman 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 27% OFF and 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🥦 Lumen lets you master your metabolism. GET 20% OFF at https://lumen.me/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 50% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/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

Welcome to the show, everybody. We continue to cover the explosion in egg prices. One of the foremost and most important and prominent promises that the current Trump-Vance administration made during the campaign was that grocery prices would go down on day one, which was January 20th, by the way, in case anybody's keeping track that egg prices would go down on day one. And the opposite has taken place. And in fact, it seems as though supply chain problems, they just follow Donald Trump around like those STDs he avoided, which were his Vietnam or something like that. Remember that whole thing? This is very much another one of these you overpromised and now people should hold you accountable.

So let me tell you what's going on and then we'll get to the rationing. Egg prices started at $6.13 per dozen when Donald Trump became president of the United States on January 20th. Now, within those first 10 days of Trump's presidency, egg prices went to $7.09 a dozen. That was an increase of about 15%. That initial promise, don't worry, the prices will come down, seemed not to be happening. This then led to what the start of this week, a new all-time forever record high egg price of $7.48 a dozen. And I told you about that at the beginning of the week as well.

Did egg prices reverse? They did not. Egg prices are up once again, 768 a dozen, up more than 25% under Donald Trump. It hasn't even been one month yet. Now, I do think it makes sense to acknowledge that there are criticisms of the way that I am presenting this. I am not neutral, but I want to be objective. You might hear me saying this, as some of you did earlier this week, and say, David, you never cared about egg prices under Joe Biden. Well, Joe Biden didn't make egg prices a staple of his campaign nor his presidency.

Joe Biden didn't promise to get egg prices down. Joe Biden ran on we will get inflation back under control. It is only under the control of a president to a degree anyway. And inflation did get back under control under Joe Biden, although it has started to tick back up again now under Donald Trump. I never made egg prices the issue. The current president did. The current party that controls the White House, House and Senate did. And I'm simply holding them accountable. Now, then you could say, you know, David, it's only it's only the middle of February.

Right. You couldn't possibly have expected Donald Trump to lower egg prices this quickly, could you? That's right. I couldn't. But I wasn't the one making that promise. It was Donald Trump who said that he would. It was J.D. Vance saying that they would. And then you could say, well, you know, David, bird flu is going on. That's really why egg prices are up. You can't blame Trump for that, can you? I'm not the one who ignored the reality of bird flu to make the ridiculous promise that I would lower egg prices on day one. So we are simply holding them accountable for what they promised. But now let's get to the new aspect of what is going on. Grocery stores are starting to ration eggs

because supply is falling and prices are up. My beautiful pasture-raised orange yolk eggs have gone from about $7.70 most recently, a dozen, up over $10. I think $10.69 was the latest price. That's if you can get them. I couldn't. They were just missing. When I went to the grocery store after getting back from my trip, the roughly 20 or so varieties of eggs, if you include organic and non-organic, half dozen and dozen and 18 eggs, all of it. There was one option out of the roughly 20. It was six organic eggs. And I've got to tell you, I'm not impressed about the yolks. These

yolks are nothing to write home about. So now grocery stores are starting to ration. We have learned that Trader Joe's is limiting customers nationally to, depending on the store, one dozen or two dozen eggs. Now, as a brief tangent here, we spoke about this a little bit on the bonus show yesterday. I don't know how someone could need more than two dozen eggs a day, right? I mean, I eat five eggs a week, roughly. What is happening? How many kids do you have that you need than than two dozen eggs a day? That's where Trader Joe's is limiting it, limiting it in some stores. Kroger, Walmart, Costco, everybody is starting to limit the amount of eggs that people can buy. This is, of course, reminiscent of what we were seeing during Trump's mishandling of the covid crisis.

So how far is this going to go? What's the direction it's going to go? We just don't know yet. But for now, what we are seeing is constrained supply and prices up 25% since Donald Trump became president of the United States. I've seen people start to extrapolate saying, you know, if egg prices keep going up at the same rate as they have during the second Trump administration, eggs will be $2,000 a dozen by the end of Trump's presidency or whatever the case may be. I don't expect that that's going to happen. At some point, I do think something is going to break. But they are the ones who made the promises, and it is our job to now keep them accountable. When you pick your cabinet by watching Fox News or watching wrestling, it's not so good, is the way that I would put it.

And we are seeing that with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Isn't it vomitous, just that phrase, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Pete Hegseth is on a European tour and he has been putting his foot in his mouth time and time again. He already made the statement that Ukraine being part of NATO is just not practical. He ended up walking it back by saying ultimately everything is up to the president and other people, not up to me. But then he was asked a relatively simple question, which is that Ukraine, when you ask Trump or Hegseth or others, Ukraine has to make concessions. The Trump administration is framing this Ukraine-Russia,

I don't even want to call it negotiation because there's not much of a negotiation going on, but the conversation around what is to happen with Russia-Ukraine. When you ask people from the Trump administration, they say, well, Ukraine may have to give up a little bit of land, even though they were the ones who were invaded. Well, Ukraine may have to accept it's not going to be a NATO member. Ukraine may have to accept more limited aid or they may have to give up certain weapons that they were provided. It's all about the concessions that Ukraine is going to have to make. And a reporter asked Pete Hegseth a completely reasonable question, which has also been asked of Trump, we'll see later how Trump handled it, which is what concessions will Russia have to make?

What concessions will Putin have to make? After all, they are the aggressors. As you might imagine, Pete's answer leaves a lot to be desired. Take a look. You have focused on what Ukraine is giving up. What concessions will Putin be asked to make? Well, that's I would start by saying the the arguments that have been made that somehow coming to the table right now is making concessions to Vladimir Putin outright that we otherwise or that the president of the United States shouldn't otherwise make. I just reject that at its face.

Now let me just pause it. You might be saying to yourself that is not responsive to the question. The question was what are the concessions that Putin may have to make and Hegseth goes, you know, just coming to the table is not a concession. Wasn't the question just completely unresponsive to what is being asked. There's a reason why negotiations are happening right now. Just a few weeks after President Trump was sworn in as president, United States, Vladimir Putin responds to strength. In 2014, he invaded Crimea, not during the presidency of Donald Trump.

Over four years, there was no Russian aggression. From 2016 to 2020 in 2022, Vladimir Putin took aggression on Ukraine once again. There are this this is embarrassing. I don't know that I have ever seen a cabinet member more out of their depth than Pete Hegseth is when asked these relatively simple questions. This is what happens when you pick your cabinet by watching Fox News. But I'll go a step further. There's a couple reasons here why Hegseth may be answering this way.

It may be that they've already sold off Ukraine in this entire thing. It may be that behind closed doors, they've already said Ukraine. Ukraine's the only one who's going to have to give anything up here. We're going to set this up, tee it up for Vladimir Putin to get everything he wants. The second possibility is that you, Russia rather, is not going to have to make any concessions. And he doesn't want to acknowledge that. And so he's kind of dancing around with these word salads. The third possibility is he doesn't really understand what he's being asked

and or the subject matter. And you might be saying, why not all of the above? And I think that that's probably where we land. There are two separate aspects to this. Aspect number one is what actually happens with Russia, Ukraine. Aspect number two is what the hell is going to be the consequence, if any, of having such a painfully incompetent and unqualified secretary of defense as we do right now. Linda McMahon is not yet the Secretary of Education, but she's probably going to be. You may know her as the wrestling executive, Linda McMahon.

She has been in the middle of confirmation hearings, and this did not get the attention it deserved. During these confirmation hearings, Senator Chris Murphy asked Linda McMahon, what level of oversight, what level of approval do you want the Federal Department of Education to have over what after-school clubs a particular school might have? What degree of micromanagement do you want over the courses that will or won't be offered at particular schools or within school districts? And Linda McMahon's answer, which I'm going to play for you here, suggests a stunning federal takeover of education typically handled at the state and municipality level. They talk about states' rights, but as we know, that's only when it's convenient. Take a listen to this.

You're saying that it's a possibility that if a school has a club for Vietnamese American students or black students where they meet after school, that they could be potentially in jeopardy of receiving federal funding? Again, I would like to fully understand what that order is and what those clubs are doing. That's pretty chilling. I think schools all around the country are going to hear that. What about educational programming centered around specific ethnic and racial experiences? My son is in a public school.

He takes a class called African American history. If you're running an African American history class, could you perhaps be in violation of this corridor of this, of this executive order? I'm not quite certain. And I'd like to look into it further and get back to you on that. So there's a possibility. There's a possibility.

You're saying, that public schools that run African-American history classes, right, this is a class that has been taught in public schools for decades, could lose federal funding if they continue to teach African-American history. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that. I think you're going to have a lot of educators and a lot of principals and administrators scrambling right now. This is this is terrifying, terrifying stuff. And understand that on the one hand, part of their argument for why the Department of Education should be disbanded,

Trump says it's a con job, is that they want states running education. Okay, we can argue, is that a good idea, is that a bad idea, what level of support should the federal government be providing? Of course, the federal government has a major role in special education and funding all sorts of things. But you could debate, all right, should states have a larger or a smaller role here? Fine. But that's not even really what they want. They want states to have a larger role in education when it allows them to simply get the federal government out of the way of putting in place basic standards to make sure that

things don't get so bad that you end up like, I mean, this is no offense, states like Alabama and Mississippi, Louisiana, which have some of the worst education in the country. Part of the point here is let's make sure no state falls too far when it comes to education. But on the other hand, then when they don't want states saying, hey, here's how we want to organize things. Here are the classes we want. Here are the after-school clubs that we want. Now, all of a sudden, they want to start looking into it.

They want to start looking into the substance and the content of after-school groups and of courses that are being taught. It's not accurate that they simply want states running things. They want states running things when that allows them to have one particular set of achievements. And they want the federal government with their fingers in everything when it has a different set of priorities and different set of goals. Put aside for a second that Linda McMahon has no business

even being nominated to this position. That is almost certainly going to be our next secretary of education. You know, we thought Betsy DeVos was bad. We thought Betsy DeVos during Trump's first term was an unqualified secretary of education. I would in some way, if you said it's DeVos or Linda McMahon, I think DeVos is probably better. They've somehow found someone less qualified than their last secretary of education to nominate, and she will almost certainly be in charge. Terrifying, terrifying.

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So grab a membership. Join Pacman dot com. Donald Trump's latest demented rant includes stealing something from me. He called TikTok Tic Tac, but I do it on purpose. It seemed very much that Donald Trump was just confused. There's a bunch of interesting stuff here, but most notably, there's a degree to which sometimes a grain of truth will slip out almost accidentally in the middle of what are otherwise lie after lie after lie. And Donald Trump acknowledged once again that, yes, it seems as though what he's doing, while he insists it's great and it's the best for the long term, tariffs, for example, mass deportations, et cetera, in the short term, we could see prices go up. And, of course, this is the understatement of the century. We've seen egg prices skyrocket 25 percent in three weeks. It's absolutely ridiculous. But to Trump's credit, he was not able to fully suppress the truth in the way we've become accustomed to.

Harris, who do you think voters should hold responsible? Oh, I think what's going to go up is jobs are going to go up and prices could go up somewhat short term, but prices will also go down. And I think the farmers are going to be helped by this very much because product is being dumped into our country and our farmers are getting hurt very badly by the last administration. The last administration hated our farmers, like at a level that I've never seen before. I think our farmers are going to be helped.

Jobs are going to be helped, but our farmers are going to be helped. Our manufacturers are going to be helped. And again, terrorists. So, I mean, listen, in a sense, we can say he's acknowledging what every economist has been saying for a while. The ideas that Trump is proposing, shrinking the labor market through mass deportations, adding an import tax called the tariff. All of these things are going to make things more expensive. Trump insisting, of course, that over the long term, it's all going to be very good. He points to farmers and how great farmers are going to do.

Farmers got crushed by Trump in his first term. So if what happened to farmers in his first term is any sign of what will happen now, it's all very, very bad. Next, Trump is talking about TikTok, and he calls it Tic Tac. Now, you all know I jokingly call it Tic Tac. Trump actually seems disoriented here. He says it twice and then realizes, wait a second, I'm calling it the wrong thing, corrects himself.

Take a listen. Then my opponent with youth, okay, that never happened before. I mean, you know, that's always been a Democrat thing, youth, it became a Trump thing. And I think Tic Tac, I think Joe Rogan was a part of it. Some of the great people.

Joe Rogan was not a part of Tic Tac or Tic Tac. I did interviews with were a part of it, but I think that Tic Tac, Tic Tac was a, I think it was a big part. Look, there you go. So Trump, crystal clear and just so prescient and articulate there in talking about TikTok reality. He seems as disoriented as ever. CNN's Caitlin Collins, who at one point Donald Trump actually says, we haven't asked you to speak yet.

Actually, let's let's play that first. This was kind of a funny moment. Some call it misogynistic. Others call it funny. It sort of depends on your perspective. Here is Caitlin Collins trying to ask Trump a question. He says, oh, no, we're not asking you to speak. Mr. President, you won the White House in part because of high inflation.

If your tariffs make prices go up... Excuse me, we haven't asked you to speak yet, please. We haven't... We really need the Curb Your Enthusiasm music over this. Excuse me, we haven't asked you to speak yet. Anyway, when she was allowed to ask a question, she asked a good question. How are you monitoring

whether President Musk, Elon Musk, is operating within your administration in a way that does not represent a conflict of interest with his numerous business entities? And Trump goes, oh, we I just ask him or something. Elon Musk and the efforts that he's undertaking with your authority. You granted him new authority this week. Will he secure any new government contracts while he is working on? No, not if there's a conflict. If there's no conflict, I guess what difference does it make?

But we won't let him do anything having to do with the conflict. Are you personally checking to make sure there's no conflicts? Yeah, I am. I am. Personally, Trump is personally checking. Does anybody here believe that? He answers to you. Sure, he does. First of all, he wouldn't do it. And second of all, we're not going to let him do anything where there's a conflict of interest.

It's so funny because how could anyone believe that? If you've been following the decade nightmare of Trump in American politics? How could anyone believe that Trump would never allow anyone working for him to have a conflict of interest, that Trump is personally checking whether people working for him have a conflict of interest? It's it's laughable, almost as laughable. And again, when we we laugh to avoid crying, I guess Trump was asked, do we need to study the effect that these tariffs you keep threatening and pushing back? Do we need to study what effect that would have? And Trump goes, no, there's nothing to study. It's so cut and dry. It's going to be awesome. Tariffs. Would you also direct agencies to study the impact they would have on prices in the U.S.?

No, there's nothing to study. There's nothing to study. It's going to go well. The United States is going to become a very, very strong economic economically country. Yeah. Very 1984. Right. Study. I told you what's going to happen with the tariffs. Everything will be awesome. Prices will go down. We will have record GDP growth. We will have record hiring where it's just why would we study something that I am doing erratically and counter to what every serious economist is suggesting. Study it. And of course, this reminds us of gun violence, the idea that these Republicans, the more guns in more places people don't want to study the effects of gun violence as a public health issue because they know what the answer would be. And

they don't want that. They want to create plausible deniability to the extent that they're able. Why? You don't study if it might give you the wrong answer. You say there is nothing here to study and then no Trump press conference is really complete. If apropos of nothing, Trump doesn't claim that there was or could have been fraud. This time it's Democrats tried to rig it in 2024. They just weren't able to. What a great thing that we could do that. And we were going to he he really liked the idea. And so did I. And we had then called China and China was very open to it. And then COVID hit and then we had a rigged election. But now there was no rigged election. Now we have an election that was too big to rig.

So my whole theme was too big to rig. And they tried, but they didn't pull it off. I would assume that the opposite of what Trump is saying is more likely true than what he is actually saying. And as we continue to exist in bizarro world, Trump, who seems regularly disoriented and confused, is now going after Mitch McConnell over the issue of cognitive decline. Let's talk about that next. So listen, something is obviously wrong with Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. I say that casually. I'm not making a diagnosis. I'm not a doctor. It's very clear that these freezing incidents that he has experienced and moments of confusion and now he fell and there's something wrong with Mitch McConnell. He's not a

spring chicken. Mitch McConnell likely should have retired a while ago, but it's not like Trump is perfect up in the head as we've talked about either. He seemed disorientedly referring to TikTok as Tic Tac and we've been following Trump's confusion and memory issues for a very long time. So Trump, all of a sudden, goes after Mitch McConnell on the cognitive decline and physiological state circumstances. And while on the one hand, Trump's not wrong, it's sort of like the elephant in the room is that Trump seems to be struggling with the exact same thing. Listen to this. As the ex-health secretary citing conspiracy theories, what's your reaction to that? Well, I feel sorry for Mitch. And I was one of the people that let he couldn't he wanted to go to the end and he wanted to say leader. He wasn't he's not equipped mentally. He wasn't equipped 10 years ago mentally, in my opinion. He'd let the Republican

Party go to hell if I didn't come along, the Republican party wouldn't even exist right now. Mitch McConnell never. By the way, the Republican party kind of doesn't exist right now. It's this perversion of the Republican party called MAGA Trumpism, I think could be argued. Really had it. He had an ability to raise money because of his position as leader, which anybody could do. You could do it even. And that's saying a lot. But the fact is that he raised money and he gave a lot of money to senators. And so he had a little loyalty based on the fact that as leader, you could raise a lot of money. Senators would call me and they say he wants to give me 20, 25 million. Can I take it? I'd say, take the money, take the money. But he so he engendered a certain amount of I don don't even call it loyalty. So as you can tell, Trump is just ranting incoherently.

And in fact, it was so incoherent that Fox News decided to cut away from this entire fiasco. He had an ability to raise money because of his position as leader, which anybody could do. You could do it even. And that's saying a lot. But the fact is that he raised money and he gave a lot of money to senators and so he had a little loyalty based on the fact that as leader you could raise a lot of money senators would call me and they say he wants to give me 20 25 million can i take it i'd say take the money take the money but he so he engendered a certain amount of I don't even call it loyalty. He was able to get votes. But I was there.

The external revenue service. A lot there. Yeah. And by the way, it is not lost on me that any opportunity to shame or mock or insult telling Caitlin Collins there, even you, even Caitlin Collins would be able to raise money if she were in Mitch McConnell's position. Finally, and maybe most bizarrely on this issue of Mitch McConnell, Trump seems to sort of play coy with whether he even accepts that Mitch McConnell had polio.

He doesn't say, I don't believe it, but he goes, eh, I don't know. I don't know if he really had polio. He had polio obviously. And I don't know. I don't know anything about he had polio. He had polio. Are you doubting that he had polio? I have no idea if he had polio.

All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn't have been a leader. He knows that, uh, he voted against Bobby votes against almost everything. Now he's a very bitter guy. And we have a very strong party and he's almost not even really a very powerful member. I'd say he's not a parent. He's lost his power. All right. So anyway, you I don't know if I have no idea whether he had polio. And this is the way that Trump always plays coy with this stuff. He won't accept anything if it's someone who is on his shit list. Oh, well, you know, Mitch McConnell breathes oxygen just like you.

Does he? I don't know. You know, whatever. He can breathe whatever he wants. Do you doubt that Mitch McConnell breathes oxygen? I have no idea whether he breathes oxygen. I just I just I'm not sure. This is the Trump game. And sometimes it plays better with his base and sometimes it plays worse.

But what a situation. What a disgusting display here. And with regard to the cognitive decline stuff, really an example of the pot calling the kettle black. And of course, no one in that room mentions it to Trump. And of course, no one in that room mentions it to Trump. And of course, why would they? They would never be allowed back in that room again. That's for sure. OK, updates on the book. Signed copies of my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, are available at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. We were originally going to basically handle these ourselves. We would order the books. I would sign them. We would handle the shipping. Once 500 people said I would like one of the signed books, it became clear we couldn't do it.

So my publisher, which is based in Boston, Beacon Press, great independent publisher, has partnered up with a Boston area bookstore, Brookline Booksmith. They will be handling signed books. I'm going to go up there in a couple of weeks before the release of the book. Sign, sign, sign, sign my life away. I don't know how many of these I'm going to have to sign. If you would like a signed book, you can only get it at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. Every book ordered through that link will be signed and it will be delivered to you right around the release date of March 25th, maybe a few days later. That's the plan. Email in if you have any questions. We will take a break and much more coming up today. Helix mattresses are customized to your needs. I took the one minute sleep quiz where I gave input like my height, my real height, not like you know who my weight, my real weight, not like

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workout for an energy boost, or if you're good to go, go to lumen.me slash Pacman to get 20% off your lumen. That's lumen.me slash Pacman for 20% off. The link is in the podcast notes. Kudlow, who's now a media suck up to Trump, who has a show on Fox Business. He went on a wild blistering rant yesterday where he seems absolutely thrilled that thanks to Trump, he is able to get pounded in the shower by water pressure, big water, strong water. It actually kind of sounds like Kudlow is stroking out here, if I'm not mistaken. But these people's obsession with plumbing and toilets and showers and water pressure. Listen to this and tell me it's anything other than brown nosing, suck up behavior to Donald Trump. Check this out. A rip finally after four years of missing it and not just a great shower, but in the

sink, too. You can really wash your face, get a better shave, wash your hands as often as you want with real strong live water flow. I have to tell you, I've never been in the room with Larry when he's shaving. I don't know how water pressure helps you to shave. The blade, sure. The shaving cream or gel or have you pre-lubricated or all water pressure helps you shave. Maybe I just there must be something I don't understand.

Not like some third world countries I know or even Europe when hardly anybody washes and toilets can flush the way they're supposed to with just a flick of the handle. Everything is solved and your dishwasher will actually clean the dishes because it will have a strong water flow and get the job done. And ditto for your clothes, where Trump washing machines will get all those stains out that you could never do with Biden's little puny water trickle. And you can read again because President Trump is going back to common sense standards on incandescent light bulbs instead of Biden's phony fluorescent hospital type light bulbs that ruined your eyes. Of course, LED lights at this point, the color temperature is not that hospital lighting.

You know, Kudlow is just clueless. But why is it that you'd think these people were elephants from what they're demanding as far as water pressure goes? Now, let me tell you the truth about the entire water pressure thing. I still am unsure what is going on with Trump's toilets, that he's so obsessed with this thing. But even generically speaking, the federal government regulates water efficiency standards and they tend to set some limits

which can be superseded by local authorities, states and municipalities, including California, New York, Washington. They are stricter than the federal guidelines. Trump making the federal guidelines on water pressure more lax doesn't really change anything for states that say, hey, we're going to have stricter limits as far as this is concerned. This is not really primarily a plumbing show, although maybe it should be because I do have some questions.

But it everything between city plumbing code and state water pressure regulations has nothing to do with what Trump or the federal government do when it comes to this. Federal rules can set a baseline, not a ceiling. States and local governments can improve, can impose stricter regulations. And that's it. So I don't even aside from the fact that they seem obsessed with this for some reason we don't understand. They don't seem to acknowledge that cities and states can mostly do whatever they want. Donald Trump held a disastrous press conference with

Indian Prime Minister Modi, and it once again was a total supplication to Vladimir Putin, confirming Trump is going to let him do whatever the hell he wants Trump was asked a question that we saw Pete Hegseth asked earlier Ukraine is being asked to make a lot of concessions here. What about Russia should Russia give anything up and Trump's answer is that Russia has already suffered because it hasn't been that easy for them to win this war. Well maybe they shouldn't have gotten into it in the first place. The Russia Ukraine war.

You've suggested several things that Ukraine should give up. The idea of NATO membership territory that we seized back in 2014 by Russia. What should Russia give up? Russia has gotten themselves into something that I think they wish they didn't. If I were president, it would not have happened. Absolutely would not have happened. And it didn't happen for four years. If you look at what has taken place under President Bush,

they lost a lot. Under President Obama, They lost a lot under President Obama. They lost Crimea under Biden. It looks like they could lose the whole thing under Trump. They lost nothing. Ukraine lost nothing. They didn't give up anything. And you take a look at the other three presidents surrounding me.

They gave up a lot. So this is a typical Trump. What is it that Russia would have to give up here to get to peace? Well, they've already given stuff up because it's been a tough war for them. Yes. An invasion that they started praying at the altar of Vladimir Putin. At another point during this thing, Donald Trump couldn't understand an Indian reporter and the guy tried twice and Trump just because I can't understand an Indian reporter. And the guy tried twice and Trump just because I can't understand a word you're saying. President, people in India will naturally welcome your decision to expedite the Havana

to India back home. In that context, I'd like to ask you a question about in the last few years we have seen several groups in the US being raising anti-India voice, calling about separation terrorism activities in India. Do you think that should continue here in the U.S. as well? You're going to go louder. Mr. President, people in India would be welcoming your decision to extradite the Haborana to... I can't understand a word he's saying. It's not the...

Listen, I have two thoughts about this, right? I get telemarketing calls all the time from overseas. And it could be India. It could be the Philippines. There's all sorts of places. And I've had situations where I say, I don't know where you're calling from, what you're offering, what you're asking me. I just don't I don't know where you're calling from, what you're offering, what you're asking me. I just don't I don't know what you're saying. So on the one hand, that's a real thing.

On the other hand, it's also true that yesterday was a representation of just about every day with Trump with this stuff, which is he was rude to Caitlin Collins, a female reporter, and he was rude to this guy, an female reporter, and he was rude to this guy, an Indian reporter. The theme seems to be remember when he was rude to a Ouija Jang back during the previous administration with covid related stuff with regard to her being Asian and Trump calling it the Kung flu and all of this stuff. And he it the theme is that he's always dismissive and rude and just kind of a dick to individuals with identities that are other than white men. That's the theme. And also, listen, I understand speaking to someone and having absolutely no idea what they're talking to you. OK. And then speaking about having no idea what they're talking to you. OK. And then speaking about having no idea what they're talking about,

as as difficult as apparently the Indian reporter was for Trump to understand, does anyone understand this from Trump? Speaker 4 This is where it seems to be heading and artificial intelligence complex, a very complex subject. But it seems to be where people want to be and they want to go. And we're leading right now by a lot. But other people will try to catch us. I don't know if they're going to be able to. We're going to make sure those are. Is that any easier to understand than what the Indian reporter was saying?

So another completely humiliating press conference, but maybe not as humiliating for the country as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now being the secretary of health and human services. Another domino has fallen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who should have nothing to do with health and human services in the United States, has been confirmed by the United States Senate. And he was sworn in yesterday. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services. Here's the swearing. Please place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right.

I, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. You solemnly swear. You solemnlyly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. That I take this obligation freely. That I take this obligation freely. Without any mental reservation. Without any mental reservation. Or purpose of evasion. Or purpose of evasion. And that I will well and faithfully discharge. And that I will well and faithfully discharge. The duties I will well and faithfully discharge. The duties of the office.

The duties of the office. On which I am about to enter. On which I'm about to enter. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. Secretary. All right. There it is.

And very quickly, this went from bad to worse. You know, it's bad enough that he's going to be the secretary of health and human services. All of a sudden, he pulls out the nuttery that he it's hard to even say it with a straight face. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that God sent Trump to him. I know it sounds wacky, but here he is saying for 20 years, I've gotten up every morning on my knees and prayed that God would put me in a position where I can end the childhood chronic disease epidemic in this country. On August 23rd of last year, God sent me President Trump and he gave me. Now, some of you will notice actress Cheryl Hines standing over RFK's left shoulder.

There are widespread reports. I mean, listen, she is someone of the left, at least up until August of last year, whatever. From what I've been told, she has come around on the idea of RFK being in a position of power, but is absolutely repulsed by Trump. I don't know whether that's true or whether she's come around on Trump, too. I have no idea. But every aspect of this RFK in this role, Cheryl Hines in the Oval Office, it's all Kafka. He's now given me he's kept every promise that he's made to me. He's kept his word in every account and gone way beyond it.

I'm so grateful to you, Mr. President. A lot of people told me that I couldn't trust President Trump, that I better get it in writing. And we did a handshake, and everything that he told me he was going to do, he has done. And I'm so grateful to him. And I've told you before, I genuinely believe that you are a pivotal historical figure. Wow. Wow. This is where we are. And then Trump also throwing bouquets at RFK saying that what he is going to do as secretary

of Health and Human Services will put him in the record books. You know, that may be true, but I don't know that that's necessarily a good thing. Mr. Secretary, I'd like to ask, what plans do you have immediately at HHS, now that you're sworn in? He's going to be running it. He's going to do a great job.

That's my plan. I'm going to find out a lot of secrets that have been maybe kept from us, but he's going to come up with some solutions to some big, big problems, self problems. And I think he's going to go down in the record books. I really have confidence this group has. He very well may. He very well may go down in the record books for doing some horrible things. We will see. And then finally, a reporter did mention, what are you going to do on vaccines? And he goes, listen, my real position on vaccines, everybody loves it. Mr. Secretary, may I ask, how do you address concerns that some Americans may have about your stance on vaccines?

When if when people actually hear what I think about vaccines, which is common sense, which is vaccines should be tested, they should be safe, everybody should have informed consent, people are reacting because they hear things about me that aren't true. They hear characterizations of things that I've said that are simply not true. When they hear what I have to say actually about vaccines. Everybody supports it. All right. Yeah. And of course, in some kind of generic sense, who wouldn't want vaccines to be studied? Who wouldn't want efficacy and safety trials? Right. Those things are so generic. The problem is when the rubber meets the road. And he's asked

more specifically, which vaccines do you believe are safe and effective? And in some interviews, he has said none. And then he goes into this whole thing. They've never really been tested. And of course they have. And the devil is in the details. Let's hope that the damage he's able to do is as small as possible. But this is a scary era that we are entering into. Do you ever feel like it's tough to stay focused? I've sometimes struggled with it. And Brain FM's focus music has really helped me find my groove. I used to think background music from Spotify or YouTube would help me focus,

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And Brain FM is the only music app funded by the National Science Foundation because of their unique audio technology that changes the patterns in your brain. With Brain FM, I am locked in. The distractions go away. The productivity just happens. And my audience can try it for free for 30 days when you go to brain.fm slash Pacman. You can get access to Brain.fm's entire library of science-supported focus music for an entire month totally free. I think you'll find it as useful as I do. Go to brain.fm slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. the Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Speaker 4 Speaker 5

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Speaker 24 Speaker 25 Speaker 26 Speaker 27 Speaker 28 Speaker 30 Speaker 31 Speaker 32 lead voice of America, the government funded broadcaster meant to report unbiased news. Ground News found hundreds of articles covering this story, which is an app I've trusted for years to help me critically analyze the news I consume. Our sponsor, Ground News, doesn't tell you what to think. They show you each news outlets, biases, credibility, financial incentives. So, you know, who's benefiting from the spin they put on each story. You can even filter out certain sources you don't want so you can stay informed without

getting buried in the noise. Trump is shaping our future in ways that will last decades. And if we're not paying attention, we will allow history to repeat itself. So stay engaged with ground news who is fixing what is breaking right in front of us, the trust and transparency in the media. Ground news is giving my audience 50 percent off the same vantage plan that I use. Go to ground dot news slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. almost otherworldly. And we got one from Linda, of course, Linda emailing. This is available to everybody. Info at David Pakman dot com. Sadly, folks like Linda sometimes take advantage of it.

And here's what Linda had to say. Here we go. Never, ever do I send messages to people I don't know, but I had to send a message to whoever David Pakman is. And the reason for that is I just wanted to let him know that when you're trying to make a point on your stupid show, you should probably know what you're talking about instead of saying, I don't know, I don't know something or another. You seem to say that a lot. So you should probably get your facts straight before you start talking. So why don't you put your little camera on pause, go get some knowledge and then come back and present yourself as someone knowledgeable in what you're trying to say.

Instead of just smacking your gums, you're a joke. You have no credibility. And the fact that I sent this to you to me means a lot because I've never seen anyone. I don't know anything. Like I said, you are pathetic. You are not intelligent. And all you do is just ramble on about nonsense and have a little facts that back your bullshit that spits out of your mouth. You're a joke sent from my iPad. There you go. Congratulations, Linda. Thank you very much. Hall of fame stuff, no matter how way, no matter which way you slice and dice it. All right. More seriously, a user on Reddit who goes by MS and Dems says, how are Democrats so terrible at politics? They push, vote for and sign the TikTok ban. And then at the last second, try to backpedal and hand it to Trump as an easy victory and wait for him and wait for him to continue adding Gen Z support. It's just blatant incompetence from

people whose entire brand is that they are smarter than everyone else. I apologize if I wasn't clear. I'm not even talking about the decision to ban tick tock or not, though. I agree with it, though. I disagree with it. I am talking about handing Trump an easy political win by getting to be the one that saves it. Yeah. I mean, listen, the, the, the tick tock thing was of course not well handled, but there is a bigger point here and I don't know whether some of the responses to this person were that they were acting in bad faith. Let's assume they're acting in good faith. Democrats have been pretty bad at politics for awhile.

I mean, I, I, Obama winning aside from your personal feelings about what he represented, what he ran on, what he did. It was very good politics from the people that Obama surrounded himself with. And he is a highly skilled politician. It is, of course, more difficult to look at the more prominent Democrats today and say that they are both highly skilled politicians with extremely talented teams around them. There isn't a lot of that right now. There's a good bench. I believe I've named a bunch of the people that have the potential to make significant

progress and rack up some achievements if they're able to, to kind of break to the next level. We've talked about that, but to a degree yet Democrats have not been functionally great at politics for a while. They, um, did not really know how to run against Trump even down ballot to a great degree this time around. And listen, it's a, it's an opportunity to reset. I'm going to be talking about this soon with, with different people on the show. Let's see what happens.

Let's see what happens. But a lot of what that person said, good faith or not is accurate. Jesse V seven H says next week Trump announces an intention to impose tariffs on chickens unless they agree to lay more eggs. Yeah, I, I think that this is sort of astutely getting at the impotence of Trump, both through lack of understanding of how a lot of these economic tools function and a desire to appear powerful even when he can't and doesn't control everything. I think there's a there's a lot here that's accurately kind of being poked fun at by Jesse.

What I am more curious to see, I mean, listen, we have 100 years of data of what happens when Pete, when countries impose tariffs, depending on what the tariffs are and depending on the kind of macroeconomic environment into which those tariffs are placed. So if ultimately Trump does get back to the trade war, you know, the trade war is on, it's off, it's being suspended, all this different stuff. Who the hell knows? does get back to the trade war, you know, the trade war is on, it's off, it's being suspended, all this different stuff. Who the hell knows? But if Trump does eventually do the tariffs as described and they have the effect that

every economist says that they will have, then we will be in the position of having to say, okay, how does he justify it and do his followers fall for it? Don't know what the answer to that is going to be. Shlee LX says anyone who heard mass deportations and tariffs and thought that would reduce the cost of living have no idea how America works. It's not no idea how America works. It's no idea how just basic economics works. Just think for a second. If you have a supply chain with an associated cost and you add an import tax, that's just an additional cost. By the time we get to the consumer buying the thing, if you add

that tariff, there will be a more expensive price at the end. Now you can argue it's going to be worth it because over the medium to long term, we will bring some of these supply chains back home and then we'll be buying American. You can argue that it's still going to be more expensive. And in the immediate, it's just going to be more expensive without the benefit of buying American. But that's the way it works. Similarly, mass deportations. If you dramatically reduce a labor force, what tends to happen? The cost for the labor goes up and it's I feel almost silly explaining this stuff because I'm like, am I insulting people in the audience? Because this is so obvious.

If you just crush the labor pool in agriculture and in these different industries that depend significantly on both documented and undocumented immigrant labor, of course, prices are going to go up. What do you expect? It's wild, wild stuff. Steven Ludlam wrote in about the way Trump stands hinging forward and says a leaning forward posture often referred to as a stoop or Louie lean can be a sign of dementia, particularly in cases of dementia with Louie bodies where postural instability and a tendency to lean forward are common symptoms. This is because DLB can affect muscle control and balance leading to changes in posture. Yeah, we've talked about this many times. Trump does a really weird thing.

I don't know if I can really do it where he stands and he's just very noticeably leaning forward. Now there is a benign explanation for this, which is Trump. You know, when we ask ourselves, why does Trump insist he's six three yet? He doesn't seem to be. Trump seems to lie about his height and sometimes seems to be wearing lifts in his shoes. A heel lift could make it so that you stand in this particular way, sort of to avoid having to bend your knees. The heel lifts.

Imagine that. Imagine that you're standing stiff as a board and I just lean you forward and put a little shim underneath your heels. You could see how your whole body would tilt forward or you'd have to kind of lean back. That could be the explanation, but certainly Steven is not the first to notice Donald Trump's very strange forward lean. Um, D 10 CL L three T I a okay. It stands for something might be a hot take, but I genuinely hope the economy crashes under Trump.

I don't say that out of spider hatred for Trump supporters, though it's hard to resist with some of those man children, but out of a genuine belief that it would be good for the country. If Trump has a good economy, it's much easier for him to get away with an authoritarian takeover. It's clear at this point that Americans care more about their perception of the economy than the state of democracy. If Trump tries an authoritarian takeover when the economy is bad, then maybe just maybe

the average voter will say, well, maybe fascism is actually bad. Yeah, I, I think I understand the idea, which is if the economy is a disaster and Trump attempt some authoritarian takeover, a lot of people would say, we're not going to allow the guy who crashed the economy to get away with this. On the other hand, if the economy is good, maybe Trump would be able to say, look at my economy, this beautiful economy. Now I'm going to do other stuff and just trust me. I made the economy good and this is all going to be fine. I think that it's a plausible hypothesis, except,

except with a bad economy, Trump will simply say it's bad, not because of me, but because of how they blocked me from doing what I wanted to do. We need my authoritarian takeover so that I can actually do the stuff I want to do. And then the economy will be great. He'll pull that anyway. And then the question is, do the followers accept it or don't they? I don't know. I don't know, but I don't think it's as open and shut as if the economy is bad. The people won't let Trump get away with it. I think there's a risk either way. Apathy divine, says David.

Any exciting interviews coming up? AOC had a one hour interview with Jon Stewart. Bernie had a 40 minute interview with Hassan T.Y.T. interviewed Sean O'Brien. Will any of these people be on the David Pakman show? Um, they're welcome. Uh, uh, AOC and Bernie Sanders are welcome anytime we've invited them before. They've not accepted. I would be surprised if an interview with Sean O'Brien on this show would do well. I'm interested to hearing from people. I'm open to the possibility that it would. But, you know, we've invited AOC, we've invited Bernie, and thus far they have not accepted the

invitations. But I would love to have them on there. They are welcome absolutely any time. Cultal Aiders says on Facebook, you cultist followers doesn't even care about eggs. Eggs are healthy. Most or all of your followers or your cult members are not healthy. Your cultist followers only buys cupcakes and ice cream. Also, your followers goes to the strip club to support their family members working. Very sick individual. Very, very sick. And I don't know why they believe that David Pakman show viewers or listeners don't eat eggs. Eggs in reasonable quantity are completely reasonable part of a healthy diet, a very high in protein and number of other elements unique to eggs. Choline, Choline.

I don't know how it's pronounced. Anyway, there's a lot of really whacked out people there. If you are not one of those people, feel free to email info at David Pakman dot com. Maybe your email will be featured on next week's Friday feedback. Also, we've got a great bonus show for you today. Feel free to sign up at join Pacman dot com to get instant access and finally get yourself a signed copy of my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, available exclusively through Brookline book Smith at David Pakman.com slash book Smith. Uh, let me know if you picked up one of those signed copies. I'll be going up to Boston

to sign those very soon. Uh, get those orders in book is out on March 25th. See you on the bonus show. See you on Monday.